AN: For the Quidditch League. Round 1 - Family roles. Chaser 2 - Aunt/Uncle.
Prompts used;
3. Colourful, 8. Laughter is the best medicine, 11. "Every family has bad memories" Mario Puzo
It was Ron and Hermione's anniversary, so George had agreed to take their kids for the night. He was looking forwards to having them over; he loved his extended family and it would mean that Fred would leave him alone for a while instead of asking him about his shop and if he could help make products that he could use at Hogwarts. It was an added bonus that they were Ron's kids and not Ginny's that he'd be looking after. When James and Fred got together they were almost as bad (or should he say; good) as him and his twin had been. No, compared to having Fred and James together, looking after Hugo and Rose should be easy. The operative phrase there being "should be". For George, most things didn't go according to plan.
Roxanne, George and Angelina had all gathered in the front room waiting for them to arrive. Roxanne was practically bouncing; she'd become good friends with Hugo from the family gatherings over the years. She was a little disappointed that Lily wasn't going to be there as well; the three of them had become inseparable as they were the youngest and would be starting at Hogwarts next year. George was just telling her to calm down when they heard the fireplace. Roxanne rushed over and wrapped Hugo in a near-suffocating hug. When Rose got there Roxanne finally let go of Hugo to give her a hug too; it wasn't nearly as overpowering as the one she'd given Hugo and was over a lot sooner. Rose and Hugo said goodbye to their parents before Roxanne dragged them off to show them how she'd redecorated her room and find Fred who hadn't been there to greet them, leaving their parents alone.
"You will be alright looking after them for the night, won't you?" Hermione asked, with a look that meant she was obviously concerned that Ron had just told George to take them without asking if it was okay.
"Oh, of course we are Hermione. I told Ron that it would be a delight to have them stay. They're always so well behaved when they're here and they keep our kids in check. We'd be happy to have them for longer if you'd like," Angelina reassured her. She knew as well as George that Ron hadn't asked them so politely as she was implying, but being married to George she knew the Weasley way of asking and knew that when Ron had said 'Oi, George, me and Hermione want the night together so you're having our kids' that was as polite as it was going to get.
"Oh wonderful, we'll have to keep that in mind," Hermione beamed, pleased with Angelina's reassurance before turning to face George, "Just between us, I think our kids prefer being here than going to Harry's. They love their Uncle George because he's 'so fun' and they're always raving about Angelina's cooking. Apparently it's almost as good as Molly's?"
"Well she has certainly learnt to cater for the Weasley appetite," George chuckled, "Anyway shouldn't you two lovebirds be off now? Haven't you got more exciting things to be getting up to tonight?" He added with a wink.
"George, darling, you do know you were just talking about you little brother having sex don't you?" Angelina teased, sending George's face the familiar shade of Weasley red. He spluttered and tried to get out a sentence but failed and glared at his wife before he stormed out of the room.
"Honestly," Angelina remarked to Hermione, "he gets more and more childish every day"
Hermione just giggled before turning to Ron, "he's right you know, Ron. We have got better things to be doing. We're meant to be in Rome in half an hour and I haven't done my hair yet!" Hermione looked so horrified at this that Angelina told them to go and enjoy themselves, she'd say goodbye to George for them. At this they turned and went back through the fireplace.
Rose wasn't sure why Roxanne had dragged them both to see her bedroom, but as soon as she got there she understood. Her parents would never let her have something this awesome. That's why she loved coming to her Uncle George's house; absolutely everything was interesting.
Her Uncle George was a genius; he was an incredibly talented wizard and was able to use that intelligence to make new things. Rose hoped she'd have the same kind of intelligence as her Uncle George instead of being book-smart like her mother. George's children had inherited his flair for the dramatics, and you could see this in Roxanne's room.
