Dusk Till Dawn: A Fred And George Story

June 10, 1999

The day after the Battle of Hogwarts' anniversary, I dragged George into the living room to discuss new product ideas. Eventually, after we'd put our heads together for a long two hours, we came up with one of our best series of inventions yet: the Pop-Up Places. We had no idea how we were going to get it to work, but it was a start.

The idea was this: we would make boxes, small enough to put in a pocket, that when triggered by a lever or string or button or something, the box would open and change its surroundings into a certain place. Only, it would only appear to be a different place. Say a student at Hogwarts was beginning to get really bored in History of Magic (can't say I'm not speaking from past experience), and they wished they were on a beach instead. The student would pull out their Pop-Up Beach box, activate it, and the room would appear as a beach instead of a classroom, the smell of saltwater and the sound of the waves drowning out Professor Binns' boring voice. This would last about a week or so.

We would make all sorts of places - Pop-Up Snakepits, Pop-Up Quidditch Stadiums, even Pop-Up Muggle London! George and I were so excited and proud, we started working on it right away.

That was a month ago, and now we were working on the final steps. We were so close to perfecting it; I could just feel it. So, I'd begun working on the PR. I'd gotten posters made that read "Pop-Up Places - Coming Soon!" with pictures of the different boxes. I had just come back to the flat from the new Ministry. I'd purchased an advertisement in the Daily Prophet that would last about three months, and after putting tea on, I sat on the couch in the living room, feeling accomplished. But not only accomplished. The unrecognizable feeling I'd had at the Fallen Fifty Memorial had returned, except I recognized it now.

It was peace

I hadn't felt it in such a long time.

All I'd needed to do this whole time to feel peace was keep Fred's light from burning out by keeping his dream alive: to bring kids joy. And I felt like Fred had guided me to this point because I no longer mourned him.

I felt as if I'd finally healed from that pain.

"Oh, hey, Isabella."

I whipped my head around to see Angelina standing there.

"Hey, Angelina," I said, getting up to meet her. "Nice to see you."

She looked me over. "Yeah."

I rocked on my feet. "Umm, tea?" I asked. She followed me into the kitchen. I served her a piping-hot cup and we leaned against the counters.

"Is it your break, then?" Angelina asked.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"I bet George let's you come up here when it's your break from working down in the shop."

I stared blankly at her. "Yeah, we're closing soon, but why would George have to let me come here?"

" 'Cause it's his flat, of course!"

I paled. The peaceful feeling was nowhere to be found. She didn't know. "I, uhh, live here too, Angelina."

"You do?"

"Yeah." I looked down into my teacup, a bit embarrassed and unsure of what to do next.

"That's why George can talk about you so much," Angelina whispered to herself. I began to worry I'd done something terribly wrong. Why hadn't she known? Why didn't George tell her?

I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. I didn't know what to say.

Thankfully, Angelina filled the silence. "Where is George, anyway?" She motioned to a box she set on the counter that I hadn't noticed her bring in. "I came to give him this."