Chapter 18: Making an effort

George was still in a daze when he woke on Monday morning. Yesterday had been strange – well, that didn't even begin to describe it. After finally finding Hermione last night and waking up in her arms he had to realize that the awkward tension between them was still there. Then they found Harry bloody Potter several weeks after his supposed death, alive, in the kitchen upstairs, and had breakfast with him and Neville, who had escaped a ministry holding cell only weeks before. If that wasn't action enough for the day, they decided on dinner in the Burrow. They should have known what an emotional affair that would be. But at the time, they thought it would be a good idea. It was good, in a way, that news was finally out in the open. Their family knew about Bellatrix's attack and also about Harry's resurrection – if you could even call it that. Everybody had been thrilled of course, especially Ginny and Ron. He hadn't seen these two that happy in months. Ron had already started getting better over the last weeks, but yesterday it had been like the war never happened to him. George honestly didn't know how his little brother did it, but even during dinner when they discussed Bellatrix's attack he seemed totally unflustered by the fact that Hermione had duelled the bitch – eh, witch – on her own. "It turned all right in the end, didn't it?" he had reminded his mum, when she was about to make a bit of a fuss because of Hermione, and grinned at his friend with a confidence that spoke of a hell of shared adventures. "Hermione isn't the brightest witch of her age for nothing, mum." And just like that, he put another bit of steak in his mouth and chewed happily.

Ginny was another case altogether. She had been miserable over the last months, but even worse since the end of the battle. He had rarely seen her after his wedding, as she always seemed to avoid them. It was actually a miracle that she'd been there yesterday at all. But his mum and Bill had written them every now and then, and George had been more and more concerned for his baby sister. Until yesterday. Yesterday, the spirit had returned to his sister who clung to Harry's side for the whole evening and had still been there when he, Hermione and Fred left for their flat. He wouldn't even be surprised if Harry stayed the night with her at the Burrow, because even though the two of them had broken up more than a year ago, it was no secret how deeply they felt for each other. And George was pretty sure, that neither of them would leave the side of the other for the foreseeable future. He was happy for his sister, of course, but at the same time he wished such a love for himself. And after last night, he felt that such a love might be waiting in his future with Hermione and his brother. He hadn't thought it possible, but last night he could have sworn that Hermione had tried to tell him something, even though her lips hadn't formed the words. But his heart had understood anyway and called out for her with an urgency that told him everything he needed to know. George loved her, he had for some time now and if he was right, she loved him back.

"Morning George." he heard her mumble sleepily into his shirt before cuddling even closer to him.

"Morning love." he greeted back and kissed the top of her head. "Sleep well?"

"Mhmh…" she hummed and nuzzled him with her nose. George couldn't help the smile that was breaking out on his face. Whatever it was that Hermione felt for him last night hadn't disappeared in the morning and wasn't just born by his overactive imagination. It was really there, and he felt like she was trying to tell him again just now. And George swore to himself that he would make it work between the three of them.

"Hermione? I … need to ask you something. And please don't be mad, okay?"

She nodded, but he saw the wariness that was slowly returning to her eyes.

"Are you… do you plan on continuing your training with Flitwick?" he asked carefully, but he saw her stiffen anyway. For a moment, she didn't say anything, and there was a haunted look in her eyes that he couldn't place. But a moment later she looked him directly in the eyes and said:

"Yeah, I'll continue training. Not only with Flitwick put also with Snape twice a week. Harry and Neville are going to join me for these sessions. Look, there's still some stuff I can do safely but I promise you, that I won't do anything dangerous."

He nodded. He had expected as much. Hermione wasn't anything if not determined. "That's what I expected." he said as calmly and non-threatening as possible. "Do you think it would be possible for me to join in for these sessions?"

"For us, you mean." his brother corrected from behind her and Hermione turned to Fred surprised.

"You, you're okay with this?" she asked and looked at the two of them with wide eyes.

Fred smiled at her. "I admit that we are not that happy with your decision but we can kind of see your point. But we figured that if we want you to be safe, we better make sure we're there to protect you and the little ones."

