Sixteen Years Ago

Sixteen Years Ago

By: Nymphadora_Florida

Sixteen years ago, Percy and Penelope Weasley had given birth to their first son. And since then, three more children had come to pass. Patrick, however, was the oldest of all of them; coming home with his siblings and an additional person on the train for the Christmas holidays.

His girlfriend.

His parents didn't know he had a girlfriend...but, they were about to find out.

"Are you sure they're going to accept me?" asked Virginia, looking at her boyfriend, who was sitting next to her in the compartment.

"Of course they'll accept you! How could anybody not like you?" asked Patrick, placing his hand on her knee.

"You two are so lucky you paid me ten galleons to shut up and not send them an owl," said Paula, Patrick's thirteen year old sister.

"You don't have room to talk, Paula. For your info, I know all about your little boyfriend, Ben."

Paula's eyes widened. "Whatever," she said, burying her nose back into 'Teen Witch'.

"You guys are sure they aren't going to freak? Especially dad...I mean...he didn't have a girlfriend until he was in 7^th year and well..."

"Stop, Paul. We've already been dating four months now, and it'd be kind of stupid to kill the dating plans now, wouldn't it?" replied Patrick.

"Well, yeah...but you know how thick-headed dad is..." said Paul, looking his older brother in the eye.

"Would you two shut up, you're distracting me from my quiz! Especially you, Paul. You've been the worst twin since we entered this compartment," said Paula, looking up from her magazine.

"I wish I had brothers and sisters," said Virginia, looking at her beloved's fighting siblings.

"No, you don't. You never have a moment alone, just for you! God, I hate having three siblings!"

"Wow, I didn't know you could be so passionate about things like this."

"No, I'm only passionate about you," he said sweetly kissing her on the lips.

"EWWWWW!" screamed Pamela, Patrick's eleven year old sister. "Were you two just snogging?" she asked with disgust.

"Yes we were, Pamela. And if you don't mind we'd like to finish snogging as sixth year prefects before we are caught because of...Professor Dumbledore! How excellent to see you..." said Patrick, caught dead in his tracks.

"I trust that the Weasley family is doing well. Ah, Miss Doyle, how pleasant to see you again. And how is your father?"

"He's doing better, Professor. That ointment Madam Pompfrey suggested works wonders on his hands."

"Good. Not up to any mischief, are you?" he asked Patrick and Virginia, a twinkle in his eye.

"No, of course not," said Patrick a bit too quickly.

"Just like your father, Mr. Weasley. Good day to you all. I've got to get back to writing my owl to my brother; informing her that I shall be at her house within the hour," said Professor Dumbledore, leaving the compartment to inspect others.

"Phew, that was a close one. See, Pamela, I told you not to scream like that!" said Patrick.

"Well, excuse her for being a normal eleven year old. It isn't her fault that she's witnessed her brother and his girlfriend snog endlessly in front of her face!" said Paula absently, looking up from her magazine.

"I'm sorry if it upsets you, Pamela. I won't ever snog your brother ever again in front of you," said Virginia.

"Thanks, Virginia," said Pamela, sticking her tongue out at her brother.

*****

"Oh, Percy...I don't see them! What if they..."

"Now, Penny. Be reasonable, won't you? They're probably just in the line to get out. You remember how long that line was, don't you?" said Percy, putting his arm around his wife and kissing her cheek.

"Yes, dear...it's just that I have the weirdest feeling in the pit of my stomach that someone's brought a something or a someone home for the holidays."

"Just relax. Have I ever done anything to embarrass you?"

"Well, there was that one time when your little sister walked in on us snogging in an empty classroom and..."

"Yeah, well...I'm not about to let that happen again. And look, here's our little Pamela!" said Percy, noticing his eleven year old daughter.

"Daddy!" she yelled running into his arms. "I missed you!"

"Oh, I missed you, too my little bundle of sunshine!"

"Paul, Paula!" said Penelope, greeting her two thirteen year olds with a big hug.

"Puh-lease, mum! Not in front of my friends!" said Paula, squirming out of her mother's grasp.

"Yeah...later, mum!" said Paul.

"Oh, right...sorry," said Penelope, instantly releasing them and noticing a young man with vivid red hair help a young woman down the stairs. "Hey, Percy...who's that young man over there escorting a young woman with beautiful, long, black hair?"

"Takes you back, doesn't it?" asked Percy, not noticing that the young man was his son.

"Honey, that's our son."

"BLOODY HELL! WHAT'S HE DOING WITH A GIRLFRIEND?"

"Sh...you'll embarrass them."

