-Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling

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Fred's Gift

Chapter Twenty-One

Life As Normal

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George couldn't stop grinning while he and Luna shared their first breakfast together in three weeks. It wasn't so much the happiness of the moment, though that was certainly reason to smile, as much as it was watching Luna nearly inhale her food...unable to keep her eyes off the rather large stack of brightly wrapped gifts under the sparkling fairy lit Christmas tree.

"Careful." George warned while Luna rushed through the large plate of now rather cold bacon "You're going to choke."

Luna cast him a subdued glare. "Am not."

And just to prove it, she gagged and started coughing. George jumped from his seat and started thumping her on the back.

"Alright." She grinned sheepishly "Perhaps I am rushing...a bit."

George went to the sink to refill her water glass, when he returned he looked at her with raised eyebrow.

"Okay, a lot."

"You could finish eating after you know." George slid back into his chair after brushing a thumb over her cheek. "We aren't expected for another couple of hours."

"I know." Luna looked away "But everything was already cold and half ruined thanks to me. If we had waited much longer..."

George looked at her, his heart sinking deep into his chest. It was so like her to take everything onto herself, even though he was as much to blame for what had happened earlier as she was...more so in fact. If he hadn't tried to hide the truth from her about Nathan Wayling having been the one to turn them in...but then truth be told, even if he could go back and do things differently the only thing he would change would be making sure that the fireplace had been swept.

"Let's just forget about it." He smiled and picked up her hand. "For all intents and purposes, it's Christmas, remember?"

Luna perked up again instantly and her eyes slid back to the tree. While George slept she had added her own additions and now it was quite nicely loaded. George laughed as her eyes went back and forth between the plate of unfinished bacon and the Christmas tree...he didn't envy her decision.

"Why don't you take your plate with you and eat in between presents?"

"George!" Luna exclaimed while an admiring smile came to her face. "You're a genius!" She kissed his cheek, then swiped her plate from the table...ignoring her stack of untouched pancakes, sat the plate on a table close to the tree then knelt down on the floor in front of it.

"I put all of mine for your family towards the back, so they would be out of the way."

"Good thinking." George grinned as he sat down next to her. He reached for a medium sized red candy cane decorated box and handed it to her. "Would hate to see anything get destroyed in the cross fire."

Luna giggled and tore into the package. One by one the pile of gifts diminished. George opened handmade sweaters and scarves while Luna opened hair combs and a pair of Murano glass earrings to match the Murano heart she was now never without. On and on they opened box after box until they came to the very last two.

"I hope you'll like this one." Luna smiled nervously "It's probably a bit...odd."

Inside was a small rectangular cedar box covered in clear, high gloss varnish with a glass front. Across the top was painted an angel with bright red hair. Inside, there were two small wooden pegs.

"Benji made the box and I painted on the angel."Luna said nervously. "I thought you might like something nice to keep Fred's wand in...instead of your dresser drawer."

George couldn't tear his eyes away from the angel and he brushed a finger over it's tiny face. So many times lately he had thought of Fred as being an angel, looking down upon them keeping them safe...particularly Luna and the baby. But Fred's wand wasn't in his dresser drawer anymore.

"I'm sorry." Luna said quietly. "Maybe you don't want to put it in a box...I..."

"No..." George shook his head and looked up. "It's beautiful...it's just that..." He smiled a little then took a deep breath and reached for the shoe box sized package under the tree. "I guess you should open this."

Luna looked wary as she tore the paper back and pulled off the lid...her eyes filling as she looked down at the contents in the box...

"I suppose this isn't as much for you as it is for the baby." George took a deep breath as he tried to gauge her reaction. "Luna..."

"This is..." Luna stopped, her throat tightened. She shook her head and cleared her throat. "These are Fred's things...from his room?"

"Yes." George said simply, putting his hand on Luna's stomach. "But...they belong to him now. "

Luna looked up at him with liquid silver eyes and put her hand on his cheek. "Oh George..."

"I've never properly apologized for that day, at least not knowing just how much I hurt you by calling you what I did."

