Disclaimer: All characters, places, and spells belong to J. K. Rowling and Warner Bros. The title to the song "Fade To Black" belongs to the band members of Metallica and Megaforce Records and Elektra Records. Copyright infringement is not intended.

A/N: I know that you've all been waiting for a continuation on Only Time. You all have requested it, and here I am giving. This chapter took a lot of thought on my part, so I hope you all like it, this chapter is from George's point of view. Thank you all for the reviews, I know that the first chapter was depressing, but I promise, things will get better...eventually. The song in this chapter is 'Fade To Black' by Metallica. R&R and enjoy!

Fade To Black

I can't say that I wasn't shocked when Hermione showed me that letter. I was on the craziest high the night she came to me. I wanted to hate her when she read that letter to me. I didn't want to believe that my brother, my twin, had written that. He would have told me about the two of them, we always shared our thoughts and feelings with each other. I don't ever remember Fred saying, 'Oi Georgie! Hermione and I are seeing each other. Can you pass me the boomslang skin?' There was no reason for him to be afraid to tell me.

Hermione started to get me to come out of my room, at night after everyone has gone to bed, of course. It was a particularly warm night when I heard the light knocking on the door. I remember when it was mum or Ginny coming to the door, begging me to come out. I still couldn't face my family; I knew it would still hurt my mother and father to look at me. I could only hope that Hermione could someday help me build up the courage to come out to face them all again.

It was getting easier to come out of my room at night. I knew that someday, if I ever got better, I would have to thank Hermione. I knew that I owed her big for what she was doing for me and my family. It was a full week since Hermione had come to me that first night. I was waiting for her once again. I wasn't sure what she had planned for us tonight, I was still getting used to things.

I waited for the sound of everyone heading up to bed. I knew then that Hermione would be at our – my bedroom door. She always gave them around ten to fifteen minutes to settle in before knocking on my door. Gods, that was really hard for me to get used to. It was no longer mine and Fred's bedroom, even when we had moved out, it was still our room. Now though, it's just my room. I couldn't stop the tears that had started to burn my eyes. It didn't take long for them to fall. I felt like a part of me was missing. I knew that there was something missing from me; my other half. I know that the others thought that I should be at least okay by now, but they didn't understand. None of them had a twin; none of them had someone that they were that close to that you spend every second of their life with. Fred and I shared a room for most of our lives, we went to school and had classes together, we busted out of school and dropped out together, hell, we even opened our shop and worked together. There wasn't anything that we didn't do together. Well, except for girls….that would have just been weird. Not a single one of them understood. All except for Hermione maybe.

I still couldn't believe that Hermione and Fred were together. I couldn't even believe that he was planning on asking her to marry him. I was at a loss of words when she told me that she was pregnant with his baby. Fred never even mentioned anything about wanting to settle down someday. Sure, yeah, we had talked about what we would like for ourselves in the future, but normally we would just joke about it. At least, I thought he was joking about it. I remembered the last time we had talked about it; our futures. It was the day before the shite has officially hit the fan. The shop had been closed for a week and we had been in hiding from those damn death eaters and anyone else who was keeping a close eye on the family. We were sitting in our little hide out that we had been living in for the past week; we both knew that it could be any day that we would be out there fighting against the darkest wizard known to mankind. We were sharing a couple of drinks and I had asked him what he wanted to do once the war was over. He let out a nervous laugh, at least that's what it sounded like in my head once Hermione came to me and told me about her and Fred. He told me that he would like to maybe settle down and find a nice smart girl that he could eventually marry and have a brood of redheaded, freckle-faced children with. I remember making the joke that Hermione Granger would be the perfect one to do that with then if he was looking for nice and smart. We laughed together at that, but looking back now, I can see the hurt look on his face. I never meant to make fun of his plans that he had with Hermione, I didn't know that they were even together then.

I was so lost in thought that I didn't hear Hermione knock on the door. Nor did I hear her open the door and close back. I definitely knew that Hermione was in my room with me when I felt her hands cupping my face. "George?" I slowly brought my eyes up to meet hers. "Oh George!" I didn't know that I had been full out crying. She was sitting next to me on Fred's bed, wiping my tears away.

I could hear the roughness in my voice; it was slowly getting better the more I talked, but not tonight. "I miss him so much."

