A/N: PLEASE REVIEW, PEOPLE! I love you guys for reading but it really brings me down when no one reviews.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter or anything you recognize.
Curiosity
Part Twenty-five: Feletonic
Jacob woke to a strange beeping noise he hadn't heard in a while. He twisted over in the tangled and clammy sheets to the direction of his usual bed to see George sitting there completely absorbed in what was in his palm. It took Jacob some to realize what George was playing with. As he watched George gave a surprised cry of delight as he pressed a button on what Jacob now recognized as his crummy excuse for a phone and it vibrated loudly in his palm. George was playing around with the Muggle object and Jacob was surprised he'd even figured out how to turn it on. It had boggled him when he'd first got the phone. He had spent hours playing around with it as well, refusing to use the manual to tell him how to use and preferring to find that out for himself.
Jacob shimmied out of the sheets that were sticking to his body. He vaguely noticed he wasn't wearing anything but found that to not be an issue. He plonked down on the bed beside George and took the cell phone from him. George had been fiddling around with his settings but Jacob barely used the phone these days so it didn't bother him much and he could fix it later. He found his way back to the main menu and checked to see if he had any texts or missed phone calls. He groaned as he found he had quite a few, too much to check through in the morning anyway. He frankly decided he couldn't be bothered replying to those messages. He did think it would be a good idea if he left his phone on though, a lot of messages had been from his parents and sister.
'You can work it?' George asked in awe. 'It's bloody brilliant; Muggle's can be so clever some time. Imagine thinking up something like, that's feletonic as well, that can send messages back and forth really quickly as well. It's pure genius.'
'It's my phone, of course I can work it,' Jacob said rubbing his thumb across the screen to clean it so he could see the black writing better. 'It needs to be charged,' he said glumly, giving the phone back to George who automatically made it vibrate again with a grin of glee. Jacob crossed to the large closet at the back of the bedroom and fished around for his bag he had brought crammed full of everything that wasn't his clothes. But when he went through the trouble of searching through all the nicks and knacks at the bottom of the closet he remembered that George's place didn't have electricity or normal electricity anyway. The fridge and everything else that would normally require power was run by magic. Which was free of cost and the spell stayed on and only have to be recast every six months or so. It was a pretty clever, cleverer than electronics, he thought.
Jacob threw the charger back into the closet and shut the doors before jumping back onto the end of the bed George was sitting in, still playing with his phone. He'd just ask George to use magic to charge it up and if he couldn't, it didn't really matter. Jacob snuck under the blankets and rested his head on the mattress of the bed again, absently stroking George's upper thigh as the man was sitting cross legged as naked as he. George smiled down at him, putting the phone down and leaning back against the pillows, pulling Jacob across his chest.
'Last night,' George said distantly and breathlessly. 'It was good,' he said smiling at Jacob whose head was now resting across his chest.
'Mm,' he agreed with a scant nod. It had been good, very, very good and Jacob hoped they would have more nights like that. The thought of the night before made him want to drool openly and do it again right now. But he also didn't want to ruin this comfortable arrangement they found themselves in: both dreamily thinking of last night while lounging naked next to each other. He nodded again and smiled as he remembered that George really was a red head, he had the hair to prove it.
George's hand had moved to Jacob's hair and was twirling strands in his fingers. 'Jakey,' he said. 'I'm kinda, really glad that you were the first bloke I did it with,' he murmured softly with a wide grin. 'Oh, sorry,' he said holding up his hands. 'I mean made love to. It sounds better than 'do it' or 'doing it,' or 'fucking.' George made a face after each vulgar meaning for sex.
'Aren't we Mister Sensitive after sex,' Jacob said. 'I wouldn't have thought you would have cared about what it was called as long as it was good. If it's good and you like the person you're with I reckon you can call it whatever you want.'
'Yeah, but blimey – with you and me its love making, not doing it,' George said. 'I love you, Jacob,' he said suddenly. 'A lot.'
'I love you, George,' Jacob said shuffling up the bed so he could kiss George's cheek before flopping back down against the mattress.
A sudden ringtone made them both look and around. 'It's my phone,' Jacob muttered. He listened to the sound of jingle-bells. 'Did you change the tone?' he asked grinning at George who had found his phone and was holding it out to him.
