The fact that it's raining at the burrow just seems ridiculously appropriate. There is no way I can do this right now. I might as well just turn around and go, while I still have a chance. I mean I can always just make life a whole lot easier by pretending that its Oliver's baby until it's born. I mean I'm not even one hundred percent positive that it is George's. So this whole situation is silly and it would only be logical for me to turn around right now and go home. This is just stopped not turning around…Then again if it is George's it would be better to get all of this drama over with now before I have a kid crying while they are all spazing at me. Oh my god…I'm having a baby…This kid is going to be so fucked up. I might as well just put both of us out our misery right now. "Katherine is that you out in the rain?" Molly yelled from the front door of their house. "Yes?" Shit. That was where I was supposed to run away before she knew it was me.
"Oh dear, come and get out of the rain." But I like the rain, it's comforting… and the thought of death by pneumonia seems simple enough right now.
"Come quickly! You're going to catch a cold!" she said shooing me in the house. But I want to catch a cold.
"What are you thinking just standing out there in the rain? Goodness me child, you could catch your death out there on a day like this!" That was the most recent idea, and you'd throw me right back out there if you knew what was forming inside of me.
"George still isn't really his self quite yet, but I think there is some improvement since the funeral. Maybe he got some form of satisfaction out of making a fool of himself in front of all of his family and friends. I'll never quite understand that boy…but sure enough he'll be happy to see you here to visit him. Could have picked a better day to journey on I suppose, but to each their own I guess," Mrs. Weasley said as she fussed around the house. She always seemed to be busy cleaning or just doing something to occupy her time lately; I don't think I've ever seen the Weasley house this clean. Granted this could also be because half of the family is gone with their own lives and George never leaves his room, but I think it helps that Molly is constantly cleaning.
"Come sit down on the couch while I go see if I can convince George out of his room. And put this blanket on so you can warm up." She smiled as she wrapped a blanket around me and rushed her way up the stairs.
I stood there cocooned in a blanket just staring blankly at the stairs for awhile. What am I doing? I suppose I should tell George that I'm pregnant either way. I mean he is my best friend, and Alicia did tell me to tell George, she was the one who failed to clarify what I was supposed to tell him.
"George Weasley, open this door right now!" Molly was shouting at the top of the stairs. "Katherine dear would you come here?" she called down to me.
"What is it?" I asked.
"He doesn't believe that you're actually here because sometimes I say that you are just to get him out of this bleeding room," she explained, shouting more at the door than talking to me.
"I see," I said trying not to laugh at Molly's frustration with her son.
"George it really is me this time," I said trying my hardest not to laugh. The door flew open and I saw a bunch of red hair hanging upside down outside the window directly across from the door.
"Well blimey, it really is you!" He smiled and hopped back into his room.
"George, I have some bad news," and you're never going to look at me the same way again.
"Hit me. I've gotten really good with bad news," George said sitting on the table near the window.
"AH! I don't know how!" How do you tell someone that their life is basically over?!?!? "Kates just spit it out, it can be that bad. I bet you I've heard worse!"
"But…I just.. I don't know.. with the…BLAH!" I said collapsing onto his bed.
"My god, woman what is it?!" George said throwing a pillow at me hitting me square in the stomach.
"George watch out!" I don't even know why I said that…maybe I should tell him to throw more things at me…I'm such a horrible person.
"What?!"
"UGH!" I screamed and then sat up and pointed to my belly. "Baby….Your baby" I said. "Wait what?!?!?" he said with a smirk on his face that I hadn't seen in sometime.
"Why is that a smirk worthy comment?!" How can this possibly be funny?!?!
"The thought of how that came to be humors me," he said, still smiling.
"How?"
"Well, you see Kates sometimes when a guy and a girl get too close…"
"GEORGE! I know how it happened but I fail to see how it's funny!" Goodness and to think something with this things genetics is growing inside of me right now.
"Are you sure you're pregnant?" he asked still smiling even though I expected this comment to come with regret and hope that I would answer no.
"Yes, but I'm not exactly sure that it's yours. It's just that I know how long I've been pregnant and I haven't seen Oliver in that long…and well I don't exactly know what happened after…you know"
"Oh I do…" George said, smile now growing bigger.
"WHAT?!?!?"
George just smiled.
"Oh god, I'm never going to drink again."
"What, it's not that bad that you slept with me is it?" He said actually sounded a tad too offended.
"No that's not exactly what I'm worried about; I'm more worried THAT I'M GOING TO BE A MOTHER!"
