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trigger warning:
alcohol use as a coping mechanism
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April 1, 1999

"Are you going to be at the Burrow this evening?" Percy asked Eloise as the two sat down together at a table inside the Ministry cafe.

It was George's 21st birthday and Percy was not the first person to ask her if she would be attending. First it was Bill and Fleur encouraging her to go, then Molly sending an owl to invite her, and now finally Percy.

"Oh, uh, no I don't think so. George and I haven't really talked in a while." she muttered as she idly moved her fork around her salad.

It wasn't for a lack of trying on Eloise's part, she had been visiting his shop regularly since starting work at the Ministry, but after two weeks of him avoiding her, she eventually gave up despite Verity encouraging her to keep coming back.

Fleur had of course told her about the scene at Ron's birthday and Bill filled her in on the extra details of what had happened before he yelled at his mother and stormed out. But she didn't feel like talking about that with Percy.

She didn't know all the details surrounding Fred's death, only that Percy was one of the last to see him alive. And even though they were becoming friends, she also didn't know all the details of the past tension he had with his family beyond what Fleur had told her years ago. What she was sure of though, was that what George had said to him in particular was quite hurtful and she didn't want to reopen that wound.

"It took a lot of convincing to get him to agree to come home for his birthday. I'm thinking he just agreed to it to get everyone to stop pestering him, but I feel like Charlie will apparate him to the Burrow against his will if he gets cold feet." Percy continued.

Eloise gave him an unconvincing chuckle as she continued to play with her food, losing her appetite thanks to the discussion focusing on George.

"I'm sure he would be glad to see you. It'll be a nice surprise for him." Percy added after an awkward moment of silence.

Though Percy tried reassuring her, she wasn't fully convinced. Even Bill and Fleur had been telling her similar things trying to get her to go. It just felt to her like she was the last person on Earth George wanted to see.

How was she supposed to be there for him when she never even knew Fred in the first place? There was nothing Eloise wanted more than to be there for him, she just didn't know if her comfort would be enough or if it would just make things worse.

"Have you talked to him lately?" Eloise asked suddenly, curious to see if she had been the only one George was ignoring.

Percy shook his head, "No. I think since Ron's birthday he's only really talked to Charlie, and I assume that's only because they live under the same roof."

"He should really apologize to you." Eloise muttered.

Percy let out a chuckle causing Eloise to look up from her salad.

"I can't blame him for still holding a grudge against me, for a while there I certainly wasn't the easiest person to like."

"He still shouldn't take his anger out on you."

"Maybe not, but I'm not upset with him. I'd rather he be mad at me than anyone else. I still blame myself sometimes for Fred dying, so if George wants to make me his verbal punching bag, I'm alright with it."

Eloise shifted awkwardly in her seat as the topic had suddenly shifted to Fred's death. Part of her wanted to inquire more, but she also didn't want to overstep any boundaries. She never tried to pry further into what happened to Fred when George talked about it, she only listened to what he was willing to share. Same with Bill and Fleur, they had only told her so much.

"I'm sorry for bringing the mood down." Percy said as he saw Eloise's expression.

"No, Percy it's okay, I don't mind. If talking about it helps I'm more than willing to listen, but you don't have to."

His brows furrowed slightly as he suddenly realized that he never really talked to anyone about what happened during the battle. How had he been able to go this long bottling everything up?

"I supposed the thing I feel the worst about is that the last thing I did before the blast was quit my job." he said with a sad sort of laugh.

Eloise didn't fully understand what he meant by that, but she gave him her undivided attention as he continued.

"I worked for the Ministry when the Death Eaters took over. My dad did too for a while, until they found out Ron was helping Harry and they all had to go into hiding. But during the battle Fred and I were fighting together when we came across the Minister at the time."

Percy let out a sigh before continuing, "I basically resigned on the spot which seemed to please Freddie. We were about to have a good laugh about it and that's when the blast happened. Now here I am, still at the Ministry. Feels almost like I let him down."

"The Ministry is a lot different than it used to be." Eloise said as she attempted to reassure him.

"No I know, it's just that my job is what drove me away from my family for years, like George said. I just feel guilty that the last thing Fred heard me say turned out to be a lie in the end."

Eloise let the silence between them linger, it was a lot to take in.

"And maybe if I didn't make that big scene with the Minister we wouldn't have been distracted and maybe the blast wouldn't have killed him." he finally finished.

"Percy... I'm sorry. I-" Eloise stammered.

She wanted to tell him that it wasn't his fault, that there was no way he or Fred could have possibly predicted what would happen and he shouldn't blame himself for it, but the words got caught in her throat.

