War was a funny thing, it often passed slowly in the moment, yet when it ended it would all be a blur. People who were standing next to you one moment would be dead the next. This was the conclusion Ron drew sitting at the table in the Great Hall next to Hermione and his family. He clung to Hermione's hand and tried to make sense of all that had happened in the last few months, but it seemed so blurry, and the few details that did stand out weren't helping to put his mind any more at ease.
He looked a few spots down the table at George, who was staring blankly into a cup of tea, Fred and George were part of each other, and now George had to exist in this world without him. Ron didn't really understand it.
"We are lucky to be alive." Said Hermione quietly
Ron, along with the rest of the Weasley family, looked at her.
"We are lucky, and I feel guilty." She continued
Ron squeezed her hand. It was going to be a long road to anything that could even resemble the normalcy they had all once known, but he felt a little glimmer of something burning in his chest. Beneath the pain and the sadness and the hurt, there was a feeling that he could only describe as love.
Molly was resourceful if nothing else, less than two weeks after the war had ended the Weasley's, their relatives, and numerous friends gathered at the Burrow to finally lay Fred to rest. Molly had done all the planning herself with the help of Ginny and Hermione, who mainly followed her around to make sure she wasn't pushing herself too far.
She ordered all of the chairs and decorated the Garden with streamers and other happy things in hopes that the mood would be light. She asked Hermione to go into Fred and George's bedroom, which had been abandoned by the latter, and find any of the joke things they might have left behind so that they could be displayed at the funeral for the guests. She (Molly) was determined for it to be a happy affair.
"You know my Freddy would have wanted it this way." She told Hermione after they had managed to get some of the original skiving snack boxes into frames so that they could be displayed next to Fred's picture.
"Fred would have wanted the whole event to have taken place after every one had had a bit of Firewhiskey to liven them up." Hermione laughed.
On the day of the funeral Molly woke early and crept down to the living room, where George was making camp until he would go back to his flat above the joke shop.
"George?" She asked hoping he'd be awake
"Yes mum?" he replied, sounding tired but very much alert
"Do you think he'd want bacon and eggs or oat meal for breakfast" she said with a strangled sob
George stood up and wrapped his arms around his mother, tears flooding his own eyes as he rocked her from side to side.
"He'd want it all mum, we're underfed" Ron commented from the bottom of the stairs after Molly and George's moment had passed
They all laughed and made their way into the kitchen to begin breakfast.
"I am going to have to go back to work soon. Angelina can only run the shop for so long on her own, and I have taken so much time off already as it is, I think I am going to go back to London tomorrow." George said while flicking his wand at the stove to light the fire
"You going to be ok living in the apartment?" Ron asked
"I asked Ang to clean out his things and put them in our vault in Gringotts until I am ready to handle them." George replied
"Well you know that you can come here and stay in the living room if you need to, it's no fuss to have you here Georgie." Molly said
"I know mum, but I really have to get back to work. If I stay here and let our business fail my brother will be visiting me in my sleep, and our talks will not be happy." George said sadly
They all nodded their understanding.
"Hermione and I are going to be leaving for a bit after the funeral as well." Ron said a bit later using his wand to toss the eggs around in the pan while Molly flipped the bacon
"Where are you going?" George asked
"We've got to go to Australia to find her parents. She's only waiting for us to burry George and then she's going to go off to find them. I don't want her to go alone." Ron explained
"Well does she know where in Australia they are?" Molly asked
"Generally, she hasn't had contact with them in almost a year, but she knows where they went when she first sent them there, so the hope is that we can find them and put their memories back before they get to settled in their new lives." Ron continued
"You are leaving tonight?" George asked
"Yes, that's what Hermione wants to do, and I already asked dad to sort out a portkey with the ministry, it took some doing apparently, things are kind of a mess there right now."
"Well if you have a portkey set, you'll have to go , what time does it leave." Molly said
"Just after 10. I thought that should be enough time to get everyone out of here and clean up after today." Ron replied
They all noticed that he avoided saying the word funeral, but no one called him on it.
When breakfast was finished, Ron went back up to his room to wake Harry.
"Get up mate, it's breakfast time." Ron shouted
Harry jolted up right, dragging his wand from under his pillow and sending a stunning spell flying towards Ron, the latter boy dropped to the ground and cursed at his friend.
"Bloody hell Harry!" shouted Ron
"I'm sorry mate, you frightened me!" Harry winced
"So you try to kill me?"
