A blast of fuschia smoke welcomed me as I entered my home at The Burrow. Oddly though, as suffocating as smokes generally are, this one was almost pleasant, alluring with the smells of fresh dew, lavenders and very faint vanilla and crisp fire whiskey, if you smell it closely enough. The smells, oddly, reminded me someone that I was trying very hard to forget. Someone with silvery blond hair and eyes so blue that it immediately brought to mind the shimmering blue sea, at dusk. It's Sunday morning, and I had come here hoping to snatch some peaceful moments before returning to Diagon alley or The Grimmauld's place. Grandma Prewett used to say, "if you cannot find peace anywhere else, including your in own head, you come home." With the thought of putting that theory to test today, I had arrived home, knowing that the rest of the family will probably be at the headquarters of the Order, not finding it in myself to go to that depressing, chaotic place myself just yet. But it seems that rest and peace are not on the cards no matter where I go, for the smoke clued me in that the two most rambunctious people in the world are the ones that are currently occupying my only hope for quiet. As if on que, seconds after entering the kitchen, I hear loud thumping from the stairs as Fred entered the kitchen, while George apparated beside him, almost toppling over one another, taking in the smoke and black leathery liquid in the cauldron from which purple sparks now emmited. "Oi! What are you doing here? And what, in the Merlin's name, did you do to our cauldron?" George asked as soon as he spotted me standing, his eyes narrowing. Almost as soon as he stopped speaking, Fred accusingly asked, "Did mum send you here to check on us, Billy?" "Calm down, you lot. Nobody sent me anywhere. But you might want to clean this mess up, for mum is supposed to be here by noon. What is.. Or rather, was supposed to be in that cauldron anyway?" Admittedly, I was almost scared to ask that question, knowing if it involved Fred and George, it has to be brewing trouble, both literally and figuratively, but curiosity got better of me, and vaguely I wondered if curiosity will kill the Bill. Whipping their wands out, both of my brothers started taking care of the business, Fred making the contents in the cauldron vanish, while the tip of George's wand absorbed the smoke from the room. "That, Bill, is something we are working on for our business." Fred said, after the kitchen was back to its normal cluttered, smokeless self. "And what business that is?" I asked only half paying attention as I sit at the table, stretching my toes to remove crink and exhaustion of last night. "Well, it is called none of your business, git. What are you doing here, anyways? We thought you were supposed to be at the head quarters, reporting last night's events... What ever they are?" George's question seemed casual, but I could hear burning curiosity there, as clear as the babbling of gnomes in the yard. Fred and George had come of age this April, and therefore were free to use magic outside the school - a fact, they have been exploiting all summer, as much as their newly acquired apparition license - but were still not allowed to join The Order, much to their displeasure. Because of this, they have been constantly trying to scrape pieces of information from different Order members, or through spying on the Order meetings, but so far, they have only managed to gleen vague knowledge of the activities of Order. Smirking, I get myself a goblet of water, careful not to let any of them near it, and say, "the Order can wait, since I don't have anything very interesting to report to them. Besides, a man needs his rest. I have been on my feet for last 12 hours or so, and feel, rightly, entitled to get some rest. So, you do whatever your 'business' is, as long as you let me get some sleep." Yesterday, after getting off the work, I had taken Fleur to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, a few blocks away from Gringotts, to celebrate her first week at work and then had walked her to apartment to make sure she reached home safely. God knows, being eldest of seven, protective instincts and caution for others' safety has become part of my DNA since Charlie was born, which only intensified when Ginny, my youngest and only sister came. I couldn't shake off the need to make sure Fleur reached home safe, and stayed safe. For the last week, I have been keeping an eye on her to make sure she isn't met to any harm, while keeping as much distance from her as possible. I may need her safe, but I don't need her in my life at the moment with my connections to The Order and near brushes to danger almost everyday. The need to be close to her, and yet to keep her safe has been waging war in my head for the whole last week, resulting in sprouting all of my thoughts and feelings to her when I saw the hurt in her eyes after overhearing my conversation with Ragnuk. Still, I might have managed to erase that awful, wounded look from her face, but also had a feeling that I might have inflicted something much worse on her by honestly telling her how much I cared for her in just a week. Hope, I knew, was a very dangerous thing, and not something I wanted to give to someone like her, if I couldn't follow through. That is one of the reasons I didn't return to my apartment this morning after my duty to stand guard to Harry Potter in Surrey. Feeling how much I had wanted to see her today even with my resolve to keep her away from danger and me had me avoiding my apartment like it had pixie infestation.
