The Caregiver

three: balancing the books

Autumn was finishing her second week with Arthur. It was going extremely well with him and Molly, they all got along beautifully and had even begun to form their own inside jokes with each other.

This, however, only seemed to push Fred further away from Autumn. The closer she got with his parents, the more anger he felt towards her.

He felt like an outcast in his own home- although he logically knew that was his own doing.

He was the one too scared to face his father, afraid that he might collapse into a sobbing mess if was faced with the reality of his ailing parent. He was the one too ashamed to face his mother after his numerous outbursts.

It was all on him, and this only made him loathe himself more- ultimately resulting in him taking it out on Autumn with countless snide remarks and bitter glares.

"Alright, everything looks good per usual," the girl said cheerily to the Weasley patriarch.

"Splendid!" He laughed, wiggling in his seat as he pulled back down his shirt sleeve.

"Your health has been stable for two weeks now so I was wondering if you fancy a day trip? Molly is out running errands for the day so I figured we could go to-"

"No thank you, dear. While my mind is still with me, I have decided to spend my time in the world of literature," He interrupted, picking up a book from the side table.

She softly nodded her head, "Alright, Arthur, well if you change your mind just let me know. Until then I will stop bothering you with day plans."

He chuckled as he cracked the spine of his book, "Very well, bugger off now please."

Throughout the rest of the morning and into the afternoon, Autumn had decided to tidy up the house and do the laundry while Molly was away. She made her way through each child's room (excluding the twins'), dusting and mopping until the house looked spotless.

After she finished washing and folding the laundry, she put everything in its rightful place and made her way down the stairs.

Groans and mumbled curse words could be heard from the dining room as she padded across the floor over to the source of the sounds.

Fred was sat perched over numerous notebooks and an opened laptop, punching away at a calculator before slamming his hands down on the wood table in frustration.

Autumn jumped slightly from the sound causing him to notice her lingering presence in the doorway.

"What?" He spat, looking back down at the calculator.

"What are you doing? Can I help?" She offered as she made her way over to the table.

He scoffed, "I highly doubt it, but be my guest."

He pushed the materials away from him as he shook his head in disbelief, "I'm trying to balance these bloody books but something is wrong. I keep miscalculating the inventory to profits ratio so we're either so far in the red we may as well shut down shop now or so far in the green that we could close for a month or two and still be set."

Autumn nodded along as she leaned over Fred's shoulder to inspect the numbers.

He stiffed slightly as the addicting scent of vanilla and lavender overcame his senses. His mind grew cloudy as her body heat seeped into his skin, warming him up in a way that made him jittery and nervous. It was as if he couldn't think straight with her this close to him and that irritated him to no end.

Her calming presence simultaneously set him on edge, and it annoyed him that even after all the ridiculing and harassment he had put her through the past two weeks, she still so willingly- as if second nature to her- came to his aid to comfort and soothe his woes.