A Travel Memoir
i. prologue: a decision
The day he decided he needed to leave, the sky was blue. The grass was green. There were flowers blooming. It was normal, it was picturesque, but it was also May 2nd, 1999. That meant it had been a year. Three-hundred sixty-five days. Eight-thousand, seven-hundred sixty hours. Five-hundred twenty-five thousand, six-hundred minutes since Fred Weasley was murdered.
Other than that, yes, it was a fairly normal day.
That very night, George brought it up at the dinner table, the idea of leaving. Suddenly, a silence interrupted the laughter and chatter of the recovering Weasley family. George waited, very patiently, for someone to speak. There was bound to be dissent. Ginny and Ron, after trading glances of sibling significance, solidly downed the thought. 'Unsurprising,' George thought, 'They are rather protective of me.'
Percy, of course, began listing the various reasons George should not leave. There was his Apparating problem, ever since Fred died. It didn't quite work anymore, and really, Flooing was simply too expensive these days.
"I will take the Muggle aeroplane, then. I do have some gold," George interrupted. Percy gaped for a moment at the reasonable response and fell silent.
Bill and Fleur remained quiet, but he could sense their reluctance. On the other hand, Hermione kept looking anxiously at George. George met her stare defiantly. It wasn't as if he was going mad. Harry merely studied his plate but nodded slightly. He understood the need to leave. Or, perhaps the peas and carrots were very illuminating that evening. George was never quite sure with Harry.
"Where will you be going?" His father's voice was unusually tender.
"Somewhere that isn't here," George replied shortly.
Mrs. Weasley merely looked at the family clock, fractured and missing an important hand, and then directed her gaze to George. "It's what he would have wanted," she assured everyone – or was she assuring herself?
Frankly, George did not really know what Fred would have wanted. He shrugged ambiguously. Mrs. Weasley's words, however clichéd and ambiguous, were thankfully enough to close the subject.
And for the first time, in a very long time, George Weasley was content.
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Note: Yes, a brief beginning, but the following chapters will increase length as George travels. Also, the May 2nd date is the date of the Hogwarts Battle provided by the Harry Potter Lexicon. Please leave thoughts and other exciting comments. :)