Chapter 1
The Burrow was a mess, but for once it wasn’t Fred’s fault.
“Woah!” He pressed himself against the wall as Penny sprinted up the staircase next to him, her hair and makeup done despite still being in her pajamas. “Alright Penny?”
“Audrey forgot her necklace!” She exclaimed. “Is Percy ready yet?”
Fred glanced up two floors to where he could hear Oliver Wood’s strong accent cussing out Percy’s unruly hair. “I don’t think so.” He said drily.
Penny breathed a sigh of relief before she saw his state of dress. Her jaw dropped. “Fred!” She yelped. “The wedding is in three hours!”
Fred stared at her. “I know?”
“Why aren’t you dressed yet?”
“Helping Percy, wasn’t I? And now I’m hungry, so I’ve gotta get breakfast, and believe me, you don’t want me eating in a suit. I’d mess it up.” Also, Fred hated suits, especially this one. It was itchy and stuffy, and made him feel too serious. But his brother asked him to wear it, and this was probably the only day ever that Fred would do as his brother asked.
“You! Are! A! Wizard!” Penny snapped, sounding an awful lot like Hermione. Fred wondered where she and Harry had gotten off to. Harry had gotten there that morning, sullen as he always was after the Dursleys, and their mum had dragged him away to charm him to look like someone else. Apparently, Dumbledore had said that Harry couldn’t leave the Dursleys, even for Percy’s wedding, but then Percy had made the face that Fred knew meant he was serious about something, and Bill and Charlie had come up with a plan to sneak him in. He wasn’t able to spend the night, which sucked, but their Mum said he would be coming with when they moved at the end of the summer.
“Magic can’t fix all the messes I make.” Fred said solemnly. Penny muffled a scream in her hands, but let him go. Probably because Audrey was calling for her. He continued down the stairs, pausing to glance out the window. Audrey’s parents were arranged centerpieces in the front yard, and her brother (Jack? John? Something with a J? Fred would call him Janet for now) was looking at the tent very intently.
“Fred!” His mum called from the kitchen. “Is that you?”
“Yeah.” Fred hurried down the rest of the steps. “Wow. You, uh, you’ve been busy.”
His mum didn’t look up from where she was stirring something on the stove. “A lot of people means a lot of food, Fred.” She said. “Have you seen George? Or Ron?”
“Uh, George is upstairs watching Oliver fight with Percy’s curls, and I haven’t seen Ron.” Fred leaned over to investigate the pie cooling on the windowsill. It looked like it could be breakfast food. His mum slapped his hands away.
“Don’t eat that!” She ordered. Fred frowned.
“Why? Not for the wedding, Audrey ordered a cake.”
His mum’s lips pursed at the thought of the cake Audrey had ordered. In Fred’s opinion, it was very pretty and would be very delicious. In his mum’s opinion, it was an extra expense that wasn’t needed. Fred didn’t know why she cared. Percy had refused to let their parents pay for any of it, as had Audrey’s family. They’d all said that just hosting and cooking was enough.
“It’s for the Lovegoods.” She said. “They’re helping decorate, so I made them pie as a thank you.”
Fred yelped in alarm and leaned out the window, peering around frantically for the Lovegoods. They were around the altar, putting up chairs, which seemed normal until you looked closer and saw Luna sprinkling something on each one.
“Fredrick Weasley, get back in here!” His mum pulled on the back of his shirt roughly. “Here.” She shoved a platter in his hands, stacked high with pastries and fruit. “Take this to Percy.”
“Mum, the Lovegoods!” Fred protested. His mum tutted.
“I don’t want to hear it.” She snapped. “This day is already busy enough without you being rude to the Lovegoods.”
“Mum, they are doing something to the chairs.” Fred said.
His mother sighed. “Yes, and I’ll send Ron out to fix it once I find him. Go.” She nudged him back towards the stairs, and Fred stifled a groan. He made his way back up the stairs, pushing Percy’s door open with his food. He caught his twin’s eye as he entered.
“Food!” George cheered. He’d gotten dressed in the last few minutes, leaving Fred as the only one still not undressed. George bounded over. “You should go change,” He muttered as he took the platter from Fred. “Bill’s developed a tick in his jaw, and I think he might be stressed.”
“It’s not even his wedding,” Fred whispered. George raised an eyebrow, Fred shrugged. “Yeah, you’re right. I’ll go.” He slipped out of the room and down the hall, quickly changing into his groomsmen suit. As he ran a comb through his hair, his eyes caught on a note on the floor.
