Fred opened his eyes, feeling his laughter end abruptly. He didn't know where he was. What happened to the battle? What happened to the noise? Where was everyone?
Suddenly he became aware of the coolness of the green grass he was laying on and jolted upright. He mouth dropped open, his eyes almost burning with all the brightness that surrounded him. Trees stood scattered about in the endless waves of green that disappeared into the horizon, where the sun rose beautifully, perfectly over the hilltops in the distance. Quite nearby stood a house. A large estate, but it did not seem as out of place as Fred would normally have thought. He was mostly concerned about where he was, too concerned to realize that the ground he stood on felt airy, far too airy to have been actually earth. Whipping around, he heard a holler.
"Another sunrise!" shouted a man's voice that Fred didn't recognize. Suddenly, he saw a man hop from the porch of the house to the lawn, sprinting towards him.
Fred's initial thought was to run, but strangely, he felt completely safe in this place. Like he couldn't be in danger, just because.
The man reached him in no time, and Fred would know his face anywhere.
"Harry?" he asked.
The man laughed, throwing his head back. "Not quite, my boy," he told him.
Fred furrowed his brow. "But you look just like him," he pointed out. Looking around once more he asked, "Am I in the future?"
The man smiled lightly. "You're actually in the past, present, and future," he said. He put a hand on Fred's shoulder. "Come inside, there are some other people you should meet."
Fred allowed himself to be led towards the house. In any normal situation, he would refuse to follow the stranger, but obviously this was not a normal situation.
"So if you're not Harry," Fred asked, trying to keep up with the long and quick strides of the older man. "Who are you?"
The man chuckled and held a hand out to him. "James," he said.
Thinking the name was familiar but not completely recognizing it, he shook James' hand and opened his mouth to introduce himself, but the dark-haired man chuckled once more.
"No need. I already know who you are," he told him as the two started up the stairs.
"How?" Fred asked, furrowing his brow yet again. He was sure they had never met before, although he did feel a strange, if distant, connection to the man.
James turned to him as he opened the door. "Allow us to explain," he said, a small smile playing on his lips, and for the first time, Fred saw the difference between the man and his own younger friend. Though both shared the same twinkle in their eyes earned only by the bravest of men, those who seemed without fear, James' did not reflect the brilliant color of the younger's.
James held the door for Fred, who looked all around the house.
It was enormous, like a mansion, except homier. He took a few steps, finding himself in a magnificent parlor with large couches and cushy-looking armchairs.
"Nice, isn't it?" James asked, following him. "I grew up here."
Fred nodded slowly. "It's brilliant," he breathed. He reached out a hand to touch one of the chairs, but stopped dead when he heard a laugh. One that he knew all too well to mistake.
He swung around, looking for the source. He met James' eyes wildly.
"Where is he?" he asked.
James allow a small smile to cross his face. "In the kitchen," he answered, pointing to the door that stood only feet away from where Fred stood.
Rushing towards it, he pushed it and it swung open, nearly hitting him in the face on its way back.
Inside the kitchen sat three other people, two of whom he recognized, the other being a stranger and also the only woman.
She had long, deep red hair and, like James, didn't seem to be much older than himself. When she saw him, she only smiled a little, and it was a sad smile indeed.
The other two men who sat with her, he knew personally. Remus sat directly across from the woman, patting her hands in a comforting sort of way. He had the same light brown hair and the same older-than-his-years face, but he still managed to look far younger than he had when Fred had even first met him nearly five years ago. And although he was curious as to what he was doing there, it was the other man that caught his attention.
Sirius was planted on the counter, and had Fred not heard that barking laugh, he would have questioned whether or not it was really him. His face was younger, very much so, as though he had lost quite a bit of age since they had last seen each other. Since he had died.
Fred froze. Sirius was dead. What could he be doing here? With all these people?
"Sirius...?" he asked taking a step forward, wanting to touch and see if perhaps the man was a ghost.
For a moment, Sirius didn't smile, he only looked at Fred with wide eyes. Then he hopped from his position and strode over to him, grasping him in a fierce hug as though he were his own child.
"Where's-?" Sirius began, but suddenly he stopped, eyeing behind Fred, who turned around just in time to see James abruptly finish shaking his head as he made his way into the kitchen.
Fred watched as James slid into the seat next to the woman, who still seemed distraught. He met each pair of eyes slowly.
"Where am I?" he asked them.
They looked at one another for a long moment before Remus stood.
"You're in your Place," he said slowly.
Fred narrowed his eyes a little. "What do you mean? What place?" All he wanted was an answer, and if he had to dig it out of them, so be it.
The woman stared at him, and suddenly he felt as though she were seeing everything he was.
"Your Place," she said simply. Seeing the confusion in the boy's eyes, she continued with care. "It's the place you're meant to go, where you're meant to be after."
Fred shook his head. "I don't get it though," he said, with a hint of exasperation. "Why am I here, after what?" A hand was placed on his back and he turned to the owner.
Sirius' eyes were filled with such regret that Fred had only seen once before; in the eyes of his own mother, after they returned unscathed from the Quidditch World Cup and she had realized that the last thing she said to him and George was that-
Fred's eyes went wide and he took a step away from Sirius' hand, suddenly not wanting the touch of anyone but one person.
"Where's George?" he asked. The others turned their heads from the younger man, refusing to make eye-contact with him.
"Where is he?" Fred yelled. "Where's George?" His screams were so violent, he saw the hanging light shake, but he didn't care. He just wanted his brother. He wanted his George.
Carefully, Remus looked at him, his face sad and as though he were forcing himself not to cry tears for the poor boy that stood in front of him.
"Fred," he began, eyes not drifting from the redheaded young man's. "George isn't here."
Fred shook his head and covered his ears with his hands. He didn't want to hear. He didn't care how childish he looked, all he knew was that he couldn't listen to this.
"No, he's got to be, has to!" he screeched, feeling his eyes sting. "He's always got to be with me, he needs me!" He forced his eyes shut as two tears leaked down his pale, freckled face that existed in one other person only.
Without warning, the woman stood and walked to him. She wrapped her arms around him, holding him close. Like a mother.
As though a maternal key had been turned in him, Fred let a cry escape him as he hugged the woman he didn't know.
"I need him," he sobbed.
The woman rubbed his back as his sobs continued, comforting him as though he were her own son.
Fred pulled away only after his sobs had turned into silent tears, which were arguably the worst kind because they ran without hesitation, like a minute river, each following the other in perfect, if sad, harmony.
"Who are you?" he asked the woman, peering down into her eyes. Though at that moment it became obvious to him, for her eyes were ones he had seen so many times before.
The woman smiled gently, her eyes red from her own crying, which he hadn't even taken the time to notice before.
"I'm Harry's mum," she said quietly, and Fred nodded, wiping his damp face with his palm unashamedly.
"He has your eyes."
Lily smiled, but it faded the longer she looked in his eyes.
"You'll see him again, Fred. Just like we'll see Harry," she said, reaching her hands out to take one of Fred's, and one of her husband's.
"We can wait together."
Fred ducked his head and smiled his first real smile, albeit it was a small one, since he had arrived in this place. His Place.
"Until death do us part?" he joked quietly, almost to himself, until he heard James and Sirius chuckle.
Sirius patted him on the back. "Somehow I think our wait isn't going to hurt quite as much with you with us."
And they smiled together.
That is, until the sky began to change.