the baby project — act one
" almost like a pregnancy "
﹙ 𝗟𝗜𝗙𝗘 𝗦𝗞𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗦. ﹚

ADDIE WAS CONVINCED THAT THE HEFTY EXERCISE REQUIRED TO REACH THE old Muggle Studies room on the top floor of the East Wing was a sign from the universe that whatever was waiting for her in this newly revived classroom was not going to go well. She just hadn't worked out what yet.

When they finally clambered to the top of the spiral staircase after what had been no more than an eternity, the last class were only just leaving. Addie spotted her two roommates, Tate and Logan, both far too lost in conversation to notice any of their friends waiting on the outside of the door. And with further inspection, Tate and Logan weren't the only distracted pair. Almost every student that came from inside the classroom was chattering and whispering to anybody that would listen.

"Remind me to investigate whatever new gossip has arisen," Clayton said to the group, all of whom had noticed the amount of prattle that could still be heard even as the sources skipped down the steps and out of view.

They all stared as the final students left, and their class began making their way inside.

"I think we're about to find out."

With Gia's statement floating about their curious heads, the six of them filed in one by one into the dusty classroom, just about managing to snag enough seats for them all to be sat together on the third row.

The high from being able to sit together, however, fizzled down rather quickly when they all took note of the two people standing at the front of the class, peering down at the students with all of their self-superiority ─ Rita Skeeter and Professor Umbridge.

"Hello, students and welcome to your first Life Skills lesson of the year." Rita Skeeter didn't exactly have the respect of the students at Hogwarts but she sure did shut them all up rather instantly.

"I will be your Professor for these once-a-fortnight lessons and I'm here, alongside Professor Umbridge today to provide an introduction to the subject and tell you about this year's project."

Professor Umbridge stood off to the side, almost lurking in the dark corner, waiting for the best time to exert her authority. Addie squirmed uncomfortably in her seat as the newly announced "Professor" got straight to it.

"The Ministry of Magic believe that the graduating students need to be more equipped for the lives that await them outside of school and not just in academic terms. We believe that the best way to prepare you for your future is to help you in learning about the various challenges of adulthood, which many of you have already entered."

The group of six shared curious glances, not necessarily sceptically, but almost with a sense of appreciation for the school's acknowledgement that education systems ─ even Wizarding ones ─ rarely ever prepare students in non-academic ways.

"Working with the Ministry, the Professors here at Hogwarts have decided on a year-long enterprise we believe will assist you in later life." Rita Skeeter wore a proud smile and Addie doubts Skeeter made any contribution to the creation of this enterprise but is just happy that Umbridge gave her entrance back onto the school grounds.

Rita Skeeter clapped her hands together and Addie waited for the big mic-drop.

     "We have named it the Baby Project ─ a school-year-long program in which you, and a classmate designated as your partner, will take on the difficult experiences of being mothers and fathers by raising a baby of sorts in hopes you will develop the skills you need for when parenthood is a real aspect of your adult lives."

They all seemed to be shocked to silence. Very few murmurs broke out except maybe a few what the fucks but other than that, the students furrowed their brows and silently stared blankly back at the two women, rather confused.

This was quite possibly the very last thing any of them could have predicted.

Rita Skeeter awkwardly stared back at them, her eyes wide and her grin big with glee. She waited for the clamouring to start or at least for some kind of reaction to burst out of these thirty students that wasn't silence.

"These lessons will be used for us staff to check your progress and for you to socialise with your classmates and to compare strategies to see if you wanted to adjust your approach in any way."

Shuffling where she stood and seemingly desperate to get a rouse out of them, Rita kept talking. "As this is all very big news," she said, "and it will indeed affect your final year at Hogwarts, I now am going to give you the opportunity to ask any initial questions that you might have."

For how quiet the class had been up until this point, Addie was surprised to see how many hands shot up into the air so quickly.

The first question came from the back of the class. "How long do we have to do this?" Felix Kiyama asked cautiously. It was their final year and a baby was surely going to cause disruption.

Professor Umbridge took the reins of this question, stepping out of the dark corner she had crawled into to shed some light on this bizarre project. "This will end in May before your NEWT exams and we have decided not to change the schedule for your upcoming exams due to the simple fact that balancing important tasks at hand is a life skill you will all be faced with soon enough."

Addie didn't quite understand this part ─ she isn't a parent, and when she is a parent hopefully sometime in the future, she won't have important exams like NEWTS to balance with motherhood.

