Chapter 13

January 6th 1999

Scabbers

Fred's re-introduction back into working life had started slowly. First he had started going in once a week to help with deliveries and, much to his dismay, re-organising the stockroom. These once weekly trips had then turned into him showing up twice a week, then three times, then four when he figured out that George was seemingly incapable of maintaining any semblance of the order he tried to create for their ingredients. By the time Christmas had arrived, he had told George that he thought himself ready to venture out of the stockroom and wanted to help his brother in the shop again, more so since Lee had decided to make his venture to Europe a permanent move and he had relocated to France with Angelina. Their friends' decision left George solo on the shop floor and meant that, especially in the run up to Christmas, his twin had been entirely too stressed. With this in mind, as they closed the shop for the winter holidays, Fred made it his resolution to get himself on to the shop floor when they re-opened on January 2nd. So far, as much to his surprise as George's, it had been going well and he was coping admirably, actually finding himself to be enjoying helping customers and dealing with the public again.

On the 6th, George had reluctantly agreed to allow his brother to solo the shop floor in order to go for lunch with Ginny, the youngest Weasley having come into the shop that morning, telling them she was bored and needed to get out of the house and since they weren't that busy, it was their responsibility as her brothers to entertain her. The twins had played rock, paper, scissors for the privilege of being their sisters performing monkey for an hour and when Fred had won, he had reassured them both that he would be fine without them for the time and they had left in search of food. They had settled on having lunch in the Leaky Cauldron, George having fish and chips while Ginny settled for a salad stating that she needed to be in top form in order to maintain her place on the Quidditch team, while they talked about home and how each other's lives were doing. Ginny had tried to question George about his love life, but he had resolutely shut down that particular avenue of conversation by telling her that he would tell Molly about Ginny and Neville sneaking off to her bedroom when their Mum wasn't looking. The blackmail worked and Ginny soon shut up, though her face was bright red as she continued munching on her lettuce leaves.

It wasn't until the first crying and terrified looking child came running into the pub that they got their first indication that something might be wrong. The child was followed by another, then another, then some very concerned looking parents and a very elderly looking witch who stumbled in muttering something about 'taking jokes too far these days'. The two siblings obviously shared the feeling that caused their stomachs to sink, because they looked at each other wide eyed and both threw galleons down on the table, uncaring that they had likely ended up paying twice the cost of the meals and drinks, before they moved in unison out of the back doors of the pub. As they emerged into Diagon Alley, they could see people rushing towards them and away from Wheezes, which had smoke emanating from the two open doors. Sharing another panicked look, they took off at a sprint and pushed their way through the worried crowds until they reached the left-side door of the shop and ran in, stopping suddenly when they saw what awaited them inside. The floor was covered in a slick layer of multiple liquids that mixed together and combined to cause an acrid smoke that rose off of the floor, making their eyes water as it floated up towards the ceiling. The posters and shelves that lined the walls were hanging off at strange angles and as they stood there in shock, more products slid from the shelves and fell to the floor, bottles smashing against the floorboards and potions adding to the awful concoction. In the middle of all the chaos lay a single, solitary and very dead rat.

"What the hell…" George gasped, looking around his shop in horror at what he saw.

"Where's Fred?!" Ginny asked loudly and he looked at her, shrugging his shoulders as he sighed and lifted a hand to his head to tussle his own hair.

They didn't need to wonder where their brother had gone for long because as the smashing of bottles ceased they heard a quiet sob come from behind the counter. George made a move to rush towards the noise but Ginny reached out and grabbed his arm, glaring at him and gesturing for him to go slowly. She knew that George didn't fully understand her reasoning, simply wanting to go to his clearly upset twin, but Ginny was aware that if he had done this then Fred was likely feeling very anxious and jumpy, probably still armed with his wand and obviously not quite thinking entirely clearly. She pushed herself in front of George and began to creep forwards, ignoring the burning in her eyes from the smoke that gradually filled the room before seeping out of the open doors. Narrowly avoiding slipping in the liquid a couple of times, she finally reached the edge of the checkout counter and leaned forwards, catching her first glimpse of the wizard who hid there. He had forced himself as far as he could into the corner, his knees hugged to his chest as he rocked slightly and she could see his body shaking with sobs.

"Freddie?" she said quietly, pausing her movements when his entire body stiffened, "Fred, it's me, Ginny."

He didn't look up, but she noticed that his shoulders relaxed ever so slightly and she took this as her cue to slowly lower herself to her knees. She didn't reach out to touch him, knowing that it might spark him to panic all over again, simply opting to remain in front of him as he cried. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to remain calm and keep the worry out of her voice as she spoke.

"It's okay, Fred," she said softly, quickly turning back to smile reassuringly at George where he stood looking entirely panicked behind her before turning back to Fred, "it's okay, me and George are here."

