Two

One Month.

It had been a mere month since the end of the end of the Wizarding war. Since Fred had died, and the only way that Ron could describe George was as an oxymoron. Outwardly, nobody would suspect just how severely Fred's death had affected him, he was all smiles and humour yet when you looked into his eyes, oh merlin, Ron felt as though he could feel George's deep-rooted despair.

Ron would be among the first to admit just how much he missed his brother -and he had 'the emotional range of a teaspoon'. However, what seemed to be the hardest fact for him to comprehend was the fact that there would no longer be Fred-and-George or Gred-and-Forge, Ron would also be the first to admit that he had always seen the twins as one entity. An entity that had always left laugher in its wake (and, okay, his dreaded arachnophobia) but without Fred the entity had been destroyed, one half of a whole and every time that he looked at George he could feel the long, cold fingers of anguish clutching at his heart.

Yes, as he looked at George all he could see was an oxymoron and one part of a whole.

Three Months.

If Ron had the emotional range of a teaspoon, then George was emotionally stunted. It had been an awful three months since Fred's death and George was putting a declining amount of effort into expressing any emotion, and Ron feared that he was mimicking his elder brother at a faster rate. He had abandoned his dream of becoming an auror in order to help George get over the death of his twin, Percy had helped to begin with but he had soon returned to his desk job at the ministry. However, giving up his dream job only seemed to make George even more glum, causing him to wallow in his own self pity. And, if Ron was completely honest, he didn't really mind giving up on that dream -especially after seeing the state that Harry always returned in.

No, he didn't begin to follow George down the path of apathy until Hermione broke off their engagement -annoyed that he always spent his time either helping George or trying to feel just a bit more like he used to fell with Harry. She claimed that he never had any time for her. She was probably right. But that didn't mean that it didn't hurt when Hermione started dating Viktor Krum less than a month later. Personally, he would say that this was his catalyst that caused him to lose his belief in relying on other humans, that sentiment was a weakness.

Sentiment being a weakness seemed to become something akin to a catchphrase for him, it was something that he would constantly reiterate to his siblings and Harry; George seemed to agree with him, nodding his head in thought every time he said it; Percy wasn't around enough for him to say it to him; Charlie would just shrug and explain that he had his dragons; Bill would purse his lips and glance towards Fleur; Ginny would get a vacant look; but Harry would just look like Ron had just insulted him and inform him that love, and thus sentiment, had kept him alive. Ron couldn't argue with him at that, he was right. However, out of all the people he had said it to, even after George began saying it as well, it was never mention around their mother. It would break her heart.

He should have noticed that he wasn't helping himself or George.

One Year.

George overdosed on drugs for the first time and Ron felt something inside of him snap.

Ron hadn't even known that George had been taking drugs, he had hidden his usage well as they had both been living in the flat above the shop at the time and Ron didn't know how to identify the symptoms. He could now. In fact, Ron hadn't even been the one to find him after he had overdosed, Harry had. Harry had been coming to announce the early completion of his first stage of auror training, coming to ask them if they wanted to go out for a drink to celebrate. He hadn't expected to find George's limp body sprawled across the ground and foaming slightly at the mouth.

Now, if Harry hadn't just completed his first stage of auror training, it was highly likely that he would have panicked in the situation that he had found himself in. However, Harry had completed his first stage of auror training and was able to keep a level head, meaning that he was able to deal with the situation that he had (quite literally) stumbled upon in the backroom of of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. From what he had informed Ron, Harry had hoisted George over his shoulder after checking his heart rate and airways, before stumbling over to the floo -as he was unable to disapparate within the store- and then flooded straight to St Mungos.

This was where Ron had found out what had occurred, he had been George's emergency contact -which was something that George had chosen not to inform him of. Once the healer had informed him that George was lucky to be alive, part of Ron just... broke because he would not lose yet another brother and he would do anything to keep him alive.

Ron asked Harry how to identify if someone was using drugs. Harry had looked at him suspiciously for a moment, as though he knew why he was asking that of him; he probably did, Harry was strangely observant when it came to this kind of thing.

Harry agreed.

One Year And Six Months.

From what Ron could tell from the information that Harry had provided him with; George had not taken any drugs since the incident six months ago, but Ron wasn't entirely sure that he was off of them completely, George was too good an actor and Ron wasn't amazingly observant but he was getting better. After Harry had informed him of how drugs affect a person's appearance subtly (like how it changed the size of the pupil). As a result of this, Ron had begun to notice subtle things about people's appearances and how they could be used to identify information about said person. He would rant about all the things he noticed about their customers in the evenings -George would always smirk at the stories.

Eventually, deducing the customer's became a game that the two of them would play, who could deduce the most about the customers? They were a far from perfect duo, Harry would always chuckle at the stories they would come up with, and Ron would feel like he was getting a part of himself back. But then, George confronted him about wanting to change his appearance.

He didn't want to keep seeing Fred in the mirror.

