Summary:
"To bridge the gap between us," he said firmly, "in these uncertain times, we should cherish every day."
George suppressed his pounding heart and asked him, "Is there a rift between us?"
"If you hadn't, you wouldn't be as stiff as a log right now." Fred had already closed his eyes. "Good night, Georgie."
The last chapter of the setting "I Want to Tell You Loudly"
George poured the last of the food in the bag into the cage of the pygmy puffs, and the two remaining yellow fur balls quickly crawled over and began to eat. The buzzing sound they made was mixed with some trills, indicating that the little animals were in a very happy mood.
Just right, no idleness or waste.
George gave himself a ten-point boost in his heart with satisfaction. He was so good at coordination and control. In the words of his brother, he was just as good as the goblins in Gringotts when it came to careful calculations.
But Fred didn't mean this as a compliment.
They were no longer the two poor Weasley boys who had to rely on Lee Jordan to buy Zonko's new gadgets on Hogsmeade Day. According to the twin brothers, it was no big deal to be a little extravagant. Compared with the countless test subjects destroyed by their mother in the past, the cost of a little feed was insignificant.
"Let the owl take it away after dinner." George taped the written delivery note to the side of the cage. "All the ones brought from the store are sold out. We won't breed the next batch for the time being."
"It's actually not difficult to hide it from Aunt Muriel's ears and eyes. Besides, this is our job, so there's no need to be sneaky." Fred reluctantly changed their supply list. A magical ripple spread from the paper, and the item for Pygmy Puff was marked as out of stock.
"It's almost part-time, man," George said.
Now they focus their main energy on the mission of the Order of the Phoenix. The urgent situation has caused the Order of the Phoenix to reduce its members, and the families of the members have also frequently received bad news. Tonks's father, Teddy Tonks, who was born in Muggle, was killed by the pursuit team. No one can justify hiding in the back garden of his aunt and focusing on expanding the mailing business at this time.
Fred moved closer.
"In the past, even if you couldn't take care of them, you would have agreed to let them grow freely in Aunt Muriel's garden." His brother looked at him with a serious look. "It's not difficult to use magic to make an automatic feeder."
"What if we go out for too long and don't come back before the magic wears off...they'll occupy my aunt's kitchen." George swallowed the ominous words and imagined the hysterical screams the old witch would make when she saw a room full of fur balls. He couldn't help but sneer. "You know, she can't see how cute these little things are."
"That's her fault. Last time at Bill's wedding, she complained about your asymmetrical ears," Fred said, wrinkling his nose and putting his arm around George's shoulders.
"Yeah, then she will definitely use the Vanishing Charm to make them disappear without any explanation. What a waste."
"Damn it, she could do it."
"That's a lot of gold Galleons and our hard work!" George half-seriously made a bitter face, "It's a crime to let anyone do this."
He felt that his performance was perfect, but it obviously didn't fool Fred.
"George." Fred called him, and he could tell from just one call that the cover-up just now didn't work at all, and Fred was also holding his hand tightly.
"No matter what the mission is, we can get back. As long as we are together." Fred's voice was firm. "If we act together, what happened last time will not happen again."
The tingling sensation in his left ear, which had disappeared for a long time, was as tempting as the thoughts he had hidden. "Don't think of me as weak." George tilted his head a little unnaturally, and Fred's fingers fell on his cheek.
After realizing that the tingling sensation just now was not an illusion, George almost jumped out of Fred's arms.
He glared at the twin brother until a cynical expression appeared on his face.
"Or, would you rather hear me say that it doesn't matter if you can't come back, our bodies will lie together anyway?" Fred asked back with a smile.
George's heart was pounding. Fred was not normal today. Every word he said seemed to indicate that some dangerous thoughts were reviving.
"Don't be so cheesy." He shook his shoulders, showing his nonchalance. "If I remember correctly, you said something similar when you flirted with a French girl last time. Are you thinking about how to reply?"
"Of course not, they didn't write to me."
Fred piled up the packages that were to be mailed tonight, clapped his hands and went back to the restaurant for his dinner date with his beloved, whistling a love song on the way.
The originally sad tune was performed with vigor by him, and he freely played some florid tunes at the end of each sentence. As expected, he was scolded by Aunt Muriel in a loud and gruff voice before he even sat down.
