"Have you been around the shop?"
"Yeah, Fred showed me around for about forty minutes." She laughed as she glanced over at Fred, who smirked, eyes still closed.
"And what did you think?"
"I can honestly say, I never seen anything like it."
"You love it!" Fred called out from the couch.
"Don't interrupt." She sighed dramatically, rolling her eyes. "Does he ever shut up?"
"Nope." The twins grinned.
"You two really need to stop that!"
"Did we-?" George asked.
"Yes, and it's already giving me a headache." She laughed. "But your shop is truly amazing. Fred had to explain everything to me, though. I even bought a daydream charm. Hermione let me pay with pounds."
"Oh, yeah. You don't have any money, do you?"
"I have money, not just your kind of money." She said walking to an empty chair. "You comfy?" She asked Fred, who hummed. She rolled her eyes again and looked back to George, who sat down on the chair next to her.
"If you need anything from here, just let me know. And anything you want in the shop is yours. What you are doing for Fred, for me. Even if it will be just this... it means everything to me."
"We'll figure this out, George." She placed her hand over his, giving it a squeeze. George turned her hand around, her palm facing up. He frowned when he saw the scar on her palm, rubbing it with his thumb.
"I've had this for years, don't really know how I got it, but it took a while before it healed."
"I've seen this before. Fred, come here." He said looking around the room. Fred stood up and walked closer, sitting on the coffee table.
"He's here."
"Show us your left hand." Fred looked at his twin with a frown before he offered his left hand. "Did he-?"
"Yes!" She gasped as she saw the exact same scar on his hand. She reached over with her free hand, as George still held hers. And traced a line above the crescent scar before looking up at his piercing blue eyes. "Fred." She whispered. Fred looked back down and traced the same line on her hand. "How is this possible?"
"I don't know, but it has to mean something right?"
"Maybe, but I don't get it." She frowned as she pulled her hand back and rubbed her own crescent scar. She pulled out her notebook and put another note in it. "Can you see what you can find about this?"
"I'll try. But I wouldn't know where to start." He said still looking at her hand.
"Hermione." Fred said suddenly.
"What?" Leah asked as she jumped a bit from Fred's sudden outburst.
"What?" George responded to Leah.
"No, Fred said something."
"Oh, sorry." He gave her a sheepish grin, leaning back.
"Hermione. She's like a walking library, she could help."
"You want to fill her in?"
"No, but we could ask for help, just don't say what it is for."
"From what you told me about her, she would see right through it."
"What are you two talking about?"
Fred and Leah teared their eyes from each other and looked back to George. "Hermione." They said simultaneously. "He wants to ask for help without actually telling her, but I don't know if that would work."
"Yeah, she'll see right through it. Let me search myself first."
"To bad I can't come with you."
"But... maybe you can. I'll see what Minnie says and maybe I can convince her to bring you along."
"What did you write to her in the first place?" Fred asked his twin, forgetting he couldn't hear him. When George didn't look at him, he sighed and looked back to Leah.
"Fred asked what you wrote to her."
"I just asked her if I could do some research. Since Fred... people don't really ask questions, they just let me be."
"Perfect." Fred said clapping his hands together, rubbing them.
"Fred!" She tried to slap his arm but went right through it.
"Sorry."
"Did you hit him?"
"I tried, went straight through."
"How does it feel? Do you feel ice cold?"
"No, it's just like hitting air. Why?"
"The ghosts at Hogwarts. If you walk through them, it feels like a bucket of ice-cold water fell on you."
"No nothing like that. Here." She grabbed his arm and brought it over to Fred. She stopped in front of him, waiting for him to give the okay. When he gave her a short nod, she let his hand slide through his arm. "What do you feel?"
"Nothing. Am I touching him?"
"Yeah." Leah chuckled. "You're actually through his arm right now."
"Wicked." They grinned.
"Leah." George started carefully. "I don't want to be rude, but can I have a moment with Fred, I know he can't answer but-."
"No of course." Leah was already standing up. "But there can't be any closed doors between us though."
"Why don't you go to Freddie's room. The one on the left." He said pointing down the hallway "And I just cast a silencing spell around the room."
"Okay, call when you're done." She said making her way down the hall.
She entered Fred's room and set the door ajar. His room looked untouched, his bed still messy, clothes tossed in a hamper next to the window. She walked to the side of the bed and sat down, looking at the pictures on the nightstand. A picture of him and George on the opening day of the shop. A picture of a sports team from school and a picture of his family. She took the family picture and studied the people on them. You could feel the love of the family radiate from the picture, it hurt her to think they had lost their son. She knew how her parents fell apart when Addie died, she wouldn't want to wish it on her worst enemy. She made herself comfortable and sat cross legged on his bed, back against the headboard and studied the moving picture. She didn't know how long she sat there, but she didn't hear Fred walk in and sit down next to her.
"That's at Bill's wedding." He said, making her jump and stumble out of bed. She got on her knees and glared up at him. "Sorry." He gave her a lopsided grin. "It's the last picture we took from all of us together."
"Do you want me to take it with us?" She asked, climbing back on the bed.
"Yeah, I would love it. George is getting us dinner."
"Is it that late already? How did it go?"
"It went emotional very fast. I think neither of us cried like that before. If people saw us, they wouldn't think we were the pranksters extraordinaire."
"People change. War, death, it changes people."
"That there-" He pointed at Percy. "Is my brother Percy. He isn't doing so well; he feels guilty about what happened."
