The wall burst open and the world was dust and rubble. The others were thrown apart.

There had not been pain. A moment of horrifying fear, yes, but the pain never came. There was nothing at all for a while. An instant could have been an eternity – there was no time to measure. There was nothing but that last blast of fear that tore and pulled. The fear was replaced by calm and darkness and he knew.

'No – no – no! No! Fred! No!'

But the voices were quiet and far away and they had no meaning. They were noises, soothing like a whistling breeze, peaceful like a rippling lake. They floated through the air to him and gathered around. They made the calming darkness bigger and brighter and wider until there was light. Light pouring around and warmth everywhere. He was seeing the scene and understanding it, though he could not see the exact shapes. Like your eyelids closed with sun streaming through them. He did not have to see when he could feel like this.

Be brave. You're safe now.

Again, he felt the words rather than heard them. They were spoken in the voice of his mother and everyone else too. It was a universal voice of all he needed to hear. It had echoes of his father and George and Ginny and Ron and Bill and Charlie and Percy and Harry… It soothed him and extinguished the small fear left.

The light formed into shapes now, but he was no longer at Hogwarts. It was strange, all dark and grey and blurred. The only thing in focus, and the only thing that mattered, was the tall, ancient archway in the centre. There was a veil, thin and black, moving as if just touched. He felt others rushing past him, all streaming towards the veil, brushing the curtain. He understood.

Be brave.

He was.

Then for a moment there was overwhelming relief and joy. Not for himself, but for the others, far back at the castle. He knew they need not fear. He knew, from where he stood on the cusp of a new world in which he had complete confidence, that it was the living who had fear. Only the living had to fear being left behind. And he knew that he had not left them behind. There was no fear at all.

The arch was there again and he heard voices whispering from it. They were talking to him, calling him. A few he recognised: Mad Eye, Sirius, even Dumbledore. With surprise, but one that no longer caused sadness, Remus and Tonks joined their calls. He cast his mind back to Hogwarts and saw them fighting. Saw them all fighting fiercely. He thought of Harry, felt the fear and confusion and desperation and understood that he could not lose. Love, Harry. He thought of George, locked in brutal combat, furious and in anguish. All out of love. Fred understood it all now.

You're safe now.

And then it was time. As if taken by a wind, he swept towards the archway. There was calm and light and joy all through him. Doubt and fear was cast aside. He knew a confidence that life had not granted him.

A line from an old story book, read to him many years ago by his mother on cold, forbidding, candle-lit nights came inexplicably to mind.

And then he greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him gladly, and, as equals, they departed this life.