Harry Potter 1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1- Constant Nightmares **

Nothing but darkness surrounded him. George was walking slowly forwards with his wand in his hand, the sound of his blue converses walking on the black floor was the only sound that echoed in the never ending darkness. He was scared, not even his mother's knitted jumper could stop him from shivering as a cold breeze hit him, intensifying his fear. Not knowing where the breeze came from made him walk faster, but not as fast as his heart that was beating uncontrollably hard. Soon, a thick smoke slithered in with a strong dirty smell and as he pushed his way through it, he heard someone breathing heavily. The person then made a muffled groan of pain, but George still didn't know who it was. His feet ached as he crept through the ensnaring smoke to eventually see a man with a blurred face sitting in a corner on the floor. He wore a knitted jumper that had holes where fire or falling bricks might have damaged it and there was blood trickling down and around his left ear. He had black hair that almost blended in with the darkness around them, was George meant to recognise him? His blackened left hand was patting around frantically for his wand and as he grabbed it, his face moved to face George. He still couldn't make out who the man was. As the man lingered, it felt like he was connecting himself to George just by looking at him, he made George feel sadness, hopelessness and even more fear. The man turned his head to the right of where George stood. George slowly turned his head to see someone covered in a black hooded robe, he could not see the person's face as the hood created a black shadow over them and their hands were covered in black gloves that were dotted with blood. They took out their crooked brown wand and waved it in the direction of the man sitting on the floor, forcing his wand to fly out of his hand. George knew what was going to happen next. Something inside told him that he had to do something to stop this man from dying at all costs, even if it meant throwing himself in front of him. He quickly stepped in between the black hooded figure and the blurred man. The hooded figure pointed their wand towards George. This was it, he was going to die for a man he didn't even know, he was frightened and there was a knot tightening in his stomach to the point where it had reached its limit. He inhaled heavily.

"_Avada Kedavra!_" the hooded figure roared with a deep muffled voice.

A green light streamed from the wand towards George…..and then straight through him as if he wasn't even there. He heard the man behind him scream before there was silence. The black figure evaporated and became on with the think choking smoke, while the man's face started to become clear. George saw the man's black hair slowly turn the same ginger as his, he suddenly saw a face that looked almost like his own. There was nothing to do but to fall to the floor crying as the ghost of Fred came out of his corpse. The ghost wore his knitted jumper with a blood stained F, he was much more pale than usual and he had a face of despair mixed with some sort of anger. Fred knelt beside George so close that if he was alive, George would be able to feel his breath playfully tickle his ear and neck.

"You didn't save me, George," Fred whispered as his voice trembled,

"I'm sorry," George cried.

He couldn't bring himself to look at Fred's ghost, instead he looked at the dead body that lay in front of him. All the times his mother had called him Fred rushed through his mind; at this moment he wished he was Fred, he wished that it was him that died or at least that no one had to die.

"Sorry doesn't bring me back. You were meant to be there for me, but you weren't," Fred spat the words in his ear.

There was a sharp pain spreading through George's chest as Fred moved to sit in front of him. There was no expression in his face, no more despair, no more anger, his face was just blank, as if he was….dead.

"You could've saved me, George. You could've stopped mum crying, stopped dad lashing out, stopped Ron and Ginny from having to visit a grave every week, but you didn't."

"I didn't want this to happen. I tried!" George shouted as the tears fell down his face and onto his jumper.

"YOU DIDN'T TRY HARD ENOUGH!" Fred looked at him before getting up and turning his back on him, "I will make you feel how I felt when I died, alone, unloved, cold."

George reached out to Fred, hoping to grab hold of his jumper, but he disappeared, leaving George to grab the jumper of Fred's dead body. He felt the cold blood stain his hands making him pull his hand back quickly and get up. The thick grey smoke still surrounded him and the darkness had more presence as if it was consuming the air around him. He could hear Fred's voice echoing around him but growing louder and louder, repeating everything that he had said over and over again. He couldn't take it, the pain of watching his own brother die and not doing anything to save him, having to deal with only having half a heart, not having someone complete his sentences, not having a part of who he was. He felt the darkness close in on him as it devoured Fred's body slowly, like a python slowly swallowing a deer whole. It was his turn next.

"This is what I deserve, I didn't save my brother and now he won't save me," he whimpered as he wiped his tears and closed his eyes.

The smoke closed in on him as it ran away from the incoming darkness, his fingers were slowly devoured first and as the darkness spread, a sharp pain surged around what was left of his body. Soon his arms were gone, then his legs, then….

….then he woke up.

He quickly sat up in his bed. The sweat all over his body dripped down him as he pulled on his white t-shirt to stop it from sticking to his body and air himself out. He was breathing heavily as if everything that had happened in his dream was real. The white sheet that should've been draped over him was half way down his legs, his patchwork multi-coloured blanket was lying on the floor and his pillow looked at if it was been squeezed and abused. This was the worst dream he had had since Fred's death. It had been almost two years since the day he lost him. It started off with memories like watching Ron dance with Professor McGonagall and laughing their heads off or all the times they annoyed Professor Umbridge, but Fred would always fade away, leaving George by himself. But then it just got worse. He got out of his bed and opened the window. The cold breeze gave him goose bumps and soothed him even though it reminded him of the horrible nightmare he just had. With his eyes closed, he stumbled backwards until the back of his legs hit the frame of the bed and then he deflated down onto the bed. He rubbed the maroon velvet drapes of his bed between his fingers to bring his mind back to the thing that comforted him the most, his home. Tears slowly trickled down his face and as he wiped them away, someone entered his room. Light showered into the room, lighting it as if his bedroom light was on and he squinted before he could recognise who stood by the door.

"Bad dream again?" Hermione softly asked.

George nodded as she walked over and knelt in front of him. She wore one of Ron's grey t-shirts, which made her look smaller than usual, along with navy blue tracksuit bottoms and leopard print fluffy slippers.

"How did you know?" George asked as he turned his lamp on,

"You've been having them for the past week, Ron is worried about you so I said I'd check on you. He would do it himself but he's too lazy," she smiled.

Usually he would laugh at a Ron based joke, but his nightmare had drained him of all positive emotions.

"We're all worried about you, George," Hermione delicately placed her hand on his shoulder,

"Don't be, I'm fine," he forced a smile on to his face.

When he looked at Hermione, who saw that she wasn't buying his fake smile whatsoever, but then realized that he just wanted to be alone. She nodded and walked towards the door. She looked back at him and he smiled at her again, this time putting more effort into making it look like a genuine smile. When she left and close the door, George put his head into his hands and allowed the tears that had been held back to fall rapidly. He wasn't fine. He was the complete opposite of fine. He felt like his world was crumbling around him while everyone else's lives were getting better. As he lay down and pulled the sheet over himself he looked to his left at a perfectly made empty bed. A wand lay perfectly in the middle of freshly plumped pillow and at the end of the bed, lay a dark green knitted jumper on a blanket that was the same as George's.

"You should be here, Fred," he wept as he closed his eyes.

He knew that he'd probably have another nightmare about Fred, but if it meant that he could see him again, it was worth it. Tears that had tried on his cheeks were replaced by fresh ones that still fell as he slowly fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2- That Gleam in Your Eyes is so Familiar a Gleam**

"Ronald Weasley, if you don't get out of bed right now, I swear I will make sure that you can never get out of bed again!" shouted Hermione.

George was used to hearing threats like that from his mother or even Ginny, but hearing Hermione shout it made it evident that she was fitting into the Weasley way of life. He turned off his lamp that he left on during the night, got out of bed and closed the window. When he looked at his mess of a bed, he couldn't help but look at Fred's, it looked like their mum had just come in and spent an hour making sure that every corner, every edge and every little detail was perfect.

"George, are you going to come down? Breakfast is getting cold," called Molly,

"There's no need to shout, mum, I'm right here," George smiled.

He had a quick shower and changed into his striped russet brown suit and waistcoat with a maroon tie. Ron ran past him and sat in the chair next to Hermione while apologising for being late for breakfast. Arthur was sitting at the head of the table as usual, with Ginny pouring out cereal to his left and an empty chair to his right where Molly would sit. Hermione sat next to Ginny and dictated what Ron would have for breakfast instead of his normal sausages and bacon with toast, Percy sat opposite her, eating a piece of buttered toast while reading The Daily Prophet and Charlie was helping Molly cook the last of the bacon. Everyone was there. Everyone but Fred. Percy turned his head to look at George, then tapped the chair next to him with a friendly grin. When George sat down next to him, Molly came over with a glass of pumpkin juice.

"Now, what would you like dear? Ron obviously wanted a fry up so we have sausages, bacon, toast, beans and eggs, but I can make you something else if that's what you want," she had been fussing over George a lot recently, as if to put all her love for Fred into the next best thing,

"I'll just have toast and bacon, I'm going to the shop today, so I won't be staying here long," George said as he drank some juice,

"Well, be back in time for tea, Harry is coming back from whatever business he's been on and I want him to come back to a family," Molly gave him a plate of toast and bacon with ketchup on in the shape of a G.

"I'll come to the shop with you, I haven't been there in a while," Ron stuffed a piece of toast into his mouth,

"Ron, we have that thing in an hour remember," Hermione gave him a stare of annoyance,

"Yes, but afterwards, I will go to the shop while you go to the library," Ron kissed her cheek.

Hermione wiped the toast crumbs off her cheek with a face of disgust. George had a feeling that Ron and Hermione were hiding something from them, something big. He could feel Arthur, Molly and Ginny looking at him, Hermione didn't have to tell him that they were worried about him, it was written over their faces in big flashing lights. He realized that everyone was talking at the table; he didn't seem to _want_ to be a part of any conversation, but when he saw the concerned face on Molly while she drank her tea, he knew he had to at least try.

"I think we should have a banner for Harry when he comes back," he suggested,

"He said he didn't really want anything big," Ginny tied her glossy ginger hair back,

"But this is _Harry_" Ron complained,

"Yeah, and he is part of the family," George shrugged and smiled at Ginny,

"Well, I'll just make some nibbles and we'll have a home coming party," Molly smiled as she ate,

"I invited Bill and Fleur with their little one," Percy put down the newspaper and got up,

"That sounds lovely. Now, I want everyone here by 5 o'clock _sharp_, I'm not going through all this trouble for nothing, I tell you that now," Molly pointed her knife at each and every one of them with the stare of death, forcing everyone to furiously nod.

Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes was busy as usual. It was the afternoon and children came in with their parents begging for a bottle of this and one hundred grams of that, witches and wizards from Hogwarts came to pick out what to use to get at the teacher they hated the most and the regulars came with friends and a built in map of where all the stuff they wanted was.

George stood in the middle of the highest staircase, watching over everything. Then he saw her. She had dark brown, almost black, silky hair that ended at her shoulders where it slightly curled, her slight side fringe partly covered her glittering deep brown eyes and her sweet chocolate skin. She wore a dress covered in purple flowers with black ballet pumps. There was something about her that he recognised, but he had never seen someone who seemed to shine so brightly before. She hypnotized him, making him unaware of Ron and Hermione's entrance.

"You know, people find it weird when they're stared at," Hermione said in his ear as she stood to the right of him.

He jumped and put his hand on his chest as he turned to face Hermione while calming himself down. Hermione wore a grey top that hung loosely on her with quarter length sleeves, along with blue jeans and red ballet pumps. Her hair was put into a French plait and there was a natural glow about her.

"I'm not staring at anyone," he lied with an innocent face,

"I've seen Ron and Harry stare at many girls in the past and you look exactly like them when they are pining over a girl," she crossed her arms with a grin,

"I haven't stared at many girls," Ron protested as he took off his red and black checkered shirt and pulled at his grey t-shirt to cool himself down.

Both George and Hermione looked at each other, then back at Ron to simultaneously say, "Yes you have," and laugh.

Ron shrugged and laughed a little before asking, "Who are you admiring?"

"No one," George shook his head.

He looked back down and searched the crowd of people for the girl he saw before. Finding her was like the opposite to Where's Wally, she had turned her attention to the Flirting Fancies after picking up a couple Canary Creams. The way she picked up the potion was very delicate and graceful.

"Oh, her, that's Angelina Johnson," Hermione had obviously followed his gaze,

"Who?" he asked without looking at Hermione,

"Angelina Johnson, she was on the Quidditch team and Fred asked her to the Yule Ball years ago," Ron explained.

George suddenly remembered her. He remembered her being probably one of the best Chaser's on the Gryffindor Quidditch team and Ron complaining about her when she became captain. He remembered being partly disappointed when she agreed to go to the Yule Ball with Fred and having to force a smile when Fred talked about their relationship. It was amazing how she had matured and still looked as beautiful as he thought she was years ago.

"Apparently she didn't take Fred's death well, but she has gotten over it now," Hermione said,

"How do you know that?" George asked, finally taking his eyes off Angelina to look at Hermione,

"This is Hermione, there is nothing that she _doesn't_ know," Ron said.

George nodded in agreement before looking back at Angelina.

"Oh for God's sake, go talk to her," Hermione suggested,

"Yeah, and remind her of her boyfriend that tragically died," Ron responded.

By the slapping noise and Ron saying, "Oi, that hurt!" George could tell that Hermione had hit his arm pretty hard. George would've kicked him himself, but he couldn't take his eyes off Angelina. A voice emerged in his head, Fred's voice, _are you really thinking about going for a girl I once dated?_ George shook his head and turned around so his back was leaning against the barrier.

"You know what, a jellyfish has more backbone than you Weasleys'" Hermione sighed before going down the steps and making her way to Angelina.

George and Ron looked at each other and ran after her before she could say anything that would embarrass him. But they were too late. When they got to where they were, Hermione was already having a conversation with Angelina. They were too far away to hear what they were saying, but George hoped that it was something that didn't make him sound like a wimp, because he knew that was what he was acting like. After a couple of laughs, Angelina glanced at George with a gleam in her eyes and smiled before looking back at Hermione and nodding. Hermione shook her hand, turned away from her and walked up to George.

"You are so very welcome," she smiled before grabbing Ron's arm and pulling him away,

"Good luck!" Ron shouted before he was dragged out of the shop.

George slowly walked up to Angelina while a knot started to form in his stomach and a lump began to grow in his throat. She was fiddling with her dress and looked up when he finally stood in front of her. He didn't know what he was going to say, obviously he should start with something like 'Hello' but he wasn't sure if he could force the word out of his mouth. She smiled at him with her glossed lips and her eyes looked more dazzling up close than when he was up on the staircase. He had to say something, anything. He gulped and smiled, "Hi."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3- Home Coming**

Despite George's awkwardness, he and Angelina ended up having a somewhat decent conversation and had eventually made it out of the shop and down Diagon Ally. Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour was up and running again and looked exactly the same as before; it seemed only right to offer to buy Angelina an ice cream as they walked past it. They sat around a pastel yellow round table on matching vintage chairs, with their elbows on the table as they ate their ice creams and looked at each other.

"Sorry, I'm staring," George looked down at his ice cream,

"It's okay," she smiled sweetly, "it's nice to have so much attention."

As they laughed, George realized how angelic her laugh was and how he had never genuinely laughed in so long. He finally felt like the old George he used to be and it was because of Angelina. She reminded him of all the fun he used to have when Fred was there and that maybe, he could be the same without him.

"Are you still playing Quidditch?" he asked as he quickly finished off his ice cream,

"Oh definitely, hoping to be on the Holyhead Harpies, if I'm good enough," she was still working on her ice cream,

"Of course you're good enough," George insisted,

"Well it would be rude if you said I wasn't," she laughed.

They laughed and talked for ages, when they had finished their ice cream, they remained outside the ice cream shop. It was when George's watch beeped that their conversation had to come to an end.

"I'm sorry, I have to go, Harry is coming back and we're having a family gathering," George explained as he got up,

"It's okay, we've been here for around two hours talking," she smiled as she got up,

"Well, maybe we could meet again sometime?"

The knot in George's stomach that he thought had vanished came back as Angelina looked down and sighed.

"George, today has been lovely, but when I look at you…" there was no need for Angelina to complete her sentence,

"You see Fred, not me."

George was afraid of this. He didn't want to remind anyone of someone who had died tragically, but when you're an identical twin, that's one of the only things you can do right. There was no point of him staying to be put down even more. He nodded and started to walk away.

"Friends first?" Angelina called for him.

He stopped and smiled to himself. Maybe he did have a chance after all, maybe for once things were going his way. He turned around and smiled at her. She walked up to him while taking out her wand and placed it on the top of his left hand.

"This is my number and address, when you want to go out, just call or send a letter," she said softly as her number and address appeared on his hand in delicate black writing.

As she lifted off her wand, she smiled and walked off into the sun like an angel going back to heaven. A part of George was proud, he had actually talked to her and got her number, but another part of him was excited to show it off in front of Ron. There was a grin on his face as he walked down the street and made his way home.

"Ron, how many times do I have to tell you to stop taking the sausage rolls?!" Molly shouted as George entered the house.

When he walked into the kitchen, he was amazed by the effort that Molly had made. There was a red and gold banner hovering over the entrance saying _Welcome Home Harry_ in black glittery writing. There were platters of food on the table, sausage rolls, chicken drumsticks, crisps, chocolates, drewballs, liquorice wands, mini pizzas, bread rolls, chocolate brownies and more. The smell of all the hot food mixed together sent George to his own version of heaven, making him close his eyes and smile. When he took himself away from his special place, he saw Ginny who was wearing a baby blue free flowing dress and putting another platter down on the table. She was all made up, her hair was curled and put to one side and her cheeks were the colour of freshly bloomed red roses, but she wasn't wearing heels like she usually would for special occasions, instead she wore simple blue ballet pumps. It was moments like these when George would realize how much Ginny had grown, how much everyone had grown.

"Ginny, let me just have one more sausage roll," Ron pleaded as he came in buttoning up his shirt,

"Like mum said, no. How can you eat so much?" Ginny replied and before she left, she looked at George to smile at him,

"I have a stomach, that's how," Ron walked over to George.

Ron's shirt was perfectly ironed with no stains or creases, but most importantly…_pink_. His navy blue jeans looked new and his converses had been cleaned so that they were an almost bright red, not the normal murky maroon colour, even his hair was somewhat presentable. This had to be the work of Hermione.

"You look…good," George smirked,

"Hermione insisted that I should clean myself up a bit," Ron pulled on the bottom of his shirt,

"A bit? It must have taken hours to get your hair sorted, another thirty minutes to convince you to put on that shirt," George could go on, but Ron put his hand out to stop him,

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's not focus on what I'm wearing,"

"I think you'll find that's all I can focus on,"

"Let's focus on how your day was with Angelina."

George made a cheeky smirk before walking over to the table and stealing a crisp. Ron turned around, watching him with an eager face of expectation.

"We talked for ages, she's so interesting, I don't think she's changed much, but she laughs at all my jokes; who wouldn't? We had ice cream and sat there for hours it was absolutely amazing," George ranted.

Ron was staring at him with an amused face. George knew that anyone would find it weird to see him like this; he was beaming, he hadn't been this happy in ages and even he was surprised by how he was reacting.

"So you didn't embarrass yourself then?" Ron laughed,

"Speaking of embarrassing, you better not get any stains on that _pink_ shirt, Ginny would probably lend you one, just in case," George chuckled as everyone else came into the kitchen.

George couldn't help but smile as his eyes hovered over everyone. Ginny and Hermione looked beautiful, Molly and Arthur looked like they hadn't aged whatsoever and they both had big smiles on their faces as they talked to each other, Ron was eyeing up the food as usual in his pink shirt and Charlie and Percy would occasionally tap his shoulder to get him to think of something else other than food. They all looked happy. George had never seen them all like this before….without Fred. _Stop thinking about what this would be like if Fred was here_, he screamed at himself as they all gathered behind the banner and waited for Harry.

