A/N: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER :)

PLEASE BE KIND

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CHAPTER SEVEN - Avery Rookwood

George forced down the lump in his throat with a swallow as he, along with his parents, apparated in the middle of an open field.

"Are you sure this is the place, George?" Mrs. Weasley asked as she looked around the field, but no matter where she turned her eyes, she couldn't find a single house anywhere. "It's deserted"

"Yeah, I'm sure this is the place... I can see the house" George answered. He looked ahead of them at the small cottage in the middle of nowhere, then he passed the note with the address to his family. "I think the house is protected by the Fidelius Charm"

Everyone read the note and almost immediately Avery's cottage began revealing itself in front of them.

It was a very particular cottage consisting into two circular shaped huts united. It was surrounded by wood fences and brightened by the presence of numerous colorful flowers planted around the entrance area. Though it was obvious how much the garden had been neglected with the huge amound of overgrown grass all over the place.

As they slowly made their way to the door, Geroge noticed how familiar the flowers were and suddenly he remembered how Fred had bought several of them months ago. He had never known what his twin had done with them, though now he understood.

Mr. Weasley went to knock at the door though, instead of receiving a reply, they were met with complete silence. He turned to the others before knocking again and this time as well, nobody answered.

"Dear, maybe there isn't anyone here anymore" Mrs. Weasley said as she fidgeted around with her hand. "What do we do now?"

As if hearing the question, the door suddenly unlocked with a loud click and slowly opened, letting them see the inside of the house. It was completely engulfed by darkness since the windows were covered by curtains. The only light penetrating into the room was from the now open wide door, but it still took them a while to adjust to the darkness.

George took a step forward with his wand raised and ready to strike at the first anomaly but as he was going through the door, his wand flew away from his hand and towards the center of the room. It was then that he finally realized that someone was sitting on the small couch.

Alarmed by the sudden disarming, everyone else withdrew their wands and pointed it towards the person on the couch.

"I don't think it's very polite to point your wand at the home owner" said the voice of a young woman. "What are you doing here?"

As soon as they heard Avery speak, Mrs. Weasley immediately lowered her wand and encouraged her husband to do the same.

"I'm sorry for the intrusion. We are here looking for Avery Rookwood" Mr. Weasley explained with his wand now back in his robes. He took a step forwards to present himself with a kind smile on his face. "I'm his father and this is his mother along with one of our sons, George. We are here to speak about our son's, Fred Weasley's, l-"

At the mention of Fred's name, Avery's breath hitched and a sudden surge of anger filled her up. "Don't speak that name ever again" she growled at them, her wand still pointing at them and sending sparks from its tip.

"But-" George tentatively protested but decided against it upon seeing her raised wand.

"If you are here for him, I don't want to hear it so just leave. I don't want to deal with you" her voice held no emotion contrary to the anger she had shown previously. It was as if she had voided herself of any emotions by just flipping a switch.

"Avery, I don't know why you are angry with my brother and to be honest, I don't want to know" he said tiredly as he lowered himself to pick up his wand from the floor. "Fred has written a will and you were mentioned in it. We were hoping to learn who you were"

Avery stared at him as a sense of nostalgia began filling her heart, making the pain she had been trying to keep under control even more intense. "You have no business here then. I don't care what your brother had left me so just leave"

George merely observed as she lowered her head on one hand with a groan while she clutched a piece of paper on the other. He himself couldn't believe that this woman was the one they were looking for. She didn't seem to be the type Fred would have liked as far as he knew, but perhaps his twin had seen something they couldn't.

"I'm not feeling too well already and you lot being here doesn't help" she sighed tiredly before slowly getting up. "Please just leave"

As she was walking towards a different room, George instinctively reached out towards her. He held her by her arm and spun her around. Despite the darkness of the room, from that distance he could tell she was very pretty, just like how Fred had told him.

Though thanks to the light coming from the door, he noticed that she was extremely pale and thin with dark circles underneath her teary and red eyes. She seemed to have been crying and was breathless like someone who had just run a marathon.

"Let me go!" Avery tried to tug her arm from his grasp with such a strained voice.

George felt that something wasn't right with her, almost like his brother was telling him something in his core. He slowly let go of her, then, with a slight movement of his wand, the curtains of the windows opened revealing a very dishevelled and unkempt young woman. Her dark hair seemed to have gone through a lot and she was merely wearing the old and slightly worn out sweater that belonged to Fred.