The first thing you saw were the colours – they were so bright they hurt your eyes – and then you saw the detail. Everything was family orientated. She had taken Grandma Molly's idea of the Weasley colours, which had been continued into the grandchildren, and decorated her room accordingly. Roxanne's colour was purple, so that was the base colour of her room, but on top of that she had every family member's colours (including the members that had married in) with something to do with that family member. She looked around Roxanne's room one last time before insisting they went out to the garden; she spotted herself and admired it a while. She even saw Uncle Fred.
Rose and Hugo had already decided they were going to ask Uncle George about Fred today; they knew everything that happened in the war to everyone apart from Uncle George. They hadn't felt right asking anyone else and it was always so crowded when they saw him they didn't get a chance normally. But today it was just the two of them.
George had escaped to the garden where he found the three children chasing a gnome. Roxanne noticed him come out and rushed over to him.
"Dad," she asked, "where's Fred? We couldn't find him anywhere!"
"Oh, didn't I tell you? He's gone to Teddy's for a bit. Apparently Teddy found some of his dad's things from Hogwarts and they wanted to see if they can learn any good pranks. He'll be back for dinner though," George replied, the pride in his voice showing a little when he mentioned Fred being a prankster. He was glad Fred had decided to take after his namesake, he wasn't sure if he'd be able to cope with Fred Weasley being normal.
"Oh, okay," Roxanne replied, looking dejected. George understood why, she never got to go to Teddy's.
"Did Rose and Hugo like your room?" George asked, trying to get Roxanne back into a better mood.
"Oh Uncle George, we loved it!" Rose gushed, "I wish Mum would let me do something that creative in my room, but she said I had to pick a colour scheme and stick with it," This cheered Roxanne up a little; she was glad her friends liked her room.
"It's alright, kiddo," George chucked, "I'll show you some magic that means you can decorate your room any way you like and your parents won't be able to see it"
"You'd really teach it to me, Uncle George?" Rose asked, sounding shocked. This made George realise how little his nieces and nephews knew about his childhood and, more importantly, his twin. He'd have to tell Rose and Hugo tonight, it wasn't fair his kids being the only ones who knew about his life; Fred was their Uncle too, so they had a right to know. It might make him feel a little better about the war if he told someone other than immediate family about it. Maybe he'd be able to laugh and joke like he used to with his brother if everyone knew, everything felt strained now when he tried to joke.
"Of course I will, you should have seen the stuff my twin, Fred, and I got up to when we were your age! Come on, let's head inside. Fred should be home soon, I'll teach you while we're waiting for him," George said with a smile, it felt good to talk about his brother.
Half an hour later, Rose had mastered the spell; he could hear Roxanne and Hugo gushing about what she'd done to the room but to George it still looked like his normal front room. At this point Fred came through the fireplace.
"WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE TO OUR FRONT ROOM?" Fred yelled at his dad, "IT'S ALL PINK AND COVERED IN FLOWERS!"
"Calm down, Freddie, I was just teaching Rose a new spell," George replied to his son, "anyway, your mother's almost finished cooking. Shall we go and eat?" The kids followed him into the kitchen where Angelina was serving up their food.
As they started their meal, Rose decided to ask the question that had been bugging her all night.
"Uncle George?" Rose asked cautiously, "You talked about your brother, Fred, earlier. Is it okay if we ask about him? We don't really know a lot about what happened to you before and during the war," By the time she finished this she was looking at the table and blushing, clearly embarrassed. He could see his children and wife tense up at this question; they knew he didn't like to talk about Fred and weren't aware of the decision he'd come to earlier in the day.
"Of course not," George replied, with an attempt at a smile, "The War isn't a very happy memory for me though, so please bear with me. Are you sure you want to hear this?" The kids had fallen silent at this and just nodded. They loved Uncle George because he was so fun, but they knew to be careful when he was serious like now.
"Honey, you don't have to do this you know?" Angelina reassured him, knowing how painful the memory was for him.
"No, it's only right. They're my family; they have a right to know. I love those two as much as Roxanne and Fred and we've told them," George replied, adamant that he was going to tell them. If the kids wanted to know then he was going to tell them, that's what Uncles did.
