Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Katie Bell has been alone for the last four years. After the wedding of her best friend, she heads to the Leakey Cauldron. After she gets drunk, will she make some mistakes that she'll regret later? Oliver Wood/Katie Bell

Disclaimer: You name it, I don't own it.

Chapter Eleven: Isn't That Cute??

It had been a week since Ronald Asher Weasley had gone out with the all-perfect specimen of female perfection, Ms. Aphrodite Cassidy Jones.

It had been a week since Ronald Asher Weasley had stopped speaking to me.

"Remind me to never get on the bad side of a Weasley temper ever again." I muttered, mostly to myself as I wrote myself a little note on a case I was working on. I rubbed my eyes as though that could rub the sleep from them, but to no avail.

"Never get on the bad side of a Weasley temper ever again."

I looked up to find the speaker, who turned out to be Ginny Weasley, who was staring at me, her arms crossed. I grinned sheepishly. We were all out to lunch yet again. I had just happened to bring a case with me to finish over lunch, since Susan had point blank refused to leave me alone in my office again during lunchtime. She claimed that if I didn't each lunch then my babies would turn out deformed. I still insisted that the only way my babies would become deformed would be because they had to listen to her nag me for nearly seven months of my pregnancy. Susan didn't respond to that accusation.

I always win.

Susan turned and grabbed my case file away and put it in her briefcase she had brought along. "Hey!" I exclaimed, trying to grab it back. "Give it back!"

"No." Susan replied shortly. She was sitting to the right of me, giving her complete access to grabbing my materials. I scowled at her.

"You really should eat, Katie." Hermione said, taking a bite out of her salad. We had come to a little health food store called "Whole Foods" that had some healthy lunches on tap. Hermione had gotten it into her head that she should be my conscious, though I have a perfectly good one in my head.

I took a bite of salad to satisfy Hermione. "There, you happy?"

"Not really." She answered truthfully.

I rolled my eyes. Susan and Hermione were sitting on either side of me, while Ginny and Erica were sitting on either side of them. Ginny was working on a piece of parchment that looked like a form for Out of Area Apperation (OOAA), only looking up occasionally to take a bite out of her small whole-wheat pizza with slices of sausage on top. Erica was taking a sip of her drink, her red lips wrapped daintily around the blue straw, her already high cheekbones seemed to stick out even more as she sucked on the straw, drawing the liquid upwards into her mouth. I noticed two young boys staring avidly at her as they were checking out at the Number Five check-out stand. Erica obviously saw them too and she let the straw go, swallowing whatever it was she was drinking and smiled at the two boys. They blushed crimson red and grabbed their paper bag in a hurry and left, the five of us laughing our heads off.

"Ah..." Erica sighed. "To be young again."

"Oh, puh-lease." Ginny said, drawing out the word, looking up from her work and glaring at Erica. "You are only twenty-nine!"

"And you're nineteen."

"So?"

"I'm ten years older."

"So?"

"Forget it." Erica said with an air of being misunderstood by her own friends.

"Whatever." Ginny said, getting back to her work.

"Where are you going, Gin?" Hermione asked, looking at the parchment over Ginny's shoulder. "Wait a minute, this is an Out of Country Apperation Application!"

"Out of country?" I repeated. "What haven't you been telling us, Ginny?"

"Oh, nothing." Ginny said. "The Daily Prophet wants to send me to Africa on assignment to cover some of the explosions that have been going on down there. I'll be gone for two weeks, I'm leaving on Monday." Ginny sighed. "My hair is going to go haywire in that weather!"

Africa. The word jumped out in my brain. Oliver was in Africa, playing the Patonga Proudsticks next week. I felt tears spring to my eyes and I had to bite my lip to keep my eyes from closing and forcing the tears pass onto my cheeks. The eternal watchful Hermione spotted me first. "Kates? What's wrong?" Her voice alarmed, and she reached out and touched my cheek with her soft hand.

