the baby project — act two
" welcome to parenthood "
﹙ 𝗪𝗘𝗔𝗦𝗟𝗘𝗬-𝗦𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗡𝗘𝗬 𝗗𝗔𝗬 𝗖𝗔𝗥𝗘. ﹚

     SOON, SEPTEMBER WAS COMING TO A CLOSE, AND THE SOUND OF A BABY CRYING became normalised. The days were getting shorter, the wind becoming nippier, and Laurie Sweeney wasn't very happy that she had to spend her eighteenth birthday surrounded by pooing infants accompanied by a cloudy sky.

     "First birthday as a mother!" Tate said enthusiastically as the four Hufflepuffs still lay awake in bed the morning of Laurie's birthday. The girls were sat up against their headboards, their sheets tucked up to their chests. "How does it feel?"

     Laurie wanted to slip back under the covers again and skip this day entirely. The only good thing currently was that she had forced Josh to care for Lana overnight because she refused to wake up to her baby's yelps first thing. She still had to pick the kid up after lunch.

     "Heinous?" The older Sweeney girl offered up her best answer.

     Logan pouted her lips understandingly, "Yeah, sounds about right."

     The four roommates then gave Laurie their gifts, the Sweeney family owl also arriving just in time for their parents' present to make it to the birthday girl before they left their dorm. Having got ready for the day, and greeted people on their way out of the common room ─ Reid having ambushed Laurie with a standard sibling birthday hug ─ Addie and Laurie headed for Gryffindor Tower. Addie needed to drop Shelley off with George and so Laurie decided to come with just for the company because, as Josh still had Lana until later, she and Addie would be heading off for brunch straight after. Clayton tagged along after forcing a rather large balloon into Laurie's hand.

     After Gia let the sisters and Clayton inside when they arrived at the portrait hole, gushing with happy birthdays and hugs, they settled into the group of sofas by the fire and erupted into excited chatter about the day ahead, followed by more presents and more hugs.

     When Fred and George finally made an appearance, Addie noticed immediately how they were dressed in their Quidditch robes, even equipped with their usual sports bags. She chose not to mention it assuming there would be a perfectly reasonable explanation for it that would be explained shortly.

     The ginger twins, still yawning despite most of the school being up for several hours already, greeted everyone as per usual, Fred carrying a little baby in his hands.

     "Morning all!" He called out, being the first out of the two to wish Laurie a happy birthday, surprising everyone ─ the Sweeneys, Clayton, Gia, and Lee ─ that he even knew it was her birthday today.

     "Happy birthday, Sweeney number one," George followed with his toothy grin before he flopped onto the vacant spot beside Addie, tickling Shelley's chin and then throwing his arm across the back of the sofa.

     "Thank you?" Laurie responded, grateful for the birthday wish but confused by the nickname.

     "Got any plans for the big eighteen?" Fred asked, practically dumping Fred JR onto Gia's lap as soon as he arrived at the circle of friends.

     "A few of us are having brunch on the Astronomy tower," Laurie replied, "and then later going into Hogsmeade for drinks."

     "Sneaking into Hogsmeade when you're not supposed to?" George smirked, his head slowly turning to the direction of the girl beside him. "Addie Sweeney, was this your idea? Have I officially rubbed off on you?"

     "You wish."

     "Hogsmeade was actually Quinn's idea," Gia added from where she was snacking on the jelly beans that had been a part of her present to Laurie; Fred JR still laying across her lap.

     "Erwin?" George scoffed in disbelief. "Yeah, likely story."

     "Being deadly serious," Gia continued on, her eyes wide to amplify her truth even if it was hard to believe that perfect student Quinn Erwin had suggested they break the rules and curfew by sneaking off to Hogsmeade at night.

     Clayton stuck his hand in the packet of sweets hanging from Gia's grip, nodding. "We were just as shocked."

