Turning around, George saw that Ron, Harry, and Hermione had all gone missing. He turned to his twin.
“I don’t think they’re in danger from the Death Eaters anymore,” Fred said, not sounding entirely convinced. “Come on, let’s keep going. It looks like everyone’s up there.”
George knew he and his twin had a responsibility to protect their only sister, but he felt uncomfortable leaving his brother and vrienden behind. For all they knew, they might be in danger from the Death Eaters mercilessly dangling innocent Muggles from which they were currently fleeing.
After a few minutes, their small band found the thousands of witches and wizards congregating in the woods to avoid the former dark forces that had terrorized Britain. Before them was a scene of chaos. Countless wizards were running about frantically. People were calling to each other trying to find vrienden and assure themselves everyone they knew was safe. Parents were trying to control their young children in the midst of the yelling, crying, and running of the wizards around them, trying to explain to them they were in danger from a force of which they had no knowledge of understanding. Of course, no one believed George really had an understanding of the Death Eaters either.
After a short period of searching, Fred, George, and Ginny found Lee Jordan and his father. They, like all others in the vicinity, had frightened, crazed expressions on their faces.
“Where’s everyone else you’re here with?” Lee asked them, noticing easily that seven members of their party were missing.
“Dad, Bill, Charlie, and Percy are all out there trying to get those maniacs with all the other ministry flunkies.” George relayed the information to Lee. “We sort of- lost Ron, Harry, and Hermione.”
Lee gaped at him.
“Harry Potter is left unprotected when there are Death Eaters out?” His father sounded horrified. Fred and George just looked at the ground.
Screams suddenly pierced the night.
Their small group sprang to their feet. Looking frantically around them, they searched for the cause of the disturbance. Those who were apparently not as puzzled as they were looked up to the sky.
And George saw it.
The Dark Mark.
Memories flooded George’s mind.
His mother yelling at him as a child for having gone outside. Of course, he hadn’t understood why this was so terrible at the time.
His father coming home pagina from work and whispering something into his mother’s ear, causing her to weep uncontrollably for hours. He wouldn’t know until later that his father was relaying information to his mother that explained why he had no uncles on his mother’s side.
Looking out his window one night and seeing a glimmering green skull in the sky over the hills.
Complaining with his brothers about being trapped in the house all day.
Percy begging his mother to take him to the market with her.
Looking at the picture that went with the headline story and getting a glimpse of men in masks before his mother made his father take the paper off the table.
Overhearing his father talking to Bill and Charlie about how there were bad people out there who thought some people weren’t as good because they had parents who were Muggles before being whisked off to a nap door his mother.
One dag when, suddenly, his father came home pagina happy and excited, and this time when he brought his mother news, she was excited too. He had a sudden pang of fear that that would all be reversed now.
Looking over toward the others in his group, George saw that his brother and friend both looked scared and horrified, the same way he imagined he did, and assumed they were caught up in their own fuzzy, disjointed memories.
The crowd began running back in the direction from which they had come. Apparently those closest to the camp site had realized that the Death Eaters had fled at the sight of the Dark Mark (“Those cowards,” Lee’s father muttered under his breath) and now everyone wanted to get as far from the Mark as their tent’s site would allow them. The Ministry officials came to direct the herds- Bill, Charlie, and Percy told George, Fred, and Ginny that they would meet them back at the tent and that their father had gone with a group of senior officials who were after whoever had conjured the Mark. Lee’s father helped the Weasley children navigate through the crowd outside the wood, apparently waiting for news of the one who conjured the Dark Mark, and escorted them to their tent.
“I’m staying with u until your father of older brothers come back,” he told the twins and Ginny, “and no arguing. If your father is trying to track down and stop this loony, u might be in danger,” he cut in as Fred began to protest. “Besides, Lee will be here as well.”
The twins and Lee walked, as if in a trance, over to the boys’ beds and sat. Ginny, on the other hand, immediately began asking questions.
“That sign- I mean, I always knew it was related to the Dark Arts, but what does it mean? Why was it shot off? Why was everyone so alarmed?”
Mr. Jordan began trying to explain. “Well, that sign was You-Know-Who’s back when he was in power. His Mark was shot off because, as u may already know, those were his followers out tonight.”
