Love is the Child of an Endless War

George knew that he was not the wisest Weasley brother. That honor went to Ron. As fate often has it the youngest of the bunch understands life's difficult situations the best because he has seen so many others go through them before him. George was not possessed of the greatest Weasley intellect, either. Now that Percy was no longer dead, he scored on that account all over again. Charlie had the charm, Bill the best looks. Fred was the funniest by a narrow margin. George had something better than all of those combined. He knew how to compromise.

George Weasley was a good businessman; he understood the art of making a deal. All involved parties had to come away from the table with something in their hand, or the deal would never fly. Compromise was the key to his success, in life, in friendship, in love, and with family. He'd learned the fine art as a scrap of cell negotiating his corner of the womb away from Fred. Before he'd learned to walk or speak a single word he was fluent in the language of compromise. He and Fred hashed things out, sharing their mother's body and the nourishment from her breasts, without ever needing words. That was what it meant to be a twin. He and Fred didn't get along so well because they were so much alike, although they were. They got along because they'd learned to compromise together before they'd learned how to breathe.

George had a deal to offer Percy, and he knew it would be one Percy couldn't refuse. Because this time George held the bullwhip. He had something that Percy wanted; he wanted Percy to have it, too. But there had to be some compromise. And compromise was not Percy's forte. Popping into Molly's garden, George surprised his mother who was harvesting magic winter grown apples for fresh cider. "Percy's favorite," he commented to her, as she plucked a particularly succulent looking MacIntosh off the tree.

"Yes, " Molly acknowledged plucking another piece of golden-red ripe fruit off of a frosty snow-covered branch. "I'm trying to cheer him up a bit. He's terribly depressed, George. But I guess you know that already."

"I do know it," George admitted, glancing up to the attic window. "Is he up there reacquainting himself with the ghoul?"

"They have a good deal in common," said Molly following his gaze. "On a full moon night Remus joins their howling and I can't even sleep with earplugs."

"Penny's having a baby, Mum." George felt a sharp spark of joy burst in his heart when he broke his big news despite the hunch of trepidation he had about his Mother's reaction. A month ago Molly would have been purely thrilled. Now she would have to at least pretend to be so for his sake. She was a poor actress.

"Oh, so that's what it is. I wondered what had brought him low like this." Placing the spicy apples she'd been holding into the basket at her feet she gestured towards the painted white wooden bench in the grape arbor. "Will you have time to sit and talk for a moment?"

"Sure," George agreed taking her arm as they picked their way across the crusty snow covered garden. Skirting pea vines bursting with pods and blood red strawberries peeking out of winter browned leaves, to sit side by side on the bench in the late winter sunshine. "Your garden looks great," he commented after they'd been seated for a few minutes in silence. He shuffled his feet in a scruff of snow. She twisted her hands around in her apron pockets. Distracted, Molly ignored the praise of her garden and leaned up to give George a kiss on the cheek. "Congratulations about the baby, dear. I'm very happy for you and Penny. Does this mean you'll be staying together?"

George hesitated briefly before venturing, "We've had a couple of long talks now that Jasper is feeling better. Penny doesn't want to leave me." He paused for a second because the knowledge still surprised him a little. She'd chosen him over Percy. He would have guessed if given her choice there would be no contest. He just wouldn't have guessed right about the winner. "She's happy about the baby, and she's happy being married to me. I know it's not good news for Percy, but I can't feel too badly about it given the circumstances."

Actually his second long talk with Penny had been considerably shorter than the first. Ending on a poor note when they'd gone into Jasper's room to break the news about the baby and talk a bit about their situation. Penny, unable to tolerate the sight of the uneaten scrambled eggs congealing on Jasper's plate had fled his room in a big hurry. George had had to cut to the chase. He filled Jasper in on the short version, which was, "Don't worry. Your happy home is not about to be torn in two." He went after Penny who was lying on the floor of their bathroom with her ashen face pressed against the cool marble tile. He'd hoisted her up and tucked her into bed. Leaving a cool cloth on her forehead and a glass of ice water with lemon on the bedside table. He really didn't have much time to talk to Molly, but he thought she had a right to know what was happening. And he appreciated the fact that she hadn't been hovering or pressing him for more information than he was ready to give before now.

