Let's try this again! Sorry this chapter was in code before. Don't know how that happened. Thanks for reading!

The sandwich shop was nearly empty by the time George was able to get there. It was extremely Muggle, stuffed with ugly rigid chairs and tables. There were pictures that didn't move on the walls and the few customers present were all wearing denim.

Alice Roberts sat towards the back of the shop sipping on a giant mug of coffee that looked comical in her small hands. She didn't say anything when he moved to her table, just pushed the chair across from her out with her foot to offer him a seat.

"You don't own a phone?" She said once he sat down.

"I don't...what?" He stammered.

"A phone?" She pulled a small black object from her pocket to show him, "You know, a mobile?" putting the thing on the table and sliding it towards him so he could see it better. She pondered him as he didn't move to pick it up.

"I don't, no."

"I didn't think so. You're one of the only people I've interviewed who contacted me by letter. Not the first though."

"Oh." He glared at her, waiting a few beats for her to ask him a question. When she let the silence slip over and just sipped her coffee he finally picked up the black object. It was about the length of his palm and built of the smooth material he had learned from his father was called plastic.

"It's a flip phone." She stated.

"Of course." He answered her, mulling it over in his hands.

"Meaning it flips open. You do know how to open one, don't you?"

She was teasing him, he assumed, the slight upturn of her mouth giving tell that she knew very well that he had never in his life held a flip phone.

"Uh huh." He handed the phone back to her.

"Would you like me to order something for you? Since your money's no good here."

Careful. Don't let her know more than she already does.

"What makes you say that?"

She frowned at him. "I went to your shop, George, I could tell your people use a different form of currency."

Too smart, this one. George was well aware of what happened to Muggles that were too smart and too curious about the magical world. It never ended well.

"My people?"

"Going to play dumb? Fine. Forget the food." She reached under her chair to grab a large book that appeared to be a photo album as well as her notepad and pen. "I was going to try to ease into this gently but you probably want me to get straight to the point. While I've been investigating murders for years, my focus has been on certain special cases that fall under, well I suppose you would call it a more supernatural theme. Victims that have been subject to indescribable deaths that are complete mysteries to modern science. We call them the "petrified persons" since they seem to have nothing wrong with them minus that they have terrified expressions on their faces; almost as though they've been scared to death." She glanced at him slowly, judging how he was taking the information like an owl contemplating how to lift a rather large parcel. "You don't seem shocked by that."

Again, he found it difficult to talk to this girl. Something that usually wasn't a problem. "Should I be?"

Alice narrowed her eyes and pushed her glasses up her nose. "Well, if you aren't already, you will be soon. So of these thousands of "petrified persons" cases, most of the victims have been identified. However, there are about two hundred that have never been claimed by family members or friends. These individuals tend to follow a bizarre dress code. They have a thing for robes. Either than that there isn't any specific pattern. They are every race and every age. Even children." She moved to open the book of photographs but stopped. "I'll warn you that these are graphic."

He bent back from the table and clearly lifted his hand to stop her from showing him the gruesome images but she was already pushing the photos into his face.

"It's important that I let you see these." She blurted. "I need help identifying the victims and you're the best lead we've ever had. Please."

George sighed and with a heavy lurch from his stomach took the book from her.

Surprisingly it wasn't as bad as she had lead him to believe. Expecting to see innocent wizards and witches who had been murdered with the killing curse by Death Eaters, George was a bit confused to see image after image of peaceful faces. It still wasn't a delightful album to peruse, the folks were still just as dead, but no obvious force or maltreatment had been done to the cadavers.

"Wait, I thought you said two hundred? This is only about fifteen."

"Twelve, actually." She admitted. "Thirteen if you count, um…" Pausing, she pulled one last photograph from her jacket pocket. George watched her look at it sadly before starting to return it into her clothes. He snatched her wrist in his hand, causing her coffee to spill a bit on the picture she was holding. "I really shouldn't…"

"Show me." He demanded.

It wasn't a good idea, he figured after she surrendered the photograph to him: looking at that image after she had clearly cautioned him as to what or who may be on that picture. There was no turning back after he flipped the small glossy paper over and wiped the coffee droplets from the dead boy's visage. The dead boy who looked exactly like George but so different. How many months had it been since he'd seen his twin's face?

"I'm sorry." Alice whispered. A dewdrop of emotion starting to glisten through her usual stony appearance.

"How…?" He tried to speak over his quivering throat but couldn't.

"These last few," she motioned to the album, "These are victims we have found in the past three months or so."

