Chapter 39 - Prospects
GN
After dinner, everyone was spread out around the eerie dark house. Bill had dragged me to the library and pulled me next to him. I turned to face him and crossed my legs, and he did the same. Ron and Harry were sitting near the fire playing chess. Fred and George had disappeared up the stairs while Hermione and Ginny talked to Sirius. Bash and Charlie were being hauled up in kitchen by Mrs Weasley, talking about wedding plans. Bill took a book out of his coat and handed it over.
"Here, I got you a book on curse breaking. Don't tell your brother though." He grinned as he handed it over. "He might have my head."
"Oh, wow. Thanks, Bill." My eyes flicked over the book before looking at the curse breaker himself. "I didn't get you anything."
"You don't have to. This is one of my old books, the one that got me into it."
"Bill, this is sweet, but I don't think I'll ever be a curse breaker."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't take the right classes." I chuckled.
"Maybe so, but if you're going to follow in your parents' footsteps or even just travel around the world." He winked. "The things in here might come in handy."
"Thanks, Bill." I leaned forward and pulled him in a hug.
"You said that already." He chuckled and clapped my back softly. We heard someone clear their throat from the open doorway. We pulled back and turned to look at where the sound came from. George was standing in the doorway, looking at them with a slight frown. "Oh, hey George. Your girl gives the best hugs." Bill teased. "Where is Fred?"
"We're not always together you know." George said, still the frown in place.
"They're not always together you know." I said at the same time. George and I shared a look and I saw the frown disappear and a smile take its place as he walked closer. Bill snickered next to me. "Hermione?" I asked with a lopsided grin and leaned into George as he sat down. The smirk on his face said everything.
"What were you two talking about?"
"Career plans after Hogwarts." I answered as I intertwined our fingers together and rested them on my stomach and craned my neck to look at him.
"Curse breaking?" He asked pointing at the book between me and Bill.
"Not really. I'm not taking the right classes for that." I grinned. "But Bill gave me this book because with my plans on traveling, is it for creatures or doing what my parents do... He thought it could come in handy."
"Traveling..." George said slowly. "Where are you going?"
"Don't know yet. Haven't really made a plan for after school." I shrugged. "Still got time and maybe I'll work around the UK first."
"Well, whatever you're going to do, you'll be great at it." George smiled at me, but something in his tone was off. Before I could ask, he leaned forward and gave me a short kiss. Bill cleared his throat and we both looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Did you tell them about the shop?" Bill asked me.
"Oh!" I gasped and turned to look at George excitedly. George looked confused between me and Bill. "I may have – no wait, let's get Fred first." I jumped up and held out my hand for George to take. George still looked confused while Bill grinned. I pulled him up and dragged him out of the library. I found Fred talking to Hermione and Ginny in the kitchen and beckoned him over. I saw George and Fred share a look of confusion, but they didn't say anything as they followed me upstairs.
"What's going on?" Fred asked as I closed the door, dropping down on his bed.
"Dunno." George shrugged and sat down next to his twin. I sat down on George's bed and turned to the twins.
"You know Bill and I went shopping today, right?" I asked and the twins nodded. "We went to Diagon Alley, and when I was waiting for Bill to finish in the bakery, I spotted a shop for sale or for lease. It wasn't in the daily prophet, I checked. The place is big and even has an apartment in the back." I rummaged in the pockets of my coat and took out the note and unfolded it. I handed it to them with a grin. "The only thing is, you two should go see the place but your mum won't let you go out." I frowned.
"It ticks off every box, Georgie."
"I know, Freddie. And my girl found it." He shot me a quick wink before turning back to Fred. "But she's right, we need to see it."
"But how?"
"We need to form a plan." I said. "We could ask Bill for help, he's very proud of you two, I'm 100% sure he'll help."
"I know we won't take hours, but you know mum, she'll come find us if it's too quiet or she hasn't seen us in longer than thirty minutes." Fred sighed.
"I may know a way around that." I chimed and the boys looked at me curious. I started to change my hair and my face and turned into the exact replica to the boys in front of me.
"Fuck, Guinevere! That's the freakiest thing I've ever seen." Fred gasped as he pulled a strand of my short red hair.
