Despite the fact that their beds were now pushed together, Fred was having terrible nightmares again. George tried comforting him in his sleep, but the man was tossing and turning; sweat beading on his face. The sounds of whimpering struck George's ears, causing terror to run through him. He hated to imagine what was happening in Fred's head at that moment. Just as George was about to wake his brother, Fred shot up out of breath.

Fred's eyes scanned the room, looking for something in the shadows. George now too was sitting up. He placed a gentle hand on his brother, but Fred scuttled away a little at the touch. Fred said nothing as he jumped out of the bed and rushed out of the room to the bathroom. George got up and followed, not sure where his brother was going. When Fred reached the sink he threw water in his face, still out of breath. He did not notice George had followed him until he heard him take a step closer. Fred jumped up and stared at his brother with scared eyes.

"Fred?"

Tears began to well up in Fred's eyes and he used the sink to help him sit down on the ground. George knelt down next to him and waited for him to say something.

"I'm scared Georgie."

"Of what?"

"What I saw."

George waited for Fred to elaborate, but he remained silent. George thought that maybe all the stress of people beginning to know his existence, along with what they wanted to do about it was getting to him. Part of him could tell there was more to it than that, but he knew if Fred wanted to talk about what he meant, he would. Instead George just pulled his brother into a hug and let him cry on his shoulder.

"It's going to be alright."

Eventually George got Fred back to their room, but could never get him to fall back to sleep. The fear of what he might dream was enough to keep his eyes open. He and George just sat on their beds until the sun peeked through the window. Once the light hit their room, George nudged Fred to get up and get dressed for the day. They both headed downstairs just as Molly was going into the kitchen.

"You two are up early, everything all right?"

George nodded. "Didn't sleep well."

Molly gave them a sympathetic look. "My boys, well sit down, I'll have breakfast ready soon, that will help."

"Thanks Mum." George sat down at the table.

Fred followed and the two stared at nothing in particular until Molly shoved tea in front of them. They thanked her and drank in silence. Molly had the same look of worry she had been wearing since Fred returned. She hated seeing her two sons so solemn. Once breakfast was cooking the rest of the Weasley clan began to emerge. Arthur sat down sighed.

"I know you don't want to do it, but the sooner you see the Occlumencer, the sooner the Ministry will be off of our backs."

Fred nodded, but said nothing. He knew he would have to go there; he just hated the thought of reliving anything that had happened. Not that it really mattered much anyway, he was dreaming of it every night, and now it was spilling into his thoughts in the day. Really he just did not want anyone to know exactly what he had been through; it would pain his family to find out what it took to return.

As Fred, George, and Arthur made their way to the Ministry, they encountered their first problem since Fred's return was now spreading throughout the community. The press was at the Ministry gates ready to pounce on the Weasleys as soon as they were spotted. A reporter ran up as others began taking pictures. George and Arthur shielded Fred from the reporters, but they still tried getting through.

"How did you come back?"

"What did you do to change time?"

"Is the Ministry pressing charges?"

Arthur put his hand up as they filtered through the crowd. "We have nothing to say at this time, are business is none of your concern."

As they shoved their way to the elevators George tried to make light of the situation. "We really need to grow our hair out to cover this obvious difference between us."

Fred calmed a little. "We should have brought dung bombs."

Arthur gave them the look they had seen so many times, but instead of scolding them he smiled. For just a few seconds it felt like it had before, but the tenseness was still heavy between them all. Once they got to the right floor they met Kingsley, who led them to a room.

He looked at Fred. "I feel like it's a pointless question to ask George to wait out here."

George answered. "You'd be right. He's not going in there alone."

Kingsley nodded. "That is as I thought, come on."

Arthur gave them both a reassuring smile before they went into the room. There was a chair in the middle, but that was all that resided besides the Occlumencer who stood next to it.

George did not like this. "Well this is cozy isn't it?"

Fred was getting more nervous with each step.

"It'll be alright, just have a seat." The man next to the chair motioned for Fred to sit down.

He did so, but seemed like he was already in a panic.

"Okay, now I want you to try and relax. The more you block me out, the harder this process will be. Do you understand?"

Fred nodded, but wished he could block out everything going through his mind.

George watched as the Occlumencer entered Fred's mind, both seeming taken by the memories. They went into a sort of trance, the man in charge having almost no emotions cross his face, while Fred's faulted from time to time. George twiddled his thumbs nervously waiting for the whole thing to end. Part of him wanted to know what the man was seeing from Fred, but at the same time he was not ready to see what Fred had been through.

