"Don't look so down. I'll be back within the year."
I looked towards where the voice was coming from. Amber stood in the open doorway of the Burrow, wearing that obnoxiously cute half smile of her. Hesitantly, I took a step toward her. She just turned her head to look over her shoulder, and then turned her attentions back to me.
"Trust me, George, I'll be back before the last leaves fall." She turned to leave.
"Amber, wait," I called out. She didn't stop, and I ran after her to the outside. But as soon as my foot hit the threshold, the world changed. Everything went black, as dark as the Peruvian Instant Blackness powder, and just as sudden. I couldn't see Amber anywhere. Blindly, I stumbled forward, hoping to see that smiling face of hers once more.
"Amber!" I called out. The darkness became heavy, like tendrils of something or other grabbing me, holding me back from my goal. Soon, I wasn't walking but swimming through the dark.
"AMBER!" I screamed. My throat went completely numb, and I still couldn't make heads or tails of the darkness.
"She won't come, mate," a familiar voice said. "She's been long gone for awhile now."
"No," I whispered. I pushed forward, hoping to make a dent in the thickness of the dark. Behind me, I heard familiar footsteps that went with the voice.
"George, listen mate, Amber's gone. She's not coming back."
"She has to come back, she promised!" I spun towards the voice, but there was nobody there. I turned in place, but there was nobody around me. "Where are you?"
"Here." In front of me, my twin brother appeared, exactly as I remembered.
I darted awake, reaching forward for the image of Fred. But as I sat up, I felt familiar tears brimming in my eyes. It had been two years since the Great War, Fred was as dead as dead could get, but I felt broken as ever. And Amber….
"Amber!" I sobbed. It had been three years since Amber left on a mission for the Order. She never returned when the war ended. Grabbing up my pillow, I hurled it at the far wall and, placing my head heavily on my hands, I sobbed for my lost brother and my lost friend.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Every day, he got up, put on whatever was clean, and wandered to the nearby school for work. He arrived, right on time, and performed his job impeccably. As soon as his shift was done, he clocked out. In fact, in terms of his precision and punctuality, George Weasley's supervisors couldn't complain. But the haunted air he carried about him set them on edge. The last thing they needed was a janitor committing suicide, so they watched George like hawks.
George didn't care. They could watch him as long as they'd like, but there would be no answers visible. The only thing they might find out that they didn't already know about was his habit of staring blankly into space for hours at a time when he was home, but that didn't matter. Nothing mattered anymore.
On another ordinary day, George finished locking up his brooms and mops and headed home, stopping along the way to buy a new package of socks. Weary, he opened his door and stepped into his house, only to find somebody already there.
"Bloody hell, George, you look like shit."
"Go away, Bill," George said, throwing his keys on the counter and wandering to the only chair in the room.
"I would, but I promised Mum I'd try to talk some sense into you if I found you," Bill said, propping himself on the counter. "She's worried sick about you. Actually, the whole family's worried about you, George. Why don't you come visit us for a spell?"
"What's the point?" George said. He leaned forward and put his head on his hands. "Everything's different now. What's the point of waking up anymore?"
"Well, you obviously see some point in waking up." Bill got up from his perch and wandered over to his younger brother. "Fred wouldn't want to see you doing this to yourself."
"Fred's gone," George muttered. "What am I without him?" Bill shifted uncomfortably at this statement. He knew he'd have some trouble getting through to George, but he wasn't expecting the situation to be this bad.
"Come on, George. Harry's coming to my place tonight for dinner. You should come, too. Reconnect."
"Just leave me alone, Bill."
"Please?"
"Leave!" George roared, looking up from his hands. Bill took a hesitant half step back, and George let his head sink back to his hands. "I left that world. There's nothing left for me there."
"You're wrong, George," Bill said. Slowly, he gathered up his cloak from where he flung it earlier and headed to the front door. "Our family's there, and they still love you very much. You should come back. Think about it." And with that, Bill opened the door and stepped into the fading light.
George stayed slumped into his seat, a stray tear rolling down his cheek. Bill wouldn't be able to understand. And, as much as he loved his mum and the rest of his family, they could never understand. His pain went deeper than that of a lost twin. Slowly, he reached into the drawer of the small side table he kept next to his chair. Inside was the only connection George had left to the wizarding world: a magical picture of him and a girl with long black hair. The tears poured more freely down his face as he pulled out a small hand mirror and looked at his reflection. With a cry of sorrow, George bowed his head over the mirror and photo.
A/N: I know, I know, you're probably confused as anything. Yes, there are supposed to be two different POVs. I plan to start each chapter with something from George's POV, then continue the plot with 3rd person POV. Amber is an OC, her entire story will be told in the course of this tale. And yes, George has removed himself from complete contact with anything and everything magic, except for the one picture.