Chapter 16

It turned out that Percy had failed to inform his parents that the woman he was bringing to the Burrow had only just found out that magic, wizards and a whole lot of other things were real. They arrived later than everyone else, Percy looking very flustered and red-faced and panting breathlessly. They came through the front door, rather than the fireplace — apparently they'd walked all the way from the village.

"Everyone," he said, pausing another moment to catch his breath. "I want you to meet… Audrey. My, er, girlfriend."

Ron's first thought about Audrey was that Ginny had been absolutely right. She was a female, Muggle version of his brother. She wore a pin-striped skirt, a white blouse, and her dark brown hair was drawn into a tight bun with not a strand out of place. On her face was a pair of plain, rectangle glasses. The only real difference was their height. She was almost a whole foot shorter than Percy.

"Hi, dear," Molly said, coming over to hug Audrey. "It's lovely to meet you at last. Percy really hasn't said much about you." She looked Audrey up and down, keeping a pleasant smile on her face. "Where is it you work, dear? What department?"

Percy turned a very deep shade of red, and before Audrey could answer what seemed like an innocent question, he guided Audrey to an empty chair at the magically extended table. The poor girl was looking rather bewildered, her eyes darting around and taking in all of the odd things going on around her. They eventually settled on the dishes in the sink cleaning themselves and her lip trembled slightly, though she did well to contain her shock and set her eyes to look impressed by the action.

Ron looked at Harry, and they grinned at one another. This was going to be an interesting evening if she thought that was the highlight.

Eyeing Audrey suspiciously, Molly took her own place at the table and took out her wand. With a wave, all the food zoomed over from the benches and landed in the centre. Audrey, Ron thought, handled that part very well. She only jumped a little.

"This… this looks lovely, Mrs Weasley," she said. "And thank you for having me over to your… lovely home." She forced a smile and looked up at Molly.

"It's no problem, dear," Molly said, still not looking overly convinced. Her eyes flickered to Percy, who was pointedly helping himself to some mashed potato and not looking at his mother. "So, Audrey, where did you say you worked again?"

It seemed that Percy might have coached Audrey fairly well leading up to this meeting, because rather than answering, she looked at Percy as if waiting for him to answer for her.

Unable to pretend he couldn't hear anymore, Percy set down the spoon with the potato on it and looked up at everyone. All eyes were on him and his girlfriend, causing him to blush horribly. He cleared his throat. "Um, well, you see…" He coughed again. "Audrey, she's… she's an accountant."

"An accountant?" Molly asked, her eyes widening. "Really? You mean for —"

"No, Mum," Percy mumbled, turning his gaze to Audrey and offering half a smile. "She's… Audrey is a… she doesn't have magic. Nor does anyone in her family. She's a —"

"I believe he used the word 'Muggle,'" Audrey said.

A gasp, followed by Arthur knocking over his drink, was the only sound that followed.

"No!" Arthur exclaimed, and all eyes turned to him. His smile was so wide it reached his ears. "A Muggle? In my house? Oh, what a day!"

Ron snorted into his drink. Bill also smiled.

"Told you," Percy muttered to Audrey, his own mouth quivering.

Molly, however, stared at Percy in complete disbelief. For a moment, it looked as if she was going to protest such a revelation, and Ron found himself holding his breath in anticipation. But then, like everyone else sitting around the table, she smiled. In fact, she beamed. "Oh, that explains so much!" she cried cheerfully. "Please, help yourself to anything you want, dear."

"Th-thank you," Audrey said, glancing nervously to Percy, who nodded encouragingly.

Ron was very impressed, he had to admit. Despite looking nervous, she didn't seem terrified — not even when an owl zoomed through the open window carrying the evening edition of the Daily Prophet.

Percy must have thoroughly educated her if that didn't scare her.

"So, tell me, then," Molly said once they'd all piled their plates with food, "how on Earth did the two of you meet?" She looked eagerly between the couple, smiling.

