Belief System, a harry potter fanfic

Hi All. This is a quick little oneshot that takes place during the rise of the Second Wizarding World War. I wrote this from Lara's point of view in my Oneshot 'I Will Follow You Into The Dark' and it is much the same summary and the same dialogue and actions but from Fred's point of view. Please keep that in mind.

Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine just the characters of Lara and Archie.

For more information on this story and these characters please feel free to read the proceeding Oneshot 'I Will Follow You Into The Dark'.

Please Read and Review.

And just a quick note-this is not...strictly cannon. Hence the happy ending.

And on a side note, I like so many other Fanfiction Authors no longer receive notifications via email about reviews/PMs etc. So if you do send any it might be a while, if ever before I get back to you. Please keep that in mind for it is not intentional-If anyone has a fix please let me know.

Belief System

A Side Story to 'I Will Follow You Into The Dark' Same Summary only in Fred's point of view-The Muggle Girl in the village has a name. She isn't a witch but maybe, maybe she can be the one who gives Fred Weasley his Happy Ever After. AU, Kind of Slow Burn. Fred Weasley/OFC. Slightly smaller piece of work and much dialogue and events taken from 'I Will Follow You Into The Dark'

Fred Weasley is a wizard.

He lives, now in a small bedroom at the top of his shop and for all the money that goes into the shop only very little goes into the rooms above it. He and George just make do. To be honest it's just whatever they have in the fridge and then they stagger to bed. Standing in the shop all day or developing the products in the back is hard work. Especially since the Ministry became involved. Every other day some pompous tight arse owl that reminds him directly of Hermes arrives with another order and a post haste attached to it that makes him gnash his teeth together. He knows George thinks it's both good money and an easy way of helping in the fight against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named but as far as Fred is concerned it's not what they got into this game for. They went into a joke shop to make people laugh and somehow they end up making weapons.

If there's not a lesson on wizarding capitalism in there somewhere then Fred doesn't know what is.

But the point is he lives away from home. He pays his own rent, he cooks his own tea, he washes his own socks and he'd thought he missed the Burrow and the chaos that comes with it right up until the point Ron throws a knife at him and he realises that sharing a room with three brothers after having one to himself is going to be a freaking nightmare.

(Also with the addition of Fleur and with his sister acting insane whenever she's around getting to the bathroom in time to actually get some privacy and some hot water has become a pipe dream)

Such is the rush that he forgets to get his Dad a card. George takes care of the presents—with Dad it's their muggle magic tricks and Fred knows that he will spend all afternoon trying to do it without a wand but since Percy…well…there's an unspoken thing between the ones left behind that they make Christmas a bit more special for their parents, and if that means a card then that means a card and that means trapsing down to the muggle post office which is the only place open on Christmas and does muggle cards that he knows his Dad will like.

George goes with him.

Carefully neither of them mention the war.

He pushes open the door just as George and he are discussing the cards.

"—I think he'll get a kick out of it George. Come on a Mu—I mean a normal card for Christmas? Nothing to fancy, Dad will love it"

"If you say so" George replies shaking his head and stomping the snow out of his boots.

"That's clever" comes a voice from the counter and he turns around realising with a jolt that the girl behind the counter is looking at George (not that it matters George never really looks back anymore—not since Angelina entered the picture in fifth year) and his stomach does an odd little twist.

She's beautiful.

Actually sod that she's really beautiful. She has dark hair that's swept into a knot on the back of her head but half of her hair is coming down from it and she sweeps it back behind her ears impatiently. She's in jeans like they are and a red jumper and her bone structure compliments her tall figure making her look as if she should have stepped off one of those cat-walky thingies. Her eyes though…her eyes…her eyes are dark and even from where he is standing he feels like he can see the different shades of hazel and grey and chocolate mixed in with them. He thinks like some stupid little kid in love for the first time that he could drown in her eyes.

"Thanks" George says finally.

"Almost like magic" she says with a smile that Fred swears doesn't meet her eyes.

Fred snorts again before he could stop himself and—

"Can I help you with something lads?"

He let's George prattle on about the card, let's her choose them something horrible muggle that lights up and sings when you open in it—his mother is going to hate it and his father is going to be obsessed with it for most of the afternoon and after a quick debate in hushed whispers about money while she looks at them as if they are insane (great first impression) they buy it.

And then George decides to ruin it.

"So" he says leaning over the counter with a wink. "What's a pretty little thing like you doing all alone at Christmas?"

She raises on perfectly arched dark brow but her smile shows how amused she is. It's a nice smile Fred thinks, but he thinks at the same time that she doesn't come across as a girl who has smiled much recently.

"Seriously?"

Fred laughs though because why not? After all laughs are in short supply these days.

"Stupid…Don't mind him honestly. He's pining after a girl who doesn't—oi!"

Seriously why does George always have to go for the ribs?

But he figures he might as well introduce himself.

Actually…he finds out that he really, really wants to.

What that means he cannot decide. Merlin if he has to raid Ginny's Witch Weekly magazines when he goes home life will not be worth living.

"I'm Fred by the way" he says holding out his hand and after a heartbeat she reaches out and shakes it. "Fred Weasley"

"Lara McIlroy"

Lara. What a pretty name, for two syllabels like his own Fred has never considered a name so pretty as Lara. It rings around his head like the bell at Hogwarts used to ring, Lara…Lara…Lara.

George is giving him some impressive side eye, Fred can practically feel it.

"This is George. The twin. Hopelessly in love with another woman by the way Me…I don't have that problem you know?"

She laughs again at that and it's should a lovely laugh and this time to his joy he realises that it does meet her eyes and when her laugh meets her eyes he thinks like a lovesick fool whose been dabbling in the potions Professor Snape warned them about—with a curled lip and an eyeroll at teenage stupidity—that she was the most lovely woman he had ever seen in his life.

"So I'll see you around Fred Weasley?"

"Sure"

She laughs him off and George in his mercy chooses that moment to drag him out of the shop.

"Wanker" he says seeing Fred's expression. "You couldn't have fucked that up more if you'd have tried—"

"And what did you sent Angelina for Christmas this year brother?"

George's response is to pick up a handful of snow and lunge but Fred is the fourth eldest of seven siblings six of them brothers and he bloody well knows how to duck.

He thinks about her that night, though he doesn't want to he thinks about her and he spends most of Christmas morning watching his Dad open and close his Christmas card with glee, if he can sneak out to see her—or just to see if the post office is open—but his mother's got a gleam in her eye he's not sure about.

Even as he sits down for dinner and engages Remus in conversation about the Order (in which he is fairly sure Harry is listening in on and Ginny certainly is—though since the colossal fuck up that led to Sirius's death and Ginny and Ron being hunted down by Death Eaters, Fred has always tried to tell his siblings everything—going to the Department of Mysteries with only a vague idea in Harry's dreams was not a repeat he ever wanted to hear about ever again), he is thinking about her and Fred Weasley is not a man who believes in love at first sight or anything hideously romantic or sentimental like that but…

But…could such a thing be?

Of course that moment is ruined by Percy who shows up with the Minister and naturally in true Weasley fashion it all goes to hell.

He goes to see her.

Actually that is a lie he goes for a drink because his mother has just shouted at him and George simply ignores it and says he's going for a walk and Ginny is Ginny and she shrugs impervious to it and Fred doesn't give a shit if Percy's feelings are hurt and he says as much and he storms off.

He needs the mind numbing, throat numbing taste of alcohol.

But he walks past the post office and the lights are on and there she is and then before his feet can stop him he's pushing open the door and somehow she's agreeing to go for a drink with him and he reads some of the (admittedly very funny and very rude) muggle cards while she closes up.

They end up in a small corner of the local bar wedged in between happy people all around and man in a horrible suit and tie decked with elves and presents serves them drinks. They share a packet of crisps. She orders a vodka tonic and Fred goes with it though he has no idea what it is. However it's nice, not as strong as firewhiskey but it's got the burn he was looking for and the ice helps as well and suddenly he is telling her about Percy—well as much as he can and feeling oddly close to tears.

It's not just Percy, it's everything. It's the strain on his mother's face and the look he knows his father is going to give him when he stumbles on home. It's the beaten way Remus looks when he talks about the first war and the way Harry flinches whenever anyone mentions Sirius. It's the war, the whole fucking thing is the war and she looks at him when he mentions Percy—because that's all he can tell her—and he thinks she might understand that there is more behind the story but she doesn't press him for details he's not sure if he could give.

