On The Hill (Again)
Fitz stretched out on the hill beside his wife and sister-in-law. “Jesus Christ. Does your dad ever mow up here?”
“I think he’s given it up by now,” Molly said cheerfully.
“I’m going to come over next weekend and mow it for him,” grumbled Fitz, testing the height of the grass against his hand. “Goddamn ridiculous out here.”
“Where’s Hilarion?” Lucy asked, glancing down toward the house.
“Trapped with your dad, asking him about the Arrows. I chucked the baby at your mum and ran before he could corner me too.”
“Smart thinking,” Molly remarked.
“Throwing a baby at Mum always works. Hilarion’s too nice to do it, though.” Lucy sighed and stacked her hands on her belly. “I could fall asleep right here. The kids were up at dawn, screaming their heads off at one another, bless them.”
“I don’t know how you do three,” Molly told her sister. “With two I’m already exhausted.”
“One more doesn’t add much, really,” Lucy said dreamily. “It was already a madhouse with Flora and Josie, and I was hoping for a boy.”
“In that case, well done for getting him on your next try. And Ben is adorable.”
So much more placid than his two sisters, was the unspoken addition. Molly didn’t need to say it aloud for her husband to hear it, and he hid a smile before turning to her.
“We could try for the same as Lucy and Hilarion in reverse,” Fitz offered. “We’ve got the two boys, we could try for a girl.”
“You say we like you do any of the birthing,” Molly put in dryly.
He smiled at her. Molly had already told him she thought she wanted one more, and her labors with their first two had been remarkably fast, so he knew she wasn’t really bothered. ‘Always so competitive, had to deliver your babies faster than anyone else,’ Lucy had said after Angus had been born three hours after Molly’s first contraction.
“Jinks says odd numbers are lucky,” he pointed out.
“That’s because Jinks only has one,” Lucy chuckled. “When he and Lily have another, he’ll say even numbers are lucky.”
“I’m glad you’re on to him too,” Fitz told his sister-in-law. “Sometimes I’m the only teetotaler at the Jinks party.”
“Oh, you love him too.” Molly looked blissfully unconcerned, but then she was responsible for bringing Jinks into a related-by-marriage status to Fitz. On purpose, to boot, probably with malice aforethought.
“He’s an idiot.”
“Anyone who marries into the Weasleys is an idiot,” his wife informed him with a twinkle in her eyes. “Except poor Hilarion, who was too nice to say no. Jinks fits right in with the rest of you lot.”
Fitz couldn’t really argue with that, and smiled at her for lumping him in with the idiots. She had an excellent point.
Lucy had begun to smile. “There’s not a lot of men who are as ridiculous as Lily is. She had to snap him up.”
“Remember the pink velvet suit he wore to their wedding?” Molly chuckled.
It had been an obnoxious shade of bright fuchsia, and Fitz still rolled his eyes every time he thought of it. Jinks had also grown his hair long and worn it in what Lily insisted on calling a man bun for the wedding, with a flower from Lily’s bouquet tucked in his hair. Lily, for her part, had worn a dress that was turquoise at the bottom and buttercup yellow at the top and showed off her pregnant belly. Dominique had sniffed at their lack of sartorial decorum, but the rest of the Weasleys had enjoyed themselves immensely at the over the top party, what with Sid officiating with a potentially forged ministerial certificate, the contortionists performing, Roxanne’s friend the accordionist wandering about playing folk-style covers of dirty pop songs accompanied by a friend of Jinks’s on bagpipe, the Morris dancers, and Jinks’s dads singing a couple of Italian love songs. Lily and Jinks put on a good show, he had to admit.
Lucy was laughing now too. “Remember when Lily was the halftime show at the Quidditch World Cup?”
“I should have sacked him for doing that in the middle of the Cup,” Fitz grumbled good-naturedly, since he’d actually found Jinks’s antics at the World Cup entertaining.
“McCormack would never have let you,” Molly told him, grinning. “Think of all the free publicity. Pride of Portree’s Seeker proposing to Harry Potter’s daughter in the middle of the World Cup? Every newspaper in the world talked about our team. I’m surprised McCormack didn’t offer Lily a stipend.”
“You know he bloody added it in one of his codicils, Lily sits in the coaches’ box.” Fitz heaved a sigh and then smiled. “One day Jinks is going to have modified that contract so many times that the spells collide and catch fire.”
Molly scooted a bit closer, taking his hand. “Nah. McCormack redid it last year, so all the codicils are in there. She still wouldn’t agree to the Fizzing Whizbees, but Jinks said he’s going to try again this fall.”
“I swear to God, I will set his broom on fire if he keeps this up,” Fitz groaned. “He needs a new bloody hobby. How old do kids have to be before they can join a Quidditch Tots league? Getting Violet on a broom would keep him busy.”
“Violet isn’t even walking yet, so I think you’ll have to wait a bit,” Molly said, amused.
“She’s got Seeker blood, she’ll probably fly as soon as she can stand on her own,” Lucy put in. “Flora was on a broom by the time she was three, and Josie has already figured it out from watching her. The Arrows manager bought tiny little robes for each of them in the team colors.”
“Goddamn Seekers, always have to be the star.” Fitz sat up, looking down toward the house. “Even your shy man. Should I go rescue him from your dad?”
Lucy sighed and hauled herself upright. “No, I’ll go get him. If I’m not back in five minutes, just come down to the house and we’ll let Mum feed everyone.”
As soon as she started downhill, Fitz looked down at his wife, who smiled up at him.
“Five minutes,” she said. “You know she’s not escaping my mum’s clutches and we’ll have to go in too. Better kiss me quickly.”