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Description
It isn’t possible. George stares at the body, more limp and lifeless than he could ever have imagined it to look. His surroundings become hazy, the cries and screams melting into the background, leaving George gazing blankly at his twin, unable to accept what his eyes keep trying to tell him.

George collapses onto his knees next to Fred and clutches his arm, waiting for him to stir and laugh at all their stricken faces. He can hear distant sobs from behind him; he wants to turn around and tell his mother that everything’s okay, that Fred can’t possibly be dead because he, George, is still alive. He can sense his brothers surrounding him, shocked and silent, because they don’t understand that it must be another elaborate joke of Fred’s that, just this once, he doesn’t quite get.

He contemplates shaking Fred, telling him to wake up because his joke has got too out of hand.

We’ve always known where to draw the line.

George pauses. The words echo in his mind, accompanied by flashes of memories from another life: the first gnome they hid in Percy’s wardrobe, their spectacular vomiting display on the opening day of the shop, the legendary escape from Umbridge’s clutches … Nothing is like this.

Resolutely though he tries to ignore it, something inside is telling him that there is something wrong. Something missing.

George doesn’t want to believe it. Fred is his brother, his twin; they share the same life. How could it be that half of that life is lost and yet the other still remains?

He closes his eyes and holds Fred tightly, clinging to the hope that his heart, hammering so painfully against his chest, would somehow remind its twin that it was supposed to be doing the same.

He feels a hand on his shoulder. George looks up, expecting – or maybe wishing – to see Fred grinning, ready to chide him for being so easily sucked into such a feeble joke.

Instead, he sees Percy. Percy’s tear-streaked face and his uncharacteristically trembling hand on George’s shoulder. At that moment, George knows it’s real. He only has chance to look back at Fred for a second before his tears blind him. He wraps his arms around his twin’s still form and cries.

Description
It isn’t possible. George stares at the body, more limp and lifeless than he could ever have imagined it to look. His surroundings become hazy, the cries and screams melting into the background, leaving George gazing blankly at his twin, unable to accept what his eyes keep trying to tell him.

George collapses onto his knees next to Fred and clutches his arm, waiting for him to stir and laugh at all their stricken faces. He can hear distant sobs from behind him; he wants to turn around and tell his mother that everything’s okay, that Fred can’t possibly be dead because he, George, is still alive. He can sense his brothers surrounding him, shocked and silent, because they don’t understand that it must be another elaborate joke of Fred’s that, just this once, he doesn’t quite get.

He contemplates shaking Fred, telling him to wake up because his joke has got too out of hand.

We’ve always known where to draw the line.

George pauses. The words echo in his mind, accompanied by flashes of memories from another life: the first gnome they hid in Percy’s wardrobe, their spectacular vomiting display on the opening day of the shop, the legendary escape from Umbridge’s clutches … Nothing is like this.

Resolutely though he tries to ignore it, something inside is telling him that there is something wrong. Something missing.

George doesn’t want to believe it. Fred is his brother, his twin; they share the same life. How could it be that half of that life is lost and yet the other still remains?

He closes his eyes and holds Fred tightly, clinging to the hope that his heart, hammering so painfully against his chest, would somehow remind its twin that it was supposed to be doing the same.

He feels a hand on his shoulder. George looks up, expecting – or maybe wishing – to see Fred grinning, ready to chide him for being so easily sucked into such a feeble joke.

Instead, he sees Percy. Percy’s tear-streaked face and his uncharacteristically trembling hand on George’s shoulder. At that moment, George knows it’s real. He only has chance to look back at Fred for a second before his tears blind him. He wraps his arms around his twin’s still form and cries.