Birds of a Feather, Chapter 18, Serious Conversations, part 1
Birds of a Feather, Chapter 18, Serious Conversations
Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe belongs to J. K. Rowling.
A/N: Someone please tell Ron and Lavender to quite usurping my story.
oooooooooo
Ginny finally pulled back a little from her mother, the Molly one, and Harry took the opportunity to go hug his own mother. Ginny stood back, hesitant at the idea of thrusting herself into this other new family that she might have. Harry noticed her reluctance and let go of his mother.
“Mum,” he said. “This is Ginny. She’s my Mate, and--” he blushed slightly, “--and I love her.”
Giselle’s eyes teared up a bit, so happy at her son having been able to find his Mate so early in life. “Ginny,” she hesitated. “May I call you Ginny?” She wasn’t quite sure what to do with her daughter now that she’d found her. All she really wanted was to throw her arms around her missing Madeline and hold her forever. But she also saw that the red-headed girl was a little scared, and a lot worried, about what was going to happen next.
Ginny nodded, but the worried and scared look still remained.
“Ginny,” Giselle repeated. “I know this must seem a little, um, overwhelming to you. Am I right?” Ginny nodded again, with a small rueful grimace. “Well, I’m sure Harry’s told you a little bit about what happened to our Madeline when she was a baby, and we tried everything we could to find her, although ever since we found Harry we’ve had to let other people head up the search. But we’ve never stopped hoping and praying for her. For you.” She stopped for a moment, and Pierre took his opportunity.
“Hi, Ginny,” he said, and stepped forward with his hand outstretched.
oooooooooo
Ginny had backed up slightly when Pierre had started talking, but when she saw that he just wanted to shake her hand, she stepped forward and took his in hers. When she did that, she had a small flash of memory, or perhaps it wasn’t anything as strong as a memory--maybe just a feeling of comfort, of familiarity. It was as if she remembered his hand, and that made it so that she didn’t want to let go. Standing there, holding his hand, she peered up into his face. He was smiling down at her, eyes somewhat teary, but she could tell that he was very happy at this moment.
“Hi, um, Mr. . . .” Ginny’s voice trailed off.
Giselle stepped forward and laid a gentle hand on Ginny’s shoulder. “Ginny, I think both my husband and I would be happy to have you call us Giselle and Pierre. Of course, you can also call us pere and maman if you prefer. Or even Mum and Dad. Or Mom, I suppose, if you want to adopt the American way.” Her small grimace indicated her slight disapproval of that last, and Ginny resolved to never, ever slip into the atrocious American corruption of their language.
Ginny nodded at Giselle, and looked at Harry. She wasn’t sure what to do now, and it seemed so very very important to make a good impression on these people whom she apparently possibly belonged to.
Harry caught the look on Ginny’s face, and moved forward himself, stepping to her side and putting his arm around her. “It’s okay,” he whispered to her. “Mum and Dad really just want to get to know you. They’re not going to make you give up your life just because they found you.”
Ginny turned and looked into Harry’s face. “Are you sure?” she whispered back. “I mean, I want to get to know them too, but I don’t want to stop being a Weasley either.”
Harry kissed her softly. “I’m sure that my parents won’t have any problem with that. Really, they just want to know you. And be a part of your life. But that’s not any different, is it? I mean, they were going to be your in-laws anyway.”
Ginny giggled a little, then straightened up. “I can do this,” she whispered to herself. Taking a slight moment to settle her resolve, she turned to Giselle. And just about lost her resolve again. But seeing Giselle’s face, and how brightly she was smiling, albeit with teary eyes, she found her courage. She took a small step towards her new, or rather, old, mother and held out her arms. “Can I--” was as far as she got before she found herself caught up in a warm hug. She slowly wrapped her arms around Giselle, and as she did so, she had another memory impression. She recognized the scent of her mother. And that was quite enough to settle her doubts.
Giselle was rather surprised, and very pleased, when her Madeline came to her for a hug. And then, when Madeline (or rather Ginny, she forcibly reminded herself) snuggled in even closer, Giselle broke down into tears. She was finally able to hold her precious daughter again, and she held on as if she’d never let her go. The pain that had been her constant companion over the last 14 years started to diminish, to shrink, and hopefully disappear forever.
Ginny felt the love radiating from her birth mother as a kind of warm smell that washed over her. Unbeknownst even to herself she had carried with her a small worry, a sadness. She knew she had been adopted, and almost all the time she was very happy with her situation. And really, she rarely thought of herself as an adoptee. But every so often she’d wonder why she’d been left, or lost, or stolen from her birth parents. And she’d occasionally wonder what they were like, and whether she’d want to meet them.
But now, being here with them, she finally felt complete. She had both of her families now, and a wonderful Mate. And apparently two sisters.
oooooooooo
Molly stood watching, feeling her heart break. She really had only ever wanted the best for her Ginevra, and knew that if her birth parents ever found her and wanted her, that she’d do everything she could to help Ginny be happy with them. But faced with the reality, she found she wasn’t as strong as she’d hoped to be. She sniffled, then turned towards Arthur and buried her face in his shoulder.
Ginny heard Molly’s sobs, and broke the hug with Giselle. Or rather, she let go with one arm, and started shuffling towards her other parents. Giselle guessed what was happening, and went with her, until finally Ginny was where she felt the best--both of her mothers had an arm around her, and she held onto them as well. Her fathers joined in, and Harry, of course, and they stood there, just enjoying the moment.
“What’s all this, then?” came a loud voice, interrupting the happy group, which slowly released their arms, and moved apart a bit, and sniffled and wiped noses and, chiefly the mothers, straightened collars and picked imaginary lint off of shoulders.
oooooooooo
Ron hadn’t noticed that all the other Weasleys in the castle had disappeared. The experience of having a girlfriend was doing great things to his life. Some of those things were good--he tended to eat with a less-wolfish appetite, for instance. But others, well, the jury was still out on some of the other changes.
