A/N: Hi! Sorry for the gap between updates, everything gets so hectic around Christmas in my life. Thank you so much for the reviews, glad everyone enjoyed the chapter and found the idea of Viria tormenting Charlie as amusing as I did! Please review!
Always when we fight, I try to make you laugh
until everything's forgotten, I know you hate that
ba ba ra ra ba ba ba ba
ba ba ra ra ba ba ba ba
always when we fight, I kiss you once or twice
and everything's forgotten, I know you hate that
I love you Sunday sun, the week's not yet begun
and everything's quiet and it's always
you and me, always, and forever
you and me, always, and forever
ba ba ba ba ba
it was always, you and me, always – You and Me Always and Forever, The Wannadies.
When Fred and Viria emerged downstairs a few minutes later, closely followed by a still sniggering George, Viria was extremely satisfied to see the look of complete mortification on Charlie Weasley's face.
"Where have you two been?" asked Molly cheerfully, "And you, George, honestly, I was just handing round some homemade chocolates, your favourite"
"Ooh, great! Thanks Mum" while George disappeared with his mother to nab the rest of the chocolates, Fred and Viria wandered casually over to Fred, hands clasped and swinging.
"You've gone very quiet all of a sudden, Charlie" Viria observed chirpily, "Are you alright? You don't look well"
"I'm fine" Charlie muttered, clearly avoiding their eyes, "I'm fine"
He walked briskly away towards Ron, whom Hermione was trying to get to bond with Crookshanks – "He's sweet really, Ron, and it's not as though Scabbers is around anymore...if you'd just try to get on with him..." – and Ginny moved away from the group to come over to the giggling Fred and Viria, looking suspicious.
"What did you two do? Charlie disappeared upstairs just after you did and he's barely spoken a word since he came back down – plus he didn't make a single inappropriate comment about your boobs or your arse in that entire conversation" she eyed the couple as though trying to puzzle them out. Viria smirked.
"Never you mind what we did, let's just revel in the fact that Charlie's no longer acting like an arrogant prat, shall we?"
Ginny snorted, "Cheers to that. I love Charlie, but he's been quite sickening with you lately"
They all laughed in unison. Seeing this Harry came over and, in a movement that seemed almost automatic, put his arm around Ginny's waist to draw her closer to him. She smiled, slightly sheepishly, noticing Fred's face darken and Viria's knowing smile.
"What are you laughing at? Is this about Ron and Crookshanks?" Harry queried, looking thoroughly amused. Ginny looked up at him, puzzled.
"No. Why, what's happening with Ron and Crookshanks?"
A loud yowl came from the armchair Ron was sitting in and the four of them turned to see a shrieking Ron being scratched to shreds by a clearly disapproving Crookshanks. Hermione was trying to drag the cat off her boyfriend, voice shrill.
"Oh, Ron, I'm sorry, he probably just doesn't like sharing me – stop it, Crookshanks! Bad Crookshanks! Oh goodness, Ron, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to poke you as well – oh, really, this is ridiculous – "
"Think we should help?" Fred chortled, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.
"Nah, leave them to it" Harry grinned back, still doubled over, "I'm sure he'll live"
"OW! CROOKSHANKS!"
A week after their clever trick and Charlie's abrupt departure, Viria entered into her fourth month of pregnancy, and almost overnight, Fred saw a change in his young wife.
Gone was the Viria who was willing to play practical jokes, who baked amazing cupcakes and who danced around the kitchen singing to Muggle music. Instead, some sort of Gremlin seemed to have taken over Viria's mind, and Fred wasn't too keen on the change. She was moody, irritable, and where in the first three months of her pregnancy she had been practically begging for sex every night, she now glared at Fred every time he even offered up the suggestion.
It all began one morning when Fred was woken up by a loud scream coming from the bathroom. Dazed and fearing the worst, he stumbled into the onsuite and found Viria standing in front of the full-length mirror, wearing only a towel and gazing at herself in complete and utter revulsion.
"Vi?! Vi, what's wrong?"
She turned to glower at him so fiercely that Fred was surprised he didn't crumble to dust on the very spot where he stood, "What do you think is wrong with me?" her voice was low and dangerous and made Fred feel slightly disturbed.
"Um...I don't know?"
"I. Am. Fat. Huge. Gargantuan! Look at the size of me, look!"
The curve of her stomach was indeed, undeniably, but Fred thought that the last thing in the world he would have called her at that point in time was fat. He especially would not have called her gargantuan.
