Title: A Study in Death

Summary: After dying at the battle of Hogwarts, Fred finds himself in the afterlife. The strange thing however, is that instead of moving on, he finds himself getting dragged into an organisation. An organisation that plan to defy death and cheat the system. An organisation that aren't quite dead. AU.

A/N: I start new things before I've finished old ones. I get that. I am not sorry. I love this idea and I wanted to write it so... There's my solution to this. Tell me what you think and don't hesitate to leave a review!

Prologue

Fred Weasley opened his eyes with what seemed like extreme effort. As soon as he did, a gasp rose in his throat, and his heartbeat pulsed beneath his ears. He looked up at the grey ceiling above him, his thoughts echoing in the vast silence that surrounded him. Hogwarts castle didn't look so chaotic anymore, he thought to himself. What had happened to throw a stilt into his thoughts, he couldn't think of anything after he had been joking with his brother, Percy.

It had been something about Percy quitting the ministry.

Fred tried to sit up, but his muscles ached and protested. Taking a moment to steady his breathing - each breath had been quick and shallow - the ginger ran his tongue across the top of his mouth. It had always been something he'd done whenever he was trying to think things over.

The last thing Fred could truly remember was closing his eyes for a millisecond - just blinking away some of the dust that had been gathering in his eyes after a rogue spell had caused an explosion. He'd gotten out safely, hadn't he? He must have done. Or maybe someone else had saved him - he'd have to ask George if he'd heard anything about how he'd survived when he met up with his twin.

Once again Fred tried to sit up. His ignored the ache of his muscles, using his hands to scramble up to his feet when he saw a figure approaching. The figure - a male - had raven coloured hair that was messy. He wore glasses too. Fred's mind told him who it was in an instant.

"Harry!"

The raven haired figure raced towards him. Fred noticed that he seemed to look slightly confused - pained almost. The man stopped in front of Fred, breathing heavily as he leaned over. "Sorry mate," the figure spoke, "been fighting our defence for a while. I'd have kept going except, you said Harry didn't you?"

It took Fred only a few seconds to realise that the man he was talking to was not actually Harry, despite their carbon copy like appearance. With a mute nod, Fred waited for the man to continue.

"Harry Potter?" Another nod from Fred caused the man to smile. "Are you one of his friends? Do you know him?"

Fred nodded - Of course he knew Harry, who didn't? The orphaned boy-who-lived had been like a surrogate brother to him for the past seven years. The man smiled again, clicking his tongue as he ran a hand through his hand.

"That's great." The raven haired man gushed, throwing an arm around Fred's arm. "We always love getting new information on him, it's the only good thing about the newbies, you know?"

Fred went to open his mouth to reply before shutting it. He shook his head, too confused for words.

"I'm assuming you're a wizard seeing as you're here and not somewhere else. All of the wizards come here - and seeing as you're here and not somewhere else, you must be a good wizard. By that, I mean a nice one, one of the good guys."

The Harry lookalike gave Fred a thumbs up, retracting the arm that had been around Fred's shoulders.

"Where are we?" Fred asked. He knew he was at Hogwarts, but it was too quiet, was he in an illusion? Was he hallucinating or something?

The man frowned, albeit weakly. Frowning really didn't seem to suit him, and Fred felt his stomach clench nervously. What was going on?

"We," the man said, "are in the afterlife. Most of us choose to move on, but the other one's of us choose to fight."

Fred frowned, "The after life? Moving on? Fighting?"

The man shook his head, "Lils would be so much better at explaining, she's a way better recruiter than I am. How about I take you to her?"

With shaky legs and an unsettling feeling in his stomach which was really only the churning of acid as his body digested food, Fred followed after the man. As they climbed up the staircase to the principals office, Fred found himself staring at the school with a sense of nostalgia. It's strange, he thought, to be in Hogwarts during the... afterlife.

The man paused for a moment and turned around to look at Fred, "So newbie. Who are you? I forgot to ask."

Fred swallowed, his voice crackled as he spoke. "I'm Fred Weasley."

The man winced, "You're one of Molly's aren't you? That's got to be tough on her..."

Fred shrugged, unsure of how he should respond. As soon as the bespectacled man in front of him picked up his pace into a soft run though, he sped up as well. "Don't slow down now Fred," the man called out, "If you do, the traps will get you and you'll die. Again."

Fred didn't want to risk dying again, even if he was stuck in a strange dream, and made sure to keep the pace. He copied everything the raven haired man did, and smiled to himself when they both came to a halt.

The Harry lookalike turned to look at him, grinning. "You're pretty good getting this far your first try. I'm proud. Anyway, dude, it's nice to meet you."

He struck a hand out for Fred to shake. "My name's James. James Potter. Around here though, most people call me Prongs."

To be continued...