Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and will never make any money out of this WHATSOEVER!

A/N: After the War the Weasley family are reeling from Fred's death, from the point of view of George, Ron and Percy – following the twists and turns of their life as they learn to live without. NOT SLASH! Rated M for some explicit language and dark themes. Will contain references to self-harm and suicide, so could be triggering. Keep yourself safe and I hope you enjoy :)

This Chapter is in Ron's POV.

"So?"

"So what?" The words had slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them; I winced as my brain caught up with my mouth and I knew this was exactly the wrong thing to say to my mother.

"You know exactly what!" She snapped, slamming a cup down in front of me too harshly and sending half of the (mercifully) brown liquid spilling over the brim. She glared at me with her hands placed firmly upon her hips; dad was moving about behind her, half examining something that I couldn't quite see, but I could tell that he was listening to every word that I was saying.

"I saw him." I stated plainly, I felt the atmosphere in the kitchen tauten; mum and dad didn't move, but from the staircase I heard a scuffling noise. "Don't lurk on the staircase Ginny!" I raised my voice so I knew anyone standing on the bottom couple of steps would be able to hear me; I was right about her being there, she entered the kitchen and stood just inside the door. "He let me in after I spent about an hour knocking on his door. He wasn't happy about letting me in and he tried to get rid of me as quickly as he possibly could."

"He let you in?" Mum questioned instantly, "That's more than he did for the rest of us… How was he? Did he say much?"

"He looked awful… He said I'd just woken him up, but I'm not sure he'; slept for any length of time if I did…" I said, "He spent most of the time staring at the floor. He looked like he hadn't eaten in over a week – he said he couldn't remember the last time he had something to eat."

"I knew he should have been staying here instead of going off to that flat." My mum fretted, running her hands over her face, "Oh god, we should go and get him Arthur; we should go and bring him home."

"It's not going to work, he flung me out." I responded, shaking my head. "He doesn't want to see you, he didn't particularly want to see me and when I… when I mentioned Fred he went beserk." My voice trailed off towards the end; dad finally turned round, he had taken his glasses off and was rubbing the bridge of his nose between his finger and thumb.

"No, Ron's right. If George doesn't want to see us then we should leave him alone for a while – we just have to keep trying, we'll get through to him eventually." He sounded tired, but what he was saying was correct. There was a short silence as mum seemed to consider arguing, but then her shoulders sagged, like she was accepting the truth in what dad had just said.

"I, uh… I told him about Percy." I looked down at my cup. If I thought the atmosphere had been stretched before then the tension, filling the space in between us, was so thick that it could have been cut with a spoon.

"Oh, you didn't?" Mum inquired as though that had been exactly the wrong thing to do.

I did." I answered defiantly. "And he did seem concerned about him! He reacted to that, everything else I asked him he just grunted and stared at the floor for… The only question he reacted to at all was the one where I asked – I asked whether he had done anything to hurt himself. He got annoyed when I asked, but he seemed genuinely… I don't think concerned is the right word, but he definitely reacted the strongest when I told him about Percy."

"What did you say to him that made him go beserk?" Ginny asked suddenly, it seemed that she had been pondering for a while.

"I…I told him Fred would have wanted him to carry on with his life." I mumbled into my cup.

"Well at least you were honest." Ginny shrugged, "I'd have said the same… Maybe I should." Mum and dad were now watching the conversation between Ginny and I, dad's glasses were still off and he looked more tired than he had done in the past few days. "Perhaps I should go and see him? I doubt he'd be any more receptive to me than he's been to the rest of you though…"

"I told him I'd go back." I told her, "He did tell me not to bother, but I will go back – maybe you could come too?" I suggested. "At least if there's two of us then he can't aim for both of our heads at once!" A small smile flickered onto Ginny's face, and I could feel myself smiling back at her. Dad replaced his glasses onto the bridge of his nose and turned away from us at the table. I revelled in the silence that followed as Ginny sat down at the table across from me and mum picked up her wand again to continue preparing food. They seemed to have finished with asking me questions about my visit to George; I had a few questions I wanted to ask them, but I wasn't entirely sure to ask. Eventually I decided that the best way to go about it was just to be direct;

"Have you been to see Percy today?" I finally asked. It seemed that both mum and dad were considering acting like they hadn't heard my question, but Ginny answered for them.

"Yes, dad went earlier while you were visiting George."

"How was he?" I pressed on with the subject, understanding that they probably didn't want to answer but I wanted to know.

"The same as he's been the past couple of weeks." Dad answered sighing. "But at least he's somewhere definitely safe – the healers will make sure he's alright. They said that he's showing some improvement, which is reassuring."

"Good." I muttered.

I had always looked up to my elder brothers, being the youngest son; and I had always thought I had to live up to what they had done… but now, since the end of the war, I felt a lot older and a lot more independent from them. I had hated Percy for the past couple of years, but he had reconciled himself when he came back to fight with the rest of us. He had always been in control of every aspect of his life, he had known who he was and where he was going – but now he seemed to have lost that control and that knowledge. George, too, had always been tough; Fred and him had gone against the grain and done well. I never would have thought that Percy or George would fall apart – but without Fred, George was acting as though the most important part of himself had gone; he was lost and floundering to find his own way. Percy felt guilty – he had told us that, he felt like he should have been the one that died rather than Fred. Now the war was over, now I didn't have to worry about Voldemort taking over, I had found my way – and they had lost theirs completely. I hoped they found it again soon, because with both of them in the state they were, life wasn't going to be as easy as I had envisaged it would be…

A/N: Chapter 2, sorry I've taken a while to update! I hope you enjoy this! Will update more soon!