Hermione Jean Granger would have been having a lovely day were her infantile boyfriend not behaving like a young boy who had been promised Disney World and was instead taken to the local county fair. Although, in his defense, it was her local county fair, and compared to the wizarding world, it was quite underwhelming. But it represented her childhood, something that she wanted to share with the man she loved, despite his blatant lack of interest.

"I just don't get it," Ron complained. "People actually pay money to sit on those plastic horses and go round and round in circles? Is this whole place designed for parents to punish their children? Actually, the parents look like they're being punished, too."

"No, you CANNOT have another cotton candy!" Hermione and Ron glanced at one mother attempting to control four screaming children, one of whom was covered in a substance somewhat resembling oatmeal. "You just threw the first one up all over your brother!"

"Well," Ron turned around abruptly, setting off for the exit. "I think that's enough fun for one day, don't you?"

"Wait!" Hermione grabbed his arm. "There's just one more ride that I want to go on."

"Hermione, I already went on the big wheel that moves slower than a troll AND I looked at all of those creepy wax people with you. What other instruments of torture could they possibly have here?"

"I've never gone on this ride before." Hermione looked at the ground as she felt her face turn red. "I've never had anyone to go with."

"The Tunnel of Love? Is it fast?"

"No."

"Is it scary?"

"No."

"Then what do you do?"

"You sit in a boat together and hold hands."

"…You're joking, right?"

"Ronald Weasley, I'm asking you to do a simple thing that would mean a lot to me, but if you're too stubborn to - "

"Hermione!" Ron took his girlfriend's hands in his. "I didn't know it was that important to you. Of course I'll go through the funnel of love with you."

"Tunnel."

"Huh?"

"Never mind." Hermione tugged Ron's hands and led him to the ride. There was no line, so they were immediately placed in a rickety old boat with a swan on the front and a large heart on the back. Hermione felt her heart soar. Every summer she had dreamed about a boy asking her to accompany him on this ride, and now she was finally sitting in the cheesy boat, holding hands with the man she loved. Ron felt a little differently about the ride.

"This looks old," he said slowly. "And kind of creepy. There aren't any spiders in here, right?"

"Oh, Ron. Relax. It's just a romantic boat ride."

Much as he tried to relax, Ron felt increasingly uncomfortable as they entered the tunnel and were immersed in near-total darkness. He felt like he was in the Forbidden Forest again. Hermione, completely unaware of her boyfriend's distress, could scarcely contain her joy when the tunnel became almost pitch-black. She leaned over to kiss Ron, and at that very moment he screamed, jumping away from his side of the boat and knocking her over the edge. She felt the water engulf her before her head smacked against the bottom of the ride and the world disappeared.

Upon waking, Hermione vomited water all over a poor park employee. Ron, looking close to tears and soaked in water himself, immediately pulled her into a tight hug as she continued to cough.

"What-what happened?" She asked.

"You fell out of the boat," Ron said, tightening his hold on her. "But everything's okay now."

"I didn't fall out. You pushed me!" Hermione shoved Ron away from her.

"There's no evidence to support that," Ron said quickly. "It looks like you lost your balance and fell over the side of the boat. I tried to catch you, but everything happened so fast!"

"Ronald Weasley, you pushed me out of the boat. I remember. Why did you do that?"

"You hit your head, you're just confused. I didn't push her out of the boat." Ron looked imploringly at the small audience that had gathered around Hermione.

"What happened, Ron? Don't lie to me."

Ron withered under her gaze. "There was a spider," he whined pathetically. "I jumped, and…and kind of…pushed you out of the boat. But it was a spider, Hermione!"

"You nearly killed me!"

"Accidentally! And I was defending myself against a vicious creature!"

"Let go of me, Ron!" Hermione pushed him away, abruptly standing up and taking off in the direction of the carousel. "Don't follow me!"

"Hermione!"

"DON'T!" Hermione stared him down for several seconds, and Ron knew that if looks could kill, they'd be measuring him for a coffin right then and there.

"I'll wait for you by the exit," he said meekly.

Furious, embarrassed, and feeling like an absolute fool for thinking she could enjoy a romantic ride with Ron, of all people, Hermione stormed off until she found the concession stand. It was mercifully empty, the workers having all taken a lunch break. Sneaking behind the stand, she sat down in the grass and let the tears fall softly. This was supposed to be her great romantic ride, and instead her boyfriend had thrown her overboard in order to protect himself from a spider. A figure suddenly stopped in front of her. Her eyes were so blurry from tears that she had to wipe them several times to be sure the man walking in front of her was real.

"Oh, my God!" She gasped. In front of her was a man with burns down the entire left side of his body. The left side of his face looked like molten lava. Hermione's face immediately flushed with shame for calling out the poor man's disfigurement. "I'm so sorry! I just…"

"Did you just talk to me?" The man asked in disbelief.

"Yes, I was just apologizing. I'm sorry, I didn't mean…it's just that I've had a bit of a shock and I'm…"

The man waved over a group of similarly burned people. Men, women, and children in all states of disfigurement stared at her.

"You can see us?" One of them asked.

