I'm on a one-shot kick, which is good because I'm better at them than I am drawn out stories right now. And I keep posting at three in the morning, not healthy...
This is my journey into the world of the Weasley twins, after the war, so it's very post DH. Hope you like it.
George Weasley stared at the mirror that was supposed to be showing him his reflection, but there was something not right about it...
"I have both ears, you git." the reflection grinned, his smile not mirroring the look of shock that was on George's face.
"What--but...I..."
"It's me! Don't you recognize your own twin?" the mirror asked, his grin growing somehow despite dominating his face already.
The mirror was right, George was not the reflection in the mirror. And he knew this mirror worked, he used it everyday, it was the one that hung in his bedroom. Until this moment, it had never failed. But the reflection wasn't him, it was slightly younger version of himself, and there were both ears.
"Fred..." George breathed out, he could feel his heart pounding at this. This was all wrong, this wasn't how it worked at all. Ghosts could come back, portraits could talk, but mirrors didn't sometimes slip up and show the dead twin.
"George!" the mirror responded, his tone quite pleased, "How long's it been? No one tells us anything here. It's quite dreadful. How long's it been? Did we win?"
"The war?" George couldn't decide what was more insane, the fact that he was seeing this, or the fact that he was answering, "Yeah, we won, Harry died, but...got better...It's been five years, Fred. You've been gone for five years..."
The look of sheer joy that had been on Fred's face before slowly slid off his face. He obviously had no idea how long he had been gone, and suddenly realized what it meant.
"Five? Really? Blimey. What've I missed? I know who crossed over, but Harry did suprise me a bit. All the war losses tend to stick together. Did Harry make an honest girl out of our sister? Is Percy still a stuck up git?"
"Well, you missed...everything...Harry and Ginny did get married, so did Ron and Hermione, big shock, Bill and Fleur have a kid...a girl...Percy can make jokes now...Always says I'm only half listening, thinks it's funny, and it actually is...Mum has stayed very Mum...Dad got sparks to shoot out of an outlet last year and hasn't stopped talking about it...You've missed everything, Fred." George suddenly felt a knot in his throat and hoped the mirror couldn't hear it in his voice.
"What about you, though? What've I missed from you?" Fred coaxed.
Before George could answer a loud crash was heard down the hall, followed by the indecipharable hollers of a female voice.
"I got married." George grinned, looking at the door that led to the mayhem in the rest of the house. "I married Alicia Spinnett. After the war, everyone married everybody. Couldn't go a weekend without putting on dressrobes for awhile there...And I'm a dad! I've got twins! They're two."
Fred's face lit up at this before speaking, "You don't say! What are they identical? What'd you name them? Do they look like me?"
"Boy and girl, so it'd be creepy if they were identical, wouldn't it?"
"But what are their names?"
"GEORGE! I need help, here! Your children are driving me mad!"
George and Fred both snapped their necks to the doorway again, and Fred muttered "oh, right, that's just a wall here," to himself.
"In a minute, love! I'm--I have to--in a minute!" George yelled back.
"You married Mum!" Fred laughed.
"Did not! Married a woman who became a mum." George sniffled, slightly miffed, yet secretly highly amused. He knew Fred would know that.
"But what're their names? What'd you name the terrible twosome?"
"I'm not sure about telling you that...but what's it like on your side?" George questioned, his eyes shifting to the door nervously.
"I told you, they tell us nothing here. It's all boring, no one wants to take any of the products I've made here...and I don't even charge! But don't worry about that, you'll see be here before you know it. Tell me your kids names!"
"Frederick and Winnifred." George mumbled, already aware of the reaction that he would hear in just a second.
"You're joking!" Fred's face was brighter than ever, and George was tempted to close the window curtains and use his brother's delight for a light source.
"Freddie and Winnie are not a joke. Hellians, but not jokes!" George retorted, smiling slightly.
"You named your kids after me! I'm a legend! I live forever through this! They'll name their kids after me, and their kids, and their kids...It'll be brilliant!"
"Oi! What about me?"
