Forever Gone

"You don't want to bottle your anger up like that, Harry, let it all out," said Fred, beaming. "There might be a couple people fifty miles away who didn't hear you."

At a quick glance, George is the same, acting the way he always did. Laughing and joking around. He even pulled a prank every once and a while.

If you look closely, though, you can see the pain in his eyes. If you looked at him you could tell he would never be the same. His laughs are hollow, his jokes are half-hearted, and his pranks weren't as good as they had been before.

He looks the other way tears in his eyes, Fred's eyes. He smiles, he has to, for his friends, his family, for Fred Part of him was buried deep under the ground with his brother.

"You haven't got a letter on yours," George observed. "I suppose she thinks you don't forget your name. But we're not stupid - we know we're called Gred and Forge."

At home, he was always locked up in his room, sometimes for days. At work, he always looked distant; like he was listening to something no one else could hear. He even started talking about selling the joke shop, ignoring the protests of his friends. His family tried to help, but he would always walk away when they mentioned Fred's name.

""What are Fred and I? Next door neighbors?"

One day he was lying on his bed in his room; someone knocked. "Come in," he said, not really caring about whom it was. Ginny walked through the door with Percy tagging along behind. Their faces said it all; this was another plan to get him to talk about Fred.

"What do you want?" he snapped at them. They flinched, but still continued to walk towards their mentally and emotionally wounded brother. "George, this has got to stop," Ginny told him.

"You two don't understand!" he yelled his anger rising, "No one understands! He was a part of me! We were Fred and George, George and Fred! No one will ever say that again! It will just be me, George!"

"Your joking, Perce!"

"You think you're the only one that lost someone?" Percy snapped back, "Well think again! We all loved Fred, but think of everyone else! Little Teddy will never know his parents!

"Dennis Creevey lost his brother too, or did you forget!"

"We all lost someone George. Not just you," Ginny said her chocolate-brown eyes glistened with unshed tears.

"You will never understand what I'm feeling! You didn't lose a twin!"

"No, George, but we lost a brother and I don't want to lose another one!" The tears broke free as Ginny stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her. The sound vibrated off the walls.

Harry could not see Fred's body, because his family surrounded him.

"George, at first, I felt the same way you do, but then I realized Fred wouldn't want us to be like that, he would want us to move on with our lives. I did, and so has everyone else. That doesn't mean we can't remember him." Percy opened the door too walked out of the room, but, unlike Ginny, closed it gently behind him.

George lay down in his bed and stared up at the ceiling. Was it really that simple? Could he really just move on? George knew it was the right thing to do, but he didn't want to do it. If he moved on, then he would be admitting that Fred was dead.

He turned on his side and stared at the empty bed next to his. Just the sight of it made his eyes start to water. George felt like screaming "Fred! How could you do this to me! Don't you know how much we miss you! How much I miss you!" But he stayed silent, just like the room that was his sanctuary and prison during these hard months.

"Give her hell from us, Peeves."

Why couldn't he just move on like everyone else? Fred's voice echoed through his mind, "Because you're being a bloody idiot. Remember, we said that if we died that we wouldn't anyone to mourn of us for longer that a month? Well times up, mate. Now get up, stop mopping around, and ask Katie out, you've had a crush on he since third-year. And don't even think about closing the joke shop, because if you do I will come back from the dead and kill you myself!"

George smiled as he realized what Percy was telling him. Fred was dead, but that didn't mean he was gone. He would always be there, in every tear and in every laugh. George closed his eyes drifted into his first peaceful sleep since his brother died.

"Mum!" said Fred as though he'd only just spotted her and seizing her hand too. "How really corking to see you--"

The next morning, George walked down the stairs of the Burrow, a grin on his face. Later during breakfast, when Percy's hair turned pink, everybody broke into grins, even Percy; and George laughed for the first time in months.

Later, George asked if Percy wanted to help him with the joke shop. Percy's face broke into a smile and his eyes behind his horn-rimmed glasses gave a twinkle that would have made Dumbledore proud. He nodded so hard it looked like his head might fall off. The family started laughing.

They were right; George would never be the same, now he had a reason to keep going. For his family, for his friends, and for Fred. And somewhere a red-head who looked exactly like the newly recovered boy, down to the last freckle, was looking down, smiling at his twin. "Finally he moves on. It only took him, what, half a year?" Then his hair turned the brightest shade of bubble-gum pink and he turned around to prank those bloody marauders, who had just ruined the perfect moment. The prank war was on.

Just edited it. I think it's a lot better, but what do you think? R&R