Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling, who lives in the UK. YuYu Hakusho belongs to Yoshihiro Togashi, who lives in Japan. I have never been to either the UK or Japan, so I do not own either series.
Author's Note: Before we begin, let me just say that one does not need to know the slightest thing about YuYu Hakusho to read this fic. I would hesitate to call this a crossover for said reason. To me, a crossover is when characters of more than one fandom appear together, and one needs to be familiar with both fandoms to truly 'get' a story. This is a Harry Potter fanfiction. Not a YuYu Hakusho fanfiction. With the exception of a couple of cameos and references, no characters from YuYu Hakusho will make much of an appearance, and none of the characters that do appear are important. Hence, the story will not be posted in the crossover section.
Constructive criticism is always good, as are questions and suggestions. Flames are just used to roast marshmallows with. Please excuse any Americanisms, as I am American. I've attempted to avoid Americanisms whenever I could, though. Onwards to the story.
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Chapter 1: The Death of Fred Weasley
[May 2-3, 1998]
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Fred floated into the Great Hall, rubbing his forehead. He wasn't quite sure how or why he was floating and not walking, but he figured it must be some weird side effect of some spell or another. He wasn't even sure how he got from the corridor where he'd been battling Death Eaters with his brother Percy (and Ron, Harry, and Hermione had also arrived on scene, he remembered). He figured such details to be unimportant, though.
The battle had come to a temporary lull. The defenders of Hogwarts had been given one hour to tend to their injured and grieve for their dead by You-Know-Who. Too many lives had been lost already, Fred thought as he lowered his hand. He had to make sure his family was all right.
His heart plummeted as he saw the mass of red hair surrounding the body of one of the fallen. That was not a good sign in the least. He wished he could float a little faster to see just who his family was huddled around. His parents were both there. He could see that his mother was sobbing over the body he couldn't see, while his father was trying to console her amongst the tears he himself was shedding. His brothers Bill, Percy, and Ron were there, as was his sister Ginny. Each of them were crying. Well, Ron was shouting a bunch of curse words to nobody in particular while tears streamed down his face, but that counted.
Fred felt sick inside as he realized who was missing. He didn't see his twin amongst the rest of his family. He cursed how slow his progress was, and really was starting to wonder what sort of weird curse he was hit with, because floating was not normal.
He stopped momentarily as he felt an extremely weird sensation of someone walking through him. The hollowness he felt inside at not having seen George amongst his family quickly turned to extreme confusion as his twin stopped walking, and turned around with an equally confused look on his face.
"George!" Fred called out with relief. It wasn't George, thank Merlin. He wondered briefly who it was, but was just far too relieved it wasn't George.
George didn't seem to hear him, though. After glancing around briefly, he shrugged, and turned back to head towards the rest of their family.
Fred frowned. How could George just ignore him like that when they were less than three feet away from one another? He struggled to float faster. He really hoped that whoever put this curse on him got what was coming to them.
As George approached his family, Percy took notice of him and went ashen. Percy went over to George, trying to block him from viewing whoever it was that their family was huddled around.
It couldn't be Charlie, who hadn't even arrived at Hogwarts yet. He knew it wasn't Fleur, as she was clutching onto Bill tightly. It couldn't be Harry, either, as Fred had heard the proclamation of You-Know-Who, trying to call him out. That, and Harry was entering the Great Hall. And even though he hadn't really noticed her before -- focused on his family as he was -- he could see Hermione had arrived at some point, and was trying to calm Ron down.
Everyone in his family and adopted family was accounted for. So who was it they were grieving over?
Fred cursed whoever put the floating curse on him as he watched his twin shout something at Percy and break past their older brother. His progress was just too damn slow! It was like he was just drifting in the air, and he needed to see who was dead!
He almost stopped again as George let out a heart-wrenching cry and sank to his knees. He really needed to see who it was, because who could elicit such a reaction from his twin? His twin looked utterly devastated as he knelt down by the head of whoever it was everyone was grieving over.
A little bit further, and Fred was finally able to see who it was they were huddled around. Much to his confusion, it was… himself? That was impossible!