     As the group descended into further conversation ─ various gossip, Laurie's birthday presents, and idle baby complaining ─ Addie saw her opportunity and turned to George and asked in a hushed voice. "Why are you in Quidditch robes exactly?"

     George smiled teasingly. "Oh Addie, you're not that stupid are you?"

     "No," she said through a strained expression, not allowing herself to get wound up by him like he wanted her to. "I'm just confused as to why you think you're going somewhere? Shelley is yours today? Remember?"

     At first, George furrowed his brows. Then he took a second and said: "I can't take her" as if this fact was universally known; as if he had already made it very clear with Addie.

     Addie found herself smiling uncontrollably because what George was saying didn't make sense and she couldn't believe that her level of organisation skills were currently failing her. She manoeuvred herself on the sofa, shuffling so that she could lean back and look at him square on. "What?"

     "I have practice," George shrugged, once again, as if he thought it was obvious. "And then detention. You know, because I covered for you."

     Last week's Dragon Dung prank on Professor Umbridge's office was not one of Addie's proudest moments, even if she found herself enjoying it just a little bit. The following day Dolores gave the whole school a stern talking to at the start of dinner and told them she was supposedly very close to finding out who it was and had actually compiled a list of suspects. She claimed that whoever confessed would receive harsh punishment, but that she would be lenient due to their honesty.

     Word got around about who was on the list and Addie was mortified to hear her own name brought up (an unfair response on her part considering she had every right to be on said list). But to her surprise, George offered to confess to Umbridge that it was all his doing and clear everyone else's names because he was used to being punished and his record was already very incriminating so what harm could this one additional prank do?

     Clamping her mouth shut, Addie spoke through gritted teeth because that was a valid response. "George, I've had this on our calendar for weeks," she said, which was also true even if George's detention was a new extension to their joint parenting calendar. "It's Laurie's birthday. You already agreed to take Shelley so I could spend the time with her!"

     "Whoops?"

     "Whoops? That's all you have to say?" Addie was conscious of the group surrounding them enough to keep her voice quieter than she wanted it to be but then again, everyone near enough to hear their conversation were people very accustomed to Addie and George bickering.

     "You shouldn't have put Dragon Dung in Umbridge's office then." George folded his arms across his chest and lifted his brows in challenging defiance.

     Addie's chest rose and fell as she took in a deep breath to keep her cool, getting to her feet and walking around the back of the couch, baby in hand. "You're such a bad influence."

     George stayed on the sofa, turning where he sat, his back now to the group, his face now softened at the features. "Awh, thanks."

     She didn't have time for his antics right now because she currently had to choose between her sister's birthday and a baby being left unattended. "Can't you miss practice or something?"

     "Erm no. I can't "miss practice or something"," George mocked her words with a roll of his eyes.

     Fred winced from behind his brother and took a large stride away from Gia's spot on an armchair to but in and make his own point. "Playing Slytherin soon, not an easy feat."

     A staring contest commenced then, causing everyone around them to become awkward as they watched the two sets of eyes glare daggers into the others, waiting for the other one to give in.

     When it was clear that was not going to happen and their friends were no longer willing to be onlookers for endless bickering, Clayton took one for the team and stepped in between the two. "Look, why don't Jazz and I take Shelby and Lana now so you and Laurie can spend the morning together with Reid as you planned and then you take all three for the afternoon?"

     Addie blinked out of her daze, noting to herself to deal with George later. "Why all three?" She asked, the idea of caring for three simulated babies at once making her skin crawl.

     "So we can spend time with the birthday girl?" Clayton answered. "And it's not right for Laurie to do any hard labour on her eighteenth, so you can take all three."

     "On my own?" Addie scoffed. Clayton meant no harm and was actually doing a very nice thing for her sister, but still, this did not appeal to her whatsoever.

     "Nah, you can join me in detention." Addie hadn't been prepared to hear George's voice again this early and was planning to talk with him privately in a minute about their calendar agreements. But, it seemed she had no choice in the matter, as got up from the sofa to but in. "Teachers said all babies must be with you in detention."

