Disclaimer: All characters found in J.K Rowling's Harry Potter series belong to her. Any characters not seen the Harry Potter series and the plot all belong to me,
Author's Note: Wow it took me a long time to finally finish this chapter. Sorry for the long wait to anyone who might still be reading this story! Thanks to the people who reviewed the last chapter, it meant a lot to me. Well I don't really like this chapter but it's got all the things I needed in it. I think I'm just too excited to write the last few chapters so I'll probably be wrapping this story up soon. Whether it be writing a couple of chapters at once or writing less chapters covering a larger span of time I have yet to decide. But I hope there's still people reading this story. I also was sidetracked by a new story idea I had that I'm excited about because I haven't seen anything like it yet. But I'm definitely going to finish this story before I start writing it. Feel free to review if you want to – it lets me know that people are still reading. But I definitely don't expect everyone to review, I'll keep writing it regardless! Have a good day and hope you at least don't hate the chapter. I'll try to have two up next time I update.
When you're gone chapter 8
Fred came alive with a groan. Shielding his puffy eyes from the sunlight pouring in, he glanced around curiously. Glaring, he remembered why the room didn't feel right. It had been three days since his parents – though he wasn't inclined to think of them as parents anymore – had effectively finished ripping George from his life. Mrs. Weasley had come in during the night, of the second day after the "do not speak of George to Fred" rule had been implemented, and taken everything, even George's teddy bear. Fred decided this must be punishment, because at least before, talking about George allowed Fred to hope that he was out there somewhere. Now, it felt like George had not even existed, as if he was the product of Fred's imagination.
Fred knew that was not true however. He heard the whispered conversations that happened when the rest of the Weasleys thought he was asleep. From his late night reconnaissance, he knew that George had not been seen in downtown muggle London or rural areas around it. Fred also knew that Harry was keeping an eye out in Little Whinging, but George's face had not graced Privet drive. The George less isolation Fred had been placed in was driving him mad. It felt like he was hollow inside and slowly being filled with a very heavy, very hot liquid. Fred wondered what it would be like when he returned to Hogwarts next week – would his and George's friends act as though George had never existed? School fresh in his mind, he turned his attention to the large pile of unfinished assignments. 'One week to do all that.' Fred thought sadly. Suddenly an odd thought struck him, 'One week? Usually school letters come at the end of July…' Before Fred had time to dwell on the late arrival of the school letter, Mrs. Weasley stuck her head in the door.
"Fred dear, are you coming down for breakfast?"
Fred scowled at the joyful act she put on in front of him. He knew that when he wasn't in the room, she hardly smiled anymore, and her face looked aged from worry. "I'm not hungry," he grumbled.
Mrs. Weasley's eyes flickered over to the pile of scrolls in the middle of the room. "Oh Fred! Have you not started on any of your summer assignments?"
:I was going to do them with George." Fred spat, carefully watching his mother's face.
Mrs. Weasley's mask faltered for a split second before she regained her composure and smiled widely at Fred, "That's nice dear, we should paint your room. What do you like of a nice mauve color?" At Fred's disgusted look, she hurried on, "Well maybe not. You think on it after you complete your work, okay luv?" Mrs. Weasley didn't wait for an answer before fleeing the room.
Fred followed her back out of the room with his eyes. Fred roughly snatched up the top scroll off his homework pile huffing. It turned out to be his potions assignment. Looking over the topic (Compare and contrast the properties of Vampire blood and Unicorn blood [3 feet]) Fred sighed. 'This is George's area!' Fred thought sadly. Feeling the pressure of a headache building behind his eyes, Fred threw the scroll back to the floor and made his way out of the room.
************
Checking to ensure that his family was otherwise occupied, Fred slipped into the living room and grabbed the pot of floo powder from the fireplace mantle. Casting a final glance around the room, Fred tossed a handful of powder into the flames and quietly but firmly called, "Angelina Johnson."
Angelina's head appeared after a couple of minutes. "Hullo Fred!" She called pleasantly, "I haven't heard from you in ages."
"Sorry about that, I was busy looking for George – well you know."
Angelina hesitated a moment, "George? Did you get a new pet Fred?"
Fred scowled, "Drop the act Angelina! I'm not crazy, so you know George, and he does exist."
Angelina's face softened, "I'm so sorry Fred, your Mum owled me. She thought it would be best if we avoid bringing up memories of George – you know, to prevent complications."
"Complications? What are you talking about Angel?" Fred asked, scrunching up his brow in confusion.
"Oh Fred you know, the dangerous complications associate with a severed twin link." Angelina couldn't look Fred in the eyes.
"Twin link… What are you talking about?" Fred sputtered, confused.
Angelina gasped and her hands flew up to cover her mouth, "You don't know about…"
"Know about what?" Fred asked impatiently.
