A/N: I wrote this long time back and found it in my drafts...

I'm questioning why I wrote this...

Butt here ya go.

ps: i posted this alr in my ao3 acc...so pls don't think im stealing if u've alr seen it...

Ginny Weasley tried to reel it in. She really did. But perhaps the cause was a lost one from the beginning. Her temper had never been something that was easily tamable.

"You know I really don't think Harry dear should be spending so much time, alone moreover, in that dratted old Black house. Honestly, one of you lot have to drag him here sooner. He needs love right now –"

Ginny clenched her fist under the table as her mother gave another pointed look.

"I mean after all the deaths and well," Molly Weasley choked back a sob, the pain still too fresh as her thoughts returned to her dead son, "And Fred's passing –"

The sound of a goblet shattering interrupted Mrs Weasley. Every head turned to George who was quietly vanishing his broken goblet with a pinched expression.

That was the last trigger. Ginny lost it.

"For fuck's sake mother! Let it go! Harry and I are not getting back together! We never were together at all!"

Silence descended upon the Weasley household. Most of the assembled family slowly inched back in their seats, trying to distance themselves from the fuming females in the room. The two other females, one brunette and the other blonde, simply braced themselves for the fight that was going to ensue between their mother-in-law and sister-in-law.

"GINERVERA –"

"No."

The cold interruption that the youngest Weasley gave Molly shocked everyone.

"You listen to me this time, mother." There was something utterly cool about the usually bubbly but sarcastic woman's voice that Molly Weasley silenced herself abruptly, anger at her daughter's language forgotten.

"Harry Potter loves me but he was never, ever, in love with me," Ginny stated, brown eyes boring straight into her mother's. "And yes, I love Harry with all my heart but I am also not in love with him. Haven't been in quite some years. I was in love with the boy-who-lived once and maybe even Harry himself once but not anymore. Now what I think of him is the same as when I think of any one of my brothers."

Silence ensued amongst the people seated around the Burrow's dining table.

Ginny seemed to deflate a little, the anger in her abating slightly.

"You need to stop trying to matchmake us. We don't like each other that way. Heck, we've never been together that way at all!" Ginny threw her hands up in frustration.

"What are you talking about?" Molly admonished, having finally found her voice back. "You were together before the war! And you were happy too –"

Molly narrowed her eyes when she saw four pairs of eyes shift away in guilt.

"What?" she snapped. She turned to look at her children. "What are you hiding?"

"I wasn't with Harry ever mum." Ginny's voice had become uncharacteristically soft. "That was merely a bluff. Well, it was – you see –" Ginny turned to look pleadingly at her accomplices, eyes shadowed in pain.

George was the one who decided to help out his sister. His raspy voice bluntly put out the truth for all to hear.

"Harry was dating Fred."

Shocked silence filled the kitchen.

The occupants were not really sure what exactly they were shocked at. The fact that George had spoken finally after Fred's death. Or the fact that Harry had been dating George's twin of all people. His currently dead twin.

The dots started connecting slowly for all the others.

Percy remembered how Fred and Harry had been both acting odd during the year Sirius Black had escaped Azkaban. He had once chalked it up to Harry being nervous about a madman being after him and Fred just being overexcited for some other prank up his sleeve.

But he was just realising that those odd behaviours had started sometime at the second half of that year and the duo had only acted like that when – well, when they were near each other.

And hadn't something been oddly fishy during the Quidditch World Cup?

Bill and Charlie were coming to a somewhat similar conclusion as Percy on the World Cup period. They had joined the family later, considering all of them had been old enough to apparate to the location. And something they had brushed off then casually upon arrival was how Fred and Harry had in their possession things that clearly belonged to the other.

It had been small things. Harry wearing Fred's old jumper. Fred having a few trinkets and other stuff that was not his, judging by the newness of the possessions. They had brushed it off as unimportant because that had not been the first time Harry had shared and traded matters with a Weasley, with how much the boy had integrated into their family.

Granted they should have realised that Harry only truly had done that much sharing with Ron only but –

But they hadn't realised that at all.

Ron and Hermione had always been Harry's undisputed best friends, his first family since his parents' death. However, if one had bothered to observe, the Weasley twins had played a rather significant role in Harry's life too.

The twins had always been close to Harry, though never as close as Ron and Hermione.

They had been the closest friends Harry had within the Gryffindor Quidditch team. They had been the ones who supported Harry silently. They had been the ones who had helped Ron rescue Harry in second year, willing to break more than just simple rules but laws to help out a boy who they had barely known despite him being their brother's best friend.

