It's been a few weeks since Fred's death, but the dark cloud of misery hangs over the Burrows still, threatening to never leave. There hasn't been much laughter around; the painful memories have swallowed what little laughter there is whole again.

George, as expected, seems to be suffering the most right now, but he wouldn't dare show it. Instead he sits in his room all day and night, the occasional 'crash' the only indicator that someone has taken permanent residency there. He seems to be destroying anything he can find in frustration, as if inflicting the pain on something else will make him hurt less...

The rest of the Weasleys are little better. Mrs Weasley will often break down at any time without warning, so the household tends to stay away from her, for her own sake. She still carries on with her motherly duties, though only half-heartedly, probably wondering what the point was when her family was now down by one.

Mr Weasley is trying to act like any strong person would, but you can see him glancing out the window a few times a day, hoping that his boy will suddenly appear explaining that it was just another joke the twins had pulled, that he was alive and well. He knew of course that this was impossible, but the little bit of hope every time he looked out the window seemed to be the only thing keeping his mind off other things right now.

Ginny is another one of the Weasleys trying to act tough about the whole situation. I suppose growing up in a family of brothers you learn to be tough for your own sake. It's obvious that she is deeply upset about Fred but she'll hide the random tear with "I'm going to play Quidditch".

Harry simply spends his days lying in the garden watching the garden gnomes get up to their usual mischief. When he gets sick of this he goes out to the orchard and flies around for a bit. Over the past few weeks mourning visitors have suggested that Harry and I take care of the Weasleys in their time of grief, but in my opinion Harry deserves a break from trying to act strong. The war with Voldemort has made all of us grow up too fast, and Harry has lost a lot of friends in these past few months as well...

I wouldn't know how Percy is coping at the moment, he still doesn't want to come home much even after the war, his pride is just too large to admit he was mistaken for leaving his family. I do know his heart is bigger than that though and he will come home eventually. Bill and Charlie are both attending to their own lives at the moment; Working seems to be a good distraction from anything sometimes.

The person I can't look at though is Ron. He's different from the rest of the members of the family altogether. He walks around the place with a permanent fake smile plastered on his face, which upsets me more than seeing Mrs Weasley crying. His eyes expose how he really feels though. Ghosts of memories swim through his eyes making them look almost lifeless at times. I obviously don't know much about him before he was eleven and attending Hogwarts, but I know these memories are of all the times they pulled a trick on someone or something, and how he always looked up to his two big brothers.

I admit I keep replaying the same memories as well, of all the times the twins pulled one liners in exactly the right moment, the grand exit they made at Hogwarts a few years ago and the funny tales of how they had sneaked out of detention on some nights. It makes me incredibly sad to think that the two pranksters are no more.

Now there is only one twin. One twin left behind to mourn the loss of his closest brother; his closest friend...

I found Ron one late afternoon lying down with Harry in the grass outside, and I watched them for several minutes from the window, not daring to intrude on a private conversation. It seemed pretty clear after a while though that they were in no mood to talk and were simply enjoying each other's company, so I made my way over.

"Hi"

"Hi, Hermione" Harry said quietly. He then stood up and to my shock left me with Ron; he must have guessed I wanted to talk to him. Harry was more attentive then I thought...

I sat down next to Ron, and Ron again gave me the fake smile that haunted me still every time.

"Ok, Hermione?" he said way too cheerfully, not even at Hogwarts had he greeted me so warmly.

"Ron, please don't do this to yourself, I know you're upset" I whispered. He stared at me hard for a long time after that, so long that sun was beginning to set, turning the whole world around us orange. It was extremely unnerving but I couldn't look away from him either. It seemed that the lifeless blue eyes were trying to tell me something, that he was scared. The whole time our eyes connected it was like he was trying to send me messages that he just couldn't bring himself to say verbally.

Slowly, he dropped his gaze from my face and turned now to the dropping sun. A tear appeared now, running down his face. I was now looking at Ron as I had never seen him before. He looked almost fragile.

Discretely, I slowly reached for his hand, and when at last I touched it he didn't seem to protest in the slightest. In fact, he looked up at me again and smiled a small smile. Not an artificial smile. A smile that made his eyes light up a little as well.

He took my hand and started tracing it with his finger, his touch made me feel slightly light headed. This was all very new. Suddenly he stopped what he was doing and looked into my eyes again. They were more welcoming than before.

He gestured for me to come closer to him and then put his arm around me so I was forced to lie in front of him and watch the dropping sun. I could feel his heart beat as I leaned against his chest and it was going fast; I found this incredibly cute because I knew mine was doing the same.

We watched the sun die for another day and the darkness slowly start to take over the light. Ron and I couldn't pretend that we were both alright. He was still mourning the loss of his brother, and I too felt incredibly sad about Fred Weasley's death.

This family still had a long way to go in the healing process, but I realised as Ron and I both walked towards the Burrow hand in hand that no one needs to go through it alone, and that somewhere far away there is a light at the end of this dark and gloomy tunnel.