Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

It Should've Been Me

By: ChoCedric

"No!" Percy screams hoarsely as he shakes his brother's lifeless body. Fred's eyes are staring unseeingly at the ceiling, and Percy knows with a sickening certainty that his brother, who readily forgave him after his huge mistake of severing himself from the family, is dead. A lake of grief fills him, and he sinks into it.

He was so stupid, so stupid to do what he did three years ago and proclaim that his family was ridiculous for believing Dumbledore. He's gone and wasted all this time, all this time he could've spent with his brother, who is now lying dead, the remains of his last laugh still etched upon his handsome face. He feels as though he has no right to be alive, no right when his boisterous, fun-loving brother is no more.

He thinks of George, and the lake of grief grows deeper still. How will he be able to look him in the eye and tell him that his twin, his soulmate, his other half, is gone? It's an impossibility, he thinks miserably. And how will he be able to face his parents?

He feels self-loathing, for if he hadn't joked around at that exact moment, Fred might still be alive. The one time he made a joke in this era of his life ended up with Fred dead in his arms. Oh, the irony. He feels sick with it, and he vows never to joke again.

As he picks up Fred's body and holds it close to him, he once again laments the fact that he was such a family-disowning, Ministry-loving prat. Tears fill his eyes as he realizes he had his brother's forgiveness before he took his last breath. That should warm his heart, but instead, it fills him with even more heartache. He wanted to spend more time with his brother, to share more jokes with him without him being harmed. As he places Fred into a safe place where his body cannot be harmed any more than it already has, one thought permeates his mind, and he is unable to get it out:

"It should've been me."