"You didn't know, how could you?" She sighed and pulled her hand away to wipe at her face. "I had never told anyone...I never intended to tell anyone."

"I never should have called you that, for any reason. You're not, you're the farthest thing from it." He picked up her hand and kissed her fingers. "It may take me some time, but, I'm going to make all of this up to you. I want you to have a happy life...you deserve a happy life."

"I am happy George." Luna's eyes opened wide and she put her hands on his face and pulled him closer. "I'm home again. All the worry is behind us and no one can hurt me again, not my uncle, not Nathan Wayling and certainly not Peter Pettigrew. I'm safe, and I know I'll always be safe. I'm with you...I am the happiest person in the world." And when she kissed him, he didn't doubt her words in the least. It was hard to doubt when you were the happiest person in the world too.

Luna pulled back and brushed her fingers over his cheek before turning back to the box. "Everything is really in here?"

"Everything." George nodded "I mean, I tossed out the nasty stuff... you know...the smelly things like the moldy bottles and nasty clothes. You were right to call it stinking in there by the way...it was pretty bad..."

Luna laughed and wiped at her cheeks. "So...does that mean his wand is in here too?"

George reached in and pulled out a smaller box about the size of a dolls shoe. He flicked a tiny catch, then tipped it over. A small piece of wood the size of a quarter of a toothpick rolled out into the palm of his hand. He stood and went into his room, then returned with his wand and pointed it at his hand.

"Engorgio!"

The piece of wood grew until it was the size of a normal wand...Fred's wand.

George returned to his spot on the floor and handed the wand to Luna.

"What is it?" She asked solemnly, her hand stroking the wood as she would a loved ones face.

"Walnut and Dragon Heartstring."

"And yours?"

"Cedar and Unicorn."

Luna smiled a little...that explained why he always smelled of cedar, and Fred had had a woodsy sort of smell.

"I bet people assumed your wands were exactly the same too." She brushed a finger over his cheek "But your wands are as different as you and Fred."

"I have the perfect place for this." George kissed her softly then took the wand from her hand and put it in the box and rose. He placed it on a shelf next to the picture of Fred that was a duplicate of the one on Fred's headstone.

Luna rose and stood next to him, watching as the morning sun glistened on the high polish of the walnut wand. It was a small thing...a small piece of Fred taken out of hiding.

But both felt as though they had taken a broad step out of the past and into the future...

...a future they could share.

Christmas dinner at the Burrow was a loud and obnoxious affair. Luna was glad for a chance to get to know the Weasley's that she didn't know as well...like Charlie, and to have the chance to catch up with the one's she hadn't seen for awhile. Fleur now too was showing quite well and the two spoke of swelling fingers and food cravings (for Fleur it was brown sugar ham and glazed carrots that she constantly craved).

And of course, more gifts were exchanged and though lovely, Luna had a hard time finding anything more lovely than the gift she had received from George...in fact, nothing could come close to comparing.

Finally however the day ended and George and Luna went home early to spend a quiet New Years Eve together (dragging Harry along by the ear to remove the charmed mistletoe as a solid hour of bat bogeys had reveled him to be the one responsible for charming it in the first place.)

Neither George or Luna could summon any regret about the end of the old year, though it was sad to consider their first full year without Fred, both looked forward to the new.

The second day of the new year brought with it the news that Luna needed to return to Hogwarts to take her mid year exams. While the rest of her class had taken them in mid-December, Luna had still been in protective custody at the time pending her hearing. She hadn't been allowed to leave the safe house, and so, she had to take them before she could begin her new classes.

While she wasn't particularly dreading returning to Hogwarts, she wasn't exactly looking forward to it either. News of her "kidnapping" surely had spread all over school, along with the details of her custody hearing. To make matters worse...there was no way that George would let her go alone, which meant that surely Headmaster McGonagall was going to take advantage of the situation and give him hell for lying to her to get Luna out of school the previous September.

It was pretty much a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

"Everything is going to be fine." George assured her as they rode along in Dudley Dursley's borrowed black sedan the first Friday of the new year. Luna was no longer able to apparate, a port key was much too risky, and floo powder was bad for the baby. The trip was much too long for flying and so Harry had borrowed his cousins car once again for the trip.

