His expression was unexpectant and then WHAM! He might as well have been hit by the Knight bus… That's what Neville's face looked like right about now. I looked away towards his bed, and stared at it, he didn't say anything, not a single word… forty-six minutes passed by and nothing was said. The milk was still on the floor and I couldn't seem him, but I had accidentally let out a few tears… Fred had always told me that crying was a sign of weakness, but he was wrong, you could also be the bravest person and fall, laughing your head off and cry from laughing so hard.
I never got to tell him that.
The clock said 5:08, I knew that I had to be to family dinner soon or I'd never hear the end of it at the next four or eighty family gatherings. This seemed more important than eating at the moment. Not the sitting in the silence part, but having the chance to say something part. I heard him moving a bit, and then he spoke, "D-Does anyone else know?" I turned my head to face his, our expressions matched in worry, "No" I answered quietly.
How could it be so hard to talk to Neville? Sometimes it was hard for me to stop talking to him, I would take that over this any day…
"S-So what do you want to do about… uh, it." Neville asked worriedly, looking from my stomach to my face.
"I was wondering what you had in mind… I want us to agree on one thing." I told him, Neville's face had never seemed so pale to me in my life, and it wasn't the lighting.
He looked into my eyes, as if searching for something, I don't know if he found it or not but he asked "Would it be horrible if I thought that we should keep… the baby?"
I had never been more relieved in my entire life, I wouldn't and couldn't let this child go to someone else, and I certainly was not about to go and "take care of it", so my only other option was to keep it… but how would this work?
"Not a horrible idea at all, but how would we make that work?" I asked him nervously tapping my fingers on my jeans that were almost too snug on me already.
He took my tapping hand and took it in his, he told me while gazing into my eyes, "We'll find a way. We will."
I don't know how we could do this, we certainly wouldn't have the kid go back and fourth from apartment to apartment, but I don't know what else to do… but Neville asked me this "Do you think that you would like to stay in my spare room?" his apartment was larger than mine and Hermione's, but I had never pictured raising a child in an apartment, and I never pictured it'd be with Neville… okay that is a lie but it was only twice.
"What would Hermione do?" I asked him, he had probably forgotten that I had a roommate, not that Hermione was a forgetful person, but she was never really mentioned when talking about my apartment with Neville.
"Well… uh, then do you even think we should live together or don't you think that'll work out?" He asked me, he squeezed my hand a little while asking the question.
"I think we should live together… yes, but I didn't imagine it being in an apartment" I told him, but I couldn't look at his face.
"You want to buy a house together?" he repeated
"Yes, with my… job that I can't do as of right now… but I have enough money from the previous seasons so that we can get any kind of house we like" I told him, it was true, I had more money than I needed to live out my life, and I wanted to find a way to spend it.
"I don't want you wasting all of your money on this" Neville said flatly, "I don't want to feel like a dead weight to you."
"Neville…" I looked at the clock and I was for sure late, "Don't think of yourself as that, if anything I feel like this is all my fault, you were just the friend that did the right thing and then got tempted to do something that you didn't want to do…"
"What do you mean by something I didn't want to do?" I knew he hadn't meant to say that, because his face got all red and for the first time in hours I saw him smile.
"So you've wanted to do it with me?" I asked him with a sly grin.
"I-I, uh…" he was done for; he couldn't go back on his words.
"I have to go for family dinner, but I'll be back later, to continue this," I told him. I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and went to the door but he asked "So that's it, you're not going to tell me your reaction?!"
I turned around to smile at him and told him, "I'm not surprised, because the way you stared at me the whole night… and I wasn't that drunk Neville. I knew that you kept asking for Orange Juice."
Out the door I went and I felt my face get hot, I checked for muggles, and found none. I apparated from Neville's welcome mat to the doorstep of the Burrow. I didn't have to ring the doorbell, because my mother heard me apparate and opened the door widely. I looked like a mess. I was never taught to apparate correctly because I was taught by the Carrows. I quickly stood up and brushed myself off after having apparated straight on my arse. It wasn't until now that I had remembered that I didn't have any shoes on.
"Ginny! There you are, we've been worried about where you've gone to, it didn't say where you were on the clock…" she brushed me off more then gave me a hug and asked "Why don't you have shoes?"
I told her that I'd explain later and that now was not the time. Going into the house I saw everyone, and I mean everyone. Even my brother Charlie, who hated these types of family gatherings, but there he was, standing near the couch. "Charlie!" I screamed and ran to hug him, he quickly turned around at the voice, but I could tell he was just as glad to see me.
It felt so good to be secured in your big brother's arms like he had once done the day that he met you. He hugged me tight and I didn't want to let go of him, I had gone months without seeing him and it literally hurt my heart not to see him . "Good to see you too Gin" he told me, letting go.
