Since they're of age now, Arthur talked Molly into letting Fred and George have some Firewhiskey with the rest of us adults. I saw George letting Lyanna sip his drink, but he did pull it back from her when she tried to drink too much, so I let it slide because I knew he wouldn't let her get drunk. She was 15, yes, but George wasn't going to let her get wasted or anything.
We ended the night after a typsy Fred told Remus that he stole me from him and then he took Remus's tie and tied it around his head and put on Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy by the band Queen. He and George sang it at the top of their lungs and danced together in the middle of the living room. I didn't have the heart to tell them that Remus doesn't like Queen, and I don't think Remus did either because it was so much fun to watch them dance and have a good time.
Lily had been sleeping for a few hours by the time that we headed up to bed. We put a silencing charm on the room so she wouldn't be disturbed. She woke up as Remus and I were getting ready for bed for the night, so I had to feed her.
As I was feeding our baby, Remus asked me, "Was Bradley okay earlier?"
"Oh, yeah," I nodded, "He was just thinking about his dad."
"I see," he says, but he didn't sound very happy about it. I don't blame him, I didn't want to be thinking about my first husband today either.
"He just doesn't want him to be forgotten because I'm married again," I said, "I assured him that no one who ever met Matt Mckinnon would ever forget him."
"I can't disagree with you on that," he said, smiling. "I'm glad that he made you the mother that you always wanted to be."
"You did, too, you know," I remind him, "Lily is your baby, too."
"I know," he smiles, "but Matt made you a mother well before I did."
"Yeah, he did, but I'm glad that you're the one that I will end up with for the rest of my life."
He smiled again, this time he even kissed my forehead. "That's how it was always supposed to be, Bunny."
"It was," I agreed. Lily had finished eating then, so I laid her back down, and then all my attention was on Remus for the rest of the night.
The next morning, Remus had taken Lily before I woke up. I stood up and put some clothes on before I went downstairs. I heard voices coming from the kitchen. I knew everyone was probably gathered for breakfast.
Remus smiled happily when he saw me. Lyanna was holding her sister and bottle feeding her. George looked miserable next to her, I'm sure he wasn't feeling well after drinking last night. I greeted everyone and then sat next to my husband. My husband. Remus Lupin was my husband. I couldn't get over it. It was so amazing. This time it will last forever.
Fred came down soon after I did, and he covered his eyes and said, "Can we turn off the lights?"
"Sit Fred," said Molly, "I'll get you some tea."
"Thanks," he said and he sat down next to George, who was next to me, and he laid his head on my shoulder.
"Not feeling well, are you, Freedie?" I asked him.
"No," was all he said in response.
I touched his face, he smiled and covered my hand in his. "I don't care if you're married now, you'll always be mine, Ellie."
"Of course, Freddie," I told him, going along with it, "You'll always be one of my favorite boys."
"You better watch your back there, Remus," Sirius jokes, "Or Weasley over there might just steal your girl. He is of age now. He might have a plot to take her from you."
"I'd like to see him try," Remus retorted, jokingly.
Molly placed some tea in front of Fred and he thanked his mum before he sat upright to drink it. As Molly walked over to her seat at the table she said, "This is why I didn't want you boys drinking last night."
"Oh Molly, it's alright, dear," said Arthur calmly, "It's a right of passage to drink at a wedding. They're going to feel fine tomorrow."
"He's got a point, Molly," said Remus, "It is kind of a right of passage to get drunk at someone else's wedding."
"We've all done it," said Sirius.
"Drinking can lead to mistakes," said Molly, "Big mistakes. Especially at weddings."
"Drinking at weddings is fine, it's getting so drunk that you don't remember anything that is the problem because that's when the mistakes happen." I added, Sirius looked at me questioningly.
"Did you really just say that? You of all people, Eloise. I'm disappointed in you. Especially what happened at the Potter's wedding."
"I didn't black out that night, Sirius," I remind him, "I remember everything that happened. In fact it was your fault."
He looks at me confused, "My fault?"
"Yes, you told me to go outside and get some air, and that's when he followed me out there."
"What happened at the Potter's wedding?" Asked Lyanna.
"That was the night that your parents first kissed," Said Sirius quickly, and he left it at that.
"Oh," said Lyanna.
"I think they did more than kiss that night," said Bradley, who was smirking. The exact, sly, smug smirk his father wore all the time.
"You'd be correct, Bradley," said Sirius.
"That's enough, Sirius," I said, quickly.
"That's all I was going to say," he said in defense of himself. My children are old enough to put two and two together, and if they didn't then fine. But I wasn't going to tell them that they were the product of a drunken hook up. They didn't need to know that.
"When was the Potter's wedding?" Lyanna asked, and I didn't want to answer.
"June 1979," said Sirius proudly. "I was the Best Man, Remus was a Groomsman, and Ellie was a Bride's Maid. It was a beautiful night, not too hot. The stars were out."
"That sounds like it was a nice night," said Fred and he laid his head back onto my shoulder. I caressed his face again. I could feel him smiling lightly. He was just happy that I was giving him attention.
I try to give Molly's younger kids more attention then the others because I have seen how she treats her children. She's got too many of them to give them all the individual attention that they need. Once she had the twins, she was exhausted. And Fred and George were such a handful that she hardly had anything left for Ron and Ginny. I feel bad for them.
