A/N: I've had this idea for a while and I finally got around to writing it. I've wanted to write something about Fred's death for so long and I'm actually working on another piece from Angelina's point of view about his death that I hope to finish soon but until then I hope you enjoy this story.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Weasley twins.
They thought they were invincible, Fred and George Weasley did. They were going to conquer the universe of pranks and jokes. Nothing and no one would be able to stop them.
They learned the hard way that invincibility is just a delusion. When there's a war going on, no one is safe.
First, the quieter, less outgoing twin lost his ear and almost his life. For a moment Fred felt vulnerable as he watched blood drip from where his brother's ear once had been but when he saw his twin's face break into a smile he forgot that moment of insecurity. George had a hole in the side of his head but they were still on top of the world, untouchable once again.
That brush with Death forgotten, they didn't feel the need to fear it even as its greedy hands took so many around them. The newspapers were swirling with names of people, so much older than them, dead. They never dreamed its grasping fingers would reach out and take one of them, young as they were...
Until Death caught one of them in its unyielding embrace. He took the whole, undamaged one and let the other twin feel the vulnerability his brother had felt that one fateful night he had been irreparably damaged.
Only the feeling was a thousand times worse for George. For him there was no reassuring smile that his brother was okay, only a glassy stare remained where his once brilliant, joke-loving, extraordinary other half had been.
The funeral was loud, full of laughter and tears as they celebrated Fred's life the way he would have wanted them to. But when George got up to make his speech all fell silent to listen to these words he spoke:
"We thought we were invincible, Fred and I. We never imagined that Death would take one of us so young. We refused to believe it was possible, even as we watched people die all around us. I'll admit that we were a tad delusional. We joked about everything because that was the only way we could deal with all the horrible things happening around us. I guess we started to think that if we never took the idea of dying seriously that it wouldn't happen to us until we were ready to go. However, Death never asks if you're ready to go, it takes you and leaves one lesson behind: nobody is invincible."