Prologue

"Damn it, Audrey, you've got to listen to me. You and I are never going to work.. At first I thought so, but you're used to things I can't give you, and probably won't be able to. You can't come with me, love.. All this is is infatuation, nothing more. You'll meet a better man and you'll forget all about me. Can't say I'll ever forget you, but with things the way they are right now, I have no other choice." Fred said quietly, just seconds after the Weasley twins made a very public and chaotic goodbye scene during their OWL and NEWT exams.

Audrey sighed quietly and bit her lower lip as she looked up at him, hurt and a little angry. She didn't understand why he was ending things with her now, not like this, not when she needed him, loved him more than he actually understood, really. Just because he was leaving Hogwarts, she felt it didn't mean they had to end.

She had this bad feeling that he was going to put himself in danger somehow, and it scared her. She knew the war's tensions were increasing, their relationship as it stood was under the ultimate strain from it, currently, because she hailed from an 'old Pureblood' family, and was probably richer than Fred could ever recall being.

And her older brother was a known Death Eater, the very thing both she and Fred stood against. Apparently, the fact that she'd fought right beside them all during the latest battle, which had taken place at the Ministry of Magic, meant nothing, proved nothing to him. In the end, apparently, he still couldn't get past the fact that they came from two very different sides in life.

And right now, those sides were opposing one another violently.

"What happened to nothing you really want, nothing really worth having is easy to keep, huh? Or did you just say that to win me over? And all those times you said nothing was going to ever come between us.. Christ, Fred, we've stood against everything that everyone around us has thrown at us... your parents, my parents, our friends, everything." Audrey asked quietly as her lower lip trembled.

Fred sighed and said quietly, "I thought we could make it through this.. But I don't want your entire family ripping apart, love.. You won't have anyone left but me.. And you have to know that it won't be enough.. One day, you'll wake up and wish you'd stayed behind, met another guy.."

"So this is it.. You're breaking up with me, Fred, and all you can give me are probably the stupidest and most assanine reasons I've ever heard in my life.. It's because I'm only 16.. Right? You think I'm too young to know what real love is, I suppose. Fine then, go. Just get out of here already.. But I want to say this one thing before you leave for good.. I won't forget you, Fred Weasley, because you are completely and totally wrong about me. But thanks, by the way.."

"For what?" Fred asked as Audrey looked up at him and said quietly, "For finally proving me right. Love doesn't exist. I never should have let myself fall for you. I knew, sooner or later, you'd either wind up leaving like everyone else, like my real father did, or you'd wind up getting tired of me, be done and on to another girl. Have a nice life." before turning and walking back into the building.

George sighed from behind him and said quietly, "You didn't have to do that, Fred."

"I did, George... We're in a position right now, where if things get as bad as everyone thinks they might, and we were found out, our relationship, they'd find some way to punish her, especially that bastard older brother of hers and her bastard stepfather. This was the only way I knew I wouldn't lose her.."

"Maybe one day, you'll get to fix it. Let's go." George said quietly as Fred nodded, watching her walk away, walk back into the castle, sighing to himself.

He knew, even then, he was making a huge mistake.

Audrey sighed as she flopped into a bench in the break room of St. Mungo's, took off the shoes she wore for a moment, rubbing the soreness out of her feet. She'd been working nonstop since the war's final battles started to increase violently.

"Do you want some rest? I can swap out shifts with you, if you like." a girl who'd been in Slytherin with her when they attended Hogwarts, named Jessica asked her as Audrey shook her head and said quietly, "If I rest, then we're short handed, Jessica. You, however, need the rest.. You have a husband waiting at home.. Go to him." waving her hands at her brunette friend.

"Who would've thought, huh? The two of us working on the right side of the war.. Not on the dark side.. If the founder of Slytherin could see us.. he'd roll in his grave." Jessica mused as Audrey pointed out simply, "Neither of us really belonged in Slytherin.. We simply begged the hat to put us there so our precious parents wouldn't be any more disappointed in us than they already were. I'm going for a smoke. Let me know if I'm needed, since you're obviously not going to leave and go home, enjoy having something to go home to."

