Disclaimer: The world of Harry Potter and it's characters belong to J.K Rowling.

Warnings: This is currently rated T for dashes of colourful language here and there. As the story progresses these warnings may be subject to change.

The shower hadn't done much to soothe his thoughts, but it had stripped him of last nights sweat and grime. He only wished he had a clean change of clothes to dress in. No such luck. A quick Scourgify and Novodore charm later, and last nights clothes were passably clean and odourless. It wasn't the first time he had had to resort to spells to clean his clothes, he and George had by necessity expanded their knowledge of household charms considerably since moving out on their own.

George.

Damn.

He had been trying his best to keep his thoughts away from his twin, but he was finding it far more difficult than he had presumed it would be. It didn't help that George was in practically every memory Fred could recall since day dot. There simply weren't many safe topics he could think about without his twin making an appearance, and every time George's face popped up it made the separation that much more real in Fred's mind.

It wasn't like George was dead, for Merlin's sake. Fred didn't know why he was being so miserable. Being stuck with two people who would much prefer that he were his youngest brother certainly wasn't helping with his spirits though. He looked up into the cracked old mirror hanging over the bathroom sink, and scowled at his distorted reflection. It wasn't like he wanted to be there either, he couldn't help it that he wasn't Ron. Not that he would ever want to be.

He sighed. No, being negative wouldn't help the situation. George would tell him he was being an arse if he was there. Pulling on a smile and his refreshed clothes, he took one last look in the mirror and pretended it was George looking back at him. Right then, let's get on with it.

OoXoO

He found Hermione sitting cross legged on the floor in the sitting room, books spread out around her in a semi circle and her nose firmly stuck to the pages of her chosen tome.

'Where's Harry?' Fred asked quietly.

'Upstairs I should think, I know he wanted to take a look in Sirius' room,' she said, her eyes never leaving the page in front of her.

'Look, about before-'

'Don't apologise, Fred. I'm as much to blame. Why don't we just move on?' She said, looking up at him and smiling slightly, her eyes saying everything that her mouth wouldn't.

He nodded and returned the smile, sitting down opposite her and leaning back on his palms. 'Sounds good. So, what are you reading?' She gave him an odd look over the top of the book and Fred sent back a bemused grin, 'I do read, you know.'

'I never said you didn't. You obviously got the ideas for your pranks and creations somewhere.'

'Well, as much as I'd like to say it's all pure genius, I suppose I can really only claim half the credit,' he teased, throwing her a devilish look; a Weasley twin signature.

She laughed and put the book down finally, 'Less than that I'd say, you have to factor in that twin of yours somewhere.'

'Ah yes, the infamous twin. I suppose so, yes. Although there are some things that George doesn't factor into, if you catch my drift,' he waggled his eyebrows at her crudely and she nudged him with her leg, toppling him backwards. Laughing, he sat back up grinned at her, 'All right, I deserved that, but I really am interested in what you're reading.'

'You never used to be. Said I was a boring bookworm, if I recall,' she deadpanned.

He shrugged, 'You're not so bad.'

'Hmm, well what a lovely vote of confidence. If you must know, I'm researching. I have an idea for a - well something,' she stuttered, looking back down at her books, 'And I wanted to know if it was possible. Well, I'm sure it is possible, but I want to know how to do it.'

He had the distinct feeling that she was purposely not telling him something, but decided to overlook it, feeling gracious and all that, he thought.

'Right. Well, can I help at all?'

'With research?' She frowned, biting her lip slightly.

'Yes, with research. Like you said, I have to research to invent our products. George is better than me with that side of things, but I'm not completely useless.'

'Well, okay then. I know the basic charm I need, I've used it before successfully, but what I want to do is adjust it so that it can only be used by two specific people.'

'And you're not going to tell me what you're doing?' He surmised, raising an eyebrow at her.

'You'll find out eventually,' she said, 'So, what do you think?'

Choosing a book from the pile he gave her a smile and crossed his legs, mimicking her position in the floor. 'I think I'd better start reading,' he said.

Every so often one of them found something they thought worth sharing, but they still hadn't pinpointed a spell that would work for the charm Hermione had in mind. Fred told her it would help if he knew what the original charm was, but she remained stoic in her refusal to tell him.

When a shout from above broke their reverie, they sat back, smiling slightly at having found each other's company surprisingly comfortable.

'Hey, I think I've found something! Get up here!'

OoXoO

Hermione and Fred finally made it to the topmost landing after stopping to silence the portrait of Walburga Black on their way up.

'Sorry, forgot about her,' Harry mumbled, 'But see here, Hermione, R.A.B,' he said, pointing to a dusty plaque stuck to a door.

'Do not enter without the express permission of... Sirius' brother?' Hermione read carefully, brushing her hand over the sign to wipe away most of the dust.

Harry nodded, 'He was a Death Eater, it fits. I think we've found who took the locket.'

'Hang on a minute,' Fred held up a hand to pause them, 'I'm lost. Locket? R.A.B? What does Sirius' brother have to do with anything? I need some filling in here.'

Harry and Hermione shared a glance, but eventually Harry nodded once, 'All right, that's only fair since we dragged you along with us, but I'm not doing it out here. Let's take a look inside Regulus' room.'

They entered and Harry locked the door behind them, casting a Muffliato charm for good measure. 'Do you see any portraits or pictures in here, Hermione?'

'No, just the Slytherin banners and some old newspaper clippings on the wall.'

'Good, no one should overhear us then.'

'Geez, this bloke was pretty into his dark arts following,' said Fred, peering at the clippings, 'Looks to me like he was an avid follower of You-know-who.'

'Not in the end,' said Harry, 'In the end he died to destroy him.'

