A/n- For the All You Need Is Love challenge! Hope you guys like it!
Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter.
Gred and Forge
Someone please call the Daily Prophet, because the unthinkable was happening.
Fred and George Weasley were fighting.
Their voices weren't screaming. Barely. George could be seen gesturing with his hands while Fred spoke with his expressions. Outside their store the Diagon Alley looked deserted and dark, just like the rest of the Wizarding world in these dark times. Thiers was the only shop open, and was the only source of light in the otherwise dark Diagon Alley.
"But what about our vow, George? That we'd earn enough money that Mom and Dad didn't have to worry anymore?"Fred asked with a look of complete disbelief on his face.
"I'm not saying we back out on that. I'm merely suggesting we postpone it for a bit. This shop closed for a while is better than it closed forever." Said George, his hands enunciating each word he spoke.
"George, there is a war going on outside. People are dying every day; we need to have something to spread a little happiness around. Our shop is that something." Fred said, trying hard not to scream at his brother.
"Fred, I know there is a War going on, and I know people are dying every day. Look at all the other shops around in Diagon Alley; even Olivander's gone, with this big happiness spreading shop? We'll be the next targets." Replied George.
"Don't you remember what Dumbledore said 'Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.' We are that light, George. We can't give up that easily." Fred replied, his face getting as red as his hair. Frustration was evident in the room; both brothers trapped and miserable in this situation, because they both were right in their own place, but didn't know, for the first time in their lives, to work to make their ideas one.
"Fred," said George, in a pleading voice, "Please try to understand, because of Harry and Ron's friendship, the Death Eaters already have their eyes on us, on our family. We can't give them another reason to hate and come after us."
Fred's face hardened at his twins' words, for he knew George was right, but couldn't accept defeat this easily.
"George, we cannot be that selfish, we have to fight for what we believe in-" Fred started to speak, but was interrupted by two sweet and shrill voices.
"Are we interrupting?"
They turned around to find two identical looking girls standing in front of them. They both had strawberry blond hair, tied in bows. One of them had red and the other pink. They couldn't be more than five or six, but the sweet smiles on their faces were enough to melt the hearts of stones.
Forget Harry, thought Fred, we should have them fight Voldemort, even he wouldn't be able to resist their smiles.
He shared an amused look with his twin that told him that George was also thinking along the same lines.
"Are you closed?" asked one of them.
"Because we thought you were open." Said the other.
"We can go." They both said at the same time, and Fred couldn't help but laugh, which was echoed by his twin.
"No, no, we are always open for beautiful ladies like you two." Said George, making the girls blush and laugh.
"So, what are your names, beautiful and beautiful?" asked Fred, grinning down at the pair.
"I'm Heah, and this is Lolly." Replied the one wearing the red bows.
"No, silly, I'm Lolly and you are Heah." Said the other one, to her sister.
"But that's what I just said." Replied the red bows-heah- shaking her head at her sister.
Lolly grinned and bumped he hips with her sisters and said "I know."
Fred couldn't help but share a look of amusement with his twin, this reminding him of their own childhood.
"What unusually pretty names." Said George, smiling, but the smile the girls shared scared him, it scared him good.
He now understood how the people around them felt when he and Fred shared secret looks.
"So, what are you two girls doing alone? Where's your mommy or daddy?" Fred asked.
"Well our daddy has gone to the stars, but we don't know which one." Said blue bows- Lolly, George reminded himself.
Her words hit him like a curse, the girls may not be old enough to understand what 'Gone to the stars' meant, but he did, and it physically hurt him to think of these girls growing up without a father.
"And our mommy,-" started Heah, but she was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a woman who burst in through their doors, looking panicked. She visibly relaxed after seeing the girls. Something by the familiarity in the expression on the face of the woman, and one they'd both received too many times over the years by Molly Weasley, told them that she might be their mother.
"Holly and Leah Mitchell, how many times have I told you to not go anywhere alone?" said the Woman, walking towards the girls and bent down on her knees as she reached them, she hugged the girls tightly and said "Do you have any idea how scared I was?"
"We're sorry, Mommy." The girls said at the same time, and George's heart melted at the sweet smile on their faces, but something told him that their mother was a little too used to it.
The woman just shook her head and stood up to greet Fred and George, "Hello, I'm Jennifer Mitchell, I'm sorry for any trouble my girls have caused you."
"I'm Fred and that is George, and your daughters are precious." Said Fred, as he and George shook hands with Mrs Mitchell.
"A little too precious sometimes." said Mrs Mitchell, with a small smile on her face.
"So how about we give little Lolly and Heah a tour of our store?" asked Fred, and Mrs Mitchell looked confused, but the twins looked guilty.
"Who?"asked Mrs Mitchell.
"Lolly and Heah, your daughters..." said George, trailing off when Mrs Mitchell turned to glare at her daughters and then turned to them and looked a little apologetic.
"I'm sorry, their names are not Lolly or Heah, their names are Holly and Leah, it's just a game they like to play sometimes."
Fred and George shared a look of complete disbelief at the similarity between them and the twins.
"Well, then, Lolly and Heah, I'm Gred and this is Forge." Said Fred, making all the ladies in the shop smile.
