Trainwreck

Barefoot and Bruised

“I know that you’ve been hurt, I know that you’ve been broken, had to walk alone, no hand to hold, but those lonely days are gone, cause I’ll be right beside you, down every long and darkened road… Maybe when your sky comes crashing down, I can be your angel on the ground, if you get tired and can’t go on, I will carry you along, when the rocks below your feet wear out your shoes, when you’re barefoot and bruised…”

4 months later…

Fred had been thrust back into running the shop alongside George, much to the shock and joy of the customers and most of the Hogwarts former alumni and staff at the news that he had come back, all bumrushing into the shop to see it with their own eyes as Fred smirked and welcomed them into the shop before hugging most of his friends and greeting the professors before seeing McGonagall as he looked at her fondly and smiled warmly.

“Congratulations, Professor… Oh, wait, it’s Headmistress now” he corrected himself but maintained his mischievous smile as he saw her lips quirk up into a prim smile as she patted his shoulder.

“Thank you, Mr. Weasley, your presence and foolish antics have been somewhat missed…” she said with a small smirk of her own “welcome back… quite the lovely shop, may I add? It’s nice to see George come back to being himself… although I am fairly certain you’ve already found that out for yourself” she added in a more measured and soft tone before she bought more nuts and some more dung bombs much to Fred’s surprise yet satisfaction as he kept tallying up the till while processing what she had said to him while seeing George convince and successfully secure several more sales of their products.

Even though he maintained conversations with his former classmates before they went on their way with loads of the twins’ products, his eyes would always find their way back to George, his heart constricting at times seeing his twin get lost in all the products and rearranging new merchandise on the shelves with a certain rush as if he needed to be in two places at once. It was still a struggle for George to adjust that he didn’t have to run the shop alone anymore, that Fred was truly back to stay, that he wasn’t going to get ripped away from him a second time, that the other half of him was complete again, a struggle that Fred was seeing and living with him on a daily basis since he moved in with him to keep him company as well as catch up on lost time, the first few nights spent on George telling him everything about the shop in the time when he and Ron were running it, bringing out new inventions to run it by him and adjust any functions, settled their shifts on who ran the register, who ran the floor, who counted the till and other things, but Fred could see the remaining anxiety and frisson of fear in his brother, no matter how hard George tried to hide it from him, Fred just knew him, better than he knew himself even, which led to several discussions, some boiling over to full blown arguing, but never to the point of fighting each other since they would always allow each other time to cool off before coming to an agreement and would end it with a much needed hug and a drink of either Firewhiskey or Butterbeer.

After the shift was done, Fred had flipped the sign to closed as he had finished up the count and went over to George in the office with the till as he looked inside and saw George sat down, his head between his hands, his newly dyed red hair all mussed up and sticking in all sorts of directions, order forms of their products scattered all over the desk, but the one thing that struck him was the framed moving picture of the two of them at the opening of the shop that Harry had snapped of them right next to where George’s elbow rested on the desk as he dropped the till on the desk quietly and picked up the picture, looking at it fondly. He had never looked as happy alongside his brother as he did in the picture before he looked back at George’s form and ruffled his hair with a chuckle, seeing George slump a little and relax at the gesture before straightening up and rubbed his face before looking up at him. His eyes were a little dimmed and had dark circles starting to form. He’d grown concerned over his twin’s lack of sleep and knew his body was overworked, but they were both dedicated to the shop and were kind of workaholics.

“Oi, why don’t you trudge upstairs and take a shower and sleep? You look like a Grindylow about to poke someone’s eyes out” he said rather harmlessly as George didn’t even respond to the comment as he got up and stumbled through the office before turning around and looked at Fred with a small grin as he went to respond but not before his eyes rolled backwards and went tumbling to the floor, Fred dropping the picture as he rushed to his brother and checked his pulse.

“OI, GEORGIE?! GEORGE?!” he yelled as panic began flaring up in his gut as he sent an urgent message over to their parents before apparating with George to St. Mungos as the nurse and doctors had begun checking his vitals as Fred paced nervously around the hall mussing his hair up before seeing Molly and Arthur pop up as he rushed over to them and wrapped his arms around them as Molly petted his hair as he explained to them what happened when the doctor came over to them.

“George will be alright, but he is going through a serious bout of sleep deprivation and his body has shut down due to the stress it’s been put through… Has he experienced anything extreme or of high emotion in the last couple of months that we should know of?” The doctor asked them as Molly and Arthur looked at each other before looking at Fred and back at the doctor as they explained the situation.

“I see… Well, that definitely falls under extreme and high emotion… coupled with the fact that he hasn’t allowed himself to accept and assimilate these new changes, it was a matter of time until his body gave out… Once he wakes up, I will be bringing up the possibility of therapy… This doesn’t mean you have done anything wrong, this is not your faults, but sometimes, when grief hasn’t been processed properly, it causes all sorts of chaos, especially when the affected has not been wanting to talk in crude detail about their own experience, for fear of having to relive rather painful memories that they don’t wish to think of… You can see him, but he will be asleep” the doctor added softly before she departed to deal with other patients as Molly, Arthur and Fred stood there unmoving looking at each other before sighing as they went over to George’s room and saw him lying on the stretcher, Molly’s breath hitched as she held onto Arthur, a rather painful flashback of when Fred had died and laid in the Great Hall passing through her as Fred laid his head on her own before kissing her temple as his own eyes got pricked by tears, imagining all sorts of scenarios as to how George must have felt seeing him on the floor of the Great Hall in the aftermath of the battle, taking in his lifeless form and now him seeing George on the stretcher in the hospital in a similar fashion made his heart clench with sadness and pain for his twin as Arthur rubbed his back before Fred made his way to the chair next to the bed and gently laid his head on the hospital bed next to George’s hand as both Molly and Arthur looked at their sons softly as they leaned on each other before they all heard a low groan coming from the bed as they all looked over and saw George’s eyes open as he rubbed them sleepily, his gaze looking lost and haunted for a minute until Fred piped up.

“How ya feeling, Georgie?” he whispered worriedly as he heard George chuckle quietly at his choice of words.

“I would say saint-like, but the holey is properly sealed up” he shot back as Fred breathed out in relief and chuckled back as he ruffled his hair again.

“Gave me quite the bloody scare, mate” Fred admitted as George sighed and looked at him and nodded before slowly sitting up and ruffled his twin’s hair returning the gesture. “Sorry about that, although it does make quite for an interesting end to the shift” he halfheartedly joked as Fred chuckled ruefully and nodded his head with a half-cocked smirk before their parents doted on George, slightly reprimanding him for not giving himself time to rest but stayed by his side as the doctor came back in and as promised, brought up the subject of therapy, which at first shocked George as he began to rebuff it, saying he was fine and didn’t need it, but one look at his brother and the façade he had built up broke as he lowered his head, Molly rubbing his back as Arthur clasped his shoulder and Fred took his hand supporting him as George looked back up at the doctor and sighed before nodding and agreed to take mind therapy to deal with the remaining PTSD he still carried from the war and the aftermath of it as well as with the misplaced and unfinished grief and mourning process he never completed in terms of Fred’s death before he came back.

As soon as they settled on a proper schedule for the sessions (some individually and others alongside his family at the request of the doctor as she felt they could all benefit from it as well), Molly and Arthur said their goodbyes to Fred and George with a big hug as the doctor let the twins be before George looked at Fred still quite unsure about what this new stage might have in store for all of them, but Fred soothed his doubts, reassuring him that he wasn’t going to leave his side and that he’d stick by his side, no matter what happened...