Love is the Child of an Endless War

"I don't wish to go to school today," Phillipa announced, flopping into her seat at the table across from George, who was studying the London Exchange in the paper at breakfast. "I would prefer to stay at home and play with my Snorkack."

"Haven't you given him a proper name?" George queried, perfectly willing to allow Phillipa to stay home from school and play with her Snorkack. It was Jasper that needed to go to school.

"No, he hasn't done much but stand around the garden and eat grass. I haven't any inspiration," Phillipa replied.

"Well, you won't be inspired by him today," Penny cut-in, pouring herself a cup of coffee and stepping out of the way of Aloysious' trailing apron strings as he scurried around the kitchen looking for something that would appease Phillipa for breakfast. "Because you are going to school." And with a level eye at George she added, "George, dear, would you stop counting your money at the breakfast table, please? I think it gives the children the wrong idea."

"Mummy, it's not fair!" Phillipa wailed.

"I don't think it's overly mercenary of me to read the financial pages before breakfast," George replied, agreeably folding the paper up anyway, because it surely wasn't worth quarreling about.

"Thank you, George. Phillipa, you must go to school today. Mummy has to study at her school today, and there will be nobody at home to supervise you playing with your Snorkack," Penny said speaking calmly but lifting her cup to her mouth with a trembling hand. A gesture not gone unnoticed by George who knew very well she was having an internal spastic attack because Jasper was returning to school this morning.

"It's not fair! You never made Jasper go to school when he was little! I want to stay at home with you, the way we used to!" Phillipa shouted again, jumping up from her seat, and accidentally treading on Aloysious' apron, causing him to lurch, spilling Crunchy O's all over the floor.

Phil's accusation was true. Penny felt the sting of her daughter's outrage. They hadn't had much choice but to educate Jasper at home because no school would have him until Hogwarts. Penny had given up her job and her education before he was born, both because she thought it was the right thing to do and because Percy had expected it of her. Back then she'd been the wife of the Junior Assistant to the Ministry of Magic, who was performing double duty as a spy for the Order of the Phoenix; working two full time jobs as it were, but only getting paid for the one. Percy earned a decent salary. They never went hungry or without a place to live, but the budget didn't include her schooling, which her parents had stopped paying for when they'd discovered her semi-secret marriage, or childcare. Even if Penny had found a person with the constitution to care for Jasper, she'd preferred doing it herself. She didn't see the point in experiencing the duress and agony of pregnancy and labor only to hand the care of the child and three-quarters of her salary over to a stranger.

Now she was married to one of the wealthiest men in the country. George would get her a nanny if she asked for one. He'd probably even take the kids to his shop and look after them himself. But with Jasper gone away at school, and only Phillipa to look after, Penny had found the time to continue her own education without having to ask George for either of those things. She didn't want her children to be raised by hired help; she didn't even like Jasper being away at school. So she walked a fine line trying to do it all and she wasn't thrilled with being reminded that everything wasn't working out perfectly well.

To top it all off, George wanted to make a baby. Really, really, wanted to make a baby. Penny thought that their frequent lovemaking had improved their relationship. Although she would not have said that their marriage needed improving before they got serious about trying to conceive. However, in the maelstrom of marriage and all that it entailed, their private relationship often got seriously, sometimes frighteningly lost. Penny wasn't complaining about the increased intimacy and attention. She just wasn't totally on board with the making a baby end of it. She didn't handle pregnancy well. It wreaked havoc with her moods, as well as her body. Sleepless nights, another year of nursing a baby, and the prospect of a busy, mischievous toddler in the house again didn't thrill her as much as it did him. But Penny wouldn't deny him a chance to have a baby they'd made together. She wouldn't deny him anything, ever. She'd give him the breath from her body if he asked her for it. After all George had done for her, she would not ever tell him no.

"That's enough, Phillipa!" Penny snapped back querulously in a tone that brooked no disagreement, "You are going to school today! Go put on your uniform this instant before you miss the bus." Phillipa stomped out of the kitchen in a fury. George, hoisting Aloysious to his feet by the scruff of his neck, affected a vanishing spell to clear up the mess before chancing to meet Penny's eyes, which were now blazing with the true cause of her animus. He was taking Jasper back to Hogwarts this morning.

"I don't want him to go back to Hogwarts," she repeated for the umpteenth time since they'd gone over it all again the night before. George said nothing, just sat down to his tea and toast watching her with interest as though she were about to say something unique and original. He'd perfected the art on his mother. There was nothing for him to say to her in any case. He'd covered it all again with her last night. Yes, Jasper was very young. His birthday fell late in the year. He was still only eleven while the majority of his second year classmates were already twelve and many of them would be turning thirteen soon. But what he lacked in age and weight, he made up for with height and brains.

Granted, Jasper was a random distributor of chaos, and required close supervision. But Harry was at school with him all day long. George trusted that he would catch onto any plans Jasper had that might entail major destruction or gross personal injury. If Harry's instinct for sensing trouble fell through the cracks, there was always George himself, who possessed his own considerable evil instinct for sensing small boys about to get into big trouble and he knew how to play Jasper's conscience like a violin to get him to talk.

