Shannon was sitting, as she always was, in the small café on the corner in Diagon Alley. It was a nice seat, with a lovely view of the street outside, the bustling crowd and the evening sunset.
She held in her hand a mug of hot tea but it sat untouched between her hands as she stared out the window, in a world all her own.
She seemed startled when a young man sat down in front of her, causing her to look away from the glass. She was surprised to find tears in her eyes when she did.
"Hello, can I help you?" she asked the man politely. He was good looking with well-groomed hair, perfect teeth, and perfect skin, but she cared not for any of that.
"Ah, no. I was just wondering if there was something wrong, you look sad from the outside looking in." The man truly did look concerned for her, he had seen her as he had been walking by, her eyes so sad as she lost herself in her own mind.
"Oh! No, I'm fine, thank you. I was just thinking about someone." She smiled in such a way that it was clear to anyone who may have taken notice to the girl as she spoke that that someone she had lost in the Second Wizarding War.
There was a certain smile that they all seemed to have, the survivors, when they spoke of those they had lost. It was a smile that was sad and lost to time and memory and it was as though they fought against their very instinct to cry right then.
It didn't matter how much time had passed, that's how it was. They were war-torn veterans who had lost their family and friends to a war they could never have prevented.
"Oh… I'm sorry to hear that… Are- Are you waiting for someone?" She smiled again, that painfully agonizing smile, and nodded.
"My nephew should be here in..." She looked at her watch, "Ten minutes ago." She laughed and looked out the window again, worried seeming.
"I'm sure he'll be here soon, no worries." She laughed a bit and shook her head, "Oh, I'm not worried about him. I'm sure he'd just being himself and got distracted with what he was doing and I'll hear all about his adventure when he comes."
Normally, when the man would hear about a woman waiting for someone simply because they got distracted, he would become angry but the look she gave... It was the first semblance of happiness he had seen from her yet.
"He takes after them so much…" He wasn't sure if she had even meant to say it and indeed she hadn't, she didn't even know she had until she saw his confused look. She reached up to brush her hair aside, attempting to hide her blush.
"Oh! Are you married then?" The man seemed to think that this was one thing he could be sure to get a smile from her with. Instead her eyes merely filled with tears.
"No, I never was. This ring is from the man I should have married but never did." She looked down at the glimmering jewel and ignored the tear that splattered on the table and he realized then who it was that she had been referring to when she had said she was thinking about someone.
"I'm sorry. Don't cry, I lost my wife in the War too, don't cry." Shannon smiled and waved away his concern.
"I'm sorry, its nothing. Oh! I'm sorry, I don't even know your name. My name is Shannon. Shannon We-" She stopped before smiling sadly again, "Shannon Haven." He smiled at her, "Its Drake Romerez, I was married for twelve years. I came in here because it looked like you needed someone to talk to."
She smiled a bit, "Well thank you Drake that was very kind of you. I appreciate it, really."
Drake nodded and smiled, "Well I had best be off then, I have to pick my kid up from the station, wouldn't want to be late." He stood and began to walk away before turning again to Shannon, "Before I forget, and I know this isn't tactful or a very good time to ask but... What was his name? I'm making a list of people who fell in the War to thank and to remember."
Shannon smiled, surprised and answered, "If you want to know, I could tell you, but you can find his plaque first thing when you walk into his shop across the street and you can ask his brother then, ask any Weasley and they'll tell you."
With that the door clattered in and a sopping young man came running in, "Aunt Shannon!" she stood, sending Drake an apologetic look as she rushed to the boy and gave him a hug, not even caring that he was wet.
"Fred! When did you get so big? How are you?" She was grinning, such a true and happy grin that her whole face changed, no longer was she just an average beauty, she was beautiful.
The boy laughed, "I saw you in the window on my way here! Oh Aunt Shannon, you won't believe what just happened! Where have you been?!"
They walked from the store laughing as the young man told her just what had happened just before he came.
