NOTE: major fluff alert for this chapter! Also, cuteness with the little girl twins! And the whole thing is out now, but will everything go smoothly from here on out?


The door to the Burrows was being knocked on when Fred started to wake up from probably the longest and most fitful nights sleep he'd ever gotten. He went to get the door, his mum beat him to it and then said quietly, "Let's let her get into the house before we make her faint, yeah?" as Fred could only nod and agree.

The words he'd said to her that last night he'd seen her rang in his brain like a bad record skipping, making his stomach churn bitterly.. He could have just hidden her away.. He didn't have to say the things he did, push her away just so she didn't try to stay with him, regardless the danger.

The two sets of high pitched giggling and arguing had his heart leaping into his throat as the two little red haired girls came into view for a split second before calling out, "We're going to wake up Unca Ron!" and the banging of a door as it shut was echoed throughout the small house. Fred was hooked.. He chuckled to himself, especially when not even a minute later, two little girls flew past the den again and Ron was hot on their heels, grumbling.

"Get you, did they, brother?"

"Least it wasn't bloody glow paint like Thanksgiving." Ron walked in and then sat down, staring at his hands for a minute as he asked, " Do you still love her?"

"Never stopped, brother."

"I tried.. So many times, Fred.. To make her see that, to tell her why you'd done it. But she's got it into her head that you were being honest."

"I'm afraid I know exactly why." Fred muttered, the sudden closing of the front door as his mum walked back inside making him tense up. And then, he saw her, following his mum into the kitchen. He couldn't help that he was staring so damned hard, she'd gotten even more beautiful than she'd been back then… But she said "George, I thought you'd be helping them repair the…" and her words fell away as all the color drained from her face and she started a slump to the floor, Fred catching her before she ever landed.

"Oh dear.. Ron, do we have any smelling salts?" Molly asked as Fred got Aubrey onto the small sofa in the living room and Ron went to try and locate smelling salts or anything that could bring her around again..

The front door opened and this time, two little red haired girls froze in mid giggle, one of them holding flowers and the other just gaping. "You not unca George!"

"No, he not!"

The girls started to whisper amongst themselves, stopping for a few seconds now and then to look over their shoulders at their father… They were obviously confused, and with good reason.. Their mommy and their grandparents, all their aunts and uncles.. They'd always grown up hearing how great their daddy was, how he was a hero in his final days and what he did to make the wizarding world safer for everyone.. But they never thought they'd ever get to see him.

Amie broke first, and she ran straight to his legs.. Angel was a little more wary, but with coaxing and reassurance from both Ron and Molly, she began to approach him too. And then she asked the logical question.. "Daddy, where were you?"

"Yeah, where were you? Momma cries all the time." Amie sniffled with an accusatory look as Fred sat down, pulling the girls into his lap carefully, explaining what happened, and what was wrong with his brain for a while there and at the end, the girls looked at each other, then at him and then Amie bluntly asked Molly, "He not a bad person in disguise?"

"No, sweetie," Molly smiled through tears, because emotions overcame her at the whole scene she was getting to witness currently, "He is exactly who he says he is."

"I told you if you made a wish in the glitter it worked, sissy." Angel muttered quietly, hugging herself against Fred just a little more than she had been previously. Amie nodded and then said quietly, "Maybe you coulda came back to us sooner, daddy, if I would have made glitter wishes too. I sorry."

"No, it's okay, poppet.. It's alright.. Was nothing either of you did.."

"What's wrong with mommy?"

"She fainted, silly." Amie informed her sister as Angel asked quietly, "Is she gonna wake up?"

"I'm awake, girls. We should probably get going… Your father… How the hell… Fred, what the hell is going on?" Aubrey took the girls back into her own lap as she raised herself to a sitting position, worried that they'd already annoyed everyone enough while she'd fainted.

Fred started to explain everything that happened, not leaving a single detail of it out. When he finished, he looked at the two little girls and Ron cleared his throat and spoke up as he said, "Why don't we go and see if aunt 'Mione has any new books? I can read to ya."

"Story!"

"I wanna hear the funny book!"

"I wanna hear the fairytales."

"Eww."

"Not eww. The funny book is laaaame."

As Ron lead the girls up the stairs, Aubrey sat there trying to process everything, staring at her hands as everything he'd said to her that last night they saw each other echoed in her mind. Fred tilted her chin up, making her look up at him. "About that night…"

"I'm sorry if they bothered you just now.. I should go.." Aubrey went to stand but Fred grabbed hold of her, pulling her back down onto the sofa beside him. "No, woman, you need to bloody listen. I need to say this… I knew what I was going to do then.. I knew how dangerous it was going to be.. I'd just discovered the Death Eaters put my name and George's name onto the list of most wanted… And then you tell me what's supposed to have been the happiest thing I would ever hear… All I could think.." Fred went quiet, sighing as he shook his head, "Was how much trouble you were all in… I was stupid… I was younger and stupid then… I never should have let you leave believing everything I said to you.."

"Fred, I…" Aubrey's voice trailed off, she bit her lower lip as she said quietly, " Everyone kept telling me you didn't mean it, you were panicked.. I should have listened to them, stayed here instead of listening to you and going to hide…"

"What do we do now?" Fred asked as Aubrey sighed as she asked the one question that had been on her mind since the discovery that the man she loved and mourned so much sometimes it felt like she was being tortured over and over slowly was still alive.. "Do you want to fight the decree?"

"Not really, no.. Do you?"

"Not especially.. But the girls have pre kindergarten and I have a job and… To just uproot ourselves.. But then to uproot you… How do we make this work?"

"We can put the girls into that little school in Diagon Alley.. On the outskirts where the Muggles live?" Fred tried, Aubrey nodding but then saying, "My job…"

"What are you doing?"

"I opened a bakery and café type thing.."

"There's an empty shop near ours…"

"You're completely sure you want to try this? We're both different people now, we're older…" Aubrey bit her lower lip, a wary and unsure look in her eyes as they fixed on his. Fred nodded and then said quietly, "This is true, but… When I saw you again just now, Aubrey.. Was like the first time I ever saw you all over again.."

"I know exactly what you mean."

From the top of the stairs, the two little girls worked their father and uncle's old hearing ears like seasoned veterans until Ron woke from his impromptu nap that he'd taken when he thought he'd read them to sleep and came into the hallway, finding them. He chuckled and then said with a laugh, "If you really want to hear, ickle pixies… Let's go closer to the door with this."

Picking a girl up on each shoulder, he carried them down the stairs and let them put the device at the door, the two of them giggling and talking a mile a minute back and forth. "Well?" Ron asked as they stopped and looked at him and said at the same time… "I think mommy is gonna move us here!"

"Bloody hell.. Four tricksters." Ron groaned as he smiled at his nieces and then said "I smell cookies.. Maybe we can go find food?"

"Cookies!"