According to the poll results on my profile, readers of my stories are requesting a Harry Potter fanfic the most. I am still accepting votes, so you can just click on my name and go right on over and vote. I will do my best to write a decent story that does not shame me into oblivion. Anyways, on to said fanfic!
Fred walked slowly into his room, expertly avoiding every creaking floorboard as he went. Living in this house for all of his nineteen years had given him opportunity to hone that ability to a perfected skill; a skill that was very useful when your mother was part hawk. He could Apparate into the room he and George were currently sleeping in while everything was prepared for Bill and Fleur's wedding, but he selected a quieter, slower method. Besides, he didn't want to risk waking George up.
He wasn't really sure if George was asleep or not. It was well past midnight, and the day had been long. It had started before midnight the previous day, when everyone had slept through the entire day so they could be ready for the mission to Harry's house, and then woken up at nine o'clock pm, refreshed and ready to depart. They knew it was dangerous. They knew the risks. But what was life without a little peril?
George might disagree with him. Then again, he might not. They had their similarities and differences. Both of them knew that of the two of them, George was far more mild-mannered than Fred. Fred was always on his toes, always dashing off from one thing to the next. He would spit out whatever happened to be on his mind, and heaven help whoever was on the receiving end, depending on what came from his mouth. Fred often came up with what could be considered cruel pranks, but he was careful not to let anyone get hurt too badly (unless they really deserved it, like Malfoy.) He was a roaring flame, and one had to be careful to keep a safe distance, lest they get burned.
But if Fred was fire, then George was water. Granted, they enjoyed pulling jokes together, and George was always ready to cause general mayhem, but he was still more soft-spoken, more understanding, and thought things through a lot more than Fred could claim credit for. George's personality tempered the fiery character that was Fred; like a steel blade being dunked repeatedly in ice cold water, Fred was transformed from a rugged piece of metal into a wonderfully crafted sword by George's cool and collected mannerisms.
Pausing on the threshold for a few seconds, Fred listened to the deep, even breathing that hopefully signified his brother's passing into slumber. Even though their mum had done her absolute best to heal him, George still suffered some throbs of pain, remnants of the Dark magic still flowing around the wound. She recommended a good night's rest and keeping to low-key activities (she gave Fred a rather significant look at that point. Fred returned her glare with his own mask of complete and total innocence) for the next day.
Fred stepped into the room and crept to his bed. He shot a glance at George, a bandage on the wound, and nearly jumped when George's eyes snapped open and fell upon his brother.
"I was trying to be quiet," Fred whispered after a moment.
George grinned. "As if."
Fred shrugged. "Seriously."
His grin fading, George pushed himself to a sitting position, kicking the blanket off his body. "Too hot for this kind of blanket. Mum thinks we're going to die of frostbite, and it's the end of July."
Fred attempted a smile, and sat on the edge of his bed. "How is it?" he asked, waving his hand vaguely by the right side of his head.
George made a face. "I'll live. Be a wee bit lopsided maybe, but live nonetheless."
Unable to stop his eyes sliding over his brother's wound again, Fred heaved a sigh. "Was it worth it?"
"My, we're cheery tonight, aren't we?"
"George."
"Fred."
Fred narrowed his eyes at his twin, and George relented. "I know, Fred, I know. My ear's been cursed off and all I can do is sit and make cracks about it. But we can't just sit around and be prats about it. If this is the price to pay for defeating You-Know-Who, I'll do it again in a heartbeat so the rest of the world, wizards and Muggles, will be safe from him."
There he goes thinking big picture again. Fred nodded slowly. "Suppose that curse to the head hasn't done anything to addle your brains, has it?"
George looked for a moment like he believed Fred was serious, but after seeing the mischievous look in his eye, snorted out loud. "It probably has. Though it seems everything happening recently is addling someone's brains."
Fred smirked, thinking of Lupin's side comment about Hermione nearly flattening Ron with a hug when he arrived with Tonks.
Turning serious, he opened his mouth and said, "How much longer do you think it's going to go on?"
George held up his hand and began counting off on his fingers. "I bet Harry and Ginny will be together by the end of the school year. Ron and Hermione are going to take forever, if he keeps being a prat and she keeps acting like she knows what to do, but they'll figure it out eventually. Lupin and Tonks are going to have a baby any day soon, you just wait. Mum will keep crying over Percy until he figures out he's wrong. And it'll be a while before anyone gets over Mad-Eye…"
Fred held up a hand. "You know what I meant."
"This war isn't going to end until there's a final showdown. I don't know how long it'll take. But it's going to be Harry that ends it."
"You think?"
"Yeah. I'm not calling him 'The Chosen One' and all that crap that the Ministry's come up with, but it's going to be him."
"Could be a long time."
"It could." George fell silent and stared down at his hands, unconsciously reaching one up to press against the now flat side of his head.
Fred tried not to flinch at the action. "I'll kill Snape for that if it's the last thing I do."
George set his hands back down and fixed an odd expression on Fred. "It's hard to believe it. I mean, Snape was a bat straight from the depths of the earth, but I didn't think he'd really go so far as to…to kill Dumbledore. I thought he was just an all-around nasty piece of slime that got kicks out of making everyone else's lives miserable. It's a much different game we're playing now."
Fred pushed away an image of him strangling Snape, and answered his brother. "I know what you mean. He did seem like Death Eater material, but there was always some doubt that he really had the guts to be a part of that. Though they take all sorts of blokes. I wonder how close to You-Know-Who he was."
"I don't want to know."
"Why?"
"Because that would mean You-Know-Who was that much closer to Hogwarts."
"Ugh. I see what you mean."
They lapsed back into their own thoughts. It was going to end ugly. That much was almost a given. Fred was intimidated by merely thinking just how ugly that could turn out. How many would he lose that were near and dear to him? And how long would it take to recover from those internal wounds?
The nights after were always the worst. He would lay awake and let the days wash over him, and every pain-filled occurrence and possible loss in the future would fill his mind with such a sense of helplessness, he found himself screwing up his eyes in an attempt to shut out the thoughts. Sleep was always a blessing.
"Fred?"
"Yeah?"
George squinted at the palm of his hand, and then looked up at his twin. "I love you."
Stopping himself from the usual response he would give to any expression of affection, Fred answered, "I love you too, bro."
A creak sounded from the staircase. Fred leaped under the covers and yanked them up to his chin, feigning sleep. He heard George snicker as the other redhead rolled on to his side and returning to sleeping.
Loosening his hold on the blanket as the footsteps receded down the stairs, Fred shot a gaze out their window, where the stars shown brightly (which was quite nice, considering all the fog the dementors had been causing) in the night sky. He sighed as he let his eyes slip shut. It'll all work out right in the end.
A/N: Well, there you have it, my first HP fic. Everyone needs one, I suppose. Hopefully it wasn't too sappy. Oh, and if I'm correct, the book never specified which ear was cursed off. If I'm wrong, definitely let me know. But I think in the movie, it was the right ear, so we'll just go with that for now.
~RR