True, Draco Malfoy was a sick, twisted sod who would enjoy tormenting Jasper ruthlessly for no other reason than that he was a Weasley. Which didn't begin to cover what he'd like to do to him because he was such a troublemaker. There again, though, George thought it relatively pointless to remind Penny that he could buy and sell a hundred of Draco Malfoy and was perfectly capable of bribing the evil git into doing whatever he told him to do, nor, that if all else failed, he hadn't been voted by his seventh year classmates as second most likely to beat hell out of Malfoy at the drop of a hat for no reason.

Penny deplored bloodshed. Besides, she would not be placated easily this day, no matter what he said. He figured it was better for him to say nothing at all. Because the way things stood Jasper was going back to Hogwarts in just half an hour. If he argued the point with her now, who knew when he might be gone? And with Jasper gone he might make some serious strides into his effort of making a baby with her.

They'd both gone to see a Muggle fertility specialist at Sophie's urgings the previous spring, and had been assured that there was no magic in the world any more powerful than the normally functioning reproductive biology that they already had available to them. The specialist laughed himself silly at the notion that sterile, sexless, wand waving could ever have anything to do with the miracle of life's creation; and after some rude speculation regarding the ways that Wizards had managed their population growth without ever discussing sex, or even educating their young people on the basics of biology and the nuances of physical passion at school, he'd gone on to give George and Penny some practical advice.

George had been relieved to find that there wasn't an actual physical reason they'd never managed to make a baby. Which did not rule out the possibility of a curse, but he kept that worry to himself. He'd been a little surprised to find out that the Wizarding world didn't have something comparable to Skele-grow for the creation of infants, but he was quite grown-up and was beginning to realize that some things in nature were so miraculously perfect they could not be improved upon with magic.

So the problem was a practical one, and George was the sort of person who had enough nerve to accomplish anything. He was supposed to make love to Penny early in the mornings, and during the right time of the month. Having Jasper roaming about the house alone in the early a.m. was a distraction. Either he was making so much noise it spoiled the moment, or he was wickedly silent, in which case the longer they put off getting out of bed to see what he was up to the sorrier they were. Phil could easily be shipped off to the neighbors now and again to give them some private time alone, but nobody in their right mind wanted to look after Jasper. Even Molly Weasley drew the line at having him for more than one night at the Burrow.

Penny's coffee cup clattered into the kitchen sink with a crash, and Aloysious hightailed it out of the kitchen; he knew everything there was to know about the family, but he disliked making it obvious. "I can see you aren't listening to me, George. I guess I'll just go up and say good-bye to Jasper now, and let you be convinced that his playing on the Gryffindor Quidditch team is the be all and end all of this discussion." With a half-haughty, partially aggrieved sniff of irritation she stormed out of the kitchen. George muttered under his breath, "I haven't been listening to her? All I've done for days is listen to her! Women!"

Jasper had his rucksack, and Rufus on a red leash, when he came downstairs to the kitchen appearing as though he were about to vomit. George, studying him surreptitiously, noted that he did look better than he had earlier in the week. The massive shadows under his eyes were gone, so a few nights of sleeping at home had done him some good. But he and Penny could only do so much for the poor little freak; he was perpetually anxious, just like Percy. How a child with those kinds of nerves managed to engage in trouble worthy of he and Fred; he just didn't know. It was one of the things that made Jasper so fascinating a character study.

"All right then, Jasper?" George inquired nonchalantly as though every little boy in the world returning to school looked as though he suffered from ulcers.

"Mummy says I must eat breakfast before we go," Jasper confessed painfully clutching his gut, "but I think I won't be able to."

"Think about Quidditch," George advised. "You can go back to practice today. Won't you like that?"

"Yes, certainly," Jasper agreed. "If my teammates haven't found themselves a new Keeper over the interim of my absence. Uncle George, would you excuse me a moment? I'm about to hurl."

George sunk his head into his hands, if Penny came downstairs now and found Jasper heaving in the loo this gig was up for today. Jasper came back out looking as though he felt somewhat better and George was relieved enough to ask, "What about Millicent then? Aren't you looking forward to seeing her?"

"Errrm...well, yes, I suppose so. Although she's rather involved with someone else at the moment," Jasper responded somewhat reflectively.

"Is she?" George asked, thinking, Worse, and worse, not only has he been kissing older women, they're taken already. "How did she come by kissing you then?"

"Oh, it was for a favor I did her," Jasper admitted blushing in the manner of a Weasley. "Some Slytherin gang had a go at her in the dungeons, and I gave the lot of them bulbous pustules. They were quite good actually." He brightened a little. "Madame Pomfrey couldn't cure them for a week. Millicent was saying thank you, and I think I surprised her when I kissed her back."

"I think you may have," George surmised with a sudden flash of brilliant paternal joy. Cursing a gang of Slytherins with an incurable hex! Now that's my boy!