"What time is he meant to be getting here?" Percy asked while adjusting a camera,

"I'm not too sure, he just said some time in the evening," Ginny smoothed out her dress,

"So for all we know, we've all gotten here at 5 o'clock with the risk of being shouted at by mum, when there is a chance that Harry could be getting here at 10 o'clock," Ron sighed,

"Yeah, pretty much," Ginny looked at Ron with a stern face, "you got a problem with that Mr Pinky?"

"No, not at all," Ron moved away from her slightly.

A clicking sound from the front door made them all turn their heads to face the entrance to the kitchen and produce the biggest of smiles. As it opened they heard someone say, "Bloody glasses, how comes other people can fix them but I can't?"

They all giggled quietly to themselves before Harry entered the room.

"SURPRISE!" most of them shouted,

"WELCOME HOME, HARRY!" Ron shouted.

Harry was taken back. He didn't look as presentable as them, his hair was a mess, his glasses were crooked, his long black jacket was speckled with dirt, but apart from that, he looked like the same old Harry. He laughed and held his arms out for Ginny who ran to him and flung her arms around him.

"We've missed you," Ginny smiled as she kissed his cheek,

"I missed you too," he glanced over everyone with a smile before focussing on Ron, "erm…Ron?"

"Yeah mate?" Ron stepped forward.

Harry was silent for a while as he seemed to search for words. George was waiting for something sentimental and meaningful; Harry had been gone for almost four months and they hadn't really been able to contact him. Poor Ginny was worried sick about him and everyone had to reassure her that he'd be alright, even if they didn't know if he would.

Harry simply put his hand on Ron's shoulder and smiled at him, "Pink is _definitely_ your colour."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4- Revelations**

The little get together turned into a family party once Fleur and Bill came with their little girl Victoire. Like Ron's mouth, the glasses were never empty, there was always a piece of food on someone's plate, music was playing, people were dancing and everyone was having a great time. Harry and Ginny were dancing together, but were interrupted by Hermione grabbing Harry's wrist and dragging him off to a corner. Ginny came to sit by George and join him in eating a small bowl of sausage rolls.

"Are you alright?" he asked her as he handed her the bowl,

"My feet are just aching," she smiled as she stuffed a sausage roll into her mouth, "I've been craving these _all_ day."

George laughed. For a moment it felt like they were young again, Ginny had cheeks like a squirrel storing nuts for the winter and he couldn't help but take advantage and poke them. But then they all heard a gasp come from Harry and he said the words that would make George realize how truly grown up they all were.

"You're pregnant?!" he gasped a bit too loudly.

Everyone heard and rotated their heads to the direction of Harry and Hermione. Ron stood to attention and dropped the plate of food he had been piling up. He didn't look as shocked as George expected, he looked angrier at Harry than shocked about his own girlfriend being pregnant. He walked up to them and took Hermione's hand.

"I thought we were going to tell everyone together," Ron complained,

"Well, it's Harry, I felt like he should be the first to know," she replied,

"I'm going to be a grandmother?" Molly cried.

Bill coughed and pointed to Victoire with a face of frustration.

"I meant again," she corrected herself and smiled.

Everyone began to clap and congratulate them. Hermione and Ron went around the room, getting hugs and kisses from everyone. They began to walk towards to George and Ginny when George realized that there was something wrong with Ginny. She had just been joking around and laughing, but now she was deadly serious and looking down. Suddenly, she stood up as she bit her lip and fiddled with her fingers. Her cheeks were no longer full with food and had gone red. Something was wrong, she either wasn't telling them something, did something embarrassing or felt very sick. Harry looked at her worryingly and everyone else went silent and followed his gaze.

"Erm…I might as well tell you all now," she stuttered.

George had an impulse to hold her hand and when he did, he felt how much she was shaking. He was worried, the worst came into his mind, what if it was something really serious like she was sick or dying? She gulped and squeezed George's hand, "I'm kind of pregnant too."

Everyone was stunned again. First Hermione, now Ginny, both of their pregnancies being revealed within less than a couple of minutes of each other. This was just crazy, but then again, that was the Weasley family all over, damn right crazy. George was confused, it was almost like they had planned to get pregnant and reveal that they were at the same time. Harry didn't say anything. He barely even blinked. His eyes were fixed on her while he breathed heavily.

"Say something, Harry," she pleaded as she cautiously let go of George's hand and moved slowly towards Harry,

"So, we're going to have a baby?" he asked quietly,

"That is how it tends to work," she joked.

Harry closed his eyes and looked down before pulling her into his arms and crying. The smile on his face was one George hadn't seen in a while, the face of complete and utter happiness. Ron and Hermione watched them and smiled in the same way along with everyone else. They all clapped and began to congratulate Harry and Ginny and talk about baby plans. But not George. For some reason he just couldn't create the same beaming joyful grin, as if something in him was supressing all positive emotions and only allowing negative ones. He was pleased for them, but he just couldn't shake off the negative things that were in his head.

After the big announcements, the party went back into full swing with everyone dancing, singing and drinking. George was left to help Molly and Harry clean up when it had eventually ended and Ginny sat talking to Percy, Fleur and Bill had to go because Victoire was getting fussy and Hermione found herself getting tired and dragged Ron up to bed with her.

"Go to bed, Ginny," George advised as he put the remaining sausage rolls in the fridge,

"I'm not even tired," she protested,

"Whatever you say."

She looked at him with worried eyes and tilted her head a little, it made George more aware about how he was acting and encouraged him to make a fake but alright looking smile at her. Percy and Harry took off upstairs while talking and Molly sat on the sofa eating some of the leftover fairy cakes with Arthur.

"George, can I talk to you?" Ginny said with a soft voice.

He nodded and sat down where Percy was sat before. Ginny took his hand delicately as if he was made of china and looked deep into his eyes.

"Is everything okay?" she asked,

"Of course everything is okay, why are you asking?" he wanted to convince himself more than he wanted to convince her,

"You don't have to lie to me, George. We all know Fred's passing is still effecting you but,"

"It seems like it's not effecting any of you at all," he interrupted.

Suddenly, he felt all his emotions, good and bad, overflow inside of him and come out as tears. Ginny gripped his hand a bit tighter and wiped away some of his tears for him before giving him a tissue she found on the table.

"Everyone's so happy now, moving on with their lives, having children, but you're just leaving Fred behind. He should be here right now, he should be making jokes and playing pranks, but none of you seem to care about that, none of you seem to even think about him anymore and it's hurting me, because how can you not think of him when you see me?" he had never broken down in front of Ginny since the day of Fred's death,

"We're trying to move on because it's what Fred would want. None of us could ever forget Fred, he's that petal on a flower that is missing, making a beautiful flower look incomplete. But you have to try to move on without him, not just for you, for Fred as well," Ginny explained as she stroked his hand,

"You don't understand, Ginny. You don't understand what it's like to look into the mirror and breakdown because it's not your brother you're seeing, it's yourself. To no longer be able to protect yourself with a patronus, to miss your mum calling you the wrong name, to miss getting a jumper for Christmas with an 'F' on and see your twin have one with a 'G' on and laugh. Fred is literally a part of who I am. Who I was. I was once a part of a comedy duo of pranksters, a part of the clever but hilarious twin set," he choked on the growing amount of tears he tried to hold back, but failed to.

Ginny was looking at him with concern, her eyes were glistening, like the surface of a still lake, due to the tears that started to appear. This was one of the reasons why he didn't want to tell anyone how he felt; if there was one thing he hated, it was causing those he loved to cry. Nevertheless, now he had started ranting, he couldn't stop.

"Now, I don't do pranks or tell jokes, and if I do, it means I'm under a spell or I'm just trying to make people think I'm okay. My presents are never mixed up, neither is my name. I just always feel alone. I'm just George, not George from George and Fred, just George."

George looked down to let out more tears, before looking back up at Ginny. Her eyes were begging him to stay with her to talk and to smile, but he just couldn't anymore. He slid his hand out from hers and got up slowly.

"Goodnight, Ginny and congratulations on the baby," he said before walking upstairs to his room.

He looked at his and Fred's beds, they were identical and perfectly made. George took his wand from his bedside table and breathed heavily as he tried his best over and over again to cast a patronus charm. Each time he tried, he failed. Inside he knew it wasn't because he wasn't strong enough to cast one, it was because the thing that he would always think of to create one was gone. After over a dozen attempts, George collapsed to the floor in tears and put his head in his hands.

"If moving on is what you want, Fred, I'm sorry that I've let you down again."

He curled into a ball on the floor, crying, but not loud enough for anyone else to hear him. Despite not even believing in any God, he prayed, begging for Fred's death to be a complete lie or at least for there to be some spell that could bring him back and if that couldn't be done, he just wanted all the pain, agony and hurt to stop.

After a while spent on the floor in a puddle of his own tears, George decided to stumble onto his feet and get ready for bed. He took his baby blue and white striped pyjamas out of his wardrobe and stood in front of the mirror as he changed into them. It was weird and haunting to look into the mirror and not see two of himself, nothing would get him used to it. He was pale, talking about the loss of Fred had made him lose colour and turn a bit grey, there was no expression on his face, but sorrow in his eyes and he had lost a noticeable amount of weight. He wanted to be able to genuinely smile, to gain back the colour that he had, to look a healthy weight, but for some reason he just couldn't, for some reason he had no influence or motivation to. He lay in his bed like a zombie and turned his head to the empty bed next to his.

In bed, Fred and George had come up with a monumental amount of pranks, tricks, jokes and recipes and had talked about personal things as well, like good brothers do. It was like a routine that had now faded away. George reached out to the bed and was just able to stroke his hand over the edge of the bed and pillow.

"Goodnight Fred."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5- Attempting to Get Back on Track**

For the next few days after Harry's homecoming, George spent most of his time in his room, only coming out when he needed to use the bathroom or couldn't take the agonizing hunger. Everyone ended up knocking at his door at some point, asking him whether he was okay and begging him to come out of his room. But he wouldn't say anything. He'd just lie there on his bed or on the floor, as still as a statue and as emotionless as a rock. Ron even tried coming into his room at one point, but George had locked the door. It surprised him how Ron didn't use a spell to unlock it, his want to be alone probably got through to him in the end. While in his room, he thought about Fred and all the things that had gone wrong in his life. Despite his sorrow and how depressed he was, he didn't cry for all three days that he remained in his room, it was as if there were no tears left in his eyes. This made him feel even worse, because if he couldn't cry over his own dead brother, then he must be horrible, heartless and a poor excuse for a brother.

After three days in his room, some of the sadness that George had been feeling was gone and he could face leaving his room to have a shower, put on some fresh clothes and go out to check on Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. He knew that Ron had been running the place while he was gone and thought that taking him out after the shop had closed would be one of the best ways for him to say thank you. When he eventually got there, he was pleasantly surprised by who was waiting for him at the door in a mulberry purple thick knitted jumper and black skinny jeans.

"Angelina?" he said as he walked up to her,

"Hey stranger. Where have you been?" she asked,

"It's a long story,"

"Well, I have time," she smiled as she stroked his arm.

He didn't know whether he could tell her everything that was going on in his head or not. The last time he told someone, he ended up breaking down again. But there was something about Angelina that made him feel like he could confide in her.

"I just haven't been myself for the past few days," George looked down,

"You can tell me all about it while we walk to London," she grabbed his hand,

"Why not stay here?"

"Because, muggles make good coffee."

They laughed as they left Diagon Alley and Angelina lead the way to a coffee shop near King's Cross Station. George offered to pay, like a gentleman, but Angelina refused, saying that unless it's anything too expensive, she did not want him paying for her, which he was fine with.

"Three days with no sleep? I can see why you got a large coffee," Angelina said after George had told her about the three days he spent in his room.

While telling her, he had almost started to cry, but when Angelina gently encased his right hand softly in between her hands, his urge to cry left him and he made a slight smile. He could honestly say that he had missed her.

"So how are you feeling now?" she asked with a voice as soft as her hands,

"Drained. I feel incomplete, like there's a piece of a jigsaw missing, but I'm just gonna have to deal with the picture I have, even if it's not as perfect as I wished," George replied,

"Oh, George," she said sympathetically as she stroked his hand with her thumb.

They smiled at each other and George drank his coffee with his one free hand. He was falling in love with the sensation of his hand being held by Angelina's. It was like his hand was in between two perfect clouds. A cold hit his hand as Angelina took hers away and she wrapped her hands around her mocha.

"I'm here for you, George, you know that right?" she assured him,

"Thanks, you're a good friend, Angelina," he smiled.

Like last time, they spent hours in the coffee shop. By cracking jokes and just being her beautiful self, Angelina had cheered George up perfectly. He wondered why she was sticking around with him. It must've been out of sympathy or just the fact that she was a lovely, kind hearted person. Either way, he thanked gods he didn't even believe in for honouring him with such a jewel as Angelina. As she talked about her trials for the Holyhead Harpies, he realized that he couldn't stop smiling. He wasn't sure if it was the passion that was in her voice, her deep sweet brown eyes that glittered when the light hit them or the glowing, dazzling smile that graced her face when she noticed that he was staring at her.

"I have to go," she said with a sorry voice as she got up,

"Will we be doing this again anytime soon?" George smiled as he held the door open for her,

"It depends on when you contact me."

George felt his cheeks burn up a bit, signalling to him that he was probably blushing. Angelina giggled as she saw the circles of red on his cheeks and did something that would keep George blushing for a while. She placed her left hand on the top half of his right arm, leaned in a little and softly kissed his cheek. Despite his cheeks burning up, George could feel the warmth from her lips and shivers were sent up and down his spine, along with out of control butterflies in his stomach. When she moved away, he blushed even more and this time, looked down at the ground.

"Goodbye, George," Angelina called while walking away.

Once she had gone, George stroked the cheek that she had kissed. Was he dreaming this? Angelina Johnson, probably the most gorgeous girl he had ever met, just kissed him on the cheek. _It may not be the cheek next time_, he thought to himself as he walked back to the shop with a grin planted on his face.

"George, I want you to eat as much as you can," Molly smiled as she piled food onto his plate.

Molly had made mash potatoes and sausages with a whole tonne of vegetables. On George's plate, she had plodded over two very large servings of mash potatoes, five sausages and George's entire body weight in vegetables. Compared to everyone else's portions, he looked like he needed Weight Watchers.

"Mum, I really can't eat all of this," George looked at the mega mountain of food as he sat down,

"Just eat what you can, dear," she sat down and breathed out heavily while looking around the table.

Her eyes hovered over the seat where Fred would've sat for a while, but she wouldn't look at George. When she looked at Ginny and Harry, she beamed with pride and then turned her head to Ron and Hermione, before putting her hand on her chest and creating the same smile. No one talked. No one moved. They just watched her, occasionally looking at each other with confusion. After another heavy sigh, Molly shook her head,

"Eat up!" she smiled as she picked up her glass of pumpkin juice and drank.

_Why didn't she look at me?_ George asked himself as he ate. The fact that his own mother looked at everyone at the table with a face of pride, but not him, caused him a wave of pain. _Is looking at me that painful for her? Is looking at me and not seeing an almost exact replica next to me too much for her to bare?_

George ate almost half of what was on his plate; he played around with the mass of remains from the mountain of food.

"How are things with that girl you talked to a few days ago?" Ron asked after he gulped down his food,

"What girl?" Harry's head whipped round to look at George,

"There's a girl?" Arthur said with a surprised expression, which was kind of insulting.

George looked up from his plate to see everyone looking in his direction with wondering and eager faces. He didn't want to boast about his relationship with Angelina and tried to keep it under wraps for some days now, but once Ron asked, he had to tell them. He took a deep breath and gulped,

"Her name is Angelina and we went out again today."

Of course, they weren't satisfied with just that.

"She's funny, caring and beautiful and she kissed me on the cheek today," he boasted.

Hermione and Ginny clapped with glee and awwwed at him, while Ron and Harry laughed before making kissing noises.

"I'm happy for you, son" Arthur smiled and he lifted his glass, "To life treating my family right."

They clanged their glasses together. But, for George, it still didn't feel like life was treating him right. Yes, things with Angelina were getting better, but he was still having these nightmares where he watched Fred dying over and over again in the most horrible way: alone. No matter what happened, no matter how great the amount of happiness was, there was still this demon in the corner that found of way of allowing darkness to creep into his mind. If he had one wish, it was to be happy.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6- Begging**

Throughout the next week, George went out with Angelina for four whole days. They went out for dinner, to see a movie, to watch a quidditch match and they even went clothes shopping together. Each time, they grew closer to each other, telling each other more personal things and becoming more and more comfortable with each other. They would hug every time they met up, get close if one or the other was cold, they even held hands during the scary movie they watched. For George, Angelina was becoming more than a friend, but he didn't know if Angelina felt the same way.

It was a Saturday afternoon, Harry and Hermione had gone to the Ministry of Magic, Ginny had gone shopping with Molly and George was left in the house with Ron. They were both too lazy to think of something to do, so they just lay there on the sofas, talking, making jokes and playing around with their wands. When they ran out of things that they could do sitting down, they decided to just talk, something they hadn't done for ages.

"Ron, what's it like knowing you're going to be a father?" George quizzed,

"It's weird. Like, I'm not going to fully believe it until it actually happens. But, I also feel pretty good, because I'm gonna have a baby with the most bloody brilliant person I have ever met," Ron replied,

"Boy will that child be unfortunate if it gets your looks, I mean hopefully it will get Hermione's brains and all,"

"Very funny, George. If our kid has my looks and Hermione's brains, it will probably be able to take over the world," Ron laughed.

They finally found the strength to get off the sofas, go to the kitchen to get snacks and then plonk themselves back onto the sofas, but in different lazy positions. Talking to Ron about him being a father felt strange, it seemed that everything was happening so fast and in a blink of an eye, Ron would have three kids and be living in some mansion somewhere. The thought of that scared George. He knew that they'd all eventually live in their own houses somewhere, but he was frightened that the family would drift apart and they'd only end up seeing each other on Christmas, when he was used to seeing everyone at least once a week.

"You and Angelina seem to be getting cosier and cosier," Ron teased,

"I know, but I'm not sure if she feels the way I do about her," George confessed,

"She must do, or else why would she be spending so much time with you? Unless she's crazy or something,"

"Simply because, I remind her of Fred. I don't think she wants to be reminded of him every day, it must tear her apart inside,"

"That may be so," Ron leaned forward, "But it doesn't mean that you both can't have happiness."

George nodded in agreement. He didn't realize that Ron could be so wise at times. They talked and joked until they got tired and fell asleep at around 4 o'clock.

"This is an outrage!" Hermione shouted as she burst through the front door, giving both George and Ron a fright,

"Calm down Hermione, we'll sort this," Harry tried to calm her down.

She threw her navy jacket on the sofa and then threw her black blazer on Ron's head. She was pacing up and down the living room, breathing heavily and shaking her head with anger.

"What's going on?" Ron asked as he yawned like a lion,

"I will tell you what's going on, Ronald Bilius Weasley. Dementors have been reported attacking muggle-borns for an unknown reason," she explained as she sat down next to Ron,

"I think there's someone behind it," Harry said as he took off his jacket,

"There must be. But the question is who and why? They were put off duty and shouldn't be taking orders from anyone else but the Ministry."

Hermione lay her head on Ron's lap and exhaled heavily. She had never been so angry or stressed after work before, so it seemed wise for George to get her a cup of tea while Ron stroked her hair to try to calm her down.

