Author's Note: Ah! So, I finished this chapter early, and I just want to say that you guys are fantastic :D I'm touched you all don't seem to want this story to end! It's truly the best thing I could have ever asked for. So it's with a heavy heart that I say that this is the second to last chapter :( I always knew at what point I wanted to end it, and sadly, it's coming very quickly. But, that's later! I hope you all enjoy this chapter and a VERY special thank you to Cristina Weasley, GeorgieForever, Spiralling-Down, Punzie the Platypus, melkyre, Jojo, DisgracedxMia, Aris1013, Blue Luver5000, BeingHannah923, ZivaLou, stargirlak, and mybryne for reviewing!
Disclaimer: I have no ownership whatsoever.
Summary: After an accident with a Bludger, George has lost his memory. All of it. And Fred is determined to bring it back.
Rating: K+
Once A Weasley
'Life is my creation, is my best friend,
Imagination is my defense,
And I'll keep going when skies are grey,
Whatever happens was meant that way.
I'm a creationist.'
'The Creationist,' Kerli
Fred sat by George's bedside, as per usual, and feeling like there wasn't enough time in the day, yet too many minutes in an hour. It felt like time was moving by both quickly, and slowly. Slowly, because every second that George was unconscious felt like a lifetime. Yet, it passed too quickly because he and Lee needed to come up with a plan as to how to keep Umbridge away from the twins by, well, yesterday. She could burst through the door any second, and both wizards were at a loss as to what to do.
Fred wished he could talk to George about it; even if he didn't have any more of an idea than he himself did, he at least felt like whatever they did decide to do, they could pull it off. Organising a plan without him made Fred feel lost; he'd never done it before, and he never wanted to. Yet here he was, trying to think through his haze of numbness. He was past feeling sorrow, fear...his body seemed to reject those basic emotions. Instead he felt nothing, and Fred, well-known to being unable to sit in one place for more than twenty minutes, could spend hours and hours without moving, watching his twin.
If it wasn't for Lee force feeding him, he doubted he would. And he would only sleep when Lee could be awake to make sure Fred didn't miss George awakening, but unbeknownst to Fred, Lee always went to sleep just after Fred, and managed to wake up just before. It wasn't that he thought it was unimportant, but if Lee slept through the day, he wouldn't be able to force Fred to take care of himself. He made Fred leave to shower every other day, and forced food down his throat at the very least three times a day.
Fred was impassive for most of the time, and unresponsive unless asked something several times. Lee was worried about what was going on inside him, what was running through his mind. He was concerned that Fred might never get over it, that even when George awoke, he'd never let go. It scared him about as much as waiting for George to wake up and see if anything was wrong with him.
Lee, presently, was carrying as much food as he could carry that he nicked from the kitchens for Fred and himself. He managed to knock the Hospital Wing door open with his hip without dislodging anything from his arms and headed over to George's bed. He peered through the drapes, and noticed with a pain that Fred was staring blankly at George's form. "Hey, Fred," he said in a false upbeat voice.
Fred barely aknowledged him. It had been three days since Lee told him about Umbridge, and for some reason, ever since then Fred hadn't really been...here. His mind was far off, somewhere out of Hogwarts, out of reality. Lee had a lot of time to think both about what they could do about her, and what was causing Fred's distance. He wondered if it was because Fred wasn't quite sure how to go about planning without his partner in crime. It made sense, considering that it was ever since he told him about Umbridge that he changed.
And today, Lee was determined to bring him out of it. "Fred," he said loudly, reaching forward to shake his shoulder.
"Hmm?" Fred sounded, seeming to just realise that Lee was there.
Lee was just happy Fred answered. "Here," he said, handing him a few pieces of toast and bacon. "Eat. You need it."
Fred mechanically reached out for the food and ate it without tasting it.
Lee, himself, didn't touch his own food, and merely watched Fred carefully. "You need to snap out of this, mate," he said fiercely. "We need to figure something out, we can't waste anymore time. And...Fred," he said forcefully, seeing that Fred wasn't really listening. "Fred!" Lee shouted, frustrated, but there was still no response. So, Lee hit him. Hard.