"Of course," Hermione said in confusion. "Why wouldn't I be able to see you?"

The first man looked her straight in the eye.

"We're dead," he told her.

Hermione's first instinct was to scream, but she controlled herself. Maybe this was some kind of sick prank. An act for the fair. Either way, she needed to get away from these people. They were clearly a little unhinged.

"Excuse me," she said politely as she tried to make her way through the throng of burned people. To her surprise and alarm, she walked right through them, as if they were ghosts. She told herself to calm down; ghosts were normal in the wizarding world. Wiping away the last remnants of her tears, she made her way quickly toward the exit. After a few steps, she realized that the crowd was following her.

"Hey, miss! Wait up!"

"We need your help!"

"Where are you going?"

"Come back!"

Hermione broke out into a sprint and nearly collided with Ron when she reached the exit.

"You okay?" He asked worriedly. "You look like you saw a ghost."

"I did!" Hermione told him breathlessly. "Look! They're all over here!"

Ron looked where Hermione was pointing.

"There's no one there, Hermione."

"Ron, stop being foolish. All of the burned people. Right there!"

"Hermione…there's no one here but us."

Hermione felt faint as Ron stared at her with concern. A plaque at the exit caught her eye, and she read it, as she was prone to doing. The inscription made her heart plummet. "In remembrance of those we lost during the great fire of 1947." Hermione looked at the crowd of burn victims behind her, then back at the plaque. This was a muggle fair. These had to be muggle ghosts. But that wasn't possible.

"How hard did I hit my head?" She asked Ron.

"I'm not sure. Why?"

"I think I'm hallucinating."

"What hallucinations are you seeing?"

"People!"

Ron glanced around the crowded county fair, his concern for Hermione growing. What was going on?

"She's over here!" One of the burn victims shouted. "She can see us!"

All of a sudden, Hermione saw a horde of new people racing toward her. They were missing arms and legs, and had pieces of machinery stuck in their abdomens and heads. Victims of ride malfunctions, no doubt. Dead. Dead muggles. She was looking at dead muggles. And they were following her.

"Let's go!" Hermione grabbed Ron and ran to the parking lot, still pursued by a growing crowd of dead people that apparently only she could see. Once she got far enough away from the fairgrounds, she apparated herself and Ron back to the Diagon Alley. The muggle ghosts stared in confusion at the place where the woman who could see them had mysteriously vanished. But one wizard ghost lagged behind, an idea forming in his head. So Hermione could see ghosts now, eh?

"Interesting," Frederick Gideon Weasley said to himself.

If anyone had asked Fred, which they hadn't, he would have told them that the worst part about being a ghost that no one could see was having to watch his family cry for him and know that he could not comfort them. The worst moment had been watching George find his body. Fred had never seen such raw pain in his life, and he had cried out for his twin, wanting George to know that he was still there, that he had not left. But no one could hear him.

"They can't see you," Lupin had said gently, standing hand-in-hand with Tonks.

"But I'm a ghost! Wizards can see ghosts!" Fred had protested.

"Wizards can see ghosts who used their magic to remain on this earth. They can't see the ghosts who are waiting to move on."

"Waiting to…why am I waiting?"

"Because you have unfinished business here. In your case, I suspect it's because your brother still needs you. You won't be able to move on until you know he'll be okay without you."

"Does that mean you won't move on until you're sure Ted is okay?"

Tonks and Lupin looked at each other and smiled.

"Harry is Ted's godfather," Tonks said. "We know Ted is going to be just fine."

"Then why are you still here?"

"The afterlife is complicated, and you needed someone to teach you about it. I thought it should be me. After all, I was your professor for a year, despite how little you and George paid attention." Lupin said this with a smile.

Suddenly, a warm, white light reflected off of a glowing lantern. Lupin and Tonks smiled at each other.

"Looks like we're going home," Tonks said, seemingly at ease. The light flashed over them, and when it had receded, they were gone.

"Lupin!" Fred called. "Tonks! Come back!"

"They're gone," a firm voice told him.

"Nearly-Headless Nick?" Fred asked in astonishment. "You can see me?"

"I can see you, Frederick. All of the dead can see you. But none of the living."

"You've got to give a message to George, let him know I'm here!"

"You've passed, Frederick," Nick said solemnly. "Now you need to move on. Staying here will only bring you pain."

"I can't leave." Fred fought back tears as he watched George sob over his dead body. "Not without George."

And so he stayed. The Battle of Hogwarts ended, yet he stayed. The Weasleys moved back into the Burrow, yet he stayed. Life moved on, yet he stayed. Because how could he leave George?

Having found herself similarly pursued by dead people that only she could see in Diagon Alley, Hermione pulled Ron into the safest place she could think of: Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. They pushed through the throng of children looking for pranks and snuck into the storeroom at the back.

"Ron," Hermione said. "I need you to tell me exactly what happened when I hit my head this morning."

"Er, well…that's it, really. You hit your head, and, you know, you drowned, and the park guy resuscitated you, and that's really all that I can think of that happened."

"I'm sorry, I drowned?"

