The rest of the day in the Potter household was spent catching up and just relishing in the fact that things were beginning to get better.

"It's not the same without Moony," Sirius sighed as he, Lily, James, and Harry sat at the kitchen table drinking cold butterbeers. Ginny was still at practice because they had a big game coming up which would determine whether or not they had a shot at making the Quidditch World Cup.

"It's really not," James agreed quietly. "Every time we make a 'Sirius/serious' joke I keep expecting him to tell us how juvenile we are and then laugh at it anyways."

"He changed," Sirius told James. "Those years you two were dead and I was in Azkaban, I mean. He has grey hairs for crying out loud! Or he did. Merlin, this is all so confusing."

"I don't know about how he acted when you guys were in school," Harry said, "but from what I saw, Tonks and Teddy changed him a lot, too. He was a lot happier those last couple of years."

"Tonks?" Questioned Sirius. "What did she do? And who's Teddy?"

James laughed, "you didn't tell him about Moony and Tonks?"

"It slipped my mind," Harry said sheepishly before turning to his godfather. "A bit after you died Tonks and Remus got together."

"You're kidding?" Sirius laughed. When Harry shook his head he continued, "I always wondered why she asked me what hair color he liked on girls. I remember she came up to me one day and said, 'so Sirius, is Remus into brunettes or is more of a blonde-liking bloke?' All that time she was trying to get with him!"

James, Lily, and Harry all laughed and James said, "what did you tell her?"

"I said I didn't know because he's more of a 'lone wolf'." Sirius smirked and the rest of the chuckled at his lame joke.

"And did Tonks laugh at your lame joke?" Lily asked Sirius with a raised eyebrow.

"No," Sirius shook his head sheepishly. "She glared, slapped me upside the head, and then walked off. It was almost as bad as the time I called her Nymphie when she was six."

"Oh yeah," Harry chuckled. "Calling her anything but Tonks would do it."

"Remus was the only exception," the four looked up to see Ginny standing in the doorway. "He called her 'Dora'."

"Hey, Gin," Harry stood up and gave Ginny a 'hello' kiss. "How'd practice go?"

"Gwenog worked us to the bone and I feel like my arm is going to fall off," Ginny winced as she stretched her right arm.

"You poor little thing," laughed Sirius, "playing professional Quidditch, many people's dream, and then complaining."

Ginny teasingly glared at him, "at least I wasn't killed by drapery like someone."

"Shove off," Sirius grumbled.

••••

The Granger-Weasley household

"Ron!" Hermione called out to her fiancé. "Your mum is here."

"So, dear," Mrs. Weasley set a stack of magical magazines down on the kitchen table, "I though we'd look for a dress for your maid of honor. Who is she so we can insert her height, weight, and other measurements into the magazine?"

"I asked Ginny."

"Wonderful!" Mrs. Weasley smiled as she put her wand to the first magazine and muttered, "Ginevra Molly Weasley." The models in the book shifted and turned into little copies of Ginny wearing various dresses.

Ron walked into the kitchen from where he was seated in the living room. He walked up to his mother and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Hey Mum."

"Hello Ronnie," Mrs. Weasley hugged her son back. She she released him she said, "while me and Hermione look at dresses for Ginny I thought that you could have a look at some different types of dress robes to see which ones you'd like. And remember that Hermione wanted the maid of honor's dress to be dark blue, so try to keep with the color scheme."

Ron bit back a groan. "Yes, Mum."

Half an hour and many many dress robes later a blue-jay Patronus flew gracefully into the couple's apartment through the small fireplace that Ron had hit his head off of many times.

"Ron, Auror Robards said he needs you in his office in ten minutes or less. You better be there, it sounded urgent."

"Yes!" Ron exclaimed and then sheepishly smiled at Hermione and Mrs. Weasley's combined glares. "I mean o-oh no, that was Kelly Fortier, one of the desk workers. I've got to go to work."

Ron quickly set off to his and Hermione's shared bedroom to change into his charcoal grey work robes.

When he came out Hermione sighed with a slightly envious look on her face. She stood up and gave Ron a hug. She whispered in his ear, "you lucky prat."

Ron chuckled as he hugged her back. "Love you too, Mione."

"I Love you," she murmured into his shoulder.

After giving her a short but sweet kiss Ron released Hermione, gave his mother a hug and then apparated to the Aurors' department of the Ministry.

