Hey guys! So this is very long, but i didn't want to separate anything because I thought it would lose meaning if i had breaks throughout it...

And George

The battle had begun. Everything was moving fast. All I wanted was to be back at the Burrow, peacefully eating breakfast like I had so many times before. I thought about my entire family who were also fighting. What if something happened to Ron? He was, after all, with Harry, Undesirable Number 1. What about Ginny? Or Mum and Dad? I had too many family members in this battle to keep track of. No, I told myself, they will all be fine. We are a family of incredibly brave wizards, and we have each other.

I thought about the shop, Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes, which had to be abandoned for the battle. I thought about our last day at Hogwarts. It was a glorious moment, flying high above Umbridge’s scared head, everybody cheering. If only we had known then that we would be back so soon for such a dangerous reason.

I thought about all these things, and more, but I couldn’t afford to be lost in thought. I looked out at the barrier the adults had put up around the school. Surely this would be enough to keep them out for a while, right? I could only hope.

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Then we weren’t on the roof anymore. We were battling, Fred and I. I was terrified, and also determined to kill every death eater that came my way. The only comfort I had was that Fred was right beside me. And then he wasn’t.

My world was not the same all of a sudden. Everything spun. My body went numb. No, it couldn’t happen. It just couldn’t. It DIDN’T happen. He’s fine. Fred is fine. I looked down at Fred’s lifeless body and froze. Nothing mattered anymore. This was it. I was done.

People ran around me, throwing spells, but I couldn’t see them. They didn’t exist to me anymore. The only thing that was real was me and Fred. I dropped to my knees. I placed my shaking hands on his chest. He was only stunned, no big deal. He felt cold already on my hands. I shook him. Nothing. Although many were fighting, I could not. Grief filled me up as if I was a bottle being filled with water. It entered the tips of my fingers and continued until I was like a balloon filled with air.

I burst into tears. Not many people have seen me cry, since most times me and, F-Fred, simply make light of situations like these and end up laughing. Even when I lost my ear, I didn’t mind much, I was laughing about it. But not this time. There was nothing to make me laugh about this. Half of me was gone.

Although I was filled with such grief, I was completely empty inside. I couldn’t feel anything. I looked down at the body and wondered if it was actually me who was dead lying there.

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Everything moved quickly. Before I knew it, my family was beside me. I couldn’t look at them. They hugged me and cried, but it all seemed unreal. Fred was brought to the Great Hall, where all the others were. I wanted to just lay there, not moving, not existing, but I couldn’t. I had to be strong. Somehow I would have to look past this. The battle was not over. It seemed odd that the battle wasn’t over, like an event like this should end it all, but it didn’t end it, it simply made it harder to continue.

I stood there, beside myself with grief, knowing this was not the time to hide my feelings with jokes, not the time to fill the room with laughter. I couldn’t even if I tried. My entire family was there, besides Ron. I worried about him. He was never the greatest with magic, although he had so much courage, which had made it even funnier to make fun of him.

I looked at Ginny, the youngest and the only girl. We had practically tortured her when she was a kid, but all in good fun. I looked at my parents, my mum covering her face. It was somewhat difficult for me to understand the level of grief they felt. They were losing a son, I was losing my reflection.

Suddenly there was Ron, standing there clueless. I was so relieved that he was here, and alive, and mostly I just needed the entire family to be here. I went up to him, prepared to break the news. When he looked into my tear-filled eyes, I couldn’t say a word. I couldn’t do anything. So I hugged him, every ounce of my body hugging him as though telling him all the things I needed to, as though hugging him would demolish all my sadness. It hadn’t worked, but when I pulled away and Ron saw the body, it didn’t matter. As I was about to return to my family, I saw Harry.

Our eyes met, and there was some level of understanding. I didn’t know what Harry must do, but I had heard enough of their conversations to know he was up to something. Such sadness was in Harry’s eyes, almost like mine. When he turned away and left the hall, I understood. Harry’s action seemed to be one of cowardice, but I knew it was truly one of courage. If Harry could be strong, without any family members, I too could be strong. I knew I had to, for my family. Them seeing my distraught would only add to their sadness.

