Chapter 20: Exposed
Happy News at Last
It appears that there may be baby news for newlyweds Alinora and George Weasley. The well known singer and her entrepreneur husband were recently spotted leaving the office of a noted Obstetrician and sources within the office confirm that Alinora is "quite well along" and should be a mommy by late summer.
There has not been any official confirmation from the family and attempts to contact the parents-to-be have been unsuccessful. This will be their first child, though they adopted the two children of Alinora's friend and Manager, Colin Creevey, after his tragic death, along with his wife and brother's family, late last year.
"Well, I think we've been well and truly outted," George said in an amused tone, finally putting down the paper Ali had handed him moments before.
The article was short, but unfortunately quite noticeable due to the rather large picture accompanying it, showing a smiling Alinora and George leaving the doctor's office where she had finally gone to get confirmation of the pregnancy Katie had informed them of at Christmas.
"It's a bit scary that we've heard nothing from the rest of the family; you know Molly reads the paper first thing in the morning."
"They're probably waiting until they come over later for dinner. Good thing Mum's probably not wanting to upset the pregnant woman, or we'd have been woken up by a howler this morning and not the twins!"
"Would that have really been worse?" Alinora teased, remembering the duet of screams that had been their prompt to get up that morning.
"Now that you mention it…"
Originally, the two had planned to meet Fred and Angelina for lunch, before having most of the family join them for dinner at their place. Due to the distraction of the newspaper article, they hadn't been able to get things ready for their dinner party and had canceled their lunch plans. They'd been so late in contacting Fred with the change in plans that they'd had to contact them at the restaurant they were to meet at.
They were almost done with their straightening up and planning to stop for a bite to eat when a chime announced that someone was trying to contact them via the fireplace. When George answered, they were told that there had been an accident at the restaurant.
While Fred and Angelina were okay, they were a bit shaken up by the fact that a rather large and heavy light fixture had crashed down on top of the table they were seated at. The only reason they hadn't been badly hurt, was that they'd just started getting up to leave, having decided to forgo dessert there in favor of an ice cream a bit later on.
George and Alinora, who'd quickly joined him at the fireplace once she heard the news, were told not to worry about notifying the rest of the family as Fred had said he'd take care of it.
Somehow, that just wasn't very comforting.
By the time the rest of the family had arrived for dinner, Alinora had almost convinced herself that the accident that had befallen Fred and Angelina had been simply that, an accident. The fact that she and George had originally been planning to join them there as well, having made the reservations well in advance, was simply an odd coincidence. There was nothing more sinister to it than that.
She ignored the fact that she knew she was lying to herself and was grateful to be distracted by the first of their guests and the knowledge that they still had the whole baby news thing to get through as well.
Dinner started off smoothly enough, no probing questions or other general interrogation. Molly was giving them both rather sharp looks, but had, so far, restrained from making any actual comments. Alinora wasn't sure if that was really a good sign as the sooner Molly got it out of her system, the better off they'd all be.
"Well, I guess you're all wondering why we gathered the family together tonight." George's sudden comment, dropped into a natural lull in the dinner conversation, startled most of them. Smirking slightly, he continued, "I'm assuming by now that you've all read our birth announcement in The Daily Prophet, but if not, I'm sure Mum notified you and questioned you thoroughly about any information you had concerning our pregnancy very early this morning."
Ginny muffled a quick laugh, showing a properly solemn face when her mother turned to look at her suspiciously. Charlie wasn't quite so diplomatic, even after Julia elbowed him in the side, and was laughing quite openly. Molly glared at him, but refused to be sidetracked from what she considered the main point, now that the topic had been brought up.
"Exactly! How could you two not tell us that you were expecting? I had to read about it in the newspaper! You'd think we weren't family, that it wasn't important for us to be kept informed of the fact that the two of you had decided to have children…" she sputtered into silence, for once, at a loss for words.
Ali had had a rough day and an even worse couple months. She was approximately five months pregnant, had lost two enormously close friends and supposedly had someone trying to kill her. Suddenly the thought of trying to placate her generally sweet mother in law was just one thing more than she was able to deal with.
"I'm sorry, Molly, I guess I simply didn't realize that you'd want to be kept that informed. Just to clarify, for the future you know, how much information do you need? Do we need to tell you every time we perform some sexual act, or simply one that might result in conception? Do you need to know times, dates, locations? Or is the fact that something happened at all going to be enough for you? Because I definitely don't want you to feel that you're not involved in the process! It's not like this is a private matter between my husband and me. How stupid of me not to realize that the entire family was expecting a day to day update on all the details of our private lives. Forgive me for that oversight!" Ali was breathing rather heavily by this point and she could tell her pulse was racing and she forced herself to pause and take a deep breath. The rest of the table was dead silent, with varying looks of shock and amusement plainly showing on their faces. She was a bit afraid to see the expression on George's face.
"For future reference, dear," George said, taking her hand under the table, "I don't think they need to know about the oral sex. But, maybe I'm wrong."
Alinora's face went beet red and table burst into shocked laughter, Molly sputtering that that certainly was not what she'd meant at all and how she didn't understand why they were all making such a laughing matter out of something this serious.
When the laughter had quieted, Ali turned to Molly, still gripping George's hand tightly. "I am well aware of the seriousness of this situation. I am pregnant. This should be a wonderfully joyous time for me and my husband. Instead, I've been the subject, directly and indirectly, of so many accidents that I'm no longer able to keep track of them all! I've had people I love die suddenly and under suspicious circumstances. I've instantaneously become the mother of twins when I'd barely even been married. I've had family members hurt because of their association with me and I'm incredibly hormonal. Forgive me if getting confirmation that I'm expecting and announcing it to everybody wasn't high on my to-do list." She paused to take another deep breath and smiled ruefully before continuing, "I'm fully aware that my activities are going to be even more curtailed now that you know and I've got the handcuffs waiting to lock myself in the bedroom as soon as you all leave tonight and I expect that I'll be locked up in there until I have the baby or we figure out who, or what, has been targeting me, assuming it's not all just some mass hallucination we're having…" she finished in a mumble
"We just want to keep you safe, Ali. I don't know what we'd do if we let something happen to you that we could've prevented!"
"I know, Ginny, and that is the only reason I'm dealing with all this as maturely as I am." Charlie laughed; Julia elbowed him again, harder. Ali stuck her tongue out at him.
"We understand, dear, and we appreciate your humoring us. We know how careful you are, but, now especially, let us help and please do as we ask and stay safe!" Arthur Weasley's eyes were earnest and caring as he stared across the table at her and Ali sighed internally and nodded agreement to the request. What could it hurt she thought, the doctor had said to avoid stress as much as possible, as it wasn't good for the baby…
Arthur smiled and picked up his fork to continue eating. He'd just swallowed his bite of food when he glanced over at the two of them and asked, "So, what exactly is the purpose of these… handcuffs you mentioned? Some new Muggle invention? They come up with some of the most fascinating things!"
Ali began to giggle as she contemplated whether it was worth explaining that the mention of the handcuffs had simply been a figure of speech, or just ignore that in favor of the much more entertaining explanation of what they were, or could be, used for… maybe she'd leave that one for George…