"All right, everyone. Joke's over," Fred said. There wasn't any possible way that it could be him they were all gathered around. If it weren't for the fact that the fallen twin had both ears intact, and George was obviously knelt down by his head, then Fred might have thought it was George. "I don't know who that is, but it's not me! I'm right here!"
Nobody seemed to hear him or pay any kind of attention to him. Since Percy was standing closest to him, he tried to hit Percy in the back of the head to get his attention. 'Tried to' was the operative phrase.
Fred's hand went right through Percy's head just like it was going through air. He might have cracked jokes in the past about Percy's head being full of hot air, but that was not normal. Fred frowned, trying to think about just what curse he might be suffering the effects of.
He remembered fighting Death Eaters in the corridor with Percy. After hexing the ex-Minister of Magic, Percy had told a joke. Fred had turned to him in disbelief, as he hadn't heard Percy joke around in a very long time. While Fred was distracted, the wall exploded and crumbled down around them. Fred had been hit in the head with a piece of the falling wall. The next thing he knew he was floating into the Great Hall, and now he was looking down over his own body.
Fred blinked. And then he blinked again. For a very brief instant, he wondered if maybe he and George were actually triplets, and for whatever reason had not been told about their other brother. Who just happened to be wearing the exact same clothes that Fred had worn. Complete with the exact same coffee stain in the exact same place as on Fred's shirt. That was a completely ludicrous idea, though.
A more likely idea was one that Fred didn't want to believe, but would certainly explain the floating and why he was looking down at himself. "Am I dead?" he mused out loud, not wanting to believe it, but not really being able to explain just what he was seeing.
"Ding ding ding!" A far too cheerful voice called out from behind him. Fred turned around to see a strange-looking girl with dark purple hair hovering on an oar nearby. He was not familiar with what kind of clothing the girl was wearing, and figured it to be some sort of Muggle garment. Whatever it might be, it vaguely resembled a deep purple robe with a pink sash tied around her waist. She held a book in one hand, and stared at him with violet colored eyes. "That's exactly right, Fred Weasley! You're dead, and I'm here to take you to the Underworld!"
Fred just gaped at her in shock. If he was dead, then why did she sound so cheerful about it? "Are you mental?" he asked, not knowing what else to say.
The girl's smile faltered slightly for a moment. "No, just your guide. You can call me Karin. I'm on a rather tight schedule, and you know you're dead, so shall we head off now?"
Fred glanced over at his family. George did not look like he was taking it well at all. His eyes might be dry, but George had the dull look of someone who was in the process of having a mental breakdown. He turned back to Karin. "I'm not going anywhere."
Karin's smile faded. "Um, I don't think you understand--"
"I'm not leaving him here," Fred interrupted. "I don't care if I come back as a ghost or whatever, but I can't leave him like that."
Karin stared at him for a few seconds, and then sighed. "Normally, I wouldn't be allowed to offer this. You died right on schedule, and this is not something that is offered to just anyone. However, under the circumstances, I was told to mention it if you proved difficult." She raised a finger, locking eyes with his. "There is a way to come back to life. However, there's a catch--"
"I don't care what the catch is," Fred said, folding his arms across his chest. "I'll do it."
Karin chuckled and wagged a finger. "Not that easy. You'll have to pass a test to come back to life. To prove yourself worthy."
"I don't care," Fred repeated. "I'll do whatever it takes." He paused, thinking that he could be asked to do something horrible. "Well, within reason."
Karin smiled. "Excellent! If you'll just come with me I can take you to see my boss, and you can work out all the details there!"
Fred narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Do you think I'm stupid? I'm not leaving here. Your boss can come here." He looked back over to George. He needed to tell his twin that he was going to try to come back, but didn't want to give him false hope in case the strange girl was trying to trick him into going to the afterlife with her. He didn't know how he would tell his twin anything, but that was beside the point.
Karin sighed heavily and opened the book she held. "He's too busy to come here. Let's see here…" She flipped through the pages, and then began to read out loud from one of the pages, "'Fred Weasley, 20 years old. Reckless and impulsive, has a tendency to cause trouble wherever he goes. Has little regard for any rules or boundaries, and takes pleasure in causing mayhem.'"