"Calm down Kates…it won't be that bad" he said and walked over and put his arm around my shoulder.
"Easy for you to say" I said and tried to not make eye contact with him. No matter how mad or any other random emotion that I was, if I look directly into George's eyes I instantly feel okay. So that doesn't really help when I'm trying to be mad at him or something.
"How so, according to you I'm going to be a father. I mean granted I'm not going to have to do that whole birthing thing and I'm not even going to pretend that if I could do it I would, because I know that I wouldn't, so I understand this freaking out thing. But it will all be okay, you've got like nine months to get prepared for everything and I'll help as much as I can, even if it turns out not to be mine, and of course you have Alicia. So moral of my story, yeah it sucks that you have to give birth but you've got nine months before you really have to start freaking," he said in a really calm voice.
"I hate it when you're right, and I hate it even more when you sound so mature… in your own little George kind of way." I obviously don't know how to sound that way.
"Yeah me too, but sometimes it's necessary. This would be an example of one of those times." He smirked.
"Anyways… do you have a plan at all?" He asked still way to serious for my liking. "No…I've only really told Alicia…and she made me tell you. Other then that I'm still hoping that I'll wake up soon and this was all a dream."
"Don't I know what you mean" He said with a heavy sigh and looked at the bed across the room from us.
"I'm really sorry George… I can't imagine this news makes things any better." I said and played with my fingers.
"Are you kidding me, compared to most of the news I've gotten lately this is fantastic. I mean yeah I lost one life close to me but at least this way I'm getting a new one in return…it's like God is trading with me."
"I guess that's one way to think of it" I almost chuckled. I love how overly depressed people can find the good in the randomest of things like this.
"Wait…I'm only the second person you've told? You haven't told you're parents yet…or Oliver?" he asked.
"I'm scared to…especially Oliver…"
"Understandable….but don't worry too much about it. He loves you and knows that people make mistakes. Maybe he won't take it that badly."
"That's what everyone keeps telling me."
"Well, because it's true. Alicia and I tend to know what we are talking about, you know." He smirked.
"So you think," I smiled.
"So, how do you find out whose it is for real?"
"I have a test scheduled for next week."
"Do I have to do anything for that?"
"I have no idea honestly."
"Do you know what it is yet?"
"You don't normally know that until like three or four months."
"It's a boy," he said confidently.
"What makes you say that?"
"I just can tell, I could tell with Ron and Ginny. My mom always loves telling people stories of when she was pregnant with Ron and I knew he was a boy. I was two and as soon as she told me she was pregnant I told her it was a boy, she didn't take it seriously obviously but then he turned out to be a boy and she just thought that it was chance. Then when she was pregnant with Ginny I told her that this one was a girl and as we know she was. So never the less I can tell," he stated proudly.
"A boy then?" I said and looked down at my stomach. I'm having a kid…possibly a son…I'm going to have a little son pitter patting around my house…oh god I don't even have a house….I can't very well be still living with Alicia with a kid.
"It's a strange thought," he said after awhile.
"What is?"
"The thought of us having a kid."
"Tell me about it."
"Have you thought about what we are going to do after this?" he asked, and for almost the first time tonight he didn't have a smirk on his face.
"What do you mean?"
"Well like…are you still going to stay with Oliver…or should we like do something?" he asked awkwardly.
"I really have no idea…. It would be weird wouldn't it…you and me. We can't really base an entire relationship on just the fact that we got drunk and ended up with a kid…Can we?"
"I guess not…and I mean you're in love with Oliver and I wouldn't want to break that up….You are still in love with Oliver right?" He started to play with the corner of the sheet on his bed and forced himself not to make eye contact with me.
"I think so…granted I have no idea if he will still be in love with me after this…"
"If he has any smarts left in his brain after all of those hits by bludgers, than this won't bother him at all. He wouldn't give up someone as amazing as you over something this simple."
"George…have I ever told you that you're amazing? I seriously don't know what I would ever do without you and Alicia."
"No you've never told me that…but you don't have to... it's pretty obvious, however. " He chuckled.
"We're having a kid," I said again more to myself then him.
"We are… When are you going to tell your parents?" he asked.
"Not until I absolutely have to. They will probably be the last to know." I don't get along that well with my parents. They were both Hufflepuff in school, as was my older brother, so I had that difference with them and many more after that.
"I figured that would be your answer. You should probably tell them soon."
"I'll tell them when I know more of what I'm going to do with my… well I guess our, lives."
