Chapter 2

Fred could not see his family like this for much longer. He could not watch them suffering through this tragedy knowing that he lacked the ability to help them get through it in any way. Most of all, he could not stare into his own unseeing eyes any longer. So he turned around and looked instead at the dead faces of his friends. The shock was apparent in all of the souls that roamed the Great Hall. Many still stared at their corpses, at the people that mourned for them. Others, like Fred, were roaming the Hall in search of their friends. He could say with certainty that his family was alive, if not well, but there were many more people that he had yet to check on.

He made a sort of mental list of the people he needed to find, and every time he could check someone off that list he felt a small amount of the weight on his heart being lifted. He hadn't gotten very far down the list when he encountered his first tragedy. He knew that not everyone on his list would still be alive, but he did not know what he would do when he found someone that was not. He could see them, hovering over their bodies, hand in hand. Fred thought how beautiful they looked, and how sad it all was. They stood there, face to face, Tonks and Lupin. As they floated they were more silver than grey. Holding hands they were almost turning in a circle over their bodies, the bodies that were being visited by different members of the Order of the Phoenix in turns.

"I'm so sorry Remus," Tonks whispered the words, but Fred was near enough to hear them.

"And what on earth are you sorry for?"

"I should never have let you come, I should never have followed you here with Teddy so – oh Remus what about Teddy?"

"Shh, none of this is your fault. Our boy is half Tonks, he's strong."

"Remus he's a baby-"

"-I know, I know. Harry grew up without parents in a house where he was hated, and he's shaped up quite well. Teddy has your parents, he has the entire Order, and he has Harry Potter as a godfather don't you forget."

Tonks sighed. There was a pause in their conversation where the two of them seemed to almost communicate without words. Fred could hear nothing but breathing between them, and he did not have the heart to interrupt.

"Listen, Harry needs me right now. I'm being called-"

"-but Remus…"

"I'll meet you at the end of the hour. Voldemort will be back regardless of what Harry does right now. Do what you can to help people depart."

Lupin looked around the room to quickly assess the damage and Fred quickly turned away so as not to be spotted. When he turned back, Lupin had vanished, and Tonks was staring now at what was a very distressed blond boy who held in his hands a battered camera and muttered the name "Colin" over and over again under his breath.

"Hey Tonks, fancy seeing you here," he hadn't been entirely sure he could still speak. It was strange, hearing his voice but not feeling the vibration it made in his throat.

"Fred, I had no idea… how…"

"A wall fell on me I reckon, died laughing though – that was always how George and I planned it would-"

The last words got stuck in his throat. He had planned many things with George, some quite insensitively.

"Alright, we'll have plenty of time to chat later I suppose, help the young ones won't you? It's always hardest for them to… well, let go of this world." He could tell she was still quite distressed, but Fred didn't know what to do. Normally he would've made a joke, or half a joke rather, but nobody was there now to complete it for him. Besides, he couldn't think of anything funny about the situation at all.

"Where's Lupin off to anyhow? Isn't Harry busy preparing for the oncoming bloodbath?"

"He just needed to check on Harry that's all, give him a push in the right direction I suppose"

"He's gone into the forest hasn't he? Harry? He was always the self-sacrificial type. Lupin's gone to stop him?"

"Not exactly stop… Fred it's a lot more complicated than you think."

Everything was always more complicated than Fred seemed to think. George would've asked for an explanation, he always wanted to know about everything, but Fred knew not to do that. There were some things that nobody would ever tell you about, you just had to go and find out for yourself.

"Righto, look I need to find someone first, and then I'll come back and help you get people to go on yeah?"

He didn't wait for a response. Fred was determined. He needed to find Lupin and Harry and whoever else he ran into on the way.

As he passed into the Forbidden Forest, Fred could see the wreckage that had been left behind by the fighting. Hogwarts was crumbling, and for the first time in his life, Fred felt sorry for old Mr. Filch. He and George had given Filch hell when they were still in school, and he reckoned the day they dropped out and opened the joke shop was Filch's favorite day. But despite the fact that they were enemies, Fred wanted more than anything to fix things with the old man. But now was not the time.

He ran into Voldemort's camp before he found Harry. For a moment he forgot that he couldn't be seen, because when he walked in, all eyes were on him. He wasn't sure what to do, so he simply stood there. If George had been with him they would have had some sort of snide remark to throw at the Death Eaters, but Fred was not George. He was not the mastermind behind the jokes and comments – he was simply half of the performance. It took all of 30 excruciating seconds for him to realize that it was not him that they were all staring at; it was a messenger who had been searching for Harry.

Fred could feel the tension building amongst the crowd, the time ticking away, the hour drawing to an end. He hurried off between the trees and over the trees and through the trees until finally he saw four points of light. He slowly approached and planted himself in a tree behind Harry. Lupin, Sirius, and Harry's parents stood in a semi-circle around him. Thank Merlin, Fred thought, even if Lupin had gone bonkers there was no way Sirius would let Harry turn himself over, and neither would his parents. But this was where Fred was wrong, because what Fred heard next were only worlds of encouragement and condolences. It was like a premeditated funeral, each of the visitors telling Harry not to worry, that it wouldn't hurt much, and Harry's eyes filling with tears.

"Don't do it Harry!" Fred screamed it as loud as he could, but Harry could not hear him. As Harry walked forward into the forest and approached the clearing where the Death Eaters waited, a silent exchange occurred between his four companions. Lily and James looked at each other, then at Sirius and Lupin, and gave a quick nod. Fred sat horrified. The people closest to Harry, his family, were allowing him to walk straight into the clutches of death. He was doing this to save people that didn't want him to save them. This was not fair. This was horrible.

"Hello Fred,"

"Fancy seeing you here,"

Fred grabbed at the empty space next to him and jumped out of the tree, half surprised that there was no George in that empty space and half frightened that someone had spotted him. Not looking back for one moment, Fred began sprinting towards the castle. He floated part of the way and ran the rest, but he didn't have any way of finding his way back. He was lost and without his partner and frightened out of his mind. Looking behind him, he could see nobody. Fred slowed to a stop and thought he should try to catch his breath, but found that he had no need for this. With a quick sigh of relief he was happy to see that there was no longer anybody following him. He slowed to a walk and began to relax a little.

"Hey Fred, I could show you the way back you know."

"You can't outrun a ghost, Fred."