"Don't worry. It's nice to finally get all of that off my chest. Sorry if you feel like I overshared, I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable."

"It's alright, there's no such thing as oversharing in my book." she replied with a sympathetic smile.

The rest of their lunch break was shared in relative silence, but the two of them felt quite comfortable with each other. When they first met, Eloise thought that Percy seemed quite stern and serious compared to his siblings, and she was right in some respects. But the more she got to know him, the more she realized he may have the biggest heart of them all.

-

George couldn't explain why he had agreed to show up to the Burrow for his birthday, if he had it his way he would be laying in his bed either drinking or sleeping. Or maybe just drinking until he passed out. He was already in the process of doing so when Charlie started banging on his bedroom door.

George had done his best to ignore him, but Charlie was unrelenting. If George wasn't going to agree on his own accord then Charlie was going to apparate him by force, regardless of the risk of splinching. But maybe getting splinched would be less painful than Molly's wrath had he decided not to come to dinner.

Though it had been nearly an hour since he and Charlie arrived, George had yet to go inside the house. The last people he wanted to see were his family.

It was his first birthday without Fred and he knew his family was feeling quite emotional about it. But while they all seemed to lean on one another, George found himself pushing away from them more and more, especially since his outburst at Ron's birthday. Maybe that's why they all let him stay out there as long as he wanted to, for fear of another explosion.

Instead of facing his family, many of whom he hadn't spoken to in weeks, he decided to sit on the bench by Fred's grave. He hadn't actually visited Fred's grave since the funeral because he thought it would be too difficult, but on this night in particular he found himself only wanting to be in Fred's presence, even if he wasn't really there. As painful as he expected it to be, he actually found it quite comfortable, but maybe it was just the alcohol that was already in his system that had him feeling more relaxed in this situation as he stared out over the pond in front of him.

The sound of a loud crack behind him snapped him out of his trance and he glanced over his shoulder to see Eloise.

"Fleur said you weren't coming." he said flatly before moving his head back towards the pond.

"I changed my mind." she replied softly, feeling slightly awkward for interrupting his moment near Fred's grave.

"Come here." he ordered without looking at her.

The tone in his voice made her feel as if he wasn't giving her much of a choice in the matter. He had a bottle of something in his hand, Eloise didn't care to know exactly what it was. She was just sure that she would rather go inside to see Molly and Fleur than have an uncomfortable conversation with George, especially after weeks of hearing nothing from him.

"Oh no, that's okay. I was just going to go inside and-"

"Elle." he interrupted, his tone slightly more desperate than it had been a moment ago.

She glanced at the Burrow for a moment before sighing and finally moving towards George. He shifted down the bench slightly to make room for her as she sat next to him. Her hands were placed flat on her lap and she was feeling somewhat uncomfortable sitting there when George had clearly been mourning Fred before her arrival.

Fred was buried beneath the shade of a large maple tree right next to the pond on the Weasley's land. During the sunset it really was beautiful, all things considered. The yellow and orange hues of the sky reflected on the water as two swans floated through the pond and the warm spring breeze rustled the leaves above them.

"How have you been?" he asked before taking a sip from the mystery bottle.

Eloise's brows furrowed slightly at how casual he was being, "I've been alright, busy at work."

George nodded slightly before tilting his head back and downing the rest of his drink. Eloise could smell the alcohol on him and wondered how much he had to drink before she arrived.

"How have you been?" she asked, turning her head to watch his expression.

"Rubbish. I don't want to be here, I'd rather be in bed." he laughed darkly.

Eloise didn't know exactly how to respond. She shifted awkwardly in her seat and nodded before she looked back out to the pond, watching as two swans floated by.

"Why'd you come?" he asked suddenly.

Eloise flicked her head back towards him, "What do you mean? It's your birthday."

"Yeah, but I've been avoiding you."

At least he's self-aware, she thought to herself.

"That doesn't mean we aren't friends. Friends show up on birthdays."

The corner of George's lip curled up slightly, but Eloise still had no idea what was on his mind. Out of everyone in her life, George was by far the most difficult person to read.

"Can I tell you a story?" he asked.

"Of course."

"The summer after our fifth year when Fred and I were sixteen we got our OWL results, they weren't good by the way, our mum was absolutely livid..."

"How do you suppose you two will ever get any job worth having with these kind of results?!" Molly screamed at the twins after opening their OWL results before they had the chance to intercept Errol.

The boys had secretly been hoping the ancient owl would get lost or even keel over on delivery to keep Molly from finding out they had only obtained three OWLs each.

