Shock, horror I'm down

Lost, you're not around

There's a lump in my chest that, sends cold to my head and

my mind shuts sound out

I'm on auto-pilot, and my tongues gone silent

I don't know when I lost my mind, maybe it was every time, that you said

That I miss you


He paused in the doorway, hand caught at the back of his neck where he'd been tirely scratching an itch.

There were clothes strewn across the floor, as per usual. The curtains were pulled across the window as the sun tried to wiggle its way in.

He frowned and lifted his hand to poke at the half covered body lying on the bed. This was the way he'd found his twin for about a week now. Always asleep and starking in bed, exhausted, and most noticeably alone.

Fred groaned and swatted an arm blindly in George's direction.

"Fuck off." he grunted into his pillow.

"Are you becoming a one night stand for your own girlfriend, mate?"

Fred heaved a sigh and turned onto his back, throwing an arm carelessly over his forehead and squinted at his brother.

"No, thank you, she just has things to do."

"Mhmm."

Fred eyed his brother with a narrow look.

"What?" he asked sharply.

George sat on his own bed, toeing off his shoes and shuffling a folder.

"Nothing. I didn't say anything."

"It was implied."

"Nothing mate, really. It's just...well it's just odd."

"No it's not, George. She just has things to do is all."

"Like what, exactly? Fred, she's not working anymore. She's not scheduled for morning rounds. Where's she going?"

"You do remember she's got a kid to look after, right?"

George rolled his eyes.

"Fred..."

His twin turned away and faced the wall, his eyes solemn. He knew he wasn't sure where Aero ran off to. He'd come to terms with his new, more serious and melancholy relationship. He couldn't bring himself to care all the much as long as it was still Aero he got to call his. Things weren't going to be like they were before, he knew that. He expected that much.

So she'd been distant for awhile. Uninterested and tired and out a lot. Their conversations never had much depth anymore. And then this week, out of nowhere, they'd been having this mind-blowing sex. The type of sex where lamps would be knocked over, walls crashed into, bras thrown on doorhandles, shirt-ripping sex, sex where he'd finally see her eyes light up again and that would be the end of him. So if she wanted to leave while he slept to do whatever it was she did, he was fine with that as long as she continued letting him see her eyes light up like that.

"Leave it, George."

"I'm just concerned. About you both. About you."

Fred's heart clenched and he squeezed his eyes shut as they watered against his will and he felt the bed dip and the warmth of his twin folded in around him as arms wrapped around his waist, just holding him close. A nose nuzzled against him and Fred's body trembled as he cried, not letting a single sound escape him, but his pillow was under heavy rainfall none-the-less.

He couldn't tell when Aero left. But he missed her.


Aero glanced up from the Quibbler at the kitchen table, pausing in her conversation with a grumbly Dung, and peered at Selena who just entered.

"Is your dress on backwards?"

"No."

"And inside out?"

"No."

"And did you get into my make-up?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"No-wait!-hold-yes."

Aero made a face, as she could clearly see Selena had tried to dress herself and her green dress was on backwards and inside out and she had a big red lipstick drawing over her general mouth location. She glanced back at her paper.

"Would you like breakfast?" Aero asked.

"I make myself."

"Well, of course."

Selena made her way further into the room and opened the cabinets, which were basically as tall as her, and hummed a tune to herself. When she couldn't find something in one cabinet, she left the doors open and moved on to another. Dung grumbled on, rather loudly for so early in the morning, about this illegal adventure he had gone on...for business purposes of course.

"An he says to me, 'ee says, Mistah you can't be having none of this shite, cause it's still property of the Ministry O' Magic and what all, and I says to eem, I says, listen mate, I knows more peoples in that damn building and I can take this stuff by simple 'sociation and what not-"

"Dung, you're not dropping names, are you?" Remus asks as he comes into the room.

"Course not, course not, Mad-eye tells me not to, course I don't." Dung muttered.

"You think anyone would actually believe one of our Ministry members would befriend Dung and let him off for things, Lupin?" Sirius asked, walking in and scratching his stomach.

"Sirius, put some clothes on. Have a bit of decency." Remus muttered, stealing Aero's paper and using it to shield his face.

"Nothing you haven't seen before, Remus."

"Something I'd like to not have seen before." Aero offered.

Sirius rolled his eyes and sat down at the head of the table, reclining lazily.

A clattering of pans and pots pierced the air.

"I's okay!" a tiny voice cried.

"Alright, you carry on then." Aero responded, shaking her head.

Remus choked on his spit and his eyes bugged.

"Sirius! Put on some clothes, good God man, there's a child here!"

Sirius eyed Remus with little interest.

"You weren't even drinking anything, what the hell did you choke on, honestly?"

"Sirius!" Remus cried.

"Remus!" Sirius mimicked.

"Tonks!" she cried as she walked into the room, giving a small yawn at the end, and blinked at everyone. "What? I thought we were role calling?"

"No, Sirius is just naked and Remus is having a coronary about it." Aero supplied.

Tonks slumped over in a chair and cocked her head.

"Remus, you have seen a cock before, right?"

Remus sputtered something and a vein pulsed in his forehead.