"Of course it is." Harry agreed as they entered Hogsmeade.

"Easy for you to say." Luna rolled her eyes at Harry. "It's not you who's going to get yelled at."

Harry laughed "It's hardly the first time George has been yelled at. I'd think he'd be rather used to it by now."

George gave Luna a look. It was typical Luna, not worrying about facing the classmates who had a history of being cruel to her, but worrying about him.

"I'll be fine." George said as they pulled to a stop at the base of the hills that lead up to Hogwarts. They couldn't drive all the way...George would be flying them the short way to the school. "Luna!" He said sharply to get her attention. "I'll be fine, you just concentrate on your tests. You'll be done in a couple hours and then we can go home."

He opened the car door and slid out, then offered his hand. Luna took it nervously, refusing to let go even when she was out of the car.

"I'll be in the Three Broomsticks, I'm meeting Hagrid there." Harry gave them a jaunty wave as he set off to meet the gamekeeper. "Good Luck Luna!"

"Thanks." She said miserably. "Have fun."

"You too." Harry turned and winked, then turned back around and headed for the village. He had been so chipper and happy all the time since the war had ended and he and Ginny had gotten back together. Luna was happy for that...but at times...particularly times like this...it made her want to hit him with something heavy.

George mounted his broom, then held his hand out for hers. She started to climb onto the back, but George gave her a look and she moved to the front. Then, his arms were tight around her and as usual...Luna found it nearly impossible to worry when she was in George's arm's. It was such a safe, lovely place to be with the smell of cinnamon, cedar and gunpowder lingering around him.

Far too soon they touched down in the clock tower courtyard, and, at the worst possible time. Student's wandered slowly on their way to their first period classes and all stopped to stare. Firstly because Luna Lovegood had returned, her enlarged stomach proving the rumors of why she had left to be true, and, secondly, because she was accompanied by none other that George Weasley...the same person who had had a hearing before the Wizengamot only weeks before for kidnapping her. Hands were raised as whispered conversations began behind them, snickering laughing gossip filled the air as George and Luna passed.

"Move along! Move along...detentions for anyone who is still in this courtyard in ten seconds!" the stern, sturdy voice of Headmaster McGonagall put a sudden and hasty stop to the whispers and there was a whirl of cloaks as students rushed away to their classes.

"Well Miss Lovegood." Headmaster McGonagall gave Luna a nod before turning to George with a menacing glare...oh he was definitely in for it. "I see you've made it. Follow me please."

She turned with a swish of her robes and lead them up the stairs, past the hospital wing, down another flight of stairs and through another corridor until they stopped in a nearly empty classroom. Luna was delighted to find Professor Flitwick waiting inside.

"Oh Miss Lovegood!" He squealed in his squeaky voice as he rushed forward to embrace her. "It's so lovely to see you! I must say...the horrible stories in the Daily Prophet had me quite worried!"

He pulled back and appraised George. "Mr. Weasley." he said coldly.

George flinched slightly. He had always gotten on with the charms professor quite well and so he found his manner surprising. But then, the Daily Prophet had only said that he had kidnapped Luna...nothing about why she had been kidnapped, or that it had been with her consent.

"Well." Headmaster McGonagall looked down her nose at George. "This should only take a few hours. You may wait in my office Mr. Weasley." George opened his mouth to protest, but the headmaster narrowed her eyes...making clear this was not a request, but an order.

George grinned a little as he followed her out. He may no longer be a Hogwarts student, but obviously he was still able to be given detentions by his head of house.

Luna sighed and stretched her arms up over her head. The desks were far from comfortable and her back was killing her. The morning had been long and tiresome, the exams had felt like they would go on and on forever. Particularly when Professor Flitwick left three hours in and Professor Slughorn arrived to take his place to supervise Luna's last two exams.

But at last, the light was shining on the horizon. She was on her last, with only a single page remaining.

"Miss Lovegood!" Professor Slughorn said abruptly "Just what do you think you're doing?"

"What?" Luna said blankly "I was stretching."

