*Flashback*

He and Fred met her their first day back to school, which began their third year. She had come in with a gaggle of first years and was sorted into Gryffindor along with Hermione, Harry, and Ron. Most of the table was only interested in Harry, including Fred and himself, but they made time to meet her, too

She was a small girl, maybe an inch or two shorter than Hermione at the time. Her head was covered in dark auburn hair that came only to her shoulders, her eyes an inquisitive honey color. And her smile could brighten up a room.

She usually tagged along with Harry and Ron, as she met Harry before in Diagon Ally and seemed to have developed quite a crush on him. The two of them took to her faster than they had Hermione, the bushy-haired tweet a tad too much into rules at first. Once the three of them had saved Hermione from a dreadful date with a mountain troll someone had let in, the four became inseparable.

Well, almost…

She found them one day in a dark niche in some random hallway a bit after the Troll Incident. They'd been setting up a trap for Filch, the school caretaker. When she started asking questions about what they were doing, they quickly got annoyed and told her to bugger off. Surprisingly, she didn't seem perturbed by their attitudes at all…so, she stayed. She watched them intently until her presence weighed heavily on the both of them.

Fred, being the mad genius he was, told her that if she really wanted to help them, she'd go stand outside the niche and act as guard. She took this role honorably and soon ran off. He and Fred had smiled at one another, thinking they had gotten rid of her for good.

She came back two minutes later, flapping her arms wildly. Fred, fed up with her, told her to get lost or he'd make all of her hair fall out. She didn't seem to hear him, but she ran off in the opposite direction anyway. Two minutes after that, Filch and his cat caught them in the niche and he and Fred were sure they were done for.

As the caretaker was dragging them down the hallway to McGonagall's office, a small voice cried out from behind and, suddenly, Filch was twenty feet into the air. She came out from the shadows with her impressively long, red-colored wand pointing straight up and they knew she'd spared them. They told her she was going to end up in trouble with them once Filch got down. She only grinned mischievously and told them, "I know."

She informed them that her name was Cassandra. They were the first ones to call her Sandy. She soon became just as inseparable from them as her other three friends and she began her tradition of going back and forth between their groups.

When she, Hermione, Harry, and Neville Longbottom all got caught out in the halls after curfew one night, McGonagall took 50 from each. Though Draco Malfoy, a Slytherin boy in their year who was their rival, as all Gryffindor and Slytherin students were, got roped into detention with them, the damage was done. Harry was turned from Boy Wonder to a zero and poor Hermione, Sandy, and Neville were shunned from everyone. Even he and Fred had found it difficult to talk to them, as they had hoped for a chance at the House Cup this year. Not even the fact that Harry had become the new, brilliant Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team could fix it.

To their surprise, she shunned them right back. When they had finally thought she had been punished enough, they tried to catch a talk with her in the library with Hermione, but she quickly put her stuff away and ditched the table, pulling her book-crazy friend along behind her. They were stunned and did not try to speak again until the end of the year after Harry had saved the Sorcerer's Stone and had faced a weak Voldemort for the first time since he was a baby. Good ol' Dumbledore restored the Golden Quartet their points (and a special ten points to Neville for "standing up to his friends") and Gryffindor finally won the House Cup after years of coming up short.

Having made-up by the end of that feast, Cassandra promised to write them every week by owl post and she made good on that promise. They had to make a special drawer to even hold all of her letters, because they would not fit anywhere else (the floor was always littered with the plans – and results – of their experimentations anyway) and they wanted to keep her stuff forever.


They met her again outside of Flourish and Blotts, the bookstore in Diagon Ally where most Hogwarts students got their books. Harry had gone missing in the Floo Network, but when they saw her step out of the shop, looking taller and older with her slightly longer hair, they cat-called her as a joke to get her attention. She had turned to them, not recognizing them for a moment, but then she squealed and had launched herself right at George, knocking them both to the ground. Once they had gotten up from the compromising position, Fred, pretending to be angry, asked why he didn't get a hug first and Sandy simply replied that she had not learned how to tell them apart, yet, so she figured embracing one first was as good as the other. They all had a good chuckle on that one.

George was proud of her when she showed the most resistance to Gildiroy Lockhart's, their new Defense Against the Dark Art's teacher, charms, as most of the other girls, including Hermione, had the hots for him. She told him and Fred that she refused to fall for his act. He was even more impressed with her when she, along with Hermione and Ron, had stuck by Harry when he was accused of being the Heir of Slytherin. So steadfast was her loyalty, she even a couple times chastised Fred and George when they teased the Boy Wonder about his "new found royalty." They told her it was all in good fun, but she kept a suspicious eye on them after that.

This was also Ginny's first year and the poor child had acquired her own crush on Harry, gaining herself a rival in Sandy. The twins mocked the two of them constantly, though neither girl paid much attention and competed under the Chamber of Secrets hysteria for Mr. Potter's attention.

Tragedy struck, however, when both Hermione and Sandy became Petrified after looking into reflections of the Basilisk that was taking residence in the Chamber's eyes. Fred and George were devastated by this and came by the hospital to visit them daily when Harry and Ron, busy with saving the school and, later, Ginny, could not.

They considered themselves to be the happiest when she was finally Unpetrified (they were happy to see Hermione, too, but Sandy was different). It was at the end of the year feast when Sandy and Ginny at last put aside their differences and became friends.


Her third year was when she began experimenting with the gothic look and the hair dyes and stuck with it. She first decided on using magic to change her hair color, but it didn't go the way she hoped. Through-out the year, her now shaggily-layered hair went from an ice blue to an earthy green to black-and-yellow (like a bumblebee) to green-and-red (around Christmas, the only time she was able to do it somewhat correctly) to finally a pure gold color. Fred made the horrible joke of cashing in her hair to pay for the future joke shop he and George always planned for. Fed up with the whole thing by the end, Sandy just left her hair its natural auburn and vowed to stick with Muggle products from then on.

Also in that year, the notorious Sirius Black (later found out to be Harry's godfather) escaped Azkaban (a wizard prison) and snuck into the school by way of a secret passage. Tragedy struck their little group again when Sandy, unwisely walking a corridor alone one afternoon, accidently encountered Black as he was attempting to enter the Gryffindor common room. Afraid she would alert the castle of his presence, Black knocked her unconscious with a spell that sent her floating almost to the ceiling and stuck there. It wasn't until her fellow Gryffindors found her was she finally taken to the hospital wing, where she lay in a coma for some of the school year.

Once again, George and Fred, worried over their friend, would come in to visit when the remaining three members of the Golden Quartet could not. Even after she had woken up, Madam Pomfrey forced her to stay in bed to make sure nothing had been permanently damaged. Hermione, along with Fred and George, courteously brought in the tons of homework she'd missed and even helped her catch up (well, Hermione did most of that).

Sirius Black was caught at some point near the end of the school year, but by the next morning, it was discovered that he and Hagid's accused pet hippogriff, Buckbeak(who had injured Malfoy when the latter insulted it), had escaped the Dementor's (Azakaban's guards) Kiss and being beheaded, respectively. It was on this morning when Sandy was finally allowed to leave the hospital wing. George and Fred came to "escort" her to the Great Hall and the end of the year feast. As they were walking down, Sandy suddenly blurted out that she was thinking of becoming an Animagus and that she was going to ask Professor McGonagall (Head of Gryffindor and the Transfiguration teacher) to tutor her in the finer points. The twins, though they had always thought Sandy was a natural at Transfiguration and could do it easily, were confused about why she wanted it in the first place. She shocked them by holding a finger to her lips and telling them, "It's a secret..." before running away to the Great Hall without them. Fred and George would not find out her reasons why she wanted to be an Animagus until at least a year later.


She and Hermione came to stay at the Burrow for the last few weeks of summer (it was the girls' first time there). The reason: Their dad had come into the possession of some Quidditch World Cup tickets. She, as far as the twins knew, was not a big Quidditch fan (except for her own team at Hogwarts), but she fooled them into thinking otherwise by how excited she became in the days leading up to it.

She spent most of her time in their room, experiencing first hand one of their legendary explosions when an experiment went horrible wrong. The first thing she did when the air cleared was pump her fist towards the ceiling, shouting, "That was awesome!" She became their first supporter in their endeavor to begin Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. And they got the opportunity to watch when she coerced Hermione into dying her hair (now grown to about armpit-length) a deep blood-red. George agreed that it suited her, but secretly wished she'd dye it back. Fred was fascinated by the Muggle product the girls had used and was just wondering if they could use it in a concoction somehow, when said Muggle-born female scolded him about causing more damage to his own house. Fred went eerily quiet for a time (which was unusual for him) and he stared wide-eyed at Hermione as if he was just seeing her for the very first time. He began to act strange whenever she came around from then on and would do so until the day he died.

Neither George, nor Sandy had ever bothered asking him about his change in behavior towards Hermione…

They had to travel to the Quidditch World Cup Final via a PortKey; she somehow had squeezed herself between him and Fred as they all grabbed on to that disgusting, old boot. The travel time was so fast, the Key threw the twins, Harry, Sandy, Hermione, and Ron away and they all landed in a heap in the middle of an unfamiliar field. Quite embarrassingly, Sandy had fallen face-first right on top George and that was the first time he had known that she was definitely not a little girl anymore. She didn't seem to notice the awkward situation (she actually barely seemed humiliated at all by the fact that she was now straddling one of her best VERY MALE friends) and she stood up as if nothing was amiss. She even helped him stand by offering him a hand.

