Brother
“Brother, let me be your shelter, I’ll never leave you all alone, I can be the one you call, when you’re low. Brother, let me be your fortress, when the night winds are driving on, I’ll be the one to light the way, bring you home…”
It had been quite the emotional rollercoaster for the twins after George’s stay at the hospital. The therapy sessions had been quite…cathartic in terms of releasing and letting go of residual guilt, pain and anger from the whole aftermath of the war, mainly for Molly and the other Weasleys.
George had gone to their sessions as moral support for them, under the recommendations of the therapist. Something about “family ties get stronger through the process under mutual support” that the therapist kept going off on. It had gone pretty normal, their family sessions, for the most part until the focus landed on Molly’s whole experience, which ultimately led to a lot of tears being shed and more hugs being shared between the entire Weasley clan.
George had kept his composure through it all, but hearing about his family’s individual experiences that they went through started to really wear on his emotions. But even then, whom he was mainly worried for wasn’t even himself, it was for his twin, Fred. He was now seeing how his death had truly affected the entire family as a whole, not just the small bits and pieces he had been told when he came back.
Fred had been oddly quiet throughout it all as he listened to all of their sessions. Today, the therapist was going to employ a different measure for today’s session.
“Ok, the last few sessions have been about letting your family vent out their emotions… this time, I’ve asked for a special session with you and your brother, while the rest listen in from a different room… So, Fred, I’m pretty sure this has been very… jarring and eye opening for you, how have you been processing all of this information?” The therapist at St. Mungos looks at Fred, seeing how George sat beside him, offering his support.
“To be quite honest… It’s been a lot to digest. I know it was hard, but I didn’t expect it to hit me this hard… Especially hearing mum talk about it, that damn near broke me… I didn’t realize it would affect them this way, I mean, Georgie and I, we’ve always been the odd ones of the bunch, so I thought it would’ve been, and this is a bit morbid, kind of a relief for mum to not have to be worried about confusing us anymore, but I guess it didn’t exactly work out that well… Don’t get me wrong, it was a bit surreal being a ghost, and quite fun at times… But I could feel how badly George was missing me, especially the night before I came back…” his voice tapered out, remembering how shaky George’s voice had been that night on the windowsill, and then how he could barely get the words out at the headstone the day he got resurrected, tears falling down his cheeks without him noticing when George gently rubbed his back and handed him a tissue.
Fred got snapped out of his stupor at the touch of George’s hand on his back, taking the tissue and dried his face free of the tears that fell as he began talking in full detail what he actually felt in his last moments during the battle, before he woke up as a ghost, the watching over his family.
“George, are you alright? You’ve been a bit quieter than usual” the therapist asked George, seeing him stand and go to the window, looking outside.
The therapist sighed softly. “How are you faring, George?” she asked him keeping a calm tone.
“With all due respect, why would you ask me when you already the answer to that question? Not exactly faring that well… Considering the fact that you’ve made me relive quite arguably the single worst moment of my existence via listening to all my family members relating their own memories of the one night we just want to get over with already, essentially forcing me to reopen wounds I was already close to leaving behind me…” George went off, pacing frantically through the entire office, mussing up his ginger locks, not noticing that Fred had gotten up and went to stand in front of him when George stopped him. “No… you left… you left me alone, you PROMISED!” he lashed out at Fred, his eyes now burning with tears of anger and pain as Fred kept trying to reach him, but George wouldn’t let him.
“N-no… I couldn’t look at myself without seeing you staring back at me, for months, Fred, MONTHS! I didn’t have any strength to come to terms with the fact that you left, you died that night, and when you did, you took the biggest bloody piece of me with you along with all the laughter and mischief we were yet to cause… I couldn’t even conjure a Patronus anymore, because all my happiest memories were all tied with you, they died when you did, and it’s not fair, it was never fair to begin with, but we had always promised each other to always remain by each other’s side until we got old and gray, because that was our thing, we were a package deal, never one without the other, and wherever one of us was, the other would surely follow shortly thereafter, loyal even to our shadows, we were the only ones that could trust each other with anything and everything… and all of that went away with you in the explosion that night” he had slid to the ground, leaning against the wall as he hugged his knees, going back to essentially when they were kids.
Fred had been stunned speechless as he listened to his brother, his heart aching even more so, hearing everything George had never said in the last few months while they were at the apartment above the joke shop. He never imagined that his death would have caused such a gaping hole in the family, especially in his twin, but then again, how could it not? They were always inseparable, doing everything except breathing and other bodily functions, together.
It was there that he slid down in front of George and slowly pulled him into his chest, his hand cradling the back of his head as he slowly pet his hair like when they were kids and one of them had gotten told off, hurt or had a nightmare as to comfort them. At first, he could feel the slightest resistance coming from his brother, until George allowed himself to break, fully break down into his brother’s arms, yelling and screaming into his chest, his eyes tightly wound shut, his body so strung out and tensed, but Fred didn’t budge, and he wouldn’t budge, not when his brother needed him most, and so, they sat there for what seemed like an eternity in the most intimate of brotherly embraces until George soothed and fell asleep against his chest, as Fred looked at the therapist with wide yet pained eyes.
“This session is over with today… We will discuss new sessions during the week, I’ll send the schedules along as soon as I can, there will be more to talk about with this new development… This is the most anyone, including your family, has gotten out of him in terms of that night and the months following afterwards… I know it’s a shock, but don’t give up on him… He just needs more time and reassurance that all of this is real, that you truly aren’t going to disappear on him and leave in the middle of the night again”. The therapist said calmly, but her eyes were puffy, signaling her own distress with this situation as Fred nodded.
“I don’t care how long it takes to reassure him, he’s my brother, I’m not planning to leave his side ever again, we’re each other’s guide back home, no matter how far we stray off from each other, we always find our way back one way or another”