“’mione, grammar doesn’t matter...”
said Fred and George.
They sat on Ron’s bed, fiddling with their wands as Hermione dusted the room.
“Yes it does,” demanded Hermione. “Listen, I know you might not care, but just change it and move the apostrophe, will you? Please? For me?”
The twins groaned.
“Okay,” Fred said. “But only-
“-if it means you stop complaining.” George finished.
“We’ve got a business to run!” they said together, standing and gesturing with their hands.
“So good day, madam,” George called to her. He bounded to the door, and opened it with a bow and a flourish.
Fred winked at her, and then pushed her out the door. “Adieu!”
>>>fast forward to 3 and a half years later>>>
George sighed and looked at his hands, calloused and scarred from the numerous times he had lost control.
He shook his head to clear his thoughts, and then stepped out onto the sunlit main road of Diagon Alley.
Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes had once been the brightest store within a 10-mile radius, surpassing even Gringotts and it’s marble walls. Now, it stood there sadly, derelict and abandoned. After half a year, George still couldn’t bring himself to come here.
But he had come, and despite finding the idea of running it without Fred an absolute nightmare, he couldn’t let himself make his mother shed so many more tears because of him.
So he took one last look at the sign, purple and bright, which had once let off sparks that made even the grumpiest wizard crack a smile, and the rabbit that had been pulled out of the hat, with its drooping ears and cracked front tooth.
He stopped short when he saw the lettering, a faded musty yellow that brought him haunting memories that would forever last.
He could still make out the WEASLEYS’ WIZARDING WHEEZES, despite the dust that had been collecting for months now.
And he’s suddenly he’s 15 again, dreaming about a joke store with his twin brother, his best friend, his partner in everything, and for a minute...
everything seems alright.
But reality isn’t alright and Fred isn’t here and it’s no longer Fred and George it’s just George and the joke shop isn’t theirs it’s his and he doesn’t want it because it was their dream not his and everything is just coming at him far too fast...
He falls to his knees and just stays there until Hermione finds him there at midnight, head in his hands and freezing.
No-one really remembers the day that Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes becomes Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes, because who notices things like that, but Hermione does, and every year on that day, a fresh bouquet of flowers and a punching telescope are found at Fred’s gravestone.