Drake frowned and scooted into her seat to take a look across the street, confused by her words from before. Weasley? Surely not.
But believe it or not, across the street was Weasley Wizard Wheezes. He stood and hurried across the street and found, to his astonishment, just inside the door was a plaque with a grinning young wizard, with his arm slung over someone who looked just like him and a young woman who looked too much like the troubled woman from before to not be her. But in this picture she was grinning happily.
He walked in all the way and was amazed at the sight that beheld him, never had he seen something so happy, so free, or so… magical. It was as if all your worries flew away with the swooping edible color changing pears when you as soon as you stepped foot in the place.
He found a laughing one-eared man who looked like the man who had died, Fred, the plaque had said.
"Excuse me, sir?" The laughing redhead looked up from the child he was helping, sending her on her way with a grin.
"Can I help you?" The man was grinning and was happy but that grin fell when Drake said, "I was hoping to learn a bit about your brother, Fred."
George's smile froze on his face and the amusement fell from his eyes at the mention of his twin.
"Yeah, his name's Fred, what can I help you with?" Drake cleared his throat, "I was told that I should ask you about him. I'm making a list, you see of people I want to be remembered, people who touched others' lives. I was told I should ask about your brother."
George smiled ruefully, "Yeah, he touched people's lives all right, best twin someone could ask for. He was killed in the Battle of Hogwarts with Professor Lupin and Tonks and Creevey, you should add all of them too. And Severus, he wasn't great but he was good."
He led Drake out of the room to another one in the back where he conjured a chair, "Those were the best years of our lives. We did so much and I don't regret a single moment and neither did he. He was happy with the life he led, only sad he didn't get to continue it. He could get a smile out of anyone, and I mean anyone, there was one girl he had a real challenge with there for a while but he cracked her. He was the best birthday gift I could have ever gotten, I named my son after him ya know. He was amazing, he was everything you could ask for in a brother. He was nice enough but knew when to beat some sense into you and he knew when to tell you your jokes sucked. He was loyal, not too nosy, brilliant and supportive."
"He thought of everything before he died, even a letter just in case he died in the battle and a few... other things." George trailed off fingering something in his pocket. "He left us all a letter, goodness knows how long he'd been working on them. I've only seen Ginny's beside me own really… We don't share the letters, too private, ya know?"
He looked up at Drake with shimmering eyes, as if begging him to understand just how painfully personal the letters were.
Drake nodded and wrote his words down, "I don't know if it means anything to you but there was a woman, Shannon, who wanted me to ask, so I'm sorry if I brought back any unwanted sorrow."
George's eyes flew open and he grabbed Drake's shoulders as if in a panic, "Shannon? Where? Where is she? Where did you last see her?"
Drake answered in confusion, "She was in the café across the street waiting for her nephew… now that I think about it, he looked like you!"
George nodded distractedly as he dove into a box and began digging, "Yeah, he should he's my son, got a twin sister, Roxanne… Ha!" He pulled out an old scrap of parchment triumphantly and sped out of the room, "Thank you mate sorry!"
George ran like his life depended on it. He ran to the café and found her still full mug of tea only just being taken up by the waitress. He asked her where his son had gone and when she pointed, he ran.
After many more stops, he finally found them by an old pond, a little known spot, hidden off in Diagon Alley.
It was peaceful and it was where George knew Fred had taken Shannon when he asked her to marry him before he…
She was sitting, listening to Fred with glittering eyes and when she saw George at last she froze before sending him a warm but little smile, nothing like the one on the plaque in the shop.
George slowly approached her, cautiously. When he had come within three feet at last he hugged her like he would never see her again, "Shannon! Where've you been? We looked everywhere for you after the war!"
Shannon hugged him back, smiling, "I had to take care of a few things. I couldn't handle it all at the moment… Ya know?"
George nodded sadly and pulled away, "Shannon, Fred left you a letter."
Shannon searched his eyes, "Did he…"
"I haven't read it." He held out the perfectly preserved letter to his late brother's fiancée. With shaking hands she opened it and began to read.
