How would you guys feel if I made this a Fred/Hermione story? Also, this will be a bit of a short chapter. Any ideas for it would be great, for any characters that would effect this story.
The next few weeks were very long and hard for Fred. Physical therapy was like living hell to him. At first, it was little things like walking from his bed to the door and back. Pick up a few things, put down a few things, open and close things. But then they started getting to the heavier things to lift and put down, harder things to open and close, and further to walk. They took a wheelchair with him whenever they went on longer walks just in case. It wasn't so much his legs that were hurting him (although they certainly were), it was his back. Ever had a back spasm? It felt like that whenever he stood up. Painful to the point he couldn't breathe. The pain had, a few times, actually brought him to tears. The only tears he had spilled for years, probably since he was still a child in diapers, had been tears of laughter. Now, it was pain and stress. George helped him a lot with the harder things, letting Fred lean on him sometimes and just being together made it easier.
A few hours after another session, Fred was laying in the hospital bed just waking up from a medically-induced nap. It had been the most painful session yet, and the healers had decided to be merciful and give him something to help him sleep it off. Tomorrow would be something a little easier, and he would probably be able to stay in bed for it. George and Ron were visiting him.
For the past hour or so, it had been small talk. George and Ron updated Fred on the repairs at Hogwarts, the new things being done to make sure something like Voldemort never happened again, what was being done with Sirius's old house, what had been going on at home.
"Hey George?" Fred interrupted. His speech had gotten mostly back to normal now, though if he was really tired or just waking up, he would stutter and his words would slur together.
"Yeah?" George stopped his talking about Harry and Ginny to look at his twin.
"Go open the shop please."
George looked taken aback. "The shop? But…but I can't do it myself, Fred. You need to-"
"Take Ron with you. It doesn't take a genius to put things on a shelf." Fred interrupted again. "Mum can't pay this hospital bill, no matter how much she's going to try. Dad isn't going to make enough to pay it off either. Plus we need to pay rent soon. They aren't going to go easy on us just because I'm in the hospital and you have one ear. Have Lee help you too. Or maybe even Ginny and Harry."
George frowned. "But it won't be the same-"
"Bloody hell, George, it's not like I'm not going to come back to the shop. It's only temporary, then I'll be back. We just need the money." Fred rolled his eyes. "Besides, we need to get the Screaming Ronalds on the shelf soon."
Ron glared at Fred. "Do they have to be called that?"
"Yes, they do. We already copy righted it." Fred nodded.
"Since I'm the inspiration, do I get a percentage of the money?"
"No. I was the one who turned your bear into the spider, so none of this would've been possible without my childhood temper."
"But if I didn't break your broom stick-"
"You wouldn't have a fear of spiders as early as you did. But I probably still would've done something to make you afraid of spiders. So shut up, and go with George to open the shop."
"Do I get employee discount?"
"Depends on how the shop looks when I get back. I want that counter spotless, the windows spotless, the shelves dustless!"
George grinned. "So Ron can be the janitor while Lee stocks the shelves and I work register."
"Sounds good to me. Maybe Ron could keep the job of janitor. We can call him Filch Jr. He already has half a cat." Fred agreed.
"No!" Ron protested, then registered the rest of what Fred said. "Half a cat?"
"You're dating Hermione aren't you? She has a cat, and her cat likes to bite you. Cats are hateful creatures, so it chose you as it's personal scratching post. I guess you could consider half ownership." Fred explained.
If Fred didn't share a hospital room with a small child, Ron would've had a few choice words said to Fred. But not wanting to scar the child for life, he just made a rude gesture.
"Love you too, Ronnikins." Fred cooed in his normal playful manner. George smiled to see his twin acting like his old self again.
"So I guess I'll go open the shop for a few hours. But I'm still coming to visit every day." He told his twin.
"Sounds good to me." Fred nodded. "I think a nap sounds really good right now though. Could you ask mum to bring me a plate tonight instead of the hospital food?"
"Of course." George nodded, and Fred sighed contentedly and closed his eyes. George turned to Ron.
"Come, Ron, we have work to do." He said dramatically, pointing forward and marching out of the room. Ron rolled his eyes and followed him.
It was that very night that Fred got the best news yet. As he sat with his mother and had dinner (she brought him a huge plate of turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, and bread), a healer came in with a clipboard.
"Fred Weasley?" She asked, looking up.
Fred's mouth was too full to answer clearly, so he mumbled something that sounds a little like 'that's me' or 'holy cheese'.
"He's right here." Molly said, looking curious and protective at the same time. This was a new healer neither of them had spoken to before, and they had talked to enough healers by now to be on first name basis with half the staff.
The healer smiled. "I have good news. Tomorrow morning you can go home after your therapy. A healer will be by once a week to check on if you're keeping up with therapy and to see how you're doing. By tomorrow morning they should have a list prepared of things they want you to do."
"I can go home?" Fred asked, not registering the rest. Who cares what he had to do at home? The whole point was he was going home. Home, the Burrow, with his family and have real food and his own bed, and his own routine. Home. No more nights in the hospital, in the cold, dark, sterile hospital room with the bad-tempered child next to him. No more listening to people crying out at night in pain. His mom had tears of relief and joy in her eyes.
"Tomorrow morning." The healer nodded, smiling at the reactions she got. If there was anything that made a healer's day, it was seeing the faces of the patients who got to go home.