Left Behind (A Fred & George fanfic)

Epilogue

 George felt free and powerful. Soaring through the sky, the wind blowing through his hair, he looked back to get a clearer view of the game he was in.

Quidditch.

It had been a long time since he'd felt this carefree. The only thing on his mind was to win the game, to knock some opponents – Slytherins, preferably – off their broom with a bludger. Now he didn't feel like really knocking them out, this was just a game for fun, of course. A family game for fun.

A bludger rushed by and George hit it with his bat, sending it straight after the chaser who was so close to their 'goalpost', which was a single hula hoop about 22 feet up in the air, attached to nearby trees with a bit of rope. The chaser looked around, saw the bludger just in time and immediately ducked out of its way, letting go of the Quaffle in the process.

“DAD!” The chaser said, looking at George. “You nearly sent me to St. Mungo's with that thing.”

“That thing is part of Quidditch, you doof! Just score already!” said Roxanne, who was just flying by, a bat – identical to the one George was holding – clenched in her hand.

“She's right, Fred.” George laughed.

Little Fred shrugged. “Well... She should've been here with me to keep that bludger away.”

Since term had officially ended the day before, they'd decided to celebrate the start of the holidays by playing a game of Quidditch with the family. They had to change the formation somewhat, so they played with two Chasers on each team instead of three and only one Beater. They may have quite an extended family, but finding fourteen decent Quidditch players who all had the time to play a game for fun was hard, even for them. One team consisted of Angelina and little Fred as Chasers, Roxanne as Beater, Harry as Seeker, naturally, and James as Keeper. The other one consisted of Ginny and Albus as Chasers, George himself as Beater, Charlie as Seeker and Ron as Keeper. Hermione, Rose, Hugo and Lily had taken some chairs out of the Burrow and had seated themselves in the shadow of the trees. Hugo and Hermione had decided to be the referees, leading to some hilarious arguments between the two, since Hermione didn't have a clue what was happening in the air half the time, not knowing a thing about Quidditch game rules. Lily was life-commenting the game, as if they had a real audience, and Rose was just watching the flying brooms, fascinated by them.

“GEORGE!” Hermione yelled. “That was a foul!”

“No it wasn't!” Hugo contradicted her. “Mum.” He added quickly as he saw the threatening look on his mother's face.

“But he almost hit Fred in the face with that bludger!”

“That's what Beaters do, mum!”

“That's barbaric.” Hermione said, her arms folded.

George grinned, nothing was funnier than watching Hermione when she realises she's not right for once.

Ginny and Albus were now making their way to the opposite goalpost, Albus had the Quaffle (“Potter has the Quaffle, GO ON, ALBUS!” commentated Lily enthusiastically) and his eyes were fixed on James, the only person left between himself and the goal.

“HE SCORES! ALBUS SCORES!”

George laughed as Albus and Ginny cheered and gave each other a high five, their team had scored! James, however, didn't look that pleased. He was muttering something to Fred, who flew towards him, shaking his head. Though George couldn't hear exactly what he was saying, he was pretty sure James was telling Fred he failed to stop the Quaffle from his little brother for a 'very good reason'. However, George knew, even though James wouldn't admit it, Albus was a very decent chaser, very decent indeed, better than most of them.