Sorry it took me so long to get this started. Last chapter summary: WWW reopened, with lots of help from our favorite redhead in the Golden Trio. George met Mark Brown, Lavender's ten-year-old brother.

I am not JK Rowling. Shock.

Life settled down into a steady routine. Breakfast, work, lunch, work, dinner, sleep. Now much else. What else was there to do?

Ron was at the shop so often, he finally asked me, hesitantly, if he could have Fred's room.

I blinked and swallowed hard.

"It's okay if you don't want me to," Ron hastened to add. "I understand, I just that that, y'now, it would be easier…" He trailed off uncertainly.

My gut reaction was "Hell no!" That was Fred's room. Everything was as he had left it. How could we change that?

"You can have my room," I replied. The words were out of my mouth before I had finished thinking it.

My younger, taller, brother looked down at me with concern.

I swallowed. "I'll take Fred's."

"You sure?" Ron asked.

I nodded.

So that was how, after months of avoiding that side of the flat, I came to not only look at, but live in, Fred's room.

I opened the door slowly. Everything was exactly how he had left it the night we fled the shop with Lee. His drawers were still open, though most of the clothes were missing, stuffed into his bag that was probably still on the floor of our room at the Burrow. A box full of half-finished test products was overflowing on the floor.

I guess I was always the neat one.

Moving slowly, almost afraid to breathe, I sat down on Fred's bed.

It felt right.

Everyone seemed to be going off following paths that seemed, in some cases, invisible to no one but them.

Harry, to no one's surprise, agreed to work with the Ministry now that Kingsley was minister and was well on his way to being an extremely successful Auror.

Hermione hadn't really settled down yet, but she did write occasional articles for the Daily Prophet, saying that at least she knew that her writing was factual.

Ginny had actually returned to Hogwarts for the seventh year, along with Luna.

Neville was also at Hogwarts, interning with Professor Sprout, who was ready to retire after losing so many of her dear students.

Lee was continuing PotterWatch, very successfully.

Alicia had gotten a job with PotterWatch, with her natural talent for getting to the bottom of things. She had, on numerous occasion, been responsible for busting certain pranks of Fred's and mine.

Katie, on the other hand, had surprised everyone by going into the Ministry. Not just any part of the Ministry: She went into the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, to Hagrid's lasting joy, where she worked on destroying wizard prejudices towards goblins, mermen and, this time to Hermione's joy, elves.

Another Ministry surprise, I might mention, was Malfoy. Draco, that is. He, to everyone's shock, was interning in the Magical Law Enforcement Office.

We were growing apart. Especially some of my closer friends weren't that way anymore…

Lee dropped by a number of times, but he never stayed very long. Fred always came between us when we talked. I kept thinking about what he would say and I knew Lee was too.

Not to mention that Lee was well on his way to becoming a millionaire: PotterWatch was now immensely popular, mostly because it was both reliable and funny. Lee had basically been preparing for the job all those years of commentating at Hogwarts Quidditch games and people enjoyed listening to him.

The Lee/Angelina thing, to only Lee's surprise, fell apart after about three dates. Lee had been interested in her looks, Quidditch skills and humor, not really in anything else. Angie had only gone out with him because she felt like she had to be going out again.

She and Fred had been together for a year and a half. They broke up shortly after Fred and I had left Hogwarts. Since then, she really hadn't gone out with anyone, at least that I knew of.

She had come by once or twice as well and had stayed for a lot longer than Lee and left laden with joke shop paraphernalia. At first, Angie kept tearing up as she talked, but soon we were back to the joking friendship we had had before.

Then Angelina told me she was considering moving to Australia.

I laughed. Who wouldn't? I mean, Australia?!

She was looking at me strangely. I stopped in mid-chuckle. "You were—ah—joking, right?" I asked.

"Um…no," she replied. "Actually, you know how Quidditch teams send recruiters out to school games?"

I nodded.

"Well, one of them was at that last game, you missed it, and came up to me afterwards. At first I said no way am I moving to Australia. But now…" she shrugged. "There's too much death here. There are ghosts of happy times everywhere I turn. I can't stand it, George, so I'm leaving."

I must have looked like an idiot gaping at her. Australia?

"Er…I'm very happy for you," I managed with difficulty.

"I'm sorry, George. I'd stay if there was anything left here for me, but my parents want me to take the chance…Leesha and Katie are off creating new lives for themselves and you're really all that's left for me here…" she looked at me sadly.

"And I'm not enough," I said dully.

"That's not what I meant," she said instantly. "No, George, I—"

She didn't finish.

"Tell me," I said quietly, "if Fred were here, would you still leave?"

She stared at me. "I—How could you say that?"

To my surprise, her eyes had suddenly filled with tears and she stood up and ran out.

Startled, I stood up and sprinted outside into the cool October air.

"Angie, wait!" I yelled.

She turned around and glared at me. "What?" she asked, low and deadly.

"I—what team are you on?" I asked.

"Wollongong Warriors," she replied shortly.

"But they're lousy!" I blurted. Her eyes narrowed and she pointed her wand at me. I felt my limbs grow heavy and knew she had Impedimenta-ed me, practically freezing me as she turned and walked briskly down the street.

I watched her leave helplessly. She disappeared down the street.

It took me several minutes to recover from her hex enough to sprint after her, ignoring the strange looks from passerby and burst into the Leaky Cauldron, this time getting annoyed looks.

Tom the Barman told me that she had taken her things and left without a word to anyone. She was gone.