Well, here it is...the final chapter. All my little notes are at the bottom, so I guess go ahead and dig in! Hope you enjoy it!

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Chapter 5

The sun was just starting to rise, marking the third full day since Voldemort's defeat. Fred had given up on sleeping. The dreams were too much to deal with right now. Instead, he sat in the hospital room, watching the rise and fall of his unconscious twin's chest. He was surprised how comforting the motion was. No wonder George had done it so much when he'd been having those dreams.

"Blasted dreams. You should have told me, you stupid prat! You had to go and try to get yourself killed! And for what? It was supposed to be me! Bloody git!"

With that, Fred moodily leaned back in his chair, arms crossed. After a while, he got tired. He couldn't help but be angry at George. 'If he hadn't stunned me…I might have been able to stop both of us from getting hurt.' The voice of reason told him someone had to be there when the explosion took place, but Fred wasn't much for reason right now. He put his head down on George's arm and drifted off to sleep.

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Fred was walking through the halls of Hogwarts, Death Eaters and Order members fighting everywhere. He sped up as he heard the sounds of his brothers dueling.

"Hello Minister! Did I mention I'm resigning?"

Wow, Percy actually made a joke! The exact words he had been thinking were said out loud by a voice he recognized as George's.

"You're joking, Perce!" There was a pause before George continued. "You actually are joking, Perce…I don't think I've heard you joke since - "

The sentence was cut off as a huge explosion rocked the hall. Fred froze. He still wasn't in visual range, but he couldn't move his legs. All of a sudden, he doubled over, clutching his stomach.

'Merlin, this can't be what George was talking about from his dream. We've felt things happen to each other before, but nothing like this! Even when he got hurt, it wasn't this bad. Surely that doesn't mean…'

Fred couldn't think anymore. After what seemed like an eternity, his fears were confirmed by the sound of Percy's voice.

"No – no – no! No! George! No!"

Fred felt like his heart had been ripped out. He had to get to them. His brother had to be okay. He tore off down the hall, running faster than he had in his life. He skidded to a halt 10 feet away from his brothers, but not by choice. It was like an invisible wall had been erected. Fred pounded his fists against the wall, but no matter how hard he tried, it wouldn't let him through.

He looked on helplessly as Percy shook his unmoving twin. It wasn't natural to see George like that. He was supposed to be moving. He was always moving. Even when he was asleep. Tears streamed down his face as he kept weakly hitting the wall. He watched as the others moved George to a niche then continued to fight.

As soon as the others were gone, the wall disappeared, as if its sole purpose was to keep the twins apart until there was no one else around. Fred stumbled forward, falling to his knees next to his brother.

"No, no, no, you can't die! You can't leave me here! It should have been me. Why didn't you let it be me?! Please don't leave me! Please don't die!" He collapsed onto his brothers chest, sobbing.

"It hurts, doesn't it?"

Fred immediately stopped sobbing and turned around. George was casually leaning against the wall, staring at him somberly. Fred looked completely shocked. He looked from George's body, to the form of George standing before him and back to the body. George spoke again.

"This is what I dreamed the night before the final battle, with our roles reversed of course. It was different than the rest, but the feeling was the same and so was the outcome. Do you see what I've been feeling for the past month and a half? This is why I couldn't let you come. If you had, I would be in your position and you would be, well, down there," he said, gesturing at his own dead body. Fred glanced at it and shivered before turning back to the talking George. "I'm sorry if that's selfish, but I wasn't going to let you die and if it had been me, you wouldn't have either."

Fred looked down at his hands and gave a final sob then got up and walked over to the talking George.

"This is what you saw? This is what you were going through every night for the past six weeks?"

"Well, this one was a little different. The feeling is the same, but I'd never actually seen the explosion and the…aftermath…until the night before the battle. I always see the body though. And, like I said, the feeling is always the same. It's not like when one of us gets hurt. I know you were thinking that I put you through exactly what I was trying to escape. But it's not the same, is it? It hurts so much more when it's death." George stopped for a minute looking down at the body before continuing with more vigor, almost begging Fred to understand.

"I knew you wouldn't understand unless you saw it. Unless you knew what I had felt. Please don't be angry with me. I know you were before. Don't try to deny it."

Fred paused and sighed deeply. "You're right. I was angry. I didn't understand. I didn't believe you. And I was angry that you didn't trust me enough to tell me and let me try to change it myself."

"I couldn't let you go because you hadn't seen it. You didn't know where it was going to happen or where you had to be so that you wouldn't die. The positioning was so precise. I couldn't risk it."

"I'm so sorry. I didn't understand before. I do now. Forgive me?"

George smiled. "Of course! Who would I have to prank with if I were busy being angry with you Gred?" His face suddenly looked serious again. He looked Fred straight in the eye with an expression of guilt and fear. "Do you forgive me? For stunning you and taking your place and everything?"

"If you'd asked me three days ago, I'm not sure what I would have said." The fear in George's expression increased. Fred smiled and continued on. "But since you asked nicely, yes, I guess I forgive you. Like you said, who would I have to prank with if I were busy being angry with you Forge?" George gave a huge sigh of relief and relaxed as they both laughed. After a minute, Fred looked around.

"So, where are we?"

"Oh, this is your dream. You fell asleep waiting vigilantly by my bedside."

"This is all my dream?"

"Yep, it's all you."

"Then how do I know what you dreamed?"