"I have a feeling that whoever did this was a deatheater, just carrying on his _dead_ master's work," she wasn't going to drop it, not for a long time,

"All remaining deatheaters were found and punished," said Harry as he sat next to George,

"Yes, but there may be people out there who still have the same views as Voldemort did. There have been five attacks on muggle-borns that have not included dementors, but now they have been involved, things have gotten much more serious. It will take a while to find the person behind this, but we could at least protect the muggle-borns that may be targeted," she ranted.

Hermione had always been passionate about things like this and being a muggle-born herself, she was bound to get emotional about what was happening. Seeing her get so frustrated made George care about the situation even more and think hard about anything they could do to help.

"The only thing I can really think of is having something like a safe-house," he suggested,

Hermione bolted upright, "Go on,"

"Well, the best way to make sure there are no attacks on muggle-borns is to have them constantly protected and in a safe place. If the Ministry came up with a safe-house-type-thing, you could teach them how to protect themselves, kind of like when Harry came up with the DA, while we take care of the person behind the attacks. Once we know they can protect themselves well, we could let them go to their own homes but check on them now and again."

Hermione was intrigued, so were the rest of them. Ron looked confused; not about what George had said, but about the fact that George had said it.

"That's a great idea!" We could let them stay at Grimmauld Place, I mean obviously if that's alright with the Ministry," she was starting to get excited,

"Yes, but it's just an idea. How do we even know that we'd be allowed to use Grimmauld Place?" George asked,

"Well, if it's Harry asking for us, I don't think they'll even be able to utter the word 'no'," Ron sniggered.

They all turned to Harry; Hermione put her hands together and begged, Ron mouthed the word 'please' and George made puppy dog pleading eyes. The three of them put together made Harry weak; he gave up in a couple of seconds with a sigh. This made Hermione's hands go from pleading to clapping and a beaming smile grow on her face.

"Mum is the easiest one to get to; just give her flowers and showers of compliments and you're golden," George said with Ron nodding in agreement,

"Say how she's the equivalent to a mum to you or something," Ron laughed,

"Despite her taste in clothes, say how she looks good in whatever she's wearing," George joked,

"Oh, add how her dress flatters her curves,"

"Don't forget to mention her hair,"

"_Never_ forget the hair,"

"When Fred and I wanted something, our order was hair, how she didn't need makeup, clothes, how she's a great mother and finally, help out around the house for a minimum of two hours."

They all laughed and Harry high-fived George. George realized that he had just talked about a memory with Fred without crying, something that he had never done before. He felt proud of himself, he was finally starting to get all his emotions and thoughts under control.

For the next two hours, they planned. Hermione took out sheets of crisp white paper from her brief case and wrote as they discussed the plans for the safe-house. They came up with the number of people that could stay there, how many people they'd need to help look after them, what they'd provide, how many house elves they may need and the list of priorities went on. They eventually had a folder on everything they'd do if they could create a safe-house for muggle-borns in danger.

Molly came in with Ginny, carrying a dozen of shopping bags between them and breathing heavily. Harry shot up and almost slyly, walked up to them to take two of Molly's bags and two of Ginny's.

"Thank you, Harry, dear," Molly smiled,

"Why do you have more bags than usual?" asked George,

"Well, Ginny wanted to go to a muggle shop, so we went,"

"Mum? Our mum in a muggle shop? That's _madness_!" George laughed,

"It wasn't that bad. Despite the rude shop assistant, we got good quality food and clothes. The brown bags are full of clothes I think, dear," she called from the kitchen.

Harry kissed Ginny's cheek and helped unpack the food bags with Molly, while Ginny sat with George after putting down the clothes bags on the living room floor. Hermione secretively showed Ginny the folder with their plans in, which Ginny supported instantly. All eyes were on Harry though, as he and Molly came into the living room and sat down.

"Thank you for the help, Harry. It's nice to have _somebody help me_ _around here for once_," she said as she glared at Ron and George, forcing them to shrink down into the sofas,

"No problem. You know, you've really grown to be a mother to me and a great one at that," Harry said convincingly,

"Oh, Harry. You know you will always be a part of the family here,"

"Yes, but I thought I would spend life not having a mother; you've changed that."

Molly smiled and gave Harry one of her almost suffocating hugs. George, Ron, Ginny and Hermione had to try their best to keep in their laughter and covered their mouths so Molly didn't see their cheeky smiles. It became almost unbearable laughter when Harry mentioned how good Molly looked in her long orange and brown skirt.

"Thank you Harry, but if you really want something, you should just ask," she smiled.

They stopped laughed.

"I'm guessing George gave you tips on what to say," Molly said as she crossed her arms,

"It's just what we want is a big ask," Harry sighed,

"We?" Molly looked stunned at them all,

"Our idea is kind of a group effort. We'd need everyone on board," Hermione explained.

Harry then told Molly their whole plan, using Hermione's well organized folder to show how they had planned everything and out. Molly's facial expressions went from unsure to impressed to considerate, which George took as a good sign. When Harry had finished his effort at convincing her, George and the others joined him in making pleading faces that made them look like pathetic dogs begging for food. She sighed, shook her head and looked down. They were all crossing their fingers and saying 'please' over and over again. She lifted her head.

"You'd have to take this to Kingsley, but how could _I_ say no to _you_?" she smiled and tilted her head slightly.

A roar of claps and cheers came from them, before they all bundled together and had a group hug with Molly.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7- The Order Takes Action**

The next few days were based on preparation for the safe-house. Kingsley had approved of the whole plan and agreed to keep it a secret between The Order of the Phoenix only, to reduce the risk of the person behind the muggle-born attacks from finding out. A list of possibly targeted muggle-borns was created, along with a list of possible people behind the attacks. George and Harry were put in charge of helping to find the culprit, but they didn't know where to start searching. On top of all this, George had to take care of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and come up with new products. To get away from all the stress, he and Ginny decided to go for a walk through the fields surrounding The Burrow. Ginny wore one of Harry's grey hoodies, which was baggy on her, with a pair of black jeans and hunter green wellies. With the hood over her head and her hands in the hoodie's pockets, she looked adorable, as if she was the cute little sister that couldn't wait to start Hogwarts again. She was silent and staring into nothingness.

"Are you alright, Ginny?" George asked as he turned to her while they walked,

"I'm going to be a mother in almost seven months, but I'm scared that we'll still be fussing over protecting the muggle-borns by the time I have the baby," Ginny said softly,

"Ginny, you and that baby are more important than anything else that's going on. Harry and I may be out hunting for the guy behind the attacks, but if you shout for us, we'll come running. You could need ice cream, a massage or be going into labour and we will be there in a heartbeat, Ginny," he assured her as he held her hand.

They stopped walking and Ginny smiled at him with a tear trickling down her cheek.

"That is the least funny but most beautiful thing you have ever said to me," Ginny sniffed.

George smiled and pulled her into his chest with his arms protecting her from the wind that hit them. She was warm and he rested his chin on the top of her head as she curled up in his arms. It had been a long time since it was just him and Ginny and he had never realized how much he missed just holding his little sister and being with her. He cherished the moment as if it was going to be the last time he would ever hold or even be with Ginny again. She stayed in his arms for a while until George felt the compulsion to say something.

"If we carry on like this, we may squash the baby," he joked.

Ginny wriggled herself out of his arms and playfully hit his arm.

"Your hits are almost as hard as mum's," he laughed as he rubbed his sore arm,

"If I hit you as hard as mum, you would be crying."

They laughed and played around as they walked back to The Burrow. When they got there, Molly was at the front door waiting for them with her hands on her hips.

"I shout for you for five minutes and I get not reply," Molly complained as she glared at them,

"We lost track of time," Ginny said innocently.

Molly exhaled and smiled, "While you were gone for over an hour, members of The Order arrived."

She led them inside and into the living room where George saw Kingsley Shacklebolt leaning against one of the sofas that had Harry, Fleur and Charlie sitting on it. On the floor in front of them, were two house elves, both playfully hitting each other and reminding George of Dobby. On the other sofa, Teddy Lupin was sitting in between Hermione and his grandmother, Andromeda Tonks. He was playing with a big brown patch work teddy bear that was a bit rough around the edges and had an eye missing, and a smaller white teddy bear that was more delicate and had bright beady black eyes; he would now and again make them hug and kiss each other as well as make them talk absolute jibber jabber. Ron was sitting on the floor with Percy and Arthur was passing around little nibbles. George was surprised when Professor McGonagal came behind him eating a fairy cake and sat down on a chair that looked as if it was there just for her.

"Do you know if any of my students are a target to this vile person?" Professor McGonagal asked as she looked from Harry, to Molly and then to George,

"So far, there are no signs of anyone from Hogwarts being a target, Professor," George was surprised at the fact that he still called her 'Professor'.

"Good, because I'm not dealing with having my school reconstructed again."

George laughed. Seeing McGonagal made him think of how much he missed Hogwarts, despite the rules and some of the lessons, he missed exploring the halls, trying to get the right staircase, mouthing off the fat lady and playing pranks on the first years. The memories came flooding back to him, but he realized that even if he did visit Hogwarts one day, he could never relive those memories, because it would just be him, alone. Charlie got up for Ginny to sit down and sat with Ron and Percy. George sat next to him and waved at Teddy who giggled and made the rough bear wave back before making it hug the other one.

"Thank you all for coming. Kingsley informed you about what we have planned and it will take all of us to make it successful," Arthur started.

They discussed all the matters that needed to be settled for at least two hours. Harry and Hermione offered to teach the children that would be staying at Grimmauld Place, Molly and Fleur offered to cook, the house elves agreed to clean the house as long as they were treated fairly and Kingsley decided to have auror's work at Hogwarts to make sure no harm came to the students and to keep McGonagal quiet. They set out to open the safe-house in three days and when they finished planning, Molly made some dinner for them all to eat. George was busy tucking into his food when there was a knock at the door.

"Charlie, could you get that?" Ron asked before taking a massive bite out of a chicken leg,

"Why me? Percy, you go get it," Charlie argued,

"Oh yeah, because Percy will do everything," Percy rolled his eyes, "Ron, should get it,"

"Would someone just get the damn door already?!" boomed Molly from the kitchen.

The Weasley brothers froze and looked in the direction of the kitchen. It was George who finally got up and walked over to the door while cleaning his hands with a napkin.

"You guys can be such numpties sometimes," George laughed as he opened the door.

Angelina was standing shivering, with her wand out creating light from the tip of it. She was breathing heavily and there were dried up tears on her cheek.

"That better not have been directed at me," she smiled as she flicked off the light from her wand,

"Of course not," George said before hugging her.

She made a sigh of relief when he held her and slid her hands across his waist and underneath his black hoodie which tickled him slightly. He had missed holding her and smelling the coconut fumes that came from her hair. When the hug ended, he showed Angelina inside and got her a chair to sit on. Hermione and Ginny looked at Angelina and then each other with faces full of excitement, while Ron, Percy and Charlie analysed her like a book cover and nodded with approval.

"Something terrible has happened and you were the person to pop into my head when it came to thinking about who to go to," Angelina said as the room went quiet and everyone focused on her and George.

He knelt in front of her, "What's happened, Angelina?"

"I was looking after my little cousin Reuelle and she wanted to go outside, so I told her that I'd be out in a minute because I had to put on my shoes. When I got outside, I saw a dark figure of a man in the corner of the garden holding her in his arms and before I could do anything, a dementor came in front of me and by the time I had dealt with it, the man was gone with my cousin. I was trusted to look after her and now she's gone," Angelina cried and put her head into her hands.

George got up to put his arms around her and she put her arms around him and cried into his chest. He stroked her back and kissed her head, hoping it would at least make her feel an inch better.

"Angelina, I need to know, is your cousin muggle-born?" he asked delicately,

Angelina nodded. Molly came in with a box of tissues and a plate of food for Angelina which put a slight smile on her face. She talked to Ginny and McGonagol while George, Hermione and Harry sat in the kitchen.

"We _have_ to find the man behind this," George insisted,

"If we could get Angelina to describe him as much as she can, it may help," Hermione suggested,

"That's an idea. Maybe she should stay over tonight, I mean she's obviously in a state and it's seriously dark now," Harry said,

"Could she stay in your room George?" Hermione asked,

"I guess, but tomorrow, we need to find this guy," George got up and walked out of the kitchen.

He watched Angelina laugh with Ginny and play with Teddy on her lap. She looked so happy and the smile on her face emphasised her beauty even more. George hated the idea of her crying, let alone watching her cry, and he never wanted to see her cry again, which meant he had to find her cousin and more importantly put an end to the man attacking and kidnapping muggle-borns. Not for him, but for Angelina.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8- Another Nightmare **

After everyone had left, George showed Angelina to his bedroom.

"You can sleep in my bed," he offered as he took his pyjamas off of his bed and onto Fred's,

"Are you sure?" she asked,

"Yeah, of course."

Angelina smiled at him as she sat on his bed and looked around the room. George was nervous. This was the first time a girl had stayed over in his bedroom and he didn't really know what to do. He wanted to comfort her, but would it be weird if he sat next to her on the bed and put his arms around her? Or should he give her space and sleep downstairs? He was so confused.

"Do you have anything I could sleep in?" Angelina asked.

George nodded and rummaged through his drawers to find a t-shirt he hadn't worn in a while. He checked it over, to make sure it wasn't one of Fred's old t-shirts and when he was sure it wasn't, he threw it over to Angelina. He showed Angelina to the bathroom and after getting changed in his room, he sat on Fred's bed and waited for her.

"How am I meant to sleep in his bed?" George asked himself as he stared at the pillow with Fred's wand on.

He stroked it, before looking at the pyjamas that were identical to his and were perfectly folded on the bed. He couldn't do this. It was Fred's bed, not his. The only person that could ever sleep in the bed was Fred and for George to sleep in it would be like him attempting to take his place. But he wanted to stay with Angelina, because of the state she was in. As he argued with himself over where to sleep, Angelina came in wearing his navy t-shirt with a 'G' on that went down to just above her knees and shorts with pink, yellow and white stripes. Her hair was tied up into a small bun and the makeup that had been on her face had completely vanished, but if anything, she looked even more beautiful than usual. She got into George's bed and he stood up, _maybe the sofa would be better_, he told himself.

"Aren't you gonna stay with me?" Angelina was looking up at him with sad eyes.

He couldn't leave her. Even if it felt wrong to sleep in Fred's bed, it would feel even worse to leave her on her own. He nodded and walked back to the bed. First he delicately lifted Fred's wand and carefully placed it on Fred's drawer. Then, he picked up Fred's pyjamas and opened the drawer for them. However, instead of putting them in, he held them close to his chest, closed his eyes and stroked the soft fabric with one of his hands. He imagined Fred coming through the bedroom door while George and Angelina were sleeping. He imagined him waking George up and angrily whispering in his ear, asking why George was sleeping in his bed and why he was always with his girlfriend. It sent almost painful shivers down George's spine, before he opened his eyes and put the pyjamas into the drawer. He then got into Fred's bed and sat up against the head board.

"How are you feeling?" he asked Angelina,

She sat up, "Confused. Why would someone take my cousin?"

"We believe that the man you saw holding her may be behind various attacks on muggle-borns,"

"But she wasn't _just _attacked, she was kidnapped,"

"And I promise you, we will find her and bring her back."

A tear crawled down her cheek. George reached over the gap between the beds and pulled her into his arms.

"Sorry for all the crying," she sniffed,

"It's okay, I like being the one to cheer you up," he smiled before kissing her head.

She laughed and pulled her head up. He looked into her eyes that gazed back up at him. The tears that were still in her eyes made them glisten and sparkle even more and as he wiped one of her tears away, her dazzling smile appeared on her face. He knew that eventually the gap between the beds would widen and they'd have to let go of each other, so he couldn't let this chance pass. He felt like all the feelings he had for her were filling him up and now, they were about to overflow.

"Erm, Angelina, being with you has been amazing and lately I've been having feelings for you and I know it's wrong, because you used to go out with my brother and it may be weird but I can't help it and I understand if you don't feel the same and."

He was interrupted by Angelina moving closer to him and kissing his lips gently. Her lips tasted of sweet mints and he felt butterflies flutter in excitement in his belly. When Angelina pulled herself back, she giggled at George's face of surprise and how quickly he was blinking. After the few seconds it took him to let what had happened sink in, he cleared his throat, but his facial expression didn't change.

"I hope that wasn't a test to see whether I've brushed my teeth or not," he smiled,

"Of course it wasn't, you big ginger nut," she giggled, "I kinda have feelings for you too."

They laughed. George couldn't believe that she felt the same way about him, her simple words made him feel like they had been plucked out of a fairy tale and his happily ever after was waiting for them around the corner.

"So, would it be okay if I kissed you?" he asked nervously,

"You don't need my permission," she giggled.

He chuckled before stroking her cloud soft cheek and kissing her. Everything became a blur in the moments that their lips touched and when her hands slid through his hair, tingles went through is body. Never in a million years did he think that Angelina Johnson would have feelings for him and never in a million years did he think that he'd be making out with her.

George was in the exact same place again: infinite darkness with smoke surrounding him. But this time, he wasn't alone. Angelina was standing by his side in a long black dress with her hair tied up and holding his hand. They walked through the darkness until they saw a grey stone wall appear in front of them with blood splatter across it. The smoke clumped together to form the shape of a person and when it sunk back to the floor, Fred was left standing in front of the wall. He was wearing the exact same thing as he wore on the day of his death, but something about him seemed very much alive. There wasn't a spec of blood on him and there was colour in his face. He was back.

"Fred?" George looked at him.

Fred smiled at him and Angelina, "Well, it's not your reflection, George, so yes, it's me."

Angelina let go of George's hand and ran into Fred's arms. He held her close to him and kissed her lips slowly. _Of course she'd leave me for him,_ George told himself as he watched them and forced tears back. When Fred let go of her, he looked at George in silence. The silence between them continued until they ran towards each other and held each other. The feeling of holding Fred made George cry with ecstasy and his heart grow to be three times the size. He never wanted to let go. He couldn't let go. Fred was the one to let go first and George could see a couple of tears falling from his eyes too.

"Look at you crying like a girl," Fred laughed as he pushed George's chest playfully,

"You're crying too, you big baby," George laughed as he pushed Fred back.

He didn't push him hard at all, in fact, George's push was so weak that Fred didn't even take a step back. Despite that, when George moved his hand away, blood began to seep out of his chest and Fred fell to the floor. George ran to him, put one hand on his arm and the other over the bleeding wound on his chest. He felt blood trickle out from under his hand on his arm and when he removed it, there was another wound that wasn't there before bleeding heavily.

"Don't touch me," Fred begged as he struggled to breathe,

"I'm so sorry, I don't understand how I did this," George cried as he moved back from him.

As Fred took his last breath, the smoke surrounded him and eventually consumed him, leaving nothing but dust. There was blood dripping from George's hands making him feeling nauseous. He shook and cried as he stood up and looked at Angelina. Tears were flowing like a high speed river from her eyes. From the look on her face, George could tell that she was almost consumed by anger and her eyes were staring at him like sharpened daggers. She ran at him and hit his chest over and over against with her fists.

"How could you?!" she cried.

She then fell to the floor by the dust that was once Fred and cried into her hands. George rubbed his aching chest before kneeling next to her. The blood on his hands had disappeared which allowed him to but his arms around Angelina and kiss her head. He held her tight, but soon felt a liquid from Angelina's arm and back begin to coat his palms. When he removed them, it was like déjà vu. There was a wound on her back and another on her arm, both rapidly bleeding, both caused by George. She fell to the floor and went pale.

"Please, don't leave me," he begged as he hopelessly watched her.

Angelina looked into his eyes, as she carried on with her fight for oxygen and her voice echoed in the darkness, endlessly saying, "How could you?!" But she couldn't die. He couldn't lose her too, he just couldn't.

