InsaneJournal

Who: Fabian Prewett and Fred and George Weasley
What: The twins need to show things off to Uncle Fabian
When: After closing time, Friday 20 February 1998
Where: Wheezes and the flat above it.
Warnings: It's the twins and Fabian, so mischief, magic, mayhem and language



After he'd knocked off at the office, such as it was, Fabian had fetched a hearty meal of takeaway Chinese for himself and the twins and any hangers-on like Lee who might be hanging about and hied himself down the road to the shop. The Closed sign was already on the door, but Fabian knocked a familiar rhythm on it. One of these days, possibly tonight, Fabian was going to teach them about passphrases and polyjuice checks. But that would be after dinner and whatever tricks the twins had to show off.

One of the twins opened the door from inside to let Fabian in with his precious cargo. "Wotcher," Fabian said by way of greeting.

George grinned and stood aside to let him through. “Hey, Uncle Fabian. Long time no see, considering you’re just down the road. Busy season for wards?” Not that he had much room to talk--it certainly had turned out to be a busy season for him and Fred too. “Wait, did you bring food? Come in. Sit down. Make yourself absolutely comfortable.”

Of course, Fred was extremely happy to have this meeting with his Uncle. It wasn’t just a pleasant visit, which he would have been quite happy to have as well, but this was also about investors liking their products, backing their business, and giving them a bit of extra pocket money. The shop was wildly successful, but rent was still expensive and there was still a lot of expenses to be paid for. Investors would be nice. So when he heard the quick series of knocks on the door, he jumped up.

Fred was right behind George in letting his uncle in, and when he saw the food he was smiling even more. “Brilliant, Uncle Fabian. I’ll get plates… they’re around here somewhere.” They had plates, right? Fred knew they had been, eh, exploding things and putting them back together to test a new product, but he was sure they’d left the plates alone… “How are you doing, then, Uncle Fabian?”

"Insanely busy with work. Worried about Bilius. Hungry." Fabian waved the bag at the twins. "Other than that, pretty good. If there are no plates, we can eat out of the cartons like bachelors. How are you two? Valentine's go all right for you? How are things working out with Percy?" The counter at least was clear, so Fabian set the dinner haul on it while the twins searched for the plates.

Investors per se weren't thick on the ground, but Fabian was certain he could find some use for the twins' products in various aspects of Order activities. It was with that in mind that he was hoping to look at new developments. And if they had something particularly worthwhile, Fabian could always talk to James and Sirius, who were the two members of the Order who had disposable income to invest. (He also had it in mind to talk to his father, but that was a different can of worms and one Fabian approached with caution.) Even if it was just a matter of guaranteed purchases, it seemed like a good idea. Fabian had been one of the Order's tinkerers in his day. The twins might not be ready for the Order in the opinion of his colleagues--and Fabian hoped matters would be settled before it became a question--but that didn't mean they couldn't contribute, and that there couldn't be a mutually beneficial relationship.

“They’re in the icebox,” George told Fred. “I put them in there because the pygmy puffs keep shedding on everything.” He cleared a couple of chairs for them, shifting half-assembled creations, sheafs of notes, and sleepy pygmy puffs out of the way. “Valentine’s was excellent. We sold a ton of these little buggers, and our night on the town was pretty great. Percy even had fun, I think, although it’s hard to tell with him.” He grinned. “And speaking of Percy, I think it’s working out great, although he probably would argue that. I’ve actually had time to work on some new stuff this week, instead of just trying to fill inventory as fast as it goes out.”

“We’re worried, too.” He said, nodding his head. When George let him in on where the plates were, he went ahead and grabbed plates. Not because he didn’t like the idea of eating through the cartons like a bachelor, but because he knew they would all hog something and they wouldn’t get the best variety. So plates were grabbed, and he went ahead and brought them to the table, not the kitchen table which was cluttered with crap but the living room’s coffee table, which was a bit better. He took a seat on the sofa, grabbing one of the cartons to put a bit of food on his plate.

