Hi, welcome to my fic Fred's Last Gift! This was made to accompany my other fic, I'm Here, but it can also stand alone. Feel free to tell me if there's anything wrong with my plotline, as I'm fairly new to Harry Potter fanfiction. Enjoy!
Note: This story takes place five years after Deathly Hallows.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Harry Potter books. Also, I do not own Avril Lavigne's song "Innocence."
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Fred's Last Gift
By Ponytail Goddess
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Waking up I see that everything is okay,
The first time in my life and now it's so great,
Slowing down, I look around and I am so amazed,
I think about the little things that make life great…
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The morning started out calm enough—the sky was starting to meld into light lavenders and soft oranges that were a precursor to the sun coming up. Dimly, a few birds could be picked out in the distance, chirping and cawing to welcome the start of a brand new morning.
Then George's alarm went off and all hell broke loose. George's head hit the bed as his magically enchanted pillow flew out from under him and started beating him awake. Immediately awake, George chuckled a bit and tried to fend off the expected onslaught with his hands. However, this did not work and so George quickly reached out to his nightstand and felt around for his wand as his pillow continued to bash him, spreading a small spray of feathers this way and that.
Finally, George felt the familiar wood between his fingertips. With perfect aim, George lifted his hand and flicked his wand. "Finite!" He cried out.
Immediately, the pillow screeched to a sudden halt in mid-air and then fell lifelessly back onto the bed and laid still as if the incident had never happened. Seeing this, George burst out laughing. What a fabulous test run! Smirking, George pulled the pillow back under his head and thought about how his alarm clock pillow would soon be his new bestseller at the shop.
George felt his eyes close as he basked in the syrupy-sweet feeling of success. This only lasted a second, however, as his eyes shot open when he remembered what today was. Smiling to himself, George felt a happy nervousness fill him as he contemplated the day.
Suddenly, he needed to go somewhere. With a speed that even George didn't know he was capable of, he flew out of bed and grabbed the shirt that he had discarded the night before, quickly pulling it on for modesty. Then, not bothering to put on his shoes, George took his wand in his hand, closed his eyes, and apparated.
When the odd sensation around his body ended, George opened his eyes and found he was exactly where he wanted to be. Soft tendrils of light peeked out from the rolling hills in the distance, penetrating the soft mist that was hanging over the familiar graveyard. Taking in a deep breath of the fresh country air, George walked slowly through the dewy grass towards a small red maple tree.
By the time he arrived at Fred's grave, George's bare feet were soaked and had a few stray autumn leaves clinging to them. Arms wrapped around himself for warmth, George stared down at the small stone that marked where his brother was. George's lips curved into a sad smile as he gazed upon the familiar sight.
"Today's the day Fred, wish me luck." He said softly, smiling as he imagined his brother listening to him and giving him the thumbs up signal with that classic grin plastered to his face.
Leaning down, George patted the side of the plain grey stone as if it were his brother's shoulder. "I just wanted you to be the first to know. I…" George started, then paused as the fateful night of the war temporarily invaded his otherwise pleasant thoughts. "…I wish you were here for this Fred."
George then let go of the grave and straightened himself out, smiling again as he shook the negative thoughts out of his head. "I miss you, you git. Have a good day, wherever you are. I'll be back tomorrow to tell you how it went, okay?" He said.
Nodding once to say goodbye to Fred, George quickly apparated back to his flat.
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This innocence is brilliant,
I hope that it will stay,
This moment is perfect,
Please don't go away,
I need you now,
And I'll hold on to it,
Don't you let it pass you by.
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The moment George arrived back in his room, he knew she was already in the shop. He could hear soft noises coming from the kitchen, which was directly below his room. After taking a moment to think about her appreciatively, George quickly went into his bathroom to clean off his feet and make himself presentable for the day. Donning a pair of black slacks and a fitted red and blue argyle sweater, George snuck out of his room quietly, not wanting to alert the lady downstairs of his presence.
Silently, he crept down the stairs, listening to her moving about in the kitchen below, humming a soft melody to herself as she worked. He could hear the sizzling of the stove as he snuck through his dark store and then through the office, crouching behind the door discreetly. Cautiously, George snuck a peek around the corner and saw her.
