SPOILER WARNING!! This story contains spoilers for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Specifically, references to which characters die and which live on to remember them. I highly recommend not reading this until after you have completely finished the book. I would hate for your experience of the book to be tainted or ruined by my bit of amateur scribbling, especially since I found the last book to be one of the best of the series. Here there be Spoilers. Turn back now. Consider yourself warned.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter, his adventures, and all his cohorts are all property of J.K. Rowling. I own nothing.
A/N: This is going to be a series of one-shots, unrelated to one another except for the fact that they all deal with a character's response to one of the deaths from the 7th book. I don't know for sure how many chapters there will be. I have a handful of ideas at the moment, and I hope to get at least 3 or 4 decent stories. If I get struck with inspiration, there may be more.
While I am an avid fan of the books, this is my first attempt at writing a Harry Potter fanfiction. I will try not to make anyone too OOC. If you happen to read something or someone that doesn't seem to fit, then by all means, let me know. I always appreciate feedback and will do my best to correct and improve as I go along. So, with no further ado...
Enough For Both
George Weasley crept quietly down the stairs, his stealth perfected from years of practice. It was very dark, with only the silvery beams of moonlight shining through the windows to illuminate his way. He knew exactly where to walk, though, where to place each foot and which steps to skip entirely to avoid the creaks and groans that were inevitable in a house as old as the Burrow.
After silently descending, he turned towards the sitting room, but stopped before entering. That was the room where the body lay, the place where George and his family had received a multitude of sympathizers and mourners throughout the day. George had made himself be there, forced himself to greet each person, thank them for coming, and always, always crack some small joke. "With Voldy gone, with no more U-No-Poo, we all knew ol' Fred would be the first to throw a party!"
Many people had come by. Their friends and teammates, Lee and Oliver, Angelina, Alicia, and Katie, reserved and quiet and somber. All the remaining professors, McGonagall with tears in her eyes, Flitwick with his assurances that the little section of swamp would remain forever. Order Members, Ministry workers, acquaintances, Hogwarts students, and what seemed like hundreds of Weasleys, all coming through the tiny, shabby, crowded sitting room of the Burrow to view the body and pay their respects to the family before the burial the following day. Through it all, the empty words, the pitying glances, the sympathetic touches, George had forced himself to bear up, to offer each new group of people a feeble smile and an even more feeble joke. "Yes, well, Fred never did forgive me for being born first. I guess this was him getting one up on me."
Even later, when all the guests had left, when it was just his immediate family gathered together, he didn't let himself slip. He had patted his mother reassuringly as she had sobbed over the body. "He would have loved to see how you took on Bellatrix, Mum. Downright scary, that was." He had stood with his father, with Bill and Fleur, Charlie and Percy, arms all wrapped around one another, as they kept vigil. "Of course, the way I hear, it was the shock of hearing Percy tell a joke as much as anything that did it." He had stood with Ron and Hermione, Ginny and Harry, as they stared down at the body, tears streaming from the girls faces, and even Ron taking the occasional swipe at his eyes. "Blimey, Harry, don't be stupid, Fred would have killed you himself if he had missed being there."
George knew, even as each sentence passed his lips, that they were stupid and insensitive and inappropriate. He knew with each startled expression, with every angry glare, with all the pity-filled tear-streaked looks, that no one understood. He was a Weasley twin. Anything less than a joke and a grin, no matter how half-hearted and truly unfelt they were, would have been a disgrace.
Now, though, in the deep of night, with no one else around, George had come down to face the truth, the awful, terrible, bitter truth. He was a twin no more.
He took a deep, steadying breath before finally entering the sitting room and making his way over to Fred's side, standing next to the dark wood coffin in which he lay. Perhaps it was simply the surrounding darkness, or the way a single shaft of bright moonlight landed across Fred's face, but it seemed to George as if there were a tiny smile frozen on his lips.
"Hey there, Fred. I-I guess..." George paused, waiting, half-expecting someone to speak up and finish the sentence for him. There was only silence.