“Valentines was brilliant. I snogged Katie Bell, Percy had fun, he’s going on a date with one of our friends - only don’t say anything, he’ll kill us.” He warned, because he knew Percy hadn’t wanted to tell them at all, only they badgered it out of him. “Business has been booming - We sold loads of our products with the Weasley Valentines Service.” He glanced at George, brow raised slightly. “How’s the progress on the unexploding explosions? I’ve been fiddling with the a few things - mostly, I think I want to charm objects to put people in a sort of silent zone, so no one can hear them. As part of the pranking line.”

Fabian's eyebrows went up at that last, as the charm Fred was talking about was potentially useful in at least six ways he could think of off the top of his head in Order actions.

“Reversible explosions are coming along. I’ve got the trick of it, now I just need to put it into something that can be triggered instead of happening instantly.” George shrugged a little sheepishly. “I kind of got distracted working on some potion stuff. I’ll get back to the explosions tomorrow. Has Fabian seen our shield stuff? Honestly the way things have been lately, we should work some of those up for the family.”

“Actually, I think we should show him the whole lot of that line. The Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, the Decoy Detonators, the Wearable Shield Charms.” He nodded his head. “What potions stuff?” He asked, brow raised slightly. He turned to look at Fabian, pausing before he took his first bite of food and asked, “How was your Valentines day, by the way? We didn’t even ask. What terrible nephews.”

"Mine was fine and boring. Nothing nearly so interesting as snogging one of my friends or my brother meeting someone he fancied. And no, Fabian has not seen any of those those, and he's very interested." While they were talking, Fabian had been serving out the various dishes onto his plate, which was rapidly filling with various forms of meat and a sprinkling of veg in various tasty sauces over rice. He snapped apart the cheap chopsticks that had come in the sack with the food and started eating.

“Nothing for the shop. I was trying to reclaim my spot as Ada’s favourite Weasley. She said she doesn’t like Pepper-Up so I was trying to make it more palatable.” George dug into the food as well, adding a healthy amount of sriracha to his plate. “Maybe we should just take you on a tour when we’re done eating, we’ve probably got loads of stuff you haven’t seen yet.”

“Favorite Weasley twin, ha!” He nearly spit out his food at that, mouth half full and everything. “Honestly, you think you can take that from me? I went to make her soup!” He eyed George suspiciously. “What sort of potion? Do you fancy Ms Mulrine, Georgie?” Fred had fancied her once upon a time - to be honest, he still sort of did, but he only had eyes for Katie really. “A tour is definitely in order, I think we’ve invented ‘round ten new things since last week.” Which was certainly an over exaggeration, but close enough.

“Favourite Weasley altogether,” George corrected. “Percy’s beating us by miles, you know. And it’s a Pepper-Up Potion, like I said! I like her as well as any other foxy redhead, but you know I can’t stand not being somebody’s favourite. Speaking of which, what did you give Verity? I’m pretty sure she likes you better right now, which is a terrible state of affairs.”

“You’ll just have to settle for second best sometimes, though we obviously can’t be behind Percy.” He agreed, the idea of it was actually quite morose. He did not want to be anyone’s favorite behind Percy, except for maybe Vicky because he hoped that she and Percy actually had a good date. Merlin knows Percy needed a good date. And a snog, or two. “I told Verity we were saving some money up for her, for the twins. That’s all.” Fred had set a little aside each month. They couldn’t pay Verity a lot, and an actual raise would have been too much, but some of his own earnings here and there, if they could, he put aside. A large portion of the Valentines had gone to that, too.

“That was a good idea, actually. Although I can’t really compete with it, you overachiever.” George considered. “Maybe I’ll just send her a heartfelt letter. Girls like that kind of thing, right? All about how much she’s helped us get the shop to what it is now, et cetera. Otherwise I’m never going to get a chance to be a bad influence on these twins.”

“Girls do like that sort of thing, yeah.” He agreed, nodding as he took another big helping of food, thinking over what other sort of ways he could win Ada over, to keep Favorite Weasley Twin under his belt. George was Lee’s favorite, he got to keep Ada, damnit. “Bad influence? You mean best influence.” He corrected his brother, glancing at his Uncle Fabian. “You know our employee, Verity Page? She’s having twins. TWIN BOYS, isn’t that brilliant?”

