Disclaimer: I don't own the any of the shit J.K. Rowling owns. The story is all mine, though.
Prologue
George Weasley felt as if someone had just taken a dagger and stabbed it through his heart. Like all the clocks had stopped. Like all he had to do was go back and…and what exactly? Be the one dead? Leave Fred the pain of mourning? Which was worse, to mourn or to die? To most it probably seemed simple. But for George it was like a piece of his soul was gone. Fred was not his brother like Ron was his brother or Ginny was his sister. Fred was his twin. To try and explain what losing your twin was impossible.
It was impossible to do a lot of things. George did not cry. His mother did, she leaned on his father, sobbing her eyes out. His father cried silently while his mother made great heaving noises that sounded like she was going to explode. Ron was nowhere in sight, probably with Harry and Hermione, somewhere out of the way. Percy, was off to the side, and George swore he saw him wiping away tears in a fruitless attempt to seem strong.
George didn't feel very strong. He felt weak for not crying. Kept telling himself how stupid…how stupid it is…it was. i That's your twin, and you should damn well be crying, you prat. Don't you have any feelings? /i He knew exactly why he wasn't crying. It wasn't because he wasn't sad. Nor was he trying to be strong. It was because it hadn't happened.
Any second now Fred would jump up, all smiles and say 'I was only joking, mum!' Mrs. Weasley would scream, make a scene, hit him over the head. George would beat himself up for not thinking of it first. Ginny would use some spell to put Fred's robes on fire. Mr. Weasley would scold and laugh in the background.
i Any second now. Right Fred? You're going to open your eyes and wink at me to let me know to keep it a secret, just a moment more and we'll give away the surprise. You ready Fred? I am. Just open your eyes /i Of course, Fred didn't. There was a slight smile on his face, his eyes closed,. He wasn't going to open his eyes. i Oh, there they come. Stupid tears, make you look like a git for waiting so long. /i
George looked up. To his surprise most of the Great Hall had cleared out. In fact, he was the only one with Fred now. Wherever the rest of his family had went, probably to see Ron and Ginny, he had clearly been left alone with his twin. But he didn't want to be alone. George was never alone.
"Ah, George?"
The voice startled him. He nearly jumped to his feet before seeing a girl in robes he had never quite talked to be before. She looked familiar. "Sorry," she said. She wasn't quite looking at him, but glancing down at Fred with a forlorn look on her face. "It's me, ah, Audrey Ryan. You and Fred used to copy off of me when Ravenclaw and Gryffindor had Charms together, second year, remember?"
George sniffled, trying furtively to stop his tears from falling. "Yeah, best person I ever copied from, save Hermione Granger," he said, managing a grin. "Sorry, that, ah, sorry we have to meet again, now, I mean-"
"It's no problem. I'm not here of my own accord anyway. Sent by the Ministry to clear some things up," Audrey said, looking him in the eyes now. "I'm sorry about Fred. I know it's probably hard for you, more than anyone, George."
"No, no, mum was, she wasI mean, really upset Ginny, my little sister, she's, well. Ah…yeah," George finished lamely.
"Here," Audrey said. She reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out some small white thing and handed it to George. He sniffled again and looked from it to her. "Hankie, it's a hankie, George, blow your nose. Or, wait, dry your eyes first, better order."
Sniffling again George nodded. Inside his head he was mortified. Audrey Ryan? AUDREY RYAN? She looked the same as ever. Big blue eyes and a cheery smile, but an air about her. Sort of like Hermione. But not at all. Audrey was smart, but it was more she remembered things. Defense Against the Dark Arts was her downfall, she was dreadful when it came to advanced spells. But Audrey Ryan was not something George should be worrying about at the moment.
He went to hand the hankie back to her but she made a face. "You can…you can keep it George," she said softly, with a smile. "Now, have you seen any Thestrals or Hippogriffs around? The Ministry has a tip there's winged horses or the like getting too close to Hogwarts."
"I've been kind of busy," George said, in a rather cold tone. "But if I see any magical winged horses I'll be sure to tell you. Sorry if I'm a bit busy with my dead brother over here. Wouldn't want to interrupt Ministry work."
Audrey's eyes seemed to get bigger. But she nodded. "Neither would I," she said. "Can I…ask something else?" She said. George, who was back next to Fred, looked up at her again and nodded, slightly. "Do they know who's dead? My brother, Alex, he's a seventh year, only sixteen"
"Anyone not of age was supposedly with the prefects," George mumbled, turning back to his brother. Although, now, he couldn't forget when Bellatrix Lestrange had so gleefully sent the Killing Curse at Colin Creevey, a sixth year, underage, who had snuck, some way, back to fight.
There was a short silence. Then the sound of Audrey hurrying off in some other direction. Then silence. Not a complete silence. There were several other people. Talking in low voices. Or crying over bodies, as George was doing. He had now fallen into some sort of fit of silent tears, and lain down next to Fred. As if, somehow, that might make it undone. Like he could switch places or somehow just die, right there, and bring Fred back to life.
But it was stupid. That wasn't going to bring Fred back. There were people all around him wanting the same thing. You couldn't just bring people back. How selfish was that? i Fucking…stop. Stop playing mind games with yourself. You're not the only one hurting. /i
It was getting weird. Sitting next to Fred's cold body was discerning. It was like seeing himself dead. Pale skin, weird smile with a soft face. At least he had died in the middle of a joke, in the middle of a laugh. Fred would've had it no other way, and George intended it to be remembered.
A/N: Not a one-shot. : It's going to be continued, this is just a prologue so of course it's really short. And, yes, Audrey Ryan will be a main character in the story.
