Disclaimer: Even I'm not that good. Those characters? totally not mine.
A/n: Sorry for the short chapter, but I was kind of hoping that all the drama would make up for it! And thank you soooooooo much to all the people who reviwed this story! I appriciate it more than anyone knows. So, onward!...
Silence. Absolute and dangerous silence…for about two minutes. This was promptly followed by Mrs. Weasley's trademark loud, screechy admonishment, as well as a few coughs of, perhaps embarrassment, if not mortification.
Everyone was staring, but the twins really couldn't grasp that just now, what with all the yelling. When Mrs. Weasley paused for breath, Fred interrupted her, "Wellnow Georgie…" the slur was more than apparent, "Never knew anyone could," hiccup "yelllike that, now did we?" He smiled congenially at his brother, who smiled stupidly back, his lips still wet and glistening from the kiss they had just shared in front of the entire family: long, sloppy, snogging. Nothing could cover that one up!
"No one but our dear wonderful Mum, nosurree!" And before they could be stopped the two of them returned to their wonderful kiss, but then…
"I can't believe the two of you!" She screamed. "I could accept it much easier if it were with some other boy…God knows I have no problem with that! But honestly, the two of you: brothers…twins!" She shouted as though it was her life's ambition to attain an eternal degree of laryngitis.
"WellnowMum," George began, "at least we're both boys. It's not like we can get pregnant, contradictory to any beliefs of ickle Ronnie's over here." He pointed a swaggering, accusatory finger in Ron's direction; despite the awkward and desperate situation, there were scattered sniggers popping up out of the shadows. George looked rather pleased with himself, even in this drunken stupor.
"That's not the point!" Mrs. Weasley had endured every prank the twins had ever pulled: transforming Ron's teddy bear into a spider – before they'd even set foot in Hogwarts! – and then of course, there were all the times they had tortured Percy. While she wasn't particularly happy with her third eldest son, she didn't condone the twins' continuous barrage of practical jokes upon him. These of course, never matched up with all the things they had schemed within the very walls of Hogwarts, for that matter, and if this was a joke – which she really hoped it was – then it was the last straw! "The two of you cannot be serious! It can't be!" she looked close to tears, actually, and it hurt them a little, even when they could hardly register other's emotions. Finally, Mrs. Weasley looked up from her disappointment, and said, "That's it. You'll have to be separated." She was about to say something else, when she was cut off.
To everyone's utmost surprise, it wasn't Arthur, or Ron, or even Bill or Charlie. It was Ginny. "Mum…ah, I realize that this is certainly not…um……" she searched for the right word, and pulled one from the vocabulary arsenal Hermione had helped her to build. "…conventional, but – and I'm not saying any of us needs to agree with it – but maybe…maybe they really actually care. And as strange and gross as it may seem…" but she stopped, perhaps afraid of the scowl her mother had turned on her now at this attempt at justifying the twin's bizarre relationship.
"Maybe…maybe Ginny's right, Mrs. Weasley." Harry piped up. He didn't exactly like the idea of the twins being so…close, especially when he was in the house. But he figured that he might as well stand up for his friends. They'd helped him enough times to deserve some back-up.
"Yeah, um…it's just…like that." Added Ron, trying to get his words into the conversation. Unfortunately, that was the last rational statement made before the entire room was in an uproar. People were arguing loudly, taking sides, mitigating this odd and 'perverse' behavior, while still trying to uphold their own dignity. And that seemed a very hard task to do by the looks of it.
Now then, amidst all this chaos and commotion, Fred and George had seemingly lost most of their inebriation, and stood up out of their chair. "Erm, excuse us," they didn't want to tenderize the subject any more than they had.
"Guys," Fred started, but was continued to be ignored by the throng of quarrelling family members and friends.
"Hellooooooo," George tried. "People!!" his voice was rising as he was becoming increasingly irritated.
"Folks! Please…" Fred began, but just stopped. They realized – together, of course – that to try and separately gather everyone's attention was a long-lost battle. So, looking at each other and nodding in agreement, they upped the ante.
"SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU!!!" They chorused; they had stood up on top of the chair, which only increased their height to towering. Everyone stood stalk-still; some people were reaching over at opposing sides, others had glasses in their hands. In fact, George was sure he heard a glass drop and break somewhere in a corner.
"This is ridiculous!" Fred shouted into the silence.
"You're handling this like little children! All of you!" George continued.
"Thank you to those who have defended us," said Fred.
"But it is plainly evident that our kind of love isn't welcome here." George added.
"So, we'll just be off, and Mum, Dad, you can send us our things when we get a place to stay. Goodnight, all." The twins finished together, in trademark fashion.
There was a long, resonating silence, as though time had just stopped. The twins were already half way out to the kitchen when both Mr. and Mrs. Weasley rushed out to them.
"Yes, yes, we know." Said George, somewhat begrudgingly. "We'll hurry."
"No, no boys. Don't leave." Mr. Weasley said. Mrs. Weasley opened her mouth to say something, but Arthur shushed her. "Molly, no." He had that serious air to his voice that he always got when he was going to negotiate some solemn piece of news. "Look, I don't pretend to be thrilled by this. I'm not."
"Clearly." muttered Fred.
Ignoring the comment, Mr. Weasley pressed onward. "But, I don't think it is a reason for you to leave the family. We've lost one family member via condemnation already: let's not allow that number to grow, please." His eyes pleaded with his sons, and they stood still for a moment, looking at each other, silently deliberating in that twin way they always used.
Finally, "Alright, but what about you, Mum?" Fred asked cautiously, afraid of the answer, but expectant despite himself. "What do you have to say about this, and in as normal tones as possible please." He added as soon as he saw the color rising again in his mother's cheeks.
Flustered, she spluttered for a bit, looking from her two twin sons to her husband, in disbelief that this was happening – and on Christmas day, at that! "Well, I…I…"
"Yes, Mum?" George asked impatiently, his foot tapping, muffled by the wooden floor.
"I guess…" she sounded dejected. "I suppose I'll just have to accept it, boys." They looked at one another gleefully. "But please, try not to be so…so obvious about it."
"Yeah, yeah." They said together, and then laughed at themselves.
When they came back into the sitting room, everyone was looking expectantly at both Molly Weasley and her sons. "We've been cleared!" Fred shouted, as though returning from a trial before the Minister of Magic.
George surfaced from their last 'obvious' kiss in front of the family, saying, "Pardoned is more like it, really." And of course, this was greeted with laughter…cat-calls from Ron and Ginny and even Tonks at their kiss.
"Alright, alright, alright, you two, that's quite enough of that!" Mrs. Weasley said, a slightly reproachful note in her voice.
They just grinned and sat together in the chair again, not daring to pick up where they left off with the Firewhiskey. They did however conclude something in their quietness.
"Well, I'm glad that's over." Fred stated cheerfully, his voice almost lost amongst the noisy chatter.
"Yeah, me too. But," George whispered into Fred's ear, "We still have something to figure out."
"And what might that be?" Fred asked suspiciously.
"I think I know what that stuff Ron gave us was." Fred gave him an inquisitive look. George answered it with, "It was veritaserum." Fred scoffed, but George continued. "It was, though! Even if we had been that drunk, without the veritaserum, we would have been fine! I know what it was, and I am not happy about it."
"Why would he give us that, though?"
"That's what we're going to find out." Said George, a look of scheme and deviousness sprawled across his freckle-smattered face.
