"You're literally radiating anxiety," Fred said to Delia who was pacing back and forth as she fiddled with the rose pendant hanging around her neck. "Talk to me."
"It's stupid."
"If you're so worried about it, it's not stupid," Fred said, climbing out of the bed, cold air brushing over his exposed torso as he gently seized her hand. "Talk to me, Sunshine."
"Don't you feel it, Freddie?" she asked, turning to him with desperation in her eyes. He furrowed his eyebrows.
"Feel it?"
"The air, it's colder," she said her eyes drifting over to the window.
"It's winter, Delia," Fred pointed out and she shook her head.
"It's not that," she said. "It's more sinister."
"You're just tired and getting yourself worked up," Fred said squeezing her hand. "Come back to bed."
"I can't," she sighed. "The nightmares."
Fred frowned further. She'd been getting nightmares since Christmas. She'd often wake up crying or screaming and they'd had to move Rosalie into George's room so she didn't get woken up.
"Tell me about them," Fred said as he ran this thumb over her palm. "It will help if you talk about them."
Fred gently led her over to the bed and they laid down together, her face nuzzled in the crook of his neck.
"They're all different," she explained, her voice wobbling slightly. "You remember on Christmas Eve, when Harry and Remus were talking about Fenrir Greyback and I had that breakdown? When I was asking you to make it stop?"
"Yeah, I remember," Fred nodded, grimacing at the distress she had been in.
"It's him. He killed my parents," she admitted shakily as a tear slipped down her face. "I saw it all."
"I'm so sorry, Love," Fred whispered gently and placed a delicate kiss onto her forehead.
"I see that sometimes," she continued. "I see George, when he had his ear blown off and I see your Portkey arriving without you. I see people hurting the ones I love. You and Rosalie and your family. I remember when I was hit with the Cruciatus curse and I can feel the pain all over again."
Fred reached up and gently brushed away the tears that escaped her eyes and sent her a small but encouraging smile.
"They're not the worst ones," she sniffled. "The worst ones are the ones where you die or Rosalie dies or George, Ginny, Charlie, Tonks and Remus, your parents and other siblings, and the rest of your family like Muriel and Fleur."
"Delia, baby, listen to me," Fred said pleadingly. He wiped away more of her tears as he spoke. "We will always be together. I'm never going to leave you. So, when you fall asleep I'm going to be right here and when you wake up I'll still be here. Everyone in this house is safe right now and you need to rest. Okay?"
"Okay," Delia nodded before closing her eyes and attempting to fall asleep. She lay there for an hour at least before she let her eyelids droop. Fred was gently playing with her hair, plaiting sections of it which lulled her off to sleep as she smiled lazily at the comforting feeling.
When she awoke the next morning, Fred was still holding her tightly, just like he had promised and she smiled up at him.
"You feeling better now, Sunshine?" he asked her gently and she nodded. Fred leant down to place a kiss on her lips and she pushed him away with a small giggle.
"Stop it, I have morning breath," she said and he rolled his eyes.
"I don't care!" he whined.
"I do," she said. "I'm going to go and brush my teeth."
"Be quick," Fred groaned and she shook her head as she laughed.
"I'll be two minutes."
When Delia returned, Fred's arms instantly wrapped around her small waist and pulled her in for a deep kiss.
"You were gone for ages."
"I was literally two minutes. You're so impatient."
"I can't help it!" Fred protested. "You turn me on."
Delia giggled slightly.
"I didn't even do anything."
"It doesn't matter," Fred said before their lips connected once more.
Later on, Delia was sat downstairs with Rosalie on her lap beside Molly and Arthur. Arthur had been keeping to himself since they had arrived at the house so she was surprised to see him sat downstairs.
"She's getting so big," Arthur said about Rosalie who was staring down at the book Delia and Fred had made her.
"She'll be one in April," Delia said. "It doesn't seem real."
"It doesn't," Molly nodded in agreement. Fred and George were working on their Owl Order Service for the shop and Ginny was busy avoiding Muriel. "You know, Muriel likes you."
"Does she? I thought she hated me," Delia admitted sheepishly. "She doesn't like that I'm not married to Fred."
"Maybe your engagement convinced her that it was all right," Molly shrugged. "But she told me that she likes you. I've never heard her admit to liking anyone and she certainly doesn't get along with Fred and George."