George woke up sweating and breathing heavily. He had to convince himself it was just a nightmare, he had to sit up, look over to Angelina and watch her to make sure that she was breathing. After two minutes of just watching her, he lay back down as it wasn't even sunrise yet. He hoped that he wouldn't have another nightmare, but it was obvious to him that there was no point of hoping or praying. So he closed his eyes, and prepared himself for the nightmares ahead.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9- Defenceless **

"George, wake up," Angelina whispered in his ear.

George's eyes slowly fluttered open and despite his vision being blurry, he could pick out all the perfect features of Angelina's face that was hovering above him. When he rubbed his eyes a couple of times and sat up, everything else became clearer. On both his side table and the one next to Angelina was a mug of tea and two pieces of buttered toast.

"Your mum brought us breakfast, she's so lovely," she smiled as she sat up.

George just smiled at the happiness and joy that was on Angelina's face; it was something he wasn't used to seeing in the morning, but he loved it. He held his arms out for her and she shuffled into them and placed her head on his chest. The feeling of holding her was surreal.

"You were kicking a lot in your sleep. Were you having a bad dream?" Angelina spoke softly as she stroked his chest,

"Yeah, but it doesn't matter," George yawned,

"No, tell me,"

"I don't want to remember it, okay?!"

"I'm sorry."

He didn't mean to snap at her, but he hated being haunted by his nightmares and thought that telling someone about them, would make that person be haunted by them too. Angelina didn't need all his problems on her shoulders, when her cousin was out there missing and in danger.

"No, I'm sorry. It's just something I want to keep to myself," George stroked her hair,

"You can't keep everything to yourself, it's not fun," Angelina looked up at him and kissed his nose,

"You're so adorable," George smiled before kissing her lips slowly.

Why couldn't his dreams be like this? No death, no tears, no pain, just the smell of fresh toast and tea along with kisses and bliss.

George and Angelina went to Grimmauld Place in the afternoon, where Hermione, Harry and Ginny were waiting for them. They were in the kitchen, eating with the house elves and playing a board game. When they entered the kitchen, Kreacher was standing on the dining chair, rejoicing and collecting monopoly money off of Harry.

"I'm sorry, Master Harry, but that's just the way it goes," he gloated,

"Why on earth did we teach him how to play monopoly?" Harry sighed.

Angelina and George laughed, before sitting down at the end of the table and watching them play.

"Shouldn't you tell George about what you found out?" Ginny said as she moved her piece across the board,

"Oh, yeah," Harry turned away from the game to face George, "Percy was near the site of another dementor attack, he followed them for a while and said that he saw them going into some creepy house, so I think we should check it out and see if we can find the guy behind this,"

"Sounds good, when do you wanna get going?" George asked.

Before Harry could answer, he turned back to the monopoly board and saw that Kreacher had landed on one of his properties.

"Pay up elf boy," he said with a smug face before holding out his hand for his money.

Kreacher mumbled something under his breath, probably a sentence made of nothing but swear words, and handed over his monopoly money. Once Harry had counted up his money, he gave it and his properties to Ginny and stood up.

"Why does Ginny get everything?" Hermione complained,

"Because, he loves me," Ginny replied sweetly,

"_Or_ because she can scare the life out of Harry sometimes," George laughed,

"I think it's time to go," Harry pushed George out of the house and closed the door behind them.

Wherever Percy had led them, it definitely looked like the place when dementors would reside. Percy had met them in a field where the pale green grass had overgrown to be almost taller than Harry and hurt when it poked into them. Parts of the grass had already been stamped on and pushed aside, creating a clear path that led them to an abandoned mansion. It was still intact, but some of the windows had been broken, black wooden planks were hanging by one nail and there were holes in the stairs and the landing that led them to a crooked front door. Percy carefully pushed open the door, to reveal an empty dingy and dark hallway with two curved staircases on either side of it. The door creaked closed behind them once all three of them had gotten into the hallway. No light directly came in from outside into the hallway, the only light came from a slightly opened door that was on the wall to the right.

"Percy and I will go upstairs, George you stay down here. You don't have to get the guy, we just need to know what's going on here, if you're in any danger, leave immediately," Harry whispered as he walked up the left staircase.

Percy followed him, being cautious with every step he made. The walked off on opposite sides, leaving George on his own in the hallway. He grabbed his wand from his pocket as he went towards a door on the back wall. As he got closer he heard someone talking.

"What are we going to do with the children?" asked a female voice from the other side of the door,

"The filthy mudbloods will stay where they are for now," a man with a deep voice replied,

"But they're just children, why not target anyone older?"

"Young or old, they're mudbloods and do not belong among us. Do not question my plans; you can easily be disposed of," the man snapped.

They kept talking for a while, but they revealed no information that would let George know who they were or where they were keeping the children they had kidnapped. There was no gap or crack in the door that George could look through, there wasn't even a key whole. While looking for a way to see into the room, he heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

"There's a man and woman in here, I think they're the ones behind the attacks," George whispered as he stepped back from the door and closer to the front door.

When he turned to face the stairs, he didn't see Harry or Percy walking down them. Instead he saw a tall pale woman with blonde hair tied into a pony tail and who was wearing a long black dress that was torn at the bottom, a black leather jacket and black buckled boots. She had obviously spotted George, but instead of attacking him, she walked down the stairs while tilting her head and analysing him. A bone chilling smile crept onto her face as she walked off the staircase and stood leaning on the railing.

"Shh, they might hear us," she whispered sinisterly as she took out her black wand.

The handle of her wand was rounded like a small dome, with the rest of the wand engraved with symbols. She flicked her wand at George, making sparks fly out towards him, but he had his wand prepared and blocked her spell. He tried his best to disarm her, but with every spell and every strike he made with his wand, she had one to counter it.

"_Stupefy!_" the woman yelled.

George flew into the railing of the staircase behind him, breaking bits of it and sending a stinging pain through his back. He felt a bit dizzy, his vision was a bit blurry and he heard the muffled sound of the woman's boots approaching him.

"It's a shame to let someone so handsome go to waste," she sighed.

Before she could cast any spell, George saw Harry run down the stairs.

"_Expelliarmus!_" Harry chanted.

The woman's wand flew into Harry's hand as Percy ran down the staircase that was behind George. Everything was looking clearer to George and nothing was muffled, but he felt quite weak and could still feel some of the pain caused from smashing into the railing.

"_Stupefy!_" cast Percy and the woman flew back through the opposite wall and into a dining table.

A chandelier hung above her and swayed vigorously before falling on her. As Percy helped George up, the door on the back wall creaked open and the man and woman were revealed. The man was pale with black hair in a long plait and wore a long black leather jacket over a black waist coat and trousers. The woman was dark skinned with dark brown dreadlocks that went slightly past her hips and was wearing a long black sleeves jacket with black lace gloves that went up to her elbows. Both of them had their wands out and looked from the dead woman in the next room to George, Harry and Percy.

"Call for them, Lilith," the man said calmly.

Lilith nodded and pointed her wand to the room they had come from. She moved her wand in a circular motion, releasing a painful cold into the place. When George breathed out, he could clearly see almost white vapour be released, ice crawled and covered everything it could get its hands on and a melancholy, sorrowful and bitter feeling filled the air. Suddenly, two dementors flew out in front of Lilith and the man. Percy stood in front of George and lifted his was in preparation for casting a patronus charm. Harry stood beside him and breathed in. As Percy opened his mouth, Lilith pointed her wand at him and flicked it, sending a beam of green light into his chest and pushing him back through the railings of the stairs and into the wall.

"_Expecto Patronum!_" Harry cried.

As white light spread from Harry's wand, the man grabbed Lilith's hand and they ran out the front door. George wasn't going to let them get away; they had attacked and kidnapped so many children that just thinking about it made him feel sick. He swerved past the dementors that were fleeing from Harry and ran after the pair.

He gripped his wand as he sprinted through the long grass, pushing the pain of the grass hitting his face back in his mind. After not even a minute of running, George spotted Lilith through the grass. He stroke her feet with his wand, forcing her to let go of the man's hand and fall to the ground.

"_Expelliarmus!_" George breathed heavily as he caught her wand,

"Call one!" Lilith scream at the man.

George saw him turn around and wave his wand in the air. A bitterly cold breeze and darkness came towards George as if something out of one of his nightmares. A dementor flew swiftly towards him as Lilith got up from the ground and ran towards the man. George turned around to see them turn into black smoke and fly into the air, disappearing into the horizon. The last time he attempted a patronus charm, he failed completely and couldn't hold it long enough to protect himself. Nevertheless, he had to do it now. He turned towards the dementor. He gathered all his courage and strength in one breath and lifted his wand.

"_Expecto Patronum!_" George shouted.

Light emerged from his wand as he tried to only let happy memories of Fred fill his head. But unlike all the other times, the thought of Fred dying, on his own, without George being there to protect him took over all the good memories. The light slowly faded, allowing the dementor to kiss George. The pain was immense and went through every inch of his body. Only painful thoughts and memories went through his head as he fell onto his knees and screamed in complete agony. His body started to give up. Before his eyes closed, he saw a figure approach the dementor and go against it, while another ran up to George and held him. But George was too weak to keep himself conscious. The last thing he heard before passing out was Percy assuring George that he was going to be okay.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10- Grown Up Little Sister**

When he woke up, George was hit with a throbbing pain in his head and the comfort of the cloud softness of whatever he was lying on. He felt so weak that he could barely open his eyes, let alone sit up. He eventually opened his eyes to see that he was on the sofa in his living room. Ginny was sitting with Angelina on the floor beside him and Percy was sitting on the arm of the sofa. None of them had realized that he had woken up, Angelina was biting her nails with tears rolling down her cheeks, Ginny was holding her hand and Percy was drumming on his lap.

"That was the best sleep I've ever had," George tried to sit up.

Angelina shot up and helped him while Percy chuckled at how George could still crack a joke.

"You've been asleep for four hours," Angelina said as she sat on the edge of the sofa,

"You worried mum the most, she almost had a breakdown," Ginny gave him a glass of water.

He couldn't begin to imagine how Molly would've reacted to finding out that George had been kissed by a dementor. Ever since Fred died, she became paranoid whenever anyone got hurt or ill, she had a panic attack over Ginny getting the flu. But she reacted worse when it came to George, and who could blame her? If she lost George, she wouldn't only lose _another_ son, but she'd lose the only thing that could resemble Fred in every way. George took a sip of the water.

"Did you and Harry get out okay?" he asked Percy,

"Yeah, he's down at the Ministry giving a report on everything that happened," Percy smiled.

Angelina was stroking George's arm and looking at him with worrying eyes. He took a hold of her hand and kissed it gently, despite the pain when he lowered his head. Her hand was shaking at first, but after he kissed it, she calmed down and a smile grew on her face.

"Didn't you create a patronus?" Angelina asked him.

George didn't want to answer. Both Percy and Ginny looked at him and then each other. They knew the answer to Angelina's question- his patronus took the shape of the thing he cared about the most and that thing was now gone. He had never been able to get over losing Fred, he had never been able to let him go and he didn't think he ever could.

"I was caught off guard," he stuttered,

"Well, thank God you're alright," Angelina held him.

During the night, George recovered from the events of earlier that day and the next day, he was ready and raring to go. He didn't leave home until the afternoon and when he got to Grimmauld Place, there were children of all shapes, colours and sizes with bags waiting outside the kitchen. George pushed past them and when he entered the kitchen, he saw Molly and Ginny sitting on one side of the dining table and children sitting on the other. Angelina came down the stairs and hugged him from behind-putting her arms around his waist.

"What's going on?" George asked her as he stroked her arms,

"Everything was pushed ahead after what happened yesterday. Molly and Ginny tell the children what's going on, the rules while they stay here, what they'll be learning and how long they'll be staying here, then Hermione and I take them to their rooms and introduce them to the house elves. It's going well so far," Angelina explained,

"Where's Harry?"

Suddenly, the door opened and the children in the hallway turned to see who was about to enter. When they saw it was Harry, they all began to whisper and mumble things to each other.

"That's Harry Potter! He's on my chocolate frog card!" one child clapped,

"I've got all three: Harry, Hermione and Ron," another child boasted.

As Harry walked past them, the children looked up at him in awe with their eyes fixed on him.

"Yes, it's Harry Potter, but can we keep the line moving please," Molly shouted.

The children were suddenly taken out of their trance and looked towards Molly and Ginny. Harry stood on the steps, "I don't know why, but a part of me loves how I can make people stop and stare,"

"Most stare because no one wears those glasses anymore, Harry," Angelina joked before going into the kitchen,

"She's spending too much time with you," Harry said to George.

George laughed; he didn't think there was such a thing as spending _too_ much time with Angelina, only not enough time.

"I need to talk to you about yesterday," Harry said quietly,

"Sure, let's go into the library," George said as he pushed through the kids.

When they got to the library, Harry closed the door behind them and leaned against it.

"Percy and I found something when we went up the stairs of that mansion," Harry started, "In one of the rooms, there was a map of all wizarding schools in the world and on a table there were plans of…when they would target them,"

"So, they're planning on taking muggle-borns from all these schools and doing what with them?" George asked,

"We don't know, but we have a feeling that they plan on ridding the world of muggle-borns and soon."

George couldn't believe it. He didn't want to believe it. He thought that the whole thing of hating on wizards and witches that had muggle parents was over, after all, it wasn't their fault that they had muggle parents and they posed as no threat to other wizards and witches, so why get rid of them? Why they pushed the date forward on when to open the safe-house made sense to him now.

"Do you remember the names of the man and the woman that was there?" Harry looked stressed.

George closed his eyes and put his mind back to yesterday. He remembered what they looked like, the woman's long dreadlocks and the man's long black plait. He remembered the woman calling for the man to help her and when the man told the woman to call for the dementors.

"The woman's name was Lilith, but I don't think she mentioned the man's name," George replied,

"Okay, I'm going to go to the Ministry and work with Percy on finding her whereabouts. Hopefully, if we find her, we can find the missing children and put an end to their plans before it all gets worse."

Harry was about to open the door, before he remembered something and started searching his jacket pockets. He made a sigh of relief, when he found what he was looking for and took out a small black velvet box. He didn't have to open it; George already knew what it was.

"Finally, you took your time," George smiled,

"Well, once I found out that she was pregnant, I thought there was no better time to do it," Harry made a nervous grin and ruffled his hair.

When he opened the box, a vintage sparkling engagement ring was revealed. It had vines with diamonds in the middle of the leaves creating the actual ring part and small sapphire jewels surrounding a beautiful shining circular diamond. To think that a ring so beautiful would be placed on his little sister's finger brought a tear to the corner of George's eye.

"She'll love it," George sighed,

"But not as much as I love her," Harry closed the box and put it back into his pocket.

After they talked about how Harry would propose, Harry opened the door and walked to the kitchen with George following him. Ginny was pouring juice into glasses and George couldn't help but take a glass for himself, even if it resulted in getting a slap on the arm from Ginny. Harry sat at the head of the table and when Ginny stood next to him, he stroked her stomach and kissed it.

"Harry, he can't feel you kissing him," Ginny laughed,

"What makes you think it's a he?" George asked as he drank some juice,

"Well, mum had a boy first," Ginny shrugged,

"I want it to be a girl, we need more girls in this family," Molly said as she handed juice to the children.

George couldn't help but get all emotional when he looked at Ginny and Harry together. His sweet little sister was the chaser for Holyhead Harpies, was pregnant and going to get married, it hadn't occurred to him how grown up she was. He was proud of her, and he knew that Fred would be too.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11- Perfect Timing**

George helped out throughout the day with the safe-house. He showed some of the children around the house when Hermione had to leave and then began to help Molly with making dinner. He was peeling potatoes when Angelina came into the kitchen.

"Hello, Angelina dear, how is it going upstairs?" Molly asked as she put chicken in the oven,

"It's going well, they're all unpacked and getting to know each other," she smiled,

"That's great, well dinner will be done in an hour, so start getting them ready in around fifty minutes,"

"Sure thing, do you mind if I borrow George?"

"Go ahead, dear."

George put the potato down on the chopping board and walked towards Angelina. She was wearing an oversized red and white striped shirt with skinny jeans and purple fluffy slippers. She had a serious look on her face which created a knot in George's stomach. He followed her into the library and closed the door behind him. They stood apart as if there was a wall between them and he didn't know whether to break down the wall and move closer to her or just stay where he was.

"Is everything okay?" he asked,

"Yeah, it's just, us," Angelina fiddled with her fingers.

The knot in George's stomach got tighter and a lump grew in his throat. This was the moment he was dreading, she was going to tell him that she just can't be with him and then give him on last kiss goodbye. _I knew this would happen,_ he said to himself.

"I want to know, is this a serious relationship?" she asked him.

He sighed in the relief that took over him, the knot in his stomach was untied and the lump in his throat vanished. He walked towards her and held her hands while looking into her deep brown eyes.

"Angelina, I have never felt this way about anyone before and I'm serious about that, so yeah, this is a serious relationship," he kissed her forehead,

"That was my other question, how _do you_ feel about me?" she looked nervous as the words came out of her mouth.

George had never thought about how he felt about her. He knew he felt something towards her, but he didn't know how strong his feelings were. He didn't know what it was like to feel love, so how was he meant to know if he loved her or just liked her? When he thought about her leaving him, cracks formed in his heart, when he thought about not seeing her every day, tears began to peep out of the corner of his eyes and when he thought about kissing her, butterflies went out of control in his stomach. It had gotten to the point where he needed her and couldn't stop thinking about her.

"I think I love you," he said it once he realized it,

A smile grew on her face, "Good," she hugged him, "because I think I love you."

George held her tight and tried to process the fact that Angelina had just said that she loved him. It felt surreal for him to be in love with someone and feel so ecstatic every time he was with them. Angelina Eskimo kissed him while making a cute little giggle and George stroked her cheek while looking into her eyes that glittered. He felt like an angel had come down from heaven and chose to answer his wishes; never before had he felt so happy, not since Fred's death anyway. He delicately kissed her lips and when he pulled away, Angelina giggled again.

"Your lips are really soft," she whispered,

"Well, I did grow them myself," he joked,

"You should go back to helping your mum,"

"Of course, but I was thinking, tomorrow, do you wanna go for a meal?"

Angelina nodded and kissed him gently.

"So you're going for a meal with her today?" Ron asked as he opened up a box full of chocolate frogs,

"Yeah, she likes this sushi restaurant, so I'm gonna take her there," he explained as he put the chocolate frogs on the shelf,

"I've never had sushi,"

"Neither have I, but if she likes it, I'll eat it."

George was all ready for his date; he had bought a black leather jacket that he wore over a pale blue shirt with black jeans and Ginny had assured him after he asked at least twenty times that he looked fine.

Once all the chocolate frogs were on the shelf, George and Ron walked up the stairs and looked over the shop. Due to it being almost 6pm, which was the closing time, it wasn't as busy, but there were still quite a lot of children pulling around their parents and demanding that potion and this sweet. George saw the door swing open and Angelina walked in wearing a dark purple dress that had a black collar and ended just above her knees with black velvet stilettos and a black blazer. Her hair was pinned to one side, she had a black clutch bag and even though she was wearing makeup, she looked as beautiful as ever. He was stunned by her. When he unfroze, he ran down the stairs to her, pulled her into his arms and kissed her passionately. She put her arms around him and smiled.

"It's nice to see you too," she giggled before kissing him again.

When they went to the restaurant, Angelina had to teach George how to use chopsticks and when he failed, she mocked him while he used a fork and she used the chopsticks. A waiter was rude to them when they ordered more food, so George did what he did best and used magic to make a fool of him. First he made him get all confused after taking orders, then he made his belt become undone so that every time the waiter walked, his trousers became closer and closer to falling, until they fell while he walked to their table and when they were about to leave, they made him spill four glasses of red wine over a group of women. All of this added up to one of the best nights in George's life.