"Young people are becoming more and more frivolous!"
She tapped her cane, making the end make an annoying thumping sound on the floor, and Molly quickly used her wand to move the saucer away from her.
"Don't schools teach this anymore? I'm already 108 years old and I have to go through this..."
"Perhaps. All the best to you!" Fred said loudly, choosing a seat as far away from her as possible and casting an ear-clogging charm around him and George.
"She probably has a lot in common with Umbridge," Fred grumbled as he helped himself to some omelette. "Is there a ban on whistling in the order?"
"Nothing is unusual," George answered absentmindedly. He saw that his mother was watching them whispering unhappily, but she didn't intend to remove Fred's spell, perhaps she thought it would be better for everyone sitting at the table.
George didn't remember that little thing. Throwing fireworks all over the castle made Umbridge and Filch's happy days of running around seem so far away. The future they imagined when they got on their brooms was very different from the present.
At that time, the career that the twins were willing to devote their lives to was slowly unfolding like a scroll, with countless fantastic ideas waiting to be realized. There was not so much blood and haze, nor the curse that frightened him - he thought he had completely gotten rid of it at that time.
But the lost ear and the commotion at the wedding made him paranoid again. Although they all escaped from the attack, it was too coincidental that Scrimgeour never revealed Harry's whereabouts until his death, but the Death Eaters still attacked the Burrow.
They repelled the enemy's killing curses more than once that day, and when they were finally sure they were safe, George let out a sigh of relief and could no longer hold his wand.
His hands were wet and cold, and he was shaking uncontrollably, which scared Fred, who was concerned about him.
He couldn't stop thinking about the absurd things that happened the night before. Was it just a coincidence, or was it another warning from magic that even if they didn't love each other, the curse of immorality would always follow them. They did go too far that night, not to mention that Fred was almost dragged into it by him. If he hadn't been injured in those few days, if he hadn't tacitly allowed Fred to hold him in his arms every day when the painkillers wore off…
The black snake came to consciousness and hissed at him mockingly. George almost couldn't help but cast a sleeping spell on himself, but he was shaking so hard that the wand fell from his hand again.
Fred's worried look was exactly the same as when they hugged each other in the collapsed secret passage. George finally found an excuse to hide in the bathroom, and used hot water to make himself warm before going out, and resolutely said that he wanted to have a good sleep and hoped not to be disturbed.
Fred understood what he meant and did not appear in his bed again. For a while afterwards, their relationship was as normal as it could be. George managed to convince himself that his twin brother was interested in Fleur's cousins and rehearsed in his mind a hundred times what he would say at his brother's wedding, even though he did not even remember the faces of the French girls and had Angelina's face countless times.
But it doesn't matter who it is. Fred should have that kind of life anyway, away from the curse, and live a happy life.
So he couldn't figure out where Fred's abnormal behavior today came from.
George swallowed a big mouthful of stew without tasting it and decided to speak frankly. After all, this was the way he and Fred were used to. If he really could act as if nothing had happened, he shouldn't avoid it.
"Of course it's because - you've become sentimental recently." Fred said slowly, "If the missing ear doesn't have some unknown function - such as helping you balance your emotions or something, then it's because my brother was frightened by the Death Eaters. Besides me, who else can give him courage?"
George hit him right back with an elbow.
Fred didn't dodge, and quickly fought back. Before his mother and aunt could scold him, they were already fighting like they did when they were children. Except that they didn't pour jam on each other, their childishness was no better than ten years ago.
"Oh my God! Oh my God! I never thought in my life that I would have the chance to sit down and eat with them!"
Aunt Muriel was probably about to collapse. If it weren't for the mysterious man's minions everywhere outside, she would not hesitate for a second to drive them out.
The ear-clogging spell had been stopped, and Molly angrily separated them and pushed them into chairs. George straightened his crooked collar, and the intimacy they had when they were children returned.
"It's just a little warm-up exercise," Fred said to his exasperated aunt. "You don't allow us to play Quidditch in the garden."
"Even when I go for a walk I get stared at." George blinked innocently, defending a walk that actually never existed.
With the exception of my great aunt, everyone in the family knew what they were doing in the garden, and the frequent visits of owls every day were telling.
"I don't want you anywhere near the gardens," the witch cried, "but for the sake of my dining room, you must go to the gardens, and sleep there, if you will! It's incredible, but I won't be walking around in the gardens until you all leave!"