Verity. She was looking quite stunning today too, wearing khaki pants and a fitted white blouse with a green, sleeveless sweater over the top. Her short, platinum blonde hair was straight and gently curled under her chin, which was the style she chose when she desired to look professional. Turned away from him, she was obviously concentrating more on her cooking than her surroundings.
George smirked. This would be entirely too easy.
Using a cat-like stealth all his own, George soundlessly crept up behind her and in one swift motion, wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, nuzzling his head into her neck.
As expected, she gasped and jumped, almost fumbling the wand that was in her hand. Luckly, George caught her wand and placed it back in her hand as his soft lips made contact with the back of her ear. "George!" She cried out with a small chuckle in her voice as she yanked the wand away from him. "You scared me, you sod!"
He grinned naughtily against her skin in response to this. "You know I can't help but take advantage of those who are unaware, love." He said teasingly as he squeezed her close for a minute in greeting. "I see you're making my favorite today."
"You silly git, you say that everyday!" She exclaimed, turning her head to look at him with her own teasing smirk. He could tell she was happy with his greeting though. His thought was only reinforced when she gave him a small peck on the nose before putting her eyes back on the sizzling omelet that was cooking. With a quick twitch of her wand, the pan bent down and then sent the omelet twirling through the air. Gracefully, the pan caught it and swished it around a bit while Verity levitated two plates towards them.
"Pour the juice, will you?" She asked as she made final preparations to the omelet.
Placing one final kiss atop her head, George gently stepped away. Silently compliant, he levitated the pitcher and two glasses over to the table and carefully filled the glasses, then took a seat and smiled as Verity approached him with his meal. As she placed it down in front of him, George smiled up at her, a real smile and not just a smirk.
Upon seeing his trademark appreciation, she giggled a bit and then ruffled his hair affectionately before sitting down with her own plate. George opened his mouth to retort, but suddenly found that he had a lack of things to say. A small smile touched the edges of his lips as he cut off a piece of omelet and eased it into his mouth with his fork.
"Good?" She asked as she watched him do this. Swallowing the steaming egg and tomato concoction, he nodded and replied, "The best."
Merlin's beard, what would he do without her? Probably starve to death like he had been right after Fred had passed away. That had been such a tumultuous time, what with his shop in complete disarray, as well as his mind. However, she had been there, a light in his complete darkness, solid and constant. She had been such a good friend then, caring and a good listener to boot—how could he not find himself enamored with her? After all, she had stuck with him and believed in him even during the worst of times. Verity had shown him incredible loyalty and patience and he had found her worthy of his trust, which he did not easily give.
She was such a great help at the shop too, always willing to take up extra work now that he was short-handed without Fred. Verity was always willing to test his projects with him, even the nasty ones that purposely made one sick. A warm streak of gratefulness ran through his body as he thought of the night that she had insisted on testing his new-and-improved puking pastilles, as he had tried them the last three times that night and had been virtually sick all week from testing them, trying to come up with a longer-lasting formula that would be more believable to people who were familiar with his original product.
Naturally, the one she tried had been the one that he had finally gotten right and she had puked in the bathroom of his flat all night long while he rubbed her back in an attempt to comfort her. After she had finally finished dry-heaving at the crack of dawn the next day, she had helped George tweak the formula so that it didn't last nearly that long. After all, the goal had been to make the puking longer and a bit more believable, but there was such a thing as too much! Together, they had worked at the formula for a week and then, after many nights huddled over the toilet, it had finally been perfected.
Indeed, Verity was wonderful…in fact, perhaps she was too good to be true. After all, she seemed to love his jokes and could put up with all of his little quirks and imperfections. She even let him snog her in the storeroom a few times, as he found this both humorous and enjoyable. Since she had started working more and more, he found that he had started to spend more and more time with her, slowly becoming attached.
Now, it was almost like she was a replacement for Fred.
Immediately, George cringed inwardly at that thought. Of course, no one could replace Fred—the void in his heart that was created by Fred's absence was too deep and wide for anyone to fill. However, something about being with Verity just felt right and George didn't know what he would do without her.
He loved her. Merlin's beard, he loved her so much.