Why had they done it? Flying a car out was not a simple, just-for-laughs prank. It was as good as a one-way ticket to Azkaban.

And for those who knew about the Marauder's Map, they also knew it was Fred and George who had given Harry that precious old parchment. The twin pranksters giving up the key to their success?

What a despicable thought. Yet it had happened one fine day in third year when news had travelled that a certain golden boy was not allowed to leave for Hogsmeade trips with his friends.

Ron was right to have been miffed about it essentially. The twins did not even show that much kindness to their own brothers.

Then why to Harry?

George knew the answer from the beginning. Hermione figured it out during Harry's fourth year as did Ginny. Even Ron had cottoned on by the end of the tournament.

Fred liked Harry.

No, Fred Weasley had loved Harry. Not Harry, the boy-who-lived or the poor orphan kid his family had silently taken in as one of their own. But plain, old Harry who got into so much trouble Fred had started to worry he would gain grey hair before even turning seventeen.

Something about the green-eyed, bespectacled boy had intrigued Fred Weasley since Harry's first year. And that curiosity had developed to fondness and eventually a crush and eventually love.

"Come again?" It was Bill Weasley who broke the silence in the kitchen.

"Harry was dating Fred," George repeated calmly, after taking a sip of water to soothe his throat. Speaking for the first time after months was tiring, the surviving twin found out. "Ginny's supposed dating period with Harry was false. It was merely a façade they put up."

"W- Why?" Molly looked around in confusion. "Why would they do that?"

"Because they didn't want you to know mum," George replied, blunt as ever.

Molly's face crumpled and everyone else, including George, grimaced at the woman's saddened demeanour.

"Well, it isn't that either of them didn't want you to know forever or – like- like they wanted to tell, I mean – " George let his face fall onto his palm, giving up. He was not really in the right frame of mind to be reassuring or explaining complex matters. No matter what he did, George was still haunted by the absence of his twin and it was currently interfering with his social skills.

Once upon a time, George Weasley would have been able to tell his mum the whys and what nots behind his twin's love-life in a delicate way. But once upon a time he had his twin alive and beside him while he did that.

"What he means to say, Mrs Weasley," Hermione interjected, giving George a sympathetic look, "Is that back then, Harry had not been ready to reveal his relationship with Fred and so the both of them made the decision to keep it a secret. George, Ginny, Ron and I figuring it out had been honestly just a matter of coincidence. George knew because it was impossible for him to not realise it, what with all the time he spent with Fred. Ron and I have the same reason except it applies to us hanging out all the time with Harry instead of Fred. And Ginny – well," Hermione blushed, "Well Ginny may have simply walked in on them accidentally one day."

Ginny blushed at the reminder.

She was certain it had been sometime after the Yule Ball had finished. She had been heading for the tower but unfortunately took the longer way to avoid the crowd of drunk witches and wizards.

Harry and Fred had had the same idea apparently, with the slight exception that they had been wanting to avoid the crowd for a reason that was not inclusive of getting back to the Gryffindor Tower without hassle.

Well, judging by their heated kiss behind an empty armour, Ginny supposed it was a good thing they avoided the crowded hallways. The legendary Hogwarts Rumour Mill would have had a field day otherwise.

The Weasley family, barring Ron, Hermione, George and Ginny, blinked at the information.

"But why would he not want to reveal his relationship to us? We wouldn't have minded. We would have supported!" Molly insisted.

Hermione shook her head sadly.

"No Mrs Weasley, you would have stressed them out."

"Excuse me?!" Molly had an indignant look painted across her face.

Ron jumped to his fiancé's defence.

"Mum calm down, she's right. But she means no offence."

"Ron!"

"Look mum," Ron sighed. "What was the first thing you did when you heard about me and Hermione dating?"

Molly frowned in confusion.

"Celebrated," Charlie piped up.

"Threw a party," Bill added in.

"Aye, told most everybody in the family about it too," Fleur chimed in politely. Her accent had definitely improved with her years spent in England but there was still a hint of her homeland in the way she spoke. "My mama and papa even heard of the news, all the way in France."

Hermione whipped around in shock to stare at the blonde witch in shock.

"What?!"

A light round of chuckles went around the table at Hermione's mortified face. Molly meanwhile gave a slightly sheepish grin.

"I may have been a bit overexcited."

Ginny rolled her eyes.

"No, you became way too overexcited. You almost did the same thing when Harry and I faked out relationship to make you quit matchmaking us," the witch grumbled under her breath.

