The days continued similarly for George. He would get up feeling like death and drink until he was unconscious. His siblings done all they could to distract Mrs Weasley from his behaviour because they didn't want to upset her more than she already was. She accepted the "George has gone out a walk" and "George is sleeping" excuses at first because she assumed that he obviously needed his time to grieve. Little did she know the path of self destruction he was on. She only discovered the truth after over hearing a whispered argument between her children.

"We have to tell mum!" Ginny hissed, "This is getting out of hand, we've all tried to stop it but in case you haven't noticed it's not working!"

"We can't! Mum's got enough on her plate trying to arrange Fred's funeral," Ron argued back fiercely.

"Ron, Ginny may be right, I don't think there is much more we can try. We're trying our best to look after him but we're scraping him off the floor and putting him to bed, then he's gone before we can even talk to him," Bill explained reasonably.

"Yeah, and he's not entirely receptive to leaving the bar when we try to force him. Remember that time he hooked me 'cause I went to get him? I had to bloody stupefy him," Charlie added.

"But, what if Mum can't handle it? It's hard enough for her just now. I say we vote," Percy said diplomatically.

"That won't be necessary," Mrs Weasley said stepping into the living room in front of her guilty looking children.

"Mum –"

"Enough I don't want to hear excuses, now what's going on?" she interrupted.

XXXXXXXX

"GEORGE!"

"shhhhhh, blo-ody effing hell," George groaned throwing his arm over his eyes.

The backroom he had acquired in the leaky cauldron was spinning and the yelling wasn't helping his pounding head. The floor was littered with bottles – which had become all too common. The door behind him sprang open revealing a worried looking Mrs Weasley who rushed over to her son,

"George, what've you done to yourself?" Mrs Weasley asked sadly, "Come on I'm taking you home."

George didn't protest as Mrs Weasley hoisted him out of the chair and apparated back to the Burrow.

XXXXXXXX

George opened a bleary eye and winced at the sunlight creeping through the gap in the curtains. Suddenly the curtains flew open and the window was opened letting in a cool, fresh spring breeze. Startled by the sudden movement he noticed his mother out of the corner of his eye standing with her arms crossed at the bedroom door. He didn't say a word and simply pulled the duvet over his head and waited for her to leave. She didn't. He heard her sit across from him on Percy's bed. It was only when she finally spoke did George realise how painful his headache was.

"George," she said worriedly, "George, I need you to talk to me, love."

Silence.

"George Weasley do not ignore me," Mrs Weasley said sternly, "What would Fred say – "

George threw the covers back and glared at his mother,

"Fred would say nothing because he's dead, Mum. Or didn't you realise?" he said harshly.

"Don't you dare say that to me, George! While you've been out getting disgustingly drunk, it's been me and your father arranging his funeral. You should be ashamed of yourself. Your brothers and sister haven't even had a moment to grieve for themselves because they've been running about after you and helping me and your father. Do you think this is how Fred would want you to behave? You're not the only one who's lost him, and you'd do well to remember that!" she fumed, outraged at her son's accusation.

"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT IT'S LIKE!" he roared "HE WASN'T JUST MY BROTHER, HE WAS MY BEST FRIEND! I'VE NEVER HAD TO LIVE WITHOUT HIM AND I DON'T KNOW HOW TO!" George stopped his tirade with a heaving sob and the tears came thick and fast – his head was pounding, but the pain from the loss of his brother was greater.

Mrs Weasley moved to her sons bed and put her arms around him,

"I can't truly understand how this feels for you, love; but we all lost him and all miss him terribly. You can't keep doing this to yourself, you look dreadful, and it's not healthy."

"I know," he sobbed, "I'm sorry Mum, it's just so hard."

"That's alright dear, I'm not expecting you to jump out of bed and turn Ron's teddy bear into a spider," she said, bringing a flicker of light to George's eyes, "Or wind up Percy, but just be with us, okay?" she asked

George nodded slightly and wiped his hands over his eyes, "I'll try."

XXXXXXXX

The Weasley boys had taken an active stance in returning the wizarding world to a state of normalcy. It would be a long road, of course, but it provided a wonderful distraction from the loss of Fred.

Bill and Fleur had been staying at Shell Cottage and apparating to the Burrow every day since the battle to try and help; Mrs Weasley didn't protest when she found Fleur in the kitchen early in the morning preparing food that was unlikely to be touched. Mrs Weasley kept her hands busy without actually doing much – folding and re-folding clean laundry and dusting the same shelves in the living room.

Bill was spending his time in Gringotts, taking part in managing the government finances, releasing life insurances and the assets of those lost in the war to those stipulated in Wills. The selfishness of some witches and wizards at this time angered him; resulting in many a rant in the evenings to his wife. He couldn't understand that instead of everyone banding together to pick up the pieces of their nation, some were focused on their personal gain and were happy to return to their homes and remain ignorant to the needs of others.

Needing to find a way to help, Charlie had contacted Professor McGonagall to enquire about the reconstruction of Hogwarts. He had become an active member of the team working to restore the castle to its original glory. Each morning after nibbling on Fleur's breakfast he would apparate up north and work until dusk before returning home and falling straight to sleep, exhausted.

Percy was, unsurprisingly, at the ministry, working hard with Kingsley Shacklebolt; every department had been shut down, sans the Aurors, whom were working hard at rounding up all the death eaters that had escaped after the battle and raiding the homes of those that had passed to destroy any dark objects they kept in their homes. Percy and Kingsley spent hours each day completely restructuring and re-staffing the departments, ensuring that they only had the best for the jobs.

"A lot more jobs have become available than what was first anticipated; it obviously wasn't realised how many were in support of you-know-who or secretly a death eater," Percy informed his family one evening at dinner, "I mean Kurt Payne from the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophe's was a death eater, and that came as a shock to everyone who worked with him! He was such a highly esteemed Obliviator, and to think he'd used that to help you-know-who is awful! And there's been heated debates with the Wizengamot because Kingsley is using Veritaserum to interview all of the staff to see if they should keep their jobs; he doesn't want the same thing to happen that happened at the end of the last war. All these people saying that they were imperiused and such, he just wants to have some honesty. Of course there are some people that I suppose 'helped' the death eaters because they were being threatened as well. I think Kingsley's doing a fantastic job, he's not taking any rubbish, and I think it's about time the ministry had a minister like that."

Percy's rants were welcomed by everyone. They all sat either with rapt attention or spaced out not wishing to speak. Harry hung on his every word, as did Hermione and Ron, eager to learn what was happening. Mrs Weasley hadn't let them leave her sight for more than half an hour at a time. Moaning about it one afternoon Ginny, not so politely explained to them why.

"Uck, shut it the lot of you! You were gone for so long and she didn't know if you were dead or alive; she's just scared that she's going to wake up one morning and you won't really be home. Just give it a rest, eh? It's not like you can go anywhere without the press ambushing you anyway; so why don't you just welcome the rest from all of this war shite?"

And with that she stormed away to help her Mum choose the flowers for Fred's funeral.

A/N:

Hey, thanks for reading. Next chapter will be Fred's funeral. I want to do it justice so it won't be rushed by any means, but I do plan on keeping more regular updates after not updating for such long periods of time

thanks xx