Hermione was quick to pull me into her arms. "I know George. I miss him too." It was the first time that we had broken down together. We had held on for a week straight and then it all came crashing down. Together, Hermione and I cried ourselves out, holding onto each other, curled up on Fred's bed. I didn't know how long we had laid there for, but I knew that we would have to get me out of her for a little bit, at least before the others got up.

I was sitting on the counter in the bathroom as Hermione held the straight razor in her hand, gliding it along my jaw. This was a nightly ritual between the two of us. She made the joke that although I looked 'dashing' with a scruffy beard, it had to go. I think that was the first time that I had laughed since the war. It wasn't a full out laugh like I used to have, it sounded a little more hollow like there was less life in it. "Hermione?"

"Hmm?" She had just grabbed the towel that she was reserving for wiping the excess shaving cream off of my face. The first time she did it, I asked her why she didn't just use a cleansing spell to clean it up. She told me that doing things the muggle way helped her keep herself together.

"Do you think it would have been different for me, you know, if Fred and I weren't identical?" I had no idea where the question had come from, it had just slipped out.

She paused for just a second, before continuing to clean up the bathroom. "What do you mean by different?"

I leapt from the counter and started helping her clean up. "The pain. Do you think it would have been less painful for me?"

She turned to me. "I don't think it would have been any different. Fred was a part of you. The two of you were really close, closer than anyone I'd ever known. Yeah, it would hurt if you had lost any of your other brothers, but this is Fred we're talking about." I understood what she was saying. I would have been able to handle the grief of losing anyone else, but Fred and I were so connected that I knew it hurt more. I knew the very second that he had died. I felt it within me, like something was being ripped from my very soul. I was pulled from my thoughts once again when Hermione spoke. "Come on, let's get you something to eat. We need to get that meat back on your bones."

Hermione had been saving an extra plate for me every night for the past week. She didn't want to catch anyone's attention if she had started cooking in the middle of the night. We wanted to keep the fact that I was coming out of my room to ourselves for a while. But we both knew that I would have to be ready by the time Hermione would start showing. I couldn't just leave her to face all of them all on her own. It would be a disaster. I could just picture it; mum would break down crying again, dad wouldn't know what to say, and my brothers would all start shouting obscenities. I had to be there for her. I told her that I would be right there with her through it all. I never was one to break something like that.

I looked her over as we tucked in for a late night dinner together. She definitely looked like she had put on a bit of weight. I knew that it was only because of this baby. I knew that someone would end up noticing within the next week or so that Hermione was starting to balloon up. We wouldn't be able to hide it for much longer. Mum and Ginny both are extremely observant. The only thing that I feared a little was being the one that everybody would blame. The thought came to me; I wondered what Fred's reaction would be if he had lived and Hermione told him that she was pregnant. I would have done anything to see the look on his face, had he been here for it. I'm sure it would have been very much similar to mine from when she had told me.

We took up post in the living room, where Hermione would sit and read to me. Just the other day I had asked her to read to me a book on babies. I couldn't tell you what it was called, even if I wanted to, I didn't pay attention to what it was called. All I knew was that I wanted to know all that there was about raising a baby. I told Hermione that I would be there for her and the baby, and I was going to stick to my word. I wanted to help take care of Fred's baby. I knew that I was far from being ready for something like this, my child or not, but I would man up and do it. I would do it because I knew that Fred would have. I couldn't be a coward now, not when Hermione needed me.

Hermione was flying through the baby book, talking about the symptoms that she would have throughout the entire pregnancy. I smiled, or smiled as much as I could, when she would make a silly comment about this or that. I had tried to get her attention a few times to let her know that the sun would be coming up soon. We were cutting it close this morning. I wasn't ready to face my mum yet, and knowing her, she would be up at any minute. When Hermione paused to look up at me, she caught the look on my face and the light that was beginning to come up along the horizon. She quickly closed the book and tucked it under her arm before grabbing my arm and pulling me up with her. She was nice enough to walk me to my bedroom door. We said our 'good nights' before going our separate ways. She never missed a beat in telling me that I needed to get some sleep before walking away every morning too. I tried, I really did. The moment Hermione came to me and told me what Fred had written to her, I knew that I was going to try my hardest, not for me, not for Hermione, but for Fred. I know that that is what he would want me to do.