It had been about six months since the chaotic battle that led to Lord Voldemort's fall. The past few months had been a mixture of strange and confusing feelings for everyone. Of course wizards everywhere were overjoyed that Lord Voldemort would no longer haunt and terrify them. It was the first time in a very long time that people could breathe easy, but it wasn't that simple. The road leading to Lord Voldemort's defeat was paved with tragic deaths and a lot of pain. Even so, everyone had come a long way in the past six months. Everyone aside from George that is. It seemed like everyone had something to look forward to in the wake of the battle except for him.

Ron and Hermione finally admitted their feelings for one another and things were new and exciting for them now. They were happy. So happy in fact that Ron had already asked Hermione to marry him. He had asked her over the weekend and the family was having dinner to celebrate. This of course meant that Harry would be over, especially since he and Ginny were together again; another happy couple George would have to look at. He wanted to be happy for everyone, and really he was, but at the moment he found it difficult to express any emotion aside from anger. Six months later and he was still angry. It made him hard to be around.

Despite the difficulty he was having, he was trying to move Weasley's Wizard Wheezes back into a shop in Hogsmeade. Since Hogwarts wasn't up and running yet, Ginny had been helping him out, as well as Ron. Just yesterday George had blown up at them both over something really dumb and was feeling badly about it, but he didn't know what to say. He was never very good at apologies, but still he had always been better then Fred. He was worried about dinner tonight because he knew he was going to feel awkward about the blow up. He decided to go look for Ginny before dinner to see if he could get out some sort of apology. As luck would have it, he ran into her in the hallway of the burrow.

"Hey Gin. Umm...I was hoping you'd come back to the shop tomorrow to keep working on set up. It's going really well and all…and I know I was a prat yesterday…sorry."

Ginny knew that that was hard for George to say, and it amused her a bit to see him being so awkward. She felt that was a good enough apology.

"Of course, George," is all she said in response.

"Thanks. Maybe you could pass that on to Ron as well?" he asked. She nodded and said she would tell him.

"Ginny! Harry is here!" they heard from downstairs. It was Molly.

"Ok mum! Coming!" yelled Ginny. She gave George a small smile before leaving him in the hallway so she could go greet Harry. Dinner would be ready in about an hour and George decided to wait in his room, by himself, until then.

He heard a commotion downstairs when Ron and Hermione arrived. Ron had gone to pick her up at her parent's house. George knew he should go downstairs but he didn't really want to, so he waited until they sent someone up for him. Everyone had been so patient with him through this, but it had been a long time and everyone's patience would undoubtedly run out soon. Luckily for George though, everyone still had a grip on it. It had been Ron who was chosen to come fetch him.

"Hey mate, I talked to Ginny downstairs. What time do you want to start tomorrow?" George felt relieved.

"Not too early, let's all sleep in a bit" answered George.

"Alright, great. Ready for some dinner then?" asked Ron.

"Yeah sure. Let's go." And with that they headed down for dinner.

Molly was dealing with the death of her son in her own unique way. She was constantly cooking or cleaning something. Always making a fuss over any occasion. The engagement was the perfect distraction for her. She had clearly put her all into the dinner that night. Everything tasted amazing; even better than usual. Everyone had just started to slow down a bit on their feasting when Molly asked when the wedding would be.

Hermione beamed, "Well, I of course want to finish school first, so that's at least a year." She looked at Ron who was smiling at her.

"Yeah," he said, "We don't want to rush that part. We decided a long engagement would be best. I'll be helping George for a bit and I'll save up some money while Hermione is at school."

"That sounds smart, very smart indeed kids!" said Arthur.

"Yes, we are very proud of you both!" added a very happy looking Molly. "Let's have some dessert!" she said in a joyful tone. With that she and Hermione got up to get the cake.

"Harry, tell us," said Arthur," how is Auror training going? I heard Wembly Smith praising you the other day."

