In the next few weeks, Remus announced that Tonks gave birth to a baby boy. Most of the Order didn't even know she was pregnant because of the disillusion charm she had cast over her belly to avoid suspicion. It would be highly dangerous to walk along the Death Eater infested streets with a bump and a werewolf walking next to you. It was for the safety of Tonks and their unborn baby, but now the little one was free and would hopefully grow up in a world where he would be accepted as a supposed 'half-breed'.

This seemed to be the only good news in the entire Wizarding world. More and more people began disappearing and Harry, Ron and Hermione's faces were planted everywhere with a big 'WANTED' sign over their heads. Arthur had gone to get the paper one day and came back with three posters that had been put in every edition of the Daily Prophet. Molly was upset when she pulled the poster of her own son out of her husband's hand and was ready to fall over when the article about a breach in the Ministry was read out by Arthur. The three had somehow gotten as far as the Department of Mysteries and had allegedly stunned Umbridge, who had taken the role of judging who should be sent to Azkaban, before escaping the grips of the new Minister for Magic; Corban Yaxley.

Blair stared at the article about her uncle's address to the escapees and felt near nothing for him. She thought that despite his Death Eater reputation, she would feel a sense of familiarity as he was her only known living relative, but she was empty when she saw the moving picture of him in the Daily Prophet. He threatened those who were hiding Harry Potter and his friends will be sent to Azkaban without a trial. She despised his resemblance to her mother and hoped that she'd never cross paths with him in her lifetime.

"Stop reading that," the paper was pulled out of her hands and George's face appeared in front of hers. He sighed when she pouted and fell down in the seat next to her on the sofa. The living room was lit by the afternoon sun that hung high outside and made the room warm, despite it being a chilly autumn day.

"Don't go pouting like that. You know I'm right," George sassed and brought the cup of what Blair assumed was Molly's freshly made pumpkin-flavoured tea to his lips. She threaded her arm through his and grabbed his hand that laid limply on his knee, leaning her head on his shoulder.

Blair couldn't be more relieved to be back at The Burrow. With Fletcher gone for good and The Burrow's barrier keeping them safer than Hogwarts, she could breathe somewhat easily. She could cuddle up to George at night in his room and not have to worry about Death Eaters coming knocking on their door. If they were still in that hotel that couldn't keep the biggest of live rats out, they were sure to be sleeping with their eyes open. Her father's potion book would need to be disguised and kept close instead of in Blair's trunk of clothes upstairs in Fred and George's room.

"Did you give Freddie the list?" she asked while adjusting her cheek against George's shoulder.

"Yeah but chances are he won't look at it," he answered, leaning his head against hers. He admitted that he was also relieved to be home and couldn't imagine leaving for another long mission like the one before. He had even sent Fred to get the potion's main ingredients rather than going himself, using the excuse that he would then help Blair make the potion and Fred can sit out for the brewing process.

The potion had many ingredients in order to brew it perfectly. Blair's original stash of things for her healing potion would be extremely useful but there were rarer things that they'd need in order to follow her father's recipe. Things that were native to certain countries and went for a hefty price on the black market. They would need to hunt for those, but for the starting point, the ingredients could be found in general potioneering shops. If there were still open, that is.

Looking at their entwined hands, Blair spotted the silver ring that hadn't left her finger. The silver pressed against George's ring finger and made her think that he should get one too, just to make the both of them feel included in the engagement. She was glad that he had given it to here before the mission, but was starting to wonder whether he had been thinking about having the ceremony any time soon.

"Have you thought about..." Blair started but decided not to finish. She wasn't sure if it was the topic to bring up at this moment because of all of the chaos that's been going on. She didn't want George to think that she was getting impatient and wanted to be done with it as it certainly wasn't what she was. Yes, she wanted to get married and be bound to George. She knew she wouldn't meet another man who would make her feel the way she does about her fiancé. But she couldn't help but feel like they were running out of time. A clock was ticking in her head yet she didn't know what would happen once it stopped.

"The wedding? I have," she felt him nod his head against hers. "Trust me; I'm as eager as you are."

She hummed in reply and was glad that he was feeling the same way. She'd hate to suddenly bring a full blown wedding on the Weasleys and those she wanted to invite. She didn't know what people were going through with the Ministry now corrupt and hunting those that they deemed unworthy of living outside the walls of Azkaban. It seemed unethical to Blair to suddenly go 'We're getting married! Come forget that You Know Who is taking over the world and killing people left and right! It's all about us today!'.

"I'd love to have it here with just Mum, Dad, the boys and Ginny. But I know you'd want to invite Nancy and all that. They could be in hiding or something. Wasn't one of them a Muggle-born?" George said and Blair nodded. "I know you wouldn't want to get them arrested by those bloody snatchers and neither would I. No matter how much I want to get married to you, I know it's not that easy to just up and do it. I also know that you want to have a wedding like Bill and Fleur did. That would take a lot of planning and I fear for Mum's mental health."