The entire event was such a blast, though, George quickly got over the awkwardness of that moment. They got to stay in an assigned tent that was magically expanded inside to accommodate them all (which fascinated Harry to no end) and, instead of sitting in normal seats down in the metaphorical boonies of bleachers, they got to share box seats with the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge. They only downside to this was that the Malfoys were seated in the same box in the chairs behind them, but they went relatively ignored as the excitement of the game unfolded.

Their entire posse was for Ireland (although Ron's allegiance was questionable, since he held the Bulgaria team's seeker, Viktor Krum, in very high regard). Fred and George made a bet with the Cup's commentator, Ludo Bagman, that Ireland would win the game, though Krum would get the Snitch. For the first time, Sandy did not agree with their scheme and made it clear that she thought it was a horrible idea. Luckily, the twins came out the victors and Bagman consented to pay when he got the money.

Later that night, things took a turn for the worse. As everyone was getting ready for bed (or, at least, pretending to) all Hell broken loose as a group of Death Eaters (Voldemort supporters) attacked the campsite and tormented a few local Muggles. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Sandy were split off from the rest of the group. It was at least an hour before they were found and it was right after the Dark Mark, Voldemort's symbol, appeared in the sky for the first time in 13 years.

Her fourth year (their sixth) was Hogwarts' turn to host the Triwizard Tournament. It was a competition of three schools where they chose a student from each to compete in three tasks. The prize was a trophy and a hefty sum of money. And, best of all, around Christmas time, there would be a dance known as the Yule Ball for students fourteen and up to attend. Dance lessons and gossip of who was going to take who was abound.

Sandy, however, didn't appear as interested as the other girls were and filled up her free time with private lessons from McGonagall on how to be an Anigmagus, which surprisingly, their professor had readily agreed to. She spent so much time with the classes that she made less-and-less time to hang out with the twins, which disappointed them to no end (particularly George, who missed her something awful).

Before long, the other two schools that planned on attending the Tournament showed up. The Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and Durmstrang Institute arrived in October (Beauxbatons came with a gaggle of beautiful French girls…). Surprisingly, Viktor Krum was in Durmstrang.

A Goblet of Fire was placed in front of the teachers table in the Great Hall. Headmaster Dumbledore explained that students from each school would put their names into the Goblet and, when the time came, it would choose the three Champions. Unfortunately, only students aged seventeen could enter and Dumbledore put an Age Line around the Goblet to assure this.

Bored without Sandy, Fred and George cooked up another scheme to try and get past this Age Line. Despite the insistence of Hermione that it would not work, the boys pushed on with their plan (Fred seemed especially keen to prove her wrong). Amazingly, they made it over the Line and managed to put their names in the Goblet. At first, things appeared calm and they celebrated, but then blue fire struck and threw them through the air. When they hit the ground moments later, they sat up and realized they had aged about 30 or 40 years and had grown beards. They laughed it off, but had to go to the hospital wing so that Madame Pomfrey could turn them back to normal.

On their way, they ran into Sandy, who had just finished another lesson and had not been in the Great Hal to witness their failure. She stared quietly between the two of them for a moment before she burst out laughing. "You tried to cross the Age Line, didn't you?" She knew them all too well by now.

Temporarily reunited when Sandy took a break from lessons, the three of them sat together when the Goblet finally picked the three competitors. Cedric Diggory, a seventh-year Hufflepuff who had used the same PortKey with his father as the Weasleys and their friends when they went to the Quidditch Cup was for Hogwarts. Fleur Delacour was chosen for Beauxbatons and Viktor Krum (of course) for Durmstrang.

A fourth name suddenly spouted from the Goblet… Someone had put Harry's name into the Fire under another school. The new D.A.D.A. teacher, retired Auror "Mad-Eye Moody" insisted they let the Boy Wonder compete, despite the protests from the Heads of the other schools.

Harry's entrance into the Tournament strained his friendship with Ron and the two split into two encampments. Hermione, unsurprisingly, sided with Harry, but tried her best to remain civil with both, as did the twins. Sandy tried her best to do this as well. Things suddenly got hairier when Harry abruptly developed a crush on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team's Seeker, Cho Chang. Sandy, still harboring her own crush on Harry, became angry with him and sided with Ron, though she refused to tell Harry the exact reason why. This, unfortunately, put her at odds with Fred and George's neutral status in the quarrel between brother and friend and she refused to speak to them for a bit. She and Ron became two of many students to shun Harry, as they thought he cheated to get in the competition.

The Tournament's first challenge pitted the Champions against their own, singular dragons. By "luck of the draw," Harry got stuck with a violent Hungarian Horntail. He escaped by using a clever spell to summon his FireBolt broomstick and used a Quidditch move to claim his prize and clue to the next challenge. Ron and Sandy, who then realized the true dangers of the Tournament, reconciled with Harry, along with most of the school (except for, of course, Slytherin). In turn, Sandy also made-up with the twins, who welcomed her back with a customary prank.

The Yule Ball approached quickly. Both Ron and Harry hade trouble finding dates. When Sandy found out, much to her chagrin, that Harry asked Cho, she bitterly insisted that she probably would not go at all, even when she heard that Harry was rejected. Ron tactlessly tried to invite Hermione, but, to all the Gryffindors' shock, she was already going with someone else. Not only was Ron perturbed by this, but Fred seemed absolutely horrified that Hermione was going with this "mystery guy," despite that he himself had already asked Angelina Johnson, a chaser teammate on their Quidditch team, to be his date. Harry, resourceful Boy Wonder, finally got them dates by talking to Parvati Patil and her twin sister, Padma.

George, though he wanted to go, didn't expect to find a date in time. He was appalled when Fred and Lee Jordan, their best friend, suggested he ask Sandy, as she was down about not getting to go, too. He reluctantly agreed, but every time he tried to propose his offer, he became tongue-tied. It was like she suddenly became this terrifying monster and he began trying to avoid her while still simultaneously attempting to ask her out. It at last took both Lee and Fred to literally push him into Sandy in the hallway between classes for George to finally get the courage to ask her to the ball. To his utter delight (and relief) she accepted with a smile.

The night arrived all too soon. To everyone's astonishment (and Ron's fury), Hermione's date turned out to be Viktor Crum. To George's surprise and worry, Fred seemed disappointed with this development as well, but he refused to divulge as to why and played it off like he was still excited to go with Angelina.

George himself was panicking as he waited in the Entrance Hall by the main staircase. He paced relentlessly, but did not have to wait long when she suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs. She was a vision of beauty and perfection in robes of sparkly orange and purple - the dress underneath was purple and black. She'd traded in her blood red hair color for her natural auburn (to George's content), but had died the ends a beautiful iris purple and someone (most likely Hermione) had helped her to lightly curl it. And when she smiled, the room brightened a fraction.

When she came down and greeted him, George presented her with a gorgeous silver-chained necklace adorned with a tiger's-eyed jewel as a pendant. He explained it was a thank-you for coming to the ball with him. To his embarrassment, she kissed him on the cheek for it and stated that she'd wear it always, which was a promise she made good on. He had no idea how appropriate his gift was and wouldn't until the year after.

He was surprised at her dancing skills and she said he himself was not too shabby. They joked like always and they soon forgot how awkward it was to be two friends on a formal date and just ran with it. They stayed next to Fred and Angelina most of the time (though Fred seemed to be trying his damnedest to steer their group closer to Hermione and Viktor Krum). Once the ball began to wind down, they all snuck on to the roof, ignoring the icy conditions, and just watched the stars. Fred eventually dragged Angelina off somewhere to snog her silly, but George and Sandy, both wrapped and cuddling in George's dress robes, ended up dozing off against a wall and didn't wake until well a half-hour later when their horny companions came back.

She stayed with the twins during the next competition, as both Ron and Hermione had disappeared on her. To their surprises, they were part of the challenge itself. Harry had to save "what he'd miss the most" (Ron) from the lake. Apparently, Hermione was Viktor's loved one (much to Fred's annoyance). Fleur was injured during the competition and Harry, misunderstanding that Fleur's hostage (her sister) would not be left underwater, rescued her as well, earning himself extra points for valor and bravery.

Another problem showed up in Rita Skeeter, a gossip columnist for the "Daily Prophet," the wizard newspaper. She reported that Hermione was toying with the affections of Harry and Viktor, upsetting Hermione (and, thus, Fred as well), but the bookworm Muggle-born became curious as to how Skeeter was getting all of the slanderous information she had been putting in the "Prophet" all year. She later found out that Rita was an unregistered Animagus and used this to her advantage.

The final task finally came (it was a hedge maze) and it took a hell of a lot longer than anyone expected. Sandy worriedly told her friends about her misgivings about how long it has been since the start. When Harry suddenly fell out of the sky with a dead Cedric next to him, it was clear something was very wrong. It was confirmed when Harry revealed that Voldemort had returned and Prof. Moody was unveiled as a fake (the real Moody had been held prisoner all year). A memorial service was held for Cedric and Dumbledore reinstated the group of wizards opposing Voldemort, the Order of the Phoenix.

Before they returned home, Fred and George became annoyed because Ludo Bagman from the Quidditch Cup never paid his loser's debt. Fred had thought about blackmailing him, but George and Sandy insisted he stay away from this method. When Harry "won" the Tournament, he gave up his earnings to help the twins start their joke shop. The twins were forever in his debt.