And with that, Ron started looking for the magical for the job; he wouldn't allow some incompetent… goldfish ruin his brother, he would no longer allow his brother to suffer; so he enlisted Harry's help in researching the various different wizards and witches to perform the task. After finding a witch to perform the task, George had to decide on what he was going to change his appearance to.

George had taken a while to decide what he wanted to change his appearance to (over a month) before finally deciding that he wanted to look completely unlike he currently did, Ron futility attempted to joke that he would look more like Harry's brother after the operation. Nobody laughed.

George went through with the operation and came out of it with dark, curly hair, enhanced cheekbones and crystal coloured eyes. Eyes which held happiness for once.

Ron knew that he would do anything to keep his brother happy.

Two Years.

Ron left the joke shop. He had been working there for over two years and he left, finally feeling confident that George was no longer a danger to himself, and got a job at the ministry. However, he got bored of the lower position that he had in the ministry extremely quickly, he hadn't realised how incredibly slow the average person was. Ron had spent the last two years with George, slowly sharpening in intelligence to incredible speeds, failing to interact with anyone other than his brother and Harry in that period of time. Sure, Harry wasn't as good at deductions as him or George, but he was able to make simpler deductions, especially when it came to his own job, it was how he was able to reach higher positions so quickly after completing auror so quickly. But Harry was still better to talk to compared to the more average people, and he wasn't at all resentful when Ron pointed out something that he has missed, instead chuckling under his breath and clapping Ron on the shoulder to show that there were no hard feelings.

Everything seemed fine.

And just like that George overdosed for the second time. Ron was the one who found George this time, he had swung the door of their flat open to announce his promotion, grinning stupidly until his eyes fell upon the prone body of his closest brother, eyes gazing blankly at the ceiling, needle still in his arm. When he was ask by the healer later, Ron was unable to recall how he got to St Mungos -only that he had to keep George alive.

Later, the Healer attending to George informed Ron that his brother had overdosed on some wizarding drug that had been increasing in popularity, it's stronger than muggle drugs they informed him it's easier to overdose on, especially if the user is using muggle dosage. Ron had just stared blankly at George's pail body, their mother was bent over him sobbing, her shoulders trembling violently. It was all too much, Ron left.

That night, Ron ranted to Harry, who listened absentmindedly, having long since grown used to his best friend's rants, about how he wasn't there and when Harry pointed out that he couldn't always be around, Ron swore that he would find away to.

And thus Ron began to climb the ladder in politics, slipping into the shadows.

He wondered how his younger self would have reacted.

Four Years.

George's memories began to slip away, shortly after Ginny announced that she was pregnant. He began to slowly lose interest in the joke shop. He also spent a lot of his time as high as a kite, no matter how many times Ron forced him into rehab -he made George keep a list of what he had taken, it wasn't ideal but it was the best they could do. Ron wasn't entirely sure what started the mental change in George, Harry would swear it was when he solved the case that had been left on the kitchen table but Ron would always swear that it as when George overdosed for the first time.

No one could be sure.

However, it first became obvious when George would no longer respond to his given name but instead would only respond to Sherlock; claiming that his name was William Sherlock Scott Holmes, he had no recollection of being called George Weasley. It was one of the easier changes to accept.

The next noticeable changes in George's, Sherlock's mental state was when he began to refer to Ron as Mycroft, Ron rather liked the name so he allowed his brother to continue to refer to him as such. Perhaps he shouldn't've.

And then one of the most drastic changes occurred. He didn't recognise his own mother. Molly had been visiting them, something that she had become accustomed to do since her children have moved out, she had stepped through the the floo and was conversing with Ron when Sherlock entered the room. He had taken one look at her and instantly dismissed her. And when she has attempted to greet him with a hug, he had pushed her away and questioned who she was. Something within their mother had just broke, she had fallen into inconsolable sobs. Ron had had to gently guide her to the floo and back to the burrow.

Ron hadn't missed Sherlock's look of destain.

Four Years, Nine Months.

Sherlock seemingly vanished during the birth of Harry's and Ginny's first child. Ron had returned from the hospital after he was named godfather, to find their flat empty, stripped of his brother's possessions. However, Ron had been expecting this for a while, Sherlock's memory had been rapidly deteriorating, being replaced with an alternate life that he had never lived.

Ron quickly found him in the muggle world, going under the title of consulting detective.

So, he settled into his role as Sherlock's elder brother: Mycroft, 'the British Government' for over a decade.

With a few memory charms, of course.

Righteo, I've decided to turn this into a multi-chaptered story.

What do you think?

Please inform me of any mistakes as I do not have a beta.

And a big thanks to my reviewer, CXMP 13 and those who have followed this story! Armed Truth, Bernadette Kaulitz, Ju du Nord, Pheobe Arocis, SecretSpells, Seravonjia d' Felys, daydreamer1008 and kt852521.

-Basilisk.