"No Ron, I was just having a bad dream and then you started shouting and I didn't know what was going on." He explained
"Well mum is waiting on everyone down stairs, it's time for breakfast." Said Ron
"Have you woken the girls yet?" asked Harry
"No I am going to now."
Harry rose and followed Ron down the stairs to Ginny's room. After a swift knock Ron pushed the door open. Both Ginny and Hermione were tangled in their sheets sound asleep.
"Time to get up ladies!" Ron bellowed causing both Hermione and Ginny to shriek
"What the bloody hell are you doing here?" Ginny shouted
"Mum wants everyone up and dressed!" Ron said
"You couldn't knock" Hermione yelled, she had drawn the covers up to her neck to hide her ugly old t-shirt from view.
"He did knock!" Chimed in Harry
"You are an imbecile Ronald!" Hermione said
"Well I did knock"
"Get out so we can get dressed Ron." Ginny said somberly, it was clear that she had suddenly remembered what day it was
Ron nodded and backed out of the doorway. He and Harry stumbled back up the stairs and began sorting out their dress robes for the day. After a few tries with his bow tie, Ron gave up and decided to use a spell to do it, which of course ended in him strangling himself and needing Harry to blow the bow tie to smithereens to get it off.
"Just ask Hermione or your Mum to do it mate, don't go on trying! You'll end up killing yourself." Harry chuckled while Ron cast "reparo" on the pieces of bowtie that had fallen to the floor.
Fifteen minutes later the entire Weasley clan including Harry, Hermione, and baby Teddy were gathered around the kitchen table.
"You know that today is a sad day for us," Started Mr. Weasley, "but we have to get through it together, I refuse to have too much weeping at this funeral, you all know how Fred felt about tears."
"He'd have wanted to break out the firewhiskey and start the party." Chuckled Charley.
"Well we are hoping that the party he would have wanted is some of what he'll get for today." Said Mrs. Weasley.
Despite the sadness in the room, everyone smiled.
Draco Malfoy was not evil. This was a fact that he had spent most of his life believing, he was not evil, and there was no harm in anything that he was doing. This, of course, had been a lie. His mother and father had lied to him and let him believe that they were on the good side, the righteous side, but as Draco made his way towards the Burro that warm summer morning, there was no doubt in his mind that these people believed he was evil.
"A friend of the family's" a tall thin witch asked him at the gate.
"Not exactly," Draco shuffled uncomfortably "I went to school with Fred and George, and their brother, Ron."
"Well, good of you to come then." The witch nodded handing him a paper program
Draco took it with a smile glad that she hadn't recognized him and made his way to the back of the seating area. The service was half over, and most of the many guests were crowded together in the first row of seats. He stood at the back of the tent as the last speaker was called to talk about Fred, his twin brother.
"I have no idea who I am without Fred." George started his speech, "there hasn't been a day since we were born that we've been apart, in fact. We have always been Fred and George, he was first you see, but now it's just me. There will be no more matching Christmas jumpers, and no one for me to practice my tricks on. My happiest moments were shared with him, my biggest failures were also his, there's nothing that I couldn't do with him standing by me, and know I don't know what to do with myself alone. I know that he will want me to smile, to be happy, to make jokes, and so I will, but I don't think I will ever look at the sun the same, or laugh the same way, or smile at fireworks the same. From the day he died until the day I die, I will forever miss my brother."
Molly Weasley could be heard sobbing hysterically in the front row, and Draco saw the other Weasley children crying in earnest as well. Little Ginny was wrapped around Harry, sobbing into his shirt while tears from his face dripped into her hair. Ron was shaking and trying to fight back tears while Hermione's sobs were controlled only her seeming need to comfort her lover.
Draco recognized Arthur Weasley as well, it was in fact Arthur's shaking shoulders that did the lanky blonde boy in.
After George's speech, the coffin was lowered into the ground and covered magically with dirt and a head stone. The family each took their time sitting and kissing the stone, laying their loved one to rest. When all the rest had gone, Draco made his way over to the front of the canopy which he now saw covered a small family graveyard.
"Fred Weasley, a beloved son, brother, and prankster till the end. Mischief" Draco read the headstone out loud.
Giving up his fight he allowed the tears to come as he knelt down next to the grave and sobbed, "I am so sorry, I never meant for this to happen, for you to lose this family you have, I am so so sorry."
After a few minutes he managed to compose himself, walking back across the lawn he stepped out of the gate and apparated home
George watched him leave, but said nothing. It would be years before he would ever see Draco Malfoy again, and the two men would never talk about that day, or about how George listened to Draco having a heart to heart with a tomb stone.