That summer, the Weasleys relocated to #12 Grimmauld Place, Sirius Black's home and the temporary headquarters of the new Order of the Phoenix. To their delight, Hermione and Sandy eventually came as well. They all hung out as normally as they would at school, the twins entertaining their guests by Apparating all over the house to frighten their mother to death. They were once again there to see Hermione fix up Sandy's hair. This time, she traded in the all-around blood-red for blood-red streaks instead. George thought she looks appropriately like a tiger.

Harry arrived a little later under a heavy guard with the horrible news that he had been expelled from Hogwarts after using under-aged magic to save his fat cousin from some rogue Dementors. He was forced to go to a hearing, so the Ministry could decide whether or not to break his wand. Luckily, the jury voted in his favor and his place at school was preserved.

While at #12, the young wizards were introduced to some of the members of the order. There was Kingsley Shacklebolt, a dark-skinned wizard that worked for the Ministry, but was loyal to Dumbledore. The real Alastor Moody was there, as was his lovely lady apprentice Nymphadora Tonks (Just Tonks, or she'd have killed you) who was a Metamorphmagus (a person who could change their body appearance at will). She and the girls (including Sandy) became quite close in the weeks they spent together. Next was Remus Lupin, who had been the acting D.A.D.A. teacher Harry & co.'s third year at school.

The last two members were Sirius Black (Fred and George finally learned that the reason for Sandy's interest in becoming an Animagus was because she, Harry, and Hermione had been the ones to help Black escape their third year and Sandy was fascinated to learn of the convict's dog form) and Shepherd Swan, who had been Black's school sweetheart and wanted to fight as she had not gotten to in the First Wizarding War. As Shepherd was also a registered Animagus (a collie dog), Sandy took an immediate and even bigger shine to her than to Tonks. The two became almost like surrogate mother and daughter to one another. Harry became rather fond of her as well, hoping the woman would be able to reign in his reckless godfather should things go that way for them in the end.

The kids went in for the school year (Sandy's 5th and the twins' 7th), where Ron and Hermione were made Prefects (Ron was teased mercilessly, while Fred's actions and behavior towards Hermione got even stranger). To everyone's surprise, the new D.A.D.A. teacher was Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister and who was at Harry's hearing. During their first lesson, they discovered that Umbridge refused to teach real defense methods and that they would not be performing any spells, only learning Ministry-approved theory (learning in a "risk-free way"). It became clear she was really there to spy on and take control of the school and was soon appointed High Inquisitor, arbitrarily imposing rules and regulations (known as "Educational Decrees"). She also harbored racial hatred for "half-breeds", such as centaurs, werewolves and similar creatures (which was not good for Hagrid, who was half giant).

Later on, Harry had disturbing dreams where he was trying to find a way into the Department of Magical Mysteries at the Ministry and even one where Ron, Fred, and George's father was being attacked by Harry himself as a snake. When the latter dreams turned out to be real, Harry got spooked and told Dumbledore, which resulted in private lessons from Snape in Occlumency (A spell to block out mind-readers). Their mutual animosity towards each other, however, brought this to a halt.

Thankfully, however, Mr. Weasley was not seriously hurt enough to die from his injuries.

Eventually, Hermione convinced Harry to secretly teach students Defense Against the Dark Arts, which he agreed to, albeit reluctantly. To Sandy's delight, the twins and Ginny all joined, but to her disappointment, so did Cho Chang. They named the group "Dumbledore's Army," or D.A. for short, to mock the Ministry. The lessons were, for lack of a better word, incredible. Harry was a surprisingly natural teacher.

Unfortunately, around Christmas holidays, Harry finally got his wish to kiss Cho and they began a relationship soon after. Sandy, thoroughly upset by this, actually slapped Harry across the face and refused to talk to him for most of the break. Fred and George had never seen her so depressed and were silently worried that she might not come out of it. Subsequently, once Fred had a long talk with her, she at last came to her senses and she, after fours years of chasing an unrequited love, let go of any hope of getting together with Harry. They reconciled peacefully when school started back.

D.A. meetings started up again. One lesson was about Animagi, in which Harry asked Sandy to demonstrate what McGonagall and Ms. Swan had taught her. Sandy, understandably nervous about transforming in front of an audience, looked to her twins as support. Fred and George quietly encouraged her, to which she nodded and, after a couple of bungles, finally transformed into a gorgeous orange tigress with blood-red stripes percolating between auburned ones. Fred and especially George were amazed by what she had been able to accomplish in only a short year of private and unofficial lessons.

On the day they began Patronus charms (Sandy's turned out to be a tiger, mimicking her Animagus form. George's was a squirrel and Fred's a lively spider monkey), it was to the horror of everyone in the Room of Requirement that Umbridge and her Slytherin helpers finally uncovered the meetings. Cho Chang's "friend," Marietta Edgecombe, had squealed on them. Dumbledore took the rap, however, and escaped before anyone could catch him. With him gone, though, Umbridge was free to appoint herself Headmistress, much to the disgruntlement of the students.

And, needless to say, this was also the end of Cho and Harry's brief item-ship.

Finally fed up with the whole thing, the twins began a revolt, causing mayhem and a lot of damages to the school, with everyone, including most of the staff (excluding Filch), backing them up. Sandy even participated in a few of their hijinx and had come up with a few herself. After awhile, when Umbridge still hadn't gotten the message (the bitch had kicked them and Harry off of the Quidditch team, for Merlin's sake!), Fred and George came to the life-changing conclusion that their time at school had drawn to a close.

They told Sandy the night before, hinting at maybe her coming along with them. Sandy had just shaken her head and drew her boys into the biggest hug she could manage. "Good luck, mates." She said, kissing each one on their cheek. "I love the snot out of you both and I owe you everything." George never thought something so humorous could sound so heart-breaking at the same time. Neither one could even let out a single laugh as they walked up to Gryffindor tower together for the last time.

The next day, as fifth years were taking exams, Fred and George blew them away with a fireworks display while flying through the Great Hall on their broomsticks. Once they had run empty, they zoomed out with a parting shout from Fred toward Hogwarts's resident poltergeist. "Give her hell from us, Peeves!"

As they flew up higher into the sky, George took a passing glance back at the place that had been like a second home for nigh on seven years. No matter what he or Fred had said about it, they had loved the old place and wordlessly agreed they would miss it and everyone there (except Umbridge, of course). His heart had then leapt in his throat when he realized that he would definitely miss Cassandra the most…


They didn't see or hear from her for the rest of that year. They secretly packed all of their stuff from #12 Grimmauld Place and then swung by the Burrow to empty everything they'd need out of their bedroom that they had long grown too big for. Using the money given to them by Harry, they bought the perfect building for their shop with a flat in the attic and, at last, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was up and running.

It wasn't until a few weeks into the summer holidays when they finally got a letter from Sandy via owl post. She informed them of the joyous sacking of Dolorous Umbridge, the return of Dumbledore, the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, and the unfortunate death of Sirius Black. She spoke of both Harry's and Shepherd's depression at this loss. She was the first to inform them of Voldemort's rebirth… She then went on to say that both she and Hermione would go to stay at the Burrow once they had spent some quality time with their families. She concluded the letter by asking if she could sleep in their old bedroom, as she missed them like crazy and being in there might lessen the sadness and pain she always felt without them now. They immediately wrote back, granting her their permission.

The Golden Quartet (plus Ginny) stopped by during the last days of summer when the remainder of the Weasley clan came through Diagon Ally for school supplies. Sandy instantly went to find them and (with her hair growing long and now dyed black with orange streaks in the reversed version of a tiger's fur coat) jumped right into George's arms. When Fred, faking his anger, asked why he didn't get the first hug this time, Sandy just smiled brightly and said, "You should know by now that I enjoy pissing you off, Frederick Weasley." George could not quell the swoop in his stomach at those words.

They showed the younger wizards around the shop, refusing Harry's money and ticking Ron off because they forced him to pay, despite the cry of, "But I'm your brother!" And Fred's strange behavior around Hermione once again reared it's ugly head when he caught her and Ginny looking at love potions and Patented Daydream Charms. His face suddenly glowed when Hermione called the Charms "Extraordinary Magic" and he impulsively gave her one for free. George could tell by Hermione's own expression that she'd by now at least picked up on Fred's odd antics towards her and returned them maybe a quarter of the time. *Interesting development…* He had thought to himself at this.

The twins also got nosy about the rumor of Ginny fancying Dean Thomas, a fellow Gryffindor in Sandy's year. Their equally red-headed sister just stuck up her nose and insisted it was none of their business. Harry watched the whole exchange with wide, confused eyes. ..Or was that jealousy in those green orbs?