"Wha - What the hell, Lee!" Fred burst out angrily, rubbing his jaw. He glared at him and looked like he was about to hit him back, but was startled out of his fury by Lee collapsing with relief.
"Oh thank God, Fred, you were scaring me," Lee told him, hand on his heart. "Please, hit me if you have to, but just stay here, mate."
Fred blinked. He looked around him as if seeing everything for the first time. He rubbed his jaw again absent-mindly. "Thanks," he said, giving him a crooked smile. "If I ever get like that again, you have my permission to punch me out of it."
Lee snorted. "Like it would make a difference," he grinned, laughing with a lightened heart. But he sombered up a little and leaned forward. "Look, I know we're down a man, but we can still figure out a way to keep Umbridge off yours and George's back. But I can't do this alone."
Fred nodded. "Yeah...yeah, we can. We just have to figure out a way to distract her. Not distract her for an afternoon with fireworks, we need something to keep her occupied for a few days at least. It won't be enough to simply tell her Geor...he's okay," he said, faltering on his brother's name. But he pretended it didn't happen and ploughed forward. "We can't have Mr. Rikialria simply write a note, she'll try even harder then to prove otherwise. We need to get her focus off of the Hospital Wing, because she's bound to check here soon enough. Think...what does her sadistic little mind love to do?"
"Well, she loves toturing George or Harry," Lee snorted once more. "All we need is a couple of duplicates and we'll be set."
Fred's eyes widened. "Say that again," he said excitedly.
Lee corked up an eyebrow. "Mate, I was kidding..."
"No, it's perfect," he grinned widely. "We can get a couple of friends to take polyjuice potion! They just need to not get detention, but make Umbridge think that they're us, so she'll have no reason to come up here!"
"I see one giant flaw in your plan," Lee told him. "Polyjuice takes, what, a month to make? And that's if you do it correctly, and I'm not sure I trust you to brew a difficult potion successfully when the highest grade you've gotten in Potions was a 'Poor.' And that was on that pink sludge you made at the beginning of the year while Snape was lenient."
Fred smirked and patted Lee's shoulder. "My dear Lee," he said dramatically. "Growing up as me, you begin to learn that anything is possible if you have enough nerve. And I, my friend, have enough nerve for the both of us."
Lee laughed. "Well, I guess I can muster up enough rationalism for the both of us, though, George was always better at stopping your craziness." He paused. "Or fueling it."
Fred made an odd expression, something between a smirk and a grimace. He looked back at George with a sad look. "Yeah. It's going to be...different without him along." He looked at Lee again. "It almost seems wrong."
"C'mon, mate, you know George would want you to get that toad good. And he'll get a kick out of it once he wakes up, you'll see," Lee said bracingly.
Fred looked pained at that, closing his eyes briefly, before shaking himself and saying, "All we need to do is pray that the old, greasy bat happens to have polyjuice potion in that nifty old storage of his."
"And if he doesn't?" Lee asked.
"Well, Lee, then we move on to Plan B."
"Which is?"
"We cage Umbridge in the Chamber of Secrets and run like hell."
"This is mad," Lee muttered as the two crept around the corner, edging closer to Snape's potion cabinet. "Umbridge is Head Mistress, and Snape is most likely a Death Eater in disguise. And here we are, sneaking into Snape's potion storage to undermine the sadistic Head, with nothing more than a statue of a bird."
"Will you shut it?" Fred hissed. "Merlin, Ron could find us if you keep that up!"
"I'm just saying, I'm more of a set fireworks off and sneak Nifflers into people's classrooms kind of guy -"
"And I'm just saying be quiet!" Fred snapped under his breath. "The point of sneaking, is to be sneaky. If you were supposed to make a lot of noise, they'd call it -"
"Noising?" Lee offered, smirking in amusement.
"Oh shut up, Jordan," Fred grumbled, annoyed. "Just hand me the bird."
