Harry, along with his brothers-in-law, set up the marquee at the garden just as they had done during the Christmas gathering even though the weather was looking nice at the moment. If there was anything they knew about the weather in England, it was that it could rain at any moment even if the sun was shining brightly. Everyone was present and Molly's meal was looking as delicious as ever, it would have been the perfect meal if the Easter Sunday had not fallen on the fourth of April this year, mere three days after April's Fool Day, which was also Fred and George's birthday.
Because of the unpredictable nature of the holiday, the mood of Harry's mother-in-law could be drastically different from year to year depending on how close the actually holiday was to the twins' birthday. Based on his observation, Harry believed that it was generally safe when the day was three days or more before the birthday or seven or more days after, Molly's grief would be at her worst when it was within three days after the birthday. None of the Easter had ever been as bad as 2018, when Easter Sunday had happened to fall on the day, first of April.
George would always make sure to spend some time with Molly on his birthday, a time that was emotionally draining and difficult for the both of them that in Harry's mind, it seemed more like a cruel punishment than a celebration for his poor brother-in-law, who had never truly had a "Happy Birthday" since the day his twin had died. On the one hand, George deserved to have a good time on his birthday but on the other hand, everyone, including George himself and especially Molly, could never forget Fred's death on this particular day seeing the lone twin getting older, which made any celebration awkward and wrong. Of course Molly would make the effort to bake George a cake and prepare or buy a birthday present for him, and they had even made a promise between themselves to try to make the day a happy one for Fred and for themselves, but as uncharacteristic as this had been for the former prankster, George would always end up crying with Molly at some point. Sadly, Harry had learned from Ginny that the little bit of crying could never compare to Molly's inevitable breakdown the moment George had flooed away from his childhood home. They all pretended not to know but it had been common knowledge that Molly always prepared an identical present which would immediately join a "secret" pile she had hidden.
On an ill-timed Easter like this, Molly's puffy eyes would still be painfully obvious for all to see and seeing her extended family gathering together always reminded her more of her loss. In moments like these, Harry could not help feeling sad thinking about how much Molly had aged over the past twenty years.
Unfortunately for George, there had been times over the years on Easter Sunday when she would avoid looking at him, bravely looked at him with tears in her eyes or worst of all, took a fleeting look at him before running out of the room. Molly had gotten much better at handling George's birthday and Easter for the last eight years or so (except 2018 of course), but with the discovery of Voldemort's daughter, almost end of this peaceful world and almost loss of Albus, she was reasonably on the more emotional side of the spectrum this year that after she had abruptly left her family halfway through lunch, it had taken both Arthur and Ginny to comfort her and lure her back to finish the meal, while George stayed seated with a forlorn look and everyone else trying hard to talk about anything but the elephant in the room.
Everyone seemed to let out a sigh of relief when they were finally done with the meal that Molly stood up and took her wand out to start clearing up the dishes. Ginny, who had been sitting just two seats away from Molly, was immediately at her side. She gently placed her hands on Molly's shoulders and said, "Let us take care of that, mum. You've worked the whole morning, you should go back inside the house and rest."
"That's sweet of you, Ginny dear, but you know that I can't trust you with my dishes, when you barely ever enter your own kitchen. Not to mention, I'm not really tired. There's no reason for you all to pamper me. You all should go back in or go play Quidditch or hang out at the orchard and have a good time."
Harry, who had stood up immediately following Molly but had stayed put, walked over as Ginny signaled him by giving him a sharp look. "Molly, sure you'd trust me to clean up instead?" He added while looking around the table to check who else was ready to help, "You see, Bill, Percy and Ron are ready to h… Albus, what are you doing up?"
His son mumbled, "I-I th-think I should h-help out too. I'm not that interested in playing Quidditch so I can stay to help instead."
Harry was torn between feeling moved by his son's thoughtfulness and disappointed that Albus might still be trying to get away from playing Quidditch but before he could react, Molly had taken three big steps before pulling her grandson in for a suffocating embrace.
