Chapter 8: An Interesting Proposition

*****

            The weeks had flown by since the Ladies had returned to London.  It was now mid-October.  They'd enjoyed being able to hang out with their families and all the friends they'd lost touch with since they'd been out of the country so much.  Despite her comments to the contrary, Alinora had agreed to help out occasionally in the twins' shop in Hogsmeade and had been quite enjoying it.  It was especially fun on those weekends when the students from Hogwarts were let loose on the town.  It was amusing to consider the trouble the items she sold them would cause once they returned to school…

            To Alinora's great surprise, Snape had actually taken her up on her offer to visit.  It had been quite a shock to open the door of the flat and find Snape standing on the doorstep, but she'd happily ushered him inside.  They'd talked for a while about some of the spells she'd developed in recent years to help with their 'other' job and he offered a few suggestions about alternative uses for a few of them now that she was back home.  Quite the creative imagination that man has she remembered thinking after one of his more outlandish suggestions.

            Before he'd left, she had asked him about Draco Malfoy.  Ali felt slightly responsible for him since she'd been present at his father's death.  Not that there was much she could've done to stop it by the time she had known what was happening, and ignoring completely the fact that the man had been trying to kill her at the time, but she still felt a bit guilty about the situation.  As she'd lost her own father not long before, she felt a sense of kinship with him.  So, she asked about him whenever she had the chance to speak to Snape privately, as he was one of the few who still regularly saw him.  As usual, he was 'fine', or what passed for that now.

            Draco had not joined with Voldemort for his final battle.  Instead, he had withdrawn almost completely from the wizarding world after leaving Hogwarts and seemed content to lock himself in Malfoy Manor and work on his magical projects in solitude.  He did venture out on occasion to various Ministry functions and donated considerably to a number of charities, but he had changed drastically from the brash and arrogant young man they'd known at school.  Alinora had become quite irritated with Ron on a number of occasions when he'd made rude comments about Draco and finally, he'd stopped making them around her.

Other than that, things had been rather uneventful.  A very nice change of pace for them all and one they definitely appreciated.

*****

            Alinora laughed rather shakily as she and George stumbled out of the fireplace at the Burrow.  His arm was securely wrapped around her waist and hers clutched at his shoulder as he carefully helped her to a nearby couch.  By the time they'd made it the short distance, Ali's face had gone even paler than normal and she was clenching her lower lip between her teeth to keep from crying out.

            "Mum!" George called out in a worried voice, soon echoed by Alinora's cry of "Molly?!?"

            There was a startled crash from the kitchen and soon Molly appeared in the doorway.  Darting a quick, confused look at George, she finally noticed that Ali was gritting her teeth in pain and clutching at her right ankle.

            "Oh you poor thing, what happened?" she asked, staring at them quizzically as she pulled out her wand and hurried over.  She quickly summoned a footstool from the far end of the room.  "Now, you put your foot up on that and let me take a look.  I thought the two of you weren't going to be doing anything more dangerous than having lunch in town.  How did this happen?"  As she spoke, she had been carefully removing Alinora's shoe, wincing slightly at the hisses of pain that this sparked.

            "It wasn't supposed to be a dangerous morning at all, until Ali decided to try and throw herself under a bus…" George remarked offhandedly while watching what his mother was doing.  He winced himself when Ali hit him for his comment.

            Sighing, Ali replied, "There was some loose pavement and I stumbled on it, wrenching my ankle pretty badly.  There was a bus passing, but there was no danger of me launching myself underneath it."  She shot George a withering glance which he ignored.

            "Well, that does sound rather exciting… Now, hold still.  This will briefly hurt, but then it should be all better."  Molly placed the tip of her wand against Alinora's swollen ankle and uttered a minor healing charm.  Her ankle went white hot for a brief moment, causing her to cry out and clutch at George's arm, but just as quickly it faded again and now the ankle felt fine.

            "Oh, that's wonderful!  Thank you so much, Molly.  Much better!"  Alinora examined her ankle carefully, twisting it around and bending it to check that everything seemed to be working fine before she replaced her shoe.  As she was distracted, she missed the pointed look Molly was giving George.

            "Come on Ali girl; let's go sit outside on the swing for a while before we head back.  I'm sure Mum was in the middle of something important before we barged in here, but I want you to have a bit of a rest because of that ankle, just to make sure it's okay."  He gave her a hand up and carefully escorted her out to the back of the house where a swing had been set up years before.  They both sat down, Ali snuggled up beside George with his arm around her shoulder.

            "I know why you really stumbled.  I saw you looking at those magazines with the three of you on the cover.  You were trying to read the headlines and got distracted…"

            Alinora started to laugh.  "You got me!  Can't deny I was looking.  It was another one of those ones predicting what 'famous for the moment' person I am currently associated with.  I was wondering who I was dating now in the eyes of the world.  I can't quite figure out why they're so interested."

            "You're famous.  People have been reading about you for years and they now look on the three of you as friends.  Friends want to know about things like that and it's the magazine's job to give it to them.  Since you're not cooperating with real information, they have to do the best they can."

            "I can see that, but in my opinion they should just wait until I parade my husband around for them as opposed to them inventing one for me." she said tartly.

