A/N: This is the poll winner as well as a gift for Preetoaka Raven Potter Weasley since she's had trouble finding good George fics. I hope you enjoy this and that it lives up to your expectations!! Remember: I own nothing!
He was mad. He was beyond mad. He was furious. Was there a word for being beyond furious? If there was, then he, George Weasley, was it. He had always thought that people who claimed to "see red" when they were angry were simply being overdramatic, but now, he could definitely understand the expression. How could they do this to him? Oh! He wished that he could surround the entire Ministry of Magic with a cruciatus curse. Was that even possible? He would check into that at the soonest possible moment.
"It isn't possible, and the Ministry probably has thousands of wards to protect them from an attack. Come on Forge! We're some of the most cunning wizards, but even we aren't that good!"
George looked up at his twin brother, Fred, startled. He hadn't realized that he had murmured the last part out loud. The letter in his hands dropped idly to the floor, fluttering longer than necessary on its way there, as though it wanted to remind him for as long as possible of the duties that stupid paper tied him to.
"Are you sure we can't try?" he asked, semi-teasingly, his normally sparkling eyes conveying a sense of loneliness and despair. "Am I supposed to just accept this?"
"George," Fred said, slightly surprised by his normally-congenial twin's response. "You're not the only one who's having trouble. I have to do the same thing too."
"But you didn't have a girlfriend!" George cried, slamming his hand down on the table. Fred jumped and then cringed, looking down at the parchment in front of him. "Who's going to be forced on you?" George asked.
"George," Fred hedged, "perhaps now's not the best time to talk about it. The law's so new and all-"
"Just tell me who you got," George ordered, his knuckles clenching the tabletop and turning white. Fred glanced down at the parchment and mumbled something that George could not quite understand. "What was that?" he asked. "I couldn't hear you."
Fred looked up at him, meeting his twin's eyes bravely, though the sadness and regret in those orbs was obvious. "Angelina," he said softly.
George's face paled. His girlfriend. The woman that he had been planning on proposing to. "Angie?" he whispered.
Fred nodded. "George, I'm so sorry. If there was something I could do to change it, I'd-"
George jumped up from his chair, his eyes blazing with something close to hatred, something that Fred had seen directed at people like Draco Malfoy, but never at him. "You'd what?" he challenged. "You'd trade me? You'd stop the Ministry from forcing us into this at all?" He slammed his hand down on the table, once again ignoring the smarting pain that the action ignited. "There's nothing you can do, Fred!" he yelled. "The Ministry's forced me away from my girlfriend. They're making me marry a muggle, Fred! A muggle!"
Fred stood as well. "George," he began.
"Do you know what kind of field day dad will have with her?" George continued irately, not listening to his brother. "Do you know how hard it's going to be to watch Angelina marry you? Do you-"
"Do you know how hard it's going to be to have to marry her?!" Fred yelled. George stopped in mid-tirade, astonished. "Do you know," Fred said, in a voice that wavered with emotion, "how hard it's going to be on her? Have you thought of that? Imagine what it's going to be like to sit across from you each Sunday and know that she's not yours. And the reason for that is because the Ministry thinks that they know everyone's perfect match. Did you ever think about it from her point of view?"
George shook his head, appearing slightly regretful. "No," he said slowly.
Fred went on as though he hadn't heard him. "I'm sorry, George, that the Ministry is enforcing this marriage law. I'm sorry that you're not being wed to Angelina, and I'm very sorry that she was given to me. But please, don't get yourself worked up over something you can't change." He placed a hand on George's shoulder. "Being angry will only make things worse."
"I can't help it," George growled angrily. "Why do Ginny and Harry get to stay with each other? Why does it have to be me?"
"And me," Fred pointed out.
George waved his hand dismissively. "You didn't have a girlfriend," he said, and a trace of his normal, teasing demeanor slipped through his shroud of anger. "You don't count."
"Good to know that I'm so loved," Fred told him dryly.
George shook his head. "I need to go lie down and think about this," he said.
Fred grasped him by the shoulder and said, "You need to go talk to Angelina."
George moved his shoulder away from his brother's touch. "After I lie down," he said. With that, he left the room and Fred heard the sound of footsteps ascending to the second floor of the Burrow before a door slammed and there was silence.
"Fred?" someone said.
Fred looked up to find Molly Weasley standing there in the doorway of the kitchen, looking concerned. "Hey, Mum," he greeted, giving her a forced smile.
"Is he alright?" Molly asked.
Fred shook his head. "He's angry. And I'm angry too. I just hide it better." He gave his mother a lopsided grin that melted away into another frown. "This is just hard on all of us. Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione are all so young to be forced to marry just because the Ministry decides that it needs more little witches and wizards running around. They're not even completely out of school!" He sighed. "It's harder on us, though, because George's girlfriend is now my fiancé."
Molly came forward and placed a loving hand on her son's shoulder. "I'll talk to George later," she promised. "First, I want to know the name of my new daughter-in-law."
Fred looked around for the paper that had fluttered to the floor and bent over to pick it up. For the second time today, the words of the Ministry popped out at him.
The war is taking a hard toll on all of us in the wizarding community, and it is time that we begin to pick up the pieces and start over, despite the fact that You-Know-Who is still at large. That is why, with the help of Hogwarts Professor Albus Dumbledore, soul matches for each witch and wizard over the age of eighteen have been identified. Some matches are between witches and wizards, and others are between a wizard (and/or witch) and a muggle. The couples will have one week to meet and marry, and after that, they will be given one year to produce a child. Failure to comply will result in a life sentence in Azkaban.
Mr. George Weasley, your soul match is: Miss Nicolette Tyndale.
Status: Muggle
Fred looked up at his mother, still processing the gravity of the situation. "Her name is Nicolette."
A/N: I really hope you all like this. Please review!!