Disclaimer: Sadly I don't own anything remotely Harry Potter. I only own my OC Eloise Bones. Anything that you recognize I don't own!
A/N: I have noticed the sad lack of Bill/OC stories and I just had to write this! Hope y'all like this, the idea has been floating around for a bit! This is really the only chapter that will take place in Hogwarts except for when I decide to throw a flashback in, and if we make it to the GoF arc!
Anna
Hogwarts, June 1991
Graduation at Hogwarts was always a grand occasion. Wizarding families from every corner of the globe gathered inside of the Great Hall to witness the Seventh Year's final moments inside of the place that they had called home for the past 7 years, even if it did feel a bit claustrophobic with an average guest list of over 500 people excluding the 1000+ students that were made to attend the ceremony.
The claustrophobic feeling wasn't just felt inside of the Great Hall, I could feel it the entire morning after breakfast; its name was Charlie Weasley.
Charlie and I had become close friends after we met in the Hell hole known as Professor Snape's Potions class in our First Year; we were partnered together and when he realized my aptitude for the class, he decided that I was to be his new nest friend. On days like this I seriously wished he had never made that decision; I love him like a brother, but on days like today I wanted to strangle him and throw him off of the Astronomy Tower.
"Come on Elie, come to the common room and hang out before the ceremony! You always come up, what's so different this time?" My red headed best friend pestered me as we walked back to the Hufflepuff common room.
"Charlie, I have to get ready." I groaned out for what felt like the 100th time in 30 minutes. The Weasley's weren't the type of people to take "No" for an answer, and Charlie was the worst of the lot.
"You can get ready in the girl's dorms with Hallie and Scarlett! Please please pleassseeeeeeee!" At this point I was expecting Charlie to drop to his knees and burst into tears.
"Sweet Merlin help me!" I mumbled under my breath as I slid down the wall that I had been leaning on, sitting on the hard ground as I silently prayed for relief. Thank Merlin that relief came in the form of my surrogate mother, Mrs. Molly Weasley.
Within a few seconds of my silent plea for help, I heard the all too familiar screech of my my 2nd favorite woman on the planet. I smiled brightly as the red headed woman came running, as fast as her short legs could carry her, up the stairs in front of the Great Hall.
"Charles Weasley! What have I told you about pestering this poor girl!" Mrs. Weasley screeched as she finally reached where we were standing at the top of the stairs.
Charlie had turned as red as the shaggy hair that adorned his head at his mother's berating, and it didn't stop.
"One day she is going to hex you into a different century, and I'll just take her as a replacement for you! Now run along and get dressed! And find someone to fix that mop on top of your head! I will not have another son of mine graduate from this school with hair longer than mine!" When Molly finished dishing out a year's worth of motherly love she turned to me with the sweet smile that I knew and loved.
"Eloise dear, so good to see you! My goodness why are you on the floor? Oh never mind, Charlie probably." She reached down and pulled me into a standing position, before pulling me into a bone crushing hug.
I laughed and hugged the much shorter woman back, happy that I was once again with my 2nd mother. When Charlie had first become friends, Molly wrote me to invite me to spend the last few days of Christmas break with them; and from the time I had been tackled into one of, what I now knew to be, Molly Weasley's famous hugs I knew that I had found a second family.
"It's really good to see you too Mrs. Weasley, we weren't expecting you here for another hour or so." I pulled away from her and we began to walk back down the stairs and towards the Hufflepuff common room.
"Well you know Arthur dear, always wanting to be early for everything."
"Where is he?" I questioned, whipping my head around to find Mr. Weasley.
"Oh you know him, he is with Bill, Ron and Ginny somewhere around here. Probably mucking about and-" Mrs. Weasley was cut off by my least favorite Weasley's voice ringing through the hall.
"Well if it isn't our little Elie Diggory, how are you my little Puffle." I groaned at Bill Weasley's horid nickname for me, but I was more upset that the urchin slung his ridiculously long left arm around my shoulder.
"I was much better before you showed up William." I retorted using his given name which always got a rise out of him, before I shrugged his arm off of my shoulder and turned to look at the person who had made my first 3 years at Hogwarts a living Hell. But that's a story for another day.
I said my goodbyes to 5/9 of the Weasley family before running back down to the Hufflepuff common to get dressed for the graduation ceremony. When I arrived in the empty common room I was attacked by a hysterical woman. My dear sweet mother.