"Sleep? If you wanted some sleep then why did you come here?" George's grumbling dragged me back to now, as I watched both of them putting away vials and scales hurriedly while keeping an eye on the door. "Yeah," Fred continued. "You have your own apartment, afterall. Why would you need to come here to sleep? Unless..." he trailed off suddenly eyeing me with new interest while raising his brow at his twin, who had his eyes trained in me too, while he made the contents of their experiment disappear. "Unless, what?" I asked warily, knowing that they have somehow guessed the root cause of my presence here. "Unless, someone zere ees keeping you awake?" Fred drawled in almost exact Fleur's accent, while taking a seat on other chairs with George, who further continued, "Ees zat right, beel? Ees someone not letting you sleep een your own apartment?" Shit. I knew I would pay for not being vigilant enough a week ago when they had managed to extract all information about my new assistant. Rising from the table, I barely resisted the urge to give them a very offensive finger gesture and instead said, "I am exhausted, and am going to bed. You keep your tongues stuck to its roof about this, or mine might unstick about certain love potions brewing in mum's kitchen this morning. Good day." Leaving them laughing and, maybe even slightly surprised that I figured the nature of their brew out, I head to my old bedroom all the while wondering why the smells from a love potion made me think of a girl I barely knew.
The ministry was quiet. Way too quiet. It's almost 2'o clock in the morning and the last of ministry official has left hours ago. I have been standing guard under invisibility cloak for more than 8 hours now, with the ministry closing at 6 pm on Sundays, and felt like every part of my body was ready to fall off. Not getting any sleep last night and little to no rest this morning, made me feel ready to curl up on the floor and snore as loud as a banshee. Of course that won't do, what with keeping watch on one of the ministry's departments and getting relieved off it in an hour anyway. The auror that was supposed to stand guard tonight had not shown up when he was supposed to, and in emergency, I was dispatched here till dad arrives to take over the duty at 3 am or so. Just as I was about to lean by the pillar near the door that I am supposed to guard, I heard a very faint squeak of shoes slipping on marble floor not very far from where I stood. All thoughts of exhaustion and sleep immediately left my head as I quietly drew my wand and waited under the cloak for my intruder to appear. I didn't have to wait long, for just a few minutes later a tall, lanky man appeared at the mouth of the corridor, wand in hand but not at ready, his hand hanging by his side. He whispered,"Bill, it's me. Show yourself." As the man came in light, I recognized the familiar residing red hairs and glasses but didn't relax my stance. Quietly stepping near my the man who was supposed to be my father I whispered, "When was the first time your eldest son saw you cry?" Startled for a second, the man jumped, but answered in a calm voice, "When I was recounting to him how his youngest sibling nearly died at the age of 11, by the hands of a diary." Feeling myself relax, I removed the hood of the clock and stepped in front of dad and said, "Sorry about that, but you are early." Taking my offered cloak of invisibility, dad replied, "Yeah, your mom was worried. Said you stood guarding Harry whole night yesterday, and didn't get much rest today. Well, I have it covered here son, go home and get some sleep before you go to work come morning." As dad pulled the hood of cloak on his head and disappeared from view, I had a strange sense of dread sweep over me. Surely it's just paranoia and fatigue. I knew dad was careful not to let anyone follow him here, but I couldn't seem to shake off the feeling that something was amiss. The feeling only grew more and more intense as I stepped out of the ministry building, walking a few blocks before I could disapparate. Keeping an eye around myself, all the while maintaining a strong hold on my wand in my pocket, a physical blow landed on the back of my head. Searing pain shot through me, making me stumble and blurring my vision for a second. Through my unfocused eyes, I saw a flash of light somewhere to my left and on instinct, jumped to my right to avoid it, hitting the wall of a building. Realising just then that I have my wand in my hand, I turned blindly and cast a stunning spell to my left. My response might have caught my attacker by surprise for I heard him swear not very far from me and through my now focusing eyes, saw a tall, bulky shadow duck and narrowly miss