Learn to Love Again | George Weasley

09. Unexpected

"How do you feel?" Eloise asked, she knew it was not her place to tell Fleur whether she should be excited or if she should be concerned. All she cared about was how her friend was feeling, not whatever her own opinions were.

"Scared. Bill and I have always wanted children, but I never thought it would happen so soon. I don't want him to be disappointed, we've only been married for a year." Fleur whispered as her voice began shaking, more tears finally escaping her eyes as she spoke her thoughts out loud.

Without a second thought, Eloise stood up from her seat and moved around the table, resting in the chair directly next to her friend. She quickly pulled her into a comforting embrace and allowed Fleur to cry into her shoulder as she stroked her hair.

"Bill will be absolutely thrilled, I have no doubt. He loves you so much Fleur."

She felt Fleur nodding against her shoulder, knowing deep down that she was right. Her anxiety seemed to fade away the longer Eloise held her and eventually she pulled away and wiped her tears. Eloise brushed a silver strand of hair behind Fleur's ear that had stuck to the tears on her cheek and gave her a warm smile.

"Will you come to St. Mungo's with me? I want to know before Bill gets home from work, but I don't want to go alone."

"Oh my gosh, yes of course." Eloise nodded, probably a little too enthusiastically.

Eloise always loved babies, despite being an only child herself, she had always had a natural motherly way to her. She was gentle, nurturing and patient, and always knew someday she would love to be a mother. But until her time came, she couldn't deny that the idea of her best friend having a baby made her incredibly excited. For Fleur's sake, however, she did her absolute best to stay calm and level headed to support the worried woman.

-

Eloise sat in the waiting room of St. Mungo's maternity ward reading an old copy of Witch Weekly to pass the time as Fleur was being examined. Normally Eloise would have acted like she didn't have any interest in the tabloid, opting for poetry or classic literature instead, but no one she knew was around to see her browse through the guilty pleasure.

Skimming through the old articles which had headlines like "Magical Recipes You Can Make Anywhere!" and "The Silencing Charm: Good for Hiding, Better for the Bedroom!" Eloise gathered that this specific copy was probably printed sometime during the war.

In hindsight, she found humor in the magazine trying to take a traumatic time and spin it in a lighthearted way, but she couldn't imagine being the one to have to write about sex, recipies, and beauty tips when there was so much tragedy going on in the world. But she supposed people needed some sort of escapism during those times, and if silly magazine articles were that escape for someone, she couldn't blame them for it.

She flipped the pages and saw a familiar advertisement, one for WonderWitch products, "sold only at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes!" Eloise found it humorous that the twins were reaching out to this particular demographic as she scanned the ad looking at the various products. Most of them had to do with love and flirtation and part of her felt slightly offended that those were the kind of products they thought women wanted, but another part of her felt quite amused.

The door opened and Fleur emerged from the exam room, looking much more confident than she had this morning. Eloise closed the magazine and stood up to approach her friend.

"Well?"

Fleur nodded with a slight smile, "Yes. About four weeks, it must have happened just before our anniversary."

Eloise pulled Fleur into a tight hug, she couldn't believe her best friend was having a baby. She would be just like an aunt to the little boy or girl. Since she would never have any biological nieces or nephews of her own, she would gladly take claim on Fleur's children. She knew Fleur wouldn't mind, whenever she had her own children Fleur would definitely act as their aunt as well.