"Everything okay? I heard something" George poked his head around the door, Angelina peeping over his shoulder, both looking worried. Fred shook his head urgently.
"No, nothing. Don't worry"
George and Angelina looked at each other and shrugged in unison before disappearing again. Fred heard Angelina giggle as they disappeared and tried to remember the time, not long before, when Viria used to giggle.
"Nothing?! NOTHING? Look at me, for Merlin's sake!" Viria wailed, eyes blazing. Fred advanced warily towards her.
"Vi, I promise you, you don't look fat. Honestly. You look beautiful"
There, at least, he wasn't lying – he'd always thought Viria to be at her most beautiful when angry. Though she was slightly scary at the same time, especially as she didn't look at all convinced.
"Don't you dare lie to me! I look absolutely hideous, you can't deny it – "
"Of course I can deny it, if it's not true" he replied earnestly, moving closer towards her. The expression on her face did not soften.
"Get dressed, Fred. I'm not in the mood for flattery"
He sighed heavily to himself as he turned away and Viria slammed the bathroom door behind him. He was starting to wish the pregnancy was over already.
Viria seemed in a better mood as the month progressed. One evening, George was staying at Angelina's for the night and Fred and Viria were curled up under a blanket, listening to the radio while Viria flicked through Witch Weekly and read out her favourite extracts for Fred.
"Listen to this, Fred, this woman tore her husband's eyebrows out with a hair-cutting spell during an argument and she's been fined a hundred Galleons!"
"Mhm" Fred murmured, listening to the Quidditch results and trying to sound interested, "That's nice"
"It's really not nice at all. I should stop buying this magazine, the stories are always so gruesome – oh, look, love potions, we could send one to Charlie in Romania and he might leave me be for all eternity"
A few moments of silence ensued, broken by the whining tones of Molly Weasley's idol, Celestina Warbeck, as Fred read the article over Viria's shoulder. Almost unconsciously, his hand was sliding up her thigh underneath the blanket. Viria, suddenly scowling, slapped it with the magazine.
"Ow! What was that for?!" Fred yelped, withdrawing his hand and clutching it to his chest.
"I told you, I'm not in the mood"
"I don't recall hearing you say that"
"I didn't think I had to"
"Let's be fair about this, Vi, what usually ends up happening when we're snuggled under a blanket?"
She coloured slightly, but seemed determined to stand her ground, "No"
"But you're almost in your fifth month now, Vi, and you've been in this mood since the beginning of the fourth..." he whined, toying with her hair. She slapped his hand away again.
"Give over, or I'll hex you"
"This is getting ridiculous – "
"Good God, Fred, I'm sure you'll manage!" she snapped, rising from the sofa and turning to glare at him, "I'm going to bed. Alone"
"Vi! No, wait, come on – I really think we need to talk about your mood swings"
This was clearly not the right approach; Viria slammed the bedroom door in his face.
When Fred dared to venture to bed almost three hours later, he found that Viria was still awake. She had the light on and was reading, and though she did not look entirely happy, she didn't look like she was about to murder him and feed his remains to Crookshanks anymore either, which must surely have been a good sign.
"Hey" he said tentatively, "Couldn't sleep?"
"No" she paused for a minute, "Look, Fred, I'm sorry, okay? I know I've been a crappy wife lately but I'm just so tired and so...angry, all the time. Ginny keeps teasing me and saying it's my hormones and I guess it must be, even though I always said I'd never use that as an excuse...but I am sorry, okay?"
Her voice was still slightly irked as she apologised, but Fred decided that even a grudging apology was better than none. Taking advantage of her good mood, he leaned over to give her a light, reassuring goodnight kiss, which he was delighted to discover that she responded to.
"It doesn't matter. Well, it does, but I understand. We're bound to fight sometimes, especially with so much going on. It's okay. In just over four months this will all be over – we'll have a baby girl and it'll just be a bad memory"
Viria did look slightly reassured, and smiled slightly, "Yeah. Yeah, you're right"
"Always am" Fred replied, puffing out his chest before climbing into bed beside her. He was once again delighted as she laughed at him.
"Not always" as he lay down, she laid her head on his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist, "You can be a prat sometimes"
"Only sometimes" he traced the tip of his finger up and down the ridges of her spine, "So, Vi..."
She sighed and sat up, rolling her eyes, "Yes, Fred, you can have what you want. It's the only way to stop you driving me mental, isn't it?"
He grinned cheerfully, "I think it might be, yes" and launched on her with such enthusiasm that the pair of them ended up on the floor, laughing as though they hadn't laughed for years.