It was actually Lavender that noticed the Weasley exodus first. Now, Lavender wasn’t stupid. It’s impossible to be stupid and still be the nexus of all castle gossip for fourth years. And most of the fifth years. And of course many of the third years. Although Lavender would argue that it wasn’t just gossip--there was more to information-gathering than just gossip-mongering after all. She had always been very desirous to know what was going on, and disguising herself as nothing more than a gossip meant that she was constantly under-estimated.
Of course, many people discounted her brains, believing that the box they came in was much more important. But Lavender knew how to work that. Many incredibly interesting pieces of information were found because of people’s inability to look beyond her rather impressive figure.
Given all this, it wasn’t surprising that Lavender had noticed when the other Weasley brothers were called out of the Great Hall by Tex. Tex looked over towards Ron, but caught Lavender’s eye instead. She looked at Tex, who seemed a little unsure about what to do, but when she nodded her head toward Ron, he gave her a tiny shake of the head, and held up two fingers. She nodded slightly, and turned back to her boyfriend, hoping she had understood what the French boy had meant. She could only assume that he had wanted her to wait for a bit before taking Ron to see what was going on.
“Ron,” Lavender said, when Ron had eaten enough that she was sure to be able to get his attention.
“Wh-” started Ron. He stopped, chewed, swallowed, and took a quick drink of pumpkin juice. “Excuse me,” he said apologetically, “I just forgot a little.”
Lavender smiled at her boyfriend. “Very good, Ron, thank you for stopping.” She leaned up and gave him a quick kiss.
Ron colored slightly, but kissed her back. He might not consciously understand it, but Lavender’s lessons and system of rewards had been the cause of most of his new-found manners.
“So, um, what did you want?” Ron asked, once his slight blush had calmed down.
“Oh, I was just wondering if you wanted to take a walk with me. Maybe we could see what was in that 3rd floor corridor?” Lavender said, with a gleam in her eye.
“What 3rd floor corridor?” Ron asked, bewildered.
There were times when Lavender wondered why she had had to start fancying Ron. He was rather handsome, in his windswept way. But he seemed to be taking awhile to understand certain things which should have been obvious. She sighed. “The one that doesn’t have any paintings? And there are no classrooms there? And there’s that turn at the very end that leads to a dead end?”
Ron still looked bewildered. “Why would we want to go there if there’s nothing around?”
Lavender’s look grew a bit sharper. “Don’t forget, Ron, that if we were to be in that dead end, nobody would be able to see us.”
“But then. . .” The knut finally dropped. And Lavender found herself being pulled along behind Ron as he walked quickly out of the Great Hall.
“Ron!” she said sharply. “Slow down!”
Ron wasn’t too stupid as to miss the warning in her voice. “I’m sorry, Lavender, I just. . .um. . .”
“Wanted to snog me?” she asked innocently.
Ron nodded furiously.
Lavender smiled. “That’s fine, Ron. I’m looking forward to snogging you too. But maybe we could enjoy the walk also.”
Ron looked slightly puzzled, but was beginning to learn that polite suggestions from his girlfriend were not really suggestions. “Well, sure. Let’s walk, then.”
Lavender knew he was still somewhat puzzled, but at least he was learning how to pick up hints. And now he might even be in the right frame of mind for her to start laying the groundwork for another big surprise in his life. “So, Ron, what do you think about Ginny’s boyfriend?”
oooooooooo
The snogging had been great, as always. Ron thought again how lucky he was to have such a beautiful girlfriend. And really, the things she asked him to do weren’t a chore. It’s not like his brothers were fighting for the food here--there always seemed to be enough to go around. So slowing down his eating wasn’t too bad. Although he wasn’t sure why she didn’t want him to talk while he was eating. Wasn’t that just good time management?
But now she wanted to find his sister. Why would Lavender want to talk to Ginny? She was just Ginny, right? And Ron was sure that she was fine with all her new friends. But he wasn’t feeling obstinate enough to complain. In fact, after the brilliant snogging session, he probably would have been willing to ignore a Slytherin or two.
Until he walked into the Hospital wing and saw Ginny, their parents, that Harry bloke, and his parents, all hugging one another.
“What’s all this, then?” he shouted, ready to go into a full-fledge Weasley rage.
“Shut it, Ron!” George hissed, in a rather surprising display of tact.
“But, but, what’re Mum and Dad doing here? And why are they hugging that Harry guy? And who are those people?” Ron refused to be cowed by his brothers. That probably also came from having to fight for food at home too.
Lavender reached up and took Ron’s face in both hands, wrenching it around to look at her. “Ron!” she said, threateningly. “Shut up!”
The unexpectedness of Lavender’s command served to silence Ron for enough time for her to say, “We don’t know all that’s going on here, and we should find out before we go shouting and carrying on and everything, okay? You don’t really believe that your parents are going to let anything happen to Ginny, do you?” Ron wasn’t allowed to respond before Lavender spoke again. “And if you go making your whole family angry at you, then I might have to invoke Rule number 3!”
Ron went white at that. None of Lavender’s Rules were fun to think about. She didn’t have too many, but if she invoked them, then there was sure to be some unpleasantness involved. Rule number 3, rule number 3, Ron thought feverishly to himself. What’s rule number 3? Oh, yeah. If I’m mean to others, no kissing for three days. “No, um, Lavender, I’ll be quiet, okay? Just, can you find out what’s going on?”
Lavender smiled her approval at Ron. “Certainly, Ron. And if you can make it through this without blowing up, it’ll give you a Category 2 reward.”
A smile blossomed on Ron’s face, and grew very wide indeed. He absolutely loved Category 2 rewards.
Satisfied, Lavender turned to Fred. “Any idea what’s going on?” she asked softly.
Fred looked at her, then looked at Ron. “Well, okay, remember how we got Ginny?”
Ron frowned, then comprehension broke over his face like a bilious moon slowly arising over the mountains. “She was adopted, right?”
Fred shook his head. “Yeah. I guess you were pretty young to be able to remember everything. Anyway, we found her in the woods next to our house, and took her home. Mum and Dad tried to find out where she belonged, but no one was saying anything about a lost baby. They could have done a Lineage test, but that costs an awful lot, you know?”