George nodded solemnly towards her. "Yeah, and we wondered if you could talk to Snape and convince him to give us some private lessons."

At that, Hermione looked at him in confusion. "Lessons? On what? Occlumency?"

He smiled at her crookedly. "Kind of. Fred and I talked and we figured that it might be important for us, to suppress the twin bond during battle. You know, like when one of us gets badly hurt or something. I'm not even sure if he can help us. But he might be the best person to ask."

Hermione looked at them with a serious expression. "I… I don't know what to say…" she admitted helplessly. "It… you… you don't have any idea how much that means to me." She finally said and he could see the tears gathering in her eyes. Just a moment later, she leaped towards him and hugged him fiercely. "Thank you, thank you so much!" she cried and then let go of him to throw herself at Fred. His twin looked at her with a gentleness in his expression that George had rarely seen on him. It made him smile happily towards the two of them because it gave him hope that things would work out for them in the end. But then he had another thought.

"I want to talk to mum about the babies though." he said calmly as soon as she had finished hugging his twin. "Yesterday wasn't the right situation to tell her, but I have the feeling that we might need her advice soon enough. Don't you think?"

At that, she nodded solemnly. "Yeah, you're right of course. It's just that all of this still feels a bit unreal to me. I… I don't actually feel pregnant," she admitted, and he could see her cheeks colour ever so slightly. "Shouldn't I be able to feel something?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. And that's why we need to talk to her. She's had her share of pregnancies after all."

"Yeah, but I can't say I'm looking forward to that conversation." she admitted with a crooked smile. "Molly Weasley in expectation of not one but two grandchildren?"

Fred chuckled weakly behind her. "She'll be unstoppable."

Hermione groaned. "Yeah, that's what I'm worried about."

Hermione left for Spinner's End right after breakfast and when she returned to the shop half an hour later, she brought Snape's consent to help them suppress their twin bond. It wasn't something they were keen to do, but experience had taught them that it was quite an important skill for them in battle.

George and his twin left for Snape's house right after closing their shop in the evening. Hermione promised to wait for them with dinner on the table, as they would without a doubt be famished. And George couldn't wait to be back at their flat with his two favourite people and not in a basement with a scowling portrait of his former professor that obviously hated them.

They apparated directly to the hallway of the house, but decided to make a quick detour through the kitchen to greet the other two inhabitants of the house. Neville was indeed sitting at the kitchen table with a steaming cup of tea in his hand, but Harry was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey Neville," Fred greeted him chummily. "Where's Harry?"

Neville shrugged with a grin. "The Burrow I guess. He decided to stay the night."

"Has he now?" Fred grinned. "Well, good for him. You alright here alone in Snape's house? He wasn't your favourite person after all."

Neville gave him another shrug. "It's alright I guess. It's not like he'll suddenly storm into the kitchen and throw me out or something. His portrait has actually been quite civil, when Harry and I visited him yesterday afternoon. Getting killed changes a person I guess."

George snorted. "And being trapped in a portrait frame next to all the former Hogwarts Headmasters might have also made an impression. From what I gathered Snape's now almost permanently here and avoids his other frame like a plague. I don't think it's because of his old mate Lucius."

Fred snorted. "Poor guy. I almost feel sorry for him."

"Well, you won't feel sorry for him in a few minutes." George laughed and then explained towards Neville, "We've come to seek him out for a lesson or two."

At that, Neville grinned and took another sip from his cup, "Well good luck with that. I'll lend you my shoulder for a good cry afterwards."

The two of them chuckled at the unexpected show of humour from their friend. "We'll see about that. Maybe he's finally discovered a soft spot for us. We could show him some of our joke products downstairs in the potions lab."

George grinned. "I'm sure that would go over splendidly. Well, maybe we could wait with that, until he gets too annoying."

Fred grinned. "Deal." and with that and a lopsided grin, they finally left for the basement.

"I see you've finally come to your senses." Snape greeted them as soon as they had closed the door to the basement behind them. The scowl was, of course, back on his face, but maybe it was also permanently captured there by the painter. It was one of Snape's most distinguishing features after all.

