After she struggled to pick up the package, she shut the door and moodily tore open the brown paper. She was surprised to find a box of Penelope's Purple Pussy Cats. The box was different from the ones she had seen when she followed Fred and George around. On the box, a purple cat rolled over the cover and stared up with gigantic pink eyes. It blinked at her. She opened the cover and gasped when she saw three tiny, purple, toy kittens rolling all over the inside of the box. They were adorable. She read the instructions on the box and found that the product had been modified. The kittens no longer meowed loudly until the break of dawn. Now, they would cuddle and do tricks if you promised to pet them.
Audrey immediately fell in love with it. She pulled a teensy kitty out of the box and set it on her duvet. It looked up at her and slowly snuggled into her leg, or at least tried to. Audrey could tell the animation charm on it was rushed. She pulled out her own wand and added more movement to the toy, along with an animation timer to make sure it wasn't going to try and smother her at night.
She played with the kittens until she was in a good enough mood to open up the bag containing the things from her flat. Her fingertips traced over a few books. She pulled one out at random and stared at the navy cover.
'Talented Trackers of the Century by Riley Quinn'
Percy had picked up that book from a little bookstore they had come across during the first year of their marriage. He went through phases of interest and tracking charms had been a recurring subject. An idea struck her.
She was tired of waiting. She was sick of worrying. She'd gotten no word from or of her husband for almost two months. He had promised to contact her by now. She put the kittens away in their box before she opened up the book in front of her.
If Percy was free, and unable to contact her, she would not sit idly by and wait like he told her to.
She would find him.
No one saw her for the next sixteen hours. She had stayed up all night reading the tracking texts in the bag. At some point during the night, she found exactly what she was looking for. After finding the proper instructions, she researched the history behind the runic blood magic. As she read, she realized some of the older methods were pretty barbaric and that the newer ones just were not reliable. She dissected the processes and made the decision to modify the older methods on her own. It would take a week of Rune work, another two days or so to check it with Arithmancy, and a few days to actualize it, she already knew, but it would be worth it. It would give her peace of mind.
It would bring her Percy.
The twins would be coming any day now. Audrey cursed herself for waiting so long to start her project. She finally came out of her room for good in the afternoon. She held tightly to the banister as she carefully walked down stairs. Her twins were not happy with her meal skipping. Her head spun and she had to stop three times before she made it all the way down. She felt an uncomfortable twinge.
"Molly?" she called out for some help. She could hardly stand and she sat down on the steps to keep away the dizziness. "Ginny?"
Charlie came into view and helped her up. She huffed slightly and put a hand on her baby bump.
She smiled and said, "Thank you. Where is everyone?"
"Mum and Dad took Ginny with them to a meeting. She was pretty set on going. You know how she gets. Fred and George are out checking the wards." said Charlie. They made their way into the living room. Audrey scanned the furniture with her eyes and went for the tallest of the seats. Her stomach barely fit between the armrests.
"I honestly can't imagine myself getting any bigger than I am now." She made a show of squeezing into the chair and laughed.
Charlie laughed with her and said, "You're fine. You look just as big as Mum did with Ron."
"Oh, but there are two in here. Two very active tots."
"Two times the fun then." He smiled dismissively.
Audrey was silent for a moment. A thought struck her. She had definitely started her project too late.
"What if he doesn't make it," She noted how Charlie's attention was now completely on her and realized her poor choice in words, "What if he's not here when they're born?" What if something goes wrong again and he's not here to help me?
Audrey had never expressed such doubts in the presence of any Weasley.
"P-," Charlie stopped himself, sighed, and shifted to face her completely, "If there's anything that Percy is: it's punctual."
The left half of her mouth twitched. She laughed once disbelievingly and another time a little bit louder. She was soon wiping away tears of laughter away from her eyes and did not stop laughing quietly to herself until Fred and George stumbled through the door, one leaning on the other for support as blood seeped through his pant leg. Fred let out a loose moan when he pressed his foot to the floor.
"What happened?!" Charlie guided his little brother to a couch. Audrey forcibly yanked herself from her chair and waddled to heal Fred's gashes before he could die from the blood loss. She grimaced at the sight, The bone was snapped in one place, a clean break.
"Ferula." Fred's leg was held together by a conjured splint.
"Episkey." The bone mended together but the bruising remained.
