44. Sparkle

"Will you marry me--"

Angelina couldn't take her eyes off of the ring in his hand.  It was a simple affair, nothing extravagant by any means, but that was entirely unsurprising; she'd seen it before, after all, when she went along to help Percy find Aubrey a ring.  The only surprise of the whole thing was that George was the one kneeling in front of the Burrow's couch, holding the open box in hand.  Belatedly, she realized that it had all been a ploy, that Percy would hardly trust her opinion on a ring more than anyone else in the family.

So there she was, gaping down at the diamond ring in surprise while time somehow stood still.  It twinkled a lot.  Not just the diamonds, though all three of them certainly shone and glittered almost outrageously, but the silver band itself seemed to shimmer.  It hadn't done that at the shop, she was sure.  It must have been an addition of George's.

"--Angelina?"  Angelina blinked at the sound of her name, and time sped back up again.  Keeping her gaze on the ring, she covered her mouth with one hand while she nodded, not trusting herself to speak without sobbing.  George took her left hand in his and slid the diamond on her finger.  It fit like a glove, and there was an explosion of noise the likes of which she hadn't heard since Fleur's pregnancy was announced.  All of the women flung themselves at her while shrieking with joy, and their boyfriends and husbands were clapping George on the back with laughing comments about his settling down for good.

George laughed at something Charlie whispered in his ear, but the laughter quickly faded from his face and he abruptly left the room.  Angelina excused herself from Molly's third embrace and followed him through the kitchen and out the backdoor.  He had a good head start, but she was sure she knew where she would find him.

"Well, she said yes.  Not quite sure why she'd want to put up with one of the most infamous pranksters in Hogwarts history for the rest of her life.  Maybe she had a moment of insanity and is going to run out screaming at any moment."  George was sitting on the bench next to Fred's tombstone, trying hard to keep a grin on his face through his tears as he spoke to the granite monument.

"Or maybe she's just given up trying to avoid that particular fate," she said softly.  George looked up as she sat down.  "Your brother is still a handful to keep in line, you know," she added to the stone.  "I'm going to need all the years of you two annoying me during Quidditch to keep my head on straight."

A single snowflake fell on her hand as she stretched it out to hold George's.  It was quickly followed by an entire flurry of them; soon the air around them was thick with snowflakes, yet only the occasional crystal touched either of them or the stone.  They looked up in sync to see that the sun was still visible above them, making the snow into flashy bits of confetti as it fell.  George finally coughed and looked back down.  "We should probably get back inside.  I just…he needed to know."

"I agree.  We'll be back, Fred," she said as they stood up.  "Hope this sunlight means you're giving us your blessing," she added under her breath.  George smirked slightly, but his expression was still tinged with sadness.  As they turned to walk in the house, however, both received a knock to the back of their heads.  They whipped around in unison, both going for their wands to point them at the intruder…but no one was there.  "Um…"

George suddenly began making an odd wheezing noise that thoroughly alarmed her, and her panic wasn't assuaged in the least when he fell to his knees.  As she knelt beside him, though, she realized that there wasn't anything wrong with George at all: he was laughing so hard that tears were pouring down his cheeks and the sound was getting caught in his throat.

"That git!  That git!  Oh, he's a git!"

"Er, George…" Angelina looked around.  "There's no one there.  Was it the ghoul or something?"

"No, that was Fred!  Angie, he always warned me that if I did something as sentimental as proposing on Christmas he would get me back for blindsiding him with a snowball in our third year.  And he did it.  Even after being gone for three and a half years, he still did it!"  George was turning quite red by now, and Angelina raised an eyebrow.

"And how do you know that it was him and not the ghoul?  For sure," she asked skeptically.  "George, he's gone, isn't he?"

George picked up something from the snow in front of him.  It looked like an ordinary Muggle bouncing ball, yellow and wearing a smile.  "We thought about selling these ever-bouncing balls in the shop before we went into hiding, but I never developed it after…you know.  This is Fred's way of telling me to get a move on that and that he approves of us."

As if agreeing with him, a sudden gust of warm wind blew a sheet of snow into the air, making the air practically glow with reflecting flakes.  Angelina and George smiled at each other for a moment before kissing gently, and when they pulled apart she saw something that made her heart flutter.  His eyes were alight with joy, happier than she had seen them since they were kids.

They sparkled.