Title: The Promise of Tomorrow

Pairing: Fred Weasley x reader

Summary: You and Fred go to Paris after the war to recover. Post-war Fred lives!AU

Word Count: 2.6k

Please do not repost my work!

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The war had taken its toll on everyone and you and Fred were no exceptions in this. Both you and your family didn't suffer like others have - as many had - but the scars of war weren't always physical. You would find out quickly after the war that the emotional damage did the most damage. Death is terrible and seeing the ones you love die is horrid. The absence of dead bodies of loved ones didn't lessen the burden of war. No one had it easy - not in life and surely not in the war.

Death is one thing because once you're dead, you're dead - there's nothing more to it. It's the people you leave behind that have to pick up the pieces while you're gone. Death is fleeting but the scars of war remain. If you're no longer on Earth, you don't have to pick up these pieces because you're gone.

You and Fred had loved each other long before the war came. You had fallen in love with him when he thought that his dreams would never come to fruition and all he had to his name was homemade sweaters with a knack for pranks. This was part of the reason why you liked him and why you fell in love with them - he was rash, yes, but he had the attitude that he would never let anything stop him if he wanted to do something. When you were only teenagers he had a loud laugh that would catch the attention of everyone in the room and a bright smile that always reached his eyes as they would crinkle. Before the war you were quite the same - you had dreams as well with the bright smiles that hinted that you could take on the world if you wanted to as long as Fred was there with you.

But as you said, that was before the war. The war was brutal and scarring. It had left you with wounds that weren't as easy to heal as scraps and cuts were. The kind of pain you felt after the wizarding war didn't come from blood.

You had found out quickly after the war as you had picked up the pieces with your family and your loved ones that the happy memories you had at Hogwarts not too long ago were wiped away. They were now covered up by the violence that the war had left behind. When you were cleaning up the castle after the war, you weren't reminded of the memories where you and Fred would run down the corridors away from Filch after a night escape to the kitchens. Instead, all you could think of was fighting for your life and watching people that you had grown up with being killed for fighting for what was right. Even after the damage was starting to become undone and progress made in the ministry and at Hogwarts, the scars of war still haunted you.

You never are the same person that you were when you were 16 years old. It would be natural to change from the teenager you once were at the very beginning of your twenties. However, the war had changed you - it had changed everyone. You were still the same person as was Fred but there was no way you could be exactly as you were before you fought for your lives and saw people die that you once knew. War was painful as were the scars it left behind.

Your love for Fred had never changed nor his for you but you both knew you need to find yourselves again and you knew that I could never happen here with the reminders of the pain and the scars you both now wore.

It was because of this, the need and desire to find the people you once were that you both left the reminders behind what's the promise coming back when you were both ready. Molly had been teary-eyed wow the rest of Fred siblings we're glad but he had taken this step, none more so than George. With the promise that the joke shop would be there for Fred when he returned oh, the pair of you left England away from the reminders of the war to Paris amongst the Muggles.

The cobblestone streets full of muggles made it easy to blend in - the fact that you were wizards completely unknown. When you arrived in Paris neither of you were sure how to act. You both had spent the past year fighting against Voldemort and his followers, you had forgotten how to act like you used to. You weren't sure if you could be that carefree girl again, but you wanted to. You remembered her - the girl whose worries only went so far as running away from Filch hand in hand with Fred. The giddy laughter that would spill through your lips had been absent soon after you left Hogwarts. She had disappeared when you were hiding from Death Eaters. You could only remember the fragments of who she once was when you saw the aftermath of the war. You didn't know how, but you needed to find her again. All you knew was the reminders of the war at home prevented any healing.

You and Fred spent your days wandering through the cobblestone streets as the summer rain hit your umbrellas as the scent of a Parisian summer flooded your senses. Smells of coffee, rain, and pastries enamored you. You took to gardens that you walked through and admired as the fragrant flowers reminded you of the garden at the burrow. The two of you had surprisingly grown a kinship to museums full of art. It was with the colorful paintings that held power and beauty that you two were able to heal without even knowing it. The art of muggles had soothed you unwittingly. Because of this, it made sense that it was in an art museum of all places you both were on today of all days.

Today was not a particularly unusual day. You and Fred stood in an art museum as you admired the artwork and each painting's gentle strokes. Just a few years ago Fred would have hated where you stood. He would have abhorred the idea of not touching the artwork and to admire it. He wouldn't have been able to stand the quiet atmosphere or being so far away from George and his family. And yet, he stood there next to you as you both gazed at a painting feeling nothing but peace. Peace had been an unfamiliar concept for quite some time for him. Before the war, he had never been afraid of anything. He would laugh and was always smiling. After the war, he never laughed and seldom smiled like he used to. The sleep was the worse part - he would wake up with nightmares in a cold sweat of when the wall had almost fallen on him. He wondered ceaselessly why he had come out alive from the Battle of Hogwarts when so many other people died. And then, he would see you next to him, peacefully asleep, and he would think that maybe everything would be alright. You were his saving grace and even the slightest hint of a smile on your face as you slept was enough to bring one to his own face.