my haphazardly casted spell. Pushing off the wall behind me, I straightened and cast another stunning spell at him, only for him to growl and cast a protective charm and answering with a curse of his own. I duck at last second, the spell hitting the wall behind me and splinters of bricks flying off in my direction. Momentarily getting distracted by the dust flying in my eye, I missed the moment my attacker chose to send another curse flying at me, hitting me straight in chest and sending me flying behind while my wand fell a few feet away from me, clattering on the ground. Before I could try to reach it, however, my opponent walked upto me and stood right in my line of vision between me and my wand. Trying to get up seemed like struggling against an invisible wall covering my whole body, and with a jolt I realized that I was tied down in some kind of body binding curse. Looking up, I could see the heavily bearded face of a death eater whose name I cannot remember, smirking cruelly at me. "Out for a stroll, pretty boy?" he drawled, mockingly, in a thick, rusty voice and then kicked me hard in the ribs twice before continuing, "Didn't mommy tell you not to go out of house after bed time? Now, you are going to learn what happens when you wander off at such places after dark, pretty boy." Pointing his wand at my face, he started, "avad-" when blinding red and orange light appeared straight above us and took shape of a Phoenix. The Phoenix itself flew out of the flames seconds later and swinged right at my attacker making him fall backward. The huge bird swooped in again and attacked the confused death eater, while I felt myself release from the curse, maybe due to the distraction of person who casted it. Jumping to my feet, I ran to my wand and cast a spell at my attacker, who now lay writhing on the ground, stunning him into stillness. The Phoenix, Fawkes I think, flew off him and sat smoothly far ahead on a tree where now I could see two shadows appeared out of nowhere. They sped towards me and I realized they were Lupin and tonks, hurrying towards me with wands in their hands. Reaching my side, both pointed their wands at the stunned death eater while eying me, Tonks asked, "Are you OK, Bill?" "I am fine. How did you both found out I was attacked?" "Fawkes. She keeps an eye on the things here and saw the intruder sneak up on you. Sent us both a word and then returned here to help. Hope she was on time?" Lupin replied, making the last part like a question, eying the bruises on me while mending the wall which was vandalized by the fight. Trying to take his attention off me, having no intention to have them or mom fuss over me, I answered while eying the man on ground who was now getting tied up in thick ropes from the tip of tonks' wand, "Just in time, actually. Are you taking him to Dumbledore?" "Yes, he is expecting us in a few minutes. I believe we were not the only ones she informed. Wingardium leviosa." As the tied up death eater's body floated in the air, Tonks turned her concerned eyes on me and asked, "You look quite beat. Let's go and I'll tend you." As I walked a bit towards the place where I am allowed to apparate, the pain rattling through my body made the offer tempting enough to say yes, but even as I thought about it, I felt my feet dragging with bone deep exhaustion left after a rush of adrenaline from the fight. I just wanted to go home and crawl in bed and pass out. "Thank you ,tonks but I just want to go home." Even as she opened her mouth to protest, I cut her off by saying, "Please? I know you want to help, but I'll much rather go home. I promise I'll tend them before going to bed though. And if you really want to help, then just send me a letter on what I missed by not going with you both tonight." Still eying me with concern and suspicion, they each took a hand of the death eater and lupin said, "send a word if you need us." Just before they were to turn on the spot to apparate, I said, "Guys, thanks for coming to my rescue. And... Don't tell mom or dad about this. I don't want them to worry without any real reason." With a nod, they turned on the spot and vanished in the air with the death eater, leaving me alone on the dark street. I stood there for a second, feeling up my bruised jaw, maybe a cracked rib or two, cut lip, slightly bleeding forehead, shooting pain in the skull topping it all with exhaustion and pain throughout the body. Fawkes hooted somewhere above me from the tree and looking in the general direction of him I said, "Thanks for saving my life, Fawkes." As I heard her hoot again, answering my gratitude, I spun on the spot to head for my apartment, while preparing myself for a rough night that still remained ahead of me.