Fred lay on his side on his bed, blinking back the tears that wer ever present in his eyes. He didn't glance up whe a soft, gentle knock came to his door, nor when Charlie's voice accompanied it, calling his name. The door opened to admit the tall red-head, and still Fred stayed rooted to the spot, staring at the wall opposite.

However, he did so with a purpose. For on that wall he had stuck, through a muggle device known as GLUE, every single picture of George he could find. Other family members were mixed in there as well -- he had atleast one of every person who had died on that fateful day -- but the number of pictures of George far outweighed those of the rest of his family.

He and George were actually not the kind of people who had enjoyed getting their pictures taken. It wasn't that they didn't want to have the memories, or that they did it to spoit other people. It was just that ........ having your picture taken required time, and you had to sit still (or stand still, too), and staying in one place for any amount of time wasn't something that they had done very well.

But that was entirely beside the point. Every picture of George he had been able to find was now plastered to his wall, where he could watch it as he fell asleep. And that was what he had been doing for the last several hour since he had run out of the kitchen -- watching the pictures, that is. Not falling asleep.

--

Charlie sighed softly as he stared at his younger brother, running a hand through his messy red hair. Bill had already left, deciding to get an early start for home. It was actually 4 in the morning now -- none of them had really slept at all last night, making that seem slightly surreal.

He'd been wondering where all of those pictures had gotten to, not that he really minded all that much. Most of the Burrow had been left virtually unharmed, something that usually happened when you wer attacked by Death Eaters, or wizards of any kind. The spells had been aimed at the people, not their posessions.

Treading softly across the hardwood floor, Charlie lowered himself onto the bed, fingers fluttering over Fred's crown of red hair. "Fred, I think that we need to talk."

Charlie wasn't a complete idiot. He knew for a fact that the entire night hadn't been spent on this bed for fred. The younger teen really didn't know how to hide these things very well.

"About what?" Came the muffled reply, and Charlie heaved a soft sigh. He just had to make this more difficult than it had to be, didn't he?

"The scars." Just those two words held so much meaning for the both of them. He didn't have to elaborate -- they both knew exactly what he was talking about.

It was actually only one scar, self inflicted shortly after Fred had first appeared ta his house. They'd all been so wrapped up in their greif, that they hadn't stopped to think that fred's greif was slightly different from their own.

It was a known fact that twins shared part of their soul with each other -- hell, alot of the time (in the wizarding world) twins would end up becomming wed to one another, their relationship chaning into something more sexual. He didn't know if Fred and George had had a sexual relationship, but he did know that they had been connected, in that way that all twins were.

Fred hadn't just lost a brother, he'd lost another part of his soul -- literally. So it shouldn't have come as any big surprise that he had attempted to take his own life. They'd never spoken of it, but Fred wasn't allowed to use normal forks or knives anymore, and whenever he came out of his room he was closely monitored, by either Bill or himself.

But Bill wasn't here anymore, and he didn't have the energy to watch Fred's every movement. It was either Fred swear to him that he wouldn't attempt something like that again, or he get somebody else to come and stay with them. Maybe Harry ........? The dark-haired youth had to be hurting, as well. He'd practically been an honorary member of the family. Whoever, it was, it would haveto be somebody that they weere already familiar with.

"I want to know if I can trust you not to do it again, Fred. And I want you to look at me when you tell me." Charlie said softly, eyes trained intently on the youth spread out before him.

Glancing up at his older brother, Fred smiled itiredly. "I can try." Was the soft response he recieved, and Charlie let loose yet another sigh, glancing down and away from those eyes.

"We're going in to Diagon Alley today, alright? I've got some stuff I've got to pick up, and we can get your books and oher school supplies, too. Be ready at noon, alright?"

Glancing back at Fred, Charlie smiled at the weak nod he recieved as a form of answer. He knew better than to push for anything more than that. It was a miracle that Fred was even saying anything.

--------

Fred stared around himself, taking in the sight of Leaky Couldron. It actually wasn't as hard to come here as he had thought it would be.

True to his word, Charlie had called him down from his room at exactly 12:00 sharp, waiting patiently at the fireplace when he had finially ambled his way down. They had floo'd directly to the Leaky Couldron ........ and now, here they were. IN a place where almost every surface should have held some sort of memory for him, should have sent him other the edge into hysteria.

But it didn't. He looked at this place, and he remembered comming here for as long as he COULD remember. But the pain in his chest wasn't tightening, but lessening. He wasn't staring at these things an dfeeling the urge to cry, but rather feeling a strange sort of calm wash over him. He didn't know why he was so calm about this, but he was glad for it, just the same.

It wouldn't do to cause a scene, now would it?

--------

Charlie could have kicked himself for not remembering how many memories this place held for him -- it was almost overwhelming. He could control himself easily -- he and Billw ere just like that. Plus, it'd been a while since he was here with the rest of the family, so those memories ween't quite as fresh as Fred's would be.

But what worried him the most wasn't the fact that they were here, in this place filled with so many memories. No, that didn't worry him nearly as much as the fact that Fred WASN'T breaking down. While this might have made anybody else ecstatic with job, showing that perhaps he was finially dealing witht things, Charlie had a hard time believing that that was the case.

Was Fred dealing with things? Was that what was happening here? or was it simply that Fred WASN'T dealing with it, was pushing his pain to the very back of his mind, refusing to even acknowledge it? For some reason, the second option seemed much more realistic.

Shrugging his broad shoulders, Charlie laid a hand on his younger brother's more wiry shoulders, steeing him toward the baack door to the pub -- although some people probably considered it the front door, if they were comming from Diagon Alley.

Forcing such waywards thoughts to the back of his mind for later times when he didn't have quite so much to think about, Charlie tapped the bricks in the fashion he had seen his parents do so many times before. Even that pulled oddly at his heart -- something so familiar, that he had never really expected to himself. He could rarely get the time off to come into London, and even when he did he only came here with one of his parents. But now and forevermore he would be the one to tap the bricks on their little outings, not his Mum or Dad.

Blinking back the tears that rose to his eyes, Charlie glanced over at his ounger brother, frowning at the utter calm that had sparead over Fred's features. He'd sxpected this trip to at least al ittle traumatizing for the younger teen, which wa why he had wanted to get it over and done with as soon as possible. But no ........ Fred was acting like he had never been here with anybody from the family beside Charlie himself before, acting as if these familiar sights didn't bring a sharp pain to his heart like they did to Charlie's.

Yet the mere mention of George's name, or Ron's or Ginny's, or any other others, could send him into fits of rage and greif.

Definately burying his feelings.

-----

to my wonderful reviewers -- thank you! all two of you! :-)

nidawi hope that your stilling enjoying this! i'm attempting to make my chapters longer, so hopefully this one helps. sorry it took me so long to update, too. not many people seem to be interested in this story :(

emikae well, hopefull this is up to par with what you've read so far. to have the beginnig good and then dwindle off into ickyness is just ........ wrong. enjoy!