As the twins walked out with the unfinished bread, they could hear their aunt's angry voice chasing them from behind.
"Well done!" said Fred happily. "Now we can grow cattails in the garden."
"Okay, then the bedroom is mine." George nodded. "You can sleep with Pu Rongrong. Just now, my aunt suggested that you sleep in the garden."
"Don't dream," Fred kicked him, "You were the first to do it, so you should be the one sleeping in the garden."
But George soon discovered that Fred seemed serious and even insisted on dragging him along to the Porter Lookout to broadcast.
"Why is that necessary?" he asked, puzzled. "It would save time if we split up and let Lee Jordan talk to you. I'll go to Diagon Alley and check the situation."
"I told you that we should act together from now on. The Death Eaters might have set a trap there. Let's go together after the broadcast." Fred grabbed him unreasonably.
"But I'll be careful," George muttered, making no further attempt to shake Fred off.
He was just worried about not being able to complete the mail-order orders, and he also felt a little sorry for the raw materials in the store that could not be stored for a long time, but he was not risking his life.
They received the notice to evacuate in the middle of the night, and they were in such a hurry that they only took a few things and left. Later, although they returned and moved half of the inventory from the warehouse, they were almost intercepted by the Death Eaters (otherwise they would not have only moved half), and now the enemy must be waiting for them to fall into the trap again.
Sure enough, as soon as they reached the alley entrance, they found no less than a dozen Howling Spells, Anti-Apparition Spells and Tracking Spells, so they had to escape as quickly as possible.
When Fred stepped onto the Sweeping Five Stars first, George was still telling jokes, impolitely comparing the twin brothers' bad mouths to divination.
The next second, a spell flew towards the two of them. George didn't have time to think, so he stretched out his wand and knocked it aside. His crushing spell and the enemy's spell hit the wall together, and the eaves of Florin's cold drink shop collapsed with a crash. The people who rushed forward had to block the flying bricks and stones.
Fred took the opportunity to pull him onto the broom, and the two of them flew into the air. George immediately clamped his legs together and hugged Fred's waist tightly. Sure enough, his brother immediately performed a series of difficult stunts, throwing all the spells behind him at a tricky angle.
They flew forward recklessly, not caring whether they would be seen by Muggles. When they were sure they were at a distance where they could Apparate, they landed in a woodland.
"You should have taken off first," George said. "If there were more people in ambush, we two would have been shot down."
Fred paused as he was shaking his robes. "You want me to leave you alone with the Death Eaters?"
"I'm just saying that you can take off first." George seemed calm. "It's easier to observe how many ambushes there are from a high altitude. If they have to deal with the two of us separately, their firepower won't be able to be concentrated, and we'll have a greater advantage. Counterattack first, then find a chance to escape, so we don't have to be their target like we did just now."
"You think a lot in such a short time," said Fred sarcastically. He looked at George sullenly for a moment, then suddenly dropped his broomstick to the ground.
George thought he was losing his temper. If Fred had asked him to retreat in the face of danger, George would have been deeply unhappy. Protecting each other was in their blood, and it was not something that could be persuaded by reason.
Just as he was about to pick up the broom on the ground, Fred suddenly stepped forward and hugged him, leaving George confused.
"Hey, I'm not mad." He patted Fred on the back. "I only thought of that after they flew away. At that time, I just wanted to stop them."
"I know," Fred whispered in his ear. "You would know it, too, if you were on the broom..."
"I won't leave either," George answered without thinking.
When they returned to Aunt Muriel's house, Lupin came to visit. He said that his baby was about to be born and hoped that Mrs. Weasley could help.
"Andromeda said that it would be fine if she was here, but I thought, if it's not too much trouble..." The werewolf looked a little reserved, perhaps worried that he was asking too much at this time. But no one else seemed to care. Molly immediately promised that she would be happy to serve at any time when she was notified, and the children hurried to congratulate him.
"The more times like this, the more happy things will happen." Mrs. Weasley said, wiping her eyes, "Think about it, Arthur and I got married when You-Know-Who rose to prominence, and we have so many children."
"Elopement," Ginny said, as if she was explaining something quite ordinary. "You told me about it last time, Mum. Because everyone was in a panic and felt that their future was uncertain, many things were decided hastily without careful consideration. But Professor Lupin and Tonks were already adults when they fell in love with each other, so their decision was not hasty."
