Chocolate & Pumpkin Ice Cream

"Hermione, what are you doing on Saturday?" Hermione turned around and gave George a curious, puzzled look. She placed her hands on her hips.

"Nothing. Why?" she asked suspiciously.

"Fred kind of persuaded me to look after Alexander." He gave her a sheepish grin. "I also kind of... told him you'd help me."

"What?" exploded Hermione. "You know what I'm like with little children. They don't like me much, either."

"Sorry, but I've finalised the arrangements. Hey, don't worry," he told her, approaching her and taking her into his arms. "He's only a few months old. All he does is eat, drink, poop and sleep."

"Like father, like son," murmured Hermione, resting her head on his chest.

George grinned. "See, if you can handle Fred at work, little Alexander shouldn't a be a problem."

"Hang on, did you say Saturday?" asked Hermione. George nodded. She frowned. "I'm supposed to be going to Diagon Alley with Ginny."

"Well, we can all go."

"I don't know..." He leant down and kissed her gently. "Okay, you can come," she said, her eyes still closed.

Alexander Levelle Weasley looked somewhat how Hermione imagined Fred and George must have looked when they were his age. Then again, Fred was his father. He had his mother's big blue eyes, but had inherited the trademark Weasley hair. "And how's my little nephew?" asked George when he awoke from his sleep. Alexander had been asleep when he had collected him from Fred and Katherine's house.

Almost instantly the baby began to cry. George picked him out of his carry cot and held him, rocking him gently. Alexander continued to cry, no matter what George did. When Hermione entered the room she shook her head and put down the bag she was carrying. She took Alexander from George's arms and began to rock him from side to side, murmuring things in his ear.

He stopped crying after a minute or so, and was quiet. "How did you do that?" George asked in amazement.

Still rocking him, Hermione said, "The poor little guy was confused. You look like his daddy, but he could tell you weren't."

"How?"

"You don't smell like Fred," she said simply, stroking the baby's red hair.

"Are you saying I smell?" demanded George in mock anger.

"No, I'm saying you use a different after shave."

George smiled, noticing how comfortable Hermione seemed to be, holding Alexander in her arms. "I thought you didn't like little children," he commented.

Hermione frowned. "Not normally. But... something feels different. I can't quite put my finger on it." She smiled at Alexander. "Shall we go and see Auntie Ginny?" she asked him. He gurgled in delight. "I'll take that as a 'yes'," she said, her smile growing.

They arrived in Diagon Alley about fifteen minutes later. It had taken them a while to get all of Alexander's things together. It had been a while since George had looked after any of his nieces or nephews and he had forgotten just how much 'stuff' they accumulated.

Ginny was waiting for them outside Flourish and Blotts. "I got the job!" she announced happily. She had just returned from her job interview in America. "I'm the new Head of International Communications."

"And what exactly does that mean?" asked Hermione, who was still cradling Alexander in her arms. He had taken to crying every time she passed him to George or put him in pram.

Ginny shrugged. "I don't know. Something to do with communications, I think," she said brightly. Hermione rolled her eyes and George chuckled softly.

"I'm thinking maybe they didn't hire her for her intelligence," George whispered in Hermione's ear. Hermione smiled. Ginny, however, wasn't amused.

"I heard that George Weasley!" she exclaimed. "Her tone softened when she said, "But seeing as you're going to buy me and Hermione ice cream's I think I can forgive you."

"How nice of you," muttered George under his breath as they set of for Florean Fortescue's which was near the other end of the street. Ginny walked a few paces behind George and Hermione. As Hermione was still holding Alexander, George was pushing his pram. Was it just Ginny or did they look like a young family out for the day?

"Right? So what are you ladies having?" asked George as they stood inside Florean Fortescue's, studying the large list of flavours on the wall. Ginny told him almost instantly that she wanted mint chocolate chip but Hermione spent a few minutes studying the menu before eventually deciding upon chocolate and pumpkin flavour.

"What is it with you and that combination?" asked Ginny as she and Hermione sat at a table outside while George ordered their ice creams. He joined them a couple of minutes later.

"I don't know. I just feel like eating it," Hermione admitted. "To tell the truth it's disgusting, but I can't stop eating it!"

Their ice creams arrived a few minutes later, and Hermione ate hers hungrily, while George, who had only ordered a small vanilla cone, amused Alexander. Alexander had seemed to accept that George wasn't his daddy and that he just looked a lot like him.