"And that was exactly what Harry wanted to avoid from you. He did not want that kind of pressure at all, especially since he was serious about Fred and didn't want to mess up," George said, re-joining the conversation.

"You have to understand, Mrs Weasley, Harry's never been fond of affection and all that, despite craving for it," Hermione explained. "The only role models in his life at what a family should be was initially the Dursleys and you know those pigs were no good for him."

A dark tone entered Hermione's voice at the reminder of Harry's blood relatives.

"Your family taught him about love and familial relationships than anyone else. But even that didn't erase most of his cynicism at his own chances in having a family. Fred being a part of your family made it even more difficult for Harry to work out the relationship with him because he was afraid if he messed it up, the rest of you guys would hate him for eternity. Harry would have broken down if that happened."

"Well we still love him even if he and Fred didn't work out well." Arthur defended, joining into the conversation for the first time. "That's the whole point of dating. To get to know if you work out well!"

"Yes, dad but mum makes a big deal out of it," Ron argued. "Hermione and I were only dating and with the way mum went on about it, it seemed like she was already planning the wedding!"

Molly blushed and the rest of the table chuckled with fond exasperation at the Weasley matriarch's enthusiasm when it came to family.

"Harry didn't want that pressure in a real relationship and Fred understood where he was coming from," Hermione continued. "I think they both knew that if they rushed it, they wouldn't make it work. While Fred would have handled it better, even he makes mistakes under stress. Harry, however, would have completely panicked. He had a lot going on his plate itself when he first realised that he liked Fred as more than a friend, Mrs Weasley. He was scared."

Ginny nodded.

"Yeah, when I was brought into their whole love-life affair, I was told Fred spent the first half of Harry's third year trying to drop subtle hints that he liked the idiot. When that didn't work, he upped the ante until he was literally screaming into Harry's oblivious face that he liked liked Harry. A lot."

The four who had been in on the story snickered.

"Yes, and after that the prats wasted more precious months trying to figure out whether they should be dating or not," George muttered in exasperation. "Harry was scared out of his mind naturally and Fred was scared he had blown his chance when Harry started to avoid him like the plague."

"It was bloody annoying," Hermione muttered, understanding George's pain. She had been the one cleaning up after Harry's pining self since figuring out his mutual crush on Fred. She had wanted to beat the idiocy out of Harry's head when he had not quit complaining about how unfair his life was turning out to be, though looking back, Harry had indeed had it very rotten in his fourth year.

And all other years after that too.

The brunette witch looked up when she realised the dining table was eerily silent.

"What?"

"You cursed," Ron replied in awe.

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Seriously you guys, just because I choose to be polite all the time doesn't mean I don't know how to crass."

Ron shook his head.

"You're mental."

Hermione shot her husband-to-be a glare. Ron scooted away from her in fear.

"Anyways, they got together by Yule and that was when Ginny found out about them. Ron was still an airhead so he didn't know –"

"Hey!"

" – but even he figured it out by the end of fourth year. And I suppose Harry and Fred lasted throughout the rest of the year decently. Well for one they stopped blushing around each other like fools, so that was an improvement."

"Yeah but summer blew all that progress out of the window," George muttered.

The other three winced while the rest of the table blinked in confusion.

"What happened in the summer?" Charlie asked.

"The stupid Order of The Phoenix is what happened," Ron replied.

The others winced, having either experienced or heard about the summer of isolation incident that Harry had went through.

"Terrible I tell you," George muttered again. "Adults are truly incompetent."

Molly and Arthur bristled slightly at that. Hermione meanwhile nodded in agreement.

"I mean, seriously. We did not even know much about the Order's work and all that but you guys still had the audacity to screen our letters and limit our interaction. It was stupid. Fred had no opportunity to write what he truly wanted to Harry and that pushed their progress backwards so much! I wanted to seriously set most of you on fire."

Molly and Arthur felt a shiver run down their spines at the look the younger witch threw them.

"Well we didn't know – "

"No, it didn't matter if you guys didn't know. It was plain stupid. What most of us knew then, which was honestly just that the Order of the Phoenix existed to fight against Voldemort," Hermione ignored the flinch some of the others were showing, "Was not anything important. The Death Eaters knew of that already and there was no harm in Harry knowing about it. And honestly, the boy had seen a fellow student die and you lot left him to rot by himself with the Dursleys!" Hermione was almost shouting.

Ron placed a placating arm around her shoulders.

"You should have seen the row Harry had with Fred after he was finally brought over to Grimmauld," George muttered again.

"Wait but I only heard Harry shouting at Ron and Hermione that day?" Molly asked with a frown.