“Merry Christmas, Freddie. Enjoy causing mischief with this.” He huffed as he read it. It was the Christmas card from Percy’s latest Christmas gift, a whole bunch of potion ingredients. Fred had kept the note, which he’d never done before, nervous about Percy being in the tournament. He winced and crumpled the paper as an image of his brother, bloody and very still on Harry’s lap flashed into his mind, and he took a deep breath, forcing himself to relax.
“Fred?” It was George again. His twin could always tell when he was out of sorts. “What are you doing your makeup now? It’s taken you forever to get ready, and Oliver and Charlie are nearly done with Percy’s hair.”
“No,” Fred said, fighting away a tremble in his voice. Unsuccessfully, if the look on George’s face was any indication. He took a deep breath and tried again. “I don’t need makeup to look this pretty, Gred. You should try some though.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
“We’re identical, you dolt.” George said, stepping into their room and closing the door. “Come off it, you know that doesn’t work with me. We have the same tells. What’s wrong?”
“Use your magic twin powers and find out.” Fred muttered as he sat down on his bed. He stared at his hands, feeling the bed dip as George sat beside him.
“Tournament again then, yeah?” George muttered.
Fred scoffed. “How’d you know?”
“Magic twin powers.” There was a pause, and George shifted. “I had a nightmare about it, last night.” He admitted. “Only, he never came back with Harry at all, and we had to go to the graveyard and find him there.”
Fred shut his eyes tight at the thought of the graveyard where his older brother had been tortured. They had gone - him, George, Bill, and Charlie - in secret, that first night that Percy was in the hospital. The aurors had taken the cauldron away, but they hadn’t cleaned up Percy’s blood yet. It had been everywhere, and that had been when Fred knew he was very fortunate to still have three older brothers.
“And then,” George had continued talking. “I woke up.” He turned to face Fred, pulling Fred’s gaze up from his hands. “I woke up, Freddie. And Percy was okay, and he’s getting married to Audrey today, and he’s very happy.”
“Yeah.” Fred shook his head. “It’s awful, but…”
“But?”
“I’m kinda sad he’s getting married, you know? Not because I’m not happy for him, but because-”
“It feels like the end of something.” George said softly.
“Yeah. End of an era type of thing.” Fred swallowed. “And I know this next one will be good, but I just want to go back to when we were young and Percy was helping us set up pranks for Bill and Charlie, or helping us hide what we did to Ron, or helping us with transfiguration homework. And I love Audrey, but him marrying her just proves we’re all growing up.”
“Doesn’t help he’s moving to Spain, either.” George muttered, and all of sudden, easy as breathing, the twins had switched positions and Fred was the one doing the comforting.
“Just for two years,” Fred said, the words stale in his mouth. “He promised.”
“He’s broken promises before.”
“Like what?” Fred very carefully didn’t think about Percy promising him he’d stay safe in the third task, and then coming back half dead, or promising him he was okay after, and then taking a trip to the hospital a few days later because his muscles wouldn’t stop spasming and he was in so much pain.
“Like that time he promised he wouldn’t snitch to Mum about what he did to Ron’s teddy bear, but then went and did so immediately.”
“Okay, so he has broken promises.” Fred said. “But he wouldn’t break this one.”
“Who breaks promises?” George screamed and flung himself into Fred’s arms, just as Fred tumbled off the bed. They stared up at Percy, who had just poked his head inside their door. He blinked at them. “Okay…”
“Uh, hey Percy!” George said. “Uh, nobody breaks promises! Especially not you.” Fred nailed his brother in the side as he said that, and George yelped.
Percy stared at them. “That felt like a loaded sentence.” He said, finally. He stepped inside the room, ignoring their Mum’s yells from downstairs. “What’s going on?” His face grew suspicious. “If you prank my wedding I won’t stop Audrey from killing you.”
“We’re not going to prank your wedding,” Fred scoffed, offended.
“Yeah, have some faith in us.” George added. “We were just… talking.”
“About what?”
Fred stared at George. George stared back. Fred raised an eyebrow. George twitched his lips. “You.” Fred admitted, finally.
“Me?” Percy said.
“You’re usually quicker with this!” George said, throwing his hands in the air. Fred nodded in agreement and folded his arms over his chest to stare at Percy. Percy looked baffled.
