Drowning their Sorrows
April 28th, 1998
Post-Hogwarts
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"Harry… Potter…" Dobby died and suddenly everyone was crying.
Luna slid his green eyes shut saying, "Now he looks like he could be sleeping." She was sweet like that.
"We need to bury him. Without magic." Harry acquired a garden spade from Bill and dug Dobby a nice grave between two small bushes at the end of the garden. As Harry dug he came to the decision to abandon the search for Hallows and focus on the Horcruxes.
"C'mon Jo, there's got to be a flower shop in town," Leili said, taking Jo's hand. Flower shopping would do well to get their minds settled, while still doing something productive.
The girls trudged up to the cottage and asked about the town. Fleur offered to take them. They dropped the kids' things beside the door and Apparated to Tinworth where Fleur found a sweet smelling flower shop. The shop keeper created a bouquet of bright pink and clean white Alliums, fire-orange poppies, soft purple sage, pale green Lady's mantle and some ornamental grasses, all tied together with a black ribbon.
Flowers bought, Jo and Leili Apparated directly to the Leaky Cauldron while Fleur Apparated back to the cottage. There she found Harry carving a stone to mark Dobby's grave. When he was finished, she placed the bouquet in a jar of water and set it beside the headstone so it could be seen without blocking the inscription.
In the Cauldron, Leili looked at Jo, "Are you ok?"
"I'll be dandy as soon as I get drunk enough to forget today happened."
Leili sighed; she could break her no-alcohol-ever rule for one night and lend her company to Jo or…
"Go," Jo said, nursing a butterbeer. "I can tell you want to. So go. I'll be ok."
The idea of leaving Jo alone... she wanted to leave but it made her feel like she was a bad friend. She should stay. "Are you sure? I can stay…"
"I think I want to be alone right now, anyway. Go. Go find Fred, you need to tell him Ron is safe." Jo pushed down hard on the wave of jealousy that flared up, the kernel of resentment. It wasn't Leilani's fault for wanting to go see Fred—for god's sake, he was her husband. But she was still a little jealous that Leili preferred to hang out with him while Jo got drunk. The logical part of her brain reminded her that Leili didn't like it when people drank around her. Reminded her that it made Leili profoundly uncomfortable. Reminded her that sometimes people needed a different kind of company.
But still, they'd been together for so long, it was hard to share sometimes. And it was hard to look at Fred and Leili and not be reminded of herself and Marcus and all the things that could have been, might have been, should have been. So, yes, she wanted to be alone. She wanted to mourn the loss of Marcus and Dobby alone.
Leili sighed again. "Ok," she said, wrapping a hug around Jo's shoulders, "you call me if you need me."
While Jo began to drown her sorrows in alcohol, Leili set off down the cobblestoned road. Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes was a little more than halfway down the alley, west of the Cauldron. So she walked until she caught sight of her favorite orange building. She opened the door and stepped inside.
"Hullo, Can I—" The shop girl stopped as she recognized Leilani. "Oh, it's you! Mrs. We—er…" Verity knew Leilani was married to Fred, and frequently had to be stopped from calling her Mrs. Weasley. George had cracked up the first time she'd done it. Leili just cringed and was unnecessarily reminded why she had hyphenated her last name. "Um, The Mister Weasley's are out right now."
Leilani smiled wanly at the bright and bubbly girl, "Thank you, Verity. Will you let them know I'm here when they get back?"
Verity nodded.
Leili trudged up the stairs and went straight for Fred's room. She shut his door behind her and collapsed on to the bed. She picked up his pillow and dropped it over her face to wait. She must have fallen asleep because she woke to the feeling of the bed shifting beside her.
The pillow was lifted gently off her face, "You alive under there?" Fred's voice asked softly.
Leili held two thumbs up, but kept her eyes closed. She felt the mattress shift again as he leaned in to kiss her. She twined one hand through his hair.
"So what did you do today?" he murmured against her lips.
"Hmmm," she exhaled, opening her eyes. "Let me think… Oh, I saved your little brother from the Death Eaters and then watched Harry bury Dobby. Today sucked."
Abruptly, he pulled back to look into her face. "Ron's okay?"
Leili nodded, "I'm sorry, I buried the lead. Ron's ok, Harry and Hermione too. They're with Bill and Fleur."
Fred wilted in relief, burying his eyes in the crook of her neck, "Thank you."
Tears pricked at her eyes, no one had ever thanked them for this before. She hadn't realized how nice it was to have their efforts to help be appreciated
Fred left her side to hurry to find George. "George! George! Leilani saw Ron. He's ok!"
Relieved, George wrapped his twin in a bear hug and told him, "Give that wife of yours a big kiss for me."
Fred practically flew back up the stairs to her. Locking the door he gave her that big kiss, she tasted like chocolate. She must have snagged a piece from his bedside table while he was gone. Eyebrow quirked he pulled back, leaving her looking surprised.
"Oh, young maiden!" he whispered, savoring as the look on her face slid from vaguely to fully confused. "For the thrill on your tongue of stolen sweets, you'll have to pay the fee, tangled in the winding sheets!"
Leilani blinked, the wheels turning behind her eyes. It took her embarrassingly long to figure it out, but once she did, she burst out laughing. The phrase was from a song in The Phantom of the Opera. She had no idea how he knew it or how he knew she loved the play.
She sang back, "No thoughts within her head but thoughts of joy~. No dreams within her heart but dreams of love~!" She was no Sarah Brightman—who originated the role in London—and she was flat on her back, laid out like Fred's personal feast but she did her best and was rewarded when Fred's grin turned delightfully wicked.
She paid her fee, happily.