'Yeah, must have,' George mused pushing the phone forward to him. 'Didn't mean to, well actually, I think I did, but it was just so fun!'
'Thanks,' Jacob said as George gave him the phone. He answered and lifted the phone to his ear. 'Hello?' he asked, unsure of who this was as there was no caller identity along with the caller.
'Jacob?' the voice on the other end sounded mildly surprised. 'First time you've answering your phone in ages.' Jacob recognized the voice to be Paul's.
'What's up, Paul?' he asked.
'Anne's in labour.'
'What? Now, I didn't think it was due for another two weeks at least!'
'Yes, now.' Paul had lost his usual calm, quite relaxed voice and now sounded like he was really nervous about to lose whatever cool he had left. 'I can't be at the hospital right now, I've just told her parents but I think she wants you to be there. Can you just go down so she can punch you or something?'
'I am not going down just so my sister can punch me,' Jacob said crossing an arm across his chest.
'Just do it! Anne doesn't want your mother to be in there, which is totally understandable and your dad wouldn't be much help, probably faint from the blood or something. So can you just go? Jacob, please. I have a really important meeting to go to and it might mean I get more money, so I can go as soon as that's over but you needed to be at the hospital five minutes ago. Goodbye.' Jacob flinched as Paul hung up the phone and Jacob was left to hear the dull long beeps. That was Anne curse for marrying an older man, half the time his work was more important.
'Anne's having her baby, now,' Jacob added. 'And I was supposed to be there five minutes ago, apparently.'
'Merlin,' George breathed out. 'It's just drama after drama with you, isn't it?'
'Seems so,' Jacob said. He had lurched to his feet and was looking wildly around the room. 'Pants,' he said. 'I need pants.' George had stood from the bed as well and was holding out a pair of Jacob's jeans. Jacob found a pair of underpants on the floor and struggled into those before taking the jeans George held out for him with and thanking him with a quick kiss.
He pulled a shirt on quickly while mumbling grumpily about the baby not having any manners to wait at all. 'Typical,' he said as he raced out into the kitchen and grabbed up apple before taking a huge bite from it. 'Bloody baby couldn't even wait until this afternoon. He thundered down the stairs and shot out of the entrance to the shop not even realizing George was close behind him until he felt a hand pulling him back. 'Yeah?' he asked impatiently.
'I could Apparate you to the Hospital,' George suggested coolly thrusting his hands into his pockets and shrugging. 'It'll be a hell of a lot faster.'
Jacob stepped close to the red head and placed an arm on his shoulder with a haste nod. Oh yes, it would be much quicker than him running around madly trying to find a cab which never seemed to come when you needed them most. Just as Jacob had thought his body barely reacted to Apparition anymore, he felt the tight squeezing sensation roll through him like he was being shoved through a tight hole. The soft pop that Jacob heard faintly meant that they had arrived safely without something George had described unpleasantly to him once that was known as splinching happening. Splinching did sound very horrible and rather disgusting.
They had appeared in a back alley behind the hospital. Jacob had to clamber out from behind some rubbish cans and dust one leg off as he had landed with a leg in an open bin. He stumbled over to George who had landed perfectly fine – with the skill of a master and moved away to look around the corner as Jacob floundered around. Once George was satisfied that no one had seen them suddenly materialized in the alleyway, or at least Jacob thought that was what he was looking around for, they quickly walked to the entrance of the main hospital in London.
Jacob knew where the maternity ward was and after a quick discussion with the person behind the information desk Jacob knew exactly where his sister was. After a horrifically slow lift ride during which Jacob kept jiggling around nervously because he worried about his sister and who she might be pissing off because she was sharing a ward with another woman about to go into labour – and Anne wasn't exactly much of a people person. In pain she would definitely be being rude to whoever was in the room with her. Jacob felt sorry for the nurses who had been with her most of the time until he could get there.
'Are you going to stay?' he asked George as the lift pulled to a stop and practically spat them out into the Maternity level. Jacob hoped George would stay; he needed someone like Anne needed him right now. He wasn't very good with blood and pain and things. And even though he wasn't the one giving birth in a few minutes he'd be freaking out as Anne used him as a punch bag. Life was fun when she was your sister. It was still the same as it had been when they were kids, Anne picked on him and he let her pick on him so he supposed he couldn't really complain now.