All too soon, the five of them had to leave and the only information they received about anything going on at the school was from Sandy's almost weekly letters. They learned everything from Harry's new found suspicions about Malfoy now being a Death Eater (which didn't surprise them) , despite Hermione's misgivings, to Snape getting the position of D.A.D.A. teacher, something he had wanted for forever, and Horace Slughorn's reinstatement as Potions Master. They learned of Harry's sudden reciprocated feelings for Ginny and his humorous jealousy over her relationship with Dean Thomas. Ron got to be made Keeper of the Quidditch team, Harry the Captain/Seeker and Ginny a Chaser. Sandy also spoke of the incident with Katie Bell being Imperiused into trying to bring in a cursed necklace for Dumbledore himself. They learned of Ron and Lavender Brown (another Gryffindor in the Quartet's year) forming an item, causing Hermione's heart to break (and Fred to accidently blurt out that he'd kill Ron the next time they saw him). They learned of Harry's disturbing obsession with his potions text book and its previous owner, the "Half-Blood Prince." She told them of Harry's private lessons with Dumbledore and how worried she was getting about the entire thing. Amongst all of the doom, gloom, and drama, Fred and George did have a good laugh at her opinion of their older brother, Bill's, engagement to Fleur Delacour (or "Phlegm," as Ginny preferred to call her), something that had been to the annoyance of Mrs. Weasley.

George was always the one to read the letters aloud, as Fred had a strict" little-to-no reading rule" in his own little world. He had read and reread them all a couple of times over. With every passing week and with each new letter, he began to realize how much he missed her tagging along behind them, missed wishing she'd just leave her hair the gorgeous color it was, missed her laugh, missed her bright smile and inquisitive honey eyes. He even missed all of her black, Muggle clothing she never seemed to get tired of wearing. Fred began to make fun of him whenever George would start wondering out loud to himself about her well-being, saying he'd fallen in love with "Their Little Tigress." George usually shrugged the teasing off, but he'd begun to question if Fred was on to something…

He was ecstatic to see her at the Burrow when Christmas came around once again. Her parents had taken the opportunity to go visit her step-brother, who went to school in America. She had hugged Fred first this time upon arriving out of pure politeness, but when she saw George, she squealed and promptly knocked him over. Harry had come to stay as well, but Hermione had gone to her own family, as she was still upset with Ron over his link with Lavender. Fred, though he tried hard not to show it, was clearly unhappy about this. George and Sandy later secretly went through his stuff (out of pure concern for him, of course) and found out that he had been writing to Hermione to ask after her well-being. Miraculously, however, the letters revealed nothing as to the reason for Fred's abnormal behavior towards Hermione in the past, two years and Hermione's answers were of little help, either.

A couple of days before the four had to return to school, Remus Lupin, Tonks, and Ms. Swan all arrived and talked over situations at Hogwarts with Mr. Weasley and Harry. After some brief quarreling between Harry and Lupin, the three Order members began to leave, but discovered that Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange and the werewolf Fenrir Grayback (who had recently escaped Azkaban) had lead a small troupe to the Burrow to attempt to kidnap Harry. As Harry, Lupin, Tonks, Shepherd, Mr. Weasley, and Ginny (in a bathrobe) all ran out to chase off the Death Eaters, George ran to find Sandy, who had gone upstairs before the commotion started. Once he had her, they began to head down the twisted staircase again, when the Burrow immediately caught fire. Had it not been for the quick actions of Mr. Weasley, Lupin, Tonks, and Ms. Swan with their Augimenti spells, the Burrow would've been destroyed with George and Sandy inside…

Sandy returned to Hogwarts with Harry, Ron, and Ginny and the twins returned to their flat above the shop, now determined more than ever to be the bright spot in people's lives in the face of the war sure to come. They once again had to be content with only getting information by Sandy's letters. They learned of Ginny's break-up with Dean and the Gryffindor Quidditch win that finally brought her and Harry together. Sandy assured the twins that she was happy for the both of them. She told them of Ron's unfortunate poisoning and his subsequent break-up with Lavender after he called for Hermione in his sleep. When Ron awoke, he and Hermione reconciled and their obvious attraction for one another at last became evident (Fred got up and stalked out of the room when George read this letter), though they weren't in a serious relationship, as of yet.

And it was from Sandy that they had learned when and how Dumbledore had died. Of how Harry's suspicions about Malfoy were true and that he really was Voldemort's new Death Eater. About the Death Eaters that invaded Hogwarts through the Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement, which led to the Battle of the Astronomy Tower and (this one hit home to them) how Bill was in St. Mungo's for treatment of werewolf bites. How Snape was the one to be their former Headmaster's murderer in the end.

When they saw her at the funeral, she looked absolutely dreadful. Black tears from her make-up streamed down her face and she apparently hadn't slept for awhile. When she spotted them, there was no running to jump into their arms or teasing about who got embraced first. All she did was stand shakily to her feet from her chair, walk over to them, and throw her hands around them in furious sadness, crying her eyes out into George's chest while Fred had soothingly stroked her hair. After a few moments, George then felt a stab of bravery hit him and he had lifted her chin up to make her face him. Her eyes were red and puffy and the smeared eyeliner from her face had gotten on his suit, but he didn't care. All he did was smile at her, bend to kiss her cheek, and then whispered in her ear, "You look gorgeous, pet." Sandy immediately stopped crying at the compliment and George knew instantly that Fred had been right about his developing feelings for her.

She sat in between them and held their hands on her knees during the ceremony, one on each side. Despite having a firm grip on both, the way she kept rubbing her thumb softly over George's scaly knuckles made it clear to him that things between them had just changed forever…


George, Fred, Sandy, Hermione, Ron, Fleur, and a thief named Mundunus Fletcher who, kind of surprisingly, belonged in the Order, all flew to Harry's house right at the end of July with the other Order members with a plan in mind to sneak Harry away from his aunt and uncle's house (who had already been relocated to a safe hideaway with Phoenix Wizards Dedalus Diggle and Hestia Jones). This was to help Harry avoid capture by Voldemort. All seven of them drank Polyjuice Potion (a potion that can literally turn a person into someone else), so that they could look like him and act as his decoys. The whole thing was somewhat bizarre with eight Harrys milling around the Muggle kitchen. If it had been that odd for George, he couldn't imagine what it was like for the real Harry to see himself duplicated seven times over.

Once they were all disguised and ready, they all went out into the front yard to mount up on whatever they came in on with their partners. The original Harry was paired with Hagrid on a motorbike that had been given to him by Sirius Black years before. The other pairs were as followed: Mundungus Fletcher with Mad-Eye Moody, Fred with Mr. Weasley, his father, Ron with Tonks (something he didn't seem too happy about) Sandy with Ms. Swan, and George himself with Remus Lupin all on brooms. Fleur was to go with Bill (of course) on a Threstral (a black, skeletal horse with wings that had pulled the transport carriages at Hogwarts and was invisible except to people who've seen death) and Hermione with Kingsley on the other Threstral - George couldn't help but notice that the Harry with his dad was gazing longingly toward the Harry next to the dark-skinned Kingsley when the pairs were all assigned.

Harry/George barely got to share his own look with Harry/Sandy before they were all taking off. Just as they had gotten into the air, they were suddenly surrounded by Death Eaters. George could barely be sickly surprised before Lupin was flying them away from there at top speed and the two of them quickly lost sight of the others. They were hastily closed in on all sides by at least five or six Eaters. George whipped out his wand and, together with Lupin, began an amazingly hard fight for their lives.

And George thought they had been doing a fairly decent job of it, too. Thanks to Harry's D.A. teachings, George managed to expertly stun a Death Eater right off of his broom and Lupin, sitting up front, had taken care of two more. The red-haired man didn't have time to be impressed, for, yet, another cloak-covered Voldemort lackey had come up behind them. George, not wasting a minute, immediately shot an extra stunning spell. The white light from his wand missed hitting the Death Eater's face by mere inches, catching on the edge of his hood instead and knocking it off of his head. George was horrified when he locked sights with his old potions professor, Severus Snape.

Snape, however, seemed more in control of his emotions and didn't bat an eye at the fact that he had just been exposed. His dark orbs didn't even seem to be focused on George; rather, he was glaring off to the right. George gritted his teeth and decided to attack while Dumbledore's murderer was distracted. Before he could raise his wand, however, Snape roared at the top of his lungs and shot a Sectumsempra spell at George's shoulder.

George couldn't have gotten out of the way in time, else he would have pushed Lupin off and out into the open air. The bolt Snape sent grazed close by his cheek and hit his right ear. It was like someone had suddenly drilled a hole into George's head and stuck a faucet there. The blood gushed out everywhere and George was randomly reminded of the red hair dye Sandy had once used as consciousness started to fail him. It was all he could do to clutch quickly on to Reamus's robes before he was blacking out from the pain and falling forward…

His hearing returned before anything else did, but all he really could make-out were frantic mumblings that were muted when they got around to his right. He was pretty sure he could discern who-was-who, though. He knew his mother's voice anywhere – bless the woman – she was tending to him like she would always do when any of her children fell ill back when they were younger and things had been so much less complicated. Ginny was near his feet, he was sure, speaking to Molly about who was back and who was not. It took George a minute to swim through the fog to understand what she meant, but then immediately thought of Sandy and Fred when he did. He could hear Harry Potter (the genuine one), Lupin, Kingsley, Hermione, and Hagrid's voice somewhere in the room around him – whatever room it was.

He'd tried to move, but his muscle power had not come like his ability to hear had. He felt comfortable at least; the cushions that supported him never felt so good and he wanted to pass out again without alerting anyone that he had been awake at all. He tasted copper and his head felt as if someone whacked him with a sledge hammer. He just wished to sleep the night away.

A crash had come from the direction of the kitchen (he thought). "I'll prove who I am, Kingsley, after I've seen my son, now back off if you know what's good for you!" His father and Fred had safely returned, to George's quiet relief. He heard as they came into the room where he was. His father knelt beside him, while his twin went around the back of whatever it was he was laying on. Figuring he owed them all some sign of life, George stirred, but paused when another crash from the kitchen sounded, as if someone had blown the back door of it's hinges.