However when he tells her that he threw the parsnips she chokes her drink and then suddenly she giggles. He can't stop himself suddenly from giggling with her and for Fred it feels like it has been years since he has felt this light.

It's almost what he remembers normal feeling like. Before Harry had come back with Cedric Diggory's body and the world had gone to hell in a handbasket as Hermione said sometimes when she thought nobody was listening.

However come midnight the pub closes and he realises that nearly half a day has been spent with her. He knows most about her—enough to know that her mother is not and never has been in the picture and her father is dead but she knows more about him—except the obvious and he's had the most fun he's had in years.

He walks her home because Fred is cross between some kind of a gentleman and not a complete bastard and also because he wants to spend more time with her. He gets to the door of her flat which is right over the post office and she leans against it watching him with that smirk on her face that he wants…no…that he yeans to kiss off.

"Suppose I want to see you again?" he asks finally and she grins back a bit tipsy but full of the flirtatious glee that comes when you know you have a man on the run.

"Suppose I say yes?"

"Suppose I want to kiss you?"

"Suppose I say yes?"

He kisses her then, his tongue mingling with hers and she kisses back her hands cupping his head and around his waist his own pulling her closer at the small of her back. Fred's not had a lot of kissing—in fact all of his experiences are drunken fumbles and more than a few one night stands—kissing isn't something that he does quite often and it certainly doesn't spark something in him like this one does.

The whole thing is very confusing. No wonder people run away from love…all of it is hard to understand.

He goes back home smiling and his father is waiting for him when he comes in and Fred can see the way his body relaxes when Fred lets himself in.

"You shouldn't go off like that" he says quietly after the usual security fuss is over. "Your mother was worried"

"Sorry" Fred says kicking off his boots, I was just…meeting a friend…Dad…if I ask you something will you give me a straight answer and not tell Mum?"

"Go on"

"Did you…do you believe in love at first sight?"

His father's smile is a little bit too understanding.

"Oh yes" he says finally. "The first time I saw your mother I knew she was the one for me. So I suppose that is love at first sight"

Fred doesn't know what to make of that but the reality is that his parents are still soppy enough with each other for that to be true. Even after seven kids.

He invites her out with George who invites Angelina who invites Alicia and Katie for the sheer novelty of the fact that Fred wants to bring a muggle girl with them. Lee comes too cackling his head off and Lara comes to the club in a dress that shows off her legs in a way that makes Fred think very, very indecent thoughts.

Katie's a muggleborn and so thankfully she knows what to order and she and Lara start chatting which breaks up the conversation pretty easily. They talk about Hogwarts and the houses but don't mention Quidditch and then Lara askes them what to do.

Even then they all dance around the issue. George and he do run a joke shop. Ange is reporting for a sport—kind off—Katie is in medical school—sort of—and the five of them are all in the Order even if it is in different ways and they do fight the Death Eaters as they commit crimes.

"Your in the wrong place then" she says running her hand against the crisp packet for the little crumbs after they tell her. "Nothing ever happens around here. You need to go down to Manchester. You heard about that street that was nearly wiped out in the fire down there? And that brutal triple murder with no leads?"

Again there is another stilled pause and then Lee chimes in.

"Yeah" he says with a fake ease. Because they all know what's happening in Manchester and they all know whose behind it and they all know that there is very little that they can do to stop it even with Ministry support (which they don't have). "But let's not fuck up the evening. So Lara…how'd you meet our Weasley twins over here"

And that puts the conversation out of her mind. Fred can see it and he breathes a sigh of relief and thankfully the night carries on without an issue. Actually it's a great night and he forgets for one moment that there is war on and Lee catches his eye and grins at him from where he's just done something called tequila—the Muggle version of firewhiskey—and he knows that Lara has his friends approval. He's not quite sure what that means because there are so many pitfalls to these relationships. Actually he doesn't know anyone who has been in one, muggle and wizard.

He tries to tell her that much but instead she gives him her number. He can't figure Lara out but he finds he's smiling all the way back home and on the last day of the holidays before Harry went back to school he pulled him aside and asked him how to use a payphone.

Harry had given him a look but there was a reason why at times Harry was a member of this family and why he wasn't. Because anyone would have asked why he wanted to use a telephone. Harry just wrote him instructions and after two goes he manages to get a call through to Lara and he wants to jump up and down in the fucking box because he finally learnt how to do something muggle.

He takes her to dinner. Or he asks to take her to dinner and when she says yes he feels a bubble of delight in his stomach at the thought of it and George shakes his head at the look on his face when he tells his Mum that he's not staying for their last dinner together and his Dad shoots him a suspicious but pleased smile and tells her that it doesn't matter.

But as he's going out Bill comes through muttering about increased activities and about how it's getting worse and as he meets Lara who is dressed in a way that makes his mouth go dry he clutches at his wand and he knows she's watching him.

"Something wrong Fred?" she askes quietly after he admittedly almost overreacts when a drunk stumbled out of the pub.

"Huh? Oh nothing it's just…well…been a long few months you know?"

There's something in the air tonight. He doesn't like it. He really…really…doesn't like it.

"Where'd you get the bruise?"

Shit.

He can't say it was because he got into a brawl at the shop with a man who he is sure was a Death Eater. He cannot mention the fact that this puts a target on his back. He cannot tell her that he is a member of a secret society of wizards dedicated to fighting Voldemort. Hell he cannot even say the name in his head without shivering.

"Fight" he says shortly.

"Your bother come back?"

"What—oh no, trust me he's not going to do that in a hurry" he said darkly thinking of the look on Percy's face as he had stormed from the house and then he ran a hand over his face stopping them in the street.

"Look, can we…I don't want to talk about me right now. It's been a shitty kind of week and my sister went back to school today which means my Mum's worrying and…I just want to eat dinner with the prettiest girl in the village and forget about everything else."

She smiles at him and then kisses him her hand curling around his face and his hands on her hips are warm and he thinks like some lovesick fool he would have laughed at in school that this is heaven. This is perfection and heaven and happiness all rolled into one and this is very worrying because underneath all the practical reasons he shouldn't be doing this, there is a very good chance that he could get this wonderful woman killed…

And there's a very good chance that it will get him killed.

Not that, that bothers him so much but he's sure as shit not going to put her in danger. Lara in such a short amount of time has come to mean so much and…and…

"Is it stupid to say after knowing each other for just this short time that I really might be falling for you?" she says when they break apart and Fred's arms are tucked around her waist and his nose is bumping against her and her lipstick is half on his mouth not that he cares in the slightest.

"It's it crazy to say I might be falling in love with you?" he says heart in his throat because he has never even mentioned the L word before and now he's mentioned it and he doesn't know if he can breathe properly and Lara just simply presses their foreheads together and grins against his neck. She's not sure if she's ready to say the words yet but she knows he understands what she's feeling.

They laugh over dinner, she eats mushroom ravioli and he has a burger (his mother would never dream of cooking a burger but friendships with Katie, Hermione and Harry over the years have given the Weasley family a healthy appreciation of junk food) and he talks about the food at his school and how he misses it now he's left and how his mother cooks for three thousand and she laughs. He tells her about his siblings from the eldest two who travel away from home and his youngest two (he always leaves out one) and he tells her how there was never a second's peace in his house that was always crammed even this Christmas where it was in some places three to a bedroom.

She in turns tell him that she wanted to go to University (the Muggle version of life after Hogwarts apparently) and study History and English. She tells him she wanted to teach and that she tries to cook for herself but the closest she gets to homemade is taking it out of the packet and into water. They share a bottle of wine and it's so utterly glorious that he doesn't want the night to end and he thinks that nothing matters but this, this thing with her, her smile and her laugh and her painted fingernails and he's reckless, he feels so, so reckless because he thinks now he is going to tell her, about magic, about his wand burning a hole in his jacket pocket and he wants to laugh and smile and dance with her and take her to bed and…

"Fred are you sure your alright?"

He flashes her a smile.

"Perfect" he says. "You want desert?"

She bits her lip.

"I don't want to bleed your bank account dry"

"Not an issue" Fred says shaking his head because thank Merlin he has a brother in Gringotts who can help with this issue and give him the paper money which just feels…wired.

She has some sort of banana toffee thing that has a wired name and he sticks with chocolate cake and the whole night is shaping up to be something really, really special as they leave the pub but suddenly it all goes to shit.