“Usually I have some idea what’s going on in your brains.” He agreed. “Not a clue today, though. Might be all the hair gel Oliver put on me.” He scratched his head and a curl popped loose. He winced.
“We’re…” George glanced at Fred for help. Fred tried to figure out how to say it in a way that didn’t sound like they hated Percy’s fiancee. He’d already fought with their mum for that.
“Sad.” Fred decided. “We’re going to miss you.”
“We have owls.”
“It’s not the same.” George decreed. “This will be the first time ever where we haven’t lived in the same place.”
“First time since my first year.” Percy said. Fred scowled at him, and saw George doing the same. Percy laughed. “Okay, yes, I get it. I’ll miss you too. But it’s only for two years.”
“Yeah, until you love Spain and don’t leave,” George muttered. Fred swatted at him. They didn’t need Percy knowing that they’d be sad if he did that, Gred. They were big kids, they could handle their brother moving away. He was the third one to do so.
Percy glanced at him. “What was that?”
“Nothing.” Fred managed to speak as he shoved his fist in George’s mouth. George gagged.
Percy shook his head. “I know the third task scared you,” He started
Fred made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a whimper when it excited his throat, but was intended to be a manly noise of disagreement.
Percy ignored him. “But I promise, Spain really will be safe. No Voldemort there,” He gave them both a sharp look when they winced at the name. “No death eaters, no tournament. Just more school.”
“Historically school hasn’t been that safe.” Fred said.
Percy rolled his eyes. “Do I look like Harry Potter to you? The tournament only got me involved because of my proximity to him. I’m actually probably the safest out of all of us, next year.” Percy stepped back towards the door. “Now, Mum might kill me, and then both of you if we don’t get downstairs right now.”
“She can’t kill the groom on his wedding day.” Fred said, scrambling up, accidentally (on purpose), tripping George in the process. He ignored his brother’s swears and followed Percy down the staircase.
“Yeah, not if she wants Addie to not murder her.” Ginny appeared next to Fred on the landing, and Fred carefully didn’t scream. She was like a ghost. Worse than one, actually, Fred had met louder ghosts. “Hello, Fred. I’m glad to see you got dressed.”
“Penny told you about that, did she?” Fred said. “Hey, have you had breakfast? I didn’t get any,”
“You brought the platter up,” Percy muttered, before cutting himself off. “Hey Oliver!” He shouted up the stairs. Fred and Ginny slammed their hands over their ears, and Fred saw George slip on a step in surprise. “Toss down some pastries, will you? Fred didn’t eat!”
“Not my beater!” Oliver yelled back. A moment later, two objects came flying down. One nailed Fred in the eye, and the other Ginny caught. “Fred, you got to eat to keep up your strength!”
“Yes, oh captain my captain.” Fred said sarcastically.
Percy’s lips twitched up but he didn’t say anything, inside turning to the kitchen. “Did you need something Mum?”
Fred and Ginny stared as their mum burst into tears on the spot. “Oh, Percy!” She came over and hugged him, adjusting his hair. Fred heard footsteps behind him, and turned to see Charlie with a look of horror.
“Hands off the hair, Mum!” He yelped. “We just fixed that!” He hurried over, pulling their mum’s hands away. Percy went to fix his hair and Charlie smacked him. “Not you too!”
“But-”
“Mum, have you not gotten ready yet?” Charlie interrupted Percy to peer into the kitchen. “Have you been cooking this whole time?”
“Mum!” Percy exclaimed in horror.
Their mum sniffed. “Oh, I just wanted to make sure everything was perfect for my little boy’s special day.” She sobbed.
Fred heard Ginny barely stifle a snort. He grinned at her. ‘Little boy’ he mouthed. She snickered.
Percy sighed. “You should get ready.” He valiantly ignored Fred and Ginny. Kind of like he had practice “Almost two hours out, now. Did you need something?”
“Oh, yes.” She wiped her tears away. “The Simmonses were asking for you. They’re out front.”
Percy nodded. “I’ll go deal with it. You get dressed.” He stooped to kiss their mum’s cheek, and then brushed past Fred and Ginny on their way outside. Their mum hurried upstairs.
“Oy! Fred, Ginny, you go see if Percy needs help.” Charlie said. Fred nodded, and he and his sister slipped out of the door just as Charlie started bellowing for Bill and George to help him in the kitchen. Ginny shook her head as they caught sight of Mr. Simmons sweeping Percy into a hug.
