Double or Nothing

Chapter Twenty-Five

Leave

You know you're the only one I need
I can't do this without you can't you see?
You know you're the only one
Don't leave, Don't leave

And I know it's been
Such a long time since we've just been friends
And not soldiers on a front line of the war
That we were born into but we have to do this together
Don't Leave- Ministry of Magic

xxxXxxx

George both regretted and was relieved about his decision to join the Grecian. If it was taking this long by cart he would be doomed walking and one cannot Apparate if one does not know where to Apparate to after all. But still, was it really worth having his remaining ear talked off by this kid? He supposed he was hardly a kid, he had mentioned he was twenty but from the animatedness with which he spoke if was difficult to believe.
It must have been past noon by now and they had stopped many times for George to vomit, clearly vodka had a lasting effect and he could really only imagine how bloodshot his eyes must be.
What had happened to 'Fred's' ear had cropped up at some point in the very one sided conversation. To which George had creatively replied "Accident."

Thankfully by now Alex's incessant chatter had died down some and it was only a few minutes of blissful silence except for the occasionally snorting of the mule, before they rounded a corner that brought into their sight, civilisation.
"My home, Konitsa." Alex beamed, urging the mule faster onto a gentle decline.
It was another ten minutes, mostly downhill, until they drew into the outskirts of the town. The wizard was already beginning to get uncomfortable, thoroughly wishing he could just disappear.

It was very much a foreign place; the buildings were predominantly stone and, from what George could see, all seemed to be white or pale colours with the same tiled roofs, either a pale orange or black.
Modes of transportation, from carts to motorcycles to cars, were assorted at random intervals in the streets. Several people, dressed in anything from what George gathered to be traditional Greek clothing to jeans and T-shirts, were going about their business. And then there were the likes of which George had never seen before. One girl was holding a hand to her ear, appearing to be speaking into nothing. George did a double take at this, earning a very odd look from Alex. He decided not to reveal his ignorance of muggle life and sat quietly…and uncomfortably.

Thinking that perhaps the reason for Fred's strange behaviour was merely the fact that he was in a foreign country and therefore was unfamiliar with the Greek way of life, Alex shrugged it off, though surely they had cell phones in…wherever he was from, England he thought, from his accent.
"My mother does not speak English." He said, forewarning his companion as he pulled the mule to a halt in front of a comfortable looking cottage-like house. Like most of the others, the walls were painted a crisp white though, also like many of the others, it had its own uniqueness about it.
"Greeat." The Englishman sighed, unsure what he was supposed to do, and why the hell he was there. How was he supposed to find Dominío when some 'hospital' Greek fellow insisted he stay with his family?
"Álex, eísai spíti!"
The Grecian jumped to the ground and turned, George raised an eyebrow as a girl, perhaps sixteen, came running from the house. George tilted his head, she looked vaguely familiar. But how was it possible that he could have seen her before? It was obviously Alex's sister.
After a quick exchange in Greek, Alex motioned for George to get down, an act that he did slowly.
"This is my young sister Irene."
The girl stared at him then turned to speak in Greek to her brother, probably asking who this strange one-eared man sitting in their cart was and George was pretty sure he had heard 'Fred' somewhere in Alex's reply.

"Look…" he said firmly, trying to ignore the somewhat suspicious expression on the girls' face "I really can't stay."
That got the Greeks' attention immediately and Alex opened his mouth to speak just as George cut him off.
"No really. I can't. Thanks and all but I can't." And simply with that, George turned on his left heel and Disapparated, not caring about the presence of Muggles and all that that hardly seemed necessary now.

As the Englishman quite literally disappeared the siblings exchanged a glance. Each pairs of eyes staring rather knowingly and blankly into the other with a thorough lack of shock. He was obviously the one.

xxxXxxx

Having no other place to go, George found himself back in the same place he had begun initially. Of course that had been his intention. The best bet was simply to hope and pray he was somewhere near where he needed to be.
This time heading the opposite way, the Weasley plastered on his now default impassive expression and tried not to feel completely hopeless. At least he didn't have to hear Fred's name used as his own now. He couldn't help but inwardly pine for his twin to speak again; he spoke so little to him.
It's not healthy for me to speak to you.
'But why not?'
You heard that…prophecy thingo. She meant me.
'I don't give a damn about that!'
I do! You were just starting to seem better…
'Better? You call this stupid, bitter, grieving existence better?'
And therein lies why I should not be speaking to you.
Fred sounded extremely sarcastic and George couldn't help but despise his brother for the moment. How could he consider leaving him….AGAIN!
'That's all you bloody seem to do!'
So, what then? Do you want me gone or not?
George didn't reply. Of course he didn't. He wanted his twin with him, properly; he wanted to be whole again he wanted to be funny and cheerful again. He wanted to not be stared at and whispered about like a freak show.
Fred knew all this; he must have known it…

xxxXxxx

"How's the ear, Lugless?" Fred smirked, barely looking up from the mountain of paperwork littering the kitchen table; it wasn't that it was recent, certainly not. In fact it was months late and what with the severe lack in business due to Death Eaters and the like roaming Diagon Alley, Fred thought, and he would never understand why, he would catch up on the paperwork.
George glared playfully at the back of his twin's head and continued to press the damp cloth to the place an ear had once been. The coolness soothed the pain, made it more bearable when it stung like hell.
"Fine, doesn't hurt as much anymore." He lied easily.
"Liar." The elder twin smirked and dropped his head onto the wood of the table "This is bloody hell. Now I really know why we leave it this long."
"You chose to do-oh hell no. I'm not doing it!" George pushed the parchment that Fred had just pushed to him away and leant back on the rear legs of a chair, slinging his feet onto the table. Sometimes he wondered if they weren't taking these times too lightly. It surely wouldn't be too long before the Death Eaters were after muggle-borns and 'blood traitors' and the Weasleys were the top of that list.

