Hey everyone. This is written for the Holmes Mystery Challenge. My prompts for this story were emotion joy, the action of cleaning, and the dialogue of "Why are you like this?". I hope you all enjoy The Many Faces of Grief.
The sound of joyful whistling was coming from the kitchen. Which shouldn't have been that surprising giving that Mrs. Weasley was always so cheerful and full of joy but it was. It had been almost five months since the Battle of Hogwarts. Five months since they lost Fred. Five whole months. And here she was whistling joyful while cleaning the kitchen.
I found myself knocking on the doorway to let her know I was there. I watched her jump at the sound. The interruption being noted as she turned to see who was there.
"George," she chided, "you should know better than to scare your mother like that."
I nodded. "Sorry, Mum," I told her pulling her into a hug.
"Sit down. Lunch is almost ready and the others should be arriving any minute now."
I watched as she set a place for everyone. Counting the amounts of settings I noticed she put one more than was actually needed. I couldn't bring myself to point it out to her. I guess it was still difficult on her to remember that it was one less for every meal.
"Are we expecting someone else for lunch, Mum?" asked Ron as he and Hermione took their customary seats at the table.
Mum jumped as though he had actually yelled at her and then looked at the table. Sighing in she picked up the extra setting place it back in the cabinet. I don't think anyone noticed but me that she was crying when she did this. I glared over at Ron, who had a look like he didn't know what he'd done on his face, and mouthed "Out in the hallway now.".
He had the good grace to follow me out into the hallway without arguing about it. I turned to him the anger I didn't want to show in front of Mum coming through clearly now.
"Why are you like this?" I hissed at him. "Don't you know how hard it has to be on her? She lost a son less than six months ago and doesn't need you to be constantly reminding her."
"What's your problem?" Ron hissed back.
"Your attitude towards what this family is going through. That's what's wrong."
"I'm sorry I'm not walking on eggshells around Mum and you. But the rest of us are grieving in our own way and who are you to say that they are wrong or right."
I watched him storm off the last few words of what he said ringing in my head. Who was I to say that he was wrong to grieve in his own way? Was it wrong that he didn't want the reminder of Fred's death sitting right across from him at breakfast, lunch, and dinner? I sighed as I followed his path back to the kitchen where everyone was eating already.
Lunch was particularly tense this afternoon. Especially considering that Ron kept glaring over at me every so often. I sighed putting my fork down and looking across the table at him.
"You're right," I finally stated. "Okay? I have no right to tell you how to grieve for your lose any more than you have to tell Mum how to grieve for hers. So can we agree to disagree?"
He looked at me shocked. I guess I don't usually like to admit when I'm wrong. I guess I was so used to Fred always taking up for me that I just wasn't used to someone else agreeing with my opinion.
"Okay. We can agree to disagree." He sighed in relief and then turned to Mum. "I'm sorry if I hurt you, Mum. I didn't mean to. It's just difficult to see the extra space and know that no one will come to fill it."
"I know," Mum answered walking around to Ron's seat and pulling him into a hug. "I know."
After that the tension lifted and lunch became the usual joyful chatter filled event that it used to be. Everyone at the table knowing that this is the way Fred would want it to be. A table full of love.
I hope you all enjoyed The Many Faces of Grief. I thought about the Weasley family a lot when dealing with these prompts. I thought about how Mrs. Weasley, George, and Ron would deal with the loss and I can see them actually dealing with the loss of Fred this way.