| Firecrab
Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: melbourne
Posts: 887
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Chapter Forty Four
“Mum, dad this is Wendy and Michael Davis, Sophia’s mum and Step dad”
“Mum, Michael, this is Molly and Arthur Weasley, Charlie’s parents”
“Molly”
“Wendy” the two women shook hands and sized each other up with their eyes,
“Arthur”
“Michael - how has the move been Charlie?” Smiled Arthur as they sat at the table,
“Easy dad, only took a day, she doesn’t have much stuff considering she’s a girl” he grinned to her and she wrinkled up her nose nudging his shoulder with her own,
“Still have more clothes and shoes then anything else” she shrugged “Not much need for things like my bed, TV and shelves so there on EBay”
Arthur asked curiously, “EBay?”
“Oh right – erm muggle thing people using computers to sell things to other people, my beds going to Hertfordshire my TV to Devon and my shelves are going to Hermione and there new flat once the house is sold”
“You’re selling Grimmald place?” Molly asked,
“Yes, thought it would be best, Ron and Hermione are moving to somewhere smaller and the house is up for auction, the money will come in useful for all the travelling we’re going to do” She said smiling to Charlie as he grinned back. They’d mapped out places to go that afternoon as they waited for there parents to arrive,
“Travelling?” Wendy asked “When- where – why?”
“In a few months” Charlie said “Around the world and because we want to” he added with a shrug, “See the world, live a little and come back”
“Are you sure?” Molly asked, “You’ve travelled enough, going away for so long, I’m certain that you’ve seen enough for a life time”
“We’re going to enjoy ourselves mum, I went for work it’s different”
“But -” Sophia got up as the timer went off in the kitchen,
“You want a hand?” Charlie said hoping she would say yes as a way to escape,
“All under control” she said with a smirk disappearing behind the bench top to open the oven.
“Are you using magic?” Molly asked
“I’m not that good with magic and food” she smiled “My muggle skills are there though” she lifted out the tray holding the pork chops leaving them to rest as she went for plates,
“This travelling is this you’re idea or hers?” Wendy asked disdainfully,
“Joint decision”
Molly frowned “And the wedding, when will that be?”
Sophia dropped a glass on the floor; Charlie ignored the look of shock on Wendy and Michaels face and went to help,
Wendy started immediately “Wedding!” she sounded dangerous “What wedding?!”
Sophia was sitting on the kitchenette floor hiding, “Soph” he whispered “Come on” She nodded and he helped her up, he repaired the glass and picked it up levitating the six of them over to the table,
“Answer me young man”
“The wedding will be before we go, while we’re gone or when we come back” he put a glass in front of all the places and poured out wine into them with his wand as he made his way back to a silent Sophia,
“Soph?”
“Fine, I’m fine, just didn’t think your mum would be so quick in telling about it, and thought we might have a chance to actually prepare something, get some words out” she whispered trying to smile,
“My mother is a pain” he replied and hugged her “What do you want me to do?” he said looking at the plates of food,
“Take them out to them so they can eat and be distracted” she grinned in reply both speaking so quietly the parents sitting silently and angrily at the table couldn’t hear them. He levitated the plates out to them and they took there places,
“When did it get decided you were to marry this – this man?”
“Charlie and I asked each other two day’s ago”
“Asked each other?”
“At the same time, both had rings, both said yes and here we are telling you” Sophia said holding the diamond hand for her to see,
“Right”
“We were going to tell you together only it slipped out to Molly first”
“And you’re marrying him because?”
“Because I love him” she replied simply,
Wendy scoffed incredulously, “Love him, he’s too old for you, he may dress like a boy but he thinks like a grown man you’re not old enough to make decisions like this plus you’ve been together what four months that’s hardly long enough to start a life together on”
“Age has nothing to do with this mother” Sophia said coldly, “Neither does how long we’ve been together, we know we’re right for each other”
“I have to agree with Wendy on this, this is not a sensible idea – it’s like I said when he told me, the first thought that came into my head was she’s pregnant”
“Excuse me but my daughter is not that stupid”
“I hope you are not hinting at my daughter”
“Why not, married at sixteen hardly romantic – whilst pregnant not the most suitable relationship to bring children into”
“Don’t you ever compare my daughter to yours, mine is happy so is her husband, this – they’ll be lucky the marriage lasts longer then the honey moon!”
‘Now that I can agree on, for both there sakes let’s just hope it doesn’t!’
