George carefully navigated the spiral stairs. After the battle, he had to retrieve some secret things, things he'd left in his old room for future Hogwarts students. He just couldn't handle leaving them behind with his brother gone. They needed to be his.
When he opened the door, a small boy was sitting next to the hiding spot. The stone cover for the small hole was lying to the side, its inscription facing upwards. The boy who lifted it wasn't old enough to know magic, let alone old enough to be within the school. After a night like this, no one was old enough to be here safely, not even the professors.
"Oi, what are you doing here?" George asked sternly, trying to sound as angry as possible. He wanted to scare the kid off, send him running for whoever could comfort him, yet he sat glued to his spot. "I asked you a question!" George called out sternly, his voice echoing coldly off the stone walls. 'Finally, a reaction,' he thought as the boy turned to face him.
"I heard you, George. You don't have to yell."
"How did you know my name?" George asked in a shaky tone, taking a weary step towards the nearest bed. "What are you doing here, then? You're too young! You're-"
"Supposed to be here," the boy finished with a light smile. "I was sent here to care for you. You weren't supposed to see me, but they knew better than to try something like that on me," he chuckled, pulling out a firecracker. The boy held a broken wand to it, yet the firecracker still shot off into the air, making him cackle loudly as he rolled on his back to watch the whizz around the room. "It's fun with you. It always has been."
"Do you mind telling me who you are at least?" George murmured. The boy chuckled, pulling out another item. It looked like a jellybean, but it was really a pill that caused the consumer to float high into the air. The only cure was for the bean to wear off, but so far it didn't seem to want to. They'd only used it on house pets; neither brother could do that to anything human, even their siblings.
"Do you remember this?" the boy asked, tossing it to George. He caught it carefully, nodding in a slow motion. "Do you remember what inspired it?"
"That damned git of an owl we've got...," George hissed before pausing. The child was nodding with bright, shining eyes. George looked him over, staring at his ginger hair, his freckles that were just starting to come in, and a tiny scar under his right eyelid. "Oi, how'd you get that?" George pointed. The boy grinned, pulling out another firecracker and setting it off.
"You remember, George. You know all of the answers you're asking me, yet here you are still," he sighed, standing up once the smoke from the firecrackers cleared away. "You came up here to take these away. Why would you want to do that?"
"It was supposed to be from the two of us. Now there's only one," George said, his voice cracking with emotion. "But why am I telling you this? You shouldn't be here, whoever you are! Tell me who you are!" George begged. The child shook his head. "Well why not, then?"
"Because you already know. I live inside you, a piece of you. You'll remember me like this always, your twin brother, a child at heart. I'll frolic in your dreams, terrorize your nightmares with flying leaps and curses we could never do at home!" the child exclaimed. George blinked and suddenly the child was a preteen Fred. "We'll reenact battles in the aisles of the Hogwarts Express! We'll steal all the chocolate frogs and release them in the girls' toilets. We'll do it all over again, just at night when you're sleeping."
"Then why are you here now? I'm not sleeping," George whispered. He blinked again. Fred stood before him in adult form, a light fuzz on his chin from a lack of shaving.
"Just some evidence," he winked. "I'm with you always, you stupid git! They can't get rid of me that easily! They left you behind, a few pieces short," he grinned, flicking what would've been the lobe of George's missing ear, "but you're still here. And I'm still here, just not with everyone. I knew you'd need me, brother," he smiled, extending a hand. "I'll be with you until you prove to me you can handle yourself."
"What if you see things you don't like? What if Mum makes me sell the shop or Ginny marries a Malfoy...?"
"Oh stop your blabbering, Fred," Fred grinned, somehow changing into one of George's sweaters. George then realized he was translucent; he could see straight through him to the four poster behind him. "I know everything that's going to happen thanks to where I'm at. You can't get anything past me anymore, brother," he chuckled.
"But you're just here to-"
"Be your companion, yes," Fred finished. George flushed when his brother interrupted him, but now they shared a smile. When he blinked, Fred was a child again, his ginger hair flying up gently in the breeze. "Leave this here. They'll know of us; we're legendary. They can never forget, and neither can you. Tell the kids to look it up, little Teddy and whatever kids Ginny and Hermione have. Be the best uncle ever to the children," he winked, knowing the girls would hate whatever George could offer them. "Keep up the shop no matter what Mum says, and...most of all, don't ever forget me."
"I could never do that!" George scoffed, standing again. "I couldn't, not after everything."
"Then my work here is done," young Fred smiled, standing and returning the stone to its original position. Somehow everything was in place; it was like he never set off the firecrackers at all. Even the mysterious jellybean disappeared from George's palm to end up back in the hideaway.
"So I'll see you again?" George asked, seeing that young Fred had moved past him. Young Fred stopped, turning around with a devious grin.
"You know you will, brother. Go be with the family now. They need you," he said, disappearing through the door. George rushed to it, opening it again, but young Fred was gone.
Suddenly a plume of bluish flames burst in the fireplace. George remembered that as another mysterious bean, one that turned fireplaces into scary scenes. Fake ghosts moaned at George as he looked around the room for his brother.
All he found was light laughter that seemed to come from everywhere yet nowhere at all. He smiled to himself. Fred would always be with him, even if it was just in his dreams.