Title: A Lid For Every Pot, George Weasley

Author: BooksVCigarettes

Summary: Set a couple of years post-war. Still struggling with the absence of his twin, George Weasley needs some time away from the world he grew up in to heal. Alice Clark wants a flat mate who doesn't want to kill and eat her. It was perfect... Except not really. George/OC Ron/Hermione Harry/Ginny

Chapter Nineteen - Disclosure

"Are you angry that I neglected to tell you the real reason I was here?" Arlene and George were sat in their usual chairs in her living room. Driscoll sat on his owner's lap quietly and she stroked him absent-mindedly whilst casting a nervous glance in his direction.

George sighed, the restlessness of the previous night's sleep weighing heavily on him "I'm not angry, Arlene. I understand why you couldn't tell me who you were until you could be sure I wasn't a muggle."

"My dear boy," Arlene offered him a kind but teasing smile "I still haven't told you who I am, and nothing on this earth could convince me that you weren't a wizard. But I couldn't jeopardise my cover until I knew that we were..." She paused "... on the same side, as it were."

"What gave me away? I didn't carry my wand again until today, I've performed barely any magic for months..." George frowned "How could you possibly know?"

"Do you mean besides the fact that you are easily the worst muggle impersonator I have ever seen? And I should know, darling - I was the one who told Liberace to go completely over the top with the sequins or he might just as well go back to curse-breaking for Gringotts." At George's blank look, she gestured to the fireplace on the opposite side of the sitting room. "It was the Floo."

George blinked "Pardon?"

"I had been living here for a month or so when I realised that someone else in the building had a Floo connection." George thought of his conversation with Kingsley, wondering if Arlene had heard it. He searched her face for any indication that she knew of his connection with the Minister for Magic.

"You knew about our Floo connection?"

"It was only when you sent a letter that I could be certain that it was you, George." Arlene's voice was gentle.

"Why not say something then, though? Why wait until yesterday?" George was still smarting slightly from the comment about his ability to pass as a muggle.

Arlene sighed "Because I am here strictly in a surveillance capacity. I had made my mind up that I was simply to keep an eye."

"On who? Me?" George's mouth went dry as he thought about the possibility of someone he knew putting a tail on him without him realising. Arlene laughed "No dear - on Alice."

Somehow, that made George's stomach clench even tighter than it had when he thought he was the one being watched "You mean - you know that Alice is a-"

"A witch? Yes." Arlene ruffled Driscoll's fur and the dog sighed contentedly "Unfortunately, by the time I arrived she was already being watched by someone else and I was unable to make myself obvious to you without alerting the... Wrong people, if you know what I mean."

George thought of Nott and felt his jaw tense "So you're here to protect her? Who sent you? And who are you protecting her from?" The questions were coming quicker than he could stop them. He stood and began to pace "Wait- if you know Alice has an Obscurial then it must have been documented by the Ministry at some point. How did she get missed? Where was her Hogwarts letter?"

Arlene watched him calmly from her chair as he gradually began to run out of steam "Alice was not missed, George."

"Really? If Alice wasn't missed then do you mind telling me how there's a woman upstairs who bleeds magic from her pores when she sings?" George meant to sound sarcastic but his words came out weary and confused. He stopped pacing and looked pleadingly at the older woman "Who are you?"

Arlene gave him a small but sad smile "I'm her Special Messenger."

X X

Alice flopped onto her bed and stared around her bedroom despondently, her gaze naturally coming to rest on the dress she had picked out and hung on the front of the wardrobe for her sister's engagement party that evening. Memories of her earlier row with Teddy surfaced and she felt her anger rise again, coming to a boil when she allowed herself to think about Daniel - no, what was it George had called him? Nott - and what he had been doing to her for the last few months. Alice shuddered, partly from embarrassment at the way the potion had made her behave and partly because she couldn't help but feel... A little violated by it all. Nott had toyed with her emotions, fed her a substance that had relieved her of her ability to choose. She thought about the classes that she had taught about sexual assault, about date rape. Was this the same thing? Had she been coerced into bed with Nott? The scholar inside of her began idly piecing together a research proposal on the ethics of giving love potions while the tired and confused girl inside of her tried to make sense of what had happened in the last few months. She had definitely been attracted to Nott before he had started to slip her the Amortentia... As far as she knew. Alice racked her brain trying to think of the earliest possible point when he could have started to drug her.

"Why so blue?" Alice jumped and turned to glare at Fred who was leaning casually against the doorframe, a rakish grin on his face "I take it from the absence of sobbing that yesterday's undying love has now shuffled off it's mortal coil?"

"You have got to stop just appearing like that," Alice said a little crossly "One day I'll have a heart attack and I'll have to wander around the afterlife with only you to irritate me."

"Nonsense," said Fred cheerfully "There are plenty of annoying people like me in the afterlife - we could soon draw up a rota." He crossed to the bed and sat down opposite Alice.

She stared at him for a moment "Why didn't you tell me you were a wizard?"