"That could work." George eyed me. "But can you please turn back? It's creeping me out." He gave a dry chuckle. I shook my head and my hair grey, and my face changed again.
"Better?" I asked with a grin. George leaped up from Fred's bed and sat down next to me. He tipped my chin and kissed me.
"Much. Don't feel like kissing myself or Fred." He laughed.
"So, when do you want to do this?" Fred interrupted.
"Let's get Bill on board first, he could help." The twins nodded and stood up, but I stopped them as I placed my wand against my neck and whistled.
"What did you just do?" They asked as they lowered themselves back on the bed. I placed a finger against my grin, not even a minute later Bill stuck his head through the door.
"You rang?" He grinned.
"Can you come in?" I asked and when he closed the door behind him, I put on a Muffliato spell on the room. Bill took his place next to me and leaned back on his arms, intrigued.
"Again, what did you just do?" Fred asked.
"It's a spell that Bill told me about. They use it if they needed one another without others finding out."
"I just told you about it this morning. How come you already know how to perform it?"
"I have my ways." I grinned. "But that's not why I called you here. The twins want to go see the shop."
"And you need my help to pull it off?"
"We -" Fred gestured between him and his twin. "Believe we could do it on ourselves. But Guinevere here thinks we need your help."
"Alright, you can do this by yourself? Don't need my help either?" I crossed my arms and I grinned at them.
"Alright, the three of us can do it."
"And how are you planning on going out of the house." Bill asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Haven't planned that far ahead." George mumbled.
"Well, I already have an idea." Bill pushed himself straight and leaned his arms on his knees. "As there isn't enough room here, we are not staying the night." He pointed at himself and me. "We will be coming over tomorrow morning but with the presents and everything, we won't have time to sneak out. But the day after, we're going shopping, again." He grinned at me. "I can come over in the morning with Gwen -" He stopped and looked at me. "What is your part in this exactly?"
I smirked as I turned myself in the twins once again, and Bill looked at me like I've grown a third head. But seeing as I was the third Weasley twin head in the room, he wasn't far off. "I'll stay here and make sure your mum sees me from time to time." I explained as I turned back.
"Wicked! And disturbing." He shook the shock of his face. "But it definitely could work. So, -" He turned back to the twins. "Gwen and I will come the day after tomorrow in the morning. Gwen changes into one of you and I'll take my briefcase with me."
"Briefcase?" I asked.
"Extendable charm." He explained. "The twins can climb in and I'll apparate the three of us to Diagon Alley."
"You should give me some of your clothes that I can put on. I don't think it will work, if I'm wearing this." I pointed at my sweater with a small laugh.
"Georgie can lend you some." Fred winked.
"And - maybe you could write to the store owner. If you could get a tour that day, that's a step further."
"Brilliant." George hopped up, kissed my cheek and went to grab a quill and parchment.
"So, everyone agrees with my plan?"
"Okay, we'll accept your help." Fred sighed with a grin and turned to look over George's shoulder as he wrote the note. "How do we send it?"
"I'll take it with us and send it from the flat." Bill turned to me. "We better get going."
"Yeah." I nodded as Bill rose from his seat and cancelled the Muffliato on the room and headed out.
"I'll go find an envelope." Fred announced and followed his older brother out.
"He's not that subtle, is he?" I grinned at George.
"No, he's not." He chuckled and pulled me flush against him as we stood. "You're amazing, you know that?" His eyes locked on mine.
"You're pretty amazing yourself." I smiled up at him. My arms circled around his neck and my lips found his. We kissed for a few minutes before Charlie called after me. "We better get downstairs."
"If we have to." George pouted but guided me out his room, nonetheless.
When we reached the ground floor, I saw Fred hand the note over to Bill, he tucked it away safely. "I'll see you tomorrow." I kissed George gently one last time before I walked over to Bash. With a wave at the others in the kitchen, the four of us walked out and apparated back to Bill's flat.
GN
"Merry Christmas, everyone!" Mrs Weasley smiled as she handed out the presents. I was snuggled into George's side as she came over and handed me one. "It's not the same as the others, but since I didn't know you were coming..." She looked over her shoulder to glare at her husband, who just smiled. I smiled at the matriarch and opened the package, revealing a dark yellow knitted hat.
