Chapter 13 – The Other Weasleys

In those five days, George came over almost every night as they prepared her for Sunday dinner. They started with Hogwarts, the houses, classes, quidditch, everything they could think of. Then came information about everyone's job and what they did. But that wasn't the only reason why George stopped by, besides for preparing her and talking to Fred. It was his obsession for the TV and the PlayStation. If he wasn't watching a movie, he played games as Fred and Leah went over everything. He was getting better at it, Fred tried to play but couldn't hold the controller longer than five minutes. Sighing he leaned back, looking up at the ceiling.

"Once we find out how to bring you back, and we will, you can play as long as you want."

"Hm... there are other things I would want to do first." Fred gave her a flirtatious smile.

"Hmmm... And what would that be?" She whispered seductively. "Snuggling up to George, perhaps?"

"What!?" The two boys cried out.

"What are you two talking about?" George asked setting down the controller.

"What Fred wants to do when we get him back." She said turning to George. "I don't think you'll let him out of your sight for days."

"Maybe I can give him one afternoon off." George winked. "So, tomorrow is the big day. Are you ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be. We're using the floo right, to get there?"

"Yes, I don't know if we can apparate with Fred. Can you come to the flat at one?"

"One? I thought you said it was a family dinner."

"Well, yeah. But we come together at one, to talk, play games, quidditch."

"So instead of, what I thought, a couple of hours, is going to be at least six hours?"

"At least."

"Oh Merlin!" She said, dropping her head in her hands.

"You're going to be okay. You know everything." Fred said. She looked up from her hands and glared a bit.

"How would you feel if it was the other way around?"

Fred looked at her, thinking. "You're right. I'm sorry."

"You got a point." George said, not hearing that Fred already answered. "But our parents are going to love you! Our dad is muggle obsessed and our mum will go crazy if she finds out you love cooking."

"Great." She said sarcastically. "Only 9 others to convince."

"Eight-" George intervened, grinning. "I already like you."

Leah grabbed a pillow from the couch and smacked it against his head, laughing.

"Did you hear, Fred? She said: Oh Merlin!" George laughed picking up the pillow from the ground.

We taught her well, brother.

"We sure did."

"Fuck." Leah groaned. "Where did I get myself into?

FW

It was a quarter to one when Leah and Fred arrived at the Leaky Cauldron. Tom gave them a toothless smile and followed them to the closet.

"Good afternoon, miss Leah."

"Hello Tom." She greeted as Tom tapped the wall in front of them. "Thank you." She smiled and placed some coins in his hand.

"Anytime, miss Leah." Tom bowed and walked out the room as the wall parted.

"You played him like a fiddle." Fred snickered.

"If you keep people happy, they won't ask any questions." She said as they walked to the back of Diagon Alley, to the brightest shop in the street.

"Too bad you can't pay off my family." Fred laughed.

"Yeah, that would make things easier." She gave him a half-hearted grin.

When they reached the store, it was dark and quiet. Leah pushed the door, but nothing happened. She looked over to Fred with a questioning look.

"Oh, right. There is an entrance at the side of the building." Fred said, leading her to the side. The side of the building was a solid brick wall with no door, no windows. She frowned as she looked at the wall up and down. "Here." Fred pointed at a tiny coat button on the wall.

Leah shrugged and pushed the button, nothing happened for a second or two and then all the sudden a door appeared in front of her. She pushed the door open and stepped in a hallway with a spiral staircase. She climbed the stairs with Fred in tow. When they reached the top floor, the door opened before she had a chance to knock. She stepped in the flat and saw George putting his shoes on.

She placed her hands on her hips as she looked at George. "You forgot to mention your secret entrance, mister."

George looked up surprised and his eyes went wide as he saw her standing there. "You know Freddie, she looks like a combination of Hermione and mum right now."