Fred shrugged "It's not the sort of thing one reveals apropos of nothing, Alice." He said mildly "Besides, I was already in enough trouble with you for being dead and in your living room - can you imagine the reaction you would have had if I'd started talking about magic being real too?" Alice didn't reply and Fred seemed to take the opportunity to try and steer the conversation in a different direction "So my brother got you the antidote to the love potion?" Alice nodded "And he explained all about our world?" She nodded again "And about... What happened to me?" Another nod "Say something, Alice. I'm beginning to prefer you when you're under the effects of a love potion."

"Why did you assume I'd gone to a magical school like you?" Alice asked quietly, scanning Fred's face for his reaction. He shifted uncomfortably under her gaze; now it was his turn to stay silent "Fred?" The redhead looked first down at the bedspread and then up to meet her eyes. He seemed almost apologetic for what he was about to tell her.

"Because muggles can't see ghosts, Alice."

X X

George closed the door to the flat and called out to Alice to let her know it was him. She didn't reply and this immediately put him on his guard. As he had left the flat to go downstairs he had placed a defensive ward on the place without telling her - nothing too sophisticated, but enough that any intruders would be temporarily disabled which would buy George enough time to get Alice out. As he had ascended the stairs after talking to Arlene, praying that he would find the ward still intact, he had been starkly reminded of the early days of the war when he and Fred had fought to keep the shop open despite their parents' plea to quit it. Every other minute had been spent looking over their shoulders, tensing for the blow. The story Arlene had just told him echoed around his head, leaving him feeling shell-shocked. His quest for clarification had been successful, but now he was left wondering if he was any better off for being in possession of all of the facts.

George crept down the hallway, wand out, freezing at every sound he heard. The living room door was closed most of the way. He reached out a foot and gently nudged it so that it swung open "Alice?"

"George?" Her voice was quiet, barely a whisper. She was crouched on the living room floor amid a festival of chaos. Books had flown off of shelves and torn themselves apart, vases and ornaments had been smashed to smithereens. A solitary picture remained on the wall, hanging crookedly and looking decidedly weathered.

George hurried over to Alice and knelt before her, taking her by the shoulders gently and checking to see she hadn't been hurt "Are you alright? What happened? Did someone break in? Who did this?"

Alice's eyes were wide and glistening as she stared at the carnage around her; she seemed to be in shock but otherwise unhurt. At George's touch, she turned her gaze to him, lip trembling.

"I did."

Twenty Minutes Earlier

"What do you mean 'muggles can't see ghosts'?" Alice's tone was measured but inside she was quivering. Fred stared at her, his eyes wide.

"Haven't you ever wondered why you see music the way that you do?"

Alice shook her head dazedly "I have a condition..."

Fred scoffed "A condition? That's a funny way of saying that you're a witch. Honestly; muggles will rationalise anything as long as it means they don't have to face the facts."

"Synesthesia is a real thing..." Alice said weakly. She stood and began to pace about the room nervously.

Fred rolled his eyes "Of course it's a real thing, Alice. You just don't have it." He stood and regarded her closely "Right now, I'm more interested in the fact that this appears to be new information to you. Are you sure that you've never been visited by one of us before? It would have happened when you were a child most likely, since you were muggleborn. Someone would have come to the house and sat you down and talked you and your parents through it. You can't honestly tell me you don't remember that …"

"Fred, I'm not pretending for dramatic effect here," Alice snapped hotly, pacing still "Until last night, I had no idea that magic even existed. Today, I am faced with the prospect that the affliction I have been taught to be ashamed of my entire life is not what I thought it was. If you don't mind, I'd like a moment – perhaps two - to be completely astounded." Seemingly having run out of pacing space, she wandered distractedly out into the living room, Fred hot on her heels. The ghost shrugged at her retreating back offhandedly.

"Talk about ungrateful. I thought you'd be pleased-"

"WELL I'M NOT!" screeched Alice, the dam on her emotions finally breaking, all of her mounting shock and frustration pouring out. She barely noticed the clap of thunder that this caused directly above her head "I've just discovered that my whole life has been a lie, Fred! I'm shocked and sad and a little bit scared so if you could just bugger off and give me five minutes I would REALLY BLOODY APPRECIATE IT!" Fred, despite his non-corporeal and therefore relatively safe state, shrank back as a gale-force wind seemed with whip up around Alice as she vented her feelings in his general direction. Books began to fly off of shelves, pictures rattled on the wall before lifting themselves from the hooks and clattering to the floor. Ornaments broke into tiny pieces to the clumsy accompaniment of the keys on the piano being pressed haphazardly by invisible fingers and joined the throng of airborne possessions.

"Alice, you have to calm down!" Fred yelled over the din, shards of ornaments and ripped up pages of books flying through him. Alice stood frozen in the centre of it all, unable to hear him or see anything other than the detritus of her life swirling about her, the safe little existence she had made for herself coming apart at the seams. Eventually, as her anger gave way to unbearable sadness, she felt herself begin to cry. As if in tune with her mood, the pandemonium receded slowly until she was left in the middle of the living room surrounded by chaos. Fred stood to the side, wide-eyed. For a moment, neither of them spoke.

"Are you… alright?"

"I've been better."