"Makes sense I guess."
"Do you want to tell Molly?"
"Nah… I'll wait a bit… for your sake at least. I don't even want to think about how much she would be all over you if she knew you meant a grandkid. She'll be force feeding you and making you rest constantly, so might as well wait until you have to start actually worrying about those things." He laughed.
"You don't think she be mad?"
"No, why would she be?"
"Because we aren't married."
"Oh Kates she honestly doesn't care about that at this point. If you were Ginny she'd have a cow. But for whatever reason I have a good feeling that she'll be happy about this one." He smirked.
"George I have some dinner if you two want to come down and have some," Molly called up from downstairs.
"Are you hungry?"
"I guess..."
"Might as well appease her, I always say," he said and got up and left the room.
Walking down the stairs I noticed something that I hadn't noticed before. George was even more different than I had thought. Even the way he walked was different. It was like now he was a completely different person than he used to be.
We walked by Molly's clock on the way to the kitchen, everyone was back to normal now and no one was in mortal peril. However when I looked back I noticed that Fred and George's hand was on lost and neither one of their faces were still in their frames. I stopped to look at it more closely to see if they would come back or something to explain this.
"It's been like that since it all happened," Molly said from behind me. "We came home in the morning and they had all moved to home except those two... Makes sense I suppose, I never really thought that the hand would ever need to point to dead so it's never been an option... I like to think it still tells me where his soul would be, like I figure he and George are lost without each other. So the clock is supposed to tell me where they are. They're lost so it points to lost." She said simply and then walked into the kitchen.
Fred and George literally were always together. They even share a hand on their mother's clock to prove it. Now they are separated forever and not even the clock knows what to do.
Nothing about George was the same. Looking at him you could barely recognize him. He's skinner, more frail and helpless looking. His once glittering ice blue eyes are now a dark, sad, stormy blue. His face seems tired, like it would be impossible for it to smile without falling off. Even his radiant red hair now seems dull and weak. I don't know how I haven't noticed this yet. Here I am freaking out because of something as simple as having a baby. People have babies everyday; it can't possibly be a common thing for people to loose a twin brother. Even more twin brother as close as Fred was to George. I'm acting like it's the end of the world and I still have everything I care deeply about. God I'm even getting something new to care about. This really was the end of the world that he knew for George.
All throughout dinner Molly talked to me and I pretended to listen adding in the appropriate mmhms and oh nos. But the whole time I was fixated on George. He never once looked up from his plate and only ate about one third of the food on it. There used to be a time where he and Fred could have eaten all of the food on the entire Gryffindor table, especially during quidditch season. I've been such a horrible friend, he has probably needed me this whole time and the only time I've seen him is when we were both wasted and subsequently making a baby.
After dinner we went back up into his room and he just went back to sitting on his bed. I jumped on top of him and hug attacked him.
"Why hello," George said and looked at me weird.
"I'm sorry I haven't been here for you more," I said.
"What do you mean?"
"You've probably been completely depressed and wanting someone to be here for you and I was off basically completely ignoring you."
"It's okay. I just figured I was bad in bed." He chuckled. Leave it to George to be able to still joke in times like these.
"I wish I could fight that statement but I honestly don't remember."
"I could remind you," He said and raised his eyebrows up and down in that creepy, pervy sort of way.
"So how are you doing?" I asked, just ignoring his last comment.
"I'll make it. I guess, thanks to you, I have a reason to make it now," He said and seemed to be trying his hardest to smile.
I really should have been here for him more…
"Katherine, dear, it looks like that storm is coming back so if you are planning on going home soon I advise to leaving now so you can get back before it gets bad," Molly called from downstairs.
"You should go then," George said.
"But…are you sure you don't need me or anything?"
"Yeah I'll be fine. I don't want you getting sick and dying. I can't loose you too. And you have to think about the baby now, too, so you can't be up to you're same old habits."
"Okay, but if you ever need anything, and I mean anything at all don't be afraid to come over, or send an owl, and I'll be here in a heart beat."
"Well noted, I might take you up on that as well."
"I'll be always expecting you."
"Until then I suppose?"
"Until then," I said and gave him one more big bear hug.
"I still say it's going to be a boy," he said as I was leaving the room.
"How about this… I'll let you name it if you're right."
"Sounds like a deal to me." He smirked. He still looks so weak. Like I need to just pick him up and hide him from the world or something.
I ran back and gave him one more hug and then apparated home……
