Chapter 1-The Gryffindor Coward

I straightened my tie and gazed into the mirror. I began to whistle a jivey tune and combed my hair back. I felt for his wand in my pocket and smiled. Muggles were so gullible. They all thought the wand was for looks.

"Mr. Weasley, you're on in three minutes," a Muggle woman told me.

"Thank you, Velda." I stood and headed to the door.

"And...you're on! Go on!"

I stepped out onto the stage in front of thousands of Muggle eyes. I heard the applause, and i grinned. I pulled out a trick wand and a fist sprang out and punched me. The audience emitted laughter. I grinned. "That's how I got all these scars," I joked, tossing the wand into the crowd. People sprang for it.

I smiled. Muggles. They were so easily amused. I did a few basic spells-so minuscule no Ministry official would care to arrest me-and did the rest of my show with the merchandise from the joke store. I did a basic Transfiguration spell and turned a grapefruit into a rabbit.

All in all, it was all right, if not illegal. I made several hundred Muggle dollars, which could easily be transferred to Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts at Gringotts. If Oliver Wood could just see me now.

I pull on my cloak behind stage and exit into the cold London air. For a brief moment of hesitation I debated on writing to Mum when I made it to the apartment. Then, almost unconsciously, my feet changed direction and I be fan walking towards Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. I didn't know why. Maybe I needed to tell Ginny about everything Wood told me little over a month ago. Ron would probably be there with Hermione. He'd told me they went to the Grimmauld Place often...

But how would they take it? Ginny definitely wouldn't take it well, not after they'd had such good news after she and Harry married. She would handle it just as badly as I had...and Ron... Ron would blame me...

Nevertheless, I quickly Apparate inside the Grimmauld Place. There was a shriek. "My God, don't scare me like that again, George!" Ginny exclaims, flinging her arms around my neck. "You said you were going to send an owl as soon as you got back to the store!"

"Yeah, well, Oliver took over for a few weeks," I say lamely. "Went on a little holiday."

"You should have told us," Ginny scolded, with the preoccupied air of a mother.

"Turning into Mum, I see," I tease.

"There's nothing wrong about worrying!" my sister huffs indignantly. "I thought one of the leftover Death Eaters had gotten you..." She shudders. "But very good news!"

"What?" I ask blankly.

"Harry and I are going to have a baby!" she announced.

"Oh yes, Mum told me..."

"Harry's coming home from work soon. You want to stay until then? Ron and Hermione are coming later. So what have you been doing?"

"I spent a lot of time in Hogsmeade," I say carefully, not wanting to explain why.

"Hmm. Well, now that we can live here-" At this, my sister gestured around the Grimmauld Place- "we've not been doing much. Harry has to go very often, tracking down missing Death Eaters, and Ron and Hermione visit."

"Are they married yet?" I ask conversationally.

"No, it's scheduled for Christmas Eve," Ginny said dismissively. "They're going to make a big thing of it. How are things?"

I debate with myself on telling my sister about everything Oliver told me, but I find myself tongue-tied, like I had been Confounded. I open my mouth, about to tell her, when a loud CRACK broke me off. Harry Apparated into the living room in front of Ginny and I. His eyes widened a little with surprise. "Oh, hey, George." He sat down next to Ginny. "What are you doing here?"

"Just wanted to drop in," I say lamely. "How's Auror training?"

"Awful. I'm bad at Disguises."

"You can't use the Invisibility Cloak?" I ask, surprised.

"Not in training," Harry said. "Unfortunately. We can use them when we actually work, though."

"Fascinating," I say, my voice oozing sarcasm. Harry doesn't catch it, but Ginny purses her lips, trying not to laugh. Ginny, who Fred and I had basically taught everything we knew about pranks. Ginny, who already asked me if she could start working at the store. Ginny, who I knew better than even Ron or Charlie. Why was I finding it so hard to tell her about our secret nephew?

Because she'd be disappointed in you, a small voice niggles in the back of my mind. I push the thought away as there's a sound like a car backfiring, then someone knocks loudly on the door. Harry goes to the peephole. "It's me, Hermione," a voice says.

"What does Viktor Krum call you?"

"Really?" came an exasperated voice. "That's your security question?"

"Yep."

"Herm-oh-ninny." Harry opens the door to let her in and then slams it shut.

"Ron's out there," Hermione informs him. Her face is slightly pink from blush.

"He might be an imposter," Harry retorted. She sits down on the love seat across from me.