"My sweet, sweet boy. You're just like your father when he was young. So considerate and so brave… " Harry could tell Molly was thinking about Albus' ordeals in the hands of Delphi again but he cringed hearing her comparing Albus to himself, a big taboo of Al's. She even planted a kiss on the boy's forehead. "What would we have done if we lost you too?"
The word "too" was said normally but Molly might as well had shouted the word. Harry could not bring himself to look at George because it was obvious what she meant was "What would we have done if we lost you like Fred too?" It was a normal thing for Molly to think but certainly not the easiest thing for the surviving twin to hear out loud so soon after their birthday, especially after Molly's emotional reaction during the meal. Harry had had enormous admiration for his brother-in-law for his patience and tolerance in dealing with Molly's grief for the past twenty-three years when the twin's loss could have arguably been worse for George than Molly having lost the other half of himself.
There was a frown on Al's face as she resumed hugging him after the kiss, his son was obviously feeling uncomfortable to be hugged and kissed in front of his entire extended family and to be reminded of the Time-Turner incidents yet again after half a year.
At long last, Molly let go of him and said, "You're such a wonderful boy, Albus, but your uncles and I can take care of these, you go play Quidditch with your siblings and cousins." Ginny did not look too pleased being distrusted while Harry was not surprised to be excluded in cleaning duty, Molly had always declined his help in chores (at least initially) for almost thirty years after all.
"But I…"
"Besides, you're still underage so your uncles can take care of it much faster with magic."
"I guess you're right…" Albus agreed begrudgingly.
Harry had never seen anyone looking as bummed not to be able to help cleaning things up instead of playing Quidditch. Molly patted Albus on his head so affectionately the way one patted on a small child instead of a teenager, which was a bit awkward because even though Al was as tall as a twelve-year-old, he was not that much shorter than the very short Molly Weasley. But of course, all her children and especially her grandchildren, would always be babies for the Weasley matriarch.
Having witnessed Albus' attempt in getting away from Quidditch, James seemed to take it upon himself to escort Al back into the house to pick up their broomsticks and to the orchard, with Rose and Lily tailing behind them having a fun little chat, or so Harry thought before he overheard Lily while ignoring Molly's order in clearing the tables and chairs with his brothers-in-law, "You'll see, I'll defeat you and get into the team next year."
"I don't think so… but you know what, Rox's graduating this year so there will be a spot, you may get to join the team after all."
"I mean it this time, Harry." Ginny said with determination as she finally left the house to join Harry, Charlie, George and Ron on their way to the orchard to watch the kids played.
"Sure, just like you said the hundred other times before, you need to learn just enough about cooking and cleaning so Molly will stop apologising to me and stop kicking you out of her kitchen."
Harry tried very hard to suppress his laugh, Ginny might be fierce and remarkably stubborn normally but cooking and cleaning might be her biggest weakness. Molly always apologised to Harry for Ginny's "fault", which naturally meant her inability to cook and clean, whenever the couple would visit and dine at their home. This always irritated Ginny even though she could not truly argue against her knowing how useless she was in the kitchen and Harry always respectfully disagreed with Molly saying Ginny was perfect the way she was and cooking was a big hobby of his. His wife almost always insisted to learn to cook after one of these visits but always gave up within half an hour, sometimes even ten minutes.
"I'm with mum there, Ginny. I'd never have thought that I'd be a better cook than you but here we are." Despite Molly's strange preference for Hermione to Ron in her kitchen, Ron was the one who did all the cooking for his family and was indeed a decent cook despite not being as good as Harry.
Ginny turned to glare at his brother but her expression morphed into one of intense concentration towards the sky. Harry followed her gaze to see Albus throwing an apple back to James.
They had set up a different set of practice goals, which were slightly smaller than the ones used at Harry's garden, at the orchard. Rose was the next person attempting to score and she threw surprisingly fast and hard to the almost amateur that Harry suspected that Albus might have blocked her successfully a few times before. Albus quickly steered his broomstick slightly upward to his left to block the apple with the tail of the broom, which was flying towards the lower right goal. All of the adults stood watching Albus successfully blocking five attempts within five minutes by the different Chasers. This might be the second time Harry seeing his youngest son played Quidditch, he felt every bit as proud and moved as the first time that he could feel his goosebumps again.
