Dusk - A George Weasley fanfic

CHAPTER 32

I made myself promise today that I wouldn't bring up the one thing that made George upset, the memory plant. Maybe he was right, maybe Fred didn't need it after all. He could try using something more safe, like a pensieve.

Today was Monday and I had gotten up extra early so that I could spend more time with George, and Fred. I dressed, ate breakfast as quickly as possible and apparated to Diagon Alley. I was also excited to tell him about Remus Lupin, my father.

I pushed the door of the joke shop open, expecting to see him standing behind the counter, a smile on his face as usual. But he wasn't there, instead, a man who I immediately recognised as Lee Jordan stood. The same Lee Jordan who was George's and Fred's best friend and prank partner back in Hogwarts.

"Hello, I'm Evelyn Hyde" I greeted him.

"Ohh so you're George's girlfriend? He told me you work here" he said.

"Yes I do, but if you don't mind me asking, what are you doing behind the counter?" I asked.

"Don't you know?" he asked.

"Know what?"

"He has the Dragon Pox, Fred's already had it so he's safe. George asked me to help him look after the shop for a bit. They're both upstairs. Have you had it before?" he asked,

"No I haven't" I replied.

"Well you better not meet him then. Fortunately, it isn't as bad as usual. It's pretty mild actually" he said.

I nodded hesitantly before setting to work. My heart dropped in my chest at the prospect of not seeing George. Maybe that's what the rash on his shoulder was about earlier. 

Throughout the day, my gaze kept shifting back to the staircase that led to their flat. In the beginning, I would hear a couple of noises like the opening and closing of doors but around 2 PM, everything went silent. Maybe they were napping?

At 2:30 we closed the shop for half-an-hour so that we could catch a break.

"I'm going to go meet Angelina, are you going to stay here?" asked Lee.

"Yea" I said absent-mindedly.

Lee left me alone in the shop so that he could go meet his friend. I found that I wasn't able to focus on anything except the spiral staircase. I had to check if George was doing alright at least, I could talk to him through the door to reduce the risk of spreading the infection.

I stopped what I was doing and made my way to the spiral staircase before climbing it in quick, brisk steps. I turned the knob of the door and pushed it open. As I expected, the living room was empty. But then I also noticed other things, a small table toppled over, papers strewn about, a broken glass plate on the floor. What on earth had happened here?

"George?" I called out, knocking on his door. No response. I pushed his door open and entered his room but no one was in there. The bed was unmade and some of his clothes lay about on the floor. That was odd, George usually kept his room pretty clean.

I went to knock on Fred's door too but he wasn't in there either. Where the hell had the both of them gone?

I made sure to check every room once again before heading downstairs, feeling slightly confused. I waited for Lee to return and once he did, I decided to ask him if he knew where the twins could've disappeared off to.

"Lee, George and Fred aren't upstairs. Any idea where they are?" I asked.

"How come they aren't there? Are you sure you checked properly?"

"Twice" I said.

"I'm not sure where they could be then, maybe the Burrow? Molly's been begging George to come there anyway so that she could take care of him" he suggested.

I nodded,

"Lee..do you mind if I-"

"Absolutely not, go ahead. Besides, Verity will be here soon, she agreed to work in the evenings" he said.

"Thank you so much" I said before grabbing my bag and apparating to The Burrow. But something told me they weren't there either. 

"Evelyn! So nice to see you dear!" Molly said after she opened the door.

"Hello Molly, I just wanted to know if George and Fred dropped by here?" I asked.

"No, Georgie has the pox, and Fred's with him" she said. I felt my heart sink lower in my chest.

"Everything alright dearie?" she said, concerned.

"Y-yea, everything's fine" I didn't want to worry her too much so I decided not to tell her that I couldn't find them anywhere. I'm sure they were alright anyway.

But why would George go out if he had the pox? Something wasn't adding up.

After bidding Mrs. Weasley goodbye, I went back home after checking the joke shop one last time. George didn't even tell me that he was planning on going somewhere, was it because we fought?

When I got back home, I tried to distract myself by cooking up some dinner but I ended up burning a whole tray of vegetables instead. I tried to clean up but my sloppy attempts only caused the burned vegetables to litter the kitchen floor.

Suddenly, a loud knock on the window made me jump in my skin. I turned around to see an owl flapping its wings wildly. She held a red envelope in her claws.

Another emergency letter? Was this from George? I hurried to the window, opened it, and grabbed the letter from the owl. I ripped it open without a second thought.

Please hurry and come to St. Mungo's. Fred's been hit.

George.

For a second, I was confused. Been hit? By what?

But then I realised that this was an emergency letter. And emergency letters almost never carried good news.

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