Lee put the tiny bird in Fred's hand with skepticism, but kept his comments to himself. Fred tapped it with his wand, murmuring something Lee couldn't make out. But then Lee's mouth fell open as he watched the bird ruffle it's feathers and take off. "What the..."
Fred smirked. "It checks to see if anyone is close by. If it comes back red, well, we hide. If it comes back blue, we can go in."
Lee nodded. It took a few minutes, but the bird came zooming back, landing in Fred's outstretched hand. It was blue. "Good. Okay, let's go." The two crept into the room.
"Great, now what?" Lee asked.
Fred thought for a moment, and a sudden thought struck him. "Invenire Polyjuice potion," Fred said hopefully. He held his breath for a second, praying as hard as he could that luck would finally be on his side.
A light way up on the storage suddenly appeared, causing Fred to laugh in relief. "We're in luck, Lee," he beamed. He let the bird loose to do another round.
Lee was dumbfounded. "What on earth is that?"
"It's the Polyjuice potion," Fred replied, rolling his eyes. "I, erm, made it up. It's so we know where it is, and thank Merlin this greasy old git had some."
"Why does he, do you reckon?" Lee inquired.
Fred shrugged. "Don't know, don't care. Just as long as he has it."
The bird flew threw the room and landed on Fred's shoulder. It remained blue, much to Fred's relief. "Okay, erm...Recupero Polyjuice potion," Fred said a bit uncertainly.
The bird shot upwards, circling their heads twice before charging forward, maneuvering its way in between closely placed viles artistically. Fred winked at Lee's seemingly permanent stunned visage. The bird, after a few moments, came back out, dropping the bottle of Polyjuice potion almost immediately; but Fred was prepared for it this time. He caught it and whistled for the bird to come down. He sent it back out to make sure they could escape without being seen.
"Mate, is there anything you or George can't think up?" Lee asked him, half amused, half serious.
Fred made a show of tapping his chin in mock thoughtfulness. "Hmm...I doubt it." The bird came soaring back, remaining its vibrant blue. Fred tapped it with his wand, and it became stoic once more. "Let's go."
The two wizards snuck out, walking cautiously for a few minutes before they relaxed. "Go get whoever you can to play George and I," Fred whispered. "I'm going back up to the Hospital Wing." Lee nodded and they went their separate ways.
Fred broke out into a run, hurtling around each corner and taking the steps two at a time. He didn't stop until he skidded to a stop beside George's bed. The sight of seeing his twin motionless never failed to send a flash of pain through Fred's heart. He sat into his seat slowly, the excitement of his and Lee's mission fading away to be replaced by an aching sadness.
He wanted to shake him, shake him so hard he'd wake up. Fred knew he'd awake - Mr. Rikialria said so - but the way it felt now, having waited nearly a week, it seemed to Fred's anguished mind that George might never open his eyes. That's rubbish, he scolded himself severely, mentally slapping himself. Don't think like that, you know he will. Stop being a prat. But it was easier to berate himself than to change his heart.
He leaned forward and propped his elbows on his knees, his chin resting on the hand clutching the flask of Polyjuice potion. He let out a long breath, watching George's blankets rise and fall. Fred had said all he needed to over the course of the days, but he still felt like there was always something he forgot, something that was vitally important, yet he couldn't recall what it was. It ate at him every day, but he still had yet to remember what it was that he wanted to tell his unconscious brother that he wouldn't be able to hear anyways. It seemed silly to him now; why was he so hung up on it? George wouldn't know that he sat by his side every day, or talked to him just to keep himself sane. Fred grimaced. To George, these days would pass as quickly as a few minutes. To Fred, well, it took much longer.
It seemed silly to be upset after all this time; surely Fred should have gotten used to it by now? Surely he should be able to 'man up' and stop being so sappy...but it was physically impossible for Fred to leave. George was like a magnet, and Fred couldn't make himself pull away. And he couldn't stop the ache in his heart when he looked at his best friend and know that there was a possibility that he wouldn't turn out all right. Fred didn't know if he could take that, and it wasn't because he was worried that his life would change. He was terrified about George and George alone, that George might be unable to speak, or see, or...remember anything. Remember Fred.