"GEORGE! QUIT TALKING TO YOURSELF AND COME HELP ME!!! WINNIE HAS YOUR WAND! I CAN'T GET FREDDIE OFF THE CEILING!!!!"
"Your daughter did that? And she's two?! Alicia did rub off on them!"
"Oi! Who was it that gave Ron a life long fear of spiders here?"
For a moment the pair just stared at each other, matching grins. Fred couldn't help it, he looked at his brother and saw the aging for the first time. His face creased a bit more than Fred's did when he smiled, and he was slightly thicker, losing his lean, young look, despite only being 25. All of a sudden Fred felt a pang of regret. Through all this time, all the time he spent on the other side, he had known he had done the right thing.
But all of a sudden, it didn't feel so right. He was jealous. He wanted to have the wife, the aged looks, the kids torturing their mother...
"Remus and Dora send their love."
"What?" George was snapped back into reality by this sudden comment from the mirror. He had been lost in thought, wondering what it would have been like to have his brother standing next to him at the alter, his best man. He wondered what it would have been like to stand there for his own brother. Feuding over who had the cuter baby...For the first time in a long time, he was angry at Fred for dying.
"You know! Lupin and Tonks! They send their love!"
"Oh! Yeah, they're willing to put up with you?"
"I told you, it can get dreadfully dull."
As the only twin.
Neither brother on the either side of the mirror said it, but both were thinking it. Twins weren't supposed to be seperated, they weren't supposed to go off on opposite sides of the unknown...
"Teddy's gotten huge. A real child now, not just a baby. He's a terror to take into a crowd, will transform as you hold his hand, twice this month he's sent Harry into a panic before Ginny could calm him down. Tell them that story." George instructed, knowing his brother would appreciate that. "You really don't watch over us? You or Tonks or Lupin? You don't check in?" George was suddenly serious again.
"I told you, mate. We can't."
"But you're here right now! You're not a ghost, or a portrait or anything! You're my bloody reflection! You should be able to stay!"
Fred's face fell as George's swelled with anger. They didn't know how to argue, they never had to when both were alive.
"GEEEOOORGE! WINNIE SET THE CAT ON FIRE!"
Smiles cracked on both sides of the mirror, the tense moment passing. They didn't know how to fight, so they didn't know how to do it properly.
"I'm not technically supposed to be here, doing this. I'm not even quite sure how I did it. But rules aren't meant to be when you're a Weasley twin." Fred grinned.
"You say you've never met them, but I'm sure you know my children." George grinned back.
And then, George was grinning at his own reflection. The door creaked open, and a fuming Alicia was ready to cause him quite a bit of pain.
"Oh, don't worry about the twins, George! I got Freddie down, put the cat out, and wrestled your wand away! Glad I didn't interrupt you! What were you doing that was so important, anyways?" she snapped, but George just kept staring at the mirror, his stomach feeling as if it had nested in his knees.
"Daddy?" a small voice questioned from the doorway, and George looked down to see both children standing there, both with their red hair ruffled and wearing tiny magenta robes from the shop he now ran alone. It was Winnie who was talking, she was the bolder of the pair. "Joo talk to Big Fred?"
"Big Fred?" Alicia blinked not understanding at all as her son nodded his head so hard he almost hit on the doorframe.
"You've seen him?" George asked, leaning down to his children.
"Yes!"
"More than once?"
"Yes!"
"You've told him your names?"
"Yes!"
"That ruddy bastard!"
"George!"
"He lied to me!"
"What are you talking about? Fred's dead, you know that." her voice was gentle as she said the last part, but George paid no mind.
"I do know that! But I didn't know anything else! Because he lied! Wanted more information! I can't believe him!"
"Big Fred's in the mirror."
"Freddie, what are you talking about? George? What's going on? What are you doing to my mirror?"
George was attempting to climb in, his head bumping against the reflective glass.
"I'm going to get him! He knew their names! He lied to me! Just because he's bored! Some brother!"
"I don't understand!"
"Alicia, love, you knew when you married me, that sometimes, I would have to climb into mirrors and beat up my dead brother."
"I certainly did not!"
"Well, now it's time to learn. Winnie, Freddie, help Daddy..."