A/N – What's this? Marauder is writing Harry Potter? Yeah, I know, I'm freaked out too. But lately, the mothership has been calling me home and I just had to answer the summons…

Disclaimer – If they were mine, they all would have died of neglect a long time ago…

"I've asked her to marry me, Lee."

That's how it all started.

In The Three Broomsticks, with glasses of Firewhisky lined up like soldiers on the table between them, George Weasley managed to do what he had never once been able to do before.

He made his best friend cry.

-SECONDBEST-

He'd never been good at sitting still. It was the constant bane of his mother's life, or so she liked to remind him, but Lee had never bought that. He was too good at noticing the smile behind her frown as she patched him up after he had managed to fall out of a tree or got himself bitten by some creature in the garden that would have been quite content to never have tasted his blood if only he would leave it alone!

So…the whole sitting still thing was not easy, and he certainly couldn't do it now, when he was so excited that he could hardly remember the last time he had slept properly. Instead he was roaming up and down the train, glancing into compartments and listening in on snatches of conversation. He'd bought a whole pocketful of Chocolate Frogs from the lady with the cart, and got himself yelled at by a prefect when he accidentally wandered into their carriage, and generally had a wonderful time. It was on his third trip down to the end of the train that he noticed for the first time a compartment populated entirely by red headed boys, two older and two about his age who had to be twins. He slowed to double check that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him and caught the eye of one of the matching pair. He grinned, and before he knew it he had been pulled into the compartment.

"Hi," said one of the twins, "What's your name?"

"Lee. Lee Jordan."

"Hi Lee Lee Jordan," the boy replied, his eyes crinkling as he laughed at his own joke. His twin was quick to join in, and the oldest boy too, but the middle one just sighed and went back to his newspaper.

"I'm Fred Weasley," the original twin grinned, holding out his hand, "This is George, that's Charlie – he's the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team - and the grumpy git is Percy."

Charlie raised a lazy hand in greeting as the other twin smiled an identical smile and also shook Lee's hand.

"Are you a first year too, Lee?"

"Sure am. Pleased to meet you, Fred and George. Do you want a Chocolate Frog?"

-SECONDBEST-

In hindsight, it was an achievement that they had only managed to set the curtains in their dormitory on fire three times by the second year. At least four more opportunities had presented themselves at one time or another, and Lee thought it showed admirable restraint on his part – and the twins' too, of course – that they had managed to avoid them. Professor McGonagall didn't seem to understand that though, and so the third time she had to haul them in for punishment she just sat them down and stared at them for a minute. They sat, heads bowed; Lee to the right, where he always seemed to end up, Fred in the middle and George on the left. He'd been lucky really, to be accepted into this select group of two – when people talked about them now, it was Fred, George and Lee.

What have Fred, George and Lee done now?

Did you hear about what Fred, George and Lee did to the mandrakes in the second year greenhouse?

For someone who had grown up an only child, it was a lot like what he imagined having brothers would feel like.

"If I didn't know better I'd say that the Sorting Hat was playing some kind of prank when it put the three of you in a dormitory together," Professor McGonagall eventually sighed, sitting down behind her desk and actually resorting to massaging her temples, "Am I to have five more years of this? Because I would appreciate a warning now if that's likely."

-SECONDBEST-

"Fred! George! They've posted the new team sheet downstairs!" Lee gabbled, bursting into the dormitory, "Come on!"

The three of them charged down the stairs, almost knocking an unsuspecting first year flying in their haste to see if they had made the team. The twins had tried out to be Beaters, and everyone said that they were easily the best at the trial despite some of the others having three years on them. Lee had tried for Chaser, in a much more closely fought battle, a battle that he secretly didn't think he had won. There was a small crowd gathered round the notice when they arrived.

Keeper – Oliver Wood (C)
Chaser – Katie Bell
Chaser – Angelina Johnson
Chaser – Alicia Spinnet
Beater – Fred Weasley
Beater – George Weasley
Seeker – Jed Conrad

Sucking in his breath between his teeth, Lee quickly schooled his features to hide his disappointment before either of the twins could look at him. George turned around first, his face downcast.

"I'm sorry, Lee. Tough luck."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Fred nodded, looking at his hands as though his face might betray something of his own euphoria in the face of his friend's bad luck.

"It's alright. Well done, you two! You're going to be great," Lee grinned, and he was pleased to find that he really did mean what he said. They must have been able to sense it in him, because they broke into matching smiles and patted him manfully on the shoulders.