But what caught their attention the most was the slight protrusion of her stomach. As he finally realised the situation, he suddenly felt as though he couldn't breath.

"You're pregnant..." he managed to say as something foreign began spreading through his chest.

Fred didn't just leave a family behind, he had left an irreplaceable future.

Upon hearing his words, the three Weasley watched as Avery looked down at her own stomach, a distant look on her face. She seemed to be lost in her thoughts.

"I'm pregnant?" she asked nobody in particular, her voice low and weak. "I forgot..."

"Is that... Is that Fred's child?" Mrs. Weasley asked, hoping that it was true, that Fred had actually left something behind to remind them of him.

"Fred..." she mumbled absentmindedly. "My Fred said he will come back... After the war has ended he will come with George... Yes, he will come back"

"Avery, unfortunately Fred isn't coming back" Mr. Weasley's voice broke as he glanced at his sobbing wife. "The war ended three months ago"

"No... No, you're wrong... Fred... He told me he was coming back! George is here so he is coming!" Avery shook her head and pointed at the younger twin with tears falling down her cheek. "He didn't left me. He said he was coming back! He promised..." suddenly as she began crying hysterically, wind around them began blowing wildly and the furniture began clattering loudly, almost as if there was an earthquake.

George listened to her ramble about Fred's return and it was then that he finally realised why he felt something was wrong. Avery was broken and on the verge of mental breakdown.

He slowly approached her while his father raised his wand in case something happened. Mrs. Weasley watched the young woman lose control, unable to do anything. George stood in front of her and carefully took her face in his hands.

"Avi, look at me. You need to calm down. It's not good for the baby" he firmly said and looked at her in the eyes with determination. He knew that if Fred could see her, he'd be devastated. "You're fine, Avi. It's going to be alright"

Avery looked back at him with a broken look. "Fred..."

"It's going to be alright" he reassured her and, although hesitant at first, Avery leaned on him, she closed her eyes with a sighed and collapsed in his arms. "Avi? Avi, wake up!" he shook her in panic but no matter how much he called for her, she didn't wake up.

"George be careful! She's bleeding!" Mrs. Weasley panicked as she noticed the small patch of red on the couch, exactly where Avery had been sitting moments ago.

"I'll go get a healer" Mr. Weasley firmly said and immediately apparated on the spot.

"Let's get her on the couch, George" his mother urged him by motioning towards it.

George hesitantly held Avery in his arms and slowly put her on the couch. He could feel his entire body tremble as fear took over his rationality. If something happened to her, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself.

He had forgotten about her. Fred told him she was waiting and yet he forgot. She waited all those months for signs, anything.

Instinctively George held the medallion in his hand, the same one she had been wearing up until now. 'What am I supposed to do, Fred?' he pleaded for his brother to show any sign.

Now that the room was illuminated, George carefully surveyed their surroundings. The house didn't seem to have been cleaned in a while and dirty plates were scattered all over the place.

But the more he looked around, the more he noticed the presence of his brother. He couldn't forget how Fred had borrowed his cloak to do some commissions because his was nowhere to be found. The cloak was never returned as it also disappeared but now here they both were, carefully perched on the coat hanger. Several of their prototypes that were nowhere to be found in the shop were scattered all over the place. Some of them were on the coffee table, along with the expensive books Fred had bought months ago but were nowhere to be found in their flat. Other prototypes were in the kitchen, where a familiar apron was hanging from a chair. It was the apron Fred was wearing one day in the back story while he was brewing a potion. It had some ridiculous drawings of baby dragons and when he had asked him where he had gotten it, Fred just laughed at it and shrugged.

Every inch and corner of the room showed that this was not the house of one person. It was like entering the house of a married couple, where everything literally showed them that Fred had lived in this house for months.

"She'll be alright, George" Mrs. Weasley held his son by his shoulders and reassured him, just as Mr. Weasley apparated outside the cottage along with a healer from St. Mungo's. "Here's your father"

The healer didn't waste time and hurriedly began checking Avery up. Everyone was evidently tense and although pregnancy was never been very hard to face for witches, spotting wasn't always something you can just ignore.

It didn't take long before the healer was finally done visiting her. She turned towards the Weasley with a really deep frown.

