The Healer | Part 3: The Survivors

Christmas Morning

George

I didn't have any trouble falling asleep after that, and George didn't seem to have any more nightmares either, he must have found it easier to sleep when he wasn't alone as well.

'Bloody hell, Edith,' he exclaimed the next morning when we woke up. 'The state of my pillow!'

I sat up and reached out a hand to touch it. It was soaked. I felt my cheeks flush.

'I told you you drool in your sleep,' he grinned.

'I'm pregnant, I can't help it!' I hissed back. It was light out now, already, I could hear the rest of the house stirring around us. 'Happy Christmas to you, too!'

'Happy Christmas, sweetheart,' he wrapped his arms around me and planted a wet kiss to my forehead. 'I'm only joking, I had a hard time falling asleep the other night with my pillow so dry.'

I laughed a little louder than I meant to and then clapped my hands over my mouth. I looked over at the door but nothing happened. I turned back to George. He was still grinning. There was a large pile of presents at the foot of the bed.

'Aren't you going to open your presents?' I asked, gesturing to them. He was still looking at me curiously. 'What?'

'I was just thinking,' he replied.

'About what?' I asked.

'I didn't think I'd have a wife this Christmas,' he admitted. I grinned.

'You have a wife and two children on the way, you overachiever,' I replied. He chuckled.

'Of course, I always hoped I'd end up married to you eventually,' he said.

'What do you mean, always?' I laughed again. 'We've only known each other...' I counted quickly in my head. 'Five years. Crivvens, has it been five years?'

'Do you remember all that madness of the Yule Ball?' He asked, leaning back against the wall.

'Aye, I do,' I chuckled. 'I thought you were joking or planning some sort of ambush when you asked me to go with you.'

'Fred thought I was mad to even ask you in the first place,' he said. 'I put it off so long, he told me surely that other bloke would have beat me to it.'

'He did,' I said. 'Only I told him no, too.'

'Well, that makes me feel better,' he grinned.

'I told my mum about you that Christmas,' I admitted.

'Did you?' He raised his eyebrows. 'What did you tell her?'

'Only how perplexed I was that this strange lad had asked me to go to the ball with him,' I grinned. He laughed.

'And what did she say?' He asked.

'She told me to be nice to you,' I smirked.

'So you married me,' he smirked back.

'Well, as I'm sure you'll recall, a few other things happened between then and now,' I reminded him.

'True,' he shrugged.

We were quiet for a few moments. We could hear activity in the stairs outside. Surely Ginny and Hermione would have noticed I was missing by now. I only hoped no one else would.

'I've had a hard time being back in this room,' he said quietly. 'There's so many memories with Fred. I'm glad you came up last night.'

'Are you?'

'Yeah,' he smiled. 'Now I have a new memory of my pregnant wife sneaking up here to drool on my pillow.'

'Oi!' I laughed. 'It's your fault I'm pregnant.'