"Well, good morning to you too, Professor. Isn't it a lovely day outside?" Fred countered with exaggerated cheer and gestured towards the basement's non-existent windows. This only deepened the scowl directed towards them.

"Better leave your pitiful attempts of sociability to someone who appreciates it. And now come over and take a seat. You've already wasted enough time as it is."

The twins followed this indirect order with a shrug and seated themselves on the sofa. What followed afterwards were the longest two hours of Fred's life.

They stumbled back into their kitchen two hours later, weary and tired. Fred's head was pounding heavily and by the look of it, George didn't feel much better. It was obvious now that Snape would be able to help them with their problem to suppress the twin bond, but lessons with him were as uncomfortable as he expected or even more so. In their Potions classes, they hadn't been his sole focus and they had mostly avoided pranking him or their classmates during potions classes. Neither Fred nor George had a death wish after all. But now his attention was concentrated on them and only them and even if he could no longer take house points or assign detentions, Snape could be a scary bastard. But luckily for them, he was a well-read bastard and an expert in mental disciplines and Fred was sure that he and George would be able to learn everything necessary from their former Professor, if they managed not to destroy his annoying portrait beforehand. This would be the real challenge, Fred expected. But Hermione's beaming face when they told her that the session had gone well was worth every insult and death thread he had endured through the evening.

For the next evening, they invited themselves for dinner with their parents at the Burrow. Their mother was of course thrilled to have them; she was always happy to see her children after all. As he and George hadn't shown themselves very often in the last weeks, she welcomed the three of them with warm smiles and motherly hugs.

"Mum!" Fred complained and tried to squirm away from the wet kisses, she was peppering his face with. "We've been here two days before. And I'm a married man now so please, would you stop treating me like a child in front of my wife?" But his mum didn't seem to hear him as she just pulled him closer.

"My pretty little boy, what has this evil Bellatrix done to you?" she murmured, and Fred couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"I'm still handsome enough, thank you very much."

He heard his twin chuckle at that and cast him a dirty glance before pulling away from his mum. Merlin, sometimes this woman could be a bit too much, especially when there were no younger siblings around he could direct her attentions to. "Where are Ron and Ginny by the way?" he asked quickly in the hope of distracting his mum from suffocating him with her hugs.

His mum smiled happily. "They're all upstairs, I believe. But they already had dinner and told me explicitly not to be disturbed for the next hours."

"That's good to hear," George chimed in from behind. "…because we were hoping to have a little chat with just you… for now at least."

She looked at them with a raised eyebrow but shooed them towards the kitchen without another word. But Fred could see the curiosity in her face and so he decided to get it all out as fast as possible. No use in stalling the inevitable. He waited before she closed the door behind them and didn't even bother sitting down at the kitchen table before saying:

"Mum, we've come to seek some advice from you," he cleared his throat nervously. "You see… we're expecting…"

He didn't get any further, because she was hugging him again with an excited squeal. "Oh Frederick! George! My boys! You're making me so proud! Hermione! Come here…" She didn't even wait for Hermione to comply and just pulled her close with the rest of them. He heard George huff next to him, but his twin endured her overenthusiastic attentions with stoic calmness that made Fred relax into her hug too. Yes, he wanted to get the news out as fast as possible, but they weren't in a hurry after all.

It took their mum several minutes to finally let them go. When she did, she sat them down at the table and beamed at them with a radiant smile. "Well, I'm so happy for the three of you. I didn't really expect it so soon, figured Bill and Fleur might announce something first, but I'm sure you'll do fabulously."

George cleared his throat nervously. "Well… what Fred tried to tell you before is, that we are expecting twins mum, magical ones at that." For a moment his mum looked totally stunned, before nodding and casting them a motherly smile.

"Of course you do." she said and suddenly she didn't look surprised at all. "Well, don't worry dears. We'll sort your questions out in no time and if anything else pops up, I'm only a floo call away." At this, his mum gently patted Hermione's hand before getting up and preparing them some tea. For a moment, they sat together in silence, while their mum was puttering in the kitchen but soon there were steaming cups of tea and a big plate with sandwiches waiting for them on the table.