George sighed, feeling a bit stupid, when a tiny voice in the back of his mind spoke. Cheer up, lad, it's not like you can't finish the sentences yourself.
George looked again at his brother's face. "That's true, I reckon. I mean, it's not like we haven't spent pretty much..."
...every single minute...
"...of every single day..."
...since the day we were born...
"...hanging around each other."
George ran a hand through his hair, looking around for a moment. After a brief silence, he said, "Uh, look Fred, sorry about all those jokes earlier, when everyone else was around."
Yeah, you should be sorry, those were just awful. First the holey crack when you lost your ear, then the rubbish you were spewing earlier. I expected better of you.
"Yeah, well, I was under just a little bit of pressure, wasn't I? At least I was able to come up with something."
True enough. I suppose I can let it slide this time.
"Heart of gold, mate."
And don't you forget it.
George dropped his head as silence fell once more. This time, when he looked at Fred's body, his eyes shimmered brightly with unshed tears. "I will never forget. And, uh, I know I've never said this before, but..."
I know, George, you don't have to say it.
"I love you. I shoulda said it a long time ago. I don't know why I didn't. But I love you, Fred."
I said I already knew, didn't I? I've always known, just like you've always known that I love you.
Tears began to leak from George's eyes. "It hurts. It hurts worse than anything, even losing my ear. This is like losing half of myself, the only half that was ever any good. I don't know what to do anymore."
You're being a bit dramatic, don't you think? And what do you mean the only half that was any good?
"You know what I mean. It's always been you, hasn't it? All the stuff we've done, it's always been your idea and your nerve that got us through. All the pranks we pulled, nicking that map from Filch, selling our joke stuff, leaving school early, actually starting up a shop, all of that was you. I was just following along."
Being a bit revisionist with your history there, mate. You were as much a part of all of that as I was, sometimes even more. I mean, yeah, a lot of the ideas were mine, but you were the one who worked out how to actually do everything. Most of what we sell in the shop is stuff you did the enchantments for. And what about that time-delay charm you worked out a few weeks ago? That'll work on pretty much everything we sell. It was a brilliant piece of magic.
'Yeah, but..."
No buts about it, you are definitely the brains of our duo. I'm just the charm and dashing good looks.
"Maybe. But I...I'm still going to miss having you around, though."
Well of course you are. Who wouldn't? But it's not like we won't see each other again, is it?
George blinked and wiped away his tears. "It's not?"
Course not. We'll see each other again. This is just like having separate detentions. It's dead awful now, but we'll be back together in a bit.
He felt his heart grow lighter. He would see Fred again. Not tomorrow, or the next day, but someday he would be reunited with his twin.
It better be a good long bit, though, understand? I don't want to be seeing you anytime soon.
He smiled slightly. "Yeah, I think I can agree with you on that one. So long as we get together again eventually, I reckon I can wait a while."
Excellent! And, in the meantime...
George cocked his head curiously. "Yeah?"
In the meantime, I guess you'll just have to be Weasley twin enough for the both of us, eh?
"Yeah. Yeah, I think I can do that."
After the burial of Fred Weasley, all the mourners made their way back to the Burrow for the wake. They all gathered in the garden, where tables of food were set up. They stood clustered in little groups of well dressed people, all somberly sipping their drinks and nibbling at their snacks. No one spoke above a whisper, when they bothered to speak at all. Some were still sobbing quietly.
That's when it happened.
It started, oddly enough, with Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, the Chosen One, the Savior of the wizarding world. One moment he had been standing with his arm around Ginny, and the next he had, quite suddenly, turned into a ferret. Not just any ferret, though. It was a pure white ferret that had the odd habit of bouncing up and down like a rubber ball. There were shouts of surprise, and many reached for their wands, thinking it was some attack by whatever Death Eaters remained. Imagine their surprise when their wands began turning into rubber chickens and boxer shorts and flobberworms.