Fred scoffed. "I get the point. I'm still not going anywhere with you."
Karin's eyes widened as she read something in the book. "Whoa, you did that?!"
Fred's eye twitched. "Are you even listening?"
She looked over at him. "Listen, I can understand why you don't trust me. After all, I am Death--"
"Death goes 'ding ding ding'?" Fred asked in a disbelieving tone. He had gotten bored with the conversation, and decided it might be better if he were to try to comfort his twin. He hated to see his twin like that. It was like George had just shut down.
Slowly, he tried to float towards his brother. He had no idea how it was that ghosts moved around and stuff, because floating was slow and extremely aggravating.
His progress came to an abrupt halt as he was hit across the back of the head with an oar. "Ow!" he shouted, holding the back of his head and turning around to face Karin. "What in the hell did you do that for?!"
Karin looked affronted, and then sat back down on her oar, which hovered like a broomstick. "It's incredibly rude to turn away from someone when you're having a conversation. It's not like he'll hear you, anyway."
Fred glared at her for a few seconds. "Why are you offering me the chance to come back to life if it's not something normally done?"
Karin blushed, a sheepish expression on her face. "There's been some debate in the Underworld about where you'll go after you die. I'm guessing they're trying to stall for time or something."
"What kind of debate?" Fred asked suspiciously.
She chuckled nervously. "The gist of it is that they don't really want you in Heaven, and they're too afraid you might try to take over Hell."
There was a long pause as Fred just stared at her.
Karin smiled anxiously. "I know it sounds cliché, but that's the best way to sum it up. You're not really deserving of Hell either, but that's beside the point. Point is they're trying to stall for time while they figure out where you'll go, and they don't really want you to linger around in limbo for too long. Now I told you I'm on a tight schedule. King Enma can explain everything once we get to the Underworld."
Fred's eyes narrowed. "He can come here."
Karin shot him an annoyed look, and the oar came down over Fred's head again. "Don't be an imbecile!" she shouted as Fred glared at her and rubbed his head. "King Enma is far too busy to come down here to the human realm. And if you don't behave yourself, he might just forget about bringing you back to life and chuck you down into Hell after all. Now hold on tight." She grabbed Fred's hand, and took off on her oar.
Fred screamed and grabbed onto the oar for dear life as they raced out of the Great Hall. She could have at least given him some kind of warning before taking off like that! What was she trying to do, kill him?
Was it even possible to kill someone who was already dead?
He made sure his displeasure was very well known by stringing together as many curse words as he could think of in as many languages as he knew curse words in. Some words he made up completely. Fred was not afraid of heights or flying in the least, but traveling at breakneck speed while holding on to the broad end of an oar was not his idea of a good time, particularly since Karin did not seem to know how to fly very well. Or maybe she did, and decided she would just flip them upside down every now and then for fun. Maybe if he was sitting on the oar like she was it would be different.
"There it is!" Karin exclaimed as they flew higher in the sky. Fred cracked open an eye slightly, seeing them pass through some clouds, approaching a patch of sky that seemed a bit pinker than the rest of the dark sky around them.
They flew through the pink patch of sky, and Fred dared to look down. Below them was a long winding river of silver water, twisting through the yellow desert-like landscape. It was extremely strange, but the sky around them was a light lavender in color, and the clouds around them were a light shade of green. Where on earth were they?
"We're almost there!" she exclaimed again as the river came to an end, and a yellow earthen bridge came into view. Off in the distance, Fred could see a huge palace that looked like no castle he'd ever seen before. "We'll be at the Gate of Judgment soon," she told Fred as she lowered the oar so they were mere feet above the earthen bridge.
The palace came closer into view. It appeared to be vaguely oriental in design, with a large front door and a pagoda-style roof. As they drew closer, Fred became a bit concerned that they didn't seem to be slowing down in the least. At the rate they were going, they would end up crashing. "Er, crazy girl?" he spoke up, trying to get Karin's attention.
"You can refer to me as Karin," she said, still not slowing down.
