Oops, forgot to put a disclaimer. Well, I think everyone would know by now that JK Rowling owns all these characters (NOT those idiots making the movies), I merely make them do whatever I want.
Secrets UnknownChapter Three: "A disturbing discovery"
When George arrived back at The Burrow most people had already gone home. There was generally less activity in the living room as those who were not staying the night had left and those who were staying the night were setting up beds with sheets, pillows in various rooms. George had not been the only one to stay the week at his parents' house. Ron, so adamant in the way he had moved out in the first place 'wanting his own space' had been one of the first to move back home and even Hermione had been staying there the last couple of nights. Angelina had declined the offer to stay and gone home with her friend, Katie Bell. Percy had decided to stay a couple of nights at least and Charlie and Bill had been staying the past week with George. Lee Jordan had already left when George had arrived back home too, but this was no surprise to the boy. Lee had been he and Fred's best friend but the past week he had been almost ignoring George. Angelina assured him that Lee was probably unsure of what to say to him and this contented him for a while but now he was getting slightly worried at his friend's distant behaviour.
Now George was back in the small room he used to share with Fred and he was using his time alone to unpack and set up the things he had brought with him from their small apartment in Hogsmeade. He had placed the shoebox of Fred's on the bed he used to sleep in and defied looking at it as he unpacked. Finally, however, he had no more to unpack and he sat down on his bed, pulling his feet up off the floor and hugging his knees with his arms. He looked at the box, knowing that it could contain something, anything, that could explain why Fred did it.
Staring at the battered shoebox only made him want to open it more so he got off his bed and walked out of the room. In the hall he ran into Percy who muttered his apology then excused himself. George thought nothing of Percy's strange behaviour; nobody was really sure what Percy's true feelings were. After the war, Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, had disappeared and the Ministry had temporarily shut down before Dumbledore decided to step in temporarily. All the people working there who had been following Fudge's example of ignoring the claims that You-Know-Who had returned from the supposed 'dead' either lost their jobs or disappeared entirely and Percy lost his respect for Fudge. Now, almost three years later, Percy had started to reform the bond between himself and his family. It was clear that he had no desire to betray them again and he had expressed his concern and shed his tears at the demise of his younger brother but he had been the one to say that the 'Fred and George' route was an extremely unwise route to take.
After watching his older brother disappearing through the nearest door, George decided to find someone normal to talk to. His youngest brother, Ron, had always been one to follow the example he and Fred had set and although they never declined the chance to tease their little brother, the mere fact that he not only accepted George and Fred but respected them always made the twins sure to look out for Ron whenever they possibly could. When George finally arrived at the door adorning a wooden sign entitled 'Ronald's Room' after ascending three flights of stairs he knocked gently on the door only to find it swing open under his touch. Wandering in he could see that the curtains had been drawn and no kind of light was being used to illuminate the room and it's inhabitants. George could hear someone talking gently and softly in the depths of the dark room but that stopped when he had pushed the door open. From the light streaming in from the hallway he would see a lump on the bed in the corner that he assumed was his brother and Hermione. As he pushed the door open further the rectangle of light illuminated the two enough so that he could see Ron lying on his side, back to the doorway and Hermione sitting on the other side of him, stroking his hair and talking softly. Hermione looked up and smiled at George and he was once again thankful that she was one of the few who still treated him relatively normally, and not as though he was going to break down in tears any moment.
Hermione leant down and whispered something to Ron and George watched as his little brother nodded and then sat up. Hermione kissed the top of his head before standing up and heading towards the door where she stopped, put her hand on George's arm and smiled at him before leaving the room entirely. Ron looked at George expectantly and George tried to smile but found he couldn't. The guilt of feeling nothing was clawing at his heart and seeing Ron wiping tears off his cheeks only made him angry at that fact that he had not shed any himself yet. Shrugging off this feeling he pointed his wand at the nearest candle and lit it before sitting down on the chair at Ron's desk, turning to face his brother.
"You're lucky," George told his little brother finally, "to have someone like that." He jabbed his thumb in the direction of the door where Hermione had just exited.