"How is she? Is she going to be alright?" Mrs. Weasley asked anxiously as her husband held her next to him.

"It's nothing to worry about" the healers answered, giving them so much relief. "But this can't continue. She is pregnant and in a very delicate state. She seems very much underfed and dehydrated, very neglected. Has anything happened recently to her?"

"Yes... Yes. My brother, the father of the child, died during the Battle of Hogwarts..."

"I see. I suggest keeping her in constant surveillance, someone needs to keep her rooted to the ground. She is not mentally stable right now and this could end up very badly for her and the baby" the healer then wrote something on a piece of paper and gave it to George. "I believe she is about 5 months pregnant so this is a potion she needs to take every day for the next 4 months. She needs to strengthen her body to be able maintain the pregnancy until the very end"

"And... What can I do to help her?" George asked as he read what was written on the paper.

"You need to keep her stable. Making her happy might be an overstatement but she mustn't stress, or at least try. These cases are never easy but she'll be fine if she gets the right support"

George sat on the floor next to the couch while Mr. Weasley thanked the healer before she apparated away. He went to grab her hand and noticed, once again, the piece of paper she was tightly holding in her hand.

When he was finally able to pry her hand open, he saw that it wasn't some random paper but rather it was a picture. It showed Fred and her as they kissed. Avery had surprised him by putting both her dirt stained hands on his cheeks and leaving marks on his face. Fred in retaliation hugged her tighter with their cheeks touching and they both proceeded smiled at the camera.

"Mom, I've made up my mind" George stared at the photo, where his brother smiled happily with Avery. It was a kind of happiness he hadn't seen before coming from his brother, the type one would only show in front of their lover. "I'll take care of her for Fred"

He looked at his parents with determination as he held Avery's hand in reassurance, calming both his and her raging heart.

"I owe it to my brother"

'Please protect my most precious possession in my stead'

--

When Avery finally woke up, she looked around in confusion as she didn't actually remember ever laying down on her bed. It was already was over 10 pm, the room was completely dark except for the faint light coming from her window.

She groaned as she slowly got up with a throbbing pain in her head. She caressed her belly delicately while making her way to the kitchen, not expecting to see a tall red haired man cooking in front of the stove.

"Fred..." she whispered to herself wondering whether all those months had just been a very long nightmare.

"Jeez, why is this sticking to the pan!" George complained with a spatula in his hand and the pan on the other.

Suddenly, Avery remembered what had happened that afternoon and the reality came crushing her like a boulder. Fred wasn't back and the man in her kitchen wasn't someone she actually knew.

Nostalgia filled her heart as she watched him struggle with whatever he was cooking. "Fred must've been the twin who got the cooking skills"

George turned around towards her, his surprised look immediately turned into a small smile. "I was cooking dinner" he said.

"I can see that" she whispered while making her way next to him to turn the stove off. "Let's just make sandwiches"

"Yeah… I think that'd be better"

Avery sat on a chair and watched as he moved around to make their sandwiches. "Why are you still here?" she asked with a strained voice.

"Are you sending me away already?" George joked. "How are you feeling now?"

"This was the first time I've had a good sleep... Since he died…" she took in a shaky breath and lowered her head to avoid showing she was about to cry.

"I can tell. You look way too tired and unkempt for someone who is pregnant" George brought her a plate and went on to munch at his sandwich with the awkwardness filling the air. "When you fainted, we called a healer over"

"I'm sorry…"

"I know it's not my responsibility and you probably won't agree but I want to help. I can't just ignore the woman my brother loved so much, destroy herself" he slid the photo back to her. "I may not be my brother and being with me might be painful because we have the same face, but I'd like it if you moved in with me"

She stopped eating and took the photo in her hands. She couldn't express how much she missed those happy days they spent in that isolated house. "You are not Fred, George... I don't want to burden you"

George took something from his pocket and put it in front of her. It was the small velvet box that Fred was keeping in his robes the day he died. "This was in his pocket when he died. He told me that he wanted to bring me to meet a very important person, as soon as the war was over. I promised myself, when I learned about you, that I'd take care of you for my brother"

Avery took the box and, upon seeing the ring inside, she couldn't help but burst into tears as she held it delicately against her chest.

"I'm sorry for making you wait, Avi"