After late nights of testing products, he could almost always be found on the top of his building, having a late-night tea under the stars with her. At first, he had been uncertain about letting her join him, but in the end found that her company seemed to ward off several of his negative thoughts. Sometimes they talked and sometimes they didn't; really, her mere presence was enough to soothe him. George had never been alone before because Fred was always with him and so having a consistent companion really made him feel complete and normal again. It didn't hurt that she sometimes spiked the tea with fire whiskey after a hard day either-
"George? You're terribly quiet this morning…you didn't put another hair-changing tablet in my drink again, did you?" She asked, cocking her eyebrow suspiciously.
Immediately, he noticed he had been daydreaming about her for a good 10 minutes or so and she had called him on it. Usually, he wasn't withdrawn in the morning and so naturally, she would be worried or suspicious if he was. However, this was detrimental to his plans for today and so inwardly he cursed himself while he outwardly chuckled and hid his nervousness.
After all, he had put a hair-changing tablet in her juice yesterday. Knee-length pink hair had looked quite interesting on her. But then again, so had the huge, fuzzy afro he had given her the previous day.
"No, no…I know your friend's coming by today to have lunch with you, love. I wouldn't want to sabotage that." He said, trying to quickly think up something that would justify his uncharacteristic trance.
And then he thought of something. Something childish. Something so childish, in fact, that it just might work in diverting her inquisitive glances. Smirking dangerously as he remembered that he hadn't put on any socks or shoes yet, he carefully slid his long leg closer to her until his foot was touching hers and rubbing her ankle.
"George!" Verity squealed, quickly leaning her chair onto its back two legs to try and avoid the onslaught, as she was quite ticklish. However, George's legs were much longer than she had anticipated because he easily ran the underside of his foot up her pant leg to her knee before she fell backward.
Having already seen the potential of this happening, George quickly whipped out his wand and stopped the chair and his employee from hitting the floor, saving her head from an unpleasant blow by only a few centimeters. Hoping that she wasn't angry with him, he quickly levitated the seat back up and onto all four of its legs.
All it took was one look at her though for him to realize that she was not. "Whew, that was a close one." She said, sounding a bit winded from the small panic she had experienced when the chair tipped. "Merlin's beard George, you are terribly randy today, aren't you?"
George smirked at this, got out of his chair and walked over to her, bending down to whisper in her ear, "What if I am, love? If you want, I'm sure we could fit in a small snog in the storeroom…"
His smirk widened even more as he watched her pallid cheeks become rosy at his insinuation. Putting her hand on one of his cheeks, she gave the other one a peck as she stood up. "You silly wizard, we need to get to work. There might be a spot of time for that later, but now we should start our product testing." She said, smiling, then walked over and put her plate in the sink, quickly levitating George's over as well.
Despite her kind answer, George felt his heart sink as his nervousness fully set in for the very first time that morning. He had been trying and trying to cover it up with a healthy amount of cheesy jokes, but had clearly went over the top as he frequently did when he was nervous. What if she said no to his proposition because he had acted like such a nutcase this morning?
That thought made him clearly frown, but he quickly sobered up as he pushed the annoying thought out of his head. However, he knew she had noticed his forced smile and gestures when he signaled her to follow him upstairs to him and Fred's old workshop. In fact, the moment that he felt her warm hand slide into his own, he knew that the inevitable was about to happen.
"George," she said softly as they both reached the top of the stairs, "Are you okay? Pardon me for saying this, but you've been a bit off your rocker all morning…"
Sighing, George turned around and looked at her in the dim, musty light of the hallway. Her deep blue eyes were filled with concern and it nearly undid him. What if he had ruined this before he had even started it?
What if she said no?
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I found a place so safe, not a single tear,
The first time in my life and now it's so clear,
Feel calm, I belong, I'm so happy here,
It's so strong and now I let myself be sincere…
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After a moment of silence, George finally decided that it was indeed time to tell the truth. "I'm sorry Verity," He said, looking down in shame, "I know I've been a total nutcase today…I just…well, you see…" He stuttered, trying to find the right words to convey exactly what he wanted to convey.
Finally, he swallowed down his fear and looked at Verity, who was still awaiting his answer patiently. "You see…I've been working on something by myself…a special product…and I-I was hoping you would test it out for me." He said, now looking expectantly at her.
"Of course I will George." She said, curiosity and wonderment still glittering in her eyes, "What sort of product is it?" She asked, looking a bit anxious.
George smiled down at her and gave her hand a small squeeze. "If I told you love, it would ruin the surprise. Just trust me—I think you might like it."