"Out of the way, Harry!" It was Sandy. "Let me see…" She trailed off and George figured she must have entered the room. He felt her kneel down beside his father next to him, felt her take his hand and raise it to her lips to kiss it. He stirred again and slipped his fingers from of hers to grope for the side of his head. When his mother asked how he felt, he answered with, "Saintlike." He knew he had the right reaction when Fred spoke, panicking.

"What's wrong with him? Is his mind affected?" He had inquired, sounding terrified. George'd opened his eyes then, gazing up at his brother.

"Saintlike." He'd repeated. "You see…I'm holy. Holey, Fred, geddit?" He grinned when he felt Sandy swat his bloody shoulder in brief anger, but he kept his eyes on his brother, whose face had regained its color and was now smiling back at him.

"Pathetic! With the whole wide world of ear-related humor before you, you go for holey?" Fred had told him, looking just as relieved as everyone else. George just shrugged and turned to his mother, who was sobbing.

"You'll be able to tell us apart now, anyway, Mum." He said to her as he'd looked down at Sandy last. "Hey there, love…" Was the only thing he'd managed to say before she'd thrown herself at him, not caring about the blood that stuck to her skin, clothes, and hair as she'd sobbed with relief into his neck.

Ron, Tonks Bill, and Fleur returned alive not long after this. Bill was the one to inform them of Mad-Eye's untimely demise. They all toasted their fallen friend with glasses filled with fire whiskey.

The Weasley's were told of the impending drop-outs from Hogwarts by the troupe of 17-year-olds after Albus Dumbledore's funeral, so they all knew that, eventually, Harry and his friends would want to leave and start their quest as soon as possible. George was devastated inside when Sandy had informed him and Fred of her plans to join the other three on the perilous journey. He knew Fred was gloomy about it, too (though George had the distinct suspicion that his worry was more on Hermione's part than anyone else's). For most of their time spent at the Burrow, though, the Quartet was kept busy with preparations for Bill and Fleur's wedding. George, being a bad boy one night, eavesdropped on Harry telling the other three that he suspected the chores were an attempt by Mrs. Weasley to delay them from leaving. As far as the twins could tell, however, the four were still able to get together and discuss their agendas for their mission.

On Harry's 17th birthday (the day before the wedding), the new Minister for Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour, arrived at the Burrow to give the Quartet some personal effects of Dumbledore's, to which he left them in his will. To Ron, a Deluminator with the power to douse all lights in the surrounding area; to Hermione, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a book of wizard-culture fairy tales; to Sandy, a beautiful, antique Sneakoscope (a Dark Detector that looked like a spinning top and lit up when someone untrustworthy was near); to Harry, the first Golden Snitch he'd had ever caught in a Hogwarts Quidditch match and, most impressive of all, Godric Gryffindor's (one of the four founders of Hogwarts) sword. The Ministry had kept the sword, however - Scrimgeour giving the bogus excuse that it was not Dumbledore's to give.

The twins, who, despite all things, knew when it was the time not to listen in on a conversation, did the honorable thing and sat outside with the rest of the extended family at Harry's dinner party until the four of them and the Minister all came out of the Burrow and the grizzle-haired Scrimgeour took his leave. George bent over to Sandy, who was seated next to him, and inquired as to what went on. She gave him a scolding side-glance that could rival his mother's. "Just legal matters, George. Nothing to be concerned about." She'd told him, sipping her tea to avoid having to say anymore. Though it was not the first instance when Sandy had refused to divulge juicy information to him, George had been hurt nonetheless, which was a first whereas the two of them were concerned.

He quickly got over it when he'd suddenly felt her tweak his elbow. When he had glanced at her, she flicked a gaze to the space under the table and back, which meant she wanted him to look. She showed him a flash of the Sneakoscope (made of clear glass material with gold accents and miniature pictures of gold animals in a running sequence dotted around it), but not a thing more. When George prodded about it, she'd put a finger to her lips, smiled, and winked.

The Minister's visit was forgotten in light of the events of the following morning: Bill and Fleur's wedding. The Weasley's weren't going to take any chances with Harry, however, and disguised him as a distant "cousin" named Barny to avoid an uproar, as he was now the most wanted wizard in all of Britain. Things went quietly at first. The lovebirds were married and the dancing commenced nicely. Fred, being a self-proclaimed "ladies man," flirted with some of the bride's cousins (though, George noted, he still threw gazes over at Hermione glued to Ron's side from time-to-time).

George, having become an old hat at it, invited Sandy to be his date once more, to which she agreed to while poking fun at the irony of them getting stuck together again. George found he didn't mind this when he laid his eyes on her in her gorgeous, tiered dress robes the color of wisteria flowers. Her hair had at last returned to its fully natural auburn, grown long, and was once again slightly curled. And the tiger's eye necklace still hung around her throat as on the night he gave it to her.

They joked while they danced, just as they had at the Yule Ball, but, somehow, everything felt…different. The air around them had a distinct electric charge and George had an inkling that it definitely was not just because they were tightly knit on the magically-produced dance floor with the other guests attending the festivities. Any exposed skin of his tingled all too pleasantly every time it touched hers and, by the heady look in her eyes, she had been experiencing the same thing.

They would have shared their first kiss on that day…if Kingsley's Patronus had not had such extraordinarily bad timing.

A silvery lynx separated the crowd and drove them to quiet. It strolled right to Authur Weasley, opened its mouth, and, speaking in Shacklebolt's voice, informed the partygoers that Voldemort had taken over the Ministry of Magic, Death Eaters were on the way, and that Rufus Scrimgeour was dead.

Hermione pushed through the hysteric chaos that'd followed the announcement and grabbed Sandy away from George, pulling her by the hand to go locate "Barny" and Ronald, who had left her alone to go stuff himself at the buffet table before the ruckus had begun. She only had enough seconds to look back at him once before a large man with the familiar Weasley red hair blocked her from his view. George, without having a care of being polite anymore, began pushing people out of the way to follow, as if hoping to get one last glimpse of her prior to her departure and she left him for good for Merlin-knows-how-long.

He got his wish, but only for a few dastardly milliseconds before she and the other three Side-Along Apparated and were gone in the blink of an eye. It was the last time he would be seeing her for almost an entire year.

And they were the most horrible nine months George had ever had in his whole life! Not only did business at WWW drop because of lack of customers (either because they were in hiding or too scared to even walk out their own doors), but around the turn of the seasons, when autumn was changing to winter, the shop was attacked and ransacked by Death Eaters… Or, at least, that's what he and Fred had heard.

It was surprisingly Fred who'd decided to head for their Auntie Muriel's first, but it took only moments for George to agree and they'd quickly packed. Once there, however, they sent an owl to their suppliers to let them know where they'd gone and they still got their deliveries, much to their Auntie's chagrin. It was around the Easter holidays when the other Weasley's (other than Bill) came; Ginny included. Their little clan had been lucky to escape unharmed from interrogation by the Death Eaters that crashed the wedding, but, somehow, the ministry had discovered Ron's accompaniment of Harry, Hermione, and Sandy and they had to abandon the Burrow.

From their sister, they were informed of the going-on at school. As part of the new Ministry's regime, Hogwarts attendance became mandatory and Muggle-borns were being rounded up. Once she had arrived, Ginny joined up with Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood (a Ravenclaw girl who was a mutual friend between them and the Quartet) to restart the D.A. and defy Snape's regime. They openly ignored authority (something that made the twins puff up with pride towards her) and snuck out at night painting graffiti on the walls of the corridors – Dumbledore's Army, Still Recruiting. On one occasion, they attempted to steal Godric Gryffindor's Sword from Snape's office, but were caught and punished. Ginny served detention with Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest, and was banned from all trips to Hogsmeade (as if it was a big deal at this point). Ginny and Neville were left to lead the D.A. without Luna after she was abducted by Death Eaters over the Christmas holidays.

It was hearing about all of the injustice being done at their former haunt that Fred and George decided to join in "Potterwatch," a rogue wizard radio broadcast that reported on what was really going on throughout the wizarding world of Britain. The station was run by their school friend Lee Jordan, who greeted them excitedly when they showed up. Together with others of the Order, such as Lupin and Kingsley, they supplied information to the wizarding world that the now Voldemort-controlled Ministry would definitely not, sent supportive messages to Harry and others openly opposing the Dark Wizard's activities, announced deaths, and encouraged witches and wizards to protect Muggle neighbors. They did their best to discourage the climate of panic that the new Ministry promoted to help control the populace by spreading truth. They had to take safety measures, of course, such as switching locations and using codenames (George had shaken his head at Fred wanting to change his to Rapier instead of having Rodent) to avoid Death Eaters. It was a good way to have a bit of fun with everything else being so dire. It made the twins' spirits brighten a little, despite knowing what would happen should they all get caught.

Surprisingly, amidst all of the terror of war, there was a bit of good news. A little before the relocation of Harry from his relatives' house to the Burrow, Lupin and Tonks had gotten engaged and married in a small ceremony they could not (sadly) invite the Boy Who Lived to. Nine months later produced a healthy baby boy that (to Reamus's intense relief) did not inherit his werewolfishness, but rather his mother's Metamorphmagus talents.

