(See disclaimer in the Author's Note.)
The sky was clear, and it was an ideal day to play Quidditch. The match was Slytherin Vs. Gryffindor, and Gryffindor was winning by three hundred points. Harry Potter had yet to catch even a glimpse of the golden snitch.
Fred Weasley smacker a bludger away from Harry just in time. "Thanks, Fred!" Harry called. Had Fred been a moment later, his nose might have been broken.
"All right there, Harry?" George Weasley (twin brother of Fred Weasley) asked, speeding by. Harry nodded. He spotted a bludger coming toward George's head.
"George!" He shouted, but Harry was too late. George was hit in the head with the bludger. Fred turned around just in time to see his brother falling toward the ground below.
Harry dived, attempting to catch George, but could not get close enough to his friend. Fred was trying to reach the ground first. He and Harry both landed moments after George hit the ground with a sickening crack.
A whistle was blown. Everyone froze. It took everyone a few moments to realize what had happened. The players quickly landed and surrounded George.
"George, are you alright?" Fred asked. When George did not respond, Fred said, "You're not fooling anyone. Come on, get up. We know you're fine."
"Fred, stand aside please," Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts, said gently. He knew that this was not one of George's pranks. Madame Pomfrey, the school nurse, made her way over to George, who lay limp on the ground in an unnatural position.
"George!" Ginny Weasley screamed, hurrying toward her brother. Ron Weasley was right behind her, as was Hermione Granger. By now, the entire school was gathering around George.
"Is he all right?" Hermione asked.
"'Course he is," Fred insisted before anyone else could speak. "He's just fooling around."
"Fred," Dumbledore began, "Your brother had a very bad fall." Madam Pomfrey looked up at him, shook her head, and he went on. "I'm afraid that George…did not survive this."
"No way, he's just fooling around. He's got a harder head than anyone. I should know, I've got the same one," Fred insisted.
Ginny examined George more closely and began sobbing into Ron's shoulder. Ron could not believe what he was seeing. George was dead. There was no denying it, although Fred seemed determined to do so.
"Don't cry, Gin," Fred said. "He's just fooling around. He's not really hurt."
The rest of the game was cancelled. The students were sent to their houses and ordered not to leave. Fred, Ron, and Ginny sat in Dumbledore's office. Harry and Hermione were allowed to stay with them.
"His head…" Hermione whispered. She had seen George's wounds in detail. She could not get the image out of her mind. She collapsed into Harry's arms. Harry held her, but did not allow himself to react.
George Weasley was dead. Harry had seen the bludger coming. He had not warned George in time. He had watched George fall. Harry was in shock. This could not be happening.
Ginny continued weeping softly into her brother's shoulder. Ron began crying as well, something he rarely allowed himself to do in public. Only Fred remained calm, insisting that George was just fooling around, and that he would be hysterical with laughter when he realized he had fooled all of them.
For three days, Fred continued to insist that George was fine. Arthur and Molly Weasley wept for the loss of their son. The entire school turned out for the funeral service.
Passionate speeches were given about George's tragically short, but full, life. At the end of the memorial service, Fred jumped up. "Wait!" He shouted. He ran toward the coffin in which his twin brother lay, and stared into his own face, identical down to the last freckle.
"You finally did it, George!" Fred shouted angrily at his brother's corpse. "You finally did something that I didn't do. I would give anything to be the one in the coffin, George. I would give anything to go back in time and save your life. I would give anything to die instead of you." He began to weep, no longer able to deny the truth. "In a way… In a way, I did die. When you hit the ground, and you died, you took me with you. We're identical twins, George. We do everything together. I don't understand how it is that I'm still alive when you're so clearly not. I don't understand how my heart still beats when your blood runs cold, or how my soul is still here when yours is off somewhere far away." He paused. Softer, he said, "I'll never play another prank so long as I live unless you come back to life. I'll never play another game of Quidditch, not without you. I will live the rest of my life for you, George. Every breath I take will be your breath. Every thing I say will be your words. Every moment I spend on this planet will be spent knowing that half of me is missing."
Placing a single red rose on his brother's corpse, Fred Weasley walked away from the coffin and did not look back.