A Chance Encounter | Fred Weasley

Epilogue

19 Years Later

"Have a good year! Remember to write!" Clara called out as the Hogwarts Express let out a great cloud of steam. Her oldest son was stretched out the window waving to his parents, uncles, aunts, and younger siblings as the train started to pull away from the station.

Clara, Fred, and George saw great success with the shop, and also great success in their own lives. Fred and Clara had married and had three children together. The oldest was named Michael Jr. – MJ for short, the second was named George, and the youngest was Natalie. Clara was currently pregnant with their fourth child, which they had just found out would be another boy.

George had married Angelina and had one son thus far whose name was Fred.

Clara and Angelina had no idea how they'd been duped so far as to let their husbands name their kids after one another. It seemed like such a Fred and George thing to do, Clara admitted.

Roman had found a girl to finally settle down with named Mary, having met when working with dragons in Romania. They were both taking a well-deserved vacation, though, as Mary was pregnant with their first daughter.

They, along with the trio and their families, stood on the platform as the train left the station.

"How do you think he'll do?" Clara asked Fred, her hand resting on her stomach.

"He'll be just fine. Hopefully Peeves takes it easy on him," Fred joked. He looked down at Clara who had rolled her eyes at him for what seemed like the millionth time that day. He kissed her swiftly on the cheek. "George and I are gonna head back to the shop. I'll see you tonight?"

"As always," she smiled.

Fred smiled back a she hugged and kissed little George and Natalie goodbye, quick on his twin's heels as they apparated out of the station.

Roman walked over to his sister and picked up Natalie and George, tossing them over his shoulder. "Where shall I take the trash out to?"

"Uncle Roma-a-a-a-an!" the little George whined. "I'm not trash!"

"Uncle Romy, put me down!" Natalie squealed.

Angelina and Mary chuckled as the young Fred started to punch Roman's legs. He was being attacked and now everyone was laughing too hard to help him.

"Alright you three," Clara finally interrupted, picking up Fred. "Let's all head back to the house. Lunch is waiting."

The three children walked with Angelina and Mary to the station's entrance, Clara and Roman a few steps behind.

"I don't know how you do it," Roman commented. "Those three are a handful, not to mention what it's like when all of them are at the house," he added, referring to the kids who had just left on the train.

Clara shrugged. "You get used to it. Besides, it's your crazy family too."

He laughed. "That's very true." He paused a moment. "I won't ever admit this to Mary," he started, looking at his wife as she played with Natalie on a nearby bench, "but I'm terrified of being a father."

His sister chuckled. "Roman the Protector afraid of a baby?"

He rolled his eyes as he let out a smile. "I'm serious!"

Clara shook her head as she wrapped her arm around Roman in a side hug. "You did fine taking care of Mikey and I. There's not much difference. You'll love and protect her just as much."

Roman nodded. "Mikey would have loved being here for all this."

Clara nodded. "Yes. Yes he would have."

+.+.+.+.+.+.+.+.+.+

MJ was the same age as his cousins, Albus and Rose, and they were all excited to finally be going to the school that they had heard so many stories about from their parents.

The night flew by for each of them, MJ excited that he had been sorted into Gryffindor like his uncles and aunts. He was even more excited to write back to his mum and tell her about everything that was going on.

Even though he was at the school he had been dreaming about attending, he did miss helping at his father's shop. There was a corner there that had his name on it! Over the years, his dad and uncle had taught him various tricks and pranks (which drove his mother mad). The best thing to come out of it, though, was that he was able to help create products for the shop. His father even placed them into Mikey's Corner. The first time it had happened, he swore he saw his mother cry.

Even though he spent a lot of time with his dad and uncle, MJ had to admit that he was a mama's boy. He was extremely close to her, always helping where he could and making sure she was happy. He didn't know why he was like that, but he was sure that his mother appreciated it.

Later that night, MJ found that he couldn't sleep. He didn't know if it was the anxiousness of starting classes or something he ate that night at the feast, but either way he figured he wasn't sleeping any time soon. Looking over at his roommates to make sure they were sleeping, he snuck downstairs to the common room. He yawned as he looked at the fireplace, the embers within dying down after the older students had gone to bed.

As he looked around the room, he froze in his tracks. One of the Hogwarts ghosts was downstairs with him, and after the exhibition of Nearly Headless Nick that night, he wasn't quite sure if he was ready for another ghostly encounter.

The ghost's appearance was young-looking, his clothes not seeming as old as some of the other ghosts' looked. In fact, his uniform didn't look much different than the one that MJ had been assigned for the year.

The more MJ looked at this ghost, the more curious he got. The ghost's messy head of hair matched his own almost perfectly, and he could have sworn that his mother had pictures of him at the house.

"I know you," Michael told the ghost.

It turned around in surprise, unaware that he had been joined by this student. "How could you? I lived and died before your time." The ghost sounded almost saddened by this realization.

When the ghost had turned around, MJ knew that his hunch was correct. "No, no, I really do know you!" MJ exclaimed, his eyes bright as he walked over to the hovering image before him. "I'm...I'm Michael. Michael Caxton-Weasley Jr."

The ghost looked down at the boy, his eyes widening as he looked closely at the boy's features. "Your...your mum..."

"...is Clarissa Caxton-Weasley."

The boy watched as the ghost's eyes lit up with excitement. The ghost went zooming around the room with happiness, landing immediately back in front of the boy.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Michael."

"And it's nice to finally meet you, Uncle Mikey."

"We have lots of catching up to do."