Planes

Chapter 3

Fred thought abut Ani nonstop. Her golden brown curls accented perfectly by her amazing amber eyes helped him through nagging customers and the stream of witches the entered the store to entice him.

He envied George for a second when Pansy Parkinson batted her eyes at him. Her robes were ragged, her parents getting fired from the ministry was the cause. With the lost of their salary and their fortune to Voldemort, they were barely able to scrape by.

Fred grimaced as her fingers caressed his arm seductively. The situation made him want to laugh. Just years ago, his last name had left her mouth dripping with venom, but now it was coated with a sticky tasteless honey.

Katie walked into the store and was a meter away when Fred seized his only opportunity to rid himself of Pansy.

"Oy, love," he said dramatically before pulling Katie into a large hug. "Play along," he whispered into her hear before pulling back and giving her a sloppy unemotional kiss.

"Oh, George," Katie said with a smirk, "I've missed you." She loved to bother the annoying witches that entered the store only to chase Fred and sometimes George. This particular witch stared with amazement than walked hurriedly from the store with her cheeks burning a bright red.

"Smashing good performance," Fred yelled to Katie as she walked to the back room where George was going over the books. He had been squeezing knuts since their engagement and spent all his free time looking at numbers. Fred was unsure why he was so concerned with money, the store was booming and the new store cost only a fraction of their wealth.

Fred stayed in the front of the store, his elbows resting on the table in front of him, and his head on his hands. He stared lazily out the window at the people hurrying down the street. He noticed that no students walked through the street rushing to get new robes or books, or more commonly Skiving Snack Boxes. He liked the calm of September; it had opened a new line for the shop. From their childhood they had pulled one of their favorite pranks and altered it to make a perfect product, stuffed animals that moved and crawled on their own. They had also made a few great candies for the younger generation of customers, chewing gum that made the chewer blow large soapy bubbles from their mouth, toffees that turned ones face different colors, even some quidditch inspired colors.

Fred watched as two young children with bright red hair ran through the street and saw Bill and Charlie chasing after them. Bill's hair glided in the wind along with his robes as he chased his first child. Minutes later the four entered the store. Fred's niece and nephew ran to him and hugged his legs each yelling a different name, their usual custom.

Fred looked down at them, one four and the other three. They looked perfect as Fred squeezed them tightly.

"Oy, did I hear my ickle whittle niece and nephew?" George said loudly as he emerged from the back room. The two children quickly dashed to George, again each yelling a different name.

Fred watched almost longingly, and he shook his head as a thought of having his own kids entering his head. He couldn't help but wonder if they'd be as cute as his brother's children, if they'd have the flaming Weasley red hair, or like Charlie's youngest, hair like their mothers.

Fred shook his head; he didn't want kids or a wife. He didn't even want to be in a relationship. He hadn't lied when he had told Ani he hadn't wanted a relationship, especially one that spanned an ocean. You couldn't start a relationship from different sides of the world, let alone different worlds. She was a muggle and he was a wizard, it would be hard enough to have a relationship without distance being a problem, but that didn't stop him from thinking about her and kids and marriage.

"Oy, Fred," Bill said bringing Fred out of his thoughts of sending his own kids off to Hogwarts with Ani by his side. "Your robe is ringing," he said and Fred finally heard his tiny phone going off.

He pulled the silver object from his pocket and turned it on. "Hello?" he asked wondering if anyone would answer.

"Fred!" Ani yelled frantically. She sounded scared. "You're alive, I'm so glad. I thought you might've been in."

Fred was unsure what was going on, "Are you okay?" he asked thinking she had lost her mind.

"Yes, I'm okay, I'm no where near where they hit, but I'm so scared," she said still frantic. He wanted to go to her, to see what was wrong.

He looked at his brothers, "I am, I'm in New York," he lied knowing it was only seconds away. His brothers looked at him oddly. "where are you?" he asked knowing he had to go to her.

"My apartment," she said, "Fred don't come, stay where you are, what if there is another attack."

Fred felt scared for a minute, attack? What did she mean by that? "I'll be over in ten minutes," he said before hanging up.

He looked up at his brothers; they each were staring at him confused. He had no idea what had just happened himself. There had been an attack, something had hit something, but what did that mean?

"What's going on, Fred?" Charlie asked in a fatherly tone. Even the children had gone silent; everyone was waiting for his reply.

"I-I have to go," he said before walking out of the store. He changed his clothes with the swish of his wand and walked into muggle London. He needed to figure out what was happening in the muggle world, why Ani had been so frantic and worried.

He noticed a bunch of people staring in a store window and walked over to them. He pushed himself in and he watched on a small box as a plane flew into a large tower, one he recognized. He shivered and felt a pain in his heart just as the plane collided with the tower. He watched the footage for a few minutes until a tear rolled down his eye and he forced him self to leave. He walked into an alley and aparated to an empty stairwell near Ani's apartment.

He knocked on his door wandering how close she was to those buildings and how many people she knew that lived in them.

She opened the door, her eyes were red and puffy and her hair was pulled back messily. She wore glasses and a baggy t-shirt and baggy cotton bottoms. Her cheeks were wet and Fred swept her into his arms. She looked terrified and horrified. He knew that to her it meant so much more than a building and the lives of people. He had heard that it was a terrorist attack, but what did that mean? Wizards didn't have terrorists, they had dark wizards, were they the same? Was Voldemort a terrorist? He had terrorized people for decades, some where still afraid to say his name.

He walked into the apartment, Ani still in his arms. He kicked the door shut and walked Ani to a couch. She had larger box then the store window, but the same footage was playing over and over. Fred watched with Ani curled in his arms. Her phone would ring every so often and she would have a brief conversation every time she answered. The callers usually wanted assurance that she was alive before Fred assumed they went on to the next person.

Fred felt so helpless as he watched the box. He wondered if he could save those peoples lives. He could aparate in, but he couldn't take someone out with him. He was sure there were no fireplaces in which he could floo the people out. He just wanted to help, so that all those people didn't have to suffer.

A few hours passed and in the silence Fred began to wonder if their had been a link between Harry and Ron getting attacked so much and all the terrorist attacks. Surely, this had just been a muggle attacking a muggle or could it have broken the barrier and crossed into two worlds?

Ani got up to go to the bathroom and Fred scribbled a note and sent it to George with a tap of his wand. He hoped his brother would understand. He hadn't told him everything about Ani; he had said nothing of the fact that she was a muggle or that Fred couldn't stop thinking about her or that he often found himself imagining a future with her.

He made some tea quickly before returning to the couch. He watched Ani sip the tea slowly, her face glistening beautifully from the tears.

Her face didn't hold any joy, and he imagined his didn't either. She had always had a joyful radiance that surrounded her, but right now, it was gone. She seemed heartbroken and terrified, eerily quiet and so scared she dare not speak for fear of crying uncontrollably.

::I never originally intended to include the WTC attacks in my story, but I realized that I had chosen to write my story inadvertently at the same time as the attacks. I know that to describe any person's feelings, muggle or wizard, or more importantly American or foreigner, on that day is almost impossible, as words cannot describe the blind terror that was instilled in all our hearts. I hope that my story helps us to understand the event which we haven't forgotten but pushed from our minds as a way of coping. I'm sure I'm not the only one that gets chills down my spine when I spend to much time thinking about the attacks or when the anniversary rolls around and one can't help but think of the horrible things that transpired on that day so long ago. Thisbe Gwydion::