Chapter 7: Weasley Barn

Cressida leans against the hall of the Weasley family's barn home. Her lips are tugged in a natural befallen smile at the sound of Charlie and Bill running around, but this time, followed by three other thundering footsteps. A three-year-old Percy, and a set of twins that are just figuring out how to walk and it's causing Molly chaos beyond belief. They all display the same head of bright red hair, Percy's cheeks already splattering with light freckles.

Arthur has taken up more hours under his belt at the Ministry. His job isn't directly tied to anything that would relate to the war efforts, but it seems everybody is doing their part somehow. But Cressida wishes that he would just come home on time to his children that adore him – she keeps those thoughts to herself, of course.

Fabian and Gideon are still out with Sirius. Last she heard (or overheard, really) was that they were in North England and James was the only one who got to talk to him at all. Cressida hasn't been lucky enough to be present when he was able to answer.

"Boys! Your mother is calling you for lunch!" Elias calls up the winding burrow. Cressida pushes off the wall, hearing the twins round a corner with their uncontainable giggles. Smirking, she spins around the corner, arms open wide and the twins fall right into them. They squeal and laugh even louder, but make no attempts to escape. They've caused more trouble in one year than Charlie has in six. But seeing their bright faces is utterly worth it. To Cressida, at least, who gets to hand them back off to Molly.

Elias, when not on duty, has become a helping hand to the Weasley family. With Fabian and Gideon often off working, as well as Arthur, Molly can use all the help she can get.

Charlie and Bill come running around the corner a moment later. Charlie looks quite apprehensive to go downstairs and leave his fun behind, seeming to only be following along after his older brother. Bill grasps the back of her shirt in his small hands. "Why can't you carry me?!"

Cressida laughs, looking down at him with wide eyes. "Because you're a big boy now. I remember you telling me that." He doesn't let go of her shirt, tugging on it as she tries to head towards the stairs. "Bill, not while I'm holding your brothers," she warns, gripping the leaning her elbow against the wall. Bill gives a haughty 'hmph' but loosens his grip. Cressida smiles to herself, knowing that she's still been selected as his favourite. Charlie still sticks close to Elias, and she's sure when the twins meet Sirius, he'll be their choice.

Percy comes around a moment later with a sulky attitude, no doubt the victim of the boy's mischief.

As soon as her feet hit the ground floor, Bill falls to his knees, wrapping both his arms and legs around her right calf. Following his big brother, like he always does, Charlie cackles like the seven-year-old he is and does the same thing to her other leg. With a child in each arm, and a child on each leg, Cressida prepares her muscles. "You lot are my exercise for the week."

"Hang on Mol, I'll go see-" Elias halts suddenly as turns from the kitchen, his even lips widening with each passing second as he takes her situation in. Laughter overcomes him, and unable to say anything to her, he holds up a finger and runs back. "Molly! Do you have a camera anywhere?"

She hears the scuffle as Molly looks around for Elias odd request and Cressida awkwardly shuffles around into the kitchen, her feet dragging across the floor. By now, Fred – she thinks it's Fred – is stretching out of her arms and his short arms are trying to encircle her entire head.

With a tiny hand slapped over her mouth in the process, Cressida stands at the entrance to the kitchen, feeling like a tree that produces babies. Elias jumps in front of her, snapping a photo and she makes a quick pose and stupid grinning face so she'll remember how she really feels in this moment. She's surrounded by innocence and love.

"Merlin's beard!" Molly cries, running towards her. "You two are too old for those antics," she scolds the older pair at Cressida's feet. She takes the twins from her arms, their squirming bodies tucked under her arms as Elias leans down, tearing Charlie away.

"They're kids," Cressida says to the overworked mother. "Let's let them be." Bending down, her hands dig under Bill's armpits, heaving him up to his feet. "Are you going to help your mother clean up later?"

Bill nods with a charming smile. He has a tooth missing, and his red hair is sticking up in odd places. "Are you going to be at Hogwarts when I go?"

Cressida laughs softly, rubbing his head as they walk towards the table. "Nah, I'm too old now. They kick you out once you start getting wrinkles."

"Oh." He pauses for a moment. "You must have left ages ago then since you have so many." Cressida's feet stop, jaw near her toes, watching the back of Bill's head as he walks ahead of her. Elias sniggers to himself, choking on his drink.

Cressida pokes his chest as she passes him on the way to her seat. "Don't laugh, you graduated before me."

"Ah, but you see, darling," he grins, following her around the table, "my skin doesn't age."

Cressida wants to bite back at him, but the argument dies on her tongue as he truly does already have an ageless appearance. She only manages a grumble, sitting down at her eat where a hearty meal is placed in front of her.

"How are you and James?"

With a wit-filled smirk, she answers, "What? Regretting missing your chance now?"

