Twin Flame // Fred Weasley

EPILOGUE 1

THIS IS PART ONE OF A THREE PART EPILOGUE. THE FINAL TWO PARTS WILL BE RELEASED OVER THE NEXT COUPLE OF WEEKS

TW: very slight emetophobia warning, mentions of alcohol, mentions of therapy, mentions of death/parental bereavement. 

Iris' POV

My journey to healing obviously could not begin too far away from the Weasleys. I wrote to Charlie, eager to see him out in Romania. The thought of starting my travels alone felt quite daunting, I had no where to go and no one to see, so starting my journey with the safety net of a Weasley felt right. I was excited to begin this new chapter in life, I was excited to feel good again, to be wrapped up in nature and finally feel authentically myself. I had faith that Fred would too take the time to heal, and the prospect of us finally just being together, finally being love-struck teenagers in a happy relationship, was enough to motivate me to try and be okay for a lifetime. Our relationship was riding on this, it was riding on the both of us utilising our time apart and truly healing, we needed this to be happy; a life without Fred Weasley in it was not a life I could bear thinking about.

Romania was irrefutably one of the best things that ever happened to me. The universe guided me there, knowing what was waiting was just what I needed; it was the gateway to my new beginning. All the answers I could ever need were there.

Charlie was like an older brother and best friend wrapped into one. He knew of my situation, informed entirely by Molly's account, and he offered the perfect balance of comfort and distraction. He was also the messenger, delivering the news of my wellbeing back to the Weasleys at home.

The first night I arrived in Romania, he insisted on taking me out - despite the long journey, and the nausea I felt from all the long-haul apparition, he shoved me into the bathroom and threw my bag in straight afterwards, instructing me to dress up nicely so he could show me the night life Romania had to offer, or else he would send me straight back home. I knew from that night I was going to have the best time. The two of us got more drunk than I'd care to admit, he showed me the cheapest drinks and the liveliest pubs, introduced me to the friends he had made over there, we ended up dancing on the tables and finished the night on karaoke; though I can't remember, apparently we did a tone-deaf rendition of 'Brown-eyed girl'. I hadn't felt so carefree in so long. It felt good to just feel young again. We stumbled back home as the sun was rising, and fell asleep on the roof of a small barn where he housed baby dragons abandoned by their mothers. The following morning we awoke with headaches that split our skull in half, and I threw up all down the side of the barn. After a hefty measurement of hangover draught, I finally took the chance to explore. Charlie lived in a beautiful, quaint little house deep in the Romanian wilderness. His house sat on the border of a dense forest, a line of mountains surrounding the furthest points, the only other signs of life were that of the other witches and wizards who worked alongside Charlie, but their houses were some miles away.

Though seemingly dangerous, Charlie's work was casual. There were no set hours. If the dragons needed tending to they'd be tended to immediately, and there was always something to be doing. We gathered with his colleagues in a clearing a few miles into the centre of the forest, each greeting me enthusiastically, every accent widely different, every face friendly.

I fell in love with the creatures there. The Romanian forest held an entire ecosystem of magical creatures, and I found myself falling in love with a new animal every day. I bonded with everything from dragons, to fairies, to gnomes and griffins and nifflers and kneazles and manticores and everything in between. Upon spending time in Romania with Charlie and his friends I truly unlocked my love for creatures, and it felt like an epiphany. This was a path I knew I wanted to explore. Luckily, that was handed to me on a silver platter as one of Charlie's colleagues, Rahul, and his wife Dakota, who were experts in the field, were about to begin a five month long expedition across the world, accompanied by a group of other witches and wizards, on a conservation and research project of various magical creatures. Seeing my passion for the creatures, and noting my eagerness to learn more, they offered me a spot to join them, and I accepted.