Angelina came back to The Burrow with him and they went upstairs to George's room. Instead of sitting on the bed, they took off the mattresses, put them on the floor, covered them in blankets and with a bit of magic, they created a fort.

"I haven't done this in ages," Angelina said as she took off her shoes and her blazer,

"I know, it just proves how childish we are," George laughed.

Angelina hit him playfully and he tickled her, making her hit him over and over again to try to make him stop. As he tickled her, he rolled on top of her and pinned her arms down to stop her hitting his chest. They breathed heavily as they looked at each other, he was kneeling over her with his legs either side of her and she seemed to allow him to hold her arms down on the mattress. Angelina bit her bottom lip as she slowly raised her arms and interlocked her fingers behind George's neck. Butterflies emerged in George's stomach as he moved his face closer to hers so their lips were almost touching and he could feel her breath. He pressed his lips against hers and closed his eyes when they kissed to take in the sensation of her velvet lips against his. As they made out, Angelina ran her hands through his hair, he ended up lying on top of her and he caressed her side. Angelina pushed off his jacket and began undoing the buttons of his shirt. He was nervous about what may happen next, but he was so in love Angelina and being so close to her that it didn't faze him. When she undid the last button of his shirt, they heard footsteps walking up the stairs and someone knock on the bedroom door.

"Perfect timing," Angelina sighed as they both sat up and George buttoned up his shirt,

"Who is it?" George called before getting out of the fort and hanging up his leather jacket,

"It's Ginny, I have some news."

Angelina got up and opened the door. Ginny couldn't stand still at all; she was all over the place with excitement written on her face in bold.

"Harry and I are engaged," she clapped like a child in a sweet shop,

"Oh my god, I'm so happy for you guys," Angelina hugged her.

When Ginny finished hugging Angelina and showing her the ring, she walked over to George cautiously. She had finally stopped moving around and when she looked up to George, she fiddled with her fingers and the ring. He knew she was worried about what he would say; he had become more protective of her since Fred died and still wasn't used to the idea of his little sister being all grown up.

"Congratulations, Ginny," he smiled before hugging her.

He then put his hands on her shoulders, pushed her slightly away from him and made a serious face.

"However," he began, making Ginny's smile disappear, "I can't believe you're getting married before me," he laughed.

Ginny laughed and fell into George's arms again, "Thank you, George."


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12- Brilliance**

The next few days were hectic. George was helping out at the safe-house during the afternoon and helped Harry search for Lilith and the man she was with whenever he got the chance. Harry had brought all the files he could find on Lilith back with him and he and George sat on the floor of the living room as they looked through them.

"Have you found anything?" Harry asked as he adjusted his glasses,

"Not really, just going through all the crimes she's committed," George sighed.

They had been going through the files for two hours and they still had a whole four piles of papers to get through left. The crimes Lilith had committed were almost never ending, from stealing, to enslaving muggle-borns and murder, it made George's stomach turn knowing someone like her was roaming freely. As he went through the list of her crimes, Harry shoved the papers in his hands in George's face, pushing the papers George was reading to the floor.

"I was reading that," George said as he reached out for the papers he was reading,

"Just look at this," Harry urged as George took the papers.

As George read them, Harry summarized what was on them, "In 1979, Lilith was arrested and brought to the Ministry, but she was freed thanks to a man called Seth Dunstan. He was described by a witness as a pale man with a long black plait, just like the man we saw at the mansion. The Ministry sent out dementors to look for them, but the dementors never returned, like they were disappearing or when they found them, they were trapped in some way. The Ministry eventually decided to forget about them and label them as dead,"

"Which one of her many crimes were the reason why Lilith was arrested?"

"For crimes against muggle-borns, this included enslaving them to do work for her."

George gulped. Was that what they were doing to the muggle-borns they had kidnapped? She couldn't have done all her crimes alone though, not even Voldemort could wreak havoc on Hogwarts without help.

"This Seth guy must've helped her with these crimes," George said,

"Obviously, there must be a group of them," Harry replied as he looked through more papers.

When they took a break from searching for where Lilith and Seth may be, Hermione and Ron came in while having a debate.

"For god sake, Ron," Hermione sighed as she took off her jacket,

"I'm sorry, but I just wanted to make sure that my baby is okay," Ron plonked himself onto the sofa.

Harry and George saw this as entertainment. Whenever Hermione and Ron had a fight, they would watch them and use a point system to see who was winning the argument. George sat with his back up against the arm of the sofa, crossed his arms and rested them over his knees.

"Just because I haven't really had any cravings yet, doesn't mean that there's something wrong with the baby," Hermione argued,

"How do you know that?" Ron asked,

"Because, I think you'll find that the baby is inside _me_ not you and I'm the one who has been reading the baby books, you idiot,"

"And I think you'll find that it's now two points to Hermione and one point to Ron," George laughed.

Both Ron and Hermione turned their heads towards George and Harry with confused faces.

"Why does Ron get a point?" Hermione sat down next to Ron,

"Well, because, I'm going to be a father too and I understand where Ron is coming from, I mean, I'm constantly worried about Ginny and the baby, because I want everything to go smoothly and I'm paranoid about things going wrong," Harry justified,

Ron nodded in agreement and pointed at Harry with his thumb, "He knows."

Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes. Every time they did the point scoring, George and Harry had to justify why Ron had got a point, but never why Hermione had got one. What Harry said was touching to George, even though he wasn't expecting to have a child any time soon. But it also made him think about whether he wanted to have a family like everyone else was, and if he were to have a family, would the mother be Angelina? He knew he was probably over thinking things, but he couldn't help it, he didn't want to be the only one who didn't have a proper family. He didn't want to be alone.

"Look, I get that, I get worried too, but I don't like being pulled to the doctors when I haven't even sorted out my hair," Hermione complained,

"You looked beautiful," Ron assured her,

"You have to say that; I'm having your baby!" Hermione got up and stormed into the kitchen,

"And the hormonal period begins," sighed Ron,

"I heard that!" Hermione boomed from the kitchen.

Harry and George laughed their heads off and when they had calmed down, Ron sat with them and looked at the files they were going through.

"What's all this?" Ron asked,

"It's all the papers and files on Lilith," Harry said,

"And who is Lilith?"

"She's the woman we found at the mansion we went to," George explained.

Ron nodded as he skimmed through some of the papers. When Hermione came back into the living room with a glass of water, she sat on the sofa behind them and grabbed a bunch of papers to read through. They didn't talk for at least half an hour. Even though the silence made George feel a bit awkward, he decided not to speak until someone else did, but that was probably what everyone else was thinking.

"Have you boys read through these thoroughly and properly?" Hermione was the one to dare to break the silence,

"Of course we have, just not for all of them," Harry didn't look at her when he talked; instead he kept reading through the papers,

"Did you look at her locations properly?"

"Yes, why?" George turned to her,

"I've found a link between Lilith's locations. All of them have been buildings that have been abandoned for at least a year, but when searched, they found that only three rooms in the buildings were used: one that was converted into a study, a basement that was connected to the study and a bedroom. The buildings were also always described as cold and lifeless. They always found that the basements were empty, even though there were signs of people being in them recently. Even when they found Lilith in one of the buildings, the basements were empty as if she had been expecting them,"

"But there are many abandoned buildings in Britain," Ron complained,

"I wasn't finished. The buildings, as well as the one that she was found in, have always been buildings that belonged to dark wizards and deatheaters and I can recall hearing that the Malfoy family moved to a bigger house a couple of years ago,"

"Which makes their old house abandoned," Harry said,

"And for at least a year," George added.

They all went silent again. The image of innocent, damaged children chained together with cuffs around their wrists, walking barefoot on freezing cold stone into Malfoy Manor and then descending into the darkness of their basement took over George's head. He felt like he could be sick, but his body just wouldn't let it happen.

"But how do we know if they're going to be there?" Ron asked,

"We'd probably have to sneak in and see. Then, we could come back and come up with a plan," Harry suggested.

Hermione looked through more of the papers, and when she had found the one she wanted, she cleared her throat.

"The way the Ministry found Lilith was thanks to someone who walked past a house and then contacted them. The person described the house that they thought was abandoned as haunted, mainly because of seeing a child through the window or entering the house but never leaving, mysterious lights that couldn't be explained and hearing voices and screams coming from the house. Today, I was reading the boring parts of the daily prophet and there was an article on how people think that Malfoy Manor is haunted by the ghosts of people who were killed there. Some said that they had seen a child in the window, mysterious lights and heard screams," Hermione pointed out,

"How did we not read that?" Harry looked at George,

"It was in the unread pile. Anyway, the point is that all the evidence points at Malfoy Manor and as much as I don't want to visit that place ever again, I think we should go there as soon as possible,"

George looked at Hermione, "Hermione, I know Ron has probably said this to you many times, but you are brilliant."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13- An Unwanted Memory**

When they had talked to Kingsley about how Lilith and Seth may be at Malfoy Manor, he decided that he'd send in auror's to see if their suspicions were correct. It had been almost a week since then and more people were begging to stay at Grimmauld Place, but they simply didn't have the space. There were so many children that the Ministry had listed as targets that they had to limit the amount of time they stayed to less than a week so that they could get everything ready in time for the children who were going to stay next. George couldn't believe that all these children were under threat. All these children had a chance of being one of Lilith and Seth's slaves.

George was helping one of the children set up their room. He was fairly small and pale with brown curly hair and he hadn't talked since they got up to his room. The boy was one of three that were sleeping on the fourth floor is Sirius' old bedroom. As George smoothed out the duvet for the boy's bed, the boy tapped him on his back lightly.

"Can I ask you something?" the boy asked as George turned around,

"Of course," George smiled,

"Will I be safe when I leave?"

George froze. He didn't know how to answer that question; would it be better to say the truth or just lie? The boy looked up at him with glittering eyes that were full of worry and fright, George didn't want to add to that, he wanted the boy to smile in this dark time.

"We'll do our best to make sure that you are," George ruffed up his hair and the boy giggled, "my name is George Weasley, by the way,"

"My name is Harrison, guess who my mother named me after?" he shook his hand.

They laughed and talked as they walked down the stairs. Harrison was an interesting young boy; he was muggle-born, but was adopted when he was six by a gay wizard couple and seemed very proud to be able to call himself their son. Not only that, but he knew more about the muggle world than the wizarding world which was evident in how he was the only one to ask if there was wifi and how no one else knew what wifi was.

"Don't you want to be with the other children?" George asked as they stood outside the drawing room,

"I'm not really used to being around a lot of people," Harrison peered into the drawing room and then backed away from the door.

George looked at Harrison's nervous face and stood behind him so that he bumped into him. Harrison twisted round and looked up at George with glittering innocent clear sky blue eyes. It was then that he realized how tiny Harrison was; his head was just about in line with George's stomach, his hands were considerably smaller than his and all his features were scaled down significantly compared to his. Harrison, with his baby blue polo shirt, dark denim jeans, scruffy red converses and adorable puffy cheeks, looked like the type of child people would coo over and would say "oh, I could just put you in my little pocket" to.

"It may seem scary at first, but you'll get used to the others," George assured him.

Angelina opened the door and smiled as she closed it and laid her eyes on them. She was clutching onto he ends of the sleeves of her thickly knitted black jumper that hung over her patterned thick tights.

"This is Angelina," introduced George, "and this is Harrison, he's a bit shy,"

Angelina kneeled down in front of Harrison, "There's no need to be shy; it's just Hermione and I and some children."

George smiled at how sweet and delicate her voice had become.

"But, I'm not the best when it comes to spells," Harrison complained,

"To be honest, neither am I. It just takes practice, honey," she smiled,

"I don't know," Harrison moved into George more.

George put his hands on Harrison's shoulders as he exchanged a look with Angelina that screamed, 'think of something'. He remembered having doubts in his skills as a wizard; after all, there were the enormous shadows of Bill, Charlie and Percy constantly lingering over him.

"Angelina, would you mind just teaching Harrison after you've finished this class?" George asked,

"Not at all," Angelina replied.

Harrison looked up at George and then to Angelina with a beaming smile on his face.

"You'd do that?" he said gratefully,

Angelina took his hands, "Of course, sweetie."

Harrison jumped up and down while clapping in the most adorable way, before hugging Angelina and then George.

"I'll be done at 4pm so meet me out here then," Angelina stood up,

"Sure thing," Harrison nodded before excitedly running up the stairs to his room.

Angelina put her hand on her chest and cooed over Harrison as if George wasn't there.

"Aren't kids just adorable?" she said, still speaking in her sweet voice,

"Yeah, they are," George agreed.

She kissed him lovingly before swiftly going back into the drawing room and doing a demonstration of how to cast a patronus charm. Out of her wand trotted a glowing playful fox that ran around Angelina with its tail leaving a luminous blue trail in the air. The children giggled as they watched the fox roll on its back and then trot around some more. When the fox showed its serious strong side and growled and snarled, the children jumped and backed away from it, but they moved in closer after a while. The fox then ran around Angelina again and eventually faded away which the children gasped at. He could see why Angelina's patronus was a fox; he had always found foxes cute, but wouldn't dare cross one as he knew that they could be the complete opposite to adorable.

He watched the children create their patronus charms and saw the range of things that would protect them- rabbits, lions, Rottweiler's, pythons, bears- run around the room. Watching them reminded him of a memory he didn't want to remember.

It was on the day of Fred's funeral. Everyone had left to go to the house, leaving George on his own in front of Fred's grave. He remembered the tall trees that were a mixture of greens rustling in the wind, the smell of freshly cut grass and the sound of birds tweeting happily close buy, but not in sight. Despite the warmth that came from the sun, George remembered feeling cold all over his body and everything being grey in his eyes, apart from the many flowers that lay on the dark-almost black- blue marble gravestone. He needed to see Fred again; they had been there for each other during so many hard times and George didn't want to get used to him not being there, not yet. The picture of Fred smiling that rested against his gravestone wasn't real enough for George. His patronus was the closest he could get. With his eyes fixed on Fred's gravestone, he pulled out his wand and took a couple of deep breaths.

"_Expecto Patronum_," he said quietly.

A glimmer of light came from his wand and streamed into the air. Then it faded. He was confused; he had always been able to create a patronus. Was it the way he did it? Or maybe he wasn't concentrating enough. He tried again. But he failed. This was the story for every time he tired. Eventually, he became frustrated and angry and tears burned his eyes as he made his last attempt at creating his patronus. He slumped down next to Fred's gravestone in tears and apologised over and over again to him while stroking the cool marble. He spent hours sitting next to the gravestone until Arthur found him (by then, he had ran out of tears and was only half awake) and took home, even though George protested.

That day usually rested at the back of his memories, but now it had pushed itself to the front, making a tear fall from his eye. As the memory replayed in his head like a broken record, he slowly walked down to the kitchen and when he saw that there was no one there, he sat down and let his head fall to the table hard as he cried.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14- The Heart's Confession**

"Harrison, you have ten seconds to get down here!" boomed Angelina.

Less than ten seconds later, Harrison was huffing and puffing at the bottom of the stairs and clutching onto the railings. George saw Angelina standing by the stairs with her arms crossed and due to her hair being tied back, her stern look would punch anyone hard in the face. He became too scared to take another step towards her and felt like he should've been standing in front of Harrison to protect him.

"You're late, Harrison," Angelina's voice had gotten softer but was still hard and firm,

"I'm sorry, I was reading and I lost track of time," Harrison replied innocently.

Angelina sighed. She had been giving Harrison private lessons for a week now and because he had nowhere to go, they had decided that he could stay at Grimmauld Place until they found somewhere else to go. George and Angelina enjoyed looking after him. They were always there for him whenever he needed to talk to someone and whenever it came to meal times or when he had nothing to do, Harrison would look for them and spend as much time with them as possible. George wasn't complaining; there was a strange feeling that took over him whenever he spent time with Harrison, especially when Angelina was with them. His heart would go fuzzy and warm and he became very delicate when with him.

"Hey, George," Harrison smiled as he hugged him,

"Hey, little dude," George patted his head.

Angelina's stern face changed to one with a smile and glistening eyes of happiness. When Harrison let go of him, Ginny came in. Her face was full of rage, her cheeks an almost scorching red and her eyes were like daggers when they fell on George.

"Where is Harry?" she furiously said,

"I don't know, why?" George asked with his voice shaking a bit,

"He missed our doctor's appointment and I ended up waiting for him for an hour."

Angelina and Harrison crept into the study, leaving George to face Ginny on his own.

"He may be busy," George said cautiously,

"Too busy to go with his soon-to-be-wife to the doctor's?" Ginny put her hands on her hips.

George couldn't think of anything else and anything he did think of, he knew Ginny would dismiss. He ended up suggesting that he may be at The Burrow and he and Ginny went together with him trying to calm Ginny down as much as he could on the way.

When he opened the door, George was greeted by Hermione shouting. It was likely that she was arguing with Ron over something petty, but this time, it wasn't. Hermione stood in front of Arthur with a stern angry look and Ron and Harry were sitting on the sofa looking at her. Arthur was holding an opened letter and seemed to have guilt written partly on his face.

"Harry James Potter! How very dare you sit there casually when you were supposed to be at the doctor's with me!" Ginny paced towards Harry.

Harry bolted upright at the edge of the sofa and when Ginny came closer, he leaned back to distance himself from her anger.

"Tell me you have a valid reason," Ginny demanded,

"I was at the Ministry of Magic; they suddenly needed me. I'm so sorry, Ginny," Harry said as he took her hands and kissed them.

At first, it looked like it was going to take more than that to make her forgive him, but eventually she softened up and kissed his head before sitting next to him. George thought it must've been her hormones making her so forgiving all of a sudden, because she usually made Harry feel really guilty and beg for forgiveness first. Hermione was still looking at Arthur, not even backing down when Ron tried to pull her away.

"What's going on here?" George asked as he sat on the floor in front of the sofa.

No one answered. There was a brief silence.

"Tell him then," Hermione challenged Arthur.

Arthur looked down at the letter he was fiddling with. Hermione had had enough. She snatched the letter from his hands and threw it on the floor by George.

"The Ministry has decided that we are to have no involvement in the search for the people conducting the attacks on muggle-borns, even though they would have no idea where to begin if it wasn't for us," Hermione explained.

George was then able to see why Hermione was so angry. He had almost died trying to find the missing muggle-borns, it made no sense not letting them have any involvement when they clearly knew a lot about the situation already and could be a real help. What also made no sense was why they wouldn't want the help of Hermione. She had a job in the Department of Magic Law Enforcement and she wasn't too pregnant to not be able to work, so why wouldn't they allow her to help. George picked up the letter and scanned through it.

"It says here that one of us will be involved," George said as he looked over a section of the letter.

Hermione turned and looked at him. George looked up at Harry who looked as if he didn't want to contribute anything to the conversation they were having and George knew why. Arthur had clearly not read out the last paragraph of the letter to them, hence why he had a face of slight when he looked at George- fear of how everyone would react.

"They want Harry to be one of the aurors who go to Malfoy Manor," George said.

Ginny snapped her head round to Harry. Her cheeks had started to go red again, but it was the complete opposite of blushing.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Hermione asked as she stomped towards Harry,

"I didn't think it mattered," Harry shrugged.

It really didn't matter. George thought it would make the situation better, since at least one of them would be involved in the search. But it was obvious that Hermione didn't want to just sit back and watch, she was a muggle-born herself; if George was in her shoes, he'd want to make sure that Lilith and Seth paid for what they were doing and make sure that the children were rescued and safe.

"Promise me that if you find the children, they will _all _be saved," Hermione insisted as she breathed heavily.