"No, I can't tell you," Angelina shook her head, "It can not come from me – you'll have to ask your mum and dad."
Fred started to open his mouth, but Angelina cut him off, "I won't tell you Fred! Don't even try. Let's pick a new topic."
Fred chose the topic of his brother and Angelina reluctantly joined in. They were talking about a prank that Fred and George had played on Filch the day before summer holidays, when Fred leaned forward clutching his stomach. Angelina looked up worried, "Fred? Are you alright? What's the matter?"
"I'm alright Angelina, really. I just had a pain in my stomach. It must have been because I haven't eaten yet." Fred assured her, although he knew that hungers pains weren't usually that sharp. Angelina accepted his reply grudgingly and abruptly steered the conversation in a new direction. The two teens chatted for a few more minutes about random topics before Fred excused himself under the guise of being starving. Angelina withdrew from the flames after promising to get in touch with Fred before school began again. After the flames had flickered back to their original form, Fred wrapped his arms around his stomach and curled up against the pain, which had slowed to a dull throb. 'What's going on with me today?' Fred wondered, oblivious to the sounds around him, which indicated the family had returned from their previous activities.
"Fred?" Mrs. Weasley's voice cut through the silence. Fred felt the air rush past his face as she rushed to his side. "What's the matter?"
Fred groaned and slapped her hand away from his forehead, "I just have a stomach ache it's nothing!" Fred growled.
Mrs. Weasley cast a meaningful glance at her husband. She looked away quickly when she noticed Fred's gaze fall upon her. Mr. Weasley ushered the other children out of the room as Mrs. Weasley helped Fred to the couch. Settling in to the soft, familiar fabric, Fred sighed before turning his attention back to the adults standing in front of him.
"What were you thinking or doing before the stomachache appeared Fred?" Mr. Weasley asked, shocking Fred.
"I was talking to Angelina," Fred began. Mrs. Weasley seemed to sag with relief. 'Odd,' Fred thought. "We were discussing a prank George and I played on Filch and…" Mrs. Weasley stiffened and Mr. Weasley made a choking sound, causing Fred to lose his train of thought.
"What's going on?" Fred demanded as Mrs. Weasley began whimpering.
"We had hoped it wouldn't happen…" Mrs. Weasley muttered under her breath, clutching her knitting to her breast.
"I'm sorry, what was that? Why is everyone acting so oddly?" Fred's voice rose with frustration.
"Fred, there's something your mother and I need to tell you about you and your brother." Mr. Weasley began. Fred's eyes widened and he turned to look at Mrs. Weasley who simply nodded with tears welling up in her eyes.
"What?" Fred asked, fear of the answer giving his voice a hard edge.
"In the wizarding world, identical twins are rather rare. The reason for this is because wizard identical twins share a soul, they are in fact one person in two bodies. This is a blessing and a curse; you have both the best friend you could ever dream of, and the most potentially dangerous situation wizards have discovered." Mr. Weasley paused and Fred seized the pause to inject his question.
"Why would you keep this from us? What is potentially dangerous?"
"We didn't think there was a likeliness of it happening! You two were always so close!" Mrs. Weasley burst out.
"Likeliness of what happening?" Fred was getting more confused as the conversation continued.
Mr. Weasley placed his hand on Mrs. Weasleys' shoulder, "Now Molly, let me finish or we'll just confuse him." Mr. Weasley turned back to Fred, "Fred, wizard twins often always spend their lives in one another's back pocket. When they move out or marry, they generally buy houses next door to each other or on the same block. If they are separated by long distances they must speak to each other frequently."
"But how is that dangerous? They're just best friends!" Fred interrupted
"Yes, the danger comes if the twins are separated angry, without speaking. The longer they are away from each other with out speaking, the more ill they become. The missing half of the soul causes an internal longing so great it can eventually kill the twins in order to reunite itself." Fred looked aghast, so Mr. Weasley hurried on, "Now that has only happened once, and in that case the twins were living in opposite countries in the Muggle world. The magic of the Wizard world compensates, to some degree, for the void left by the soul. If the twins were to remain in the wizard world, they would only become progressively sicker. This can be stopped if the wizard or witch completely removes any traces of their twin from their life and mind. This allows the magic to fool the mind into believing that it is whole."
"That's why we moved George's belongings and why we can't keep you updated about information concerning his whereabouts. You see, we have to make sure you're healthy until we can find George." Mrs. Weasley rushed to explain as soon as Mr. Weasley had stopped talking.
"What about George? He could be sick! He could be dead!" Fred was panicking.
"Fred, calm down! You would know if he was dead, that is why we didn't give up when his Hogwarts letter didn't come. We have people from the ministry searching both the muggle and wizard worlds for him. Although Fudge firmly believes, he is no longer in the wizard community; we hope he is still here, only hiding his magical signature." Mr. Weasley had begun to pace as he spoke. Fred followed him with his eyes.