"That's not possible!" George gulped,

"I know,"

"He's been dead for…"

"I know."

"That must mean…"

"I know,"

George smacked the photo back onto the table and glared into the hazel irises of the woman sitting across from him. "How do you know?"

"The remaining thirteen are believed to be found at much later dates to their original demise." She stated flatly. Again, back to her Professor Binns imitation drawl. "Your brother's body was discovered on the south shore of the Thames sixteen weeks ago. I wasn't able to identify him as Fred Weasley until last Thursday when I spoke with your father."

"My father talked to you?!"

She nodded. "He didn't want you to know about this. Not yet, anyways. He didn't want to upset you."

George groaned in frustration and dropped his head on the table. "Well, jolly good job you did on that one, dad. I'm not at all upset. Not one bit. "

"I'm sorry I went against his wishes but after the body we found last week we needed to follow up on any lead we had."

"You mean…?"

"Jiles Yellowbye." She flipped through the book to the last image of the man she had shown him with the one swollen eye. "Or what we now believe to be his twin who passed away two years ago. Mr. Jiles is still alive and well."

George pondered at the picture of the dead man. The one she had brought to his shop on their first meeting. "I don't understand."

Roberts sighed and pulled the book back to the front page. "Do you recognize anyone else?"

George didn't want to look at any more photos. He shoved the album back at her. "Explain to me how people who have been dead for two years are suddenly turning up all over the city."

Alice reached her hand out and removed the snapshot of Fred's blue face and gently began to put it into the book of pictures. "Therein lies the mystery." She mumbled. "Obviously foul play is at hand. Someone must be exhuming the bodies."

George stared at her, his mouth gradually opening like a curtain being blown in a breeze. "What?"

"Do you recall your brother's funeral?" She blurted, taking a large sip of her coffee now that it was cool enough to drink at full speed. "Was it an open casket? Your father didn't want to discuss it with me."

Of course he remembered Fred's funeral. The details were foggy as he had spent most of the day with a glass of firewhiskey in hand trying to avoid the multitude of people who kept needing to talk to him. Mostly it had been a carnival ride of his parent's friends and previous classmates revolving around him, trying to get some sort of pity parade going with comments on how sorry they were. Was that when Harry had punched a reporter for bringing a Quick Quotes Quill to the ceremony? Then again he probably did that at the Lupins' funeral. Or it could have been at the small service they had held for Sirius Black that was supposed to be private. George was pretty sure he had been sloshed for all of them.

"George?" Alice brushed her fingers over back of his hand. "How about I get you something to eat?"

"No."

"Are you sure? They have excellent soup here."

"I mean, no, it wasn't an open casket."

She nodded, finally opening her notepad to write. "How did they prepare the body? Do you recall that he was placed in the casket before the ceremony?" She stated, the previous notion of the soup forgotten. He could see the wisp of eagerness in her scribbling probably realizing that this was the biggest break she had gotten on the case yet.

"Prepare the...what?"

"He wasn't embalmed in any way we've ever seen. Unlike Yellowbye and many other victims we were able to conclude a cause of death. Here being a severe laceration to the inner organs, mostly in the lungs, as well as several broken ribs. We believe he was either crushed beneath a heavy object or subject to a fall." She babbled. "But either than the injuries the body has no visible decay. You can imagine our confusion after a carbon dating test gave results dating the death of your brother to over twenty seven months ago. Yellowbye passed about thirty four months ago as did a few others. In fact, not one of these victims was alive at any point after the death of your twin. Some at the same time but none after."

"But,"

"Embalming would normally be the only way to keep a cadaver at such a high quality of preservation but these specimens have no hint of the usual embalming chemicals. None at all. All the blood and organs are completely intact. Could you tell me what preparations , if any, were done to the body before burial?"

He was flabbergasted that they had examined Fred's body in such detail. Irate, even, to think of what drastic Muggle instruments they had used to discover the information she was telling him. He didn't know what exactly embalming was but from the gist of what she was saying, he really didn't want to know.

"Is he… what did you do with him?" George stumbled. "Fred, er, the body that is?"

Roberts bit her bottom lip in a slight frown, perhaps realizing that she may have spoken too frankly. "Sorry, I forgot to say that your brother is being held at full care and protection at the city morgue. After the court determines that no more evidence is needed from the body, he will be returned to your family. All funerary costs will be covered by the department."

"He's being held where?! The court?" His eyes were beginning to drip with swollen tears and George mopped at them angrily with a napkin.

"At the city morgue. Usually we would have required permission from the family before…"

"What's the morgue?" He asked loudly.