Harry stood up and looked her in the eyes as he took her hands, "I promise, Hermione."

The next day, Harry and Arthur left early in the morning, leaving behind two nervous women who wished that there was a spell that guaranteed a loved one's safety. George and Angelina decided that they'd spend lunch together at The Burrow as they hadn't had time alone in a while. It felt weird to call Angelina his girlfriend- he didn't quite believe it when Ginny pointed it out to him that she was. They sat in the middle of the living room on a blanket with plates of sandwiches, mini muffins, grapes and chocolates and a choice between water and apple juice; it was too windy outside for them to have a proper picnic. Angelina sat opposite him with some of the food separating them, she wore a deep red cardigan over a long black top and carmine skinny jeans. They played some music in the background and had banished everyone from the house for a few hours.

"This is nice," Angelina smiled as she sipped some of her apple juice through a straw,

"Yeah it is," George smiled as he watched her gracefully put the cup down.

Watching her was something he couldn't help but do. Angelina wasn't really a graceful person, she was a Quidditch player and they tended to be a bit rough, but George had found of way of seeing her every move as elegant and smooth.

"Stop staring, you know I don't like it," Angelina looked at him,

"And you know I can't help it," George replied with a slight grin.

She giggled as she pulled on the sleeves of her cardigan, "You weren't this cute and adorable in Hogwarts."

He instantly agreed with that. In Hogwarts he was the joker who made the sarcastic comments and made sure that almost everything he did made at least one person laugh. He never really thought about being cute or saying really sweet things to girls on a regular basis.

"Well, I've changed since then, is that okay?" he chuckled a bit before drinking some of his water.

Angelina moved closer to him so their knees were touching, "I think that's perfectly fine."

She slid her fingers through his hair, and as her hand graced the back of his neck, he kissed her slowly and gently. His hands brushed underneath her cardigan and interlocked at her waist, before he pulled her in closer so that she sat on his lap as they kissed. Her lips were as sweet and delicious as apples, when her cold hands caressed his cheeks, shivers were sent all over his body and their surroundings swiftly evaporated out of existence. Something felt different, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Every other time he had kissed her, he'd feel butterflies as if it was something he wasn't used to and he'd always prepare himself to let go of her when he held her. But this time, there were no butterflies and his fingers were tightly clasped together around her waist, because he didn't want to let her go and he'd never be prepared to. Angelina pulled away slightly and gazed deeply into his eyes. It was then that he knew.

"I've fallen in love you with, Angelina," he confessed as he admired her dazzling brown eyes.

Her left hand stroked his cheek as the other played with his hair. _What if she doesn't feel the same?_ George questioned himself. That was something he hadn't considered and now something that made him anxious. There was a tender smile on Angelina's face, but that could just as easily have been a smile of sympathy that came before the words of rejection.

"Thank god," she laughed slightly.

She rested her forehead against his before she spoke softly again, "because I'm in love with you too."


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15- Grimmauld Place Chaos**

"I like lying next to you," George smiled.

George and Angelina were lying in bed together- Angelina was now in one of George's shirts and her black lace underwear and George was only in his boxers. They were still slightly out of breath and they were both taking in the passionate moment they had just had. George wasn't planning on them leaving behind the picnic and kissing their way up to his bedroom; it was a pleasant surprise. He had gotten a new double bed that he put next to Fred's. He couldn't bring himself to move Fred's bed. The double bed was much more spacious, the mattress was comfier and he and Angelina could do more stuff in it.

"You've said that I think three times already," Angelina giggled,

"I know, I just thought it was something to be repeated."

Angelina's skin was warm and smooth against his and he was stroking her left arm with his left hand and had his right arm around her waist. Her messy hair tickled underneath his chin and her stroking his arm tickled him even more. They had been lying there for at least ten minutes, just talking and being close to each other.

"You know, you're beautiful," George whispered in her ear

"I know," Angelina kissed his cheek, "you're not that bad looking yourself," she fell asleep just before George did.

When George went downstairs after his nap and putting some clothes on, he discovered that Molly and Ginny had come home. Ginny lay on the sofa with her hand over her forehead, Molly had cleaned up the leftovers of the romantic picnic and she was making herself busy in the kitchen.

"Are you alright, Ginny?" George asked,

"I have a bloody headache; the kids and Ron started screeching out these already terrible songs," she explained,

"Is there anything I can do?"

"Get Harry."

George could hear the worry and yearning in her voice. She looked like a child who couldn't get the toy she wanted, but instead of crying, she tried to build a wall around how she was really feeling and would rarely leave the cracks exposed. She moved one hand to her chest and the other was placed over her stomach. Coping without you fiancé, the father of your baby and the person you'd die for must've been the most agonizing torture anyone could endure. All George could do was put his hand over her hand that was on her stomach and kiss her head gently. She smiled slightly and mouthed the words 'thank you'.

"George, dear, would you please spend the night at Grimmauld Place tonight?" Molly emerged from the kitchen while drying a plate,

"Aren't there enough people there?" George asked as he got up from Ginny's side,

"Hermione, Ron, Fleur and Bill will be there, Ginny should be there too, but she's really not in the right mood, as you can see."

Ginny groaned and covered her face with her hands. Angelina slowly came down the stairs wearing George's red and gold striped shirt that hugged her hips and was loose everywhere else with a pair of black tracksuit bottoms. When their eyes met, she smiled cheekily and giggled. Angelina then looked at Ginny which made her cheeky expression disappear and turn into worry as she walked over to her.

"Is she okay?" Angelina looked from Molly, to George, then to Ginny,

"I'm just not feeling well," Ginny grumbled, "why is everyone getting so worried?"

"Because there's a human growing inside of you," George pointed out,

"Why, thank you; I had completely forgotten," she sighed sarcastically as she got up, "I'm gonna go upstairs, if it's not any trouble, mum, could I have some soup?"

"Of course, Ginny, dear," Molly smiled and watched her as she went up the stairs,

"So, how are you, mum?" George asked.

Molly looked stunned to be asked that question. George knew that ever since the Battle of Hogwarts, Molly had become much more paranoid about the safety of everyone and it was obvious to him that she probably wasn't perfectly coping with Arthur being away.

"I'm fine, George," she didn't look at him when she talked.

George didn't want to force her to say how she felt and then risk her falling apart in a puddle of tears. He got ready to go to Grimmauld Place, checked on Ginny, kissed Angelina and then went into the kitchen where Molly was stirring a pot of soup.

"Dad will be fine, I promise," he said softly before kissing her head and leaving.

Once George opened the door of Grimmauld Place, the noise of rowdy, excited and loud children greeted him. It was around the time when they should've been getting ready for bed, but obviously, they had dismissed that thought completely. They were running around, playing games with each other and conjuring up a right old mess. The house elves were watching them in disgust, but would occasionally crack a smile and laugh at the entertaining chaos that they'd most probably have to clean up. Harrison and another boy that was a head taller than him ran towards George while huffing and puffing. Their hair was wet and dripping on to their already damp clothes.

"What's going on here?" George smiled as he closed the door,

"Lucas brought water guns with him," Harrison said excitedly,

"So you decided to play with them while you're meant to be in bed."

Harrison and Lucas sniggered as they nodded. They reminded George of when he was younger- so very carefree and a boy who dismissed all logic when it came to having fun- he missed those days. The days he spent with Fred. Suddenly, memories flooded George's head like tsunami tides. Memories of fireworks during OWL exams, throwing snowballs at the back of teacher's heads, all pranks and tricks him and Fred had ever done together. _Don't you dare start crying_, George's brain shouted at him.

"I'm gonna find you!" Ron shouted as he ran down the stairs.

It wasn't a surprise that he was a part of the chaos that was going on and George thought that it was probably him that had started it.

"You two go dry off and then bed, right now," George demanded and Harrison and Lucas obeyed.

George tried to get most of the children to go to bed, but not many of them wanted to listen to him, so they'd run up to Ron and ask if they could play with him which he obviously said yes to. When he went through the house, George saw Hermione trying to gain control along with Fleur and both of them were failing slightly. George tried to help them, but the children were having none of it. They needed Molly, Ginny, Harry or Arthur, because they always listened to them; Molly and Arthur were 'proper' adults, Harry was the chosen one who killed Voldermort and Ginny was just bloody scary. George was downstairs trying to get two children off of the table when the door opened and slammed shut.

"EVERYBODY TO BED NOW!" boomed Bill.

Silence fell instantly and the children ran to their beds in the speed of light, even Ron became frightened and decided to go to his room. George had never heard or seen Bill so angry, neither had Fleur, which concerned them. When he walked into the corridor, George saw Bill holding a limp little girl with ginger hair in his arms, there was blood creeping down the side of his head and he was out of breath. Fleur rushed to him, took the child from his arms and laid her on the sofa in the library. The girl was absolutely pale, she had small cuts on her face, a large gash on her arm that looked a day old and she looked like a china doll that was so very near to breaking. Fleur whipped out her wand and began to try to heal her, the house elves brought the first aid kit and Bill sat in the kitchen.

"What happened?" George asked him before giving him a drink and some food,

"She escaped, I don't know how, but she escaped. They were running after her, she had been kissed by a dementor, she had been tortured, she was near death, I fought to get her here" Bill didn't look up from the table and his head was in his hands,

"What did she escape?" George needed to confirm his guess,

"Those people who are attacking and kidnapping muggle-borns. There are more of them, George and they're becoming more and more dangerous."


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16- The Curse of Sleep**

With the help of Hermione, Fleur was able to make sure the girl's wounds were clean and covered, she then gave her something to eat and drink after she woke up and put her in Harry and Ginny's bedroom. The girl was a tad stronger by the time she went to bed, but she was still so weak that she could barely walk up the stairs by herself.

When Fleur came back downstairs, Bill was pacing the library while biting his nails, Hermione was having a go at Ron for not controlling the children and George sat on the sofa. He thought of how Angelina had come to him when her cousin Reuelle was taken and what had happened to the innocent girl that Bill had saved. If that happened to Reuelle, Angelina would fall apart and George would've broken a promise.

"Would you please stop bickering and that _is not_ a question," Fleur demanded when she came into the library, "clearly we have a much more important problem to think about."

Hermione and Ron stopped. Bill was still pacing and started to look even more agitated.

"If a child can escape, there's hope for the others," George suggested,

"She escaped with not even an ounce of life left in her, she's lucky. Any other child would most certainly die," Bill replied with some rage in his voice.

Fleur cautiously placed her hand on Bill's arm who shoved her away before realizing it was her, then holding her close to him and repeatedly telling her how sorry he was.

"The Ministry will want to know about what happened, Bill," Fleur sung softly,

"I'll go see Kingsley," Bill kept hold of Fleur,

"No, you will send a letter and then go to sleep."

Ever since Bill was injured by the werewolf, he had become more emotional which was evident when George saw him check on the little girl. Bill stroked her cheek and told her stories as if she was his own child and before leaving to go to his bed, he kissed her head. George's last thoughts before he fell asleep was of Angelina and Reaulle and how much he needed to save her and all the children.

George was walking down a pitch black, never ending, and spiralling staircase through a thick choking fog. When he supported himself by putting his hand on the wall, he felt a cool liquid flow underneath and slightly over it, but when he looked at his hand, he couldn't tell what the liquid was, he just hoped it wasn't blood. He could smell something bitter being conjured up in the polluted air and all he could hear was the sound of his shoes echoing with the drops of water in the silence that screamed at him. _I must be at the bottom by now_ he thought after ten minutes of walking down the staircase. He lifted his foot expecting to find another step waiting, however when he put his foot down, he was surprised to discover the stairs had finally come to an end. There was a black door splattered with blood in front of him. George could hear desperate cries coming from behind the door, but there was no handle or doorknob to open the door with. He slammed his body into the door at least five times until his body had become invaded by a stinging pain that soon turned into numbness. The cries grew louder and more desperate by the second.

"I'm trying," George whimpered.

Out of the thick fog, his wand fell into his hand. He stood in front of the door, pointed the wand at it and composed himself with a deep breath.

"_Bombarda Maxima!" he chanted._

The door and wall surrounding it blew into hundreds of shattered pieces of wood and stone to reveal a dark room. The walls were made of stone as well as the floor, there were tiny windows rimming the top of the walls that showed nothing but darkness and the only light was a bulb hanging from the ceiling. The smell was horrible- damp, blood and sweat all mixed into one vile concoction, yet the smell wasn't half as revolting as what George's eyes were cursed with seeing. Lining the walls that their ankles and feet were chained to were what seemed like an infinite amount of brittle, dirty and lifeless children. Some of them looked to be at least seven years old and all of them looked like they had been there for days, weeks, months or years even. Their arms had blood dripping down from them trying to escape the hand cuffs, there were bruises around their ankles where the cuffs constricted them and there were bruises, burns and cuts all over them. They all wore the same white shirt, but some had torn sleeves or tears at the bottom of their shirts where they had made bandages to put around their cuts and on their legs were shorts that went down to their knees. They all looked up at George with wide eyes that had lost all hope even if he may have been the one to save them.

The room was long, colder than the staircase he had walked down and had a much sicklier vibe and smell. When he walked through the room with his wand to light the way, he stepped in pools of blood mixed with tears of the increasing amount of children he passed. His feet had begun to hurt and his heart rate started to escalated once he got to the end of the room where there were two children chained to the back wall. One of them was a child who was maybe nine years old with frizzy chocolate hair, toffee coloured skin with red unfortunately covering parts of it and a thin wire-like frame. She reminded him of Angelina, but the strength and bravery had melted into fear and despair. George then looked at the boy who was sitting in a tight ball next to her. The boy looked much older than the girl, his hair was so dirty that George couldn't recognise its colour and he was a wasting, unhealthy and painful thin. Both of them flinched away from the light and huddled closer to the wall when George held his hand out.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he quietly assured them,

"George?" the boy's voice was familiar.

George put his hand on the boy's shoulder who turned around slowly to face him. Suddenly, George felt as if he was looking into a mirror that showed him what he looked like when he was younger. It wasn't a mirror. Staring at him with wistful eyes was Fred, but at the age of 18 instead of 25. Fred didn't look happy to see George; his face showed complete envy and it was obvious why. George started to feel sick at the sight of his brother looking so fragile, pale, and deprived of life and he almost had to turn away to compose himself. He pointed his wand at the shackles that were clasped around Fred and the little girl next to him. With a flick of his wrist, the shackles fell to the floor and Fred and the girl were free. The girl smiled and gazed up at George while slowly standing up. But she was too weak and broken. She fell into George the moment she stood in front of him and he scooped her up in his arms. Fred got up and rested on him before finding the strength to stand on his own.

"I will get you out of here, I promise," George told them as they began to walk towards the exit.

George looked at Fred constantly as they walked, each time becoming horrified at how feeble and ill he looked, as if he was near death. As his brother and best friend, George needed to be the one to save Fred from the agony he was suffering or he couldn't live with himself. Slowly the exit to freedom came closer and shone like the most beautiful of diamonds. George heard Fred make a sigh of relief as they walked towards it. However, when hope was starting to fill their hearts, a dark spindly figure appeared at the exit, blocking the light and making George's heart begin to pound. It waved at them slowly with thin pointed fingers and a black wall began to appear over the exit. George began to run, forgetting that Fred, who was breathing sharply through his teeth with every agonizing step, was too weak to go any faster than they had been walking before. The room became never ending and the children chained to the walls begged George to save them by shaking their shackled hands at him as he passed. George wished he could help them all, but there was something about the little girl in his arms that made him grow the need to save her and to him, his brother was more important than all of the children in the room. Soon, there was no light coming from the exit. There was no exit. There was just a stone wall. George took out his wand and readied himself to cast any spell that would get them out of there. Before he got the chance to chant a spell, his wand gradually turned to black dust that then flew into the air to become one with the rest of the darkness in the room. He banged on the wall as hard as he could, begging for whoever was on the other side to help them and let them out. But after almost an hour of begging, he lost hope. He sat against the wall with the little girl and Fred sitting next to him.

"You promised," the little girl's voice was going and he could hear her pain with those two simple words,

"I know I did, I'm sorry," George felt drained.

He looked at Fred, his brother who he should've been able to save and then at the little girl next to him who was too innocent to have to stay in such a hellish place.

"What's your name?" he asked the little girl,

"Reuelle," she replied before closing her eyes.

George's heart sank and he had to cover his mouth to stop himself from throwing up. He had let down, not only his own brother, but the one he loved and her little cousin. That was the point where he started to pray, hope, beg for a miracle, but when he looked at the mass of children who were all chained to the wall, he accepted that there was no such thing as a miracle in the place he sat. Cuffs emerged out of thin air, clung onto George, Fred and Reuele's wrists and ankles and then grew a chain the bounded them to the wall. There was no way out. George brought his knees up to his chest and let his head fall into them.

When he woke up from his nightmare, George felt his wrists and ankles to feel that they had been untouched while he slept. He then closed his eyes again and let himself drift back to sleep only to have more nightmares, each one worse than the one before and each one making him wish that he never had to sleep again.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17- Another Promise**

In the morning, George helped with breakfast and cleaning the children's rooms before heading back home to discover a pleasant surprise.

"Dad! Harry!" George gasped as he walked in,

"Hello son," Arthur smiled as he hugged him.

Neither Arthur or Harry had any visible injuries, they both looked happy and calm and you wouldn't have guessed that they had come back from searching for vile villains. Harry was sitting on the sofa with Ginny's head on his lap and stroking her hair and Molly was making tea for the both of them.

"So, did you find anything?" George asked as he sat down,

"We know that they are definitely residing at Malfoy Manor, but they weren't there," Harry explained, "I mean, we saw evidence for them being there; there was fresh blood and the beds had been slept in, but we searched the whole house and found nothing,"

"Maybe they knew you were coming," Ginny suggested.

As they all talked about the many possibilities and how they'd find the missing children, George saw Angelina sitting on the stairs. She had gone pale and there were tears in her eyes. George slowly walked over to her, sat next to her and held her close.

"They haven't found her," Angelina whispered,

"But, they will," George assured her,

"How do you know that? Every time someone has gone to look for them, they have either been attacked or have just found an empty house. They obviously know our every move now," Angelina would've carried on talking, but she needed time to cry.

George wanted to say something that could give her some hope, but there was nothing. He searched his mind for some sort of light in the darkness, but what was the point when he knew that he'd find nothing. All he could do was look after Angelina and love her.

In the evening at Grimmauld place, after all the children had gone to sleep, everyone had a feast in the formal dining room. Arthur sat at the head of the table with Bill, Fleur, Ron and Hermione down one side of him and Molly, George, Angelina, Ginny and Harry on the other. Running down the middle of the table was a basket of Yorkshire puddings, chicken, beef, every kind of potato, sausages, vegetables, two jugs of gravy (because one is never enough for the Weasleys), a loaf of bread and pitchers of juice, wine and water. They had never been so care free and happy before. Despite the horrible things going on, it felt right to celebrate the engagement of Harry and Ginny and the two babies that would soon be born. George hadn't seen so many smiles in so long.

"Ginny, pass the chicken," Ron asked as he stuck his fork in a slice of beef,

"But you're having beef," Ginny complained,

"Just because I'm having beef doesn't mean I can't have chicken as well," Ron said as he put his hands out for his precious chicken,

"Just give it to him, or he'll take the chicken off my plate," Hermione said.

Ginny sighed as she picked up the dish of chicken and handed it to Ron. Once they had finished the main course, the remaining scraps were taken off the table and were quickly replace by two large apple pies with a lattice top that was encrusted with sugar, jugs of custard, seductive red strawberries and an indulgent chocolate pudding. George didn't know what to go for, but Hermione had already made up her mind and didn't hold back on shovelling a massive slice of apple pie onto her plate. They all looked at her and chuckled slightly.

