Call Me Vengeful

Tears and Nothing Else

With this being close to the end I wanted to take a minute to dedicate this chapter to @_YourStolenWishes_ They were my first comment on Call Me Squib and I appreciated it, even if it was just a spelling correction 😄

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Tears and Nothing Else

***George's POV***

Everyone seemed to erupt into cheers at the sight of Voldemort's lifeless body on the ground. Like a huge weight had been lifted off of our shoulders, freeing us all. I looked around at my family and friends as relief seemed to flood all of them, hugging one another. In that moment I seemed to be the only one who noticed that part of our family was missing, gone.

Fred and Embry.

I looked around the crowded hall, scanning faces in hope to find Harry's. I needed to find Embry, I needed to know where she was. Voldemort had said he'd killed her and Harry, but Harry was alive. That meant there was more than enough luck that Embry was still alive too.

"Harry!" I called out his name in hopes of him hearing me. No such luck. I turned towards Ron and Hermione who were hugging one another. "Ronald, Hermione, I need to find Harry."

"Come on," neither of them asked me any questions, already knowing what this was about. We pushed our way through the crowd in search of the messy haired boy. It wasn't long before we spotted him, still holding the Elder Wand in his hands.

"Harry!" Ron called out his name, getting his attention. A smile filled Harry's lips at seeing all of us, but when his gaze met my own his smile faded.

"George," he began, his voice quiet.

"Where is she?" I questioned him without wasting a second. "Where is she, Harry?"

"They left her in the forest," he glanced towards the trees. Before any of them could say anything else I was gone, running towards the tree line and into the forest with my wand in hand.

The forest was quiet, the only sound being the breaking of twigs underfoot as I ran. It almost seemed peaceful, as if this war had never even happened, had only been a nightmare and I would wake up back in my flat over to the joke shop. Despite the exhaustion that filled my body from the past several hours of dueling I didn't stop once, until I found myself standing in an opening in the trees. A handful of yards ahead of me, laying on the ground, was a familiar dark haired figure.

"No," the word came out as a broken sob as I closed the distance and fell to the ground, gathering the figure up in my arms.

Her pale skin was cold to the touch, her typically bright blue eyes now staring up at nothing while the smallest of smiles graced her lips. She looked as if she were about to say something that she found amusing, but I knew the words would never escape her lips. I would never hear her soft voice again, never feel the warmth as she hugged me. All of that was gone now, forever.

I held her cold body tightly to my own, tears spilling from my eyes and wetting her face. As I did this I spotted something small from the corner of my eye. It was a small stone that almost seemed to be reflecting in the bits of early morning sunlight that invaded through the thick trees. Something inside of me seemed to think on it's own and I reached out, picking the small stone up between my fingers. I turned it over in my hand a few times, my fingertips running over it's smooth side.

"Smooth as silk, isn't it?" I jumped slightly as the familiar voice. Instantly I pulled back from Embry's body, but her face still held the same lifeless expression.

"Bloody hell," I muttered under my breath. "Now I'm hearing things."

"No you're not, mate." Another voice assured me. My body tensed as I slowly looked up and found myself facing two familiar figures, both smiling. Both two people that I never thought I would get to see again.

"Fred, Embry," I whispered their names in disbelief. "How are you both here?"

"Magic." Fred grinned at his own little joke, but I couldn't bring myself to laugh as I just looked at the both of them.

"I have to say, that was even worse than George's holey crap." Embry shook her head. "You're losing your touch Fred."

"I'm still the better looking twin." Fred shrugged.

"In your dreams." I disagreed, causing them both to look at me again. Neither of them said anything for a moment, the only looked at me as I held tightly onto Embry's body with the stone in my one hand. Embry almost seemed to move in slow motion as she knelt down in front of me, her blue eyes harboring guilt and pity in them.

"Georgie," a sigh escaped her lips as she looked me in the eyes. "I'm so sorry."

"Why?" I asked her. "Why did you meet him?"

"People were being killed George, I couldn't just let that continue." She glanced over her shoulder at Fred, his smile no longer in place. "Seeing everyone lined up in the Great Hall, I just couldn't let it go. Remus and Tonks are dead, Teddy has no parents now and it's because of me. And Fred...I saw him get killed. I saw all of you crying over his body, begging him to just wake up. I couldn't risk being the cause of someone I cared about dying. I just couldn't."

"None of that was your fault!" I argued with her. "You didn't kill them! You didn't deserve to die!"

"You have no idea how wrong you are." She looked down at the ground, shaking her head.

"Embry's right though, George." Fred spoke up, causing me to look at him again. "You do need to let us go. You have a life that you need to live. You have pranks that need to be pulled and so little time."

"How am I supposed to just let you both go?" I asked them. "You're my best friends, you always have been. Always will be."

"Just live it one day at a time." Embry told me.

"Like you did when Cedric died?" I scoffed.

"Don't make the same mistakes I did George. Don't ignore the fact that you have people around you, people that are hurting too." She tried to tell me. "Live your life, not your memories."

"What, you just want me to forget about you both? Act as though you two never existed?" I shook my head. "I can't do that."

"No, just know that we're okay with where we are and that we want you to be happy." Fred said as Embry stood back up and walked around me so she was now kneeling down right at my side. "Just think about it, we spent so many years using that map for our pranks and now I get to talk with the guys that made it."

"And I get to be with my parents, actually meet my mother." A smile almost seemed to light up Embry's face in a way that it hadn't been in years. "I get to be with Cedric again. We're happy George, it's okay to let us go. It's okay to cry, to grieve."

"I loved you." I whispered to her, my voice sounding hollow and broken.

"I know," she pursed her lips. "I'm sorry that I never felt the same."

The tears just kept running down my cheeks as I looked at her. She just gave me one more smile before she stood up and walked back over to Fred.

"It's time to let us go Forge." He told me, nodding at the stone still in my hand. I didn't look away from them once as my fingers slowly uncurled from around the stone and I let it slip away, back onto the ground below.

"You got it Gred."