“I didn’t know anyone was taller than Percy,” Ginny said as they made their way over. Fred grinned, before suddenly stopping.
“Wait.” He caught her arm, about 35 feet from them.
“What?” She glanced over. “Oh.” Mr. Simmons had his hands on Percy’s shoulders, and the two of them were in a serious discussion. “Doesn’t look like they need help.”
“Nope,” Fred agreed, feeling awkward. He didn’t want to think too hard about Percy being Mr. Simmons’ son-in-law by the end of the day. He wondered how Dad felt about it. Seemed like Percy and Mr. Simmons got along pretty well, and there had been no yelling, which hadn’t been true of Percy’s relationships with their parents in the last few years.
“Your dad is in the shed.” Janet appeared behind them.
Ginny swore.
“Wow,” Janet said. “Spicy language from the Brit.”
“Oh, bugger off.” Ginny said. “Why’s Dad in the shed?”
“I dunno, he’s your dad,” Janet’s gaze slid to his dad and Percy behind them. “Oh, good. Dad and Mom wanted to talk to Perce.”
Fred gritted his teeth at the nickname. “Why?”
“Welcome to the family type of stuff.” Janet waved a hand. “Hey, can you help me with the tablecloths? Addie said she wanted them to be cream, but they look more white.”
“Fred can.” Ginny said. “I can’t do magic outside of school. I’m going to go get Dad.” She left, abandoning Fred with Janet. He really should find out this guy’s name.
“What does that even mean?” Fred stared at him. “I don’t know what that means.”
“Yeah, me neither, dude, but my Mom said it was a problem and told me to find one of Percy’s magic relatives to fix it.” He shrugged. “So?”
“What is the difference?” Fred asked. Janet shrugged.
“More yellow?” He offered.
Fred bit his lip and waved his wand. “Like that?”
“I think?” Janet shook his head. “Mom!” He yelled. “That better?”
“That’s perfect, thank you Jake! And-” She caught herself off and said something to Percy, who grinned and responded. “And Fred! Thank you Fred!”
Fred shot her a thumbs up in response, before turning back to Jake. “Uh,” He said, eloquently. He was usually better with people than this.
“Fred, then?” Jake said. “I’ve been calling you Frank in my head.”
“It’s okay,” Fred said. “I couldn’t remember your name either.”
“You’re one of the twins?” Jake asked. “Percy talks about his siblings a lot.” Fred felt a warm feeling spread across his body.
“Uh, yeah. My twin is George.” He shifted uncomfortably. “And that was Ginny.”
“Cool. Which one is friends with the two non-gingers?”
“Ron.” Fred said. “Wait, have you seen him?”
“Yeah, they came through here a bit ago. Said they couldn’t help with the tablecloths.”
“They’re all underage.” Fred agreed.
Jake made a face. “What, like for alcohol?”
Fred laughed, but not meanly. Jake’s face said he could tell the difference. “No, for magic. You’ve got to be 17 to do magic outside of Hogwarts. That’s the school.”
“Right. That’s where Audrey graduated from.” Jake nodded. There was a long pause, adn finally Jake coughed. “Uh, nice to meet you, I guess.”
“Nice to meet you too,” Fred said. “Enjoy the wedding?”
“I’ll see you around.” Jake made his way towards his parents and Percy, giving Percy a hug as he walked up. Fred swallowed, hard. He didn’t like that Percy got along so well with his new family, it made him feel like he was replacing him, no matter what Percy said. No matter if Fred’s brain said it wasn’t true.
“Ugh.” Ron appeared beside him, and Fred muffled a scream. His nerves were shot. Why were his younger siblings so sneaky? “They look like they like him.”
“Proper family, yeah? Just missing Audrey.” The words sounded bitter, even to Fred. Ron stared at him.
“Are you jealous?” He demanded, incredulous.
“No!” Fred paused. “Maybe a little.”
“It’s okay, me too.” Ron said. “But it’s just like Bill and Charlie, yeah? We’ll still see him at Christmas, and some summers.”
Fred thought back to when all of his siblings had lived under the same roof. He wondered if Ron even remembered that. “Just like Bill and Charlie…” He echoed. “Hey, where have you been?”
“Uh,” Ron looked away. “Harry was upset,” He said finally. “We haven’t been allowed to answer his letters all summer. He wanted to know why.”