Fred and George couldn't help laughing and gave their little sister a thumbs up.
"And Bill, too," George started to complain when his mother saw that she didn't know what to do with Ginny. "He always complained that he took too long to get married."
"I wouldn't be surprised if Ron comes back and says he's married too!" Fred immediately expanded the scope of attack, "But I hope he's someone who will call him 'Ro-Ro-', right? Then we can make fun of him as much as possible."
Molly pretended to be angry and drove the children away to avoid embarrassing Lupin who had caused the topic. The former Defense Against the Dark Arts professor sat there, his whole body red almost shining.
Unexpectedly, before going to bed that day, Fred moved the two beds together and lay down next to George.
"To bridge the gap between us," he said firmly, "in these uncertain times, we should cherish every day."
George suppressed his pounding heart and asked him, "Is there a rift between us?"
"If you hadn't, you wouldn't be as stiff as a log right now." Fred had already closed his eyes. "Good night, Georgie."
George couldn't sleep at first. There was a huge difference between not daring to have any improper thoughts about his twin brothers and not having any improper thoughts at all. He was afraid that if he turned over in his sleep, he would hug Fred. In the second half of the night, he was so sleepy that he kept reminding himself not to turn over. As a result, he had a nightmare of staring at a basilisk.
He was petrified the whole time and couldn't move at all. He almost thought that it was the snake that symbolized the curse and was threatening him until he was woken up by Fred.
"You are talking in your sleep," said his brother.
George opened his eyes and took a moment to realize that Fred was holding his head against his shoulders.
"What did I say?" He was so sleepy. The sound of Fred's heartbeat seemed to have a hypnotic power. George didn't want to think about anything at this moment. He just wanted to sleep until dawn.
"You asked me to leave quickly." Fred's voice was softer than ever before, "But I won't leave you alone. Go to sleep, I will accompany you."
George fell asleep immediately, and it was the most comfortable and peaceful sleep he had in years. When he woke up, he almost didn't want to open his eyes. His feeling told him that Fred was already awake and was combing his hair intermittently, and he seemed to be still curled in his arms.
This was a bit awkward. He didn't know if looking up at this moment would give people the illusion of asking for a kiss. He was indeed caught up in this crazy fantasy and couldn't extricate himself.
"Good morning, George." Fred's chest trembled slightly, and there was a smile hidden in his voice. "Next time you pretend to sleep, remember to adjust your breathing rhythm."
"Thanks for the reminder." George opened one eye. "I just want to stay in bed for a while."
"Then I can use the bathroom first," Fred said lightly.
He patted George's arm to signal him to let go - damn, George then realized how tightly he had hugged him just now - and then rolled over and sat up.
George buried himself in the pillow to avoid Fred seeing his hot cheeks. He was immediately surrounded by the scent of his twin brothers, and he couldn't help but take a few deep breaths.
After his brother's footsteps disappeared from the door, George raised his head expressionlessly and stared at the door in a daze. The rising sun shone on his forehead, and he could see a blood vessel beating slightly there.
He knew that if he continued like this, what he was holding on to would collapse again sooner or later. Fred's every move was so frank, just like when they were children. Others would only say "they have such a good relationship, they are twins", but in George's eyes, those subtle considerations and interactions that were so subtle that they could not be seen by outsiders were all the magic potion that lured him into the abyss and made him on the verge of collapse.
After all, everything Fred did now did not cross the boundaries between normal brothers. It was neither intimate nor abrupt. He could only blame himself for any crazy thoughts.
Towards noon that day, they were scolded by Aunt Muriel again for looking through old photos in the living room. The old witch also mentioned their uncles Gideon and Fabian, saying that they had not visited her for nearly twenty years.
"I don't believe she hasn't read the newspaper!" Fred looked indignant as he slid away. "Even if the Order of the Phoenix didn't publish the obituary, there must have been other reports."
"I prefer to believe that she drank too much anise last night," George said. He found it difficult not to think about the curse again, and his face showed a little sadness.
"That's not to the point of drinking too much. She thinks every young person is keen on eloping and not coming back for twenty years... Hey, don't look like that."
"Forget it, I'm not scared." George wiped his face quickly.