She'd just started out, wrapping her black moto jacket around her as tightly as it'd go, lighting a cigarette with shaking hands when she heard shouting and running in the parking lot. Looking up, she sighed as she saw more arriving from the battle that'd taken place at Hogwarts an hour earlier, a battle that was still very much waging.

As soon as she saw Ron and George trying to carry him in, she turned and threw up all over the sidewalk that lie behind her and ran over quickly.

"Are you a healer, Ms?" Percy asked, gasping for breath, also badly wounded, but making his brothers carry Fred, who was in worse shape than he was.

"Yeah.. Follow me." Audrey said in shock as she whistled for a nearby attendee to come over, help the group into the building. She took a few quick puffs of her cigarette after retrieving it from the halfwall that ran along the sidewalk, and after stubbing it out, she ran into the building behind them.

"If I lose him.." she muttered quietly as she found the cubicle they'd taken Fred into and tried lingering in the back. She was but a minor Healer, he'd need one of their higher level Healers, from the looks of things.

Every word she screamed at him before the twins left the castle a few years ago hung heavy in her head and her heart as she lurked in the background quietly, waiting on the other Healer to give an order. There was no way in hell she was leaving this cubicle.

Not when she'd spent over half of the time since she'd seen him last, regretting her stupidity, her childishness.. It'd taken a while, but when she realized that he and a few others were running coded broadcasts under code names, she knew why he'd left then, why he'd insisted she forget him then..

He didn't want to put her in danger.

Brinna, the other Healer in the room, made her way over and said quietly, "It's going to take both of us, if he even makes it through the night.. Noone's ever seen the disastourous results a failed Avada Kedarva spell has on someone.. But from the looks of it, Audrey, we're going to, tonight.. And I have no clue what to do.."

"And neither do I. But he cannot die, Brinna. We cannot let him die." Audrey insisted as Brinna asked calmly, "Do you know him? Because you know how the head of staff feels about Healers working on people they have a connection to, and you know that if you get reprimanded now, you won't be working for a few days.." while studying the curvy caramel blonde.

"Let's just say I owe him something and leave it at that." Audrey said quietly, her hand in her hair as she sighed, looked around the room at his family. So far, none of them had actually recognized her.. Of course they wouldn't, she hadn't seen any of them in years, she was only just coming back to the UK from living in the United States.. And until now, until she'd started working at St. Mungo's recently, she hadn't really been planning on staying beyond volunteering her services as a Healer for the war that was going on..

When the war finished, she firmly intended to return to New Orleans.. At least there, she wasn't known for her family ties, she didn't have to turn on her radio and hear all the devastation going on around her, and she lived among Muggles who knew little to nothing about the Wizarding world's existance.

"Alright, but if you start linking yourself emotionally to this patient, during anything I might have to try, Audrey, you are to leave this room." Brinna stated as Audrey nodded and said quietly, "And I will.. For now, can we just concentrate on trying to find something to heal him, bring him back to consciousness?"

The two Healers set to work silently after clearing the room, both of them trying every counter spell, every measure they could take to at least illicit some response. And a little after midnight, something finally worked.. They managed to get him breathing and functioning internally again..

But Fred Weasley remained in the 'sleep' he'd been in when his family bought him in. This baffled them.

Especially Audrey, who sat in the chapel below St. Mungos, in the Muggle only section of the hospital, staring at an alter full of lit candles with angry golden brown eyes.

"Audrey?" she heard someone calling her name from behind her. The seat next to her dipped down and she said quietly, "What?" while hiding the tears she'd been holding back until just a few minutes ago.

"I thought that was you." Hermione said matter of factly as she said next, "I never thought you'd be working here, as a Healer.." at a loss for words. She of course knew how close Fred and Audrey had been, she didn't like it, considering Audrey had been in Slytherin house, and they discovered her brother was a Death Eater.. But she knew that right now, Audrey was probably beyond upset.