Rita nodded at the next questioner giving them the floor to speak.

"Is there a final grade?"

Addie wasn't surprised that she wasn't the only one curious about the grading system and was even less surprised that the person who asked the question was her best friend's brother, Lance Erwin.

It was safe to say Jazz Sanderson was delighted they now shared another class together ─ the other being Herbology ─ and she was even more delighted by the possibility that they could be sharing a baby together for the next nine months.

Quinn had been sending her twin death glares since she sat down.

"There will be, yes." Rita Skeeter stepped back into her position as this class' Professor and answered the question before Umbridge could pretend like she had full authority here. "And it will contribute to your final report at the end of the year so you are expected to take this seriously."

"I'm sorry, backtrack. This is a legitimate commitment?"

George cleared his throat from the back of the class and hovered over his seat so that the two women could see him from that far back. Addie could only roll her eyes ─ unbeknown to him ─ because even if he was told that it was a legitimate commitment, he still probably wouldn't take it seriously.

Addie opted to sit out the questions and watch as her class digested this strange news.

"Yes, Mr Weasley, it is." Umbridge was back on her pedestal and Rita ─ sorry, Professor Skeeter ─ seemed to accept that this was a shared position as of right now. "It isn't just something you can neglect, and it does count for a substantial subject."

"I don't want kids, do I still have to do it?"

Josh Ardale, Laurie's partner from Potions last period, was slouched back on his chair, the legs of which were swaying off the floor. He loosely swung his hand up in the air and Addie felt her sister visibly shake uncomfortably at the sound of his voice. It was hard not to ─ Josh was on another scale of annoying.

Umbridge lifted her chin and looked a tad too proud of herself as the questions kept coming. Her face strained tautly as she spoke. "It is compulsory for all students, as we believe you're not old enough to make that decision just yet."

"But we're old enough to look after a kid?" Fred asked sceptically. It seemed that the more thought the thirty students put into the concept of this Baby Project, the more put off they were by it.

Professor Skeeter hurried to answer this question. She apparently felt her authority slipping from her every time Umbridge got a word in first. "This is in preparation for the real endeavour of being a parent, so yes."

"Do we get given a real kid?" Jazz asked with her forehead creased in disgust, as her arm hung floppily above her head. She had never been very fond of children and so seventy-odd babies hanging around is quite literally her worst nightmare.

"No, this baby will be simulated, Miss Sanderson." Umbridge responded. "But due to the use of magic, it will be so life-like, you won't notice the difference."

Addie herself did not like the sound of that.

"Do we get to choose our partners?"

Addie doesn't think Atticus Castellan was capable of saying anything of value. It was the ugly truth that she found that to be true for a lot of boys and girls across her year group. But nonetheless, every other student in the classroom had previously had the same question on their minds since the words partner and baby were used in the same sentence.

"Technically, yes, you do," Rita answered, but they all froze in anticipation at the tone and wording of her sentence. A but was right around the corner.

Rita wasn't too pleased when Umbridge finished her sentence for her: "But it will be a blind selection so you will choose your partner out of hat later today. These will be boy-girl partnerings."

Addie doubted the rouse that Rita wanted to get out of her students, was not like this.

It could be best described as a ruckus, an outpour of discontent.

Atticus, who had slapped his pal Josh on the back a second earlier at the previous use of the words yes, you do (they clearly would find it utterly hilarious if they got to raise a fake baby together), now yelled his annoyance for everyone to hear.

Everybody else, Addie included, settled for quieter groans and tuts of irritation.

Addie tentatively raised her hand. She didn't have that much experience with Professor Umbridge, but from the experience, she did have, Umbridge didn't have the longest of tempers. Addie proceeded with her curiosity with caution.

"Wouldn't it be better if we got to . . . actually choose our partners?"

Umbridge clearly saw no issue with the randomising of the partners and, although Addie could see some issues with choosing them themselves, she'd still rather be in control over who she had a fake baby with.

"Why would you say that?" The bitch in fuchsia asked with a hard jaw.

"Well," Addie still spoke carefully, "not only would we be more comfortable parenting a child with someone that we chose, but also, isn't it a little bold of you to assume that everyone here wants to start a family with someone of the opposite gender?"

Umbridge grimaced at the question. "Miss Sweeney, with all due respect children are made via a man and a woman."

"Surrogacy exists." Jazz chimed in.