"Okay, darling, if that's what you want to do. Roxanne, Fred, you may be excused if you don't want to hear this again," Angelina addressed her children before getting up and leaving the room. The children didn't leave; they loved hearing about their Uncle Fred even if it was sad.
"Okay, strap yourselves in, we're in for a long ride," George chuckled before continuing to tell them the story. "I'll start with the basics first. Fred was my twin brother, we were born on April Fool's Day – I'm not sure how my mum didn't know we would be jokers then – and we spent every minute together. It was because of us that Mum started giving the Weasley colours; it was to tell us apart. It didn't work though. My colour, as you know, is yellow and his was blue; Mum refuses to use blue wool for the jumpers any longer because it just reminds her that she lost a child. We were right jokers, we already knew we were going to be pulling pranks at Hogwarts when we went, and before then we had managed to put up charms on our door to know when Mum was coming and stop her from getting in…" George continued this story, telling his niece and nephew about their childhood and time at Hogwarts. This was a somewhat extended version of what he'd told his own children, he wanted to make the best impression of Fred to them as he knew they already loved him and he'd always thought Fred was better – not that he'd ever tell anyone that.
Rose and Hugo were fascinated by the story, they'd even found themselves gasping when he told them about some of the times Molly had almost caught them, "…but we never just became jokers because we thought it would be fun. We learnt at an early age that the world is full of crap; that bad stuff happens and you have to deal with it. We also found out that people cheered up when you made them laugh. I suppose that's where that muggle phrase comes from, oh what is it? Laughter is the best medicine! I bet the people that came up with it knew that being in a good mood did help. We found out just how true that was during the war. Our shop was doing brilliantly because people wanted an escape from the terror of life. It was horrible; we had a lot of business, but everything surrounding it and the reason for the business was horrible," At this George paused, thinking about the war was hard for him and he didn't like to think about what came next.
"Now, the war itself didn't last very long. I'm sure you've heard all about it from your parents so I won't bore you with the build-up or anything like that. Before the war your Uncle Percy had been on the ministry's side and he'd all but abandoned our family. When the war started he came to his senses and joined us. Despite the war, that was the happiest day of our life; we'd finally got our family whole again. I'm not sure exactly what happened – I wasn't there, this is all from Percy – but I think he blames himself for Fred's death. He turned up to fight alongside Fred and he actually cracked a joke, that was the first time he'd joked in about 5 years, and this stunned Fred as it would any of our family. It was when they were joking that the castle was hit where they were stood. The wall blasted in on them, and Fred was the only casualty. I haven't told many people this, but I could actually feel it when he died. He was my twin and we'd always been close, but it felt like a part of me had been ripped away and I just knew what had happened. That was the first time I had cried in years; I no longer had my brother, my very best friend, to cheer me up. That day quickly changed from the best day of our lives to the worst. I still have nightmares about that night, and I think it annoys Angelina, but somehow I'll get through it," George finished his story and looked for the first time at the children at the table. All four of them were crying; he realised that he hadn't told his own children most of that story to spare them from the grief, "Hey, don't cry. You know if you keep crying your mothers will kill me, don't you? Then who'd be your fun Uncle, huh?" He joked, making Rose crack a smile.
"Are… are you really okay, Uncle George?" Hugo asked timidly.
"Of course I am… well, I'm as good as I can be. Hey, don't look so upset; every family has bad memories, some are just worse than others. We all have to deal with them, and we all will," George said with a smile. He loved that his nephew was so open with him. Speaking of, George had a burning question to ask him, "Anyway, Hugo, have you created your own bad memory yet?" He teased.
"What are you talking about, Uncle George?" Hugo asked, genuinely confused.
"I mean," George said, trying unsuccessfully to hide a smile, "have you told your dad you're gay yet?"
This got the whole table laughing; they all knew Ron would be fine with him being gay but it was fun to joke about anyway. Just like that all the tension at the table broke and everyone started feeling okay again.
AN: Also a massive thank you to Emily (DolbyDigital) for betaing this for me :)