Title: Intertwined
Summary: If you asked Bill Weasley, he'd say he's never saved a life. If you'd ask Hermione Granger the same question she would scoff and tell you that he has, hers, multiple times.
Rating: K
Disclaimer: Just for fun, I don't own any of the characters.
A/N: Shifting Tides AU, if you're unfamiliar with that it's cannon until DH at Malfoy Manor. It's a Bill and Hermione centric universe, first stop there is "A Drop in the Ocean" about Hermione's crush on Bill during her school years. This story will have some timeline overlap with it and others, I'll note if anything is a major spoiler. This is more writing excercise, to get the tone recaptured, but should be fun. There might be some inconsistencies, don't have my books handy.
As always, reviews are cherished.
...
Second Year
"Oi!" Fred called from a few seats away, gesturing at Ron. "Got a letter from Bill and Charlie. Bill needs a favor and since we've got the game, you'll have to do it."
Ron gave his toast a particularly disgruntled look. "Why me? Where's Ginny, she can do it. Harry needs me."
Hermione rolled her eyes at him and nudged Harry's plate closer to him, he had the same slight green shade he took on before a quidditch match giving him a quiet encouragement.
He gave a vague nod, shifting as George slid closer to them on the table. "No clue about Gin, Bill wants something looked up. Nerd still remembers the book."
Ron blinked, "You're kidding, right?" He glanced at his toast for confirmation, before turning to Hermione and Harry, "Bill practically knows everything, he's a walking reference book. Percy is always at the library, he can do it."
George shoved it into Ron's toast free hand, with an almost wild grin. "Oh, just read it prat. He's bossing everyone around, tells Percy to stop hanging out in the library."
Fred agreed, "He'll have to, still wants to be just like Bill. Or the non dangerous version anyway."
The twins snickered and Ron opened it, Hermione's curiosity was peaked and since Harry was off in quidditch land she had nobody to talk to. Ron clearly was scanning for his part, "Well, that's just rude, bet Ginny is the one who told him. What are he and Charlie doing hanging out anyway? They've got jobs, haven't they?"
Fred shrugged, beginning to tug Harry out of his seat. "Girl problems, I'd wager. C'mon, we've got to get going. Bill wants a prompt reply, so get to it Ron."
Ron looked at his toast for backup, but the quidditch players were already moving off to collect their chasers. "After the match, alright?"
"What's the book?" She asked curiously, "We could probably squeeze it in before the match. The owlery is on the way to the pitch."
Ron passed her the letter, "Not so Mythical Creatures. Seems Bill has a beast to battle in a tomb." He gave her a beseeching look, "Can you look it up? No way I'll be able to find it fast enough and I can go save us seats? One of us should be there to cheer Harry on at the start…"
She nodded, feeling her cheeks warm at the slight compliment and the thought Ron was going to save her a seat. He'd never done that before, just shoved his way to the best spot. "Sure, I think I've seen it."
He gave her a relieved grin and stood, shoving a few spare pieces of toast into his robes. "You're the best, Hermione."
"It's nothing." She rose too, definitely blushing and feeling tongue tied until they split paths, letter clutched in her hand. As she headed for the library at a speedy walk she opened the letter from the two eldest Weasley children.
Bill's handwriting was nothing like Ron's messy chicken scratch, it was a swooping cursive, as if he'd put love into each letter on the parchment. She pushed the thought away, feeling silly as she peered at the picture of the two brothers she hadn't met included. The one she thought must be Bill was giving a brilliant smile and cheeky wink, next to a freckled redhead who looked downright thrilled to be standing in front of an elephant.
It was a cheerful letter, with notes to each of his siblings: encouraging Percy to be more social, reminding the twins to not aggravate the ghosts, cheering Ron that his beloved Chudley Cannons could still make the playoffs if a series of unfortunate events occurred, apologizing to Ginny that her letter must have gotten wet so he couldn't write her back properly. She scanned and absentmindedly skipped the correct path across the shortcut.
