Friends Kiss Too | F. Weasley

Epilogue - Five Years Later

The store had grown quiet as the last of the customers made their way out of the front door for the night and Fred locked it up behind them, waving his wand so the open sign changed to closed. Diagon Alley was beginning to quiet down from the bustle of late summer night shoppers looking for the last of their supplies on their lists before the new year at Hogwarts.

Milena had just left the back office where she had been speaking with Lee about a "surprise" he had for George. He was taking him out for a late night dinner and was hoping to propose to him that night. Of course, Milena and Fred were over the moon for them and wanted to know how it went, but Fred also had a surprise waiting for Milena that night that, according to Fred, "could not wait for his wife."

They had gotten married a little over a year after the war. It was a much smaller wedding than what Bill and Fleur had had with just their families and closest friends, but Fred took it upon himself to do all the decorating and he did not disappoint. He had made a large arch out of red and white dahlias just in front of the pond at the Burrow and lined rows of seats for everyone with ribbon and the same flowers. And of course, Ginny had been Milena's maid of honour, a role which she had taken with great enthusiasm, and George had been Fred's best man which he too had been more than thrilled to do. It was simple, but it was perfect.

Milena waited by the front counter as Fred made sure everything by the door was locked and closed for the night, then turned around to meet her smiling as she waited.

"So, the shop's closed and Verity said she'll finish the last of the cleaning for us, meaning we are free to go." Fred smiled.

Verity was a sweet, young witch the twins had hired to help out at the shop. With its immense success after its reopening and Milena investing more of her time into her potion inventing (plus the back pain she sometimes still had), they had needed all the help they could get. Lee had helped as much as he could as well, spending far more time at the shop and their flat than he had previously, but even with his help, the store had just grown too popular and Fred and George were already talking about opening new locations.

"Are you ready for your surprise, Love?" Fred asked, pulling her into his embrace and giving her a quick kiss.

"I've been ready since you first mentioned it a week ago." Milena smiled.

"Good." He smiled back, letting her go and holding out his arm. "Now take my arm please."

She happily obliged and took his arm and the two of them were pulled from the spot they had been standing in and landed on a dirt path in what looked like the middle of nowhere. They were surrounded by a large forest with trees taller than she had ever seen. Taking a look around, she noticed an old English cottage with brown brick walls, forest green window panes, and a green door that matched, a little ways down the road. It had a massive front garden with bushes that lined the perimeter of the ground. Fireflies were fluttering around the bushes, gently lighting the foliage where the moonlight did not.

She didn't recognize the area, it certainly was not a house she had ever been to, but it was probably one of the nicest cottages she'd ever seen. It seemed so inviting.

"Where are we, Freddie?" She finally asked.

He didn't say anything, but smiled at her and grabbed her hand, pulling her towards the cottage. When they entered the garden and reached the front door, he stopped her again.

"You still haven't answered my question yet." She said as he began to rummage through his pockets, finally pulling out two small, gold keys. He handed the keys to her with an excited smile.

"Welcome home." He grinned.

"What?" Milena asked in disbelief.

"It's all ours." He said proudly. "Finally got the keys this morning and I've been dying all week to show you."

"This is ours? Really ours?" She asked excitedly, still finding it hard to believe.

He nodded again.

"Go on! Go inside!"

Milena unlocked the front door and stepped inside. Taking a look around, there was a quaint living room that was empty but had two large windows looking into the room on the left and a kitchen with wooden beams along the ceiling, a window over the sink that looked out into the garden, and a large fireplace against the wall where she could easily hang her cauldrons on the right. Directly in front of her was a set of light, wooden stairs that led up to a small balcony where she could see three doors that were presumably bedrooms. There was no furniture inside yet, apart from a kitchen table left in the corner of the kitchen, but it was like a dream. The house they had talked about owning for so long.

"This is our house?" Milena asked again.

"Yes! It's all ours! A home for us, for all of us." He smiled.

"Teddy is going to love the garden." Milena said, looking out the window in the kitchen again at the moonlit yard.

"I know." Fred replied. "I asked Andromeda and him over for lunch this weekend to see the cottage."

"Oh good! I still have to give Teddy that book of mine I found from when I was just a kid. I still can't believe how well he can already read, I swear he devours every book I give him." Milena laughed.

The rest of the night they spent looking around the house and deciding where they would put furniture and how they wanted to decorate it. They had both already agreed that one of the bedrooms would be a spare room specifically for Teddy since he tended to spend the night with them a lot already at the flat over the shop.

Teddy had basically become a son to the two of them, though Andromeda was his primary caregiver, they always joked that Milena and Fred were his "back-up parents" and often spent plenty of time with him. She liked to think that Remus and Tonks were watching over their son, happy that even though they couldn't be there with him, that there were people who loved him just the same, in a world where he was safe to just be a child.

Everything felt right in the world. Everything felt safe and Milena couldn't have been any happier to sit on the floor of their empty living room and talk about what colour couch they would want for the room.

She was so in love and so, very, very happy again.

~~~

A/N: Holy shit, it's done... this has been very fun to write and I'm really looking forward to writing and posting more fanfics. I'm really happy that I decided to start posting these, I started writing it in 2020 and kinda fell off of it and then in 2022 found it again and started it up and if it weren't for my best friends, I don't know if I ever would have started posting these. So basically, thanks to my best friends for hyping me up and making me feel so much more confident in my writing :)

Also, thank you to everyone who has read this fic until the end and has enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I appreciate you all so much!!!

ANYWAYS! Now that this fic is done, I'm going to start posting the chapters for my next fic on Monday which is titled "Faith in Fear" and will be about my boy, Regulus Black. It's definitely gonna be a tone shift from this one, but I've been so excited about it and can't wait to share it. We're getting into the Marauder's era hehehe...