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Chapter Fourteen; Family Portrait

George had always liked to look at her, it was something special about the way that she moved, how she did all those small, unnoticeable things, like when she read something she didn't understand she cringed her nose, and took a deep breath before she started the reading all over again to see if it got any less fuzzy.

Or the colour her cheeks get when she realize that he's watching her, but it's not that often that he get caught. Tonight he wanted to get caught, he wanted her to put down that book, crawl down under the cover and concentrate on him.

"George, don't stare at me." She responded, not looking up from the book.

George popped up on his elbow and looked at her, it was right about midnight and she refused to put down the book. He lifted his hand and slowly let it crawl under the cover and onto her stomach.

He smiled at her attempts to act unmoved by his touch, but he could easily tell that she enjoyed it.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to stare." He apologized, but still couldn't take his eyes off her.

"You are doing it again." She said really annoyed. "George." She took her eyes off the book and looked at him seriously. "Please stop. I need to get this right."

"Okay." He said and turned over, having his back toward her.

"Great." She said a little annoyed and closed the book. "I'm going down to get my notes." She said and got off the bed. "I didn't mean to sound so rejective." She said and left the room and went down into the kitchen where she could see her notes lying down on the kitchen bench.

She tried to read it over, but it was like reading jibberdish. The more she concentrated, the less she understood from it. She was so freakingly nervous about this, it felt like she had only one week to study before a test like the N.E.W.T's, even when she had the N.E.W.T's this much wasn't at stake, she had always been smart, but the biggest problem was that this was much more advanced that she had ever imagined.

She had always liked having taking on different challenges, like when she took on Arithmacy, which was like hell; she never really had a head for numbers. And still she had managed to get an O in that class on her O.W.L's; she didn't really know how that happened, and then she obviously dropped it for her N.E.W.T's.

"If you take the third and switch to the ninth you get the halfway of the disarming of the sixth left..." She read in her notes, but while her eyes drifted over the words, nothing was registered in her mind since her mind went onto another subject.

George. She should get up there and make it all up before it went all worse. People had told her, or Katie more likely, had told her that she became so god damn snappy when she was studying, was that really true? Or was Katie just lying? Kaite was not known for beeing the most honest person

Yawning and looking at the clock on the wall she left her things and walked back up to her bedroom.

"Are you still awake?" She asked George when she saw him in the bed. He was lying on his stomach, that's why she had to ask.

"Sure." His muffled response came.

She walked over the floor and crept under the cover and put her chin on his shoulder. "I didn't mean to get so short, I'm just tired of this damn thingy, and it's just getting harder and harder to understand for every time I read it through." She said to him, hoping that he could take it as an apology.

"Don't worry." He responded and turned toward her and put his arms around her, holding her back pressed toward his chest.

"I'm so tired." She yawned again and put out the lights with her wand.

They lay silent in the dark for sometime before George asked a question he had been having on his mind all day, well, at least since Fred brought it up. "Do you ever think about the future?"

"Sure I do." Alicia responded. "But in times like these you have to concentrate on now, and then take the future in second hand."

She could feel George smile. "Fred and I always reckoned that we'd both get married and have seven kids each."

Alicia gave out a laugh at hearing this. "If the two of you get married and have kids with a pair of identical twin girls, we'd have 14 kids looking extremely much like each other."

"That's the general idea. But we never really said we'd get married to twin girls." George said. "You got a secret identical twin somewhere in hiding for Fred?"

"No, I'm pretty sure that Cathy is my only sibling." She responded.

"Okay, then I can't get married to you." George said matter-of-factly.

"Who said that we ever were getting married?" She asked, just to see what he would answer.

"Oh." George said shockingly. "Well, I thought that... since... um... you know." He tried to find words, the right words. He had at a few times said stupid and hurtful things to her, and other people, because he didn't really know what to say, he had formed it as jokes, evil jokes. It became evil jokes when Fred wasn't there to fill his sentence absence. What would he do without Fred?