"Maybe next year, right?"

"Yeah, maybe," Lee said, and he meant that too. So it came as a most pleasant surprise when later that day Professor McGonagall asked to speak to him after Transfiguration. Standing by the desk, chewing on his tongue and wondering what she had managed to pin on him that she hadn't also been able to pin on Fred and George, Lee had to admit that he was at a loss. Even more so when she smiled unexpectedly.

"I have some good news for you, Mister Jordan. Our current Quidditch commentator has decided to retire, and I've been asked to find his replacement."

Holding his breath, Lee just stared at her as she continued.

"And when Professor Dumbledore asked me if I could think of someone who would be quite capable of talking the hind legs off a hippogriff, my thoughts immediately went to you. Are you interested?"

A smile was playing around her lips, barely there, and Lee could feel his excitement growing in his chest even as she spoke. She'd barely asked her question before he had an answer on his lips.

"Yes, please!"

-SECONDBEST-

Curled up in bed with his Charms textbook, Lee groaned and bashed his head against the sizeable volume.

"What's up, mate?" George asked, concern in his voice as he glanced over from his own bed and his own book.

"We're going to fail, George. There's no bloody way we're passing this exam tomorrow."

"We've failed exams before, Lee," Fred chipped in from the windowsill, his hands full of small oddments that certainly were not textbooks.

"Yeah but OWLS? These are pretty serious."

"Lee's right you know, Freddie," George said, his face serious for once, "We've left it this late. Don't you think you should at least look at the book tonight? Mum's going to kill us."

"Mum's going to kill us anyway," Fred grumbled, but he slipped off the sill and dug out his own battered copy of the book, throwing himself on his bed and opening it at a random page.

"There. I'm reading. Happy now?"

"Yep," they replied in unison, turning back to their own study. And Lee reflected, much later that night when he was laid awake and gazing out of the window, that if he did have to fail tomorrow, at least he'd be in the very best of company.

-SECONDBEST-

"We're out of here, Lee. We've had enough of Umbridge. We're gonna give them a show."

Dumbfounded, Lee gazed at the faces of his best friends as they explained their plan for wreaking havoc before they left. It was a great plan, one of their best and worthy of being their final act. Which was fine, but it didn't make up for the slightly queasy feeling in Lee's stomach.

"Y-you're leaving?" he stammered, when Fred had paused for breath in the middle of his explanation, "What am I meant to do if you leave?"

"What do you mean, mate?" George asked, sitting down next to him on the bed, "We-"

"Don't mate me!" Lee snapped, "You've just decided to leave halfway through the year and not told me until two days before? I thought that you two had my back. I've had yours!"

"Lee, it's not like that," Fred's eye widened as he knelt down in front of the bed, rocking on his heels, "It's nothing personal. We just can't deal with this anymore. We don't need to be here. The shop's going to make a mint and the sooner we get started the better."

"It feels personal, Fred!" Lee exclaimed, stalking over towards the window before he gave in to the desire to punch one of them, "I don't even mind if you don't want to be here anymore. If it wasn't for the NEWTS I'd probably leave too. It's just-"

He gestured helplessly, unable to say what he was thinking without sounding like a girl. There was a beat of silence and then the clouds cleared on George's face – he'd always been quicker at reading people than Fred – and he said the words for Lee.

"It's just that you're going to miss us and you're worried that we won't miss you too."

Hanging his head, he nodded before turning to look out over the grounds. He felt, rather than heard, the twins having one of their silent conversations behind his back and jumped slightly when they appeared next to him, one on each side.

"We're sorry, Lee," George said, hesitantly patting his shoulder, "We shouldn't have told you like that. We didn't think."

"We never bloody think, mate, you know that," Fred said awkwardly, "We didn't mean to upset you. You have to stay – you've got a damn good chance of passing the NEWTS what with all the work you've put in this year. We're a lost cause, me and Georgie."

There was a resignation in Fred's voice that Lee wasn't used to and didn't care for, and he turned his head sharply.

"Don't say that. Neither of you are a lost cause. Not to me, anyway."

"Does that mean we're forgiven?" Fred smiled hopefully, punching Lee lightly on the arm.

"Course it does, you daft git," he said, "But George was right. I'm going to miss you so much."

"We're going to miss you too, mate. More than you probably realise."

