New chapter :D

I'm sorry they take a while to come out. It's term time, so I have not only school, and writers block, but stupid boring things like French homework and Geography essays ):

But half-term's coming up, so you might get some more then

The sun shone brightly over the old house, birds singing shamelessly in the trees. Inside the building Fred and George sat at a table, heads together, planning and plotting for one last time. After what seemed like hours at staring at the transcript of George's conversation with the creepy girl, Fred got up, sighing.

'For once, George, you've actually managed to come up with something that even I can't fix. There's no clue of her whereabouts, or who she is, and it would take a lifetime just to go and look for her...'

George sighed too, wracking his brains for some kind of clue.

'She apparated,' he said finally, 'she definitely apparated.'

'And you're sure she was under seventeen?' Fred asked again.

George nodded, but neither of them found this evidence helpful. They were just going in circles, trying to pick at one event for every tiny last detail without much luck.

'And where can we go from here?' Fred said, thinking out loud. 'The forest again, perhaps. Or the shop. After all, that's what you'd thought she'd take.'

George nodded slowly, not caring how much time it took to find the girl; he wanted the exact opposite. He wanted Fred to stay, but his twin was intent to go on a mission to die all over again. Fred waved his wand, summoning a couple of glasses of water and sat back down, noticing the reluctant look on his twin's face.

'What's up?'

George raised an eyebrow, looking at his twin. The answer to that was fairly obvious and Fred knew that.

Fred opened his mouth, as though to say something, but closed it again, looking intently at George instead.

'We have to check the forest anyway. It would be stupid not to.'

'I guess,' George replied slowly. 'But, how are we gonna check. Anyone could see you, and you're supposed to be, well, you know...' he trailed. Fred swallowed, unable to say the word either.

'Invisibility cloaks,' he suggested half-heartedly. 'There are some in the shop.'

'Or Harry's,' George added, 'his is bigger than ours, and the spells might have worn off ours...'

'Yeah,' said Fred, a hint of sarcasm in his tone. 'That'd be great. Hello Harry. I'm alive again, but your best friend is dead, and I need this cloak to travel the world with George to look for the deranged freak that did this.'

George glared at Fred, but he couldn't conceal the small smile that flicked across his face. He never thought he'd hear Fred joking again.

The next few days consisted of planning. Planning as George had never known it. He and Fred would always just dive into things, without a plan, hoping their own wits or sheer luck could help them out, but Fred insisted on doing it properly. And properly meant hours debating over ways for neither of the twins to get noticed. The Weasley family had now been gone for several days with no notice, and George wasn't keen on explaining why.

'We need to get into the ministry,' Fred said finally.

George jumped, looking up from the sheet of parchment he'd been falling asleep over. 'What?'

'The ministry,' Fred repeated, sucking his quill.

'And that is going to help us how?' George questioned, eyes narrowed slightly.

'D'you remember what Ron told us after his battle in the Department of Mysteries,' Fred said, not waiting for George's slow nod before continuing, 'and Sirius, and that veil, and that weird research stuff about death,' Fred was now leaping to his feet, pacing excitedly, a plan forming in his mind.

'Yeah, but...' George started, hating the fact Fred had come up with such a good idea 'You think she'll be there?'

'Yeah, maybe,' he nodded. 'I mean, I have to go. We are going. Both of us.'

'I guess it's better than nothing,' George smiled slightly, watching Fred's now scribbling hand.

Planning to sneak into the ministry was hard, harder than the twins had thought. But Ron, Harry and Hermione had done it, and that spurred them on. There were people to get past, spells to learn, and a plan of what to do if they actually made it into the department of mysteries. George knew they would either have to do it at the dead of night, or in daytime concealed under an invisibility cloak. Neither idea seemed very promising to George, but then again, neither did the rest of the plan. They planned for hours at a time, in a very un-Weasley twin like way, checking every last detail. It seemed wrong, but Fred refused profusely to do it any other way.

'I'm not getting the Ministry involved in this,' he had told George, 'especially if Rita Skeeter finds out what happened. You've had enough trouble, and I don't think anyone else will understand what you did. Even I still think you're an idiot.'

Thankfully, there had been no more Fleur-like incidents. After several days of stressing Fleur would tell the world about George's swap, the twins discovered she had moved back to France with her parents. Hermione was still in Australia, looking for her parents, and miraculously, Harry had chosen to visit her and them; they had both left right after Fred's funeral, and by the time they had returned, the twins would be gone, searching the world for the girl.

Finally, one evening, the plan was finished. It wasn't perfect; there were plenty of fault-lines and possible slip-ups, but neither of the twins could bear being trapped in the house having to rely on each other's 'cooking' any longer, and Fred was starting to worry George would refuse to go ahead with the plan if they took any longer. So, invisibility cloaks and defensive spells ready, the twins flopped on the sofa in the living room.

Fred shuddered.

'Sorry. Had a flashback of you losing your ear and being laid here,' he answered to George's look of confusion. 'This sofa's seen a lot...'

'I know,' said George, looking at the tearing material and sagging seats. 'D'you remember when it was new, Fred? And we broke three springs within ten minutes?'

Fred laughed. 'How could I forget... And when Charlie spilt homemade blackcurrant juice on it and Mum went mental, because she forgot she could clean it with magic.'

George grinned, but followed with a frown. Everything in The Burrow had a lot of memories behind it. But every memory included Fred, and would haunt George if he ever had to let Fred go again.

A strange look shot across Fred's face, and he looked around the room, swallowing.

'What?' George asked, looking his twin in the eye.

'I'm never gonna sit on this sofa again. Or be in this house again, or see you again' Fred replied, swallowing back tears.

George's heart practically stopped as he tried to swallow back his own tears and failed.

'Sorry,' Fred said in a small voice. 'It just seems so weird and wrong. I'm not scared of dying, I'm scared of leaving you...'