"I rather thought she might decide to stay with you." Molly squinted a little into the morning sunlight to look George in the eye. "You've been very good for each other, I think. And it's best for the children, too, to keep things as normal as possible. They think of you as their father. Having Percy try to take over now would only confuse them."

Grinning in surprise George replied, "Do you mean to tell me that you've finally decided that Penny and I didn't get married because she was after my money and I felt a guilty obligation to Percy after treating him so horribly all of his life?"

She'd have preferred not to be forced into an outright admission of being mistaken, but this time George had her. Molly was forced to nod her head in agreement. "It seemed so very strange to me at first, George. You and Penny have a good marriage, though. I admit I was wrong about you two being together. Call it mother's intuition if you will, but I had a notion that Penny was finally expecting, too," Molly confessed, further surprising him. "She has that look about her."

"Are you referring to the rather ghastly green glow she has?" George wondered how his mother had been guessing at what he'd only just realized. Even Jasper realized what he hadn't.

Molly smiled. "Not exactly. I don't know how to describe it to you precisely. A pregnant woman just has a certain look about her. Once you've seen it on your own face it's easy to recognize on somebody else. I take it Penny's not been feeling well? The poor dear, what with Jasper being ill she must be dead on her feet."

"She's been feeling terrible," George said with a guilty grimace. "I've only just realized that it's because she's pregnant on top of everything else. I feel pretty badly about that. I'm going to stay home with her for a few weeks until she's feeling better and Jasper goes back to school. I've left her heaving at home today so that I could come talk to Percy and try to work things out with him. I don't like leaving her for long, but I thought maybe if Percy and I settle things between us she'll be a little less upset."

Molly nodded thoughtfully with a concerned frown. Who the concern was for, George didn't know, but he found her next statement to be mildly disturbing. "Things will be better when the baby comes. And I'm so glad that the two of you have finally gotten around your...um..marital act issues."

Horror and disbelief were wrangling for a place on George's face. "Our what issues? Just what is that supposed to mean, Mum? Are you implying that now I've made Penny pregnant you can sleep well at night knowing that I'm not impotent?" He knew instantly that he was going to regret having asked the question, but it slipped out before he could catch himself.

Molly flushed heatedly in the brisk winter breeze and waved her hand rapidly back and forth over her rosy cheeks. "No! That's not what I meant! Oh, all right, that is sort of what I meant. It's just that I worried about you two. Mothers see these things. It's my right. I'm entitled to be concerned for your happiness. And I know a few things about being married and having babies. One of those things is that a good marriage is based on good... er..marital relations and I know that things between you and Penny haven't always been easy."

George groaned. "For pity's sakes, Mum. Is it really necessary for you to continue to use euphemisms for sex with me? I've been married for more than six years now. Even if you'd prefer to pretend that Penny and I never did it before the wedding, that's still six plus years of appropriate sanctioned sexual activity under my belt. Do you know that it's easier for me to talk about sex with Jasper than it is with you? And if you worried so much why have you never said anything to me about it?"

The personal nature of her speculation wasn't what annoyed him so much, nor was it the fact that her speculations were mostly correct. What really bothered him was that she had always been inaccessible to him when it came to discussing anything of a sexual nature. At some point he believed that she, or more likely his father, had picked up a "How-to" pamphlet and left it some place where Bill could find it. The remainder of the Weasley children's sex education had been left up to him to pass down what he'd learned, or not. Mostly, Bill had taken up the burden of educating his younger brothers. At least he had whenever he'd been around to ask. Which wasn't very often by the time it was George's and Fred's turn to get curious. By then Bill had gone to Egypt, and Charlie to Romania. That left Percy as keeper of the sacred sexual knowledge and George had spent the better majority of his life avoiding asking Percy for the time of day if he could help it.

If his parents had ever encouraged talking about sex George thought some of the problems he'd encountered in his private relationship with Penny would have been solved that much sooner. It would have been nice to be able to share his concerns about Penny with his mother, to ask her for her opinion about the little things. For instance, why might a woman tell you that she wants to have sex with you but then cry every time you made love to her? He'd almost been driven straight bonkers trying to figure it all out on his own. Dithering with himself everyday like a driveling idiot over what the problem might be. Out of sheer desperation he'd considered writing a letter to 'Dear Sappho', the love columnist who answered questions in the Dailey Prophet, but then considered that with Penny being an avid reader his query might be too obvious.

