That Mistake I Made

Fred hadn't spoken to Angelina since that night. It had been two weeks now. He wasn't even sure if she'd had the abortion and, unfortunately for her, he didn't care.

Why should he?

She had already made her decision, long before telling him. There would be no point to further the argument.

An explosion of confetti blasted in his face and he spit a few bits out of his mouth. It was never normal for half of Weasley's Wizard Wheeze's to be quiet and moody. So when George had asked him what was wrong, he didn't hold back telling him.

"Have you broken up with her?" George asked reluctantly.

Fred shook his head.

"No, I can't. I won't. I don't ever want to break up with her. I just... I'm so..."

"Mad," George finished for him. "You're mad at her. But you know, twin, instead of being mad at her, you should try reasoning with her."

Fred looked up at George as if he had lost his mind. "Reason with Angelina? The same Angelina that won't change dirty jeans just because someone told her to?" Fred shook his head.

"Well." George's voice suddenly became a whisper. "Do you want to marry her?"

Fred hadn't even thought about it, but instantly he answered, "Yes. Yes, I do."

George nodded his heads and pursed his lips. "There you are." He leaned against the counter and crossed his arms. "Well...."

Fred dropped his creation...or whatever he wanted to call it and looked at Fred with a blank expression. A smile slowly spread on his face.

"Brother of mine!" He slapped George on the back. "That is absolutely genius! I propose to her, whisk her away for a month or so, and come back and tell everyone!" Fred liked this plan.

"But what about Mum? She'll blow her top." Fred began to shake his head.

"Maybe you should tell her about your situation?" George then shook his head. "You're right, she'll blow her top. Have you proposed to Angelina before? Besides that one time in first year...."

Fred laughed dryly.

It was insane how confident he was in proposing to Angelina. He just knew she would marry him and not thought twice about it. He loved Angelina, that he knew and he knew that she would want to marry him.

Baby or not.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Despite her wanting to go ahead with the abortion, Angelina managed to stay at home, truly contemplating why she couldn't just go through with this.

A third of the reason had been nerves. Sure Angelina wanted to go through with this, but that pamphlet Madame Dunwante had given her showed that the outcomes of taking the potion wouldn't always be positive. Sure, she could just take the potion and wait a few weeks, but there was a chance that she would never have children again or could get an infection and become sick herself. Dunwante had even taken the time to give her a list of Muggle clinics, but those didn't prove to be totally positive as well.

The second reason was what Alicia had said. It was true; Angelina was responsible for this abortion and she was wrong for not telling Fred....

Angelina's eyes began to water.

Fred...he hadn't taken the decision too well and Angelina feared that she had lost her boyfriend forever when he Disapparated that evening he found out.

That was the real reason. She didn't want to upset Fred.

And if that wasn't worse, her mother had begun to question her about her sudden change in mood.

Angelina usually ate like a hippogriff, but she had lately taken to hiding out in her room and heaving up every other hour of the day.

An application for the Tutshill Tornadoes had also arrived in the mail. When Angelina's mother had given her the stack of parchments, Angelina looked at them and ran upstairs unable to stop her waterworks.

Alicia hated her, Fred didn't want her, and she wasn't sure about anything. This was the worst summer for Angelina ever.

As she sat on the bed filling out the application, someone knocked on her bedroom door. Angelina looked up startled but yelled "Come in!" anyway.

"Angelina, what's the matter with you?" Her mother instantly asked, stepping into the room. "You're not your usual self. Since when do you sit out dinner and stay upstairs in your room to cry?"

Angelina looked at her mother, ready to lie and stopped with her mouth hung open when her mother cut her off.

"I'm your mother Angelina, I know these things." She closed the door behind her and stood with her arms crossed and her expression solemn. "What's the problem? And I'm not leaving until you tell me the truth."

Angelina closed her mouth and sat a pillow in front of her stomach. "Mum, I can't tell you what's wrong. You'll hate me."

Her mother crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed and put a hand on Angelina's. "Whatever the problem is, you need to tell me, Angelina. I could never hate you. There's nothing in this world that could make me hate you."

"Nothing?" Angelina asked dryly.

"Angelina..." her mother warned in that 'I mean business' voice.

Angelina sighed and began to playfully punch her pillow. She was going to hold this off as long as she possibly could. There was no sense in blurting it out until she was forced.

"Angelina..." her mother looked at her sternly again.

"Mum," Angelina said through a whisper. "I can't tell you, even if I wanted to. There's just so much stuff going through my head that I don't think I'll be able to manage. I feel like I'm going to explode!"