Alice blinked at him sluggishly and took another long swallow of her coffee. "You don't know what a morgue is?"

"No." He responded a bit quieter. A morgue must be something most Muggles were aware of.

"It's a location, usually underground, where cadavers are held for examination and storage before burial or cremation." She said.

George's eyes bulged. He wiped up a few more stray tears. So Muggles held bodies away in large underground tombs just so they could study them. He had a terrifying memory of Snape's collection of dead rats and toads he kept in jars to administer experimental potions to.

"NO! You can't keep him there!"

Detective Alice Roberts sighed and began putting away the photo album and notepad. Although she seemed frustrated that he wasn't giving her the answers she desired, she had realized that George wasn't going to handle discussing this much longer.

"We don't have other options. Fred's case is extremely rare and I'm so sorry you have to go through all of this. Especially after what must have been a very tragic time for you." She paused as George sniffed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Obviously the two of you were very close."

"Inseparable." He mumbled with a small grin, looking at his palms so he didn't have to face her. It was a term his mother had used to describe her twin sons often.

"The fact that both of the known victims were identical twins makes me believe that this is some sort of pattern. That someone is doing this on purpose for some sick reason."

George blanched. "But why?"

She shrugged. "I'm doing my best to find that out, trust me. I promise, once we get to the bottom of this we can have your brother set properly back at peace again."

Apparently retrieving Fred's body back from the Muggles wouldn't be an easy task.

"I think I should get you something to eat still." She continued. "Or in the light of our previous conversation, perhaps a stiff drink."

George nodded, too emotionally exhausted to argue.

"Were we in any other situation I may have waited for you to make the first move." She allowed a small grin to brighten her features. He lifted an eyebrow at her.

Had she just proposed they go on a date? After doling out photographs of his brother's corpse she was asking him out for a drink? That wasn't normal Muggle behavior, right?

"You're a very odd bird." He quipped. Strange as she was, he had to admit that the offer had cheered him up a bit.

"I may have been told that one before. Although, I admit I do have some alterier reasons for pursuing you. Your father may have mentioned how one in my position may be at risk. There is a loophole though, so that I can continue learning about your people without getting my memory erased, or so he put it. That is, if I'm courting one of you."

George groaned. Of course this had all been his father's plan. Merlin, was everyone really that desperate to get him a girlfriend. He could imagine that Arthur Weasley, Muggle enthusiast number one, would have been overjoyed to set up his last single son with a Muggle detective. Well, Ron was single now too but they all knew that wasn't going to change.

"He didn't specifically volunteer you for the position but you're attractive and friendly so I don't see why not. Unless you're seeing someone?" She mused.

George's stomach fluttered. "I'm not."

"Excellent." She sucked down the rest of her coffee. "I'm not supposed to date work related clients but in this case I think I can make an exception. Are you interested in a long term relationship?"

"I… you certainly are quick to the point. Are you always this bold?"

"In my line of work you have to be. Answer the question."

"Um well, I can't say I really know. Haven't ever considered it."

"So I take it you don't date much."

He gawked at her. No, he didn't date much. He'd hardly been on more than two or three dinners since the War and they had never amounted to more than a one night stand.

His silence seemed to be a good enough answer for her as she slipped into her coat and offered him her arm to escort him from the table.

After three or four beers and a carton of Chinese takeout, George was feeling immensely better than before. Having a pretty girl in his flat to talk with helped too. Alice was a fascinating person to learn about and chatting her up was proving to become easier as the night went on.

He learned that she was five years his senior, had an excellent memory for names and faces, and that she had almost no sense of humor. None. The irony that he owned a joke shop was not lost on her. She had two siblings that were much younger than her since her father had remarried later in life after divorcing her mother almost fifteen years ago.

Thankfully she stayed away from the topic of her job and about Fred although she was a bit shocked to discover that George came from a family of nine.

"You have five brothers!?" She blinked up at him from her seat at the kitchen table.

"And one sister." He grinned. He was using his white plastic fork to scrape the last bit of sauce from the bottom of the cardboard container. "Bill's the oldest then there's Charlie, Percy, Fred, me, Ron and Ginny."

"Ginny?"

"Ginevra, she's named after my great aunt."

"And they planned on having that many kids? Even after having twins your mother still had two more babies?"

George laughed. "Yeah, well, mum really likes babies apparently. She swears that had Ginny been a boy they would have kept trying until they finally had a daughter. I don't really believe that though. I'm pretty sure Gin was an accident since they had her so soon after Ron. They're only a year apart, it's almost like having another set of twins."