"Ron!"

He looked up to see Kelly sitting at her desk with paper work spread out in front of her.

"Hey, Kelly," Ron walked over to her. "What did Robards want me for? Not that I'm not thankful, because believe me, I am. He got me out of wedding planning with my mother."

Kelly gave off a light laugh. "I don't know, but he wants you to go to his office. And it sounds important, so I wouldn't dawdle if I were you."

"Thanks," Ron nodded and then walked to Robards' office. He rapped his knuckles against the closed door twice and then waited for an answer.

"Come in."

With a deep breath Ron walked into the room. Robards was sitting behind his desk which had many small vials of Veritaserum on it.

"You wanted to see me, Sir?"

"Yes," Robards looked up at Ron, "I've got some new Returns and I didn't want Potter to be the only new Auror getting experience."

"So I'm going to be testing people with Veritaserum?" Ron asked to be clear.

"Yes," Robards nodded, "one person to start with. As more come you'll be assigned a few. Do you want the guy right now or do you need a few minutes?"

"Well, " Ron said as he thought, "they'll probably be asking a bunch of questions so I think I'd rather get it done quick and question him now."

"Alright," Robards nodded and stood. He began to walk to the door. "I'll send him in. Just remember to stay professional and follow protocol."

Ron nodded in understanding, "yes Sir."

"Good luck, Weasley. And when your done you're welcome to go home. Robards went to leave the office. "And take the day off tomorrow."

Ron had turned around and began to gather up a vial of Veritaserum, still confused about being able to take the day off, when the door opened.

"Ickle little Ronniekins?"

Ron's eyes widened and his heart dropped at the sound of the voice.

"You're an Auror? Go figure."

Ron spun around. What he saw was a carbon copy of George, but with two ears. "Fred?"

"The one and only," Fred smirked.

Ron immediately rushed forward and threw his arms around his older brother.

"Woah," Fred chuckled as he tentatively hugged Ron back. "I'm dead for a short while and you turn all sentimental?"

Ron pulled back reluctantly. "A 'short while', Fred? You were gone for two years!"

"Years?" Fred's smirk turned into a frown. "W-what do you mean two years?"

"It's June 18, 2000," Ron told him with a sad look.

"I-I left George for years?" Fred immediately started shaking his in denial. "N-no, we swore to one another that we'd never do that."

"Fred, I'm sorry," Ron held the vial of Veritaserum out to his recently Returned older brother. "But the sooner I question you with the Veritaserum, the sooner you can see George. I know for a fact that he's really missed you."

Fred groaned and ran a hand over his face in exasperation. He took the vial from Ron, "okay, just please hurry, I need to see George."

"Ok, there's only three drops in there, so just drink it andI swear I'll be quick, I know you want to see everyone. After we're done I'll send Hermione a Patronus and have her gather everyone at The Burrow."

Fred raised an eyebrow and said, "Hermione, huh?"

Ron's ears burned red and he grumbled, "just swallow the potion."

With a chuckle Fred drank it and went into the natural blank state.

"What's your full name?" Ron began to question after he took the vial from Fred.

"Fred Gideon Weasley."

"How many siblings do you have?"

"Six."

"Which sibling are you the closest with?"

"George."

"What's his full name?"

"George Fabian Weasley."

"Is he older or younger than you?"

"Younger."

"By how much?"

"Six minutes and thirty seconds."

With a big smile Ron quickly administered the counter potion and the life came back to Fred's brown eyes.

"Can we go now?" Fred asked impatiently.

"Not yet," Ron shook his head. "It'll be easier to have everyone together. So let me send Hermione a Patronus and have her get a hold of everyone. In the meanwhile you can ask me any questions you want and I'll answer them."

Ron quickly sent his Jack Russell Patronus off to Hermione and then him and Fred sat down in the two chairs in front of Robards' desk.

"So you and Granger?" Fred smirked. "How'd you manage that?"

Ron mumbled something inaudible.

"What?"

"I said," Ron sighed, "we kissed during the Final Battle."

Fred shook his head in disbelief while chuckling. "Leave it to you to do something like that Ron."

Ron tried glare at him, but in the sheer joy of the situation couldn't manage it. "What else do you want to know?"

"How did I die?" Fred asked. "The last thing I remember is looking at Percy. I think he made a joke."

