A/N: For the beautiful Milly.
Prologue
It isn't easy. Deep down, George wishes he could carry on with this relationship. But, deeper down, he knows that he'd only ever gotten together with Juno to starve the loneliness he'd felt after losing Fred.
He isn't proud of that. Even now, he cringes, silently loathing himself for being so selfish in his moment of grief.
"I'm sorry," he whispers.
Juno peers up at him through her dark lashes. He wishes she wouldn't. Those crystal blue eyes send a fresh pang of guilt through his chest. "For what?" she asks.
"I can't do this anymore. I never wanted to hurt you; please believe me. But this... Us... We're just not..."
"Just not what?" Her tone is ice cold and razor sharp. George flinches.
"I'm sorry," he says again.
Her eyes harden. "You're leaving me."
"Yes," George answers, though he knows it isn't a question.
Juno climbs to her feet, pushing her dark curls behind her ears. "Well, then," she says curtly. "I wish you well."
And then she's gone.
..
Juno hides in the shadows, watching as the woman in white makes her way down the aisle.
It isn't right. She should be there. George should be watching her with those adoring eyes. Not that other woman.
For a moment, she wonders if it might be a good idea to kill the woman. A quick curse, and she can be rid of her.
But no. That would be too easy.
Juno is broken. Broken in a way that even death cannot make right. Broken because of George Weasley.
A small smile twists her lips, even as her stomach churns at the sight of their first kiss as husband and wife.
Death cannot make George understand what he's done to her. But maybe something else can.
All she has to do is wait.
..
George holds little Roxanne in his arms, a grin on his lips. "She's perfect," he says quietly.
Angelina laughs. "What did you expect?"
Before he can answer, the door opens, and a familiar face appears. "I just heard the good news," Juno says, a wicked smile on her lips as she steps closer. "A baby girl. How fortunate."
George takes an instinctive step back. He doesn't like the way his ex is looking at his newborn daughter. "Juno," he says calmly.
"May I hold her?" She looks at Angelina and adds, "I haven't held a little one in years. And I brought a gift."
Before either can respond, she snatches the child from her father, holding her up and examining her. "Such a lovely girl," she muses. "She's beautiful."
"Yes," George agrees, reaching for her, but Juno sidesteps him.
"She'll grow more beautiful each year. Until her sixteenth birthday," Juno continues, cradling the baby in one arm and drawing an invisible symbol across Roxanne's forehead. "I curse you, George Weasley. You and this miserable woman. Upon her sixteenth birthday, she will fall into a deathlike sleep, never to awaken again." She laughs, finger adding a fresh line to the intricate, unseen pattern. "Unless she receives true love's kiss."
With that, she returns Roxanne to her father. "What a shame," she adds, "that you taught me that true love does not exist."
I. Nearly Sixteen Years Later
"Don't pout," her father says. "You love Uncle Bill's."
Roxanne sighs. "I'm not pouting," she grumbles, folding her arms over her chest.
"Yes you are!" Freddie chimes in, and Roxanne elbows her little brother sharply in the ribs. "Ow! Dad! Roxy hit me!"
"Enough!"
Both children fall silent. Neither have ever heard their father raise his voice before.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, George sighs. "You know why you have to go, Roxanne," he says, his voice growing light again. "Bill was a curse breaker. If anyone can figure out how to keep you safe, it's him."
The fifteen year old rolls her eyes. That stupid curse again. The bloody shadow that's hung over her head since the day she'd been born. "I know," she mumbles.
"But-"
"It's just for a week."
"Yeah. Whatever."
..
"Roxanne! It is so good to see you again," Aunt Fleur says, wrapping the girl in a light hug.
Roxanne grits her teeth. She's always hated how everyone treats her like she's fragile, as though the curse has turned to glass, and she might shatter at any moment. Everyone except-
"Oi!" Dominique calls, pulling her away. "Stop hogging our guest. Come on, Roxy. You'll be staying with me."
Before Roxanne can speak, her cousin pulls her roughly along. Roxanne stumbles, nearly losing her balance, and Dominique doesn't bother to try and keep her steady.
Maybe that's why she'd fallen in love with Dom. Dominique had always been the only to treat her like she's normal. She'd only gotten lucky to have Dominique love her back.
"So, oh great cursed one," Dominique says, shutting her bedroom door behind them. "You have one guaranteed week of life left. How do you feel?"
Roxanne almost lies. She almost says that she feels fine, that she doesn't believe in some silly curse. But she can't lie to her. "Terrified," she admits.
Dominique nods. "Me too."
This surprises Roxanne. Dominique has always been the very definition of Gryffindor. Bold, daring, never afraid, never willing to back down. Can she really be terrified? Or is she just saying it to make Roxanne feel better?
But Roxanne doesn't see any deception on her cousin's face.
She wraps her arms around Dominique, burying her face in her cousin's shoulders and allowing herself to cry.
"Shh," Dominique soothes, kissing the top of Roxanne's forehead. "It's going to be okay."
Roxanne wishes Dominique wouldn't lie to her.
II
Roxanne groans. The spell has made her curse mark visible- a twisting, curling knot of black upon her forehead. "That's on me? It's gross."
Uncle Bill doesn't answer. His lips purse as he touches his finger to his niece's forehead. "This symbol is ancient," he says. "Celtic in origin."