My Dear Shannon,
Shame on you for crying! I wrote this letter the day I left for Hogwarts for what I am guessing is the last time if by this time you are reading this. If I am still there with you and you have found this or if you are our children; Drop it. I meant to burn it if I survived the battle.
I know that if I go, you will be lonely, I know you will be sad. But Shannon darling, you don't have to be, I had one of the most wonderful lives a bloke could ever ask for. I had a load of family, more than you can easily count, a horde of friends, a vault of Galleons and the most beautiful fiancée in the world.
If I don't survive the battle than Shannon all I ask is to smile, be happy, be glad. Find some joy in life and be free. I love you Shannon, I want you to know that.
I spent years trying to get you to smile and you wouldn't believe why. It's because in fourth year, on the staircases, in one of the few times I was without George, I saw you smile. You were by yourself, reading a book and smiling at something or another that had just happened and I realized I wanted to be the person to make you smile like that.
I got more. The smile I eventually dragged out of you, I want everyone to see. The one that makes you look and feel alive, the one that makes you, you. The one you always hide. I think I have a picture of it somewhere… If I do, can you put it somewhere where everyone will see? I asked George the same thing so that everyone could see how happy we all were.
Shannon, your smile, your laugh, your eyes are all the single most beautiful things in the world. The fact that I could share that with my family at the very least is all I could have asked for in fourth year. It was after I left Hogwarts though that I knew I wanted to marry you.
You of course though being a Ravenclaw, insisted on graduating first so you turned me down the first time I asked so I only waited another whole year we could have been together because I was scared you'd say no again. When I asked you the second time I just about died.
Sorry I skipped the entire dating part but hey! Give me a break! I know true love when I see it! How do you think Ron and Hermione got together? They did get together right?
Now, I know we decided we were going to wait until we could both tell them together but Shannon, I'm ready to have a baby. After we get married, I know but really! I want a baby!
If I don't get these things though baby and I die in this Battle than do me a favor and live. I don't mean just be alive, I mean LIVE. I want you to be happy. Be my wife. Be a Weasley.
How you ask? Well my dear, if I do indeed die before we ever actually get the ceremony than I tell you this. In this letter I have my vows and in this letter I bear the rings.
So, I, Fred Weasley, take Shannon Evangela Haven to be my lawfully wedded wife, in all the days that I shall live. In sickness and health and through any magical maladies. Through any battles and wars I chose you to be my wife and my life. If I live to be a thousand, if I only life to be nineteen, than Shannon, I want to be there and I want you to take my name. So will you, Shannon Evangela Haven become Shannon Evangela Weasley?
This is the part where you say your vows, out loud if you please and you say yes because I know I sure did.
Shannon laughed and wiped the tears from her eyes, "Yes."
Alright, I'm guessing that by now you've either said yes or no and you can bet I'll be bloody depressed if you said no but hey, your life and I'm dead.
Anyways, I love you Shannon.
~~~Fred Weasley
P.S. I wanna see that smiled Shannon, I'm not joking, I worked hard for that!
The words of the letter seemed to bleed gold for a moment, not the AHH kind of bleeding but more like a soft release. It all pooled together and formed a ring and before she knew it she was staring at two rings, one a males and one hers.
She slipped her ring onto her finger, smiling at the words that shown up at her, Smile For Me, The first words he had said to her. She slid the ring that was meant to be his onto a chain and slid it around her neck, then she looked up at George, "He made me an official Weasley…"
George smiled sadly and knelt beside where she had fell as she read her love's words and he put his arms around her, "You already were Shannon."
Then they both broke down crying, Fred having realized that his aunt who had always insisted on secret meeting even when he just wanted her to come home had finally decided to stop running so he too let loose his tears.
When George gathered his family that night, telling them he had a surprise and led her out into the living room, Shannon couldn't breathe for a moment as they buried her in hugs and tears.
She was home.