Lupin came by their Auntie Muriel's one blustery night to give the good news. Not only that, but he also admitted to making Harry the godfather of his son. At hearing the information of Harry and company safe at their brother Bill's cottage that he shared with Fleur, the twins, amongst the joy from the rest of their family at finally hearing some good things, nonchalantly asked Remus how their friends were holding up (George himself was more interested in Sandy's well-being, but he wasn't ignorant to what – or who – Fred was wanting to know about). They were both relieved to hear that the Quartet was doing just fine, especially after spending a few weeks recuperating at the cottage. Reamus warned them, however, that he didn't expect the younger wizards to be there for long and suggested firmly that everyone prayed for them. George and Fred agreed heartily to this.

In spite of all of the successful rebellion the Weasley's dished out against the enemy, there were definitely times when they had to endure nerve-wracking waits. They had to wait for news; Fred and George had to wait in trepidation for their supplies to be delivered unhindered; they had to wait with poor Ginny while she cried herself to sleep over worry about Harry and the others; they had wait for the end of their mother's fretting spells as their father followed her around the house to make sure she didn't do anything rash, like go off after the heroic troupe of junior wizards. Sometimes it got so heated in Muriel's house, rows were more-often-than not the outcome of all of the tension built up over the past months; even for the twins, who'd rarely ever fought a day in their lives. Though they'd always make-up after these fall-outs, George'd known the pressure was getting to all of them and the agony of knowing what lay around the corner, no matter what anyone had said to the contrary, was scaring them shitless.

The sun was just going down on the evening of May 1st when it happened. The fake Galleons that Hermione Granger had bewitched and given to the D.A. to help all of them keep communication with one another all began to blink and do all sorts of crazy stuff to alert them that Neville Longbottom (who had promised Ginny and Luna he'd call them if the Quartet ever showed up at Hogwarts) needed them to come. The twins and Ginny had turned to each other and, after a second of silence, all unexpectedly grinned.

The three of them snuck out after dinner and met up with Lee halfway. Once they were together, they traveled to King's Cross under the cover of darkness and boarded the Hogwarts Express, which had mysteriously showed up just a little wile earlier, as Cho Chang had informed them when they ran into her. Once as many people had gotten on as there was going to be, the train left the station and made a detour to Hogsmeade and came to a halt to the transfigured Hog Head pub, owned by Dumbledore's younger brother Aberforth, who'd been helping the D.A. all year by letting them come into the pub by a passage behind a portrait of his and Albus's late sister.

The three Weasley siblings crawled through this secret entrance and ended up in the Room of Requirement, where they all laid eyes on the Quartet for the first time since the wedding. Harry looked somewhere between wanting to snog Ginny senseless and yell at her for being there where she was in the most danger. Ron's jaw had gone slack and appeared as if he'd have a hell of time connecting it back to his upper lip. Hermione had been stunned into silence. This left Sandy, who, after setting sights on the twins (especially George), had let her own surprised expression crumble and began to sob unabashedly.

And, as if she were just a silly, little girl again, she launched herself into their arms, making sure she had one arm wrapped around each and hugged them as if she'd never let them go again. George was sure he'd cry, too, if he didn't do something, so he had surveyed her and could see that weeks of travel and a long imprisonment in the Malfoy basement (he'd told himself he'd need to have a chat with the toe-headed git some time in the near future) had taken its toll on her, making her slightly emaciated into something even a small break at Shell Cottage had been unable to fix. Her hair was easily inches longer than it had been the day she and the others left and was extremely matted and dirty. Cuts, bruises, welts, and bumps the size of Muggle golf balls could be seen on the visible skin that the tattered, civilian clothes she wore in place of the wisteria dress robes she had departed in could not cover.

George had held on to her even after Fred had long letten go, afraid that if he'd broken the embrace, she'd disappear out of his life again and might not come back the second time. And, by the way his twin refused to take his eyes off of Hermione, he knew Fred felt the same way.

He eventually did have to release her shoulders, but they kept their hands tightly entwined as Harry suddenly announced (after one of his many lightning scar-induced seizures) that he'd needed to find something of Rowena Ravenclaw's (another co-founder of Hogwarts), as it might help in the defeat of Voldemort, who was apparently on his way to the school at that very second. Luna Lovegood, who had been imprisoned with Sandy and Dean Thomas in Malfoy Manor, mentioned something about a lost diadem of her House's creator, which prompted Harry into taking her with him under his Invisibility Cloak to head to the Ravenclaw tower to see if it's location was hidden there.

Shortly after this, following a hushed discussion with Sandy (who still had a death grip on George's fingers, though she kept him out of their huddle), Ron and Hermione left, too, though, for what reason, no one knew. Sandy remained with Fred and George in the Requirement Room as more-and-more people began climbing through the portrait hole, which included both of their parents (Mrs. Weasley was furious with the twins and Ginny for running off in the middle of the night, but was ecstatic to see Sandy alive and crushed her in a hug), Bill and his wife, Lupin, Kingsley, Shepherd, and the original members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

When Harry and Luna arrived back, Lupin hurriedly asked the Boy Wonder (who'd been astonished at the amount of newcomers) what the latest was. After getting over the shock of all of his supporters, Harry informed them that the teachers had all been awakened, were taking their students to the Great Hall, that Snape had been sacked, and Voldemort was on the way, but that they were planning to make a fight of it…

The Room of Requirement emptied quite quickly after that. Once everything was clear, the only ones left were the Weasleys, Lupin, Sandy, and Harry. Mrs. Weasley was struggling with Ginny, fighting with her to stay behind because she was under-aged. Harry really didn't want her staying, either, but before the argument could escalate further, Percy Weasley, the third eldest behind Charlie, came tottering through the passage. Percy, who was a stickler for rules, went to work for the Ministry after leaving school. When things in the wizarding world began to go south, his loyalty was tested between his job and family and, for the better part of the last, few years, chose work over kinship. It seemed, as he stumbled out of the portrait hole, that he'd finally come to his senses.

"I was a fool!" He roared loudly. "I was an idiot, I was a pompous prat, I was a…a –"

"Ministry-loving, family-disowning, power-hungry moron." Fred had finished for him

Percy gulped at this. "Yes, I was."

Fred smiled then and had held out his hand. "Well, you can't say fairer than that." He added through the grin.

The Weasley clan quickly made-up and they exited (except for Ginny and Mrs. Weasley) the Room of Requirement with Sandy in tow, still holding on to George as if for dear life. Harry, Lupin, and Molly came soon after to a packed Great Hall, having left Ginny back in the Room.

McGonagall and the other professors were trying to bring about order to students and was attempting to inform them of the situation when Voldemort's disembodied voice rang out over the entire dining room.

"I know you are prepared to fight." He'd said high, cold, and clear amongst the screams of several people. "Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not wish to kill you…I do not want to spill magical blood. Give me Harry Potter, and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded. You have until midnight."

Silence swallowed them all until a girl from Slytherin, naturally (George was pretty sure that her name had been Pantsy or something along those lines), stood up and pointed to Harry. "But he's there! Potter's there! Someone grab him!" She'd shouted, but instead of doing that, everyone from the other Houses got up together as one and stood with their backs facing the bespeckled Boy Wonder, drawing out their wands at Miss. Pantsy. George and Sandy stood side-by-side near the front, almost right in the bint's pug face; the tips of their own wands nearly poking her in the nose.

"Thank-you, Miss. Parkinson." McGonagall'd said in a very clipped voice. "You will leave the Hall first with Mr. Filch. If the rest of your House could follow." The Slytherins did just that, followed by the under-aged wizards and witches of the remaining Houses.

Kingsley stepped forward to address and assign battle plans to those left behind. When he came to the openings for someone to organize defenses of the passageways into the school, Fred immediately stood up.

"Sounds like a job for us." He'd said, gesturing between George and himself. Kingsley nodded his approval and asked for the leaders to come up to help divide the troops. As George made to rise, he'd whipped his head quickly around to Sandy and they looked at each other sadly. Without even saying the words, they knew that it may very well be the last time they saw each other alive. After a few painful, heart-breaking moments, George slipped his fingers away from hers and walked slowly in the footsteps of his brother to the front of the teacher's dining table. Once there, he snapped a glance to gaze at her one last time, but found that both she and Harry had disappeared.

He and Fred were given their respective groups and they led them to the entrance hall, strolling side-by-side with backs straight and heads held high. As they'd passed through the doors of the Great Hall, the stifled sobs of their mother heard in the background, the twins had turned and faced one another; their faces void of any expression.

"Well, Gred… This is where we part ways to confront the savages." Fred said evenly, almost a little too passively. George, however, just nodded with trepidation.

"That it is, Forge. That it is…" He replied solemnly, never taking his eyes off his brother's face, as if he'd wanted to ingrain his very image into his brain. Another silence came over the two of them for a second, unwilling to part, but knowing they had a duty to protect their former school and Harry, who could quite possibly save them all.

After a second or two, Fred gave one of his infamously good-natured smirks and stuck out a hand toward his sibling like he had to Percy earlier.

"Well, good luck, then, to all of ya." He'd said, raking a look over the somewhat nervous individuals standing behind George and fidgeting in place. "And, hey, George. Maybe once we surf through this hell, we can go snag us a Hogwarts toilet seat as a souvenir?" He added as he'd nudged George in the ribs. George brushed him away, chuckling under his breath, then took Fred's proffered right hand still hanging in the air between them.