There wasn't even enough time to warn her that they were going to crash. Mere feet away from the closed door, Karin came to an abrupt halt, causing Fred to let go of the oar. Due to the momentum that they had, Fred continued to fly a few feet through the air, smacking into the door face first.
Holding a hand over his stinging nose, he started yelling at her for trying to kill him.
"Oh, hush up," she said. "You're already dead, so it's not like you can die again." She turned to the door and cupped her hands around her mouth. "It's Karin! We're coming in!" she shouted.
The door opened, and Karin led Fred through a wide hallway in front of them. He could see there were many doors to the sides of the hallway, and he wondered briefly where they led.
As they walked to wherever she was taking him, he began to think about what he was going to do. He was not going to leave George behind to suffer. He didn't want the rest of his friends or family to grieve over him, either. He preferred seeing people laugh; it was just the way he was. If this King Enma person refused to let him go back, drastic actions would have to be taken.
There wasn't much he had with him currently, but he did have some supplies. He had his wand on him at least, which was crucial. He could light a few of the Whiz-Bangs he had on him, and in the distraction that would cause, he could force-feed a Puking Pastille to King Enma using a spell. "And maybe a Ton-Tongue Toffee for good measure. Yeah, that's what I'll do," he muttered to himself as they stopped in front of another door.
Karin glanced over at him, giving him a strange look. "What are you muttering about?" she asked as she held down a button on the door. "Karin here. I've got Fred Weasley with me," she said.
"Come in," another voice said. Fred wondered where it was coming from, but figured it must be some sort of Muggle technology or something. It sounded like it had come from slits along the rectangle the button was part of.
The door slid open, and Fred's eyes widened. Inside the room, there were many strange looking creatures running around. Some were carrying armloads of papers, and others were shouting instructions and pointing. A few of them were holding 'felly tones', and speaking animatedly. Even more were sitting at desks, in front of strange things his dad had referred to as 'con-tutors'.
All the strange creatures were apparently male and wearing striped loincloths. All of them appeared to have short horns, usually one or two, but Fred could have sworn he saw one with four horns. None of them had any human-like skin color, as no human had red, green, or blue skin. It was obvious that none of these creatures were earthly in origin.
"What is this?" Fred asked as he was led further into the room. The door slid closed behind them. Glancing around, he almost collided into a green-skinned whatever that was running by with a large stack of papers.
"Watch it," the creature growled, not even pausing. He somehow managed to keep his paper stack from falling.
Fred followed Karin to the far end of the room, where there was a desk stacked high with papers. Karin's cheery expression faltered slightly at the noticeable absence of anyone behind the desk.
"He should be here," she said to herself. "He is expecting us."
"That I am," someone said, approaching from behind them.
Fred turned around to see a small toddler waddling up to them. He wore a ridiculous looking hat with 'Jr.' printed on the brim, and had a pacifier in his mouth. Fred was slightly amazed that the toddler could speak around it.
Karin noticeably brightened. "This is Fred Weasley, sire. He's opted to undergo the test to come back to life."
"I expected as such," the toddler spoke.
Fred glanced to Karin. "This is Enma?" He couldn't help it. He cracked up in laughter. "This guy looks like he's barely out of diapers, and he's your boss?" He wiped away a few tears of mirth as he laughed harder.
Karin smacked him over the head with her fist. "Show some respect, you fool!"
The toddler glared at Fred as he hopped up onto the chair behind the desk and sat down. "I am the son of King Enma, known as Enma Junior. Although some people call me Koenma. And I'll have you know that I'm over 50 times older than you, so watch your mouth."
One of the strange creatures from before approached with a stack of papers. "These await your signature, Lord Koenma," he said before walking away.
The toddler Koenma sighed. "It never ends."
Fred's initial laughter died down, although he still snickered behind his hand.
Koenma reached into a pocket. "As you can see, we're quite busy here, so I'll get down to the point." He brought his hand out of his pocket, holding something. "The test you must face is this." He opened his hand, revealing a golden egg that he held out to Fred. "This is the egg of your reijuu, or spirit beast. You must hatch and raise what's inside."
Fred blinked, taking the egg from Koenma. "You're kidding, right?"