"Don't do that to Ron though, he might fall over from being his twig like shape" called Bill from behind me. I turned around and there stood my oldest brother. I had always looked up to him, even after he married Phlegm, he was the one that I wrote to when I was ten and at the house with just mum and dad.
I gave him a quick hug and asked "So what are you doing here? I thought that Fleur would want you to be with her-" Then I saw her come down the stairs, her blonde hair flowing behind her scrunched up pug face.
"Hi Fleur" I said through gritted teeth, "'ElloGinerva" Bill wrapped me in his arms to restrain me from Phlegm and whispered in my ear, "Play nicely."
"I will if she does" I murmured back, and he let go of me.
Turning around I saw George and Ron, but I couldn't see Percy… was he late? He never was late for family dinners, ever. Not even work could keep him from family now, not since Fred died. "Mum, where is Percy?" I asked her as I went to Ron and George for hugs. She looked at me, and said "He's in the kitchen dear; I bet he didn't hear your fall."
My brothers always would tease me because I couldn't apparate correctly. Only Bill, George, and Ron laughed. "Am I the last one here then?" I asked her, but she shook her head, "No, your father is running a bit late… but the girls are all in the kitchen with Percy if you'd like to join them." I scowled at my mother. She was always trying to insinuate that I should be like them and get a husband, so that mine could talk with my brothers about Quidditch and the latest news as I go back centuries in time to the kitchen. To be fair to me, Ron and Hermione were only dating still. And Charlie wasn't married either.
"I think I'll just go wash up instead," I told mum, before going upstairs I heard Fleur whispered to Bill, "Ginerva has gotten bigger since I last saw her. No?"
I washed my hands slowly, hopefully dad would turn up in the time that I had washed my hands… but that was a false hope, I had to wash my face, arms, and feet before he came home, just to avoid any further questions.
Coming down the stairs I took a tumble. Seeing as I had not waited for my feet to completely dry. Bill, Fleur, Charlie, and Ron were all chuckling as George and mum helped me to my feet again. Mum casted an evil glare at the laughing hyenas to make them stop. Falling down a flight of stairs hadn't been my finest moment, but it wasn't my worst. Mum asked if I was alright, and I tried to shake her off, but she only clung to me more. I was fatigued from not sleeping well last night and from all the worrying this morning. It just hadn't been a good day for me.
My elbow started to bleed , so mum ran and got her wand. She started muttering incantations as the rest of the family just peered on. She asked me once more if I was okay, so I gave jer an unconvincing "Yeah, I'm alright."
When she didn't believe me, she was distracted by Dad who came back into the room from the kitchen. "Ginny! Good to finally see you!" Dad came over to hug me and give my forehead a kiss. He looked toward mum and asked, "What's the trouble Molly?"
"Ginny just had a slip is all," Mum said, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder.
Hermione, Angelina, Audrey, and Percy all came out of the kitchen at the mention of my name. "Ginny!" Hermione squeaked and ran over to me, hugging me with a warm embrace. She looked me over once and asked, "What happened?"
"I just took a fall, nothing to worry about, mum fixed me up." I lied with ease. The rest of my body still ached from lack of sleep and taking the fall.
Mum still didn't seem convince so she asked one more time, "Does anything else hurt Ginny?"
"No mum, I'm fine, promise." I tried to make myself useful and keep busy, so I stood up and asked, "How many plates should I set up? 13?"
"How did you come up with 13?" Ron asked, trying to count on his fingers.
"Well, Dad, Mum, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fr-" my voice stopped before I could finish. I little pang hit my heart and it felt like a shot heard around the world. I covered my mouth and stood for a second before running into the kitchen.
No matter how many holidays or years passed by, Fred was still a huge part of my family. Whether he was there physically or not he had always been a part of my life. My feet were weak and my eyes started to well up. "I'm sorry." I whispered. "I'm so sorry."
The door to the kitchen sprung open and I didn't have the heart to look to see who it was. "Ginny?" a soft voice called. He came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me. "I miss him too." George spoke softly. "But he wouldn't want you to be sitting in the kitchen crying over a place at the table."
"It's just hard, to know that he's not here." I whimpered. "He would've liked to have been here… ya know. We would've played a trick on Charlie or he would have made side comments with me all night about Phlegm…"
George laughed at me and in a small voice he said, "We can still do that Ginny. Although he may not be here, we can still pull a prank on Charlie and I will make comments about Fleur to you all night if you want. Fred has always been my other half, so now he has to trust me to be a whole person."
I turned around and wrapped my arms so tightly around George that he almost couldn't breathe. I let out a laugh, "I don't think he'd appreciate you stealing his girl."
