A/N: A very sad one, for which I apologise. George reflects on the loss of his twin. I do not have a twin, and I realise this may not be an accurate representation of a twin relationship - I thought maybe as magical twins their connection would be stronger, etc. so please no hate ;) Reviews and suggestions for betterment always appreciated :) xxx
Ever since he could remember, they had been two yet one. Double. One team, united against the world.
Until the war.
When the dust settled on the flagstones of the Great Hall, the air had tasted bitter and he wanted to spit it out. Though people smiled at the victory, it was through tears of loss.
We were only kids then.
Those who had wanted to stay and fight were allowed to. Though there was supposedly an age limit, some fell through the cracks in the chaos of battle – pipsqueaks wanting to help who ended up slaughtered by advanced witches and wizards three times their age. Even those who were of age didn't realise what the battle would cost them until it was too late and their lives lay in tatters. They all aged quickly that night.
This has to be a nightmare. It can't be real.
But even as he wildly considered this, he knew that the only explanation was that it was real. Only reality could hurt so badly. And it was the nagging, persistent pain that only reminded him that he was alive. He wished he wasn't. Life came at too high a cost.
"Call yourself our mother?"
He and Fred had always been so close. 'Close' being a poor substitute of a word for what they really were. They were the same person, shared the same thoughts, and even their own mother mistook them for each other sometimes, so identical were they in every way.
He didn't know what to do without his brother. Since their birth they had been two people feeding the same personality, the same character. Fred was George and George was Fred. The only thing that had ever truly separated them was physical space, and even that was never very far – they had almost always been together.
This entity they had shared – known to most only as 'the twins' – had been so rambunctious and lively because it had had two life forces feeding it. Ideas and pranks were twice as ambitious and so naturally had double the energy behind them than if there had only been one. Together, they had been larger than life – one consciousness already well on its way to building an empire. But sometimes life gets jealous and takes things away. And then only a damaged half of the whole remains.
For the first time in his life, George felt alone inside his body. He felt the emptiness inside his skin, itching like a rash that he couldn't scratch. The sheer silence inside his head - how could normal people stand it?! He could feel his distance from other people like an ill-fitting glove. Even as his sobbing mother embraced him, he felt the distance. Never again would he be as in sync with another person as to share their thoughts and movements. He could never truly know a person inside and out as well as he had ever known Fred. Because Fred was him and he was Fred. And now Fred was gone. And there was only George. A weeping shadow in an empty cathedral. The damaged half.