"I felt guilty about my sister's death for years, even had to go to therapy for it." She said as she scooted down, so she could lay her head on the pillow. Fred followed her lead and laid down, both turning so they could face each other. Fred didn't say anything, he just lifted his hand and let it hover over her face, her cheek. She locked her eyes with his as he 'cupped' her face, tracing his thumb of her jaw. She had to fight the urge to lean in.
"It feels like, I've known you forever." He whispered.
"Yeah, I know what you mean."
"I wish I could touch you."
She brought up her hand and traced the lines of his nose. "Me too." She whispered back.
They were so focused on each other they didn't see George standing in the doorway looking at them, or at least at her. George stood frozen as the she whispered to the empty space.
"I wish George could see you, hear you." She said dropping her hand between them. George felt an immense wave of love and sorry for the girl. Love for what she was doing for them, hurt because she can see him as a ghost and connect with his family but never had the chance with her own sister. George slipped back into the hallway and crossed to the front door in just a few large steps. He slammed the door shut, loud enough for them to hear as he walked to the table with their food. Leah came out, looking at the food hungerly. "What did you bring?"
"I hope you like pizza."
"Love it, but I eat almost everything."
"A girl of my own heart." He grinned, pulling an arm around her. Fred looked at them as he stood a few steps behind them, watching how his twin could touch her, how she could touch him.
During dinner, Fred was quiet as George and Leah talked about the shop, and about his Hogwarts days. Fred held back in a laugh as George tried to explain quidditch to her after she asked about the picture in Fred's room. Looking at Leah's face, it was obvious she didn't understand a thing about it. When they were nearly done with dinner a knock came from the door.
"George?"
"Come in." He called back, the door creaked open, and Hermione appeared.
"Hey, George. I just-" She looked up for a ledger in her hand and was shocked at the sight in front of her. George was wearing clean clothes and transfigured his hair back to its original state. When she looked past George's new look, she saw Leah sitting at the table across from him. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to interrupt." She said already backing up. "I just finished closing up shop and updated the booking. You two enjoy your date."
"Hermione, this isn't what it looks like." But she was already out the door. Leah and Fred looked at each other both surprised at the change of events. Both knowing exactly what's going on. "Fuck."
"Go after her, explain." Leah said, waving at the door.
"And what do I tell her? What do I say to her on why you are here?"
"Make something up, lie, say I'm looking to invest, anything."
"Invest? Yeah, that could work."
"Go then!" Leah nearly pushed him out of his chair. George stood up and ran down the steps. "You didn't tell me they were a thing."
"Because they weren't. I thought she liked Ron."
"Oh, well this is going to be interesting." She grinned at Fred. "You've been quiet, are you okay?"
"Hm? Yeah, just been thinking, that's all."
"You'll tell me if somethings wrong, okay. Anything."
"Yes, I promise."
"Good." She said and started to clean up the table. She had just rinsed the plates, Fred sitting on the counter watching her work, when George came back in. "And?" Leah asked as she towelled her hands dry and walked to the living room.
"I told her this was a business dinner, that you wanted to invest. She believed it, for now." George sat dropping down on the couch.
"Okay, now spill."
"Spill what?" George said as he studied his fingernails.
"You and Hermione. If you could've seen Fred's face, you'd know that he didn't see this coming."
"It's not like we're together."
"But you like her."
"I do. She's the one who got me through it, as much as she could of course, you've seen me earlier."
"Have you told her how you feel?"
"No, I don't know if she feels the same-"
"She does." Leah and Fred said, they looked at each other grinning.
"Are you stealing my twin speech?" George asked looking at the grin on her face.
"Sometimes, now don't change the subject."
"And I haven't been in my right mind for the last year. I don't want her to deal with that."
"It's obvious she cares a great deal about you, let her decide what she wants. And you're doing better now."
"But for how long? What if, one day Fred's gone again? I'll go straight back to where I was before."
"I don't believe that." Leah said shaking her head. "We don't know what will happen with Fred but anyone of us could die at any moment. You just have to stop living in fear." She took his hand in hers, giving it a squeeze.
"I'll think about it."
"Perfeeeeect." She said in a yawn. "Sorry."
"You better get home. It's getting late."
"Maybe for the best." She said, standing up stretching.
"I'll walk you two back to the leaky."
"You don't have to."
"But I want to, besides I have something to discuss with Tom anyway."
They walked to the leaky cauldron, but on this side, it wasn't a wall but just a big black door with lose flakes. George opened the door and the three of them stepped in. George made his way to the bar and called Tom over.
"Hello Tom. This is Leah. I want you to let her pass through the wall or floo without any questions. She momentarily doesn't have a wand, so you would have to help her out." He whispered, sliding over money to him. Tom took the money in his hand, studying it before giving him a light nod.
"Miss Leah." He gave her a toothless grin.
"Tom." She greeted back. "How much do I owe you?" She asked when George stepped up next to her. But he didn't answer, he just put some coins in her hand. She tried to push it back to him, but he held up his hand. "George, come on."
"You don't have to pay me back. And it can come in handy that you'll have some cash for yourself around here."
"But-"
"No buts. Just get home safe. I'll owl you the moment I know more."
"Fine. Goodnight, George."
"Night, Leah. Night Fred." He whispered the last part.
"No, I'm not going to say that." She said to Fred, when Fred whispered something to her. "Fred says goodnight. Come let's get on the tube."
"Tube?" George asked surprised.
"I'll explain next time." She snickered.
George watched her walk out the door. His heart ached as he knew Fred was leaving with her. Even though he couldn't see him, he almost felt his presence in the room when he was there. Or did he really feel his presence. He didn't get a chance to think about it, because Bill came stumbling in the tavern, straight from work.