author's notes: A what-if look at a George without a Fred. Originally written 11/05. Revised 03/17.
When The Ghost Came
a story about George and Fred
Bill is at Hogwarts and Charlie just left this year, Percy is busy reading, and George is alone, thinking of what it would be like if he was not. He's always been too little to play with Bill and Charlie, and Percy never wants to do anything but read. Ron and Ginny are too small to do anything but stick to Mum like glue. So George spends a lot of time in the garden, sitting by himself, feeling like something is missing.
He watches the gnomes run around the yard, ignoring him because they know that Dad is at work and Mum is taking care of Ron and Ginny and he won't do anything to them. He wishes he didn't have to be alone.
"Hello," says a voice, and George jumps.
He looks around, but there is no one there. So he decides to ignore the voice, and goes back to watching the gnomes, anxiously picking at his torn jeans.
"Didn't you hear me?" says the same voice, and this time he looks straight above him, in the air, and can almost see a faint glimmer of something. Someone.
"I don't want to talk to a ghost," George says bluntly. "I don't like them. The ghoul's bad enough."
The ghost comes closer, and he can't help flinch. "But don't you know me?"
"No," George says.
"I know you," says the ghost.
George watches the gnomes chase after a bird and sighs. He gets to his feet and brushes off the dirt. "All right, then. What may I do for you, ghost?" he asks, polite as Mum taught him to be. "And would you like to come in?"
"Yes please," says the voice.
They go up to his room, although it isn't even his because he shares with Percy and used to share with Charlie, too. He sits on the bed and stares at the shimmer in the air.
"Do you ever feel like you've got a hole in your side? Like something used to be there, like a wrinkle in a shirt, but just went?" the ghost says abruptly.
"Yes," George says, surprised to find that it's the truth.
"That's my fault," says the ghost, "I wasn't supposed to die. I was supposed to be with you."
George stares at the ghost, and the ghost glimmershimmers back in a ghostly stare, and then they are thinking together of a past that could have been and a future that could have happened.
"What's your name, ghost?" George asks.
"I don't have one," the ghost voice tells him, sadly. "I died before Mum could name me."
"I can ask for you," George suggests. "Mum'll tell me anything if I go about it right."
"All right," says the ghost, already sounding more cheerful. "I'll wait for you here."
So George clatters down the stairs to the kitchen, where Mum is making cookies and letting Ron taste the spoon. He has batter across his face. Unsupervised, Ginny is carefully crawling towards her wand.
"Mum, can I ask you something?" he asks in his best-behaved voice.
"Yes, George, dear?" Mum replies, muttering under her breath 'careful, Ron, that doesn't go in your stomach.'
Hoping Mum will be distracted enough to just give him an answer instead of questioning his motives, George asks, "If you'd had another baby - a boy, I mean. What would he have been named?"
Mum sighs and her eyes go far away while Ron chews on the wooden spoon. "It's funny you ask. Your father and I liked Fred, as a name. We haven't had a chance to use it yet, but..."
Ginny waves Mum's wand and sends ten bright butterflies flying around the kitchen. Mum drops Ron back in his high chair and goes to grab Ginny (and her wand) before something else happens. George sneaks back upstairs to his room, where the ghost is waiting for him.
"I think you were going to be Fred," George tells him.
"Fred," the ghost muses. "It's a decent name, I suppose."
That's when something happens to the ghost. Instead of being a glimmer in the air, the ghost becomes a blue-toned boy about George's age, with freckles, and shabby clothes, who certainly would have had red hair had he been real. The ghost stares down at himself in astonishment, then does a somersault in the air.
"I'm Fred!" the ghost cries, only he isn't the ghost anymore, because he's Fred.
George can't stop grinning, because Fred looks exactly like him, and he knows that he won't be alone anymore. But then Percy comes in without knocking, the way he always does, to put his book back on his own private shelf. George is still grinning wildly, and Fred is hovering near the ceiling, suddenly looking very frightened.
Percy looks at George and frowns, adjusting his glasses. "What're you smiling like that for?"