Ron nodded, "Don't I know it? Took me long enough to realise it," he said with a small smile that did not, in any way, match the sadness still evident in his eyes.
George nodded at his brother but said nothing more. Wanting more than anything to have a normal conversation with someone, it angered him slightly to find Ron so upset. This, of course, made him feel even more guilty and tried in vain to concentrate on what Ron was saying.
"...back at Hogsmeade?" Ron was finishing his question just as George tried to turn his focus back to his brother.
"What?" George asked Ron stupidly. Ron gave his brother the shadow of a strange look before repeating his question.
"I asked you was it strange being back at Hogsmeade?" Ron repeated a little more clearly.
"Oh," George shrugged, "a little. The shop is still running, at least," he smiled cheekily at his little brother, "why you won't let us give you a job there is beyond us-" he stopped for a moment before correcting himself, "beyond me," he finished.
Ron looked at his brother pityingly. No more than nineteen, George had just experienced something that nobody saw coming and Ron knew George felt it the most. George caught Ron looking at him with sympathy on his face and he turned away from the boy in disgust.
"I don't need your pity, Ron," George said sharply and Ron's ears began to heat up. Only seventeen and naturally oblivious to shifts in moods, Ron had no idea how to act around George at the best of times. Now, considering the circumstances, acting the right way around his older brother seemed close to impossible.
"I- I'm sorry," Ron tried to apologise but George glared at him.
"I came up here for a nice normal conversation which nobody in this house seems capable of at the moment," he said angrily, getting out of the chair and making his way towards the door.
"George..." Ron seemed at a loss for words. George felt a momentary pang of guilt for the way he was acting but shrugged it off and pulled the door open. Hermione was just coming back into the room as he did this and she jumped back and gasped as the door was wrenched out from under her grasp.
"Sorry, Mione," George grunted as he stepped around her into the hall.
"George," Hermione said softly and he almost turned around before ignoring her and kept on walking.
"You can't keep going like this, George!" she exclaimed desperately. George stopped walking and whirled around, eyes flashing.
"Like what?" he growled, the anger in his voice rising.
Hermione looked at him, tears streaming down her face as she searched frantically for something to say or do that could make George see sense. Finally George merely sneered at her and turned around, half expecting her to call him back but when he heard nothing at all he quickened his pace and continued back to his room.
Slamming the door behind him, George leaned heavily against the shuddering wooden door and waited for the tears to come. When none did he heaved himself away from the door and strode directly toward the bed Fred use to occupy. Sitting down on the bed he pulled the shoebox towards him and without another though he had pulled off the lid and thrown it aside.
"Okay, Fred," George muttered angrily, "this joke has lasted long enough. Why the fuck did you do what you did?"
Sifting through various objects, George found some old photographs of when he and Fred were growing up, a few letters he had received from Angelina, ranging from lengthy letters from when they left Hogwarts three years ago to simple ones he had been sent when she was away in France on holiday about nine months before. He also found a few random objects that George could not see any real sentimental value in such as old Christmas cards, his first Hogwarts letter and a couple of twigs that George assumed were from his old broomstick. Cursing silently to himself, George extracted every single object from the old shoebox before realising it was useless; nothing in the box was going to give George any information about his twin. Lifting the box to his lap to find that it did not lift quite as easily as a shoebox with nothing in it should. Shaking the box slightly he could both feel and hear something rattling around in it still, despite that illusion that it was empty. Pulling his wand from his pocket, he pointed it inside the depths of the shoebox and whispered, "Revealius"
The box gave a slight lurch and when George looked inside the box again a small black book appeared. Hands shaking, George placed his hand inside the box and lifted the book from its battered surroundings. Opening the book, a fearful feeling in the pit of his stomach, George's eyes were met with a sight he would never forget. On the page he had opened to his eyes were drawn to the first sentences scribbled there in Fred's untidy handwriting, so much like George's own.
The thoughts that are running through my head cannot possibly be normal. I am becoming so different to the person I used to be. The secrets I kept hidden are so vast and so disturbing that they kill me more every day. It won't be long now.