Written for FlamingMooseNinjasofEpicness' "The Legacy Effect" Challenge

Character: Fred Weasley II

Just Fred

"Oh, you're a Weasley? The son of George Weasley – the cofounder of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes? The nephew of Harry and Ginny Potter? Ron and Hermione Weasley? The highly placed Ministry members? You come from a family of excellent Quidditch players? That must be fun. You're related to the ones who saved the entire wizarding world and your Aunt is the one who helped the Harpies win three years in a row? Cool! What's your special talent?"

Fred sighed, chewing on the end of his quill as he sat in the library, trying to finish off a Potions essay due the next day. He was sure those were the thoughts people had whenever he introduced himself to them. As soon as they heard the name Weasley, he was automatically the son of George Weasley, the nephew of Harry or Ginny Potter (depending on whether they liked Quidditch or not) and a member of one of the most highly regarded wizarding families.

He was never just Fred. He was always Fred the second, or Fred Weasley. Sometimes he wanted to be just Fred. No, he wanted that all the time. But there always had to be Weasley in there somewhere. That was why he kept mostly to himself. He had no desire to deal with the gasps and fits of giggles asking him if he had actually met Harry Potter.

Well, of course he had. He's my bloody uncle!

"Yeah, I'm Fred Weasley," he sighed, avoiding eye contact with the girl who had sat opposite him.

She beamed. "You're Louis' cousin, right?"

That was also another one he heard quite often. He was either Fred Weasley, Weasley, or Louis' cousin. Sometimes even Roxanne's brother.

How come Louis is never Louis Weasley? he wondered, scowling at the disturbance. He didn't need to be. Everyone knew who Louis was; Head Boy, half Veela. When girls talked of Louis, no one needed a surname to know who they meant.

"Yeah, that's me," he replied bluntly.

"Does he ever talk about me?" the girl asked.

Fred stared at her. "Who are you?"

"Mona Buchannan," she replied, sounding disappointed.

Fred looked up as a group of giggling girls walked past. No doubt Louis was actually somewhere in the library. It was the only reason those girls came in there.

"Er... no," Fred told her. "You're in..." he studied her robes. "Hufflepuff."

Mona nodded. "So, he's never mentioned me before?"

Fred shook his head. "I just said that."

She seemed even more disappointed. "We do Transfiguration together."

Fred shrugged. "Cool." He purposely picked up his quill and began writing again. Mona huffed loudly enough for him to know she wasn't happy and then got up to join Louis' fan club.

Why didn't he get that kind of attention from people? They only talked to him because of where he came from. If he had a different surname, they wouldn't look twice at him.

Of course, coming from a famous family wasn't bad all the time. It actually had its advantages when he really wanted something. If they knew who he was, then they were more likely to do something for him (thinking they could make friends with him and then meet the famous Harry Potter or get discounts from the joke shop). He would feel guilty about using them sometimes, but then he reminded himself that they were only helping him for the same reason.

He wasn't popular like Louis and he wasn't a Quiddtich star like Roxanne. No, he was the one who preferred to hide away in the corner with a good book, out of sight of everyone else.

And somehow, that was an invitation to address him as Fred Weasley, or Weasley, not just Fred.

The only ones who did call him Fred were Roxanne and Louis. They knew what it was like, coming from the same family and they didn't view him as anything special. Fred liked it like that. He liked being nothing special. It was a nice change from being important because of who his family was.

Because he was the son of the most famous joke shop owner in the wizarding world, everyone assumed he would be exactly the same as his dad. Whenever he got into a disagreement with a teacher, a student, or especially his sister, he would catch them watching him, expecting him to pull out a Puking Pastille or something to get Roxanne back.

And then he would see their disappointment when nothing ever did happen. He couldn't remember the last time he had touched one of his dad's products. Roxanne was the jokester in the family and he was the nerd (as she would so kindly put it every time he would attempt to complete his homework in her presence). It was why he had taken to going to the library. At least then, he could work on it without being pestered by his younger sister.

Of course, that was when the seventh year girls weren't stalking his cousin, either.

If he didn't look so much like his mother, he would have actually thought he was adopted. But he had undeniable traits from both of his parents, it was impossible to say he was anything but a Weasley or a Johnson.

He was unfortunately stuck being the odd one out whenever the school year ended and he was forced to go home. He wasn't interested in jokes like his dad or Roxanne and he wasn't the superb Quidditch player like his mum or Roxanne. Fred cared little and knew little of the sport, but he was able to quote the ingredients to almost every potion he had learnt in his six years at Hogwarts. He had his intelligence and that was what mattered to him; just not to anyone else, it seemed.

Because the son of George Weasley shouldn't care about their grades, apparently. Not when he can be finding more value from inventing pointless jokes.

Sometimes he was sure he caught both his parents watching him with disappointment. How could they have a child who was like Percy? Boring? Why wasn't he more like them?

It was never a compliment to be compared to Uncle Percy – not when everyone else constantly made fun of how boring he was.

As he tried to focus on his Potions essay, one of the girls squealed – no, squeaked – as Louis emerged from one of the aisles. He carried two large books and dumped them on the same table Fred was looking at.

"Bloody NEWTs," he complained. "I should be outside, enjoying the sunshine."

The girls remained by the nearest bookshelf, whispering to each other.

Fred didn't reply; he didn't say anything. He simply watched his cousin for a moment, before returning back to the parchment which should have been at least three inches long, but was barely an inch.

He sighed.

Why couldn't he have been born Louis Weasley? Louis lived carefree, didn't give a flying Hippogriff about school and was more eager to get into the outside world. Or maybe Louis should have been born Fred Weasley the second.

His parents would be so proud.

"They actually enjoy watching you study," Fred commented, glancing over to the girls.

Louis turned his head slightly and shrugged. "I can't help it if they insist on following me around. You learn to ignore it eventually."

Fred rolled up his parchment and closed his book. Unfortunately he wasn't used to it enough to ignore it. "I'll see you back in the common room," he said.

Louis nodded.

As he made his way out of the library and through the empty corridors, he found himself once again wishing there wasn't so much of a legacy in his family that he was expected to live up to.

Why had his dad decided to open a joke shop that was more popular in Diagon Alley than Oliivander's? And why had his mum decided to take up Quidditch, eventually to be made Gryffindor Captain? Their names were plastered throughout the school for doing one thing or another, along with Uncles Harry and Ron and Aunts Ginny and Hermione.

He was constantly reminded of everything they had done and everything he wasn't.

Without the name Weasley to make him recognisable everywhere he went, he would have been simply Fred.

It would have made everything so much easier.

My head canon is that everyone else had pretty much finished at Hogwarts by the time Fred and Roxanne even started, but for this, I included Louis to be their age too. This was my first time writing Fred and I can't say I really had thought much about him as an older person, so I found it a bit difficult. It turned out to be a bit more angsty than I ever imagined it would be, too.

I hope you like it, though and I'd love to hear your reviews. Thanks in advance.