It wasn't the sort of situation he'd been willing to discuss with Fred, who somehow messed up every relationship he'd ever been in, or even with Bill, who wasn't around to ask in any case. It was the kind of question a shy young man might have asked his mother if she hadn't been so uptight about sex. He wound up covertly interrogating his younger, unmarried sister. Ginny saw straight through him, though. She explained Penny's guilt complex to him in the simplest of terms. Ginny said she thought that Penny probably felt bad about enjoying sex with her dead husband's younger brother. And that making love with George probably even reminded her a bit of Percy. Ginny told George to be patient and understanding. Penny would get over it in time. Much to his relief she did get over it and in the meantime George was mainly ecstatic to find out that the problem with Penny was that she enjoyed having sex with him. Her guilt didn't matter to him so much. He'd been terrified that he was lousy in bed and Penny just couldn't bring herself to tell him so.

These were the sorts of intimate things that cropped up in a sexual relationship that weren't covered in a "How-to" manual and he'd struggled through the beginnings of his life with Penny like he was negotiating a maze without a map. He pointedly resented the fact that Molly and Arthur held onto the map and used sexual repression as an excuse for not sharing it. Molly waved away his obvious resentment. "George, you know we wizards just aren't used to talking about these things. My mother told me that babies were created by magic. I rather wished after Charlie was born that Arthur and I had a bit less magic going for us, but..."

"Terrific, Mum. That makes exactly the kind of sense that's not." George cut her off facetiously. "How many Wizarding marriages have been binned because of that sort of narrow minded thinking do you suppose?"

Molly patted his shoulder, "Well, I never claimed to be a perfect parent. I realize your father and I might have handled some things more open mindedly than we did. My relationship with Remus has made me look at my life differently than I used to. I'm glad that you and Penny managed to work things out, though. And to think I always imagined that you would rot away in prison. What a nice man you've turned out to be, George. I think it's a good thing that you're so open with Jasper when it comes to...er...stuff."

It was hopeless. George rolled his eyes. "Thanks, Mum. I think. All right if I go up and talk to Percy then?"

"I wish you well," Molly agreed with a sigh.

George had his talk with Percy, and it actually turned out better than he had expected. The wisdom they'd gained with age, and the experience of shared loss, had made a way with them both that made it easier to judge which things in life were worth fighting about. Surprisingly, it turned out to be that there were really very few. Something they suddenly agreed on. They also agreed on the fact that they both wanted Penny's happiness and that George did, as Percy specified it 'contrary to all the magical laws of nature and man', make her happy. All that remained to be determined was the fate of the children.

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

"Jasper, it's time to put the light out and try to get some sleep." George told his nephew close to eleven o'clock that night. Jasper put up his video game controller without a complaint. "All right, Uncle George."

"Would you like for me to sit in here with you for a while?" George offered.

"No, I will go to sleep on my own." Jasper willed himself.

"I'm sure you will," George encouraged him gladly.

"And I won't worry about the fact that you and Mummy are going to be in a separate country tomorrow night, because really that's no different from my being away at Hogwarts."

"That's right," George agreed.

"I'm not going to let the fact that Mummy is still crying a lot lately keep me up tonight. It's not because she's truly sad, it's because she's tired of making the baby."

"Exactly," George agreed with a grin, getting a sense of where the conversation was headed.

"I won't lose a wink of sleep over the fact that you're leaving Phil and me alone here with the prefect from hell. The man who once quit speaking to his family over politics, refused to visit Grandfather Weasley in hospital, and returned his Weasley Christmas sweater to Gran unopened, breaking her heart and ruining her holiday. He's really a very good person and it was all a great misunderstanding."

"Good night, Jasper."

"Good night, Uncle George."