This was easier said than done.

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When you look into a mirror, and don’t see a reflection, does that mean you don’t exist? How is existence proven? If you can see your shadow, does that prove it? If you don’t have feelings, if you are completely numb, are you dead?

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Days went on. The Battle had ended, and all was well. Well, technically all was well. The day we all returned to the Burrow was tough. So many memories seemed to burst from the house.

I’ll never forget the day when we got our Hogwarts acceptance letters. We were teasing Ginny, like we always did. We were playing hide and seek, but every time Ginny came close to finding us we would use magic to distract her so we could hide some place else. She was so young then, that it was mostly mean, especially judging from the extent to which she was startled each time we tricked her, but it was all in good fun. She had actually started crying and begging us to let her find us, when Errol banged into the window with our letters.

When Ginny called out, “Fred, George, you have letters!” we hardly believed her. She was, after all, just lying in order to coax us from our battle stations.

“Nice try,” I had yelled. “Why should we believe you! We never get mail, you could have come up with something less pathetic than THAT!”

“Fine then. You will never see these letters and you will never go to HOGWARTS!” Ginny bellowed. That got our attention. HOGWARTS. We ran down the stairs, pushing and shoving until we reached the bottom.

We yanked the letters from Ginny’s hand and ripped them open as if we had some unspoken agreement to race to the finish. Fred got his open first, which wasn’t completely fair because mine was sealed tighter. We read them, celebrated, and danced around the kitchen, taking Ginny’s hands and jumping and laughing. We were so young then, so excited. Nothing in the world could have been better.

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We walked through the kitchen. I stopped by the clock, the one which had all our faces on it. This was too much.

“You alright, George?” Ron asked, clearly noticing that I hadn’t followed the others into the living room.

“Of course, Ronny,” I said, fake wrestling with him until he gave up. I paused, as if to say something. I had to lighten this household. It had always been Fred and I bringing laughter to the house. Everything was a joke, but it was a bit harder without my partner in crime. I could still try, though.

“Actually, Ron, I think I’ve dyed a little inside.” I said super seriously. Everyone stared at me. “Yesterday, I accidentally swallowed some food coloring.” I chuckled lightly. Jokes weren’t nearly as exciting when I had to tell the entire thing. But it was a fine effort, and the family seemed to relax.

“Oh George,” mum said. “Why am I not surprised.” She smiled.

“Yeah,” Ginny responded. “I knew you would swallow something you weren’t supposed to at some point.” She said jokingly. She knew I had been joking about the food coloring, but Ginny was very observant--she also noticed that I had wanted to lighten the mood, and decided to help out.

“Oh, that’s nothing!” I said with a smile. “Fred ate glue once. But he didn’t tell anyone. His lips were sealed.” This time, I burst out laughing. So what if my jokes were a bit cheesy? That was my specialty.
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The days that followed went smoothly. The family was a bit happier, although I felt as if I could break down at any moment. I knew that eventually I would accept what had happened, but now was not the time.

I had to adjust to this new life. I spent more time with Ron, although he was a bit annoying with his Hermione at times.

I started to realize that I was indeed an actual person on my own. It surprised me at first, but I found that I did have interests and characteristics that made me my own person. Soon I was once again the happy care-free George that everyone knew, and dare I say, loved. The thing everyone had loved in us was our confidence and sense of humor, both of which I still retained without my other half.

I had mostly embraced this new, “single” in a sense, George. Except for one part.

Whenever Mum called me for dinner, or Ginny asked for me to join her for some Quidditch, I was addressed as “George”. A tear slid down my cheek, yet I smiled. This sounded so strange to me. “George”. This was the hardest part for me, but I was working on it. For all my life, I had been “Fred and George”, but now, I had to accept that I was only, and would be for the rest of my life, simply “and George”.