"Mum's got the kit in her bag. I'm headed to the reserve for one." Charlie scrambled to a closet for his coat and broom.
"He's patched up but he'll want at least half a BRP…,"Audrey watched as Fred's eyes fluttered closed and George seemed to be struggling to stay quiet, "What happened to you two?"
"I left for only a minute! I came back and found him like this." George cried out and Audrey noticed just how panicked he was.
"Calm down, George, he'll be just fine once he gets the potion."
Charlie pulled his broom from the stack by the door, "I'll get it. I'll be back soon as I can," and he rushed out the door.
"No… Char- wait! So bloody stupid sometimes-" George ran out with his elder brother. Audrey wasn't so sure they should have left her and the unconscious twin at the house. A chill swept over her body and she was sure it wasn't from the door being left ajar.
Her grip tightened over her wand and she almost screamed when the windows frosted over.
"Mobilicorpus!" She had never had to use the spell before, but it sure worked. The redhead followed her wands direction and she led Fred's body deeper into the house. She had kicked over a rug and pulled a latch when she heard the windows shattering. She opened the lead door with difficulty and put the man in the cellar before climbing down the stairs herself. Her stomach prevented her from going down easily. She almost cursed herself for getting pregnant at such a bad time but realized that definitely would not help her fragile state at the moment.
Dementors! We must be high on the hit list if they're sneaking past the Romanian government to get us. Okay, Charlie and George just flew away and most likely apparated to the reserve, Molly and Arthur went to a meeting and took Ginny, and I'm stuck here, being ridiculously pregnant, with dementors and possibly Death Eaters and an unconscious charge. She considered rennervating him, but she feared the obvious pain in his expression would worsen if she did. She gasped when an unexpected flash of pain coursed through her.
She cast every protection charm she knew over their small hideout below the house. It wouldn't do much considering there was already a Fidelius in place. Once finished, she knew it would only be a matter of time before they gave up on finding them in the Fidelius protected cellar. At first, the idea had seemed odd to her, but it was saving their lives at the moment and she couldn't be more thankful that Arthur had let her know of it. She sighed and turned to her redheaded brother-in-law.
It felt like hours before she finally stopped shaking from the adrenaline rush. She had a moment of calm.
She sighed before her breath hitched in her throat and she felt another quick pain.
"Ow." She hissed. She heard the sound of the latch opening and she increased the grip on her wand. No, I- no! Please no! Not this time! Not ever again!
"Rennervate," Fred's eyes snapped open and he sat up abruptly clutching his sore leg. She heard the door close and she looked pleadingly to the steps. George was taking two at a time to get down to them.
"Are you down here?"
"I need Charlie." Audrey whimpered miserably and Fred looked relieved to see his twin.
They looked from Audrey to each other. Audrey whimpered again.
"We've got a problem." Fred scooted to Audrey's side and rested against the wall with her. They ignored her whispered plea.
George followed. "Nott's here. He brought dementors."
"Followed Dad's patronus to me. But I managed to take Nott out of the equation. Dementors?"
Audrey gave them an incredulous look as she bared her teeth to quell the sharp pain coursing through her.
"Not so much. I managed to sneak here with a good patronus but it was close. Charlie's already at the reserve."
"Do you think he'll notice?"
"I'm sure he will. Should we send Dad a message?"
"Probably not a good idea, that's how they found me."
"Is it too much to hope they'll just leave?"
"They are a bit thick, maybe they'll forget why they're here."
Audrey held in her scream, grasped both of their sleeves, and brought their heads in close to hers.
"Boys. I am kind of sure I went into labor a few hours ago. We are in a cellar. Charlie is still not back. Your parents have Ginny somewhere and will most likely not return anytime soon. There are fucking Dementors outside. Both of you need to listen to me and listen well. Now, if we can get through this night without a major catastrophe, I'll goddamn name them after you." The boys had paled after 'labor'.
George twitched and Fred blinked.
"Since when did we get Ron's luck?"
"Git must've left it behind and we caught it. We're infected."
"Sorry, but we're not exactly experts in… birth and such."
"If only Bill were here. He was there when we were born. Granted, he was only eight.."
Audrey let go of Fred's sleeve and leaned against George as worry set in fully.