"She's probably just stressed," said George. Ginny gave him a strange look. "She eats chocolate ice cream when she's stressed or worried about something!"

"Maybe it's got something to do with her secret boyfriend," suggested Ginny, looking pointedly at Hermione. Hermione blushed heavily. Ginny noticed out of the corner of her eye that George fidgeted uncomfortably when she said that.

"So are you going to go and live in America?" George asked his sister, trying to change the subject.

Ginny nodded. "Yeah, the company has a house for me over there. But I'm going to come back every weekend," she promised.

"Lucky us," said George.

"Hey! You know you'd hate it if I went away permanently. I'm your favourite little sister."

"You're my only little sister," pointed out George. "In fact, you're my only sister."

"And that's why you love me," said Ginny brightly.

"Uh, huh," agreed George in a less than interested tone. Ginny grinned at him.

"Just move that a little..."

"Is that better?"

"Yes. Now see if you can..."

"I think I'm getting better at this!"

"I think you are you. Maybe you'll be as good as Ron one day," Hermione said.

"Hey!" protested George. "I thought you promised you wouldn't compare me to Ron?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Hermione apologised. "But it's hard not to."

Listening to their conversation from outside the workshop door, Fred Weasley was wondering what George and Hermione were actually talking about. Or what they were doing. It all sounded rather... well, Fred preferred not to think about it.

He knocked nervously on the door and cleared his throat. "Err, can I come in?"

"Just a sec," called Hermione. She giggled slightly, and a second later you could hear the sound of the door being unlocked. "You can come in now!"

"What are you two doing?" Fred asked, pushing the door open.

"Playing chess," George informed him grinning. Fred's face flushed. He hadn't been expecting that answer. George instructed a bishop to move and Hermione studied the board, contemplating her next move. Before she could order her Queen to move, the board exploded. A mushroom-shaped cloud of purple smoke rose from the board.

Coughing, the two of the waved the smoke away. "What do you think, Fred?" asked George while Hermione opened a window. "It's kind of a mixture between Wizards chess and Exploding Snap."

"It's good. I was, uh, just coming to check up on you," he stammered. He picked up a random quill that was lying on the workbench. "And get this," he said quickly. "Now I've got it, I'm going to go." He quickly left the room, shutting the door behind him. Hermione watched as he left.

"You win," George told her sullenly, looking at the chess board. It had been his black pieces which had exploded, not her white ones.

"Do I get a prize?" she asked.

"I think we can arrange that," he told her slyly. He leant across the chess set where the pieces were rearranging themselves. He kissed her gently and sat back in his chair, smiling. "What about me. Do I get a consolation prize?"

"Definitely," Hermione told him. She kissed him, and when she sat back in her chair, he had a slightly dazed expression on his face.

"I think I'm going to have to lose more often," he told her. She beamed and then began to pack the test chess pieces away. They were still prototypes and she kept them in a fireproof box in case they exploded unexpectedly. George had almost lost his eyebrows the first few times they had tried playing, so they had had to change the force of the explosion. It was quite a tricky job.

She suddenly dropped a piece, and it clattered to the floor. "He knows!" she exclaimed.

"Pardon?"

She pointed at the door, her finger shaking. "He, he knows! Fred knows!"

"What? How can you be so sure? Okay, so he made up a pathetic excuse to come in here and blushed when I said we were just playing chess, but that could mean... he knows!" George suddenly realised. Hermione nodded. "Okay, this is not good." Hermione shook her head. She picked up the bishop that she had dropped and placed it in the box silently while it shook it's tiny fist at her.

"Ding, dong! Avon calling!" Harry poked his head around the door of the back entrance to the workshop. He was grinning and carrying a large ice cream.

Hermione and George looked at each other. George nodded. "Hi, Harry! It's so good to see you," said Hermione standing up. She pushed him into a chair.

"It's, uh, nice to see you too."

"Harry, does Fred know about us?" George asked, standing next to Harry. Because Harry was sitting, George towered over him, intimidating him somewhat.

Harry's green eyes widened. "I swear I didn't tell them!"

"Them?" demanded Hermione angrily.

Realising his mistake, Harry tried to cover his tracks. "Fred and... Harry."

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Okay, okay! Ginny. But I didn't tell them."

"How did they find out then?" asked George.

