When Two Are One
One
Curled up in the armchair in the sanctity of the Burrow, he was finding a small amount of peace in the book Ron had given him for his birthday, Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches.Many of the suggestions in the text were rather comical and Harry found himself chuckling without realizing it.
“Reading that stupid book again?” Hermione asked.
Harry snapped the book closed and looked over at Hermione. She was sitting on the couch beside the armchair, looking through one of her numerous volumes on ancient runes. Ron, Ginny and George were behind the couch on the floor playing a game of Exploding Snaps.
“Never thought I’d see the day where you called a book stupid.” he said, smiling.
“Some of the things that book hints to do are just pathetic.” she said, turning a page of her book with gusto.
“Can’t be too pathetic if it worked on you.” George said, smirking.
Instead of admitting that he was right, Hermione sighed and turned back to her book, though more red faced than before.
“He has to be the least fussy baby I have ever seen, Andromeda” Molly Weasley said, bouncing the small, bundled up form of Teddy Lupin in her arms. His hair was changing in a sequence between turquoise, purple, lavender and bubble gum pink.
“Very unlike his mother. Dora cried herself hoarse daily” Andromeda Tonks said, sipping at the after-dinner tea Arthur had given her.
Her eyes filled with tears and the sob that escaped her shook Harry to the core. Molly was joining in soon after, passing Teddy off to Arthur, who passed him off to Percy to whisk his wife and family friend onto the porch. He pulled the door closed just before the choruses of ‘Too young to go’ had begun. Baby Teddy started screaming at the top of his lungs after looking into the stony face of Percy.
“Um, Harry, would you mind holding Teddy?” Percy asked, holding the baby away at arms length.
Harry begrudgingly took the wailing creature, supporting it’s head in the crook of his arm. Percy went off in the direction of the porch, opening and closing the door so swiftly one might have blinked and not noticed.
Teddy’s crying dwindled down to a few whines before the baby stared up into Harry’s emerald eyes and smiled. Harry smiled back at the face of his chubby godson, who was grabbing at Harry’s finger.
“Happy you’re away from the scary clown-haired man?” Harry said quietly.
“Hey!” Ron, George and Ginny said at once.
Teddy giggled and shook his hands in the air. Harry laughed.
“Let me see that little monster” George said, resigning himself from the game.
“Are you sure you know how to hold a baby?” Hermione asked.
“You just hold them by their scruff, right?” he said, miming dangling an invisible Teddy by the neck.
Harry, Ron and Ginny laughed while Hermione crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head.
“Mind his head” Harry said, gingerly passing off the squirming baby.
“I know that by now. Notice how Ginny’s head is much less pointy than Ron’s” George said.
Ron scowled and took a seat beside Hermione, wrapping his arm around her.
“You’re going to be a little troublemaker, aren’t you? Aren’t you?” George cooed at the baby.
“No he is not. Not if I have anything to say about it” a wet faced Andromeda said from the doorway.
“He has the blood of a Marauder, Andromeda. He will more than likely have his fill of mischief in his life” Arthur said.
“He’s a Baby Moony. Aren’t you? Yes, you are!” George said in his most high-pitched baby talk voice.
Teddy giggled loudly this time, before his face turned a pale green and he projectile vomited, covering George in strained peas.
“Oh, bloody hell!” George said as Teddy was grabbed by Andromeda. “I’m never holding that little bugger again.”
The house erupted in laughter as George bounded up the stairs, dripping the mossy liquid on them.
“We really must be off. It’s passed little Teddy’s bedtime. Molly, Arthur, thank you again for having us for dinner. Shall we make it the same time next week at my house?”
“Yes, dear. Do take care of yourself. And if you ever find yourself needing a break, I’m more than happy to look after Teddy.” Molly said, hugging them both.
“Will do. Goodnight everyone. Harry.” Andromeda said, waving her free hand.
Harry waved his hand weakly at her as with a sweep of robes she vanished from the spot.
“He really is turning out to be a rather handsome little boy, isn’t he? Looks more like Remus everyday.” Molly said, sighing.
Sensing another crying spell, Arthur bade them all goodnight and led his wife upstairs.
Molly was crying more these days than Harry had ever seen her cry in all the years he’d known her. It wasn’t unusual that each time they’d have their dinner’s with Andromeda that Molly would end the day in tears. It also wasn’t odd for her to look at any of them and burst into tears. This happened a lot when she saw George sitting alone without his exact copy Fred sitting beside him.
While George had expressed deep sorrow of his loss at Fred’s funeral, Harry had never once seen his sadness manifest into tears. Some nights, though, the eerie quietness and expressionless face George displayed was all anyone needed to know that he was feeling the loss immensely.
The usually stoic Percy burst into a fit of sobs and had thrown himself onto Fred’s grave, shouting ‘It should have been me’ the last time they had visited the graveyard. Bill and Charlie had paid their respects quietly, muttering things no one else could make out and placed flowers at the tombstone. Ginny had cried for hours after seeing the fresh mound of earth covering her brother’s body. Ron whimpered onto Hermione’s shoulder, finding comfort that they had finally made their way to each other. Arthur shed a few silent tears and clutched his wife‘s shaking form to support her should she collapse.
Harry had lagged behind the rest of them, sitting on the un-turned earth beside Fred’s tombstone. He had insisted on paying for it, stating it was the least he could do for all that Fred had done for him. He found his eyes filling with tears as he rubbed his hands over the etched letters of the epitaph.
“I know you must be tired of all of the crying.” he had said, wiping the tears away with the back of his hand.
He smiled at the engraved picture, Fred grinning back at him with his ever present smile.
“I’m not going to be all mushy or sappy because I know you wouldn’t want that either. So..” he said, placing a small Whizz Bang into the ground. He lit the fuse and backed away.
A shower of gold sparks flew out of the firework and the fiery depiction of the Gryffindor lion glittered in the sky.
“We’ll miss you, Fred.”
Harry was shaken from his reverie by Ginny tapping him on the shoulder.
“Harry?” she asked, waving her hand in front of his eyes.
“Sorry. Spaced out.” he said, smiling.
“An owl just came with a letter for you” she said, handing him a small roll of parchment.
“Thanks” he said, unrolling it.
A/N: This is my first Harry Potter fic, but I’ve written ones for bands and shows before. It might begin a little slow at first, but I promise it picks up.
I’ve just started back at work (an elementary school), so I can’t have any promise of time frames for new chapters. I will say that while I am posting the first two chapters, the third is in the works.
Oh yeah and the title is a song by Atreyu from their new album Lead Sails Paper Anchor. I’ve been playing around with titles for this for over a month and this one kind of fell into my lap last night.
Reviews will make the writing process much easier for me. HINT HINT. And if you don’t have anything nice to say, leave me the hell alone.