"See, this is why I didn't want to tell you. I knew you'd overreact!"

"And what do you mean I was resuscitated? Are you saying…are you saying I died?"

"…Just a little bit."

"I died," Hermione said to herself, feeling close to a mental breakdown. "I actually died. For how long?"

"Only two minutes. Give or take. Three tops."

"I was dead for three minutes?!"

"Give or take!"

"And you weren't going to tell me?!"

"Everyone dies, Hermione," Ron tried to say consolingly. "At least your death didn't stick."

"Oh, my God," Hermione said to herself. "I'm seeing dead people."

"Wait, what did you just say?" Ron asked in alarm.

"Woah!" George raised his eyebrows at his brother and Hermione as he opened the storeroom door to get supplies. "Should've put a sock on the door, bro. That'd be particularly traumatizing for me to walk in on you two."

"That's disgusting," Hermione snapped, storming out the door. "We were just having a conversation, but it's clearly over, because Ronald is incapable of communicating."

George and Ron watched Hermione's back as she left the store, her fury palpable in the air.

"Good luck with that one, mate," George sighed, clapping Ron on the back before grabbing a box of Puking Pastilles and shutting the storeroom door in Ron's face. Ron threw the door open and raced out of the shop, but Hermione was nowhere in sight.

"I'll have a Butterbeer," Hermione told the barkeep at the Leaky Cauldron. As she sat there nursing her drink, she was assaulted by voices asking for her help, and she held her head in her hands, not knowing what to do.

That's when the door to the Leaky Cauldron opened and George Weasley walked through the door. The ghosts immediately dispersed, finding seating away from Hermione.

"That's right," George told them. "Leave her alone."

"George!" Hermione exclaimed. "You can see them, too!"

"Not George, Fred. Check the ear."

Hermione felt the dread building up in her chest. Something was very wrong here. This couldn't be Fred.

"But Fred's…"

"Dead?" Fred's ghost finished for her. "Exactly. That's why I'm a ghost, Granger." He sat down on the barstool next to her, leaned his elbow on the counter, and casually rested his head on his hand. "So, I heard you kicked the bucket?"

"You're not real," Hermione said, more to herself than to Fred. "This is not happening. This is a hallucination, a side-effect of hitting my head."

"You can keep telling yourself that all you want, but it's not gonna make us go away. The dead are a pushy, loud, annoying bunch. We're not going anywhere."

"Excuse me, dear," a small elderly woman said to Hermione, a pleading look in her eyes.

"Yes?"

"I wonder if I couldn't have just a moment of your time?"

"Of course."

"Back off, Marjorie!" Fred shouted. "She's mine!"

"There's no harm in asking!" Marjorie snapped.

"You can talk to her after me, how about that?"

"What? No!" Hermione exclaimed. "No one is talking to me!"

"Okay?" The bartender said questioningly. Hermione blushed in embarrassment.

"Sorry, I was just…practicing a speech…"

"Stop drawing attention to yourself, Granger," Fred said, as if he was embarrassed by Hermione's outburst. "No one else can see me, it just looks like you're talking to an empty barstool. We've gotta figure out a way to communicate quietly in public."

"No, we don't!" Hermione hissed. "Because we won't be communicating. I don't want any of this. I just want all of these ghosts to disappear. I want my life back."

"I can get you your life back," Fred said seriously. "I can make them all leave."

"How can you do that?"

"I'm very good at convincing people. You know that."

"Alright, then please make them go away."

"I need your help first."

"What?"

"I need your help, Granger. It's about George."

Hermione looked at Fred and saw the sadness and despair in his eyes for the first time. She choked back her tears as she remembered the twins during their years at Hogwarts. George had been putting on a brave face for everyone, but she could tell he was lost without his twin. He needed Fred. And now Fred was here.

"What do you need me to do?" Hermione asked quietly.

A broad smile crossed Fred's face.

"I knew you'd come through for me! You do this one thing for me, and I'll make sure you never hear from another ghost for the rest of your life. Promise."

"What is it you need?"

"I need you to save George. He's lost without me, but I know how to fix that. I just can't do it without you."

"…I imagine this involves one of your elaborate schemes?"

"The most brilliant scheme of all time. Are you in? One last favor for old Freddy?"

"…Alright. I'm in."

Fred whooped in excitement.

"You go back to the Burrow," he instructed Hermione. "They won't find you there. By the time you wake up tomorrow morning, they'll all be gone. You have my word."

Hermione nodded and stood up to leave. Before she did, though, she turned around.

"It's…it's good to see you again, Fred."

"It's good to be seen," Fred answered. He watched Granger walk out of the Leaky Cauldron and down the street to his shop. She went inside and took Ron's hand, but Fred wasn't paying attention.

George Weasley was standing inside the shop, hand on the glass window, staring absentmindedly outside. He had no idea that he was staring directly at his dead brother's ghost. Feeling a surge of hope battle the usual sadness he lived with, Fred Weasley put his hand on the glass window. The twins stood, hands pressed together, separated only by glass.

"I'm fixing it, George," Fred whispered. "I promise."

Should I continue this story? Please let me know what you think!