Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: George & Ginny Weasley
Summary: Three years after the Battle of Hogwarts, George is grateful to have a sister there to make him smile.
Prompts: (word) smile; (word) sad

Something to Smile About

From the burrow – a place where he never felt lonely – George stepped out. There was a definite shift, moving from the cosy candlelight to the harsh sunlight of the afternoon. The empty sky, devoid of clouds, made the cerulean blue hard to look at. It certainly didn't help that lost feeling that seemed to intensify everytime he woke up on this day. This day. Just thinking back to three years ago – on this day – seemed to tighten the knot in his stomach. He had what anyone could want: he had the girl, he had the joke shop, he had family, and the days seemed to be bright as ever. And yet, still, he felt empty. Like the sky.

The grass rustled beside him and then came a definitive 'thud' as someone sat down. They didn't try to talk or offer any words; they just sat with him in silence. A blade of grass stretched between George's fingers. He fiddled with it absently, his eyes not registering the thin strip of green. He felt no urge to speak. For once, the silence felt comfortable. Solidary.

"I hate this day," Ginny finally spoke, earning a brief turn of a head from her brother. She was sitting cross-legged with her head tilted down to the ground, some of her hair pushed half-heartedly behind one ear. Although her expression betrayed nothing but a blank mask, her eyes held a sort of intensity to them.

"We all do."

That caught her attention. Instead of facing the ground, like George was doing presently, Ginny snapped her gaze upwards and over to the side.

"I hate everything about it," continued George. His fingers resumed their fidgeting with the grass, helping him expell the emotions he had churning around inside one little bit at a time. He must have twisted it too hard, or tugged at it beyond its tolerance, because it snapped in two. He then dropped it with a short sigh.

After some hesitation, Ginny piped up again; "Everything? That's a lot."

George fell silent. Only a humourless grimace flitted across his features at the attempt to lighten some of the atmosphere, but it lasted only temporarily. He answered with a short, indifferent hum in the back of his throat.

"You know. One thing you shouldn't do, though." With that statement placed right out there in the air in front of them, Ginny lifted her hands from her lap, swung them behind her, and leaned back. George, once again, turned to watch in anticipation of her next words, albeit only halfheartedly. "Don't push things away."

"Yeah?"

"Stop doing that," Ginny continued along with a nod. "'Course you're not alone." She had a feeble smile, which disappeared as soon as her next words came spilling out. "I miss him, too."

To that, George couldn't respond with anything she didn't already know; that he missed Fred, more than anything. That he couldn't go a day with the thought entering his mind. Life had crept by slowly, as if the weight of just that thought was pulling him down. For Angelina, it had been enough to cause a little frustration, driving their relationship right up to the edge where any second it could teeter off and plummet. He was holding onto his grief, and he could not loosen the grip he had.

"Would.. Fred want this?" The way she said it was as if all the air was being pushed out of her lungs; suddenly, all this pressure built up, and the only way to rid herself of it was to succomb, letting the dam crumble and the gallons and gallons of water burst forth.

The answer was: "no." Fred was always living. He was the one to push further, as crazy as the pair of them were already. He had this energy... and the loss of that energy was something that dragged him down, forcing him to trudge throught the mud each day.

Without a cue, Ginny leaned in and wrapped her arms around her brother. Every other thought that remained unspoken between them was conveyed through the tight embrace of their arms. Sometimes a reminder was necessary to make others realise that the love they sought, the love they lost and needed now more than ever, was still there, if only one remembered to take up the search. And the searching, it wasn't hard...

"And, Gin.." he started, pulling out of the hug eventually to speak. Many things swarmed to the tip of his tongue in an attempt to be heard, but – for some reason – he spoke regarding none of them. Not on his need to apologise for being so focused on his own grief when she, too, had lost a brother three years prior. A part of him needed to ask 'how' – as in, how was he supposed to let this go. Somewhere, he wanted to return to the past where the days seemed more certain, where his future wasn't necessarily bright but held everything he could ever want. Instead, all that came out was a shadow of the smirk he used to wear and a "Thank you."

The two of them shared a smile before Ginny stood and trekked towards the entrance of the burrow. "Whenever you feel ready, your holey-ness," she said in jest.

George smirked, appreciating the attempt to lighten the mood. "All of ear-related humour, and you go for 'holey-ness'?"

Once she was gone, however, his gaze swept out to the horizon again. The direct sunlight was bright for the beginning of May and the sky was empty of clouds, making the blue nearly unwelcome to set his eyes on, but there was something behind the bare sky and harsh light that held a more positive quality.

Soon, George was situated in the comfort of the burrow once again. In the dim yet cosy light, he wrapped an arm around Angelina's waist and looked her properly in the eye – for the first time in quite a while, one could argue. And her response to it was worth the risk of moving on.

"You're alright?" she asked quietly.

George caught Ginny's eye somewhere in the background in the second it took to think of a reply, and when he eventually answered, the answer was easy.

"I think I will be."

He had a reason to smile.

Written in response to: (on the Harry Potter Fanfiction Challenges and the Golden Snitch forums)
1. The FRIENDS Challenge – TOW Ross' Teeth: Write anything using the prompt 'smile'.
2. Build the Burrow – Blue Paint: Write about someone who is sad.

Word count: 1061 words.