“Shut up!” Charlie said loudly, holding a crying Sophia in his arms, “Both of you just stop it and grow up”
“Don’t you dare talk to me like that Weasley” Wendy said standing up angrily,
Michaels hand went to her wrist “Don’t make this worse”
“Let her try” Molly replied standing up facing her just as angrily,
“Get out” Charlie lifted up Sophia into his arms, “Get out and don’t come back until you can behave” he carried her up the stairs, “Soph” he said, she couldn’t get a sentence out, “Don’t cry honey, its going to be ok” He could here them shouting again down stairs, “I’ll be right back - - - I said get out!” he shouted pointing at the door, from the stairwell,
“Let me talk to her” Wendy started,
“You’ve upset her enough she wants you to leave”
“She’s my daughter”
“I’m her fiancé and this is my house leave now while you still can without a curse following you out”
“Don’t you dare threaten me Weasley, I’m capable of magic you’ve never seen before”
“Don’t talk to my son like that”
“Dad, take her home, Mr Davis I’d say the same to you if you didn’t look so scared of her”
Molly frowned as Arthur attempted to take her arm; Michael smirked and walked to the dor opening it,
“I’m not going until you’ve spoken to me properly about this; I’m trying to protect you from making a mistake”
“Marrying Sophia is not a mistake, I love her, she loves me, we’re getting married whether you like it or not – you can either come to the wedding or don’t, I don’t care and frankly I don’t think she does either - she didn’t want to tell you both and she was right I had know idea how horrible and crazy you both are so I’m asking you one last time – get out of my house!”
“But-” Molly started again but Charlie gave her a look, Arthur led her out, Wendy stomped off angrily as well Michael following on and closing the door behind them.
He went back upstairs to see her sitting up wiping her eyes and wrapped in the quilt,
“I need a hug” she mumbled,
“Aww, I’m coming” he sighed walking over and wrapping her in his embrace,
“I love you so much you know, how could you deal with that and I couldn’t”
“Trust me if I wasn’t thinking about you the whole time I’d be a wet mess too” he smiled and kissed her forehead before laying them down on the bed,
“What do we do about them?” she asked meekly,
“Leave them to it, my dad’s good, Michaels good, it’s just them and we knew it would be”
“But-”
“Soph there’s nothing we can do, just leave them to decide, I’ve had enough from just one visit to last me a lifetime”
“Ok” she nodded against his chest, “Kiss me will you” she smiled looking up to him,
He leant his head down obligingly and she shuffled up to meet him,
“I feel much better now” she smiled snuggling into his arms as he held on tighter,
“Good, can’t have you upset now can I, you want another one just to make things even better?”
“Please” she chuckled and let him kiss her again, “Hmm, much, much better” she kissed him this time, “Doing this on the bed though does only leave one thought in my mind”
“We’ve got more restraint then that - haven’t we?”
“Oh I don’t know, I think I could do with some love right now”
“What the lady wants” he grinned rolling over to pin her down on the cushions,
“I always get what I want and right now I want you” she wrapped her legs around his waist and rolled them over again to sit on top of him “I’ll always just want you, no matter what they say about us, no matter about seven measly years, that are significantly less then the twenty years between some couples, no matter what happens I’ll always love you so much it hurts to be away from you”
“And I you” he smiled his hand reached for hers “Always, I’m not letting you go, they can say what they want about us but this is right, this is right and you are mine to love forever” She bent down and kissed him lovingly, he returned the embrace as she held on. Consumed by each other as the sky darkened outside and the night passed slowly in their world.
***
“I’m trying for Harry”
“Hmm” Hermione said, “Be nicer if you actually wanted to apologise but I can see why not”
“Too right you can so let’s just be civil so he won’t dump me for you”
“Still on that sinking ship are you, Harry’s my best friend, he’s married to you, he’s marrying you again – he has two children with you oh and he loves you I’d say that’s pretty reasonable grounds to believe he won’t leave you”
“He said if you’re not up there he won’t marry me again”
“I’ll be there, for him I’ll be there but unless you plan on growing up in one night I can’t be there for you”
“That’s fine I don’t particularly want you” Ginny replied standing up,
“Why can’t you see that this is hurting you as well?”
