I'll Catch You (A Harry Potter Fan Fiction)

Epilogue: After Ace

Grief is a complex and horrendous thing. Many had been lost in the Battle of Hogwarts, just as many had been lost in the First Wizarding War. People were sure to be lost for far after the War was won. While death is natural, for those who were lost in the Wizarding Wars, the people they left behind were often conflicted. The people they'd loved were lost in sacrifice, in protecting the world from unspeakable evil. But that did not provide solace in knowing that these people were taken far too soon. Before birthdays and weddings and children and love. Those lost would not get to grow old and reminisce in their long lives, surrounded by family. They would forever stay young in the minds of those who remembered them; an act which brought both warmth and comfort, as well as immeasurable pain.

And while everyone could feel the pain of those lost during the Wizarding Wars, nobody felt this pain as deeply as George Weasley. Every time he looked in a mirror, he was reminded of his other half, the person who had been by his side since birth. He relished in the scars left over where his ear had once been, as it served as a reminder that he was George, and the person looking back at him was not Fred. Because Fred was forever gone.

But that was not the end to George's pain. Before the war, two things in his life had been absolutely certain. The first, that Fred would be at his side through thick and thin. The bond they had had run deeper than any brotherhood, a bond that connected them deep in their soul. Soul mates was not the word they would use for it, but it was a connection so deep that Fred's death had created a rift inside of George, and he was certain that he could never truly be whole.

The boys had not used the term soulmates to describe their relationship to one another, and that brings us to the second thing of which George Weasley was certain. The second thing, indeed, was that Acelynne Connors was his soulmate. While they were young and dumb and in love, through every trial they had faced together, he knew she was his person. His one true love, the one he wanted to spend every moment with, for the rest of their lives. His Patronus had been not only powered by her every memory, but his visions of a future with her. His wife, the mother of his children, the person he'd grow grey with. These thoughts had been his greatest source of happiness. She too, took a piece of George when she died, another hole in his heart and soul that would forever remain agape. These holes were his greatest source of pain, but he never wished to close them.

Everyone had pitied George Weasley, the boy who'd lost his twin. But few knew of the other great love he had lost.

The weeks after the Battle were filled with chaos. The restructuring of The Ministry. The rounding up of Death Eaters who'd managed to escape initial capture. The funerals. George had been so overwhelmed by his grief that something inside of him had gone numb, and he began to understand why Acelynne had made the choices she had made those years ago. Turning off the grief was much easier than feeling it, because if he chose to feel it, George knew he would surely die too.

He did not feel the physical weight of the caskets he carried, insisting to act as pallbearer for both Fred and Acelynne. He instead felt the emotional weight once again tug at his soul, threatening to pull off the veil of numbness. The finality of their funerals had almost broken him, though on the outside you could not see how close George had been to breaking.

For Fred, the Weasley clan sobbed, Molly heard leagues above the crowd. Even Percy could not be consoled, but was once more welcomed back into the family fold in this time of shared sadness. George had placed some items from the shop inside of the casket, as well as his brothers beaters bat.

For Acelynne, Jacobson silently wept as the service went on for his only child. The Weasleys were also in attendance, their sadness more reserved as they regarded George with careful eyes. Ginny's head had been bowed the entire time, tears endlessly streaming down her cheeks. She too, had lost somebody. But the loss of this person may be the reason she was here today. George did not allow her to avoid him, as much as she tried, knowing all too well that the choice that Acelynne had made was no fault of Ginny's. Forever was Acelynne trying to shield those she loved from the dangers of the world.