"Silencing charms," Ron replied. "Fred was of age by then."

"Man, that was one hell of a row though," Ginny muttered.

"What happened?" Arthur asked with a frown. The Weasley patriarch was realising how much he had missed out on his son's life with all the information that was flowing around.

"Well, Harry was terribly mad you see. What brought him, me and Ron together were all the adventures and time we've spent together everyday. But Fred is one of those rare people that he trusted without any life-threatening issues or madness inspiring a camaraderie and faith. So naturally he got very mad that the one half of the resident pranksters who didn't give shit about rules and who also happened to be the first person he had trusted with so much blind faith failed him when it mattered most," Hermione replied.

The family blinked.

"Poor Harry," Fleur commented from beside Bill.

"Yeah," Ron agreed. "Harry had it real rough that summer."

"Well, what happened after that?" Bill asked.

To the others' surprise, George, Hermione, Ron and Ginny started to snicker.

"Oh, Fred had to resort to grovelling. It was hilarious!" George chuckled. The sight warmed the hearts of those present. It had been quite sometime that they had seen the surviving Weasley twin smile, let alone laugh.

Ginny nodded enthusiastically.

"I remember him buying Harry gift after gift for an entire term! Harry was starting to get annoyed at the effort it took to hide the relationship when Fred was honestly piling up his trunk with so much trinkets."

"Where did he even get money to do that?" Charlie asked.

"Oh Me and Fred had a lot of money from selling out our pranks in Hogwarts. Excellent way to make revenue, I tell ya."

Molly looked torn between being disapproving and wanting them to continue the story.

"Well, they made up soon enough. Umbridge was useful in that at least that she united them again in their hatred against her. And Fred went on a rampage at how that bitch tortured Harry with a blood quill?"

"Language –"

"Blood quill?!"

"What the fuck?"

"Bloody hell what?"

Everyone blinked at the sudden commotion they all caused.

"Pardon me," Arthur decided to get the first word in. "But did I hear you correctly? A blood quill?"

The four nodded.

"It was terrible. Harry still has the scar on his hand," Hermione stabbed the potatoes on her plate vehemently. "Stupid bitch of a toad. I'm glad she's in Azkaban honestly. She deserves to rot."

Nobody bothered to admonish Hermione's language this time.

"How come we knew none of this?" Molly asked. "Why didn't any of you kids tell us?"

"Would you have cared?" Hermione asked bluntly.

"Hermione!" Arthur stared at the once authority-abiding witch.

Hermione shrugged.

"No offence, but you adults always liked taking the easy way back then and even now."

"Young lady – " Molly started.

"You wanted a young teenager to fight your fucking war," Hermione snapped. "And when he did decide to do something about it, you also got in the way in the name of "protecting" him because he was still a "child". You were all a bunch of hypocrites. Whenever shit eventually hit the fan, Harry was always thrown into the middle of the mess to pull a miraculous victory but after he does that, he gets thrown away like a rag. Why the heck would we tell anyone of you what was going on? Even when we tried to tell the teachers, because we did still have some faith left, all we got in reply was to be good children and to "keep our heads down". Very trust inspiring, I'll let you know."

The table of redheads sat staring at the brunette witch, stunned. Ron merely gave a small smile at his fiancé while Ginny, George and even Fleur hid a smirk at the way the brightest witch of her age was tearing apart the others.

"Look, we've completely digressed from the topic," Ginny said, diverting all their attention. "Mum, Harry and I don't like each other romantically. Heck, the poor man is still reeling in all the losses he has suffered. He doesn't appreciate you trying to matchmake him while he is still grieving but he's too polite to say it to your face. Leave him be. Harry will come to us when he's ready."

"Yeah. Besides me and Mione check up on him all the time anyways," Ron supplied.

"But, still. Tell him not to hide away alone in that house. I admit I was wrong to have pushed him to pursuing a love life again and I'll apologise. But he should spend time with people who care about him," Molly argued.

Arthur nodded.

"Yes. Especially after what we've heard, I think he would find it helpful to grieve with us. We want to support him too. He does know he has a place here no matter what, doesn't he?"

The four looked away.

"It's complicated you guys," Ron muttered.

"What do you mean?" Percy asked.

"Mum, your matchmaking is not the only reason Harry avoids the Burrow," Ginny muttered softly, glancing towards George with a pitying look.

George gave his sister a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

Bill, Charlie, Percy and Fleur cottoned on to the indirect message quickly. Their eyes widened in shock and Fleur grimaced slightly, understanding the pain that both George and Harry were going through.

