Author's Note: As it is, I've run quite out of clever ideas. So this is a completely unoriginal chapter with not much humor and not much romance and no much anything, but at least I posted something...

Disclaimer: Everyone knows I don't own them, and I'm making no profit out of this.


Chapter 17: Alicia and Fred

"Seven butterbeers and two mineral waters," Fred told Rosmerta as their whole group got seated at the nearest table. "Harry's paying."

Harry grunted with mock anger, conceding that it had been a silly bet anyway. He had only agreed to take the bet to keep Ron out of it. He honestly had never even thought that the Cannons would have even the slightest chance of winning. It was still a pity, though, that they hadn't won because Fred's definition of "having a drink or something at the Three Broomsticks with the loser paying" seemed to depend a lot on who the loser was. Not that Harry was stingy or anything, but Bill, Fred, George, Ron, Remus, and Fleur, Luna, and Tonks could drink quite a large amount of alcohol in a short amount of time (alright, Fleur and Tonks would be on non-alcoholic drinks due to their condition, but that didn't change much).

"You should do it more often," Ron told Harry, taking one of the butterbeers Rosmerta had just delivered to their table. "This way there's at least some positive side to the Cannons' matches."

"Oh, but I heard there was another quite differently positive side to the last match," Fred smirked, opening his bottle with his teeth.

"Yeah, or at least something positive by your side…" George added with an identical grin.

"However did you manage to convince Hermione to come and watch it?" Tonks asked with a wink, sipping her water.

Ron blushed. "She had nothing better to do," he mumbled, trying to avert the topic by taking a gulp of beer, but managing to spill it on his robes instead, which made him turn even redder in the face.

The table rang with laughter.

"So you'll be accompanying her to the British Magical Library on Saturday?" Harry suggested, and the others let out another burst of laughter.

"I…" Ron said.

"Is that a yes?" Bill guessed.

"No!" Ron said fiercely, without managing to diminish the laughing, though.

"Where, then?" George inquired, and Ron already opened his mouth to deny having promised to go anywhere with Hermione to make her come to the match (especially going to the Opera on Friday night), when the entrance of a group of chatting witches averted his brothers' attention.

"Angie! Alicia!" Fred called out, waving to them to come and sit with their group, but their classmates only waved back and laughed at some joke, and made their way to the further corner of the barroom with the other witches.

"So, what did you promise to do, then?" Fred turned back to Ron, disappointed at the women's behaviour and trying to cover up his disappointment.

Ron, having already sighed with relief, turned the colour of a tomato again, and started to sink under the table while trying his best to look like an empty seat.

"Ah, stop teasing him," Bill said suddenly, and it was so unexpected that everyone did shut up, and even Ron forgot to look as if he wasn't there, "about the match," Bill added with a wicked grin. "Better tease him about the ring!"

"Harry!" Ron shouted, letting his bottle of butterbeer drop onto his robes and spill its last contents. "I told you it was a secret!"

Harry laughed with the others, shrugging. "I only told Berit," he said, indicating to his secretary who was chatting with Angelina and her other friends.

Ron gave him an angry look.

"Ah, what's past is past," Remus said, patting Ron's shoulder amicably. "It wouldn't have stayed a secret for long, anyway."

"So, have you done it yet?" Fleur asked, raising her head a couple of notches from Bill's shoulder where it had been resting for a while already.

"No. I'm afraid. What if she says no!" Ron asked, staring at his completely empty bottle.

"She won't," Tonks said at the same moment that George suggested, "Then you go after another woman, simple."

"Stop it! You don't know how hard it is to propose!" Ron almost shouted.

"Oh yeah," Bill sighed, resting his chin in Fleur's hair.

"Don't remind me," Remus mumbled, hiding behind his butterbeer bottle as Tonks' voice rang out in laughter.

"It's not difficult at all," Fred said.

"Oh yeah? Who are you marrying then?" Ron asked with challenge in his voice.

"Alicia," Fred said with determination.

The whole table was quiet in a matter of a second, besides George who was coughing heavily on his butterbeer. Harry looked from one shocked staring face to another, until his eyes met Ron's which seemed void of any emotion.

"When did you propose, then?" Harry asked, finding his voice again. The others nodded him on, clearly indicating that they would have asked the same if their vocal chords still worked.

"Oh, I knew I forgot something…" Fred said, and then continued, shouting, "Hey, Alicia!"

"What?" she asked loudly from the other end of the barroom. All the other women around her had shushed, giggling silently on the background.

"Will you marry me?" Fred boomed out.

Alicia looked at him, considering. Then she nodded. "Yeah, alright. But I have two conditions."

"And what may those be?"

"First, I want a large wedding. And the second one will probably be fulfilled, too, considering your family," Alicia said.

"Lizzie wants a lot of children," Berit, Harry's secretary, exclaimed merrily, making Lizzie turn a brilliant shade of Weasley red in the face.

"See, Ron, no big deal," Fred said easily, jumping up from his seat and escorting his fiancée out of the Three Broomsticks. As the door closed behind them, silence was left behind, and Madam Rosmerta's sniffing.

"No big deal," Harry repeated, trying to twist his lips into a comforting smile. All others still seemed to be speechless. After a minute or so of the silence that usually was impossible when there was more than zero Weasleys present at once, Harry decided his quicker overcoming of shock should profit him in some way, too.

"So, now that Fred's gone, everyone pays for his own drink!"

He expected at least some reaction to that, but still nothing happened. After a bit more sitting and doing nothing, Ron seemed to regain his ability to speak.

"No big deal," he mumbled. "But I don't remember where I put the ring!"

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