Fabian paused in his demolition of his plate of Chinese food to agree with that sentiment. "Twin boys are the best thing ever. I thought I saw something fly by about that on the journals but things have been so hectic lately that I'm not sure I said anything to her. I need to offer her and her husband congratulations on the happy event. And I'm definitely up for that tour, as well as an improvement on Pepper-Up. The stuff tastes foul." Fabian made a face that betrayed his close kinship to the twins.

“I got the taste taken care of, but now the problem is, I don’t know if it’s actually effective anymore. Have to find somebody with a cold to test it on. At least I know it doesn’t have any unintended effects…” George glanced down at himself, then amended, “At least none I’ve noticed so far. Tell me if I start turning colours or something.”

Fabian saluted George with his chopsticks. "Will do--so long as I don't have to take you to Mungo's." Fabian's aversion to the hospital wasn't something he discussed often, but it was an open secret among the Weasleys. "I'll assume the interactions with Kung Po sauce aren't likely to be dangerous." Perhaps he ought to be more concerned than that sounded, but Fabian had broad confidence in the twins' ability to not poison themselves, possibly because he'd only injured himself a few times in his own experimentation over the years. Well, all right, only injured himself seriously a few times.

“They really are.” Fred agreed. He was just as excited for the Twins as Verity and her husband, if not more. That might have been overstatement, but he was really quite enthusiastic about it. George’s idea to make the Pepper-Up potion taste better was a brilliant one, and Fred nodded eagerly. “Fantastic, really. Shoulda thought of that myself.” He was a bit disappointed he hadn’t, but Fred was more into charming and transfiguring than potioning, really, that had always been George’s stronger point. Fred was demolishing his own food just as quickly as his Uncle was, like he hadn’t been properly fed since he left his parent’s house. “You know I haven’t thought on it too much, but I think there might be something in the idea of glasses or goggles of some sort that work two-way, and let you see what someone else’s is seeing…” Just an idea he had been toying with, he wasn’t even sure if it was entirely possible.

“That has potential. I’m not sure about the joke applications, but it’s an interesting idea!” George ate more slowly, but he had after all been raised among the Weasleys, where you had to be fast if you wanted seconds of anything. His food disappeared only slightly less quickly than Fred and Fabian’s. “Maybe the DMLE would be interested? Ha! That would be something, aurors could use them for undercover work.”

“That’s exactly what I was aiming for - the joke application probably extends into pervy nature, but for our Defense line, along with the Shields, the powder, all that. It could be quite useful. What say you, Uncle Fabian?” Fred turned to look at his Uncle, setting his now empty plate down on the table. He was quite full, and in the way that only eating very quickly ever does to you. He’d be glad to get up and give a tour of their new products as soon as everyone else was done.

Fabian set aside his own now-empty plate as he answered. "I think they sound brilliant. You know I have my quarrels with the DMLE--" understatement "--but they do pay good money for their supplies. And, just based on what I know, all of that--shielding, darkness powder, two-way goggles--could all be very useful against ... vigilantes, let us say." And for vigilantes, too. "Personally I'm interested in the shielding. I've got some shielding charms built into my old jacket, but I'm always interested in improvements and, frankly, extra defences between me and someone who might put a hole in my hide."

George stacked the plates and dumped them in the sink with a clatter. “Come on, then, we’ll show you. Practical demonstrations are always fun with the shield stuff!” After all, when else could you jinx your friends without anyone minding?

“Exactly, it’ll be fantastic. Most of the stuff is in the backroom of the shop, so let’s head back down to it and get this party started, eh?” Fred smiled and stood up, brushing any random food bits off himself if there were and headed to the staircase that led to their shop. “I guess since everything’s been going on I’ve been stuck in inventing mode for practical, defensive usages. I know our nearly-finished line is perfect for it, but we could still use more items…”

Fabian rose to join them and headed downstairs with the twins, reminding himself that if he was going to test something defensive, he needed not to shield himself by reflex. That was probably going to be the hardest part: letting himself get hit after all the practising he'd been doing.

“Here, try this on for size.” George chucked one of the shield hats at his uncle. “I like the hats, but of course they can be knocked off more easily than a cloak or gloves. Now, do you want to be the test subject? I can put one on and you can cast at me if you’d rather.”

