An Exact Replica

George Weasley looked at himself in the mirror. He raised an eyebrow, and cocked his head a little – trying to get all angles of himself. He could hear Fred and Lee in the dormitory beside, getting ready for dinner. Paying them no attention, George tried to mess up his hair by shaking his head around, and running his hands through his hair.

"George," He heard Lee call, "We're leaving without you if you don't get out of the bathroom soon."

He leaned on the counter with his hands, still looking at himself. Actually, he was trying to count out his freckles as he said, "Alright, I'll meet you down there."

His brother and friend rummaged around a bit more, but he finally heard the door click behind them. George sighed to himself, as he studied his profile.

Red and copper mixed together for his hair color.

His eye color? A bit of gray and blue combined.

Lots of freckles covered the bridge of his face.

Kind of a sharp nose, but not too sharp.

In other words? Fred's exact replica.

Of course, it could have been the other way around, as well, but George often felt that he was in his twin's shadow. All of their pranks, it was Fred's idea, or Fred pulled it off…in their jokes, Fred got everyone's attention and started it, and he got the punchline.

He was always in the shadows…but on the other hand, he really appreciated Fred's company. For instance, when they were at home, and none of their friends were able to do something – they had each other. At Hogwarts, though, it was a completely different story. A knock at the door interrupted his thoughts.

"George?" Alicia's voice filtered through the bathroom door. "Are you coming down?"

He sighed heavily, and quickly pulled on a T-shirt and then his robe over top. "Yeah."

He opened the door to find his fellow Quidditch player standing there, her dark hair pulled into a loose bun at the nape of her neck. She grinned, and took his arm. "Come on, you've been up here for practically forever."

George allowed himself a weak laugh.

- - -

Fred could immediately tell something was wrong with his twin. He didn't say much during dinner, and this dinner didn't consist of laughing and telling jokes as it usually did. He couldn't pull anything off on his own, he needed George to assist him.

Lee noticed as well, and pulled nervously on one of his dreadlocks as his gaze flew from twin to twin. Something was wrong…

Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell and Alicia Spinnet tried to make polite conversation, but after awhile they gave up – for it was just interrupted each time by an awkward silence.

Hermione Granger stopped talking to Ron Weasley only to look at the far end of the Gryffindor table. It was unusually quiet, and she didn't like it much. Ron, Harry and Ginny followed her gaze and were troubled by it.

The entire Gryffindor table was quiet without Fred and George Weasley's usual antics. The other houses made their usual amount of noise, but the atmosphere was ruined.

Finally, Fred slammed his goblet on the table, making Pumpkin Juice spill over the edges. He gathered everyone's startled attention – even George's. He cleared his throat and said loudly, "George, could I talk to you for a minute?"

The two twins walked quietly out of the Great Hall.

As soon as they were gone, the Hall burst into anxious chatter.

- - -

"What's going on?" Fred asked directly to his twin.

George rolled his eyes, and felt his stomach drop. He wasn't looking forward to this. "Nothing, Fred, you can stop worrying."

"No, I can't, because obviously something is wrong. Did you hear the conversation tonight at dinner? No? Oh, that's right – there wasn't any."

George raised his eyebrows. "I can't really tell you."

They were in the 7th year boy's dormitory, and George sat on his bed while Fred paced the room. After awhile Fred said, "Blimey, George, how can you not tell me? There hasn't been anything ever in our lives, that you couldn't tell me."

His twin shrugged. "I suppose this will be a first then."

Fred flopped down on his bed. "I had a good joke for tonight…remember that one I told you? About the Pumpkin Pie and the HouseElf?"

George laughed. "Yeah, that was a good one."

"I couldn't tell it without you there…" Fred said, and his brother perked up a little. "Listen, George, I know that we definitely aren't as close as we were when we were younger, but we're still twins."

George nodded.

"And I wouldn't be funny without you, so…maybe you can stop worrying about that. We're almost like one person, aren't we?"

Again, his twin nodded. "How did you know?"

"We're twins, you idiot. I could tell…plus, you have this uncanny habit to talk out loud when you think no on is listening."

George laughed. "Brilliant."

They stood up, preparing to go down to dinner, when Fred spoke again, "Remember, man, you're pretty much my other half, sad as it is."

"It is sad, isn't it? I don't mind it too much though."

"Me neither. It's cool." Fred gave his twin a short handshake, and then said, "So about this joke…"

"Yeah," George continued on, "Can we run through that one again? I can't remember what the Pie says to the HouseElf."

"Sure, but I was thinking…how about you open this time?"

- - -

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters in this story.

NOTES: I don't know what this was – just some random idea. Maybe a bit sappy…but you can tell me what you think. Ah, nothing like brotherly love.