Chapter Five: Takin' Care of Business
The office of Regina Yeban was hot and stuffier than the Divination classroom with the air full of tea steam in May. Both Mary and George were sweaty and more than a little uncomfortable as she explained the rules that they had heard from Mr. Weasley the night before. The signed the marital contract as soon as the opportunity was offered to them and promptly left the Ministry in hopes of changing out of their dressy attire. George had complained non-stop about having to wear dress robes to the Ministry of Magic, but his mother had threatened to hex him if he took the robes off and so he grudgingly complied.
Mary suggested that they stop in at her grandfather's house after George changed to get some lunch as her grandfather had wanted to congratulate George personally before the wedding ceremony. He cheerfully agreed, as food had been offered, and threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt before joining her at the Darkbow house. Mary answered the door when he knocked and led him into the living room where Mr. Darkbow sat eating a roast beef sandwich.
"Hello, George, come in. Don't worry, I don't jinx anymore. Mary already made you a sandwich and there is some pumpkin juice or butterbeer in the refrigerator, whichever takes your fancy."
"Hello, Mr. Darkbow." George smiled and sat in a chair opposite the older man.
"Please, call me Eliasus. You're practically family now." A wide smile split across the elderly gentleman's face as he patted George on the shoulder. Mary brought back a few butterbeers and her own sandwich and joined the men in eating.
"I hope he's not giving you too much trouble," she said, winking at her grandfather. "He may look like an innocent old man, but he's still an excitable old bugger." George laughed along with the older man at Mary's description. Her grandfather had worked as head auror in his day and had spent the last ten years enjoying an early retirement, which included him puttering around in the garden and giving Arthur Weasley a place to keep and tinker with several muggle projects his wife didn't know about. The old man still had a lot of life and curiosity in his system.
After their lunch, during which Eliasus Darkbow questioned George shamelessly about his previous encounters with women, as well as about his joke shop, Mary escorted George back to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. She said hello to Neville and informed George of her plans to go to Hogwarts to start fixing up her new office and dungeon classroom. He bade her good luck and sent her off to work with a kiss.
Upon her arrival, Mary decided to start cleaning out the entirety of her space of anything that could have had anything to do with Horace Slughorn. It was a messy job, but she got the majority of the grime and remnants of the late Slytherin out of the office and classroom with her wand. She used a cleaning potion to finish cleaning and moved on to checking out the closet that was usually kept stocked with ingredients both for students to use and that the professor kept for themselves. In a back corner of the closet, half covered with a pile of rubble was a case with a double 'S' engraved across the front and she paused to look over the piece. It was clearly something that had belonged to Severus Snape when he had held the position as Potions master, though how it had gotten back into the supply closet after Snape's death was a mystery. She smiled, remembering the sour wizard who always grudgingly gave her approval.
It had been hard to accept that a Ravenclaw was as adept at potions as he, a Slytherin, but as she was a pureblood and direct descendant from Rowena Ravenclaw, he had some respect for her beyond that of professor and adept student. She was convinced that deep down he approved of her skills, however; his demeanor and outward being prohibited him from saying as much.
She took the case into the newly cleaned office and placed it on the top shelf on the wall, where she would also put her Hogwarts diploma, photographs of her friends and family, and her small memorial for all those lost to the Dark Lord. She smiled, looking around at the place that was to be hers and sighed. It would be less than a week until she had to report for classes and she still had yet to make out a list of required items for the course. She sat down at the black cherry desk and pulled out a quill and some parchment from her bag, tucked her wand into the waistband of her jeans, and proceeded to write out a list. Before she left to gather some of her things to decorate, furnish, and supply the potions area, she dropped the list of things off with Professor McGonnagal in the headmasters office.
Mary finished her work at 7 p.m., having brought in a long black couch for the office, and apparated back to her grandfather's house. George would be having dinner with Lee Jordan and she wanted to spend some time going over the wedding details with Mrs. Weasley after she made dinner for herself and her grandfather. He thoroughly enjoyed himself, and then tottered off to join Arthur in the basement to work a new and improved flying car. Mary cleaned up and then walked across the hill to the Burrow where Mrs. Weasley was already in wedding mode.
"Thank Merlin!" Ginny whispered as Mary entered. She was wearing a pale yellow summer dress that Mary assumed Mrs. Weasley had made as a bride's maid dress. "I've been here all day and the only break I got from the plans was dinner."
"I'm sorry," Mary said, knowing that Ginny was only suffering through plans because of her absence. Ginny's face softened and she flopped down onto a chair.
"As soon as she's busy with you I'm going to sneak off and go see Harry," Ginny admitted. "She won't even notice, she's so busy with this stuff. I dunno how I'll survive my own wedding plans."
Mary laughed. "Well perhaps you'll be more interested in your own."
Ginny smiled in return. "I sure hope so." Extremely girly things were not Ginny's style. Mary winked at her, and then went into the kitchen where Mrs. Weasley was testing out cake batter to announce her arrival. Mrs. Weasley's delighted coo signaled to Ginny that she was in the clear and before her mother could call her into the kitchen to show Mary her dress she had gone upstairs.
George didn't see his bride-to-be all day on Friday, which put him in a foul mood and inspired him to go back to work after dinner to finish testing some of the new Wonder Witch products with Neville. He had almost perfected the skin smoothing potion that would allow witches to take 10 years off of their appearance when Neville announced that he had to meet Luna and his grandmother for dinner. Apologizing profusely he left George alone to test the products. Fortunately for George, he was able to reverse any of the effects the potion had on his skin fairly easily alone. He swore under his breath, however when one of the bottles of perfected formula fell to the floor and splattered all over his feet.
"Having issues by yourself?" the portrait of his twin asked, drifting lazily over.
"You don't know the half of it," George muttered, cleaning up the mess with a wave of his wand. "It was easier…before…"
"Don't get all sentimental on me. You'll have plenty of time for that tomorrow," the painting said. "You're still a Weasley twin and you'll get it right eventually.
"Dammit, I miss you!" George told his twin.
"Who wouldn't?" Fred answered back. "Look, I miss you as well, but I'm here aren't I. Painting or not. So don't dwell on it so much."
"I'd like to see you try and not dwell on it," George retorted, trying to blink back the tears that threatened to spill. He hadn't been so lonely since the night that Fred had been killed. He felt the heavy weight of loneliness pressing in on him and had to shake himself. The painting was right. At least he could remember his twin and have him essentially still there in painting form. "I wish you could be my best man," he stated.
"Well I suppose I could, though I dunno how Mum would take it to have a painting in that place instead of Ron or Charlie or Bill." Percy wasn't even an option as neither of the twins had forgiven him completely for deserting the family.
"You are going to be my best man," George stated. "I don't care what they say. That was a bloody brilliant idea."
"Obviously, brother of mine. You know where it came from." George smiled, happier after deciding to use the painted Fred since he couldn't use the real one. After a while he went up to the flat and drifted off. The wedding that had been so strangely decided on was happening the next day.