8 YEARS LATER

Not that Fred and George would ever admit it, but one of their biggest worries was that their wives would not get along. And maybe, whilst we'd been at school Aguilar – well, Weasley now – and I wouldn't have gotten along simply because we'd run in different social circles. But, as we found ourselves having to be around one another more and more often, we wound up becoming really close. Close enough that, after receiving an owl from her asking if I wanted to meet up for some tea, I promptly kicked my husband out of our home and invited her over. She was glad for the chance to get away from her own idiotic husband.

Fred, knowing that we could very well spend hours, just curled up on the sofa and talking to one another, left the house without complaint to go and bother his brother for a while. By the time my sister-in-law had arrived, I had a teapot and some teacups already waiting on the coffee table. The witch, who was visibly struggling under the added weight of her first pregnancy, gave me a beamingly thankful smile as I crossed the room to help her out of her coat.

"Sorry for dropping in like this," she apologised as she waddled over towards the sofa and sank down gratefully onto it.

"I invited you," I reminded her as I started to make her tea the way she liked it. She accepted the cup with a grateful smile.

"I just needed to get out of the house for a while; George was driving me mad."

We shared a knowing glance; a glance that only the wives of the infamous Weasley twins could share. "What was it this time?"

"I know he means well," she said before taking a sip from her tea. "But honestly, I'm about to strangle him if he continues to monitor what I eat. He's always saying you're not supposed to eat this, or eat that and Salazar, if I have to remind him one more time that he's not a healer, I might stuff one of those silencing sweets in his mouth and be done with it."

"That's why I'm putting this baby stuff off for a while," I confessed, rolling my eyes.

But my irritation fled quickly when our kitten – one I'd bought after a fight with Fred – leapt onto the sofa. She curled up in my lap with a content purr and just like that I was smiling as I scratched behind her ears.

"Did you ever get around to naming her?"

"Well, I like to call her Cleo but Fred calls her Minnie – and she responds more to Minnie. Which is just downright annoying."

"Minnie?" the other witch almost choked on her tea. "As in after McGonagall?"

I nodded, rolling my eyes. "He's so pleased with the name."

"And you thought he'd never warm up to her," my sister-in-law said with a roll of her eyes as she struggled to sit up so she could brush a finger over Minnie's ears. Our little baby stretched with a languid purr.

"He's definitely warmed up to her," I confessed as I shifted forward slightly to pick up the plate of biscuits and held them out towards Aguilar – Weasley damn it – before she tried to get up again. "But he's not pleased that I call her our baby."

"I'm telling you," she insisted as she took a bite from her shortbread biscuit, "there's something in their blood that just has them going mad over babies. And I thought woman were the ones that were supposed to be broody."

"I still think this is your fault. I thought we were going to be sisters in arms about remaining childless for a little longer."

"Well I think this is George's fault," she confessed with a frown, running a soothing hand over her stomach in the way she did whenever my unborn nephew got a little too overactive and decided that he liked smashing his mother's organs around. "I mean, you forget your contraception just once and –"

"Okay," I said loudly, stopping her half way. "I really don't want to know!"

The other witch smiled, hiding it behind her cup. Because it had been so very long since we'd spoken like this, we spent the next few hours catching up on what we had missed. Merlin, we talked about a ridiculous range of things like when Minnie had accidentally eaten one of Fred's newest creations to just how often our mother-in-law popped around as if to make sure that we weren't starving her sons. Merlin, she was a lovely woman but there really was no way you couldn't not be offended by how little faith she had in us to look after her sons. But why on earth were we looking after them anyway? They were more than old enough to be looking after themselves.

"Love," George called out to his wife as he stepped through the fireplace. We both clammed up quickly, turning towards the sound of his voice as both twins stepped into the room. "I think it's time you came home. We've got that hospital appointment in the morning."

"I almost forgot," she admitted, accepting George's help to rise to her feet. "Thanks for having me."

"You're always welcome," I assured her.

With an arm around his wife's waist, George waved goodbye to me and thanked me for keeping an eye on his wife. Said wife, scowled at him and smacked his chest but allowed him to apparate her away nonetheless. When his brother and sister-in-law had left, Fred crossed the room to take the now vacated space.

Minnie, recognising her father, instantly clambered off her lap to settled across his knees. No matter how much he complained about finding cat hairs all over his clothes, he still indulged her by playing with her tail.

"You like her Fred Weasley," I said with a smile as Fred looked up at me. "Admit it."

"I never said I didn't like her," he said just as quickly. "I just think it'd be good for George and me to have a kid around the same time."

"You can't go your entire life doing things at the same time." He scowled at my words, looking down at Minnie as she swatted at his arm when he stopped playing with her. "Why don't we focus on Minnie for now? If you manage to look after her well, then I'll consider it."

"Fine." He stared down at Minnie before admitting, "It's a good thing she's cute."

"Of course, she is."

"Although," he said slowly, looking up at me from under his eyelashes. I narrowed my eyes at the sight of the slight smirk playing at the corner of his lips. "I thought you were calling her Cleo?"