George wrung his hands together and stared nervously around as they entered the ward. 'I don't like Muggle hospitals,' he said ignoring the strange looks he got from people as he said the unknown word. 'They cut people up when a decent healer could it without blood and pain, bloody bonkers your doctor people are. Muggle hospitals are just a little freaky.' He flinched as he heard a gasp of pain from a woman in mid-contraction. 'I dunno,' he said finally in answer to Jacob's question. 'I might stay for now. You don't want me to stay, do you?'
'I don't mind, it's not like I really want to be here either. You can go whenever you want; I might be here for a while.' Jacob smiled at George as they entered the room he had been Anne was in.
The room was small and absent of bright light. Immediately across from the door was the first bed in which a slight Chinese woman was lying in the bed huffing and puffing clutching at her stomach as her tall, lanky husband held her hand encouraging her to ignore the pain. As soon as her husband saw them looking over he stood up and pulled the curtains around the bed before his wife began gibbering away to him madly in Chinese. But over in the far corner of the room calmly rubbing her hands over her engorged belly, Anne was laying back against the pillows looking surprisingly bored. Jacob hastened over and didn't expect her to snarl at him when she saw him.
'Took your damn time, didn't you?' she snapped thrusting the empty glass into his hand. 'First stupid Paul can't come because of that stupid job, but hey more money, and then he wants to send mum over here, is he crazy?' Anne asked. 'She's the last person I'd want her when I give birth, fucking nightmare she'd be. It's alright talking to her about the baby, you get all the right reactions but when the time of action actually comes, she'd be a complete horror. Dad would be about as helpful as a packet of chicken noodles right now. So you're my best option. Sit,' she demanded waving a hand towards the pair of chairs beside the bed. By the way she talked, you wouldn't believe she was twenty-five and in the prime of her life, she sounded much more like a forever pissed middle-aged woman. But it had been her choice to marry thirty-four year old Paul and settle down to start a family, giving most of her youth away so she only had herself to blame. But Jacob also supposed that he was quite mature for someone his age, the tender age of twenty-one. Yet before he had found out he was a wizard he had spent nearly every night getting hammered and partying.
'Huh,' Jacob said ignoring her unspoken first request to fill her glass up again. 'It's nice to see you too.' He sunk down into the chair and George sat down beside him looking slightly amused by Anne's quite vocal outburst of annoyance at everyone's apparent uselessness. 'Anne,' Jacob said while bracing himself for another assault on his ears or maybe worse. 'This is George.'
Like only a true Gentleman (or maybe it was just a George thing – he was an impossible flirt) could do, George rose to his feet and shook Anne's hand. Anne looked quite chuffed that her brother's handsome boyfriend had tagged along and smiled sweetly as he sat back down.
'This is the same George Weasley right?' Anne asked rolling her head over to look at Jacob. Jacob pushed her blonde hair out of her eyes that was sticking to her forehead and nodded. Anne grinned back down at George. 'I'm dilated four centimetres, want to see?'
Jacob snorted with laughter as the look on George's face clearly showed that he couldn't decide if he did want to see or whether her question made him feel uncomfortable. Anne suddenly looked to Jacob who sobered up his laughter instantly.
'Do you want to see, Jacob?' she asked crossing her arms.
'Are you kidding?' Jacob said staring at her disgustedly. 'That's the last thing I want to see. What an offer.'
'My doctor's pretty interested,' Anne said patting her stomach softly. 'Don't say that's because "she's a doctor," she called the nurse in to have a look as well. Apparently,' Anne said sounding quite proud, 'I have an interesting vagina.'
Jacob laughed again, this time it was more of an awkward laugh at his sisters forwardness. 'Good for you,' he said as he discovered Anne was expecting some kind of reply. Paul was lucky because Anne was ready to read and it was simple enough to figure out what she wanted and was expecting, unlike some woman Paul had told him about when he was completely drunk at his stag party which Jacob had been forced to go to. He had told his sister he'd much rather be at her party because she was hiring a male stripper.
'Jacob,' Anne tugging on his sleeve. 'I have a murse!'