George shakes his head, trying not to laugh. "No reason."
Fred's sneakered foot taps against the door frame with a nervous twitch, and Percy looks straight up at the ceiling. His reaction doesn't change at all. "Stupid ghoul, rattling around again," he mutters, and leaves.
"He couldn't see you," George marvels.
"I wonder why?" says Fred, floating down from the ceiling.
"Wicked," they say together.
Having Fred around is brilliant. Fred listens to him. He never tells him to grow up, or that he's too little to understand. They like all the same stories. They like all the same jokes. George tells Fred all his favorites, and he laughs and laughs. They stand face to face and they are exactly the same height, but George has more freckles and Fred's ears stick out a little bit more.
But Fred is more daring than George. He isn't afraid of the gnomes. He swoops down on them the way Dad does, knocking them out of the way and tossing them about, but they never see him coming. George feels a little sorry for them, but the dizzy shock on their grumpy wrinkled faces as they're spun around makes both of them burst into laughter. Mum's flowers start to look happier and she thanks Dad for finally de-gnoming the garden, much to his surprise. She doesn't thank Fred.
"I don't mind," Fred tells George as they whisper together under the blankets at night. "I like seeing them happy, don't you? Dad looks so tired. He must work very hard."
Fred has lots of good ideas. He even comes up with a way to get back at Percy after he yells at George for taking his new book. Fred braves the ghoul and sneaks up to the attic to loosen the valves in the water pipe that crosses over their bedroom. Percy wakes up soaking wet, and the look on his face when he sees what's happened is almost as good as when he finds the book under his bed, right where he'd left it. He apologizes for blaming George, and Percy never apologizes for anything.
No one but George notices Fred, but they can see the things he moves. They almost get caught the day George explains Quidditch to Fred. They're running around the garden using sticks for brooms and pretending to be internationally famous Quidditch stars when Ron notices Fred's stick floating along in the air by itself. He almost tells Mum before George quickly explains that he did it and didn't mean to, so they should keep it a secret. In exchange, Fred makes Ron's teddy bear dance for him and Ginny.
They're more careful after that. Fred is George's biggest secret, the one thing he doesn't have to share with anybody else. Sometimes he wishes he could tell everyone else how amazing he is, but Fred doesn't think it's a good idea.
"All I know is I was supposed to be with you," Fred says doubtfully. "That's good enough, isn't it?"
So George keeps his secret safe. He's happier than he's ever been.
Days pass, and it starts to feel like there never was a time without Fred.
Fred likes to explore on his own when George has to do things without him, like get ready for bed. (He gets bored watching Percy supervise him brush his teeth.) He likes to look at all the photographs and portraits on the walls. George has told him lots of stories about their family, and he feels like he knows them all, now. Fred only ever knew Mum before, and that was for a very short time.
In the kitchen, the dishes have been charmed to scrub themselves clean. Mum and Dad are talking together in the parlor, a room filled with worn furniture and traces of all the children who use it, except for Fred. He hovers by Dad's chair to watch them.
"He's spending more and more time by himself," Mum says in a hushed voice.
"Perhaps he's made a friend," Dad suggests quietly. "There are lots of children down in the village."
"No. He never goes that far, I'd see if he did," Mum says, and Fred realizes that they are talking about George.
They both seem worried. Dad mulls it over while Mum picks up her knitting.
"Well, he'll be all right, I'm sure," Dad finally says. "Let's not worry about it too much. Especially not you! Not in your condition."
Mum laughs and agrees, although she doesn't look completely convinced.
Fred hears footsteps upstairs. He forgets what he'd overheard as he floats back upstairs to find George. He tells him Mum is knitting again, something enormous.
Fred is out in the garden, chasing the gnomes while the rest of the family eats dinner, and George can see him through the window. All George wants to do is go and play with Fred, but Mum had said no, not until they were all finished. Impatient, he taps his foot on his chair.
Ron has already got mashed potato on his ear. Percy is obviously itching to go back to his book, pushing carrots around his plate. Ginny sips her diluted pumpkin juice with loud smacks.