“Oh,” Fred said. “Did you tell him about Oliver?”
“Didn’t have to. He’d already talked to him. He thinks he’s going to take him up on the offer, at least over Christmas.” Ron shrugged. “Wish he could stay with us all the time. He could have Percy’s room.”
Fred didn’t know why, but the thought of Harry taking over Percy’s room made him want to throw up. He laughed it off. “Dumbledore would never go for it.” He said. “C’mon. The ceremony will be soon. I think Mum still needs help in the kitchen.”
It turns out Fred didn’t like wedding ceremonies, but he did like receptions. The ceremony had dragged on forever, and the most interesting part of it had been the very beginning when Percy had been literally speechless as Audrey walked down the aisle. From there, there were a lot of boring details that Fred hadn’t listened to during planning or the rehearsal dinner, so it’d be silly to start now.
“Can I have this dance?” Fred grinned at Audrey, who beamed up at him.
“Absolutely.” She took his offered hand and let him pull her out of her chair. “How do you like the wedding?”
“It’s amazing,” Fred said honestly. “You did a great job planning it. Nice job on not letting Mum steamroll you.”
“I had my mom steamroll her when she tried.” Audrey admitted. Fred laughed. “Are you excited for your 7th year?”
“Yeah,” Fred said. “Crazy that we’re almost done.”
“How’s the joke shop?” At Fred’s look she smiled. “Percy told me about your plans. He’s very impressed with the two of you. Like a proud mother.”
“Oh,” Fred twirled Audrey. “That’s, uh,”
“More emotion than you can handle?” Audrey guessed. Fred shook his head in wonder. “Percy makes the same face.” She told him, with a besotted look on her face. For the first time, it occurred to Fred that this girl really really loved his brother.
“I’m glad it’s you.” Fred said. “For Percy, I mean. You make him better.”
“I’m glad it’s me too.” Audrey replied. “But he’s the one who makes me better.”
“Believe me, as his little brother, he’s more bearable with you.” Fred made an exaggerated face, and Audrey laughed again.
“Well, thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Wear it like a badge of honor.” Fred advised. “When do you leave for Spain?”
“Not sure,” Audrey said. “Right now, the plan is to go to our honeymoon in Greece for a week, and then here, and then Spain. Percy’s term starts September 7th, so we’ll probably leave at the end of August. Maybe stay here to see you lot off to school and then go.”
“Strong plan.” Fred said. He didn’t mention their family’s plans to move. He knew Audrey about them, just like he knew she wasn’t happy about them.
“I’ll make Percy write,” Audrey said. “Not that it’ll be hard, but I’ll make sure he writes once a week. And I’ll keep him alive, and I’ll talk to the doctor’s so he’s in less pain.”
Fred managed a smile. “See?” He said as the song ended. “You make him better.”
“I promise.” Audrey said. “And I don’t break my promises.”
“Neither does Percy. Not on purpose, anyways.” Fred hesitated as they got close to her seat. “Thank you.”
Audrey nodded firmly. “Thank you,” She said. “For trusting me with him.” She shook her head. “You Weasleys. All worried about the same thing, but none of you know how to say it.”
Fred’s lips quirked up as she hurried over to his brother, kissing him on the cheek. Percy smiled up at her, looking happier than Fred had ever seen him. Fred tried to not think too hard about the new scars on his face, or the way his hand twitched.
“They’re disgusting.” Ginny appeared next to him.
“We need to put a bell on you.” Fred said. “And yeah, they are.”
“Happy, though.”
“Good. He deserves it, after what we’ve put him through.”
“What you and George put him through.” Ginny corrected, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “I’m an angel.”
Fred snorted. “Angel, right.”
Ginny stuck out her tongue. “Where’s George? I never see you two separate.”
“Wandered off somewhere with Angelina.” Fred said. “Dunno where. Where’s Ron? And Harry?”
“Wandered off somewhere.” Ginny winced. “Probably to go find trouble.”
“Probably.” Fred agreed. The music swelled again, and he decided not to think about Percy moving away, or Voldemort rising, or his twin getting a girlfriend. “Can I have this dance, Gin?”
Ginny smiled at him. “You’re a dork.” She said, taking his hand.
“You’re mistaking me for Percy.” Fred said. “I’m the cool one, remember?” He swept his little sister into the crowd, and didn’t think too hard for the rest of the night.