“Now, they work best if you’re wearing all three items - the hat, cloak, and gloves, but they can work separately for a shorter duration. Your whole body won’t be covered though, just a nice area around the object. So the hat covers head to shoulders, the gloves cover most of your torso and chest, along with your hands and arms obviously, and the cloak gets the legs and reinforces the shield on the upper body.” It was a pretty good system, he thought. “I’ll get the other things set up while you guys test that out.”

Fabian caught the shield hat instead of either knocking it away or hexing it, but mostly because he knew it was coming. "That's a good starting system. A hooded cloak would also be useful, and probably boots for those like me who think cloaks are an invitation to set someone on swirling fire." He settled the hat on his head, looking round for a mirror to get a look at himself. "Height of fashion, I'm sure."

“I’ll have you know I designed that one to be very fashionable!” George made a mock-offended face. “Anyway, the point of the cloak is so that someone can’t set you on swirling fire, at least not before you get a chance to stop them. But I do like the idea of boots! And hoods. I wonder if we could throw some disguising charms on a hooded cloak without messing up the shielding?”

“I think too many spells on it would mess it up, not to mention… we’re getting into Death Eater-y territory there, aren’t we? Glamours, illusions, hooded cloaks.” He didn’t like the idea of these becoming too much like a uniform instead of a protective product. No one who wasn’t doing anything wrong should have to glamour themselves. “And they are incredibly fashionable. We made them normal looking specifically so that more people would buy them.”

"Given that they're relatively fashionable, or at least utilitarian, a lot of people will buy them, especially in these times. Presuming they do what they should--and I do, presume that, that is--you'll do well on them." Fabian adjusted the hat again to be sure his line of vision was clear; it was one of the reasons he wore a jacket and not the hooded cloak he'd just suggested to the twins. "And, personally, my experience with glamours is that they're not just something Death Eaters wear. Anybody who's doing anything that might get them hauled in by the Aurors and off to Azkaban has reason to use them. But they're not that useful to the general public."

“Yeah, you’re right, I’ve just read too many spy stories.” George shrugged. “What can I say, I like the idea of undercover operations for the good guys, even if it’s not very realistic. We’ll focus on the shielding. I promise I won’t combine them with the headless hats, however tempting it might be.”

“That is rather tempting, though, can’t see who’s jinxing you…” Fred shrugged. He did agree that the products would be best served for the general public, and as of yet he really didn’t know much about any secret organizations - perhaps the Order would be reforming, but Fred just couldn’t know what or who was in it or what they would even be doing at this point. Aside from what they learned about the War, his knowledge on the subject was woefully incomplete. “Alright, let’s demonstrate. You’ve got the hat on, we’ll try and send a tickling jinx your way or something.” He replied, brow raised. “Don’t shield yourself, just let the product do it’s thing.”

Fabian relaxed, visibly, and told himself not to draw and shield. However well that was going to work.

Since Fabian was looking at Fred, George sent a Jelly-Brain jinx right at his noggin. He had the feeling it was hard to catch their uncle unawares, but it didn’t do much good to demonstrate if he countered before the hat did its work.

George and Fred often worked like this - in tandem with each other, and as he spoke to his uncle he was quite aware that George would be jinxing him with something. It was sort of how they did demonstrations, and it tended to mean there was less room for error, more for the products to show how they really worked.

Out of the corner of his eye, Fabian caught the wand movements of George's jinx and reflexively drew his wand, though he managed not to actually cast the shielding spell. Despite his age, Fabian was still fast; had he cast, he might well have intercepted the spell. But it turned out he wouldn't have needed to: the spell dispersed on the shield charm on the hat Fabian was wearing without any effort on Fabian's part.

After a moment, Fabian grinned. "Well done, you two! That's fantastic."

“Thank you, thank you.” George bowed with a flourish. “We’re pretty proud of them.” He eyed Fabian’s wand. “But Merlin, I wouldn’t want to run into you in a dark alley, Uncle Fabian.”

Fred had caught on to the wand being raised just slightly, so quickly and rose a brow. “I agree entirely, George, we’d be toast against this one.” He agreed, though a smirk was forming on his lips. “Except maybe if we were wearing full shield clothing, then we might stand a chance, eh, eh?” He was exceptionally glad his uncle liked them so much. “You want to see the Instant Darkness Powder, then?”

