Starting to Heal
Flashes of green light hurtled above him as he kneeled in a dark pool of blood. He was shaking with sobs, Fred's body was lying beside him, motionless. Ron turned to his left, where George sat in silence. No tears streaked his face, all emotion seemed to have been siphoned away. His withdrawn face hurt just as much as Fred's silent, pale face. Even in his hysterical and shocked state, he felt a sense of dread at the look on George's face—would he ever recover from this? Ron buried his head back in his arms as more sobs racked his body, this time in fear of the aftermath of Fred's death.
Ron jolted out of the daydream he seemed to have so often. This time, though, it had changed. It was usually almost exactly the same, but it had changed this time. He realized it had focused on George, not Fred. Ron had forgotten how he had felt after Fred's death, how afraid he had been of what had in fact happened. Since George had left Hogwarts he had been absent from the Weasley's life. It was putting strain on the entire family, especially Mrs. Weasley. This morning she had started crying over the bacon and Ginny had had to take over for her.
I have to fix this, Ron thought. He had practically become in charge of the family—Mr. Weasley was quiet most of the time, and Charlie and Bill were still working at Hogwarts (each for different reasons) so they weren't home often. Percy was becoming a big part of the reformation of the Ministry—he practically slept in his office—and Mrs. Weasley and George were emotional wrecks. That left him and Ginny, who couldn't be expected to take over at her age. Ron couldn't stand to think of his brother all alone, wherever he was, and even worse, leaving his family in this state without knowing what George would do and how it would affect his whole family.
Hermione peeked through the open door, and saw Ron sitting on his bed in silence. She had first thought Ron was thinking about Fred again, but then she reconsidered. His face looked more determined than sad. This war had changed him, he was now mature and it looked good on him. He was taking care of his family. He had even attempted to make lunch the other day, and it had been edible, if not the normal, delicious food of Mrs. Weasley. He had grown out of his awkward gawky state and finally had picked a haircut that looked nice on him. Hermione loved his freckles, too, and right now his freckles were crunched up in concentration, not the usual slack expression that accompanied his thoughts of Fred.
Hermione knocked and went to sit next to his feet.
"Ron? How are you?" He looked at her and shrugged, but took her hand, which reassured Hermione.
"I'm okay," Ron said. "How are you?"
"Okay, I guess. I'm packed up now. Only three more days." He smiled, but still looked distant. "What are you thinking about?" Hermione waited, and when he didn't respond right away she squeezed his hand reassuringly.
"Hmm? Oh." Ron cleared his throat. "I need to go talk to George. I think mum knows where he is, and if she doesn't I have a couple ideas. But this has to be fixed…I can't leave until it is. Our family will be torn apart if George doesn't come back to us." Hermione looked at him with renewed respect. Yet again he was showing his maturity. She leaned in and kissed him, so happy that she could now kiss him as much as she wanted.
It had killed her last year to see Lavender kissing the boy she loved, but it had all worked out. She had the boy, well, not the boy of her dreams, but the boy of her reality. The boy she had dreamed about had never been as great as Ron; he wasn't funny and able to make her laugh like him, he looked nothing like the handsome Ronald, and he would never have argued with her like Ron did. But she loved arguing with him, honestly. Hermione pulled away, and smiled at him.
"You are amazing, you know that? I'm very proud of you." She started to get up, and pulled him with her. "C'mon. I bet you're starving-"
"Oh I am," he laughed, and Hermione laughed with him and then continued.
"and your mum has breakfast ready. That's really why I came up here in the first place." Ron chuckled and the two went downstairs, holding hands.
Mr. Weasley had already left for work so it was only Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, Hermione and Ron at breakfast. Ron dug into the bacon and eggs, and then remembered he needed to ask his mum about George. Finishing the rest of his eggs—he had recently stopped talking with food in his mouth, a big accomplishment—he cleared his throat.
"Mum," he paused, nervous to even speak his name. He thought that maybe he should have asked after breakfast, but it was too late now. She looked at him, and Ron had to continue. "Where…where is George staying?" Molly stiffened, and both she and Ginny looked down at their food. Hermione grabbed Ron's hand to comfort him. Finally, after an uncomfortable silence, Mrs. Weasley replied.
"He's at his shop. In Diagon Alley." The rest of breakfast was very quiet, and any attempts at conversation quickly sputtered out.
The walk down the Alley seemed just as quiet as the last time Ron had been here—when he, Hermione and Harry had broken into Gringotts. But it seemed that Diagon Alley was slowly showing more signs of life. In Flourish and Blotts a trickle of witches made their way through the door. A few children were playing in the street while their mothers walked right behind them, careful to keep them close. And in the Night Shade bar, a few warlocks were finishing off their third or fourth bottle of firewhiskey.
