Who: Leanne Yaxley and Fred Weasley
What: Mourning
When: Right after the news about Katie broke
Where: WWW's Diagon Alley branch
Rating: PGish
Status: Complete



Leanne desperately wanted to the leave the Ministry, especially since there was nothing going on. Nothing in their department in particular. Yet, she had to remain for another few hours to finish out her shift. It was then that the evening edition of the Daily Prophet arrived and the front page jumped out at her. No. This couldn't be true. This couldn't be happening. Not caring about the rest of her shift, she left the prophet lying on her desk along with her other possessions that she usually took home. None of it was important. In no time, Leanne found herself standing outside of WWW.

"Fred? Fred!" Leanne shouted, though her voice a little off from the crying, when she finally walked through the door.

Fred had been getting ready to close the store for the night when the owl arrived, delivering the evening paper. A familiar face had been shining back at him, and he'd grinned at first until he caught the headline. So it was really no surprise when one of the people closest to that smiling face showed up at the door. Rushing to the front of the store, he did the most uncharacteristic thing he could and scooped Leanne Yaxley into a tight hug. "You've heard," he said, more a question than a statement. She had to have; it was the only explanation for the streaks of tears on her face.

She didn't have to ask and she didn't have to tell. Leanne was glad for the hug. "I-I can't believe it," she sobbed. "How could this...."

Squeezing just a bit tighter, Fred shook his head helplessly. It was hard enough trying to figure it out for himself. Ali would be devastated and now Leanne, too. He genuinely didn't know what to do. Fred didn't deal well with loss. "I don't know," he admitted, extracting himself from her and leading her to one of the stools they kept behind the counter. "Sit down, sit..." He made an effort to find a handkerchief that didn't explode or smell like dragon dung or leave the user's nose green. Fortunately, there was a pack provided by Molly Weasley herself, and he handed her one.

Leanne sat down on one of the stools and accepted the handkerchief from him. "Thank you, Fred." Leanne wiped her eyes and blew her nose. She didn't think she would ever stop crying. Katie was her best friend and Leanne didn't want to accept that she was gone. "I just saw her the other day.... She...." She wiped away more tears. "I'm sorry for just showing up, Fred. I didn't know where else I could go."

Fred pulled himself up to sit at the edge of the counter, his legs dangling towards the ground. They'd fought a war. Katie had been cursed. She'd survived all of that, how could something as basic as a fall kill her? He couldn't fathom it. "It's okay," he admitted, looking at the ground instead of at her sad face. "I...don't really want to go home right now. I think George might've fancied her for a bit, and Ali..." He shook his head, not willing to admit he was scared of trying to comfort two of the people closest to him. "It's just... Not believable, is it?"

She shook her head. Leanne hardly noticed that Fred wouldn't look at her. "I don't want to go home either. No, it isn't believable. She nearly died before from something that I think is worse than a fall." That package, the necklace. It had nearly killed Katie right before her eyes nearly two years before. That experience was something Leanne never wanted to face again, and it seemed that it had come back sooner than she would have imagined. And a fall didn't seem right. Not after all that Katie had been through. There just had to be a reason why she had fallen. "When was the last time someone died from a fall?" Leanne asked Fred. "Someone could, should have saved her."

Though he'd only recently found out the news, Fred had already wondered the same thing over and over. Why was the field not more heavily protected? "Maybe it wasn't the fall that killed her," Fred mused, picking up the Prophet again, meeting those too familiar eyes. His stomach flipped over and he sighed. "She wasn't acting right all day, see? Maybe she passed out on her broom or something. Katie doesn't just fall. She never did."

Leanne didn't know what all the Prophet had said, only that it brought her news of her best friends' death. "So it wasn't an accident? I mean, even if she passed out...." If it wasn't an accident and if someone had deliberately caused Katie's death... no, that couldn't be it. Leanne looked at the Prophet in Fred's hands. "Her hand was over her chest? Something was wrong with her heart." Even that couldn't be right. Katie was healthy and in good shape. Something wasn't right. "I don't think this was an accident. Even if she wasn't acting right all day, she'd still be fine. Someone did this to her. It is the only thing that makes logical sense."

As badly as Fred felt for Leanne's loss, he couldn't help but think maybe she was overreacting a bit. "Leanne," he said quietly, leaning over to touch her arm, "don't you think you're being... Well, a little conspiracy theorist? Maybe she's been sick and we just didn't know it. I hear a lot of the time viruses and disorders hide in the body and we don't know it till it's too late. Maybe that's all it was."

