Three weeks after arriving at Shell Cottage, Harry was growing restless. You were sitting at the kitchen table with Hermione, Fleur and Luna one morning, sipping on tea when Harry came in and addressed you, the other girls and Bill, who was putting away some clean mugs and glasses.
"I need to talk to the goblin," he told everyone firmly, and Bill stared at him for a moment before nodding in understanding.
"This way," he said, leading Harry out of the kitchen to the stairs. Hermione glanced at you and then stood up to go with him, and Ron got up from the couch from where he'd been sitting with Fred and George and followed too. You got up and went over Ron's place on the couch next to Fred and collapsed onto the plush cushions with a sigh, "he'd better have some information we can use for the other Horcruxes."
Fred pulled your legs up and across his lap, "goblins are sly little gits, I don't know if we could even trust what he has to say."
"Agreed," George said, kicking off his shoes and propping his feet up on the coffee table, "I reckon he'd lead us right into a trap."
"Do you really think so?" You asked in surprise, "even after we brought him with us out of Malfoy Manor?"
The twins both shrugged and you sighed again, "I don't think we've got much else to go on to find the other Horcruxes, it could be worth the risk to trust him. I really don't think we have any other choice."
Bill walked into the living room then and clapped George on the shoulder as he walked past him to sit in the armchair next to the window, "I just got word from Dad, everyone is fine but still laying low."
"Oh, good," Fred sighed in relief and George asked, "what about Ginny?"
Bill ran his fingers through his long red hair, "she's fine, but things at Hogwarts are getting bad. The Carrows are apparently using the Cruciatus Curse on students." You scowled in disgust but your next words were interrupted by a knock on the door.
You exchanged brief looks with the Weasleys but Bill raised his hand in reassurance, "it's okay, we're hidden to everyone apart from members of the Order." He got up and walked to the door, greeting whoever was there, and you almost gasped as Remus walked into the room, looking more exhausted than usual.
"Remus!" you greeted him happily with a hug and he hugged you back, then he clapped Fred and George on the backs with a friendly smile. Bill led him into the living room and invited him to sit down, which he did.
"Remus?" Harry's voice said from the hallway as he, Ron and Hermione descended the stairs. "Ah, Harry. It's good to see you," Remus greeted him with a smile and then Harry spoke again, "have you bad news?"
Remus shook his head, "on the contrary, I come bearing good news. I believe we all need some of that right about now." When you all looked at him expectantly, he smiled, "Dora and I have welcomed a son."
You gasped in delight, and everyone grinned and immediately congratulated him and he graciously accepted the good wishes. You missed Tonks a lot, having gone from spending most days with her as she mentored you during your Auror training, to not seeing her since Bill and Fleur's wedding when she'd first told you she was expecting a baby.
"That's incredible news, Remus!" you exclaimed as you gave him a tight hug, "how is Tonks doing? What's the baby's name? Who does he look like?"
He chuckled at your excited curiosity and patted your back fondly before pulling back from the hug to answer your questions, "Dora is doing very well, she misses you a lot actually, Y/N. We have named him Edward Lupin, in honour of Dora's father, but we call him Teddy. And thankfully, he takes after his mother. He's simply beautiful."
You wiped happy tears from your eyes at the wonderful news, though it was bittersweet that Tonks' father never got to meet his grandson, since only weeks beforehand, Potterwatch had reported his death at the hands of the Death Eaters. Despite that, the good news of the birth of Remus and Tonks' first child brightened your mood significantly.
"Harry, Y/N, I wonder if I could have a quick word with you both? I can't stay for long I'm afraid," Remus said as he stood from the chair, and you both nodded and followed him into the hallway.
"Dora and I have been considering this since before Teddy was born, but we obviously hadn't gotten a chance to discuss it with you until now. But, we've decided that we'd be honoured if both of you would be our son's godparents," Remus asked with a timid smile and you immediately beamed at him, and Harry blinked in faint surprise before smiling genuinely for the first time in weeks.
"Of course, Remus," you said as tears filled your eyes again, "I'd love nothing more. I can't wait to meet him." Remus hugged you again and then patted Harry on the shoulder as he agreed to the proposal also.
"I can't wait for you both to meet him, either. He's only three weeks old and he's already got us both wrapped around his little finger," Remus chuckled and then his smile faded. "As you know, I was hesitant to pursue anything with Dora romantically, nevermind father a child. But he has inherited his mother's Metamorphmagus abilities rather than my lycanthropy."
You could tell how relieved the man was that he hadn't passed on his werewolf condition to his baby son, but you also wanted to lighten his mood slightly, "has he changed his own hair colour yet?" Both Remus and Harry grinned, "he has! In fact before I came here, his hair was bright blue."
Remus only stayed for a short while after that, catching up with the rest of you in the living room before leaving again. You'd given him a message of congratulations and greetings to Tonks, promising you'd try to see her soon when it was safe to.