"No, he's not right!" Leah grumbled at Fred's reply, making both boys laugh. "Let's get this over with." She said, walking over to the fireplace. "Are you ready to see them?" She asked Fred as they stopped next to George, who grabbed a handful of floo power.

"Yeah, but just feel horrible lying to them, I mean you and George."

"I know. But we don't know if this is going to work, let's just wait a couple more weeks, alright?"

George looked over, already figuring out what they were talking about. "Suppose it doesn't work and Leah's going to be stuck with your ghost form forever, then we'll tell them."

George stepped into the fireplace, followed by Leah and Fred. Fred reached for her hand again and when she gave George a short nod, they disappeared, and again she could feel his hand in hers. Before she could squeeze his hand, they stumbled out of a fireplace.

"George?" A girl's voice asked surprised. Leah looked around the room, seeing a red headed girl jumping up from an armchair as she flung her arms around George. "You came."

"I told mum I would come." George padded her back smiling. Leah and Fred watched the exchange between the siblings. Leah was still holding Fred's hand and looked up at him, giving him a reassuring smile, when his eyes twinkled at his sister.

"Yeah, but I – I didn't want to get my hopes up." Ginny said as she pulled back. "You turned your hair back."

"Yeah." George rubbed his neck. "Someone told me I looked ridiculous."

"Is she this someone?" Ginny said looking at Leah.

"Oh sorry. Ginny, this is Leah. Leah, Ginny." He introduced them. "Mum told everyone I was bringing someone, yeah?"

"Uhm, yeah." She looked from Leah to George. "But I think no one believed it."

"Hi, Ginny. Nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you."

"I've heard nothing about you." She countered.

"Ginny." The twins chastised.

"No, it's okay." Leah put her arm on Georges. "Since I don't want to repeat the story 10 times over, is it okay if we wait until the rest is here?"

"Everyone's here already, they're in the garden." She added as she saw George's confused look. "I wanted to wait until you got here."

"Oh, did you miss me, little sis?" George smiled, wrapping his arm around her shoulder.

"Yes." She looked at George as they walked to the kitchen door. "The last time you had long greasy brown hair and didn't talk to anyone... What happened?"

"I'm not ready to talk about that, Gin. But things are looking up." George said evasive. Ginny had a calculated look on her face as she looked at her big brother, before glancing over their shoulder to Leah.

"This isn't going to be easy." Leah whispered to Fred. "Ginny's already suspicious about George's behaviour."

"Not really a surprise there, since not even two weeks he was a shut in."

"We didn't really count that in." Leah said biting her bottom lip.

"Hey." Fred stopped her when George and Ginny stepped out the burrow. "Things will be okay. George got your back, and so have I." He said cupping her cheek.

Leah looked in his eyes and drew in a deep breath before stepping out the kitchen. The garden was huge, the land stretched until it reached the tree lines of a forest. Not far from the burrow, a long table was set up with various colours of chairs around it. The table was already filled with people, mostly red heads.

George waited for her just outside the burrow and offered his arm as they walked to his family. Ginny already whispering to Harry at the table.

"We didn't think of your sudden change of demeanour." She whispered to George. "Or looks."

"I know." He said looking at his family, who were watching them in surprise. "Hopefully you'll be enough of a distraction."

"Oh, thanks." Leah snorted sarcastically.

"That was very lady like." Georg snickered.

"You know me. Tiaras and tutu's all the way." She rolled her eyes, at the two, where once again she was locked in between.

George snorted and she felt his arm tense as they reached the table, all eyes on them. "Here we go."

FW

"Oh, George!" His mother cried out as she ran to him, her arms wide open. She saw George brace himself as his mother threw herself at him. When she pulled back, she padded his cheek, her eyes searching his face. "You look handsome."

"Thanks mum."

Leah took a chance to look at Fred next to her, his eyes trained on his mother. He looked like he was about to run to her. Leah reached over and traced her fingertips over his. When Fred noticed what she was doing, he let out a deep breath, his shoulders relaxing. She looked back to George and saw that the whole family was greeting him, happy to see him again. She recognised all the faces from the wedding picture of Bill as they all stood right next to her.

