Hi everyone. If you've only just stumbled on this story, you should probably read the prequel; The Magic Word Is Sorry Not Please. Otherwise you may be confused.

Disclaimer: I didn't own the world of Harry Potter while I was writing The Magic Word, and I still don't own it now.

Nobody Said It Was Easy
26th March, 2024

Fred dragged himself up the stairs, opened the door to his apartment, and flopped on the floor straight away.

The carpet prickled his skin and made him sneeze, and the door was still open so a breeze wafted over him, but he simply didn't have the energy to move.

Then he decided, as he did every time he was stuck in this horrible position, that next time he was going to use the floo network or catch one of those horrible muggle planes to get to Australia. He was never going to apparate here again. Because even though it only took around 12 minutes to apparate from place to place, he was still knackered after apparating 42 times in a row.

Just quarter of an hour ago he'd been sat with James and Roxy, catching up as best he could in the only time he'd been alone with the two of them. He'd spent the rest of the weekend recovering from the apparition, or telling his parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles about his life. While Roxy and James updated the family on their lives weekly, Fred hadn't been home for 3 months and there was a lot to tell. Or, at least, his family seemed to think there was a lot to tell; "How's Anna?" "How's your job?" "How is the weather in Australia then?" "Have you decorated your kitchen yet?" "Oh, you'll have to get a new apartment with a guest bedroom soon so that we can visit!"

Fred was glad to be home.

Or, at least, he would be glad to be home when his brain had finally followed him to this country.

"Oh baby." Fred heard, and he saw Anna's shoes in front of his eyes.

He felt her hands on his shoulders, and took all the effort he had to kneel up, stand up, and drag his body towards the sofa, where he fell forward again.

"Sleep it off, okay?" He heard her say quietly, before he felt her lips on his forehead and then a blanket fall over his shoulders…

Next thing he knew, the sunlight was burning through his eyelids harshly.

He swung his legs off the side of the sofa, drifting into the bedroom to see an empty bed. The sunlight streamed into the room from the window and he blinked in the direction of the clock for a little while before he saw that it was three in the afternoon.

Sighing, he saw his tracksuit bottoms on the bed; he changed into them and walked into the other room, flopping on the chair by the kitchen table without bothering to look around.

"Morning." Anna said cheerily, and Fred jumped to see her jump up from in front of the oven. Her hair had grown since school, in a bob now instead of the old boyish cut. The Australian sun had left her tanned, while her hectic Quidditch schedule had left her skinnier than ever before. Her t-shirt was baggy and hung off her shoulders, while her shorts barely clung to her hips. "Or, you know, afternoon."

Fred just smiled, thinking that he would quite like to just sit and curl up with her for a couple of hours, doing nothing much except eating and laughing. "Thanks for leaving me to sleep."
"It's okay." She replied, standing up and walking towards him. She kissed his forehead, before sitting on the seat opposite him. "Thank you for not putting a shirt on." She joked, and Fred just laughed.

"What's cooking?"
Anna laughed herself, "I was trying to make buns so you'd be impressed when you woke up."

"Babe, you can't cook." He just laughed, "Besides, Grandma's been feeding me all weekend."

"Ah, yes." She sat down opposite him, picking up two mugs of coffee from the kitchen top and placing them on the table between them. She pulled out her wand and flicked it; the coffee started to steam and bubble, warm again. "So, how is everyone? Roxy, James, Louisa?"
"They're good, they're all good. I don't think James likes working at the shop very much, but Dad's officially retired now so there's no one else until Louis leaves school-"
"Al could-"
"Al's got scouts for the Appleby Arrows, Tutshill Tornados and Puddlemere United watching his last Quidditch match. He's practically guaranteed a job, since he told me that all he does is force the team to practice or fly around by himself."
Fred had managed to spend his first few hours with Al, before the new Quidditch captain had to head back to Hogwarts at the end of the holidays.