Ron kept walking and turned at the bend in the road, where he stopped. There it was. The sign was unlit and the windows cleaned out, but Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was still there. According to Ron's mum, George had been spending most of his time there. Ron walked the rest of the way to the door, and let himself in with the key he had found at the Burrow.
"George?" He looked around the shop. "George, I know you're here. I need to talk to you. Please." Ron heard something upstairs, and looked up. George looked down at him, unkempt and his hair longer than it had ever been. "I knew the 'please' would work, you've always appreciated politeness." Ron attempted a joke, but his heart wasn't in it. There was despair in George's face, it was absolutely terrifying. Ron didn't know what to say or what to do, and this was his brother. But Fred had been his brother too.
"George. Georgie. I need to ask you something."
George looked up at the nickname so often used by his twin. "It's good to see you, Ron. How are you, and Hermione? I…I know I haven't been a good bro-" Ron cut him off.
"I'm doing good, and so is Hermione. As good as we can be, I guess. I guess there's a few reasons I came here. I wanted to ask you if I could help you start this place back up. I think it might help, a bit, and of course it wouldn't be right away. But I want the best for you, so…" He trailed off, and looked helplessly at George. He wanted to be a good brother, but Ron was scared of what George would say. He couldn't bear to think of what would happen if he never got better. He waited for George to say something, anything.
George didn't say anything. He just looked at a point just above Ron's head. When Ron was sure he wasn't going to reply, maybe hadn't even heard him, he went on.
"Look, George, the family needs you. I need you. And you being like this, it isn't going to help. So whatever I can do for you, I will. I just want you to start to heal, to come back to us. I need my big, goofy brother."
Finally George looked Ron in the eye. His jawline, which before had been slack, seemed to strengthen and a look of determination crossed his face. George nodded. "I would appreciate that, Ron. I just need some time."
"Yeah, I get that. Actually, that was one of the other things I wanted to talk to you about. I'm going with Hermione to find her parents…I need her, to be with her. She's the only thing that helps me forget, or at least feel better." Ron could have sworn he saw a hint of a smile on George's face, but all George did was nod and start to walk down the stairs. Then, he hugged Ron. Ron was so surprised that it took him a second to respond, but he hugged his brother back firmly. He could feel George shaking with sobs, and knew he had done the right thing by coming here.
After a while, Ron broke the silence. "George, you can't spend all your time here, you need to get out. You need it, and our family needs it, needs you. Angelina has been calling the house. I think you should talk to her. She needs her friend right now, and you need yours." Ron thought maybe he had gone too far, but George simply nodded, his chin pressed hard against Ron's shoulder.
Finally they broke apart and George started to speak. "You're right, of course. I know, Ronnie. Let's lock up the place, and I'll come back with you." Ron felt like a load had been lifted off of him. He looked at George walking towards the door and held him back.
"Well," Ron paused. "Maybe you should clean up a bit? And, uh, put some clean clothes on. We don't' wanna scare mum and Ginny." George smiled tentatively, and went to clean up.
"Mum? Hermione? Ginny? I'm home." Ron waited for a response, looking nervously at George, who looked a sickly green. He hadn't seen Ginny, or many other people, in a month.
"Ginny and I are coming," Hermione shouted down the stairs finally. "Mrs. Weasley is outside, in the garden." They walked down the stairs, Hermione a step behind Ginny, who stopped at the sight of George. There was an awkward pause when Ron started to wonder what to do, then Ginny ran at George and hugged him.
"It's good to see you, Ginny." George looked relieved and a little less green.
"I missed you, George." Ginny backed off and looked at all of them. "Mum's going to want to make a feast, now…" She looked cautiously at George, who at the mention of Mrs. Weasley had started and began to make his way out to the garden, looking green again. Ginny lowered her voice. "She probably won't stop crying while's she's doing it, with George back and you two leaving."
"She'll be okay," Ron said. "With George on the way to recovery, Dad promised to be here more often, and Bill and Percy promised to pop in often as well. Besides, Hermione and I won't be gone all that long. We're two thirds of the golden trio, after all, we can face anything, eh?" Hermione laughed and Ginny stood there a bit awkwardly with a forced smile, thinking of the other third of the trio.
"I need to write a letter to Harry so I'm going to go upstairs." Ginny made her way up the stairs, leaving Ron and Hermione alone.
"I'm so glad you helped him, Ron, and your entire family. I'm glad you're coming with me tomorrow, too." She reached for his hand, and squeezed it tightly. He squeezed back, and pulled Hermione into a hug.
"You're the best thing that ever happened to me, Hermione."
She smiled into his shoulder and whispered, "I love you."