Just hearing Oliver's nickname for me made the tears spill over, running down my cheeks in pale rivers. "Oh Merlin's Beard, Katie." Ginny said. "Was it something I said?"

"No." I sobbed. I wiped some of the tears away with my hand and Hermione got the rest with her nimble fingers. "Well...yes...I mean...what you said reminded me of...Oliver..."

"Oh sweetie." Susan said, coming over and hugging me tightly.

When she released me from her death trap, I took a shaky breath. "I just keep thinking and wondering if I did that right thing." I mumbled, not really caring if they heard me, I was just voicing what had been going on in my head since the day Oliver left. "By not telling him. But every single day I don't tell him, is just going to be one more day he's going to be angry at me for not telling him. It's an endless cycle, going round and round in my head." I put my face in my hands.

I heard silence fall over our little group. Susan was still my side, holding me tightly. I looked up with tears in my eyes, and I saw Ginny looking sternly at me. "Katie." She said, and I half expected her to turn into the formidable Mrs. Weasley. "Say what you like, think what you like about what Oliver will do, but I know what he'll do."

"I can say for a fact that he's not going to be pleased at the fact that you kept the information that he has twins coming all this time." Ginny gave me a disgusted look. She had been on my case ever since I had decided not to tell Oliver. "He will be pissed. He will be God damn angry at you."

I let out a choked sob.

"But he'll forgive you." Hermione said gently, taking my hands in hers. "Even after everything's been said and done, and he finally gets over his anger, he will forgive you."

"How do you know?" I asked angrily, the occasional tear falling down my cheeks.

"I've seen the way he looks at you." Hermione said. "The way his letters sound, Katie. He will care enough about you to come and take responsibility for what he's done, and you two will be stronger because of it."

"Oh, pleeease don't go all Lifetime movie on me, Katie!" Erica exclaimed, coming over to hug me. "I still want you to kick Ron's butt again!"

We all laughed, even me, as I wiped the tears off. "If he'll ever talk to me again." I said, in response to Erica's comment.

"Oh he'll talk." Ginny said, making another face, this time, digging her spoon into some strawberry yogurt and dishing it into her mouth. She swallowed before continuing. "I swear to God." She said with a murderous tone. "Ron brought that snob-arse brat to dinner on Sunday, and it took all of Fred, George and Bill's reasoning to keep me from performing the Bat-Bogey Hex on her, and I would have too."

"And no one doubts it, Ginny." Susan said, taking a sip of her own drink on her way back to sit at her seat.

Hermione smiled. "I remember when you did that on Malfoy. He wouldn't call you Weasel for the rest of the years at Hogwarts." She paused, looking pensive. "Actually, I don't think he ever looked at you again..."

Suddenly I felt a kick in my stomach against my back. "Ow!" I exclaimed, holding my side, and wincing.

"What's wrong?" Susan asked, alarmed.

"Oh, nothing." I said, grumbling. "Just the Twin Terrors are up and kicking again."

"Personally, I can't wait until I get children." Susan said, drumming her fingers on the tabletop, giving me a twinkling stare with her green eyes.

"Yeah?" I replied. "You want the two-future Quidditch stars treating your kidneys like Bludgers? Go right ahead, you can have them."

Susan laughed. "Then I would be the one constantly eating strange foods that have no nutrition at all."

Hermione snorted into her drink and Erica stared at Susan for a very long time with a bewildered look and then let out a harsh laugh that sounded like a bark. Ginny had to prevent herself from spitting out her yogurt. I merely scowled. It was not my fault that I kept getting cravings!!

After their so un-just laughter, Ginny voiced, "So what time do you want us there tomorrow?"

"What?" I had tuned out because their laughter had seemed to go on into eternity and back. I was abruptly brought down to Earth to look into Ginny's ice blue eyes.