"He knows not to bring ANYBODY home with him!" said Percy his anger flaring.

"Now, Percy..."

"Don't 'now Percy' me, Penny!" growled Percy, walking over to his son and taking him aside. "What is this foolishness?" Percy asked his son, pointing his finger in his son's chest.

"Dad, please!" said Patrick, pushing his father aside and heading straight for his mother. "Virginia, this is my mum. Mum, this is Virginia, my girlfriend of four months."

"How very nice to meet you, Virginia. I haven't heard anything about you, of course..." she said, shaking Virginia's hand, "but I'm sure we'll make some room in the guest house of course."

"Thank you for your hospitality, Mrs. Weasley," said Virginia graciously.

"You're quite welcome, dear."

"Penny, what are you doing?"

"I'm doing what a good wife and mother should do."

"Taking a random woman into our home?"

"Don't you dare call her that! She's our guest and we need to treat her as one. Besides, there's enough room, she can sleep in the guest house until your family arrives."

"And when they do?" demanded Percy.

"Then she can bunk in with Paula and Pamela. There's enough room in their room for another person."

"You can't be serious? We're going to let our sixteen year old son get away with this?"

"Don't you remember Percy; you did that to me when we were sixteen?" said Penny, picking up the baggage and walking through the barrier with the four children as Percy just stood there gaping.

"Yes, Penelope, I do remember, it was only twenty years ago!" said Percy catching up with his wife.

"Uh-huh, your parents cut us some slack, didn't they?"

"Well, yes but that was only because I had the highest GPA in the whole family and because I'd been Prefect for a whole year and four months..."

Penelope gave him a funny looking smile.

"Ok, so he has the same things I did..."

"Hmm...I do so wonder why..." she said, tickling his chin as they moved to the community floo powder fireplace. "You know, Percy...you've turned out as a better father than I thought you'd be."

"Thanks," he said, escorting his wife into the fireplace.

"Percy and Penelope Weasley's house!" she said as she vanished into a puff of green flames.

*****

Three days later, the doorbell rang at Percy and Penelope's house. "Harry, Ginny, how wonderful to see you!" said Penelope, inviting their first Christmas guests in. "How's the apparition network today?"

"Oh, Penelope, it was terrible! I could barely imagine your house; since the splinching has gotten out of hand!" said Harry, hanging up his coat, Ginny's coat, and laying down their suitcase in the closet.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I saw a pregnant woman next to me get her stomach splinched off. I heard sirens just as I was whizzing by..."

"Well, I'm terribly glad you're safe. Who else is coming?"

"Ron and Hermione are on their way, but Ron's been taking some extra precautions since Hermione's expecting," said Ginny, winking at Penelope.

"Is she really? Oh, that's wonderful! When is she expected?"

"Three months," answered Harry, as he and Ginny walked over to the sitting room.

"According to Ron, her morning sickness has become really bad lately," said Ginny.

"Really? I had really bad sickness when I was..." started Penny, but the doorbell rang again.

"Mum, dad!" said Penelope, embracing her mother-in-law and her father-in-law.

"It's good to see you, Penelope. Where's Percy?" asked Mrs. Weasley, looking around the sitting room.

"Oh, he had to work late last night, so he's still sleeping...shh!"

"Well, he ought to be up by now, it's nine o'clock!" commented Mr. Weasley. "Now, where should we but our coats and our suitcase?"

"Oh, I'll take those, go on and take a seat in the sitting room."

"Thanks, Penelope."

Just as Penelope jammed their suitcase in the closet, the doorbell rang again, Ron and Hermione arrived.

Ring! Bill, Fleur, and their two children.

Ring! Charlie, Tonks, and their child.

Ring! Her parents.

Ring! Fred and Angelina, and their baby.

Ring! George and expectant Alicia.

And after twenty minutes of ringing, the sitting room was filled up completely, noise shooting from every corner, mantel, couch and chair. Her poor closet was filled with suitcases, coats, purses, and snow.

Penelope ran upstairs to wake up her children. "Kids..." she said, knocking at their doors, "kids, we have company." She entered the girl's room. "Paula, Pamela, Virginia, all the relatives are here. C'mon, everybody, up, up, up!" she said cheerfully.

Pamela and Virginia yawned and stretched, immediately sitting up in their beds. Paula however... "Mum, what time is it?" she asked groggily.

"It's about nine thirty, sweetheart."

"Yeah. Wake me up in about two hours," she said, pulling the covers back up over her head.

"Sweet heart, all your relatives want to see you. Now get up this instance or now allowance for two months."