Fabian's smile faded, briefly, before he made an effort to stop it. "If you're not hexing me in a dark alley, you don't need to worry about it." He tucked his wand away, then doffed the cap, which he tossed back to George. "Yeah, let's see--or not-see--the Darkness Powder."

“This stuff is really cool, but you have to be careful with it. It’s pretty much impenetrable darkness until it clears.” George put the hat away. “It comes from Peru. Great for making a quick escape.” He offered some to Fabian. “Just do a tiny pinch and sort of throw it. Not too much, or we won’t be able to show you anything else for a good while!”

“It’s best for this demonstration not to move until it clears.” They were in a room full of objects that were half-finished and likely to combust or something if they knocked them into each other, and the P.I.D.P was completely impenetrable for a short while. “Just throw it and wait.” Just a tiny bit, he hoped his Uncle got that. Because Fred really didn’t want to be stuck in darkness for the next half hour. “And while you’re in it, try some lighting spells. You know, Lumos, et cetera.” They wouldn’t work, of course.

"Right. No moving, no bumping round, tiny pinch." Fabian took a pinch from the tin, rolled it between his fingers, and let about half of what he'd taken fall back in. "Three, two, one, go." He tossed the powder into the air and let it take effect.

No matter how many times they messed with the stuff, George always had to wave a hand in front of his face just to check. It really was good--complete, contained blackout. He put the lid back on the tin just in case. “Of course, you’ve got to have your exit route planned before you throw it down, or else you’re just as likely to blunder into the person you’re escaping.”

“I think it’s best applications are if you use it just before anyone actually sees who you are, and apparate the hell away from wherever you are.” Probably the best way to do it, unless you know the area you are in so well you don’t need to see. For demonstration, he sat there attempting to cast light around them, but it was impossible. After a few more moments, it started to clear. “Ah, there we go.”

In the midst of the darkness, Fabian had also tried waving his hand in front of his face and several different lighting spells, all of which had failed miserably. Patience had never been Fabian's forte, but he remained in place until the darkness dissipated. "That's pretty intense. And potentially very useful. Who knows you have this, besides the family? Lee and Verity, for sure, but anybody else?"

George shook his head. “Nah, we’re still developing the line, we haven’t started marketing it yet. I mean, Percy probably knows about it if he’s poked around back here any, but that’s pretty much the entire list.”

That was the right answer, but Fabian was still frowning a little. "Did it have to come through customs? Is there a Ministry record of it?"

“There is ministry record of it, we had to import it from Peru.” Fred replied, gathering up the third completed product in their defense line to show their uncle. “And George’s right, Percy might now, Verity knows enough, and Lee has had to suffer through all of our testing for years so he pretty much knows everything.” Poor guy. “This last one’s pretty useful, too, but rather annoying to demonstrate.”

“Lee’s such a good sport.” George looked around the room for a safe spot to let a decoy detonator go off, and didn’t really see one. “Here, let me make a pen for it, I don’t want it to run into anything we’re working on.” He assembled a makeshift blockade out of cardboard boxes to keep it contained. “Decoy detonators--when you drop them, they run off and make a distraction somewhere you aren’t.” He dropped one into the box blockade to demonstrate.

Fabian watched the little horn run around inside the hastily-constructed pen on its short legs, bouncing off the walls as it tried to get away from George. After about thirty seconds, it exploded with a loud bang that had Fabian reflexively covering his ears. The remnants of the thing poured out thick black smoke. Fabian waved it away with his hand as best he could.

"Impressive," Fabian told the twins. "Really well done on that. How far will it go if you let it run? "

They were loud, and Fred covered his ears as well because it could be a bit high pitched. Once it had done it’s thing and gone out, he unplugged his ears just in time to hear Fabian’s praise and questions. “It’ll run a fair distance - thirty feet, at most I think?” He looked to George for confirmation, unsure if they’d ever let it run that far.

“Twenty-eight was the furthest they went in tests, but yeah, around that. Far enough to go around a corner or down the way a bit.” George sent a little puff of wind from the tip of his wand, clearing the smoke.