"What shape does my Patronus take?" Harry demands to the door.

"You git, just let me in!"

I laugh as Harry unlocks the door. Ron bursts in, soaked. "It's raining," he explains taking a seat next to Hermione. He puts his arm around her shoulders and looks around. He starts when he sees me. "I haven't heard from you in months," he says. "We went to Diagon Alley a while ago, but you weren't there."

"I went on holiday." I have a headache. Verity... Fred... Nephew...

Hermione narrows her eyes. She can see past the feeble response. I shift my feet nervously, but Ron breaks in before she can speak. "Nice to see you again."

"Well, Oliver's working at the shop some now, so I thought I should stop by here, now that we have more employees."

"Yes, some blonde witch there told us that. Wood's sister, I think. She was just a year above us, I think, before she dropped out." I tense as Ron says this, but he gives no notice and goes on. "Charming staff, you have, George. A wizard told me to get lost when I asked for you. Don't think he believed me when I said we were related."

"I'll have a word with him. Mundungus Fletcher asked for a job, but he'd be sneaking stolen cauldrons into the break room or selling Horcruxes, or something like that. Shame, he'd be good for inventing."

"Mum wouldn't approve of you hiring him," Ginny says with a grin. She heads to the kitchen and reappears with five bowls of soup on a tray.

"Does Mum approve of you getting married at seventeen?" I ask tartly, picking up a bowl. It's hot and burns down my throat.

"Well no, not really. She thinks we rushed into it, since technically I should still be at Hogwarts. Which I more or less dropped out. But she approves of Harry," she says. Ginny seems somehow...different. I suppose it's because she's going to have a kid, and she's married.

"What about you, George? Got yourself a girl?" Ron asks, rather snidely.

My mind flickers momentarily to what Oliver had said about Verity. "No," I say defensively. "No," I repeat. "I'm...too busy." I clear my throat, casting my mind out to change the subject. "Wood's playing for England this year."

"Really?" Harry leans forward, interested. "They wanted me to play Seeker for them. I almost signed on."

"What made you not?"

"I got recruited by the Aurors." He says this casually, but there's a gleam of pride in his green eyes, either about being an Auror or being good enough to sign on an international team.

"Well, Puddlemere won their Division Championships three years in a row, and that's because they've got a damn good Seeker and Wood made some spectacular saves," Ron says wisely. He pushes his damp hair out of his eyes and picks up a bowl of soup. "Wood was third in the draft for international teams. Uganda wanted him."

"Uganda will make it to the World Cup," Ginny says confidently. We talk about Quidditch for a while. Then, when it's almost eleven, I give an over-emphasized yawn and say, "Well, I'd better be going. Nice seeing you guys."

"You can stay here," Ginny offers.

"No, I'm going to Hogsmeade. We might turn Zonko's into another store," I lie. "I'll probably be back soon." I cross my fingers behind my back as I say it. I pull on my jacket when my wallet falls out.

"Oh, here, George," Ginny says picking it up to hand to me. It falls open, revealing a wad of Muggle money. "George, why do you have...?"

"Well, bye," I say quickly, unwilling to answer the uncomfortable questions that were sure to come. I Apparate as fast as possible, focusing my mind on the Three Broomsticks. For a moment there's the feeling of being stuffed in an exceptionally skinny rubber tube, and then I'm in front of the pub. I push through the doors and sit down at a table by myself. Madam Rosmerta steps out from behind the bar and calls to me, "Firewhiskey?"

"Yeah," I yell back. The pub isn't as crowded as usual, but there are several goblins at a table heatedly discussing an attempted break-in at Gringotts and an elderly witch drank mead in the corner. As Rosemary, Rosmerta's daughter, came out with my firewhiskey, a young witch in dark blue robes walks in, laughing, while a wizard around her age follows, grinning. They sit down at a table near me. Neither can be older than I am. Rosemary brings out flagons of butterbeer and sets them down in front of them. I sip my firewhiskey and watch as the boy tells a funny story, and she almost chokes on her drink from laughing so hard. I feel a pang as I watch. If Fred were still alive, he and Verity might be doing this.

The goblins pay and leave. Several Ministry wizards come in. I sit at my table, resting my head on my hand, alcohol swirling around my mind. I finish my firewhiskey off and pull my cloak on, ready to Apparate to the flat above Zonko's when the door opens again, and a burly guy walks in. Wood. He catches sight of me and crosses the room and takes the chair across from me. "Hullo."