"What?" Molly asked confused. Arthur meanwhile seemed to have a suspicion as to what Ginny was hinting at.

"He breaks down every time he sees me, mum," George explained bluntly. "I don't blame him. I've taken to avoiding mirrors myself to avoid breakdowns myself."

"Oh."

Silence descended on the party of ten.

"Well," George muttered. "It's been nice chatting with you but I'm done with my social quota for the week. So I'm heading back to my room."

George left quickly.

"I'm going to check on Harry," Hermione muttered. "This conversation was depressing."

"I'll come." Ron scrambled after his wife-to-be who was already flooing away in a flash of green flames.

Well, I suppose this is one way to end lunch, Ginny thought as she silently left the table herself, heading up to her own room.

Lying on her bed, the witch thought back to a time where things had been simpler and easier. Where watching Fred and Harry had been finally a sight that no longer brought her pain but happiness for her two brothers. A time where when she needed to see Fred, all she had to do was walk downstairs or holler around the house.

We miss you, you idiot, Ginny thought. Will it ever get easier to think about you?

Miles away in a shrouded ancestral home hidden away from muggles' eyes, an emerald-eyed man had the same thoughts as he leaned against his two best friends for comfort.

But even while he was drowning in the pain of his loss, crying silently as he clutched the engagement rings that he had once planned to use in his hands, Harry Potter forced himself to remember the good times that he had had with his first ever love.

Because he knew Fred Weasley would have wanted that.

A hand caressing the top of his head had him looking up blurrily into the warm eyes of his best friend. Hermione smiled warmly at him.

"You'll be fine, Harry."

Ron squeezed his shoulders in silent support from his other side as Harry merely broke down further at his friend's words of reassurance. The three friends curled up together on the drab kitchen floor and Harry drowned himself in the familiarity the action brought.

It had been just the three of them once upon a time. Just the three of them against the world. Then things changed and slowly Harry had learnt that there were more people out there who cared for him. It had become the three of them and more.

Harry knew he still had more people out there who cared for him. Who were waiting for him to step out from Grimmauld so that they could take care of him and grieve with him.

But right now, it was back to just him and his two best friends.

Back to being to just three.

And Harry couldn't find it in himself to let go of the security his most trusted were offering him as he grieved over the loss of one other person who he had come to value equally as much as he valued Ron and Hermione.

I miss you Fred, he thought. I reckon I'll always be missing you for the rest of my life. But –

Harry looked down at the rings he still clutched in his hands. A long time back, he would have never believed that he could ever have anyone whom he would have considered spending the rest of his life with. He would not have even believed that he would have made it out alive through the war to be able to indulge in such a dream.

Yet that despair had been chipped off till the root since Fred courted him. And if there was one thing that Fred had always tried to convince him of, it had been that Harry could dream for a family. That he had every right to think he deserved that.

"Of course you can't be certain that you and I will end up together all the way! No one is ever certain of that, especially when they start dating!"

Harry looked down at his feet, unsure of what to say. This was an argument that they had had several times. An argument where he never believed what Fred was saying and Fred would not even think of agreeing with what Harry had convinced himself over the years.

"Look at me, Harry. Harry –" gentle hands reached out to guide his chin up. Harry reluctantly met Fred's gaze. "I understand that you are scared. But trust me. You have every right to try and fall in love. Be it with me or anyone who makes your heart flutter."

Harry looked away, pink dusting his cheek. Fred had no idea. He may be denying the older boy any chance to date him out of fear, but Harry could never deny that Fred was attractive to him. The boy did not make his heart flutter. He made Harry's heart pound.

A soft caress to his cheek had him look back at Fred.

"Give me a chance. Not just to date you. But to prove to you that there is no harm in falling love. And even if we don't work out in the end, as you believe, I'll prove to you that there is nothing bad that can come with that by still staying beside you. As a friend, if you'll still have me.

I care about you, Harry. In the end, it doesn't matter if you cannot find it in yourself to fall in love with me. As long as your happy, I don't care."

Harry pressed his forehead against the freckle-faced teen. Fred's hand never left his face.

"Give me a chance? Give us a chance? I promise you won't ever regret it. I promise I'll show you that you have every right to learn to love."

Harry gave a small smile as he remembered how Fred convinced him to date the boy. He looked at the rings again, letting another tear roll down his face.

– But thank you Fred. For teaching me what love was. I won't forget ever forget it. No matter how much I'll be missing you.

He bit back another sob.

I love you Fred Weasley.

A/N: Review if ya can :)

Hope you liked it!