"Everything has been excellent. I'm really excited to do some field work and get some more experience under my belt. A lot of people have been asking about Ron too; wondering when he is going to come join me in training," Harry told them. Arthur was clearly very pleased with this.

"Wonderful!" he said.

"That would be a great opportunity for us Ronald," Hermione added," a good way to save up for the future" she said in a loving tone.

"Yeah, I reckon when George is all set-up and the shop is running, I'd really like to look into an Auror position" said Ron. George tried to keep quiet, but what Ron said really got under his skin. What was Ron trying to say? Was he trying to insinuate that the shop was burden and he was helping George out of pity? The joke shop wasn't good enough for him? He abruptly stood up, and as if everyone had heard what he was thinking, said "Well if that's how you feel about it Ron, just forget it!"

He left the table and told everyone he wanted to be alone and walked out the back door towards the garden. Everyone was perplexed and the shocked silence seemed to hang for minutes.

"Bloody hell, what was that about?" said Ron.

"He has been so moody since Fred died," said Ginny, "I know it's hard, we all know, but really…I wonder if he is ever going to come out of it." Hermione, of course had some insight into what Ginny said.

"Well, I have been reading some muggle books written about how people deal with death. They talk about the seven stages of grieving. They are shock and denial, pain and guilt, anger, depression, the upward turn, reconstruction, and acceptance. From what I have read, and from the way George has been acting lately, I'd say he is in the anger stage" Hermione told them. "If he keeps progressing then I would say the worst may be right ahead. The depression stage seems to be the most difficult. It's when your loss truly hits you. He'll probably isolate himself but this stage is important. We shouldn't try to rush him through it"

"Well I can't imagine it getting worse than this" Ron said.

Arthur chimed in, "We'll all have to stick together through this. Keep helping him with the shop and what not, so maybe he will have something to look forward to." Everyone agreed and, stuffed as can be, made their ways from the table and all up to bed.

The next month proved to be a really tough one. The girls received their letters from Hogwarts and were doing what they could to prepare for their return to school. They were both very excited. Ginny and Ron were working hard together to set the shop up properly. The fact that George was almost never around to direct things made it very difficult. It took a lot of organizing and teamwork which wasn't always easy for the siblings. Molly was often around to help as well, and with all of them there trying to make decisions, it was slow going. That would have been hard enough to deal with, but George's absence really complicated things. He had indeed progressed through the stages of grief as predicted by Hermione. He now spent more than half his time alone, and even when he wasn't alone, he might as well have been because he was in his own world. He really seemed to have hit rock bottom. He had no opinions about his own shop even. He told Ron and Ginny to "do whatever they thought was good". It didn't help that in less than a month Ginny would be leaving for school.

After about two and a half weeks, Ron realized that they were way off of schedule. Ginny agreed they were behind. "It's too hard with just you and me. We don't agree on anything and with this time crunch I feel rushed. I think we should hire someone. Someone who can stay and help you run the place when it is finally open. Especially if George still isn't himself then" Ginny said.

"Yeah that's not a bad idea" Ron said, "but we'd have to ok it with George because he would have to pay them."

"I'm sure he'll say he doesn't care" said Ginny. Ron thought about it.

"Yeah, and maybe they'll even stay when George is back to normal, so I can look into a ministry job. That's what I really want to do you know" said Ron.

"Well I think it's only fair. You've sacrificed a lot so far to help George. I get to go to school like I want, and it's only fair that you should get to do what makes you happy" said Ginny.

"It does make me happy to help George, just… not in the same way" said Ron.

"Then it's settled" said Ginny, "We'll start interviews ASAP!" And with that, Ron and Ginny had decided to get themselves, and George, some hired help.

Finding someone who seemed capable turned out to be harder than expected. "We must have seen every looney in Hogsmeade today!" said Ron, feeling exasperated. "I can't believe that no one we've seen is even a possibility! Where are all the sane people?"

"Yeah things aren't looking so good" agreed Ginny, "we only have two people left to see. Next up is Lucy Van Buren. She should be here in a couple of minutes."

