Bringing Them Back

Thursday, July 8, 2004 -- 8 p.m
Harry 

Harry knew something was up. He wasn’t the brightest wizard there was, but he sure as hell wasn’t the daftest either. It was obvious. In every moment of his visit with Hermione he had known something was off. Something bad? Something good? Both? He wasn’t sure, because the woman was so bloody secretive.

Hermione was an expert at evading. She wouldn’t answer anything he asked. Harry was sure he had gotten close to her cracking when he had mentioned something about the Ministry. Right when he saw something flash behind her eyes, out of nowhere, George appears and takes over the conversation. As if on cue. Oh yes, something was up.

And he was tired of not knowing. 

George and Hermione had grown close since the end of the War. Harry knew that they had found solace in the company of one another. George had been completely destroyed by the loss of his brother. Hermione had been a shell. It had been a strange day when she had gone home with George instead of accompanying him to Grimmauld Place, but after a while he just understood. He understood because he understood Hermione. She was his sister. He bloody well felt her presence like she was his own twin. If she believed in Divination she would claim them soulmates. Though not two souls that find peace in one another - no - even further still - but one soul split and finding one another. 

He knew he sounded a bit ridiculous, but that was how she felt to him. 

Where he was weak she was strong. Planning, foresight, studying...and where she lacked, he thrived. He was a doer, he was strong and agile and he had power in sheer will. He did not hesitate or overthink. Yes - they were a set. 

A yin and yang of friendship. 

And she was lying to him. 

Keeping him in the dark. 

Yes, there was a part of him - a small part of him - that was trying to tell him he was becoming obsessed. He felt a little unhinged and overly anxious when it came to her lack of communication. A memory of his sixth year and how he had followed Draco Malfoy around fluttered through his mind. But he had been right. Hadn't he? He had been a Death Eater and he had spent the entire year hurting people in order to murder Dumbledore. 

That alone justified his feeling behind his decisions. 

If she wanted to be secretive, then so be it. He would be to.

That was exactly how he had ended up following the trio into the Ministry; under his invisibility cloak, crouched in a corner of this room. THIS room. He hated this room. He hated it more than he had hated anything in his entire life. This room. Green eyes narrowed in on the object directly in the center. Hermione and the twins stood before it, Kingsley talking in his low voice about something. He couldn’t make it out, but he saw all three of his friends nod before Kingsley took off and left them all. 

 “This is it,” Hermione sighed out. Harry strained to hear so he inched his way closer to the three. “I am so nervous,” the brown-haired witch admitted.

“No reason to be, Smarts,” one of the twins told her and reached out to grab her hand, bringing it up to press a kiss to her knuckles. “We’re in this together, there’s nothing to worry over, right Georgie?” 

“Right-o, Fred,” George responded with over-the-top enthusiasm that betrayed his own nerves. He smiled stiffly at the two and reached out to grab Hermione’s other hand, mimicking his brother’s actions and pressing a kiss to her knuckles. 

“Alright then,” Hermione said, her words turning stern, “Step back, we need to…..” she stopped suddenly and as her head turned toward him. Her brown gaze landed directly on Harry and he was sure she had seen him, made him out. Her brown gaze narrowed in his direction, but he swore they were looking into each other's eyes. Fuck. 

“Hermione?” Fred asked after a long moment, he followed her gaze and frowned at the empty part of them room before looking back at her. “Smarts?” 

Hermione didn’t say anything, still looking dead at Harry before she blinked and shook her head. Her brows pulled low before she turned her attention back towards Fred and  George, grinning apologetically before once more finding her previous position. “I thought I saw something.” 

The twins looked towards him, but neither gazes pinpointed his location like her’s had. Harry slowly backed up, trying to ease himself into another area of the room, but stopped when he heard Hermione say, “I hope Sirius is okay in there.” 

Sirius? 

