The sudden chiming of the nearby wall clock brought her back to the present as she looked down to assess her patient. His pale face held little promise of recovery; his freckles all but erased completely. She couldn't remember the last time she saw daylight. Every waking moment had been spent here, in this room, watching and waiting. While the war raged on outside, Arabella sat, eyes closed and head down as her mind drifted off to better times.

Seven years had passed since she'd seen his face; been close enough to take his hand in her own. One might think, after all these years, the 'silly' schoolgirl fancy as Mother had called it would be all but forgotten. Though the years had come and gone, her feelings for him had remained. They had influenced many of her decisions throughout her impressionable Hogwarts years.

She'd healed Charlie Weasley's broken arm when he hadn't wanted Madam Pomfrey to know he was out flying past curfew. Loathe as she was to admit it; she'd advised the Weasley twins in the art of potions for their, sometimes rather ill-conceived pranks. If anyone asks though, her assistance was given in order to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the rest of the student body. Should one of their experiments go array, she was most certain it would come back to her in some way.

Her one last encounter with Bill Weasley came in the form of her brother Damian, and Charlie's graduation from Hogwarts.

Seven Years Before:

As she sat, sandwiched between Mother and Father, watching both Charlie Weasley and her brother Damian as they accepted congratulations from the headmaster on their commencement from Hogwarts, she couldn't help but let her eyes wander. Somewhere in the Great Hall sat Bill Weasley, and that thought alone made her heart beat faster. No longer was she the scrawny twelve-year-old girl afraid of being noticed. At the age of fourteen, he would have to be aware of how much she'd grown. He would most definitely see her as a young woman now.

While attempting to distance herself from her parents and the watchful eyes of her older sister Adrianna, she was caught by surprise when an arm was thrown round her shoulder from behind and a kiss was pressed to her temple.

"If it isn't my favorite lab partner…how are ya Bells?" She had never been this close to him in the year that they spent together, and the thought that he had kissed her was the only thing going through her mind at the moment.

"I barely recognized ya… bet you can't turn the lads away fast enough." The heat rising to her cheeks was beyond mortifying and it suddenly occurred to her she hadn't spoken a word yet.

"I'm very well Bill. Thank you for asking" She tried to sound as grown up as possible. It wasn't easy given the fact that she was almost certain you could hear her heart beating through her chest.

" I wanted to thank you for the herbs you sent from Egypt. I've already been researching ways to use them… I hope you are enjoying your time as a curse breaker... it sounded quite dangerous from your letters." There, she thought to herself. That sounded much better.

"Not nearly as dangerous as some of the potions I know you're brewing behind old Snape's back, eh Bells?" He chuckled as he pulled her closer to his side.

Present Day:

She couldn't help but smile as she thought about the letters they had sent over the years. She'd saved all of them, packed away in a trunk by her bedside. She remembered when the first one had come to McBraiden Castle the summer after he graduated. He wrote to her about his plans to work with curses and how he thought he had a good chance at an internship with Gringotts. He told her that he would try his best to keep in touch.

She'd mistakenly confided in her older sister about the letter and her hope that someday he would share her feelings. Adriana had thought the notion absurd and doubted another letter would ever come. After that ordeal she'd learned to keep her feelings to herself, as well as the letters.

Her favorite letters always included pictures. Sometimes they were pictures of the landscape; a rising sun peaking over the mounds of sand casting the allusion of water dancing on the desert floor. Other pictures, the best pictures, were ones of him smiling in front of some unnamed statue or pyramid. His smile was infectious even from Egypt, and she took great pride in tucking each photo away in the pocket of her Hogwarts uniform as a silent reminder of her secret crush.

Once again she pressed her hand to his cheek feeling his breath, slow and uneven, ghost across her palm as she made to trace her fingers down the length of his jaw line. She felt guilty for enjoying the intimate moment. While she relished her time alone with him, she knew the ache his mother must be feeling having been confined to the boundaries of the infirmary waiting room. There were too many wounded littering the makeshift cots that had been placed in the infirmary in order to accommodate the growing number of injuries.

She'd watched from behind a curtained bedside as Madam Pomfrey spoke with Bill's parents; telling them that he would live but they would not be able to see him until he was stable enough to move from the confines of the hospital. Molly Weasley had first cried in relief and then begged Poppy for the opportunity to see her son. Rules were rules and the nurse would not back down. Arabella Looked around the quiet room and guessed that night had finally come to Hogwarts. Madam Pomfrey had long since retired and she was the only one still awake it seemed. As she rose and made her way towards the waiting room, she was careful to not disturb the slumbering patients nearby. Arabella found Molly Weasley asleep in a hard backed chair near the infirmary entrance; her husband already gone to bed. Carefully she roused the sleeping women, and with a finger placed to her lips as a sign of silence she lead the way towards her sleeping son.