"What if he isn't?" Fred whispered.
"Then we haven't much time." Mr. Weasley looked grave.
"Now then! There will be no thinking like that! George will be found any day now and he'll be home and everything will be perfect." Mrs. Weasley's voice had been betraying her tears as he continued speaking until she was sobbing once again.
"Fred, understand that we are doing anything we can to find your brother, but we can't be worrying about you as well – so please don't fight us on this. Try to avoid actively thinking about George. I know it's cruel to ask and it's a difficult thing to do – but I promise we'll have him back soon!" Mr. Weasley said with conviction.
Fred didn't know how to respond. He felt as though he had just been stupefied. Shaking his head, he snapped out of his trance and quickly clamped his jaw shut. As he opened his mouth to scream at his parents for everything – keeping this secret from George and himself, lying about news of George, telling him not to think about his twin, Fred looked over at Mrs. Weasley. Seeing the silent plea and the cloud of worry in her eyes, Fred stopped his speech, mumbled a quiet "I'll try," and fled the room.
*******************
Leaning against his bedroom door, Fred struggled to maintain control of his breathing and to keep his tears at bay. 'Why is this happening?' Fred cried silently, 'Why George?'
Fred coughed as a searing pain in his abdomen sent him reeling to the ground. Fred rolled on to his side and stared intently at the wall, counting backwards from one hundred until the pain subsided enough to allow for comfortable breathing. 'The new paint is chipping," Fred thought, desperately grasping for a topic that would not lead to thoughts of George. Fred had crawled to the window and had just started counting the leaves on the tree outside his window when a large tawny owl filled his vision, hooting repeatedly. "Alright, Alright!" Fred muttered, moving back from the window to allow entry to the agitated bird. The owl swooped gracefully around the room once before coming to settle on the plush bed. Ruffling its feathers, the bird hooted impatiently, bringing Fred out his thoughts. Annoyed that the owl hadn't taken the mail to the kitchen as per usual. He quickly removed the letter from the owl's leg and flipped the envelope over. Full prepared to yell at Percy for having ministry reports delivered to his room, he looked at the seal. Fred nearly dropped the letter in shock. The seal looking back at him was not from the Ministry of Magic – it was his and George's secret seal. The letter was from George.
Fred's heart leapt as he struggled to remove the letter from the envelope without tearing the paper. His eyes quickly scanned the letter. Worry rushed over him when he saw that the letter was dated the day after George left. The letter was five weeks old.
Fred,
I overheard you talking with Percy and Ron last night. Why didn't you tell me Fred? I never meant to ruin your life! I didn't think about that possibility that hanging out with me all the time was torture for you. I decided that it would be better if I don't see you for a while – You won't be unhappy and I'll be able to get rid of the pain. I promise that if I ever see you again, I won't be forever under your feet – I'll practice being on my own. You know what Fred? This is completely off topic, but you might consider rethinking your desire to visit the muggle world. At least until you're a fully certified wizard, because it's actually quite frightening here. I'm sitting in a muggle diner right now – I stopped in here to get away from a large group of muggle boys who were leering at me. I hope they leave before I have to because I don't think I can take more than three of them without magic and there's fifteen. Well, we always did love a challenge eh? Muggle money is also very confusing – I always thought dad was joking about those slips of paper! I suppose I'm getting off track… I just wanted to write to say I'm sorry for hurting you and I want you to know – in case anything happens to me – that my leaving was of my own choice, because I was too cowardly to face you. If for some reason I am unable to see you again, remember that no matter what happens I'll have forgiven you for hurting me before I died. It's getting late and muggle shops wait for no man; so I must be off – find a place to sleep and all. I'll see you when we've both had a chance to think Fred. I'm really sorry I wasn't a better brother to you.
Georgie
Fred put down the letter and absently wiped a tear from his cheek. It took a moment for Fred to process what he had read. 'George thinks it's his fault? I was the one being a prat! What happened after he left the diner? What did those boys do to my brother? Why was this letter sent so late?' Fred's mind raced with fears, 'No, George wouldn't dare go and die on me… although he did write as though he was expecting to. Muggles wouldn't hurt my brother would they? No muggles… muggles!' Fred's thoughts filtered back to his father's last words: "then we don't have much time…" George was alone, in the muggle world, without any communication with him! Fred felt a sharp tug in his heart. Gathering up the letter, he rushed to find his parents. Any rational thought about replying to George left his head in the mad dash to the kitchen.
Back in Fred's room, the tawny owl shook out its feathers indignantly, hooted once, and flew from the room into the night; heading back to Hogwarts without a message to deliver.
TBC