Tonks raised her brow and regarded him curiously.

"Or maybe there's something you'd like to say, Remus. How do you feel about cock?"

"Cock!" chimed a voice from inside a bottom cabinet.

Remus made a whining noise in his throat and his head became hidden in his hands. Sirius barked a laugh and Aero sighed through her nose.

"Tonks, language, honestly."

"What's a cock?"

"See what you've done now?"

Selena poked her head out of the cabinet and looked sternly at Aero.

"What is cock?"

Aero glanced at her, feeling a headache, not to mention a churning stomach.

"Rooster."

"Huh?"

"A cock is a rooster, Lena. Cock-a-doodle-doo."

Understanding dawned the little face and took it for a reasonable answer before hiding herself away in the cabinet again and continuing her search for - what was she even looking for at this point?

A sharp pain pierced her stomach and Aero shifted uneasily in her seat, hand absently rubbing at her rather hard belly. Her head was suddenly pounding and she blinked, trying to clear her vision from the haziness around the edges.

"So, where's the Fredmeister this lovely morning?" Tonks asked.

Aero barely registered the question at first but swallowed some vomit and turned slightly to face her cousin.

"Sleeping, I presume."

"Yeah? Lots of orders coming into the shop I bet."

"Yeah, yeah. Lots of...lots.." Aero winced, shifting in her seat again.

Tonks frowned and leaned towards her a little.

"Alright there?"

"Yeah, sorry. Just a little stomach ache. But uhm, yes, there's lots of orders coming in, from the school and everything."

"Good business though, I bet. Kids wanting to get back at Umbridge and all."

"The boys are more than willing to help them with that."

Tonks laughed.

"I bet."

"Selena, what are you doing?" Sirius called, looking around Remus and towards the kitchen.

"There is a pop bottle. Open for me?"

"No-Selena darling that's- not for children-"

"I want it!"

"Selena darling-"

"I will open myself."

"Aero, your kid is stealing my fire-whiskey."

"Stop leaving your fire-whiskey near my kid."

"How was I supposed to know she likes to play in dusty cabinets?"

"I agree, horrible foresight on your part."

"Let the runt have a swig, ain't gonna harm nobody." Dung said, leaning back in his chair.

"No! She's four, she can't go around having alcohol." Remus protested, staring at Dung like he'd grown tentacles from his ears.

"Not even just a sip?" Tonks offered.

Remus whipped to look at her and she spread her hands in the universal 'I-surrender' gesture and smiled at him.

Selena poked her head out around the cabinet and Aero seriously thought Remus might have that coronary. Selena had shed her clothes, leaving her socks on, and sat down on the floor, the bottle of fire-whiskey open in her hands. She grinned a gaped-tooth grin and Aero could've sworn her eyes actually sparkled.

"I look like Uncle Sirius."


I'm just sitting on a fence of how it used to be

These three words are aching, constrict them suffocating

I don't know when I lost my mind, maybe when I made you mine

I miss you, more than I let on


She could hear them all talking downstairs, enjoying their breakfast. Occasionally her Great-Aunt Walburga would start shrieking when someone rang the bell, despite the thousands of times Sirius told them not to. So far Walburga had screamed three times. It wasn't anyway to keep time but she couldn't bring her eyes to the clock. She couldn't bring herself to look at anything really.

Aero was huddled into a small, slightly trembling, ball in on the side of her bed, far from the mirror. She wasn't allowing herself to look in the mirror and she wanted nothing more than to cover it up, break it into tiny shards so it would never reveal such a sight to her ever again. She couldn't so much as blink right then though so it remained free to reflect whatever horrifying images it wanted.

Her hands were shaking a bit and her breathing was irregular, like she couldn't catch her breath and her head was swimming with the pounding of her own blood and a pleading mantra.

This couldn't be happening.

She pulled her knees to her chest and rested her chin on top, staring blankly at the floor.

This couldn't be real.

She placed her hands on the floor and slowly crawled on her hands and knees across the floor and peeked around the bed. She saw her face, pale and thin and sickly looking, peering back at her. She had lost weight. If she hadn't lost so much weight she probably wouldn't have even seen that horrifying image and could pretend it wasn't happening for just a little while longer.

She shakily stood on her feet and stood in front of the mirror. She turned to the side and lifted her shirt up with hard, determined eyes. Her fingers ghosted her hard stomach and her heart failed.

There couldn't be something in there.

This wasn't happening.


An owl hooted at the window that night, staring with large yellow eyes into the dimly lit bedroom. She peeked at it, curled up in her blankets and numb to the bone. Her head was heavy and her heart was dying and someone had chosen now to write her a letter.

She didn't recognize it. She didn't know whose owl this was but she wanted to kill it, to watch it fall from the sky. She wanted to jump out the window after it.

She didn't even recognize the hand-writing; cursive and elegant scrawl but written with a heavy hand as the ink almost bled through the paper.

I don't know where you're hidden, so you'll have to do me the honor of coming to see me, darling.

I promise no tricks. No lies. I just wish to see you.

Come to Nocturn Alley tomorrow evening, my little one, at midnight.

I cannot wait.