Fred bit his lip hard and sat up straight, glancing at the one window to the right of him, just above George's bed. It seemed almost disrespectful for the day to be so beautiful out. Fred had to remind himself that the rest of the world wasn't waiting in anticipation for one seventh year ginger to wake up like he was. In the grand scheme of things, whether George woke up fine or not was insignificant. But to his twin, it meant the world.
He stared at his hands and fiddled with his sleeves, every so often looking up at George's never changing face. Fred felt like there should be a handbook on this sort of thing. How were you supposed to handle this situation? What were you supposed to do? He figured he should prepare for the worst, but he couldn't bring himself to go down that track. After everything they had been through together, how could all that have been threatened just because of one bloody good-for-nothing Slytherin? It wasn't fair that Goyle or Malfoy had that kind of power. They shouldn't have that kind of power, but in a way, everyone did. No one was cruel or demented enough to use it, but they could. And that was what sickened him.
Fred had been given a lot of time to think the past couple of days, and he kept going back to that Quidditch game. If only Fred had done something, pushed him out of the way. If only he had gone after Harry instead. Fred would do anything to take George's place. If it had to be one of them to suffer, he wished with all his might it had been him.
He sat like that for some time, brooding and watching, lost in his own thoughts. But it wasn't long after Fred had arrived that Lee came bursting through the doors and nearly tripping over his own two feet as he lurched to a stop just before knocking Fred off his chair. "I got them," he grinned, slightly out of breath. Fred looked around his friend and found Angelina and Katie Bell behind him.
Fred corked up an eyebrow in surprise. "You want girls to play George and I?" he said skeptically. "How will that work?"
"C'mon, we've been around you two long enou -" Angelina began, but her voice faltered as her eyes landed on George. For the first time in her life, she was lost for words. She had no idea what had been going on with him, only that it must have been pretty bad because Fred always looked on guard, his stance protective and his eyes venomous if a person happened upon them at the wrong time. But it was the first time she had ever seen George - or Fred - in this kind of state. She'd seen them through Quidditch injuries, sure. But George looked very ill. And Fred looked almost deadened. It frightened her as to what that meant.
"What happened to him?" Katie suddenly asked, eyes wide. She was the first to regain her speech, but she too had been awfully stunned at the sight of her two friends.
Fred's wall immediately went up and he snapped automatically, "Nothing." There was a pause. "Sorry," he murmured, looking away. "Touchy subject."
The two didn't want to push, but they were dying of curiosity. But a single glance from Lee told them strictly not to. "So, erm, we'll be pretending to be you two?" Angelina asked, trying to ignore how her voice was slightly higher than normal.
"I suppose..." Fred said slowly, unsure.
"I think they can pull it off," Lee piped in earnestly. "Plus...they were the only people I could find." His face was a bit sheepish at the end.
"So I'm assuming every guy was in Azkaban, then?"
"Oh shut up," Angelina said, her normal attitude coming back. "We can do this. It's not like we're idiots or anything."
Fred grimaced, but otherwise nodded. "I guess we don't have much of a choice." Fred held out the Polyjuice potion, frowning slightly. "Does anyone have a cup or something?"
"A flask would probably be better to carry around," Katie said.
"Do you have one?"
"Erm...well, no -"
"Well, thanks for that," Fred rolled his eyes. Katie stuck her tongue out at him.
A sudden idea struck Lee at that moment as his eyes landed on a trolley of potions near Madam Pomfrey's office. "Why don't we empty a bottle or something?" he suggested. "We can shrink it so it'll be easy to carry around, and that way you can keep taking it every so often."
"Are we supposed to be permanently you two?" Angelina asked skeptically, eyeing the flask in Fred's hands. "Because I don't think that will last the two of us very long."
"No," Fred answered. "You just have to be us from time to time, preferably when Umbridge can spot you so she thinks George is..." he cleared his throat, "- fine."
"There should be enough for a little while if you spread it out thinly enough," Lee told them. He looked at Fred. "We just need your hair."