     It would be an extra hand. Three babies is a lot but under the supervision of two people is a lot better than one. Even if that extra hand is George's and she would have to suffer spending more time with him while in detention.

     Addie looked at George then at a patient Clayton, standing with his arms outstretched waiting for her to take him up on his offer. Finally, she looked at Laurie. It was her birthday and she deserved a baby-free day, it was true.

     Sighing, Addie knew what she had to do. "I have to deal with three babies, George Weasley, and detention all at once? What has my life come to?"

༺༻

     IT HAD BEEN A WHILE SINCE THE LAST TIME ALL THREE Sweeney siblings sat down for a meal together. It worked out quite nicely actually. Jazz and Clayton had agreed to watch their kids while the sisters celebrated Laurie's birthday together; Gia had Fred JR because Fred SR was at Quidditch practice; Quinn was on homework duty for most of her friends and so was grateful that the rest of them were going to sneak off to Hogsmeade later for Laurie's eighteenth celebrations.

     This left the three siblings, resting atop the same checkered blanket, wrapped in layers, as they nibbled on the brunch delights Reid had packed into a picnic basket from the Kitchens. They chatted and laughed, catching up, all under the roof of the abandoned Astronomy tower, while a pile of newspapers burned off to the side hovering off the ground as it rained ash down onto the cobble tiles.

     What with his two sisters now having robots to look after, Reid hadn't seen much of Addie and Laurie. While he totally understood and had friends of his own to keep him busy, Reid was grateful for the time he could spend with them now, as opposed to seeing them briefly in the common room or at a busy dinner table in the Great Hall.

     Reid was actually the most enthused about the babies out of the three of them (how surprising). They had both told him that was only because he didn't have to deal with them all day but he did offer to babysit whenever they needed. 

     They only ever mentioned The Baby Project in passing with their brother now, because, at times like these, having just escaped little Shelley and Lana, they didn't want to have to think about them any more than they have to.

     "Do you think this baby thing will still be around by the time I'm in seventh year?" Reid asked over orange juice and pastries.

     "For your sake, I hope not."

     Reid shrugged in response, buttered his croissant, and that was that.

     George's practice was over by lunch. The Sweeney brunch date had long finished and another meal was to be had once the sweaty Gryffindor team had rolled up after their training session, with hungry bellies and a persistent odour.

     George and Addie had agreed that, in the time they had to kill until his detention at four, Addie still had to secure herself a place in said detention in order for the two of them to successfully babysit together.

     "I'm sure you have many ideas in your arsenal as to how I can get a detention?" Addie asked the ginger boy as the pair of them left their friends in the Great Hall; their target being anywhere a teacher might catch her doing anything she's not supposed to.

     George had never thought he'd see the day when he was assisting Adelaide Sweeney to get a detention so that she'd join him in his punishment. Then again, he hadn't predicted a lot of things he had done so far this year with Addie Sweeney so there's that too.

     "I do indeed," he said, practically skipping alongside her. "What sort of route were you planning to go down? Destruction? Insults? Theft, perhaps?"

     "I was thinking more down the legal route if you don't mind."

     "Insults are technically legal," George pointed out before lowering his voice to say: "And totally acceptable if targeted at Umbridge."

     While Addie completely agreed that Dolores Umbridge deserved every insult that was coming her way, she only wanted a ticket into detention, not a year-long feud with a teacher that would destroy the perfect student persona she had worked so hard to create.

     "I should just . . . not do my homework." It pained her to even suggest it.

     George swung his hands behind his back as the two of them casually continued their stroll around the corner. "Okay, one," he started, "I don't think it's physically possible for you to do that. And two, it's a Saturday, you have no lessons."

     "Why is it that you can only ever talk logically when it comes to breaking the rules?"

     "It's my speciality sweetheart."

