Sorry it's taken me so long to update. I've been busy with school. I'll hopefully be getting the next chapter up relatively soon!!
For the last few days, the whole Weasley house had been bustling around talking about white dresses, cakes, and rings. Ron had been able to avoid most of it, subtly leaving the room at the opportune moment and coming up with new work assignments every hour. But today, today caught him off guard. For when he walked into his kitchen instead of finding a table full of crispy bacon and fresh biscuits, Ron Weasley stumbled onto a remarkable sight.
Fred and George were seated side by side; both were stuffing large white envelopes. Ron smirked, wondering what force could have possibly gotten his siblings to sit so still and be so mature.
"Ronniekins," George warned.
"Not a word." Fred finished, pressing his palm hard against the lip of one envelope.
"Ron! You're just in time. Help Hermione address, will you?" Molly pleaded, rising from her seat. "Take my spot. I need to go find Ginny." Hermione looked up and beamed at her friend.
"Oy, mum. I haven't even had breakfast yet." Ron whined.
Hermione looked up and set down her quill. "Oh, we all know you can't function without your three helpings of porridge, Ron. Grab some toast and get over here."
Ron glared softly, taking a large bite of an apple he grabbed from the cluttered counter.
"Please." Hermione said with a sweet smile. The sun was shining through the window, framing her auburn hair with golden glow. His heart leaped out of sync.
"How are you sending these out already? You haven't even set a date. Isn't it a bit too soon?" He questioned, making his way towards Hermione's chair and taking another bite. He stood behind her, trying to see the invitations from behind her mass of curls.
"Not exactly. We decided on a date last night actually. March 19." She rushed. "And now I have all of this to do in such a short time." Her arms flew up in frustration as she finished another address.
Ron coughed up the apple chunk he was chewing, stumbling to stand in front of her. "Hermione… that's in 2 months." He said bewildered. "That's insane." Fred and George exchanged glances across the table. "You can't possibly… How can you marry a guy less than a year after you started dating him? You have time. What's the rush?" He glowered at her; his words were full of anger and desperation.
She seemed untouched by his fierce look. "I have no choice. I received an owl from the Ministry last night. I go back to America in April. Caden wants us to marry before I leave." Hermione picked up her quill again, and began writing. "And I'd appreciate you being a little more supportive."
"Supportive?" Ron said, baffled.
"Yes, Ron. Supportive. You know when you're sensitive to your friend's feelings and help her get to where she wants to be." Hermione gazed up at him through her lashes, her mouth in a straight line. Her quill had stopped moving.
"Not if your friend's daft. Which, you are… right now." He kept her gaze, standing there in the middle of the kitchen. There was an eerie silence, both of them too stubborn to back down. Fred began to whistle under his breath.
Hermione was fuming. Her cheeks were growing redder under Ron's disappointing stare. She began to feel tears building up behind her eyes. Before she could say anything she would regret, she had scooted the chair back and rushed out of the kitchen, being sure to push past Ron in the process.
Ron grumbled to himself, falling into the seat beside his brother. He picked up an invitation, turned it over in his hands and muttered, "She's gone mad."
"Something smells fishy here, doesn't it George?" Fred said, sniffing the air as he finished closing another envelope.
"It sure does, Fred. A bit too convenient, don't you think?" George answered, staring at the place Hermione had just disappeared from.
"What are you two babbling about?" Ron retorted, flicking the paper onto a pile in the center of the table.
"Suddenly, she needs to leave for America."
"And simply has to have a wedding beforehand?" Fred supplied. "I think there's a muggle word for this…"
"It's escaping me." George pondered.
"SHOTGUN!" Fred yelled. Ron jumped, and his hand knocked over a bottle of ink; causing it to splatter all over the cream-colored paper.
"Merlin! Look what you've done!" Ron groaned. He pulled his wand from his pocket to clean it up. "What are you on about?"
Fred and George smirked, and shook their heads. "You may have to ask, Harry. Or perhaps Hermione, I can't remember exactly how to describe it…" George trailed off.
"Ron?" Harry ventured, poking his head into his best friend's room. Ron hadn't heard him, or chose to ignore him. He was squatting by his dresser, fumbling through the bottom drawer. Papers crumbled and fell out of Ron's grasp. He tried again. "Ron, you there?"
"Merlin! Harry," Ron's head snapped up, almost causing him to lose his balance. "You're back."
Harry chuckled. "Yeah, Hermione told you I was back yesterday, didn't she?"
"Yeah, mate. Just forgot." Ron said as he piled miscellaneous papers and stuffed them into the cluttered drawer.
Harry scratched his head and said, "I can see you're busy. What are you doing?"
Ron quickly stuffed the rest of the papers into place and slammed the drawer shut. In a flash, he was standing with his hands in his pockets, leaning up against the wardrobe. "Organizing." He stated with a rush.
"I'm not even going to ask…" Harry said, eyeing the dresser suspiciously. "Up for a game?" He wriggled the folded ches board in his hand up in the air. "It's been a while."
With a shrug, Ron made a space on his messy floor for the two of them to sit. The both of them were quiet, as with every game Ron played. He had to have his wits about him. There was no way he was going to let what happened with his and Ginny's game, happen again. No distractions.
