Better Man

- - 21 - -

- - chapter twenty one - -
with your love, i'm a better man

It was November and begrudgingly Indigo had told George that her birthday was coming up. He had been pestering her non-stop and even threatened to call up her father, who was now a welcomed member of the Weasley weekly dinner nights. It had taken a while for Arthur and Molly to accept that Jaspar Bennett was no longer part of the Death Eaters because they had known him in school as only part of Voldemort's plans but knowing that he truly cared about his daughter, they put aside their differences and invited him over. Jaspar instantly won everyone over with his many interesting stories about hunting dragons and training them, everyone thought it was very cool that Indigo's father had such an important role in the wizarding world and accepted him as part of their family. Of course, one person who didn't know that she had even travelled to Romania was Polly Parker; who had left hundreds of messages on the phone and scoured the flat for her daughter before giving up. Indigo lied to her mother and said that she had attended a flower show in London and had simply forgotten to let her know.

Polly wasn't the kind of mother that was interested in what their daughter did and didn't even check that she was telling the truth. She just accepted that her daughter had done something boring and was more worried about whether she had managed to find a dress for the gala or not. Something that Indigo hadn't even thought about because for a few short weeks, she had managed to forget about the charity event and had enjoyed spending time with her father and her boyfriend. George loved Jaspar, he told him all about the pranks that he played in school and they both loved quidditch which was nice because they spent hours explaining the rules to Indigo; who wasn't a big sports fan but listened because she liked that they were getting along.

Knowing that her birthday was coming up, George wanted to do something special so that they could celebrate together and convinced Jaspar to help him with the planning. So, the entire day of her birthday, Jaspar distracted her by taking her into town and making her go into every shop that he could find. She didn't complain, glad to spend time with her father but did wonder what the unexpected shopping trip was about. Whilst they were going into every shop, window shopping, George was setting up the flat to be somewhat romantic, he didn't really know what he was doing but had watched enough muggle films to know what he was going for. He put a white table cloth across the table, and lay the table with all the silverware that they needed for the meal that he was making. Realistically, George wasn't a great cook and had asked his mother to prepare something for the evening which Molly was more than happy to do. He had slow music playing through a violin that he charmed and a red rose on the table, knowing that Indigo would appreciate his limited knowledge of flowers. At exactly seven o'clock, the door to the flat opened and she returned with bags full of things that her father had bought for her despite her constant reluctance to take them. She dropped her keys into the bowl next to the door and gasped when she saw what her flat looked like.

George stood next to the table, two glasses of champagne in his hand and offered one to her. "Happy birthday!" He was worried that she wouldn't like the surprise but when he saw that she was beaming, he relaxed and leaned down to kiss her cheek. They spent most of the evening laughing about the different things that Jaspar had purchased for her, including some wizarding items that she didn't have a clue to use. They enjoyed the meal that Molly had prepared, George tried to convince her that he had cooked it himself but she recognised the cooking from the many dinners that she had experienced with his family. She appreciated the flower that he gave to her, and approved of the music that he had picked and they laughed as Basil begged for scraps under the table. Eventually, their conversation turned to what they had been learning from each other and George was excited to show off what he had learned from the muggle studies that he had been invested in. "Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get."