Left Behind (A Fred & George fanfic)

2. Inspiration

“You two are the WORST GRYFFINDORS EVER! Why did you do this? How could you? Didn’t you think about Gryffindor, and the points it would cost us? Do you actually want Slytherin to win the House Cup just so you could scare some girls? Well? Do you?” Isabelle was standing in front of Fred and James with an angry look on her face. The hotheaded girl was in their year and always succeeded in extremely annoying both of them.

“Really, Isabelle, we told you…” Fred began with a sigh.

“We didn’t do anything.” James continued. “As if we’d ever risk house points like that! We wouldn’t even dare, right Fred?”

Fred put on a sad face. “Totally, I even feel slightly insulted.”

The remaining Gryffindors in the common room chuckled. Isabella gasped, sighed dramatically and, as she saw nobody was sharing her opinion, made a quick escape through the portrait of the Fat Lady.

“So it’s true then,” Michel, a friend of them, said, “You two did put the portable swamp in the girls’ toilets!”

“Of course we did,”

“Who else would’ve invented such a brilliant and amazing prank?” James said with a crooked smile.

A few fourth years padded them on their backs and Fred even saw the two Gryffindor prefects standing in a corner of the room with smiles on their faces.

“Did you actually do this? Tell us all about it!” an enthusiastic second-year said.

James immediately began his story. Fred laughed at the way James managed to show them off as true heroes – of course, the part where James walked into the suit of armor was left untold – and he himself made some remarks to make the tale sound even more exciting.

They’d had their problems that morning, when Spurcus, the caretaker, had given them a monologue that went on and on for what seemed like hours. “You RUINED school property! You IGNORED at least 30 school rules! And who is going to clean this mess?!?”

When Fred answered this rhetorical question with “Probably you, dear caretaker.”, Spurcus had sent them away, cursing and promising he wouldn’t rest until he saw them punished.

Many other people – both students and teachers – had shown their disapproval too. But Fred really didn’t mind all of that right now. He felt great, actually. They’d done something the whole school had taken notice off. They meant something now. He even felt a bit like his uncle Fred now, a joker, a pranker, loved by – almost – everyone.

~

The door of George’s attic opened and hit the wall with a bang. Angelina stood in the doorway with red cheeks and a paper clamped in her hand. George raised his eyebrows and turned to face her, quickly putting the stuff he had been working on out of sight.

“This is unbelievable.” Angelina sighed. “Unbelievable.”

Had it been years earlier, George would have come up with numerous of theories of what Angelina was about to say. He and Fred would’ve been able to talk and laugh all afternoon about one silly little thing. However, right now his only reply was. “What?”

“We got a letter from Harry and Ginny,” Angelina pointed out, handing him the paper. “Or actually, it’s a letter from Neville, from Hogwarts.”

George took the letter from her and looked at the shiny crest at its top. He saw the four animals – serpent, eagle, badger and lion – that represented the houses and allowed himself to think back of his free careless years at the castle.

“Our dear little Fred and his inseparable companion James Sirius Potter seem to have caused some mischief at school.” Angelina began. “They managed to get out of their common room last night and activated multiple portable swamps in the girls’ toilets.”

“Neville says the teachers couldn’t prove it was them, but that he’s fairly sure of it.” George corrected her with a grin after reading the letter. “They can’t prove anything.”

Angelina looked at him with an unbelieving glance. “You don’t think they’re completely innocent, do you?”

“Of course not. I’m just saying they did a good job.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Since there’s no evidence they actually did it.”

“Maybe they’ll pull a Weasley theirselves eventually!” Angelina laughed suddenly.

George looked up, surprised because she mentioned Fred in some way, but smiled.

“We should be really angry with them, shouldn’t we?” Angelina asked.

“So angry.”

“You aren’t angry at all, are you?”

“Not a bit.”

A chuckle, followed by a long silence. Naturally George’s mind wandered off to his own pranks. A swamp in the girl’s toilets, that’s not bad at all. It wasn’t nearly as good as the firework during the exams, but it was a fair start. And not exactly unexpected, he had to add. Fred Jr. was his son, it would have been quite a surprise if he hadn’t pulled a prank like this at all.

“What were you working on?” Angelina suddenly asked, watching the pieces of paper, tape and bottles on George’s desk.

“I tried to come up with something new for the Wheezes.” George sighed, suddenly feeling down again.

“You tried?”

“I came up with nothing. Zero.”

“Don’t worry, you’ll think of something in the end. You always do.” Angelina put her arms around him.

“And what if I don’t? What if one day my inspiration will just be finished? What if I can’t do this alone anymore?” George looked down.

“As I said, love, don’t worry. I have the feeling Fred will soon be there to help you.”

“Which one, exactly?”

Angelina smiled.

“Both of them, of course, if you want them to.”