Ron nodded his head. Lavender was looking back and forth between Fred and Ron, fascinated. She hadn’t known any of this, and, since she was in the business of ‘knowing things’, it was all wonderful to her. She figured she’d probably never be able to tell anyone else, but that was only a secondary pleasure for her. Just the fact that she knew, and very few others did, made all the difference.
George decided to help out with the story. “And you know how she used to get really mad and set things on fire?”
Ron nodded quickly. “Yeah, I’m still missing at least one of my bears. I’m sure she destroyed it.”
“Um, what do you mean, set things on fire?” Lavender interjected.
Ron turned to her, slightly surprised by her presence--he’d been too focused on the mystery of Ginny’s past to think too much about his girlfriend. “Oh, well, when she got really really mad she could kind of throw fireballs at things. Mum and Dad had to work really hard to help her control it--we almost lost the Burrow that one time, remember George?”
The twins nodded and took up the story again. “Well, come to find out, Harry’s family used to have a little girl. Aside from the two girls you see there,” Fred indicated, and Lavender and Ron looked over and noticed that aside from Fleur, whom they had already met (and in Ron’s case drooled over), there was another younger girl in Fleur’s lap.
“So they had another daughter?” Lavender asked. At the twins’ nod, a frown grew on her face. “Then what happened to her?” They weren’t given time to respond to Lavender’s question as she obviously made the logical conclusion. “Ginny?” she shrieked very quietly.
The twins nodded again, and Lavender looked back over to the families clustered farther down the rows of beds. “How in the world? Even with magic? That’s just. . . wow!”
Ron still looked a little confused. “So, then Harry’s family lost a little girl and we found one.” The look of dawning comprehension on his face was rather comical to the twins, and they burst out laughing.
“Yes, Ron,” Lavender said in her finally-my-boyfriend-gets-it-tell-me-aga in-why-I-like-him-voice--the one that Ron really disliked. “Your family found the Delacours’ missing girl, and adopted her. And they just found this out, and are trying to figure out what that means for their family now.”
Ron nodded. “Okay. But, I don’t see what the problem is. I mean, they take Ginny back with them, right? That’s her real family, right?”
It didn’t take a very bright person to see that Ron was about to be pounded on by two rather angry older brothers. They exchanged looks and then turned to their youngest, and apparently dumbest, brother.
“Hold it!” Lavender said, stepping between Ron and potential fratricide. “Fred, George, back off! Go on over and welcome the Delacours to the family. It looks like I need to take Ron for a little discussion.”
The twins shared another look, looked daggers at Ron, then nodded to Lavender. “We’ll leave you to it, then.”
“Yeah, thanks, Lavender. Mum might not be pleased at the amount of blood Ron might lose if we were to take it upon ourselves to fix this.”
Lavender smiled grimly as the twins marched off down to the rest of the family. Then she turned to Ron, reached up and grabbed an earlobe, and pulled. And it wasn’t a gentle tug either.
“Ouch! What are you doing, woman?” Ron complained as he was dragged summarily from the presence of the rest of his family.
Lavender just turned and stared. Which was a pretty good feat, since she was also stalking down the corridor pulling Ron with her.
Ron shut up--he’d seen this face once or twice before, and had rued every time. This looked to be the mother of all blow-ups, though, judging from the speed at which Lavender was stalking while pulling his ear.
Finding an empty classroom, Lavender yanked open the door, pulled Ron’s earlobe through, dragging his body willy-nilly behind, and slammed the door.
oooooooooo
As romantic as it sounds, moments of exceedingly strong emotion don’t necessarily last for very long. Even if it feels like it at times. Eventually, the arms that were holding the group together started to loosen their grip, and there was a general sniff and mumble as the group separated out a bit. But nobody really knew what to do after that.
Until Fred yelled. “Oi! Can we get in on the hugging?” George was right behind him, nodding.
Ginny giggled and waved them over where they wrapped their arms around her. As with anything, the addition of the twins meant that nobody could stay too serious for long. George made extra-careful of that by embarking on a single-handed mission to tell Ginny’s new-old parents all the embarrassing things she’d done over the last 13 years. Eventually his tell-all devolved into his promising to get pictures for Harry of the more flamboyant pranks.
Until Ginny casually mentioned that she had her own stash of photos documenting, she claimed, George’s amorous efforts towards a rose-bush.
Fred got a look on his face that intimated that maybe Ginny had pictures of him, too, and the noise level diminished a bit.
Eventually the scrum around the newly-christened-by-the-twins Gineleine Weaslecour shook itself out, with the other Delacour daughters taking Ginny to one of the beds so they could get to know their newly-found sister. The Delacour parents were involved with Arthur Weasley, discussing locations and directions for visiting the presumptive in-laws. Ginny’s brothers, as usual, had fallen to discussing future business prospects. Which was all fine and dandy, except that this left Harry to the mercies of Molly Weasley.
Harry couldn’t seem to see very much of the face of his future--or rather, current--mother-in-law. Her eyes had a way of catching his attention and holding it, much like a bear trap will trap the leg of an innocent coyote. Which was an unfortunate simile at the time.
oooooooooo
Before Ron could recover, Lavender had her wand out, and had already cast Expelliarmus, catching Ron’s wand neatly in her left hand.
“Now, Ron Weasley. We are going to have a talk. Or rather, I’m going to have a talk, and you are going to have a listen.”
“But--”
Flash!
Ron was bound tightly in ropes, teetering in place. Lavender watched as he attempted to gain his balance, failed, and landed with a resounding Thud on the dusty floor. Thankfully face up, although Lavender probably wouldn’t have minded the other way either.
“Ron, you are going to lie there quietly while I explain some things to you. Do you understand?”
“But--”
“YES! OR! NO! RONALD! WEASLEY!?” Lavender’s voice, which hadn’t been any too warm earlier, now hovered down below a typical ice-covered pond.
“I’m waiting for your answer, Ron.”
Ron didn’t know what to do. He didn’t have his wand. He couldn’t move more than his head, his left index finger, and the toes on his right foot. Could he sweet-talk his way out of whatever it was Lavender had decided? One look at her already cold and rapidly-approaching-absolute-zero face and he threw that idea out. What were the chances of someone rescuing him?