Harry's eyes were strictly on the game, as they always had to be, if he ever wanted to win. "So, how have you been? Hermione and I missed you yesterday." He asked.
Ron shrugged, "Pawn D-3. Work has been killing me lately. So much to do, and so little time. Did I miss anything good?" Pig hooted softly in his cage by the door.
Harry shook his head. "Not really. You're mum's a bit mental though, in her fashion choices." He laughed. "Hermione had on this one dress; it was filled head to toe with pearls. Or at least what looked like pearls."
"Yeah? I'm sure she looked lovely in it though." Ron said absently.
Harry glanced at his friend, who was staring at the board intently. "Yes she did. Very beautiful. Caden's a lucky man." Harry stated nonchalantly, testing the waters.
"You there, move." Ron commanded his knight. "Yeah, lucky guy." He mumbled, his fists slowly clenching. "He's a bit of an egghead, though, really."
Harry grinned, "I figured as much. Your letters weren't exactly full of flattery. But he's with Hermione now. We're stuck with him I guess."
"Right." Ron shifted, waiting for Harry to make a move. After more than a few minutes, he looked up to catch his friend staring at him. "Your move, Harry."
"No, Ron… I think it's your move." Harry said coolly. Ron's eyebrows furrowed. He was about to say something, when Harry cut him off. "I've been Hermione and your best friend for eight years now. I've seen everything. Remember the Viktor Krum figurine? The canaries? What are you waiting for?"
The redhead pushed back from the board, leaning against his bed. "You sound like Ginny. There's not much I can do. She picked him."
Harry raised his eyebrow. "Right, because she felt that she had another choice? Something tells me you haven't tried hard enough."
Ron laughed. "And you tried with Ginny? I still don't get that."
Harry blinked a few times surprised by the change of topic. Ron wasn't one to talk about his sister's love life. "I'm not saying I'm an expert on anything like that. We both have to get our acts together." After a few moments of silence, Harry's eyes grew wide behind the circular frames, remembering. "Why didn't you tell me she was training to be an Auror in your letters?" Harry questioned.
"She made me promise I wouldn't. I did try and talk her out of it. All of us did. But, you know how she is when she's angry… It's scary." Ron said with a shiver. "I tried, she gave me that look."
"Oh, the look? I don't like that look." Harry stated, leaning back. "What did you say? Did she hex you?"
"She wouldn't listen to me. I even reminded her about what you said, about how difficult it is." Ron winced. "That didn't help the cause too much though. I was lucky she didn't' have her wand handy. Who knows what kind of curses they're teaching her."
"You brought me up? Rotten move on your part. She hates me now." He let out a sigh, picking up a piece from the forgotten game in front of him.
Ron laughed. "She doesn't hate you, mate. She would probably like to, with all the ups and downs you two go through, but she doesn't. She just wants a chance."
Harry dropped the pawn as it yelled at him to make his move. He smiled slightly. "Easier said than done. What do you think I should do?"
Ron's eyebrows rose as he leaned against his night table. "I dunno, I don' t even know what happened to begin with. Not my area of expertise, obviously."
"Mine either."
They both sat quiet for a few minutes. "Well, what'd Hermione tell you to do?"
Harry laughed, "She said I need to talk to her."
Ron nodded and said matter -of-factly, "I think you should do what Hermione says. She's, you know, a girl. She knows these things…"
"I figured I'd be stuck with that answer." Harry shook his head. "Your move."
After a few moves, when silence had fallen on them. Ron bit his lip. "Hey Harry, what's a shotgun?"
"Just a type of muggle weapon," Harry shrugged. "Why?"
"Well, Fred and George were saying something earlier… about Hermione having a shotgun wedding. I don't-" Ron was interrupted as Harry seemed to be choking. Harry leaned back, covering his mouth with hand.
"I'd rather not think about that, thanks." He coughed, running his other hand through his messy hair.
"Think about what? You said it was some kind of muggle device." Ron asked, confused and suddenly embarrassed.
Harry laughed. "Well yeah, but when you pair that with the word wedding. It gets a whole new meaning. Muggles say it when a couple is marrying quickly. Before the 9 months are over." Harry said slowly, hoping he wouldn't have to elaborate.
Ron stared at him, eyes squinted, trying to decipher.
"A bun in the oven, Ron. Do I have to say more? Please don't make me. "
Harry knew precisely when the light clicked on in Ron's head. His eyes grew wide, shell shocked for a few moments. "Bloody hell. Hermione?" Ron shouted.
Harry tried to continue the game. But Ron wouldn't move. "It's Fred and George-" Harry began.
"Do you," Ron asked quietly. "Do you think it's true? I mean, it makes sense. This is completely outside Hermione's normal behavior…" He trailed off.
Harry cracked a smile. "Come on, you can't let Fred and George get to you that easily. They're probably laughing their heads off right now. Let's play."
Ron shrugged his mind still obviously somewhere else. "I suppose you're right. I don't much feel like a game anymore though. Raincheck?" Before Harry could answer, Ron shot up and started towards the door.
"Ron… Where are you going?" Harry asked suspiciously.
He stopped at that door, his hand on the doorknob. "Getting some answers."
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