Muggle | 𝐹𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑊𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑙𝑒𝑦

Chapter 187

I gasped. "Fred —!"

"Okay, before you panic," Fred started, cutting me off, "this is a promise ring."

I blinked a few times at him, my heartbeat picking up.

"I've been thinking that you have to go back eventually, right? Well... this could work as a promise of our... er... what's the word? Oh, right! Commitment. Wow, never thought I'd ever use that word."

"Fred, you can't promise such a thing," I said, sighing as I saw his eyebrows furrow together.

"Why not?"

"Look, the portal to my own timeline opens up to me each year on September first, the same date I've been sent back, in King's Cross station. If I go back this year, 1998, I will appear back in 2007. Which means that even though it would pass for me like a second, I will be absent from your life for nine years! Fred... I can't ask you to wait for me that long."

"That's what the promise ring is for!" he said cheekily, holding the ring up with a ring. But when he saw the look on my face, he held onto my hand, looking into my eyes. "I'm choosing this."

But I shook my head with a sad smile. "Nine years is too much. Wasting nine years of your youth waiting for someone is terrible. I can't be that selfish. Besides, if I go back to my timeline this year, I will be eighteen years old once I reappear there, meanwhile you're going to be twenty-nine! There will be eleven years of age difference between us!"

"So?" Fred shrugged. "Lupin and Tonks are thirteen years apart, and they're happy as they are."

"No," I muttered weakly, getting up to my feet and Fred followed. "I can't make you wait for me that long, Fred. It would be too selfish of me."

There was a long pause, until Fred suddenly said,

"Then don't go."

"What!?"

"Okay, before you say anything else, just let me finish," he cut me off again. "Dumbledore said that your limit of staying here was September first, 2007, right? The original date that you been sent back to the past."

"Right..." I said in a hollow voice, staring at him as we were sitting on the floor with the ring still in his hand.

"Well, I was thinking that maybe you could stay in this timeline until September first, 2006," he explained. "That way, when you go back, I'll only have to wait for you one year and then our age difference would be three years; we're already two years apart, so it wouldn't make much difference. You'll be twenty-six and I'll be twenty-nine."

I paused for some while. For a second, I thought that this was a good idea. I thought to myself that maybe it could work. But then I remembered my real problem.

"What about my family?" I reasoned. "I haven't seen them for almost four years, Fred! I'm not sure if I can manage eight more years without them."

"I know you miss them, Lex... but you have a family here too. We are your family. Besides... they wouldn't even feel your absence. But I will..."

I looked up at Fred, and as I did, for a split second I felt all my worries wash away and my heart warmed up. But I sighed again, burying my head in my palms.

"By the way," Fred started to change the subject briefly, making me look back up at him. "what would your friends and family say once you return, looking so much older?"

"Dumbledore said that if we cast a powerful Confundus charm around me, Muggles wouldn't notice that I look any different," I explained. "But there is a slight problem, which is my mum. She's a Muggle, and the moment I go back, she will probably tell me to pack my stuff for school. She'll probably think that I'm still a fourteen year old."

Fred laughed. "What are you going to do about that?"

"Dunno." I shrugged. "I'll ask Dad when I go back. He'll know what to do."

Another silence fell upon us for some while we stood there facing each other, yet not looking up at one another.

I thought of all the possibilities, and of all the pros and cons of staying until 2006, or leaving this year at September first.

If I stayed for eight more years, I could spend more time the Wizarding world and be with Fred and the new family I had found. But on the other hand, I couldn't see my parents for another eight years.

And if I went back this year on September first, I would see my parents after such a long time, but then again I would be more distant from Fred. Because despite what he was willing to promise me, I couldn't be selfish to ask him to wait for me that long.

But then, as if my tongue was speaking on its own account, I finally broke the silence by suddenly saying,

"Fine." I finally said after long minutes of silence.

Fred's head shot up at me and his eyes widened. "What?"

"I said fine." I smiled up at him. "I'll stay at the Wizarding world. I'll stay with you."

His grin widened at those words, as if he didn't know what he was supposed to say. So with his smile still dangling on his lips, he raised the ring in his hand.

"Will you, Lexi Dorea Hooper slash Black slash Goldman," he said dramatically and I chuckled at that, "make me the happiest man alive and promise to still be my girlfriend after you come back to 2007 and be my idiot forever?"

"Cheesy Weasley..." I laughed, shaking my head at him in disbelief. The few house-elves in the kitchen had now gathered around, watching us curiously.

Fred then started repeating himself again, louder this time, "Will you, Lexi Dorea Hooper slash Black sl —"

"Yes!" I cut him off loudly, laughing. I then went on tiptoes and pecked him on the lips.

And when I pulled away, Fred took my right hand in his and placed the promise ring on my finger.