"You're moving tomorrow." Ginny stated plainly as if she was explaining this to a hyper six-year-old that needed to go to bed before its Mommy came back home. "We're going to help." She indicated the rest of the group, who nodded enthusiastically.

"No way." I said flatly. "How many times do I need to tell you guys that I don't have to be coddled throughout my entire pregnancy?!"

*+*

Do they ever listen to me?

No.

Why not?

Truly, I don't have a clue.

"Katie, put that down!" Susan exclaimed.

I was carrying a very large box, true, but Susan did not have to get on my case about it. If Erica continued to want me to kick Ron's arse, then I have to be able to carry a box into my own house!

"Susan." I said simply, struggling to turn around and face Susan. "Bugger off already! I'm perfectly fine."

"Put it down, or I tell Oliver." Ginny said, walking past us carrying a very large box herself.

I scowled, but put it down and took out my wand. "Locomotor Box!" I cried, and the box hovered in the air and I stuck my tongue out at both Ginny and Susan. "There. I'm not endangering my future children. I'm sure they thank you."

Susan looked modestly happy, while Ginny just rolled her eyes at me and walked on. Harry, Susan, Ginny, Hermione and Jake had arrived to help me move. I don't think they have other lives besides trying to make mine as confined as possible. I stuck my tongue out at Susan and continued to levitate the box into the house. Suddenly I heard a crash behind me, and I looked back and saw Susan picking up materials from an upturned box she had tripped over. "Instant Karma, Susie. Remember that." I said, tapping my nose with my free hand. She gave me a dirty look and continued to pick up my stuff with a slightly pink tinted face. Jake went over to help her, talking to her in a low tone, and she laughed.

"Must they do that?" A voice sounded behind me, sounding disgusted. I spun around to look at Ron's smiling face. "It's disgusting."

I smiled slowly, trying to decide if he was a mirage. "It is rather sickening." I said carefully.

Ron bent down and picked up a box himself and started lugging it inside. "Well come on." He said. "The boxes aren't going to be put away themselves."

Harry came up to me and whispered in my ear as Ron walked in the wide open front door. "Ginny gave him a serious talking to about respecting friends and their opinions."

I whispered back. "She threatened to hex him if he didn't come, didn't she?"

Harry winked. "Can't pull the wool over your eyes, can we?"

The rest of the day was a constant battle of me against Susan, Hermione and Ginny's constant badgering about carrying boxes, what was too much for me. I love my friends, I really do. But this was getting to be a little much. I was almost ready to cast a Banishing Charm on all three of them, but Harry and Ron managed to talk me down from my high horse. I calmed down enough to find Mr. Tea Kettle (so aptly named by Hermione since her visit to my flat.) and make some tea for everyone. Everything was unpacked and organized by sundown. Oliver told me once that Muggles take weeks, sometimes months to unpack their things when they move! How could they stand the mess? Or how to find things? I would go bloody insane.

Ginny, Hermione, Jake, Susan and Ron all bid me goodnight after finishing with my moving. I turned to shut my door and then turned back to see Harry. "Oh my Goddess, Harry." I gasped. "What are you doing?"

"Bee in your bonnet, Bell?" He asked with a small secretive smile.

"Bee in my bonnet?" I repeated bewildered.

Harry shook his head, clearing it. "Sorry, something the Sorting Hat said to me. Why do you always say Goddess, Katie, instead of goodness or just God?"

I shrugged. "Just habit. My mum decided when she was younger that God wasn't a guy, he was a girl, so she just saying Goddess, and I picked it up from her. Personally, I like it."

Harry nodded. "It's a nice change." He stared into my eyes with his startling green eyes. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"Okay?" I repeated him again. He must have been getting annoyed at my echo. "I suppose so." I moved to the brightly lit kitchen and sat down on a stool that stood at the counter of the table in the center. Harry followed and sat across from me. "It varies from day to day, really. Some days I'm fine, feeling like everything's right with the world and things couldn't get better, and then they down spiral. I start thinking about Oliver and how I'm going to tell him that he's got kids. Oh, I don't know!" I said, frustrated.