"Christ, I barely handled having one little brother and sister, I can't imagine having six."

George laughed again. "Well, it's not all bad. There was always someone around to talk with if you were bored. That and we're all pretty close in age. I'm sure it's different when you're ten years apart."

"Fifteen years apart." She groaned. "Sam is going to be thirteen in August." She looked out the window gloomily.. "Kim will be eleven next November. I don't talk to them much anymore."

Getting the hint that it was an unpleasant subject, George moved to take her empty food carton and beer bottle.

"You done?" He asked. She nodded and he pulled out his wand and performed a quick vanishing charm to eliminate the rubbish.

"So, I was thinking…"

"WHAT!?" She was gaping at him suddenly, practically falling out of her chair in such haste to move away from him. "What did you just do!?" Her eyes glaring at the wand in terror.

Oops.

"Um, well. That's what we call magic." He gave her the biggest grin he had before transfiguring his plastic fork into a rose and handing it to her. "Ta da!"

Probably not the best way to ease a Muggle into the Wizarding World but certainly not the worst.

"Oh, so you're a magician too?" Her face perked up. "My grandfather was a magician. Well, he was actually a plumber but he did magic shows at weddings and stuff when he was younger. Mostly card tricks but he could do the sawing the lady in half bit."

"Um." George tried to understand what she was talking about for a minute as she chatted on about how her grandparents had met. It happened at some sort of magic event where her grandfather had apparently not succeeded in cutting a girl in half with a sword.

"...but granny could tell that the feet sticking out of the back of the box were fake so she called him a fraud right to his face. He somehow was able to charm her into going on a date with him after that."

"Why was he trying to cut a woman in half?" George was waiting for some terrible murder story to bubble up after hearing what types of people Alice researched at work. But she just laughed at him. It was the first time he'd heard her laugh.

"I don't know, that's just what the magic trick is. Do you know any more?"

"Any more what?"

"Any more tricks, silly. Can you do that one where you pull a scarf out of your thumb?"

"Huh?"

"You know, you wave the wand over your hand and suddenly you pull a scarf out of thin air when it was really stuffed into a fake plastic thumb the entire time. Sorry, I guess it doesn't really work if I already know how you do it." She smirked at him. "I bet you palmed the fork in your sleeve and had the rose in your lap or something."

She thinks it's all a trick. He bemused. Muggles must pretend they can do magic for some sort of entertainment purpose. He seemed to remember hearing Hermione Granger explaining that once.

"Alice, um, how do I say this, uh, you know how I'm part of another group of people. Another community like you mentioned."

"You mean, your religious group? You're kind of like the orthodox Jewish people it seems. Although they don't seem nearly as secretive as your lot. And they don't worship owls. The robe wearing thing is kinda strange too."

"Um, no. Not a religion, really. We're a magical community. Wizards and witches."

"What?"

"They aren't tricks they're actually magic."

She smirked again. "Very funny, George, good joke."

"It's not a joke!"

"Says the man who owns the joke shop."

How was he going to prove this to her? George took the rose back and held his wand to it. "Here, I'll transfigure it into something else. Give me another object to turn it into. Anything."

"Really? Sure, okay. How about another beer?"

George tipped his head to one side in an amused quip. "You can think of something better than that."

He sort of hoped she would say something naughty and was a bit disappointed when she happily announced that she wanted a purple elephant.

Her delight when the tiny creature pranced around table did make up for it. Soon he had a herd of miniature rainbow elephants marching about the kitchen where he had once had plates and cups.

"Will they stay like this forever?" She beamed. She held a yellow elephant in her palms like Ginny had held her first broom.

"No." He admitted "In an hour or so they'll all change back."

Alice didn't seem very upset about that. Instead she looked downright enchanted. He supposed he would too if he had just discovered magic existed. "What else can you do?!"

George would have gladly taken every item out of his joke shop to show her. He wanted to pull his broom out of the front hall closet and take her for a ride. Hell, he would even peel out his old textbooks from Hogwarts if it would impress her but he knew there was such a thing as too much at once. Overwhelming the young woman couldn't be a great first date move.

"A lot." He answered her question vaguely. "Magic can do a lot."

She scratched the elephant's neck which had a yellow floral pattern down it's back that matched the teacups he had inherited from Uncle Fillmore and Aunt Minn.

"Well, I'm looking forward to you showing me." She propositioned.

For the first time in forever George reckoned he actually had something to look forward to too. Even if it might be just transfiguring kitchen utensils into circus animals.