"Wow, mate! I can't believe you've never told me how good a keeper Albus is!" exclaimed Ron.
"How could I possibly tell you when Al had never played Quidditch before until two days ago? And he didn't even learn flying properly until last November or so."
"You gotta be joking!"
"Nope"
"Do you think I could defeat him now at a tryout?"
Harry thought this was another poor attempt of humour by his best friend, who had taken so much pride in his brief successful Quidditch "career" and had even sung the "Weasley is our King" song (the Quidditch Final version of course) to his children as nursery rhyme at one point, but one look at his face told him that Ron was dead serious, Harry glanced down towards the poorly concealed belly under his jumper and decided, "Probably no-" he could not finish the word because Ron had just slapped him on his head.
"Don't you dare attacking my husband when he was just being honest with you, Ron. Do you even remember when you have practiced last? Besides, even back in school, you had horrible stage fright and could never perform consistently well."
Harry was a bit disappointed that the siblings' fight broke the children's attention from the game. Even though they resumed the game after greeting the adults, it simply did not feel the same. At least this had never meant to be a proper game because of the size constraint and the odd number of kids who played. Among the shots he had watched, Albus only missed four shots out of over thirty from his siblings and cousins.
"I've decided, Albus. I'll practice at least an hour with you every morning."
"I'm not on your team, James. You've no right to force me to play when I don't want to."
"Come on, it'll be good workout for you. I heard playing Quidditch more can help you grow taller."
"Rea… A-Are you sure?" The boy was obviously excited for it at first but he controlled his excitement as he asked with narrowed eyes.
"Of course, why would I ever lie to you?" Harry could instantly come up with a few reasons.
Later they all took turns to look at and play with each other's broomsticks. Surprisingly, Albus' Nimbus 2000 was the most popular model out of all, likely out of curiosity or nostalgia, with Ron, Charlie, Rose and George all taken turns to have a go (Al agreed to his cousin's demand with great reluctance and Harry was not surprised in the least.)
George was the last one to fly the broomstick that Harry was the only one waiting for him when he touched down onto the ground while all the other family members had returned to the house, including Albus who seemed to trust his father enough to make sure nothing too bad would happen to his new broomstick.
Harry reached out a hand to receive the broomstick as his brother-in-law handed it to him. "This gives me nostalgia." Harry silently nodded to George's statement thinking he was referring to the Nimbus 2000, which George had tried quite a few times with Harry's back in the days.
"You'd sometimes wait for us to leave the pitch together back in the days as well… back before Umbridge… in a way, you kinda became our little brother instantly when we first met you... or perhaps, when you first joined the team, that's when Freddie and I truly got to know you better… as yourself instead of as the friend of our brother… or as the Harry Potter." For the second time within two hours, Harry got goosebumps, but for entirely different reason this time. The twin had never talked to him about Fred before and he could feel his throat tighten shut that he was completely mute at the moment. Harry did not know if he should consider it fortunate that George did not really need him to make any response.
"Is it bad to wish that you don't have a birthday? As if I need any reminder that he's gone."
Harry could feel his eyes burn, it took him half a minute to force out the words in his trembling voice, "I-I am s-so sorry, George." It sounded completely inadequate but it did not matter because George appeared to not have heard it.
"What would I give to go back to those days? I can't believe Oliver would make us practice what, was it five times a week? You know what? I'd give anything to go back to serve all those detentions with Freddie. We might have served a thousand hours together and I'd go back to serve every single one of them because those were the best times no matter how dull the work was, he always managed to come up with the best joke about any and everything, and the best prank to pull on Filch. We even managed to prank Snape once… the fifty hours of detention was totally worth it."