"Come on, now, how about that tour?" asked George, and the girls squealed, and without wasting any time, ran off in opposite directions, their mother looked apologetic again but Fred and George just smiled and went behind Holly and Leah respectively.
Fred walked behind the little girl and wondered how much energy those two had. He found her staring at the love potions and thought that these girls would knock all the guys dead when they grew up.
"What's in those pretty pink bottles?" she asked, in her sweet little voice, staring intently at the love potions.
"Those," Fred said, bending down to be at her eye level, "are love potions, but I don't think a pretty girl like you would need it. You would already have all the boys running behind you in no time."
She smiled, but it wasn't the bright one, it seemed sad somehow.
"My daddy used to say that, you know, to me and Leah." She replied, and Fred wished he could do something to stop her pain, but knew he couldn't.
"I know he's not gone to stars," she said, in a small voice that didn't suit her. "I know he died, but Leah, she still thinks he's gone to the stars, so I go along with it. But I know he's not coming back."
"He may not be visible, Holly." Replied Fred, aching at how fast these girls were forced to grow up, "But He's right here." he patted at his heart, and Holly smiled.
"He died fighting bad men, you know. He was an aurorur." She said, pride obvious in her voice, " But not all bad men are gone," She turned to him with an unusually serious expression, " You should go home, bad men don't attack people at home. I don't want you or Forge to die."
Fred held back his tears at her words, surprised at how easily that girl had gotten attached to them in just a few minutes.
"I'll go home," He replied, finally understanding what his brother had been saying. "I promise We'll not die." He hoped for his sake, and his family's that he would be able to keep his promise.
"Good." the girl said, and then turned to point towards the puking pastilles and said, "Now what are those?"
While on the other side of the store...
George walked over to aisles to find Leah playing the frizzing Frisbees, and smiled as the little girl tried to make it move.
"Here," He said, and assembled the Frisbee and it flew around the store to come back to his hand and grinned when the little girl clapped her hands.
He stood up to look for some more advanced versions of them, when he heard her say.
"Thank You."
He looked down to find her staring at them intently, and asked, "Why sweetheart?"
"For keeping your shop open." She replied, with a small smile on her face.
"What?" He asked, confused.
"This is the first time we came out after Dad, you know, went away, Mom and Holly and I we've been very sad over the last few months, so we decided Diagon Alley would be a great idea, but when we came here everything was closed. But then we saw your shop open and we ran in here. So, thank you."She said, matter-of-factly and George's heart hurt for the little girls.
"You're Welcome, sweetheart." He replied, struggling to keep a smiling face.
He wondered how hard it must be for them to be alone in the world, with only their mother to hang on to. He thanked god for his large noisy family.
Both the pairs of twins walked out of the aisles almost at the same time, and the girls ran to each other to talk about all they'd seen and walked back to their mother.
"Thank You." Replied Mrs Mitchell, at the smiling faces of her daughters.
"Fred and George just smiled at her, accepting her gratitude wordlessly.
The girls suddenly squealed and they found them staring at the Pygmy Puff showcase, Fred grinned at George and walked towards the girls.
"What are these?"They both asked.
"They are called Pygmy Puffs, they are fuzzy little creatures for you to play with." He replied.
George turned to look at their mother and found her staring nervously at her daughters, it was an expression he'd seen on his mother's face enough times, and understood what it meant.
Leah caught her mother's expression too.
"Can we-" Asked Holly, but Leah slowly squeezed her hand and shook her head, Holly's smile dropped for a minute but it was up again in a minute.
George shared a look with Fred and knew he understood the problem too.
"Oh My Merlin, George, do you know who these girls are?" Fred turned to ask George, and the expression on his face forced George to play along.
"No?" George replied, a little confused as to what Fred's plan was.
"They are our ten thousandth customer." Fred replied, and George quickly nodded "Oh yes, of course."
"Really?" asked both the girls at the same time.
"Oh yes, and now, since you are such special customers, we have to give you a gift." George said, and looked around the store in fake consideration, "Tell me Fred, what should we give them?"
"Oh, Pygmy Puffs of course." Fred replied, "They are cute and fuzzy like Lolly and Heah here."
"Well, we would like to gift you Pygmy puffs, if it's alright with you girls."George and Fred asked the girls.
They both nodded their heads excitedly, and Fred handed out the Pygmy Puffs matching to the colour of the girl's bows.
"I can't accept this, it's too much." Said Mrs Mitchell, understanding why the twins were doing this,
"Why, of course, you can." George said, and Fred added,"It's impolite to refuse a gift, do you want to teach your daughters to be impolite Mrs Mitchell?"
Mrs Mitchell looked at them in gratitude again as she took a look at the happiness on her daughter's expression, and finally accepted the gift.
As they watched the girls and their mother leave, Fred and George both knew that despite everything family was the most important thing, not money, not any business.
"Let's go home." Said George, "I miss Mom's dinner, you can't cook worth anything."
"Like you can." Fred replied,"But yeah let's go home, I'm dying to see Ron dancing around Hermione."
They went to the Burrow that night, laughed and talked with their family, silently promising themselves to remember this day even after the war was over.
Forge promise to remember to be thankful for his family, and Gred remembered his promise to Holly.
It was just too bad only one of them would be able to keep his promise.