“I’d rather that then hear your apology, knowing your in pain is good enough for me, to see you feel for what you said, I need that so I don’t do you serious harm and lose Harry in the process”
“Get it out of your system” Hermione stood up putting her wand on the table, “Take a free shot, and hurt me like I hurt you”
“Wait until you decide my brother is good enough for you and once you get pregnant let me tell you, you shouldn’t be allowed to have children, let me say that you’ll be a terrible mother, let me say that they’ll be better off dead then in your care and that will hurt you just like you hurt me Hermione” she said not bothering to draw her wand “Let it be that when your child is born there are no complications, that you don’t have to fight to keep them alive like I did, let it be so easy for you that when they die unexpectedly you feel the pain I do when I almost lost my babies several times”
“Don’t wish that kind of horror on me because you don’t like me anymore”
“It’s not that I don’t like you, it’s that I hate you”
“I made one mistake – one”
“One that changed everything between us, your not my friend not like you used to be”
“I just want to be able to get along”
“Fine – like I said for Harry I’ll try, I’m not guaranteeing anything though” she shrugged and left the room walking out the front door of Grimmald place, she glanced at the ‘for sale’ sign and apparated back to the cottage.
“How did it go?”
“Fine” she muttered “She’ll be there”
“Thankyou”
“Hmm” she took the twin from his arms and sat down, “You think they’ll be ok with mum and dad?”
“It’s for two days honey”
“But after what happened, she might get sick again, worse then last time”
“It was a one off, she raised seven of you and you all turned out fine”
“Yeah, yeah” she muttered, “Apart from Ronald”
“We’re getting married tomorrow, you need to decide if you actually want to go on the honeymoon or you want to stay here and I’ll give the tickets to Charlie and Sophia as an engagement gift”
She looked up figuring out his sentence “You what – engagement?”
“Whoops” Harry said “They were going to wait until we came back…”
“You knew – you knew for how long?!”
“Just a few days – he asked her just before they came to dinner with Lupin and Tonks”
“That’s why she wanted to know what Tonk’s mum thought of the age gap” she sighed “Do mum and dad know?”
“She said they told them about it and they weren’t happy, or to put it more precisely her mum and Molly weren’t happy”
“Well she wouldn’t be, she just needs an excuse not to be and as for her mother, the way she’s treated Soph over the years I can’t say I’m to surprised”
“They immediately jumped to the conclusion she was pregnant and that’s why they were doing it… it got … it got angry and me and you were used as a comparison”
“What - when did all this happen and when did she tell you?!”
“It happened two days ago and she came round this morning while you were sleeping and I was up with the girls”
“Right”
“It slipped out because I was thinking about it, the conversation wasn’t so long ago I could forget it”
“Hmm”
“Sorry, I found out by accident – I went to check the twins because of the monitor thing and she was in there talking to them about it and she made me promise not to tell yet since they hadn’t told Molly or Gwen”
“It’s alright, it’s good news though – I mean Charlie and Sophia are made for each other, four months is quick but when you know something’s right why not jump straight in. You can see she loves him can’t you?”
“Yes, she’s never going to let him go” Harry said with a grin “Just like me and you, there nuts about each other”
“Good cause if she hurts my brother…”
“You’ll go on a crazy vendetta just like you are with Hermione?”
“Possibly, I might be kinder to her though”
“Sure you would” he frowned,
“I like Sophia, I would so be nicer to her, and she’s your sister”
“So is Hermione”
“Sophia more so then her, anyway we’re being civil you can’t be mean to me about her anymore”
“Whatever you like honey” he stood up, stretched and leant over to kiss her forehead as he went to the fridge, “What you feel like for lunch?”
“Fish and chips, I have a huge craving for fish and chips”
“I thought you only get cravings while your pregnant not after?” he rifled in the freezer “No fish no chips, I’ll go to that place you like”
“What - all the way to London for fish and chips?”
“They’re your favourite, It ‘all only take about ten minutes”
“Ok, but help me feed them first, it’s easier with two people”
“Have you decided about the twins yet?” he asked as she handed him a happily fed one, and placed the crying one in her arms,
“Yep, they should be ok shouldn’t they?”
“They’ll be fine, promise, if not you can curse the living daylights out of me once they are”
“Just covering yourself for everything aren’t you”
“Its two days, and it will be two days without unbroken sleep, nappies, sick, crying-”
“- two day’s without our babies”
“Two days without them so when we come back we can be better at looking after them without passing out on the couch once they dose off, they have there sleep pattern sorted, Molly and Arthur are staying here so they don’t have to take everything to there house, Arthurs took two days off especially to do this for us, they’re your parents we can trust they’ll be fine to look after their grandchildren”
“Hmm”
“You don’t want to leave tell me now”
“We’ll go but I’m holding you to the curse thing”
“Sure” he put Patience down for her nap and took Faith when she handed her over, he sat down next to her, “Is Mrs Potter annoyed with me?”
“Not annoyed, just worried about leaving them”
“You’ll forget once I tell you where I’m taking you”
She looked up eagerly “Where?”
