Note: The contents of the following story are my own original work. The characters, trademarks and associated brands you may recognize from Harry Potter all belong to J. K. Rowling and in no way am I claiming them as my own. The story is based in and around the happenings in the fanfic "Three cheers to fatherhood" by BL00DofTheViNE, who is also my beta reader, you're awesome my friend!! Thanks a bunch!!
Warnings: Strong language
4. Fight. Trip. Accident.
Helen was cooking dinner. Seeing as how she was making Lasagna, it would take her a few hours, because (as a Muggle) she couldn't just whip it up quickly with a few waves of a wand.
George was sitting in the makeshift study - basically just a room where they put the computer, amongst various other random things - thinking about the research he'd done a few days earlier. Losing himself in his thoughts, he fell asleep against an old sofa that was currently waiting to be disposed of.
*
He awoke again to the sound of Helen's voice, calling him to dinner. He'd been having the dream again, before she woke him up. The fourth time in as many days now, and it still didn't fail to freak him out.
He went down for dinner. Helen was already waiting at the table.
"Honey. You okay? You look rather off-ish," she commented, reaching for a plate to dish up for him.
"Yeah, sorry, I dozed off"
"You've been doing that a lot lately… Is everything okay? Trouble at work again?" She seemed genuinely worried. Was it that obvious?
"Er, yeah. It's just work. I'm fine, really."
Though, he hadn't noticed he was aimlessly pushing his food around his plate before Helen remarked, "Is there something wrong with the food?"
"No. I'm not hungry. Sorry, I'll eat later"
"But, you're never just not hungry! What's wrong, George, tell me?!" Now she was borderline hysterical.
"I'm just not fucking hungry, okay!"
And, seconds before Helen could register what had just happened. Before her face contorted with hurt and she burst into tears, he was gone.
*
George knocked on the door.
Obviously Harry wasn't home, because he could hear loud music blaring from a room on the second floor, which meant that Teddy should be.
Knocking proved to be a pointless exercise. No one would hear him over the music, and calling for Teddy was proving just as fruitless.
Deciding no one would mind, as long as he fixed it, he blew the door off it's hinges with a quick utterance of "Bombarda"
Once he'd let himself in, he repaired the door and put it back on its hinges with a few simple spells, before going upstairs to find Teddy.
He walked through Teddy's open door and found the young man sitting almost trance-like on the floor by the window, swaying numbly to the heavy music.
"Teddy?" He called quite loudly, but he wasn't heard over the roaring stereo. He adjusted the volume, turning it down quite a bit (the stereo had obviously been charmed so that it would make the music sound much louder than an ordinary stereo could) and tried again.
"Teddy?" This time he got a groggy reply.
"George?" Teddy looked alarmingly confused, and even more alarmingly stoned.
"Er, yeah, it's me?"
"What're you doing here? How did you get in?" Teddy looked, if possible, even more confused now that he'd registered who he was talking to.
"Oh, yeah, sorry. I let myself in, no one answered the door" he gave this a few seconds to sink in, realizing now that Teddy was obviously still tripping on something, "Listen. The other night, when I saw you in town, I found a potion that you dropped - Asphixus - where can I find more?"
"Asphixus? I have some right here" he said, laughing, "You drank the potion?"
"Yeah, I did, and now it seems I need more…"
"Well, I can sell you some. Three doses? Ten Galleons?"
"I'll have three of those vials, for now. Thanks"
Teddy got up and walked to the corner, where he retrieved and waved his wand; and a small, solid cube transfigured back into a cabinet. Digging in the cabinet, he procured three vials of the blue drug, and then changed the cabinet back into the inconspicuous little cube.
"Here you go, thirty galleons."
"Great," he handed Teddy the money and turned to leave.
"Hey, wait up, I'm being a terrible host. Can I offer you something to drink?"
"Uh, yeah, sure. I'll have a double vodka and pumpkin juice. If you have?"
Teddy summoned up drinks for both of them, and in a while, after a few drinks, both were considerably tipsy. Which is when they decided to take a dose of Asphixus each, from Teddy's personal store.
"Holy fuck, this stuff is amazing," George commented, after the rush started in his head, and his vision inverted; making everything seem far away, "do you brew it yourself?"
After a few minutes of pointless laughing Teddy simply made a face and shook his head.
"Well, who makes the stuff then? The potioneer must be a genius!"
"Ah, yeah, he is. I just can't tell you who he is. Sorry, but he's a close friend, and I promised."
"Oh, okay then," George was taking uneven steps backwards, concentrating on the ceiling light, which seemed to be growing bigger with every passing second.
Then he reached the open window, didn't realize fast enough what was happening, and fell.
