Raising Hope {Fred Weasley}

Business Baby

While Eleanor looked after Hope the majority of the time during the day while in the shop, there were some days where Fred gave his wife a break from her motherly duties and enjoy a day to herself. Normally, Eleanor would go and spend the day with Marnie and Cedric, or spend sometime with her sister-in-laws.

That particular afternoon, Eleanor left early to spend the day with Judith and Marnie to enjoy some brunch and whatever else they had planned to do. Fred and George agreed to keep a close eye on Hope, but more importantly, Verity agreed to keep an extra close eye on all three of them. Fred was trying to help a mother pick out some products for her children, but it seemed the woman was all too fussy in her choosing. Any product Fred tried to show her, she would turn her nose up at and try to find something else.

Fred was reaching the end of his patience as he had been helping the indecisive woman for nearly an hour and she still hadn't agreed to anything.

He heard Hope let out a few cries from behind the counter and with Verity taking down an order and George busy with other customers, Fred excused himself from the woman for a moment to go collect his daughter.

Hope saw him and immediately reached her arms out towards him.

"Well, how am I supposed to say no to that face?" Fred chuckled before lifting the girl up into his arms.

"Daddy..." Hope began. "Nap?" She had a hopeful look on her face but her father shook her head. 

"Sorry, Sweetness, but that lady over there is taking her sweet time in finding something and the shop is a little busy, I can't go upstairs and nap right now. Do you want me to bring you upstairs to sleep or-"

"No." Hope replied and her small hands clung to the front of her father's jacket.

"Alright, alright, I'll let you stay with me, but you have to behave, okay?"

Hope only smiled at him and Fred suddenly saw the look that he and George had probably given his mother all the time when they were growing up.

"Oh Merlin."

Returning to the picky customer once more, determined to sell her something, Fred had Hope sitting on his hip.

"Oh and who is this little cutie?" the woman cooed at Hope and pinched her cheeks. Fred's eyes suddenly widened in slight horror and from where George was standing he could see it as well, and he looked on in horror as well.

The last person to pinch Hope's cheek unfortunately had been Uncle Charlie on his last visit and resulted him in getting bit. Hope didn't have a lot of teeth but she certainly knew how to put them to work when it came to people doing things she didn't like.

Fred prayed silently that Hope wouldn't bite the customer before them. However, the little girl surprised him and George as she let out a happy shriek to the woman causing the woman to smile and laugh as well.

"Someone's certainly a happy baby."

Hope reached out for one of the toys, specifically the Umbridge on a Unicycle, which was one of her mother's favorites as it shouted, "I will have order!"

Fred watched as the woman began playing with Hope with some of the products and not before long, the woman was asking to purchase all of the items she ended up playing with, with Hope.

Fred was astounded by the amount of profit they had made off of one woman as the woman left with bags and bags from the shop.

He looked down to Hope who still had a bright smile on her face.

"Nap?" she asked again.

Unfortunately for Hope when others saw her playing with the woman, they too wanted to spend some time with the child and watch her play with some of the products.

One woman even had Hope try on multiple of the knitted animal caps that Eleanor had premade to decide which one she wanted to get for her granddaughter.

"It's official, " George said leaning against the counter as the shop cleared near the end of the day. Fred glanced over at him as he returned from locking the doors after the last customer left.

"What's official?"

"Hope is way better at marketing than we are." George chuckled.

"She certainly has a talent for it, doesn't she?" Fred grinned before stopping and looking around."Speaking of Hope, where is she?!"

"Uh..gentlemen?"

The twins looked behind them to see Verity holding the sleeping child.

"I think this is Hope's way of saying she's been overworked." Verity laughed as Hope let out a light snore.

Fred walked over and took Hope from Verity, carefully, trying not to wake the child.

As soon as Hope was in his arms, she opened her eyes and looked up at her father with a sleepy expression.

"Nap?"

Fred nodded with a smile. "Naptime."

"Chocolate?" she said, trying to see how far she could push her luck.

"Yes, you can have chocolate after your nap." he said.

She made a face at him.

"Hope, if I give you the chocolate now, you won't settle down for a nap, you'll be all over the place."

"Chocolate?' she repeated.

"No." Fred said walking towards the stairs.

"Chocolate."

"No."

George and Verity listened as the father and daughter continued the argument up the stairs.

"And everyone wonders why she picked up on no so quickly." George shook his head.

Verity crossed her arms. 

"I'm just trying to figure out how one keeps chocolate away from a Lupin child?"