He knew that they were in the room. That that THING was what they were looking at, but he hadn’t really had the moment to ponder on why Hermione and the Twins would even care to be here. Sirius. Of course! Of course it was him. Why else would they even be here? Why would Hermione have been so secretive. Oh Merlins! She didn’t?! Did she? Hope, fear, disbelief, anger, love, joy all crashed themselves through him and he had to clasp his hand over his mouth to keep from making noise. Had Hermione actually figured it out? Had she? There must be a reason she was even here to begin with and that was it. If the twins were there too – she had found a way to get in there and bring back Sirius! 

Green eyes looked wildly at the trio. He hadn’t noticed when they had begun, but the room felt heavier and the magic pulsed within it. Hermione stood, flanked on either side by the twins. Fred seemed to be slightly closer than George and there was a possessive nature in his stance. They were a sight. Bold and brilliant and daring. All of their faces were set in determination; sweat lining their hairlines as Hermione spoke words he couldn’t repeat if he tried, her wand out, pointed at the Veil. Fred and George were moving, dancing almost. He didn’t understand and he wasn’t sure he would ever, it looked too surreal. As if he were dreaming and they were creatures from another world. 

Hermione’s hair was whipping wilding about, yet the room itself was still. No wind was brushing through the space. Fred and George’s clothes were flapping against their skin, they seemed to be struggling with their dance, but still they were in sync. Not watching each other but steadily looking at the veil and when they finally pushed their hands out towards it, an orange substance seemed to emit from their hands. It was a spell, but it seemed more like a liquid tangling about the witch, curling around her like a snake as she continued to speak. 

From Harry’s standpoint, it seemed like the twins were done. They both looked exhausted, but they did not relax. Their arms remained outstretched, and their lips moved in unison. They seemed to be controlling the orange slithering magic. 

Hermione’s words were cut off from his hearing. Noises, screams, shouts, strange singing was beginning to come from the Veil. She kept going, kept speaking, but the more he tried to hear the less he heard. All about the three it seemed like gray silk strings of shadow etched. Encircling them, trying to pull them apart, and trying to stop them. But the orange slither kept Hermione safe; it would stretch and bend over the twins as well, always on time, always where needed. 

They seemed locked in this. For hours or days, Harry wasn’t aware. He was rooted to his spot and terrified. Because he had not expected this. He should not have been here. He was betraying her trust by being here. He should not have come, but he couldn’t leave. Could he? Not now. Not after knowing and understanding what she had been up to all these long months. Not now. 

The loud screaming of a man brought him out of his train of thought. The trio before him stopped being blurry and he moved quickly to get a better angle of the Veil. In the process, his cloak shimmered off and onto the ground. He was standing there, in the open and he didn’t give two shits as he saw the reason for the screams. 

There he was. 

There he bloody was! 

Sirius was moving closer and closer to the Veil. His image was distorted, his body flailing this way and that and he was screaming. Begging for it to stop, to leave him alone. Begging to be left to die. And it tugged at Harry’s heart. It was as if he was watching him disappear through it all over again. Tears pounded against his eyes just as quickly and as roughly as his heart against his chest as he walked forward. Unaware and uncaring that he was walking past the three who were in control of this entire event. 

He didn’t see the brown eyed witch’s gaze shift to him briefly, he didn’t notice the stutter of the twins’ incantation. He didn’t see the flicker of the orange slithering shield just as Sirius fell forward onto his hands and knees onto the cold hard ground of the real world. 

And he surely didn’t see the gray matter overcome the trio behind him, engulfing them in shadows as the orange magic tried desperately to maintain its hold on them – but failed. 

He didn’t even notice that the room had gone completely quiet. Completely still, except for the heavy breathing from his own lungs and the shaky and tired gasps coming from his very-much-alive Godfather. 

Monday, July 12, 2004
Fred

“Fred.” A voice came into his awareness and he frowned and tried to ignore it. Hermione was more important than …than….”Fred, wake up, mate.” 

His eyes snapped open and he immediately wished they had remained closed. It was bright. Too bright. Dear Merlin it had burned his retinas. He was going to be blind now. Just great. George deaf, Fred blind. Squinting he blinked up and turned his attention to the large man at his side. At first, he didn’t quite remember who he was, but quickly his memories slid back into their proper place, “Kingsley?” 