Addie was pleasantly surprised to hear George's voice from the back of the room suggest the argument: "What about adoption?"

"Our decision is final, I'm afraid, Miss Sweeney." Umbridge shut up any more questions regarding partner choosing, ignoring both Jazz and George, and Addie believed she had every right to think there were malicious intentions behind it.

Rita Skeeter chuckled uncomfortably and Addie dreaded to think what she had to say on the matter. "What Professor Umbridge is getting at is that this is a project based solely on education and the specifics of how the baby was created aren't necessary for the parenting aspect."

Addie was surprised at this response and she suddenly realized that was all it took ─ a simple explanation behind her query and yet Professor Umbridge didn't even have the decency to answer her question in the same mature way.

"And on the topic of partners, the selection will take place in this lesson," Professor Skeeter continued and suddenly, knowing that there was no way she would be able to change the outcome of this selection, Addie's stomach did a quick flip.

As Professor Umbridge retrieved what looked a lot like the Sorting Hat from the front desk's drawer, and an exact replica of the same hat (Addie deduced they were for the two separate sexes, seeing as it was apparently so important that they were with someone of the opposite sex), Rita Skeeter picked up a clipboard from the desk's surface.

She flicked to the parchment she wanted. "We'll proceed down the register alphabetically. If your name is chosen, the Sorting Hat will naturally remove it from the remaining pool of names, and you will not get the chance to pull a name from the hat as the process continues due to your prior selection."

Josh Ardale was up first. He strolled to the front of the class and fished his hand in the worn old hat, standing up a little straighter a second later with a small piece of folded-up parchment in his hand.

Addie could have sworn she heard a little squeal come from beside her when he called out the name written across it.

"Laurence Sweeney."

"Thank you, Mr Ardale, you may sit down." Rita said, while Josh's eyes darted around the room for a one Laurence Sweeney, who was currently retreating in on herself, trying to hide from all the pairs of eyes that had fallen on her. Addie felt a hand grasp tightly and desperately onto her arm.

While Josh returned to his seat looking perfectly alright with his selection, Laurie's head rested on the table, her back slumped over as she tried to process the news of sharing a baby with Josh Ardale for the next nine months.

The register continued, a series of mixed reactions as students picked names out of the correct hat, sealing their fate for the year ahead.

The first out of their friend group to be sent up to the hat selection was Quinn.

After receiving a not-so-encouraging slap on the back from Jazz, and a grim smile from Laurie, Quinn slid off her seat, her face tinted slightly green, looking as though she were about to vomit.

And as if the hat could bite her, Quinn slowly put her hand inside, picking the first piece of parchment she touched, just to get it over with quicker.

Addie watched as her friend's expressions went through the seven stages of grief as she unfolded the scrap. Until a content look settled on her face.

"I got Felix. Kiyama."

Quinn felt awkward just saying his full name straight out but she didn't mind at all that it was his name that she had to say.

     Felix shrugged sweetly and Laurie's head ended right back on the desk again, with a bout of annoyance.

Felix was a good one.

     A few more students came and went, and soon, Gia was up next. 

     Feeling discouraged that Cedric was already paired up, Gia didn't have very high hopes for this random selection going well. And despite Quinn's flurry of luck, Laurie's lack thereof didn't do so good for Gia's expectations either.

     She picked Fred Weasley.

     Addie made sure to mouth a quick sorry and send a wince Gia's way when the Gryffindor shuffled back to her seat, not that disappointed, considering she had prepped herself for disappointment beforehand.

     Fred was nodding his head, untroubled by this outcome.

     More came and went, and by the time that the register had tumbled all the way down to the S surnames and Addie hadn't been selected yet, her leg was bouncing up and down uncontrollably.

     She didn't quite understand why she was so stressed, but with one look at a still huffing Laurie, Addie felt that this could end up very badly, thus justifying her panic.

     Jazz was the first of the S names, and Addie was almost perturbed to see her close friend so casual as she walked up to the hat and picked her name.

     Jazz seemed even more casual when the name that she selected was none other than Clayton Schafer.

    Addie couldn't quite work out what Clayton was feeling about it. Unbothered? Elated? Relieved? Absolutely hysterical? She had no idea. But Addie is sure about one thing ─ she'd be fucking delighted if she chose Clayton. At least she liked Clayton.

     And before she knew it, Addie's name was called out and she had to will her frozen limbs up to the front of the class and pick her partner for The Baby Project.