Ron made the mistake of looking towards the door, and Lavender shot a Colloportus at it, sealing it tightly, then a Silencing Charm, to cover any sounds that Ron might think of making.
Could he play dumb? He went through the probable scenario in his head:
“Hey, Lavender, I’m sorry. I really don’t know what I did to make you angry.”
“Ronald Bilius Weasley! I know you have a bigger brain than a flobberworm. You’ve proven that occasionally, although not often enough to show anything more than advanced idiocy in humans. You are lazy, slovenly, and ignorant of anything beyond your food, chess, Quidditch and occasionally ogling females. While a little bit of that is to be expected in any male adolescent, you seem to think that you can coast through life, bumbling your way through things that you don’t understand and hoping that someone will come along to help you! Well, that’s not going to happen, hear me? In fact, I give up--I wash my hands of you! Go find some other girl to take care of you and comb your hair and wipe your nose. I’m done!”
And that argument would be punctuated by the slamming of the door, and possibly another Colloportus as she left him behind to either be found by someone else, or have the spells dissipate, or. . . or something else that he couldn’t think of right then.
And he’d probably miss supper.
No, that wasn’t a good scenario.
The problem was, Ron couldn’t think of any other way to get out of the doghouse in which he found himself. Although. . .
“Lavender,” Ron said quietly.
“Yes, Ronald?” she answered in her willing-to-talk-about-it tone, which, while being only one small step away from glacier, was still a step in the right direction.
“I’m sorry, Lavender. I know I must have said something stupid--I do that often enough, yeah?” he tried, hoping that his self-deprecating humor would help her voice thaw.
“Yes,” she said, icily. “You do.”
No further guidance was forthcoming.
“But I’m not sure exactly what I said.”
“Then let me remind you. You said that Ginny should go back with her real family. Do you remember that?”
Ron’s face betrayed his exact feelings. “Yeah, I remember that. But it’s true, isn’t it? I mean, they want her back and she wasn’t really a Weasley to begin with, right?”
Lavender proved her superior self-control at this time by not hauling off and hitting Ron. She merely hexed him with the slug vomiting curse. Then watched sadistically as he was forced to spit up slugs over and over again.
oooooooooo
“I’m sorry, Gabrielle, I don’t know what you’re saying.” Ginny had repeated that about a hundred times, she figured, but it didn’t seem to make any difference to the little girl who had ensconced herself in Ginny’s lap, and was now talking a mile a minute telling her all about. . . well, about something important, Ginny assumed. She shot another look at Fleur, who just shook her head slowly.
“Don’t worry about it, ma soeur. Gabrielle is just happy to be with you. She’ll calm down soon, after she tells you about the horses, and will remember her English.”
Ginny looked questioningly at Fleur, who just nodded with a smile. Ginny turned back to the adorable little girl, who apparently had decided that Ginny’s lap was permanently hers, and smiled and nodded whenever it seemed appropriate.
oooooooooo
“Harry,” Molly started out. The boy in question jumped slightly--he’d been rather nervous already--and gulped rather loudly.
Molly shook her head and muttered to herself, “Gently, Molly.” She motioned to the bed and asked Harry if he wanted to sit down. Harry shook his head quickly and Molly sighed again.
She moved slowly to the bed and sat down on it herself. “Harry. . . Oh, do you mind if I call you Harry?” she asked, in a much softer tone.
Harry shook his head and, when she motioned again, took a rather careful seat by her. Not too close, though, as he was still somewhat concerned about what she planned on doing to him.
Molly smiled a bit, then took a deep breath. “Thank you, Harry. Now, I just wanted to have a chance to talk to the young man who’s stolen my daughter’s heart.”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Weasley. I mean, I’m happy that Ginny is my Mate, and I couldn’t ever hope for anyone better than she is. She’s just perfect. But you probably already know that--”
Molly snorted, but valiantly turned it into a cough.
“--and I know we’re too young and all, but I just can’t be away from her--she’s my life, and, well, I don’t want to take her away from you, but I can’t see my future without her in it any more, and I didn’t really think about what you and Mr. Weasley would think, I just kind of kissed her, you know, and then we talked, and it was so wonderful that she felt the same and--” large breath, “--and she makes me so happy--did you know she flies almost as well as I do? But I don’t want to take her away from her friends and family, and I’m sure she’ll get to like bouillabaisse if she’d try it, and there are spells that can help her with French--”
Harry trailed off as Molly started chuckling. He looked rather gobsmacked at the sight, but seeing the Weasley matron laugh more and more provoked his giggles too. Eventually Molly had laughed so much that she was crying. And Harry was very happy that his Mate’s mother, well, kind of mother--No! he thought to himself. Mrs. Weasley IS her mother. It’s just that Maman is too! Anyway, that her Molly Mother was so happy. But then he realized that her tears weren’t from laughing anymore, and his heart fell.
“Um, Mrs. Weasley?” he ventured.
Molly looked up at this. Seeing his concerned and slightly fearful expression calmed her down somewhat. At least enough to be able to talk. “I’m sorry, Harry. There’s really nothing wrong. . .” She trailed off as she could see the look on Harry’s face. “Well, nothing really bad, I guess. And really, it’s not necessarily. . . wrong.” She sniffed again, and saw Harry’s face change from concerned to confused, and sighed. “I’m sorry, Harry. It’s just that I haven’t really come to grips with the fact that our Ginny is no longer our Ginny. I mean, of course she’ll always be part of our family, but not just our family any more.” Molly stopped for a moment and sniffed. “You see, Harry, she was just such a blessing to us, when we thought we’d never be able to have a girl. . . And now we have to lose her even sooner. Or, I guess, share her even sooner.“ She looked at Harry again. “Maybe I need to start at the beginning, so you know just how happy we were to have her in our family. Has Ginny told you everything?”
Harry cast a quick look over at his Mate. She was still occupied by Harry’s little sister, so he turned back to Mrs. Weasley. “Yeah, well, some of it, at least,” he offered hesitantly.
“Good for her. But if we’re going to be family,” she essayed a small smile, and Harry smiled back, “then you probably need to know Arthur’s and my side too.
“It all started when my boys found a baby in the woods. . .”
