WILD ➞ Fred Weasley

xxviii. a very grimmauld christmas (part two)

"Alright, shut your eyes." Fred said quietly.

Rory began to feel butterflies in her stomach at his words. She nodded and closed her eyes, a bit nervous of what his gift could possibly be.

She heard Fred's careful footsteps around her and the soft noises of the room. She felt him stand behind her and something tickle her neck. He had brushed her hair aside and was placing what she assumed was necklace around her neck.

She got goosebumps as his cold hands brushed against her skin. Eyes still closed, she felt him plant a kiss on her neck before placing her hair back.

"You can open them now." He said, still in a quiet voice.

Rory slowly opened her eyes and looked down. On her neck was a dainty silver necklace with a charm that had the letter "F" on it. She smiled and touched the charm.

"Thank you, Fred. I love it." She gave him a kiss and ran a hand through his unkempt red hair.

"Now everyone will know that Rory Archer is Fred Weasley's girl," he winked and gave her another kiss, one that lasted a bit longer.

"This is much better than that other thing you left on my neck to mark your territory the a few weeks back." Rory joked with a smirk.

Fred tiled his head, "Really? You seemed to enjoy it when I was giving it to you —"

"Fred!" Rory blushed, but decided to continue teasing him, "How about you leave another one on me later tonight... in a place nobody'll see. Think of it as an extra Christmas present from me."

The boy's eyes widened and a dopey grin appeared on his face.

"Hey lovers!" George said from outside the door, "Breakfast time! Get dressed!"

Rory sighed and gave Fred one more kiss before going to her room and changing. She put on her new jumper and a pair of jeans. She decided to try out her new lipstick from Marina and headed downstairs for breakfast where Aaron and her father were smiling at the table.

"Happy Christmas, sweetheart." Andrew said giving his daughter a hug, "Here you go." He handed her her gift which was two packages stacked on top of one another. One was significantly smaller than the other. She opened the larger one first.

It was a scrapbook of sorts. The girl saw a still photo of her and her father on the outside. Rory must have been three years old in the picture. She opened the book and saw images just like that one of the first five years of her life. Some pictures were moving, some were still. Most of them were of her and Andrew, but some were of her with grandparents who died before she could even remember them. Some of them were of just her, dressed in a silly outfit or in front of a marquee of a theatre performance. Rory had never seen any of the images in the book, they were just memories to her. A lot of memories from her childhood Rory had no clear images of, but now she did.

"Dad..." Rory said softly, trying not to cry.

"I did some digging through a bunch of old boxes... I figured you'd want to see pictures of the start of your journey." He said. "Open the small one now."

Rory did as he said and unwrapped the small gift. It was a tiny red box. Rory opened the box to see a set of small shiny earrings with ruby red gemstones.