"Her boyfriend wouldn't be best pleased, I imagine, if I did it again," Jasper speculated. "He's the prefect that caught me sneaking out of the Shrieking Shack when he was in there doing it with her. I suppose I could hex him as well...."

"No!" George interrupted definitively. Have mercy on them. He had some of Charlie in him, too.

"No, you shouldn't do that, Jasper, really. That girl is too old for you, and it isn't right to steal another bloke's girl, anyhow." If Penny found out that Millicent was a loose-lipped trollop having relations with another boy, Jasper would never leave the house again so long as he lived.

"Do you want to try eating some breakfast now?" George questioned hopefully.

"No, thanks, don't think I can get it down."

George sighed, there was no hope for it; his mind rebelled but his heart ruled his head and he kissed his sex life goodbye for the next couple of years, at least. When Jasper came of age in five more years he and Penny would still be young enough to have more babies. "Jasper, you don't have to go back to Hogwarts, you know? You don't ever have to leave Mummy and me, unless you want to."

Having said it he realized the promise came out easier than he expected, and George smiled. He missed Jasper like crazy when he was at school. Even though the better part of the past summer had been spent butting heads with him over Jaguars and lemon drops. He'd thought pretty sincerely for a time that he'd be glad to see Jasper go back to school, but he hadn't been. George loved Jasper a lot and for just as many reasons. He was every bit a Weasley despite the dark curls and the startling blue eyes. He blushed like a Weasley, laughed like a Weasley, looked like a Weasley and created havoc like a Weasley. Jasper brought George to mind of the way he and Fred had been when they were little. And he was reminded of Percy, his wayward, difficult brother, who he would never see again in this life if it were not through Jasper. He loved Jasper out of filial devotion and fraternal loyalty, and for Penny's sake, because he wanted her in his life and she would not have had him any other way.

He'd told Harry that the two weeks he'd spent last summer without Jasper talking to him had been peaceful and quiet. That was true. They had also been painfully stultifying. George had refused to apologize for spanking him. Assured Jasper that he would do it again in a minute if he had to, hoping fervently in silence that he never had to. He had been very sorry about the rift that it caused between them. As soon as George walked into a room, Jasper walked out it. George had stopped by his bed every evening to wish him a goodnight and a hope for a better next day; Jasper rewarded his efforts with an injured sniff issued from beneath the walls and ceiling of his blanket cave.

George was upset about the bad feelings between them and for his twin's peace of mind more than any other reason Fred had suggested that Jasper come to work in the shop to pay them restitution over the lemon drop fiasco. Having Jasper forced into George's constant company left them with little choice but to heal the breach. It wasn't until Jasper got caught with his hand in the till, and Fred came unglued, tossing him out of the shop while savagely berating him, that George realized how and why he loved Jasper. Fred hadn't really meant to do Jasper any harm. He loved Jasper, too. He'd acknowledged as much when his temper cooled. But Jasper was Fred's nephew. To George he had become a son. And he had never acknowledged it so strongly as when he took a swing at Fred for upsetting Jasper enough to make him cry.

George had never hit Fred before in his life. George did not ever even really argue with Fred. They always got along very well, perhaps not quite as well as everybody who knew them supposed, but they'd had a lot of practice at resolving their disagreements without resorting to angry words or violence. Twins presented a united front to the world. In this particular instance, however, George would have just as soon ripped Fred's heart out as looked at him. He realized then that he loved Jasper more than he loved his twin. More than he loved the rest of his family. More, even, than he loved his wife. He loved Jasper with a frighteningly powerful intensity that could only be described as heart stopping, life altering, undying, parental devotion. It was a feeling matched only by the emotion he felt for Phil, who he had first held when she was still slippery with the blood of her mother's womb, and who had never known any other father.

"Oh, I want to go back," Jasper assured George absolutely. "I just don't want to eat anything before we get onto the Knight Bus. All that jerking, and lurching, and jumping over the curb, it makes me queasy. Maybe you could buy me breakfast at the Three Broomsticks? Unless you will let me ride the bus by myself this time, then I could buy my own."

"I definitely could buy you breakfast at the Three Broomsticks," George agreed gladly, adding a warning scowl. "And you are not allowed to ride the Knight Bus all by yourself until you are at least fourteen. Even then, with you it's not a sure thing."

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Jasper returned to Hogwarts, rested and revived. As George predicted, Malfoy was only too happy to take a healthy monetary donation in exchange for an end to the centuries long ban on pet dogs in the dormitories. In the company of his canine companion Jasper's behavior improved, and Gryffindor won the first match of the season against Ravenclaw thanks to his extraordinary Keeping.

George grew accustomed to owl free skies in the mornings, and the sight of the Hogwarts seal only caused his gut to clench briefly. His main trouble then was the distraction of his wife who couldn't stop worrying about her son, and the dreams that again plagued her subconscious at night. Dreams of slithering monsters lurking in the shadows and death like paralysis that lead to sweat drenched middle of the night awakenings with her shivering and terrified and him at a loss to comfort her. Neither one of them would ever admit it, but they both preferred the nocturnal visits from her husband's ghost instead.