"We don't believe we could be named for him," Fred said, standing by a nodding Percy. "How does that happen?"
"It's a long story, Fred," their father said.
Fred sat down and crossed his arms in defiance, clearly communicating he wasn't going anywhere until he heard it.
"It's about - relations," their mother added.
Percy mirrored his brother while looking to his parents expectantly. Harry thought it would probably be best to leave and give them a good long moment alone; he could get his questions answered later.
"No, you can stay, Harry," Mrs. Weasley said as he began to leave. "This has to do with you too, and I'm sure you have questions."
Harry shot her a curious look and wondered if they were about to get a wizarding version of "the talk."
"Not those kinds of questions," she said quickly. "I think we've both have had quite enough of would-be guardians for today."
Somewhat relieved, though unsure how relations with Molly Weasley could have anything to do with him, Harry cautiously sat down by the two brothers. Mrs. Weasley looked to her husband as he put his hand around her shoulder.
"The truth will out," he said as he pulled out a chair for her.
"But how do we even begin?" she asked.
"We got married?" her husband shrugged and sat across from them.
"Well, yes, I suppose that would be a way to start," she said as she sat as well. "When your father and I got married," Molly said to her sons, "we lived for a while in this very small flat."
"Tiny, really," Mr. Weasley added.
"It certainly wasn't the place you'd need if you wanted a family, which we did, very much," she continued. "Your father had a friend at the time who worked for Gringotts and he asked around for someone who'd be willing to rent out a place for something we could afford."
"Eventually, he found someone," Mr. Weasley took up the tale. "It wasn't a house but it was a nice plot of land, at a good price, close to a village where we could get anything we might need."
"It was a chance to build a home of our own, however we wanted to build it," Mrs. Weasley smiled.
"-And when the kind old man who owned the place found out why we wanted it," Mr. Weasley shared her smile, "he took the land and doubled it saying-"
"-'Lots of kids need lots of room to play,' what a nice old man," Mrs. Weasley finished for him.
"And Dumbledore?" Fred prompted.
"We're getting there," his mother scolded. "The first bit of house came quick enough and we thought we'd make a start on a family in no time," she said as Percy squirmed a bit.
"As time went on-," Mr. Weasley said.
"-We thought that something might be wrong," Molly said, somewhat embarrassed. "For two - three years we'd tried with no luck-"
"We tried potions, charms, standing on our-"
"They get the idea, Arthur," Molly cut in on him. "Finally we went to St. Mungo's to see if there was anything they could do."
"The healers there said we had already tried everything they could think of," Arthur said somberly. "If the magic was going to work, if there was anything there for it to work on, it already would have."
"I was devastated," Molly said. "One of the Healers took pity on me and suggested I approach Albus Dumbledore for help."
"But how could he help you?" Fred asked.
"Because Albus Dumbledore used to be a great man," Molly said as her husband looked at her in askance. "He and this friend of his had studied cures and the like for decades, and the Healer said if anyone could help us, that friend of his could."
"Of course we told him we couldn't pay-," Mr. Weasley said.
"-And Dumbledore said the man had no need of money and he was sure he'd be willing to help," she continued. "He lived in this tower in the Hebrides, of all places, with goblin guards of all things."
"I said it was like going to the North Pole to see a very odd Father Christmas," Arthur said.
"I called him Saint Nick, because that was his name," Molly said.
"Nicholas Flamel?" Harry asked.
"You've heard of him?" Arthur asked.
"We've heard of him," the boys replied.
"Well," Molly continued, "these other goblins came with this heavy steal chest and-"
"And?" Fred asked.
"I don't know," his mother said with a shrug. "For the life of us we can't remember. They said they had to Obliviate us in order to protect the secret of how it was done, and we were so thankful for even the chance it might work that we've never pried into it."
"Needless to say, it worked," Arthur said with a smile. "In three months or so William was on the way. Of course we called him Bill bec-"
"-Because of Uncle Bilius," Fred and Percy said by rote.
"And then came Charlie," their mother said, "who we named after Charlus, the nice old man who gave us such a nice home to begin with."
"My grandfather?" Harry asked, astonished.
Mrs. Weasley smiled as the brothers gave him an interesting look.
"But how do you get Fred and Percy out of Albus Dumbledore?" Fred asked.
"Because the man has more than two parts to his name," his mother scolded him for ruining such a nice moment. "Albus Percival-," she gestured to Percy, "Wulfric-," she gestured to Fred "-which became Frederick, because we certainly weren't going to call you either Wulf or Rick," she shot her husband a glance, "Brian - which Ron was very nearly named - Dumbledore."
"That's a lot of names," Fred said, echoing Harry's own thoughts at the moment. "Why didn't you ever tell us?"
.....
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