Later that night, you lay against Fred's bare chest, tracing delicate patterns onto his skin as you talked quietly. You wanted to raise a subject with him you never had before. Your evening with Remus discussing his baby had caused a number of questions to circle in your mind, but before you could open your mouth, Fred spoke.
"I can't wait for that to be us someday. To have our own little family," he said sleepily, and you grinned against the pale skin of his shoulder.
"Really? You want that?" you asked him as you pulled back to smile at him across the pillow, you ran your fingers through his freshly cut hair, Fleur was thankfully very skilled with a pair of scissors and she gave the twins a decent haircut for the first time in months.
Fred opened his eyes and turned his head to look at you, a similar smile on his face, "of course I do, not for a few years though. We've a few steps to do first before we drag any of our spawn into the world." You slapped his chest lightly at his teasingly blunt words about your hypothetical children.
"I have to agree. Just don't expect me to have as many babies as your mother had, because that is not going to happen," you told him, raising your eyebrows at him.
He chuckled and rolled over onto his side to face you and pressed a kiss to your lips, "so you're telling me you don't want to have ten children? Damn, I might have to reconsider spending the rest of my life with you." You scowled half heartedly and he chuckled and leaned over to press a few slow kisses to your lips.
"I can't wait to have all that with you," he said earnestly, with no trace of his earlier teasing and you smiled up at him as he propped himself up beside you in the bed.
"You and me against the world, Freddie," you whispered with a grin and he kissed you again and then pulled you close to his chest, and you soon fell into a sound sleep with hopes for your future floating through your mind.
-----
The following afternoon, the Trio gathered you and the twins to fill you in on what they'd learned from Griphook. He'd told them that there was a sword identical to the Sword of Gryffindor in Bellatrix Lestrange's Gringotts vault, but it was a fake one that had been placed there last summer. The goblin also told them that the fake was placed there by a Hogwarts professor, who was now the Headmaster.
"Snape?" you asked incredulously, staring across the wooden dining table at the Trio who nodded in confirmation, as surprised at the revelation as you were.
"Git," Fred and George muttered in unison from their seats next to you.
"Why would Snape put a fake sword in Bellatrix's vault?" you asked Harry directly and he shook his head, as clueless as you were. "We don't know, but what Griphook has told us, we reckon there's another Horcrux in her vault. We're going to break into Gringotts."
"Are you bloody mad?" Fred asked in disbelief and George stared at them in equal shock before responding, "that's impossible unless you've a death wish! Mind you, I think there'd be worse ways for you to go, Harry."
You kicked George under the table and he shrugged, "what? You-Know-Who wants him dead, I reckon some angry goblins would be preferable."
Harry ignored your bickering with George and continued, "Griphook has agreed to help us."
You narrowed your eyes, "in exchange for what?" Harry bit his lip and exchanged a look with Ron and Hermione before turning back to answer you, "the Sword of Gryffindor."
"You can't be serious!?" you protested and the twins looked at the younger boy as if he'd just sprouted a second head.
"So, you just bartered away the only thing we have that can destroy a Horcrux?" George asked him, astounded.
"Thought you had a brain in that head of yours, mate," Fred groaned as he rubbed his hand down his face in frustration.
"That's what I was thinking, to be honest," Hermione muttered and Harry scowled at all of you.
"Look, it's not ideal, but we need him to get into Gringotts. I'm going, whether you're joining me or not," he addressed all of you.
"Of course we're coming with you, idiot," you told him in exasperation, "but we're not exactly able to just march in there, goblin on our side or not."
"That's why we have this," Hermione said, placing two unfamiliar wands onto the table in front of you.
You picked up the strange, curved one, "whose is this?"
"It belonged to Bellatrix," Ron told you and you immediately put the wand back onto the table, then he pointed to the other one, "that's Malfoy's. Draco Malfoy's."
"What difference will the wands make to breaking into Gringotts?" Fred asked and Hermione glanced at Ron and Harry, "we're going to use Polyjuice Potion. A strand of Bellatrix's hair was on my coat after...well after Malfoy Manor." She glanced at you, knowing you'd have the same uncomfortable memories as she did from that day.
"She'll have reported her wand stolen though, surely?" you asked and Hermione grimaced, "ugh, yes, you're right! Why didn't I think of that!?"
She stood up and paced around the small kitchen, "we can go in with the Polyjuice Potion, I'll have the wand with me just in case but-"
"Woah, woah," you protested, standing up from the table and walking over to where Hermione stood in front of the stove, "why do you have to be the one to pose as Bellatrix?"
"Because you already saved my life, Y/N. You're not putting yourself in the line of fire again," Hermione said firmly. You glanced very briefly at the others and saw Fred putting his head in his hands. Your mind went back to your conversation on the beach, about you constantly putting yourself in harm's way for everyone else and him begging you to stop doing it. And then you thought about your conversation from the night before about the future you wanted to have together.