"Ok, ok, I'm up!" yelled Paula, throwing her covers aside and getting out of bed.

"I want all three of you downstairs in twenty minutes!" said Penelope, shutting the door and moving across the hall to the boy's room.

"Patrick, Paul, the relatives are here," she said, gently shaking each of them. They immediately got up. "In twenty minutes, I want you downstairs in twenty minutes, okay?"

Both of them groggily replied, 'yeah' and 'uh-huh'. Carefully, Penelope picked her way down the hall, past the four guest rooms and into her room; where her sleeping husband lay.

"I'm up...I'm up..." he said, watching his wife come over to the bed as he fluttered his eyes open.

"You, Mr. Weasley need to be up, too, but as long as the guests are busy, we may talk until they get bored ratting out the children."

"Oh, you make such a good parent, Penelope."

"Thanks, you aren't too bad yourself."

"So, who all is down there?" asked Percy, pulling his wife onto the bed to sit next to him.

"Everyone."

"Really? All my family and all of yours?"

"Yes. Your brothers, sister, brother-in-law, and several sisters-in-law."

"This early?"

"They said they'd be down around nine; and it's now nine forty two."

"They're never on time for anything...unless it has anything to do with food."

"Heh...funny you should mention food..."

"Yeah...you'd better go downstairs and start to fix them lunch," he said, leaning in for a kiss before she left.

"Eww...Percy, your breath is really nasty! Go brush those teeth!" said Penelope, giggling and walking out. "I want you downstairs soon, dear."

"Uh-huh. I'm coming..."

"I meant dressed."

"Oh. Yeah. Ok."

"See you soon, sweetie," said Penelope, closing the door and heading back downstairs to the noisy relatives. "Hey, erm...Mum...Mrs. Weasley, can you all help me make lunch? I normally wouldn't ask you, considering that you are guests and all but I..."

"I told you she was going to ask us, Clarissa!" said Mrs. Weasley.

"Hand over the galleons!" said Mrs. Clearwater.

"Fine. But I'm never betting with you again," said Mrs. Weasley regretfully, handing over five glittering pieces of gold.

Penelope and her two mothers walked into the kitchen with her. "You two bet on me?"

"Er, yes," they said together.

"Why?" asked Penelope vaguely, pulling out some pots and pans from the cupboard.

"Our husbands dared us to," said Mrs. Clearwater, filling a pot with water and putting it on the magical stove.

"So now you listen to what they say?"

"Well, no. Not really, dear. It's just that we thought we should take on the dare that our husbands gave us," said Mrs. Weasley, making a magical fire burn underneath it.

"Right. You two are so old!"

"We are not!" they said together, blankly staring at their daughter.

"You are too! Look at you all! You know your children and grandchildren so well that you bet on the things they do!"

"Well, perhaps we are getting a bit old, Molly."

"It does make sense, Clarissa."

Meanwhile, the sitting room had broken up into three different groups of people. Tonks, Fleur, Angelina, Alicia, Ginny, and Hermione were all sitting together in the right corner of the room, discussing, giggling and laughing, with Tonks occasionally making everybody burst into an amazingly long fit of giggles. Mr. Clearwater, Mr. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, Fred, George, Ron, and Harry sat playing numerous games of chess in silence in the left side of the room. Though, they broke the silence when the occasional pawn would kill a higher player; they all would turn and laugh. The children were settled along the strip near the hallway. Patrick and Virginia talking alone, Paula, Pamela, and their twelve-year-old girl cousin, Isabella (Fleur and Bill's child) sat taking a quiz from Paula's magazine, while six year olds Tom (Charlie and Tonk's child) and Luc (Fleur and Bill's child) played 'Chocolate Frog Cards'.

It was a busy Saturday afternoon; and when lunch came, there was just barely enough food for everybody.

Soon, dinner passed and the youngest children were sent up to bed, only to be followed two hours later by the middle children. Though, when it was time for Patrick and Virginia to go to their separate bedrooms, they choose to talk with Patrick's parents.

"Patrick, Virginia, shouldn't you be asleep?" asked Percy as he drank his eleven o'clock cup of coffee.

"Well, we wanted to talk to you, dad," said Patrick.

"About what, sweetheart?" asked Penelope, fixing her own cup of coffee; stirring it around with her wand.

"Well...we just wanted to ask you if it's okay that we're dating."

"It's fine, Rick," replied Percy.

"Really, dad? Because you seemed a little shocked that I brought Virginia home."

"Well, I was shocked at first...but then I realized that you're almost a grown man and you can make your own decisions."