George let out an unrestrained laugh, "I asked him and he said that if he couldn't have Angelina that I was the next best thing."
We both grabbed six plates from the cabinets and took the appropriate amount of silverware. Setting the table we whipped out our wands and made the plates and silverware dance their way to their spots. Everyone sat down at their regular spots with mum and dad on each end of the table. George was on my right and Ron on my left. Fleur started off the conversation with talking about Beauxbatons and how her seester Gabrielle was going to graduate or had graduated already. George leaned to my side and whispered, "Can you understand a bloody word she is saying?"
We stiffened our laugh when we caught a glare from Bill, but politely laughed into our napkins after his glare was finished.
As always, mum had outdone herself with food. There was more than enough food to go around for everyone to enjoy at least two if not three helpings. It was almost like a Hogwarts feast.
For the first half of dinner I remained silent and avoided conversation altogether. I was successful until Fleur started to ask me questions. "So, Ginerva," my face gave an involuntary cringe, "Are you dating an-zyone? Beecause I alwayzee thought that Harry Potter was still seengle." She brought him up… the one horrible mistake that I could never get out of my life. Ron sullenly looked at his peas, Bill looked uneasy, and Charlie was dumbfounded and confused at what Fleur was getting at.
I felt George put his hand on mine and he gave me a reassuring squeeze.
Dad didn't look up, but mum was looking nervously from me to Fleur and back and fourth.
"I wouldn't date Harry Potter again even if I were single" I said confidently, as Fleur's jaw dropped. It felt like I had finally won against her. I scooped up mashed potatoes onto my spoon, and shoved them into my face before any questions could be asked. "Ginny, you're dating?" my mother asked me excitedly, I knew it was her dream to marry off all of her children, but I didn't think that she would succeed with Charlie, he didn't seem to want to marry.
"Yes, I am" I shouldn't have done this just to beat Fleur, because now I had a lot of explaining to do…
"Why didn't you tell us?" Ron asked, and I noticed my father's head even come up from his food.
"You didn't need to know" I told him.
"But why didn't you tell us-" Hermione asked but Percy interrupted her.
"Forget about that, who is it?"
"Someone" I told him.
"Don't be so vague Ginny, tell us who it is or I'll hold you down while Bill and Charlie tickle you like when we were younger" Percy said.
"Percy, you aren't a very big threat to me, besides I don't think that he would appreciate if I tell you guys when we never talked about telling you this." I told them, as Ron looked over to Hermione, "Did you know about this?" he asked her.
"I had no idea." I hated the look of surprise and bewilderment on Hermione's face was the worst part about this, I had lied to all of them, I didn't know where I stood with Neville, and there was another person in this equation that only three people knew about.
Ron started up again with a mouth full of peas, "Gin, obviously Hermione would know if you had a boyfriend or not, she lives with you, so unless if you never had him at the apartment…"
"Who said I didn't ever go to his apartment?" I asked, purposefully not looking in Hermione's direction. "And who said that Hermione was there when I had him there, it was a good chance that she was over at your apartment snogging your face off." I didn't say it angrily, but in a dignified tone.
Hermione and Ron both turned red but he said, "That's not the point, the point is…" the phone rang, thankfully, and Ron had to go get it in the kitchen. Hermione followed him in and I was able to relax with ease.
But we know that lasted about three seconds. "Don't divert from the subject Ginerva, I want to know who you are dating and who you are dating right now."
A few minutes of them badgering questions at me stopped when we heard Hermione scream as she came out of the kitchen, her eyes gleaming with happiness, she came over and hugged me, I awkwardly hugged back, and then she shoved her left hand in front of my face to reveal a ring on her finger. Who the hell called to have Ron finally get the hint? Was it a lost cause hotline?
"Congratulations!" I squealed for her, and then she said these words "Ginny, I want you to be my maid of honor!"
As her best friend I would have liked to have been excited and honored to be Hermione's maid of honor. However, with the recent events of adding at least two more people into my crazy life, I felt enough stress as it was. Knowing Hermione she was going to want to plan everything. Every single thing and I would have to be there as a support throughout the entire process to make sure that she was making the right decisions. With all of this in mind, I turned back to reality and said, "Of course I will Hermione!" We jumped up and down together as Ron got congratulated by the rest of the family. Hermione gave me another squeeze and went over to my mum to show off her engagement ring. Ron came over to me and smiled. "Finally get the hint did you?" I joked.
He leaned over to me and whispered in my ear, "I know your secret; you don't have to lie to me anymore."
(A/N: 7/29/13- This chapter has had the most visible changes so far and I hope that you like it :) thanks!)