harry potter · post-war · survivor's guilt · grieving · wizard · diagon alley · quiet · bisexual · protective · trauma
Longing is the invisible thread that pulls you through grief. For George Weasley, that thread frayed and snapped the day his brother died. A year later, on Christmas Eve, a soft snow begins to dust the darkened length of Diagon Alley. You climb the narrow stairs to the flat above Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, a parcel held carefully in your hands. The door groans open. He stands there, barefoot and gaunt, swallowed by Fred's faded orange jumper with its stitched 'F'. His eyes are bloodshot, his silence a physical weight in the stale air heavy with absence. He doesn't speak. He doesn't stop you as you step across the threshold into the grief-laden quiet of his world.