House: Hufflepuff
Category: Drabble
Prompt: "Haunted house [Setting]"
Word count: 270
Title: Just
A/N: I just love to pick on the Weasleys. Their grief is just too easy to manipulate. And, no, it's not because I just want to cause pain on others while I silently break down inside, weeping over Fred's death! Where on Earth did you get that idea? Jeez, you're making it sound like my heart is in my chest or something. The title was originally "Memories Made To Forget" but my previous chapter is called "Make Me Forget" so... I just didn't like how they sounded so similar. So I changed it.
~Blue Rose
The sound of his laughter echoed throughout the home, a ghost of his memory. Sometimes George could almost see Fred standing just behind him in the corner of his vision, his grin flashing. If George concentrated hard enough, he could hear Fred's easy breaths, feel them puff onto his ear, the warmth comforting in ways no one else could understand, much less provide.
Ginny still cried. George could hear her at night, along with Ron's heavy footsteps to her bedroom and his comforting voice. It should've been Fred there with her, not Ron.
Fred's hand on the clock was pointed at "home." It was almost easy to believe that Fred was just sleeping in late, or taking three hours in the bathroom, because the clock said so. Fred's smile was still fresh in the Weasley's minds, his jokes still rang in their ears.
He was haunting them. He wiggled his way into their hearts and their home and refused to leave, but they were left with the ghost of him. Just an impression.
The Burrow was holding onto him, too. It couldn't seem to just let him go. Fred's presence was everywhere. The morning coffee was the exact color of his eyes, the few prank toys that Molly hadn't been able to confiscate from him were somehow on the stairs, waiting to be tripped on. But Fred himself was nowhere to be seen. He was everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
George just wanted to leave The Burrow, that haunted house. But it was too painful to leave Fred behind, so George stayed.
Even if it cost him his sanity.