"You two aren't making me feel any better… I—I need- ," She pointed to an empty chest, "I need that to be a cot frame. Or something of that nature. And grab a pillow from that stack over there and make a sort of cushion for the inside."
George saluted. "Yes, Ma'am." He did as he was told. She watched the chest sprout legs and bars.
She turned to Fred. "I need you to look at your watch. I need to know how far apart these damn contractions are," she grimaced, "start counting."
George looked at her expectantly waiting for his next task.
"This is bad… This is bad! I need… expand a pillow to a small bed size. I'm not giving birth on the floor… I need to stand up and pace. I want…"
She wanted Percy. Oh Merlin, what if it happened again? Why couldn't she do this right? She wanted him there, to know what to say and do and think. She needed Percy there.
"I'm pretty positive we're going to be very close by the time this is all over." She chuckled nervously as she fiddled with the button on her pants. The button ripped off as she yanked it.
Fred pulled the makeshift mattress to the wall. He and George lifted her to her feet and she held a hand to the wall and began walking from one end of the cellar to the other.
It felt like ages before she felt another contraction.
"Fred, time." She stopped abruptly.
"Twelve minutes."
She thought about all the things she had read. She wasn't so sure about it being so slow anymore.
"Merlin, this is going to take less time than I thought." She bit her lip and started walking again. It was happening. She only had the twins. She didn't have Molly, who promised to be there, or Charlie, who was slightly more comfortable with all things gory. She didn't have Percy. She felt her lip trembling against her teeth.
"I want Percy." Her voice was high.
Fred and George shared a look of panic and an identical thought crossed their minds.
"Audrey, we're not so sure."
"What we mean is, we're not so sure that Percy, our dear older brother, would like us,"
"Uhm, to, well, see-"
"What we're trying to say is-"
"We're not so sure Percy would want us seeing you're- erm.. lady bits."
She groaned and moved to face them.
"You two are grown men. I'm sure you've both seen your fair share of lady bits by now."
"You're our brother's wife. It's different."
"Get over it. If you paid any attention to Professor Flitwick' boys only chat during your 5th year, you'll know that these two are coming early. Which could lead to problems. That I will not be able to handle. So I need both of you to get the fuck over it and-" she took a deep breath and held it as her contraction felt stronger and lasted longer.
"How long?"
"Nine minutes." It was a little shorter between.
"I'd say we have a few hours before it's really time," She took an empty bucket from the shelf, "Scourgify. Aguamenti." She handed it to George and he passed it to Fred who placed it by the bed.
Audrey looked them in the eyes and sighed. "I really hope Charlie or your mother gets here soon."
"I'm kind of scared," She transfigured her jumper and pants into a long, loose dress, without changing their original colors, leaving it oddly red on top and blue from the hips down. She stepped out of them and the twins helped her get somewhat comfortable on the expanded pillow. They sat on either side of her, waiting in silence. She felt tears fighting through her lashes, "I'm so scared."
She laid her head on Fred's shoulder before lacing her fingers with George's. She let out a small sob. She'd tell them. She just had to.
"When Percy and I got married… I was already pregnant." She felt Fred stiffen beside her and George's grip tightened on her hand. "I-… the baby… he didn't-," she sobbed again, "He only lived for three minutes- His name was Nate. I lost him and… I- I'm scared."
The boys were silent before George started, "It'll be okay…We're here."
"One pair of Weasley twins would never let anything happen to the next."
She felt infinitely better. They sat in the silent cellar where the minutes felt like hours. Every contraction was getting stronger but lasting the same amount of time. She felt her eyes grow heavier and heavier. The only thing keeping her awake was the periodic surge of uncomfortable pain. She shouldn't have stayed awake all night.
"What time is it?" She yawned. Fred yawned a moment after.
"Almost 2."
"We've been down here f-f-forever." George yawned.
"How long?" She hissed.
Fred quickly glanced back at his watch. "Three minutes."
"I think I'm almost there. Best prepare yourselves. Can't have you fainting halfway through."
"I'm sure it'd be fine."
"There are two of us."
She snorted. "There are two of them."
"You still going to name them after us?"
"We wouldn't hold it against you if you didn't."
"I am. You two are so," she hissed, "so-important-to-me. You know that."
"Even if they're girls?"
"Middle names then... I'll figure it out."
She winced again and knew.