"Sounds like a plan, mate. It'd be like a signal to the whole world that we fought Voldemort and lived to tell the tale. We'd have to beat the admirers and fans off with a stick!" He'd said as their hands pumped up-and-down amid their quiet laughter. Fred then had drawn his back and nonchalantly juggled his wand.

"Exactly. Meet ya in the girls' second-floor bathroom, brother." He gave his farewell with a salute before tromping up the Grand Staircase with his "soldiers" (which included Angelina Johnson) following in suit.

George watched them go and didn't take his eyes off of them until he could not make out their shapes any longer. He then took his own miniature posse down a side corridor to the left of the stairwell where he knew of a room containing a secret passage.

Had George known then that that would be the last time he would ever see his twin breathing, he would have said something along the fences of how he'd loved him deeply and how much he'd always admired him. Courage, humor, and all…

Everything became confusing after that. The group he had been commanding put up a great fight and they managed to keep several Death Eaters from entering though that hidden entrance. It was the terrified scream of their female look-out that alerted them to the intruders that had already breeched the castle another way. The next thing he knew, they were all scattered in different directions and George was putting his D.A. training to the ultimate test.

Blasts everywhere, bodies of students and Death Eaters alike dropping from the floors above, glass breaking from misfired spells, and a werewolf rampaging rampantly down the halls. It was like a horrifying madhouse.

He thought he saw Ginny once, fighting off an unfamiliar Volde-lacky like an insane banshee, but then she disappeared around a bend. He wasn't surprised that she had probably snuck out of the Room of Requirement, where she was supposed to stay and keep safe. The girl was too much like her older brothers, though. She would never back down from a good, old-fashioned brawl like this. He knew she would be alright.

Another falling body from the balcony he was under landed inches away from him and he thanked his lucky stars that he had not been smooshed under it. Once he'd gotten his breath back, the only thing that would come to his mind was where the bloody hell Cassandra was in all of this…

The high, cold voice from before was speaking all around once more, as if it was coming from the walls of the school itself. "You have fought valiantly." It said. "Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery. Yet, you have sustained heavy losses. If you continue to resist me, you will all die, one-by-one. I do not wish this to happen. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a loss and a waste. Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat immediately" As cued, the Death Eaters that were left began to file out the front doors of the castle as if the last hours of battle had not even happened. Where they were going, George had no idea, but he was glad for the break. He was making his way back to the Great Hall when the voice spoke again.

"You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured. …I speak now, Harry Potter, directly to you. You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait one hour in the Forbidden Forest. If, at the end of that hour, you have not come to me, have not given yourself up, then battle recommences. This time, I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every last man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour."

George walked through the doors of the Great Hall just as Voldemort ended his demands. He was just wondering what exactly Harry was going to do, when he all of a sudden saw the knot of red hair that indicated his family and he ran over to them, never in his life more happy to see them than he had been at that moment. Ginny, cut and bloodied, was there holding their mother, who herself was quite filthy. Their father had a nice gash on his neck and Bill and Fleur were a train wreck - and that wasn't even counting their wounds combined. They all greeted him with relief. The only ones that were not there were Percy and Fred. George decided that they had just not returned yet, not wanting to think the worst right then.

He witnessed the bodies of Lupin, Tonks (who he'd never recalled entering the fray from the get-go), and Shepherd being carried in. Pangs he never expected to feel at the sight of this tore open his heart and he let the tears flow freely.

It was his mother dropping to her knees close by his side that he knew something was horribly wrong. He looked in the direction of the Hall doors, where his family members were staring as well, and he spotted the thin frame of Percy limping in. He looked small and frail, despite being young in age, and he, too had gashes up the wahzoo. His interest was not on his third eldest brother, however… It was on the large tigress padding in next to him with the body of a red-haired man slung across her back.

George went to his knees beside his mother as the Cassandra-tigress lowered herself to allow Bill, his father, and Percy to remove the burden of a very dead Fred from her shoulders. As they gently laid him on his back, she transformed into the auburn-haired girl – no, now she's a woman - he'd known for seven, long years. She was barely recognizable, though; her face was covered in soot and the ends of her hair had been singed as if by some stray fire, shortening it an inch or two. More bumps and bruises were added to the ones she'd accumulated during her travels over the year. And the expression she wore on her face spoke of untold anguish and sorrow.

She crawled on her hands-and-knees over to him and she embraced him like she'd never had before, even in the Room of Requirement after not seeing either of the twins for so long. Her whole skull was practically buried into his now dirty and tattered clothing and she was sobbing without any sense of control. And all George could do was robotically pat her back as his flooded eyes gazed at his lifeless brother lying under the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall.

He suddenly could not help thinking how much like looking into a mirror it was. It was eerie and gut-wrenchingly depressing all at the same time.

When Ron and Hermione abruptly materialized, hand-in-hand, out of the rapidly expanding crowd in the Hall to join the family in mourning, he quite quickly began to feel a little anger at them and Harry (who seemed to have gone AWOL). The two, sickeningly-sweet lovebirds had been missing in action since they'd disappeared from the Room of Requirement before the serious battling had started. Where had they gone? George felt his burning, blue orbs focus a bit angrily on Hermione, recalling all of the looks of admiration and longing and the strange behavior that Fred had displayed around her since their sixth year and, ignoring the fact that it was a tad harsh, was a bit aggravated at her for never really noticing. For some reason he'd not known, the ridiculous notion sprang up in his mind that if she'd at least have acknowledged the fact that something had been up with Fred, then maybe she could have helped him and he'd have lived. She was, after all, "The Brightest Witch of Her Age," was she not?

He had been secretly cross at Ron, too. The youngest Weasley had been gallivanting with Hermione, and possibly Harry, all night long. Where was he when Fred had been killed?

And what of the Boy Wonder? Where was he in George's time of anguish? Did Fred's death mean nothing to that selfish, bespeckled git?

Before George could stand up to have some plausibly violent words with the couple in question about theirs and Harry's whereabouts when his poor twin was murdered, he suddenly felt a movement somewhere near his right armpit and he had to avert his blazing gaze downwards to assess what had caused it. When he recognized Sandy as she'd raised her face to wipe at her tears with a cut and unclean hand, all of the animosity flew out of him so hurriedly, it almost shocked him. The antagonized thoughts were then replaced by adoring ones as he unexpectedly realized that he'd never noticed how beautiful she really was. Yes, he had seen her all dressed up on two occasions, but right then, in torn jeans, scuffed boots, disarrayed auburn-hair, and cheeks stained with liquid-trails from her said tears, she had never looked more breath-taking in all of his life.

Apparently sensing that she was being scrutinized, Sandy had looked up at him with a question in her reddened eyes, but then she balked when she seemingly pinpointed what exactly the expression on his face was. She did not look frightened, but rather curious and inquisitive, searching him with her own honeyed irises.

George instantly assented to the fact that that look had always turned him on…

He would never really be sure who had instigated it first, but he did know that he had not stopped himself when he joined her in closing the distance between them. The first touch of lips-on-lips was a little bit of a shock and it'd almost sent George reeling, but he'd held on to Sandy like an anchor in a windy harbor.

No one had paid them any mind, as they were still too busy crying over Fred's body.


They had won. Harry had killed Voldemort at last and it was finally all over.

Or, at least, the fighting was.

It had been three days since the last remnants of battle had faded and the amount of bodies and rubble being cleared out of the castle was juststarting to thin. All of them had volunteered to help clean up, of course, even Harry, despite his hero status. The Boy with the Scar of Lightning got down and dirty with the rest of them, refusing to take special treatment from those who tried to push their assistance on him.

George and Sandy worked in close quarters those few days. George spoke little, but the auburn-haired young woman did not seem to mind; knowing he needed his time. So, instead, she filled the silence up with stories from the Quartet's travels over the few months they were looking for Horcruxes (George never really understood the whole concept behind these objects that Voldemort hid parts of his soul in. It always made his head spin to hear Sandy try to explain it to him over and-over). When she told him of being imprisoned wit Dean, Luna, Mr. Ollivander the Wandmaker, and a goblin from Gringotts bank named Griphook in Malfoy Manor, he had to give her a crushing embrace, which he tried to put every emotion of protection into to let her know she was now safe, even though she probably already knew she was.

They had not discussed the kiss they had shared on May 2nd just yet. At first, it was because they were simply too busy trying to help tidy the castle to make way for construction and repair wizards. As time went on, however, the reason became because it was a slightly uncomfortable topic to bring up. They were both secretly ashamed that it had happened right next to the head of a lifeless Fred. George was especially appalled at himself for this, even though he also thought it had been somewhat the right thing, since it was Sandy he had shared the lip-lock with. Fred probably wouldn't have minded that they practically made-out right over his blank, staring face.

*In fact, he might have enjoyed the show…* George reasoned sadistically in his mind as he'd helped Cassandra move a particularly hefty piece of rock from where it was blocking the entrance to the thoroughly destroyed Muggle studies classroom.

It was finally around noon on the sixth of May when the survivors of the battle were all told that they had done as much as they were able to do and alternatively, but begrudgingly, began planning the numerous funerals that were going to happen sooner-or-later. Harry dedicated himself to going to every, single one of them. George admired the younger man for it.