            "So you are going to get married at some point?" he teased, "Break the hearts of all those single guys out there who think you've made up the whole secret admirer thing, or that the tabloids have," he added, sticking a tongue out at her, "and that they could possibly have a chance with you?"

            She smiled at him tenderly, but with a hint of mischief, "They haven't had a chance since I was sixteen, but no need to be cruel and tell them that.  Let them have their dreams."

            "Sixteen huh?  And yet you turned me down…"

            She snorted and poked him in the side, "As I've said before…!  We both know you only asked because you knew I wouldn't accept at that point.  We'd just left Hogwarts!  I think Moody was petrified that I'd drop everything I'd been working on and towards and say yes… he knew how much I wanted to" she smiled at the memory.  "Hopefully, you knew that too." she said, turning to look at him.  She grinned and reached over to run her hand down the side of his face then pulled him towards her and gave him a long kiss.

            He eventually pulled back, cleared his throat and continued the conversation.  "So, if I asked you now what would you say?"

            "If you asked me to marry you?" she asked, "I'd say that it's about time and when's the wedding?"  She chuckled softly.

            "So, if I asked you to marry me today, you'd say yes and we could get married immediately?" he pressed.

            Ali looked at him curiously, there was something going on here, but she couldn't quite figure out what yet.  "Sure, why not?  As long as my family and friends are around, time and place are pretty unimportant.  Why?"

            But George had now gotten up off the swing and, taking her hand, he knelt down in front of her.  "Ms. Alinora Roane, would you do me the great honor of agreeing to marry me?  Today, in the company of our friends and family?"  He looked up at her shocked expression, and couldn't help feeling a tiny bit of satisfaction; he so very, very rarely was able to catch her completely off guard.  Then she grinned happily, pulled him to his feet and threw her arms around him.

            "I would be very happy to do so Mr. George Weasley!  And when exactly today is this wedding suppose to take place?" she asked, pulling back to smile up at him.

            He was distracted from replying by the arrival of Harry and Ginny from inside and Katie and Brad from around the corner of the house.  Both guys were grinning broadly and Katie and Ginny both looked a bit confused to see the others there.  "We were thinking we could have a triple ceremony in…" George glanced at his watch, "about two hours- four o'clock.  You girls think you can be ready?"  The challenge was obvious, as was the fact that he assumed that they would accept.

            Alinora, Katie and Ginny looked at each other questioningly.  Slowly, they all began to grin mischievously as they nodded in acceptance.  "Yes, I think two hours is more than plenty of time.  But, I think we better start preparing now!"  With that, Ali kissed George again, whispering "See you soon" then grabbed Katie and Ginny as they retreated into the house calling for Molly.

            "I'm in the living room girls."

            They entered the room to see Molly helping a blonde woman from the fireplace. 

            "Mother!" Katie gasped, and ran to give her a hug.  Molly turned to smile at Ginny and Alinora before turning Alinora's attention to a dark haired woman sitting in a chair in the corner.

            "Mom?!?" Ali cried out in a surprised voice before quickly crossing the room to greet her.  She wasn't sure how George had managed to get her mother here, but other than the wedding itself it was the best surprise he could've arranged.  She'd always hoped that it would be possible to have her mother present when she married, but, as Angelique is a selkie, neither had ever been sure it would be possible for her to travel to wherever the wedding took place, or even if the groom's family would be accepting enough of her to make it a good idea.  George and his family had always taken Alinora's unique family history in stride.

            Happily, she turned to introduce her mom to two of her closest friends.  "Mom, I know you've seen pictures and heard me talk about them for ages, but now I'd like you to officially meet Ginny and Katie."

            Standing next to each other, the family resemblance was quite apparent.  Despite obvious differences in coloring, Angelique's brown hair and brown eyes to Alinora's auburn hair and (generally) green eyes, in every other way they were matched.  They could've almost passed for sisters.

            "It's nice to finally get to meet the two, the four," Angelique quickly amended with a smile as she inclined her head to the other two mothers, "of you.  Ali's told me so much about all of you over the years.  I'm glad it was possible to finally meet you in person."  She had nervously been smoothing a brown, fur cloak over her arm, which Alinora finally noticed.

            "Oh, do you want me to look after that for you while you're here, Mom?  Will that make things easier for you?"

            Angelique bit her lip as she looked down at the fur, before nodding decisively and handing it over to her daughter.  "You'd better, just to be safe."

            Ginny nodded slightly to herself as she watched the interaction.  Noticing Katie's look of confusion, she mouthed, "I'll explain later."

            "Well now girls, as we're on a bit of a schedule for the afternoon, I think we'd better be heading up so you three can figure out what you're wearing.  That'll also get us out of the way so things can be arranged down here."  Molly gestured out the window where they could see a small group of people milling around outside.  She began shooing the girls and their mothers towards the staircase.

            "So Molly, just how long have they been planning this?" Ali asked, taking a last look outside, before turning to face the woman who was soon to become her mother-in-law.

            Molly smiled serenely as she continued to urge them out of the room.  "Simply ages, my dear.  Simply ages.  You're a hard group to keep secrets from, I must say.  I guess that's just a hazard of the job."

            She'd finally succeeded in herding them to the staircase leading up to the bedrooms.  With one last glance behind, they all turned the corner at the landing and passed out of sight.