Silver Lining [Fred Weasley]

Six

Grace looked at the address on the paper. She then looked up at the house in front of her. It was located in a muggle neighborhood. Grace thought it was smart. She put the paper in her pocket and walked up to the door. Grace raised her hand to knock, but hesitated for a moment. After knocking on the door, Grace stood and waited.

Rowan Kohler opened the door. Leslie did say it was her home. The young woman looked at Grace with a look of distrust.

"Hello," Rowan finally spat.

"Hello, may I talk to Cedric?" Grace asked. Rowan raised her eyebrows.

"Straight to the point, aren't ya'?" Rowan asked.

"Please, it's important," Grace insisted. Rowan gave a small nod.

"I know that," she assured. Her voice was so quiet Grace could barely hear her.

"May I come in?" Grace questioned.

"Of course," Rowan said, bringing her voice back up. Right when the door closed behind Grace, Cedric's voice rang out.

"Ro, who's at the door?" He asked. He appeared in the room and froze. Grace glared at him.

"We need to talk."

• • •

The tension in the air so thick that Grace felt like she was suffocating. The young woman glared at Cedric.

"So," Cedric began, "how's it going?" Grace stood up off the couch and kicked Cedric in the shin. He cursed loudly as he held his shin.

"How's it going?" Grace shouted.

"Merlin's beard, what is wrong with you?" Cedric cried, bewildered by Grace's actions. Grace scoffed and tossed her arms up in the air.

"What's wrong with me? What is wrong with me? You know, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't even be here!" Grace shouted.

"What did I do?" He asked. Grace laughed.

"What did you do? Are you really that bloody stupid?" She spat. Cedric sighed and looked away from Grace.

"No, I'm not," he admitted.

"Then why are you acting so stupid?" She asked. Cedric ran his fingers through his hair.

"I don't know." Grace sighed and sat back down next to Cedric.

"Cedric, you're a Hufflepuff. I thought you had more patience then this," Grace said. Cedric looked at Grace.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"You and Aspen, you could've worked this out. It takes time to fix problems. You both have the patience for it. Running from it doesn't help."

"Grace, if I didn't leave we would've broken up."

"You could've at least said you would be leaving! Packing up your things and just leaving doesn't help anything! You're a coward!"

"Excuse me!" Cedric cried, jumping up to face Grace. "How am I coward?" Grace followed his actions and stood up.

"Because you just left! If you knew taking a break would be better you should've said something! You're a coward because you couldn't look Aspen in the eye and tell her. All you had do was sit her down and say you two needed to take a break. It would've broken her, but she would understand. Leaving her did more damage then that would've done. It's going to take more time to fix what you just did. You're a coward, Cedric. It's time you accept that. Aspen knows you two need a break. You need to look her in the eye and tell her that. Grow up!" Cedric stared at Grace. Before he had another chance to speak, Grace walked out of the house.

• • •

Florence sat on the couch as the fire crackled in front of her. Her house was silent. She hated it. Florence put her hand on the bump as the baby began to kick. Only a couple week from giving birth, Florence didn't know if she was ready. Her husband wouldn't be there to hold her hand as she spat every cuss word in the book.

For once in what felt like forever, Sirius wasn't on her mind. She made the decision she most likely wasn't going to name her child Sirius. Florence knew if she had to move on her child couldn't hold the name of her husband. Being a widow wasn't easy. Everyone was always looking at Florence with sympathetic looks. She hated that too.

Florence turned the page in her book as the bowl of potato chips balanced on her stomach. Florence was at peace. She was lost in her book. Then someone knocked on the door. Florence grunted and set the book aside. She grabbed her wand and opened the door from her spot.

"If you're here to kill me then please don't come in!" Florence shouted as the door closed.

"If you thought I was here to kill you, why not look out the window?" Remus asked as he entered the room.

"Maybe because I'm heavily pregnant," Florence retorted. The man chuckled.

"Fair enough," he stated as he sat next to Florence. He raised his brows at the bowl balancing on her stomach, but didn't say anything.

"So Remus, how may I help you?"

"Just thought I'd stop to see how you and the baby are."

"Wonderful! You know, Grace, Reese, and other Auror's having a test tomorrow."

"I've heard." Florence popped a chip in her mouth.

"I just hope they pass," she said. Remus nodded.

"As do I."