As is the nature of Fred's life.

The pub behind them explodes and he sees the Death Eaters coming out of the sky. He picks up Lara and all but throws her away from the fire and then his wand is out. He sends a patronus flying towards the Burrow (the one spell that the barriers can let through—thanks to Dumbledore) and then he starts fighting but he is one man against three. The only saving grace is that all of them are new to the game, there just kids like him, like Lara fighting the fight they believe in and he ducks and waves around trying to keep her hidden from sight.

But just as George arrives and Bill a curse gets her and she screams. He knows what it is and his stomach rips in two as if she was the one who was being crucioed and not her and he throws himself at her with everything he has and for the first time he thinks with the curses he throws at the bastard standing over her, he may have just killed a man.

He doesn't have time to deal with that. Right now all he has to focus on is Lara who is still out of it and he's crying her name like it's being ripped out of him even as her eyes open and she stares at him with a look that tells him she knows that something terrible has happened. To him. To her. To the little village that was until this moment peaceful.

George gets the other, Bill get's the third and then Tonks is there dealing with the villagers and he takes Lara in his arms and apparate directly into her flat not caring about how many rules he's broken.

She passes out for most of the night even as he checks there are no injuries and George doesn't come looking for him.

Fred doesn't think he could move if he tries.

He doesn't want to think about how stupid it was trying to find a bit of happiness in a war. He doesn't. Because if he does then he has to walk away and he's not sure he wants to do that. Even though he is very, very sure that she is going to tell him to fuck off because why wouldn't she? Why would she want a man who brings a danger to her door everytime he sees her? And it's a danger that she can't fight back on. It's a danger that she can't see, it's a never ending danger. For all the talk of Harry and Dumbledore and plans, there never seems to be one or at least not one that Fred can see and it scares him.

It's odd. Dying doesn't scare him but losing her does.

He knows what this feeling is, he doesn't need his Dad to tell him. He knows.

I love you, he thinks looking down at the body on the bed curled around her blankets her make up still smeared around her face. I love you, I love you, I love you. I am in love you and if there is something good and great out there like Albus Dumbledore thinks there is then please love me back.

Eventually though she does wake up groaning and Fred watches his stomach in his mouth, his heart somewhere down his shoes as he watches her for what he knows will be the last time.

She looks at him with that flat gaze and—

"So you're a wizard then?"

He falls of the edge of the bed that he had been sitting on waiting for the inevitable. Off all the words that he had been expecting her to say when she awoke this was really, really not one of them.

What the actual fuck?

She tells him then that her mother was a witch. That her father was a muggle and that she was a muggle and her mother had left her when she was a child presumably because she didn't have magic. She doesn't know enough but she knew the basics—enough to know what he was. And he's laughing at her joke about the card tricks even though it's not funny. It's relief, sheer, sheer relief and he doesn't know what to do with it but he knows that he is going to start crying with pent up emotion if he doesn't get a grip on himself soon.

"Fred…what on Earth was that last night?"

He sighs the joy that her words have inspired in him, that made him feel so much younger is wiped off his face he knows without even seeing a hint of a mirro and he wants to take her into his arms and hold her but he knows he can't. Not until she knows.

And he tells her. He tells her about Hogwarts and some wizard called Albus Dumbledore and how he's in his Order to protect other wizards from a group that calls themselves the Death Eaters. He tells her about the war the unknown world that's just on her doorstep is facing and the daily accidents she's hearing about aren't really accidents but murders and magic and giants (she has to go and take a steading gulp of water at that one and he doesn't blame her) and then he tells her about the man behind it all.

He chokes through the name Voldemort and then shudders so violently that he thinks he might fall of the bed again. It's the first time he's ever said the name before and it's like warm firewhiskey down his veins. It takes courage but perhaps Hermione was alright right when she said fear of a name only increased fear of the thing itself. Once he said it, it was like he could and that was one step forwards in this war that he had taken. Instead he tells her that he never wants to say the name again and can they call him You-Know-Who (baby steps and all). Lara nods and he tells her about the boy who defeated him Harry Potter whose spent summers with his family, who is a member of his family, and how he keeps surviving even when the wizard came back from wherever he was all those years ago. He tells her about these wizards that see her as a kind of food to be played with and she shivers under the warm covers and he wants to take her into his arms and promise her that she wouldn't be touched even though he can't.

He hates himself a little bit for that too.

"So they were Death Eaters tonight?"

"Yeah. They know my family follow Dumbledore and we've got Harry under our protection. The Ministry of Magic—like our government—is holding strong at the moment against the Death Eaters but He's strong this time. There's only so much time we've got before they go. But as long as we've got Dumbledore were in with a fighting chance. And…and now they know about you so I've put charms on your building. I've made it difficult for them to see or find you and this place. It's the best protection I can offer though if I loved you more I wouldn't have gotten involved."

"Bullshit" she says her voice strong. "I love you. And you love me. And you're a wizard with a stick of wood that's a wand. And it doesn't matter. I can take care of myself"

It's the words he wanted to hear and though he loves her, though he knows he doesn't have to tell her that he still thinks it's a bad idea. The best thing for her, the right thing for her is to nip it in the bud but he can't help it. He's selfish. He wants her. And he loves her. He can keep her safe he thinks. He Fred Weasley at nineteen can keep her safe.

He's happy. He wants to keep being happy. As selfish as that sounds. In today's world one grips onto happiness with all they have. So he's going to do that.

She cooks sausage sandwiches that night and she puts on a DVD (whatever that is but she tells him he'll love it) and Fred gets distracted enough by it to forget what's happened.. She goes to bed and he comes with her and this time there's no discussion or hesitation, they both know what they want. There nervous, both of them but he kisses her and though the stretch and the pain that he knows she must be feeling though she tells him that in time it melts into something that makes her gasp and cling to him and he leans his head against her shoulder and they cling to each other getting warm all night.

But he's happy.

So what does it matter?

And somehow it works.

He puts charms on her flat. He talks her through apparition and he makes it so he is the only one who can do that. She nods her way through and she says she get's it and it works. For some reason it works and though he doesn't know how he's not going to question it. Not when everything is working out in his favour in a world where everything can change at a moments notice.

He has to go, the Order has work to do, he has a day job and then there's that terrifying moment in February where he gets a patronus from his father that Ron has been poisoned and he and George in Hogsmeade run back to the castle as if they were being hunted down by Voldemort himself.

She never asks him what he does. She never asks him about the bruises and the cuts and the exhaustion that pulls at him. George never asks him about where he goes every night but only once as they share a contraband cigarette by the willow tree on the Hogwarts ground after Ron gets the all clear (he's pretty sure that George bumped it off a sixth year to boot), if he's happy.

"Yes" he says finally. "She's…she's like Angelina to you. Only I got my shit together and asked her out"

George shoots him a look but doesn't say anything.

"It's not going to be easy" he says finally looking out over the lake.

"I know" Fred says quietly. "You think…Mum and Dad…"

"Merlin Fred" George says grinning. "She' a muggle! Dad's gonna love her and Mum…well…one of us is getting married. You know she's gonna be eyeing the rest of us"

"Who said anything about marriage?"

"You've gone red brother"

"Fuck off"

George just laughs.

That night he goes to Lara's and she makes salmon and pasta and he learns how to use an oven and she laughs at him as he turns it on and off at the correct time and she kisses him and he takes her to bed and spends more than an hour with his head between her legs and he thinks to himself that life is pretty much perfect.

And then it's not.

He goes to her as soon as he can. George has gone to let the order know as Remus can't. His Dad is letting Charlie know…Harry and Ron and Hermione have gone to be with each other and Ginny…Ginny doesn't need him. Ginny's with Luna and Neville.

Instead he goes to her as soon as he can. He tells Ginny he's gone to see a friend and that George will know how to find him and his sister, hollowed out in her eyes looks at him and nods.

Lara opens the door takes one look at him and goes white around the mouth. She fixes him a vodka that he's had before and he downs it the burn not as satisfying as it could be but enough for him to phrase the words that he doesn't want to say. Standing there he tells her as she gets him another drink her hair in a braid dressed in a shirt for bed that he's sure was his once.

"Dumbledore's dead"

She watches him with wide eyes and he knows she get's that this is bad. He doesn't believe half of what he has to tell her his ears still ringing with the distant battle and he shudders down another drink and scrubs a hand over his face so that she doesn't see how close he is to tears.