The days in Paris had turned into weeks which turned into months. Slowly, you and Fred had found some peace. You had found it in his arms as you woke up with no remnants of Fred having nightmares. He had found it in your peaceful expression as he got up in the middle of the night for the first time to only go to the bathroom and not from the horrors of the war. You both were not the same people you once were, which only made sense. How could two people come out of a war without changing? It was impossible and you had found that even if you weren't the same that didn't mean you couldn't find happiness. You had found it beside Fred years ago and knew if he was next to you happiness would be quick to follow. Little did you know, he had felt the very same.

There you were as you two stood side by side as your eyes tracked the brushstrokes of the artist of the painting that laid before you. The gilded framed that held it was stately and beautiful, but the painting was impactful and breathtaking. Your eyes were trained on the painting as you held a thoughtful expression while Fred found himself looking at you as he admired your peaceful expression.

"I woke up the other night," Fred said casually with his hands in his pocket as you both stood forward, observing the brushstrokes of a painting. "It was the first time I woke up to go to the bathroom, not from nightmares that give me a cold sweat." He laughed silently at the thought and a loose smile that was full of awareness tugged at the corners of his lips. He knew that this is what recovery must feel like - moving on, what a thought that was. He turned towards you and saw your eyes scanning over the painting as you observed it like one of those muggle art critics. He saw the peaceful look in your eyes made a fond smile form on his face as it reached his eyes with no difficulty. He had to will himself to look back at the painting instead of you. "Then I looked over and saw you sleeping peacefully. You almost looked like when we were in school and you'd sneak into my dorm to sleep with me, do you remember?" He asked tenderly.

A wistful smile spread across your lips instantaneously. "I do," You said and laughed so softly no one but Fred could hear you. "It was so much easier to sleep in your arms, especially in our last year with Umbridge." You said in realization. "I hated not being in your arms those last few months." You added quietly, so quiet it could have been a whisper.

"Those bloody three months were terrible," He admitted, remembering falling asleep every night thinking of you alone and how good it felt to be in your arms again at the train station. "But we made it, didn't we?" He asked, needing to hear you tell him what he already knew.

"We did, Fred." You said sincerely. "We've come so far." You said with conviction, thinking of where you were before you had left. As you smiled at him he glanced at the painting once more in thought.

The brushstrokes were simple - done with a simple flick of the wrist and nimble fingers, not unlike Charms class. Even to Fred's uneducated eye, he could tell these brushstrokes were done with intent. They seemed like they were done without a moment's thought but he knew better - they were done with all the thought in the world, like the artist's life had led up to this singular brushstroke. This wasn't unlike what he was doing, he thought. This was done with intent as well.

"I stopped in a jewelry store the other day," He began to say softly as he bit down a smile the crept up onto his lips. "The one we passed by the cafe we stopped at that you liked. I got you something." He looked at you briefly and traced your features with his eyes. You, like him, looked different since you have arrived a few months ago. Different, but better - happier. You wore a peaceful expression like it was the finest jewel. You shimmered like a diamond in any light, Fred thought.

"I don't need jewelry, Freddie. You know that." You said absentmindedly in a soft voice as you gazed at the painting just like he was, your eyes tracking over every inch of the canvas and the power of the thoughtful brushstrokes. "I don't care about things like that. There are more important parts of life than material items." Your eyes still tracked across the painting, the speckles of a dozen shades of green that harmoniously blended seamlessly. This, you thought, was truly magical. It wasn't the same you had grown up with but was extraordinary all on its own.

"I know you don't." He said softly as he looked at you. He felt the lump in his coat pocket and nimbly took it out. Slowly he got on one knee. "I just know that there are some things I can't let slip through fingertips, especially not after the war and these past few months."

With your eyes still on the painting, you pulled them away from the piece of artwork to look at Fred with a confused expression. Your mouth parted slightly as your face morphed from confusion to shock at the sight of Fred on his knee and a velvet box in his hand. "Fred?" You got out in a mere whisper, expecting anything but this.

"I couldn't have made it here without you, darling. The sleepless nights and nightmares never would have stopped without you by my side. Surviving the war wouldn't be worth it if I didn't have you by my side for the rest of my days." He looked up at you and saw the teary eyes and resisted the urge to wipe your tears as he had always done. "I'm so in love with you, Y/N. Will you marry me?" He asked with a nervous smile.

"Yes!" You said at once with a laugh in disbelief and happiness. "Of course I'll marry you, Fred." You beamed at him.

Fred stood up with a genuine smile with no traces of worry as he gracefully picked up the ring and slid it on your finger. He looked down at you with adoration as you did the same knowing that from now on you would always have each other. A light laugh escaped your lips as you felt unrivaled happiness and closure from the war. This is what peace felt like, you knew now.

You glanced at the ring on your left ring finger as the ring glimmered in the light of the museum as a genuine laugh slipped past your lips. You smiled up at Fred who you thought wore a smile

You both knew that life wasn't going to automatically become easier but you knew you had one another. Right now, that was enough, and Fred beside you would be all you ever needed. He held you in his arms with the promise of tomorrow.