Chapter 17, Another Lineage Test Chapter 18, Serious Conversations, part 2
Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe belongs to J. K. Rowling.
A/N: Someone please tell Ron and Lavender to quite usurping my story.
oooooooooo
Ginny finally pulled back a little from her mother, the Molly one, and Harry took the opportunity to go hug his own mother. Ginny stood back, hesitant at the idea of thrusting herself into this other new family that she might have. Harry noticed her reluctance and let go of his mother.
“Mum,” he said. “This is Ginny. She’s my Mate, and--” he blushed slightly, “--and I love her.”
Giselle’s eyes teared up a bit, so happy at her son having been able to find his Mate so early in life. “Ginny,” she hesitated. “May I call you Ginny?” She wasn’t quite sure what to do with her daughter now that she’d found her. All she really wanted was to throw her arms around her missing Madeline and hold her forever. But she also saw that the red-headed girl was a little scared, and a lot worried, about what was going to happen next.
Ginny nodded, but the worried and scared look still remained.
“Ginny,” Giselle repeated. “I know this must seem a little, um, overwhelming to you. Am I right?” Ginny nodded again, with a small rueful grimace. “Well, I’m sure Harry’s told you a little bit about what happened to our Madeline when she was a baby, and we tried everything we could to find her, although ever since we found Harry we’ve had to let other people head up the search. But we’ve never stopped hoping and praying for her. For you.” She stopped for a moment, and Pierre took his opportunity.
“Hi, Ginny,” he said, and stepped forward with his hand outstretched.
oooooooooo
Ginny had backed up slightly when Pierre had started talking, but when she saw that he just wanted to shake her hand, she stepped forward and took his in hers. When she did that, she had a small flash of memory, or perhaps it wasn’t anything as strong as a memory--maybe just a feeling of comfort, of familiarity. It was as if she remembered his hand, and that made it so that she didn’t want to let go. Standing there, holding his hand, she peered up into his face. He was smiling down at her, eyes somewhat teary, but she could tell that he was very happy at this moment.
“Hi, um, Mr. . . .” Ginny’s voice trailed off.
Giselle stepped forward and laid a gentle hand on Ginny’s shoulder. “Ginny, I think both my husband and I would be happy to have you call us Giselle and Pierre. Of course, you can also call us pere and maman if you prefer. Or even Mum and Dad. Or Mom, I suppose, if you want to adopt the American way.” Her small grimace indicated her slight disapproval of that last, and Ginny resolved to never, ever slip into the atrocious American corruption of their language.
Ginny nodded at Giselle, and looked at Harry. She wasn’t sure what to do now, and it seemed so very very important to make a good impression on these people whom she apparently possibly belonged to.
Harry caught the look on Ginny’s face, and moved forward himself, stepping to her side and putting his arm around her. “It’s okay,” he whispered to her. “Mum and Dad really just want to get to know you. They’re not going to make you give up your life just because they found you.”
Ginny turned and looked into Harry’s face. “Are you sure?” she whispered back. “I mean, I want to get to know them too, but I don’t want to stop being a Weasley either.”
Harry kissed her softly. “I’m sure that my parents won’t have any problem with that. Really, they just want to know you. And be a part of your life. But that’s not any different, is it? I mean, they were going to be your in-laws anyway.”
Ginny giggled a little, then straightened up. “I can do this,” she whispered to herself. Taking a slight moment to settle her resolve, she turned to Giselle. And just about lost her resolve again. But seeing Giselle’s face, and how brightly she was smiling, albeit with teary eyes, she found her courage. She took a small step towards her new, or rather, old, mother and held out her arms. “Can I--” was as far as she got before she found herself caught up in a warm hug. She slowly wrapped her arms around Giselle, and as she did so, she had another memory impression. She recognized the scent of her mother. And that was quite enough to settle her doubts.
Giselle was rather surprised, and very pleased, when her Madeline came to her for a hug. And then, when Madeline (or rather Ginny, she forcibly reminded herself) snuggled in even closer, Giselle broke down into tears. She was finally able to hold her precious daughter again, and she held on as if she’d never let her go. The pain that had been her constant companion over the last 14 years started to diminish, to shrink, and hopefully disappear forever.
Ginny felt the love radiating from her birth mother as a kind of warm smell that washed over her. Unbeknownst even to herself she had carried with her a small worry, a sadness. She knew she had been adopted, and almost all the time she was very happy with her situation. And really, she rarely thought of herself as an adoptee. But every so often she’d wonder why she’d been left, or lost, or stolen from her birth parents. And she’d occasionally wonder what they were like, and whether she’d want to meet them.
But now, being here with them, she finally felt complete. She had both of her families now, and a wonderful Mate. And apparently two sisters.
oooooooooo
Molly stood watching, feeling her heart break. She really had only ever wanted the best for her Ginevra, and knew that if her birth parents ever found her and wanted her, that she’d do everything she could to help Ginny be happy with them. But faced with the reality, she found she wasn’t as strong as she’d hoped to be. She sniffled, then turned towards Arthur and buried her face in his shoulder.
Ginny heard Molly’s sobs, and broke the hug with Giselle. Or rather, she let go with one arm, and started shuffling towards her other parents. Giselle guessed what was happening, and went with her, until finally Ginny was where she felt the best--both of her mothers had an arm around her, and she held onto them as well. Her fathers joined in, and Harry, of course, and they stood there, just enjoying the moment.
“What’s all this, then?” came a loud voice, interrupting the happy group, which slowly released their arms, and moved apart a bit, and sniffled and wiped noses and, chiefly the mothers, straightened collars and picked imaginary lint off of shoulders.
oooooooooo
Ron hadn’t noticed that all the other Weasleys in the castle had disappeared. The experience of having a girlfriend was doing great things to his life. Some of those things were good--he tended to eat with a less-wolfish appetite, for instance. But others, well, the jury was still out on some of the other changes.
It was actually Lavender that noticed the Weasley exodus first. Now, Lavender wasn’t stupid. It’s impossible to be stupid and still be the nexus of all castle gossip for fourth years. And most of the fifth years. And of course many of the third years. Although Lavender would argue that it wasn’t just gossip--there was more to information-gathering than just gossip-mongering after all. She had always been very desirous to know what was going on, and disguising herself as nothing more than a gossip meant that she was constantly under-estimated.
