Seeing Fred

A not so quite dubbelganger

I do. "I did." She corrected herself before speaking up. "He was a friend."

"I'm sorry for your loss."

"I'm sorry too." They gave each other a sad smile before Hermione took her place behind the register again. Leah turned to Fred as they reached the curtain. "Are you ready?"

"No... let's go in." He said nervously. Leah let her hand hover over his, getting a smile from him in return before they stepped behind the curtain.

Whatever Leah had expected, I'm guessing she never expected this. George was standing there, pointing his wand at her, eyes full of anger. His hair reached over his shoulders, but it wasn't red, it was a mousy brown. His robes were rumpled and had several stains on it. When he tossed his brown, lifeless locks behind his shoulders, she saw the missing ear Fred warned her about. She glanced at Fred from the corner of her eye, as her hands went up in the air, on instinct. Fred looked at this twin, like he was someone he had never met before.

"Who. Are. You!?" He practically shouted. "I don't know any Leah and how do you know about what happened?!"

"George." Fred whispered, almost pleading.

"I'm Leah Derijker and you don't know me, but I know of you. I know Fred, he told me all about you." She said calmly, hands still in the air.

"Fred didn't know any Leah. I knew everything about him!"

"Please, George. Listen to me." She said lowering her hands. "Can you put that damn stick away!? It looks ridiculous!" She shouted back. George and Fred looked taken aback at her. At her boldness, at her use of words. I mean, stick?

"Stick?" The twins repeated, George lowered his wand by a centimetre.

"I'm not armed, I don't have a wand on me. I just really need to talk to you."

"About what? I know you didn't know Fred."

"I didn't. But I know him, now."

"You're crazy!" He pointed his wand back at her.

She looked up at a stunned Fred. "Help me out here!" Fred tore his gaze away from his not-so-twin and looked at her, thinking. He told her a story from when they were younger that only they knew about.

"Remember when you two cut Bill's hair in Egypt? You cut off his entire ponytail. Bill thought it was your mothers doing, he was so mad at her for the rest of the trip. Did you really do that?" She asked the last part to Fred, who grinned.

"How?" George started, lowering his wand.

"Is there somewhere more private we can talk?"

"Yeah, up in the flat. Follow me." George said, pocketing his wand away. Leah and Fred looked at each other and let out a breath of relief before they followed him up the stairs. The flat was dark, curtains closed, making it eerie in the flat. He gestured her to sit on the couch and waved his wand in the air.

"He's silencing the room." Fred whispered as he sat down next to her.

"Oh." She breathed back as George flopped down in front of her and grabbed a bottle of some kind of whiskey from under the coffee table. "George, I'm sorry but I really need you sober for this."

"Fine." He grumbled and put the bottle back on the ground. "So..."

"So... how to start." She glanced over at Fred. "I see Fred."

"You see Fred?" He repeated.

"Yes, I know it sounds crazy, even though you guys have ghosts floating around in a school." She huffed, as Fred smirked at her.