"Now Georgie, dear, I know this is going to be hard, but…"
I didn't hear the rest of my mother's words. All I saw was my family, huddled around something. My father, Charlie, Bill, Percy, Ron, Ginny, even Harry, Fleur, and Hermione were there. The only one who was missing was…
"No!" I cried. I lurched out of my mother's comforting grasp and pushed between Ron and Percy. I stared into his unseeing eyes.
"Fred… no… wake up Freddie…"
The tears started flowing from my eyes, landing drop by drop onto Fred's cheeks. It almost looked like he was crying, too. I hoped with all my heart that he would spring up and say "Gotcha!" and this would all be a big joke. Seconds, which seemed like hours, passed by and Fred didn't move.
I felt like I was falling backwards. This was my brother, my twin, my friend. It seemed like yesterday that we received our first broomsticks for our sixth birthdays, with us flying around the house and our mum yelling at us to go outside before we break anything else. I could still hear Professor McGonagall calling my name as I walked up to be sorted. I had mentally begged the sorting hat to place me in Gryffindor with Fred. I had sighed with relief as the hat boomed "GRYFFINDOR!" and I walked over to the Gryffindor table as the students clapped, Fred clapping loudest of all. I heard Umbridge's screams as we stormed the Great Hall, with our Weasely's Wildfire Whiz-bangs exploding in our wake, Fred's laughter booming throughout the halls. I felt his hand caressing my head as blood gushed out of the gaping hole where my left ear had been minutes before. "How do you feel, Georgie?" he had asked. I had responded by cracking my "Saintlike" joke. Why couldn't he return the favor and crack a joke now?
Twenty years passed through my head in a matter of seconds. There were few moments I could remember when Fred wasn't by my side. How was I supposed to live the rest of my life without him?
I hadn't even noticed that I had been tightly hugging his body until I felt my father's hand on my shoulder.
"There's nothing you can do."
I looked up at him, hoping I could find the loophole in his statement. My father, whom I rarely saw shed a tear, had a wet, glossy, grief-stricken face. He said calmly, "Time to go. It's all over now."
He helped me up, as my legs were too weak to support my own weight. As we walked out of the Great Hall where countless bodies of our friends lay, I looked back at him one last time. Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey were carrying Fred's body on a stretcher into the hospital wing to make room in the Great Hall for those who had been injured. I could have sworn I even saw a tear drip down from McGonagall's nose.
We walked through the remains of Hogwarts. Everywhere I looked I saw him. There he was, leaning against a crumbled pillar, saying "You'll never guess what I slipped in Snape's pumpkin juice!" I saw him sitting on one of the destroyed benches lining the courtyard. "I've already sold twelve Puking Pasties today! First-years are such easy customers!"
My father walked away to help injured students into the Great Hall. I was so deep in my thoughts that I didn't even hear Harry walk up behind me.
"He died laughing," Harry said softly. "He could always make time to laugh."
"Yeah" I agreed, starring at the ground.
"Now that this is all over, there's something I want you to have."
Completely confused, I followed Harry to entrance of the Forbidden Forest. As we stepped over fallen tree branches and tangled roots, Harry started telling me about what he wanted to give me.
"Kingsley wants it destroyed, but I think you deserve to use it before it's gone. It should be somewhere around… here!"
Harry picked something up off of the forest floor and placed it in my hand. I held it up so I could see what it was. The object was a small dark stone, cut somewhat like a diamond. It took a few moments for me to realize what I was holding. "I thought it didn't exist," I said in a whisper, my voice barely audible.
"It won't after tonight, but you of all people should get to use it before then." Harry said before turning away.
"Thanks," I whispered as he left the forest. I turned the Resurrection Stone in my hand three times. I closed my eyes, clenched the stone in my fist, and thought about him.
"Hey, I'm already here!"
My head snapped up at the sound of that familiar voice. "F-Fred!" I cried, grasping him tightly and embracing him.
"Whoa, you're acting like I'm about to die or something. Oh wait, I already have!" Fred said with a laugh.