Of course, many people discounted her brains, believing that the box they came in was much more important. But Lavender knew how to work that. Many incredibly interesting pieces of information were found because of people’s inability to look beyond her rather impressive figure.
Given all this, it wasn’t surprising that Lavender had noticed when the other Weasley brothers were called out of the Great Hall by Tex. Tex looked over towards Ron, but caught Lavender’s eye instead. She looked at Tex, who seemed a little unsure about what to do, but when she nodded her head toward Ron, he gave her a tiny shake of the head, and held up two fingers. She nodded slightly, and turned back to her boyfriend, hoping she had understood what the French boy had meant. She could only assume that he had wanted her to wait for a bit before taking Ron to see what was going on.
“Ron,” Lavender said, when Ron had eaten enough that she was sure to be able to get his attention.
“Wh-” started Ron. He stopped, chewed, swallowed, and took a quick drink of pumpkin juice. “Excuse me,” he said apologetically, “I just forgot a little.”
Lavender smiled at her boyfriend. “Very good, Ron, thank you for stopping.” She leaned up and gave him a quick kiss.
Ron colored slightly, but kissed her back. He might not consciously understand it, but Lavender’s lessons and system of rewards had been the cause of most of his new-found manners.
“So, um, what did you want?” Ron asked, once his slight blush had calmed down.
“Oh, I was just wondering if you wanted to take a walk with me. Maybe we could see what was in that 3rd floor corridor?” Lavender said, with a gleam in her eye.
“What 3rd floor corridor?” Ron asked, bewildered.
There were times when Lavender wondered why she had had to start fancying Ron. He was rather handsome, in his windswept way. But he seemed to be taking awhile to understand certain things which should have been obvious. She sighed. “The one that doesn’t have any paintings? And there are no classrooms there? And there’s that turn at the very end that leads to a dead end?”
Ron still looked bewildered. “Why would we want to go there if there’s nothing around?”
Lavender’s look grew a bit sharper. “Don’t forget, Ron, that if we were to be in that dead end, nobody would be able to see us.”
“But then. . .” The knut finally dropped. And Lavender found herself being pulled along behind Ron as he walked quickly out of the Great Hall.
“Ron!” she said sharply. “Slow down!”
Ron wasn’t too stupid as to miss the warning in her voice. “I’m sorry, Lavender, I just. . .um. . .”
“Wanted to snog me?” she asked innocently.
Ron nodded furiously.
Lavender smiled. “That’s fine, Ron. I’m looking forward to snogging you too. But maybe we could enjoy the walk also.”
Ron looked slightly puzzled, but was beginning to learn that polite suggestions from his girlfriend were not really suggestions. “Well, sure. Let’s walk, then.”
Lavender knew he was still somewhat puzzled, but at least he was learning how to pick up hints. And now he might even be in the right frame of mind for her to start laying the groundwork for another big surprise in his life. “So, Ron, what do you think about Ginny’s boyfriend?”
oooooooooo
The snogging had been great, as always. Ron thought again how lucky he was to have such a beautiful girlfriend. And really, the things she asked him to do weren’t a chore. It’s not like his brothers were fighting for the food here--there always seemed to be enough to go around. So slowing down his eating wasn’t too bad. Although he wasn’t sure why she didn’t want him to talk while he was eating. Wasn’t that just good time management?
But now she wanted to find his sister. Why would Lavender want to talk to Ginny? She was just Ginny, right? And Ron was sure that she was fine with all her new friends. But he wasn’t feeling obstinate enough to complain. In fact, after the brilliant snogging session, he probably would have been willing to ignore a Slytherin or two.
Until he walked into the Hospital wing and saw Ginny, their parents, that Harry bloke, and his parents, all hugging one another.
“What’s all this, then?” he shouted, ready to go into a full-fledge Weasley rage.
“Shut it, Ron!” George hissed, in a rather surprising display of tact.
“But, but, what’re Mum and Dad doing here? And why are they hugging that Harry guy? And who are those people?” Ron refused to be cowed by his brothers. That probably also came from having to fight for food at home too.
Lavender reached up and took Ron’s face in both hands, wrenching it around to look at her. “Ron!” she said, threateningly. “Shut up!”
The unexpectedness of Lavender’s command served to silence Ron for enough time for her to say, “We don’t know all that’s going on here, and we should find out before we go shouting and carrying on and everything, okay? You don’t really believe that your parents are going to let anything happen to Ginny, do you?” Ron wasn’t allowed to respond before Lavender spoke again. “And if you go making your whole family angry at you, then I might have to invoke Rule number 3!”
Ron went white at that. None of Lavender’s Rules were fun to think about. She didn’t have too many, but if she invoked them, then there was sure to be some unpleasantness involved. Rule number 3, rule number 3, Ron thought feverishly to himself. What’s rule number 3? Oh, yeah. If I’m mean to others, no kissing for three days. “No, um, Lavender, I’ll be quiet, okay? Just, can you find out what’s going on?”
Lavender smiled her approval at Ron. “Certainly, Ron. And if you can make it through this without blowing up, it’ll give you a Category 2 reward.”
A smile blossomed on Ron’s face, and grew very wide indeed. He absolutely loved Category 2 rewards.
Satisfied, Lavender turned to Fred. “Any idea what’s going on?” she asked softly.
Fred looked at her, then looked at Ron. “Well, okay, remember how we got Ginny?”
Ron frowned, then comprehension broke over his face like a bilious moon slowly arising over the mountains. “She was adopted, right?”
Fred shook his head. “Yeah. I guess you were pretty young to be able to remember everything. Anyway, we found her in the woods next to our house, and took her home. Mum and Dad tried to find out where she belonged, but no one was saying anything about a lost baby. They could have done a Lineage test, but that costs an awful lot, you know?”
Ron nodded his head. Lavender was looking back and forth between Fred and Ron, fascinated. She hadn’t known any of this, and, since she was in the business of ‘knowing things’, it was all wonderful to her. She figured she’d probably never be able to tell anyone else, but that was only a secondary pleasure for her. Just the fact that she knew, and very few others did, made all the difference.