Harry just listened. For the first time I remembered him in seventh year, when he was a fifth year, and the dark circles he always had under his eyes during the first couple Quidditch Practices we had before he got kicked off the team, all the nights I had seen him the common room, nursing a bloodied hand, or talking with Ron and Hermione in low, serious tones. He had seen the horrors of life in the worst possible ways. No one knows how he and You-Know-Who finally finished it off, and personally, I don't want to know. I'm just glad he's gone. But a lurking part of my mind keeps worrying about that 14 year gap that we thought he was dead, and he wasn't. Harry had to grow up way faster than any of us.

"How did you deal with it?" I blurted out. I flushed, realizing in a moment I had said that out loud. "I mean...I'm sorry...I was..stupid, I'm terribly.."

Harry put up a hand to stop my pathetic stuttering. "It's okay, Katie." He said softly. "If you can believe it, not many people ask me that." He smiled grimly. "It's always, 'How did it feel to kill the Dark Lord, Mr. Potter?' or 'What are your plans for the future?' But nothing about my past. It's like they just threw a dark blanket over the years that I tried to tell them that Voldermort, sorry," he saw me flinch, "was back, and didn't believe me. How did I deal with it?" He asked, staring blankly at the ceiling. "I didn't."

"You didn't?" I asked.

"I didn't." He repeated. "Ask Ron, Hermione, or anyone in the fifth year boys dorm that year. I blew up at anyone and everyone, and after-- He died." Harry choked, not able to say the name of the person so important to him that had left so abruptly. "I didn't want to live. I really didn't." Harry looked back down at me. "Ginny was the one that pulled me out of it. She never let me think bad of myself. Whenever I started saying anything terrible about myself, she'd fly into a rage. She hated self-pity."

"She still does." I muttered under my breath.

Harry laughed sadly. "Some things never change. But anyways. She didn't give up on me. That means more than life to me. She believed in the things that make this world beautiful. Hope, joy, and happiness. Things I thought didn't exist anymore after fifth year."

I smiled and touched his hand across the table. "And that's why you're marrying her." I said. "And you'd better get home before she starts thinking we're having an affair."

Harry laughed and stood up. "No. She knows you love Oliver too much." And with a sharp crack, Harry Disapperated and left me staring blankly at the place he just stood pondering all I heard that day.

*+*

I was filing some legal papers on illegal uses for Gillyweed the next night, trying to ignore the kicks coming from on the two beasts stuck in my stomach. It was late at night and most people had already gone home, but Kevin, myself and a intern named Sean was still here. "Hey Katie." I heard a soft soprano voice at the doorframe.

I turned around with the folder still in hand and gazed upon Alicia. She was starting to get fatter and rounder, like me. She looked healthy and happy in her jeans, (that were looking a little tighter around the waist than usual.) Her long dark hair was swirling around her face like a dark cloud. "Why, hello." I said, surprised. "What are you doing here?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow at her, and then turning around to file the folder and closing the filing cabinet.

"I knew you'd be here late, since you're just a hard worker." I wondered if I heard a bit of a sarcastic lilt in her voice. "And I haven't gotten the name of your new house, so I can't Floo over there to ask you about tomorrow."

"Oh, the name." I said absentmindedly, walking out of the filing room to my office where Alicia sat down and I stood by the desk. "I decided to call it Bell Haven."

"Beautiful name." Alicia sighed. "It's better than Prankster Palace." She wrinkled her nose tastefully.

I snorted. "What was George smoking when he thought up that one?" I asked incredulously.

"No clue." Alicia said, rolling her eyes. "But lately, I think he's been smoking something non-stop. He's going completely mental about me. 'Don't sit there Alicia! The chair could break! Alicia, don't make dinner! The fumes can do something to the baby!' He's driving me crazy!" She exclaimed.