"So what else is going on at school then?"
"Apparently Rose and Scorpius never leave the head dorms. Al said they're at it all the time, which is disgusting-"
"Well we were like that last year-"
"Yeah, I miss that." Fred laughed, and Anna reached out and pretended to slap him around the face. But then her hand stayed on his shoulder, and slid down his arm until they were holding hands and they both knew that Fred wasn't entirely joking; he did miss some things about the way they used to be. So did she.

"So, how are my girls?"

"Louisa got that internship with Aunt Hermione's friend, so she's pretty busy, but she and James are just as happy with each other."
"Roxy?"
"She's busy. Really busy. She got that job in the private department of Gringotts, but she just seems to live and breathe work."
"Sounds like her. Jamie?"
Fred sighed, "I didn't actually see him."
"What? Really?"
"Yeah, Roxy said he was working. Seems like the training for a healer is really hard work and he's up in a different part of London-"
"But they still live together, right?"

"Yeah, Roxy said it was just schedules, normally he's not as busy."
But that wasn't entirely true.

While Fred's sister said that her boyfriend was usually more available, Fred's best friend disagreed entirely. He said he'd hardly seen Jamie in weeks, that the guy was barely around. At coffee, James had scoffed when Roxy had apologised that Jamie wasn't there, but hadn't commented out loud.

Fred could tell that James and Roxy's differences were becoming more obvious to them, since they were the only two family members still at home. Ron made jokes about their bickering and Fred could tell that they really liked having him around to talk to for a change.

"How's Lily?" Anna asked quietly, knocking Fred out of his thoughts.

He just shook his head. "I asked Al and he stormed off."
"So no better?"
"No, no better."

The girl Fred had known last year, and the Lily that existed now, were exact opposites of each other. And Fred hated everything she had become.

The truth was that Fred felt like he should have done much more to stop it; he and James should have seen it coming, right from the beginning of Summer. Back when the train had got to London, and Jake had turned and said he was going home instead of staying with Louis; when they'd asked why he'd just looked over at Lily and walked away.

They should have known then.

Or maybe they should have known when she said she was staying at a roommates for the week, but was then untraceable for the entire time. She'd turned up on the doorstep and her eyes were barely open; Fred swore she had a five day hangover and they still didn't quite know what had happened in that week. But instead of knowing, and realising, and stopping it, Fred and James had just laughed it off and covered for her, lying to her Mum and Dad to avoid the hassle.

And then Fred left for Australia, and a month later everyone went back to school…

Things had gotten worse, somehow.

And now here they were; Fred had heard the stories but was sure it would be even worse if he was involved in everything.

All he knew was that everyone had given up on her. It seemed like Louis and Hugo quit first; the two of them attended the same party as her in the first week and had barely spoken to her since, because they'd resolved that "they didn't know her." Then it was Al. He and Rose had tried, of course; they locked her in her room and followed her everywhere, but it seemed there was just no stopping her. Lily had fought with Maddie over something, accusing her of only dating Al for his surname, before Al had jumped to his ex's defence and yelled at his sister. Then he'd written home to James, simply writing "Do what you want, I don't have a sister anymore."

Rose had been the only one holding on. She put her cousin in detention, wrote weekly updates home to James for advice; she'd even gotten Jacob Spencer expelled from school.

But it seemed Lily didn't want any help. She seemed to do everything she could to push them all away, but Rose refused to budge.

Until Lily tried it on with Scorpius.

Then she was truly on her own.

"So Al said nothing? At all?"
Fred laughed a little under his breath. "No, not nothing. He said 'Lily Potter' was 'an ungrateful bitch that deserved everything she got.'"

Anna just shook her head. "I just can't believe it." Fred just sighed, because he hated how much he could believe it.

The problem was that it felt a little inevitable, like there was always the potential for it to happen. He felt like somehow he'd caused it, by ignoring her; by never knowing who she really was until she was screaming it in their faces.

"It's not your fault, you know." Anna said quietly, Fred just sighed and felt almost exhausted because she could still read his mind after all this time.

The two of them sat, and looked out of the window. The sun was high and Fred could only imagine how bloody hot it would be out there when he finally bothered to get out.