"It's perfect. Thank you, Mrs Weasley." She smiled broadly at me before she handed the rest of the presents out.
"I think she likes you." George whispered in my ear. "But you're not good for our years long prank from her switching me and Freddie up." He pouted as he got the right sweater for the first time, the letter G knitted on it.
"Sorry, love." I chuckled and kissed his cheek.
"Here." He pulled out two small boxes from behind him.
"Two gifts?" I raised an eyebrow.
"One is for Christmas; the other is for our one-year anniversary."
The whole room seemed to have listened in as they all cooed over his words to me. I pushed back the blush, while George's head turned red, but his eyes didn't waver from me. I opened the first box revealing an unlimited gift card for their future shop. I laughed at the coupon, my eyes twinkled as I looked up to him.
"This is going to be used frequently." I gave him a chaste kiss. "I won't know where to begin."
"The daydream charms are a good start." He winked. "Now the anniversary gift." He pushed the second box in my hands.
"Alright, alright, don't get your knickers in a twist, Weasley." I chuckled and looked at the second box. I clicked it open with my thumb and gasped at the little piece of jewellery. It was a charm for my bracelet, fireworks that exploded in every colour imaginable. "George, it's beautiful." I whispered. I pulled him close and kissed him, not paying attention at the others in the room. "Thank you. Now I wished I had bought you something."
George looked shocked for a moment before Fred and I started to laugh. "Told you it would be funny." Fred laughed loudly clutching his side.
"GIT!" George tossed a pillow from the couch to his twin's head. "You really like it?" His voice soft again as he turned to me.
"I love it. I love you." I gave kissed him. "You have to wait for your Christmas present until we're back at Hogwarts." I winked. "But here is the one for our anniversary. Don't know if I should give it to you in front of your mum." I whispered and George looked at me with raised eyebrows. "Oh, well." I shrugged and placed the box in his hands.
George looked hesitant for a moment afraid what might be inside it, but once he figured it wasn't something for in the bedroom, it will be okay. So, he opened the box. I chuckled at his confused look as he glanced inside.
"It's a special lockpicking set. You know those Swiss knives you and Fred have?" I asked.
"What? Knives?!" Their mother shrieked but Arthur distracted her with a present of his own.
George nodded. "Like a Swiss knife, this holds different lock picking tools." I said as I pulled open the ones on the left. "These are muggle lock picking tools, should work on any muggle lock." I grinned at George's excited expression. "These ones are magical. It took me a while before I perfected them, but they should open almost any magical lock. And I engraved your initials on it, and the next thing I really like is that you can't lose it. I charmed it, so it would always find its way back into your pocket." I rambled as I played with the instrument in my hand. I looked up nervously. "Do - do you like it?"
"I -" He grabbed my cheeks and kissed me. We pulled away blushing when we heard his mother clear her throat. "I love it. I can't believe you made this yourself."
"You boys aren't the only ones who can invent things." I grinned as he caressed my cheek.
"I have no doubt." He kissed my forehead. "But this must've cost you weeks to make."
"It was nothing really." I waved it off, but truthfully it took me weeks. Five weeks, three days and seventeen hours to be exact. "I'm just happy you like it."
"This is the best gift I ever gotten." His smile wide and honest. He turned to look at his brother. "Oi, Fred. You gotta see what she made me!" Fred was next to them in a second and looked in envy at the lockpicking tool.
GN
The rest of the day went by in blur and after Bill finally convinced his mother they were going to have a quiet dinner just the four of them, they made their way back to the flat. During the present exchange, Bill had received an answer from the shop owner, he took the twins and I in an empty room and handed over the letter. The twins asked how he had received it through the wards, and he explained he let his post appear in his pocket for the day, special curse breaking spell, he said with a wink directed at me. The shop owner agreed to meet up with them the following day at 10 o'clock in front of the shop. The twins bounded up the stairs to put together a semi-professional outfit and handing me the one I should wear tomorrow; they had placed a second shirt ready in the room in case she had to switch between him and Fred. George and I found an empty room for at least half an hour of alone time as we snogged each other senseless.