Brothers

Title: Brothers
Author: Dracona Malfoy
e-mail: obake_project@hotmail.com
Beta reader: Ludmila Souza, Christine C
and Beans
Category: Angst ingsings: PG
Summary: Fred and George find secrets in their dad\'s diary.
Spoilers: Only Time
Status: complete

Brothers

 

Chapter 1 - My other leg

 

A hot, pleasant afternoon in the garden had just turned to a warm, cozy,
evening for the Weasley family at the Burrow.
They were without the stubborn Percy for the second summer running as he had
moved to London last year and seldom came to visit. But, via invitation from Ron
they had gained Hermione as part of the family for the rest of the holidays.
Therefore the house a hive of activity and extremely crowded; wherever you
went there was never a room that wasn’t filled with people. So much so that
meals had to be taken out in the large backyard, the kitchen had long since
become too small for the number of mouths that had to be fed.
Fred and George ran grinning up the narrow stairs of the Burrow and straight
up to their parents\'s bedroom. With everyone ehelphelping with the dinner
preparations being made outside their disappearance would hopefully go unnoticed.
For a while now they had been intent on recovering a very important
ingredient to the latest product from Weasley Geminalities, but their task had
been made extremely difficult as Molly refused to give them a break. But right
now the house was full, and their mother was busy with tonights meal, it was the
perfect opportunity.
With extreme care, Fred stepped forward and gingerly turned the knob to the
room. As the door swung soundlessly open they grinned at each other and padded
inside.
"I wonder where she put the roundaround stingers?" George murmured,
thinking aloud as he began to open drawers.
"I\'ve got no idea. Have you had a look at her dresser?" Fred
queried, going through the upper part of his parent’s closet.
"Hey! What\'s this?" he asked, dusting off a tattered, worn-out
looking book with a green cover.
"Have you found them?" Fred asked anxiously looking up from his
search.
"I found something." George stated. "But not what we\'re
looking for." he answered examining the cover.
"A.W.\'s Diary." he read aloud.
"A diary?" Suprisingly Fred sounded vaguely worried. "You\'d
better leave it right there. Those diaries can be dangerous. Don\'t you remember
what happened to Ginny?"
"That was You Know Who’s diary! This is Dad’s.
Glancing at it won\'t get us killed. Besides, aren\'t you curious?" Fred’s
worried look was fading as his brother continued cajoling.
"Mom always says we take after Dad when it comes to playing pranks. But
Dad doesn\'t have a twin, or any brothers that are his age. Now we can find out
who she was talking about."
Fred nodded, gently closing the desk drawer and turning to face his twin.
"No he doesn’t, not at all. Uncle Bilius was almost 15 years older
than him. So they can’t have been fellow pranksters at Hogwarts."
"Herein may lay the answer to all our questions about Dad, dear brother."
said George with a dreamy expression in his face as he looked at the diary.
"But what if he misses it?" said Fred, walking to and fro, rubbing
his hands, ransacking his brain for a safe solution.
"Bingo!" he said, raising a finger and Disapparating.
"Fred?" called out George, looking around.
"Ouch!" he exclaimed seconds later as Fred apparated with a crack
on his lap.
"Sorry." said Fred, climbing off of his brother.
"I’ve still gotta train this a bit more."
"So did you have any ideas?" asked George drily.
"Oh, yeah." said Fred, showing him the book he now held in his
hands.
"Your diary?" George commented acidly staring at the diary
Fred had received last Christmas from some aunt and never used.
"Oops." said Fred, pointing his wand to his diary and murmuring
some enchantments.
"Not anymore." he said grinning, handing his brother the diary. It
was now green with the intials A.W printed neatly in the corner.
"Great, now he won\'t miss it! But we’d better get outta here now,
before Mom figures out we\'re being too quiet and comes looking for us."
said George, making his way to the door.
"What about the stings?&qu &qu "Never mind those. We got something better." he patted the book
with a smile. Reaching his hand toward the door he suddenly froze.
"Did you make a noise?"
"What noise?" Fred replied also stopping.
"Oh dear. Trouble." said George, and Disapparated. Without waiting
around, Fred followed suit.
"Fred? George?" called Molly, walking inside her bedroom.
"I could have sworn they were here." she mumured, looking around
the empty room before closing the door.
"That was close," said Fred, leaning his back against his bedroom
door as he considered how near they’d come to being found out.
"George?" he ventured.
"Ouch," a weak voice answered.
"Oops! Sorry." said Fred, getting off his brother.
He dismissed any fears he had about discovery as he heard his mother’s
footsteps go back down the stairs and turned eagerly to Fred.
"Well, what you you waiting for? Open the diary."
His brother hauled himself to his feet and crossed the room to their small
desk. Shoving parchments covered with designs onto the floor, Fred pulled in one
of the chairs and sat down opening the diary.
"Haste makes waste, my dear brother", he replied, taking quill and
ink and turning to write in the first page:
"Hello, my name is Fred. Oh, and George says hi, too."
"Hello, my name is Arthur," answered the diary. "How
did you get my diary, Fred and George? Does your mother know you have it?"
"Now what?" Fred asked his brother. "It won’t tell us a
thing"
"Look and learn," said George as he leaned forward taking the quill.
"We got it as an inheritance when you died."

"You can’t do that!" Fred exclaimed. "He’s gonna think he’s
dead!"
"It’s just a diary. It’s not Dad. These are just thing he wrote."
shrugged George.
"And your mother?" quilled the diary in Arthur’s scratchy
handwriting.
"Dead, too." wrote Fred, taking the quill from his brother.
"What?" he queried as his brother laughed. "You started
it."
"And you are alone? Charlie, Bill and Percy are okay?"

"Bill married a veela and moved out, Charlie is still studying dragons
in Romania and we threw Percy out. But Ron and Ginny still live here."
wrote George, taking another quill.
"You threw him out?

"Where would we get anyone to marry him? He’s such a pain!"

"And who are Ron and Ginny?"

"The youngest." answered Fred.
"He doesn’t know about Ron, so he must have stopped writing before he
was born." observed George.

"Ah. Well, you won’t feel lonely, then."

"Unlikely, really. But tell us, when did you stop writing in the diary?",
asked George.

"A little bit after you were born."

"Why?"

"Somebody very dear had died. Someone really close."

"Someone like a brother?" asked Fred, looking at George with an air
of triumph.

"Yes. I felt like I had lost a leg."

"Wow. This guy must be the one Dad made pranks with at Hogwarts."
oved ved Fred.
"And who was this person?" he wrote quickly.
"I can’t tell you." Scrawled the diary, causing Fred and
George to pout. "But I can show you."
From the book came a bright yellow light, the pages suddenly started turning
at a dizzying speed, blinding the twins as they fought to tear their eyes away.
They tried to pull back from the book, but it was too late: they were being
sucked right into the diary.
George fell painfullght ght onto a solid concrete floor and hardly had time
to duck before his brother came falling down after him.
"You think I’m your mattress or something, Fred?" asked George
sourly, looking around them.
"How did we get to the train station so fast?" he asked aloud.
"Will you close your mouth?" he asked, looking at the shocked
expression on his brother’s face, who was pointing at a group of people.
"It’s Dad…," murmured Fred, covg hig his mouth with his hand.
"… and Lucius Malfoy." finished George, recognizing the blond boy
next to their father, with, more suprisingly still a warm smile on his his face.