I laughed and covered my mouth with my hand. It took me a couple seconds to control myself enough to say, "Susan and Hermione are doing the same things to me, so don't worry."

"Thank God." Alicia said. "I'm not in this boat alone."

"So what about tomorrow?" I inquired, remembering her comment earlier.

"Tomorrow..." Alicia said slowly. "Baby shopping. I just wanted to see what time you to come over."

I pondered that thought. "I don't know." I said, twisting a lock of brown hair around my index finger while I thought. My nails were getting longer, since Hermione had put that blasted Vinegar spell on them. "How does nine thirty grab you?"

Alicia groaned. "Too early." She moaned. She had always been the one that I had to pry out of bed with a crowbar at Hogwarts and were almost constantly late to Potions, a habit that had been the cause of many, many detentions labeling gross floating animal organs in liquids that I couldn't identify. At the look on my face, she rolled her brown eyes again. "Fine, fine, Ms. Early-Bird." She mumbled.

I smiled. Not my fault I like waking up early, is it?

*+*

I woke up in my warm bed to the sun shinning on my face, my curtains wide open, letting the sun's bright rays stream endlessly into my room. I smiled and pushed myself out of my comfortable bed. The red splashes of flowers on the bed sheets were bright and cheerful on this beautiful morning. It was starting to get harder for me to get out of bed, my belly bulging and weighing me down. Even so, I wrenched myself out the warmth that my sheets brought my body. I walked slowly to the doorway that connected me to the bathroom. I turned on the faucet and stepped into the shower. It took me nearly twenty minutes to pull myself from the warmth of the running water, even with finishing my hair. Drying my hair with a light blue towel, I walked back into my room. I dawned a pair of stretch jeans that fight comfortably around my middle and a strapless black maternity shirt. It was sexy and slimming.

Erica made me buy it.

I walked down the grand stair case feeling a bit like a pea, rattling around in a massive box. I couldn't wait until the twins were born and the house could be filled with childish laughter. Then again, I could always just bring Fred and George over for a visit.

I stepped into the kitchen gingerly and started to bustle around to make myself breakfast. I took out some banana bread that Susan had given to me for a house-warming gift. I stuck it into the toaster and waited. It was tough trying to resist the urge to pop the two pieces out early when the heavenly aroma of banana bread started to fill up the kitchen. Finally the toast pieces came up with a small 'ping'! of the toaster. I took out a plate from the cupboard and placed the bread on the plate. I buttered them lightly and bit into crisp softness.

It took me a while to finish the banana bread, wanting to savor the flavor, but noticing the time, I stuffed the last piece of bread into my mouth and walked to my large fireplace. I thanked the gods again that Jake was a wizard, and that I didn't have replace the smaller fireplace with a larger one for Flooing, like I would have had to done in a Muggle house. I took out a pinch of Floo powder from the small mug on the mantle and threw it into the fire. It turned green and roared taller than I was. I stepped into it, refusing to giggle at the tickling sensation it gave me. "Prankster Palace!" I exclaimed clearly.

I was sucked down a giant tube, feeling several fireplaces rush past me, I closed my eyes. I never liked this part. Feeling myself slow down slightly, I flung my arms out, and I nearly fell into a heap on the floor in front of George, who stood smiling at me. "I see that being pregnant has done nothing to improve your Flooing abilities Katie." He said smugly.

"Oh hush up." I said crossly. "I seem to remember you Flooing to Russia by accident when you wanted to get to Gringotts when we were eleven."

George shrugged good naturedly. "Anti-Flooing Charms are simple once you know that they're in place. I didn't know."

"Bullocks." I muttered. "Where's Alicia?" I asked.

"She still in bed." George said. "I tried to wake her up, but she growled at me."

