Ceremonials

We Will Never Be Afraid Again

A/N: A short outtake from chapter 44. Just a different POV that didn't quite fit in the story :)

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May 2, 2009

Arthur cast his gaze out over the large gathering overflowing from his home, spilling into the backyard, garden, and small orchard of the Burrow.

Each and every year they all came home to celebrate this day together. Save one.

Arthur knew he and Molly were beyond fortunate to have made it through a war with almost their whole family intact, but that thought never served to lessen the pain of losing Fred.

He released a sigh and surveyed the crowd again. His children: here, happy, and inspiring such a swelling of pride in his chest. Not to mention his grandchildren. And other young ones he considered his children.

Arthur sat in the shade, head tipped back and eyes half-closed. Not napping, per se, merely taking a brief pause from the late afternoon sun before the feast to come. Molly had already outdone herself with a lavish lunch spread, and yet she'd insisted she needed to head back in to start prepping the next meal.

There were a few new additions to this year's celebration, which always delighted him.

The Malfoy boy (Draco, Arthur corrected himself) sat stiffly on the end of the long wooden table. He faced away from Arthur, and he wondered how it might feel for the young man to be here today. He'd shown up gripping Hermione's hand and only spoke when someone addressed him directly.

Molly had already shooed Draco away from helping her with anything, and so he took up his post out here, not far from Arthur.

This end of the yard was peaceful, a good spot for a brief kip, away from the hubbub of the many other celebrants, most of them already riding the buzz of some afternoon champagne-indulging.

Arthur couldn't be sure if Draco knew he wasn't quite alone out here, but Arthur decided to let him have his solitude instead of instigating conversation.

The quiet was interrupted, as it frequently was in the Weasley home, by one of his boisterous children. The back door opened with a bang as Ginny called over her shoulder.

"Yes Mum, of course I'll ask!"

His daughter briskly approached Draco and slipped onto the bench next to him. His already rigid posture stiffened further at her presence, perhaps startled at first by her proximity to him at an otherwise empty table.

"Mum wants to know if you've had enough to eat?"

"Your mother already offered me two different types of tea and three different puddings."

"I hope you've saved room for dinner."

"You're joking."

"A Weasley never jokes about meals."

Arthur chuckled under his breath. The twins may have been known as the funny ones in the family, but to Arthur, Ginny was the one who never failed to inspire laughter from him.

"All right?" asked Ginny after a beat.

"Fine."

"'Course you're not. No one is."

Draco didn't seem to have a reply to this blunt, yet ultimately kind, statement.

"Where's the offspring?" he drawled instead.

"James has been commandeered by Fleur. And with the way she's cooing over him, I think Bill might want to be extra careful lest they add another Weasley to the pile."

Draco huffed a low chuckle. The sound morphed into a clearing of his throat.

"You're good at it."

"At what?"

"You know all the... all the mother stuff."

Ginny snorted. "Well, I had a pretty good blueprint to follow. I was very lucky."

Ginny's sweet statement about her parents threw Arthur into a memory; of hearing their daughter loudly berate a boy on Platform 9 & ¾ for mocking Luna Lovegood.

"She's fierce, like her mother," Arthur commented to Molly.

"True, but she's as tender-hearted as her father," his wife had replied.

"He'll be lucky. Your son," Draco said abruptly, as if he were embarrassed to have the thought and unsure if it were appropriate to say at all.

"Are you complimenting me, Harry, or both of us?"

"Wouldn't dare."

"Git."

Draco cleared his throat again.

"I meant that he'll... well, he won't have to... he'll only know this day as one of celebration, I suppose."

"True. But I'll still want him to know the darker bits too, eventually. Loss is a part of life."

"You've—all of you... you've lost a lot."

"You've lost people too. You have every right to mourn today."

"It's not the same," he gruffly replied.

"Do I need to summon Harry for an official club meeting?"

"No, because he'll bring along one or fifteen of your brothers and I'd heard this club has very exclusive membership. We can't allow any riffraff in."

"True."

Ginny half-turned away from Draco and spotted Arthur in his not-so-hidden spot. She threw him a cheeky wink then jumped to her feet and cuffed Draco on the shoulder.

"Come on then, it's too nice a day to not be on a broomstick."

As they passed by him, Ginny patted Arthur on the arm.

"Rest up, old man. I'm counting on you as Keeper later."

Arthur chuckled and watched them take to the air to toss a quaffle back and forth.

"Hmm, thought you'd sneak away for a little nap, did you?"

Arthur jolted and shot his approaching wife a guilty smile.

"Just regaining my energy to come assist you with whatever you require."

"Only teasing love, there's a small army in the kitchen as we speak."

Molly took the seat beside him and Arthur reached for her hand, kissing the back of it. They luxuriated in the silent comfort of their decades of companionship and smiled fondly as others returned outside to enjoy the sun.

Ron, Harry, and Hermione settled into the table nearby; Ron in the middle of an exuberant story and gesticulating wildly; Harry guffawed heartily while Hermione shook her head with a reluctant twitch to her lips.

"It's so wonderful how some things never change, isn't it," enthused Molly, gesturing to the trio.

"Actually my dear," Arthur shifted his gaze to the two airborne figures. "I find change to be a beautiful thing."