     Addie pulled a disgusted face at the boy, not only at the divisive differences between their two characters but also at the way sweetheart rolled off his tongue with a shit-eating grin to go with it.

     Seeing as she wasn't enthralled by any of his "illegal" suggestions, George tried something else; this time, his smirk was infinitely less bearable. "How about you wait for her to be in the vicinity, give me a kiss, and watch her unleash her wrath at the sight of two juveniles having too much fun?"

     Addie understood what George was suggesting (Umbridge was far from fond of teenagers snogging anywhere in the castle) and, while it had some rationale to it, it was not a flawless plan. "You can't get in any more trouble ─ I'll be a single mum for too long." George didn't need to add another detention to his long list of pre-existing ones that already bled into the month of October.

     George seemed baffled by her response ─ Addie's exact aim. "Wait, that's the only reason you won't kiss me?"

     Addie chuckled inadvertently. "Of course not," she said, trying not to laugh and point at the way his eyes lit up with optimism. "I just didn't want to hurt your feelings."

     In the end, Addie was forced to improvise. Although, that is probably not the right word because in actual fact, she and George passed Josh Ardale in the corridor. She then (for an extortionate price) bought a packet of cigarettes from him which Addie proceeded to smoke one outside of the ground-floor staff room, where the open window led out onto a patch of grass.

     George watched from around the corner after giving her a rushed crash course on how to actually smoke it. She didn't exactly do any of it right but McGonagall did catch some of the tobacco's fumes floating in from outside, caught the most unlikely student smoking a cigarette and put Addie in detention for the afternoon.

     Addie still hadn't recovered from her first and last smoking session by the time four o'clock rolled around. She was almost guaranteed to be sharing the same detention as George because, after the Dung Incident (as it has been so named), he was in all week.

     They were accompanied by a few younger students but nobody else in seventh year, which both of them were grateful for because they had since picked up Bonnie and Lana from Jazz and Clayton, and Laurie and Josh, and so had quite the collection of simulated babies already.

     Turns out, to Addie's delight, babysitting was actually considered a useful asset in The Baby Project as it greatened the care taken and attention given, as well as heightened the responsibility. It was going to be a slow detention (and she couldn't deny the FOMO she felt because her friends were celebrating her sister's eighteenth without her) but at least it reflected well for them as parents. Although that was probably dampened by the obvious fact that they were in detention.

     "This afternoon, and probably this evening as well, you will be removing the old and fully filled labels from these books and replacing them with fresh ones." The students in detention had been handed over to Madam Pince as their time would be served in the library.

     Addie and George had been given their own station at the back of the library where they now sat, staring dumbfounded at the sheer amount of books the librarian was expecting them to work with.

     "Got that?" The group of misbehaving students gave a nod before dispersing to their separate stations, each with a hefty set of books to relabel. Madam Pince was just about to make her exit but before she could, she lowered her rectangular glasses to the bridge of her nose and scowled at the ginger boy beside Addie. "And Weasley, feet off the table."

     As it was a library, the pair remained quiet for the majority of their task ─ peeling off the stickers on the opening pages of books where names of those borrowing it had filled up the entire table, and replacing them with blank new ones. Addie questioned why they couldn't do this via magic, but she came to the conclusion, once her arms became sore and her eyes were closing shut involuntarily, that they probably don't do this themselves purely for the reason to make sure that the kids in detention have something dreadfully boring to do.

     The silence pained George greatly as he wasn't very accustomed to keeping his mouth shut for long periods of time. He told her the occasional compact summary of something that had happened to him recently, but Addie was so bored, she struggled to say anything other than "ah".

     For the most part, babies, Shelley, Lana, and Bonnie were quiet, but any sound in the library is amplified by the fact that the rest of the giant hall is deathly silent and rather echoey. And neither of them was very happy that their task ran into dinner time and that, not only did they go hungry, but they also had to whip out baby food mid-detention, stinking out the vicinity with a ghastly mushed-carrotty smell.