This is not only the great leader of their fight—which now rests on a sixteen year old—but this is his headmaster, his teacher, a man he considered a great person.

And death…death took him.

And that's not all. That's not all he has to tell her.

"Bill, my brother, he's pretty torn up as well, he got…mauled by a werewolf…I know I should have mentioned them but…my Mum's a wreck and I just don't know how were going to win anymore…"

He shudders a breath and then he drops his head onto her stomach and she clings to him feeling him shudder his emotions out and her shirt grow damp. He can't help himself. He hates himself but he can't help himself.

He clings to her that night and when he kisses her it's with a desperate sort of urgency and he wants to mould them together. He wants her to burrow under his skin and his bone and his blood. He wants her for now until eternity ends. Lara is it for him he knows this and he wants her with everything he has.

But what the death of Dumbledore means for his muggle girlfriend and for him the wizard he simply cannot think.

He doesn't want to think.

He just wants to be.

It get's worse.

George loses his ear. Fred comes back to the Burrow his knees weak wondering if he's lost the other half of him. The joke he comes out with is pathetic but George didn't do it for the laughs, Fred knows he did it for him, to get him to calm down because Fred looks at his brother sometimes at the dark, clean hole and thinks he's going to break in two, right down the middle with the panic and the terror that's hitting him daily.

Lara starts getting sick too. She passes it off as chicken but he thinks maybe the stress is starting to get to her.

And then he thinks of a plan so utterly audacious that it makes him drop his spoon in his cereal one morning.

"Bill?"

"Hmm?"

"You mind if I bring someone to your wedding?"

"Who?" Bill asks. His mother watches him with sharp eyes. George watches him too.

"A girl"

"A girl?" his mother asks her face shining with something. "A girl Fred?"

"Oh boy" George mutters.

"Yeah"

"She'll have to go through the auror's" Bill warns. Fred nods but privately he thinks that if Dawlish is there then he can handle that.

"Who is she Freddie?"

Oh Merlin.

"You'll meet her soon enough" he says turning back to his cereal and suddenly unable to stop smiling.

George kicks him under the table but Fred notices his father is smiling too.

"You want me to go where with you?"

"My brother's wedding" he says grinning at her. Honestly this is the best idea that he's had in months.

"I want to introduce you to my family. I want them to get to know you Lara."

She shoots him another long look and Fred knows what she is thinking before she even begins to voice the thoughts.

"Don't worry. They wont care that your not a witch. Believe me my Dad will be in raptures when he knows I'm dating a muggle. Just be prepared to answer any questions about how Debbie Cards work"

"Debit cards"

"Whatever" he says with a grin. "Come on" he pulls her close to him and she tries her best to resist but she still comes closer to him and she kisses him and Fred breathes in the scent of her shampoo and thinks he could take her to bed right now.

"It will be fun" he promises her. "Besides if I let Mum know it's your birthday in two weeks she'll make you a cake…and a pie probably. She'll look at you and say your underfed."

She laughs again and nods because why not?

Why not? She tells him.

He thinks that's a good estimate of where they are in the world right now.

She dresses in a blue dress and keeps her hair down and she wears heels and Fred makes a comment about taking her to bed and fucking the wedding but she shoots him a look as she puts in her earrings.

"I'm trying to get your mother to like me" she says smoothing down her dress. "You turning up late to the wedding isn't going to help with that"

Fred thinks about his mother and how she's been in the last few days and how he's promised himself when he get's married (though that might be something that changes come to think of it) he's doing it in a three minute ceremony with a bottle of beer, and thinks that she might have a point.

He takes her to the wedding, confounds Dawlish and tells her to stay close to him.

He can feel his great-aunt staring at him as they take their seat. He can see his sister shoot him a look when she walks down the aisle and he knows his mother will want to meet Lara when all of this is over but she tucks her head on his shoulder and they watch his brother get married and everything is golden and wonderful.

"You know" he mutters into her hair. "If I ever do this I'm locking my mother in a room with a full blown body bind curse on her. And everyone can dress in whatever they like and have their hair the way they want. And there rooms can be as messy as can be. She's been a bloody nightmare for weeks planning this."

Lara just grins at him.

They dance, they talk, the laugh, they eat and he's about to introduce her to his mother and father even as his stomach skips a little as they talk about children when it all goes to hell.

"The Ministry of Magic has fallen, Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming. They are coming…"

It evaporates no less than a second later but that's enough for people to start moving and muttering and he knows what's just happened and he knows what he has to do.

He gets to the flat in record time and he thanks Merlin that his enchantments still hold. He knows there good.

Please let them be good.

"Stay here" he orders and he looks more serious than she has ever seen him he knows as she kicks of her shoes and watches him with wide eyes.

"Don't leave unless you have to. I'll come and see you when this is over"

She doesn't question the unspoken end to that question. Instead he kisses her hard and fast and she lets him and then he's gone back to his family and the utter hell that is unfolding.

They question them for hours but by the time he gets back and promptly gets captured Harry, Ron and Hermione have gone. Greyback is with them and every line in Lupin's body seems to lock down. He tucks Tonks behind him and Fred can only thank whoever is up there that he managed to get Lara out.

It's a combination of the ministry and the Death Eaters but his father does most of the talking and Fred has to admit he does it well. Percy is not there and Fred doesn't know what to make of that, if it's a good thing or a bad thing. He doesn't know what to make of his brother at all these days.

Eventually though after hours it seems that there is nothing they can do. Wands are handed back but before they go Greyback turns around and his pale eyes meet Fred's.

"Perhaps we should go and see if that brown eyed muggle girl is more helpful"

Like fucking hell.

It's the red mist descending on him that does it. It takes George, his father and Charlie to pull him back but he's beyond rage now even as Greyback disappears. He has to go and find Lara and…

Something smacks him hard across the face.

"FREDERICK"

His father has never done that before. Actually nobody ever called him Frederick before.

"Calm down" his Dad said quietly. "George you know where this girl lives?"

"Yeah?"

"Go make sure your not seen, make sure the charms are in place and then come back, Bill get the firewhiskey and Fred…calm down…"

He does eventually.

Actually that's a lie, he doesn't calm down but when George tells him that she's safe he can breathe again. His mother has gone to bed, Ginny too, and soon enough they all go but his father and Fred.

"So when you asked me about love at first sight?"

"Yes"

"She's muggle?"

"Yes"

His father quirks his mouth up into a smile.

"Fred" he says softly. "I wont stand here and tell you want to do but…but if you want to be with her you have to understand that with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named out in the open, or at least controlling the ministry there are many, many more significant risks. Also…at some point this family will go into hiding. If that is the case then you have to decide what that means for her and her life."

He nods though he hardly hears the words.

"It's so stupid" he says finally. "It was so stupid of me to…to…"

"To do what?" his Dad asks and suddenly he sounds angry. "To do what? Live your life? Fall in love? Be a human being living a free life free of war? Merlin Fred…I hate this, I hate the fact that my children have to fight a war, and I hate the fact that you have to make these decisions, you are nineteen, you should be out there living your life with the girl that you love. You should be living free, happy. Weather she is muggle or not makes no difference. In fact a French girl, a muggle one, Hermione…if Ron ever gets his act together, Angelina…same could be said of George and Harry…well…your mother will be thrilled."

Fred said nothing.

Just this morning it had seemed like everything was possible. Now it was coming apart at the scenes.

His father's hand on his shoulder was meant to be comforting but to Fred it felt like the heaviest weight in the world.

He knew what he had to do. But he delayed it for three weeks, three long weeks and then more until she walked through the door and he was there. He had to throw the worst of the words that he had at her but he did. He broke up with Lara and when she told him to get out, when she yelled at him without so much as shedding a tear he walked past her and walked home letting the wind scrub at his face even as he was sure that he had left his heart on the table in her little flat.

He knew it was the right thing, Greyback's threat was not something to be taken lightly. He knew that he had done the right thing by Lara, by the Order which had to be his first priority in the coming days but it did feel a little bit like he was half a man when he got back.

His father simply gave him the firewhiskey bottle and shook his head at his mother's expression and George went out to the tree and sat with him for a time as Fred drank and cried and did all the things that he hadn't want to do in front of Lara but could do now he was back at his home and now he was alone.