'From the beginning, Harry,' said Hermione, taking a seat at the edge of Regulus' dusty four poster bed and patting at a spot next to her, 'This may be a long story, Fred, you might want to take a seat.'

OoXoO

'So let me get this straight,' Fred said, pinching he bridge of his nose and sighing, 'You-know-who has bits of himself stuck in random objects and we can't get rid of him 'til we find and destroy them?'

'Pretty much,' said Harry.

'Seems impossible, mate.'

'There does seem to be a pattern to the objects he chose. The locket was Salazar Slytherin's, and the ring was a family heirloom. I don't know what significance the diary had, but I think we can safely assume that he likes to choose important Wizarding items to make into his Horcruxes,' Hermione explained.

'Yeah, Tom has a bit of a complex, that's already been established,' said Harry with a rough laugh.

'It still seems impossible, where do we even start?'

'Look,' started Harry, running a hand through his untidy hair, 'I understand if you don't want to help. You didn't ask to be dragged along. Hermione and I can do it on our own-'

'Ron was going to help,' said Fred.

'Well, yeah, but that's different, he knew what he was getting into from the start and-'

'No way, Harry. My family has always supported you. Ron might be your best mate, but as far as George and I are concerned, you're family either way. I'm in.'

Harry let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding, 'Well thanks mate, that means a lot.'

'Don't mention it.' Fred said with a grin, leaning back on the bed and resting on his palms.

'Shall we get back to the topic at hand then?' Hermione said with a smile, 'We still need to find the locket.'

Harry's good mood was quite ruined by the remembrance that, yes, they certainly did need to find the locket. 'Right, well, you two take that side of the room and I'll start over here. He might have hidden it here thinking he could move it before he died.'

'Beats any suggestion I've got,' Fred shrugged and moved over to start checking the bedside table.

'You might try magic first,' said Hermione, shaking her head and pulling out her wand to cast an Accio around the room.

'Maybe try Accio Slytherin's locket?' Harry suggested.

'Or Accio evil Horcrux?' Fred added with a grin.

Hermione uttered the incantation, but after some minutes of various wordings and numerous other locating spells failing to produce the locket, the three had to admit that they would have to conduct the search the muggle way. After an hour of failing the muggle way, they further admitted that the locket was not to be found in R.A.B's room.

'Well it has to be here somewhere!' Hermione cried, 'We'll just have to search the house from top to bottom.'

'Easier said than done, it could be anywhere by now,' Harry grumbled, thoroughly disheartened by their lack of results.

'But there was a locket here in the house, remember? We found it when we were cleaning out the drawing room,' Hermione began, a small smile forming at her mouth as she remembered the locket's last known location, 'It was in that old cabinet. We couldn't open it so-so...' Hermione's smile dropped as she saw the look on Harry's face.

'We threw it out.' Harry said, his tone flat as he realised that the locket was lost to them. It was over, they would never find the damn locket, and he would never beat Voldemort.

'Kreacher stole back heaps of things though, Harry, don't you remember? He kept putting them in his den like he was a bloody dragon guarding treasure,' said Fred, his voice hopeful.

'Yeah, yeah he did, didn't he?' Harry nodded at Fred's words, 'Well then, we'd better find Kreacher then. Second time today, oh lucky me,' he said, but the smile pulling at his lips contradicted his sarcastic tone.

'Who'd have thought, huh, Kreacher might just save the day,' said Fred with a laugh, turning to Hermione and having the grace to give a guilty looking grin.

As they traipsed downstairs to find Kreacher, Harry reached for Hermione's arm and pulled her back for a moment.

'Hermione, I found some things in Sirius' room,' he said, his voice sounding small and uncertain.

'What kind of things, Harry?'

'A letter from my mum, and a photo of me,' he said, reaching into his pocket to pull the items out. She held his hands but didn't take the letter from him.

'Not here, Harry, why don't you show me later when it's just the two of us.'

Harry smiled and nodded, 'Yeah okay, later.'

OoXoO

As it turned out, Kreacher was far more useful than Fred liked to admit. Not only had the house-elf stolen back the locket from the jaws of the rubbish tip, but he knew who had in turn stolen it from his pile of treasures, and had set off to track down Mundungus Fletcher to wherever the thief had holed himself up. Even Kreacher's tale of woe made Fred think that perhaps, just perhaps mind, he had been too harsh on the old elf. He was still useless at cleaning though.

They spent the rest of the afternoon clearing out bedrooms for themselves and making dinner with the provisions Kreacher had so grudgingly brought for them. When night fell Harry and Hermione left Fred on his own in the sitting room. He pulled some of Hermione's books out in an attempt to busy himself, but when they didn't return some time later, he finally gave up and went upstairs to the room he had chosen for himself. The one he had shared with George in the summer before last.

He had thought that it would make it easier to stay where his twin had once been, but as he lay in bed without the familiar sounds of breathing coming from the other bed, he felt more alone than ever. He wished that Harry and Hermione had suggested they all sleep in the same room like they had the night before, but he didn't want to bring it up himself. He couldn't even remember a time when he had slept alone. Wasn't even sure if he could sleep alone.

As the time dragged on and sleep remained elusive, he made up his mind.

Feeling only a slight twinge of guilt after getting along well with Harry and Hermione during the day, he brushed the feeling off and clambered out of bed. He waited until the sounds in the house were only those of the usual creaking and groaning that any old building possessed, before leaving his room and padding silently down the darkened hallways and stairs to the ground floor. Making sure he was unseen by any portraits or observers, he cast the unlocking charms on the front door and slipped out into the night, Disapparating from the top step once the wards and charms had been replaced. They may be in hiding, but he was a Weasley twin; sneaking was part of his job description.