"You must keep it with you at all times," Koenma instructed. "It will feed off of the energy you emit. Once it hatches, you will be restored to life. In the meantime your body will await your return. It is extremely important that nothing happens to it. Your heart has already started to beat again. The rest is up to you now."
Fred looked to him in alarm. "It's a wizard custom to cremate their dead on a funeral pyre! Unless this thing hatches with the next few hours, my body could be cremated in a few days!"
Karin chuckled. "Simple. You can visit someone who's alive in their dreams, and tell them not to let your body be cremated."
Koenma nodded. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must get back to work." He looked at the stack of paperwork and sighed heavily. "Of all times to go on vacation…" he muttered as he picked up a rubber stamp.
Karin led Fred out of the room. "It's not so bad," she said, trying to comfort Fred, who was worried about what might happen if his body were to be cremated before he could return to life. "All you have to do is convince someone to leave your body alone until you can come back to life."
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Fred found that to be a lot easier said than done. He was back in the Burrow, where his parents had insisted on everyone gathering after the battle had ended. Even Ron and Hermione were there. Even though it was late -- very late -- nobody seemed inclined to go to sleep anytime soon. Fred had no idea where his body was currently, although imagined it was probably in a casket or something, awaiting his funeral. By overhearing a conversation between Bill and Charlie, he had discovered that his funeral would be held in two days.
Fred was worried. He had two nights to enter someone's dream to tell them not to let his body get cremated. George was the first person he had thought of, but his twin had holed himself up in their old room, and was getting sloshed off of various bottles of Firewhisky. At the rate he was going, it was likely that he would pass out soon, but there would be a few problems about entering his dream. The first problem was if George would even remember the message once he woke up. The second problem would be if anyone were to believe him.
His mother was sitting in the kitchen, still sobbing on his father's shoulder. She might cry herself to sleep at some point, but getting her to believe that it wasn't just some grief-stricken wishful thinking on her part would be another story. Same went for his father.
No, Fred had to find someone who was more or less intact emotionally. His brother Percy was out, as he had fallen into a sullen state of combined grief and guilt, sitting on the couch in the sitting room but not really looking at anything. Ron was determinedly trying to take his mind off of things, playing a rather explosive game of Exploding Snap with Ginny. Fred could tell that neither of their hearts were into it, as they would break down into fresh tears every now and then, usually after a card exploded. It seemed like they were both trying to stay awake as long as possible.
Bill or Charlie might be good bets, as they were the ones trying to hold things together the most. With their parents too stricken to do much aside from grieve, it was up to them to make arrangements through their own grief. But one glance at the label of the potion on the small table between them made it apparent that they wouldn't be sleeping tonight. The Stay-Awake potion would keep them awake for hours with just a single swallow, and by the size of the large bottle, they had enough to keep them up for days.
That left three choices, really. He could enter Fleur's dream, but he didn't know if she would listen. If she did, she could pass the message along to Bill, who was in charge of arrangements. But he wasn't very close to her, and he doubted she would believe him. He could also try to enter Harry's dream, but the Boy-Who-Defeated-You-Know-Who looked to be busy brooding on a chair in the sitting room. Or maybe he was having a brooding contest with Percy. Hermione, however, appeared to have dozed off on another chair.
He knew she would listen to him. After all, Hermione was the smartest witch he knew of. He hoped that she would believe him, but it wasn't like he had many options. And hopefully someone would believe her if she passed his message along.
Figuring it didn't hurt to try, he floated over to her. His floating wasn't as painstakingly slow as it had been before, now that Karin had told him how to float 'properly'. He could float faster than walking speed, which was a definite improvement over the snail's pace.
He settled down right in front of her. Supposedly, all he was supposed to do was talk to her or something. He floated just above the ground, watching her. "I don't know if you can hear me or not, Hermione, but it's me, Fred." He took in a deep breath. "I'm coming back to life, so you've got to make sure that nothing happens to my body until then. If you don't believe me, just go to my body and listen for a heartbeat or something."
Hermione frowned in her sleep. Fred could see that she must have cried herself to sleep, as there was the telltale stream of dried tears that had run down her cheek. "Fred…" she muttered in her sleep.
