Golden Boy

36. An Old Friend

Camellia slowly opened her eyes, and she saw Fred slowly lower himself down to his knees onto the floor next to her and squeeze her hand.

She looked down at the test... and the world seemed to turn in slow-motion as she watched the spinning marble glow dark red inside its golden frame.

Negative.

She let out a short sob as a wave of relief washed over her. The test was negative... she wasn't pregnant. Her life wasn't going to turn upside down after all. She wouldn't have to move, or save enough money to take care of her baby, or tell her parents, or go through the difficulty of childbirth... she was in the clear.

Hermione gently took the test and put it back into her pocket, and she looked at Fred and Camellia. "I'm going to leave you two alone for a bit," she said softly, and she left the room and closed the door behind her.

Fred was on his knees at her bedside, holding her hand and staring at the place where the test had been. Camellia squeezed his hand, and he looked up at her. She couldn't quite read his expression-it was somewhere between shock and sadness.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly. Camellia had been about to answer that she was, but something changed as she looked into her lover's eyes. If the test had been positive... that would've been his baby. They would've been a family, and such a loving one at that. She hadn't even thought of that until now.

Camellia invited Fred to lay next to her on the bed, and he did. They didn't speak for hours, they just held each other, each lost in their own thoughts over the situation. But one thing they both knew, was that if she really had been with child, there would've been no other child so loved as theirs.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The next three days Camellia had gone back to work, and it proved to be a very much-needed reason to stay busy.

The night before, she and Fred had talked about how they felt about the test results, and Camellia couldn't believe how similarly they'd been feeling.

While it was overall good news that she wasn't pregnant, both of them had felt a slight sense of loss when it turned out negative, solely because of how in love they were with each other. They both agreed that it wasn't the right time for a child and that it was to their benefit that she wasn't pregnant, but their quiet conversation that night made them both realize that one day, being a family together was what they wanted.

But for now, they were young and reckless, and they both knew it. The scare had been stressful, but soon, all was back to normal.

It turned out that Ron loved working at the shop, and not only that, but he was incredibly good at it.
Fred and George decided to keep him on staff, and Camellia had never seen Ron so confident and in his element than he was working with his older brothers.

"Eleven sickles even, please, ma'am," said Camellia with a smile to a tiny witch buying a stack of Loopy Lollies. As the woman was busy pulling out her money, Fred came up behind Camellia and subtly grabbed her ass, making her yelp.

"Fred!" she hissed, her cheeks turning pink, and Fred raised his eyebrow flirtatiously at her, his tongue in his cheek. This was about the tenth time that day he'd come up and either gotten handsy with her or flirted with her- not that Camellia minded. She loved seeing him in such a good mood again.

George and Ron seemed to be in wonderful spirits as well. Camellia heard Ron's loud laughter and she glanced over to see him talking to a pair of tiny little girls, bending down to their level as they chattered excitedly to him about whatever sweets they were holding in their baskets.