"Fred! Fred, wake up before I pour cold water on you" George ordered as he slowly shuffled around the dark bedroom as he bumped into the end of Fred's bed. George messed up and ruffled the covers to get Fred awake, but Fred merely just groaned and lazily swatted his hand towards George.
"Fred! Honestly, wake up! The shop is going to open in-" George barked, checking his wrist dramatically. "In ten minutes! Now get up you lazy arse". Tightly grabbing the thick white sheets, George pulled them hard as Fred unraveled viciously on the bed, then threw the covers off the bed and with one swift movement he opened the navy blue curtains wide.
"Georgie" Fred moaned, deepening his head into the depths of his pillows as bright sunlight shined through the window, lightening up the room. Snowflakes drizzled down softly on the windowsill and the rooftops of the stores in Diagon Alley, leaving a long white sheet of glimmering snow. George rolled his eyes with a smile as he swatted Fred hard on the back, then turned on his heel and left the room. Fred sighed deeply, at his tiredness and the same dream that's been haunting him every night for the past few weeks. It wasn't that the dream itself repeated, but it was the small, faint tune that stuck into his mind ever since the second wizarding war, which he barely came out alive. Fred still couldn't believe on how he survived. Really, no one in his family knew how exactly he survived. Only he and George were split up during the war as a Death Eater was furiously trying to kill Fred and another one was fighting off George. The Death Eater and Fred rounded up around a corner which he pinned Fred to the wall and blasted a unforgivable curse which somehow backfired and ended up hitting the Death Eater himself. Well, that was Fred's best guess as the impact slammed his head against the brick wall and knocked him out. Then, the tune came in. The quiet, faint tune that stuck onto Fred for all these months since the war. Fred knew that the tune was first heard either after or during his blackout because he would of been familiar with it before. But even when he still talked about it with George, or anyone for that matter, their best guess was when it was from a child hood memory. But Fred didn't believe it.
*
Ruffling a hand through his flaming orange hair, he settled off down the stairs into the back room of the Joke Shop where the chatter was unbelievably loud. Checking his watch, it wasn't even ten minutes after the opening of the joke shop where customers starting roaming around buying all his and George's products. Fred thanked his lucky knickers every day to Harry for giving him and George the money for opening to shop in the first place, but to own their own joke shop was more then they could imagine. Puffing out a breath of taken air, he moved away the bright orange curtain that separated the shop and the back room and welcomed the shop with a grateful smile.
"Morning Delaney!" Fred greeted to the young female adult who was working the cash register frantically.
"Oh, good morning !" Delaney replied as the cash register was over flooding with galleons and sickles as impatient customers threw their money at her. Looking at the raging customers, the line seemed to stretch out almost all the way to the front entrance, then Delaney's blond sassy curls bounced in Fred's face, knocking off his attention from the customers. Searching around the shop which was crowded with so many wizards and witches, he spotted a tall, built man with spiky brown hair re-stocking some of the Extendable Ears on the shelf in front of him.
"Graham!" Fred shouted over top the loud chatter. The tall man spun around to the hearing of his name and left the rest of the Extendable Ears in a box on the shelf. Threading through the crowd he stumbled upon Fred's feet in which he apologized then smiled cheekily.
"Yes ?" He replied, eye-leveled with Fred.
"Delaney needs help with the cashier, and I surprisingly trust you enough for working the second one" He explained to Graham as his bright green eyes widened happily. It wasn't that he didn't trust Graham, it was just that despite the tall and built body Graham had he was surprisingly a very clumsy bloke, and Fred knew that the day he started working when he knocked over the cage of bouncing Pygmy Puffs and had to close down the shop so they could find where they were all hidden. And that wasn't all,. Graham also dropped a box of Love Potions as the purple glass bottles shattered everywhere in the box, the shining red potions seeping through the box and making its way onto the hardwood floor. Shaking his thoughts away to Graham's first day, Fred clapped him on the back and slightly pushed him towards the second un-used cashier. Graham stumbled forwards and made his way behind the counter as customers started throwing money at him as well. Fred chuckled as he saw a tall man much like himself with fiery orange hair bob through the crowd.
"George!" Fred called out again. He felt like his was competing with the immense noise over the crowd. Waiting for George's head to turn around and notice Fred, his flaming orange hair didn't flip around but kept on bobbing in and out of the crowd. Fred sighed as he ran a hand through his ruffled hair.
"Freddie! I seen that you've waken up now, oh but look at those dark circles! Wouldn't want to show that to the customers, nope. It obviously shows that you don't love the shop enough to give it your time of day. Unbelievable and irresponsible Fred. Anyways, how was your sleep?" George popped up behind Fred which pumped up his heart beat to about twenty more beats per minute. Clasping a hand to his forehead Fred jumped around to see his twin George, smiling and lecturing on about nonsense to him. Raising his eyebrows, Fred looked behind George as if looking for something, but was only wasting time to avoid answering the question.
"Hm? Oh yeah, yeah I got a nice sleep" Fred mumbled back, walking past George and helping a young child who wanted a Reusable Hangman from the top shelf. Mussing the young boy's hair he skipped happily away with his mother to the long line-up of customers as Fred tightened his bright green tie.
"Still having the dream?" George asked unexpectedly as he silently walked up behind Fred, clapping him softly on the back. Fred sighed as he didn't want to go over this again. It felt like he's been over this situation with George so many times, but somehow George wouldn't let the message sink in.
"George, look. I can't get the tune out from my head. I've been over this with you, and the rest of the family for that matter, a hundred times already" Fred sighed, turning to face George. George's face tensed with confusion and thought as he placed his index finger and thumb on his chin.
"How did the tune go again?" He asked after a few seconds of silence. It took awhile for Fred to gather up his thoughts and speech as he didn't exactly know what to say.
"I know some of the words. Actually no. I think I know some of the words. It's something about dreams and, and headaches or something. It's like wishes and dreaming and heartaches and hope" Fred blurted out in a harsh whisper as he didn't want anyone around him to hear. Yet no one could hear in the first place because of the loud commotion going on around them. Examining George's face, he knew that George was trying his hardest not to burst out laughing. Fred could see from the thin laughter lines creasing in George's forehead.
"It's not funny! Ok, maybe it is. But, still. What if you had these crazy, messed up dreams and someone was laughing to you about it?" Fred admitted as George was now stifling a low chuckle. Still chuckling Fred rolled his eyes impatiently before shoving George in the shoulder.
"Alright alright! Come on now Freddie, a song about wishes and dreams? If someone didn't know you as well as me and they heard you say that, they could've thought that you were gay" George replied with a mischievous smile on his face. Fred had enough of George's nonsense and how sometimes he couldn't take things seriously. Then again, he couldn't take himself so seriously either. They were the Weasley twins. Not the Percy twins. Except George still could of gave a little more support to his twin. What if that spell didn't rebound and hit Fred instead? Sparing his life and killing him? That made Fred slightly shudder just thinking about it.
"Right, yeah. You're right. I'm being ridiculous about this and I should just let it go. Plus I've got to lighten up and warm up my Weasley charm on our double-date on Friday, right Georgie?" Fred laughed as he raised his eyebrows up and down and leaned in closer to George.
"Hah, right! Actually kind of forgot about that, can't you wait Fred?" George replied as he mocked Fred's silliness. Swatting his twin's hair, Fred gave a cheeky smile to George and turned on his heel and walked over to Delaney and Graham, his mind very much on thought on his blind date on Friday.