"Elie! Oh thank Merlin! We've been looking everywhere for you, Cedric said that we could see you at the ceremony but we just couldn't wait to see you until then! You're father said that we should've just waited, that you didn't want to see us before because you'd be nervous enough without us here to bug you." My mother continued to talk at a million miles an hour while still latched onto me, I looked over to the couch where my dad and brother sat laughing quietly at the scene.
"Mum, it's really great to see you. Um, Ced was right; I could have seen you after the ceremony, but since you're already here would you like to help me get ready?" Her bright blue eyes lit up and she all but dragged me up the stairs to the dorms where she yanked at my dark mess of curls until she was satisfied, I even allowed her to put a small amount of makeup on my face. When I was finally dressed in my graduation robes, we descended the stairs.
My parents and younger brother filed into the great hall and took their spots in the section designated for family while I waited outside of the hall with the rest of my class, Charlie showed up a few minutes later.
"Did you get a haircut Charlie?" I laughed at his now much shorter red hair.
He hung his head before muttering a depressed sounding "Yes". His previously shoulder length hair was now the same length as his youngest brother Ron's, which I found absolutely hysterical. Professor McGonagall however, did not find my reaction funny in the slightest.
"Miss. Diggory! I expect you to act with more dignity that this during the ceremony!" The tight faced woman scolded me from the very front of the group. I sighed and nodded my head at the woman who soon led us into the Great Hall for the last time.
The ceremony wasn't a quick one as Dumbledore proceeded to name out every student and their plans for the future after Hogwarts. While I was thankful that Dumbledore had went on a 15 minute speech about my plans to work as a curse breaker, it would have been nice if the speech had actually been about me and not about a curse breaker he had met in 1967 while on a trip to Egypt. With only 40 people graduating you wouldn't expect it to be so bad. That wasn't the case. We sat in the Great Hall for almost 3 hours waiting for Rosalyn Vane to get the opportunity to stand up and make her speech, and when the Ravenclaw finally got the chance to speak she had to be woken up by an annoyed looking Slytherin. Her speech was short and sweet, just what us, the students, teachers and parents all were hoping for.
After the ceremony we were led down to the edge of the lake, where we started our journey at Hogwarts all those years ago. Hagrid was waiting for us, and once everyone was assembled he placed us all into the boats that we had filed into 7 years ago. Charlie and I sat with 2 Ravenclaws who were holding onto each other and sobbing uncontrollably, I even shed a few tears myself.
The ride to King's Cross was definetly the strangest out of all of the rides I had taken; knowing that I would never be riding the train as a student again made me feel too grown up, I didn't like it one bit.
Once we arrived at King's Cross I said goodbye to the Weasley family who were waiting for us to disembark. Promising to come and spend a few weeks with them, I walked over to my family who were standing near the entrance to the station.
"We're so proud of you darling!" My father pulled me into a tight embrace before my mother did the same, nearly ruining my new yellow sweater with her mascara filled tears. My brother Cedric smiled the dashing smile that even in his 2nd year made the girls squeal before giving me a hug of his own.
We walked out of the train station and out to the muggle car that my father had received from work quite a few years ago, before we all hopped inside. My father had only recently decided to learn how to drive the car and I still wasn't too sure about his abilities, so I conjured an extra seatbelt for all four of us.
Just as my father started the car I heard a tapping on my window. When I looked to see the culprit I once again saw my least favorite Weasley. I begrudgingly reached for the window crank and lowered the window.
"What in Merlin's name do you want Willy? This is the second time I have seen you today and I for one don't really like those numbers." My monotone voice annoyed even me.
"Well my little Puffle, I just wanted to tell you congrats. Lighten up dear, we'll be spendin' a lot more time together quite soon, so you'd better get used to seeing my gorgeous face." Bill smirked down at me, his newly acquired golden earring glaring in the sun.
"What do you mean we'll be seeing a lot of each other soon? You don't live with your parents." I could tell that my father was getting agitated that I was taking so long to talk, even if it was to Bill.
"You're my new apprentice Puffle! Congrats dear!" Bill laughed and threw a letter into my lap before disappearing with a crack.
I opened the letter as quickly as I could and saw that Bill hadn't been lying. I was to be his apprentice once I started my training at Gringots in September….. Merlin help me.
A/N: Yeah, so that was pretty crap. I always have a horrible time with the first chapter! Thanks for reading anyway! Sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes!