Title: Beware of Potions

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Summary: Fred and George create a new product in the summer before their 6th year, but when one of them samples it, they find that it has far different effects than they'd hoped for.

I am so sorry about the long wait. But it's done! This is the final chapter, and I hope it lives up to everyone's expectations. Many thanks to those of you that read and reviewed the last chapter! Every time I got a review I started thinking about this chapter, so it really helped. Anyways, please let me know how you like it!

Chapter Twenty

The two brothers met each other's eyes for a long moment before Fred's eyes slid from George's to everyone else and finally landing on Professor Snape.

Sensing that the obvious tension would soon be broken in a way that might hinder Fred's recovery, Snape quietly motioned for everyone else to leave. George ignored the hand that waved in his family's direction – he wasn't going anywhere. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the Headmaster gently guiding his parents out of the hospital wing. Ron looked about ready to protest, but a single glance at Professor Snape's face silenced any attempts that might have been made.

George watched as everyone aside from his twin, himself, and Professor Snape left the wing. After a moment of nervous silence, he glanced back to the bed. Snape sat to Fred's left, gazing across the hospital wing in thought. George didn't think he'd ever seen the man look nervous, but he looked anything but fully prepared for the situation at hand. Snape sighed and turned back to Fred, who was still staring at the Potions professor. With a quiet voice, the professor asked, "What is your name?"

Fred's expression didn't change for a moment, but then it was obvious that he was confused as his brow creased. He finally moved his gaze from Snape to the sheets covering him on the bed. "I…" he started to say and then clenched his fist around the sheet unconsciously. Just as George felt the dread start to overcome him, Fred unclenched his hand around the sheet and looked back at Snape. "Fred. Fred Weasley."

George let his eyes slip closed in relief and he swore that he heard Snape breathe a similar sigh of relief, though the man would most likely never admit it. "And what is the last thing you remember, before now?" Snape asked, this time with a slightly more confident tone than before.

Fred sat up a bit and inhaled steadily before flicking his gaze to the right and saying, "Something about… a forest, there was this ridiculously idiotic man…" At that comment, George swore he saw Snape bite back a laugh. "Were you there, professor?"

Fred turned a curious eye towards Snape at which the man confirmed his question and prodded him for more information. "The last thing I remember is this bloody freezing cold hitting me and then…" Fred trailed off and looked up to meet George's eyes. "And then you," Fred added quietly. The look on his face was completely unreadable to George, and that fact terrified him.

Snape looked ahead again and, after waiting a few moments to see if Fred would say anything else, asked, "Where are you now?"

Fred turned his eyes from George's face and glanced around once again before saying, "Dunno. Smells awful though," Fred leaned back again and closed his eyes.

"How do you feel?" Snape asked in the same monotonous tone.

"Like I've been hit by the Kil- that's it!" Fred shouted the last part and sat straight up, his hand flying to his chest. "That… that… what's his name? Wormtail! Merlin, did all of that really happen?"

George's expression didn't change as Fred slowly recollected the last few things that he'd experienced. The constant chant of "let it be temporary" had sprung up in his mind and was running on repeat.

Fred seemed to be remembering more and more details from the moments before he'd been "killed," and was describing the last few things he'd seen and heard to Snape. He hadn't glanced back at George yet, continuing instead to speak to Snape, who was now dividing his attention to both of the twins.

George knew he shouldn't say anything, that he should let things come back to Fred as they would, but he couldn't help it. Interrupting Fred's description of the forest that they'd apparently been in, he asked insistently, "What else do you remember?"

Both Snape and Fred turned to look at George, who by now felt that all his hope was riding on the answer to this seemingly simple question. There was a moment of strained silence before Fred shook his head slightly and looked down, saying quietly, "I – head hurts…"

George absolutely refused to let Snape see him get upset by this. And he couldn't spend even one more second getting glances full of confusion and caution from his own twin brother. Without a word, he pushed away from the bed and stormed out of the hospital wing. Just outside the doors were the rest of his family, and it was all he could do to shove through them and keep walking.

Behind him, he heard his mum asking what was wrong, and despite how much worry was laced in her voice, he couldn't bring himself to explain it. Instead, he made his way to the Astronomy tower, thankful that by sheer luck it was actually dark outside and completely empty.


Severus watched as George stormed out of the hospital wing. In all honesty, he was surprised that the boy had managed to hold that question in for as long as he had. To see one of the Weasley Twins be so quiet and thoroughly confused unnerved even him, and he never considered himself to be a person that would appreciate their ridiculous behavior.

"Professor?" Severus turned back to Fred's questioning gaze.

"Your memory seems to have been affected by the spell that I cast on you," Severus explained, though it didn't really help clarify anything for Fred.

"When I try to think back…" Fred started to say, but then paused, as if he had lost what he was going to say.

"Do you recall anything before the forest?" Severus asked. "Try to think about all of your senses, not just what you saw, but what you felt, heard, or smelled."

Fred thought back beyond the forest that he could picture much more easily now. Before that he had the distinct impression that something terrible had happened. The sense that he had done something truly stupid hit him and he couldn't stop the words that rushed out of his mouth. "What was I thinking? I should know better…"

Severus focused his gaze on the boy and held his breath for a moment.

"You made me drink this foul potion!" Fred exclaimed.

If Severus had been so inclined, he would have rolled his eyes and let his head fall onto his hand in exasperation by now. As it was, he just gave Fred a rather dead-panned look and kept trying to pry information out of him. As the two spoke, it became obvious to Severus how the boy's memory had been affected.

When he was asked questions about events that had happened long before this latest adventure, Fred was unable to recall a single detail. Though Severus noticed that when he questioned about things that happened in chronological order from when he had been 'killed,' he was able to piece his thoughts together and remember what had happened. 'Now,' Severus thought, 'just sixteen years more to go through until he's back to normal.' They had already been doing this for nearly an hour. The thought nearly made him groan in frustration.

"And that was when we decided to sample the potion… which I guess in retrospect wasn't such a great idea," Fred summarized as the details from the disaster that led to all the drama came back to him.

Fred had failed to mention anyone in his family by name so far, so Severus questioned him further. "Who do you mean by 'we'?"

The boy answered without even blinking, "George and I, of cou-"

Severus watched carefully as Fred froze for a split second at the revelation. His eyes darted back to the end of the bed where his twin had been standing earlier and when he saw the empty space, he nearly jumped out of the bed.

"That was George! Where is he? Where'd he go?" Fred nearly shouted as he rushed to disentangle himself from the sheets. Severus didn't move from where he sat as the teen struggled with the sheets before finally falling out of the bed altogether and crashing to the floor.

"By all means, speed your recovery by throwing yourself out of bed," he commented with more snark than was perhaps necessary.

A muffled, irritated voice drifted up from the floor on the other side of the bed. "By all means, don't feel like now would be a good time to start learning those people skills…"

Severus did roll his eyes at this, now that there was no chance that any Hogwarts students would witness it. He stood and walked to stand in front of Fred and gazed down at the teen that was still struggling to get up.

"Your body was frozen instantaneously, hit with the killing curse, and now your memory has been affected, and you believe this to be a good time to go for a walk?" Severus asked with an arched eyebrow.

Fred stopped trying to push himself up and glared back at Severus. With a sigh, the teen said with barely restrained sarcasm, "Pretty please, Professor Snape, would you be so kind as to help me up so that I can find my brother?"

"Which one? You practically have a dozen."

"…" Fred held his gaze before finally saying, "No I don't… I don't think there's that many… I meant George anyways."

Severus extended a hand and said, "Sit down for a moment while I ask the Headmaster where your brother has run off to." Thankfully, the teen actually did stay seated on the chair next to the bed as Severus opened the door to the hospital wing and gestured for Albus to come in.

"Severus, how is he?" Albus questioned quietly once the doors were shut.

"His memory is coming back," Severus answered, "but it goes in order back from now. He had to remember everything that happened in the past few weeks before he could even remember that he had a brother. Now he is wanting to go find him."

Albus nodding knowingly and said, "Understandable. Would you be so kind as to escort him to the Astronomy tower, my boy?"

Severus felt his fingers in his wand hand twitch, not only at the irritating misnomer but also at the question itself. Part of him wondered how the headmaster always knew where people were, but the other part of him just wanted to get it over with. With a resigned sigh, he nodded and walked back towards the teen that was watching them anxiously.

"Come, Weasley," he said with as much enthusiasm as a slug has when it hears the salt shaker coming. The teen hardly spared a second to stand up and follow him out, though he didn't get far before reluctantly grabbing onto Severus' arm. The two opened the doors to the hospital wing and Severus braced himself to be barraged by Weasleys, but he was greeted instead with an empty hallway. It seemed that the headmaster had thought ahead, for which Severus was very grateful.

The two made their way towards the Astronomy tower slowly due to the fact that Fred really shouldn't have been out of bed yet. When they did arrive, Fred dropped Severus' arm and nodded at him in a way that was clearly meant to say 'I've got it.'

Severus let him walk up the rest of the way, but lingered below in the shadows in case anything happened.

Fred reached the last step up the Astronomy tower and wished desperately that Hogwarts had more benches in its hallways. He leaned against the wall for a few moments to catch his breath and looked around. He didn't want to admit how exhausted he was, but even with Snape's help, the walk up to the Astronomy tower had his legs shaking with effort.

The tower looked empty, and Fred feared that they'd made the trek up for no reason. Quietly, Fred called out, "George?" His voice echoed lightly into the night air as he tried to see into the darkness. The longer he stood in place, the more his legs started to shake, and Fred really didn't want to call Snape to come help him, no matter how much help the man had been recently.

He called George's name once again and was about to lower himself to the floor when he heard footsteps and looked up to see George's worried face right in front of him.

"You remember?" George asked quietly, reaching out to grip Fred's shoulders.

Fred nodded slightly and George pulled him forward into a hug. Fred hugged him back, more emotions flowing through him than he knew what to do with at the moment. He settled on being grateful to be back, though at the moment exhaustion was staging a good fight with gratefulness. He stumbled a bit in George's arms and tightened his grip on his brother.

"Are you okay?" George asked worriedly.

"I need to sit down…" Fred answered, reaching out to lean against the wall again. George immediately helped him down to sit on the floor against the wall and joined him a second later.

The two sat in silence for several long moments, though it was nowhere near as awkward or tense as it had been in the infirmary. Fred grabbed George's hand and held onto it for a while as he thought back to earlier in the summer, trying to remember more about what had led up to everything. He shook his head a moment later and sighed.

"Somehow I doubt my headache's going to go away any time soon," Fred muttered.

George turned to look at him and said, "How much do you remember?"

Fred looked up and smiled before saying, "I can't really measure that right now… It's like asking how much water a lake can hold without knowing how big the lake is."

The two shared a quiet laugh before lapsing back into silence, which in itself showed just how stressed they were feeling, since it wasn't every day that they could manage prolonged silence.

"Professor Snape said something about remembering things in order, from now to the past. So far I have a pretty vague idea of what happened this summer. Sorry 'bout the whole potion disaster, by the way," Fred said. "And for punching you, and for-"

"Fred," George interrupted and met his twin's gaze. "Stop apologizing. I think you went through enough because of all of it that we can pretty much drop it."

Fred nodded in response and added on, "Yeah, well, still though…"

"I threw you down a set of stairs, remember? We're even, so drop it, or I'll do it again," George threatened playfully.

Fred smirked and nodded a bit more confidently, "Hey now…"

They were quiet for a few moments once again before Fred said, "Thanks for visiting, by the way. I would've made a cup of tea for you… but they frowned on that sort of thing for some reason."

George smirked and added, "I think the smell of the awful building would've spoiled the tea anyways. Besides, I had forgotten to bring biscuits."

"That wasn't Lee's job?"

"No, his job was to wear that lacy little apron we got him for Christmas last year… he even forgot that, can you believe it?"

"And what exactly was Malfoy's job?"

"Entertainment, what else?"

Fred laughed and said, "I can think of better entertainment. Like that bloody Zabini. I still owe him a bloody nose."

George shook his head and smiled. It felt so right to have Fred back, even if he hadn't been returned in good condition. Slightly worn was acceptable in his book. He wrapped an arm around his twin and commented lightly, "I guess this means we owe Snape now, eh?"

"Why? All he did was save my life, that's not so amazing…" Fred said jokingly. He paused when he felt George's arm tighten around him at the words and added, "I'm kidding, George. We'll think of something for him. Flowers and candy or something," he said with a smile.

Fred heard George take a shaky breath and leaned his head against his brother's shoulder. "I'm alright, George. I mean, I still can't remember every time that Mum yelled at us, but I'm not sure that I really count that as a negative side effect…"

He heard George laugh lightly and closed his eyes. He was more tired than he cared to admit, and though this wasn't the most comfortable place to sit, it was the best place he could think of at the moment.

The two sat quietly for a while, with Fred resting while George watched the stars move slowly across the sky. They could've stayed like that for quite a while longer, though a worried voice echoing from below them drew the twins back to the present.

"Wha's the… who's it?" Fred mumbled tiredly. George craned his neck over Fred as footsteps sounded on the stairs to the tower. His hand moved for his wand even as his mind told him that Snape wouldn't let anything dangerous come up. He didn't even question his sudden reliance on the Potions professor anymore, not after what he'd done for Fred.

"George! Fred!" At this shout, Fred snapped his head up and blearily looked over to see Percy stepping towards them. His face had the time to morph into a look of confusion before he and George were swept into a hug by Percy.

"Ack – Percy! What the hell!" Fred shouted as George started laughing. Their older brother let go of them and kneeled before them with a smile on his face, which was unusual enough that Fred was looking at him as if Percy was the one that had temporarily lost his memory.

"Thanks for coming, Perce," George said lightheartedly.

Fred turned his head slowly to gaze at his twin and then looked back at Percy. He repeated the movement, which only made George and Percy's smiles grow. Finally, he asked to George, "I'm sorry, do you know this person?"

"Ha! Don't even try it, Percy's unforgettable," George laughed.

Percy rolled his eyes and said, "You don't know how glad I am to see you, Fred. Now I don't have to worry about George going off on idiotic missions that even Potter would laugh at."

Fred stared at him for a minute before saying quietly, "Somehow, I don't think my confusion is from not remembering something…"

George smirked and said, "It turns out that Percy's alright. It's a long story, but just trust me, okay?"

"Of course I trust you, you idiot."

Percy laughed lightly and sat back with a smile. "You guys should head back down if you can. Mum and Dad are getting a bit frantic. We were supposed to stay down there, but we split up to find you two."

"We?" George asked.

"Bill, Charlie, Ron, Ginny, and I think even Potter and Granger are on the search as well. The Headmaster wouldn't say anything. Oh, Lee's wandering about somewhere too," Percy answered. "Did you forget that we'd all be worried too?"

"Hey, I'm the one that's supposed to forget things, not him," Fred commented.

"Right," George agreed. "But we should get down there. Mum'll have a conniption if we're gone for too long. Just so that we don't have any unnecessary drama though – you do remember everyone, right?"

"Yep, we all live in a castle in Ireland with King Arthur and the Queen Mum and have two servants named Bill and Charlie as well as a little princess named Ginny. There's also a dog named Ron and a cat named Percy."

George rolled his eyes and said, "Close enough."

Percy helped them stand up and commented, "Why do I have to be a cat?"

"Dog was taken."

"Ron really could pass as a dog – he eats everything and he's loyal to anyone with food," George said.

They made their way down the stairs and passed Severus, who was hidden in the shadows. The last he heard of them on their way down was Fred's comment about getting matching collars for Ron and Percy.


Fred spent another four days in the hospital wing with regular visits from George, Ron, and Ginny. Even Percy showed up at least once a day to see him. When Madame Pomfrey finally released him, it was with the instructions to not get into any trouble or tax his system in any way.

The two twins walked out of the infirmary and Fred did a much calmer interpretation of a victory dance once they were out of sight of the doors. He still felt as if he hadn't had enough sleep, but besides that and the lingering headache from trying to remember everything, he was doing alright. He and George had a large bag that held at least a month-long supply of sweets, chocolates, and homemade pies from Mum to snack on, and they were going to be very careful to hide it all from Ron.

As they were walking back, Fred groaned and stopped suddenly, putting his hands to his head as if in pain.

"What's wrong?" George asked with worry. "Should I go get Madame Pomfrey?"

"I just realized that I've missed the first couple weeks of classes… Bloody hell."

George was about to reassure him when Professor Snape spoke from behind them.

"I believe you won't need to bother worrying about it, Mr. Weasley," Snape said quietly. "The Headmaster has seen fit to excuse you from all of the work that you would have otherwise been completing."

Fred had turned to face him and smiled a bit before saying, "Ah, bless his heart. George, we should share some of our stash with the old man."

"I think that could be arranged," George nodded in agreement, shifting the bag of sweets in his arms.

Professor Snape smirked and added, "His decision is not law, however. Many professors believe that you should still complete the work."

Fred eyed him and responded, "Is that so?"

"Indeed."

Fred turned his gaze to the floor while George glared at Professor Snape. He was about to say something when Fred spoke again.

"I'll give you a chocolate frog."

"Five chocolate frogs."

"Two."

"Three and one of your mother's pies."

"Damn you."

"Four and-"

"Fine! Three and a pie," Fred declared, holding his hands up exasperatedly. George stood in shock as Fred reached into the bag and pulled out three chocolate frogs and one of their mum's pies and handed the items to Professor Snape.

Severus tucked the sweets into one of his pockets and turned to leave after saying, "It was good doing business with you, Mr. Weasley."

After he rounded a corner, Fred shook his head with a smile and said, "Bloody Slytherins."

"I don't even understand what just happened," George said, still looking a bit stunned. He looked at Fred and shrugged abruptly, and the two continued their walk to Gryffindor Tower.

Just as the two were walking by the Great Hall, they noticed Blaise Zabini walking away from them towards the Slytherin dorms. Fred smirked and looked at George, mouthing "hang on a second" to his twin.

He crept down the hallway until he was standing just behind the Slytherin and then said loudly, "Hey, Zabini!"

Zabini turned, whipping out his wand as he did so, but he wasn't fast enough to dodge Fred's fist. The younger Slytherin was sprawled out on the floor, wand several feet away, before he knew what hit him.

Fred laughed and walked back towards George who clapped him on the shoulder while watching Zabini get up and stumble away, holding his nose.

"Feel better?" George asked.

Fred just smiled.


The End!

Sorry if you were hoping for more mushy happiness – that's one thing I suck at writing.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the story, and thanks for being patient with me while I finished it. Please leave a note telling me what you thought of it! Thank you!