Because He's Worth It by sanidad
Summary: ** Winner of Best Overall in the Greg & Forge Challenge **
** Winner (tie) of Best Humor in the Greg & Forge Challenge **
More than a year after Voldemort’s defeat, Ginny and the Trio, along with several members of the old Gryffindor Quidditch team, endeavor to make one of the Twins’ dreams come true. Will George accept their generosity, or is he already too depressed to be saved?
Rating: PG-13
Categories: Gred & Forge Challenge (2007-6)
Characters: None
Genres: None
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Published: 2007.12.23
Updated: 2007.12.24
Because He's Worth It by sanidad
Chapter 1: Ginny's Plan
Author's Notes: Like most Sunday afternoons at the Burrow, Molly Weasley was busy preparing a feast for any members of the Weasley family or extended family who might drop by for dinner. At the far end of the dining table, Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny were relaxing with some butterbeers and Firewhisky, while in the family room George was staring wistfully at some old photographs on the mantle. As Hermione and Ron quibbled over his potential career as an Auror, Ginny noticed that George had not moved in several minutes. His shoulders were sagging and his eyes had a faraway look to them. Ginny could almost feel her heart break when she noticed that he was staring at a picture of himself and Fred. Silently, she made a decision and rejoined the conversation.
“…more years of training, and that’s if I get accepted—”
“Guys, I’m sorry to interrupt, but I need you to meet me and Harry up in Ron’s room in a few minutes. Be discreet and don’t let George notice where you’ve gone.”
The Trio recognized the commanding authority in Ginny’s tone and immediately knew that something was up. They each nodded in agreement and before he knew it, Harry felt himself being dragged up to the fifth floor.
Five minutes later, snogging Harry had made Ginny completely lose track of time, as usual. Ginny would have much preferred the privacy of Harry’s flat to Ron’s old room in the Burrow, but beggars can’t be choosers. If she were to be honest with herself, Harry’s enthusiasm was very understandable.
Upon her graduation from Hogwarts nearly six months ago, they had assumed that opportunities for being together would be easier to come by. And they were for a time...until Ginny’s induction into the ranks of the Holyhead Harpies as a Chaser. Now, between her Quidditch career and his Auror missions, it seemed that they rarely found time to enjoy the post-Voldemort world together. But their time apart did little to diminish the passion they generated when they were together. After all this time, it still amazed her how right it always felt when he held her...and stroked her hair...and placed gentle kisses up her neck. She was sighing in pleasure when they were interrupted by a most disconcerting sound.
“Hem, hem.”
Ginny and Harry broke apart in horror and faced the source of the intrusion. They were greeted by the sight of a laughing, bushy-haired witch.
“Hermione, don’t do that!” Harry bellowed. “For a second there, I could have sworn you were Umbridge.”
For her part, Ginny could only think to herself that her family had finally rubbed off on Hermione, and, for the first time, she was not sure if that was a good thing.
Hermione eventually gathered enough wind in her lungs to speak, “Sorry, Harry. But that’s what you get for forgetting to at least use a silencing charm. You should have seen the look on your face. You looked as if you’d found a pygmy puff in your treacle tart.”
As Hermione wiped some tears from her eyes, the door opened again to reveal the last person that Ginny had called for their meeting. As Ron entered the room, Ginny giggled as she was reminded of a conversation in the Gryffindor common room from years ago, where she had implied that Ron had a tattoo of a pygmy puff in an embarrassing location. “Speaking of pygmy puffs....”
Hermione apparently remembered the conversation as well and spoke up without thinking, “Actually, it’s a birthmark.”
Ginny’s mouth hung open wide enough to swallow a garden gnome. Harry looked down at the floor, cupped his hands over his ears and began mumbling, “I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know....”
Hermione finally realized her slip and began playing with the hem of her jumper, which was almost as pink as her face. Ron’s colour was not much better and he tried as best as he could to change the subject. “What did you call us all in here for, anyway, Ginny?”
Ginny shook her head as if waking from a trance and got down to business. “Oh, right. Well, quite simply, the reason for the meeting is George. Just a few minutes ago, I saw him brooding over that picture of him and Fred on the mantle. I know that nothing will ever take away the pain of Fred’s loss completely, but he seems even more down than usual lately.”
Ron nodded in agreement. “His creativeness seems to be going downhill too. He hasn’t put out any new products in the past six months. Of course, a lot of what they originally created is so brilliant that he could coast for a couple years, but eventually it’ll catch up to him.”
Harry nodded slowly in understanding. “So what do we do?”
Ginny shook her head. “I don’t know, but it has to be big...really big.”
A pensive silence fell over the room as the foursome pondered how to cheer up one of their favourite members of the Weasley clan. Hermione was the first to come up with a suggestion. “We could try getting George together with Verity…Ron, didn’t you catch her giving George the once over at the shop once or twice?”
“We are not playing matchmaker again. Don’t you remember what happened when you tried to force Neville and Luna together?”
Hermione frowned at his lack of support. “They had wanted to get together for ages. I just gave them a little push. Besides, how was I supposed to know that Neville was allergic to radishes? He’s so good with plants!”
Harry was not surprised to hear that Luna still made jewellery out of vegetables and chuckled at the irony of the situation before offering his own idea. “What about making some new products for him, then?”
Ron shook his head. “I don’t think so. George needs to learn that he can do this without Fred. Making new products for him will make him think otherwise.”