"Take it easy, I was just joking." Alicia said with an evil smirk on her face. "But if I would be that girl in that reality... two things are goners'."

"Okay, Let's hear it." He responded.

"No way in hell I'll ever let Fred get married to a girl that look like me."

"That is fairly expectable." He nodded in agreement.

"And also... no way in hell I'm going to press out seven kids."

"What do you mean about that?" This was a subject that was very touch to him.

"Hello, I'm not a baby machine." She exclaimed.

"Okay, six."

"Two."

"Five."

"Three."

"Four and that is my final offer."

"George, honey... in case you haven't noticed. It takes two to make a baby."

"Really? And here I was under the impression that Babies come with the stork." He joked, causing Alicia to laugh.

"Alicia." George said after she had calmed down from the laughing. "You wanna marry me when this is all over?"

Alicia, who was quite surprised by his proposal, turned around to face him. "Yes George, I do wanna marry you when this is all over." She smiled, thinking to herself that this was probably the worst proposal in history and got a kiss sweet from him.

"I love you." He whispered to her.

"I love you too." She responded, feeling like the happiest person in the world. "You know... I'm not so tired anymore."

"Oh really?" He smirked.

"You know George; I think that if we are going to have four kids one day, maybe we should practise on the actual baby making process." She said nodding in approval. "Without actually making a baby, 'cause now is not the right time to start."

"Alicia, I have been thinking the exact same thing." He responded.

Waking up and finding that somebody is standing over you in bed and watching you, okay maybe she was standing at the end of the bed, but for Alicia it still felt like she was standing there watching over her.

"Up." The older woman's voice came harshly. "Alli, its common sense to be up after ten o'clock at a Monday."

Alicia woke up by the sound of an unknown voice and looked up at the woman.

"Cathy, what are you doing here?" She asked.

"Hello? Kind of am the owner of the house, since I'm the oldest child." Cathy responded.

"How did you know I was here?" Alicia sat up; taking the t-shirt that was lying on the chair next to the bed table, not sure if it even belonged to her.

"Miniature, she told me that you were here." Cathy answered.

Alicia didn't answer her older sister; she took on the t-shirt and walked out of the room with her sister behind, having no intention to wake up George for nothing.

"I was working late last night." Alicia answered, making a white lie, she wasn't actually working working last night, she reminded herself while she got some very x-rated flashbacks in her head.

"Alli, you don't have a job, you haven't even finished you Auror training yet." Cathy said.

"Cathy, why are you here? Last time I checked, you didn't care what happened to this house." They walked down the stairs to the kitchen. "Besides, if you haven't noticed, we are at war!" Alicia snapped back.

"Of course I have noticed, why do you think I'm here?" Cathy sat down at the chair.

"Oh geez." Alicia said annoyed and also sat down at a chair covering the things lying on the table. "Do you know that you are the most complicated being at this side of the world?" She asked.

"Oh, don't get so smart with me." Cathy snapped. "And don't you remember what dad said about boys in your bed?"

"I know... he said that he'll die in prison if he found a boy in my bed, but this is different." Alicia responded tierdly.

"How?" Cathy asked.

"Just go with it okay?" Alicia snapped.

"What have you done to yourself?" Cathy asked looking disapproving at Alicia.

"None of your bother." Alicia snapped. "If you don't mind, I have things to do, important things." She stood up to walk away with her notes and the book she had read yesterday.

"Like killing people?" Cathy asked defensive tone, stopping Alicia from walking away.

"They cannot be called people, they were Death Eaters!" Alicia almost shouted at Cathy. "I thought that you knew that we were at war, but apparently I have over-appreciated you."

"Fine, Death Eaters, but you have still killed somebody." Cathy butted in, not wanting to leave the subject alone.