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

That's how Percy found himself stretched out on the floor of his brother's recreation room. George had nice digs. He'd come a long way from the days when he and Fred lived in the couple of rooms over their shop in Diagon Alley. The recreation room's ceiling soared twenty feet into the air, it had floor to ceiling windows on one wall, solid oak flooring, and enormous cushy leather upholstered furniture. Valuable works of art hung on the walls; all Muggle paintings. Penny insisted that none of them be allowed to speak, or move. The kitchen clock was sufficient still life personality to carry over through to the rest of the house. She'd told him that when she met him at the door earlier.

Percy leaned his head back on a pile of squashy, pale orange and cream floor cushions. Savoring a bottle of George's specially brewed honey beer. He had crates of it shipped to his house straight from the brewery in the Canadian Rockies. His wine cellar was filled with his imported beer, and endless racks of expensive vintage wines. Apparently George hadn't forgotten how to throw a party. It was hard not to be a little bit jealous. Especially since George shared all of this with the love of his life, Percy's love that is. Even if he'd managed to become Minister of Magic he wouldn't have been able to give Penny and the children this kind of life. He wanted to believe that the money didn't have anything to do with Penny's choice. He did believe it, really, but it was hard to accept when he knew that George was taking her away to Tuscany for a few days. He was searing jealous to be honest, but he managed to control it because he was enjoying the fact that George had finally done his nut.

Watching his younger brother pace to and fro across the expensive silk and wool rug laid out in front of his massive stone fireplace, Percy pondered George's insanity. It was bound to have happened eventually. George had always been wild and crazy. More crazy than wild now, he'd been babbling like a pedantic for the past twenty minutes.

"Our itinerary is on the door of the Fridge in the kitchen." George informed Percy. "Fred's assistant has a copy of it if that one gets lost, or if Phil colors all over it so that you can't read it, or if Rufus eats it. Why are you looking at me that way? You remember Fred's assistant, right? You've seen her at the shop. She's leggy, but not really tall. I'd say in her mid-thirties, has short, chestnut hair? She's quite a lovely girl. I wish he would get more serious about her." George paced over Percy, stepping over his long legs, twisting the platinum wedding band on his finger round and round.

"Oh, I see. You're thinking she can't function as my assistant too, because she's underneath Fred all of the time? I assure you, she can. Louisa is very efficient. Now, where was I? Oh, right. The house, the cars, the furnishings, and the children are all insured under my name. All of the paper work is in the top drawer of the filing cabinet in my office here at the house. Should any trouble happen, though, contact me immediately. Jasper's medications are in the potions chest on the top shelf of the pantry. He knows how to take them, but you need to supervise him because he balks at swallowing the liquids and I've caught him trying to dump it into the loo. I trust your judgment, Percy, but don't make any decisions. If he isn't taking his medications, or if he starts to look feverish again, or gets crankier than usual, let me know right away and we'll just come home."

Percy didn't bother to hide his yawn of irritation. George caught it out of the corner of his eye, but continued blathering anyway. "Jasper doesn't eat when he's upset. That's all right; just let it go. There is no point in reminding him that he is an anxious little freak just like you used to be. It only hurts his feelings. He'll probably be in full spew mode by bedtime tonight considering everything that's gone on lately. If he can't sleep he can buzz me on my mirror. I've already sworn to him that I will carry it with me even into the shower.

"In all likelihood you will be provoked into shouting at him at some point in the next few days. Don't do it. Shouting only upsets him. Only Penny and I shout at him, and even then, we can't do it together at the same time, he becomes undone. Sometimes we do spank him, but only if he really deserves it. And I never spank him very hard, you know? I hurt his feelings more than anything. Penny can get a little brutal with him, but then he really does deserve it. Naturally, neither one of us would ever dream of chasing him all over the house, running him into the ground like an animal, and beating the living hell out of him the way that you used to do to Fred and me when we lived in Gryffindor Tower."

Percy stood up, shoving his spectacles back onto the bridge of his nose. Until that moment he'd been observing his brother with an unusual air of calm detachment over the top of them. It was rather like watching George from very far away at the end of a nice, long, tunnel. Exactly the same way he used to distance himself from Cornelius Fudge in order to refrain from strangling him to death. About half way through the rant, he'd realized that George was not insane. He'd actually grown responsible. It was so out of character for him it only made him look as though he were insane. But Percy was not about to sit back and swallow that slam in silence.

