The Girl who Survived (Fred Weasley)

CH 91. Clean

A/N: No real chapter summary this week as I am trying my best to work through a burn out. I apologize to the later post, but I felt like editing this week really knocked me out. I'm going to do my best to have next weeks on time. So without any further delay, grab a snack (I opted for Dove chocolate) and a drink (Maybe something to relax) and lets dive in.

While you may think you know what comes next, I can guarantee, it's still gonna be a ride! 

Love and charms

Val

~Elodie's POV~

I sat on the loveseat, feeling the ivory colored cushion adjust around me as I leaned back, balancing Ruby on my chest. Smelling of lavender soap and freshly washed clothes. The noise that disturbed her rest reminded her that she wanted to be held a bit longer. I flicked my wrist to shut the monitors off, as I placed both hands on her back. Holding her as secure as possible.

"I need you to know," I whispered as I looked down at her. "Everything I'm doing, is to take care of you and daddy. A day may come when you hear stories about me, where people say I wasn't kind or that I was scary. But you and I will know the truth. And you can always talk to your uncle Bill," I said as she opened her mouth to let out a tiny yawn.

Her pink mitten covered hands resting on either side of her face. Her eyelashes braided together. She would be everything I never had the chance to be.

"You don't understand a word of what I'm saying, do you?" I asked, as if I was waiting for some sort of response. For her approval. Though if she was like me, she may never forgive me.

I heard nearing footsteps, just outside the door. The pacing motion of someone trying to decide if it were safe to come in or not. I half contemplated locking the door, but that seemed far too hostile. It was all a performance afterall. But I had to convince them nonetheless.

The rapping of a fist on the door mixed in with the sound of the lullaby from the nearby mobile. Bill wouldn't linger this way, and he was the only one I was able to speak freely with. I wouldn't know how to explain myself otherwise.

Sirius walked in and stood against the door as he shut it behind him. He stood there, staring at us, taking us in. As if it were the first time he'd set his eyes on us. Or one of the last. Just watching the steady rise and fall of Ruby's breathing, and the way I held her.

"Well... that was something," He said before taking a step closer.

"If you're here to scold me, I won't hear it," I said softly, removing my feet from the other cushion to allow him a seat in the bubble.

"I've never been the scolding type. Especially when it's come to you," He said, sitting down and reaching to pull my feet onto his lap, treating it as the most natural motion in the world. As if he'd been doing it my whole life.. "No, you've always had a way of turning me into custard."

"Every girl's hidden talent," I said, running my hand down the sleeping child's back. "I'm not upset that you want to have a child. Under ordinary circumstances, I'd have offered myself. But... I just don't understand. Why now?" I asked. Hoping to understand. Or that he'd change his mind and wait.

"If not now, when?" He gave my shins a pat and began playing with a loose thread on the cuff at the bottom and a tiny grin grew on his face. "I take it you don't remember much of your grandparents do you?" He asked, looking at me for an answer.

I shook my head at him, only seeing Fleamont and Euphemia as they stood in a picture Minerva had saved. "A shame. They were without a doubt, the nicest people one could hope to meet." He looked down at the babe resting on top of my chest, watching my hands rested over her. "'We do what we can, with what we know.' Your gran taught me that. I always thought she meant for me to find comfort in it after growing up with the people I did. But I've carried it with me through a number of situations in my life," he said as a look fell over his face. One I'd noticed in him all too well. The look of remembering his own childhood. The look he had when he remembered my parents.