     It was about six o'clock when Addie and George got a visit from the former's roommate, Logan Blanchet, who seemed to have accidentally stumbled upon the two detention goers at the far end of the library.

     "Oh my God, Addie, thank Merlin you're here." Logan's arms were carrying little baby Heather, wrapped up in a blush pink blanket.

     Addie noticed how there was sweat beading along Logan's forehead and how her chest heaved as she spoke as if she had just run a marathon. Addie spoke cautiously, leaning back slightly in her chair as she did. "Everything okay, Lo?"

     "No." Logan might as well be sobbing as she began her frantic retelling of how she ended up unusually loud for a girl that loved the library. "Kenneth contracted Scrofungulus from some mushrooms out by the forest and is going to be out for the rest of the week. I've been so busy trying to get some help because of this thing and now I'm already late for a tutor group I agreed to run."

     Addie could hardly keep up with the long ramble of words, especially after hearing the words Kenneth and Scrofungulus in quick succession which put her off massively. But George seemed completely unbothered by Logan's panic and asked with an uninspired look: "Are you asking us to look after said thing?"

     Logan had clearly had very few interactions with George Weasley during her time at Hogwarts and seemed quite stressed when he was the one to reply instead of Addie. Logan responded slowly, the hint of disturbance mixed with anxiety in her voice when she said, "I was sort of asking Addie but yes."

     Addie should have seen this coming when Logan was obviously glad to her see her when the girl in question was holding a baby in hand and was running laps of the library. And as much as Addie didn't want another baby as her responsibility, she already had a few and couldn't really say no.

     "Yeah, sure," Addie sighed, and Logan's face instantly lit up, "you can leave her here."

     "Thank you," Logan gushed, passing over the baby that had been named Heather by Logan only very recently. "You are a lifesaver!"

     Addie spared the stressed girl a tired smile before Logan rushed off in the other direction, where Addie assumed her tutor group had already started. She then gave a little huff so that her hair brushed up against her forehead, before she placed their new arrival, Heather, beside Shelley on the bench next to them.

     "What is this, Weasley-Sweeney daycare?" She asked in repulsion, causing George to let out a gruff chuckle.

     Now that the pair were truly alone once more, George kicked his feet up onto the table again, as if he had never been asked not to before. "We could make serious dough for this, you know," he said to Addie as he stared out at what seemed to be a sea of babies laid out in front of him. "Already looking after three that aren't ours."

     Addie mirrored his stance, now two pairs of eyes gazing out to the four children laid out on blankets across one velvet oak bench. "I'll pass," she said, her face slowly morphing into one of disgust. "I can hardly handle two kids, let alone multiple."

     George's head turned to hers to reveal his furrowed brows. "Two?" He can't have been that bad at math to miscalculate the number of babies under Addie's usual day-to-day care.

     "You count as an infant."

     George pulled an unimpressed face but figured he should have guessed that was her evaluation before asking. Having decided to ignore her insult verbally, sticking to a scowl in response instead, George filled the silence with any thoughts that came to his mind, his head lolling backwards so that he gazed up at the intricate high ceiling. 

     "I'm still advocating for the Weasley-Sweeney daycare, by the way," he said.

     "Okay, George," Addie said, now choosing to let him talk at her as opposed to partaking in conversation. Her head was bowed and she had continued the task at hand, hoping the top of her head was boring enough for him to stop talking to her.

     "Weasley-Sweeney," he said fondly. Has a nice ring to it," George carried on, even if Addie wasn't showing the same level of enthusiasm as he was. "Maybe you should consider taking it?"

     This was enough for her to look up where she was met with an infuriating smirk, his arms folded behind his head. "You're a dreadful flirt, you know that right?" She grimaced.

     "No, I don't know that," George replied, before presenting her with a beaming grin, "because it's not true."

𝗔𝗗𝗗𝗜𝗘'𝗦 𝗧𝗜𝗣 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗬 ━━

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