When the Occlumencer entered Fred's mind he went back to the battle. The moment Fred was hit with the wall. He saw the afterlife and Fred's conversation with Dumbledore. All the while feeling how uncomfortable Fred was during his invasion. He saw Fred waiting for a portal to open and when it finally did he watched as Fred stepped through it. The moment Fred stepped through the portal until the moment he was returned to the living was all things he did not want to remember.

When Fred stepped through he fell. Dumbledore's words still ringing in his ear. This would not be easy, and he could never forget the objective. Fred could not let go of why he was there, he had to get back to his family. He had to live. When Fred hit the ground he felt pain all over his body. He had spent so long at the train station feeling nothing, the sudden lack of numbness hurt more than anything else. Fred tried catching his breath to figure out where he was, but it was dark. He could feel dry dirt under him, but when he tried to move, pain flared throughout his body again. Fred decided it would just be best to lay there for a moment, but soon enough he found this to be a bad idea.

Fred shut his eyes for a moment, but they sprung back open when he felt a hand on his arm. He tried pulling it away, but then another hand came out of the ground and gripped his other arm. The more he struggled, the worse the situation became. Another hand grabbed his ankle, and another around his leg. Soon enough Fred was being pinned down by something underneath the dirt with no escape. He struggled and struggled, but the hands gripped tighter until they were clawing at his skin. Fred could feel the fingernail scrape through his flesh, he screamed out as they tore at him, thinking of the pain, but also how he could get back to George.

George watched as a sudden shift emerged. The Occlumencer was sweating, and Fred looked like he could not breathe. This alarmed George, so pushed himself off of the wall and began to rush over to his brother. Before he got there the Occlumencer gasped snapping he and Fred out of their trances. George went to his brother's side. Fred seemed dizzy and confused.

"It's alright, I'm here, you're okay." Fred grabbed George's arm as reissuance.

Kingsley went over to the Occlumencer and made sure he was alright. He could see the terrified look on the man's sweating face.

"What did you see?"

The man swallowed looking at Fred, who gave him a pleading look of silence, before returning his gaze to Kingsley. "He's telling the truth. That's Fred Weasley. I pulled out when…" He leaned in closer not finishing his pervious sentence. "He deserves to be back, Sir."

"Do you know how he got back?"

The man nodded. "I can tell the counsel on the how, but if I can avoid details, it would be in everyone's favor."

Kingsley nodded and patted the man on the shoulder.

Fred was shaking, the memory he was forced to relive was the first of many bad experiences he had in his quest to get back to the living. He remembered every bit of pain he had felt in those moments. The hands had gripped him, pulled him tighter to the ground until they began to rip him apart. He felt that too. He had to die again, and that was when he realized that the place he was in had different rules. He would have to die a thousand deaths before he could come back, each hurting just as much as the last.

George was trying to get Fred's attention back to him. They had made so much progress since his return, and whatever he just had to go through pushed him back several steps. George looked back at the Occlumencer who looked shaken at what he had just seen. His terror, terrified George even more. The man would not tell Kingsley what he had seen, and kept looking back at Fred with a heavy nervousness in his face.

"Come on Fred, it's time to go."

Fred grabbed onto George's arms, still shaking. As they made their way to the door, Kingsley stopped them.

"I'm sorry you had to go through this, but as far as I'm concerned this case is closed. I'm sure the counsel will want to do some follow up, but I'll try to stall them for as long as I can. You've been through enough it would seem." He turned to George. "I think you should go see a Healer as St. Mungo's Make sure he is alright after everything."

George nodded. "Yeah, I think that would be a good idea."

When they left the room, Arthur and Percy were waiting in the hallway. Both could see how upset Fred looked. They looked at George who still had a grip on his brother.

"I'm going to take him to see a Healer."

"Do you want us to come with you?" Percy was worried about his brother.

"No, I'll handle it, I know you two are supposed to be working."

"If you're sure?" Arthur would not take his eyes off of Fred.

"Yeah, I'll handle it."

"Alright then, we'll see you at home." He put a hand on Fred's shoulder. "See you at home son."

Fred was trying to listen to his family who he knew was right there, but the memories were coming back too strong. Fred could not focus on anything but that. Through the memories something else was peeking its way in. Tiny whispers were entering his ears, something that was new to Fred since his return. He could not make out what they were saying, but he hoped this was just a side effect of the Occlumency session he had just gone through. Fred continued to be lost in his thoughts as George led him to the hospital.

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AN: Thanks for reading!