"That's right," he said. "I can't say when I'll be back, but until I do I'm asking you to protect me. And would you stop crying already? You know how I hate to see people all depressed and stuff. It brings me down, and you know I hate being serious like this. And confiscate George's Firewhisky, would you? Last thing we need is for His Holeyness to start doing drunken impressions." He paused. "Well, maybe that would lighten things up. Just don't let him do anything stupid. Anyway, pass it on that I'm coming back, so don't do anything to my body. I mean, you could ravage it if you want, because we both know how devilishly handsome I am, but I'd prefer to be in my body at the time if you were to do that. Not to mention that it would be just plain weird, and I'm sure Ron would get upset if you were to do that."
Hermione muttered something in her sleep that he didn't quite catch, but heard something that sounded like 'idiot'.
Fred smiled slightly as he raised a hand and wiped away a fresh tear that was falling down her cheek. "I guess that's it. I'm counting on you, Hermione."
He hoped she got his message as she stirred and woke up, calling his name. Hermione placed a hand to her cheek where he had wiped away her tear. "Wasn't I crying…?" she asked herself. "It wasn't a dream…" she whispered in realization. Fred smiled, knowing he made the right choice when she stood up and went over to Ron and Ginny, frantically asking were Bill was.
With that done, he decided to check on if George had passed out yet, or if he was still on his drinking binge. He hated seeing his twin in as bad of shape as he was, and wanted to at least try to comfort him somehow. There was some advantage to being a spirit, as walls meant absolutely nothing to him, and he could float through the ceiling onto the floor above them.
Directly above was Ginny's room, girlish that it was. Sure, she had some non-girlish decorations up, like the poster of the Weird Sisters on one wall, but her room was still rather girlish. He continued to float towards his old room, where George was holed up with far too much alcohol.
He glared at his twin when he saw the numerous empty bottles around him. George was sitting on the floor, barely holding onto an almost empty bottle. A glance toward the mirror by the desk showed that it had been shattered by a bottle being thrown at it, as a broken bottle lay on the floor alongside the shattered mirror glass.
"You lush," Fred said. "I'm going to kick the arse of whoever gave you this much booze. No, I take that back. I'm going to kick your arse if you don't pull yourself together, and then I'll kick their arse." He knew that George couldn't hear him, but didn't care. At least George hadn't tried to do anything truly stupid. He would really have kicked George's arse if his twin did something as incredibly stupid as to attempt to join him in the afterlife.
George shakily raised a hand to finish off what was left in his bottle. Fred frowned as he saw half the contents splashed down the front of his twin's shirt. "Dammit, George!" he shouted as his twin muttered something unintelligibly and tossed the bottle to the ground. "Snap out of it!" He hated seeing his brother like this. George should be trying to cheer everyone up by making inappropriate jokes and setting off dung bombs or fireworks or something. Not sitting in their room getting drunk.
He knew George wouldn't be able to feel it, which was why he went over to him and kicked him in the chest. His foot went right through George, who paused in his attempt to drunkenly search for a bottle containing more alcohol and looked around the room bleary-eyed.
Fred stared down at him as he pulled his foot back. "You felt that?" he said out loud. Percy hadn't reacted in the slightest when Fred had attempted to punch him in the back of his head, but he recalled that George had paused in the Great Hall after he'd walked right through Fred.
Not caring about the 'whys' or 'hows', Fred bent down and tried grabbing onto his twin's shoulders. It took him a few moments to adjust the positioning of his hands, since they would go right through George if he wasn't careful, but he thought he got a close approximation of it. If he concentrated, it was almost like he was really grabbing his twin. "Can you hear me, George?"
It didn't appear that George could see or hear him, even though it seemed like he could feel him. George had all but abandoned his quest for more liquor, furrowing his brows and glancing around in front of him.
"I'm right in front of you, George," Fred said. "Whether you can hear me or not doesn't matter. I'm coming back to life, so pull yourself together. I don't want to come back only to find you've done something stupid like drank yourself to death. You're stronger than this. Go set off some fireworks in gnome holes in the garden or something. You remember when we tried to do that and mum got all upset and started yelling at us? 'Course, that could have been because she found the dung bombs we'd hidden in the kitchen after she accidentally set some off. Just stop moping around!"