A few feathers were lost in the initial brawl as the twins desperately tried to grasp the letters from his talons before Molly had the chance to see them. But the bird escaped mostly unscathed - not that you could tell since he always looked a bit worse for wear.

"I believe there may be a law somewhere about opening mail that's not addressed to you." Fred muttered with a cheeky smile.

"I am not in the mood for joking right now, young man."

Molly's face was nearly as red as her hair at this point.

"What Georgie and I are going to do doesn't require good marks, I say we don't even go back to Hogwarts for our last two years."

Molly swatted Fred on top of his head with the letter, "If you bring up that joke shop again I will disown the both of you."

"Relax mum, we'll let you in on 5% of the profits if you like. You did give us life after all, it's the least we could do." George said innocently.

"Out! Out of the house, the both of you! I can't bear to look at you any longer knowing you're throwing your future away."

Fred and George ran out of the kitchen laughing hysterically as they dodged Molly swatting the parchment at them. Once they were out in the garden they made a beeline for the maple tree that overlooked the pond.

The two of them climbed the old tree and came to rest on each of their usual branches. Fred was occasionally snickering to himself but George found himself suddenly feeling quite insecure as reality began to set in more and more.

"Do you think we'll actually have a joke shop someday?" George asked suddenly.

Fred sat up and looked down to the branch below him where George was leaning against the trunk, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, how are we going to ever afford it? We don't really have a back up plan, and with our OWL results I don't know if having a plan B is even an option anymore."

"We'll worry about that when we get to it." Fred shrugged, but that answer didn't bring much comfort to George who furrowed his brows and pressed his lips into a thin line in response.

Fred recognized his brother's expression and decided to shift his body over and swing down from the branch he was on, landing right next to George.

"Listen, I know you're worried. But I promise you it will work out." Fred reassured his brother.

"How do you know?"

"Because I've thought it all out, you think I love to jump into things recklessly but I know this is too important."

George scoffed as if he was questioning his brother's confidence, or maybe he just didn't believe Fred had a cautious bone in his body.

Fred frowned slightly at George's reaction before continuing, "We've got some savings already, I know it's not much, but we can sell our products at Hogwarts over the next two years to save up enough. We'll write out order forms, we can even mail products from the owlery if we need to expand business. It'll take a while to have enough saved for a physical shop, but I know we'll be able to do it someday."

"It just seems too good to be true sometimes. Mum being so against it doesn't help."

"She's against it now, but she'll come around. She just doesn't want to see us fail, but we won't, so there's nothing to worry about."

"How are you always so confident?" George asked.

Though on the outside the pair seemed like they were both always so sure of themselves no matter the situation, in reality it was Fred's presence that made George feel more confident with himself.

"Why do you always worry?" Fred asked with a smirk, spinning the question back on to George.

"One of us has to be realistic." he shrugged.

"Realistic and pessimistic are different things, Georgie." Fred responded, nudging his brother's shoulder.

George rolled his eyes at his brother and turned his head to gaze out at the pond next to the tree.

"You'll just have to trust me." Fred added after a moment.

"Maybe trusting your blind confidence is a mistake." George muttered, keeping his eye on the pond.

"Oi! Don't be a prat." Fred replied, causing George to look back at his brother, "Even if we fail we'll be together, and if we're together life won't be that bad. You're stuck with me no matter what."

The corner of George's lips curled up into a slight smile. Fred was right, even if the store never got off the ground, as long as they had each other to lean on, life would never really be that bad.

"You're right... so, when do you want to start working on those order forms?"

"Atta boy!" Fred gave George a hearty pat on his shoulder causing him to nearly lose his balance on the branch, "We can work on them after lunch, maybe when mum's out in the garden. I think she may actually kill us if she sees us working on them."

George's insecurities never lasted long when Fred was around. They sat together in the tree for the remainder of the morning discussing new products and how they wanted their store to look until their mother called them back in for lunch. Even when it seemed like Fred was reckless or overly confident, he really did make George feel like anything was possible.

George sighed as he finished his story, his eyes were trained on the tree, as if he were picturing the younger versions of himself and Fred sitting on the branches.

"If only you could've met Freddie, Elle. He was always the better half of me." George with a sad sort of chuckle.

"I wish I could have known him."

"He would have loved you."

Silence fell between the two as they gazed out to the pond, watching the pair of swans swim leisurely through the water. The moment honestly felt quite heavy. George had opened up to Eloise before, but sitting near Fred's grave and listening to him recount such an important memory to her felt deeper than any previous conversation they'd had.

