Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Harry Potter
Images, snippets of sound, motion or feeling flashed round and round in a whirlwind of terror. Weighing down on my exhausted mind; memories mixing with my brain's twisted creations until I couldn't make out what was fact and what was fiction.
A scene began to play in front of my eyes and, unable to turn away, I was forced to watch.
I was walking into the Great Hall; once filled with the laughter of hundreds of students, was now filled with a silence only broken by the groans from the wounded or the cries for the fallen.
I walked along the haphazard path, created around the unmoving witches and wizards, until I spotted a huddled group at the back: each with the same strikingly familiar orange hair.
Why were they in here? I asked, worry slowly clenching at my heart; my pace speeding up, movements becoming more frenzied as I caught a glimpse of orange hair laid down on the floor.
No, no, no! Please! Please, it can't...
I fell to my knees, ignoring the throbbing pain as they cracked onto the stone floor.
"No" I half moaned, half sobbed as I took in the silent, one-eared body of George Weasley.
A George never again to laugh, never again to smile, to joke, prank or tease. Be the half to a whole.
A George never again to whisper kind words, to kiss my lips, to say my name.
"No, no, no, no" I repeated like a mantra: as if it would change the hand fate had dealt. As if it would make a difference.
I felt hands gently tugging at my shoulders, trying to tell me it would be okay, though I knew it never would be.
The tugging hands became more frantic and sharp screams cut through the deathly silence of the hall.
But I couldn't move.
Flashes of green light burst across the room, but my eyes were locked on striking ginger and a pale, deathly white.
The frantic hands were gone now, replaced with shouts laced with fear and anger.
Body stuck in place, but finally able to lift my head, I could take in the scene that surrounded me.
It was a massacre.
The bodies of friends falling everywhere. I tried to move; mentally wrenching at my frozen limbs.
Luna, Neville, Seamus. No.
Hermione and Ginny. Why can't I move!
Dean. Move!
Ron.
No one was left. My body remained still, locked at George's side as Voldemort glided over.
"Pity, I always thought you'd die in a vain attempt to actually fight me, but here you are: kneeling down before me" he sneered at me.
"Pathetic"
Green light filled my vision.
"NO!" I screeched sitting bolt upright in bed and panting heavily, clammy sweat sticking strands of hair to my forehead and back.
Someone cursed softly beside me and seemed to fumble with something in the dark.
The wicked remnants of my nightmare still replaying over and over in my sleep-addled mind, I moved on instinct.
Shoving my hand under my pillow and grasping my wand I leapt onto my would-be attacker: just as his fumbling turned on the lamp at my bedside table.
A small circle of light was thrown across the bed, allowing me to see exactly what was going on.
I was straddled over, and holding my wand against the throat of, George Weasley.
A very alive, George Weasley.
Hardly daring to believe it, I found myself moving forward to feast my eyes on all the small taken-for-granted details; the flush of blood running through his cheeks, the light of life twinkling in his eyes, the slight morning stubble, the rise and fall of his broad chest, his lips slightly parted in surprise.
Proof that he was alive.
I leant back a little and released the sigh of relief I hadn't realised I'd been holding since I'd sleep-tackled George without realising it.
"H?" a voice asked tentatively, trying to look as relaxed as he possibly could with a wand stuck in his throat and an unstable witch straddling his waist.
With a trembling hand I withdrew my wand and slipped it back under my pillow, before clenching my hands tightly shut on his chest in an attempt to stop the shaking that now racked my whole body.
He tilted his torso up slowly, resting on the crooks of his elbows as his bright blue eyes looked searchingly into my own wild ones.
"I... It" I tried to choke out and tightened my grip on his thin top.
"It wasn't real" I whispered before the tears finally began to fall and I threw myself, for the second time that night, at George.
Immediately he wrapped me tightly in his arms and pulled me closer between his legs so I was completely enveloped by his being: making sure my head was where I could hear his very wonderfully alive heart beating.
This was my recovery position.
The nightmares had been a frequent occurrence since the second Great Wizarding War and the first nights immediately after it had been spent sleepless in each other's arms, purely trying to get our heads around the fact that we were both still here.
Of course George had his own share of them; yelling out my name or Fred's in the middle of the night as he re-lived the terrible moments when the wall had exploded: nearly taking both of us from him.
"It's over now shhhhh, it's okay" George repeated over and over, pressing soft kisses into my hair.
I tried to speak but could only produce choked sobs, eventually giving up and nestling my head further into his warm chest.
"It wasn't real, I'm alive" he said firmly before taking my tear-damp face by the cheeks and staring directly into my eyes.
"I'm alive" he repeated again as he leant his forehead on mine.
I closed my eyes as a wave of calm washed over me and my beating heart finally slowed to a moderate rate, my brain finally registering that he was okay.
I opened my eyes again to see George's lips slowly lift in a smile as he saw the distraught gleam in my eyes finally disappearing.
"Yeah" I sighed returning his smile with a relieved one of my own and wrapped my arms around his neck.
"Good" he grinned before kissing me softly on the mouth, caressing my cheek lightly with his thumb.
"Now how about we go try some of that hot chocolate powder Fred and I have been experimenting on" he winked at me as he lifted me off the bed, securing my legs on either side of his hips with his strong arms.
"What have you done to it?" I asked suspiciously looking down at him from the extra head of height I'd gained from being hoisted into the air, the nightmare long forgotten.
For some reason this had become a habit of George's; sometimes when we were just about to get into bed, he would realise he'd forgotten something downstairs and would simply pick me up and take me with him when he went to retrieve it. Other times I would be in the middle of a conversation with someone and he'd wrap his arms under my legs and carry me off to see something he and Fred had created.
(Though I had to draw the line at being hefted over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes when he found me talking to McLaggen, later refusing to admit that he had been jealous.)
"We bewitched it so that it's like drinking that muggle popping candy that you like in those chocolate bars so much" he smiled as he made his way into our kitchen.
"You didn't!" I laughed as he deposited me on the counter and busied himself with making his and Fred's concoction.
"Yeah we did" he said leaning on his hands either side of my legs after he'd put the kettle on to boil, "You were always saying how it never worked when you put it in normally so..." he trailed off at my laugh of delight.
"Thank you" I said quietly placing both my hands on his cheeks and looking deeply into his brilliantly blue eyes.
George replied by joining our lips in a sweet and delicate kiss that had a beautiful warmth fizzing through my body and down to the tips of my toes.
This was what made all those years of struggle and fighting worth it.
This was what got me through the nightmares.
Having perfect little moments like this, safe in George's arms.
Okay this is my first time writing anything like this so I know I have a lot of things to improve! I wrote this because I love the fem!HarryxGeorge and my other story is a very slow build up of that relationship so I wanted to try something with a little more romance :) I am still continuing my other story by the way I just needed to get this idea out of my head before I could continue on with the rest of the chapter but I am halfway there!