Looking back at each other, they both sighed, knowing who they had to talk about next…

"Anything?"
Fred shook his head, tears rising in his eyes bitterly. "Nothing. Nothing new."

Anna kind of slumped, her arms falling onto the table and her head resting on them.

Fred just traced soothing circles across her back with his fingertips, while she sighed deeply; he was almost too well trained in how to look after her.

He felt hatred inside him again, but not the kind of disappointed hatred he had for Lily. The way he hated Dominique right now was something different.

He was past being scared for her; they knew she was safe after all. Now he was just angry at her. So unbelievably angry at her for being so unbelievably selfish. He understood that she needed this, but he didn't understand why she had to be so brutal.

He'd never forget that day in November. It was her 19th birthday, and she'd left for France four months ago…

"Has anyone heard from her since she left?" Brian, the auror who had taken over from Uncle Harry as head of department, asked. The entire family were forced to shake their heads.

Apparating home from Australia to sit around a table with four aurors and Roxy, Teddy, Vic, Anna, Louisa and James, was not the way Fred had pictured spending Dom's birthday.

Victoire sniffed, her fingers intertwined tightly with Teddy's, who just shook his head. Vic's engagement ring seemed to sparkle at them all gloatingly, as if it knew Vic swore there would be no wedding until her sister was home. "No one's heard from, or seen, my sister since July."
"She said she was going to stay with her grandparents." James said quietly. "But she didn't arrive."

"So you'd like to officially declare her missing?" one of the aurors confirmed, writing as he spoke.

"We have to." Teddy said quietly.

"Our family are going crazy with worry. Our parents and grandparents, they thought the days of people mysteriously going missing were over. This is all so terrifyingly close to home for them." James babbled, before Louisa next to him started to sob and he turned back to her and stroked her hair.

"I hate to ask this," Brian begun, "But do you think something's happened to her?"

"She wouldn't just leave." Anna answered, her voice louder than Fred expected. Fred agreed with her completely, and reality made his heart beat horribly in his throat.

"She would write." Roxy agreed. "She wouldn't do this to us."
"So you do think-"
"Someone could have taken her. Or…"
"Don't finish that sentence." Teddy commanded at James, before Vic and Louisa burst into fresh waves of tears.

The prophet had reported it the next day, by which time Fred and Anna had already apparated home. A copy of it had been sent to them, though, and reading it in the official papers had just made he and Anna feel entirely helpless and stranded and unable to do anything but hold each other and cry…

"Missing: Dominique Weasley, 19. The famous Weasley family have issued a statement, declaring that Dominique Weasley, daughter of Bill and Fleur Weasley, has been missing for over four months. The family plead for information from anyone who has heard from, or seen, Miss Weasley within those months. Dominique, or "Dom" to her family, can be recognised by her blonde hair and blue eyes, in addition to the fact that she is a member of one of the most famous families in the world. If anyone has any information they are urged to contact the Ministry of Magic, who are treating the disappearance as "suspicious". "

They didn't hear anything.

November turned into December and the Christmas decorations were put up. Christmas came and went and the family were reunited at their grandmother's house, with Dom's absence horribly obvious and making the whole thing so bittersweet that Fred almost looked forward to returning to the other side of the world.

Fred and Anna had gone home, unable to hide their disappointment; they'd hoped that someone might have got in touch over Christmas. That she might have got in touch.

And then Louis had got an owl at Hogwarts, on his first day back at school.

Of course, Fred and Anna, being over 10,000 miles away, didn't hear about it until three days later, and Fred hated that.

Not that the note said much.

It was unmistakeably from her, and entirely honest. And that just made it worse.

"I'm okay. I swear I am, and I'm sorry for doing this to you all it's just something I need to do. Please carry on your lives without me because I don't know when I'll be home, or if I'll ever be home. I'm happy, happier than I've ever been; I'm not going to change anything here in case it ruins it and that includes telling you where I am. But I swear to you I'm okay; you can tell the world I'm okay and make the ministry take my horrible school photo off those posters. I'm alive, I'm happy and I love you so much. Dom. x"

They'd not heard a word since; Fred and Anna's copy of it was still stuck to the fridge as if it brought her home a little.

