Harry Potter One-Shots

Muggle (Fred Weasley)

WORD COUNT: 1591

I fiddled nervously with my necklace, a bad habit I'd had since I was a child. I turned off the engine to my car, stepping outside into the brisk London air and heading toward the coffee shop where I worked. Only today, I wasn't working, I was waiting for my boyfriend Fred to come pick me up to meet his parents. My heart was pounding in my chest and my blood was thundering through my veins. Not only was this my first time ever meeting a boyfriend's parents, Fred had recently dropped the bombshell on me that he was a wizard and his whole family could do magic! He told me I was something called a Muggle, which is his word for non-magical people, but insisted that his parents would still love to meet me.

Inside the shop, I greeted Kiara, my favorite coworker, and ordered a small mug of coffee to sip on to calm my nerves. I clutched the warm mug in between my hands, eyes scanning left and right outside the door for Fred's familiar fiery red hair. Kiara and I made small talk while she cleaned the machines since there weren't any customers around. Fred had asked me not to tell anyone about his family, which had been especially hard for me since Kiara was my best friend in the entire world.

In the middle of our conversation, a flash of ginger hair caught my eye, and I turned to see the familiar face I knew and loved entering the coffee shop.

"Hey Kiara! Y/N, you're here too! All my favorite people in the same place!" Fred laughed, his infectious cheer instantly warming up the room. When I had first started working at the shop, he was a regular, so he knew all of my coworkers almost as well as I did. He always just told us he "worked in the area," but apparently that meant in the secret wizard shopping village hidden in plain sight in the middle of London. He wrapped his arms around my waist and hugged me tightly from behind.

"I know you're nervous. There's nothing to worry about love, really. They'll love you," he breathed into my ear. Feeling his familiar embrace helped calm my nerves, but not all the way. We bid Kiara good day and left, and I struggled to keep up with Fred's long-legged strides as we headed toward... actually, where were we going?

As if he read my mind, Fred explained, "We're going to see the shop and we'll travel from there. Would you prefer the Floo or Apparation?" Upon seeing my blank expression, Fred burst out laughing again.

"Oh, I always forget you don't know anything. The Floo is a way we travel from place to place using a network of connected fireplaces, and Apparation is a bit like... teleportation, I guess? It's hard to explain, you'll just see when we get there."

I was too shocked and nervous to really respond. We made it to a small, dingy-looking pub and Fred led us inside, waving at the bartender (who looked about as old as the dinosaurs) and we went out back and he tapped on some bricks with his wand and suddenly, I didn't even know where we were anymore. All around us rose buildings with brightly-colored signs out front advertising things like pet toads and broomsticks for sale. I gaped, openmouthed, at everything as we walked quickly toward a large shop in the center of the square, with a giant statue I instantly recognized as a close likeness of Fred and his brother George. Fred ushered me inside, insisting that we would have more time to explore the shop itself later, but right now, we were running a bit late.

"Since we're supposed to be there at... whoops, now," Fred checked his watch, "I figure we can just Apparate, it's faster than the Floo. Hold onto my arm and don't let go, whatever you do. Ready?" Before I could tell him no, I'm not ready, a horrible sensation washed over my body and I felt like I had been squeezed into a tube and thrown into a washing machine, tumbling over and over until I was sure I'd be sick.

Just when I thought I couldn't take any more of this horrible feeling, my feet hit soft ground and I stumbled a few steps, trying to regain my balance. Fred looked completely composed, not showing any signs of being off-balance or feeling unwell at all. I didn't trust myself to open my mouth to speak without vomiting all over the place, but fortunately before I could, a voice rang out over the clearing.

"Fred dear, is that you? You're late, you know! Oh my, and Y/N!" A short woman wearing a worn apron came speed-walking out of the door of a peculiar-looking house that seemed to defy all laws of gravity and wrapped Fred and I in a bone-crushing hug. I was only a couple inches taller than her, but Fred seemed to tower over his mother, and I began to wonder what his father looked like in order to produce a child as tall as he was.

"It's so nice to finally meet you dear," Fred's mom cooed, pulling away from the hug to grab my hands in hers and smile. I couldn't help but smile back, and I felt the love radiating off of her as though it was an actual, tangible thing to be measured.

"I've heard a lot about you Mrs. Weasley," I grinned.

"Oh please, dear, call me Molly. I'm just so happy to finally meet you! I never thought I'd live to see the day when Freddie here found himself a girlfriend, much less a Muggle, but I can't tell you how pleased I am about it! Come come, let's go inside, I'll show you round the place and you can meet Arthur. But please, if he starts annoying you with his questions, just let me know, he's very... interested, shall we say, in Muggle life."

Fred grabbed my hand tightly and wound his fingers in with mine as we crossed the expansive yard toward the front door of the wooden house, which had a small sign labeled "The Burrow". Inside was exactly as cozy as I had imagined, but what I hadn't accounted for were the knives dancing around the kitchen chopping vegetables by themselves, the mirror that shouted at me "You look ill dear, have a seat!" as I passed it, or the sheer number of identical-looking redheaded family members I encountered in the cramped dining room when we entered. I met all of Fred's siblings (with the exception of George, whom I already knew and who was back at the shop holding things down) as well as Bill's wife Fleur and their new baby and Ron and Percy's girlfriends, whose names I couldn't remember. Just as I had been warned, Fred's father Arthur immediately bombarded me with questions about my life as a Muggle, much to the annoyance of his family, but I was happy to oblige.

We sat in the living room and chatted about Muggle life, how Fred and I met, how different magic made life, and all the things in between for a good few hours, with Molly popping in every once in a while to offer me some type of drink or snack food. Eventually, she informed us that dinner was ready, and everyone filed into the tiny kitchen to squeeze around their table to enjoy the feast Molly had cooked up.

By the end of the night, I could barely keep my eyes open, which Fred fortunately noticed and took the liberty of beginning the process of leaving for us.

"Well, we've got to get going I'm afraid, I've got to help George at the shop before we close tonight and Y/N has work early tomorrow," he sighed, stretching his arms above his head and settling one down around my shoulders and the other in his lap. Everyone at the table sighed and groaned, and I received about a billion hugs and requests to return as soon as possible, including one from Ginny that made me laugh even in my exhausted state.

"Next time you feel like stopping by, you can go ahead and leave Fred at home, we don't really want him here anyways. We'd much rather have you," she whispered in my ear as she gave me a tight hug goodbye, making me giggle a little as I assured her I would, in fact, be returning soon, and I would try to ditch Fred if I could. Eventually, the goodbyes ended and Fred and I Apparated back to his flat. The second time was a bit easier, knowing what to expect, but it still wasn't fun.

We marched up the stairs and Fred performed a quick spell to unlock the door, then locked it again with another. The lights were off, meaning George was either already in bed or still at work, and judging from the loud snores coming from his room down the hall, it was the former. Fred and I dragged ourselves to his room and I climbed into bed, feeling borderline uncomfortably full and immeasurably sleepy. I snuggled close into Fred's side when he climbed into bed, enjoying the familiar feeling of his arm around me as I drifted off to sleep dreaming about redheaded children running around in and out of green fireplaces and eating the tastiest food they could ever imagine.

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A/N: there will DEFINITELY be a part 2 or an edit/rewrite of this to include more detail because I literally think this idea is SO cute, so just keep your eyes peeled for it sometime in the future