There was the joke I had been waiting for, but I wasn't laughing. Instead, tears streamed down my face. I let go and starred at him. It was almost like looking into a mirror, except mirrors didn't cause this much pain. "What was it like?" I asked. "I mean, could you feel anything? Did you know you were dying while it was happening?"
"Wow! Twenty questions!" I love that game!" Fred said with a wide grin, which he quickly wiped away when he saw how serious and grief-stricken my face was. "Er, well, it's sort of like falling asleep. You never actually think 'Wow! I'm dying!' because it just sort of… happens."
I started to feel a chill in the air, and I knew my last minutes with my twin were limited. "Is there anything you want me to tell the others?"
"Sure. Tell Ron he smells, tell Percy that quitting his job was the first thing he's ever done right, and make kissy faces at Ginny every time she's with Harry."
I couldn't help but smile. Even in the worst situations, Fred could crack a joke. The air around me started to grow even colder. Fred couldn't stay in this world much longer. I embraced him for the last time as the floodgates in my eyes opened and the tears poured out like waterfalls. "I'll miss you," but only my lips moved and no sound came out. Still, Fred heard me.
"Don't miss me for too long. You've got a joke shop to run!"
I sobbed even harder and tightened my embrace as the person who was my twin, brother, and best friend disappeared forever.
. . .
The funeral was held at our house three days later. The Burrow seemed even smaller with three cedar coffins in the middle of the living room. Tonks, Lupin, and Fred would be buried in the same place as Dumbledore, along with everyone else who lost their lives in the historic battle.
All day, people who I had never met hugged me and told me how much Fred would be missed. I listened without hearing. I nodded when they spoke to me, but their words went in my right ear and out my left ear hole. It upset me a little. People who didn't even know Fred told me how much they'd miss him. The Ministry worker who made our expulsion from Hogwarts official told me that Fred would always be in his heart.
I looked at him for the last time before his coffin would be sealed, concealing him from me forever. When no one was watching, I slid a small parcel into his hand. It was small enough that I could squeeze his cold, pale fingers around it and nobody would know it was there. The package was a tiny Weasley & Weasley box that Hermione had placed an Undetectable Extension charm on. Inside, I had put a few of our trick wands, Ton-Tongue Toffee, Wildfire Whiz-bangs, both of our broomsticks, and a copy of a picture of us that our mum had taken before we had boarded the Hogwarts Express for the first time.
As Kingsley sealed the coffins, I looked at my copy of the picture I had put in Fred's coffin. We were wearing the sweaters our mum had made for us, with "F" and "G" monograms on them. Usually I could pick out a million different physical differences between Fred and me, but now I could barely find one. We were waving in the picture, starting off with smiling faces and then changing to goofy ones. I hugged the picture tight, remembering the brother who would always live on in my heart.
. . .
I still think of him sometimes. A lot, actually. I still cry over him. I'll occasionally wake up and look over at his bed, then remember why it is empty. Sometimes I'll look at our old family portrait and have trouble distinguishing me from him.
It's been almost a year since his death, yet it still seems like a nightmare I had last night. During my first few days back at Weasley & Weasley, I moved like an Inferni. I saw him everywhere. Memories in every aisle, laughs we shared on every shelf. Harry was right. Fred could always make time to laugh.
"Excuse me, Mr. Weasley!"
The voice of the young boy standing in front of my desk woke me from my daydream. From every corner of the shop, laughter and giggles could be heard, including those of the boy. "Can I help you?" I asked.
"I love the new product! My whole family hasn't been able to stop laughing for days!" the boy said in between bursts of laughter.
"Glad to hear it!" I said with a smile. "It's our most popular product yet."
The boy bought two more boxes of our new best-seller. I watched as he walked outside to where his family was. They, like so many others in Diagon Alley, were grinning with laughter. I looked over at our new display sign to my right and smiled to myself. It read:
TRY OUR NEW WEASLEY & WEASLEY PRODUCT!
FRED'S LONG-LASTING LAUGHTER LICORICE
GUARANTEED TO MAKE ANYBODY HAVE TIME TO LAUGH