He blinked suddenly as Fred voiced his thoughts.
"You ever wonder if we're taking this too lightly?"
George nodded "Just thinking about that actually."
"I mean…" Fred laid aside his quill and rested his head in his palm "I assure you Ron, Harry and Hermione aren't having much fun."
"They better be alright…" Much as they teased their little brother, they obviously would rather he didn't die.

George winced and pressed the cloth to his head again as a particularly painful throb resounded in his head.
"You're not alright." Fred glared at him "I really wish you'd stop saying you were."
"Fred, m'fine." He insisted.
"Seriously, I'm your twin; you know you can't lie to me."
George sighed and averted his cerulean eyes from the identical ones of his brother "Well, hardly anymore."
Fred gaped, sure he had misheard his twin "Say what?"
"We're hardly twins anymore." George clarified "Particularly not identical."
Those words and the nonchalant manner in which George had said them echoed repeatedly in Fred's head.
"How can you say that?" He gaped, thoroughly hurt.

George blinked at him, he had not expected Fred to react like that.
"Mate, you sound like a girl…and it's true isn't it? Lost me ear to Snape didn't I? You didn't."
"So what? I wanted to cut my own ear off and you wouldn't let me! You're saying that because we don't look the same we're not twins anymore?"
"I said we're HARDLY twins anymore!" George defended.
"WE STILL LOOK THE SAME! YOU'RE JUST LOPSIDED!"
George gaped rather ungracefully "What the hell?" Fred had never gotten so angry before.
The elder 'twin' was far more upset than he was angry, he loved being a twin and he wouldn't have traded it for anything, anything at all and so for George to say that weren't twins anymore…to say it hurt would have been a drastic understatement.
"Don't blow it out of proportion! Obviously we're-" George cut himself off, feeling sudden sadistic pleasure. His brother wasn't going to listen so he wouldn't even try. "You know what? I don't care! We don't look alike and the way you're carrying on like a ten year old girl, we don't act alike!"
Fred's wouldn't look at George, it was as though he couldn't even see he was really hurting his brother.
"Shut up, George."
The one-eared Weasley blinked and stopped his rant momentarily. "What?"
"I said shut up, George!" Fred said louder, one hand clenching the wood of the table fiercely, trying his hardest not to tear a chunk out of it.
"I'll shut up if I damn well want to, Fred!" George didn't really know why he was still yelling but he didn't feel like calming down.
"George, I love having a twin, I love being a twin!" The brothers stood in unison, Fred's hand knocking over the open bottle of ink but, like the paperwork, it went unnoticed. "So don't you dare say we're not twins!"
The younger scoffed "Well guess what I just did. And right now, Fred? You're really pissing me off!" He didn't know what possessed him to say the words that next slipped from his lips "Maybe you should just go!"
Fred froze, surely he must have heard wrong. George would never have said that. "You-You want me to leave?" He muttered, far quieter than he intended.
Without thinking George nodded "Yeah, yeah I do."

Fred had never been one for outwardly displaying his sadness but he averted his eyes from those of George and nodded "Fine, then."
With that he turned and headed slowly into the bedroom "I'll be out soon as I can." He muttered quietly, trying not to let the tears stinging his eyes fall.

xxxXxxx

"Just talk to him, Georgie." Molly pleaded even as George turned his back.
"I don't want to."
"Fred's so forlorn at home. He looks so upset without you. Don't you get lonely here by yourself?"
George grunted and didn't answer; he had swept through a whole range of emotions over the last few days of living in the flat alone anything from anger, to, yes loneliness, he missed Fred. Part of him still couldn't believe that Fred had actually moved out because he thought that's what George wanted, which at the time had been true.
"He was the one who took it literally."
His mother whacked him sharply about his head "George! Our family needs, and I mean needs, to stay together. If we are being realistic the Death Eaters will be after this family any day now and do you really want you and your twin to be in such a state?"
George felt slightly ashamed and cast his gaze to the floor. Of course he didn't. He loved his brother; the whole thing had just blown totally out of proportion…REALLY out of proportion. He couldn't even really decide which of them was at fault. They'd never, in their nineteen years of life, lived apart for this long before. It was awfully lonely.
"Fine." George sighed. "I'll talk to him." Of course he hadn't really meant it when he said they weren't twins anymore. He just hadn't expected Fred to be so hurt; it really highlighted just how grounded Fred could be. George somehow thought his reaction would have been quite similar though, had their positions been reversed.

George snatched up a stray piece of parchment and scribbled on the back of what appeared to be an essential document of some kind.

It's awful lonely living alone, mate. Come home whenever you can bear to be in the same room as me again.

"Here, give this to Fred would you, Mum?" he asked, folding the parchment in half and handing it to Molly who took it, smiling slightly.
"Of course, dear."

xxxXxxx

"Course I don't." George muttered to himself, not even sure if Fred would be listening.