Redamancy

• Chapter 17 •

The Magpie Patronus

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'This is a new kind of embarrassing.' Nicolai grumbled silently; his arms stretched as high as possible in order to reach the top shelf of the fridge. The brunette's pride was preventing him from grabbing a stall or chair, and the look that Fred and George were sending him from across the kitchen had caused his face to turn a sunburnt shade of red.

"Do you need me to get that for you, mon amour?" Fred teased, and George gasped in mock offence on Nicolai's behalf.

"How dare you insult the vertically challenged!" He yelled, earning an eye roll from the shortest of the three, and a muffled laugh from his twin.

"Molly, Fred and George are mocking my height again!" Nicolai tattled and almost burst into hysterics as the pale complexions painted on both gingers faces when they heard footsteps heading towards the kitchen.

Seconds after the twins had hurriedly left the room, Ron entered, dramatically thumping his feet against the hardwood floors as to make his movements as loud as possible.

When he was finally situated next to Nicolai, they both exchanged looks whilst Ron grabbed the orange juice for the brunette.

The two laughed in amusement upon hearing the twins both come to the realisation that Molly had left with the girls earlier that morning, and that they had just been tricked by Ron and Nicolai.

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When Fred and George had left that afternoon to go and buy certain things that they would need when they finally reopened their shop, Ron and Nicolai decided to resort to just playing Wizard Chess until they came back.

It was fair game with Ron's almost unbeatable skills, and Nicolai's practised techniques.

Being brought up in a pureblood household, there was little for the brunette to do other than read and play chess with his father. And so, having played it obsessively for the entirety of his life, of course he won almost instantly for the first couple of games.

However, once Ron had gotten over himself and started to pick up on Nicolai's strategies, both boys had been forced to get creative.

The scores were pretty much even, with one win putting Nicolai in the lead, when Ron had decided that they should take a break.

The ginger's eyes slightly shifted towards the clock, and he almost cursed out loud when he saw that he was running late.

"Come on, we're late!" Ron shouted, grabbing a hold of the now confused brunette's wrist.

"Late? Late for what?" Nicolai questioned as he was dragged to his feet and pushed out of the back door.

Ron's lack of a reply had him sighing in exasperation, however, Nicolai resigned to his fate, having hung around the Weasley's for long enough to know better than to expect a reason behind Ron's strange behaviour.

When the two entered the forest behind the burrow, Nicolai had to push himself a little more to keep up with Ron, who had clearly been down the overgrown path millions of times before, judging by how he expertly dodged any and all branches and dips.

Nicolai wasn't so lucky.

His foot got caught on one particularly large branch and the brunette was sent sprawling onto to ground.

He grumbled in frustration and embarrassment whilst moving to get up, however, upon doing so, he noticed that there was nobody around to laugh at him.

"Ron?" He called out, turning in circles.

The sun had stated setting a little while ago and it was now reasonably dark; additionally, within the rush to leave, the brunette found himself to be wandless.

Just as panic began to set in, a warm light flew past his head. It was a patronus; a magpie to be specific.

'Theres only two people I know that have a magpie patronus,' Nicolai immediately calmed down upon realising that either Fred or George (or perhaps even both boys) was close by.

The magpie flew in a couple of loops around Nicolai's body before slowly moving away.

Nicolai followed it.

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The brunette wasn't sure what he had expected, however, his boyfriend standing in the middle of a small field of dandelions, right next to a picnic blanket displaying all of his favourite foods, was not even close.

Something about the affectionate smile adorning Fred's face had Nicolai feeling both reassured and a little nervous at the same time.

When his legs finally moved forwards and he met Fred in the centre of the meadow, he quickly noticed that Fred actually looked a little nervous.

'That cant be a good sign...' Nicolai let out bated breath due to his increasing apprehension; it seemed like Fred's nerves were rubbing off on him.

"Fred, whats going on?" The shorter boy questioned, hoping to actually get an answer this time.

In response, Fred simply knelt down on one knee in front of him, taking Nicolai's smaller hands in his own.

"Fred?" Nicolai's brain seemed to stop working as the metaphorical dots started to connect in his head. "Holy Merlin." He muttered in shock.

The ginger let out a breathless chuckle as he broke out of his own anxious thoughts, his lover's amusing facial expression like a breath of fresh air.

He had spent almost the entire afternoon baking and cooking and planning for this single moment, and every single part of Fred's body was practically humming in anticipation and tension.

"I have a question for you, Nico."

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I couldn't finish what I started last chapter, I'm sorry lol. But we are slowly coming to an end. Thank you for reading the seventeenth chapter of Redamancy! Things are definitely starting to heat up and I hope you enjoyed!

Word count: 949

EDITED = ?/?/?