"He did," Ron nodded sadly. "After that a stray curse made a wall explode. It fell on you and we think it killed you on impact."

"Death by wall?" Fred scrunched up his nose in disappointment. "I thought it would have been a bit cooler than that."

"Sorry to disappoint you, "Ron chuckled.

After a few moments of silence, Fred suddenly asked, "how did everyone handle my death? And answer honestly, don't sugarcoat it for me."

Ron took a deep breath and began to explain. "I think that Mum, Dad, and George took it the hardest. Percy was riddled with total guilt. He thought that it was his fault that you died and that if he hadn't been so uptight his joke wouldn't have caught you by surprise."

"That's completely bonkers!" Fred interrupted.

"I know that, and so does everyone else. It's just that he had been so pompous for years, and then he had finally come to his senses, just to have his little brother die. Hermione helped me out a lot for a long time after the Battle. Ginny, Charlie, and Bill kinda leaned on each other. And Ginny had Harry, too. They're together again by the way." Ron informed Fred.

"They are?" Ron nodded. "I hope that George threatened him with a Canary Cream, at the least, if he hurt her."

"Um," Ron hesitated. "George hasn't really pranked anyone or made many jokes since you died, Fred."

"What?" Fred exclaimed. "It surely wasn't that bad that he stopped pranking, it couldn't be!"

"Fred," Ron said firmly to his brother. "You died. You can't expect us to have moved on just like that! Mum and Dad lost their son, we all lost our brother. George lost his twin for crying out loud! You were there one second and gone the next! You know, Mum slips up and calls George 'Fred' sometimes. Then she starts sobbing and George goes upstairs into your old room. He doesn't come out for almost two hours and when he finally does, you can tell that he'd been crying."

"Merlin, Ron," Fred sighed dejectedly. "I didn't want to leave, but we all went to Hogwarts knowing what could happen that day."

"Yeah," Ron whispered, "but you don't think it's gonna happen until it happens to your family."

At that moment Hermione's otter Patronus appeared. "Ron, we're all here in the living room. And we're also all confused as to why we're here."

"Even Charlie?" Asked Fred with wide eyes. His older brother usually only seldom came home from the dragon sanctuary.

"Yeah," Ron nodded. "He comes home more often since it happened."

"Well," Fred said as he stood up quickly, "what are we waiting for?"

"Fred," Ron also stood, "I think I should explain to them what's happening. You should stay in the kitchen while I do that."

"Okay," Fred nodded in agreement. "Can we just go?"

Ron nodded and gripped Fred's shoulder. He apparated them to the garden of The Burrow and together they walked to the back door and entered the kitchen.

"I'll call to you when I'm ready," Ron said to Fred who nodded. He then went into the living room.

"Hey everyone," Ron smiled as he saw his family. "Thanks for coming."

"This better be important Ron," George sighed. "I was trying to do inventory."

"He's right Ron we can't just drop everything every time you want to have a 'family get together'," Bill added as he looked at his eight month pregnant wife.

"No, this is important," Ron's smile grew. "There was a Return."

Everybody's eyes immediately snapped to Ron.

"R-Ron," Mrs. Weasley started, her eyes getting misty, "who Returned?"

"Fred!" Ron faced the kitchen door and called out to his brother, "why don't you come say 'hi' to everyone?"

Everyone turned to look at the door as Fred came walking in with a smirk on his face, "hey!"

There was a shuddering intake of breath from George and a tearful shriek from Mrs. Weasley.

"Fred!" Mrs Weasley exclaimed as she stood from her sitting position on the couch and ran to her son. She pulled him into a squeezing hug and in return Fred wrapped his arms around her. "My baby, I missed you so much!"

"I know," Fred murmured as he rubbed her back soothingly. "I'm so sorry I left you guys."

After a while Fred had managed to pry her arms off of him and began to make his way around the room, hugging everyone. He met Harry's parents, and saw Sirius again as well. He got to George, who had been hanging back and didn't step forward to greet him.

"Hey Georgie," Fred smiled softly. "Why so glum looking, brother?"

With tears gathering in his eyes George asked, "a-are you really here, Freddie?"

"In the flesh," Fred laughed. All of a sudden George surged forward and pulled Fred into the tightest hug he ever had. Fred didn't hesitate to wrap his arms around his, now crying, brother. "You don't need to cry, Georgie. I'm not going anywhere for a very long time, hopefully."