The man put his hand on Fred’s shoulder and squeezed, “Good to see you awake, your brother stepped out. Sorry it’s me that forced you to wake up, but I saw you squirming and figured you may need a little help coming back to us.” The large man’s eyes snapped up and landed on across the room. He smiled a tight smile before shifting and Fred’s entire vision was filled with his twin. “I'll just leave you both alone, for now, we will have much to discuss in the upcoming days.” 

“Of course,” George said rather shortly. It was a dismissal. Fred frowned and watched as Kingsley sighed heavily, looked to him and then turned and departed the room. Looking back over to George he frowned and his twin sighed his answer, “It was a success,” he started, but the way his face was pale and his eyes red rimmed, Fred highly doubted his words. “But something happened.” 

He was cut off by something getting caught in his throat and Fred immediately sat up in bed and reached out to grab his twins shoulder, “George, what…” He swallowed, worry and confusing finding him, “What happened? Is Sirius okay? Where is Hermione?” 

George’s expression broke then and he let his head fall into his hands. Fred was beyond scared now, “George, where is Hermione?” He asked again, this time his voice sounded like someone else’s. It was hard and cold and dangerous and he didn’t dare blink when his twin looked up and caught his eye. 

“She’s in ICU, Forge.” He whispered this so lowly that Fred was sure he had imagined the words. “She's been there for four days.” 

Four days?! 
 
“What?!” Fred tried to bounce out of bed, but couldn’t. He looked down to his feet and noticed they were restrained. His waist too. What the…. “George…” 

George’s eyes welled up in tears. “Fred, mate, there was an accident….” 
 
At those words, Fred’s mind decided to play an unceremoniously fast reel of catch up. 

~Flashback: Thursday
 
Everything was going according to plan. It was smooth and perfect and, dear Merlin he never expected magic to be so heavy. He had been around magic his entire life, bollock that - he had done magic his entire life, but still – he had never felt this type of power before. It radiated through his entire body. All those long years of playing beater had not prepared him for this type of body strain. 

It started from the scalp and seared its way down his muscles. Each and every one shook and was pulled taut with the power he needed to continue this. He hoped it didn’t take too much longer, by the way the Veil seemed to shimmer, though, he felt more than saw the end approaching. 

Hermione was a masterpiece in this moment. She stood before him, and though he could not see her face, the way her robes and hair whipped about her, the way her stance was strong, the way her words turned tranquil into the air, she was the core. The center. He could feel the power of her radiating out towards him. As if to help he and George on their task. To protect, to serve, to sustain. Hermione felt as if she were one with the Earth – using the ley lines. For a split second, he wondered if she really was. 

That thought, however, was ripped from him when he noticed the man to his left. That man was NOT his brother. Who was standing to his right probably having very similar thoughts. No, this man was none other than Harry-bleeding-Potter. Fred looked back to Hermione, and panicked. He noticed quite quickly that that brief lapse in concentration had mucked up the spell George and he were supposed to be keeping on the brunette. The orange strain of shield was flickering, it was frantic in its movements now, almost as if panic was setting in and it didn’t know where to slither off to. 
 
It slapped wildly at a few of the gray tendrils that had all but surrounded the casters. But it was slower now, no longer able to keep up and Fred looked to Hermione just as he felt the scolding heat touch his lower back. It wrapped itself around him and he was sure that it was melting his skin into his bones before he let out a scream that went nowhere in the room. It was silent in its agony as he was ripped up from the stones, his feet and hands flailing weightlessly. He caught sight of his twin being thrown to the left, like a rag doll before slumping to the floor unconsciously. Fred searched for Hermione, but the gray matter had surrounded her. She was gone from his view and with one last silent scream of her name he was hurled through the air and slammed down on his previous spot. 

And all was dark. 

Fred blinked. Looked to George, “Is she dead?” 

George shook his head, “No, Fred, no.” 

Well that’s…that’s….”Why are you so upset?” 

“Because she would be better off if she were, Merlin, Fred --- what did we do?” And for the first time in a very long time, Fred witnessed his brother break down in loud, unchecked, sobs.