"You malicious biological mutant," Percy impugned George's twin-dom. "I chased you, and your even more malicious counterpart, all over Gryffindor Tower, caught you, and beat the living hell out of you because you two stole my prefects badge, repeatedly, and bewitched it to say rude things about me."

George blinked at him. "Bygones, Percy. That's water long gone under the bridge. Far be it from me to throw your mean miserable past back into your face at this late date. You know, you really need to let this kind of thing go. So, as I was saying, Phil is easy. She eats like a horse, sleeps like a stone, has a stomach like iron, and nerves of pure steel. You've already got the princess thing down pat, so no worries there. She will occasionally sass back, and I've caught her sneaking out at night to visit her pony. I smack her bottom for that, but you can just send her back to her room."

"What about the dog, George?" Percy interrupted with a shout. "Which ear does he prefer scratched, right or left? Does he like to sleep on the bed better, or the sofa? Will you shut-up already and go away? I swear to you that I will not endanger the children in your absence."

"They are my children," George announced firmly, this time with no blinking involved.

Percy exhaled, counted to ten, then to twenty. Moved rapidly on to thirty, and didn't stop until he hit fifty-five, before he said, "I have never claimed that they aren't. I'm only asking for the chance to make them my children as well."

"They don't need another father," George argued. For this he was willing to fight where no possibility of losing even existed.

"They can't have too many friends who love them." Percy stated just as firmly; accompanied by an equal lack of blinking.

"Then we understand one another?" George asked.

"For once in our lives, yes, I think we do." Percy agreed.

Penny emerged from the staircase. Entering the recreation room radiantly glowing a pale pistachio color that clashed badly with her very dark hair, and her red-rimmed blue eyes. She looked extremely exhausted wearing Phillipa around her waist and her neck. Phil had regressed to sucking her thumb.

George grimaced at the sight of the two of them. Reflecting that precious little romance would be going on this weekend between he and Penny given her ill-looking pallor and his worrying about the children. For the briefest second he was tempted to ask Percy if he'd ever managed to make love to Penny while she was pregnant, because he certainly was not having an easy time of it. He'd come back upstairs with two glasses and the entire bottle of imported white wine under his arm the other night to find Penny curled up in bed and sound asleep. He decided against asking the question due to the fact that Percy would probably smack him upside the head and went to take Phillipa out of his wife's weary arms.

"I don't want you to go!" Phillipa protested, willingly twining her arms and legs around her uncle instead.

Percy began looking distressed. Penny, despite an immediate urge to heave, took his arm and led him away towards the windows. "Jasper won't come out of his room, but he didn't sleep well last night. He's only tired. Don't worry about Phil. She's working George for everything she's worth right now. As soon as we're gone she'll be pestering you to take her out and let her ride her pony. If you offer to play 'Troll Invasion' with Jasper after he's had a nap he'll probably open up to you pretty quickly."

Percy quirked an eyebrow, "Troll Invasion? Sweetie, I don't play 'Troll Invasion.' Penny patted his arm, and gave him a fond smile, "Percy, its really not that difficult. George plays it rather well."

"Hey!" George objected, "I can hear you!"

"Has no one ever thought to teach Jasper how to play Wizard's chess?" Percy queried in disbelief.

"Ron did try," George explained. "But it's a poor substitute for 'Troll Invasion', I'll tell you." He set Phillipa down and promised her that he would bring her something special if she was very good, something decent if she was only good, and something only so-so if she was awful.

Phillipa was agreeable. "Father, will you let me ride on your shoulders out to the barn to visit my pony?"

Percy obliged by kneeling long enough for Phil to hoist herself up, and then stood, hanging onto each of her hands. Penny stood on tiptoe to give him a kiss on the cheek. Leaving an imprint of strawberry passion on his face. "Have fun with your children, Percy. We'll see you in a few days."

George squinted one-eyed at her while he helped her put on her cloak and Percy heard him complaining to her as they walked out the door that she'd left lip marks on her ex-husbands face. He and Phil watched them walking out to the garage through the big windows, and saw that when George opened the car door for Penny she leaned over to give him lip marks as well. George mock scowled at her in return, rubbing the marks off of his cheek with the back of one hand. Percy reached up to touch his own cheek with his hand, and found that he was smiling.