Finally, Dad finally puts down his fork and clears his throat the way he does before he has something important to say.
"Well, Weasleys, I've got some Exciting News," he announces, beaming at them all.
"Did you get a promotion, Dad?" Percy asks.
"Christmas?" Ron says hopefully, and everyone laughs, even Ginny. But George has a sinking sort of feeling in his stomach.
"Are we moving?" George asks.
"No, nothing like that," Dad reassures him. "There's going to be another baby!"
Dad and Mum smile at each other, and Percy sighs at the thought of yet more grubby fingers reaching for his things. Ron frowns, considering the news.
"When?" Ron asks.
"In about two months, " Mum tells them. "You'll all have a little brother."
"NO," says a loud voice, and George is surprised to realize that it was his own. "I don't want another brother," he adds forcefully. "Why can't things just stay the way they are?"
He gets up from the table and runs outside.
He can hear Ginny begin to cry as the door slams shut behind him.
"There's going to be a baby," George tells Fred.
They are hiding in the broom shed, with the door slightly open to let some light can come through. He hugs his knees to his chest and tries not to cry.
Fred looks serious. "What kind?"
"A boy," George says miserably. "I don't want it to come."
Fred sits down next to George and puts a comforting transparent hand on his shoulder, even though he can't feel it. "You'll have a real brother, then! That can't be all bad."
"But I've got plenty of those already. I like having you," George says, blinking back his tears. "I don't want things to change."
Fred sighs. "I know. But I don't think I can stay here."
"Why not? Where would you go?"
"I'm not sure. It's just a funny feeling I've got. Maybe it's nothing," Fred says lightheartedly, but they both know it isn't nothing and that it is something, even if they don't understand it.
George does cry, now, wishing he could hug the boy sitting next to him. Fred nods, eyes glistening, and George knows that his twin wishes the same thing.
"I'm sorry, George," Fred says in a small voice. "But I-"
"All right," George cuts him off, and wipes his runny nose on the sleeve of his sweatshirt, a well-worn shirt that had once belonged to Bill. "All right."
"Thank you for telling me who I was," Fred says seriously. "I spent so long wondering, but I knew you could tell me. So now it's my turn to tell you something: You're never really alone. You've got a whole big family in there, and they love you very much."
George sighs. "Yeah. They do. 'bye, Fred."
Fred grins at him and waves, then suddenly he isn't there anymore. It's just George, sitting alone in the dark.
Dad pulls open the door of the broom shed and sighs in relief, dropping to his knees next to him. "George! Here you are. I'm so glad we found you, your mother and I were worried..."
He grabs George and wraps him in a big hug. Suddenly, George remembers the stories he'd heard about the war, children running off and taken away by dark wizards, whole families vanishing in a single spell, and he feels ashamed to have made his parents worry.
He lets himself hug Dad back, just as tightly.
Mum is in her and Dad's room with the Mediwitch, and George is outside in the garden with Percy and Ron and Ginny. Percy is being nice for once, playing clapping games with Ginny and Ron. George was playing too, but he doesn't feel like joining anymore.
Dad opens the door, and all four of them scramble to their feet and begin talking at once.
"How's Mum?" Percy asks.
"Did the baby come?" George asks.
"Mumma?" Ron and Ginny say together.
"Hush," Dad laughs, giving Ginny a kiss and tousling Ron and Percy's hair. "She's fine. He's fine. Let's see - George, would you like to come meet him?"
George nods, and follows his dad inside. The Mediwitch is packing her bag to leave. Mum looks tired but oddly happy. There is a wrinkled bundle in her arms that must be the new baby. George crawls up on the bed to see it, leaning on Mum.
Blue eyes blink open and look up at him, and George grins. He would recognize those eyes anywhere.
"I know you," he says.
"We would like to name him Fred," says Mum. "What do you think, George?"
"I think it's perfect," George says, giving Fred and Mum an enormous hug.
Nestled between them, Fred closes his eyes and goes to sleep.