I don't want to say that she treats her kids differently but she does. She expects her kids to be carbon copies of each other because Bill was such a good kid. But the hard truth that she won't accept is that her other six kids aren't Bill, and they're not going to be.
A few weeks later at the end of July some of the Order had to go rescue Harry from his Aunt and Uncle's. Remus went along with them so Harry would see a familiar face. He used underage magic in front of his cousin, and he's been expelled from school for it. Dumbledore worked it out that he would get a hearing to decide if he was actually going to be expelled or not but until then he's staying with us.
I didn't even hear them come back, I was busy getting Lily to sleep. She was very fussy tonight, and she didn't want to sleep. Remus can usually always get her to sleep, but tonight he's not here and she's fighting me. So you can imagine my surprise when I exited the room and saw Harry in the hallway standing there.
"Harry!" I exclaimed upon seeing him. "Oh how are you?" I hug him tightly. He hugs me back, but it feels rather reluctant.
"Hello, Professor," he greets me. "I'm alright, all things considered."
"Good," I say, and I lift my hand up to touch his face lightly. "I'm glad to hear you're okay."
As I retracted my hand back, Harry's green eyes widened in pure shock and he grabbed my hand. "Holy - Professor, did you get married?"
"Oh yes," I say, beaming, "Remus and I had a very small ceremony in the sitting room downstairs not long after the Summer Holidays started. Hogwarts has a new Professor Lupin this year."
"Remus didn't say anything," says Harry, sounding as surprised as he looked, "He wasn't even wearing a ring."
"He doesn't wear it on missions. Doesn't want to lose it. I have it here," I say, taking it out of my pocket to show him. "Sirius gave Remus mine, it was his grandmothers and he didn't want it. Remus told him to give it to Marlene but Sirius insisted he take it."
I sense the wheels turning in Harry’s head, "Your daughter is named after her, right? You were married to her brother."
I smile at the memories, "I was, yes," I say, nodding.
"Well, congrats, I guess. Shame I missed it."
"Thank you, Harry. You were missed very much that day, I assure you. Now, yours and Ron's room is right down the hall a bit there. Please keep the noise down if you can. I just got Lily to go down for the night."
"Not a problem," he assures me, and then he walks past me, heading to Ron's room.
I make my way downstairs to find my husband. I found him looking for me, too. "I was just going to come see if you needed help. Sirius said you had been up there for a while."
I hand him his wedding band and he slides it onto his long, thin finger as I say, "She was a little fussy tonight. Kept fighting sleep. She's stubborn like her father."
Remus smiled looking down at me, "If she's anything like me I bet all she needed was a little persuading from you, darling."
He leans down to kiss me quickly before Sirius enters the room. "I see you two found each other. How's little Lily? Not still fussing I hope."
"She's out like a light," I smile, proud of myself for getting my fussy baby to go to sleep.
Sirius nods, "Ah, good, good. We're about to start the meeting in the dining room. Severus is giving his report tonight."
"We're coming right now," I tell him, and we all went into the dining room. A few minutes into the Report, we could hear Harry screaming at his friends. Even Snape stopped to listen. There were no cries from Lily after the yelling stopped. Then he started yelling again, then stopped, and a moment later he was yelling again. He was really letting his friends have it. He was very angry, and I didn't blame him for it, but I knew I should probably check on my baby and put some charms on the room so he doesn't hear anything.
I told Severus to continue as I left the dining room to go upstairs. Sure enough Lily was awake and crying by the time I reached her. "It's alright, sweetheart," I said softly, "Mummy is here." I picked her up out of his crib and started to rock him. "I know you're mad Harry woke you up, but Mummy will get you back to sleep in a moment don't you worry."
I stood rocking my baby until she was back to sleep. After I knew she was out enough that I could transfer her to her crib again and I set her down and headed out, but not before I set some silencing charms onto the room this time.
Instead of going back downstairs I decided to go to Ron and Harry’s room and see what was up. I headed into the room and saw Harry standing in front of Ron and Hermione. Lyanna and George were sitting on Ron's bed, Bradley and Fred on Bradley's bed.
"Harry, darling," I said, my tone kind of firm, "You woke Lily, the one thing I asked you not to do."
"I'm sorry, Professor," he said, and from the look on his face I knew he meant it.
"It's okay, I got her back down, but please, no more yelling tonight. Save it for tomorrow when my baby is awake. I understand a lot has happened and it can be overwhelming but please, just keep the noise down."
"I will Professor," he said, nodding. "Sorry."
"Oh sweetie," I said and I cupped his face with my hand, "You can call me Ellie when we're outside of school. Everyone else does." He nodded again, I kissed his temple, "We're all here for you, don't forget that. We're all on your side. You need to remember that."
He nodded one more time, "Now I have your word, no more yelling?"
"No more," he assured me.
"Okay, I'm going to put a silencing charm on Lily's room just in case you lose it again, but try to keep a lid on it tonight." and before I could leave, Bradley asked me when dinner was going to be, I told him when the meeting was over, and the. He didn't ask any more questions.
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Here's part 45!
We're into book 5 now! You know what that means.
She-Demon Umbridge is coming soon.
Gross.
-Emily Winchester.