Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters from the Harry Potter world, which is trademarked by J. K. Rowling. All characters mentioned are created and owned by J.K. Rowling, and I do not claim any ownership over them or the world of Harry Potter. This story is for entertainment only and is not part of the official storyline. I am not profiting financially from the creation and publication of this story. I am grateful to Ms Rowling for her creation of the Wizarding world, for without her books, my story would not exist.
The loss of a twin
Seventeen years ago the wizarding community of Britain celebrated with great joy the fall of a dark wizard, by toasting the one-year-old boy-who-lived. Amidst the laughter, some were shedding tears for the loss of James and Lily Potter.
Today, once more, as the wizarding community revels in the defeat of Lord Voldemort and his death eaters at the hands of Harry Potter along with Dumbledore's army and the Order of the Phoenix, many were mourning the loss of a child, parent, friend, relative, student or teacher. The Weasley family, in particular, was coming into terms with the death of one of their own. The parents were remembering their son, and the children, their exuberant brother.
But George was missing more than his brother. He was missing his other half. He was missing a part of him. He was missing a companion. He was missing…. His twin.
George has never been known as just George. He was always one-half of the Weasley twins. He had always been half of a whole. He had always been a 'we'. Now… now Fred was gone. He was now an 'I'.
George cried. He did not bottle up his grief. Because it was not finite. Everything reminded him of Fred. The constant vacuum at his side was very noticeable. While intellectually George realized that Fred would have wanted him to live his life to the fullest, his heart refused to cooperate. Once back at the burrow he shut himself up in his room for hours together just staring at the ceiling wondering what he could have done to save Fred. He only went to meals when forced by one of the others or by his stomach.
The rest of the family tried to talk to him. Everyone tried to comfort him in his or her own way. His mum hugged him and fussed over him. His dad would clap his shoulder whenever he saw him. His brothers all tried to talk to him but they hardly knew what to say. They would just sit with him. Especially Percy. George realized he was feeling guilty for abandoning his family. However, he could not bring himself to care. Soon the pain of Fred's absence subsided and slowly he started talking more but George was still unable to crack a smile.
A few months after the battle, after much deliberation among themselves, Harry, Ron and Hermione sat down with the family, Neville, Luna, , Hagrid and Kingsley to give a brief version of what happened during the previous year.
"I know everyone has wondered often about what happened during the time were on the run. I don't promise to give you all the answers but the three of us feel each one of you deserves to know what we were doing and why we couldn't contact anyone." said Harry. "It all began after the events at the Department of Mysteries. Dumbledore told me why Voldemort tried to kill me when I was a baby. He spoke about the prophecy that was made before I was born which said that I was the one who would defeat him in the end. In light of this, he started giving me personal lessons during my sixth year to prepare me for my future. Dumbledore and I explored Voldemort's past in detail in order to understand his weakness. Voldemort had created several magical objects called Horcrux which ensured immortality. So in order to defeat Voldemort, they had to be destroyed. This is the quest that we set on. Since Dumbledore knew he was going to die before he could find and destroy all the Horcrux, he passed on the knowledge to the three of us to ensure that it would be done. "
Bill interrupted, "But why didn't Dumbledore tell anybody else? The order could have helped. With more people on the hunt for these things we might have been able to find them much more easily."
Hermione answered him, "That's because Dumbledore didn't want any knowledge about these things to go around as he didn't want to tempt anybody. It took very dark magic on Voldemort's part to create them and Dumbledore wanted to limit the number of people who knew about it. Besides, we didn't want Voldemort to know we were destroying them. It could have alerted him and he might have moved them."
Neville asked, "Okay. So you came to Hogwarts to find the last one and that's when he found out about you being there and came to the castle. Is that why you asked me to kill the snake?"
Harry replied, "Yes Nagini was a Horcrux."
Percy asked, "How did you fool them all to think you were dead Harry?"
The three of them looked uncomfortably at each other. But before one of them could answer, Luna spoke up brightly, "Harry fooled them by actually dying. I think it was very clever and brave of you to do that."
The room sat in stunned silence all staring at Harry. "Is it true?" asked Dad quietly. After a long pause, Harry said simply, "Yes". Everyone looked shocked except Ginny who was quietly crying on Harry's shoulder. She seemed to have heard the story before. "But…but..you..how?", managed to say.
"He shot Harry with the killing curse in the forest when he gave himself up. I was there. I saw it all." Hagrid managed to say through his sobbing.
"YOU DID WHAT?" his mum screamed hysterically drowning everyone else's questions.
"It was because I was a Horcrux. I had to die first before Voldemort could." Harry said staring at the floor. Mum burst into tears and ran to him to pull him into a bone-crushing hug. Everyone looked to be in varying state of shock and distress. It took a while for mum to calm down before they were able to continue.
"So how did you come back alive?" George asked surprising himself. He hadn't shown much of an interest in anything lately. "When Voldemort resurrected himself he used my blood in the ritual. Because of this, he could never kill me. But he didn't know this. So when he hit me with the killing curse he only managed to destroy the Horcrux in me.", said Harry.
The room became quiet as everyone sat there contemplating about what they just heard. Kingsley broke the spell by rising first and bidding goodbye after thanking Harry for including him. Everyone slowly dispersed.
George sat there thinking through everything that was said and wondering how much more was left unsaid. He looked up to notice that it was just himself, Harry and Ginny in the room. Ginny had finally stopped sobbing and was assuring Harry that she was alright. "Can we talk?" George blurted out looking at Harry. Ginny hugged Harry, got up, walked over to George, and gave him a hug too. She left the room closing the door behind her. George suddenly felt very awkward and didn't know what to say. Harry stayed quiet and simply looked at George enquiringly. George gathered up his courage and knew that he could ask Harry and that he would answer the question seriously.
"What was it like….to die?", George asked looking at Harry intently. He knew Harry wouldn't pity him. He looked thoughtful. "It's like….. falling asleep instantly. There is just this feeling of peace that settles over you and then everything just….stops." he replied carefully. "So you reckon Fred didn't feel any pain?" George asked his voice breaking. "No George. I don't think he did. Since he was laughing when it happened that would have been the last thing he felt." Harry said with a sad smile on his face. George gave a small sob and smiled back a Harry. "I am glad. At least the last feeling he had was joy at Percy's ability to crack a joke."
He got up and wiped his tears away. "Thank you, Harry. Now I know."
"I am always here for you. I miss him too. We all do."
"I know." said George with a nod. "Now that I know he is feeling peaceful, I can solemnly swear to be up to no good on the behalf of both of us." He grinned at the first joke he made as an 'I'. Harry smiled back at him understandingly.