Harry squinted, trying to remember. "Fred said that he went to your house to wake George up one morning and he saw you sleeping in the same bed. Ginny found out just before she went for her job interview. She got Fred to take her to your house and they kind of... heard you."

"Heard us?" asked Hermione. Then it dawned on her what he meant. "Oh." She blushed furiously.

"This is okay now!" Harry told them. "Now everyone can know. You don't have to hide this any more. Now you can tell everyone and I won't have to keep secrets!"

Hermione turned to George. "I don't think I'm ready for everyone to find out," she said.

"Me neither," he agreed.

"We could have a little fun with this," said Hermione. "They don't know that we know that they know." George looked interested. Harry looked miserable.

"So, which flavour is then, 'Manda?" Katherine asked curiously. All of the Weasley women, that is, the wives of Bill, Charlie, Percy, Ron and of course Molly Weasley along with Ginny were seated around the large table in the kitchen of the Burrow.

Molly Weasley had called all of her daughters-in-law around to celebrate Ron and Amanda's good news; they were having a baby.

"What do you mean?" asked Amanda, confused by the ripple of laughter this caused from the others, excluding Ginny, who was as much in the dark as she was.

"Which ice cream flavour are you craving?" asked Meredith, Charlie's Muggle wife. They had met while he had been working in Australia with some migrating Opal Eye's. "Women who are having a Weasley baby always crave ice cream."

"And the flavour tells you about the baby's personality," added Shannon, Bill's Irish wife. She was a very quiet, dark haired woman who barely spoke up, but when she did she was usually quite witty. "For instance, Benjamin was strawberry and peanut butter swirl and Serena was raspberry crunch."

"This little one," said Penelope, Percy's wife, "is carrot and orange." She placed a hand on her heavily pregnant stomach.

"Just like his dad," commented Molly Weasley.

Amanda smiled. "Vanilla and coconut," she told them.

"Well, that's easy," said Meredith. "It's a boy."

"How can you tell?" asked Ginny, taking a swig of her pumpkin juice.

"It's two flavours," Meredith explained, tapping her fingers on the table in a constant, rhythmic pattern. "Two is a boy, one is a girl."

"Let's see... oh, he'll be head strong and resilient. Maybe a little-stuck up," said Molly.

"Thanks for the warning," Amanda told her.

Ginny laughed. "Ron'll be pleased; that sounds like Percy. What flavour was I, mum?"

Molly tilted her head to one side as she thought. "You were peppermint. Actually, Ron was vanilla and coconut. Well, Bill was strawberry and peanut butter swirl, Charlie was onion and carrot," Ginny and Katherine made gagging noises at this while Meredith made a mental note of this so she could tease her husband. "Percy was carrot and orange, the twins were chocolate and pumpkin, Ron was..."

But Ginny had stopped listening. She almost dropped her glass of pumpkin juice. "Back up a bit. What did you say the twins were?"

"Chocolate and pumpkin," her mother repeated.

Ginny's eyes widened. "Chocolate and pumpkin?" Her mother nodded.

"I wonder when our last seat is going to be filled?" said Shannon, nodding in the direction of the empty chair which sat next to Ginny. "When's George going to get married?"

"Please, George is probably going to be a bachelor for the rest of his life. He doesn't even have a girlfriend," pointed out Meredith.

"You know, I might do a Tarot reading for him. See if there's any romance in his future?" suggested Shannon.

'I think there's plenty of romance in his life right now,' Ginny thought with a sigh. She was really hoping her suspicions about Hermione weren't true. And if they were... well, her and George's relationship wasn't, or rather couldn't, be kept a secret much longer. A smile slowly spread across her face as she began to concoct a plan...

She was snapped out of her daze when Katherine spoke to her. "What about you, Gin? When are you and Peter going to tie the knot? You've been dating for ages."

"We haven't really discussed marriage," Ginny admitted.

"You haven't?" asked Meredith.

Ginny shook her head. "No. Uh, do you mind if I leave now? I kind of have something to do."

"Sure, darling," Molly said, smiling. "The Floo powder's..."

"In the flower pot," finished Ginny. "I know, Mum. I did live here for eighteen years."

"Of course you did," her mother said. Ginny kissed her on the cheek and strode over to the window sill and took a pinch of Floo powder. "I'll see you soon," she told them all as she threw the powder in the fire which changed colour almost instantly. She stepped in the fire and waved before shouting her address and disappearing in a swirl of flames.