-SECONDBEST-

It was late, another successful broadcast of the radio show had taken place, and Lee was just about ready to go home. He'd never imagined in his wildest dreams that, should the war people whispered about take place, he would be quite so involved, and in espionage too. He talked, and people listened, and they took comfort from his words. That was perhaps the most surprising thing of all – that he had the ability and the means to make people feel better about the whole damn thing. The show had been his idea, one of the few that he had developed on his own, and he'd been pleased when people like Kingsley Shacklebolt and Remus Lupin wanted to come and talk with him. It made it more real somehow, and it was even better when his friends came on too.

Fred had been a guest that evening, in one of his increasingly regular appearances, and before the show started they had sat and talked for a little while.

"Do you ever think about how we ended up here?" Lee had asked, fiddling with the headphones resting around his neck, "'Cause I do. Like our whole lives were leading up to this and now we're here I don't know what's going to come next."

"This is just a spot on the horizon, mate," Fred said, "Just be patient, Lee. It can't last forever, you know. That's what Dad says, and Bill."

"Yeah," he said, looking fondly at his friend, "Yeah. Maybe you're right."

-SECONDBEST-

He saw the red hair before he saw anything else, and Lee just knew that something had happened to one of the twins. He'd come stumbling into the Great Hall with Hannah Abbott hot on his heels, pausing to take in the horrible number of bodies that were scattered around the room, and his eyes fell on a red headed gathering of Weasleys at the far end of the room. He counted them as he jogged over.

Eight.

Oh Merlin.

When he was close enough to see that there was a body on the floor between them with the same flaming hair, it was all he could do to stay on his feet and pray that he was wrong. His legs trembled and he had to swallow the bile that was already rising in his throat.

…

"Charlie?" he called, his voice high pitched from fear, "Charlie, what's happened?"

Charlie turned to him, his tanned face wet with tears as he held out a hand.

"Lee…"

He didn't need to say anything else, because George suddenly appeared from behind his father and flung his arms around him. He was sobbing, and all of Lee's fears were realised in the sound of those tears in his ear.

Fred…

Lee didn't remember much after that. He was allowed into the Weasley circle, falling to his knees next to the body of his best friend and stroking Fred's hair in a way that he never would have been allowed to do if he was alive. Afterwards, he was told that he and George had joined forces and hunted down one of the Death Eaters, but he was relying on other people for that account of his actions. All he knew was that he felt like he had been punched in the stomach, and that feeling lasted all the way up to Fred's funeral, when Lee found that he couldn't look at George because that was like looking at Fred and that hurt way too much.

-SECONDBEST-

"I've asked her to marry me, Lee."

"George, that's brilliant!" Lee beamed, "She said yes, right?"

"Course she did," George said smugly, taking a sip of his drink, "I knew she would."

"I can't believe my little boy is all grown up," Lee joked, pretending to wipe a tear from his eye. George laughed, his intoxicating laugh that had until very recently been lacking something that Lee couldn't quite put his finger on. It took him an age to realise that he was missing getting the laugh in the stereo that he had grown used to.

"Anyway," George suddenly sobered and he looked intently at him, "The reason that I brought you here is to ask you something?"

"And what would that be?"

"Will you be my best man?"

His mouth working furiously as he searched his blank mind for words - any words, just say something! – Lee could only gaze helplessly at his friend.

"George, not that I'm honoured but what about your brothers? What about Charlie? Or Ron-"

"I've thought about for a while now, Lee," George held up his hands in defence, "And I talked to Bill and Percy about it too. I can't – I just – I can't have one of them. I can't do it. I can't choose."

The look on his face said it all, and Lee found himself nodding in understanding. How could George choose one of his brothers over any of the other three when the only one that he really wanted, the one who he had been sure would be the answer to any question like this that he ever had, was gone? It was a decision that he should never have had to make, and the truth of that was written all over his face.

"Yes."

"Yes what?"

"Yes, I'll be your best man. I'm honoured, mate."

"Thank you, Lee," George said softly, his eyes shining with tears, and he reached out to pat his friend's hand, "And anyway, you're my brother too. You always were. And –" he hesitated, swallowing the lump in his throat, "And I know Freddie felt the same. If anyone had to take his place, he'd be glad that it was you."

And that's how George Weasley successfully made his best friend cry, but when Lee looked back on it, he had no regrets.

They both knew who George really wanted by his side.

He was the second choice, he knew, but playing second fiddle to the memory of Fred Weasley wasn't a bad way to live in his opinion, not when it meant that he got to spend every day helping to fix his best friend's broken heart.

Lee Jordan had never had brothers.

That was the truth.

Apart from the fact that actually, it wasn't that true at all.