"They do annoy her quite a lot," Delia nodded in agreement as Rosalie let out a squeal. Her eyes were locked onto the drawing of the dragon that started to breath fire. "What is it, baby?"
"Da..." Rosalie cooed and Delia's eyes widened in surprise.
"It's a dragon, Rosie," she spoke softly and she let out a laugh.
"Dag..."
Molly started to gently hit Arthur on the shoulder.
"Go and get Fred!" she said to her husband who wasted no time climbing to his feet and fetching Fred and George from the room they'd occupied for their makeshift store.
"What is it?" Fred asked Delia and Rosalie looked up to him.
"Dagon!" she squealed and pointed down to the picture. Fred's jaw dropped and Delia laughed as she gently squeezed Rosalie.
"That's right, it's a dragon!" she told her daughter who looked particularly pleased with herself.
"She takes after Charlie!" Molly gushed down at the girl who had a similar fascination for dragons that Charlie Weasley had.
"She takes after everyone," Ginny snorted who had appeared from upstairs. "She likes mischief and reading and dragons. She eats all the time so that's Ron and she's got a fierce temper just like me."
"I'm just glad she hasn't taken after Percy," Fred said as he sat next to Delia. "I couldn't deal with a daughter that started reading me speeches about cauldron thickness."
Fred went to pick Rosalie up but she let out a scream as the book moved and he frowned, his arms moving away from her.
"She hasn't left the book alone," Delia told him. "I tried to take it off of her earlier and the only thing that would move her attention away from it was food."
"She's obsessed," George said and Delia nodded.
"It's probably unhealthy," Delia joked. "See what you've done Fred. If you weren't so good at drawing, she wouldn't care."
"It was your idea to write the book," Fred said accusingly.
Rosalie was growing smarter everyday and seemed to understand more and more words and phrases. Her two most favourite words were "Dagon" and "No" which lead to a lot of arguing.
"Rosie, it's bath time," Fred said and took the toy dragon out of her hands.
"No!" she screamed as her face turned a bright red. Fred lifted her into his arms, grimacing at the sound of her screams as he walked her up into the bathroom.
"You have to have a bath!" Fred told her and she started to cry louder.
"What's wrong?" Delia asked as she followed them up the stairs.
"She doesn't want to have a bath," Fred told her and Delia frowned.
"Dagon!" Rosalie said to her mum.
She disappeared into their room where a large pile of toys was sat and searched through them before she found a plastic dragon figure and handed it to the baby. Rosalie took it and calmed down, her breathing still shaky and she sent Fred angry looks.
"She can have it in the bath," Delia told Fred who nodded before disappearing into the bathroom and giving Rosalie a bath, trying to stop her crying as he washed her hair that had grown a considerable length.
"She could probably do with a haircut,"Delia said as she tried to feed Rosalie a bowl of banana.
"I can try and cut it if you want," Molly said as she drank some tea. "I used to cut Fred's hair all the time."
"She gave us bowl cuts once, Delia," George said with a shudder. "Don't trust her."
Delia laughed as she handed Rosalie another piece of banana. She took it happily sinking her baby teeth into the food.
"I'm not sure if she'd let you cut it but you can always try," Delia said to Molly who beamed at her.
George then proceeded to tell Delia about their sixth year at Hogwarts where Fred and George had refused to get hair cuts and their ginger hair nearly reached their shoulders. Rosalie has been waiting for more banana and let out a cry of annoyance before pointing at the food. Delia sighed and handed it to her daughter who ate it happily.
"Delia!" Fred shouted from upstairs. "Have you seen my wand?"
"For goodness sake," Delia sighed as she climbed to her feet to go and help Fred look for his wand. He seemed to have developed a habit for losing things which he blamed on Rosalie, claiming that the young girl who was now able to crawl was hiding his things. She entered their room to find that Fred had turned it upside down in a search for his wand. "You shouldn't leave it lying around, Fred!"
"I had it on the bedside table!" he said frustratedly as he rifled through a box of toys. "I swear, it was right there."
Delia took it upon herself to look around the beside table. Looking in the drawer and down the sides. She let out a groan when she found the wand lying underneath the table and stretched her fingers out to reach it. She wrapped her hand around the handle before holding it out to Fred.
"Honestly, Fred, did you even look by the bedside table?" she questioned and he frowned.
"I didn't think it would be underneath it," he admitted sheepishly and she let out a huff of laughter.
"You're an idiot."
"I love you too," Fred sarcastically called after her as she left the room.