"By chance," Percy said. "We bumped into each other, quite literally. Audrey was delivering a message — to the Ministry, actually, though she didn't know it — and I happened to be waiting to meet someone else by the visitor's entrance. Neither of us were looking and —"

"Fascinating!" Arthur said, staring fondly at Audrey. "Tell me, in your job, do you use one of those com… com-pee-tah things?"

Audrey looked questioningly at Percy, who shrugged.

"I think he means computer," Harry said.

"Oh… oh, yes I do," Audrey said, though her eyes didn't leave Harry's. "You, er, know how to use one?"

Harry shook his head. "No, was never allowed. My cousin, however…"

Audrey's eyes widened. "Your cousin wasn't… wasn't magical?"

"Not in the slightest," Harry said, grinning. "If you knew him you'd understand."

"So, there are other people then," Audrey said, "who are like me, who know —"

"Heaps," Ron said. "We call them Muggleborns, if they're born to non-magic parents. So their parents have to know, right? Then obviously people marry into…" Percy went so red he matched the tomatoes in front of him. "Well, obviously they know," Ron said quickly.

"Oh… I didn't know that," Audrey said. "I thought —"

"We do have laws, dear," Molly said. "About revealing ourselves, but I trust Percy has looked into the logistics of that?"

Percy nodded.

"They are laws under a pretence of being strict," Ron said, "but really… they are laxed whenever someone sees fit, such as a marriage, you know... Harry, here, grew up not knowing magic." He jabbed a thumb in Harry's direction. "And my girlfriend, Hermione — she isn't here tonight — she's a Muggleborn, I mentioned them before. Her parents don't have magic. I'll introduce the two of you when she's done with school. She knows heaps about the Muggle — er, your — world. Will probably make you feel more comfortable."

"But she is… has… magic?" Audrey asked.

"Well, yeah, but she still knows heaps of stuff to talk to you about. Like those television things and telephones and money…"

Harry looked at Ron, appearing mildly impressed that he'd managed to pronounce the words correctly. "She's been teaching me," he murmured. Harry grinned.

"I must say, dear, you seem to be handling this very well," Molly said, sounding impressed. "No one would blame you if you felt completely overwhelmed."

"No, no, Percy has been gradually educating me on everything," Audrey said. "Things like how you got dinner to fly onto the table, the owl coming in… I've seen that before."

"Oh, lovely!" Molly said.

"But you'll have to teach me the way you use post!" Arthur said. "I'd love to learn the logistics of your postal system. It's always fascinated me!"

"Has he shown you Apparating yet?" Bill asked.

Audrey turned to him. "Appa-what?"

"It's where we can vanish into thin air and appear miles away a second later."

Audrey's eyes widened.

"Not yet!" Percy hissed, glaring at Bill.

Bill gave a big, toothy grin.

Audrey looked around at everyone at the table, eyes wide. "You can… just vanish into thin air? Just like that?" She turned to Percy. "You can… do that?"

"Well, it takes some training, and is actually very difficult," Bill confessed, still smiling (he looked delightfully happy, Ron realised), "but everyone sitting at this table is capable of doing it."

At those words, Audrey looked rather impressed, and Ron made a mental note to tell Ginny that she was exactly like Percy. She had suddenly found herself in a family, who to her, were good at achieving difficult things.

"Harry and I just got our licenses!" Ron told her. "You need a license to do it. Bit like driving a car, I s'pose."

Everyone looked at Ron, surprise on their faces.

He shrugged. "What? I've been spending a lot of time with Hermione and her parents. I've learnt some things."

"Fascinating, fascinating," Arthur said, grinning. "Ron, you really must invite the Grangers over here at some point too. I'd love to pick their brains on their teeth jobs. It's all highly fascinating."

Audrey frowned, turning to Harry, who had helped her on Arthur's last attempt to talk to her.

"He, um, means dentists," Harry said quietly.

"Oh."

"Yes, dentists. Such fascinating things Muggles do. I mean, for us, it's just a simple spell. A Healer can mend teeth with a wave of their wand…"

Audrey looked at Harry again. "Wizarding doctor," he muttered.