"I'm sorry." she heard him whimper, though he didn't look up and she sighed quietly as she shuffled forwards and reached her hand out, laying it on his forearm.

"It's okay, you don't need to apologise," she reassured and Fred lifted his head slowly, almost fearfully. His face was wet with tears and his eyes bloodshot, "do you want to tell us what happened?"

"There-" he choked out, squeezing his eyes shut as he gave his head a small shake and cleared his throat, "there was a rat."

"Must have been a big bloody rat!" George said from behind Ginny and though she knew that he was simply trying to lift the situation with humour, she turned to glare at him fully aware that now wasn't the time for it. She gestured for him to go and start cleaning up and he growled, rolling his eyes though he begrudgingly did as she had indicated.

"Okay, there was a rat," Ginny said softly, squeezing his arm in reassurance and he nodded slightly, a frown firmly fixed on his face, though she was glad to note he was no longer openly sobbing, "what happened next?"

"I thought…" he began, sighing and dropping his head back against the wall with a sad snort, "I thought it was Scabbers."

Ginny gasped, nodding her understanding as to what had occurred. The entire Weasley family had lived unknowingly with the animagus for years and after it had all come out that he had actually been Peter Pettigrew and the horrible man had gone crawling back to Voldemort, the family had been horrified. After everything Harry had told them about what Pettigrew did to him during the war, they had been further horrified and while they knew of his downfall at the hand of, well, himself, they all held a particular hatred of rats that even closely resembled the one they had come to consider a pet for so long. She leaned back on her heels and peered around the counter, inspecting the rat that now lay dead amidst the chaos and decided that yes, this one held a particular resemblance to Scabbers. Sighing, she moved herself to sit next to Fred, knowing that he no longer posed any threat, and slipped her arm around his shoulders.

"To be fair, that rat does look like him." she affirmed and Fred nodded, leaning against her shoulder.

"I don't know what happened, I kind of blacked out," he muttered and she nodded, kissing him on the head and rubbing his shoulder, "something just snapped and I started throwing curses."

"Understandable," Ginny snorted, resting her cheek against his head, "we all wanted to kill that stupid rat at one point or another."

"Is George mad at me, Gin?" Fred said sadly and both of them jumped slightly when they heard George's voice above them.

"Mad? Never." George grinned as they both tilted their heads back to look at him, "worried? Always."

"I didn't mean to destroy the shop." Fred uttered and George smirked, shrugging his shoulders as he held his wand over the counter for them to see.

"Magic, Freddie. I'll have this place fixed up in no time," he reassured and Fred offered him a small smile in return, "Pettigrew is dead, remember Freddie?"

"I know that," Fred groaned, lifting his hand to drag it down his face, "honestly I do, but when I saw that thing I just… Forgot."

George leaned further over the counter and gripped Fred's shoulder, squeezing in understanding and solidarity. The three of them remained in this slightly awkward position, ignoring the people who peered into the shop and made varying noises of shock and confusion. Thankfully, George had magicked away the liquid that had covered the floor when they arrived so the air was now free of the horrible smell and their eyes no longer watered as the fumes hit them. Once Fred had calmed down somewhat, he made a move to stand and once he was firmly back on his feet he offered Ginny his hand. She gratefully took it and allowed him to pull her up as the siblings eyed the shop, Fred looking fully ashamed.

"I really did a number on the place, huh?" he muttered, sighing as he looked at the rat on the floor. Without hesitation, he lifted his wand and shot a spell that made the rodent disappear.

"Freddie?" George asked quietly and Ginny saw his lips twitching in amusement.

"Yeah?"

"Do you have a particular hatred for love potions?" he asked, grinning over at the now destroyed display that lay in tatters on the floor.

They were both relieved to hear Fred laugh loudly next to them before he threw out a Repairo that sent the pieces of the display tower floating into the air and spinning until they returned to their original, intended places. They spent the next hour or so working together in order to return the shop to some semblance of normality, though it would take far longer to brew the replacements for the potions that had been lost in Fred's battle with the poor, unsuspecting rat that just so happened to look like an evil wizard's animagus.

Once they were as done as they could be, George made the executive decision that it probably wasn't worth re-opening for the afternoon considering they were down half of their potion stock and they locked up the store before returning back to the Burrow. They didn't tell their parents or other siblings what had happened and spent the next few weeks downplaying the rumours, trying to sell what had occurred as a bizarre accident, though the two youngest Weasleys kept a close eye on their brother. They were pleased to note that, three weeks later when there had been a rat in the garden of the Burrow, he did not resort to cursing it and simply shoo-ed it away with a broom instead. He didn't return on to the shop floor for a few weeks as he spent the time restocking the potions he had decimated in his rampage against the rat and he hadn't had a serious 'moment', as they referred to it, ever since.