Cars
Chapter 5

Light poured into Ani's bedroom, shining brightly on Fred's eyes. His eyes fluttered open much as they had on weekend mornings at Hogwarts.

He looked at Ani, her eyes shielded from the early morning light as half of her face was resting on his chest and the other half was covered by her arm bent around her face. He continued to watch her, her chest rising and falling gracefully with her slow breaths. He smiled happily not knowing he was falling in love with the beautiful woman in his arms.

He didn't move until Ani woke up, not wanting to disturb her. She smiled at him, both not remembering the terrible events that had brought them together.

Fred kissed Ani's forehead affectionately and they lied silently in the morning light, their bodies fitting comfortably together as they kept each other at the perfect temperature.

"Fred," Ani said softly, her amber eyes piercing him, "I have to go home."

Fred was unsure what she meant. Was she not home now?

"To my parents' house," she said helping him to understand, he too still called the Burrow home, all the Weasley's did, married or not. "And, I want you to come with me."

Fred would go anywhere with her, but the invitation seemed so definite, who would he be to her if he went to her home and met her family? Would that put them in an official relationship, something both of them didn't want despite their strong attraction to each other? Fred knew that they still couldn't have a relationship, because no matter how well they knew each other the ocean was still there.

"I can't stay here, and I don't want to go without you," she said knowing he was having a hard time deciding whether he would go or not. "You can't fly out yet," she said scared that his plane would be taken over and his life lost before she had the chance to understand why he seemed so special. "And I can't leave you," she paused, "here," another pause before finishing the sentence, "alone."

"Ani," he said softly as he tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear, "I can't imagine leaving your side."

They moved quietly, Fred making breakfast while Ani packed her bags. They ate, showered, and did the normal morning things before getting in Ani's car, Fred at the steering wheel and Ani with an atlas in her lap.

Fred had driven the Ford Angelina countless times along with Hermione's car, but he still didn't feel confident at the wheel.

"The right side then?" he asked half hoping he was wrong so he didn't have to drive.

"Yeah," Ani said with a smile.

"You're sure I should drive then?" he said still feeling odd driving her car.

"Yeah," she replied not worried that he would wreck or get pulled over or put them in any danger.

"Right," Fred said before finally pulling out of the parking space. He got out of the parking garage and New York City safely, losing his shakiness after an hour.

They stopped at quant diners for lunch and dinner and pulled into the driveway of Ani's childhood home well after midnight. Fred looked at the house which was a good ten minute drive from the nearest town. It was old yet well kept and looked like the type of home Ani would grow up in.

They got out of the car and Fred stood nervously on the front porch waiting for one of Ani's parents to come to the door.

Her mother opened the door wearing her pajamas and threw her arms around Ani before pulling the girl inside by her hand. Fred walked in feeling uncomfortable and shut the door softly.

He felt odd, being in Ani's parent's house. He barely knew Ani, even though her amber eyes made him feel as if he had known her forever. He was a friend, one that she barely knew, and he was there expecting to be accepted as a guest when he felt more like an interloper.

"I know you're not Greg," Ani's mother said kindly as she addressed Fred, "but, you are from the city, no doubt." She was smiling warmly, as Ani had, the day they had ran into each other on the sidewalk.

"Ah, no, I'm not actually," he said softly, still feeling uncomfortable though the woman seemed so warm and so like his own mother.

"Ah, English," she said before looking at her daughter quizzically. It seemed as though there was an inside joke between the two, but it as Fred tried harder to figure out the look he realized it was not a joke. It was as if her mother knew that some day a man would walk through that door and they would already know him. He would not be a new person, but someone Ani had known all her life, like destiny with blue eyes and flaming red hair.

He smiled oddly and ran his hand through his hair thinking he was reading into the look to much, it was just a quizzical look a mother gives a daughter when she brings a strange man home.

Ani knew her mother was about to ask Fred a question, she was overly kind. She was, and always had been, the mother that everyone loved. She was not the push over that let the kids drink beer on the weekends, but the kind that made all of her friends, or mainly just her acquaintances, laugh and say how much they loved her. She loved her mother, especially when she was in the city, but the middle of the night was no time to acquaint oneself with a stranger.

"Mom," Ani said, her piercing look hidden from Fred, "we, well, he has been driving all day." She was trying to get her mother to just let them go down the stairs into what was Ani's miniature apartment in the basement.

"Well, there's plenty of cider in the fridge, towels in the bathroom, and blankets on the couch," she said thinking Fred would sleep on the couch, knowing how her daughter was about premarital relations. She loved her daughter for that, being chaste, an uncommon thing of a twenty-one year old girl; and Ani loved that about herself. She had never had to lie to her mother about that, and she never would; but Fred made her feel safe in a place that now seemed to be shaky at all times.

"Thanks, Mom," Ani said before taking Fred's hand and leading him to the staircase. She led him into the basement, the half that had been finished with a small living room, two bedrooms, one turned into a study room, and bathroom. They had done it when she had started high school years above her peers. Her brother had left for college and Ani had needed extra space to study for all the classes and clubs she had taken on, and they were so proud of her. They had never expected their daughter to turn out so well, to become an intellectual, but she had.

"I'll get you some clothes and heat up some apple cider," Ani said before leaving Fred at the bathroom and her bag in the bedroom. She ran back up the stairs and came back minutes later to Fred, a towel wrapped around his waist. His chest still had drops of water on it, and his hair seemed so much darker when it was wet, as it had they day they had met.

Her cheeks turned red and she almost turned away, but remembered the cups of cider in her hands and the pajamas draped over her arms. "Here," she said as she extended her arm towards him, his cheeks now red solely because hers were.

They fell asleep as they had the night before, Ani curled in Fred's arms, but the smell of Ani's hair lulled Fred to sleep much faster than he had wanted. He had wanted to ask about Greg, a topic neither of them had brought up on the long car ride, partially to keep the peace, partially because neither could think of the proper words to use. Fred had thought he could ask just before they fell asleep, each too exhausted to fight or argue or get offended; but they had fallen asleep seconds after their heads hit the pillows, or more accurately, Ani's head nestled on Fred's chest.

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AN: You've taken the time to read... so please review!