     She could feel the eyes of the twenty-nine students glued to her as she dived her hand inside to be met with the various crinklings and cut-outs of the scrap pieces of parchment. She anxiously rummaged about inside, until she could take no more of being the centre of attention, by which point, she had selected her chosen piece and lifted her hand from the hat.

     Addie's hands couldn't help but shake as she straightened out the folds to reveal the name written in perfect cursive on the front.

     Oh, she'll be damned.

     "George Weasley."

     She made haste with speaking his name and as she watched a grin spring onto his face, waking him up from what had been a very boring class so far, Addie stifled her biggest groan yet.

     It's not that George Weasley is her least favourite person on the planet ─ although, by the end of this, she wouldn't be surprised if he was ─ it's just that she could have done so much better. She's not one hundred per cent clear on this Baby Project, but from what she had gathered so far, being paired with George Weasley for it, was not going to be a walk in the park.

     The universe was clearly not on her side today.

     But by the look on George's face, he sure did think it was on his side and as she shuffled sheepishly back to her chair, George sent Addie a wink so unsubtly that everyone could have seen it should they have been looking.

     Addie couldn't pay much attention to the rest of the selection, but it was only the odd student left that hadn't been selected and soon Rita Skeeter was talking at them once more.

     "Now that's all done, I hope everyone is pleased, or at least, relatively pleased," Professor Skeeter let out a loud cackle, but no one followed suit ─ Laurie whimpered again ─ and so she kept going, "with who they are partnered with!"

     "As we only have about half an hour left," Rita Skeeter shushed the ambiguous chatter that had broken out upon the completion of the selection when she spoke, "the remainder of this lesson will be used to outline the year ahead, but as the admin still has to be done, your final three periods of the day have been substituted for that. After break please meet back here and the rest will be explained to you then."

The hour whizzed by in a haze, almost like a fever dream. Addie didn't know what to think or what to feel. She felt a little like she was being overdramatic but panic quickly struck her when she realized that she hadn't taken in anything that they had been told for the rest of that lesson.

By the time Professor Umbridge dismissed them, Addie was left in a bit of a daze where not even the blaring sound of the bell could pull her out of it. She couldn't call it shock, or confusion ─ she could only describe this feeling as weird. Addie had never been so put off by a school project before.

After pulling her sister from her chair, Laurie and the others gathered their things, all feeling quite different than they did when they had arrived an hour earlier.

     On their way out, Gia caught a last-second glimpse of one of their classmates, smiling as he passed through their exit, and her face morphed into one of utter distress.

"I still can't believe that Cedric is in this class." She cried, aggressively throwing her bag over her shoulder, her lips pouting. "And we didn't get paired together?"

"Gia," Quinn sighed, trying not to imagine how her Gryffindor friend would change in the circumstances that she shared a baby(albeit fake) with Cedric Diggory, her school girl crush, "he has a girlfriend."

The reminder didn't do well for Gia's mood. Especially since Cedric had been rather lucky during the selection process and was picked by his girlfriend, Cho Chang, who also happened to be in their class.

With mixed feelings towards the whole ordeal, the group left their Life Skills class, ready for their final breaktime without children disturbing them.

However, George wouldn't let Addie leave his sight before he stopped her, outside of class, his body leant up against the wall.

"Why hello, baby mummy."

Addie took an inhale of breath as her friend group stopped midway to the spiral staircase. It's not as though she would be able to avoid George over the next nine months, so she told her friends she meet them in the Great Hall in a bit, feeling like this conversation, to her delight, wouldn't end as quickly as she would like.

She smiled sarcastically up at the boy, after watching her friends descend the stairs. "Yuck, please don't ever call me that again."

George folded his arms across his chest. "You've got to realise I'm not going to listen to anything you tell me to do."

Moving out of the way of the final flow of chattering students that were filing out of the classroom, Addie mirrored his pose. "Oh, so we're going to be fabulous co-parents then, right?"

"I dunno about you," he said, rocking back and forth on his heels, "but I'm going to be a superb father."

"I'll believe that when I see it, Weasley."

"Well, you will very soon." He grinned from ear to ear, before flicking his arm over dramatically to glance at his non-existent watch. "We pick up our kid in T-Minus fifty-nine minutes. So, congratulations Sweeney, it's almost like you're pregnant."

She could have sworn she felt her stomach churn. "Isn't that just delightful?"