"You looked at something, up your sleeve!" Slughorn accused, his face turning the same shade as his scarlet robes. "I saw you!"

"I did not!" Luna was flabbergasted. She had never cheated on a test, never! She was a Ravenclaw, second in her class, she had never had to cheat.

"Let me see your hands!"

"What?" Luna said numbly...this was just so unreal. Professor Slughorn had once called her the most brilliant potions student he had ever had...and now this?

"Your hands...let me see them."

With wide eyes Luna put her hands on the desk, then she flipped them over. But that wasn't enough. Slughorn made her unbutton the sleeves, roll them up and then shake them out onto the floor. He searched around her desk, in the sleeves of the jacket that was hung on the back of her chair and made her turn out her pockets.

"Very well." He said as he turned his back, his tone as if he still believed she had cheated, but had been unable to prove it. "You may finish."

The page blurred before her eyes and she wiped at them furiously. She knew she should have expected this, Professor Slughorn had been cruel to her in the days before she had left school as well...in fact, it was his fault that the others had found out she was pregnant in the first place, that she had been removed from Ravenclaw house and her classes...his fault that some girls claimed to be her friend so they could get in to see her, so they could laugh at her and call her horrible names.

"Are you finished?" Slughorn asked twenty minutes later...the time was up and Luna had only finished a single question on the last page.

"Tut tut tut." Slughorn shook his head. "You won't be able to pass the year if you can't complete your tests young lady. Would be a shame to come so far and not finish."

Luna refused to look at him. "May I go sir?"

"Yes, yes." He gave her a totally false smile. "You're quite finished."

His true meaning was far from lost on Luna, still she forced her chin up as she tugged on her jacket, picked up her bag and passed his desk. She was thankful to find the hallways empty and she rushed into the first bathroom she could find, locked herself into a stall then let the tears fall.

It was so unfair...what had she done to deserve this? Truly...what had she done? It was so hard to believe now...but she had once looked up to Professor Slughorn, had once thought he was a wonderful teacher and an admirable man. He had been her favorite, and she his. That seemed like eons ago...

-Flashback-

"Miss Lovegood!" Professor Slughorn laughed as he held the small canary on his finger "This is truly the most charming bit of magic I have ever seen!"

"It was one of my mothers spells actually."

"Ah yes...Louisa Westier. She wasn't much for charms...potions was her specialty, best in her year in fact... such a lovely young lady your mother was. You are very much like her."

"Do you really think so professor?"

"Oh yes, yes yes." Slughorn smiled and patted Luna's hand. "Your mother could have had a brilliant career, but alas, she chose marriage instead. Not that there is anything wrong with that...no nothing at all. If she hadn't chosen marriage, I wouldn't have such a fine young potions student, now would I?"

Slughorn winked and patted Luna's hand.

-End Flashback-

Luna sighed as she wiped off her cheeks and flipped the lock on the door. She went to the sink and splashed her face with cool water.

"Oh!" Said a giggling voice behind her. "Look who it is!"

Luna straightened and saw three Slytherin girls behind her. The first was a pretty black girl with her hair in microbraids. The other two were a blonde with brown eyes and a girl with deep mahogany hair and light bottle green eyes, all three were tall and fit. Luna recognized them from the Slytherin quidditch team...they had given her quite a lot of flack after her one time announcing.

"Loony Lovegood!" The blond girl said with an obnoxious giggle.

"Merlins arse!" The mahogany haired girl said "But you're a fat old thing!"

"No." The black girl said, her eyes narrowed with hatred. "She's gotten herself pregnant."

"Pregnant!" The mahogany haired girl said "There's a word for girls like you!"

"Like slut." Blonde said

"And Whore."

Luna turned away from the sink to face the girls. She'd heard quite enough.

"You know nothing about me, so I'll thank you to keep your filthy mouths shut." She made to walk past them, but the blonde and Mahogany haired girl stepped in front of the door blocking her escape.

"I know plenty." The black girl said. "In fact, I probably know more than you do. I know that you're a dirty liar, telling people Fred Weasley is the father when he wouldn't have touched you if you paid him and begged yourself blue in the face. I know you got his brother arrested and nearly thrown into Azkaban because of your lies."

