mirror mirror
a/n: most of my energy goes to not think about fred’s d**** and george’s loss but i’ve had this idea in mind for a couple of months so i decided to actually write it down. but we all agree that fred and george lived the rest of their lives happy and safe and together, right?
It had become night when you slowly made your way up the stairs from the shop. You blamed it on work, that’s the reason you weren’t home that much. You had offered to help George with the shop on the side of your own job, but you had manage the workload without major problems. Only at work could you take the war off your mind. It was when you got home again that the flashback started. You could still hear the screams, the ringing in your ear as the castle got attacked. You still thought you smelled of dried blood. As much as you wanted to be there for George, you felt trapped up in that small apartment. You longed for a surrounding that didn’t remind you of war and pain and death.
The key turned and you had to take a few deep breaths before opening the door. On your way home from work did the thought of just not come back to this place pop up in your head more than once. You still had the opportunity to start your life over, outside in the muggle world. Get an office job, shut out the past 10 years of your life. If it wasn’t for George, oh poor George, you would never come back.
Not a single light was on in the apartment, George had probably already went to bed. You sighed of relief, you wouldn’t have the strength to meet his blank eyes and to listen to his toneless voice. Nothing you said or did would ever make him feel better, and you had slowly started to go insane trying to figure out what you could do to just take away some of his pain, just for a short while. As you went to take off your coat, you felt something getting crushed under your shoe. You bend down to get a feel of what was laying on the floor and noticed the main part of the hallway was covered with glass shards. A nagging feeling of worry started to spread throughout your body when you also could see the hallway mirror completely destroyed.
“George?”, you called out and you could even hear the worry in your own voice. It’s okay, he’s okay, you repeated in your thoughts, but you had gone over every possible reason to why your home looked like a mess before stepping into the kitchen. Where George sat. You stomach dropped in relief, he was at least home.
“George”, you breathed out again, dropping your coat and bag on the floor and quickly walked up to him. “Hey, what happened?”, you asked, kneeling down beside him. It was as if he didn’t realize you where there until you softly grabbed his hand. he tried to pull away, but you had already noticed to blood running down his knuckles.
“George!”. You voice broke, not used to scream the way you just did. George on the other hand, barley reacted. He didn’t even out up a fight as you dragged him down from the chair by the hands to get a better look at them. Your eyes had started to adjust to the lack of light but it was still difficult to see details.
“How do you do it?”, George spoke out in the dark. You looked up at him, he didn’t met your gaze but instead just stared blindly in the dark.
“What do you mean”, you asked and gently stroke some hair out of his face. It looked like he hadn’t eaten in days and the lack of sleep was clearly visible due the darkness around his eyes and chapped skin. How could you even consider leaving him when he was in this bad shape?
“Every time I look in the mirror I only see him”, he said with a shake voice. “How can you even bare look at my face?”. You had to gather your emotions that hit you like a strike to the abdomen, swallow the thickness in your throat before answering. The broken mirror and bloody hands, it didn’t take long before you collected the pieces.
“You’re hurt, George. Let me take a look at it”, you said instead, getting ready to get up from the floor but George tightened the grasp over your hand. You stopped for a moment before sinking down on the floor again. “You need some band-aids, and sleep”. He shake his head.
“I need you to answer me”, he said, something unfamiliar in his voice. Close to anger. He had been near apathetic ever since returning home, the only time you saw him actually feel something was when you two stayed at the Burrow with his family. “Why won’t you ever talk about him?”. He had a point, for the most part when Fred came up in a conversation, you often would avoid the topic or simply just leave the room. It was way too painful, even to think about the happy moments. Nothing would ever be the same without your friend and to talk about him, to think about him, you worried you’d just fall deeper into the numb darkness you’ve felt since his death. You had thought George felt the same, when you where alone with him, his brother never came up. In fact, you rarely spoke anymore.
“I don’t want to talk about him”, you whispered, this time it was you that didn’t dare to meet his eyes. “I... I can’t”.
“But I need to, I must talk about him”. You heard his tears in his voice. His hand in your was cold and shaking, just like yours. You sat there in silence as both of you tried to think of something to say. You moved a little close towards George, wrapped your free arm around his tired body.
“You can always come talk to me. I know I haven’t been a good friend lately and I’m so sorry for that”, you said, leaning back from the embrace to look at him. “It’s awful what has happened and I don’t think it’ll ever not feel awful but can we please...”, you had to stop mid-sentence to wipe away the tears that was blocking your view, “please go to sleep? I’m just so tired and I miss Fred and I miss you! I miss my best friend”, cried out. George cleared his throat as he saw his friend break infront of him. Without a word did he get up, pull you with him towards the bedroom. Perhaps the morning would be better. Perhaps the morning would be worse. His hands had started to dry from the wounds but it still gave him a stinging pain when he moved his hands. He knew it would heal, all wounds healed eventually but the wounds inside of him? They would take a lifetime or more to even begin healing.