At this Jacob burst out laughing. It was an old joke they had had for some time. When they were younger they had often puzzled over why men were starting to do jobs that they had originally thought were mainly done by woman. They also called male nannies, mannies. It sent them into keels of laughter whenever one of them brought it up.
'You have a maternity murse?' Jacob asked chuckling still, Anne nodded going into another fit of small giggles before clutching at her stomach, this time in pain. She grabbed Jacob's hand and squeezed so that fingers passed over each other and some of the joints clicked. But in seconds she let go and sighed.
'Contraction,' she muttered scathingly. 'It's not that bad, but I'll bet they will get worse later.' She looked towards George again and then turned back to Jacob. 'You do realize mum and dad will be here soon.'
It was George's turn to sigh this time. 'I figured I'd have to go through the met the parent's thing sooner or later.'
'I can sneak you out,' Jacob said knowing exactly how prying his mother could be.
'No, it's alright. I'll meet them,' George said sounding like he was out to brave the moon or something of the sort. 'You've met my parent's.'
'They didn't know then, remember? I'll have to go through the meeting them as the boyfriend soon.'
'Oh, yeah,' George said with a slight smile.
The conversation as left at that and little was said for the next twenty minutes apart from more jokes about her murse and mannies after her murse had actually come in and checked on her. Both Jacob and Anne were impatient for the arrival of their parent's. Jacob, because he was apprehensive to find out what they would say about George and Anne seemed impatient because she was bored of him and George, already. The ward had grown quiet as the Chinese woman had been wheeled out moaning and crying as she clutched at her stomach like something that didn't belong in there was trying to claw its way out. Jacob winced as he thought of it like that; he shook his head clear of those thoughts as his parent's entered the room.
'Hello, darling!' his mother cooed rushing to Anne's side. 'We rushed over as soon as Paul rang us.'
'Oh, bullshit,' Anne hissed. 'He called go about forty minutes ago, Jacob got here about one second after Paul called him.'
This made his mother look over to him with a little bit of distaste like she had wanted to be the one beside Anne. But she didn't say anything because her eyes found George sitting next to Jacob and her eyebrows rose. Yet again before she could say anything George made the first introduction.
'George Weasley,' he said extending his hand and shaking Jacob's mothers.
'My boyfriend,' Jacob said smiling widely as he slipped his fingers through George's. 'Hey dad,' he added as he found his father grinning back across at him from Anne's beside. George had to pull his hand away from Jacob's to shake his father's hand.
Jacob leant his chair to his father and George trotted over to the over side of the ward to grab one for his mother. George came back with the one promised for his mother. Jacob's mum accepted the chair with a brisk nod and a thank-you before sitting down in it and turning her full attention to Anne who was busy going through another attraction. George touched Jacob hands softly and nodded towards the door, Jacob nodded back and the pair them excused themselves from the small group.
Outside the ward they sat in chairs in the waiting room. There wasn't many people in the waiting room, only a young sleeping girl and someone who was probably her older brother and an elderly man was pacing beside the window looking nervous. Jacob and George could talk without much interruption.
'Just give her some time,' Jacob said. 'I know she's a bit of a hag, but she'll warm up eventually.' He was speaking of his mother.
'Oh,' George said with a laugh. 'I just wanted to leave the three of them in there so they could talk about us, they wanted to and your sister probably would have started a conversation up about us soon if we were in the room or not.'
'Even if they don't like you, I don't care,' Jacob said slipping his hand back into George's. 'But I do know that I'll be getting the "you're only twenty-one" lecture from my mother today. She thinks that we actually listen to her.'
'I know,' George said weakly. 'My mother is like that as well, it's painful. Do you think we're too young?' George asked him wanting his opinion.
'It's not like we are getting married or anything of the sort. Age doesn't matter,' Jacob said. 'I reckon it's great we're both so young.'
'And in love,' George added beaming at him. He kissed Jacob softly drawing looks from the boy sitting with the young girl. 'Do you mind if I go?' George asked him.
'Nah, go for it, you will come back though?' Jacob asked.
'Yeah,' George nodded. 'And then we should go out for dinner or lunch, or whatever.'
