Left Behind (A Fred & George fanfic)

21. Smile It Away

“What?” Fred answered, surprised. “Of course!” That smile appeared again. “Nothing wrong, I'm fine.” He glided towards the edge of the forest, which wasn't all too far from their house.

George decided to stop talking about it and followed his brother into the woods. They walked on in silence for a while, not talking to nor looking at one another. George felt terrible about this. Once, a long time ago, they could've told each other everything, absolutely everything. But now, with this awkward silence between them... He just knew Fred was hiding something from him, if only he knew what.

Why didn't he just ask him, he thought.

Maybe it was this awful feeling inside his chest which kept him from doing so. He suspected it was the memory of the time before he had found the stone. The loneliness, the desperation.

He just didn't want to lose Fred ever again, not in any way. Perhaps he was afraid Fred would become mad at him, if he kept on asking what was wrong.

Oh great, now the weather seemed to have taken over George's mood. Raindrops began to fall down and the sky was covered in dark clouds, giving the forest a shadowy atmosphere. Even the trees seemed to have adapted the greyness.

He heard Fred coughing next to him. After another short silence, Fred said something, finally.

“Remember that time when we tried to eavesdrop on the Order, when Crookshanks demolished our Extendible Ears?”

George was confused. So they were back to reminiscing, then? Hadn't Fred felt the uncomfortable sphere around them?

“Uhm, I remember, yes.”

“I was so pissed at that bloody cat back then.” Fred chuckled. “But in the end, it was all pretty funny, don't you think?”

George recalled that moment, how they all stood on the third or fourth floor of Sirius' house, a thin robe hanging down towards the ground floor. They must've looked like idiots, how they all eagerly held on to the end of the rope, trying to hear whatever was being said by the people in the kitchen.

And then there came Crookshanks, being his cat-like annoying self.

“Yeah, maybe it was kind of hilarious...” George said, grinning. “I could've killed that cat back then, though. And if mum would've caught us...”

“...A howler would've been nothing compared to what she would've done to us.”

“Absolutely nothing.”

The rain began to pour down right now, so the twins looked at one another and gave a simultaneous nod. They quickly made their way to one of the bigger trees in the forest and sat down near the tree trunk, using it as shelter.

George didn't have a clue for how long they sat there. They spent there time reminiscing several other idiotic things they'd done in the past, like how they stole Percy's badge all the time, giving it some 'necessary changes'.

It didn't take long for George to forget about all his worries and he soon felt like he was 19 again, just sitting in his room with Fred, talking about everything. Oh yes, they hadn't always been busy preparing pranks. Sometimes they just felt like talking, even about the more serious issues.

Soon the leaves of the tree couldn't stop the rain anymore and Fred and George needed to find a new place to shelter. But since everything was soaked by now, they decided to head back home instead.

“Hey, what's that?” Fred said suddenly as they were walking, pointing to some point in the distance, near the edge of the forest. George looked and saw two dark figures moving towards them. One of them had long, dark hair, the other's was cut short and seemed rather messy. Neither of them had an umbrella.