"Well Hermione, anything in particular you want to know?" she finally asked after she sat down on the table herself.

Hermione shrugged helplessly. "I'm an only child and come from a very small family. There haven't been many babies while I was growing up so I'm probably as unprepared as one can get. Didn't even know I was eight weeks along until Madam Pomfrey told me."

Molly nodded. "Don't worry dear. You've got a large family now and I'm sure everybody will be thrilled and willing to help."

Hermione nodded with a smile. "That would be great, thank you. Is a pregnancy with magical twins anyhow different from a normal pregnancy? I mean, is there anything I should probably avoid doing?"

His mum laughed again. "Well, except the fact that you'll get huge towards the end you might tire out very fast. Your body is feeding two magical cores after all and you will recognize that it will take its toll on you. Somedays I didn't even want to get out of bed with these two. You might get hungry a lot, too. Don't worry about gaining too much weight either, with magical twins that's usually not an issue as it takes lots of energy to grow them."

Hermione nodded and for a moment she looked like she followed a challenging lecture in school. But then she cleared her throat nervously and the impression was gone again. "Well, that's good to know. And… do you think there is any possibility to hide this pregnancy from the ministry? I mean, Poppy could perform the necessary health checks, right?"

His mum nodded again. "I'm sure she can. She's not a certified midwife but I have some experience myself, so if you really want to keep a low profile, we'll make it work for you."

Hermione cleared her throat again. "Right. What about… the… ah… weekly obligations of the Marriage Law? If we keep the pregnancy quiet, we'll have to follow through with them to the very end… do you think it…" Fred could see her face getting more and more red and he had the feeling he wasn't that far behind as he understood what she was going to ask. "…do you think we'll be able to…perform…all the way through?" George choked on his tea, obviously he hadn't guessed what Hermione was going to ask his mum. Fred could hear his twin groan silently through the bond. "Merlin… this starts getting awkward very fast." Fred heard him whisper in his head and he couldn't help but agree.

But his mum didn't seem ruffled at all and cast Hermione a motherly smile. "Well, Arthur and I never had a problem with that kind of thing. And Fred and George are quite accomplished wizards after all and between the two of them they will surely think of something to make you comfortable enough." She winked at them and for a moment, Fred hoped the ground would just open up and swallow him. Merlin, this was even worse than the talk he had with his dad some years ago. "There are always levitation charms and feather-light charms have also proven quite useful…"

"Okay, thanks mum. I'm sure we'll manage." George interrupted her with a pained smile. "As you said, we are skilled and clever wizards. Don't worry…" Hermione looked at them red-faced but seemed determined to ask even more awkward questions. No wonder Snape had found her so annoying. This woman was brave enough to even poke a sleeping dragon.

"So… ah… the physical part might not be a problem then. What about…" Hermione looked at them with something resembling mortification but rambled on anyway, "Well… I have heard that during pregnancy… well… what if I feel unwell or something and don't want to… did this happen to you and what did you do? Is there maybe a potion or something I could take?"

His mum laughed. "Don't worry dear. You'll find that you will grow quite attached to your wizards. Magical pregnancies can do this to a woman and twin pregnancies even more so. The magical cores of the children somehow interact with the ones of the parents and want them close. Sometimes Arthur and I couldn't take our fingers off each other." His mum sighed dreamily but Hermione looked, if possible, alarmed at the news. She swallowed heavily.

"Okay… eh… will this feeling fade away sometime? I mean, after giving birth?"

Fred furrowed his brows. What was Hermione playing at?

"Well… after some time they do go away. Might be also due to the fact, that there's two time-demanding newborns around you'll have to take care of." She winked at them and Fred chuckled. But Hermione just nodded solemnly.

"Alright, thank you Molly," she replied with a fake smile. I think that will be all for now. "Do you think we should tell the others now?"

Their mum jumped to attention immediately and just a minute later they were back in the living room surrounded by happy family. But Fred got the impression that Hermione had just wanted to distract their attention. The question was, why?