Can you do me two favors? Write Mum, she's going to kill Errol off harassing me on dig sites, because you lot are terrible correspondents. I also need something looked up and Hogwarts has one of the only copies where the vanishing curse has been properly broken. There's a creature in the tomb I'm working on, from what I can tell it's been alive since the tomb was initially sealed, likely as a guard for the inhabitants. There's either a shedding or cocoon from it and it's massive. The thing is presumably bashing hungry, but I need to know more information before I try to engage and promptly become a snack. There's a book, "Not so Mythical Creatures" by S. Scamander in the History section that I need to see. Preferably you'll check it out and mail to me, to break the curse binding it to Hogwarts-"
Hermione gasped in outrage and curiously read the next few lines anyway, just in case she ever needed it, deciding the alternate charm to duplicate the pages was going to be incredibly useful in studying. She fetched it and referencing Bill's letter for what he was looking for, but couldn't shake several sentences he'd written about the Chamber of Secrets. Maybe this book could help them too.
I've thought about it more and dug the tomb incident reports regarding creatures, but nothing that matches what's happening at school. I'd wager it's hiding in the lake, but the Merpeople would have told Dumbledore, try not to let it worry you. Especially you, Ginny, I'm really sorry about your friend, but he'll be alright. Please use your pureblood status for good, there hasn't been an incident a muggleborn has been attacked with a pureblood present so keep your friends close. Don't let them go anywhere alone and for Merlin's sake, Fred and George, stop blowing up bathrooms. Not that I don't love having a faucet again, but Mum blamed it all on me, prats. The staff needs to spend their time on finding the creature or culprit, not acting like plumbers.
The handwriting switched, Watch the skies as well, could be getting in through the windows. Seems like the castle is always busy when an attack happens, so nobody is looking up. Speaking of flying, how's quidditch going? Wood has been writing…..
She set it down, not needing to read anything about quidditch, smiling slightly at how Bill must have reacted to getting a snake faucet. A souvenir of the twins quidditch based anger taken out on the bathroom closet to Slytherin's dungeons. She looked back at the book and the thoughts of how it was moving around, how Harry could hear it. The thought that had spent months trying to spark finally caught, lighting into a fire as she perused the relevant selections for what Bill was going to fight. It was in the pipes, it had to be and she slowed down her perusal of the book and the terrifying creatures within it.
It would be years later that she would be checking their oldest daughter's trunk one last time, half listening to Bill reminding her to always write back to her siblings when written to. Rose would sound defensive, "I do write them. Well, eventually anyway."
"Do it promptly, Rose." She added, "They miss you very much when you're gone and feel like you've forgotten them."
Bill's ocean eyes had a guilty slant to them, before he looked off in remembrance. "Seriously, Rose. I wasn't the best about it myself at school and you know what happened? When I wrote the little suckers at school, they ignored me instead of taking a few minutes to do a favor of looking something up for me."
"Oh the horror." Rose rolled her eyes in the teenage way that drove Hermione nuts these days, Bill was still looking seriously at her, rubbing his ear.
"Rose, instead of knowing that all I needed to do was throw a bat-bogey hex to navigate a tomb safely I spent three days fighting a beast. I had to take refuge in a sarcophagus."
She looked curious, one of her younger brother's heads popping in, "Why didn't you just write Mum?"
Bill gave Hermione a fond smile, "Didn't know her yet and I think she was petrified at the time."
She blinked, suddenly remembering. "Actually, he did in a way. I was looking it up for Uncle Ron and got petrified leaving the library." She gave him her own grateful smile, "I'd just realized it was a basilisk and used a mirror. You saved my life."
Bill's face lit up like the sun breaking through the clouds as he chuckled, opening his mouth to say something only to have Rose cut in. "So ignore their letters, save lives. Got it."
Hermione shared an exasperated glance with Bill, "Rose…."
A/N: Reviews are adored! Add a prompt even and I'll run with at least the first one. Thanks for reading :)