"They tried to kill me, and they would kill even more people if I hadn't stopped them." Alicia started to get very mad. "What is your problem with me? Why can't you just trust me? I am doing what I have to do to survive in this war, if that means killing people, I would do it."

"You know what my problem is with you? You are the bad seed in this family, the black sheep, but still you always were the favourite one." Cathy said angry to her little sister. "You started to play Quidditch, which you know dad hates, and still you are the favourite one. You get friendly with the biggest pranksters at school; you are still the favourite one. You start to shag one of the pranksters while only being sixteen; you are still the favourite one."

"I didn't know that you felt that way Cathy." Alicia said, the happy feeling from last night faded away with her sister's words.

"Well, you should know that." Cathy snapped back. "I was perfect, did what was expected from me, and became Prefect and Head Girl, top student of my year, but still you are in the centre, the one that Dad always talked about, told cute and funny stories about to his colleagues."

"Cathy, all that is your own fault." Alicia said. "Not mine, not mine at all. First off all, there aren't any cute or funny stories about you for dad to tell, you spent every minute since you learned to read with your nose in a book in a room. And second off all, dad did talk about you."

"When?" Cathy asked.

"Most of the time, he used to tell people how smart you were, and what a bright future in the academics you have, but you never bothered to listen." Alicia said. "The last time that you even spent time out of your room with me, just you know, being sisters, was when you were eight. I don't bite you know."

"I know that." Cathy snapped.

"How?" Alicia exclaimed. "How can you possibly know that? I needed you when we grew up."

"I can't be your mum." Cathy said.

"I never wanted you to be mum; I wanted you to be my older sister!" Alicia cried out. "But you never managed that. And do you want to know why you never were in the centre?"

"Oh please, enlighten me with your never ending wisdom." Cathy snapped with a full hint of sarcasm.

Alicia shook her head ignoring the sarcasm. "You were too perfect. You never did anything wrong and that makes you an impeccable person without any flaws. Flaws make people special, not the flawlessness."

"Impeccable means that you don't have any flaws." Cathy snapped.

"Whatever, it's not like I care!" Alicia shouted. "Now, if you don't mind, more important things are happing here today."

"Like what?" Cathy asked.

"You lost the right to ask that the day that you turned you back toward the Order." Alicia said, remembering how her sister had refused to join the order. It had been similar with her like it had been with Percy and his parents. Maybe that was why Alicia was so forgiving toward him, because of that Cathy had been in the same way. It hadn't been entirely like Percy; Cathy had just simply denied becoming a member. Their dad had just simply said that Cathy was fragile and young, which even Alicia knew was a lie.

Cathy didn't respond. "Fine, be stubborn then."

A long and killing silence lay in the kitchen as the two sisters refused to talk.

"How's Eric?" Alicia asked.

"He's fine. How's... Your boyfriend?" Cathy asked.

"Oh Shit, you don't even know his name." Alicia shook her head in denial.

"What is his name?" Cathy asked. "It's not like anyone bothered to tell me."

"His name's George." Alicia answered with a really cold tone.

"And how long is it going to hold this time? Halloween?" Cathy asked.

Alicia didn't answer that question; she started at her sister and wondered how she could dare to ask that. "I love him." She finally said. "George and I are always going to hold."

"Alli, you and this George are two complete different people..." Cathy answered calmly.

"Don't." Alicia said and put up her hand. "I don't wanna hear another word of what you have to say... I don't know if I have the strength to keep myself from smacking you." She turned around and walked back up the stairs to her room.

When she entered her room she noticed that George was awake.

"Who were you shouting at?" He asked.

"My perfect and impeccable sister Cathleen Spinnet." Alicia said in a very defensive tone and walked into the closet.

"Your sister, huh?" George said.