"Thanks, Elle." he whispered.

"For what?"

"Always being there. I know I'm difficult and I-" he cut himself off, afraid of saying too much. He paused for a moment to reorganize his thoughts, "I really appreciate having you around."

Eloise rested her hand on top of George's, wanting to comfort him. But her touch caused them to finally meet each other's gaze. There was an intensity behind George's eyes that Eloise couldn't quite read. His gaze darted across her face, admiring every freckle as if he were counting them like stars in the sky before his eyes finally landed on her lips.

The intensity behind George's gaze caused Eloise's heart to skip a beat. She had no clue what he was thinking, but as she noticed his gaze land on her lips she subconsciously tucked her bottom lip between her teeth in anticipation.

Within seconds George laid his hand on the side of her face and leaned forward to kiss her, letting his hand tangle into her blond curls. It was a combination of the confusing feelings he had for her, the emotional rollercoaster he had been on for the last month, and the liquid courage running through his veins that took control of his mind.

Though she was taken by surprise, Eloise didn't pull away. Instead, she fell into the embrace immediately. There was a certain sense of urgency behind his kiss, but there wasn't anything forceful about it. This moment was something George had been craving for months and he was savoring every second of it.

His lips were warm and soft and he was being surprisingly gentle for someone who had just pulled her into such a sudden embrace. One thing that Eloise didn't fail to notice though, was the familiar taste of firewhisky on his lips.

Eloise's hand quickly found its way to the side of his face, the stubble along is jaw prickled the skin on her palm and she could feel warmth radiating from his skin. She parted her lips slightly, giving him silent permission to deepen the kiss, longingly hoping he would do so.

The moment grew more intense, but there was no passionate battle for domination between them. Instead, the two of them immediately found a perfect rhythm with one another. It was almost as if their lips were made for each other.

The heartbeat in Eloise's chest rattled loudly against her rib cage, it felt like time was moving in slow motion but her pulse was moving a million miles an hour. This was a moment she had imagined several times, but she could have never expected it to feel like this. It was perfect in every way and she didn't want it to end.

When George pulled away to catch his breath, his hand rested on her cheek for a moment before he lightly traced his thumb over her bottom lip. But the second he met Eloise's eyes his expression fell slightly as the realization of what he had just done sank in. He quickly pulled his hand away from her and stood up from the bench suddenly.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. I was feeling emotional, I've been drinking, and I- I'm sorry Elle." he stammered, looking everywhere but at the blonde who was left sitting on the bench feeling slightly hurt by his reaction.

Memories of his reckless behavior came flooding back to his mind. He didn't want to use Eloise to make himself feel better, she meant too much to him. But now that he had gotten this little taste of her, he was convinced that he was completely addicted. He knew letting her in was a risk, but he didn't want to do anything that could cause him to lose her, not now.

"It's okay, George." she said in a near whisper as she was still catching her breath.

She stood up and reached out to rub his arm comfortingly, but the feeling of her hand caused him to flinch slightly. His reaction made her feel confused and embarrassed, they had just shared a passionate kiss and suddenly he didn't even want her to touch him.

She pulled her hand away from him quickly as she wondered if the electricity she felt between them was all in her imagination. Shame and embarrassment radiated throughout her body, but the last thing she wanted was for him to notice.

This felt like rejection to her, even if that's not how George meant it. She had been pining for him from the moment they met in his shop last July and after they finally shared this intimate moment with one another, his immediate regret caused her heart to break. She felt foolish, like she was a little girl with a crush on a boy who would never feel the same way.

Though it wasn't their fault, she felt herself growing resentful towards Percy, Bill, and Fleur for convincing her that it would be a good idea to come to the Burrow this evening and she began looking around desperately to find any excuse to escape the situation.

"I'm going to go see if Molly and Fleur need any help in the kitchen." she said suddenly.

George finally looked down at her and noticed her pained expression, causing his guilt to grow even more. He didn't know if it was the actual kiss or his reaction to it that caused her to be upset, but whatever it was, he knew he was to blame.

"Elle, wait." he pleaded as he reached out to grab her hand, but she took a step away from him.

"No, don't worry. It's alright! We can chat after dinner, I promise." Eloise replied, giving him as genuine of a smile as she could, knowing full well that she wasn't intending on having that particular conversation with him any time soon.

Without giving him a chance to reply, she turned on her heel and took large strides towards the Burrow to escape the awkwardness.

George let out a groan of frustration as he watched her walk away from him. He plopped back down on the bench and ran his hands over his face.

"What the hell am I gonna do, Freddie?"