"No, not that." Skylar felt something bubble inside his chest, under his ribs and above his heart, "I- I've killed people."
"No you haven't." The two boys spoke at once, synchronizing accidently yet still sounding firm.
"I have!" Skylar protested, voice warbling into a shriek as tears cascaded down his face. The relative calm he had crafted shattered brokenly with his words.
"No, no mate." Fred argued sternly, grasping the smaller boy and holding him close with one arm.
"You did your best, and you were a good friend." George added with only a little wavering of his own voice, "Gin really liked you."
Skylar shook his head, the tears and his movement distorted his vision as words bubbled from his lips and everything he had kept so private was unraveling under his fingertips. "No no no…"
George glanced at Fred with barely disguised fear and frantic desperation.
"I killed her," Skylar sobbed, hands rising to clutch his hair between shaking palms, "I've killed her and...And I didn't mean to and now she's dead."
Fred patted Skylar unsure, buckling as the younger boy twisted and collapsed heavily against him. The chickens clucked unconcerned and pecked at the dropped strand of grass.
"You couldn't have done anything," Fred shushed, speaking lowly even as his body soon shook gently in his own grief, "you couldn't have done anything and Merlin knows everyone tried."
Skylar braced his head in Fred's chest and screamed.
George didn't say anything but looked very much that he wanted to join in.
"I'm so sorry," Skylar bawled, voice barely comprehendible, "I...I didn't mean to."
Fred rubbed his back in a way he hoped was soothing, looking blankly at the feathered birds.
Skylar pulled back aggressively, jolting upright as he furiously rubbed at his face, "It's not fair, people die for me and it's not fair."
"Sky…" George started, only to be cut off with Skylar's watery eyed glare.
"No! First...first Harry and now Ginny and…" Skylar shook his head, hunkering his shoulders as his hands pressed harshly into his eyes.
"Harry?" Fred tentatively asked, not familiar with anyone who Skylar knew and was familiar with to be on a nickname with.
Skylar sobbed openly, "and...and we never found his body either."
"Who's Harry?" Fred asked gently, recognizing that somehow this other name was tied in to Skylar's deteriorated state.
The boy in question peered up at both of them, face skewed and pinched in an expression of pain as he bubbled out between shaking lips, "He...he was my brother."
The twins froze in fascination, confusion, and mutual grief.
"He…" Skylar shook, struggling to think through the hazy fog of mourning, "It wasn't safe, and...and we sent him to be w-with my cousins…"
Fred and George felt a chill down their arms; the unsettling knowledge that they shouldn't be listening to this.
"We only left him for a couple years, because there were wizards after us," Skylar sniffled, steadily growing calmer the longer he talked. The more the words spilled out the faster Skylar's voice broke the air; the more horrified the twins listened.
"And, and we went back, and my cousins were gone. Just…" Skylar lifted one shaking hand, shaped in a fist. He opened it suddenly, revealing nothing and exhaling quietly, "Poof."
"Sky…" Fred started, rubbing Skylar's shoulders unsure. Skylar shook his head determined, his tremors lessening as he stared at the chickens almost angrily.
"No, no I...I need to talk." Skylar argued intently, "I...we looked for him. For months, and...and one of Dumbledore's friends found my cousin's family outside Glasgow."
Skylar sniffed quietly and a small breeze ruffled through the humid air.
"I...they didn't say, but I overheard when they thought I was sleeping. They said that Bellatrix Lestrange got to them." Skylar whispered quietly, blinking rapidly against his will, "Mum went bonkers."
"Bellatrix, that bitch will get what's coming to her." George spat out, eyes narrowing in fury towards the idea of the witch, "Azkaban's too nice for her."
Skylar nodded slightly, faintly smiling as if the idea amused him, "Dad's been working since, trying to get her off the streets. He can finally breathe now that they got her."
Fred swallowed and looked across the fields, the swaying of the corn and the bright glare of the sun. "I'm sorry about your brother."
"I'm sorry about your sister." Skylar countered sharply.
Fred shrugged, rolling one shoulder as if disinterested although Skylar knew better.
"I hope she burns," Skylar whispered quietly, "does that make me a bad person?"
"Of course not," George assured him quietly, "It makes you human."
Skylar smiled slightly, not truly seeing as he was trapped in memory.
"I miss him sometimes," Skylar admitted brokenly.
"You should, I bet he was just as reckless as you." Fred teased only halfheartedly.
"No, he liked animals. Would have been a bloody good magizoologist."
"Ginny liked those horses, the winged ones." George admitted quietly.
"Harry would have known every breed, he'd give Newt Scamander a run for his money." Skylar laughed brokenly, smiling as if the idea was perfect, "and he would have had a kneezle, or some rare owl I'd never heard of but he'd pester Dad all about it. And he'd have it flown in from somewhere, like Egypt."
"Egypt has owls?" George asked curiously, smiling faintly as Skylar rolled his eyes.
"What about his classes?" Fred asked quietly, egging Skylar on.
"Oh, he'd be brilliant at Care," Skylar continued, tears lessening as a true smile spread over his face, "he'd be quizzing and asking Hagrid about everything. He was always shy but he always tried to drag Mooney to those ah, traveling creature tours."
"I heard from Charlie about the dragon your first year," George teased with a grin, "I bet he'd have been in on that."
Skylar laughed, a bright peal of laughter that seemed to echo, "Oh Merlin's Beard, he'd be camping out in the hut all night waiting for Norbert to hatch! He never liked Quidditch but he'd be there, at every game in the stands cheering me on." Skylar's smile began to turn wistful, "He should be in the stands."
"Yeah," Fred sighed sourly.
"They both should be."
....
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