"Did you come here to say something, Granger, or did you come here to express your shock that not all Slytherins are evil?" Audrey asked as she added in the next breath, "Sorry, I'm just.. Why isn't he waking up? That counter spell Brinna created, it worked on everything else.. But he's just lying there, stiff as a board, smile on his face.." Audrey sighed as she stood, smoothed her hands down over the pale blue nurses uniform she wore.

"Aren't those Muggle scrubs?" Hermione asked with a raised brow as she looked at Audrey in curiousity for a few moments.

"Indeed they are, Granger.. I also intern at the Muggle hospital above this one. For now, at least.. Just doing what I can, really, to help the aftermath of the war.. When it's over, I'm probably leaving again."

Hermione nodded quietly and asked, "Are you alright? Do you want to talk to someone?"

"Not especially.. No offense, Granger, but you weren't ever my biggest fan, so why do you bloody care now? I mean you were probably ecstatic when Fred broke it off with me and left. Damn it, I'm sorry, again, that was bitter." while she paced in front of the alter filled with candles in front of them.

"Actually, I wasn't.. And I realized then just how not a bad person you were.. Neville and Luna told us you were helping them when we came back to Hogwarts for that horocrux.. I can look past houses now." Hermione said as Audrey nodded and then asked quietly, "How's George taking it?"

"He's in there now, he refuses to leave the room. Neither he nor Ron will leave the room, actually. I just wanted to come down here and see if you were alright, I saw the way you took off out of there after you two had to do that counter spell and it made his body contort and twist back into shape." Hermione said quietly as Ginny spoke up from behind them and added, "So it was her?"

"It was her." Hermione said as Ginny warily hugged Audrey and sniffling said "If he's gone..."

"He can't die on us.. I won't let the stubborn arse." Audrey said calmly as she sighed and then added, "I've got a lot I want to say to him. If you ladies will excuse me, I'm going out for a smoke. Come find me if there's any change. Brinna's a far better Healer than I am, he's in good hands now."

The two former Gryffindor females watched the former Slytherin run out of the room, looked at each other as Ginny muttered, "She still thinks we all hated her, apparently." with Hermione nodding in agreement, adding, "And she still loves him."

Outside, Audrey picked up a garbage can, heaving it at the nearby brick halfwall as she screamed in frustration. She flopped down onto the sidewalk and said quietly, "If there's a way to fix this, so I can at least tell him I'm sorry and I do love him, I never stopped.." as she lit another cigarette with shaking hands.

Walking back inside, she heard the other staff announcing the end of visiting hours. She grabbed her street clothes and ducked into a room with a shower, intent on taking a shower while she had a few minutes, mostly just to think about that night, seeing him again, but seeing him again like that, not like she'd hoped to see him again.

Because tonight was totally not how she'd planned to see him again, truth be told.

"Better get clean now, get some food in me, some coffee.. Because I am not leaving this hospital until he's alive, awake and talking." she muttered to herself as she toweled out her hair, changed into the street clothes. She'd tell the nurse on call that she was here for the duration and if they needed her, to get her.

Then she made her way down the hallway quietly, pushed the curtain back in Fred's cubicle and sat down in the chair by the bed.

Taking a few deep breaths she said calmly, assertively, "Now you listen to me, Fred Weasley.. And you listen to me good.. You are not dying, not like this. No, you're going to wake up and let me say what I need to say."

Fred lie there, unmoving. She sighed and took hold of his hand, trailed her finger along his palm and muttered, "This isn't fair, you know.."

FREDS POV

The last thing he remembered was hearing Percy yell something, falling hard on the ground. He writhed around in agony for a few seconds, then the pain just sort of stopped.. And in that few seconds, he saw everything he wanted in life passing by, before he even really got a chance to do or say any of it.

He saw her again, and a smile slipped onto his lips, his eyes closed. He thought for sure that was the end for him, but then a few hours? Days? Months?

And unbearable agony as if his body were being ripped apart and shoved back together hastily, the pain hurt but he couldn't seem to cry out and let anyone know it hurt as badly as it did.