"Who's your guest, dear? Is this your girlfriend?"

George and Leah snorted at that, making the others raise their eyebrows and Fred chuckle. "No, this is Leah."

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Weasley." Leah smiled at the curious witch. "I heard so much about you, about all of you." She looked at the rest of the family.

"Why don't we all sit down." Mr. Weasley smiled friendly at her. "You can tell us something about yourself."

The rest of them departed as they took their seat, all stealing curious glances at Leah. She smiled nervously as she sat down next to George on the end of the table. Fred taking a seat on the ground next to her, grinning, sending her a wink.

"So, how do you know George, dear?" Mrs. Weasley smiled as she leaned forward.

Here it goes. She thought as she took a deep breath. "I was Fred's girlfriend."

"What?" Was shouted across the table. Whatever they expected, this wasn't it. She glanced around the table most of them shocked, mouth dropped open.

"I never knew this, you?" Bill asked Ginny, who shook her head.

"I was the only one that knew." George intervened before the rest started asking.

"We were just getting serious when all hell broke loose. He made me go into hiding because I'm a muggleborn. I took my parents to New York."

"It took me months to find her and tell her what happened. She just came back a few weeks ago."

"You told me she wanted to invest." Hermione said frowning at George.

"I do, I was seeing if it was possible to branch out, to expand their muggle line."

"Really?" Hermione said excitingly, not feeling insecure anymore. "There are so much more possibilities."

"I know. George has so much to learn." Leah chuckled. "The first time either of them came to my flat they didn't even know what a microwave was."

Fred and George looked at Leah in surprise, that she could come up with a story so fast. They didn't really discuss what they were going to say related to her investing, because no one usually asked about the financial side of the business. Leah and Hermione were excitingly talking about all things muggle as the rest looked at them bemused, while their dad looked like he had a million questions.

"So, Leah." Mrs. Weasley started, trying to kindly cut in on their tete-a-tete. Leah stopped talking and looked to George's mother. "I assume you went to Hogwarts. Where you in George's year? Because Hermione didn't know you."

"I graduated in 1991."

"But... but that made you six years older than Fred."

"I guess it does, never thought about it." Leah shrugged. "In the muggle world it isn't that uncommon that a woman is older."

"But how did you meet? I don't think you knew each other from Hogwarts."

"She came in the shop a few days after we opened, the rest is history." George smiled, putting an arm over her shoulder. Mr. Weasley, thinking Leah felt uncomfortable, cut in.

"What house were you in?"

"Leah here, is a Gryffindor through and through." George grinned and Fred nodded from the ground, couldn't agree more.

"What do you do for work?" Harry asked from across the table.

"I work in the muggle world." She said, being honest for the first time. "I went to college after Hogwarts and now I'm a game designer."

Harry and Hermione both looked impressed while the others looked confused. Fred chuckled on her right before whispering. "I think they don't understand, like us." He pointed between him and George. "You need to elaborate."

So that's what she did. She explained her job, to the best of her abilities to a family who knew nothing about programming. For almost two hours they were firing questions at her in a friendly way. Even though no one asked questions about George's sudden change, Mrs. Weasley kept shooting glances at him. It went great, Fred didn't have to whisper answers in her ear, but laughed or grinned at some of the question from the ground. George cut in at the right parts, helping her out. Leah was rubbing her temples when George rose from his seat.

"I think everyone fired enough questions at her. I'm going to show her around, I want her to know where Fred grew up."

"Of course." Mr. Weasley started, before his wife could protest. "Dinner is only in a few hours, take your time."

When Leah stood up, she saw George looking at Hermione. Hermione gave him a reassuring smile; George gave her a small smile back before they walked away from the family, Fred in tow.

.