"Can you make it go away?"
He waves his wand, and it fades.
"I meant for good," Roxanne clarifies.
"I break curses on places, things," Uncle Bill answers, running a hand through his long hair. "People are different. There are emotions, senses, a soul."
She nods, but she doesn't really understand what the big deal is. He could just break the curse like she's a tomb. No big deal.
"One wrong move," he continues. "Just one mistake, one spell that's too much, and it could destroy you."
She swallows. Her terror before was nothing compared to what she feels now. "So... Be careful?"
"Easier said than done," he mutters. "Lay down. This is going to hurt."
..
"You look like hell," Dominique says when Roxanne collapses on her bed.
"You go have spells cast on you for five days straight. See how you look," Roxanne grumbles.
"No luck?"
"None whatsoever."
Dominique helps her up, kissing her gently. "He'll figure it out. Just wait."
"I turn sixteen in two days. Face it, Dom. I'm fucked."
"No. You're not," Dominique insists, holding the other girl tightly in her arms. "Don't say that. Please."
Roxanne's arms wrap around her lover. Part of her wishes that Dominique would just let it go and stop being so bloody stubborn. But that wouldn't be Dominique.
"I love you," Roxanne says softly.
"Forever," Dominique whispers.
..
Roxanne watches the clock, her stomach in knots. Less than an hour left before midnight.
She wonders, not for the first time, what the curse will be like. Will it hurt? Will it be just like falling asleep? Will she dream, or will it be an endless darkness.
"Don't look at it," Dominique says, catching her lips in a kiss.
Roxanne wishes she could obey. But even as her lips work desperately against her
cousin's, her eyes find the clock.
Not long now.
She wishes she could stop trembling.
"I'm sorry Dad couldn't stop it," Dominique says as she pulls away, her hands resting slightly on top of Roxanne's. "Maybe she was bluffing?"
Roxanne shrugs. She can't bring herself to tell Dominique that she's seen the mark upon her head, that she knows that the curse is real. "Maybe," she echoes, forcing a smile.
"You'll see. We'll have cake tomorrow, and we'll-"
Dominique's words are cut short as the grandfather clock begins to chime.
One... two... three...
Roxanne clenches her fists.
Four... five... six...
She meets Dominique's gaze.
Seven... eight... nine...
"I love you," she says.
Ten... eleven... twelve...
She's gone before Dominique can answer.
III
She's never seen Uncle George so upset. He falls to his knees beside Dominique's
bed, gripping his daughter's hand.
"Come on," her father says, gripping Dominique gently by the shoulders and guiding her to the door. "Your uncle needs a moment."
Dominique nods mutely.
..
Everyone is crowded in the kitchen. Dominique presses herself against the wall, grateful when she feels her brother's hand in hers. It's a small comfort, but she'll take it.
"She's only sleeping," Louis whispers, careful not to let anyone else hear.
"I've spoken to the Healers at St. Mungo's," Uncle Harry says, breaking the tense silence. "No one has ever heard of anything like this."
"And I couldn't find anything in any book," Aunt Hermione adds, gripping Uncle Ron's hand and pressing his knuckles gently to her lips.
"It's like Fred all over again," Uncle Percy mutters, eyes fixed in the general direction of Dominique's room. "Poor George. How much can one man take?"
No one answers.
..
"The witch who cursed her," Dominique says. "What happened to her?"
"She's in Azkaban," Aunt Ginny says.
"Good. I'd kill her if she wasn't."
..
"I just need a moment," Dominique says.
Uncle George nods. "I know you were- are- very close," he says. "She'd want you
there."
"Thank you," she whispers, ducking past him and into Roxanne's room.
She's only sleeping, Dominique reminds herself.
But she looks too still, too stiff. The rise and fall of her chest is far too soft.
"Wake up, you bloody idiot," she mutters fondly, pushing a hand through
Roxanne's dark hair. "You're not supposed to leave me."
She doesn't know if Roxy can even hear her in there. If she can, she shows no signs.
"Dammit, Roxy."
Dominique had promised herself that she wouldn't cry, that she'd gotten already cried herself dry over the past week. But tears fall from her eyes, salty drops gathering on her lips.
"I love you," she says.
She doesn't know what else to do. Maybe she's just trying to say goodbye. Maybe part of her is clinging to the last desperate hope of true love, the one thing that might save the girl she loves more than anything else in the world.
Dominique leans down, pressing her lips chastely to Roxanne's.
She waits, their lips still touching as painful seconds creep by. She waits, and nothing happens.
A sob rips through her chest as she pulls away, wiping furiously at her eyes.
"Always hated it when you cried," comes a quiet voice, and Dominique turns her attention back to the bed.
Hazel eyes blink up at her. "You kissed me," Roxanne says.
"Yes. Yes, I did."
"How long was I out?"
Dominique can't answer at first. She pinches her arm, and the sharp jolt of pain tells her that she isn't dreaming. "Over a week."
Slowly, carefully, Roxanne sits up. "It took you a week to kiss me? Scared I'd have gross morning breath?"
With a laugh, Dominique throws her arms around Roxanne, holding the other girl close. "One problem," she mumbles.
" What's that?"
Dominique blushes. "How do we explain true love's kiss came from your cousin?"