For Emma (AStitchedUpHeart) - thank you for doing such a good job of co-running the Hugs and Happiness Challenge. I hope you enjoy this! (And I love your penname too, by the way!)
People look at him differently now, or they don't look at him at all, and Bill realises just how much he'd always taken his relative normalcy for granted once it's been lost.
He wears his scars like the battle wounds that they are, walking with his head held high, and most of the time, he doesn't give two Sickles what the rest of the world thinks. Most of the time.
He has his dark days, just like everyone else, and on those days, Fleur is there to hold his hand, literally and figuratively, even when he tells her to leave, yells at her to go and find someone better, someone deserving of her beauty and her grace. She stays by his side when anyone else would leave, cooks him countless rare steaks and stays awake while he paces restlessly beneath the glow of the full moon.
Sometimes, though, she'll be looking at him, and her eyes will fill inexplicably with tears. She always turns away, and he doesn't say anything, but he knows she's crying for him, for the parts of him that have been destroyed along with his face.
His mother is exactly the same. He feels her eyes on him when she thinks he can't see, and when he faces her, there's a hint of sadness in her eyes that she can't quite disguise. He might be her oldest son, and an adult himself, but as she fondly tells him, "You'll always be my child. Some things never change." There's something inexplicably reassuring about that statement, a tiny piece of certainty in a world that grows more uncertain with each passing day, and Bill finds himself dropping into the Burrow whenever he can, just so he can steal precious moments with his parents.
Ginny admires him even more after Greyback's attack, if it were possible. She'd visited him every day in the hospital wing, sometimes accompanied by Harry, Ron and Hermione, and sometimes on her own. She'd sit at a chair by his bed, and if he was sleeping, she'd not take her eyes off him, as though the determination in her gaze would help him heal faster. If he were awake, they'd talk, and if he felt like being silent she'd speak enough for the both of them. If the mess of his face bothered her, she didn't show it, and for that he remains infinitely grateful to her and her ability to make him feel almost normal again.
Remus is an invaluable help during his recovery, too. He and Tonks visit Bill several times at the Burrow, and Bill gains newfound respect for Remus as he begins to experience first-hand only some of what Remus has been exposed to since he was a child. It makes him praise whatever Gods there are for not making him a full werewolf.
Above all, Bill is thankful for his life, because he knows that night could have been much, much worse. The war has left him scarred on the outside, but really, who can say the war hasn't scarred them, visibly or not?
Written for:
The Globetrotter Drabble Competition - Luxembourg City, Luxembourg
The HP Potions Competition - Wolfsbane Potion
The Hugs and Happiness Challenge - Emma (AStitchedUpHeart)