The Order took up their priority. With every passing day there was something to do. Bill he knew was up to his eyeballs in something to do with getting the muggle borns out of the ministry's watchful eye and into hiding. Ginny was raising hell when it came to the rebellion that he knew was going on throughout Hogwarts and as for him…well…he was doing Potterwatch.

It was hard work but it was good work. The problem was…Lara.

He knew that George was checking up on her from a discreet distance. He knew that his brother was doing it and he did not make him stop. He wanted to know weather or not she was alright, he needed to know and he did not know if he had the strength to go there. Even being in the same street as her was difficult to even think about. He had no idea if she was going with anyone or what he would do if he saw her in the arms of some nameless, faceless muggle man who would not bring danger to her door.

George went only to ensure the spells were up and running and he would nod his head once at Fred's direction and he would try and get some sleep in whatever shitty house they were staying in. Putting Verity in charge of the shop was the only option they had and they had to keep moving. It was obvious who they were by the sound of their voices but considering the average Death Eater was rather dim they were doing ok.

But they were on borrowed time, him, George, Ron, the world. All of them were on borrowed time. There was only so much they could do before they had to turn around and fight. They had to turn around and fight at some point. Because Merlin only knew what was going to happen if they kept this up much longer.

The only question was when.

That was the idea anyway but it went to shit again as did so much of Fred's life that year and he had been in the process of trying to find some sleep when George's patronus landed.

"Get to Lara's quick" it said. "There's something you need to see"

He didn't need telling twice.

He arrives in a whirlwind nearly collapsing into George. Never before has his landing been that bad and he's amazed he didn't splinch himself. George catches him by the upper arm and drags him upwards before he hit the ground.

"What…George…what…what's happened is she?" he's garbling out words utterly terrified of what his brother is going to say to him.

"Pregnant"

"She's…huh?"

It throws him for a complete and utter loop.

"She's pregnant"

She's what?

He counts back in his head and pauses and then goes back and counts again because as much as he wonders weather or not this is real it must be…

He remembers then that she was sick before the wedding. Lara had laughed when he had asked and told him it was the chicken but he had thought that it was the stress. But now…

Oh holy hell.

"Yep" George said grimly. "Yep it's yours and she's big, she's really big brother and she's adamant she doesn't want you anywhere near it, she thinks you know you see. So if I were you I'd get my backside up there and convince her your not the bastard that gets a girl pregnant and then does fuck all about it"

He doesn't need to be telling twice. Even if he didn't love Lara with every fibre of his being then he would still not need telling twice. He's a Weasley and as his father always said—they take care of their responsibilities.

She opens the door and he can't help but stare at her. Her hair is shorter and her belly distends over her face is rounder, her hips more easy to grab he knows and he wants nothing more to do than to take her in his arms and pour all the love and devotion and frustration that racks his body at night into her. He wants to kiss her, hold her, devour her, he wants her by his side night and day and stupidly he thinks about getting on one knee but before he can do that she starts speaking.

"Fred"

"Lara"

"I didn't know…I…"

"Well why would you?" she snaps. "It's not like you left me a way to get in touch with you. I'd have told you everything if I'd had a chance"

To be fair that is…well…fair…he had thought he was doing the best for her. He had never thought of this. He had thought he was being careful. He had thought he had done everything right. He had never thought of this as a possibility.

"I…Lara…I lied you know…I…you know?"

She doesn't say anything, she just stares at him and he feels something inside him breaking at the look on her face.

"I…I would have been here. I would…I want to be here for it. For the baby. I…I made a mistake Lara I…"

Whatever Lara or even Fred is going to say to that is ruined by the fact that she screams suddenly bending over her hand on her belly and he goes with her trying to get his brain to catch up with the rest of him because he's not sure if he needs her telling him what's happened. He thinks he already knows.

"We need a midwife" Fred snaps as George is there in a fraction of a heartbeat like always is. "Mum?"

"No" Lara snarls pushing him backwards. "Get me to a hospital" but as soon as she says it she screams again and Fred honestly doesn't know much but he thinks they don't have time for the muggle option even if he does side along apparition.

"Mum won't leave the house" George says shortly "You know she won't Fred"

Fred swears and picks her up getting her to the bed and then he yells at George.

"Get Tonks" he shouts

"What good is Tonks—?"

"Her mum is a Healer George"

"Oh right—give me sec, I'll give Remus a call"

And then George is gone and Lara moans.

"Lara I need to see…can I check…please my darling can I—"

"Yes" she says through gritted teeth glaring at him with a look that he is sure he deserves.

Fred pulls her leggings and her knickers off and pauses. He has no idea what he's looking at and to tell the truth it's more than a little terrifying and disgusting—for all the words that his mother uses for childbirth.

"Eh…I think I can see the head…"

But before he can say anything else the door slams open and in comes Andromeda Tonks who despite everything looks as if there is not a hair out of place on her. Fred thinks that woman would survive the end of the world perfectly intact. It's the kind of thing that makes it clear that she and Narcissa Malfoy are sisters. Just the naughty and nice tableau version.

"Right" she says taking one look at the two of them, "Out both of you, this is woman's work and I don't need either one of you here. Fred go wait in the…well…go wait outside. You" she says as Lara attempts to sit up. "Lie down."

Lara lies down.

Fred allows himself to be dragged out the room.

"You didn't know" George says from where he is looking at Lara's liquor bottles.

"No of course I didn't and you want the vodka clear one on the left. Closest thing your get to firewhiskey"

George nodded. "What on earth is a Bailey's liquor?"

Fred shudders remembering the taste. Lara had laughed when she had seen the look on his face. "Something so sweet it makes Honeydukes look healthy for the teeth"

George raises an eyebrow but mercifully shoves him a drink and Fred takes it.

"Hmm…not bad. So…you gonna tell Mum she's got her first grandchild?"

Fred opens his mouth to say something that he knows is not going to be nice but before he can there is another scream and he groans burying his face in his hands.

Fatherhood.

Shit.

It's not like he never wanted children, it's just that to have them…now…with all this going on? It's the worst time isn't it? He doesn't know who to speak to about it. His Dad was never an active member of the first order and he knows that one of the contributing reasons why he joined the second time was because all of his children were fully grown. He has no idea if having a baby in a war is a good thing or a bad thing, what to do—how to be—well—a Dad.

He has no idea.

For once he finds himself wishing that he could speak to Harry's dad. Harry's dad must be the only person Fred knows whose had a child in the midst of the war when he didn't have to. His first born that is. He wants to speak to Harry's dad to ask how the hell do you do this? How do you fight in a war and hopefully go home and see your baby every night and do it wondering if each day you will see them again?

A wail interrupts his thoughts and Fred looks up as Andromeda comes out the room.

"Grey Goose" she says looking at the vodka bottle. "Good girl. George get me a mug and pour me a good amount. Fred…she wants to see you. So does your son"

For a moment he gazes at her open mouthed and then he nods going into the room his heart beating so fast it feels like it's about to explode out of his chest. Lara is siting there in the middle of the bed her face a mass of sweat and hair and stickiness and her eyes are bright and she's clutching a bundle in a blanket and Fred thinks she is most beautiful girl that he has ever seen.

"Come in" she said shifting and wincing and Fred does just that so he has to go slowly afraid of…of what he doesn't know he just knows that he is afraid.

"Do you want to hold your son?" she askes and he looks from her to the baby and nods. She smiles back at him and she gently shifts the baby to him. Fred looks down at his son and he cannot stop the sob that threatens to escape him.

His baby boy is perfect. He's never thought of babies as perfect to be honest. In fact to be perfectly honest it's been a long time since he has seen one. Ginny was the last baby that he remembers holding but perhaps it is just liking riding a broomstick. Once you can do it, you never forget it because his son slips into his arms as if he was born to be there.

He's not screaming and crying anymore instead he's looking up at Fred with a rather disgruntled expression that is honestly the funniest thing that he has ever seen. He has a tuff of red hair matted across his tiny head and his fingernails on his hands are the most amazing thing that Fred has ever seen. His toes are wrinkled on his feet that are so small he could cup both of them in the palm of his hand and it's Lara's eyes staring back at him and he thinks that this boy is the most perfect and the most loved boy in all creation.

He get's it now. Why James Potter would try and fight without a wand and why Lily Potter would stand in front of her son uncaring about her own life. He gets why his mother and father panic all the time when one of them is out on missions for the Order. He understands all of it because this boy…Fred has only met him once, he's only been in Fred's life once in twenty minutes and already he has burrowed his way down into Fred's very soul and Fred loves him beyond words.

