Freddie

George

"Fr-Fred?" George stuttered, "Is that really you?" He saw Fred, but not the living breathing, man that he remembered. Fred looked sort of like the ghosts at Hogwarts, but less...stable somehow. He kept flickering in and out of existence like he wasn't quite here but not quite in the other place either.

"George? What am I doing here? Have I passed through?" asked Fred, looking confused. Now nothing was stopping the tears from rolling down George's face as he realized that if he closed the hole in The Veil, this brief encounter in between planes might be the last conversation he had with his twin.

"No Freddie, you haven't come through the hole. I've summoned you from wherever you were to ask you questions about what's happening with The Veil lifting and how to stop it. It seems you know something about it, yeah?" asked George.

"Yeah I know what's happening, but I don't know why, and I have no idea how to stop it. And that's saying something. We've always known that I was the smart one. I've no idea how you've gotten by without me in these past five years," Fred smirked.

"Well it's apparent you're still not the funny one," George shot back. "Really though, I've missed you so much, man." Fred tried to step forward to embrace his brother but was hit by an invisible wall. He looked down and noticed a circle of salt around his feet for the first time.

"What's this for?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah that," George said, wiping his nose and brushing the salt away, "Just a precaution Hermione made me take in case I summoned something more dangerous on accident." Fred stepped out of the circle to hug his brother, but he passed right through him, giving George the common ghost-like feeling of walking through an icy shower.

"I suppose we knew that would happen," said Fred, "We did go to Hogwarts after all."

"Yeah," said George. "So you really have no idea how to stop The Veil lifting? It's not that I wouldn't love for you to come back, permanently, but Voldemort could come back, along with countless other dark Witches and Wizards, not even to mention some of the deranged Muggles!"

"Hey, it's okay, calm down Georgie," said Fred. "I understand. I understand why you have to do it, but I really don't know anything about it. I'm kind of a new arrival still. No one tells me much." George exhaled loudly and rubbed his eyes.

"Well, we've still got about two minutes," said George, "Let's just talk." Fred looked around at the small flat.

"Nice place you've got here. Cozy. A bit small for you and Angelina, so I'm guessing you two haven't had kids yet. Where is she by the way?" Fred asked.

"Um, sorry, me and Angelina?" asked George, arching an eyebrow questioningly.

"Yeah! You two have got married haven't you?"

"Married?" George laughed. "God no. I haven't even had a relationship longer than

a week since-" his voice hitched.

"Since what?" asked Fred suspiciously.

"Since you died," George whispered. Fred sighed and ran his hands through his hair.

"Mate, you can't let death stop you from living! You loved that girl! What's stopping you?"

"I guess all of my emotions are sort of spent," said George. Fred rolled his eyes and started to respond when his image started flickering more than ever.

"Call her..." Fred said, his voice fading out into a ghostly whisper. His image faded as well until there was nothing left of him excluding a few scattered crystals of salt on George's rug. George let a single tear roll down his face for his brother before picking up his phone. The phone rang for a while until someone finally picked up right before it went to voicemail.

"Hey, Angelina," he said.