~August 1st ~
"Well.
That's interesting."
Ginny Weasley swirled the ice
in her empty glass and looked across the table at her brother. Beside her,
Harry was wide-eyed and silent. Charlie Weasley looked down at the checkered
tablecloth and coughed.
"Interesting.
Well, I guess that's better than nothing…"
Sirius Black, who was sitting
beside Charlie, said nothing, but he wore a look on his face that clearly
screamed 'Oh shit'. He looked at his Godson expectantly.
"Well?"
He asked finally. Harry shook his head disbelievingly.
"Since
when?" He asked. His demeanor was calm and quiet. Sirius wasn't
fooled.
"A
bit more than two years ago, I guess. Charlie was my contact in Romania. It
just sort of… happened." Underneath the table, Charlie squeezed
Sirius' hand. You're doing fine.
Ginny looked uneasily from
her boyfriend to her brother to Sirius. The air in the room was so thick you
could cut it with a knife. She shrugged her shoulders.
"I
can't really say I'm all that surprised," She said,
nonchalant. Charlie narrowed his eyes.
"What
do you mean?"
"Oh,
I don't know…" the ice made a tinkling sound against the
glass. "I'm just saying it's not really that much of a shock.
Pass the lemonade."
Charlie and Sirius looked at
each other, confused.
"Laelyn?"
Sirius said questioningly. Charlie nodded
"Laelyn."
Ginny took a sip of lemonade
and peered at the two men over the rim of her glass. "Of course,"
She said, rolling her eyes. "Who else?"
Harry slammed his glass down;
making the other three jump in their seats. "What the hell is this, and
why the HELL didn't I know about it?" He yelled, his green eyes
smoldering behind his glasses. Ginny patted his arm.
"Harry,
it's OK. You know about it NOW, don't you?"
Harry
closed his eyes and tried to regain composure. After a few seconds, he looked
up at Sirius. "So you, and you…" he turned his gaze to
Charlie, "Are a… a couple?" Sirius nodded. Harry ran a hand
through his already disheveled hair. "Wow."
Charlie
looked at Sirius uncertainly. He knew his partner wanted nothing more than to
gain the approval of his godson. At this point, things were looking rather
uncertain as far as receiving Harry's blessing was concerned.
"Well."
Said Harry after what seemed like an eternity to Charlie and Sirius. "I
suppose I'll get used to the idea. You could have told me sooner, though.
It would have been nice to have a while to digest this before I leave. But I
guess I'll deal with it."
Sirius
looked shocked at Harry's reaction. "You mean you're fine
with this?" He asked, somewhat incredulously. Harry shrugged.
"Hasn't
exactly sunken in yet, but so far, yeah."
Sirius
breathed a sigh of relief and slumped back against his chair. "Thank the
gods," he said, smiling slightly. Charlie put his arm around him,
grinning a little goofily.
"He's
been agonizing about this for two years, you know," Charlie said to
Harry. "He was certain you would freak out." Harry laughed.
"I
don't really 'freak out' all that much, in case you
haven't noticed," He said to his godfather. Sirius shrugged.
"Well,
you don't hear this kind of news every day either." The doorbell sounded,
and Harry got up from his seat.
"I'll
get it," he muttered, sprinting towards the front hall of the house
he'd shared with his godfather for the past year. After Sirius'
pardon, Harry had moved in almost immediately, bidding a quick and less than reluctant
farewell to the Dursleys, his only living relatives. That summer had been the
best one yet. For the first time in his life, Harry felt like he had family.
He
smiled at these happy thoughts as he opened the door. "Hey!" He
said, pleasantly surprised. On the doorstep stood one short branch of the
Weasley family tree: Bill Weasley and his wife Laelyn. Harry shook hands with
Bill and gave Laelyn a hearty embrace. "Come on in, you guys. We're
all in the kitchen."
"All?"
said Bill with a note of surprise in his voice. "Who else is here?"
"Ginny
and Charlie," Laelyn replied. Harry nodded.
"Good
guess. Hey, where's Gawaine?" Harry asked, referring to the
couple's young son.
"We left him at the Burrow
with Fred and George," Laelyn said. Harry furrowed his brow.
"You sure that was
wise?"
Bill laughed. "Not really,
but Mum's there to keep an eye out, so it should be all right."
The three entered the kitchen to be greeted enthusiastically
by its occupants.
"You
guys are just in time," Ginny remarked casually. "Sirius and
Charlie were just having a little… discussion with us."
"Really?"
asked a rather incredulous-looking Laelyn, who was standing behind Sirius and
her brother-in-law. "And? What's the word?"
Charlie
shrugged, grinning. "The word is good," he replied, causing Laelyn
to throw her arms around first him and then Sirius, delivering bone-crushing
hugs.
"Great!
That's just great!" Sirius kissed her on the check. "Blessed
be, Sirius," she said. He smiled at her.
"How
are things with you?"
"Good.
Very good, actually. That's kind of why we're here."
Sirius
cocked his head. "Oh?"
"Well,
we've sort of got an announcement to make." Bill came up behind her
and put his hands on her shoulders. "Now, Bill?" She asked him.
"Why
not?"
Laelyn shrugged. "All
right. We have some news that we wanted to tell you guys." She looked
over her shoulder at Bill, as if telling him to take the floor.
"We're moving back to
England, this time for good."
There were exclamations like
"wow" and "that's great". Ginny eyed Laelyn
suspiciously.
"There's more,
isn't there?" she asked. The other woman nodded slowly.
"Yeah… the reason
we're moving back is… I'm pregnant again."
"What?" cried Harry.
"I mean, that's really great, but…" He broke off.
"Didn't Madame
Pomfrey say after Gawaine's birth that you wouldn't be able to have
children again?" asked Ginny, finishing Harry's thought.
Bill shrugged. "I guess she
was wrong, because it looks like we're going to have another baby."
"Congratulations,"
Charlie said, patting Laelyn's flat stomach. "How far along?"
"Three months,"
Laelyn said, glowing with pride.
"Well, it looks as though
you've beat the odds then, haven't you?" Sirius smiled at the
tiny woman and her husband. Bill nodded.
"We certainly have."