"Okay, what do you need the rest of us to do?" you said and Hermione's eyes widened in surprise at your lack of argument, and out of the corner of your eye you saw Fred sighing heavily in relief at your answer.
"You're actually not going to fight me on this?" Hermione asked in disbelief and you shrugged, "you're more than capable of pulling this off, 'Mione." She smiled gratefully at you and you squeezed her hand before rejoining the others at the table.
Fred immediately grabbed your hand in his and kissed the back of it, and then he rested your joined hands on his knee and didn't say a word, though you could tell how happy he was.
"We also spoke to Ollivander," Harry continued the conversation after your brief exchange with Hermione, "he reckons we don't stand a chance now that You-Know-Who has the Elder Wand."
A chill ran down your spine, recalling the conversation where Harry told you all of his vision where he saw Voldemort breaking open Dumbledore's tomb to take the wand from him.
"Well that's bloody optimistic," Fred muttered and Harry nodded in agreement.
"Guess we'll just have to prove him wrong, won't we?" you said brightly and Harry smiled gratefully at you.
"Alright then, let's get planning," Hermione said.
---
While Hermione was working on the Polyjuice Potion a few days later, you and the others worked out your own disguises. The twins and Ron now stood in front of you with brown hair of different lengths and facial hair, while you and Harry opted for sharing the Invisibility Cloak with Griphook, since the twins were both much taller than Harry.
The twins and Ron wore dark clothes of Bill's while Hermione transfigured an old outfit of Fleur's to look like something Bellatrix would wear. Fred was staring at himself in the mirror on the wall in the hallway when you found him, and you stood next to him and grinned as he messed with his longer brown hair and short facial hair, scratching at his jaw uncomfortably.
"This is so bloody itchy, can't wait till it's gone," he complained and you chuckled and cupped his heavily stubbled cheek. "I don't know Freddie, I think it's pretty sexy," you teased and his eyes widened, "don't say that! Now I might actually consider growing my own."
"You can't grow a beard, Fred," you told him and he rolled his eyes, "well then, guess I'll have to make the most of this fake one." He gave you a cheeky wink and then he pulled you close to him and kissed you, catching you off guard momentarily. But before you could fully enjoy the kiss, he leaned back and rubbed his bearded cheek against your face making you shriek and pull back, "that feels so weird! And ticklish. But mostly weird, like sandpaper." He grinned at you and while you could appreciate his dark facial hair, you missed his soft cheeks.
"So no more kisses until it's gone then, yeah?" he murmured challengingly against your lips and you smirked, "I didn't say that." You pulled him close to you and he chuckled as he kissed you deeply against the wall of the hall, grateful that everyone else was waiting outside, or so you thought.
"Um, sorry," a voice came and you screamed while Fred jumped back with a yelp at the sight of Bellatrix Lestrange standing next to you.
"I know! I look hideous!" Hermione's voice wailed while Bellatrix's face pinched in discomfort, and she blew a strand of wild dark curly hair out of her face.
"Blimey, Granger! You scared the ever-living shit out of us," Fred groaned as he covered his face with his hands, and you felt your heart rate beginning to slow down again as you gathered yourself.
"Oh! Sorry, I probably should've announced myself," Hermione-as-Bellatrix said, and she smiled awkwardly at you both, an expression you could never have imagined on the Death Eater's face, "and I'm sorry to interrupt, er...that. But we really have to get going, this potion will only last for a few hours."
"Noted. Cheers," Fred said with a grimace, not able to look her in the eye with her disguise. As she walked out of the cottage he stared at her retreating form and feigned a shiver, and then he smirked down at you and pressed another kiss to your lips before you both followed her out to the others.
Hermione walked up the sand banks to where Harry, Ron, George and Griphook stood waiting. You adjusted the strap of your trusty enchanted bag and ensured your wand was secure in its holster on your belt. Hermione tucked her beaded bag under her skirts and tucked her own wand into her boot, while holding Bellatrix's stolen wand in her hand.
You took Fred's hand in yours and he squeezed it comfortingly as you stepped up next to George, who nudged you and gave you a reassuring smile.
"Is everyone ready?" Harry asked and you all nodded. He addressed Griphook who was holding the Sword of Gryffindor, "you can give that to Y/N to hold, alright Griphook?"
The goblin eyed you suspiciously and you hesitantly took it from him, its weight strange and unusual in your hands. You opened your bag and put the sword in, once again grateful for the existence of the Undetectable Extension Charm.
Harry continued watching the goblin as Ron held out his hand for you all to take, "we're relying on you Griphook. If you get us past the guards and into the vault, the sword's yours." Griphook's beady eyes studied Harry carefully and then he nodded, putting his small hand over yours while you gripped onto the others, and you all Disapparated away from the cottage, to carry out what was perhaps one of the most dangerous plans you'd ever made.