"I'm pregnant and I get cravings. Do you have a problem with that?" she asked as she looked at all of them.

They all simultaneously said no as they helped themselves to desert and Molly filled up everybody's glasses. It was half way through desert when Percy burst into the dining room, panting with a letter clasped in his hand.

"We have a problem," he said before getting himself a much needed glass of water.

Percy gave the letter to Arthur which he read aloud. It was one sentence. One sentence that created a bone chilling silence.

_The children don't have long and neither do you. _

Angelina grabbed George's hand and squeezed it. He saw tears flood into her eyes, but somehow she found the strength to push them back. They all looked at each other in silence. At first they were just trying to save the children; it turned out that it was now also them that needed saving. But who would? George looked around to see that everyone was holding the hands of the person they loved. It was as if they had partly lost hope already. None of them wanted to go through another battle; there were always casualties in a battle which the Weasleys knew all too well.

"We need to find the children," Fleur insisted,

"But what about us?" Arthur said.

The silence fell again. Hermione, who had been devouring her apple pie before was now playing around with the apple chunks, Ginny was rubbing her stomach as if her baby was also becoming distressed by the events and Bill had begun to bite his nails.

"This means they're coming for us right?" George asked,

"Probably, which means the children here are also in danger," Hermione replied,

"But this was sent to The Burrow," Percy said,

"So, they probably don't know about what's happening here," Harry said with some relief in his voice,

"Either way, we're going to find the missing children," Angelina sniffled,

"But at what risk?" Percy sat at the table.

Angelina became enraged at that comment and she stood up, pushing her chair back in the process.

"At any risk. We all fought for Harry, didn't we? By doing that we risked our lives and we even lost the people close to us, but it was worth it, because we conquered evil and saved not only our friends but our family. We have the chance to save innocent children, my cousin, who are being tortured just because of the blood that runs through their veins and you're wondering about the risks? Like Fred, if anyone dies, their death won't be in vain," Angelina vented before running out of the dining room.

Silence infested the room again as Percy looked down. George thought that Angelina would want to be alone, so he sat there looking at everyone and waiting for them to comment on what she had said.

"She's right," Hermione said as if it was the most obvious thing,

"Agreed," Arthur said, "the problem is that we don't know where these people are. If we don't know where they are, how are we meant to stop them?"

"We'll just have to keep searching," Harry suggested, "we'll take turns looking for them and if you do find them, don't hesitate on killing them."

After discussing their plans, George went in search of Angelina. She sat on the door step of Grimmauld Place with her head in her hands and tears streaming down her face. When George sat next to her, she fell sideways so her head fell on his shoulder and he put his arms around her.

"We're going to keep searching for them," George spoke softly,

"Reuelle could be dead already and if not, it's more likely that she will die than us being able to save her and the other children," she cried,

"Just the thought of the possibility of Reuelle still being alive should give you hope and all you really need to keep yourself going is hope. Don't ever lose it."

Angelina looked up at him with eyes that twinkled like the stars above them and tears still falling down her cheeks. She kissed him slowly and rested her head on his shoulder again. As he held her, the nightmare he had last night poisoned his mind and he thought of Reuelle helplessly sitting next to him with cuffs squeezing the colour out of her hands and feet and accepting her fate. He didn't want his nightmare to come true and he wouldn't.

"I promise, we will save Reuelle, no matter what it takes," George kissed Angelina's head.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18- Unwanted Guests **

Everyone was on edge for the next week. When the front door to The Burrow suddenly opened, all of them would quickly cling onto their wands as if it was a natural reflex. The only place where they felt remotely safe was Grimmauld Place. Angelina had stopped going to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes on a regular basis, she went back home instead of staying at The Burrow and he only saw her when she came to help out at Grimmauld Place, but even then, they would barely talk. George had tried to approach her many times, but she'd make herself busy, pretend she didn't hear him or find someone else to talk to. George didn't know what he had done, he would apologise and apologise when he saw her for whatever she thought he had done, but apologies weren't enough. How was he meant to make things right when he didn't know what he had done wrong?

It was the evening and George was sitting with Harrison in his room. Fleur had agreed to take him to Shell Cottage while they waited for one of his relatives to come get him and he and George had just finished packing.

"You're going to love Shell Cottage; it's by the sea and it's really calm, but Fleur's baby is part banshee when it comes to crying," George joked,

"That sounds cool, apart from the banshee baby," Harrison laughed, "I'm going to miss you though,"

"I'll visit, don't worry,"

"Will you bring Angelina?"

"Maybe, Harrison."

George picked up Harrison's trunk and when he reached out to grab the bedroom door handle, the door swung open to reveal Angelina. She was wearing only black and grey, her hair was in a messy bun, her eyes were puffy and George could see faint marks from where tears had been streaming down her face.

"Hey," George smiled,

"Hi," Angelina looked down,

"Are you okay?" George knew the answer, but he had to ask,

"Have you found my cousin?"

"We're trying,"

"Then no, I'm not okay, George. You promised me that you'd find her and with every day that passes, that promise is being slowly broken. Now just leave me alone."

They stayed standing opposite each other. He wanted to tell her how sorry he was and pull her into his arms, but when he took a step towards her, she quickly swerved around him and walked over to Harrison.

"You better be good for Fleur," she said as she knelt in front of him,

"I'll try, but I'll need some encouragement," Harrison cheekily said.

Angelina took out a bag of sweets from her pocket and sneakily put them in his dog paw sized hands.

"A chocolate wand, wizochocs, jelly slugs, liquorice wands, peach rings and apple rings," she listed,

"I promise to be good," Harrison giggled as he hugged her.

George put down Harrison's trunk and left the room to walk downstairs to the dining room. The children were either in bed or getting ready to go to bed, Molly and Fleur were making food, Bill and Ron were playing chess on the dining table, Harry was talking with Hermione and Ginny was spread out over three chairs with her head on Harry's lap. When Ginny revealed she was going to have a baby, she was already around six weeks pregnant, whereas Hermione was almost three months pregnant so there was now a bump forming that she covered with baggy tops.

When Molly put bowls of soup with a side of fresh bread on the table, a little girl ran downstairs while clutching onto a bear that was dressed as a fairy.

"Hermione, could you read me a bedtime story again?" the little girl asked sweetly,

"Of course," Hermione smiled and before going up the stairs she said, "I want to be able to eat all of my food when I get back down here, Ron."

As they ate, it was as if they had forgotten about the letter that was sent to them and joy had filled the room to the point where it could've possibly been overflowing. Angelina hadn't come downstairs yet making George worry about her despite the amount of times he laughed at the jokes and stories about Ron as a baby. A slight cold tainted the air around them, but they all ignored it. Until the cold increased. The dining room would sometimes get cold due to be so close to the front door, but this cold was biting at them and created goosebumps on top of goosebumps. George got up from the table and peeped his head out of the dining room to look up and down the entrance hall. The silence manifesting in the entrance hall made George's nerves rise before he turned to look at the front door. The open front door. The front door that they had locked before having dinner. Angelina and Hermione were upstairs and no one had left the dining room after the front door was locked so there was no possible person who could've unlocked it. George didn't dare to walk up to the door. He looked at it as it swung and saw that the chain that was used to stop the door from opening fully even if it was unlocked had been cut in half.

"The front door is open," George called back into the dining room without taking his eyes off of it,

"That's not possible," Molly got up from the table and looked at the front door along with Fleur and Ron,

"This doesn't feel good," Bill said as he started to nervously tap the table.

Fleur cautiously walked up to the front door with her wand gripped firmly in her hand. When she looked back at them once she had reached the door, George saw that she had become pale and that the glee that lit up her face when they were eating had turned into bone chilling fear. She slowly pushed the door closed and took a step back. Without warning, the door blew off its hinges and flew in the direction of Fleur, pushing her back hard into the wall and then shattering into pieces around her. Bill quickly ran to her and helped her to her feet and despite the impact into the wall, Fleur stood tall with her wand ready and a scratch on her cheek. Everyone stood in the entrance hall to see a bunch of dark figures blocking any light that could possibly come from outside and into the entrance hall. Leading them was a familiar man with a long jet black plait who was wearing a white shirt and trousers and next to him was a dark skinned woman with long dreadlocks and a cloak with a hood covering her.

"Seth and Lilith," Harry said quietly, but in the silence, it was audible for everyone to hear,

"I'm glad you remembered our names, it's better to know the names of the people who are going to kill you," Seth sinisterly smiled,

"In that case, my name's Ginny Weasley," Ginny growled.

The people standing at the door rapidly flooded into the entrance hall and began to attack them. They were most certainly outnumbered, but they had to hold them off. George saw Bill and Fleur disapparrate, before a woman came charging at him in the chaos. He thought of a spell in his head and swirled his wand through the air making the woman fly up into the air, smash her head on the ceiling and fall onto the floor unconscious. When he looked around, he saw only four of them battling ten or more people who were all dressed in black. Hermione looked comfortable (well as comfortable as anyone could be) fighting off three people at the same time in the dining room with light flying from her wand with every successful spell she made. As a man tried to attack her from behind, Ron put the pot of soup over his head and smacked his head- with the pot still on- into the table several times. Molly was proving how strong a mother was by hitting people with a pan she had summoned as well as using her wand to fight them off and Harry and Ginny were fighting back to back in the library, leaving George on his own in the entrance hall. A woman with wild grey hair came towards George and as he backed away from her, a man grabbed hold of him with his wand pressed into George's neck. George pointed his wand into the man's face, creating a purple flash of light and forcing the man to let George go. He then turned the man into stone and when the woman ran towards him, he stepped out of the way so that she fell into the statue and broke it into millions of pieces. When he looked back at her, she was brushing herself down and getting ready to stand up.

"_Obliviate," _George casted and the woman lay back on the floor.

When he walked away, he heard the woman frantically ask where she was which he smirked at before defending himself against another person who came through the door. It was Seth. There were more of his followers standing behind him who were going to get their hands dirty for him.

"Get the children. Every single one," Seth commanded.

George then realized what the letter meant. It wasn't about the children they had already captured, it was about the children they hadn't, the children that The Order were protecting. They weren't here just to kill them, they were here to take the children at Grimmauld Place.

"They want the children!" George shouted as Seth's followers ran into the entrance hall and pushed him onto the floor.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19- The Battle of 12 Grimmauld Place**

No one was bothering with attacking George and even though it was only maybe another ten or twenty people, it felt like he was being trampled by a sinister stampede. As he tried to push the incoming feet away from him, he felt a presence behind him and someone put his arms around him and pick him up. The rest of The Order of the Phoenix had arrived. He turned around to see Arthur holding him and Bill and Fleur making the people around them freeze and fall to the floor.

"They want the children," George explained to Arthur as he caught his breath back,

"Then we'll have to stop them," Arthur patted George's shoulder, "everybody, make sure that no child is taken and that all of Seth's followers are either dead or seriously injured!"

Seth's followers made their way upstairs, but The Order followed. George ran up the stairs towards Harrison's room. Hermione and Ron were trying to get all the children into the drawing room where they cast an anti-apparating charm and fought off anyone who approached the door to the room.

"Where's Angelina?" George frantically asked Ron,

"I have no idea, mate; I'm a bit too busy to search for your girlfriend," Ron answered as he deflected a spell and then stunned someone at the same time as Arthur.

George finally got to the top floor and when he attempted to open the door keeping him from Harrison and Angelina he discovered that it was locked. With every turn of the doorknob and bang of the door, it seemed more and more impossible for him to be able to get to them.

"Angelina, it's George, you have to open the door!" he shouted.

A man came up the stairs behind him. He threw a spell at George, but he ducked- allowing the spell to punch a slight hole in the door- and then stroke back by disarming him. As he chanted, "_Stupefy!_" the door behind him opened. Angelina was standing by the door, with her arm covering Harrison and her wand grasped in her hand. Her face was full of fright and panic, her chest was rising and falling heavily and she was looking at George as well as behind him. He slipped into the room and closed the door. Angelina and Harrison had already been building up a barricade with trunks and anything they could find that would add to the weight. They moved everything against the door and stood in the middle of the room.

"We need to get Harrison down to Hermione," George insisted,

"I'm not risking it, George, I can't. Harrison can barely hold a patronus, he wouldn't be able to defend himself out there while we defend ourselves," Angelina replied.

George held Angelina's hands and looked into her eyes. Her pupils were dilated to the maximum and he could see and feel that she was looking straight back into his. He pushed back a strand of her hair behind her ear and stroked her cheek.

"I promise, I will get you both out of here," he swore,

"Is that just another promise you will fail to keep?" Angelina's voice quivered like a leaf in the wind.

He looked from her to Harrison and then back to her eyes. He was looking at a girl who had become one of the most important things in his life and a young pure boy who had put his trust in him. George couldn't stomach and endure the thought of the both of them meeting Fred, he wouldn't allow himself to lose someone else who made him the person he was.

"It's a promise that I will die to keep," he said before kissing Angelina,

"That's just gross," remarked Harrison as he sat on the bed.

When George pulled away, a banging came at the door. Harrison bolted over to George and Angelina who put their arms over him to create a crossed barrier in front of him and all three of them raised their wands. The banging only rattled the door and the barricade and whoever was at the door wasn't going to give in. They banged once. Twice. Three times. Silence. Angelina was about to drop her arm from in front of Harrison, but like George, she knew that the silence didn't mean a surrender. Suddenly, the door exploded into thousands of pieces. Lilith pushed the objects that had created the barricade out of the way with a grim smile on her face that emitted nothing but evil.

"_Expelliarmus!_" Angelina cried at the same time as Lilith.

A scarlet light streamed out of both of their wands and hit each other, creating a ball of light in the middle. The light moved from side to side, whoever was weaker would have the light coming more towards them and unfortunately the ball of light was moving gradually towards Angelina. George knew she was trying, the fact that she created a scarlet stream of light showed how much strength she had put into protecting them, but Lilith possessed such a malevolent, destructive and wicked evil that provided her with all the strength she needed to overcome Angelina. The wand flew out of Angelina's hand.

"_Crucio,_" Lilith sinisterly said.

Angelina screamed in pain as she fell on her knees. It was when she lost the strength to even kneel that he crossed the room to be by her with her screams and cries making his ears burn and bleed.

"Stop it! I'm begging you! Stop it!" George yelled.

Lilith obliged. Angelina lay on the floor gasping for all the air she could, trembling and crying. When he looked up, he saw Lilith point her wand towards the window behind them and move it in a tight circle. Soon, frost was slowly creeping over the window and the edges of the walls, the air became crisp and George could see puffs of air come from his mouth with every breath. The window burst open and in came the definition of darkness and sorrow. Harrison was standing in line with the window. He was like a massive red target. George quickly got to his feet and pushed him onto the bed so that he was out of the way of the dementor. When he turned around he saw what the dementor was there for. To finish off Angelina. Once it kissed her, George felt his heart begin to break in half. Harrison attempted to do a patronus, but like Angelina had said, he couldn't hold it- the light quickly vanished just as it appeared. Lilith grinned at the sight of helpless Angelina and the heart shattering sound of her strength, her happiness and her soul being taken from her. With tears in his eyes, George lifted his wand at the dementor.

"_Expecto Patronum!_" he shouted.

Light emerged from his wand. Then it faded. George had tried and tried many times before to have the same result. But this was different. All the other times he had tried, it was _his_ life in danger or it was him just practicing, but this time it was Angelina, the one he had made a promise to protect, the one he loved, who was dying slowly and painfully in front of him. He heard Harrison weep behind him as Angelina came closer to death. He thought of all the dates they had been on, her laugh, her kiss and the way she'd hold him when they slept. Then his mind went back to playing pranks with Fred, them purposely making their mother confused, throwing snowballs, making fun of Ron and fireworks. His happiest memories.

"_Expecto Patronum!_" George roared.

The light rapidly came from his wand and twisted before forming a familiar shape. George's patronus gave off light that filled the room, forcing the dementor out of the room with the window slamming behind it and making Harrison and George cover their eyes. When the blinding light way gone, George was left with his patronus. He smiled with both pride and joy, but a hint of sadness came over him as he let his patronus fade away.

Hermione was standing at the doorway instead of Lilith, with Fleur standing behind her.

"George, that was," Fleur started,

"Never mind what that was. Fleur, look after Angelina for me and Hermione, help me get Harrison to safety," George requested,

"They keep coming, thick and fast. It's one of those things where if we kill the leader, they'll surrender," Hermione explained as she, George and Harrison cautiously but quickly went down the stairs.

A body flew past them as they got to the bottom of the steps. Lilith threw a spell at them from the door of one of the bedrooms which Hermione deflected as George and Harrison ducked. Behind Lilith were two more of her minions all ready to attack and snatch Harrison.

"_Petrificus Totalus,_" Harrison casted from behind George.

One of the followers went rigid and fell to the ground with shock covering their face and a thud. Harrison clapped and celebrated a little, George had to admit he was feeling quite proud.

"Ha, I used that spell on Neville once," Hermione chuckled,

"Yeah, he still hasn't let that go," George laughed,

"Go down to Ron, I'll hold these two off," she demanded,

"Are you sure?"

"Just go, George!"

Hermione nudged George and he ran down the stairs with Harrison. There was a lot of ducking and swerving involved in getting down to the first floor. Ron was standing in front of the drawing room and when he noticed Harrison, he put his arms out to beckon him to come hastily. George watched Harrison run like a bolt of lightning to Ron, he then went into the room and the door was quickly shut and locked.

"Where's Hermione?" Ron asked as George stood beside him,

"She should be coming down now," he replied.

Seth walked towards them with his wand at the ready and instantly fired a spell at them like a canon. Ron blocked it and George stroke back with a stunning spell which Seth found easy to block. In the corner of his eye, George could see Hermione fighting at the top of the stairs leading down to the first floor, but his brief glance was all the time Seth needed to strike Ron who went flying into the barrier to the side. It was up to George to protect the children and he was going to make sure he didn't fail.

"_Stupefy!_" he heard voices upstairs exclaim as he duelled Seth.

A rumble came from down the stairs. George thought it would most definitely be Lilith or one of her puppets and started to celebrate inside. Then he looked over to the stairs. Hermione tumbled down the stairs slightly screaming with her wand falling from her hand.

"HERMIONE!" Ron cried as he stumbled to his feet.

Before Ron could run to Hermione, Seth kicked her in the stomach and she crashed down the next flight of stairs, but she made no noise. Lilith walked down the stairs to the first floor with her bleeding lips creating a spindly twisted smile of pleasure. As she walked to stand next to Seth, Ron moved next to George and they simultaneously lifted their wands. George was frightened. _What if this how I die?_ he asked himself. He wasn't going to be the first to attack; he was used to always having someone next to him to follow, someone to show him how it's done and that he'd then copy. It was Lilith who made the first move which Ron dodged and George instantly retaliated by attempting to stun Lilith, but she blocked it. George was duelling Lilith and Ron was duelling Seth. The last time George had fought next to one of his brothers, he had ended up on his own when the fight was over, and just the thought of losing Ron made him put more strength into every single spell. As Lilith was about to throw another spell at George, two arrows pierced through her. She dropped her wand with an insane grin and a psychopathic laugh. Deep red blood dripped down her black clothes as she fell forward, revealing Arthur, Bill, Charlie, Percy and Ginny. They all pointed their wands at Seth as they formed an impenetrable circle around him and grinned. Molly quickly ran up the stairs and slotted into the circle.

"Looks like we're making this a Weasley affair," Ron grinned,

"It's about time we did something together other than dinner," George chuckled,

"We can make jokes later, let's end this bitch," Ginny suggested.

