Never Give Up

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Mrs and Mr Weasley came back early this morning, along with Molly and Lucy from visiting relatives, while everyone else was asleep. They caught up on some sleep but Mrs Weasley woke up and started to make everyone breakfast like usual in the morning along with Ginny and Audrey. Hermione helped for a while too but then came upstairs to check on Fred, thinking of the previous night at the club when she and Fred had spent hours dancing, drinking, and talking to each other.

Draco didn’t come up in their conversation even once for which Hermione was glad. After coming home quite late, they saw that all the kids were asleep, and Hermione managed to get Fred into bed who was quite drunk at that time. She took his shoes and socks off and managed to shimmy him out of his shirt while Fred laughed and tried to grab her and pull her down beside him. Hermione smiled to herself, walking up the stairs to her room, at how this time Fred was a happy drunk rather than a sad and depressed drunk.

‘Hey, love,’ Hermione greeted him as she opened the door. She expected him to still be in bed and sleeping soundly but the noise of retching could be heard from the bathroom accompanied with a few selective profanities. Hermione sighed and walked over to the bathroom to find Fred on the bathroom floor in front of the toilet. She sighed, shaking her head, ‘you should really learn to pace yourself when drinking, love.’

‘You know me better than that,’ Fred managed to say, glaring at her as she put on the light for the bathroom. Hermione sighed and turned the light back off, leaving the bathroom door open so that they weren’t in complete darkness, ‘I’ll get you some medicine, Fred.’

‘Already took some. It’ll take some time to kick in,’ Fred said, moving over to the sink when he felt a little better. He took his toothbrush and put some toothpaste on it before starting to brush. Hermione watched him as he stood there in only his pyjama bottoms and he watched her from the mirror. Through a mouthful of toothpaste, he said, ‘like what you see?’

‘Love what I see,’ Hermione smiled, standing behind him and wrapping her arms around his waist while she leaned her head on his bare, smooth back, ‘I really think we should go home now... our real home, Fred.’

‘I was thinking the same thing actually,’ Fred said as he washed out his mouth after a few minutes. Hermione moved away to sit on the side of the bathtub and watched as he put the toothbrush back and turned to her, ‘I need to start work again soon so we really should be going back... we could leave after breakfast.’

‘We could... Ron and Isabelle left this morning without a goodbye since they officially broke up,’ Hermione informed him but shrugged and stood up, ‘we could leave after breakfast with a goodbye to the family.’

‘That sounds like a good idea,’ Fred nodded and he was going to ask about Ron and Isabelle but there was a knock on the door. Fred grimaced as the knock sounded like someone was pounding at his own head but he yelled, ‘who is it?’

‘Amelia,’ they heard their daughter call out from behind the door. Fred glanced at Hermione through the bathroom mirror, wondering if she could hear the sadness in her voice or if he was just imagining it. Hermione wasn’t looking at him and he heard the door open a little as Amelia asked, ‘can I... um... can I come in?’

‘Of course, sweetie, come on in,’ Fred said from the bathroom. Hermione glanced out of the bathroom from where she sat and saw Amelia walk in, dressed in a long shirt that came to her knees and carrying a scarf. She curled herself into their bed, throwing the covers over her head. Fred walked out of the bathroom, with Hermione behind him, going to the cupboard for a shirt, ‘everything okay?’

‘No,’ Amelia muttered from under the covers, clutching the scarf that Scorpius had gifted her to her chest like a lifeline. Fred turned, holding a shirt in his hand, to Hermione who was frowning a little but she walked over to where her daughter lay.