#note: holey not to be confused with holy

[rachymarie]

ok so y'all know i support self-expression in fashion and all but - and call me a hater or whatever - if i'm ever in the hospital and my nurse comes in wearing holey crocs with jibbitz on, please make triple-sure to sedate me (heavily) bc i will be srsly freaking out about the hospital's hygiene standards from that point on

[looneyleyle]

aunt muriel ~ g. weasley

synopsis: as war breaks out in the wizarding world, members of the order are forced to go into hiding, and what better place to go than your irritable aunt muriel's?

warnings: canon injuries (george's ear)

words: 2304

note: from my wattpad account, written dec 18 2020

ella's pov

harry and hagrid were the first to arrive at the burrow. i was relieved to see them, but concerned that no one else was back yet. molly, ginny, and i had all stayed at the burrow, prepared to heal anyone in the order who got hurt during the fight. i had joined the order after my dad, sirius black, was killed. since then, i had stayed intermittently with the weasleys, while sometimes opting to stay at 12 grimmauld place.

soon, lupin got back with george. a wave of relief washed through my body, but was quickly replaced with worry when i saw the blood on george's head. molly brought him over to the couch while ginny and i got the towels and bandages. molly worked on cleaning his wounds and healing him, and i knelt down next to him on the floor, holding his hand.

only a minute or so later, fred ran in. moving aside, i let fred talk to him as i got ready to bandage him up.

"how do you feel georgie?" he asked, worry etched into his brow.

"saintlike." george whispered, a faraway smile on his face.

"come again?"

"saintlike. i'm holy…" he repeated, pointing to where his ear used to be, "holey, get it?" fred let out a slightly relieved chuckle.

"the whole world of ear-related humor, and you go for 'i'm holy'? you're pathetic."

"reckon i'm still better looking than you." george retorted. shaking my head, i wrapped up george's head and started tending to the minor injuries the others had.

with the burrow being full of people, everyone was sharing a room with someone else that night. being a girl, i was with hermione and ginny. fleur and bill stayed in his old room, fred and george obviously took their own room, and ron shared his room with harry. most of the adults left, or stayed in the living room and talked. despite the day's happenings, hermione and ginny were still down to have a late night gossip session.

"10 sickles bill and fleur are doing it right now." ginny blurted out. hermione and i looked at her, jaws dropped, before bursting out laughing.

"what about tonks and lupin?" hermione giggled. i scoffed.

"now that tonks is pregnant? no way"

"pregnant?!" ginny whisper-yelled. i was confused, then nearly jumped up in shock.

"i wasn't supposed to say anything." i mumbled.

"she's pregnant? tonks doesn't look pregnant at all." hermione noted.

"concealment charms. they wanted to keep it a surprise. the only reason i know is because they asked me to take care of him in case anything… happens." i told them. i was one of tonks's few relatives that wasn't obsessed with blood status. i had been a ravenclaw in my time at hogwarts, and was shunned by my family for it. tonks was the one who signed my hogsmeade forms, and from there, we grew quite close. when her and lupin found out about the pregnancy, they immediately told me and asked if i would be the godmother.

from there, the night got a bit grim. the ever-looming presence of war weighed down on everyone, even with bill and fleur's wedding on the horizon. we all had bags packed and ready in case something bad happened.

~ ~ ~

"you'll never guess what i saw this morning." george laughed as he came toward me. i looked back at him inquisitively before continuing to try to zip up my dress.

"harry and ginny were having a bit of fun in the kitchen." my eyes widened like saucers.

"they were having sex?" i asked breathlessly. he laughed and shook his head. noticing my struggles with my dress, he came up behind me and zipped up my dress.

"nope, just swapping saliva." i laughed at that, imagining the embarrassment on their faces when they realized george was there. leaning back into george, i let out a long-needed sigh.

"i have a bad feeling georgie. about the wedding." i whispered. he wrapped his arms around me, causing my body to heat up.

"me too ella. best we can do is enjoy ourselves while we can." staying like that for a few minutes, we enjoyed the comfort of each other before finishing up the wedding preparations.

while i was still paranoid about all the possible ways the wedding could go horribly wrong, i managed to enjoy myself for a while. i had to stop the twins from replacing the doves in the ceremony with crows, and they almost succeeded in changing the wedding cake flavor to earwax. i had to grab them both by the ear ("you're going to make me lose my other ear woman!") and tell them to knock it off. afterwards, the wedding was quite fun. fred was hitting on some french girls, and george occasionally try to ruin his attempts by telling them embarrassing stories about fred as a child. the french girls either didn't understand or didn't care, as they still whisked fred away to some unknown corner of the tent. george found himself in a crowd of older wizards, all talking to him about random things.

"i don't understand how neither of you has made a move on each other." ginny commented. taking my stare off of george, i looked at ginny with a small smile.

"it's kind of like you and harry. we both know how we feel about each other, but… it's not exactly the best time to be getting together. with the war, anything can happen…" i trailed off sorrowfully, looking back at george. noticing my bittersweet smile, he frowned and came over to me.

"you alright love?" he asked into my hair, his arms wound tightly around me. i nodded returning the hug.

in that moment, everything went to hell.

the news of the ministry's downfall came, and soon enough, death eaters were attacking, despite all of the protective charms placed on the area. grabbing my bag, george and i found fred and apparated to our safe house.

"i told you right from the start that a wedding was a bad idea. especially with that french girl." the old lady said to molly.

"that didn't stop you from coming to the wedding and inviting all of your friends, now did it muriel." molly pointed out. arthur, ginny, fred, george, and i put up protective charms while molly and muriel bickered.

