A/N: This chapter is one of my favorites so I hope everyone else likes it too. I added a small, almost mini story after the letter just because I thought it added to the chapter.

Don't forget to review and let me know what you think! They're always appreciated and the make me want to write and update faster! And thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far and added this story to their favorites and/or alerts. :)

Dear Fred,

Hermione insisted that I write you this letter to get my feelings out. She said it would help me feel better and to come to terms with what happened, but I'm not so sure. Today is the toughest day of the year and I honestly have no idea what to write. It's not like you'll ever get to read this anyway, but here goes.

It's been exactly a year. One long, terrible year since it happened, and I am proud and upset to say I got through it. Proud because while I don't know how I made it, I did, and upset because I shouldn't have had to do it at all.

I will admit that for a while after the battle, it felt as if I was on auto pilot. I was going through the motions of living (barely, I might add), but I wasn't really registering anything. I sat in my room a lot, staring at the ceiling. I hardly ate, hardly slept and didn't pay a single visit to the shop, never mind actually going back to work.

I think the rest of the family was really worried. They wanted me to be okay, but they could see I wasn't. They all wanted to talk about you, but I couldn't and wouldn't. I felt like I wanted to be alone, but when I was alone, I wanted to be with people. Then when I was with people, I wanted to be alone again. I couldn't make up my mind and the only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted you back.

During the times I actually saw her, Mum kept telling me I was getting too thin. I know that's what she tells everyone, but it was probably true for me. I didn't know for sure. I hadn't been looking in the mirror at all. Not since the battle. I couldn't do it. Ginny only reiterated what Mum said, telling me that I was too thin and that I had dark circles under my eyes. She couldn't even look at me. She was afraid of me and honestly, that made me afraid.

A few months after the battle, I heard Mum crying to dad about how she was scared of losing me as well and for a second, I forgot about myself and my own loss and thought of her and the rest of the family. I was putting them through even more pain and I couldn't do that anymore. It got me thinking, too. I thought about what you would be saying if you could see me. You would be frowning and telling me to stop moping because there were pranks waiting to be pulled. You would tell me to try to get better. So, I tried. I tried to move forward instead of staying stuck.

I started small. I would join the family for dinner once in a while. Then, I started coming out of my room and actually talking. My voice actually sounded strange to my ears at first. Can you believe that? That's how much I hadn't talked.

The most important thing now, though, is that I've come a long way. I'm not going to say that I'm completely over it and that I've moved on because I haven't. Not completely; I don't think I'll ever be completely over it, but I have come a long way. I moved back into the flat and reopened the shop. Ron's been helping out a lot and I appreciate it but it's still not the same. It's almost as if the shop, I don't know, wilted a little bit when you…well…I can't even say it. Not even in a letter.

I've also grown close to the family again. I eat dinner with them a lot. It's a lot better than eating at the flat alone. But it's the times when I am alone and the times like today, a year after the battle, when I think about you the most and I feel sick all over again. It's like I can't breathe and sometimes it feels like I'm about to follow in your footsteps and just…go.

It hurts, Fred. It hurts more than anything that you're gone. I know you didn't do it on purpose, but how could you leave me like that? One minute you were there and the next you were gone. We always said it was Fred and George until the end, but now it's just George until the end. I know you would tell me to do what I've been doing: keep the shop going and stay close to the family, but like I said, when I'm alone and on certain days like today, you're all I think about.

I'll never forget you, Fred. I'm slowly healing, but I'll never be completely whole again. My other half was taken away from me and I'll always have a piece of me missing. I do believe we'll see each other again one day, though, so I've decided to start pulling some really great pranks, beginning with Percy, so that I can tell you all about them someday. But until then, and because I know it'd make you happy, I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.

Love, George

George folded the letter, stuck it in an envelope and sealed it away before finally looking up. He shifted from a sitting position to a kneeling one and turned to face the headstone he had been leaning against. He placed one palm against the stone, warm in the setting May sun, and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

Hermione had been right. The heavy, lead feeling that had seemed to occupy his stomach all day had lessened slightly. The letter had helped him to feel better, even if it was only by a little.

Finally, he opened his eyes and shifted himself to a spot just to the right of the stone. He tucked the letter under his knee so that it wouldn't blow away and he began digging in the warm earth.

He hadn't bothered to bring a shovel. He didn't mind using his hands, and what he was looking for wasn't that deep anyway. After a few moments, he found it. It was a box; nothing fancy, just a plain wooden box with a lid. It wasn't big, but it was big enough to hold everything he wanted it to.

He opened the lid and looked at the contents of the box. He had buried it late at night after the funeral with one object inside. Once a month, every month, he had come back, always at night, to add one more object to the box. He would have come to visit every month anyway, but adding the objects had become a special ritual to him. The letter would be his thirteenth object.

Sifting through the items already lining the bottom of the box, a small, reminiscent smile lifted the corners of his mouth. The box contained a picture of himself and Fred at age three (his personal favorite photo), a twig pulled from each of the tails of their first broomsticks, a rubber spider they had used to scare Ron, a lock of hair from when they had tried to give each other haircuts, Fred's Hogwart's letter (George knew that Fred had kept it in his bottom dresser drawer, never wanting to throw it out), Fred's first Potion's assignment (half credit for being turned in late), a photo of the Quidditch team in their third year, a photo from the Yule Ball, the first Skiving Snackbox they had ever invented, a small vial containing a portion of their portable swamp left in Hogwarts, the first Galleon they had received when their shop opened, and finally, the last picture taken of Fred and George together before the battle.

After looking at every object in turn, George placed the open box on the ground and pulled the letter from under his knee. It had a slight wrinkle in it now from being pressed into the uneven ground and George didn't even attempt to smooth it out. Fred would have liked the wrinkle. He nestled the letter in the box, on top of the many objects signifying childhood memories, before replacing the cover, putting the box back into the hole and covering it with dirt once more.

Sighing, he stayed in that spot for a few moments more, just thinking. Then, he turned his gaze back to the headstone and traced his long fingers over the name of his brother, now engraved in stone.

"I miss you," he whispered. Then, he stood up, dusted off his jeans, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and turned to walk away. As he headed for home, he put more and more space between himself and his brother, but only until next month when he would come back again. They had been, and always would be Gred and Forge, twins, brothers and best friends. Not even death could change that.