Songbird ; Fred Weasley

Eighty-three

The next morning, after taking my insulin, I grabbed the pain medicine and swallowed two of the pills.

"I was thinking..." mum sighed as we were all gathered in the kitchen.

Ronan was here for breakfast, Reuben had gone home to his wife, Flora was at Hogwarts as well as Toby, but the rest of us were under this roof, staying here for a while.

"...maybe we should find you a therapist." Mum said, her eyes going from Daniel, to Eliza, to me.

Her eyes stayed on me a little too long, and I narrowed mine, turning away so I wouldn't have to suffer under her gaze.

I looked down at the bottle of painkillers and snatched it off the island.

"How many of these are you allowed to take in a day?" I asked, scanning the box for any instructions.

Then someone snatched the box from my hands, and I looked up at Harvey.

"That's not a good idea." He said, shaking his head. "You're not gonna get all drugged up on pain meds."

I groaned as he pushed the bottle into his pocket so I wouldn't see where he put them.

"Why can't you just use your healer magic to heal me?" I asked as I turned towards Flynn who was stuffing his mouth with a bagel.

He looked up at me from where he sat at the table, and when Phoebe reached over to try and steal his bagel, he ripped a piece of it off and handed it to her.

"The spell you're thinking of, can only be used on minor bruises." Flynn said, looking at me again. "There is nothing minor about yours. They need to heal naturally."

"Well then I need painkillers."

"Okay." Harvey nodded. "You'll get another two in six hours."

I glared at him, but he just walked over and took a seat next to Daniel.

"There's a really great therapist in Diagon Alley." Mum piped up.

"Hey mum, is it true that you didn't just have Mavis with Eric?" Spencer spoke, staring at mum with a hard and cold expression. "Did I actually get my red hair and my freckles from my uncle? Or is he really my dad?"

Everyone went quiet and everyone looked at Spencer before slowly looking to my mum.

"What?" She croaked.

"Spencer." Dad shook his head and scowled at him.

"What? That's the reason he took us! He didn't take Harvey, he didn't take August even though August is also a redhead. No, he took Reuben, he took Mavis, he took Eliza, and he took me. Oh, and he took Daniel eighteen years ago. We were all sorted into Slytherin and he sure seemed to think he was our dad."

"Spencer, I can assure you—"

"Was I speaking to you?" Spencer snapped at our dad whose eyes widened, and then he slowly stood up, pushing his chair back.

"Excuse me?" Dad asked in a calm, chill voice. "Don't speak to me like that. I'm aware of what you've been through, but that is not an excuse to be disrespectful so either you will get rid of that attitude, or you will leave my house and come back once you're ready to talk like civil human beings."

The room was now extra quiet. Spencer stared at dad who stared right back.

"Spence, what Eric said wasn't true." Mum said, trying to calm the air. "Genes work in weird ways, but you got your red hair from your dads side of the family, and all of you also got the Slytherin genes from that side. I only had one child with Eric."

"So Mavis is the only one of us, who is his daughter?"

"I'm not his daughter." I said, earning the attention of Spencer.

"But you are..."

"I'm not." I slammed my hand against the counter. "Making a child and actually being a dad, are two very different things."

"Yeah? I bet you know an awful lot about that, don't you?" Spencer spat. "I bet those children of you aren't even Fred's. Ooh, maybe you're just like your mother and slept with your man's brother."

"Woah..." Fred stood up, laughing. "Spence, back off. You're upset, but don't take it out on your sister."

"Why are you even here?!" Spencer turned to Fred. "You've been with Mavis since she was eighteen. How come you aren't married yet? Because you aren't planning on marrying her, right? Just give her a few kids and leave it at that. If you aren't married, you aren't a part of the family, and you shouldn't be here."

Fred raised his eyebrows but didn't indulge in whatever Spencer was doing.

"You know what?" I asked. "Go on, Fred, show them."

We hadn't announced the engagement to the families. Only a handful knew, and we had wanted to announce it, but then stuff happened.

"Not like this, Maves." Fred shook his head, and I rolled my eyes.

"Fred proposed months ago!" I blurted out. "We are getting married, but even if we weren't, he would still be a part of the family."

Instead of answering that, Spencer walked towards me, shrugging.

"You know what? It's not him I'm angry with." Spencer said, then pointed at me. "It's you."

"Me?"

"If it weren't for you, we wouldn't have been fucking kidnapped by that psychopath!" Spencer yelled. "It's your reason Daniel got kidnapped in the first place. It's your fault you just had to dig through Eric's things and find out about him and mum. It's your fault for ignoring Eric when he wanted a bond with you!"

I teared up, taking a step back at his harsh words.

Fred quickly walked over and placed himself in front of Spencer.

"That's enough." He said. "Get out of—"

His sentence was cut short as Spencer punched him in the jaw, and I gasped, but Fred barely even moved.

His head snapped to the side, but that was that, and then Spencer marched out of the kitchen.

"Spencer Hugh Cahira!" Dad yelled. "Get your arse back here!"

"It's okay." Fred said while I hurried around the island to make sure he wasn't too hurt. "He's in pain right now. He's not angry at me, he's not angry at Mavis. He's angry at Eric and he needed to take his anger out on someone. It's fine."

"It is not fine." Dad scowled, shaking his head while I grabbed Fred's jaw and looked at the redness on his jaw.

"Daddy?" Phoebe's small voice asked, and we both looked over to see her crawled onto Flynn's lap, seeking comfort there.

"It's okay, beautiful." Fred assured her. "I'm okay."

Then Fred looked down at me, lowering his voice.

"I'm okay." He repeated in a whisper. "Promise."

I inhaled sharply, then nodded.

"I'm gonna go check on Dora." I said quietly, fleeing the kitchen.

I hurried upstairs and into the guest room where Theodora was wide awake, lying on her back.

"Hi." I whispered, lifting her out of the crib.

I sat on the bed, holding her. I just looked at her for a while, staring until I felt the tears run down my face, staining my skin.

"I love you so much." I whispered against her forehead, and I just cradled her in my arms while I cried.