"Hello mate…it's me…Daddy" he looked up at Lara and he knows his chin is wobbling and his eyes very, very wet.

"Lara he's—"

"I know" Lara says her own eyes bright because she is the only person who will ever, ever know what Fred is feeling right now because she feels it too.

"He's a red head as well"

"Yeah well he's a Weasley isn't he?" Fred cooed softly. "And I bet he's going to be a Beater"

He makes a mental note to get a baby's first broomstick and a baby's first beaters bat as soon as he can. No way is his son growing up to be a chaser or heaven forbid…a keeper…Oliver would never let him hear the end of it.

"Archie" Lara says suddenly into the silence. Fred tears his eyes away from his son and stares at her.

"His name is Archie. After my dad…and…I thought perhaps Frederick could be his middle name…unless you have another one in mind? I mean George or Lee or—"

"Lee and George as middle names?" Fred said with an eyeroll as he imagined how that would turn out. "Nah they'd never let me hear the end of it. Is he…I mean…I understand if you don't want my name…"

He did. He really did but it didn't stop him from wanting it. From wanting all of it, her Archie…his son Archie…but he wanted…oh how he wanted it. Perhaps that made him greedy, wanting what he didn't deserve and couldn't have but he wanted it anyway.

Lara hesitates turning her eyes from him and eyeing her vanity desk for a long time. She stares at the wooden desk and Fred turns his eyes back to Archie drinking him in because he is well aware that just like the night he told her that he was a wizard she could just as well as tell him to fuck off right here and now.

"Weasley" she says finally into the fading light and then she speaks again as he drags his eyes of his son and back onto her perfect face.

"Weasley. Archie Frederick Weasley"

He can't stop the emotion that spills out of him. This whole afternoon has just been a ride of unbridled emotion that he cannot figure out how to deal with. He's a Dad now. He doesn't know how to commute that to the person he was this morning when all he had to worry about was setting up the passwords for the next broadcast but he know from now on everything is going to be different. Because this is Archie. He is Archie's Dad.

And Archie Frederick Weasley is going to have his Dad in his life in any way he can be. There will never not be a moment where Fred is not thinking of his son or the wonderful woman that is his mother and the love of his life.

"Hello Archie" he says softly running his thumb across the perfect little face. Archie gurgles a little but mostly settles down his eyelids fluttering against his plump cheeks and Fred wants to remember this moment forever.

Merlin even his baby's eyelashes are perfect.

"Fred" Lara says quietly. "The war is bad again isn't it? George said you'd been on the run a lot."

"Yes" he says softly and his jaw locks of it's own accord because he thinks he understands what she is going to ask him to do and while he understands it he cannot pretend that the thought is not torture against torture.

"Yes" he says finally. "He's winning and I've been broadcasting…so to speak…see Lee had this idea of getting real news to the people because what they get now is utter bullshit propaganda and we keep getting raided. But it's good work, hard work but it feels like were making a difference you know?"

Lara just looks at him, she looks as if she wants to say something but she refrains herself from the last minute instead just watching him with those hazel eyes that seem to bleed emotion.

"Are they still watching me?"

"Not in a while. George…It was the only thing that kept me from coming back…he told me that you were safe and I believed him. Besides You-Know-Who hasn't even been in the country. We don't know where he is but the Order knows that much"

"So what happens now?" he asks jaw clenched. Lara shrugs.

"What do you think happens now?"

"I know what I want to happen" he says earnestly. "I know I want to stay here with you and our son and never leave. I know I made a mistake…a stupid mistake in an effort to keep you safe and I know you might never want me like that again but…but I'm a Dad, Lara. I'm Archie's Dad and I want to be his Dad. I want to be the one to teach him how to walk and how to fly and all about girls…I want to be in his life even if his Mummy doesn't want me in hers. I don't know how to stay away from you"

It's all he can say to her now though he knows it wont make a difference. He loves her and he thinks that she loves him but they are nineteen and parents for the first time in a war that shows no sign of stopping and this baby, this precious boy who he now has to leave has to come first and she is right. While he is doing Potterwatch, while his brother is out there with Harry he is a target which means she is, which means Archie is and he will do anything to make her and him safe.

What does his own life mean if they are not in it?

Nothing, that's what.

"But you have to" she says her voice wobbling. He stares at her but she doesn't look at him and he can't blame her. But he wants to look at her, he wants to look at his son, he has to drink them in while he still has time.

"You said it yourself. Somewhere in that Ministry there's a piece of paper with my name and address written on it and at some point you or your brother will be caught and that will be the end of that. Right now I can protect him if they don't know about him. If they don't track you here"

Fred looks away and stares at her wardrobe and Lara takes the opportunity to slip Archie from his arms and back into hers. His arms ache at the loss of him but the baby doesn't seem to mind. He's asleep. Fred wishes he was. He wishes he could sleep and never wake up ever again. Because this is a, pain upon pain and he knows it's right but yet at the same time he doesn't know how to get up from this bed and leave the two of them here for Merlin only knows how long. Babies change so much…for all he knows Archie might be a man before he sees him again.

He has to swallow down the howl of misery at the thought.

"Your right" he says in a cold detached voice. "But it doesn't change anything for me. I'll go, I'll leave you a number this one reachable and you call me if you need anything but…but there won't be so much as a second that I'm not thinking about your or our baby boy. And when this is over and the bastard is finally dead I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna be his Dad and your best friend and hopefully if you'll let me the man you trusted and loved once before."

Lara shook her head.

"Fred—"

"Just can I get you to promise me one thing?"

She nods numbly.

"At some point this is all going to go tits up. Trust me. I want to charm a bag of yours with what's call and Undetectable Extension Charm which means that the bag will fit everything in your flat into it. Can you put some stuff in there, for you, for Archie and carry it around with you…and then if the worst comes to worse I can get you and him to safety?"

She looks at him evenly and then nods through her tears and he takes a deep breath and nods again because it's something.

And if that's all he's got then that's better than nothing.

It's enough for him to stand up at any rate.

He kisses her and she clutches Archie between them and she kisses him as if she too has missed him with every fibre of her being and wants to stay in this moment forever. He also wants to tell her that George has probably inhaled her vodka by now or at the very least conjured himself a bottle but he doesn't. Instead he kisses every inch of her that he can reach and then presses a small kiss on to Archie's forehead trying to commit everything to memory.

"I don't hate you" she says under her breath. He gives her a smile and then he kisses Archie again runs a hand over his hair wincing at the cropped texture (he had to cut it short to avoid detection once his photo was up everywhere) and then he smiles though it's not a farewell and it's not a goodbye because he vows here and now he is coming back.

Andromeda Tonks is gone when he gets out the room and George takes one look at him and gets him out of there quickly down to the gate and then they apparate so the charms stay in place. It's just them at their hidey-hole and Fred breaks down as soon as they arrive and George, his twin, his brother, the other half of him says nothing but just holds him while he cries for everything he has gained, everything he has lost and everything he is going to miss in between.

It lights a fire under his backside to get the job done. Remus once suggests he is becoming too reckless but he doesn't care. They get more and more reckless with the broadcasts, he takes on jobs for the Order and he sends George to deal with his parents because if he was anywhere near Ottery St Catchpole right now he wouldn't be able to stop himself.

He's bone deep exhausted. He thought he knew tiredness before, when Oliver would work them to they could barely keep on their broomsticks, when McGonagall would set a mountain of revision homework the likes of which he had never seen before and never wanted to see again and when he had been up all night that time at the Yule Ball and then again when he had finished his OWLs and Jesse Donahue had introduced him to firewhiskey for the first time. He had thought he knew it then but this was a different kind of exhaustion. This exhaustion pulled at you until there was nothing left to do but to try and sleep and then when you got to sleep all you wanted to do was stay awake. He couldn't dream. He didn't want to dream because it was either nightmares or the cruellest kind of dreams where he was with his family and he would wake expecting them here and they were gone. Gone from him.

George had gone on a supply run, Remus had gone home as Tonks was near her time and Kingsley had to see a source that he claimed might have information that he could use. Nobody had commented on the fact that there was a muggle phone in the corner and Fred who had scrubbed himself clean in the muggle house they were staying in had collapsed into bed when the phone rang.

For a second he was unsure what the shrill noise was but then it caught up with his brain and he realised that there was only one person who could be using a muggle phone to call him.