They nodded at each other and took a deep breath. George imagine Fred standing next to him with his wand that looked like fireworks at the handle, still making jokes despite what Ginny said and asking George if he was ready.

"Ready," George exhaled.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20- A Rescue Mission**

"She'll be fine," Ginny assured Ron with an obvious hint of doubt in her voice,

"How do you know that? She fell down two flights of stairs and was kicked in the stomach and she's pregnant. When they left, she wasn't even awake. What if they take her to the hospital and they have to put her in a coma? Or she never wakes up? Or…" Ron couldn't finish his sentence before starting to cry.

Once they had captured Seth and his surviving followers, Arthur, Kingsley, Percy and Charlie took them to the Ministry to squeeze answers out of them. At the same time as them leaving, Molly, Ron and Fleur had left with unconscious Hermione being held in Ron's arms and had gone to the hospital. When Ron had come back, his eyes were red and puffy, his hair wet and lifeless due to the beating rain outside and his skin sallow and grey. He sat with them in the study by the piano, occasionally playing tunes that Hermione had attempted to teach him. George sat on the floor against one of the armchairs with Angelina who rested her head on his shoulder as she was still trying to get her strength back, Harry sat opposite them on the Victorian style sofa and Ginny was using his lap as a cushion and stretching her legs across the sofa. They were all exhausted. Straight after Seth was gone, they had to get all the children into their beds, which was hard when they wouldn't stop asking questions about what had happened or were too scared to sleep.

"This is Hermione, she has almost turned into a cat, has been petrified by basilisk, abused by Bellatrix, punched Draco in the face and more importantly, she's dealt with you and has survived. She _will _be fine," Harry said confidently as he stroked Ginny's hair.

Ron merely nodded before playing a tune on the piano and giving up eventually when he forgot a note.

They sat there going over memories from Hogwarts which consisted of making fun of how geeky Harry looked, wondering about how Ron ended up being a hero, laughing at all the pranks Fred and George had done and all the times Ginny had proved that she wasn't the innocent young Weasley. George noticed how he was always after Fred. Even after his death, when talking about memories, it was always 'Fred and George' not 'George and Fred'. Fred had always started their sentences, Fred was the one to ask Angelina on a date and date her first. _He also died first_, George reminded himself. Angelina seemed to feel the sorrow that was beginning to slowly fill his heart and rubbed his arm before kissing his cheek.

"Thank you for what you did," Angelina smiled,

"You would've done the same for me," George said softly,

"I know, but it was more of a challenge for you."

Angelina lifted her head off of his shoulder and moved in close to him. Their faces were so close that the tip of their noses touched and George could feel her breath that tickled his skin. His heart started to pump harder, his breathing quickened and he looked from her deep beautiful brown eyes to her luscious lips.

"Could you save that for the bedroom?" Ginny chuckled.

George threw a face of annoyance at her and they laughed. The laughter was disrupted by the door swinging open, revealing Bill who was panting like a dog that had just finished a marathon.

"Harry, George, Ron," he huffed, "you better come quickly."

The three of them instantly got up without a single question being uttered from their lips.

"And _why_ aren't _we _being invited to whatever you need them for?" Ginny asked as she stood up.

George froze, looked from Ginny to Bill (only moving his eyes) and saw that everyone else was frozen too. Ginny could be scary when she wanted to, but she was pregnant and much more hormonal than usual, so the aim of the game was to tiptoe around her without stepping on a bomb, or else.

"Because, you're pregnant and Angelina is still getting her strength back. We don't want anything happened to you or the baby because of the stress or something, I mean you saw what happened to Hermione," Bill explained.

Ginny put her hands on her chest with a loving expression on her face as she sat back down.

Bill led them out of the study and into the basement kitchen where Arthur, Molly, Fleur, Percy and Charlie stood around the table. All of them looked deep in thought.

"What's going on?" Harry asked as they slot into the formation around the table,

"We know where they've been keeping the children," stated Arthur with a glum voice,

"That's great," George cried joyfully with a smile, "right?" but no one else was smiling.

"You remember that abandoned house we first went to?" Percy asked and George and Harry nodded in reply.

They all then explained how Seth had told them about how he learned to control dementors and that the abandoned house was not only where the children were now being held but also where some dementors were residing. This meant that to get to the children, they would have to fight dementors and so would the children if they weren't being fully protected. They didn't even know how many children had been captured- they could go thinking they were going to have to save around ten children when there were really over fifty.

"I think we should go in there no matter the risks, I mean, we already know that there will be none of those idiotic muggle haters there," Fleur suggested,

"I agree with Fleur," George said,

"So, how do we go about it?" Molly asked.

Fleur opened her mouth and then closed it as any possible idea fell from her head. All George knew was that he wanted to find the children and get them home, he didn't care how, it didn't matter how, they just had to. These were the motivating words he felt like saying, but he knew no one would expect them to leave his mouth, so he just shrugged in a humorous way which made Harry and Ron chuckle.

"We could just split- have some fending off the dementors and some getting the children," Charlie suggested,

"That's the best idea you've ever come up with since deciding to hang with dragons for most of your life," George commented and he got a couple of chuckles for his efforts,

"How can you make jokes at a time like this?"

"Because, there's always a bright side, it just takes someone like me to see it and make you lot realize it," George made a smile before taking out his wand, "shall we get going then?"

The sky was sinisterly black when they got to the site of the abandoned house, the razor sharp grass had grown even more, creating a maze of towering knives and George could hear the brisk and heavy breaths of the rest of the Order around him. The light bursting from their wands lit up the abandoned house as they approached it in the stillness that encompassed them. George looked to his left to see Molly place her foot on the creaky porch steps and to his right to see Ron make his unconfident smile and put his thumb up. Once they got into the house, George was left with Harry and Ron to go through a door that was on the wall between the two curved staircases. It took them a while to decide who was going to open the door, but after five rounds of rock-paper-scissors, Ron was finally the chosen one. The room had walls made of dark green wooden planks, a taupe brown wooden floor with a door leading to the basement and no furniture. Apart from a massive wooden sealed chest.

"Whatever you do, don't open that chest," Harry whispered with Ron and George nodding in agreement.

George knelt on the floor and pressed his ear to the door on the floor. The silence made the whimpers of desperate children louder and more painful than he could possibly imagine. He had to pull himself away from the door to stop the increasing feeling of nausea and look at Harry and Ron who had obviously heard it too as their faces were full of disgust and shock. When George stood up, Harry took out his wand and directed a spell at the door that made it shatter into millions of pieces. Stairs allowed them to plummet into a scene that reminded George of one of his nightmares. The children had cuffs around their hands that connected them to the wall and there were around thirty of them cramped into a basement that reeked of sweat and blood. They looked as if they ranged from 8 years old to 15, yet they were all just as thin, hopeless, frail and afraid as each other. George couldn't open his mouth without feeling as if he was going to throw up as he went from child to child along with Ron and Harry, checking to see the damage and liberating them from the cuffs. Every child he freed hugged him as they cried and thanked him. As he freed another little girl, he took her hand and asked, "What's your name?"

"Reuelle," she replied weakly.

George's grip around her hand tightened.

"Right, let's get the hell out of here," Ron said as he led them out of the basement.

When Ron got to the top of the stairs, he stopped. Harry and George pushed through the children- with Reuelle's hand still clasped in George's- to stand by him.

"Why have you…?" George stopped talking when he looked at the room.

It was bitterly cold with crystal white flakes of ice forming on the edges of the planks on the floor and walls and the windows consumed my frost. The breaths became visible and goosebumps instantly crawled over George's skin. His eyes moved around the room as he constantly mouthed the word 'no' and wished that what he thought was happening was just a delusion. Against the icy dark wall, George saw in one corner of his eye the chest…open…and in the other corner…three dark death-like figures.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21- The Rescue Mission**

George pushed all the children down back into the basement and it took a while to shake Reuellle off of his arm, but eventually she let go and he joined Ron and Harry at the top of the stairs.

"_Expecto Patronum!" _Harry casted.

The dementors flew away and they could all breathe easy again. George was just about to signal for the children to come back up and follow him through the house and out into freedom. But once Harry's light faded, more dementors came out of the open chest.

"We have to get the kids out of here," Ron insisted,

"As well as close that bloody chest," George added.

Harry was standing the closest to the chest and Ron was closer to the exit, it made perfect sense if Ron took the children to safety and Harry closed the chest. But that would leave George to fend off the dementors. He had done it once before, but that was when experiencing strong emotions, he wasn't sure if he could do it again, he was scared that if he attempted to, he would fail. Ron seemed to have seen the doubt on George's face as he patted him on the shoulder and made a face that screamed 'you can do this'. George nodded, before Ron signalled for all the children in the basement to follow him and be quiet while Harry ran to the chest.

"_Expecto Patronum!" _George closed his eyes as he cast the spell.

Every memory that was cradled in George's mind transformed into light that burst from his wand. When George opened his eyes, he was pleased to see the dementors swiftly fly out of the room which instantly put a very big smug grin on his face. He held his wand high and with pride while Harry tried to close the chest and Ron hurried the children out of the dark, cold abandoned house. All the dementors had fled when George turned to Harry who was struggling to close the colossal chest.

"I didn't think you were _that_ weak," George chuckled with 'smug' still written across his forehead,

"Well, you have a go then, muscle man," Harry huffed as George trotted towards him,

"I don't need to prove myself to the likes of you,"

"Well, actually," Harry folded his arms, "you do, as _I_ am the chosen one and _you're_ just a Weasley,"

"Oh, so Ginny is good enough for you, but the rest of us aren't?"

"No, it's just you who's not good enough for me,"

"Let me tell you someth-"

A freezing blow of air hit their faces, triggering a warning light in both of their heads to flash. Harry and George used all their muscle and might as they tried to close the heavier than heavy chest.

"It won't budge," George sighed as he wiped sweat off his head and the cold breeze coming from the chest grew more powerful.

"Think, Potter, think," Harry demanded of himself,

"There could be hundreds of them in there," George worried,

"Then…we blow it up?" Harry suggested,

"Yeah, blow up the chest and release them all. That's a great plan!"

George thought hard and he had to be quick. Maybe if they tried to just lift and move it, or put something in it, or…. It was when he thought of how smug he was when he defeated the dementors that he kicked Harry.

"What was that for?!" Harry exclaimed,

"I'd rather I got to kick you than you kicking yourself," George pointed his wand into the chest, "Because this solution was so obvious."

George cast his patronus charm into the chest and despite the light, he couldn't see the bottom of it. Suddenly, streams of black rushed past him and Harry, almost knocking them down, and left the room. Once the dementors ceased to emerge from the chest, George lowered his wand and put it in his pocket. Both of the stunned men peered cautiously into the black abyss.

"You think that did the trick?" George asked and his echo repeated,

"Only one way to find out," Harry replied,

"We jump in?"

"Wow, George," Harry sighed as he aimed his wand at the chest, "that's much more dimwitted than my blowing up idea."

Harry laughed but George was not amused.

"_Bombarda Maxima!_" Harry chanted.

They covered themselves and stood back as the chest blew into millions of pieces. When the sound of the chest turning into shards of wood ended, they looked at where it used to be and high-fived each other without even having to look where each other's hands were.

"Can we get out of here now?" George spoke with exhaustion in his voice,

"Yeah, I need a well-earned couple of drinks," Harry smiled as they walked out of the abandoned house.

Among the sharp grass and the pitch black night, it was beautiful to see the lights of the Order guiding all the children through the darkness and towards Kingsley and Molly who were sorting them into groups. As George walked towards his mother, Reuellle ran into him and grabbed his arm.

"Thank you," she murmured as George held her hand.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22- A Small Loss**

From the basement of the abandoned house, they had saved 26 children and overall, they had saved over 50 children from where the vile group of wizards and witches had been keeping them. Despite this amazing news, Hermione was very glum when she came back from the hospital. When looking after some of the children so that they were ready to go home, she didn't sing to them, play the piano, make jokes or paint with them. She seemed to be put off of the children altogether.

After three days, it was the last day of the Grimmauld Place Safe House. Everyone came there to celebrate the work they had done and relax after rushing around after a mountain of kids. Molly and Ginny put all the food on the table as everyone talked, everyone but Hermione that is. She sat in between Ron and Harry and opposite George, all three of them could see that something was wrong; she was constantly looking down and she only ate three potatoes. George threw a potato at Ron, which didn't even bother Hermione like it used to.

"What?" Ron mouthed.

George pointed to Hermione, signalling that Ron should find out what was wrong which Harry noticed and then nodded in agreement. Ron then whispered into Hermione's ear and whatever he said, Hermione simply nodded while playing around with some of the food on her plate and Ron shrugged at both George and Harry. It was then Harry's turn to ask if she was okay and he got the exact same response. George could see that everyone else was as equally worried about Hermione, but they decided to ignore it as this was meant to be a time for celebrating. But Ron wouldn't let it go. George watched him continuously whisper to Hermione with her eventually whispering, "Just leave it."

George decided to get stuck into his food and it was when he was half way through his pasta that Hermione spoke more words than she had in three days.

"Why won't you just leave it?! Did it ever occur to you that maybe I don't want to talk to you or anyone right now, hence why I was being silent! For God sakes Ronald!" Hermione shouted with tears starting to appear, before storming out of the dining room.

After a second of hesitation, Ron got up and went after Hermione. Once they heard a door close, there was an agonizing silence where they all just looked at each other but didn't dare speak. George stuck a fork into a mushroom and observed it, spinning the fork in his hand and squinting his eyes.

"This mushroom doesn't look like much of a fungi," he said without a hint of laughter in his voice.

Angelina was the first one to giggle by his side and soon enough, everyone else followed while carrying on with their meal.

Once they had had desert, Ron came in. His eyes were red and puffy, his skin had gone even paler than when Hermione was sent to hospital and he was visibly shaking.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" Molly asked as she went over to him and hugged him.

Ron didn't hug back. Instead, he let himself fall into her, he seemed to be looking into the distance, his eyes not moving to look at anyone or anything else and creating even more worry in everyone else.

"G-G-George, H-H-Harry and Ginny, could you, erm," Ron couldn't finish, he ended up crying and signalling for them to follow him.

George stood up, kissed Angelina's head and followed Ron along with Harry and Ginny into the drawing room where Hermione sat on the floor holding a small teddy that Ron had bought once they found out that they were going to have a baby. The sound of rain falling harder and faster and thunder rolling in the thick grey clouds was paired with Hermione's crying and soon Ron's.

"What's going on?" Harry asked softly as he sat next to Hermione and put his arm around her.

Ron's mouth opened, but only crying came out. Both Ginny and George put their arms around him. George had never seen Ron cry apart from when he was a baby and when Molly had given him a right telling off when he was younger. It was almost heart shattering to see his baby brother reduced to tears to the point where he couldn't speak, but what really hit George hard were the words that came out of Hermione's mouth through her tears, "I lost my baby."

Hermione's crying grew louder, whereas Ron's grew quieter. It was obvious to George that he was trying to hold it together for Hermione, but it was also obvious that it was soon becoming too hard for him and he walked out of the room. Hermione looked up to see that Ron had gone, but didn't get up to follow him. Ginny sat next to her and held her along with Harry while George searched for Ron.

"I'm sorry," George said as soon as he found Ron on the steps outside,

"It wasn't your fault," Ron sniffed.

The rain fell on them, quickly making their hair and clothes wet while George sat next to Ron on the steps. A woman with her son walked past. The young boy kicked his ball past the house, his laugh being a light amongst the grey and darkness that surrounded and filled George and Ron. Ron cried into George's shoulder as he watched the boy kick his ball down the street and run into his house a couple of doors away. George couldn't begin to imagine the torment that Ron and Hermione were having to undergo, he didn't want to; he knew that Ron's heart was probably in tiny pieces that would take a long time to put back together.

"You know, we're all here for you guys," George assured him.

Ron nodded as he wiped his eyes with his sleeves.

"It hurts being this serious, but this is probably a time where both you and Hermione need to be stronger than ever. Just talk to her about your feelings and try to do things that will cheer you both up, you can take time off from working at the shop if you want. You two will get through this, but only together," George said as he watched the rain and rubbed Ron's back,

"Right, tell a joke now, you're creeping me out," Ron sniggered through his tears,

"Mum told off Teddy and he replied with 'don't mess with a werewolf' and growled," George chuckled.

Ron laughed for a bit and then went silent as the tears lessened but didn't completely disappear and Hermione stood behind him, clinging onto the small and now useless teddy bear. George got up, allowing Hermione to take his place by Ron's side and before going back to the dining room, he looked at his baby brother who held Hermione and kissed her in the rain that camouflaged with their tears.

While he was with Ron, Ginny and Harry had told everyone the news and the day had gone from a celebration to a day of mourning, grieving and loss. Harry occasionally put his hand on Ginny's stomach out of fear that this day would soon be repeated.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23- When Dreams become Reality**

The scene that seemed to have been painted around George was beautiful and put a constant smile on his face. The sun had started to set and despite the clouds, you could still see the pink and orange tint in the sky. The wind came as it pleased, blowing the lavender pink blossoms off the comfort of their branches and carrying them along like the spring version of snow until they drifted to the ground. If the blossoms were lucky, they'd fall onto the green grass that had been freshly cut only seconds ago, leaving a beautiful smell that oozed spring in the air. The sound track to this perfect scene: the laughter of children, the barks of dogs and the rustle created by the wind when it passed through the tall green trees. George closed his eyes after a busy day at work and allowed himself to completely relax to the point where he felt his arms droop by his sides. The longer he kept his eyes closed, the closer he got to drifting off into a dream land where any problem and all problems melted away like butter under the sun. He shoved off his work jacket, allowing the wind to hit his light blue shirt and send a pleasant cool feeling around his body.

"Don't get too relaxed," he heard a sweet voice chuckle.

When he reluctantly opened his eyes, he saw Angelina standing by the bench he sat on with her hair blowing across her face. She sat beside him as she buttoned up her cardigan and rested her head on his shoulder.

"How's Hermione?" George asked as he resisted the urge to close his eyes,

"A little better, but when Ginny came back with baby scan photos, she almost had a breakdown," she sighed.

They sat in silence for a while, both of them taking in the dazzling landscape surrounding them and playing with each other's fingers. George had never felt so content before. Everything seemed too good to be true. Yes, there was still the mourning of Hermione losing the baby, but George had learnt that nothing would ever be perfect, making this moment with Angelina was the most perfect imperfect moment of his life. When he closed his eyes, he felt Angelina's delicate lips on his cheek and he became unaware of whether he was dreaming or if this was truly reality. Even though he usually had nightmares, he thought it was about time that he had a good dream and this one would be the best he could think of. He was almost convinced that he was dreaming when he felt a drop of rain hit his head and the wind grew a bit too cold.

"I'm craving butterbeer," George chuckled as he opened his eyes and kissed Angelina's head,

"Well, wasn't that random," Angelina smiled as they got up and started to walk down the path winding through the middle of the park.

That night, George dreamt that he was sitting on a cloud with Angelina by his side, collecting shooting stars and making wishes before sending them off into the night sky. This was his first good dream in a long time and he would have many others. The only nightmares that he would experience would be about when his children become sick for the first time and when a family member was lost.

Every anniversary of Fred's death, George would stand at his grave alone, place one of the many recipes they had made together by his gravestone and wipe away one of his tears as he thought about all the sentences that Fred was no longer there to complete. Instead of looking at the picture of Fred, he would create his patronus and smile at him as he sat next to him for only a couple of second, for his patronus was the closest thing to Fred he could have. Once Fred had faded, George would walk out of the cemetery and meet Angelina with their children, Roxanne and Fred. This was what George had wished for and dreamt about for ages. He would have a family, he would have pleasant dreams and he would be happy.


End file.