Fabian nodded at the answer. "That's really good. Extremely good." Like the Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, this was something Fabian could only wish he'd had back in his young vigilante days, when he'd been operating undercover in the homes of the wealthy, pureblooded, and murderous. "On the one hand, all of this is fabulous. I mean, really fabulous, and I can think of all sorts of ways I could use it. On the other hand, if I can think of all that, so can other people who might buy them, particularly the powder or the detonator." He let that stand to see what the twins had to say about it: how far ahead they were thinking.

“Well not everyone thinks as fantastic as you. I know we want the shields to be public - but you’re right. There’s not always a way for us to know who is ordering our products, and I’d be pretty unhappy if some of this stuff fell into the wrong hands.” He turned to George, eyeing him for a moment. “I think we both wanted them to go to Aurors and the like, but I don’t know who else to give them to. I feel like some of it is useful for protection, but we can’t regulate everyone who gets protected…”

George nodded. “The shield stuff is definitely the most general-use. The other stuff is more...challenging to get into the right hands. So many of our ideas come out of the blue, I was kind of hoping we’d have a bolt of inspiration about how to keep the rest of the stuff from going to the wrong people before we were ready to start selling it.”

"I know some people who've been threatened who could use some things like the detonator. I wouldn't turn one down, or some of the powder, because it's probably only a matter of time until someone makes a try for me." Which wasn't something Fabian liked to admit, but he'd told himself he had to be honest with the twins. "Having said that, if you sell to the Aurors--and I am by no means saying you shouldn't--and someone uses your work against them, you'll end up in all sorts of trouble with them. Which is something I really don't want.

"I'm not going to suggest what you should do or not do," Fabian continued, "because I don't know what I'd do in your shoes myself. But it's something you two need to think about."

“You’re welcome to have any of our products, Uncle Fabian.” Fred was sure he would be giving one of everything to every member of their family. When Uncle Fabian mentioned the load of trouble that could be had from giving them to the Aurors, he rose a brow. “But if we did, and they were used against us, wouldn’t that mean we knew for sure someone in the DMLE was working for the other side? That could be… useful.”

“I’ve got a headache already just thinking about it.” George sighed. “I just want to invent things, why is that so difficult?”

"It could be useful, and it wouldn't surprise me, honestly, but that's a big risk and not one I'm keen to see you two exposed to. But I was more thinking the other way round: to the Aurors, I'm an ex-convict who ought to be back in Azkaban, and if you sold useful contraband to me, or provided it, and I used it in a way the Aurors didn't like, which is probably to say at all, and they knew it was you, you could get in a load of trouble." Fabian looked each of them in the eye in turn. "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

“I understand.” It was all convoluted and complicated. “Then… we have to nix the whole line or sell it to everyone.” He said, shrugging. There was no in between. They’d have to equally provide to everyone and hope that their side was better at using it, or be selective and run into the problem of getting people like their uncle in trouble because they didn’t like how the product was being used. “Because they can’t blame us for the negative usage of our products if everyone has equal opportunity to buy them and use them, can they? If they want them at all, then that’s how it’s going to have to be. Freedom of production and all that.” Which probably wasn’t even a thing.

“Really? That’s a terrible solution.” George was a bit discouraged. “I’d rather nix it than take the chance of selling to someone who’s going to use them for evil, but there’s got to be a happy medium. So we don’t sell to aurors specifically--or maybe only ones we know? We could talk to Tonks, I really don’t think she’s going to rat us out for providing stuff to our uncle.”

"I trust Tonks." Which wasn't something Fabian said very often. "You don't need to decide immediately. You should sleep on it at least. We're all frazzled because of everything that's going on, and that makes for poor decisions. Fred may be right, but at least you can record who buys the stuff. Because, George, if you sell it at all, you're right, there is no way to guarantee it won't fall into the wrong hands. If someone were to use the Imperius on someone you know, you could sell something to a person you trusted and it could still end in the hands of a Death Eater. I've seen things like that happen." And there Fabian stopped, not wanting to consider those memories further. Instead he changed the subject: "Let's go back upstairs and sit down, and at least consider this in relative comfort."

