Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. But I wish I would because I'd be in some countryside mansion and not this tiny apartment.
Summary: Happiness can be shattered in a moment and all you have left are shards to try and put it back together.
Notes: The other side of the coin, if Fred died. (Thank yous are at the end)
My ghost
Where'd you go?
I can't find you in the body sleeping next to me
-Ghost, Halsey
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His body jolted for a moment then lay still.
She tried again.
Nothing.
"Fred?" Percy's voice could be heard from some distant place. Like some world away. A world that wasn't the one Rose was in. Her world was crashing around her, crumbling like the walls of the castle. Her world was ending, ending on a cruel joke.
This wasn't real, this couldn't be. She was going to wake up in a moment, covered in sweat from this horrible nightmare. Laying next to him to hear his laughter just one more time.
This nightmare that was her reality.
Rose tossed her wand grabbing Fred's collar.
"No, Fred No!" She screamed into his face, "You can't leave me! You promised! You promised."
When George found her, for a moment, he thought she was dead too laying over him twin's unmoving body.
In many ways she was.
And so was he.
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After the battle of Hogwarts Rose locked herself away in her room. Laying in bed unable to move. Unable to sleep but unable to stay awake. Even her dreams were filled with Percy's face as Fred fell. Even her dreams were filled with Ron's screams and George's sobs.
Even in her dreams, Fred was dead.
A week later her mother made her get up and clean herself off. She informed her eldest daughter that she was going to Fred's funeral.
"There are people going who loved him longer than you in a way you will never understand." she had informed her daughter as she handed her a black dress. "You will never understand what his mother is going through, what George feels. I know it's hard, but you must be there for those who lost him too."
So Rose pulled herself together and went to the funeral. But not in the black dress her mother had picked out. But in a bright pink dress she had gotten for the opening for his joke shop. Fred had picked it out for her telling her she would look like a cotton candy puff. Her hair lay in loose curls with a bright matching pink bow.
Fred would have loved it.
Percy meet her at the home as she came. Large bags under his eyes as he stood awkwardly in front of her.
"Rose… Rose I'm so sorry." he whispered, "I know how much you guys…" the words seemed to be tangled up in his throat, as if unable to get them out. "I know how much you guys… loved each other."
Rose gently reached out, she wanted to tell him what her mother had said, that she wasn't the only one who lost someone. She wanted to tell him she was sorry too. Sorry, she couldn't have done more.
But her words were cut off by loud sharp laughter cutting through the blonde's chest like knives. Sharp and deep, "Well look at you!" Rose turned to see George stumble next to Percy pushing the older brother aside.
"Move, she doesn't want to talk to you" he mumbled before hugging Rose "Hey there cotton candy" he whispered before giving her a sloppy wet kiss.
Rose hugged him back, her eyes never leaving Percy as the older boy awkwardly took a step back. His face looking so broken Rose didn't know what to do. She wanted to tell him not to feel guilty. That this wasn't his fault. That she didn't blame him.
But the smell of alcohol on George was also a little distracting. And he was holding her so tight she could barely breathe. It was as if he was crumbling in her arms and it broke her inside.
He led her into the tented yard lined with chairs. Light by candlelight floating around casting a mostly ghostly light.
Everyone was there but Rose didn't get a chance to talk to anyone, George making her sit in the back with him and Ginny. Drinking and muttering comments more to himself than to anyone. It was as if Fred was there with him.
Only he wasn't.
George ending up in a sobbing state by the end of the service before passing out in Rose's lap. Fred's name on his lips.
Once everyone had gone Rose helped Charlie and Ron bring the twin to bed.
"I'm so glad you are here," Molly said hugging Rose, "Fred really loved you…" she paused as if unsure what to admit "We all do."
"I'm sorry," Rose said hugging Molly back, wishing with all her heart she could somehow spare them from this pain. Somehow give them what she knew she never could. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop it, I couldn't save him." she took a deep breath, "and I'm sorry for George, I'm sorry for your family and I'm sorry…"
She was cut off by Molly shaking her head, "dear, please, this is not your fault"
From behind the door, she could hear George moan, "I'm going to come back, I want to help" she told Molly. A resolution building inside her. She couldn't bring Fred back but maybe she could make up for that.
Maybe she could somehow ease the pain of others.
Maybe somehow, she could ease her own pain.
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"What am I going to do?"
It had been three weeks since Fred had died. Almost two since they had buried him.
"I don't know George, I really just don't know."
They both looked at each other. Rose's hands ever moving, unsure of what to do with them or her whole being for that matter. What to do, what to say. Before it was so effortless. Everything had been an effortless adventure. But now, now nothing was effortless. Not even breathing.
George… a half of him was gone. His whole being, his whole life had been altered. Cut off like a limb. Screw his ear, a part of him that was more important that hearing was gone forever. It was unnatural, wrong.
They sat there side by side both in an endless cycle of desperation to stop something that had already happened. What could they do? What should they do? He turned to her brushing away a strand of her hair. She hadn't been able to do anything with it so it just lay limp around her, unbrushed and unkempt.
At his touch she turned to look at him too, eyes large and filled with endless sorrow, mimicking his own.
"Maybe, we could just do this together." He whispered leaned forward his breath slightly sour across her face before he pressed his lips to hers. She kissed him back. Maybe this is right, maybe this is what it was meant to be. They were both broken and lost, they both needed someone. They both need to fill that hole that Fred had left.
Fred.
She couldn't do this. It wasn't fair. Pulling away she studied George's face. He looked back, questioning.
"No," She whispered "I… I don't love you. This isn't fair."