'Definitely,' Jacob agreed. 'I'd love that. See you later,' he said as George kissed him fully on the lips and rose from the chair heading towards the lifts. George didn't find the lifts entertaining because they had them at the Ministry. As George descended in the lift Jacob remained sitting for several seconds, enjoying the feeling of George's taste on his lips.
Eventually he went back into the room and felt like a cornered animal when the heads of his family members all turned directly to stare at him as he entered alone. Jacob felt like they were waiting for him to spill some terrible secret to them or by his father's slightly amused face for him to do some kind of jig or play the bagpipes – which he was alright at when he was younger, but had had the misfortune of clogging the pipes with too much saliva. What happened afterwards when he turned the pipes upside down was a notorious family story that he hated and everyone else seemed to find incredibly amusing.
'Where's George?' his mother asked him as he came to stand beside his father who was looking at Anne like he was stoked be becoming a Grandfather.
'Oh,' Jacob said distantly thinking that he was about to be an uncle. 'He left.'
'Why did he go?'
'It's not exactly his sister is it, he doesn't have to stay here and be bored out of his mind. Anyway, he's coming back.'
'Hmm,' his mother said fiddling with the necklace on her neck. 'Could we have a little chat, Jacob?'
Jacob narrowed his eyes and resignedly nodded. 'Here we go,' he said bracing himself for the lecture he had told George would be coming, and he was right.
Instead of leading him out into the waiting room, his mother just went into the next bed in the room, and closing the curtains around the bed, inclosing them in. The bed was empty and had remained so when another woman didn't come in to replace the Chinese one. It was obviously not a day to give birth.
'You do know that sound can travel through such thin curtains,' Jacob said teasing his mother faintly. It was so easy to wind her up and it didn't take much to make her annoyed, something that had its pros and cons.
'We will talk in hushed voices, then,' she said still fiddling with necklace and staring intently at Jacob. 'Have you realized, Jacob, that you can't have any children of your own.'
'I think I was aware from a young age that I don't have a uterus,' Jacob said. He was expecting a different lecture from this one. He had been waiting and gearing up for the "you're too young" one which he had heard many times before and had a series of good retorts in his arsenal. This was a new speech and he hadn't heard this one before, he was interested to see how it would span out.
'I am glad you know that you are not a woman,' his mother snapped at him her anger setting in early. 'I just want to remind you that because of your chosen lifestyle, you cannot have a child that is entirely yours and your partner's.'
'Oh, so you like George then?' Jacob asked.
'No! I didn't mean that, you are too young be going serious, if that is what you are implying also,' she said.
'I'm old enough to decide what I want, anyway mum, Anne's only a few years older than me and she is married and a baby is about to spurt out of her at any minute. Why do you always pick on me like this? You never gave Anne any grief about marriage or being too young, you let her go right ahead and do what she wanted,' Jacob said while glaring strongly at his mother. It was true, his mum was ecstatic when Anne married and found she was pregnant a month after the wedding. It was like his mother chose to pick on him because she could and Anne was a woman after her own heart so she didn't say things like this to here.
'Why do you always do that?' he asked. 'Why can't you actually leave me alone instead of trying to force things on me all the time? I can take care of myself. It's not because you want to protect me or anything is it, mum? Is it because you're embarrassed by me?' Jacob crossed his arms.
'Yes, Jacob, maybe I am embarrassed by you. Perhaps I don't like your gayness, maybe I'm really, really pissed off with your father because he let you spend so much time with that lesbian, hussy sister of his when you were a kid. Maybe if you hadn't had any of her influence, you'd be a normal person.'
Jacob's eyes narrowed and his shoulders stiffened as he heard his mother insult one of his favourite relatives that wasn't a part of immediate family like that. He loved his Aunty Elle and she wasn't a Lesbian hussy, she was very beautiful woman who liked other very beautiful woman and the last time he checked there was hardly a crime in that. So, why was his mother acting like it was such a bloody sin when their family was hardly religious at all?
'It's not "gayness", mum; it's my chosen sexual orientation. It's hardly my fault or Aunty Elle's that I like penis, mum! I can't believe that after all these years of knowing you're still so narrow fucking minded that you can't accept your son. Dad's got the right idea; he doesn't let it bother him. Maybe you should try and be more like him! He gets on with things, he accepts people and doesn't judge them like you do, mum! And why have you waited until now to say all this crap?'
