The Healer | Part 2: The War

The Queen's Speech

A/N: Explicit sexual content ahead! This story is rated Mature for a reason, this chapter is that reason! Read at your own risk, you have been warned!

Edith

Christmas with the Weasley family was unlike anything I could have imagined. After getting woken up by fireworks at the crack of dawn and opening presents, Mrs Weasley called the family down for breakfast and everyone arrived in the kitchen dressed in their new jumpers. After breakfast, I helped Mrs Weasley with the lunch preparations, which went much quicker with magic than it usually did when I helped my own mother with Christmas lunch.

I had never seen Christmas crackers like the ones George and Fred had provided, so I wasn't sure if all wizarding crackers were the same. When they burst, there was of course, more fireworks, and far from the usual cheap toys I was used to, the prizes included miniature broomsticks, joke grow-your-own-pimple kits and an enchanted deck of cards.

'Do have some more, Edith, dear,' Mrs Weasley urged me, gesturing at the plates of food covering the table. 'Don't be shy.'

'Erm... I'm alright Mrs Weasley,' I assured her. 'Really.'

To be truthful, I felt like I had plenty on my plate. Mrs Weasley was probably just used to feeding boys, all of whom had mountains of food piled high on their plates. George noticed the interaction and I felt him squeeze me knee under the table.

After lunch, Mrs Weasley started fiddling with the wireless again and I heard a familiar voice as she switched through the stations.

'It's the Queen's speech!' I exclaimed. My family had always listened to the Queen's speech on Christmas Day. When I was a child, I found it quite boring. But it was a tradition that now made me feel quite homesick for the muggle world.

'The Queen you say?' Mr Weasley straightened up on the sofa with an intrigued look on his face. 'The leader of the muggles?'

I had to laugh.

'Not really, I suppose,' I replied. 'It's more of an honorary position these days. But she always gives a speech on Christmas Day to the people of the Commonwealth.'

'Oh, let's listen, Molly. In fact, everyone listen!' Mr Weasley called everyone to the sitting room and turned up the volume on the wireless. There were several groans, mostly from Fred and Charlie, but everyone settled in to listen. Most seemed to have realized it was probably a better alternative to the music their mother had been searching for.

'For most of us this is a happy family day. But I am well aware that there are many of you who are alone, bereaved, or suffering. My heart goes out to you, and I pray that we, the more fortunate ones, can unite to lend a helping hand wherever it is needed, and not pass by on the other side.'

'Wow, does the muggle Queen know we're in the middle of a war too?' Ginny asked when the speech concluded shortly after. 'What would she be able to do to help us?'

'She'd have to be blind and stupid not to,' Charlie replied.

'The Princess of Wales died in a motor vehicle accident earlier this year,' I told them. 'That's probably why the tone of it was so somber.'

'There's a Princess of Wales too?' Mr Weasley asked incredulously. 'Tell me, what is the Commonwealth?'

'It's a collection of countries that the Queen presides over, the United Kingdom of course,' I counted on a finger. 'Then there's Australia too, Canada, India, South Africa, Sierra Leone... there's quite a few, more than that anyway.'

'And she's queen over all of it?' He asked with wide eyes.

'It's more of a ceremonial position,' I reminded him. 'She doesn't have much real power anymore.'