"But maybe…"
"Maybe we could be together and forever hold on to the memory of Fred? Do you think that is what he really would want?" She paused taking his hand in her hands. "I want you to move on, he would want you to move on. If we stay like this, we will wake up every morning seeing Fred in each other." The words, as they came out were more a plea to herself. Move on, heal, Fred would want that.
"So what are we going to do?" He asked again putting his hands over hers. She sighed.
"Helen is going to Egypt to study some medicine. I think I'm going to go with her" Helen had offered to take her a week ago but Rose had turned her down. She had wanted to stay but now she realized she needed to go. She needed to get away from everything, all these memories. She needed to get away from the feeling of seeing Fred behind every door, in the corner of her eye. "I can't tell you what to do George but I think you should work on rebuilding the business or maybe take it somewhere else. Do something, anything that isn't this." She looked around the room they were in. Still littered with Fred's things. Things they couldn't give up, yet didn't know what to do with.
He nodded wordlessly so she continued standing up, "I'm going to travel the world" the determination building with the idea, "and when I come back you better be the good ol' George I remember, smiles and all." He chuckled lightly standing up hugging her.
"Thank you, Rose, I love you."
She hugged him back, "I love you too"
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It was hard at first, almost impossible, to be happy. She traveled the world with Helen helping her discover new ways to save both muggle and wizard lives. She would work tirelessly until she was numb to the world around her.
That was how she made it every day, totally numb.
That was until she met Bobbie.
She had just happened to be back in England for the birth of Liem's first child, a girl, at the same time George came back from the states with his new girlfriend. A muggle named Bobbie. He had invited her to join his family for dinner saying that she was just as much his family as the rest of the Weasley clan.
"She knows so much about you and wants to meet you. I… I want you to meet her. I think she's the one" He added sheepishly as if he was guilty for his happiness.
So she came.
The girl was as bright and bubbly as her pink hair. She wasn't anything Rose had imagined. In school, George had always liked girls that were a little… stuck up but Bobbie was anything but. With a nose ring and several tattoos on her body, she greeted everyone with bright excitement. Shaking hands and giving quick hugs.
Until she met Rose.
Her smile grew wider if that was possible, and she took Rose in a long strong hug as if she was never going to let her go.
"I couldn't wait to meet you," She said holding Rose as if putting the girl back together.
They spent the night talking. Bobbie pelting her with questions. Only happy ones, about her family, about her life now. She was a muggle so everything magic excited her with a childlike wonder that made Rose want to tell her every detail. The simple little things seemed to shock her in a way that was infectious.
In turn, Bobbie would tell Rose own stories adding in silly voices for the people and making exaggerated faces. It may have been partly her accent but Rose was enthralled by her. She had boundless energy and Rose could be around her forever.
The way George looked at her. It was as if he was looking at her for the first time. It made Rose's heart swell as George would add in her stories reminding her of details she had forgotten. She would normally just laugh shaking her head reminding him that he hadn't even been there and he "only knew that facts because of her." And he would laugh, laugh like he had during school.
The sound itself was like magic. Like a gift that spread over Rose waking her up from a long coma of numbness. Every nerve in her body tingled as George would let out those loud exaggerated laughs.
Soon, she found herself laughing too, laughing like she hadn't in so long.
When she left she hugged them both taking George tightly. "Marry her," She whispered, "Marry her and never let her go"
He grinned at her, wide and so much like Fred it should have made her heart hurt. But it didn't. It made her happy as if Fred was at rest.
She went to George's wedding which was soon after she had met Bobbie. George didn't waste time. Typical of a Weasley.
She also came back for the christening of little Freddie.
She traveled the world doing things and seeing things. She wrote about it in numerous journals. She would go back and sometimes see family.
George tried to set her up with a few of his friends every once in a while but Rose was happy. She liked the freedom that her life opened to her.
She had so many Godchildren, besides Freddy, Liem's second daughter Ava, who was a spitfire, she got it from Carrie. A Slytherin likes her parents who once climbed up the wall of one of the tallest towers of Hogwarts because someone told her she couldn't.
This was after the death of Liem, which Rose also attended.
She was the Godmother to Jack and Rosie, Rory's twins. They reminded her so much of Fred and George it hurt. They were so full of smiles that they made the world laugh with them.
She attended Alfie's kids' first concert where his daughter's voice moved a whole crowd to tears as her three brothers-backed her up on their instruments.
She loved Norie's two girls as if they were her own. Both beautiful happy talkative children. Norie was constantly telling Rose how much they wore her out. "They never stop talking" she would mutter under her breath. Her very tall husband shook his head silently as Rose and him both knew it was karma paying the little chatterbox back.
Clare never had children, unable to after the loss of her lower half. She lived her life on their house teaching children like her who couldn't go to Hogwarts. Like Liem's youngest son who was blind.
She may not have had her own children but she loved all the ones that were part of her life.
She loved how many friends she had made over the years. She knew there was nothing wrong with moving on, marrying someone new but she just really never felt the need to. She loved the life she had built for herself. Fred was a part of it, every day, in the phrases she used and the occasional pranks she would pull on people.
And on the day she died she met him again.
She was laying on her deathbed and suddenly he was there. Standing, smiling that wide mischievous smile.
"Surprise" he said and she couldn't help but smile back.
"Hey"
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Special thank you to all the wonderful people who have sent me follows, reviews, and everything else! I'm so glad I you all enjoyed my stress relieve project as much as I did writing it.
At some point I will write George meeting Bobbie. I have the ideas but the story itself hasn't really fallen into place yet.