"Yes George, my sister." Alicia snapped and threw out her pyjama shorts with force into the main of her room. ""My Perfect sister Cathy." She continued and while saying the word perfect she threw out the t-shirt onto the room with the same force. "And guess what..." She came out from the closet dressed in a pair of jeans that had been cut into really short shorts, and a very colourful, and tight, pink tank top. "This is just the beginning of how it turns out when my sister and I have a get together." Alicia had chosen such a dramatic clothing because she knew that Caty didn't like this kind of clothing.

"Alicia, calm down." George said and walked up to her. "You are going over run." He said and hugged her, in hope that she would calm down.

"You don't understand how lucky that you are." She said and hugged him back. "You have siblings that you actually get along with, two parents who love you and care for you no matter what kind of pranks you will pull... You have Fred." On her voice it sounded like she was crying, but her eyes showed no tears. "I don't get how I do things wrong, I just wanna have a sister, but every time we talk, it's just turning out into a fight."

"You wanna have Fred; I can give you Fred as a late birthday present." George said, trying to make her laugh, which he, like always, succeeded with.

"My birthday was in July." She responded.

"I know, your birthday is July the second." George said.

"Are you serious?" She asked him. "My birthday isn't the second."

"I know, I was just joking. I know that it is the twentieth." He answered.

"If you wanna have seven kids, I can go with it." Alicia said. "Just promise me that they won't hate us or each other."

"I can't promise that, but I can promise that I'll do anything in my power to try to stop that." George promised.

Alicia looked over at her collection of photos on the wall, there was one there of two smiling girls. When Alicia was four had they taken a sister portrait, if you just looked at the portrait you saw two happy girls who seemed to love each other. But the reality was lying; Cathleen Spinnet and her three year younger sister Alicia didn't get along at all, and you could definitely see no love in their relationship.

Cathy had left a package on the kitchen table when she had left after her and Alicia's 'chat'. On it she had put up a note, 'I got this in the mail two days ago, I think this means more to you than me, since you have the other.'

"Are you going to open it?" George asked.

"No." Alicia answered. "I don't want to."

In a way was she terrified about finding out what was in that package, it also was that she didn't want to know what was in it.

Like decided, one o'clock people started to show up. Not so many, just Kingsley, Mr. Weasley, Lupin and Bill.

"Any idea how I'm getting in?" She asked them while they sat in the sitting room.

"Yes, you are going in undercover as someone else." Bill answered.

"As who? I hope that it's not a male person, I got scared just by the idea that I was about to turn into Harry Potter." Alicia rambled; she was still stressed out since her meeting with her sister. Stress, nervousness and lack of sleep caused her to ramble, and also if she had been drinking too much coffee.

"No, she's a girl, Wendy Chase, she works with Percy."

"Oh, Ravenclaw, same year as my sister." Alicia went on. "Not that they were friends, no."

"Probably." Bill continued. "Percy thinks that it's good that we use her, since she's one of the more trusted people in that office."

"Why is she so trusty?" Fred, who sat at Alicia's left side, asked. Once again had Alicia been placed between Fred and George, pressed together, feeling small.

"She can't lie." Kingsley answered. "She's hardworking and can't really say against people."

"Great, how am I going to take out the security without using magic?" She continued to ask.

Nobody answered directly; Lupin pulled out a bottle, filled with some kind of liquid and gave it to her. "Chloroform." He simply said.

"Chloroform?" Alicia repeated. "How is it going to help me? I'm gonna smash the bottle over its head?" She joked and made a gesture.

"No, you put a small amount of the liquid on a cloth and place it over its mouth and nose." Lupin answered, not amused by Alicia's comment.

"Then you smash the bottle over its head." George said, sounding very serious, even though that he wasn't.

"This is not a laughing matter." Mr. Weasley said seriously.

"We know." George answered.

"What's that beeping noise." Bill asked, from out the kitchen could you hear a beeping noise, not that it was annoying or loud.

"That beeping noise means that Alicia got appropriate clothes to wear." Fred answered in Alicia's place.

"Laundry." Alicia answered and walked out of the room. "Don't say anything which might even be concidered of great importance while I'm gone." She said before leaving.