"So, you trust me?"

"Yes, son. But we do need to lay down a few ground rules," said Penelope, joining her husband at the kitchen table.

"Sure, my parents already laid some down last night," said Virginia, uttering her first words in the conversation.

"Well, what were they?" asked Penelope.

Virginia cleared her throat. "Rule number one: No snogging while other members of the family are around."

"Excellent," said Percy, "We should've said that one from the start.

"Second: Under no circumstances are we allowed to have sex without a common law marriage."

"I'm starting to like your parents more and more, Virginia," said Penelope.

"Third: If the event of love occurs; sex is still prohibited unless we are bonded by a common law marriage."

"Wonderful," said the parents together.

"That's it," said Virginia with a sigh.

"Yeah...okay...we're going to go now," said Patrick.

"Good night you two," said Penelope.

"See you in the morning," said Percy.

"I'm proud of you," said Penelope, kissing her husband's cheek.

"Why?" he asked her, taking another sip of his coffee.

"You're a great parent."

"Ha, I knew that already."

"Yes, but I haven't told you for like, three years."

"But I still knew it."

"I'm glad we work really well together as a team."

"Aren't we supposed to?"

"You're sassing me, aren't you? You're a sassy woman when you're happy with what I've done."

"Yes."

"I think I know the last time you acted like this."

"Oh, really...enlighten me."

"Well, it was eleven years and three months ago today."

"Pamela's birth."

"Yeah. You told me that I would make a great parent, not that I already was a great parent."

"And? Your point?"

"Well, I'm just saying that..."

"You needn't explain. I know perfectly well what I was trying to explain. It was very hard for me to tell you that I loved you that day. Kind of funny, really. I was, after all, squeezing your poor hand to the core...and I didn't have enough common sense to tell you that I loved you...so I tried to explain it by means of a tiny girl that you held in your hands."

"Yes...I realized that about two months ago."

Penelope snapped her fingers. "You're slowing down on me, Percy."

"As are you, my dear," he said, collecting the coffee cups and putting them in the sink.

Penelope yawned. "I'm bushed. Let's go to sleep."

"Okay," said Percy, scooping up his wife and carrying her through the sitting room. "We're off to bed, everyone," he said to the relatives that remained.

"Goodnight," they all said.

"Oh, remember to turn off all the lights when the last one of you goes upstairs, okay?" said Penelope.

"Arthur...did you hear what our grandchildren were talking about?" asked Molly, her knitting needles set up in the corner.

"Yes, dear."

"Ah...young love."

"Yes, dear, young love."

*****

"Did you hear what your parents said, Patrick?" asked Virginia as she and Patrick stood outside the girl's door, discussing the odd and short talk they'd had with his parents a few hours ago.

"Yes."

"Don't you think it was a bit odd?"

"No. My parents are usually like that...short, sweet, and to the point. And the point this time was: 'no shagging'."

Virginia giggled softly. "I love you, Patrick."

"Yes, I love you too, Ginia," he said, kissing her on the lips oh-so-tenderly as she kissed him back.

"Ah, ah, ah. Not so fast, young lovers! Remember rule number one?" asked Percy as he and Penelope climbed up the stairs.

"Oh, he's just kidding...but you might want to finish it in the attic, right, Patrick?" asked Penelope, winking at the two as she pulled down a wooden ladder from the ceiling as she and Percy headed to their room.

Virginia started to climb up the ladder with Patrick steadying it.

"Ah, young love," said Penelope dreamily. "Why must I feel as if I'm in your mother's position?"

"Well, gee, I don't know. Because she simply has done the same things that you are doing," replied Percy, dumping his wife on their bed.

"Are we really getting old?"

"My dear, we have the fountain of youth. It is the children that are getting older," Percy said, a wide grin spreading across his face.

"But Percy we are..."

"I know we are in our forties now, Penny. I am well aware of that now, actually."

"I wish we could go back sixteen years."

"You do, do you, hmm? Well, you must know what we were doing seventeen years ago?"

"I don't want to go back that far!" exclaimed Penelope, changing into her pajamas.

"And why ever not?"

"Because I like children."

"They aren't children anymore...they are young adults."

"Are you telling me that my eleven-year-old Pamela is an adult?" demanded Penny, pausing as she pulled up the sheets.

"No. They are all the four greatest human beings on this earth."

"Stop being philosophical."

"I'm not being philosophical. All I know is, I do not want to go back sixteen years."

"And why would that be?"

"I have everything I need right here," said Percy, kissing his wife goodnight.

"Goodnight, Percy."

"Goodnight, Penny."