George decided to help out with the story. “And you know how she used to get really mad and set things on fire?”
Ron nodded quickly. “Yeah, I’m still missing at least one of my bears. I’m sure she destroyed it.”
“Um, what do you mean, set things on fire?” Lavender interjected.
Ron turned to her, slightly surprised by her presence--he’d been too focused on the mystery of Ginny’s past to think too much about his girlfriend. “Oh, well, when she got really really mad she could kind of throw fireballs at things. Mum and Dad had to work really hard to help her control it--we almost lost the Burrow that one time, remember George?”
The twins nodded and took up the story again. “Well, come to find out, Harry’s family used to have a little girl. Aside from the two girls you see there,” Fred indicated, and Lavender and Ron looked over and noticed that aside from Fleur, whom they had already met (and in Ron’s case drooled over), there was another younger girl in Fleur’s lap.
“So they had another daughter?” Lavender asked. At the twins’ nod, a frown grew on her face. “Then what happened to her?” They weren’t given time to respond to Lavender’s question as she obviously made the logical conclusion. “Ginny?” she shrieked very quietly.
The twins nodded again, and Lavender looked back over to the families clustered farther down the rows of beds. “How in the world? Even with magic? That’s just. . . wow!”
Ron still looked a little confused. “So, then Harry’s family lost a little girl and we found one.” The look of dawning comprehension on his face was rather comical to the twins, and they burst out laughing.
“Yes, Ron,” Lavender said in her finally-my-boyfriend-gets-it-tell-me-aga in-why-I-like-him-voice--the one that Ron really disliked. “Your family found the Delacours’ missing girl, and adopted her. And they just found this out, and are trying to figure out what that means for their family now.”
Ron nodded. “Okay. But, I don’t see what the problem is. I mean, they take Ginny back with them, right? That’s her real family, right?”
It didn’t take a very bright person to see that Ron was about to be pounded on by two rather angry older brothers. They exchanged looks and then turned to their youngest, and apparently dumbest, brother.
“Hold it!” Lavender said, stepping between Ron and potential fratricide. “Fred, George, back off! Go on over and welcome the Delacours to the family. It looks like I need to take Ron for a little discussion.”
The twins shared another look, looked daggers at Ron, then nodded to Lavender. “We’ll leave you to it, then.”
“Yeah, thanks, Lavender. Mum might not be pleased at the amount of blood Ron might lose if we were to take it upon ourselves to fix this.”
Lavender smiled grimly as the twins marched off down to the rest of the family. Then she turned to Ron, reached up and grabbed an earlobe, and pulled. And it wasn’t a gentle tug either.
“Ouch! What are you doing, woman?” Ron complained as he was dragged summarily from the presence of the rest of his family.
Lavender just turned and stared. Which was a pretty good feat, since she was also stalking down the corridor pulling Ron with her.
Ron shut up--he’d seen this face once or twice before, and had rued every time. This looked to be the mother of all blow-ups, though, judging from the speed at which Lavender was stalking while pulling his ear.
Finding an empty classroom, Lavender yanked open the door, pulled Ron’s earlobe through, dragging his body willy-nilly behind, and slammed the door.
oooooooooo
As romantic as it sounds, moments of exceedingly strong emotion don’t necessarily last for very long. Even if it feels like it at times. Eventually, the arms that were holding the group together started to loosen their grip, and there was a general sniff and mumble as the group separated out a bit. But nobody really knew what to do after that.
Until Fred yelled. “Oi! Can we get in on the hugging?” George was right behind him, nodding.
Ginny giggled and waved them over where they wrapped their arms around her. As with anything, the addition of the twins meant that nobody could stay too serious for long. George made extra-careful of that by embarking on a single-handed mission to tell Ginny’s new-old parents all the embarrassing things she’d done over the last 13 years. Eventually his tell-all devolved into his promising to get pictures for Harry of the more flamboyant pranks.
Until Ginny casually mentioned that she had her own stash of photos documenting, she claimed, George’s amorous efforts towards a rose-bush.
Fred got a look on his face that intimated that maybe Ginny had pictures of him, too, and the noise level diminished a bit.
Eventually the scrum around the newly-christened-by-the-twins Gineleine Weaslecour shook itself out, with the other Delacour daughters taking Ginny to one of the beds so they could get to know their newly-found sister. The Delacour parents were involved with Arthur Weasley, discussing locations and directions for visiting the presumptive in-laws. Ginny’s brothers, as usual, had fallen to discussing future business prospects. Which was all fine and dandy, except that this left Harry to the mercies of Molly Weasley.
Harry couldn’t seem to see very much of the face of his future--or rather, current--mother-in-law. Her eyes had a way of catching his attention and holding it, much like a bear trap will trap the leg of an innocent coyote. Which was an unfortunate simile at the time.
oooooooooo
Before Ron could recover, Lavender had her wand out, and had already cast Expelliarmus, catching Ron’s wand neatly in her left hand.
“Now, Ron Weasley. We are going to have a talk. Or rather, I’m going to have a talk, and you are going to have a listen.”
“But--”
Flash!
Ron was bound tightly in ropes, teetering in place. Lavender watched as he attempted to gain his balance, failed, and landed with a resounding Thud on the dusty floor. Thankfully face up, although Lavender probably wouldn’t have minded the other way either.
“Ron, you are going to lie there quietly while I explain some things to you. Do you understand?”
“But--”
“YES! OR! NO! RONALD! WEASLEY!?” Lavender’s voice, which hadn’t been any too warm earlier, now hovered down below a typical ice-covered pond.
“I’m waiting for your answer, Ron.”
Ron didn’t know what to do. He didn’t have his wand. He couldn’t move more than his head, his left index finger, and the toes on his right foot. Could he sweet-talk his way out of whatever it was Lavender had decided? One look at her already cold and rapidly-approaching-absolute-zero face and he threw that idea out. What were the chances of someone rescuing him?
Ron made the mistake of looking towards the door, and Lavender shot a Colloportus at it, sealing it tightly, then a Silencing Charm, to cover any sounds that Ron might think of making.