Lara.

"Lo?"

"Sorry did I wake you?"

"Lara? No I'm fine did something happen?"

He staggered upright running a hand through his still short hair and trying to keep himself awake and his heart rate down. At this rate Voldemort needn't bothered sending Death Eaters after them. At this rate Fred's heart would give out before the fight ever came to pass.

"Archie just used magic"

For a second he doesn't register what she is trying to tell him but then it sinks in and he can't stop the bubble of hysterical laughter and joy rise within him. His boy used magic, it's been six weeks (though it feels like six years) since he last seen them but his boy is already using magic, his clever, clever little boy.

Fred loves him, he feels his heart break and repair and swell and break at the thought of his boy and his mother. Lara and Archie.

"He just made his elephant appear without warning and he's so very, very smug about it…"

He can imagine.

"Do…er…do you want to come over and see if he'll do it for you?"

He wants to, he really, really wants to, he craves too and though he knows that he should stay away he also knows that he has to see them, it's an itch under his skin and he needs to be there with them and he wants them so desperately and you know what…fuck it. He needs to see them, if those bastards out there who hate him want to have a problem with that then so what? He'll fight to the death for his family, even for these few precious moments.

"Sure."

He apparates into her flat and she doesn't bat an eyelid. Neither does Archie. He's grown bigger since the last time that he has seen him, he's perched on Lara's hip and he's chewing a tail of an elephant that she's got in her arms. He's has red hair the exact same shade as his and his eyes are Lara's through and through and Fred drinks his boy in with wide eyes because he has gotten so big.

And he has missed so much.

He tears his eyes away from Archie and looks at Lara and he has to swallow. She's dressed in leggings and a shirt that's falling over her and her hair is falling out of the clasp that she's keeping it up in and she is the most beautiful woman that she has ever seen. She looks exhausted and yet so…so…stunning.

"Would you like to hold him?" she says and he takes Archie before she can even blink and he's hooking him on his hip and Archie is beaming and Fred doesn't care because his son is smiling at him as if he recognises him and that is the best gift in the world and he never wants to leave.

"My clever lad" Fred says beaming. "My clever, clever little lad. Eh? Using magic for the first time"

Lara watches them for a second and then—

"Do you want to stay the night?"

His head snaps up to her so fast that he's worried he gave himself whiplash. Lara rolls her eyes.

I don't mean like that" she hurries to say. "I mean…I need to get some sleep and you and he can have some time together and…well…it would be nice."

Fred beams at her and it's as if the months of the war have been stripped away because she wants him with her and it's better than what he had in months.

"I'd love that" he says simply.

Lara smiles at him, takes a bath, washes her hair, feeds Archie and then passes him to him and then promptly falls asleep. Archie does not want to fall asleep but Fred doesn't mind because it gives him time with his son and that is worth all the gallons in the world.

Archie gurgles at him and Fred bounces him on his knees.

"Archie I need you to understand something" he says to his son. "I need you to understand him that I love your mother and I love you and I will always fight to be with you. And that because I love you I have to give you a better world. So if you don't see me around my darling it's not because I love you, it's just because I love you too much"

Archie gurgled at him but Lara turned in her sleep and Fred pressed a kiss to her hair before he could stop himself.

"Stop thinking and sleep" he says before he can stop himself. Lara looks at him and then she lets her eyes fall shut he places his wand at the beside table and lets Archie curl up on his chest Lara's arm around them both and he falls asleep and thinks like the foolish boy that he is…that this is heaven.

And then again like a guilty thing, it all goes to shit.

It's George and George's patronus that wakes him. He stares at it for a second because George is George and he knows what he is being told and it is not going to be good even as he forces himself awake Archie still a happy and heavy weight on his chest.

"They have Ron. He got out but they know. Going to Muriel. Get them out now."

He blinks and then reality sinks in.

They are coming. They are coming…they are coming.

George bangs on the door sharply then and Lara starts herself awake looking at Fred. She doesn't need to say anything because she knows and despite what they say to each other she takes Archie and she grabs her bag and George spills into the room and he tells her what has happened but he doesn't need tot ell her it really.

Lara's known. She's known for quite a while.

He gets them out by the skin of his teeth he is sure and as soon as they get to Muriel Lara staggers as if she's winded and he's acutely aware that his brother has just arrived and he staggers upwards his whole body shaking .

He gets her to Muriel's through what he knows is the skin of his teeth and Archie is screaming and his mother and father are both there and George is there telling him he has to face the music and suddenly Lara is pitching backwards into his arms and he has to struggle to keep them both upwards and…

"Frederick…what the hell have you done?"

He knows his father, and he knows his mother and he knows what this means and he knows somehow he has to explain the woman he loves and his son to his family.

And yet somehow he does. Despite all odds, he does.

His Dad is not impressed.

That's putting it mildly.

Archie sleeps through it all. Naturally.

"So let me get this straight" his Dad says once the entire story is out through Fred's mumbles and George filling in the blanks with what they were doing with the Order (more than they already know), because his mother and his Aunt are with Lara and he doesn't know what that means.

"You got this muggle girl pregnant. You didn't know it at the time when you dumped her and she's just given birth to your son three months ago. You then proceeded to leave her and throw yourself into the Order with a breath-taking disagreed for your own life I might add and you did all of this without telling any of us?"

Fred nods.

"George take my wand and get me a whiskey"

Archie shifts a little and Fred adjusts his weight. He's a big boy now and Fred is acutely aware that his boy trusts him even though until today and the day he was born he's never really seen him…

"Well" his Dad said after her consumes the whiskey. "I suppose it was too much to hope for with seven children that you'd all have children after you were married or at the very least stable, there's no use crying over spilt potion—how are things with you and her?"

"Lara" Fred says automatically. "Her name is Lara"

"Lara" his Dad says nodding.

"I don't know" Fred admits. "I know what I want but I don't know if she…I don't know" he finishes lamely. "It's…it's a mess"

"Yes" his Dad says pouring himself a whiskey. "War often is" he looked out to the sky and nodded. "Bill should be here soon" he said. "She knows she has to stay here?"

Fred nods because he knows that Lara has known for a while that this could happen.

His Dad still staring out at the window reaches out then and tugs his arms to that they are hugging the three of them, Archie begins to fuss.

"Now does this little one have a name?" Ginny asks. She's sat on the edge of the sofa watching. She's been silent the entire time. Fred thinks that he isn't the only one whose aged since this began. One look at his sister and she looks decades older. His mother looks eons older and there's nothing that he can do to stop it. There on a runaway train now with no way of getting off and since she found out Harry is alive and that he's only an apparition away his sister has gotten sad and silent and Fred doesn't know what to make of it. All he knows is that right here, right now he can answer this question.

"Archie" he says finally. "His name is Archie. Archie Frederick Weasley"

"Archie" his Dad says and Fred has to blink rather rapidly because for a baby that he's just found out existed his Dad has so much love in his tone. "Well that's a wonderful name and didn't Lara do well…he's a beautiful baby"

"All down to her Dad" he chokes out wiping his eyes.

"Oh I know. But son…you've got to tell your mother"

"Oh yes" comes a voice from the door and the three Weasley men (four if you count Archie) and the one Weasley girl all turned around to stare at Molly Weasley her hands on her hips looking more alive than she has done in months.

"Your friend is asleep. She's fainted but she'll be alright, probably just the shock. I've given her some potion and she'll be as right as rain. Now you" she points at Fred. "Better explain yourself son and for your sake you better make it good"

"Busted" George whispers.

Fred manages a wobbly grin.

And it works.

It shouldn't but it does. Lara comes down the stairs the next day and it works. She fits into their family as if she was a part of it. His Dad loves having a muggle in the house and Lara seems genuinely amused by his questions and does her best to answer them. She explains to him how one cooks in the mircro-wave thing and he nearly faints in delight. She's put into her bag something called a pot-noddle and she just adds water to it and it fascinates the entire family seeing it turn into food (though his mother sniffs in disapproval when she sees it) His mother also declares Lara underfed and sets about feeding her and her grandson. Even Muriel eyes her with something that might be a shade less than contempt, declares her to have good bone structure and when Lara mentions muggle history it turns into an impromptu lecture on what the Wizards did to the Muggles in the First World War which makes Fred roll his eyes but Lara hangs on every word.

