It's Better If You Do

"He's taking an awful long time," Rose murmured, looking up at the stairs worriedly.

Fred shrugged, trying not to feel anxious himself. "George knows what he's doing."

She nodded, her eyes still fixated on the door to the top of the stairs. If he didn't wake her up properly... well, she thought ruefully, she'd get over it eventually. She wished her sister could get over some other things, too. She sighed, shaking her head.

Rose had gone up and beyond the call of duty for her sister for the past year, and she didn't begrudge a thing. Bellamy's towering moods, snappy answers, and dour silences had been handled with gentle love and kindness because Rose had been there when Bellamy's happy spark had dissapeared. So, when she slept until three, she didn't say a word, and when she would hear muffled sobs at night, Rose would go in and gently hold her sister while she would cry. She would never admit it, but the main reason for her sudden wish to go to England was to get Bellamy some new sights. Sighing, she cut her eyes at the stairs once more, and chewed her bottom lip.

Fred watched her, wishing he knew what was wrong. He started to open his mouth to ask, but suddenly, with the sound ominous as a gun shot, Bellamy's heels hit the floor, causing Rose and Fred to jump, startled. They gave each other a look, when Bellamy emereged absolutely livid.

"Bellamy! What- what's wrong?" Rose asked as she jumped to her feet, extremely concerned. This wasn't the product of a bad wakeup.

The tiny hands she knew could help just as well as hurt, were balled into tight fists. Her sister's nostrils were flaring, and the color in her cheeks wasn't even it's normal angry shade of dull pink; it was full on red. "Cette merde a traversé mes choses, Rose!*"

"Qu'est-ce?! Comment savez-vous**?" asked Rose, her eyes flashing up to the stairs, waiting for George to come down. He didn't.

Bellamy's normally light eyes were impossibly dark, and if Rose had stepped any closer, she would have seen them sparkle with unshed tears. "Regardez ses mains***," she hissed.

She then strode off, her heels clacking loudly on the wooden floor and distantly they heard the door open, and slam. Rose groaned, remembering her sister's snoop catching spell. Running her hands through her hair, and she grumbled under her breath, "Dieu. George, pourquoi avez-vous d'être aussi stupide? Maintenant, il va être l'enfer encore plus à payer pour tout le monde. Merde, merde, merde.****"

Fred had been standing off to the side, confused beyond all measure, when Rose's comment hit his ears. He was not eloquent at French in the least, all he knew were things about snogging and cussing, but he knew that George and stupid should not have been in the same sentence. He grumbled to himself, before asking Rose in a strained voice, "What happened?"

"He went through her damn things. Stupid stupid stupid. She is the most private person in the world and after what she has been through recently, I can only guess what he saw," she grumbled, before suddenly bellowing, "GEORGE!" Rose's easy going nature was long gone, and the longer she waited, the angrier she got. He should have known better. "GEORGE WEASLEY!"

The said George Weasley was feeling just as he had whenever their mother had caught them doing something incredibly stupid, like the time they had taken the Ford Anglia, and he lingered, a slightly frightened and sheepish expression on his face.

"I will come up there!" she threatened, her eyes narrowing into slits. George peeked his head out, his hands behind his back, looking at the both of them quickly, then down at his feet. He scuffed his shoes on the floor, looking like a toddler. She gritted her teeth, and repeated the question Bellamy had just asked him. "Why?"

"Cu- curiosity." he mumbled quietly, realizing as ferocious as Bellamy was, Rose was infinitely worse.

"Curiosity?" she asked. Her eyebrows raised to their extreme, and her lips were pursed until they almost dissapeared. She closed her eyes and counted to ten in her head, and began in a softer voice, that was even more dangerous than before, "Do you have any idea how long she is going to be mad? It's going to be days. I have gone out of my way to make her happy and peaceful as possible, and even then that doesn't work half of the time. You've seen she's miserable, and there's nothing I can do to help that. My sister has been through what no one should ever go through, and here she finds you, seeing it for yourself first hand!"

"I don't know what you saw, and I don't want to know," she continued, growling slightly. "But now she is going to be in an even shittier fucking mood. And it's all because you were CURIOUS?!"

The twins were frightened, but only a little. Their mother had gone into much larger rages than this. They were just outright appalled. This was the girl who was too shy to accept a compliment, and here she was - cussing, yelling, and thoroughly making George feel like he was the meanest person alive. This was something Bellamy should have done- not sweet little Rose. But, Fred guessed, her long fuse had exploded.

Placing her fingers to her temples, she rubbed them vigorously, muttering, "I won't go find her. She'll cool off, and come back when she's ready. I just hope she doesn't get lost. Mon dieu, this is ridiculous."

Fred was glaring at George quite heavily, and it felt out of place, even as put out as he was. Until today, he hadn't glared at anyone except Draco Malfoy in years. George wouldn't meet his gaze, and he sighed. "Rose?"

She opened her eyes to see which one of them spoke, and saw it was Fred. "Oui?"

"Would it help if I went and found her?" he asked quietly.

Considering, Rose chewed on the inside of her cheek. "I'm not sure... She might think you were George, and take off."

"I can find her before she sees me." he said assuredly. This wasn't even about Rose anymore. Bellamy was upset, and from what Rose had said, and what George had seen, she wasn't having a very good time right now. If he could help, then it would make everything better. He hated having people upset, and he was going to fix this.

Smiling at the resolution in Fred's eyes, she nodded once. Fred, fighting the inclination to touch her in any way, walked past her after giving her a military salute. Rose let out a heavy sigh, and looked at the sorrowful George. She sat down on the stairs, and patted the seat next to her. He walked down the stairs, shuffling his feet, and sat, his head hanging low.

"Bellamy is an amazing girl," she began slowly, pausing in places, thoughtful. "Why most people don't see it, I will never know. She's thoughtful as can be, even if she is selfish at times. And when she loves, she loves hard. Using every ounce of heart she has in her, she'll go to the utmost lengths to make whomever she loves happy, not expecting anything in return... That," she turned to him, and he looked up, wary. "is why she is so utterly miserable."

She didn't continue, and he asked tentatively, "Who's Julian?"