'I just thinking when we got here how much you like children and how good you are with them, you won't be able to have any of your own,' she said and placed her hand on his shoulder like she was trying to twist all the words she had said before and make him forget them. 'You won't have a child that's your own, your own flesh and blood, Jacob.'
Jacob shrugged her off and decided that this conversation had ended her and now, he didn't want to hear any more of it. And for Anne's sake (who was probably starting to get the worse of everything now) he decided that he didn't want to argue with his mother right now. They could finish this fight later or not at all since he didn't really give a damn at this point. He shot one last scathing glare at this mother before storming back over sit down in the chair next to Anne, fuming still.
'Are you ok, Jacob?' his father asked him and even Anne was looking across at him with concern in her eyes that were so like his eyes.
He smiled feebly. 'Fine,' he muttered.
'I can't believe she said that,' Anne said peeking around the edge of the curtain to see her still standing there.
'She meant well to start with,' his father said smoothing a hand across his balding head. 'She didn't mean for it to get so out of control.'
Jacob sighed and bit his bottom lip. 'She meant it though.' There was not comment after he said this and the silence let him know that everyone else both thought she had too. 'Anyway,' Jacob continued. 'We aren't here to chat about me; we are here because of you, Anne. How're you doing?' he asked, desperate to get his mind of the harsh things his mother had said to him. He had always known she harboured some resent for his sexuality, but he hadn't known she thought that deeply about it. Jacob had just brushed it off when she said some small comment but just then what she thought about him had some rushing out in a flood of homophobia. He scowled bitterly to himself and felt that all he really wanted was some reassurance from George that being who he wasn't a bad thing. He thrust his thoughts to the back of his mind and said nothing when his mother remerged to join them again and patted Anne's foot.
'I'm ok,' Anne said taking a big gulp of air. 'The contractions are getting more painful.'
'And they are closer together,' his father added with a solemn nod to show that he thought it was nearly time.
George was right. Jacob's life at the moment was drama after drama and he wished it would cool down shortly but he knew that wouldn't happen anytime soon. There was still the drama of his trace being lifted, meeting the new Head and his exams. And that was only planned drama, who knew what other soap opera worthy drama would occur between that. But he was glad for some of the drama, like discovering he was a wizard and Anne having her baby right now. It was things like that that made life interesting and enjoyable and all the other unfortunate twists and turns had to be dealt with. With every dramatic thing came good things too. Like becoming a wizard had meant he had got to meet great new people, George, Professor McGonagall and Draco were the people who he had connected with the best and he knew he could get to know George's family better. He wanted too as well, Fleur and Hermione – though only Fleur was officially a part of the Weasley family – seemed really nice and fun. He caught his mother staring at him like she was trying to say sorry through her eyes but Jacob all but growled at her as he twisted away to face Anne again.
Eventually and much to the relief of Jacob, Paul arrived like he had been fired over by catapult. He hurtled in through the doors, brief case, suit and all and fell to his knees by Anne's bed, kissing her like he'd never been happier to see her in his life. It had been four hours since Jacob had gotten to the Hospital and Anne still hadn't dilated enough to give birth. It was starting to become a little boring and soon he and his parent's were kicked out of the room because Anne's contractions were starting to get bad and the "murse" decided that all the people around her just aggravating her more, so they were all politely asked to leave. Jacob was quite happy for that until the awkward silence of the waiting room came. When they were with Anne it gave them something to talk about but he and his mother weren't speaking and his father had wisely decided not to say a word unless it sparked up another fight.
After another long wait, Jacob had taken to counting to three and trying to get the exact time that the lift doors opened when he said three, in a full hour it had only happened four times. Finally Anne was wheeled out of the room on the hospital bed and taking to the birthing theatre or whatever they called it. Paul ran past clutching her hand tightly and gave them thumbs up to so everything was going to plan. This new stage of birth gave him and his parent's about thirty seconds of talk before things got awkward again.
It was going to be a long day that would possibly draw on long into the night. Jacob groaned and leaned back in the chair, praying that George would come back soon. He had only been gone for a few hours, and yet, Jacob missed him something terrible.
Review please! Takes about thiry seconds and I really appreicate it!