Could he play dumb? He went through the probable scenario in his head:
“Hey, Lavender, I’m sorry. I really don’t know what I did to make you angry.”
“Ronald Bilius Weasley! I know you have a bigger brain than a flobberworm. You’ve proven that occasionally, although not often enough to show anything more than advanced idiocy in humans. You are lazy, slovenly, and ignorant of anything beyond your food, chess, Quidditch and occasionally ogling females. While a little bit of that is to be expected in any male adolescent, you seem to think that you can coast through life, bumbling your way through things that you don’t understand and hoping that someone will come along to help you! Well, that’s not going to happen, hear me? In fact, I give up--I wash my hands of you! Go find some other girl to take care of you and comb your hair and wipe your nose. I’m done!”
And that argument would be punctuated by the slamming of the door, and possibly another Colloportus as she left him behind to either be found by someone else, or have the spells dissipate, or. . . or something else that he couldn’t think of right then.
And he’d probably miss supper.
No, that wasn’t a good scenario.
The problem was, Ron couldn’t think of any other way to get out of the doghouse in which he found himself. Although. . .
“Lavender,” Ron said quietly.
“Yes, Ronald?” she answered in her willing-to-talk-about-it tone, which, while being only one small step away from glacier, was still a step in the right direction.
“I’m sorry, Lavender. I know I must have said something stupid--I do that often enough, yeah?” he tried, hoping that his self-deprecating humor would help her voice thaw.
“Yes,” she said, icily. “You do.”
No further guidance was forthcoming.
“But I’m not sure exactly what I said.”
“Then let me remind you. You said that Ginny should go back with her real family. Do you remember that?”
Ron’s face betrayed his exact feelings. “Yeah, I remember that. But it’s true, isn’t it? I mean, they want her back and she wasn’t really a Weasley to begin with, right?”
Lavender proved her superior self-control at this time by not hauling off and hitting Ron. She merely hexed him with the slug vomiting curse. Then watched sadistically as he was forced to spit up slugs over and over again.
oooooooooo
“I’m sorry, Gabrielle, I don’t know what you’re saying.” Ginny had repeated that about a hundred times, she figured, but it didn’t seem to make any difference to the little girl who had ensconced herself in Ginny’s lap, and was now talking a mile a minute telling her all about. . . well, about something important, Ginny assumed. She shot another look at Fleur, who just shook her head slowly.
“Don’t worry about it, ma soeur. Gabrielle is just happy to be with you. She’ll calm down soon, after she tells you about the horses, and will remember her English.”
Ginny looked questioningly at Fleur, who just nodded with a smile. Ginny turned back to the adorable little girl, who apparently had decided that Ginny’s lap was permanently hers, and smiled and nodded whenever it seemed appropriate.
oooooooooo
“Harry,” Molly started out. The boy in question jumped slightly--he’d been rather nervous already--and gulped rather loudly.
Molly shook her head and muttered to herself, “Gently, Molly.” She motioned to the bed and asked Harry if he wanted to sit down. Harry shook his head quickly and Molly sighed again.
She moved slowly to the bed and sat down on it herself. “Harry. . . Oh, do you mind if I call you Harry?” she asked, in a much softer tone.
Harry shook his head and, when she motioned again, took a rather careful seat by her. Not too close, though, as he was still somewhat concerned about what she planned on doing to him.
Molly smiled a bit, then took a deep breath. “Thank you, Harry. Now, I just wanted to have a chance to talk to the young man who’s stolen my daughter’s heart.”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Weasley. I mean, I’m happy that Ginny is my Mate, and I couldn’t ever hope for anyone better than she is. She’s just perfect. But you probably already know that--”
Molly snorted, but valiantly turned it into a cough.
“--and I know we’re too young and all, but I just can’t be away from her--she’s my life, and, well, I don’t want to take her away from you, but I can’t see my future without her in it any more, and I didn’t really think about what you and Mr. Weasley would think, I just kind of kissed her, you know, and then we talked, and it was so wonderful that she felt the same and--” large breath, “--and she makes me so happy--did you know she flies almost as well as I do? But I don’t want to take her away from her friends and family, and I’m sure she’ll get to like bouillabaisse if she’d try it, and there are spells that can help her with French--”
Harry trailed off as Molly started chuckling. He looked rather gobsmacked at the sight, but seeing the Weasley matron laugh more and more provoked his giggles too. Eventually Molly had laughed so much that she was crying. And Harry was very happy that his Mate’s mother, well, kind of mother--No! he thought to himself. Mrs. Weasley IS her mother. It’s just that Maman is too! Anyway, that her Molly Mother was so happy. But then he realized that her tears weren’t from laughing anymore, and his heart fell.
“Um, Mrs. Weasley?” he ventured.
Molly looked up at this. Seeing his concerned and slightly fearful expression calmed her down somewhat. At least enough to be able to talk. “I’m sorry, Harry. There’s really nothing wrong. . .” She trailed off as she could see the look on Harry’s face. “Well, nothing really bad, I guess. And really, it’s not necessarily. . . wrong.” She sniffed again, and saw Harry’s face change from concerned to confused, and sighed. “I’m sorry, Harry. It’s just that I haven’t really come to grips with the fact that our Ginny is no longer our Ginny. I mean, of course she’ll always be part of our family, but not just our family any more.” Molly stopped for a moment and sniffed. “You see, Harry, she was just such a blessing to us, when we thought we’d never be able to have a girl. . . And now we have to lose her even sooner. Or, I guess, share her even sooner.“ She looked at Harry again. “Maybe I need to start at the beginning, so you know just how happy we were to have her in our family. Has Ginny told you everything?”
Harry cast a quick look over at his Mate. She was still occupied by Harry’s little sister, so he turned back to Mrs. Weasley. “Yeah, well, some of it, at least,” he offered hesitantly.
“Good for her. But if we’re going to be family,” she essayed a small smile, and Harry smiled back, “then you probably need to know Arthur’s and my side too.
“It all started when my boys found a baby in the woods. . .”
Chapter 17, Another Lineage Test Chapter 18, Serious Conversations, part 2