Kingsley Shacklebolt, acting Minister of Magic, stepped forward and raised his voice, saying, "Everyone into the..." He never finished his sentence, though, as he quite rudely interrupted himself by fainting on the spot. Arthur, Charlie, and Percy Weasley rushed over to help, but just as they reached him, Arthur projectile vomited several times, all of which drenched Percy. Charlie managed to avoid the vomit, but only because at that exact moment he transformed into a bright yellow canary.
Professor McGonagall, meanwhile, made her way over to the bouncing ferret, intending to transfigure him back into a proper Gryffindor. She raised her wand (which, luckily, was really her wand) but stopped before actually casting a spell. A strange look appeared on her face, a dreamy, unfocused look that appeared entirely out of place on the stern teacher. She lowered her wand arm, turned towards Ron, and, in a strange floaty voice, said, "Why, Ronald, you are looking quite handsome today."
All jaws in the vicinity immediately dropped as everyone, Ron included, turned to look at the current Headmistress of Hogwarts. Their shock only increased when they saw that she was blushing and giggling.
Professor Sprout stepped warily towards McGonagall. "Minerva, are you feeling quite alright? It's just..." But then she trailed off, her face taking on the same dreamy expression, her voice the same floaty sound, as she looked at Ron. "It's just that Ron here has always preferred Herbology to Transfiguration. Isn't that right, Ron?" And she fluttered her eyelashes at him.
Ron jumped, wishing that his two teachers had turned into giant spiders rather than whatever had actually happened to them. He looked around for some bit of assistance, but there was none to be had. Where Ginny had been standing, there was another bouncing white ferret. Hermione was vomiting noisily. Seamus Finnigan was lying on the ground, apparently unconscious. Sitting on his chest was a canary that moments before had been Dean Thomas. Neville was frantically trying to stem the thick flow of blood from his nose. Luna stood watching everything with her own dreamy look, but Ron couldn't decide if she was being affected by the same thing as the teachers, or if that was the way she always looked. Over her shoulder, he saw Alicia Spinnet and Katie Bell making their way towards him, both with the the wide eyed, adoring look he was quickly beginning to fear. He slowly began to back away, but only made it a couple of steps before running into something large and solid.
"Ain't leavin' so soon, are ya Ron?"
Terrified to his very core, Ron slowly turned. There stood Hagrid, looking at Ron as though he had just sprouted fangs and horns and a giant stinging tail. Of course, with Hagrid, that meant he was giving Ron the same dreamy stare as the rest. And then Hagrid gave a slow, significant wink.
Ron ran screaming, pursued by the quickly growing horde of his admirers. Luna, who had apparently not been affected, watching him go and said to no one in particular, "Ron has certainly become popular."
A loud BANG momentarily focused everyones attention to the sky, where blindingly bright, golden fireworks streaked through the air. It looked random at first, but after a moment the fireworks formed huge fiery letters. Everyone in the garden finally understood what was happening when they read the message in the sky. It said:
In Loving Memory
They all looked around at each other, at the people beginning to recover from the vomiting and fainting and bleeding, at all the rubbish the wands had turned into, at the assortment of singing canaries and bouncing ferrets that were popping back into people, at the now large group of people chasing Ron around, at the complete and total chaos that had reigned in the garden.
And everyone finally started to laugh.
Watching from an upstairs window, George Weasley smiled through his tears.
A/N: My own little take on how George reacts to Fred's death, a topic that, understandably, seems to be generating quite a few fics. I was trying to avoid being too angsty with it, I just hope I didn't go too far the other way, and that you were able to enjoy reading it.
As I said before, this is my first foray into the Potterverse, so my apologies if anyone was too terribly out of character. And, to be honest, I don't really know which twin was born first, so let me know if I got that wrong and I will change it.
I haven't yet decided who will be the subject of the next one-shot, though I do have a couple of ideas in mind. I will start working on it and try to get it posted as soon as possible.
Anyways, thank you to everyone who reads the story, especially to those of you who take the time to review. I always appreciate feedback of any kind and will reply to all signed reviews. I can't wait to hear what you guys think.
Thanks again!
Coeus