George blinked blearily a few times, his eyes red and unfocused. "Is someone here?" he slurred.
Fred nodded and pulled his hands back. "That's right. I'm here, and I'm coming back."
George shook his head, and picked up a nearby bottle that appeared to have a bit of liquid in it still.
"Dammit, George!" Fred shouted, grabbing George's wrist.
George paused again, and slowly lowered the bottle with a look of drunken confusion on his face. "Who's there?"
"I'm here," Fred repeated. "Just stop this. Please."
"He can't hear you, you know," Karin said from behind him.
Fred glanced back to her, letting go of his brother's wrist. "What are you doing here?"
She shrugged. "I didn't know if you needed help visiting someone's dream or not, so I came just in case." She slowly walked over to him. "He can't hear you or see you. Or me, for that matter."
Fred frowned. "He can feel me, though." He looked back to his brother, who glanced at the bottle briefly before hugging his knees to his chest and setting his head down. "Why can he feel me when no one else could?"
Karin made a thoughtful sound. "It is strange." She held out a hand and her oar appeared in it. Fred glanced at her in confusion for a moment. His confusion quickly turned to outrage as she swung the oar at George. It passed right through him.
Fred stood up and faced her. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" he yelled at her.
She chuckled and the oar disappeared. "Just checking something."
"Who's there?" George slurred, a bit more forcefully than before. He looked up, glaring drunkenly around the room.
Fred glanced down at his twin, and then back to Karin. "How could he feel that?"
She smiled brightly at him. "That's not important. What is important," she said, giving him a serious look, "is that you pass on the message not to destroy your body."
Fred gave her a flat look. "You know…" he said slowly. "If I stay the way I am now, I could haunt girls and watch them shower with them being none the wiser. It might be funny to smash this egg thing and do just that."
The oar was re-summoned and re-introduced to Fred's head.
Fred's loud cursing at her was interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Open the door!" Hermione called from the other side, the doorknob rattling. George didn't make any motion to move from his spot on the floor. Fred doubted that George could stand if he tried. Hermione muttered on the other side of the door, and cast an unlocking spell.
"It reeks in here," Hermione commented as she scrunched up her nose and waved a hand in front of her face. She surveyed the empty bottles around George. "You smell like a brewery."
George muttered something incoherent at her, reaching for the bottle with liquor in it again. His hand waved around unsteadily.
Hermione made a face and aimed her wand at him. "Sobrius," she muttered, waving her wand.
George blinked a few times, his eyes looking clearer than they had before. They were still quite red, but not as bloodshot as they had been. At least they no longer possessed the glassy drunkenness that they had. "Dammit, Granger," he muttered, no longer slurring his speech. "What did you have to do that for?"
Hermione walked over to him, kneeling in front of him. Fred moved aside, as he was quite sure that she did not want to be kneeling through him. Even though she couldn't see or feel him, he didn't think she'd appreciate him remaining there when her face was practically in his crotch.
Hermione placed her hands on George's shoulders. "On a hunch, I just went with Bill to your dad's tool shed to check on Fred's body--"
"What is he doing in dad's tool shed?" George interrupted.
That's what Fred wanted to know. He was glad that it was so close, but in the tool shed?
Hermione shook her head. "That's not important. What is important is that his body is warm. He has a heartbeat."
George looked at her in confusion for a moment. "A heartbeat…?"
Hermione smiled. "He's alive, George."
George grabbed her arms, giving her a searching look. "If you're lying to me or trying to pull some sick joke, I swear that I will kill you," he said.
She shook her head. "I wouldn't joke around about something like that. Bill and Charlie are bringing him inside now."
Fred smiled at the relief on his twin's face as George clung on to Hermione. He was glad that his message had gotten through. He turned to Karin. "So how long do I have left to peep at girls for?"
As he rubbed his head, he wondered if it was possible for a spirit to get brain damage from being hit over the head too many times.