Angelina wanted to scream, but she figured now would not be the right time for that type of thing.

"Well let's start with this." Her mother took her hand away and continued, "Why are you suddenly so sick? You've been heaving in every possible bin? You're starving yourself and you've been crying like crazy...." Denali faded off and looked out the window, hands over her mouth and realization creeping up on her slowly.

Angelina was looking at her mother form some sort of response, any sort.

"Angelina." Her voice wasn't harsh; in fact, it was quite tranquil compared to her stern one. She turned from the window and looked at her youngest daughter with a sad expression that would make anyone cry.

"You can't be serious...." She couldn't bring herself to say the exact word. "You and Fred Weasley?"

Angelina knew then that her mother knew for sure and she looked down at her hands and slowly nodded her head.

"How long?"

" 'Bout three weeks now."

"Oi, Angie! Of all the dumb things you could do! I mean, I always knew that you and Fred had...well, you know! But I thought you knew better than to not use the proper contraceptive charms!" Now she was beginning to lose her temper, and her voice was rising.

"I did!" Angelina gasped defensively. "We both did! We said our charms! We always do, but this time...I don't know!"

"You don't know?" Denali stood up, hands on her hips. "I sometimes think that you and Fred are the most pigheaded set of teenagers, and then I know you are! And what about your Quidditch tryouts? You're going to have to tell them you can't!"

"Mum...."

Denali cut her off. "And then we have to tell your father and do his parents know? Molly would blow her top and Arthur...well, Arthur would probably have a stroke!"

"Mum...I'm..."

"I know Angelina! I know you're pregnant!" She began to pace the room. "You'll have to get a job! There's no way I'm taking care of this baby! It's your responsibility!"

"Mum, listen!" Angelina yelled and threw the pillow aside to stand facing her mother. "There won't be a baby, because I'm having an abortion!"

Denali continued to pace, and began to slow down as she realized what Angelina said. Her voice was tranquil again. "You...what?"

Angelina nodded her head, as if answering her mother's question. "Yes, I'm going to have an abortion. It's this potion called the..."

Denali held her hand up and cut off Angelina in mid sentence, "I know the name of the bloody potion, Angelina. Why are you doing this?"

"Quidditch tryouts for the Tutshill Tornadoes are in..." She counted in her head, "about six weeks. Mum, I want to do this. I have to! I can't just sit here and become some old sod that is depressed and married at an early age because..."

Angelina stopped and looked at her mother who was shaking her head.

"You're going to owl that abortion place in Knockturn Alley and you're going to cancel that appointment. And then you're going to have a long talk with your dad. I'm not finished! After that, we'll sit and talk with Molly and Arthur Weasley and that boy of theirs and see where we go from here."

Denali was now pointing at her daughter, finger shaking, and face fuming. "There will be no Tutshill for you. I don't want to here anything else from you, either."

She put her finger down and shook her head sadly. "I'm so disappointed in you."

With that, she left the room, slamming the door.

It was then that Angelina had made up her decision. She ran to her closet, grabbed her old Cleansweep and opened the window.

"If it's got to be this way, so be it."

She squeezed out of her bedroom and looked for a perfect spot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fred had managed to find a nice but inexpensive ring that was white gold with a small sapphire in the middle.

"Oi, it's no diamond, but it's love!" Fred smiled a stupid grin as he got ready to Apparate to Angelina's home.

He knew at this particular time of the day, both her parents were home. He never really had the full intention of asking for her hand in marriage from her parents. Angie would loathe that and besides, he wasn't trying to marry Andrew or Denali Johnson.

So, in a rush of things, Fred Weasley Apparated into the backyard of the Johnson home. It was a pretty vast backyard. And he instantly remembered when he, George, Angelina, Alicia, and Lee would play Quidditch with each other before they entered Hogwarts and how they had played rough games of wizard tag.

Then he remembered when he played 'House'. They were only seven and even then Fred knew he had fancied her. It was also the first kiss they shared, even though Angelina slapped Fred at the time for doing it. Fred looked around and took in some fresh air with that same stupid grin on his face.

A noise over his head caught his attention and he looked up to see Angelina hanging from her broom by her hands.

She wasn't scared, at least she didn't look scared. In fact, she looked like...

"What are you doing up there?" Fred asked, the grin fading quickly from his face.

"I'm hanging, what does it look like?" Angelina said through stressed speech. She looked down at Fred with a smile. "It's for my audition."

Fred scratched his head, "Angie, if it's for auditions, where's your ball to practice with?"

As soon as he asked that, Angelina let her hands go and went crashing to the ground.