They sleep together the two of them in the same bed exhaustion pulling at them most days, he works on products with George and plays with Archie and they eat food in bed sometimes. They do make love a couple of times and it's like they've never stopped. They just be…

He knows his mother disapproves but his father just shoots him a look and tells him to be careful. Fred just grins, he feels happier and lighter than he has done in months.

At least until the 1st May when Bill arrives and tells them that Harry is back and that they've got to fight.

He rips himself away from his family and goes to Hogwarts. The school looks much the same but it's the people that he misses. The students look hollowed out, tired but there's a steady determination in their faces that tells him that no matter what McGonagall or his mother do his sister and his friends are going to find a way to fight.

He manages to cuff Ron on the back of the shoulder, he even shakes Percy's hand when he turns up and then the fight begins in true style and he cannot…he will not think about what he leaves behind, in truth there's not much time because as soon as it begins it's all he can do to stay alive.

He manages to get to the fifth floor when Ron and Hermione and Harry come staggering out of nowhere and it all goes to hell. One minute Percy is making a joke and then the hole wall blows apart. He goes flying his hand on his wand and he manages to block his head with his hand which he knows is broken on impact but the real pain is in his leg and he knows that Its' buried under rubble.

Percy, Ron, Harry…they all try to get him out while Hermione manages to fight off three at once and protect a cowering first year but there's no point. It's no good and he knows it, the pain in his left leg is beyond agonising now and he can feel cold numbness spreading.

He grabs Percy by the tie.

"Cut it off" he says through a shuddering gasp. Percy on the other hand just jerks back like he's been burned but Fred knows that this is what has to happen and besides…it's better than being dead and he is not joking when he thinks that he is going to be dead sooner rather than later. He swallows down the blood collecting in his mouth and looks at Percy.

"I have a son" he says through blood stained teeth. "And I want to see him grow up. So Percy CUT MY FUCKING LEG OFF!"

Percy shoots Ron a look who nods and it's done. Percy does it. Ron and Harry hold him down, Hermione defends their position and Fred…well…Fred just passes out. Which is a good thing because if he was to see what Percy does then…then he doesn't think that he will be able to make it.

He passes out and typically misses the moment Harry defeats Voldemort.

Fuck Fred's life.

When he wakes up Lara is looking at him.

She's been told, granted he had known when he had woken up but there's something…odd about seeing his muggle…whatever she is now in the Hospital Wing with their baby on her lap telling him that she's heard it's over.

He doesn't know what to expect and even though he told Percy to do this tears burn in his eyes that he can't quite explain but she looks him square in the eye with that burning expression that he has come to realise means, she means business.

"Look at me Frederick" she snaps and weather it's her tone or the use of his full name he does.

"Lara" he half sobs and she grips his hand her own eyes overbright and she grabs his chin Archie half perched between them and stares down at him so that he can see her eyes and see the love and the devotion that is there. It's been so long since he has seen that look in her eyes that he starts sobbing in earnest and he tries to stop because he is sure once he gets going he isn't going to stop.

It's not just Lara. It's Archie. His son is going to grow up in a future without war and it's everything Fred's wanted and he thinks again of James Potter who wanted the same and never will get to see his son live a life. Now Fred gets to see Archie do it and he scrubs a hand over his face and forces himself under control as Lara is still speaking and he wants to listen. There is never going to be a time where he doesn't want to listen to her.

"It doesn't matter" she says to him forcing his eyes to met hers. "It doesn't matter to me Fred, it doesn't matter to Archie. What matters is that you are alive. What matters is that we are alive. And the war is over. And…and I love you"

Fred makes another hiccupping noise but doesn't sob anymore. Instead his arms twist to Archie and Lara places their son in his lap and Archie looks up through his red hair that really needs cutting and his small hand come out to grip onto Fred's singed fingers.

"My little lad" he says softly because he is so perfect and his son watches him with wide hazel eyes and Fred loves him more than life himself and he is so…so perfect. All he wants to do is watch his son grow up and it's hard for him to admit that now he can do that. He thinks that it's going to take a long time for him to realise that every little noise is not a Death Eater in disguise approaching his family.

"It wont matter to him" Lara says quietly.

"I know" Fred says finally. He looks at her again, he drinks her in and like the night he realised he loves her he knows that this is the woman he was meant to spent his life with.

Fred surges up then and kisses her, Archie squarks with protest and then starts screaming in annoyance and then Madam Pomfrey comes charging back down the row of beds like a cavalry charge to tell Fred to lie back down and can his friend please go so he can get some rest.

But Fred is smiling like he did so long ago when she was just the girl in the Paper shop and he was the boy looking for a card and this is perfection beyond words.

There's a world out there free of a monster and a life waiting to be lived.

And he is going to live it.

He is damn well going to live every moment of it. With Lara, with his son and he's going be happy.

After all…if the leg doesn't bother her then he's going to do his best to make sure that it doesn't bother him. He has his life. And considering how the night could have gone he is achingly aware that there was a very good chance he might not have.

He is damn well going to live and love and laugh and be happy.

And nobody is going to take that away from him.

Fred Weasley is thirty one now. He lives in a little cottage in a little corner of the world where there are sounds at night and they don't trigger him.

His wife is also telling him she is old.

"Hardly old sweetheart" Fred says when she looks in the mirror on September 1st and swears she can see wrinkles. "And your legs look as good now as they did eleven years ago"

"You know I don't need magic to hurt you?" she says grinning. She tugs the long dark hair into a high pony and pulls on her jeans and an somewhat decent jumper and winces again.

"I know" Fred says from where he's still lounging in bed. "But today you look especially ravishing so why don't you come back to bed?"

Actually if they didn't have to be somewhere he knows she'd take him up on that offer. But today's different. Today's special. Today he has to send his son to Hogwarts. Today Archie takes the first steps towards the big wide world.

It's hard not to be a little melancholy.

He pulls on his prosthetic and Lara looks away. They have an understanding on things such as these and he loves her even more for it. She makes it look easy.

There's a crash and Lara turns around signing and then she flashes him a wink.

"This is your fault you know?" she says over her shoulder. "You're the one that let's that Marcus Flint around them, he corrupts them for fun you know?"

"I don't let Flint around them! I let Uncle Oliver around them! So what is Flint and Oliver are together? Besides you'd think Oliver would try and control his boyfriend"

He still can't get over that. He really can't. George's reaction to the news though had been hysterical.

That had helped him through the shock somewhat. But looking back he supposes it's almost funny, the Slytherin and the Gryffindor getting together.

Somewhere Dumbledore is laughing Fred knows it.

"Sorry Mum. It was all Isla's fault" comes the voice of their seven year old daughter Mia and then without warning four year old Isla bellows with enough force to wake the dead, "No it was not my fault Mummy! Mia wanted to make waffles! And Archie's doing sod all!"

There was another crash and then without warning Archie skidded into the room, slid to a complete stop and righted himself against the dresser. Fred grins his son looks like an red headed hedgehog. Clearly the hair brush has not been used. He's also in his new uniform and looking at him Fred feels his heart turn over with love at the sight of him, this baby born into a time of war but who never had to experience it.

"You know Dad I can stop the two of them arguing if you want—"

"No" Fred said reaching for his own wand. "Arch, you know you can't do magic until you walk through those castle walls and I don't fancy another visit from the your grandfather because you've alarmed seventeen muggles by turning your sisters into badgers"

"I never did that—great idea though cheers Dad!"

Fred laughs because it reminds him of the days where it was him and George and Ron ribbing each other and toilet seats and Ginny crying and Harry being eleven and his son is going to have all of those memories at Hogwarts he knows and peace is going to be the constant behind the scenes.

Granted though with a Weasley and a Lupin starting this year and both of them firm friends he doesn't know how long that's going to last. Personally if he goes a month without getting an exasperatedly fond letter from McGonagall he's going to be disappointed.

"Come on" Fred said trying to ruffle their son's hair (he jumps nimbly out of the way, all of her children are complete freaks when it comes to their hair) and he holds out his hand to her and she takes it linking their fingers together like she did all those years ago when he told her he might be falling a little bit in love with her and she smiled back and kissed him and the world though falling apart was still golden for those few precious minutes.

So much has changed and yet nothing at all.

But for now, when asked Fred Weasley can say hand on heart that he believes in true love, love at first sight and all the love in between the two.

Because he's got it.

And life is good.

Better than good even.

Life…life is perfect.

And there you go, I hope you enjoy this little oneshot and I will see you soon.