Left Behind (A Fred & George fanfic)

11. The Golden Trio

Angelina was making – well, more like trying to make – a shopping list while sitting at her husband’s desk when the funny light appeared. The blue apparition slowly took on the recognizable shape of a badger. Angelina didn’t jump, she was used to this way of communicating by now, though they didn’t use it very often. She was told that Dumbledore had found out that a Patronus could also be used for this purpose, that he had taught the Order of the Phoenix how to do this and that the Order had shared this knowledge with its successor (which was the DA, of course).

The badger opened its mouth and Neville Longbottom’s voice filled the room: “Little Fred is worried, keeps saying ‘he didn’t show’. George is gone, ran away. What should I do?”

An echo sounded for a moment, but then, as slowly and mysteriously as it had appeared, the Patronus vanished again. Angelina let her face rest on her hands and sighed. She’d seen this coming. Trouble. She even felt like saying ‘Told you so!’ to George – if only she knew where he went.

George is gone, ran away. To where? He couldn’t have gone far, could he? What should I do? Well, run after him, you smartass. What else?

Angelina was too tired to panic. Of course she was scared. George left her, even when she told him not to. Her son was worried because of his dad. And dad himself was nowhere to be found, apparently. But she had just had enough of it, it was all too much for her. She needed help. She couldn’t do this on her own anymore.

So she stood up and disapparated to the only people that could be of any help right now.

“Angelina? What is going on?” The door opened wider and Ginny’s brown eyes looked at her with worry.

Angelina just shook her head and walked into the hallway of the Potter’s house. She was slightly surprised when she saw Ron and Hermione sitting in the living room with Harry. All three of them turned around simultaneously, it was almost like nothing had changed since 20 years ago: they still were the golden trio they had always been when they were still at Hogwarts. If only nothing had changed… Then the only thing she would be worrying about right now would be the next Quidditch competition against Slytherin.

She saw Hermione looking at her, putting down the cup of tea that was in her hands.

“Oi, Angelina! What you doing here?” Ron was sitting alone on a large red sofa, he gave her a joyful nod.

“Ronald!” Hermione threw a threatening look his way.

“What?”

“You can’t just…” Hermione shot a look at Harry and sighed. “Never mind.”

Harry avoided Angelina’s look and that was the only confirmation she needed. He had told them everything, that’s why Hermione reacted this way.

Footsteps in the hallway announced that Ginny was coming.

“Oh, please, Angelina, take a seat!” She handed Angelina a cup identical to Hermione’s and pointed at a dark green couch that stood opposite the couch Ron was sitting on.

“Thank you, Ginny.”

For a moment everyone was silently sipping his or her tea. Angelina soon got annoyed by the silence and spoke up.

“Harry, shouldn’t you be at the ministry right now?”

“Well, uhm…” Harry said.

“He should.” Hermione replied quickly.

“We all should. And we are working – sort of.” Ron pointed at a little side table behind him, which was covered with a forgotten pile of papers with the Ministry of Magic crest.

Harry saw Angelina’s confused look and explained the situation. “Clearly, we had worse problems to tackle than House Elfs who refused to wear their new skirts.” Hermione threw a look his way. “No offence, Hermione.”

“None taken.”

“Now Angelina, why are you here?” Ginny asked.

Finally, someone who reached out a hand, ready to help her, carry her burden. Angelina didn’t hesitate a moment and told all of them the entire story, from beginning to end. They already knew more than half of it, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to let it out, to be able to talk about it, and she knew they understood her. Even Ron listened carefully to everything she had to say.

“And then, just now, Neville’s Patronus told me George had been at Hogwarts. Apparently he tried out the Map with little Fred, because now Fred is panicking and George is gone.”

“Gone? How can he be gone?” Harry asked.

“I don’t know, but the Map didn’t show anything, no second Fred. Who knows what he has done by now, where he went. I honestly don’t know what he’s capable of when he’s like this!” Angelina broke down crying. Ginny quickly put an arm around her.

“What do you think, Harry?” Ron wondered. “Why didn’t the Map show Fred? Did James lie about it the first time?”

“No, definitely not. He was as serious as can be when he told me.”

“Then why didn’t it work this time?”

Harry shrugged.

“You never learn it, do you?” Hermione exclaimed suddenly.

“What?” Ron said, somewhat annoyed.

“Logic!” She paused a moment, but when no one seemed to understand her, she continued: “There has to be a difference between the situation in which Fred appeared on the Map and when he didn’t. Now, I’m pretty sure George was smart enough to set a scene similar to the one that night in the Kitchens, so that can’t be a difference. Time doesn’t seem like much of a difference either when it comes to ghosts. Then the only two remaining differences are George and the purpose of the visit.”

“The purpose of the visit?” Ginny said uncomprehending.

“Yes! Let’s just assume this is the real Fred Weasley somehow. In that case George’s presence shouldn’t be a reason for him not to show himself, right?”

Harry nodded.

“So,” She continued, “the first visit to the Kitchen was to prank. The second visit was to simply check something, to search for information. Now, if you were Fred, when would you rather show yourself?”

Angelina covered her mouth with her hands when she began to understand.

“Are you telling me Fred is only showing himself on the map when someone’s causing mischief?” Harry suggested.

“Exactly!”