"Hmm," I answer. It should have been a sign that I didn't want to talk, but Wood misses the hint.

"Thought you might want a picture," he says gruffly, reaching into his cloak. He pulls out a picture and sets in front of me. There's a baby, no older than a few months, with tufts of bright red hair on his head. I look at it, then Oliver, and then back at the kid. The picture changes and his face breaks out in a smile. "Cute kid," I rasp.

"Yeah," he says with a grin. "His name's Eros Frederick Wood."

I glance up. "Frederick?" I echo stiffly.

"Yeah," Oliver says, and this time he has the decency to drop his eyes.

"Eros..." I murmur, musing over the name. It had some meaning, I knew I'd read or heard it somewhere...

"The Greek god of love," Oliver explains, still not meeting my eyes, but I can understand what he left unsaid. The god of love. Verity... Fred... Everything he'd never told me... Why?

I swallow hard. "He's not a Weasley?"

"Well, Fred and Verity were never married," Oliver points out reasonably. He follows my gaze to the couple, the boy smiling as she laughed very hard. Wood's smile vanishes and his gaze darkens. "George, I'm seriously worried about you. I'm sure they have specialists at St. Mungo's. You should at least go check in on the shop."

"How's it going now?"

"Good. I can't be there the whole time. England is picking up practice. We play the opening match against Albania, and Krum is still playing for them. Damn hard, really, seeing we'll lose if Katie Bell doesn't do top notch-she signed on for England, did I tell you?-the Quaffle will be Albania's if she sucks that day, and since we're playing in the mountains it'll be even harder, what with the winds and high altitude and low pressure and such-"

"Oliver, I just wanted to know how the store was going."

"In that case, business is booming. Hogwarts is starting soon and there are kids in and out getting Skiving Snackboxes-you ran out of Nosebleed Nougats today-and the daydreams are doing exceptionally well."

"Good."

"You should drop in sometime. No one's seen tail of you since You-Know-Who came back. I mean, since it got really dangerous." I inwardly sigh at the suggestion.

"I don't know, Oliver..."

"If it's because of Verity and just because you're too big of a coward to see your brother's son, grow a pair, get over it, and grow up. Honestly, I never thought someone from Gryffindor would turn out to be such a coward, let alone you!" He says it so loud the couple looks over.

I stiffen and don't reply for a while. Then, in the lowest voice I've ever used, I say, "You never thought Fred was going to end up dead by the time we were eighteen, either."

"Just come to Diagon Alley again," Wood pleads, desperation seeping into his voice. I notice he avoids answering my last comment. "Everyone wants to see you. You're a proper hero!"

"Yeah right," I say dejectedly, scrounging around my pockets for money. I put it atop a stack of plates Rosemary was carrying.

"Look, it's better than doing magic in front of God knows how many Muggles," Oliver says hotly. Rosmerta raises an eyebrow from behind the bar as she mixed drinks.

"Quiet down!" I hiss.

"I've heard from the Ministry. It's only a matter of time your parents find out. Your dad works with Muggle stuff anyway. Percy probably already does."

"Percy can screw himself." The witch who had had trouble stifling her laugh now looks over disgustedly, but the boy grins.

"He probably will, but that's not the point. Yes, it's minor magic, but it's magic nonetheless! Do you even realize how illegal that is? They'll break your wand if you keep it up." He was smiling, but his eyes were steely.

"Fine," I say. "I'll open a Weasley's Wizard Wheezes here in Hogsmeade at Zonko's, so I don't have to look at any of you ever again!"

"And how long do you think it'll be before someone recognizes Eros as either your son or Fred's? Three years? Verity lives in the Alley, everyone will see him. Everyone goes to Diagon Alley, and everyone knew you two. You were infamous."

"Were?" I echo incredulously.

"If you haven't noticed you've went...underground in the past few months. Jesus, Ginny probably has more tricks up her sleeve than you do." Oliver finished off his butterbeer and stood up, pushing his chair in. "I'll see you tomorrow, nine o'clock, morning, at the Leaky Cauldron."

"What?" I call after him. "You're mistaken! I'm not going!"

But he gave no sign of having heard, or maybe he was just ignoring me.

Either was not a good sign. "Hey! I think you need your hearing checked!" I shout, gaining a few dirty looks from the couple.

I sigh. Would I go to Diagon Alley tomorrow? I order another firewhiskey from Rosemary and set my mind on getting so drunk that tomorrow I'd have a reason not to show up.