"If she were sick, she would've said something to me." Leanne didn't know that for sure, but she didn't want to believe it was something that just suddenly came out of no where and killed her. "Fred, everything in my life has turned into a conspiracy against me. Katie would have said something, Fred, I know she would have."

"She might not have known," Fred pointed out quietly. "She could've had it her whole life and never have known, Lee." It was a sad fact, but a very possible one. He was now relatively certain Katie hadn't fallen from any sort of lack of skill. He wasn't, however, quite as ready to believe someone had done her in.

"I wish she had," Leanne whispered, resigning herself that maybe Fred was right and she was going a little too far. "I miss her already."

Fred gave her arm a squeeze and nodded. "I know. I do, too. It's... It's just weird. Knowing she's not... She's not here anymore." All the teasing and flirting and playing around they did and now? She was gone.

Leanne wiped away the last of the tears, sensing that there weren't going to be anymore for a while. "And extremely difficult right now. I guess I won't have any more surprise visits from her at the Ministry, although I haven't seen her there in months."

Giving her a wistful smile, Fred nodded. "Fraid not. I'd be happy to grace the place with my presence once in a while, though. Even if they told me not to come back when I was six."

"I'd like that. Such a troublemaker at that age were you?" Leanne smiled at the thought. "Was George told that as well?"

At that, Fred beamed a little, though it quickly fell. "Yeah, kinda. Basically, I was told to stay out and take my 'pesky brother' with me. See, I was the ringleader, he simply got pulled into my schemes. Poor Dad. No wonder they look at him funny there."

"They've probably forgotten by now. So don't cause any trouble when you come to visit." Leanne said. She thought about telling him not to tell them that he was visiting her. It always seemed to cause more trouble, at least it had for Katie.

Not that Fred would've listened had she said so anyway. Fred had never been one to take advice to heart, especially when it meant going against something he wanted. "Hey now," he scolded gently, "haven't you heard? Trouble is my middle name. Actually, it's Gideon, but that's a big ol' mouthful so Trouble it is."

Leanne rolled her eyes. "No, I'm behind the times. Ah, but Gideon sounds so much nicer than Trouble. But you do have a reputation to uphold."

Fred smiled gently, then, nodding and leaning over to tug lightly on her hair. "I do. After all, that'd be twenty some odd years of tormenting the world to take back otherwise. I think we should change the name of the store to Double Trouble, whaddya think?"

She did not like him tugging her hair, even though it didn't hurt or anything, and only because it made her feel like a little girl again. "Hey now! That is not a very nice thing to do, Trouble." Leanne chuckled softly. "Are the two of you double the trouble? I thought you were always the mastermind."

"I like how you think!" Fred said, pleased at the thought. Most people thought he and George were basically the same person. But it was true when it came to getting up to things that would lead to trouble, Fred was usually at the helm. George got dragged along. Though in his defence, he was usually the brains of the operation. "But half the time my brilliant schemes wouldn't work without him, see."

"Ah, I see. Like when Umbridge was controlling the school and you two did all of that brilliant things?" Although it was sad when they had left before the end of the year, it certainly was a brilliant sight to see.

A pleased smile crossed Fred's face, and he sighed happily at the memory. "Exactly. Ah, I do love how she ran in terror. Beautiful, wasn't it?" His smile brightened a bit, then faded as he remembered how angry the girls had been when they'd taken off. And that included Katie.

Leanne smiled too. "Very beautiful. I believe the swamp tribute that Flitwick left is still there." She didn't have a watch on her but she knew that it was getting later since her stomach took the opportunity to announce that it needed food. "I guess I should probably go. Thanks, Fred."

Fred himself had no idea how he was going to bring himself to eat. He knew he should go see if Alicia could hold any food down. And George... He was at the Hogsmeade store, Fred wasn't even sure his brother had gotten the news. Sighing, he nodded. "We'll get through this, Leanne. You'll see. It just..." Shrugging half-heartedly, he gave her a shaky smile. "It's going to take time is all."

"I hope so," Leanne said sadly. She knew it would take time, but it didn't seem like it was possible to get through this now. "I'll probably come by again in the next couple of days."

"May as well," Fred agreed quietly. "It's going to be a quiet place around here for a while." They'd have to do something to honor Katie. She'd always been such a supporter of theirs. "If you need anything, owl me, okay? Either George or I can be there."

"I'll let you two know." Leanne kissed Fred on the cheek before she headed out the door.