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"She's not home." George's arms were crossed over his chest as he stood in the doorway. Ron immediately got the impression that he wasn't welcome, but they had agreed to raise a baby together, hadn't they? So George was going to have to get used to Ron stopping by from time to time.
"No, I know. She's with Neville; they're having a long overdue catch up." Ron paused for a moment. "I thought I'd swing by and see how you and Fred are? But if it's not a good time, I'll just head to Mum's…" He didn't really want to go to the Burrow. He hadn't been able to face his mum since he had found out that Hermione was pregnant. He knew that his mum was probably over the moon to be a grandmother again, but he wasn't sure that she would understand their arrangement and he wasn't going to be the one to explain it to her. As far as he was concerned, that wasn't his job and maybe he was being stubborn, but he didn't much care about that.
"No, it's fine. Come on in." George stepped to the side to allow Ron to move past him, though his expression stayed somewhat hard and Ron found himself hoping that Fred was actually home and could act as a barrier between them. Ron loved all of his brothers dearly, but he knew that George had developed a chip on his shoulder when it came to Ron after he had broken Hermione's heart. He had never and would never forgive himself for what he had done to her, but they couldn't dwell on the past forever, not now.
Ron rubbed his arms as he headed through to the living room and all but breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Fred was sat lounging on the settee, a bottle of firewhiskey in his hand.
"Ronnikins!" He beamed when he caught sight Ron who could only lift an eyebrow slightly. So the man was drunk? He supposed that explained the attitude of George, that it wasn't entirely Ron's fault that he was annoyed today.
"Enjoying yourself there, Fred?" He asked as he sat on the arm of a chair across from the drunken twin and listened to the sigh that came out of the one that Ron assumed was currently sober.
"I am, actually!" Fred grinned, his voice just that little bit too loud for the flat, which Ron supposed was another good reason for them to be moving somewhere bigger, though when they did all move then Fred wasn't going to be able to openly drink like this again.
"Celebrating something?" He had to ask, glancing over his shoulder at George who was leaning against the wall now, his arms still crossed across his chest.
"Just the opposite. He's just drinking to get drunk." George said unfairly. Both of them were both aware of George's vices after all, the one that supposedly no-one knew about. Ron decided not to bring it up now though, just in case George decided to boot him out of the window or something. George might not have been the dramatic sibling, but he was still a Weasley.
"Enough to go around?" He asked Fred instead as he reached for the bottle. The next expression was 'if you can't beat them, join them', right? He wanted to ask Fred if something was wrong but before he could do that the man was handing him the bottle of firewhiskey and Ron was taking a long swig.
"How's she been anyway?" Ron asked as he lowered the bottle again. When he had tried to ask Hermione herself she had all but shut him down, which hadn't helped him to feel less concerned about the mother of his unborn child. "Do I need to get Harry to write a strongly worded letter to Kingsley about cutting her some slack yet?" It was a little strange how easily Ron was able to fall into conversation with Fred after a drink. He supposed that it made sense that his inhibitions were now lowered thanks to the alcohol and neither of them needed to hide behind any sort of reservations.
Fred let out a slightly cold laugh, and it didn't take long for Ron to realise that it was potentially holding some resentment. "She's still not told work or Harry or anyone but us."
"Didn't Bill and Fleur wait until they were three months along?" Ron hummed, he wasn't going to hold it against Hermione if she wasn't ready for people to know about the baby, he wasn't ready either. "We're not quite there yet." We. The royal we. It still felt weird to even think about the fact that the five of them were going to raise a child together.
"They did." George agreed, now having moved to sit on the armchair. "Fred's just extra sensitive today, don't mind him."
"Yeah. Don't mind me. Just the same way that we're all not minding the fact that Hermione is running herself into the ground." Fred muttered as he snatched the bottle back from Ron, turning his head away from his brothers in a way that made Ron think that there was a chance that he might end up in tears any second now. Alcohol was a strange drug, and it did even stranger things to one's emotions.
Ron exchanged a glance with George who he realised wasn't grumpy, but frustrated, and yet was doing his best to take all of this in his stride. Ron was aware that the twins processed things in different ways, but he'd not seen Fred like this since he had first come to after being knocked out during the Battle of Hogwarts. Coming to terms with the fact that he had almost died had not been an easy task for the man to do, especially when it had set every single member of his family on edge, but Ron wanted to reassure him that this wasn't at all like that - he just didn't know how to do that.
"I thought she took some time off last week?" He asked slowly. He wasn't really kept up to date about what Hermione did and didn't do, which was fair enough. "If she feels like she needs to take some more time off, then I'm sure she will. She's a capable woman, Fred. You know that." Hermione had always been strong and independent - she'd been the one to look after them all for the last decade and the rest, and she would continue to do so for another decade to come, he was sure.
"I tried." George whispered to Ron and Ron didn't need to ask what he had tried to do. They all dealt with things and processed them in different ways and he couldn't blame Fred for needing to have a breakdown about it.
He gave George a smile, but he already knew that he was going to drink with Fred in support. If Fred needed to drink to let himself let go enough to be able to just… relax. Ron reckoned that he had probably been wound up since Hermione had first told him about the pregnancy, if not before then. Ron was lucky in the fact that he hadn't been living in the same flat as Hermione, that he had been able to put some distance between himself and the whole situation while he had been wrapping his head around the fact that he was going to be a father while Fred had been thrown head first into this and with Hermione choosing to live with him, he wasn't getting any time at all to himself.
"Got anything else to drink?" Ron asked as he pushed himself to his feet, deciding to move away from George before he smacked him upside the head for encouraging Fred in the first place.
"Check the cupboards." Fred said with a shrug, though he seemed to have recovered his emotions a little now - or at least he didn't look as though he was going to cry anymore.
Ron nodded and headed into the kitchenette to see if he could find something other than the firewhiskey that he was sure was going to burn a while in his throat if he continued to drink it all night. After he found a bottle of something fruity he used his wand to send a patronus to Neville to let him know that he was going to be home late.