Afterlife

Fred (Yes, again)

Dumbledore was the one who was first there to greet him.

He had groaned, blinked multiple times at the blinding light and then healed himself up.

"Hello, Mr Weasley," the Professor called out. He was watching the battle on a sort of screen. Fred scrambled over to him in order to check everyone was okay.

"What happened?" He asked the wiser man.

"You died."

"No, really?" Fred muttered. "Where am I? Is George okay? Is this heaven? Is my family okay?"

"Slow down, Mr Weasley. Your twin and family are fine. Harry is still alive and they are continuing to fight. This is...the afterlife, I guess you could describe it as heaven," Dumbledore winced, "I prefer calling it 'the void'."

"Ah. It's not just you and me is it? There are...others, right?" Fred bit his lip. As much respect as he had for the headmaster, he didn't think he had the patience to deal with that amount of brainpower sitting next to him 24/7. Dumbledore was too damn smart to be around Fred for eternity.

"Don't worry, Mr Weasley. There are others. Everyone who has died comes here. Harry's Mum and Dad, Lily and James Potter are here. Sirius Black is here. Merlin isn't here though," Dumbledore frowned, "I think he might be time travelling and cheated the system."

"Oh. Right. Well. Thanks for the introduction."

"No problem Mr Weasley. I shall leave you to walk around." And with that, his old headmaster had vanished, leaving just the screen of the battle.

Fred was too immersed in the screen to be wandering around, so he sat back down and watched intently, avoiding the pain of watching George cry over his body and instead flicking to Harry....who was currently sacrificing himself for the good of everyone. God, what a masochist. Someone should get that boy some counselling, stat.

He hadn't really seen how Harry acted around Ginny much, or at least since their relationship had began. Of course he had seen tidbits - sweet moments they shared which were to be cherished.

But their relationship was something that rather obviously made Ginny very content. It couldn't just end now, he wouldn't stand for it. His sister deserved a life with him, and Harry, at least, deserved some peace after all of this.

Not to die at the hands of his parents' murderer, a genocidal maniac.

Fred briefly wondered whether Grindelwald was here in the Afterlife, or any other prisoners who committed serious, serious crimes. After death in Azkaban, was there an After-kaban? A question for another time, perhaps when Dumbledore was mingling.

He was engaged in the screen, but his thoughts were wild and changing rapidly. God, George, he had left George all alone- the boy was going to have to run their shop all alone! The feeling of loneliness was creeping up, too, except this time it wasn't George has just gone down to the kitchens to snog a girl, it was eternal isolation. This was at least 50 years, if not more, of being without his twin.

Thoughts moved swiftly away from that and towards something Dumbledore had muttered before leaving. "Lily and James Potter are here," the words echoed through his head like alarm bells were going off. That meant, if Sirius was here as well...the Marauders. He'd get to meet the only one he'd never been acquainted  with. And he'd get to meet Harry's Dad, the one that the books deemed almost the worst of them all, his quidditch and Transfiguration skills not topping his frankly stunning ability to think up and execute pranks.

He had all that to look forward to, but he wouldn't just be seeing two of the Marauders. He would be seeing the third too, very soon, as him and his wife entered the void not too long after Fred himself.