Ginny scowled in frustration. “Ron, stop stomping on other people’s suggestions and help us!”
“I’m not stomping on them just to be a prat, Ginny. I’m trying to be practical.”
Harry dramatically pulled out his wand and aimed it Ron. “Who are you? And, what have you done with my best mate?”
Ron waved Harry’s wand aside. “Geroff, Harry. It’s just...well...since I spend so much time at the shop, I know better than any of you what’s been goin’ on. I agree with Ginny that we need something to start him back towards being his old self again. It would be great if we could give him some Felix Felicis to give him a really good day or some other potion to inspire him to develop some new products or find some way for him to relive some of their glory days—”
Ginny exclaimed in excitement, “That’s it!”
Ron blinked in confusion. “Ginny, we don’t have a time turner. And, even if we did, I don’t think—”
“I didn’t mean it literally. I was just thinking...wasn’t one of the twins’ happiest moments the day they opened the shop in Diagon Alley?”
Rod nodded slowly. “Yeah....”
“And didn’t they always dream of opening a location in Hogsmeade?”
Hermione responded in disbelief, “You want to open a new location of Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes?”
Ginny nodded in triumph. “And give it to him as a Christmas present.”
“Do you know how difficult it’ll be to put all that together?” Harry asked.
“Yeah, I do. And Forge is more than worth it. He is my brother you know.”
Hermione agreed with Harry, “But Ginny, to make this happen we’ll need to find a new location, purchase it, renovate it and stock it. Plus we’ll have to do it behind George’s back. And Christmas is in four weeks!”
But Ginny would not be swayed. “Anything is possible, if you’ve got enough nerve.”
Seeing the fierce determination in her eyes, Harry was reminded again of why he had fallen in love with her. Ron was the first to give in, “George is my brother too. I’m in.”
“He’ll be my brother sooner or later,” Harry said as Ginny turned pink, “I’m in too.”
Hermione soon found herself the focus of three pairs of eyes. “Oh, all right! But we’re going to need some serious help!”
The next night found the four friends together again, but this time at Harry’s flat. Upon realizing that Hermione was right (again) about the need for some extra hands (and wands), they had rounded up all of George’s closest friends to help ensure they met their self-imposed deadline of Christmas Eve.
Ginny had used her connections with the Harpies to get hold of Angelina Johnson (now with the Wigtown Wanderers) and Oliver Wood (who was still with Puddlemere United). Harry tracked down Katie Bell at the Ministry in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. Hermione’s resourcefulness enabled her to find Alicia Spinnet at St. Mungo’s as a mediwitch-in-training. But Ron had the easiest task of all and simply whispered his invitations to Verity and Lee Jordan at the shop while George was occupied with a customer.
After everyone had arrived through Harry’s fireplace, Ginny explained the project they were planning and why it was necessary. Once she finished, Lee was the first to offer a question. “Where are we going to get the funds to buy a new shop?”
It was Harry who answered, “I’ll take care of that. As the silent partner to Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes, I have access to the account in Gringotts. Although, if any of you feel like investing, I’m sure we could work something out.”
Several of them raised their eyebrows in interest, confirming that funds would not be an issue. Alicia posed another question, “Is there a location in Hogsmeade that’s currently available?”
Ron replied, “Zonko’s never reopened and is still boarded up. We should be able to get it at a reasonable price.”
Lee countered, “But they’ll never sell it to us! Old Man Zonko was right sore at the twins for taking away so much of his business!”
Harry shrugged casually. “No problem. I’ll just go in disguise.”
“In disguise?” asked Katie, with a tilt of her head.
“We’ve got a whole store of Polyjuice Potion at Auror headquarters for our undercover missions. No one will notice if I nick a few doses.”
Hermione clucked in disapproval. “Are you sure that’s wise, Harry?”
“Trust me, they won’t even miss it. If it really bothers you, you can brew a batch to replace what I took. But you know better than I do how long it takes to brew it, so we’ll have to do it this way.”
Hermione continued to frown, but nodded her head in agreement.
Oliver took advantage of the silence to ask another question. “What about inventory?”
“That’s where you guys come in,” replied Ginny. “While some of you lot take George out for a night of fun, the rest of us will borrow a few boxes of stuff from the shop.”
Angelina interrupted, “But we’re going to need more than a few boxes to stock the new store.”
Ginny nodded knowingly. “Very true. We’ll be using the few items that were taken from the shop to make sure we’re on the right track as we make the rest of what we need.”
“We’re going to make the inventory?” challenged Oliver, “I wasn’t exactly a N.E.W.T. level potion maker, you know.”
Heads turned as Verity finally spoke up, “Don’t worry about it. Ron, Lee and I have been helping George make the inventory for the past year. We can write up detailed instructions for everything.”
“Not all of us will be making products, anyway,” Ginny soothed. “Some of us will be renovating the new shop to make it ready for the Grand Opening. After years of neglect, it’s going to take quite a bit of wand work to make shop presentable.”
“One last question,” said Alicia, “Are you sure he’ll be up to running a new store? How do we know he’s going to like it?”
“Leave that to me,” answered Ginny, with a mischievous glint in her eye. “It’s all in the presentation. And this one will be the ultimate prank.”
And at that mysterious statement, the discussion was finally closed.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.
This story archived at http://www.siye.co.uk/siye/viewstory.php?sid=127515