She chuckled lightly and agreed with everything George said, amazed that he was able to hit every nail on the head that was etched in her mind. But no matter how much of what he said was true and identical to her own thoughts, she was slightly disappointed in hearing that planning the wedding she wanted would take months. She loved everything about Fleur and Bill's wedding and wanted to have nearly everything they had for her special day. But that wasn't possible in the time frame she was imagining.

"I'm back with Snape's depressing, traitor life in bags!" Fred appeared in the doorway with packages and bags filling his arms. Blair pulled her head off of George's shoulder and stood from the sofa, heading over to grab the string-tied package that was beginning to fall from the crevice of his arm.

"How much did you pay for all this, Freddie?" she questioned, counting the things that were well over how much she had listed for him to get.

"Never ask the price for these sort of things. I splurged so that we were sure to have enough," he reasoned and dropped all of the packages on to the dining table. Blair cringed at the clang of glass bottles banging together from within the wrappings and stopped one of them from rolling over the edge of the tabletop. She felt George stop behind her and remind her of the discussion they were having before Fred had walked in. There would be a time later where she would want to talk about it further, but she could hold off until then.

"It was real depressing walking through the shops," Fred explained. "It usually gets all Christmasy during this time of year. But there was nothing. Not even any string lights or baubles."

Blair had forgotten that it was a month until Christmas. Autumn was in full swing and would soon be replaced with cold nights and snow in most areas of the country. Her love for Christmas would overpower anything, even when she used to go home from Hogwarts to the orphanage in her first year. It wasn't until her second year that she realised Christmas at Hogwarts was amazing and more festive than any place near Wool's Orphanage. But her excitement and anticipation for the holiday had been tainted, just as everyone's seemed to have been. You Know Who had somehow been able to remove all the festivity and warmth that comes with Christmas.

"I'll go upstairs and set up a cauldron," George stated and left the kitchen, sensing the atmosphere turning into the complete opposite of what the word Christmas usually brought.

"He seems a little gloomy," Fred mentioned once his twin disappeared up the staircase. "Did you have an argument or something?"

"No. We were just talking about the wedding. Or the possibility of a wedding, I should say," she sighed and busied herself with one of the strings tied around the smallest package of ingredients.

"Ah yes, the grand wedding. I've heard about that a couple times in the last week."

"He's talked to you about it?"

"Pfft. About as many times Mum whips out her handkerchief every time Ronnie-kins is mentioned."

"What has he said?"

Fred blew out air with a low whistle and crossed his arms as he leaned against the kitchen counter. He looked to be preparing to go on a rant about how much he still hated the name Dolores Jane Umbridge or how he knew Snape was evil from the very first glance. Blair waited patiently for him to start and didn't want to appear too eager about hearing George's thoughts that he most likely wouldn't want her to hear. She wasn't one for eavesdropping and snooping around her future husband, but she had to know what he really wanted before she goes into the life of living with him and being bonded to him forever.

"Just so you know, everything Georgie tells me, which is nearly anything and everything, he tells me in confidence. He even told me about the time you and him first shagged in our dormitory."

"He told you about that?!"

"Okay, maybe not all the details. Merlin knows I don't want to hear about that," he rolled his eyes and seemed to be praying to Merlin himself to never hear about his twin's sex life. "But he told me about how 'brilliant' it was. So remember that if he finds out I told you all of this, it's not on me."

Blair was now scared of hearing about George's true thoughts about their engagement. What if he actually regretted asking her to marry him? She knew that he had wanted to wait for the right time to ask her, but had done it when he was falling asleep and near delusional from losing his ear. But maybe he had second thoughts about the whole commitment. Maybe Fred had been hiding it from her this whole time to preserve her and George's feelings before finally telling her that it wasn't going to work out.

"You're getting worked up aren't you? Don't get worked up," Fred broke up her thoughts and was blatantly resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "He really does love you, Blair. He wouldn't have proposed to you if he didn't."

"Can you please tell me what he said?" she said in hidden desperation, feeling her cheeks growing warm from embarrassment. Never had she thought she'd be pleading for something from Fred and it was embarrassing to give him that much power over her.

"Alright, alright," he rolled his eyes. "He's wanted to have the wedding at the house ever since Mum gave him the ring. He says that he wants to start looking into getting a house somewhere in the country. I don't know why anyone would ever want to do that and why he'd want to move out of the flat above the shop, but whatever. He was looking at houses in Puddlemere and to have your honeymoon in Portree. He has a lot of things planned but really wants the wedding to be how you want it. But when the Ministry was taken over and Ronnie-kins went off with Potter and Granger, he held off from mentioning it to Mum and Dad. But he's ready. I'm surprised he hasn't caved in yet and gotten married to you within two minutes of thinking about it."