Yours, Fred | f. weasley x reader

Chapter 26: The Hearing

When you woke the next morning, you found out that Harry and Mr Weasley had already left for the Ministry of Magic for Harry's hearing. You paced anxiously around the room and when you weren't pacing, Hermione was. Ginny sighed irritably at the both of you, "you two wearing holes in the floor won't make the hearing go any faster," and you sighed and agreed, opting instead to wander around the house to distract yourself.

You were already on edge from a poor night's sleep, the knocking and banging from the writing desk in the living room next door spooked you whenever you were lying awake in the silence. You'd been hearing it on and off since you arrived but you kept forgetting to mention it to someone, and it was only as you walked down to grab something small to eat when Harry was at the hearing did you hear Mad-Eye discussing it with Mrs Weasley, confirming her suspicions that it was a Boggart. That put you at your ease, knowing that it wasn't something that could physically harm you.

Mad-Eye walked out of the room as you stepped into the kitchen, leaving you alone with Mrs Weasley. She offered to make you a cup of tea and you accepted, and then you both sat down at the table.

"I'm slightly surprised that you don't have the twins with you," she said teasingly as she slid you over a plate of biscuits.

"They're, um, working on something upstairs I think," you weren't really sure what to say, since the twins had asked you not to mention their future plans for the joke shop.

"As long as they're not making any more of those disturbing ear devices...I thought I purged the lot," she scowled halfheartedly and you hid a smirk, knowing that the twins had a secret stash under Fred's bed that she hadn't found.

"How are you feeling, Molly? You've seemed a bit..." you tried to figure out a nicer way to say 'tyrannical', so you settled with, "on edge, recently."

She smiled sadly at you and patted your hand, "I know I have dear, and I'm sorry. I've just been so worried about everyone, especially after the Triwizard Tournament and the loss of poor Cedric Diggory," she gave you a sympathetic squeeze on the hand. "It just feels a little bit too much like last time," she admitted, "and of course you've probably heard about...Percy" You saw her beginning to choke up so you nodded quickly so she wouldn't feel the need to talk about it.

"You know, I always try to do everything right by my children, I always have. Percy was the only one I wasn't worried about, he was always so driven and ambitious and now..." she sighed sadly and then cleared her throat, "that's probably why I'm so harsh on Fred and George, I just want them to do well and not get ahead of themselves, I don't want them to be lost and unhappy and be full of regrets when they're older." She swiped a tear from her face and you wrapped her hand in yours on the table to comfort her, and she squeezed your fingers gratefully.

"But enough of that, I finally have a chance to talk to you alone about Fred!" Her sad face grew brighter as she spoke, and you felt the tightness in your chest loosen as she cheered herself up by talking about you and Fred finally being a couple. You even humoured her when she joked about how she should start calling you her daughter-in-law already. 

You laughed with the woman who you considered your second mother, and you were happy to see her relaxing for a while, especially since she'd been so argumentative and tense lately. However, her relaxed mood was cut short when the door to Grimmauld Place opened and Arthur's voice signalled their return, then Molly grew flustered and hurried up the stairs to meet them, with you trailing quickly behind her.

"Cleared of all charges!" Arthur beamed and Molly began to cry as she hugged Harry in delight, and then you hugged him too and you were happy to see him properly grinning for the first time in days. Ron, Hermione and Ginny ran down the stairs to greet him soon after and then the twins Apparated down to congratulate him and Fred gave you a quick peck on the lips before they both Apparated back upstairs to continue working on whatever they'd been doing all day.