"Your sister dropped by?" Tonks, who insisted on helping Alicia, asked.

"You heard?" Alicia looked up at her.

"Pretty much." Tonks answered and continued to fold clothes.

Alicia looked down at the basket with clothes. "Yes, she left a package before she left."

"What was in the package?"

"I don't know, I haven't opened it yet." Alicia answered.

"Is this yours?" Tonks asked and held a black t-shirt; it wasn't the typical Alicia wear.

"No, that belongs to Oliver." Alicia simply answered matter-of-factly. "Wood, you know."

"Why do you have clothes that belong to your old Quidditch Captain?" Tonks asked and raised her eye brows.

"I don't know." Alicia shrugged; the she looked up at Tonks. "We did not have a thing going in school; he was my captain and later on my friend."

"Wasn't Charlie your Captain first?" Tonks asked, not leaving the matter alone.

"Okay, maybe he was my friend at first later on my captain. Can't you just leave it alone?"

"Not until you tell how you became a proud owner of this shirt."

"Okay, I was at the ministry one day, and I spilled coffee over my shirt..." Alicia started.

"Have you noticed that you are a coffee addict?" Tonks said. "Most English people are tee addicts, but you are a coffee addict."

"You want to hear the rest of the story or not?"

"Of course, I want to."

"Then you won't interrupt me anymore." Alicia said. "So, I spilled coffee over my shirt, and then I met Oliver. He was offering me clean shirt."

"His shirt." Tonks yet again interrupted.

"Yes, end of story." Alicia finished.

"Huh, that's a funny story. You changed shirt in front of him?" Tonks asked, still having that look.

"No, I did it in the bathroom." Alicia answered.

"So you can honestly say that you never had a crush on the big and sexy Quidditch player Oliver Wood?" Tonks asked.

"No, I had my own Quidditch player to drool over, can't you leave it alone?" Alicia said, knowing that if Tonks continued on the subject, she would blush and say the wrong things.

"I'm just trying to get out of all these folding, I don't like folding clothes." Tonks sighed.

"I can continue all the folding." Alicia said. "You can just sit there and continue all the none-talking about Oliver."

"Do you enjoy folding clothes?" Tonks asked.

"Yes I do, I find it... Soothing." Alicia said with a smirk.

"I'm gonna suck as a mum." Tonks said. "You on the other hand are a perfect one, you like folding clothes and take care of people, and all that mum stuff... I on the other hand, don't." She sighed.

"Tonks, you are going to be a lovely mum." Alicia assured her. "You'll grow into the roll, besides you're not alone. You have all these people to help you."

"But I don't have dad." Tonks answered.

"I'm sure that he's doing fine." Alicia assured that too, it had been about a week since Ted Tonks had left, since he was a muggle-born and refused to show up from the registration, he had left. Mostly to ensure the safety for his family.

"Have you noticed that it doesn't make sense calling you Tonks anymore?" Alicia changed the subject.

"I'll always be Tonks; I don't listen to Nymphadora anymore." Tonks said. And since I don't listen if somebody calls me Nymphadora, I have only Tonks."

"You have Dora. That sound pretty." Alicia smiled and put away the last folded clothing into the basket.

"Yes it does." Tonks nodded. "It's only dad and Remus who uses that to me. Mum uses Nymphadora, even though that she knows I don't listen to it."

"Do you know what George in under the impression of?" Alicia asked.

"What have he said now?" Tonks asked with curiosity.

"He thinks that babies come with the stork." Alicia joked. "Isn't that cute."

Tonks laughed at the joke. "C'mon, let's go upstairs to hear the rest of the boring details."

'Why couldn't my sister be like Tonks?' Alicia though to herself as she followed her up from the basement.

Thank to my two reviewers Lady Clark of Books and THEWORLDOFHPEXISTSNOMATTERWHAT

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