"… and ronald's hair was far too long, he looked like ginerva! and ginerva's dress was far too low cut for a young lady! and george, oh, he used to be such a handsome boy, but now he's all lopsided with the missing ear." muriel continued. george, though he made it very clear he did not care about his aunt's opinion, was obviously hurt by this.

"well that's quite rude. ron's hair was just fine, ginny's dress looked amazing on her, and george is just as handsome as ever, ear or no ear." i said defensively, stepping forward. muriel looked me up and down.

"and who might you be?" muriel asked, a fire in her eyes.

"ella black." a satisfied smirk rested on muriel's face.

"ah, the murderer's daughter. no wonder you have no manners. a proper lady should never speak out. it is a man's job to stand up for himself."

"ah, to be an outdated geezer. to be so content with the incorrect idea that women are inferior and weak." i said, rolling my eyes. fred, george, and ginny all let out a surprised snort. even molly seemed proud of me standing up to muriel.

with that pleasant first impression, i began my long stay at muriel's house. it was quite plain to see that she hated me, because i was the only one who would stand up to her besides molly. fred and george displayed their dislike for muriel by running weasley's wizard wheezes out of her owl room. being the head of advertisement, i quickly found ways for these normally (mostly) harmless items to help out with the war. instead of being used to disappear after a masterful prank, the peruvian instant darkness powder helped wizards escape snatchers and death eaters. creepy crawlies and dungbombs were used to help make the homes of hidden witches and wizards seem deserted and disgusting. extendable ears helped witches and wizards listen for intruders. almost every product had a new use for the war. there were heavy precautions set up to make sure our location was safe. we had nearly twenty stops the owls and other creatures would go through to deliver letters and items. our most common letter-carriers were rats, as the ministry would not think to intercept a rat. every letter to and from customers were written in code and under false names. molly and arthur weren't too keen on the twins keeping up their business, but it proved helpful to many witches and wizards, and brought in quite a profit.

many months passed, and against molly and arthur's wishes, ginny went back to hogwarts. all of us were worried, as ginny never wrote home. luckily, the resistance radio station gave updates everyday, and no one in school had been severely harmed yet.

"we should have never sent her back." molly stated firmly, pacing around the kitchen. it was getting near the holidays, and in a normal year, ginny would be getting off of the hogwarts express today and coming back home to the burrow.

"and who was the one who said ginerva should have stayed here, where it's safe? but no, education is more important than the war going on to you hooligans."

"ginny is more than capable of protecting herself. she's fought death eaters before, and did quite well from what i've heard." turning on my heels, i left for the owl room.

"merlin, that woman is exhausting. i could only hand a second of her rubbish before wanting to drown myself in the black lake." i huffed, taking a seat next to the twins. they were working on some orders, but seemed happy for a distraction from their work.

"it took you this long to find her insufferable?" george asked.

"new world record." fred added.

"i couldn't care less that she hates me, but must she criticize every little thing other people do? merlin's beard, everything that comes out of that pompous piehole is another complaint. i don't think i've ever heard her say one positive thing. what an antagonistic arse." i ranted. when i noticed an unusual silence from the twins, i looked up to see them giving each other a knowing look.

"what?" i asked. george broke his stare with his brother to look at me, a big smile on his face.

"don't worry about it love."

~ ~ ~

on christmas, we all tried to put aside the bleakness and feeling of pending danger. muriel's house contained just about every christmas food the weasleys normally made. there were decorations, lights, skating santas, and homemade presents. muriel was as unpleasant as ever, but she didn't seem to be complaining as much as usual.

we spent the day singing songs, dancing, playing out in the snow, drinking hot chocolate, eating, and eventually opening presents.

from arthur and molly, i got a book of fairy tales they used to read to their kids at night called beedle the bard, and, of course, a knitted sweater with a large e on it. for them, i made a potion that got out the messiest stains (which was quite useful with fred and george around) and a photobook of their family. molly cried as she looked through it, hugging the book. from fred, i got a box of bertie botts every flavored beans, 2 chocolate frogs, and some puking pastels, in case muriel gets to be too much. in return, i gave him some homemade cauldron cakes and exploding bonbons. and finally, from george, i got a beautiful necklace. it was silver, and had a felix felicis pendant on it. for him, i had a snitch-sized enchanted bludger. i had it custom made about a year ago, realizing that i probably wouldn't be able to go out and get it this year. inside of the bludger was a picture of us that fred had taken without our knowledge.

it was from our last year at hogwarts, in the gryffindor common room. we had decided to skip potions that day, and instead, we stayed in the common room, bundled up in front of the fire, enjoying each other's presence. fred, who had pretended to be sick that day, came down from the boy's dormitory and snapped a picture of us cuddling together on the couch. when george saw the picture inside the bludger, he pulled me into a tight hug.

"i love it." he whispered into my shoulder. as i hugged back, i heard muriel start 'whispering' to molly.

"how disgusting. george needs to snap out of it and pick a real woman to be with. she would be a disgrace to the family."

george, upon hearing this, pulled me up from the hug, making the two of us stand in front of the living room. sending a sharp glare at muriel, he smashed his lips onto mine. shocked, yet extremely pleased, i returned the kiss immediately. i assumed it would be short, but george seemed to want to make it real clear that i was here to stay. his tongue swiped at my bottom lip, and muriel made appalled noises of shock. fred laughed, though quickly started to pretend to throw up as i parted my lips. when george pulled away, i noticed arthur and molly were staring happily at us.

"no matter what you say, you old hag, i love ella, and some day, i will win her hand in marriage, and she will be an official weasley." he said, wrapping an arm around my waist.