"Oi, George! You alright?"

"Fred?! Blimey! I thought you were dead!"

"Nah, it'd take more than a couple Death Eaters to shut me up." Just then, a jet of light flew out of nowhere and I fell to the ground, Fred falling beside me. I quickly sat up.

"No! Fred, no!" I shook him and shook him, but my brother didn't stir. "Fred! This isn't funny! Come on, say something... holey!" I waited for him to point out my weak joke, but he didn't. I just kept shaking him and yelling out, but he remained still.

"George? Wake up, it's okay."

Thank Merlin, it's just a dream, I thought. I opened my eyes expecting to see Fred, but instead I saw Percy and remembered: Fred is dead. I felt a burning in my eye and sadness boiled up. A tear rolled down my cheek and I turned away from Percy, hoping he hadn't seen. I never was one for crying, except when I laughed really hard, but that's not really crying is it? I dunno, but I don't see why all of a sudden I am crying.

"George, um, breakfast is ready," Percy said.

"Alright. I'll be there in a bit," I grunted back. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Percy give me a shifty look and walk out. He moved back into the Burrow after the war, and it's sort of weird having the git back. He's better now, though.

I sat up and looked over at Fred's bed. It had always been we. What we'de do if we lived through this, how we would tease Ron and Ginny... I guess it just never entered our minds that one might be without the other. I mean, we'd been brothers and best mates since the day we were born! With a sigh, I got up and walked down to the kitchen.

"Good morning, Fred," Mum said absentmindedly as she set a plate of toast on the table. She stopped and looked horrified at what she had just said.

"I'm George, the one with only one ear? Jeez, Mum, you'd think you could tell the difference now," I said as I took a seat at the table. I gave her a slight smile and she turned her back on me.

You'd think it was sin to make a joke, we've been joking about Mum not being able to tell the difference between us for ages.

Only this time it's I, not we.

My brother Fred is dead.

"Er, so how is work, Dad?" Ron piped up. Dad looked grateful for the change of subject.

"Busy, of course, but with Kingsley in charge everything is much better..." I looked around the table. Ron was next to Hermione and Ginny next to Harry. Ron had Hermione, Ginny had Harry, and I was all by myself. Me and my one ear.

"Er, I'm not really hungry right now," I said. Mum and Dad exchanged worried looks. I really wish they would stop acting like that! Just 'cause I'm not hungry doesn't mean I'm going to go commit suicide.

"Are you quite sure?" Mum's face was etched with concern.

"Yes, Mum, I'm sure."

I got up from the table and walked outside to the shed. I opened the door and was greeted by the piles of the flying motorcycle parts Dad kept. Fred and I had hidden our new products underneath all the rubbish before the wedding. We wouldn't want an unexpecting relative to find our new Two-ton Tongue Taffy, now, would we? Actually, we would, but Mum would have kittens, what with the wedding and all; we would have been better off handing ourselves over to the Death Eaters.

I dug through some piles until I found the wooden box with a big W on it. I remembered Fred snuck some Puking Pastilles into Auntie Muriel's handbag. Hehe, I bet she had a nice time when she found that! And she had said my ears were lopsided.

I opened the box and looked fondly at all our inventions. Would anybody else get to see them? If we lived through the war we had planned on switching Percy's glasses with our new Vanishing Eye ones. It makes it look like your eyes fell right out of your head and renders you blind while you have them on. But we would never be able to do that. It just wouldn't seem right without Fred. I'm sure Lee would find it a laugh, though.

I heard the door open and shut behind me and I whipped around.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded of Ginny.

"Mum sent me," she replied. She looked at me. "Are you all right?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" I shot at her. She was looking at me the same way everyone is these days, like I was going to break down into a heap of tears or a blow up like a mislit firework.

"Oh, gee, I don't know," she sarcastically said. "Maybe 'cause Fred is dead?" I looked at her. Her attitude took me by surprise.

"Blimey, there's no need to say it like that," I muttered. Her gaze softened.

"George, there's no use in pretending you are not bothered. We all are, and you'd have to have the heart of a Death Eater to not care." She sat down on the floor beside me.

"What do you bloody well expect me to do? Just mope around like some prat?" I rose my eyebrows at her.

"Of course not, but it's okay to be sad!"

"Easy for you to say."

I stood up and walked out of the shed. It's not the end of the world, I don't see why everyone expects me to act like it is! It's just the end of a world with Fred in it. My eyes burned, yet again, and I fought back the tears. I was beginning to get frusterated with myself, I wanted so badly for things to go back to normal! I didn't want cry anymore. I didn't want to be sad anymore. I didn't want to feel alone anymore. I wanted Fred back.

He would want me to laugh. That was our main goal in life. There's loads of people who need to be cheered up, and it's up to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes to do it. Or Weasley Wizard Wheezes now. Or perhaps just Wizard Wheezes. I dunno. But I can't let down all the people looking for a laugh. Fred wouldn't want me to.

"George! You forgot something!" Ginny came running up with the wooden box.

"Damn, you didn't look in it did you?"

"I might've," she said with a shrug.

"That's a bit nosy, don't you think?"

"Well, you just left it open, I only peeked.... Anyway, there was no need to storm off like that-"

"Ginny, I don't need you preaching me! I've got Mum for that!" I interrupted. Why can't everyone just leave me alone? I thought Ginny, of all people, would understand that I didn't want people fussing over me.

"For Merlin's sake, I just wanted to tell you it's okay to be sad, but pretending you're not is only going to make you more upset 'till you eventually blow up!" she huffed with a fierce look in her eyes.

"I'm not pretending anything! Blimey, you're turning into Percy or Mum!" I began to walk away when she yelled, "George! Stop walking away or I'll jinx you!" I turned to look at her. She had her wand out.

"You're underage! You'll get expelled!" I shot back at her. Though I had to admit, she had me scared for a moment. I mean, have you seen her Bat-bogey Hex? She glared at me and put her wand away.

"Right. You're not putting on an act. You just shout in your sleep then wake up and busy yourself with something," Ginny said, crossing her arms.

"I shout in my sleep?" I wondered aloud.

"Yes, stuff like 'Fred!' and 'No!' and other things," she mumbled.

I looked down at my feet and noticed that I had accidentally put Fred's trainers on. My eyes burned with the tears I had already fought back..

"It could've just as easily been me," I muttered. I dunno what made me say it out loud.

"It could have just as easily been anyone," Ginny replied. Her arms were uncrossed now.

"Well, yeah, but we look alike! The Death Eater could've been thinking 'Hey, look at those two red-haired blokes! I think I'll just kill one off,' and boom, there he went!" I thought back to the night Fred died. Had a Death Eater been aiming for me? That whole night was all a jumble, I couldn't remember what really happened. Did I try to save Fred? Yes, I did. I remembered that much. But had Fred tried to save me? This was a possibility I wasn't ready to face.

"I doubt that."

"You don't know what goes through those mental Death Eaters' minds. They could've thought they were seeing double, gone mad, and sent a killing curse flying!"

Ginny smiled slightly and walked forward to hug me. I patted her back.

"It's going to be alright. You still have us," Ginny said as she stepped away. I, of course, already knew this, but something about my sister's words reassured me, and I felt better than I had since Percy joked.

"Thanks, Ginny."