I laughed to his surprised. "That's nothing. You should have seen her attack Angelina when Oliver wanted us up at five in the morning for Quidditch practice." I surprised a pang of longing when I mentioned Oliver's name.

George shook his head and walked away. I followed him upstairs to their bedroom and he motioned me inside. Alicia was in bed still, her chest rising and falling, indicating she was deep in sleep. I grinned impishly and walked over to her. "Oh Alicia!" I said in a singsong voice in her ear. "Quidditch Practice!"

"Not the blue flamingos!" Alicia screamed and bolted upright in her bed. I collapsed in a fit of laughter.

"Katherine Eleanor Bell!" Alicia yelled at me. "You scared me half out of my wits."

"And I'm sure the blue flamingos scared to other half..." I couldn't help laughing again, and Alicia glared at me.

"This is why I don't do mornings." Alicia muttered under her breath in an angry tone.

I hummed as I walked out of the bedroom to leave her alone to grumble and get dressed. Her morning bad moods didn't last long, just as long as she was in the bedroom in the presence of a bed. A few minutes later, Alicia emerged, looking cheery, making me wonder if she had been acting the part of a pissed off friend. "Come on, let's go, I'm starving."

We both barreled down the stairs, surprising George. Alicia smiled at him and went over to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Good morning sweetheart." She said sweetly.

"Do you not remember yelling your were going to curse me into oblivion if you didn't let your sleep?" George asked, his eye brows high on his forehead.

"Vaguely." Alicia grabbed an apple and a container of cottage cheese from the counter. "Well, where do you want to go first, Katie?" She asked me.

"Hogsmeade has a great selection of baby stores." I said. Alicia gave me a surprised look. "Mrs. Weasley told me about it." I responded to her look.

"You asked my mother for baby advice?" George interrupted.

"Well she managed to raise at least five children right." Alicia retorted, taking a sip of coffee that he had placed before her. "I still don't know what she did wrong with Fred and you."

"I resent that." George said, scowling. "Then why did you marry me?"

"Because of your fabulous good looks." Alicia said, standing up. "Fred's got a bit of a squished nose from that bludger a while back, and yours it perfect." She tweaked his nose and smiled widely. George smiled too and gave her a peck on the lips.

"Get going." George said. "I don't want you out too late. Something could go wrong, so make sure you have..."

"George!" Alicia exclaimed. "I'm a grown woman, I can take care of myself!" George walked out and she blew a fine stream of air out through her teeth, trying to control her temper. "You see what I have to deal with every day?" She exclaimed, gesturing to the doorframe that George had left through.

I smiled softly. "Well come on." I said. "We'd better get going anyways."

*+*

It was the end of the day. I arrived back home with a load of things in hand. Bags upon bags were in my hands, and my feet ached. I knew the two cribs and the two dressers I had ordered from one of the stores Alicia and I had visited were going to be shipped, via Apperation by the next morning into the two smaller bedrooms I had. I was tired beyond belief, but I still dragged myself to the smaller rooms, putting the baby clothes into piles, and baby blankets, bottles, pacifiers, some stuffed toys, books and toy broomsticks that were going into a locked closet until they were five. I'll sort it out in the morning. I promised myself as I yawned so hard that my jaw popped slightly. I shook my head, trying to clear it and I walked to my bedroom, and sat on the window seat. The sun was giving off bright rays of light, painting the sky with vivid colors that stretched the imagination. I wanted to stay up and watch the sun dip below the horizon, but my eyes decided on a mutiny instead, and I found myself changing into a night shirt and surrendering to the comfort of my bed and the dreams that lay before me.

A/N: OHMIGOD!!!! I cannot believe I have finally finished chapter eleven. I was planning for it to be longer and more in-depth about baby shopping, but unfortunately (actually fortunately for me...) I have no experience for that. I'm a poor sixteen year old girl with no baby experience...poor me. I just hope I still have reviewers!! I didn't find the floppy disk, so all of this is re-written. I hope you like it.