Addie does want kids. At some point. Not at seventeen, that would be insane and a thought she'd rather just neglect. Unfortunately for her, that's exactly what she can't do. Nonetheless, Addie is determined to plough through these tough times, even if it is George Weasley that is the one to "help" her along the way. A good grade is a good grade after all.

"Oh, it truly is." George exaggeratedly nodded his head. "Especially since it's my kid your carrying."

Addie's eyes fluttered closed dreamily as she hummed and she actually thought it was because she might just faint at the thought. "Hm, what a bundle of joy."

"So how do you want to do this?" George asked.

Addie now thought the churn of her stomach was simply due to hunger (disgust is still, however, in play) and that she'd like to make a getaway rather fucking soon.

She made sure her smile in response to his mischievous one was sickly sweet. "We'll figure that out later."

George gasped melodramatically. "Adelaide Sweeney delaying organisation?" His hand even came to rest on his mouth to anger her even more. "I hope motherhood doesn't change you that much. Society would crumble."

"It's called procrastination, sweetheart." She said, her dignity refusing to let her smile waver even just slightly. "I'm delaying something I seriously don't want to do."

George shrugged, readjusting his bag so it sat nicer on his shoulder. "You don't have much of a choice, I'm afraid." He said, before walking back towards the staircase. "See you when your water breaks!"

Offering her a salute with his fingers, George skipped down the spiral stairs just as Rita Skeeter and Professor Umbridge shut the classroom door behind them.

Addie had to physically hang back for a moment as the boy disappeared down the curved steps to collect her thoughts and roll her eyes at the universe for the greatest gift it could have come up with. And on the now-alone silent platform outside the classroom, all sound following the two women as their heels echoed on the stone slabs, Addie did just that.

༺༻

"SO, HOW DO WE ALL FEEL ABOUT THIS BABY PROJECT?"

Addie was right in thinking she was hungry. Since she had entered the Great Hall for break ─ her last one childless ─ and the aromas of fresh hot food wafted into her senses, Addie had learned that she was nothing short of starving. Not to mention, she eats when she's stressed/panicked/the two combined, so add that onto her usual timed hunger too.

She was almost glad that her friends had left the inevitable Baby Project discussion until after she had joined them again at their usual table because she needed a different opinion as well as to establish her own feelings towards it.

Gia was straight to the point.

"I think it's bollocks."

Quinn plopped a baby carrot in her mouth and offered a ─ slightly (at least to her friends) ─ haughty laugh, her shoulders bobbing as she went. "I think it's hilarious."

Jazz shrugged nonchalantly, her eyes trained on her sausage roll, which she found, much more interesting than Clayton's discussion. "I'm indifferent."

Addie looked at her Slytherin friend sceptically and she wasn't the only one. "You're indifferent about having to look after a baby for a whole school year?"

Jazz's napkin dangled from her fingers. "It's not real."

Addie tried to hold back her scoff as her chin retreated inwards dumbfounded at how her friend could act so casual about, what Addie saw as, a rather colossal change of events for their final year. "Okay, you completely misunderstood the entire point behind the task."

"Which is?" Jazz asked, her facial features dulled with boredom.

"Treat it like it is real," Laurie replied. "That way we learn something."

Gia began pouring juice into her goblet, before lifting the drink to her mouth so that her words echoed against the brass rim. "I personally don't want to learn anything."

Addie smiled at her friend, so bloody pleased that the majority of them didn't seem all that bothered by this major news. "Congrats Gia," she said sarcastically, lowering her cutlery to address the girl sitting opposite her, "you've just killed your future kids without even having them."

"Including the fake one?"

"That's your first kill!"

Jazz was shovelling flaking pastry into her mouth as she changed the subject. Or rather sub-subject. "The partner thing really pissed me off."

Laurie seemed utterly exasperated by this statement and immediately wanted everyone to be informed as to why she was sitting opposite the Slytherin girl with her mouth hanging open.

"Pissed you off?" She repeated incredulously. "At least you have some amicable feelings towards yours!" She waved a baffled hand in Clayton's vicinity.

Clayton eyed Jazz, his eyebrows raised as he waited for the Slytherin's response to Laurie's point. "I hope it's more than some, Sanderson."

"I'm pissed because her hot brother got paired with the straightest guy in the goddamn school and I got the gay one!"