"He's a first, definitely. And if Percy hadn't thought quickly, deflected that spell, he'd be dead right now." a female voice spoke grimly as another female voice said quietly, "No, he's always been a stubborn arse, a fighter."

He thought he recognized the second voice, but he ruled it out. She wouldn't be here. She was in the States now, living a magic free existance from what he'd heard out of her old friend Jessica when they ran into each other down at a pub a few nights ago.

He did know he still loved her, that's pretty much all he had left of Audrey Adaire now, a memory and all the feelings he'd doubted in himself when he let her go a few years ago.

The pain eased off and he slept again for a few hours.. Now, he figured it was around 3, if he were guessing right, and the girl with the familiar voice sat at his bedside, in the dark, holding his hand, arguing with him as if she thought it'd make him wake up.

Why the hell couldn't he just wake up?

"You'd have loved Minnesota, Fred.. You always loved the snow.. I lived there for a winter.. Did a lot of something the Muggles called skiing.. Turns out, love.. I'm not that good at it. I think I spent more time on my ass than I did on the skis." Audrey said quietly as she leaned back in the chair a little.

She watched his bed like a hawk.. He'd made wizarding medicine history tonight, if Percy hadn't reacted as quickly as he had, then the full force of the Avarda Kedarva curse would've hit him, and he'd have died.

If he hadn't moved when Percy yelled, it would have done more damage than it had.

Audrey just hoped it hadn't done more damage than it had. They wouldn't know until he woke up, if he even woke up at all.. Some of the other Healers seemed to think he might not wake up.

"Fred? I just wanted to tell you, if things don't.. I love you.. And I know why you ended things.. I figured it out a little while ago, actually.. You didn't want me in danger.. Don't you dare die on me, damn it.. Percy saved you one time.. It had to have happened for a reason." Audrey said as she stood and leaned over, pressed her lips to his and walked quietly out of the room.

Once she was down in the parking lot of the Muggle building on top of the hospital again, she sat down and started to cry, finally, exhausted from the events of the night.

Upstairs, Fred continued to lie there, unmoving..


Normally, I don't do any sort of authors notes unless it's absolutely required.. But I know how touchy canon correct fans can be, so I felt I owed you readers a few explanations as to what I'm doing here, so I wouldn't get flamed to death or something, which I really don't want happening, so bare with me, please?

Fred was saved at the last minute, by Percy shouting his name, which caused him to duck, the spell to ricochet. It still had an affect on him, just not a deadly one.. In my story, he's sort of making 'wizarding medical history' by living through an Avarda Kedarva, which I think was the spell used.. I could be wrong, however, it has been a long time since I watched the movies or read the books.

*If any of you have ever heard the song One by Metallica, that's where the idea for this part of the story comes from, the video for that song.*

The prologue itself is sort of the end of Audrey and Fred's relationship.. I used the whole concept mentioned in the series that the twins had code names and were 'helping' with Potterwatch, doing small things here and there, so that, of course, is canonical. The breakup happens at the end of the 5th book/movie, when they leave Hogwarts. It's implied that Fred and George already intended to do what they were doing for the war then, and that Fred didn't want Audrey in any more danger than she was currently in (what with being a blood traitor and her brother and stepfather being Death Eaters and what have you..)

There may or may not be several flashbacks during the story, about their pasts and such.. It's sort of two stories in one if you will. I'm trying my damndest to keep the story as close to the original as possible, with the biggest change being of course, Fred lives instead of dying.

The gist of all of this is sort of Fred getting his own life post war/hogwarts.. Because I wish he'd lived, but I realize that in war, there have to be some casualties.. Rather than do some outlandish thing, I chose to have him luckily dodge the spell. It's simpler that way. This is just going to be a slightly angsty and definitely fluffy little love story for all the Team Fred girls out there.

If you like it, review. If not, don't. I just got this idea while listening to Metallica's One, and then watching Pearl Harbor a few nights ago, I'm mainly only posting it here, to get it out of my mind and my own curiousity, see where it goes after this chapter.