And rather than looking overwhelmed like Ron might have expected, this new information seemed to please Audrey. "Oh, I'm learning so much. It's all so interesting. I can't believe I never knew. There were stories, books, but I never thought…"

"Well," Molly said with a gentle smile, "the stories have to come from somewhere, don't they?"

"I suppose they do," Audrey said thoughtfully. She looked around at them all again. "So, what do you all do for jobs? I know Percy works for some kind of transportation… magical transportation… but what about everyone else?" She stared at them eagerly.

"Well, Fleur and I here, we both work for Gringotts," Bill said, indicating his wife beside him who had not spoken a single word. In fact, it was the first time Ron had looked at her, and he noticed she hadn't really touched her food. He wouldn't have put it past her to be displeased with sharing a table with a Muggle.

"That's the wizarding bank," Bill added hastily, though this didn't seem like new information to Audrey. "I am a curse-breaker, specialising in Egyptian curses, though I've since moved back to England and work locally now."

"Charlie works with dragons," Molly said cheerfully.

"Dragons?" Audrey said.

"I suppose Percy never mentioned that, did he?" Bill chuckled, nudging Percy.

"N-no, he didn't."

Percy flushed.

"And Ron and Harry are training to be Aurors," Molly continued, beaming. "They're law enforcers, but the most elite kind. They're doing such a wonderful job."

Ron stared down at his food, but he did catch the impressed look Audrey gave him and Harry.

"George owns a joke shop with…"

The whole room fell silent at Bill's unspoken word. They now all glanced down at their meals.

"Fred," Audrey said softly. "Percy told me. I'm really sorry."

After a moment, Molly said in a strained voice, "Well, he owned one. He's been refusing to open it since… well since we lost Fred."

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room and they all ate without speaking for some time. It was Audrey who broke it once more.

"And, you have a sister, don't you? Ginny. Where is she?"

"School," Percy muttered.

"But she could probably do whatever she wanted when she's done," Bill said. "She's the smartest out of the lot of us." He lowered his voice in a mock whisper. "She's going out with Harry."

Harry went rather red at that.

"And your girlfriend?" Audrey asked, turning to Ron. "She's at school, too?"

"Yeah," Ron said. "Yeah, and she'll do whatever she wants too. She's smarter than everyone."

When no one contradicted the statement (Harry and Bill even nodding in agreement), Audrey seemed to determine that it wasn't the words of some smitten boyfriend, and smiled, nodding. She looked thoroughly satisfied with how successful everyone seemed to be.

"Anyway," Bill said, breaking another silence. "We asked Mum to have you all over for dinner — would have appreciated George and Charlie to come, but alas — because Fleur and I have some news."

At this, Molly grinned, and Ron supposed that they weren't announcing a divorce of any kind (Ginny would be so disappointed).

Making sure everyone was watching him now, Bill turned to Fleur and smiled. She returned it, though now that Ron was really looking at her, she didn't look all that great.

"We're having a baby!" Bill exclaimed. "A girl!"

Ron's mouth fell open, but as he turned to catch Harry's eye, he noticed that his friend did not look as surprised as Ron felt. In fact, as he took in each member of his family, it seemed that he was the only one to have not anticipated that this would be the news Bill and Fleur had so desperately wanted to share.

Molly clapped her hands in delight, hugging Fleur — who looked as if she wanted to throw up — and then Bill. "Oh, it's so good to be able to finally share the news!" she cried. "Oh, I'm so thrilled for both of you!"

There was an all around congratulations for Bill and Fleur after that, Molly wiping away tears and repeating over and over how excited she was to have her first grandchild on the way soon. When it got to Ron's turn, all he could think of to say was, "When?"

"Late April," Bill said, beaming.

"Well, congratulations!" Ron then said, and he gave his brother a hug. "That's great news!"

"Thank you. And I'm sure our little girl will love her Uncle Ron. You'll make her laugh."

Uncle. That was a word Ron had never really thought he'd hear. Not for him, though he supposed that was rather stupid of him to not consider it. Bill was married, Percy and Ginny were in relationships. He supposed it was bound to happen, and this baby wouldn't be the only one.