The official start of the ceremonies was on May 9th and were slated to continue on until perhaps mid-June. The missing were honorably mentioned first, including Alastor Moody, and their spirits were blessed with many prayers. On May 10th, Tonks and Lupin were buried and all George could think about was the fact that their son was going to be growing up parentless, just like Harry; but at least he'd be with his grandmother and the Weasley's themselves would always be there for him.

When it was Shepherd's turn to be buried, Sandy, who'd been a trooper through Lupin's and his wife's funeral, broke down into tears, as if it was just then really hitting her that the woman who she had greatly admired was now gone. George had immediately gone to comfort her, but then she chose that moment to spill out the fact that she and the other three members of the Golden Quartet had been witnesses to Fred's death. At first, George wasn't sure what to think about her words. He then bravely put on a straight face and told her it was in the past and just tried to console her as best as he could as Shepherd's coffin was lowered into the ground.

Initially, George was surprisingly accepting of the fact that he was not a twin anymore and some of his family members even praised him on how calm he was being about all of it and he'd agreed with them, kind of fearing that if he did not, than it wouldn't be true. And he did his best to keep Sandy in high spirits as well, joking around with her lightly as they'd done in school to help her get her mind off of the gloomy things.

As the days passed, however, George began to feel less-and-less confident about his position. Thoughts of who'd assist him in getting WWW up-and-running again came to his mind and demanded his attention, especially at night. He soon began to forget to eat and would refuse his mother's well-intentioned insistence that he put food in his belly.

And soon, he started to notice that he was getting weary of Sandy's constant presence and would sometimes shut her out. She did not seem to take heed of the warning signs in the beginning, but after an accidental snap of an insult on George's part, she, obviously hurt, instead would take her seat with the rest of her friends. It was painfully prominent, though, that she was uncomfortable sitting between the two couples on either side of her while she perched rigidly by herself on the edge of her chair to make it appear as if she wasn't upset.

The newly-formed tension between them went up a notch when George accidentally found himself walking through a horribly placed Orcal-family reunion at Fred's funeral wake. Sandy, not meaning to really bring him into the exclusive huddle of her kin, merely pointed him out as he tried to pass by unseen, but then, to her evident humiliation, her step-father reached out and spun George around by a tight grip to the shoulder. The man was broad (not fat, mind), bearded in brown-hair, freakishly tall (he towered over George), and was balding on the crown of his head, but he had a kind face with amicable blue eyes and was outgoing. He welcomed the young Weasley man as if he were an old friend.

Cassandra's mother was almost a mirror-copy of her daughter, except had a little more height to her and had dark eyes instead of honey-colored (she insisted that Sandy got that trait from her grandmother, but she said this fondly). Naturally, she and Sandy shared the same auburn hue of hair (Sandy had dyed hers a midnight black sometime earlier), but the mother had streaks of gray in hers and her face was gently wrinkled in the onset of middle age.

Sandy's siblings consisted of an older, blood-sister named Belinda (Linda, for short) that was completely opposite of her, with luxuriously long blond hair and ocean blue eyes that sparkled. She had a bubbly, almost trigger-happy personality that scared George a little bit. Surprisingly, though, the two women seemed to have a very close relationship, if Linda's inclination to pounce all over an unperturbed Sandy (who just pretended she wasn't paying attention) was any indication. What surprised George the most was that Belinda was Squib, a non-magical person born into a magical family. Linda did not seem to mind that she stuck out from her relatives and, in spite of the rest of the package that was her, was actually very intelligent. According to her and Sandy's step-father, the eldest Orcal child was attending a Muggle uni-ver-sity known as Oxford. All George could think about when he was told this was if a "University" was some species of unicorn…

The last member of Sandy's family was her step-brother (her step-father's real son), Leeland. Leeland was short for a man of his age (almost a year older than George himself) with dark hair and dark eyes. He wore a lot of leather and steel on his clothing – about the only thing he had that wasn't was a black, cotton T-shirt. He seemed to be very protective of his step-sisters, especially Sandy, which meant that he had no respect for George whatsoever. The entire time George had made small-talk with the rest of the group, Leeland stood in silent observation behind his father with his arms crossed, watching the red-haired intruder like he wanted to jump him and ground his face in the dirt. George was glad that Leeland had gone to school in the US or he'd have never have gotten to know Sandy passed a hello.

Of course, by the way things were going, he wasn't sure if he'd know her passed Fred's burial.

George was courteous to all of them through-out the whole vextatious exchange, no doubt about it, but as soon as they'd wandered away and had left him there with only Sandy, he just could not bring himself to come out of his shell for her. They'd stared at each other, standing a small length apart, and each secretly wondering what the other would do. After a few, excruciatingly awkward moments, George finally sighed and left first, not even turning around to see her reaction to this as he walked off in the direction he'd been going before he'd been detained.

The kick-in-the-gut moment came when it was finally Fred's time to shine, so to speak. It had been decided, somewhat against his will, that George would speak his twin's eulogy.

"He would've wanted you to do it. It's only right…" His mother had said, tearfully encouraging him as she handed him his speech that Percy (who had been little more than a walking husk of his former self since he had, along with the Quartet, seen Fred get killed) had helped him write and edit a couple of weeks earlier. George just stood there quietly watching her cry her eyes out, even though the ceremony had not even begun yet.

It was worse than he had thought, standing up there on that podium in front of all those people and his brother's casket enchantedly poised above the hole perfectly sized to swallow him up in the ground forever. His hands were shaking as he tried to read from the parchment, but Percy's handwriting was so damn small… Or, at least, that was his brain's excuse to cover up the tears that had been pent-up inside and were unleashing themselves over the brims of his eyes. His voice was just as unsteady and it stuttered as he attempted to begin, so he had to stop midway through the first sentence to start over. The cavern in the right side of his head was throbbing for no reason at all behind the white bandage Madam Pomfrey, Hogwarts's on-staff nurse, had kindly stuck there to give him a little dignity. Too bad it wasn't really helping. George felt like he was about to puke (or faint, whichever his body wanted to do more…).

And then Cassandra was suddenly standing there, her scarred hands holding tightly to his left shoulder to steady him. She only looked at him for a moment, smiling briefly as if she thought it would assure him that she was there to stand by him. That she had forgiven him for his angry outburst at her and that he was not going to be alone.

If only George could have felt those things when he'd looked into that sweet grin of hers. Though her presence did apparently calm him enough to get through the eulogy, it didn't help him get over the fact that, once Fred's coffin had disappeared under a mound of pre-dug dirt, he was now just one-half of a whole. Without a Forge, there is no Gred.

Without a Fred, George was completely empty…

The two of them were stepping off from the stage, their hands instinctively intertwined despite George's apprehensiveness of the implications the gesture would give everyone who saw them, when Prof. McGonagall came quickly up to them, blocking their path to leave. She informed them in hushed, but excited tones that the school would indeed be opened again by the end of summer holidays, though construction would continue on into the school year. Once she'd brought most of herself down from Cloud 9, she then went on to say she'd already asked Harry, Ron, and Hermione if they'd wanted to return to finish their seventh year. They had all refused the amiable courtesy of her actions (including, shockingly, Hermione, who loved learning probably more than living), insisting that they all just wanted to take a breather. Harry had especially been adamant about not coming back. "Too many memories." He had said somberly, though he had not stated whether he'd meant good or bad.

McGonagall continued with her breathy mitigation, turning right to Sandy and asking her whether she'd be willing to come back for her seventh year. Or, if not that, then maybe she'd like to come back with Neville Longbottom (who had already accepted Prof. Sprout's offer to begin training as a replacement Herbology teacher) to start her own preparation as the future Transfiguration teacher for Hogwarts.

Sandy's face positively glowed for a fraction of a moment, but then it fell just as fast as she appeared to have suddenly thought of something that would keep her from accepting the amazing opportunity. It was when she looked up quizzically at him that George abruptly realized that he was the reason. And before he could stop her, she was turning her former educator down, saying she was needed more at the Burrow for the time being.

McGonagall's expression looked crestfallen for a second, but then she came up with the suggestion for Sandy to take time to think about her answer a little more and send an owl when she had a reply. Sandy agreed to this a little too quickly in George's opinion and she and the Professor said their farewells and good lucks as McGonagall stepped passed them and on to the stage they'd just left behind. George and Sandy went to sit with the extended Weasley clan, seated side-by-side once more.

George, however, did not stay for long. He snuck out right in the middle of McGonagall's announcement that Hogwarts would be reopening amid the cheers of the students, former and otherwise. He Apparated to the Leaky Caldron, a local wizard's pub and the entrance to Diagon Ally, but did not go to the courtyard doorway that led to the magical marketplace. Instead, he stepped out on to the busy, Muggle sidewalks of London and went to a little grocery that he'd once gone to with his father and Fred to explore one lazy afternoon in another lifetime and bought the black-and-gold handled razorblade from the man behind the counter that eyed him warily.

It was only after doing that did he return to the flat, still in shambles from being raided, above the WWW. He emptied the fridge and began to down whatever alcoholic beverage he could locate. And when he started to run out of what was laying around the house, he went out (only once) to buy a few dozen or so each of the fire whiskey and headache-reducer potion bottles.

He just wanted to forget the past weeks of loneliness and depression. He wanted to forget that reassuring look that Sandy had given him when she joined him behind the podium. He wanted to forget the tears his mother cried and the shell Percy had become. He wanted to forget that Fred was no longer there and that he was now just George.

And, to do that, he needed to be dangerously, insanely, over-the-moon drunk…

*End of Flashback*