Fred raised an eyebrow.
"But you are a sentimental little fool. Since we are not afraid of sacrifice and have the confidence to win, let's not worry about the future." He casually plucked a few shriveled berries left over from last year's branches. "Look at these berries. No one knows whether they will eventually become a plant or be eaten by birds. But at the moment of blooming, they definitely don't think as much as you do."
George looked and saw that the two fruits held in Fred's hand were attached to the same withered stalk.
"We all share a common destiny, but none of us can escape the fate of being picked off by you." He always wanted Fred to be safe, but on the battlefield, living and dying together is the most likely scenario.
"That's right. Since we'll have to fight You-Know-Who sooner or later, why not think about how to deal with more than five Death Eaters at once? Everything else is trivial. Anyway, we'll fight for each other until the last moment." Fred flipped his hand and threw the berries into the bushes. He glanced at George. "If I remember correctly, this stuff stains the skin and is very difficult to wash off. It might be a rebellion from the berries."
"Yes, let all the children who dare to touch me go home and be scolded by their mothers." George's mood also became a little brighter. "So you want to do the same to the mysterious man?"
"If there is someone in this world who can scold him half to death, why not?"
Even if there was an ancient curse, the recurrence of You-Know-Who was not caused by it. They—and Gideon and Fabian—were just coincidental. Especially when George thought about the fact that neither of them would abandon the other, he suddenly realized that he seemed to have hit a dead end.
If there had not been this war, it would have made sense for him to avoid the many unexpected events brought about by the curse, but now no one could say which would come first, the curse or the mysterious man.
George stopped resisting and accepted the changes Fred had brought. Some thoughts that had only occasionally flashed on the edge of his consciousness in the past few months and were quickly suppressed soon became overwhelming, rapidly occupying the positions he had given up.
Life became easier if you didn't think about it. They stayed together from morning till night like they had when they were little, and George got a goodnight kiss one day when he pulled back the blanket and let Fred, who was covered in steam, in his arms.
George was not too surprised. A force drove him to naturally raise his neck and meet the other's beautiful lips, and then the second one came as expected.
The two of them let this silent and surging emotion last for a long time. Compared with the immature touch at the age of fourteen, they both tasted the fragrance and mellowness brought by growth from each other's lips, as well as the desire that swept through and burned everything like a karmic fire. They burned in the bed, rising, merging into the clouds, and finally blending into heavy rain pouring down from the sky.
"You know everything," George said, closing his eyes and snatching kisses from the other accurately for the umpteenth time. "Since when?"
"It was when I first arrived at Aunt Muriel's." Fred nuzzled his face and breathed hot air into his neck. "She insisted on looking at my ears to decide what name to call me, so I cast a Vanishing Charm on myself. She thought I was you."
"Then?"
"Then Mom happened to look for you, and she made a mistake too. Then I found out...you hid a lot of things from me!"
Fred bit him and George shuddered as his twin brother left teeth marks on him while he told him how he had pretended to be him to get information from his aunt and mother.
"Fifteen years of that old woman scaring you. I never regretted putting a dung ball under her chair at Christmas!"
"But the curse is real." George kissed him. "If it wasn't, you would have told me long ago."
Fred acquiesced.
They leaned against each other, thinking about their own things, and no one spoke. Just when George was about to hate himself, Fred spoke again.
"Remember the clock at home? Everyone is on the side of mortal danger. Even without the curse, we two would be no exception." He took George's hand and put it to his lips. "Everyone is seizing the time to be with their loved ones. Why can't it be us?"
He lowered his voice, almost inaudible over the creaking of the bed frame, but the communication between George and Fred was not just based on words. He heard Fred once again confess his love to him amidst Fred's lust that almost burned himself.
"You have to make up for my six years." The other person said this as she pressed on him. "I spent that long learning how to stop loving you..."
George wanted to say that he probably fell in love with Fred even earlier, and that love was too easy for them, but the discomfort of being pierced made him choke on his tears. All words turned into sobs, hidden in the sweat and the interweaving of bodies, but Fred understood that George had been saying that he loved him over and over again.
"I will love you all my life," Fred repeated again, and George panted beneath him and responded with a wonderful contraction, and they merged into one again, inseparable.
Before the decisive battle that could determine their fate, they finally let each other hear what they were thinking.
END