"I don't know if I can handle anymore today…" Ron said as Lucy Van Buren walked through the door for her interview.

After about ten minutes of talking to Lucy she seemed like a dream come true. It surprised both Ginny and Ron that she was an American. She was also a wizard of course and she went to wizarding school in the United States naturally. Neither Ron nor Ginny had heard of it though: Smithwick's School for the Magically Inclined. Ron thought that sounded awfully fancy. She was so pleasant and cheery but her sweetness didn't make Ginny want to puke. She had an almost calming presence. She seemed like everything they needed and more. Even though they both knew she was the one, they excused themselves to "talk it over" in private.

"Ron, this girl is perfect! She seems to totally have her shit together and she has a sense of humor and she is just sooo nice." Ginny said excitedly.

"Yeah I totally agree. She has a great personality and she is really cute too. If George doesn't like her as much as we do he is crazy" Ron said. They couldn't wait to tell her she was in and to get things started.

"Well Lucy, we think you're great and we would love you to come and work with us" Ginny told her, "I have to tell you though that we need new help because I'm going to be gone in just under a week. I want to finish school, so I'm going back to Hogwarts to start my school year." Ron chimed in too.

"Also, our brother George, who owns the shop, hasn't been doing great lately. It's another reason we really need help and we just wanted you to know the situation before you decided to take the job or not. Don't get me wrong, he is a great guy. If he ever starts being himself again you'll love him. I just wanted to give you fair warning that he isn't so fun right now." Ron hoped he hadn't scared her off by saying all that, but it was only fair to tell her.

"Well, I think it'll be fine," Lucy said," I would love to take the job! As for your brother, I'll be fine. I think I'm good at reading people, and I just won't bother him."

"Awesome! So why don't we give you a little tour right now and show you what we have been working on," Ron said, "and since Ginny will be gone soon, maybe we can discuss ideas of what we might do in the next couple of weeks to set up the shop." With that, the three of them made their way around the shop and Ron and Ginny introduced Lucy to the world of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

After their afternoon showing Lucy around, it was time for Ginny and Ron to go home and tell George that they had hired someone. Ron was feeling a lot of relief after discussing ideas with Lucy. She had a lot of ideas for the place and Ron was glad there was some sort of direction to go on now. He was really hoping George took this well, the shop really needed Lucy. She was creative and organized. Two things Ron was not. What the shop needed most though, was George back in it. Ron was hoping if they did a good enough job it would remind George of what he was missing. He also hoped it would encourage George to come back faster, so maybe he could get his life on track too. George's problems were wearing their welcome thin.

"George" Ginny began, "listen. Ron and I have been responsible for almost everything that is going on with the shop. So because of that we took it upon ourselves to hire someone. She is going to help Ron out while I'm gone."

"Yeah mate," added Ron "she's really cool too. We are hoping you'll like her as well, and maybe you'll want to keep her…ya know…when you come back." There was a long silence which was making Ron and Ginny feel nervous. However, after a few minutes George simply said, "fine" and that was it.

Ron and Lucy proved to be a great team. Within the month they managed to get more done together, than whole family had managed to accomplish together. Lucy was such a light-hearted person and was so easy to be around and work with. She was encouraging and sweet and the days went by quickly because she was funny too. Ron couldn't help but often think how much George would have liked that month they spent working together. Lucy was curious about her mysterious boss as well. Ron found himself telling a lot of George and Fred stories while they worked, and he loved it. It made him feel happy to remember the times before Fred died and how much fun his older brother was. Lucy told Ron she couldn't wait to meet George, even if he wasn't the same. "He sounds like an incredible person. Someone with that much spirit has got be able to bounce back from something like this. He had a hard fall though, so it makes sense that it would take a long time" Lucy said to Ron one night after some stories.

"I love your positivity Lucy. I hope you can rub off on George. I can't wait for him to see this place. I'm going to ask him to come in tomorrow. You'll come, won't you Lu?" Ron said.

"Yeah, of course I'll be here," she answered.