"Completely heartbroken," he quips with a soft chuckle, thanking Molly as he receives his own plate. The boys around them are still loud and restless, but the food in front of them keeps them seated long enough. "Honestly I was just curious. A lot of couples are deciding to get married, even as young as you but you and James haven't…"

"James has," she answers, eating slowly. "He wants to, but if I had to guess, I think he's just the person that wants to commit himself all the way, not just because of the war." James had indeed brought up the notion of marriage a few times to her, some in subtle hints where he's trying to gauge where her thoughts on the matter are, and other time he has just straight up asked her. And she isn't saying no because she doesn't want to. She's saying no because there is a war. "I know it's important to have hope and happy things through all this, but I don't want my wedding to be a small blip of happiness in a tough time. Or because I fear one of us getting killed. I want it to be something we can properly enjoy and not have to worry about things like the location for any other reason but how beautiful it is. I want to focus on loving James and not if the wedding is going to be crashed by Death Eaters." Because she still keeps so many things from him that she knows – she bloody knows – that she shouldn't. Everything in the world seems so disorderly, including herself. Cressida can't stand the idea of marrying him in a situation less than perfect. It's like an end line exists and once she passes it, it will grant her a freedom where nothing matters. No fear, no pain, no secret messages.

"I get it." He nods and smiles like he does truly understand her. Cressida breathes heavily through her nose, a sense of relief washing over her unexpectedly as someone finally just understands that her desire to wait isn't a matter of her having doubts.

"James didn't ask you to ask that, did he?" she demands teasingly.

"No, but if I overhear him being the topic up, I'll be sure to give this conversation as input." As she pretends to ignore Bill trying to sneak an extra potato off her plate, she half-turns in her seat. "Dumbledore has us looking for that damned stone again, I hope you know that."

"You sound pissed," he muses, glancing around for Molly's prying ears.

"I'd like to know why at least. But Dumbledore isn't giving me anything which only gives me two conclusions."

"And they are-"

"That he doesn't trust me or doesn't want me to know." Her tone has turned dry and cold. "And I don't particularly like either of them. If he trusts me to search for it, he should trust me enough with the knowledge to understand what it is. And if he doesn't want me to know, then why not? As far as I'm aware, you, me and Moody are the only ones aware that I'm searching for it and none of us know."

"Which means it's most likely the latter," he murmurs. Cressida nods, a sensation of frustration piling onto her but it flutters away as Bill near climbs on her lap to reach for her cup of pumpkin juice. Giving the boy a secretly helping hand, she watches Elias run through the thoughts she provided him with. "Hopefully finding it will get us some answers."

"I sure hope so."

As they eat, Cressida's mind fills with the possibilities. Resurrection Stone? Has the Philosopher's Stone been lost and Dumbledore is trying to retrieve it under secrecy? Maybe it is just the logic that she gave James – that if she is captured and tortured, she would not have information to give. But that wasn't what happened with the missions others were given. They were trusted and that is why they were selected.

After lunch, Cressida finds a spot alone on the lounge whilst Elias takes the older boys outside so Molly can lay the twins down for a nap. She pulls her journal out, smiling at the message from James already written inside. Instead of answering his declaration of missing her, she gets to sketching around the writing, outlining his face and glasses first. It isn't great by any means, but it's enough that the proportions look fine to the eye and anybody who has seen a picture of him, would recognise it. After a while, a heart appears and she laughs, knowing he is watching his face appear on the paper.

Elias and Cressida would leave from the Weasleys' who are a pit stop for Little Hangleton.

'Obsessed with me, much?' he writes.

Cocking her eyebrow, she writes back, 'You missed the three drawings I did of Moody earlier.'

His response comes as quick as her own. 'Eh. I think I'm the obsessed one anyways. I just can't draw and don't want you thinking I'm trying to sketch another woman.'

She laughs out loud. 'Hey, James?'

'Yeah, princess.'

'I'm obsessed with you too.'

'I knew it! I'm going to tell Sirius.' She waits a few minutes, idly adding to the drawing. 'I want to go to karaoke one night.'

'We can go to karaoke. I didn't even know you knew what that was.'

'I was talking to Lily about it the other night.' The other night? She's been with him for every night except the one before she took Bastian to Diagon Alley. Did he really seek out her company in the one night she was gone? 'Cress? You still there?" She places her pencil inside her small bag but keeps the page open, sourness spreading through her veins. He really had to bring her up just after talking about obsessions. 'Is it the karaoke? Lily said-"

Lily said. Who gives a rat's arse about what Lily says. Cressida slams the journal closed, shoving it into her magically extended bag. Merlin, what if he's just settled for her? What if he couldn't have Lily so he went to the only other girl that had his attention that he knew how to talk to. Other girls fawned over him, gifting him generously on Valentine's Days, but he never gave Cressida flowers. In fact, they've never celebrated the day properly. They don't realise the date is coming until it's over. Despite the fact that he said he's always had some form of a crush on her, did he really? He never even gave hint to it before their last years. The only thing that changed, was Lily's stubbornness; which increased until sixth year but by then, James had given up on her.

"Hey." Elias appears from over the back of the seat, arms folded over its back. "Ready to go?"

Cressida nods with an inwards smile. "Yep."

So I just couldn't resist

UnFaithful Beginnings - Avatar the Last Airbender. I'm hoping to have a slightly better writing style + longer chapters but it won't be nightly updates. However, that just means I won't be compromising with time so you should be given a better story.

Anyways, cheers and thank you once again for all the amazing peeps, this story is coming to an end (or at least it feels like it for me since I'm a bit ahead) and I hope to finish writing it within a week (no promise) so hopefully I can spam you with the remaining chapters.