But it didn't work.

She wasn't home and she wasn't here and all Fred knew from reading that damn note (it couldn't possibly be called a letter) was that she didn't want anything to do with them.

And Anna knew it too; and that's why she was a mess. And that was why Fred truly hated his cousin right now.

Moments later, though, Anna had sat back up straight and sighed, before standing up and turning to the fridge. Fred just watched; she hummed a tune to herself and Fred could tell she was trying to get back to normal.

Fred, though, was busy thinking about how much he'd hated that he found out about Dom's letter late. He hated that he found out everything late because he was so far away. He hated that he wasn't back home; he hated he was so far away from his sister and couldn't help her, and that his cousins were arguing for a way to pass the time.

He hated being in this damn country. He hated that he couldn't go outside in the day, because his skin burnt to pieces no matter which spell he tried. It was too bloody hot here all the time; it felt abnormal being hot over Christmas.

He hated the journeys here; he hated that he probably wouldn't be truly awake again in days because he'd had such a horrible time apparating here.

He hated his job. At first he thought it would fun to work at a bar, because he was partying and being paid for it. For a while it was fun, until he realised that he missed every night at home while Anna missed every day.

He was still happy with her, of course he was; if he wasn't he would have left a long time ago. But they weren't the same couple anymore. They were no longer the life-of-the-party, having-a-laugh couple; their spare moments were spent curled up together on the sofa and imagining what was happening in England.

Anna flopped back in the seat opposite him, having not gotten anything out of the fridge although she spent at least five minutes crouched by it.

"How was your weekend, anyway?" Fred asked, looking up and realising they hadn't spoke about anything but him yet.

Weirdly, she laughed to herself. "I've been waiting for you to ask that."
For a moment Fred thought he was in trouble, but instead she reached out behind her and pulled a letter off the counter, before placing it in front of him.

"So, you need to read this. And once you have, you can choose entirely what happens next."

Then Fred panicked even more, because he irrationally thought she might be breaking up with him through letter, before remembering that they were adults now and far past those childish worries.

So he turned the letter over, to see it addressed to Anna. He glanced up, but she just nodded, as if telling him to go on.

The letter inside was formal, but he knew what he was looking at almost instantly; Mark Dowling, Anna's agent, had his name scribbled across the bottom of the page.

Client: Anna Olivia Wood.
Dear Anna,
As we previously discussed, the Melbourne Macaws will willingly continue their contract with you, and increase their contract to 300,000 galleons for a one year contract. However, as per your request to investigate into UK teams, the Holyhead Harpies are willing to offer you a contract of 210,000 galleons annually, in a three year contract.
I would advise you to remain in Melbourne, due to the less permanent position and increased money, however Holyhead can offer more stability to you. In addition, the trials for the England team in advance of the World Cup are at the back end of this year, so that opportunity would be available to you if you were to play for a UK team.
I would appreciate your acceptance of an offer by the end of the month.
Mark Dowling.

Fred, stunned speechless by a piece of paper for the second time this year, looked up at Anna who just shrugged at him knowingly.

"This time it's up to you, entirely. Last time you followed me, this time I'm following you."

"Do you mean that?" Fred asked, looking up at her and watching as she nodded. He stood up, and took her hands in his and pulled her up with him. "Where would you be happier?"

"Anywhere I'm with you." She shrugged, and he smiled, before squeezing her hands tighter as excitement built inside him at what he was about to say.

"If you're sure-"
"I'm sure."
"Then we're going home.

And not everything was fixed. In fact, everything still felt broken. But Fred knew it would be easier to put it all back together again if he was home. If he was with his family, and friends, and people who knew and loved and accepted him. Because if there was one thing he'd learnt from his year in Australia, it was that he couldn't survive without Anna. But he also couldn't survive without his family.