“He’s right, George. Even if we were selective, there’s no guarantee who gets it.” You could never really trust anyone in times like these - that, he figured, was one of the reasons the war had been so destabilizing. Imperius curses and the likes, they forced even good people to do bad things. Fabian suggested they go back upstairs, and he nodded in agreement. He shut the small door behind them as they exited, before walking back upstairs to the flat and into the living room, where he took up the seat he had been in prior to their demonstrations. “I like Tonks. I’m sure she’d be a good person to talk to as well.”

“Well, that’s something decided, at least.” George sighed, settling himself on the rug. “And we’ll equip the family, obviously. It’s just...frustrating. We have all these great ideas that we might not even be able to use because they might get used against us.”

Fabian settled back in the seat he'd claimed as well, close enough that he could give George an avuncular pat on the shoulder. "I wish you didn't have to worry about these things either. When they sent all the Death Eaters to Azkaban, after Dumbledore finished off Voldemort, I told myself it was worth it to spend the rest of my life there if it meant you lot didn't have to go through what we'd been through. I'm sorry."

“It’s rubbish, that’s what it is. Never thought that’s how things would go… But yeah, we’ll have to give the family some protection, what we can really offer them.” Which the shield stuff, for sure, they were all getting some. Fabian went ahead and got all emotional and Fred frowned, unhappy with how things were going as well. “I’m sorry, Uncle Fabian.” He said softly, his eyes a bit unfocused as he stared at the floor, imagining what Azkaban, what the war, what everything had been like, and how awful this must feel for him. “This must be so much worse for those of you who have been through it before.”

George nodded. It was easy to get wrapped up in things and forget that this would all be uncomfortably familiar to Fabian.

"There's no comparing how this is for any of us. It's terrible to see it for the first time and it's terrible to see the signs of it coming back and feeling as though there's not much you can do to stop it." Fabian gave George another pat, which was probably as much for his own benefit as George's. "You two are doing wonderfully by developing all these things: the shield garments in particular. They'll save people's lives. That means a lot. That you're willing to stand up against what's happening in even a small way means a great deal. A lot of people didn't, last time."

“But you did.” Something in Fabian’s tone made George wonder. Even after all that had happened--even after Azkaban--was he still…? He opened his mouth to ask, then shut it again, unable to figure out a way of phrasing it delicately. At last he settled on, “If you had to do it over again, would you?” Far more serious than George’s usual, but he really, really wanted to know.

He nodded, listening to his uncle’s advice, and his twin’s questions. There was so much going on, and he knew it must be difficult for all his family - particularly the uncles that went to Azkaban, but really they all had been through horrible things in the first war. He hated to see the looks on all their faces, like all the joy and fun had been sucked out of them. “What George asked. Would you?” He reiterated his twin’s question, because it was important to him to know. If they could, would they do it again? Because that - that right there was going to decide a lot of things for Fred. If he got involved, at all, would it be worth it? If they thought their initial involvements were worth it, Fred would help in any way he could.

Fabian pondered the twins' question, seeming to look less at them and more at something on the wall or perhaps in his own head. "I don't know how to answer that because I don't know who I'd be." His gaze fell to his left wrist, where, under his sleeve, his Azkaban tattoo marked his skin. That focused him again and he looked at the twins, each in turn. "I am who I am. That's all I can say."

It wasn’t as much of an answer as he would have liked, but it felt like a yes, so George decided to take it as one. He nodded again slowly. “Well, we’re half Prewett and half Weasley, and I don’t think we inherited sitting idly by from either side. So...at least for my part...I’ll do what I can. Even if it’s only shield charms.”

“Me, too.” Fred was of the same mindset as George. It felt like a yes, so he went with that. Sitting back in the chair, he felt rather exhausted by the whole thing, but resolved to do what he could. Even if all it was, was wearable shield charms.

He hadn't said anything about the Order--couldn't--but Fabian realised he had answered a slightly different question to the one he thought he'd been asked. "I hope things will never come to a point where more is asked of you. But," and here Fabian smiled, and offered a hand to each of the twins, "it means the world to me that you'd offer."

George clasped his hand and smiled back.

Fred shook his uncle’s hand, giving it a light squeeze. They were doing the right thing.