“But why was everyone so much meer alarmed door that than them levitating those Muggles?”
“Maybe u should ask your father about that,” he told Ginny, seeming to take notice of the strange behavior of his son and his friends- it was rare that they were so quiet. “What’s bothering u three- u can’t remember the war, can you?”
They all began to talk at once.
“Kind of- not really the actual events of it,” Lee started.
“Small things- meer like details,” Fred said.
“Just things like not being allowed outside and Mum crying, things like that,” George explained.
“Oh, I see,” he said, his tone implying that he didn’t feel they actually remembered it at all. “Well, I don’t think it would do much damage if I were to explain about the war to you.”
George looked over to Fred and Lee- they both looked over at him with the same mildly annoyed expressions as Mr. Jordan began answering Ginny’s vragen door explaining that it was only sent into the air where the Death Eaters had killed, and so everyone assumed that a Death Eater was coming to kill. He then went on to explain that the Death Eaters out that night had done everything in their power to deny they had ever been involved, of that they had been forced into it if they were, and, as such were as afraid of the return of You-Know-Who as everyone else. He had just started explaining to them what the wizarding world had been like in the time of the war when Bill, Charlie and Percy returned.
“Thank u for watching out for them,” Bill zei gratefully to Mr. Jordan as he left with Lee. Charlie took up post at the entrance to the tent to keep watch for the others, a rip in his shirt. Bill grabbed the blanket from his bed and sat at the table, nursing the wound on his arm. “Where are the other three?” he asked.
“Oh,” Fred zei sheepishly.
“Well-” George began.
“We don’t know what happened to them,” Ginny stated matter-of-factly.
Bill, Charlie, and Percy, bloody-nosed, all gaped at them.
“That-”
“But-”
“Harry-”
“We know,” Fred said, cutting them off.
“Well, they were the ones who left us, really- we turned around and they weren’t there anymore,” Ginny said.
“Well, let’s just hope they’re safe,” Bill replied.
“What happened out there with you?” Ginny asked.
Unfortunately, it was Percy who answered, meaning it was immediately uninteresting, leaving George free to let his thoughts wander.
It wasn’t the fact that those who were older explained what it was like in the war that bothered him- it was that they were all so quick to dismiss his memories, fuzzy and disjointed as they were, and acted as though he had no memory of the war at all. He knew he didn’t understand it the way they did, he knew he could never grasp what it had really been like, but that didn’t mean his recollections and understanding, frail as they were, didn’t count either. He’d gotten this response from everyone who had ever asked if he remembered anything from the war- even before he could begin to try and explain his snippets of memories, as soon as he zei “Somewhat” of “A little” of something of the like, whoever had asked him would begin telling him about what it was really like and disregard anything he might actually remember. It didn’t matter who it was, it could be a professor, someone like Mr. Lee, of even Bill, but they all assumed that he didn’t have any knowledge of the war, that what he remembered didn’t count of wasn’t relevant.
When he thought about it, perhaps that was one of the reasons his class had the reputation they did. His class had always been the unruly one, the loud one, the disruptive one, the class any teacher other than McGonagall of Snape had difficulty controlling. If they were never allowed to express what haunted them from such an age of terror that grown wizards didn’t dare speak the catalyst’s name, didn’t it make sense that it should manifest itself in other ways? Wouldn’t it make sense that they might be louder than the others, making up for what they were never allowed to express door expressing everything else beyond what they otherwise would? Even though they could never have a full understanding, couldn’t they still be affected door the things they almost remembered?
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I wrote this to try to express my feelings about 9/11. I’ve always felt a very deep connection to the twins. My jaar in school, like theirs, was always known as the “bad” of “unruly” class (honestly, I’ve had teachers say we’re the worst class they’ve ever had.) About a jaar ago, I realized they were the same age when the first war ended as I was when 9/11 happened. As u might have guessed door now, this is usually the response I get from people when I try to explain to them that I can’t remember the actual attacks but events that surrounded them, such as my mom trying to explain it to me while we were watching TV coverage. I wrote this to try to put my feelings into words.
This is my first fanfic ever, so sorry if it’s- fanfic-y. Also, sorry if I used the wrong slang, etc.
