AN: Another chapter, another possibility. More spiritual/religious than the first, but again featuring a Prewett.
Percy, Ron, Harry and Hermione had to leave the body of Fred where it was laying. George had come running by, seeing what had happened and done his best to recover the body from the shambles of the wall, but had been forced to retreat by a flock of Death Eaters.
"I'll come back for you," he had barely had time to whisper before running heals over head.
Now the body laid almost free of rubbles and stones, a ghost of a grin still lingering on the lips, but the eyes were closed and the neck broken.
"I'm dead, aren't I?" Fred said with surprising calm when feeling a presence like himself behind him.
"Yeah, lad, you are," Gideon answered in a sad voice.
"That sucks. Why are you here?" Fred's eyes were still on his body, but he didn't feel any sorrow, he wasn't to live any more and he just accepted it.
"As a guidance," Gideon answered.
"No, I mean, why are you here?"
"In your closest family, I was the last to die," Gideon answered. "A couple of minutes after my brother."
"Okay." Fred sounded tired, but all emotions had drained from him, not even a flicker of anger flamed.
"Listen, you have three options," Gideon said and stepped closer to him.
"Let's hear them."
"You could come with me to the other side."
"Through the bright light?" Fred had noticed his sharp shadow on the floor. "How cliché."
"Yeah, it is," Gideon admitted. "Or you could stay."
"As a ghost?"
"Yes."
"Why would I?"
"Perhaps to take care of George?"
"Not worth it. He'll live for sixty, maybe seventy years more, then choose to 'go on' and I'll be stuck at the castle forever."
"True," Gideon agreed.
"I'm not leaving him, not really," Fred said. "But in the long run it isn't fair to either of us. You mentioned a third alternative."
"Yes," Gideon said and the scene before them dissolved before turning into a dark bedroom, a blond, young woman lying soundly asleep.
"Verity," Fred recognised.
"You've been intimate with her, my sources say," Gideon said slowly.
"Yeah, shagged her a couple of times," Fred said, feeling something resembling his usual grin return.
"Your third option is rebirth," Gideon said. "You will have no recollections of your old life, but your essence - your soul - will be the same."
"So I'll come back as my own son?" Fred inclined his head to one side and looked at the sleeping woman. "I have a feeling that should be disturbing."
"Really?" Gideon said calmly. "If you choose one of the other alternatives she will not give birth, but if you choose this..."
"I've always been a half of a whole," Fred said. "I've always been before the 'and'."
"I see." The scene began turning to smoke.
"No, wait a second!" Fred yelled and their surroundings stabilised. "I'm not sure yet." He continued to look at her and took a step closer. "Why is she sleeping?"
"She doesn't know of the battle. She doesn't know of your death," Gideon said and a weight on his shoulder told Fred his uncle had placed a hand there.
"Makes one among the many," Fred sighed. "Okay, I'll do it. She'll be a good mother."
"You're sure now?"
"It'll be a shock for her, I know that, but she doesn't have much family," Fred said with a burning certainty in his voice. "She deserves someone."
"Everyone does," Gideon said.
"It's not usual to choose this, is it?"
"No. Fabian was offered it, but that would be as his daughter's twin, his mate was already pregnant."
"Did you just say mate? As if they were pandas or something?"
"I did say it, yes," Gideon confirmed.
"So either George or me have been reincarnated before?"
"No," Gideon said. "I'm afraid life, or rather death, is a bit more complicated than that."
"You sound like Dumbledore," Fred muttered.
"Are you ready?"
"As ready as a dead man can be to go back in the form of his son," Fred said and drew a deep breath. "Wait!"
"Why did I have a feeling that would happen?" Gideon said under his breath. "Yes?"
"Can I ask for a kind of favour? I'd like to keep my hair-colour."
"That I think could be fixed. It's your son, after all."
"And the rest of my looks...?"
"Will probably blend with hers," Gideon said.
"Might be just as well, twenty years of all my handsomeness is all this world can take."
"I'm not supposed to say anything, but you're a cocky bastard," Gideon remarked with a chuckle.
"Thanks," Fred said cheerful. "Okay, now I'm absolute ready."
They watch Verity sleep for a couple of seconds more before Gideon said, "so let it be done."
The hand faded from Fred's shoulder as the the room grew brighter, as a gigantic flashlight through a sheet the light glowed from everything. It grew to a scolding white, but it didn't bother Fred, he welcomed it as he was consumed by all the white.
AN: Opens possibilities, doesn't it? I may have to write something about Verity's life after this if no one else does. Damn, that wasn't my plan.
And Gideon just seems more right to me as a guide than Fabian, don't ask me why, I'll start rambling.