Harry was simultaneously dying and too scared to look at George, when he finally braced himself to look up, he expected to see whole track of tear down his face but saw a pair of blank and completely dry eyes instead. His heart broke for the twin because it would have been so much better for him to be crying out loud. Had he tried to suppress his emotion and pain so much that he had forgotten how to cry about it?
George ran a hand through his hair and let out a sigh, at this particular angle Harry could get a very clear view of the hole where George's left ear had been, the hole which had been there for almost twenty-four years because of him, Harry Potter. There really was nothing to be said as he pulled him in for a hug and held his brother for a long time.
Harry was glad that no one asked them any question as they returned inside the house, which he suspected was all thanks to Ginny. He picked up a butterbeer for George, which was received with a "Thanks" and a weak smile, which he could understand was a thank for more than the drink.
The family stayed for another hour before preparing to leave. As per tradition, Molly brought out huge boxes of Easter eggs for each family to take home with, there would be more than a dozen of eggs in each box, with more eggs given for the larger families like Harry's, the eggs were filled with toffee, fudges or different types of chocolate. Ginny had been fighting a losing battle with her sugar ban for a while but all hope was always lost whenever Easter came.
Unexpectedly, Al stood up when Molly handed a box to Harry.
"G-Gran?"
"What is it, Albus darling?"
He blushed while looking down and said, "I-I am wondering… could I have a few more eggs so I co-could send some to Scorpius? I used to share my portion with him but I thought…" He trailed off but Harry understood, the boy was trying his luck remembering how happy Molly had been receiving Scorpius' flowers back on Christmas day.
"Oh, my dear boy, of course I can give you a few more eggs but you should keep them for yourself." Albus looked so happy one second to have his wish granted so easily but his forehead now screwed into a confused frown after hearing the second half of the sentence.
"I've already sent a box of Easter eggs to your friend Scorpius. He's such a well-mannered boy that he even sent me another bouquet of flowers in return and a nice thank-you letter. It just arrived while you're all playing Quidditch, see." She pointed Albus towards a spot on top of the fireplace. Sure enough, there was a colourful bouquet with all different types of flower which looked very similar to but even bigger than the one Scorpius had picked out for Molly during Christmas. There was also an envelope that she had erected in front of the bouquet, the letter had been addressed in beautiful handwriting in green ink.
It took Albus ten seconds to take it in before throwing his arms around his grandmother. "Thank you, gran… this means so much. Scorpius has always loved your sweets."
Molly laughed perhaps the happiest laugh Harry had heard from her on a Easter Sunday, "You're such a wonderful boy, you and your friend both… if you'd told me about him before, I'd have started sending him things much earlier. I haven't forgotten about asking him to visit us at the Burrow, we should talk about it some other time."
Albus nodded in silent content.
Harry had thought about inviting the Malfoys to join the extended Weasley family for big holiday gatherings but again, he worried about how awkward and embarrassed Draco would feel here. The coming gathering at his home would be a good starting point and a test for the future.
A/N: I started writing this chapter knowing only that I had to get to the part where Albus hugged his grandma, everything along the way could be described as improvisation. The scene with George in particular, was a last-second addition because I felt like it's warranted after spending that time with Molly earlier. I find it almost comical that like my readers, I often go into a chapter feeling just as clueless about what will happen there and would come out feeling surprised. It's a double-edged sword because on the one hand, this makes it a really enjoyable experience for myself to discover the way leading to the end, or the certain checkpoints I planned beforehand, on the other hand, I often lose my sense of direction and get so frustrated not knowing how to continue or get to where I need to be.
I realized the orchard was meant to be where they set up the marquee (at least for Bill's wedding) and the Easter holiday is meant to be only a week long but I'll just pretend otherwise. (I did have two-weeks Easter holiday back when I was in school so it isn't unreasonable to me).
Thanks kahn1969, AxelsFire96, Criis46, Son of Whitebeard, Scorpiusisthebest, Ronnie Jane and HogwartsDreamer113 for commenting, your support always provide me with the best motivation to keep writing. Please comment :)