“I’ll tell you tomorrow”
“It can’t be far with two days – I bet it’s somewhere weird like Blackpool”
“Better then Blackpool” he said rolling his eyes, “It’s called the Brink of Impending doom, right next to hell and we share the pool with Satan and the four horsemen of the apocalypse”
“So funny aren’t you” she muttered, “Definitely no wedding night for you”
“I think you’ll change your mind” he smirked “You won’t be able to resist leaping on me once we get there”
“Why do you always manage to pop up during Sophia’s and I’s strange conversations about you?”
“It’s a gift of knowing when you’re talking about me to my sister and telling her things you shouldn’t”
“Like?”
“Like you get urges to jump on me and rip my clothes off, not exactly what I want my sister to hear”
“She was saying the same about Charlie” she waved her hand dismissively “What do you expect us to talk about – the price of nappies? He’s my brother and I don’t find it disturbing – now if it was Ron then yes, but me and Charlie – Sophia understands exactly what it’s like with you and I get what it’s like for her and Charlie – Hermione and Ron on the other hand, I don’t understand that”
“Possibly because she’s not a sex crazed maniac like you and Soph seem to be?”
“Possibly but there is no denying that, the kind of relationship with someone, where you get the physical highs and the emotion balance, is brilliant and you want to talk about it with someone who understands not someone who hasn’t gotten that far with there other half yet – otherwise it’s just awkward”
“Right…”
“I wonder what Ron see’s in her and what she sees in him that they can be content the way they are”
“Ron’s not content” Harry muttered in thought to himself, forgetting she could hear,
“He’s not?” she questioned looking up at him,
“He – he let it slip that he’s not, don’t say anything ok”
“But – but why doesn’t he say something to her?”
“Because it would be like it was when he wanted to kiss her in public, she won’t speak to him for days”
“If he’s not happy he should get out while he can” she said angrily folding her arms at her chest,
“He’s – he’s in love with her he just wants more, he wants her ‘properly’ and he thought they might have - might have got that far by now”
“She’s a frigid ice queen; he’s not going to get anywhere”
“Ginny”
“Sorry” she muttered, “But if she’s making my brother unhappy…”
“Sex isn’t everything”
“I know that”
“Let’s not discuss them ok” he rubbed his eyes and yawned,
“You need sleep or you’re not going to make it down the aisle”
“I’ll be fine”
“You haven’t done that muggle thing you know”
“What?”
“What’s it called – stag night – strangely appropriate considering your patronus”
“Hmm, oh well, I can’t be bothered getting drunk and going to strip clubs”
“You what – what’s a strip club?”
“I’m not going to explain it; I don’t want to get slapped” She hit his arm anyway, “I’m not going to even go there after the conversation we just had”
“Now I’m guessing at what it might be and that is disturbing”
“Just trust that even if I was having a stag night I wouldn’t be going in one because I have you waiting for me”
“Hmm” she murmured disapprovingly, “I really don’t like the sound of stag nights”
“You’re not supposed to; it’s supposed to be a night of freedom”
“Freedom my backside, it sounds more like leave to cheat for a night”
“See so be happy I forgot all about it”
“Do girls get to do anything on this night?”
“Hens nights – I don’t know what girls do so don’t ask”
“I think I’m better off not knowing”
“I think so to” he grinned and looked at his watch, you have me for four more hours before I have to go and stay with Ron and the girls come here, what do you want to do?”
“Sit right here and talk to you”
“You want fish and chips with that?”
“Please”
“I’ll be back in ten” he smiled kissing her “Warm up some plates” He wandered outside to apparate and she stoked the fire replacing the guard around it and checking on the sleeping twins. She took out a bottle of pumpkin juice for her and a beer for him from the fridge before sorting out plates and sitting back on the couch waiting, “Here we are honey” he grinned walking in the door, “Cod and chips times two, mushy peas for me, salt and vinegar for you” he put them on the plates, “You want some peas?”
“Nope” - He chuckled and put some on her plate anyway, smiling as he handed her one, “Thankyou” she automatically dunked a chip in the peas on his plate and popped it in her mouth as he sat down beside her,
“You always do that”
“What?”
“Say no to peas” he rolled his eyes, “And then steal mine, so I gave you some this time round” he nodded his head at her plate,
“Oh” She shrugged “Yours taste better and you should know me well enough then to believe me when I say no” she grinned.
“You want some chocolate Ginny?” he smirked and she laughed hitting his arm playfully,
“I was a baby, give me a little let up”
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RIP JD Salinger |