"Because we're twins. Funny thing, the bond between twins. One can communicate with the other if he really really wants to."

"Really?! Wait, so, what if you were awake and we really really wanted to communicate with each other?"

"Then I imagine we could talk," George said with a huge grin.

"Oh, haha. I mean, could we talk telepathically?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Once I wake up, we'll have to try it out."

Fred looked worried. "You are going to wake up, right? Because if you don't, you'll be putting me through exactly what you were going through. You can't do that to me."

George smiled. "Oh, don't worry, brother dearest. I'm going to wake up if I have any say in the matter."

Fred let out a sigh of relief. "Good."

"Hey, if you could show me the dream now, why couldn't you show it to me before? Then we could have avoided this whole mess."

"Simple, I didn't know I could. It took me this long to figure out how to access this particular aspect of our twin bond. Now that we know how though, I imagine it should be fairly easy to access again."

"Excellent. I can't wait!"

"I know, me neither! We have lots of pranks to pull and things to invent. But first, you need to WAKE UP!"

George turned and shouted the last two words in Fred's ear. Fred started awake. It took a minute for him to realize he was in George's hospital room. He turned his head to look at his brother, hoping to see eyes identical to his own staring back at him. Sadly, George was still unconscious. He sighed and put his head back down, still looking at George.

"Come on, George. I'm not angry. You know that now. Please wake up."

The next few hours were torture for Fred. He sat by his brother's side, knowing he was in there, but not able to wake up. People came and went from the room. His mother was in a majority of the time and there was a steady trickle of Weasleys coming in and out. They told Fred that he should go home for a little while and get some real rest and food, but Fred refused. Despite what the healers were saying, Fred insisted George would wake up soon and he wanted to be there when it happened.

Eventually, he got restless and started writing some ideas for the shop. Some time while he was writing, his parents had given in and left to go get more food and rest. Fred continued scribbling ideas down. He was still taking notes four hours later. Finally, he put down the pad, exhausted.

"Please wake up George. I don't know how much longer I can keep up the hopeful brother gig."

He put his arms and head over George's arm again and was asleep within a few minutes.

He awoke suddenly a while later, not knowing why. He sat up and looked around. It was getting dark and no one was there. He knew he couldn't have been asleep for long, so what had woken him? A raspy voice broke the silence.

"About time you woke up. My arm was falling asleep."

Fred's eyes widened and he looked down at George. George's eyes were open and he was smiling the huge Weasley twin smile. Fred let out something between a laugh, a sob, and a cry and lunged forward, hugging George like there was no tomorrow.

"Oh Merlin, George, I was so scared! Don't ever do that again! You are not allowed to die, you hear me! You can never die!"

George's reply was choked. "I'd love – to keep – that promise – but I can't – if you strangle me!"

"What?"

"Can't – breathe!"

"Oh, sorry!"

Fred jumped up immediately. They stared at each other for a minute, grins plastered on their faces. Finally, George broke the silence.

"So, you're alive then."

"Yes, and you appear to be as well."

"So it would seem. I guess my plan was an overwhelming success."

"Except for the getting blown up bit."

"Oh, little details, little details…"

The pair laughed as Arthur, Molly, Bill, and Percy entered.

"What in the name of Merlin are you laughing about? What-?"

Fred turned around and stepped to the side to reveal George looking at them, both smiling like it was a crime not to. Everyone gasped. Molly dropped the clothes and dinner she had brought for Fred and ran over.

"Oh, George, we were so worried!"

"I know Mum, sorry."

The whole family took their turns with George, hugging and fussing over him. Just as the first four finished the rest of the family plus Harry, Hermione, and Fleur came in and the cycle started over again. George gave Fred a "help me" look as he was encompassed in another huge hug. Fred just grinned back.

"Hey, you were the one who went and got blown up. Don't ask me for help."

"Such gratitude to the person who saved your life."

"Haha. So I guess the whole telepathy thing works."

"Yes. Excellent to know about now."

"We can have lots more fun like this."

They both paused for a moment before nodding mischievously and saying "Excellent," at the same time out loud.

Everyone looked at them like they were crazy. After a minute of silence, Harry and Ginny snorted, unable to hold back their laughs anymore. This set off everyone else and the room was filled with laughter. The Weasley twins were back.

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A week later, George was back home. Everyone was staying at the Burrow, so it was more crowded than usual. Luckily for the twins, George's condition got him the honor of only having to share the room with one other person, Fred. After a delicious dinner and a celebration for George's homecoming, the twins headed up to bed, where they sat going over some of the ideas Fred had had while George was in the hospital. An hour and a half later, both were exhausted. They lay down in their beds, the light out, but neither closed their eyes.

"George?"

"Yes, Fred?"

"I'm glad you're alive."

"I'm glad you're alive too."

Both twins smiled.

"Goodnight Gred."

"Goodnight Forge. Sweet dreams. No visions of imminent death, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll try my best."

The twins lay there with smiles on their faces. And for the first time in seven weeks, George got a good night sleep.

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Well, that's it! I hope you all liked it and that my crazy vision actually made sense! I know I had fun writing it. Would've been kind of funny if I'd gone through all that trouble to save Fred and then killed George. Anyway, I'm not sure when I'll be able to write again since school is in full swing now, but if I can somehow find the time, I'll try. I've had a few ideas, but nothing definitive yet. Thank you so much for reading my story!

Note: Again, quotes were taken from Deathly Hallows page 636.