Always and Forever

Chapter 36: Battle of Hogwarts Part 2

George POV

He felt exhaustion fill his bones as he sunk to the ground on his knees when the sinister voice filled his head once again. "You have fought valiantly. Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery." George scoffed while the Death Eater who was in front of him stopped fighting and looked up to the sky, looking to his master's voice. "Yet you have sustained heavy losses. If you continue to resist me, you will all die, one by one. I do not with this to happen. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a loss and a waste. Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat immediately. You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured."

The Death Eaters began to disparate and leave the premises. Angelina and George tucked their arms around Alicia's limp body. She was holding up, but barely. His throat was closing with worry as he thought of his own family's safety. The high-pitched voice filled the air again. "I speak now, Harry Potter, directly to you. You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest. If, at the end of that hour, you have not come to me, have not given yourself up, then battle recommences. This time, I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every last man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour."

"He's not going to turn himself in, is he?" Angelina looked up to George with worry in her eyes. They both remembered Harry sometimes as the small, wobbly legged eleven-year-old who was the youngest player on their team during his first year.

George shook his head while they carried Alicia to an empty cot in the Great Hall. Hopefully Madam Pomfrey would be here soon to see her, they weren't sure how much time she had left. "I'll stay with Alicia. Lee is going to find us. Go to your family, find them."

He swiveled his head around the Great Hall and spotted a small group of red heads. George ran over to them and saw with horror that someone was crouching over a body on the ground. His mother was sobbing over a figure. His feet began to feel like led with every step closer to the group. Who?

Ginny stood in front of George with a blank face. "You're okay?"

"Yes. Who... Gin..." He looked over his little sister's head but still couldn't get a glimpse of the body that was on the stone ground of the Great Hall.

"I—I—" She stammered and looked down at the figure. "I don't know how to tell you."

"Fred." He let out in a breathless whisper that took all of the energy out of his body. George collapsed onto the ground and wretched his stomach onto the ground. It wasn't there for long, so Ginny must've cleaned it with her wand. "No... it can't be... no..."

She helped him scoot closer to the body and he saw with his very own eyes his twin brother laying on the ground. He kneeled at Fred's head and began to stroke his hair while tears fell over his cold body. His blood went cold, and he couldn't think of anything other than Fred's unseeing eyes staring at the dark ceiling of the Great Hall. He didn't even register that his mother was lying across Fred's chest, crying and body shaking. His father was stroking his mother's hair, trying to offer her a fraction of comfort in the storm that their family was in.

He didn't even register when small hands began to stoke his cheek and whisper comforting words into his ear. He didn't register when Hermione's arms wrapped around his body and pulled him close against her curves, offering him a tight embrace for him to collapse inward to.

George clutched onto her body like she was an anchor in a sea. "You're okay." He whispered into her bushy hair.

"I'm okay." She whispered back. "You're okay."