Worse Than Mortal Peril
A/N: So this is just a one-shot about Mrs Weasley's clock, you know the one that points to different things with the faces on it? Well you should, but if you don't, read it anyways, it'll probably still make sense.
This is set a few days after the end of the battle, the Weasley's return home only to see that something has changed on their magical clock:
Mrs Weasley bustled through the door, she had a cheery face on, but there was something in her eyes, in the determined set of her mouth that made it clear that she wasn't okay, and she definitely wasn't cheerful.
The rest of the family were still getting their meagre belongings from the ministry car, and she was glad for the peace and quiet.
It felt good to be home, even after such a short time, even without Fred. She couldn't even remember her last words to him- she knew that the rest of the family would be feeling the same way, but that didn't fix the ache in her heart, the hole in her chest where Fred's cheeky laugh had once lay in all it's glory.
Mrs Weasley walked into the sitting room and stifled a gasp. The clock! All the names were back to normal, there was no more mortal peril! It felt strange to know that this was the end, that the war was finally and truly over, it gave one a sort of weird deflated feeling, that ached with wild happiness and joy at the same time. The joy was yet to kick in, however in her case, the deflated feeling was overwhelming.
Mrs Weasley turned around to see her beautiful family walking in, Arthur in his dusty green cloak, Ron with dirt on his nose as usual, Percy- dear, dear Percy, George, who had refused to look whole again, in repairing his ear, when he so clearly wasn't. Ginny, who had a haunted expression on her face, Harry had asked her to marry her, and she felt guilty for the happy bubble she was feeling when her brother was gone. Bill and Charlie were lagging behind somewhere, but the unmistakable looks of horror on the rest of her family's face confused her, what were they looking at?
Mrs Weasley turned to look in the direction to which the rest of the Weasley clan were looking, and stifled a yelp of horror. At that same moment, understanding dawned in George's eyes, George who looked so much like Fred that it pained her, George who would never be whole again. The scream that followed was deafening, and it came from the Weasley family as a whole, if only out of George's lips. They were all in this together.
The clock, the one which she had been so relieved to have seen the absence of Mortal Peril, now had a new option, a new way to enforce pain on her family. Where the words 'Mortal Peril' had faded out, a new word had faded in:
'Dead.'
Mrs Weasley had been so focussed on the weight lifted off her shoulders when she looked at the newly removed 'Mortal Peril', that she hadn't noticed that Fred's hand, with his beautifully smiling face and intricately carved name, had gone grey, and was rapidly turning skeletal. She watched, helplessly as the hand turned to ashes, the ashes landing and fixing on the 'Dead'. She could almost hear a ghost of a laugh as the ashes disappeared completely, and suddenly, the pain was too much.
Her baby was gone, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. She reached out her arms, and felt a feeling of relief, the kind that could only come from a family hug, in such a together family, newly broken apart.
Life was hard, but with her amazing family she could get through it.
She knew people who had gone through worse…
A/N: So I know it's not the most popular theme and I'm not really expecting any hits, but if you do read this, please review, this story is quite important to me, and reviewing will take you two seconds, and make me feel really good. Do it for Fred, man! :D