Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

Goodbye Freddie

George woke with a start. Then he remembered. It was three days after the battle, today was Fred's funeral. Biting back tears he slowly got out of bed, avoiding looking at Fred's empty bed. Fred's bed was still not made. George hadn't let his mother make the bed because it's not how Fred would have wanted it. He glanced at the clock, it was five in the morning. He sighed, knowing he wasn't going back to sleep, he made his way to the kitchen.

It was quiet, no one was up so he made himself some tea. While he drank it, he caught sight of the old clock that told where or what all the Weasleys were doing. The Fred hand was gone. That nearly made him start crying again, but he controlled himself. Then he noticed a new hand had been added, Fleur, it said. He stared at the clock in surprise, wondering if it automatically did this. He sighed, realizing he didn't really care.

His thoughts turned to the joke shop. How would he run it without Fred? He could not, he would not just sell it. He would be betraying Fred to put it in a strangers hands. Plus, it was called Weasleys Wizard Wheezes. Not as in a Weasley owns this store, but as in more than one Weasley. Perhaps some of his brothers would help him… but it wouldn't be the same. George sighed, wondering how he was going to face his friends at the funeral, how he was ever going to be happy without his twin at his side.

"Bloody Hell!", came a voice from the stairway. George turned and saw Bill standing there looking shocked and staring at him. "G-George", he stuttered finally, "I the-thought… What are you doing up so early?", Bill muttered.

"What did you think?", George said dully, "That I was Fred? Fred's dead, remember?", he said expressionlessly.

"I'm sorry George, I just came down to tell you that it's ti-time.", Bill replied calmly. George started and looked at the clock that actually told time. It was ten o'clock. Had that much time really passed? He took a sip of his tea. It was ice cold. Then without a word to Bill, he swept out the front door to the Burrows front yard where Fred was being buried. Bill watched his younger brother leave, sadness in his eyes.

George caught sight of Lee who was holding hands with Katie, and Alicia who was holding hands with Oliver, and Angelina. He looked at Angelina for a moment and their eyes met. Her look she was giving him was, Well? Aren't you going to say anything? When they went over to sit down, George quickly went to talk to them. "Hi.", George said quietly to them.

They all looked at him not knowing what to say when Angelina spoke up, "George, I-we-we're really sorry.", she said, already tears were showing up in her eyes.

"It's alright Angie.", he replied softly feeling tears prick his own eyes. She gave a small smile when he called her the nickname they had when they were all eleven. Then the funeral started. Kingsley said a few words and so did the bloke who did the honors at Dumbledore's funeral but George wasn't really paying attention. These people didn't really know Fred at all. He realized what he had to do, what Fred would have wanted him to do. After Kingsley was done George quickly went up to him and asked, "Can a say something?"

Kingsley looked at him seriously and nodded, "Of course."

He swallowed nervously and started, "I'm George Weasley, Fred's twin brother as you can probably tell." The crowd smiled a bit at that. "Fred's the bloke in the coffin.", George added as an afterthought. Some of the crowd laughed quietly. "You might think of him as only a guy who wanted to cause trouble but there was much more to him then that. He was good-hearted and would be willing to give himself up for his friends and family. He was a great friend, brother, and twin. He was my best friend." At this point most of the crowd was crying silently into handkerchiefs or sweaters.

"Fred wouldn't have wanted us to sit around depressed after he died. He would've wanted us to celebrate that the war was over. And that's what we should do because like Neville said", he said giving Neville who was sitting in the crowd a small smile, "Fred's still here, everyone we lost is still here. Right here.", he said his voice cracking as he pointed to his chest where his heart was. Then he took some small bright fireworks out of his pocket. "Fred and I were going to set these off if we won the war, and since we did, I think he still would've wanted me to set them off.", George said.

And with that, he muttered something and the fireworks shot out of his hand and exploded in the air. The first one formed the shape of Hogwarts and then a bunch a little ones making a shimmery dome around it. Then another firework split into hundreds of sparks that hit the dome which disappeared. Then all the fireworks started exploding and popping left and right and shooting at each other and colliding. Finally one giant green firework collided with a giant red firework. There was an explosion in the air and the green firework disappeared. The red one remained for a second then it exploded into hundreds of small golden sparks which floated onto the crowd. There was a moment of silence then the crowd began to clap and cheer. Even his family were smiling, somewhat sadly, as the sparks floated around them. As the sparks started to clear, George could feel tears pricking his eyes again . He walked calmly off the podium, hugged his family, and disapparated straight to the joke shop. There was some unfinished business to do.

At the joke shop he found a picture of him and Fred. They were laughing in the picture and in the background were some fireworks that were apparently chasing someone. (most likely Percy) This time he couldn't help it. He hugged the picture to his chest and let the burning tears fall to the floor. He stared at the picture and whispered, "Goodbye Freddie."