Walking back to the house, Harry and Ginny noticed Bill and Charlie helping George walk up the path to the back door.

"Oh my God! Look at the state of him!" Ginny exclaimed as she and Harry watched George heave and throw up all over Bill's shoes.

They quickened their pace and came up behind them just as they were getting through the door – George threw up again on the doormat.

"Ew...Scourgify!" Ginny said, pointing her wand first at Bills shoes then, the mat and cleaning up the vomit.

"Thanks Gin, I won't tell Mum you did magic," Bill said over his shoulder.

Bill and Charlie guided George through the Kitchen – with Harry and Ginny following - and into the living room and deposited him on the sofa.

"I don't think we should let Mum see him like this," Charlie said, "It'd just upset her more."

"Well if you don't want her to see you better move him from there, take him up to his room," Ginny said

"Nooo-nooo," George moaned, "P-plese, dunt wanna go – in there."

At that moment Ron and Hermione came downstairs and into the living room, causing everyone in the room – except George – to start.

"Bloody hell - I thought you were Mum. Where is she?" Bill said.

"Upstairs – she and Dad are in their room. I went up to see if she wanted any help for anything or something, but Dad told us to give her a minute and she'd come back downstairs when she was ready. She's bawling – she noticed the clock when she came into the house – Fred's hand – it's, well – it set her off..." Ron trailed off.

A morbid silence enveloped the room. George had tears running down his face,

"Y-you can say-ay it. His hand iss on dead b-because he's DEAD! He's dead! He's dead! Dead! Dead! Dead!"

Ginny sat beside him on the couch and cradled his head against her as he soaked her clothes with his tears,

"It'll be okay, it'll be okay..."she murmured in his ear.

Everyone had tears in their eyes but Bill couldn't stop his from falling; watching his little brother in this much pain was killing him. They were broken out of their reverie when they heard the back door open and Percy call out,

"Hello?"

"In here!" Bill called swiping at his cheeks furiously.

Percy wandered into the living room with a small holdall in his hand,

"I just went home to get some clothes – I thought I'd stay for a while."

A floorboard creaked, indicating movement upstairs. Mr and Mrs Weasley were on their way back downstairs upon hearing Percy's arrival.

"Shit...," Charlie breathed.

Ron snapped into action giving orders to his siblings to ensure Mrs Weasley wasn't upset further by the mess George had made of himself,

"Percy, go and put the kettle on and make a pot of tea, Ginny, go with him, make them sit in the kitchen, stall them, Charlie, Bill get a hold of George," George heaved upon hearing his name, but didn't vomit, "Hmm, and a bucket I think. I'm going to go and have a look in the remedy cupboard and see if there is anything that will help him get out of this state – everything's probably out of date now thought, so it'll probably just be some water."

Everyone stared at Ron as if a second head had sprouted out of his shoulders. Ron had always been pushed around by his siblings, so it was unusual for him to be suddenly taking charge. It made them realise that he had really grown up, and that a year on the run had changed him.

"I mean NOW," he said firmly with an undertone of exasperation.

"What will we do?" Hermione asked indicating herself and Harry as the Weasley brood followed their orders.

"Lookouts," Ron said as he helped his brothers hoist George to his unsteady feet. George stumbled out of his brothers' grasps and knocked an ornament off of the end table; Harry caught it with his speedy seeker reflexes before it hit the floor, "and damage control," Ron added.

Arthur tried his best to console his broken wife, but what significance would his words of comfort have at this time, he thought. How could he console his 'Mollywobbles' when he was using all of his strength available just trying to stay standing; just trying to keep breathing? He took a shuddering breath, trying to hold in the onslaught of tears that would inevitably come – 'not now, I have to be strong for my family, for the family that I still have'.

Molly removed her face from the front of Arthurs jumper and tried her best to speak, "A-Arthur, I don't know if I can be here, there are far too many mem-ories. How do I k-know tha-t I won't always be h-aun-ted by Fred," her final word was barely even a whisper; she met Arthurs eyes and saw confusion, "I mean what if I can never – never get on with life in this house when everything I see reminds me of him. Will I ever get over seeing clock hand on dead? How can I knit the Christmas jumpers and they'll all look different? There won't be two the same anymore."

Arthur took a deep breath and thought about what to say to his hopeless wife, but it came to him and he knew it would give her some optimism, however slight, "I remember you saying something similar to me when your brothers died Molly. No, they might not have had a hand on the clock on the mantle, but you had your memories of them from when you were growing up and seeing the children playing together reminded you terribly of what you done together when you were children and the awful pranks they played on you; and you saw every bit of yourself in Ginny when she was born and was then big enough to stand up to her brothers just like you had done – I know that was hard, but by the time that had come around, you could look at it as a fond memory. The day will come. We will never miss him any less, but the hurt will heal. We still have some pretty amazing kids around us Molly, and we have a lot to look forward to with them. There will be more weddings, and grandchildren, possibly even great-grandchildren if they get the show on the road. We will never forget Fred and work at making sure he is never forgotten, but he wouldn't be happy if we stopped living our lives."

They sat in silence as Molly absorbed her husband's words, she knew he was right. The problem was that Molly was not a patient woman by any means, she wanted to feel better immediately, she wanted more weddings to plan as soon as possible, she wanted grandchildren; she wanted it all now because she wanted to be past the stage of feeling like there was no point in anything. She heard Percy's yell from downstairs and it roused her from her musings.

Molly stood tall and out of Arthur's arms and wiped her eyes, "You're right, and it's not going to get any better if I don't wise up and help this family to that point. Arthur, there will be great-grandchildren if I've got anything to do with it," and with that she kissed her husband on the cheek; smoothed out her hair and started off downstairs.

A/N:

Hi...please don't kill me :(

I honestly don't know how long it will be until I manage an update again and I'm really, really sorry this one has pretty much taken almost a year. But I appreciate it and love it if you have added this story to your list. I try, I just seriously underestimated my uni course, thought it would be a breeze but it isn't lol! on the plus side I passed my first year! yey me! lol

Oh and btw I noticed that I haven't put a disclaimer on any of my chapters yet...but is it just me that thinks it's painfully obvious that I'm not JK Rowling?

Anyway constructive criticism welcome as well as comments if you liked it and what you liked/didn't like. Just please no RAGEY comments about how long it took, I know and I'm sorry!

ly xoxo