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“Would you like a table inside or outside?” the hostess asked, counting out three menus for them.
“What do you reckon?” George asked Lee.
Lee made the decision. “Outside.” Then, as they navigated through the restaurant to the outside patio, he told George in confidence, “That way we can make a quick escape if needed.” George chuckled and elbowed him.
They settled into chairs and didn’t even have time to open their menus before they were standing up again at Angelina’s arrival. It was polite for gentlemen to stand when a woman joined them to sit. But, more importantly, it was a lot easier to hug someone when you were standing up without a table and chair to maneuver around.
“It’s so good to see you both again,” she said, taking her seat finally. “It feels like forever. What’s it been?”
“Two months? Three…” Lee replied, trailing off. All three of them knew precisely how long it had been. The last time they’d seen each other was the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts and the dedication of the memorial at the school. Lee had held one of them in each arm as they cried against him, tears silently streaming down his own face. “It’s good to see you again as well. So to what do we owe this lovely brunch?”
At that moment, a waiter appeared beside their table. “May I start you out with some drinks?”
They ordered waters all around and a pitcher of sangria.
It took a few moments after the waiter departed to remember where they had left things. Then George prompted again. “Right, so, what’s this important matter you wanted to discuss?”
“Well, I—” She started, but then the drinks arrived. They divvied up straws and glasses, helping themselves to the pitcher’s contents. Angelina took a sip of hers and sighed. “Oh, this is good.”
George and Lee tried theirs, agreeing. They sipped appreciatively.
The waiter returned almost immediately. “Have you decided what to order?”
They hadn’t even picked up their menus. After some quick skimming, stalling, and deciding, each placed an order before handing over their menus in a collected, neat stack.
“That omelet sounds fantastic. You’ll have to let me try a bite,” Angelina said to George, once the water had once again departed.
“Naturally,” agreed George, who was not at all averse to sharing his food. In fact, he and Lee sometimes swapped plates entirely halfway through a meal.
In fact, they’d been eating when the owl had delivered her letter. In it, she had said she had a matter of great importance to discuss that would concern both of them. She’d suggested brunch at a nice restaurant that weekend, on her. The men had been unable to resist.
But they had been curious. And Lee’s patience was running out. “C’mon now Johnson…” He was the only one who regularly called her by her surname now, a leftover from his days providing commentary at Quidditch games. “Why’d you ask us here?”
“Eager?” She asked, smiling slyly.
George grinned. “Yeah, and worried. I bet him ten galleons I knew the reason.”
“It couldn’t possibly be… that, George.” Lee leaned forward, pushing his glass and plate out of the way so he could cross his arms on the table. “So what is it?”
Her smile faltered for a brief second as she took a deep, shaky breath.
“Who had the waffles?”
Lee groaned and dropped his head to his arms in frustration as the waiter arrived just then with their food. Dishes were handed out and the waiter left with a “Let me know if you need anything else.”
Angelina picked up her fork, intending to take a bite before it got cold, but George reached up and knocked the fork from her hand. “No. No one’s going to eat until we find out what this is about. Just tell us, Ang!” His voice broke with worry and anticipation and he took a few gulps of water to calm himself.
“All right.” She sat back, smiling at them. “I’ve got a great, stable job and a house now. And I love it, but now I’ve decided that I want a kid.”
Out came the water from George’s mouth, sprayed over half the table before he got his hand up to cover up. He choked down the rest, which went down the wrong way and sent him off coughing.
“George? You all right?”
Thumping him on the back, Lee answered for him, “I think he was just surprised.” George’s head bobbed affirmatively as he continued to cough. “We’ve kind of come to the same conclusion, you see. We want a kid as well. In fact, last week we signed up to be foster parents through that new child placement program at the Ministry. There are still lots of children displaced after the war who are looking for good homes.”
Angelina squealed. It was so sudden and loud, or perhaps added to the sound of George’s tapering off coughs, that several people seated at other tables glanced in their direction, either concerned or not at all pleased to have been disturbed. “That is fantastic! You’d both make such great parents!”
George finally recovered, taking a few gulps of water that went down the right way and clearing his throat. His face was slightly flushed. “It might take a while, but we’re hopeful. But, Ang, you…”
Nodding, “Right. Well now it sounds selfish, but I’d like to have one of my own.” Both George and Lee started to reassure her that it didn’t sound selfish, but she went on before they got more than a few words of protest out. “And I asked you here today to ask… well… I always thought it would be me and Fred, you know? We were talking about getting married. If he’d lived…” She paused, closing her eyes. Then she opened them and continued on, looking braver. “George, you and Fred aren’t interchangeable. But you were identical in the ways that matter for this. So I wanted to ask if you’d consider supplying me with, well, the missing component.”
George was silent for a moment. Then he nodded. “Yes.”
A bit taken aback by his quick response. “Yes you’ll consider it or yes you’ll—”
“Yes, I’ll do it.”
She looked over at Lee. “I asked you both here because this affects your life as well. I wouldn’t be asking either of you for any fathering duties or financial support. But you two are as good as married and it’s a big decision. It wouldn’t be fair on you to—”
Lee and George each raised one of their hands, which had been tightly clasped together under the table. “It’s fine with me,” Lee said. “In fact, I think it’s a great idea. And it’s not what George here had guessed, so I get ten galleons out of the deal.” He grinned.
“What did—”
“A three-way.”
It was Angelina’s turn to nearly choke and cough. She looked daggers at George. “Ugh! How in the world could you have thought I’d—”
He shrugged. “Are you sure you want my sperm, Ang? Fred’s mind was as equally dirty, you know.”
She pretended to consider. “Guess I’ll just have to take the good with the bad.” Her eyes were sparkling, wet as she got up to thank both of them with hugs.