CHERRY, george weasley

054, one alive one dead!

IT'S BEEN A COUPLE OF DAYS now, and Cerise was sitting with Loralei and Elijah. They were both talking but Cerise was in her own little world. She was thinking about her mother—Josephine, she had a lot of questions for the woman.

"Cerise?" Elijah said, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she nodded, "Do you know when my mum is visiting next?" She asked, "I have loads of questions that need to be answered. They're important ones, too."

Loralei glanced at Elijah, who just shrugged in response. "No," he muttered, "I think sometime this week?"

"Okay," Cerise said, before getting up and leaving to see what Hermione and Ginny were doing. Recently, she found herself being left out with Loralei and Elijah, and she knew they didn't mean to do it, but they've both been acting like they were walking on egg shells whenever they were around her.

She wasn't looking where she was going, and walked straight into George Weasley.

He caught her before she could fall, and gave her a huge grin. "You alright, Cherry?" He asked, walking with her to wherever she was going.

"I guess," she replied, eyebrows furrowing. "What's gotten you so happy this morning?"

"Oh," George beamed, "We've been working on order forms."

"That's great," Cerise said, before her eyes landed on a woman at the end of the hallway. "I'll join you later, Georgie, I need to go question my mum."

She ran forward and threw her arms around the woman, who hugged her back, just as tight. "Are you okay?" Josephine whispered, "Remus told me you've hardly been sleeping."

"I have questions," Cerise said, pulling the woman into her bedroom. "What year did you and dad go to Hogwarts?"

"I went 1972," Josephine told her, "Your father was 1971."

"So you had me and Cedric when you were in your fifth year and dad was in sixth year?" She asked, pulling out a piece of parchment and writing that down.

"Yes," Josephine said, "At first, we thought it was a huge mistake because you and Cedric needed us to care for you but we had exams. We thought about putting you guys up for adoption, but thankfully, we didn't—Where is this going?"

"Why didn't you?" Cerise wondered softly. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you didn't, too, but why didn't you?"

"Because," Josephine paused, pursing her lips. "You have two godfathers—I wasn't very close with any girls—and they both talked me out of it."

"Who?" Cerise frowned. "Who are my godfathers?"

"One's dead," Josephine said, "The other is alive. I don't think there's any point in me telling you the dead one, but if you want, you can meet your godfather."

Cerise nodded eagerly. "It would be nice," she said.

Josephine grabbed her hand, and pulled her with her. She lead her throughout the house, until she was standing with all of the adults. "Cerise," she said, "This is your godfather—Remus."

Remus smiled softly.

"Oh," Cerise said, "I didn't know you and Remus were friends, mum."

"We were—"

"Your mum was friends with everyone," Remus said, grinning. "Even most of the Slytherin's adored her. She even dated one of the Slytherin's before she got with your father."

"You did?" Cerise asked in shock. Josephine nodded. "Who was Cedric's godparents?"

"Like you, he has two godfathers," Josephine said as they both sat down at the table. "Xenophilius Lovegood is one of them, Edgar Bones is the other. Those two were your father's choice. Your godfathers were my choice."

By the time dinner came around, Cerise had written a lot of stuff down on the parchment. She wanted to know who her dead godfather was—There were so many people it could be.

Molly turned to Harry as they were eating their dinner and said, "I've ironed your best clothes for tomorrow morning, Harry, and I want you to wash your hair tonight, too. A good first impression can work wonders."

Josephine and Cerise stopped their conversation and looked over at him. Josephine was holding Jay, feeding him as Cerise was eating her food.

"How am I getting there?" Harry asked Mrs. Weasley, trying to sound unconcerned.

"Arthur's taking you to work with him," said Mrs. Weasley gently. Mr. Weasley smiled encouragingly at Harry across the table.

"You can wait in my office until it's time for the hearing," he said.

Harry looked over at Sirius, but before he could ask the question that everyone knew he was going to ask, Mrs. Weasley had answered it. "Professor Dumbledore doesn't think it's a good idea for Sirius to go with you, and I must say I—"

"—think he's quite right," said Sirius through clenched teeth. Mrs. Weasley pursed her lips.

"When did Dumbledore tell you that?" Harry said, staring at Sirius.

"He came last night, when you were in bed," said Mr. Weasley.

Sirius stabbed moodily at a potato with his fork. Harry lowered his own eyes to his plate. Cerise felt the air become awkward and she shifted uncomfortably. "Psst, Cherry."

Cerise turned her head and looked at George with her eyebrows raised. "What?" She asked quietly.

"I had a joke," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "But I forgot it." He didn't have a joke, he just wanted a reason to speak to her. He wanted to make her smile.

"Well, that's stupid of you," Cerise smiled, "You never usually forget jokes."

George shrugged carelessly. "It was a stupid one, anyway, but I thought it was funny," he told her. Fred and Loralei watched the two converse with a grin. Josephine and Remus exchanged knowing glances.

"It probably was funny," Cerise said. "I find all of your jokes funny."

"That's cute, init." Fred spoke, smirking at the duo.

"If I were you, Fred, I'd shut up before you lose one of your—"

"Okaaaayyyy!" Josephine said, interrupting Cerise. "Y'know, Cerise, Fred's right. That is cute."

"Oh, mum!" Cerise exclaimed, "Not you, too."

"It's actually all of us," Josephine told her. "We all think it's cute."