The Chaser : A Fred Weasley Fan Fic

Forty Four: Moving Day

"Is that him?" he asked, as I paused on a small ornate frame before quickly wrapping it in bubble wrap.

I jumped. I hadn't noticed him standing behind me. I assumed he was still packing up his study.

"Who?" I asked, feigning ignorance.

"The famous Fred Weasley" he laughed, taking the frame from my hands and unfurling it from its wrapping.

He looked down at it. My seventh year Quidditch photo. We all squished into the shot, laughing at how ridiculous we looked. For a moment, just before the image cut off, Fred's eyes flick down to me. Only for a moment. Watching it again felt as though he were looking at me.

"Yes, that's that's him" I mumbled, I taking the frame from his hands and packaging it back up and placing it in the box with the other photographs.

"Good looking lad" my fiancé chuckled, wandering out of the room to continue his own packing.

"Yes, he was" I replied quietly, hoping he hadn't heard.

I followed after him, standing in the doorway of his study as he motioned for objects to jump into their boxes with a flourish of his wand.

"Are you nervous?" he asked, not even looking up from what he was doing.

"About what?"

"About seeing them all again. The Wealseys" he looked up, awaiting my answer.

"I can't wait to see Ginny" I laughed sheepishly, avoiding the real question.

"Sure" he grinned, accepting my answer and sealing another box shut.

I went back to our bedroom and unfurled the picture one last time. My finger traced the outline of Fred as he moved and smiled and glanced. Going back wouldn't be the same.

The day of the move I kept that box particularly safe. It was the only photograph I'd kept of him at our home and I couldn't let it get damaged.

I'd lived in Fitchburg, Massachusetts for two and a half years and returning to London would be difficult, that I was sure of. I'd been away from my friends and family for so long.

My brothers had visited when they could but those trips had wained as the months went on. Everybody had busy lives back in England and getting engaged made me see that if I wanted to be part of them, I'd back to move home. The Fitchburg Finches had been a wonderful team to play for but it was time to move on.

We'd barely got our boxes through the fireplace when there was excited knocking at our new front door. My fiancé furrowed his brows at me as I placed a box down on the floor of the empty living room.

"Answer it, I'll get the last of it through the floo" he sighed.

I whispered a thank you and followed the hallway to the front door. I opened it tentatively and was immediately attacked. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and my nose filled with the smell of The Burrow. I almost collapsed to my knees. The nostalgia of every good time I'd spent there, melded with the sorrow that I'd been away for so long welled at once and I forced tears back in my eyes.

As Ginny pulled away, I noticed her eyes were glassy too. She looked older than the last time I'd seen her, taller and her build more athletic from playing for the Holyhead Harpies. Her cheeks were tinged pink from the cold evening outside and a knitted cardigan was swaddled over her shoulders. I recognised it immediately as a classic Molly Weasley design.

"It's been too long" she breathed, as her eyes flicked across my face, surveying my freshly bleached blonde hair, "America's changed you"

"It has" I laughed, smoothing my hand through my hair "I'd offer you a cup of tea but I'm not quite sure where our kettle is"