The War left many grieving, those who would never get the chance to tell their loved ones that they loved them one last time. Iris Brown was one of them, her twin sister ripped away from her at just 18, she never got the chance to do the things with...
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As Lee and Iris had talked through, both he and Angelina did not stay too long into the afternoon. And by 4pm Iris and George were back alone in the flat. Iris was thankful that the boy had followed through with what he had said he would do as she watched George get more and more overwhelmed with the company they had received for the day. It was clear as anything that he was not ready to be surrounded by so many people on such an important day. Not that this was a problem, Iris was just happy he had not snapped at her regarding his frustration or his well deserved grief. Rather he had just accepted her presence and the comfort she could provide him in such a period of time.
George had also left the gifts he had been given unopened and on the coffee table that was perched in the middle of the living room. He had acted all nice and happy to receive such gifts but Iris was unsure if he would ever open them. He had after all asked to not have any due to the feeling that he would not be willing to open them on the day. But as she watched him sat next to her on the sofa pretending to watch whatever they could find on the TV she noticed that his attention was on the presents he had been gifted. There were two from his friends and when his parents had visited earlier they had brought the ones from the rest of his family. Therefore, with the five, living, siblings he had George had racked up a rather healthy amount of gifts from his loved ones.
"It's not a bad thing George if you want to open them." Iris mentioned finally having enough of just watching him try to not look at the gifts too much.
"But it's making me feel bad." George responded back as he looked to Iris, to the gifts and then back to her.
"That's mainly the surviour's guilt eating you up baby. Today is the day that the universe brought me the best gift I could ask for. You." Iris took his face in between her hands as she spoke finishing her little uplifting speech with a kiss to his nose.
"I just feel like he should have some as well." George added as he tried to take his eyes off Iris but she did not allow him, her grip on his face remaining. Though it was only gentle and light it still reminded him to remain focused on her for just a little while longer.
"And he does. Why do you think there were two cakes in the kitchen? Each birthday boy needs his own cake. And I saw Angelina leave something in his room before she left. I've got something for him in our room. He's not without today I can assure you of that." Iris explained her brain going to the gift she had brought for Fred even though she knew he would never open it.
"You think of everything." George seemed like he wanted to say more but he paused and Iris was not going to push it. Rather she let his face go and watched as he returned to looking at the pile of presents on the coffee table. Finally reaching out to take the first one. And had Iris not seen him place it on the table the dodgy looking wrapping was more than clear it was from Lee. It was wrapping like this which had stopped him from doing any gift wrapping on things that had been brought in the shop. Upon opening it, George found that Lee had very much lied about the nature of his present search as the man pulled out a photo of just the two of them from when they had been in school. Iris looked at the moving photo herself trying to work out when it could have been taken. The long hair gave it away as she was able to tell that this photo had been taken around the time of the Triwizard tournament.
"Long haired George was cute." Iris commented on the hair of the photo her eyes moving over to the much shorter hair the man currently sported.
"Thanks it was my idea to grow it out over the summer. See how long we could get it before it became too much work."
"Looks like you weren't too far off." Iris' words got a nod in confirmation before he moved to what she could guess was the present from Angelina if the way it was labelled was anything to go off. Inside was a new cologne for him to try and Iris waited for him to do the thing that most people do when opening a new fragrance that had been gifted to them, open it up so that they can get a sense of what the smell was like. Though he did not do that rather just placing it down.
George slowly worked through the gifts from his siblings happy that most of them were pretty practical gifts including the odd book here and there. And when he finally came to the one from his parents Iris could feel him tense. If Christmas was anything to go by George feared that there would be multiple items inside the obvious box that his parents had left. Though he was happy to see only the single item inside. And it was then that Iris realised it might be time to confess to her second rule that she had broken regarding the day.
"I know I said no gifts but well, it kind of came early enough that I could give it to you today?" Iris' final part of her statement came off as a question and she waited to see the response from the man sat so close to her that he was almost sat partially on top of her.
"Iris no we made a deal." George attempted to scold the younger woman who appeared to be having none of it.
"I know but really it just came in enough time that you could have it today." Iris bartered back. It was a lie she had the item for a week or two now.
"Okay, okay there's no point even arguing with you over this." Iris patted his shoulder as she moved to the one draw in the kitchen she knew he never opened. It was the draw that all the important letters were held in, and George hated going through that draw. Hence the reason it was such a good hiding place.
Iris returned with a box only slightly larger than the one his parents had left him with. However her's was covered in a white wrapping paper and adorned with a blue ribbon. He took the gift before looking up at her for confirmation that she had got him, from what the outside gave away, was a rather expensive gift. He could see how anxious Iris was regarding what was inside and therefore slowly opened it up.
"A pocket watch?" George asked the confusion clear. Iris only nodded in response as she waited for him to open the pocket watch up. His eyes went to the clock face which was on the heavier part of the watch. He looked at it for a moment before noticing two things were off about it. Firstly the clock did not appear to be moving at all, and that there was two different sets of clock hands. One in a gold colour and the other a red. At first he wanted to question her as to why she would get him something that appeared to be made incorrectly. That was until he looked at the other side of the pocket watch and a rather familiar object stared back at him. The moving photo he was looking at was the one he knew that people had been searching for not long after the war was over.
For on the opposite side to the clock face was the moving photo that had been on Fred's clock hand on the Weasley Family clock. It had fallen off at some point during the battle, assumed to be the moment that Fred was no longer with them. And despite all of the family looking for it in the initial days after the battle none of them had been able to find it. But here it was back in the hands of the one person who would probably treasure it the most.
"Your father found that a few months ago, the clock hand that was. And he approached me asking what he should do with it. I had a thought to when you asked about my locket and an idea came to mind. The clock itself holds two times and two dates are engraved in each of the hands. The date and time he came into the world and the date and time he left. This way he's always with you." Iris explained and George gently placed the pocket watch back inside the case it had come in before he launched himself over the small distance and towards her.