With that said, George let go of Verity's hand and headed into his workshop. The dimly lit room evoked a thousand memories of his dead brother, which he immediately pushed aside as he focused on looking through the shelves of interesting ingredients and half-finished projects for the object that he wanted Verity to test. As he quickly searched the shelves, he heard her soft footsteps enter the room.
It was at this precise moment that he found it. "Ah, there it is!" He said to himself as he reached behind a bottle containing pickled bat eyes and pulled out a small, shiny black box. Quickly, he grabbed it and turned around so that Verity could see the object that he was holding up. He watched as her eyes locked onto it and looked at it with an unconcealed curiosity and just a touch of fear.
That was not reassuring at all. However, it was too late to turn back now. Shaking a bit, George handed the box to Verity, who cradled it in her hands gently. Looking up from the box in her hands, Verity asked with a look of concern, "What do I need to do?"
Hoping to make her a little less nervous, as well as easing his own nerves, George came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close so that he could kiss her ear. Gently, he whispered, "Just open it, love."
Clearly, she was frightened of what was going to happen because she held the box fairly far away from her body in preparation for whatever unknown thing it might release. He frowned as he realized that he had passed his own nervousness onto her. Finally, after a few long moments of hesitation, she carefully flipped the lid of the box off.
Silence ensued as they both watched the lid fall slowly to the ground. It landed with a small thud and immediately, both of them turned their heads back to the opened box. Their eyes were gleaming with anticipation…
…but nothing happened.
George cocked up his eyebrow, immediately confused and trying to deduce what had went wrong with the product. He was certain that he had cast all of the spells correctly… Damn it! This was not a product that could fail!
Though he was completely irritated mentally, he still watched Verity as she slowly moved the box close to her body. "George," she said as she brought it up to her face and tilted it so she could look inside, "I think it might have malfunc-"
However, Verity never finished that sentence, for at that exact moment, she jumped and yelped as the box suddenly came to life and let out a bang that was as loud as a clap of thunder. The eardrum-shattering sound was accompanied by a large poof of golden dust, which first surrounded their bodies, then quickly gathered together into a large strand that spiraled around from their feet to the tops of their heads. Entranced with the culmination of his yearlong project, George only now noticed that Verity was clinging to him, clearly scared by the explosion that, though harmless, had been rather close to her face.
"Shh…it's okay, love." He said softly, kissing the top of her head as she nuzzled her own into his shoulder. "I'm so sorry, I must have messed it up somehow…I didn't mean for it to be scary or anything…" He said, trying desperately to save this moment that he had worked so hard for. "Please Verity, love, look up…you don't want to miss this." He whispered intensely, gently pulling away from her in an attempt to make this work.
Keeping one arm around Verity, George pointed up towards the ceiling where the golden dust was slowly starting to spell out words in elegant cursive handwriting. He watched as she wiped away a few tears, then looked up to what he was pointing to, staring in awe as the words magically formed before their eyes.
"Verity, my dearest love, over the last few years you have taken it upon yourself to care for me in a thousand thoughtful ways. For that, I will always be grateful. You have been by my side for every up, down, and terrible jolt that my life's crazy broom-ride has led me on. I only hope that I get the opportunity to somehow bring you the happiness and comfort that you have bestowed to me over the years. You see, I have become quite dependent on you and the love you have shown me and when I think about the future, I always see you there by my side. Therefore, I beg you, please allow me to try and give you the same wonderful treatment you have given me. Please, let me try for the rest of my life. There is nothing I would rather do. Verity, my love, will you marry me?"
The golden dust finally stopped spelling out words and the room was filled with an eerie silence as Verity continued to stare up at the glittery message. All George could hear were his jagged breaths as he loosened his grip on her. Inside his chest, his heart thundered traumatically as he waited for her answer. It was a terrible feeling, waiting for her to answer such a life-changing question; he felt quite ill, in fact, as he was almost positive of what her answer would be after all of the fiascos he had caused this morning.
Finally, she shakily turned towards him and looked into his eyes. "George…" She whispered almost inaudibly, "Are you joking?"
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Hehe…cliffie. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my writing. I should have the next part up in about two weeks. Sorry it won't be sooner, but I'm very busy with college right now as we're about to end this term. Have a great day and thanks for reading!
-P.G.