She moved forward until she was right in Luna's face.

"I also know that George Weasley was going to marry someone else until you dumped all your lies on him."

Luna felt as if her entire world had exploded around her. "That's...that's not true!"

But the girl looked at her with pure hatred. This went beyond bullying...this girl honestly believed what she was saying.

"You're just a dirty whore, ruining everyone's lives." She spat "You-know-who should have killed you."

There was a shove on the door and the girls holding Luna let her go. She rushed unto an empty stall to hide, locking the door behind her and putting her feet up on the toilet. Her body shook and tears poured down her face as she tried to stay quiet in the now busy bathroom.

She had never thought about it...what George's life had been like before the day he brought her out of Hogwarts. She knew from what Ginny had told her that George had been devastated over Fred's death, that he at one time had been drinking a lot and had kept everyone away...

No. He hadn't kept everyone away.

'He wouldn't speak to any of us, there was only one person he would let in...'

Ginny's words from a few weeks before came back, slamming hard into Luna's chest. If there had been someone...someone that George had loved...he would have wanted her around, even when he didn't want anyone else. If she was the only one...the only one who gave him peace and happiness during the darkest time in his life...

If he was going to marry her...

But George would have put Fred first, his responsibility to Fred first. Hadn't he said it himself...that long ago day in Matako...

'I owe it to Fred...and to the family, to keep Fred's baby safe.'

But what about everything that had happened since then? All the times he had held her, all the times he had comforted her in the night when the nightmares came. What about when he kissed her... and the night she came back from the Lancaster's when they almost...and all the things he had said about them having a future.

Wasn't it possible though...that he was settling? If he couldn't have the life he wanted, wouldn't he then make the best of the life he was stuck with?

The bathroom went quiet again and off in the distance the bell rang. Luna uncurled herself from the toilet then splashed her face in the sink. Her eyes were red and puffy...but she would have to try to pass it off as being tired. They had risen very early to leave for Hogsmeade after all. She knew George would be waiting for her, and by now, he would be worrying too.

But what was she to do? Her life with George was the only life she knew now...it was the only life she wanted...but was it fair, or right for her to have it?

If she left him, he could have his life back.

She needed time, time to think things through, and she had no choice but to try to live life as normal until she made a decision.

Really...she had no place else to go, and she wasn't ready, nor willing to leave George yet. Not until she had proof of what the girl had said.

Luna pulled the door open and stepped out into the hallway. It was quiet now, everyone was back in their classrooms and she knew George was just a couple corners away in Headmaster McGonagall's office. She took a deep breath then began down the hallway, but around the second corner, she came face to face with perhaps the least welcome face of all.

"Ooooo look!" Peeves shouted loudly "It's Loony Lovegood! Preggers Loony Lovegood!"

Luna took a deep breath and started past him. Peeves of course, was not one who could ever be ignored.

Loopy, Loony Lovegood,

Held at Malfoy Manner

Locked up in a room,

Without a welcome Banner

Slut fucked a Death Eater

And he set her free

Now seven months later,

Preggy Loony be

So she lied about the Daddy,

And blamed poor Weasley Fred

And he can't defend himself,

Cause the poor sod's dead!

"Shut UP!" Luna turned on him and screamed "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

"Oooo truth hurts does it?" Peeves cackled and turned a somersault, ending face to face with Luna so he could blow a raspberry in her face.

"Peeves!" Headmaster McGonagall stood at the end of the hall, George by her side. Both wearing murderous glares for both had heard his performance. George was at Luna's side in a moment, yet for the first time, she could take no comfort in his touch. Everything about it, everything about being near him, felt wrong.

Like she was living the life that rightfully belonged to someone else...keeping him from the live that he wanted and deserved.

The life that would make George truly happy.

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Chapter Twenty Two Preview

Luna meets the

woman that George was going to marry…

...or was he?

Luna and George

have a dramatic confrontation...

...this one is going to change

everything!

A Dramatic,HUGE and

pivotal chapter coming next time!

Don't miss it!

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