The word was still playing over and over in his mind when Harry joined him some time later in the Burrow's living room, collapsing onto the sofa, next to Ron. The smell of cooked food made Fleur too unwell to hang around much longer, so they'd left shortly after dinner. Percy had insisted on walking Audrey back to the village, where they were to stay the night before heading back to London the next day (apparently Percy didn't wish to expose her to any form of transportation just yet — he'd even ridden the Muggle bus with her).

So it was just Ron, Harry, and his parents, who were talking amicably about the prospect of their future grandchild by the fireplace.

"Good news about Bill, eh?" Harry said.

"Yeah," Ron said. "It is. I didn't even think… it never occurred to me that that might happen, you know? Stupid, isn't it?"

Harry smiled. "It got me thinking, though. About it all."

Ron rounded on Harry so quickly that Harry sprung back against the sofa. "That's my sister you're talking about! She's only just turned seventeen!"

"What? Oh, no, not that!" Harry said, and Ron felt himself relax.

Harry laughed. "Merlin, no. No… I was thinking about Teddy."

"Oh, right. What about him?" Ron had not heard Harry mention Teddy once since the end of the war. If Ron was being honest, he'd forgotten all about Remus making him godfather to his son. So many other things had happened since May that it had not been at the forefront of his thoughts.

"Well, I think it might be time I try and make contact, you know?" Harry said. "I've been avoiding it, despite a few letters from Andromeda. I just didn't think Teddy needed someone like me in his life, not while I was still trying to sort through everything after the war. But I've been thinking about it for a while, and I think I should at least try to bond with him. It's what they wanted, right?"

"Yeah…" Ron said. "Yeah, I guess." He looked at Harry. "So, you want to spend time with Teddy?"

Harry nodded. "Maybe I'll offer some babysitting on weekends or something to begin with? A few hours, and we'll go from there. But now that we know Bill and Fleur are having a baby, well maybe it's the best time to do it. Teddy can have a friend growing up. Someone similar in age."

"I guess," Ron said, picturing Harry walking around with a baby. It was a very disconcerting thought. "You plan on bringing him to our place?"

"Would that be a problem?" Harry asked, suddenly seeming to notice Ron's hesitation.

"No, it's your choice," Ron assured him. "I'm just wondering if either of us know how to look after a baby." He laughed. "Wouldn't have a clue what to feed him."

"Yeah… well… we can learn, can't we?"

"Hermione and Ginny would know what to do, wouldn't they?" Ron asked. "God, I miss them."

"Would they?" Harry said. "I mean, Ginny's the youngest, and Hermione has no siblings. I'm sure I'll work it out, mate. It'll be good practice."

"Practice?" Ron asked, thinking he knew where Harry was leading to. "You mean… for us?"

"Yeah…" Harry said. "Not that I mean anytime soon, obviously, but —" he eyed Ron warily, "— one day."

"Yeah," Ron said. "One day." His mind suddenly flashed to a few years ahead. It was a thought that had not really occurred to him until Harry had just mentioned it — the future. He'd been so focused on getting through the next few months, recovering from everything, that he'd not thought much further than the end of the next school year. But what was in store for him after that? For him and Hermione?

Would they get married? Would they have children? He'd like that, he supposed, but it was not a prominent thought in his mind. Not yet. They'd spent more months apart than they had together. If they ever lasted that long together (and Ron hoped that they would), then he knew that that part of their lives was way off, down the track somewhere. Many, many years away.

But now that the seed had been planted, he quite fancied the idea of being in Bill's shoes one day, so to speak. He supposed in the meantime, he really could just enjoy being an uncle to Bill's child, and whoever else decided to have children after that, as well.

I know there is some debate over when Victoire was born. I swear JKR said a year after the war, but when people have done the maths, they say it doesn't add up with the epilogue. However, I've looked into that and there's honestly no suggestion in the epilogue that Victoire was there to go to school - she has two younger siblings and maybe she was seeing them off haha. I'm kind of rolling with that lol.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. This was supposed to be tacked on to the previous one but would have ended up a 7k chapter or something if I had, so I've moved it!