He nodded, reaching up and grabbing a few strands. He tugged and let out a yelp as they came loose. "Bloody hell," he mumbled, rubbing the back of his head with the other hand as he gave Lee his hair.
"Baby," Angelina remarked. Fred gave her a mock glare.
"Should we take George's hair too?" Katie asked.
Fred frowned. "Why? We have the same DNA."
"Well, just to be safe..." Katie said unsurely.
Fred corked up an eyebrow. "Can you tell us apart?" Katie shook her head. "Well, there you go."
Lee went over to Madam Pomfrey's trolley, glancing around so as to make sure she wouldn't come bursting through the door without him knowing. He snatched two nearly empty bottles and ran back. Without a word he opened the bottles and poured the liquids on the ground.
"Er..." Fred sounded, thinking that Lee might have gone off the deep end.
But after they were both empty, Lee pointed his wand and said, "Terego." The puddles immediately disappeared.
"Oh...smart," Fred ended up saying.
Lee smirked. "Got it over quickly, didn't it?" He then pointed his wand in the bottles and cleaned those out too. "Okay...pour the Pol - er..." he suddenly got paranoid and looked around. "The, er, potion in."
Fred looked amused, but did as asked. He tried to fill both bottles as equally as possible and then added his hair to each one. Instantly, the liquid turned a deep red shade, like Fire Whiskey. Not that - ahem - Fred would know what Fire Whiskey looked like. But nevertheless, Fred found it fitting and grinned in almost pride. "Enjoy," he winked.
Angelina rolled her eyes and Katie laughed. "Better get going," Katie said as she capped her bottle and shrunk it a bit. They bade their fairwell and gave George one last sad, lingering glance before they departed. Out of the two of them, Angelina seemed the most upset.
Fred sighed in relief once they left, knowing that Umbridge would be taken care of. Plus...as much as he loved Angelina and Katie, he didn't like the extra people around. He wished he could have figured out a way to get rid of Umbridge for good, but it would at least be a small little victory if he could keep her away from them for a while. He leaned back in his chair, huffing out a breath and focusing on George once more. He remained like that for a while, and Lee tentatively pulled up a chair on the other side of the ginger in the bed. "How long do you think it'll take?" Fred suddenly asked him in a quiet tone, so different from his manner before. His eyes never left his brother.
Lee was slightly taken aback as Fred broke the silence, but inquired, "How long will what take?"
"I suppose it's more a question of which comes first," Fred muttered more to himself than Lee.
Lee was completely lost. "What are you talking about?"
But Fred was in his own little world right now. He chuckled without humour to himself. "I think I know the answer."
"The answer to what?" Lee demanded.
Fred looked at him. "The answer to whether or not I'll go mad before George wakes up," he answered tonelessly, his eyes carrying a haunted look that Lee had never noticed before.
There was a moment of silence as Lee let his words crash over him. "Fred, you won't go mad," he told him determinedly. "Don't give up now. He's going to wake up, you know that."
"Yeah, and how long do you think that'll take?" Fred asked him in a hard voice. "It's barely been a week, and this could last months."
"But he's going to wake," Lee almost implored. "He's not dead, Fred, just relax. There's no use getting all worked up about it -"
Fred glared at him viciously. "Don't tell me to relax," he snarled dangerously, his wand sparking.
"Okay," Lee said quickly, holding his hands up in surrender. "I just don't want you to drive yourself mental. Just...try to take it easy."
There are moments in life where some things seem to happen in slow motion. Technically speaking, time has never slowed, but your brain processes information faster than you ever believed possible, giving you that 'edited-movie' effect. This happened to be one of those times.
Fred opened his mouth to retaliate - probably with something either clever, witty, or hurtful; we'll never know. Because it was at that very moment, as his vocal chords prepared to vibrate out the sounds that would very quickly become words, a small, feeble groan made itself known to the world. Fred's lungs stopped cold and his eyes widened before Lee even registered that Fred had been about to speak.
He whipped his head back to the bed so fast he was pretty sure he'd have a permanent kink in his neck. Fred's eyes snapped to George's face, and he noticed the eyelids twitching, about to open. "Georgie?"
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