Despite Umbridge's resoluteness to have all boy-girl couplings, the unbalanced ratio of male to female students meant that two boys in their class had to be paired together. Lance Erwin was one of these boys and he was selected by douchebag, Atticus Castellan, whom Jazz would be correct in describing as the straightest guy in the goddamn school.

Rita Skeeter had made the mistake of holding out the wrong hat to Atticus, leaving him with a selection pool full of boys' names. Feeling as though the students' first choice of selection should be their last, and knowing that there was an unequal balance of girls to boys, Umbridge dismissed Atticus' disgusted face ─ and Lance's agape mouth ─ and ushered him back to his seat quickly.

Jazz's previous statement pissed a few people off. First and foremost, Quinn was struggling not to throw something at Jazz. Second, Clayton was no longer looking forward to this year-long project with his best friend. And three, Laurie was angry that this is why Jazz had a vendetta against the partner thing when really, Laurie should be the one with her blood boiling.

"I mean come on, Jazz." Laurie persisted with her point that Jazz had done well on the partner front when Laurie had not. "Compared to me, you got lucky."

None of them should have been surprised by Jazz's counterargument.

"At least Josh is fit."

Laurie Sweeney does not have one good word to say about Josh Ardale. Not even this. The boy is incapable of saying anything that isn't remotely annoying, problematic or stupid. He is the worst possible partner for a school project and Jazz has the audacity to argue that Laurie's predicament isn't as bad as the Hufflepuff is making it.

"At least Clayton's lucid!"

Addie could relate to her sister. Now, she doesn't want to give George the satisfaction of this, but it is possible that Addie got a better partner than her sister. But just as a reminder ─ George still sucks, it's just that Josh Ardale may suck a tad bit more.

"These are tough times, Laure." Gia smiled sympathetically at her friend, but Laurie sensed a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

     Fred Weasley wasn't exactly the best fake father, Gia, get off of your pedestal and sit back down.

     "You'll get through it."

Laurie pouted her lips and looked as though she could sob into a pillow. "Just tell me I'm hotter than him so I can get over it."

"Well."

The speaker of the sceptical remark received more than one angered glare.

"Jazz."

"You're remarkably gorgeous, Laurie," Quinn said as Clayton kicked Jazz under the table, "and significantly higher than Josh Ardale on a hotness scale."

If anyone was going to get Laurie to smile at a time of struggle, it was Quinn Erwin, who was now back to staring viciously at the Slytherin. "Jazz, no one wants your opinion."

"What's this about a hotness scale? I've got to be top ten standard, no?"

"You mean we?"

Fred and George Weasley, Addie had learned recently, always found a way to worm themselves into any and every conversation they deem interesting enough. This is also a literal and physical statement because George was now squeezing in between the two Sweeney siblings and Fred was perching down on the bench rather close to his baby mummy, Gia.

"No," George said, watching his brother from the other side of the table, "I mean me. I'm the hotter twin after all."

Gia, having since been robbed of her personal space, stared bored at Addie from across the table. "How is it fair that it was us that ended up with those two ginger buffoons?"

Laurie hated how this Baby Project was going ─ it's important to mention that it was hardly "going", more so just started ─ but as she watched her sister from the gaps she found between George, she couldn't help but feel a heavy bout of sympathy for her sister.

"If we're going to be co-parents, Meadowes," Fred said, dolloping large amounts of baked beans onto his plate, "you've got to drop the ginger thing. It's offensive."

"You're offensive."

"I think we're going to be great parents, Sweeney." George glanced over at the girl beside him who no longer had the immense appetite that had blessed her when she first entered the Great Hall some five minutes earlier. "What do you say?"

"Nothing." Addie deadpanned. "I have nothing to say to you."

In no less than an hour, Addie and George would receive their fake baby and the project would commence. She would be parenting alongside the one boy she struggled to put up with in a one-hour Potions lesson. And despite it being a graded project, Addie Sweeney was finding it hard to unearth that undying determination she always gets when studying for a test. At least, she hadn't found it yet. Because, right now, the only thing she could focus on was the fact that she already knew that George Weasley was going to be harder work than the goddamn baby. Then their goddamn baby.

As George threw his arm around her shoulder and squeezed her in mock endearment, Addie could hear Jazz's voice echo in her head: It is truly a gift to be alive.

Ain't that the truth.

𝗔𝗗𝗗𝗜𝗘'𝗦 𝗧𝗜𝗣 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗬 ━

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