Chapter fifteen
"Bill, this is Nell Burton and Harry Potter," said Mrs. Weasley. He nodded solemnly, but his eyes twinkled at Nell. She found it much more charming than Dumbledore's twinkle, but she still wasn't eager to navigate the minefield of the attempted set-up.
Harry stretched out his hand politely, and Bill soberly shook it. Nell followed suit. Bill held her hand a little bit longer than he had Harry's. She tried not to draw her hand back too quickly for politeness' sake, but she suspected her retreat may have been a bit swift. If it was, Bill gave no outward sign.
"Well!" said Mr. Weasley, rubbing his hands together. "Is dinner nearly ready, dear?"
"Just a few minutes," she replied. "Why don't you lot head into the family room and chat?"
Nell managed to seat Harry between herself and Bill. Harry was looking at the young man in fascination. Nell thought he looked quite interesting, as well.
He was exactly the kind of young man Vernon Dursley would have dismissed as a 'hoodlum', she thought. Long hair, earring, leather boots. Harry, of course, was enthralled.
"How are you, Harry?" Bill asked jovially. "Like your new mum?"
He nodded. "Yeah, I like her. I think I'll keep her," he added slyly.
Bill barked a laugh. "But will she keep you is the question, kiddo," he said.
Harry looked worriedly up at Nell. She slid her hand reassuringly onto his and squeezed. He smiled slightly and looked back at Bill. "Yeah, I think she'll keep me. I bring joy into her dull, grey life," he said, apparently quite seriously.
Nell shook with suppressed giggles, but when Harry met her eyes, she couldn't stop her laugh. Harry joined her, and after a moment, Bill did too.
Over their laughs, Mrs. Weasley called them into the kitchen for dinner.
Once more, through some quick finagling and by avoiding eye contact with Molly, Nell seated Harry between herself and Bill. He didn't seem to mind -- or notice. Instead, he launched into a wild tale about goblins and cursed gold.
And then another. And another. Finally, to break the chain of the progressively wilder and wilder stories, Nell asked, "What do you do for a living, Bill?"
"Oh, didn't I say?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "I'm a curse-breaker for Gringotts Bank. I'm working at the London branch for now, but I'm hoping to get an assignment abroad in the next couple of years."
"Is -- were those stories true, then?" asked Nell, feeling overwhelmed and a bit silly.
"Every word," he averred, although his eyes were a bit too merry for Nell to quite believe him.
To her surprise, the meal was pleasant. Mrs. Weasley avoided any overt matchmaking, and Bill enthralled Harry and his younger siblings with his tall tales. In turn, Harry regaled him with the story of his new, talkative journal. At the telling, Mr. Weasley looked concerned, and Nell made eye contact, nodding at him. He'd want to see the journal, and frankly, she'd feel better if he did so sooner rather than later.
It was after dinner, when they had gathered in the family room, that the trouble started.
Molly began innocuously, if obviously, enough. "What does your boyfriend think about you adopting Harry, Nell?"
"Oh," she said casually, "I haven't a boyfriend."
"Are you worried about getting one now that you have a child to take care of?" At this question, Harry's concerned gaze shot to Nell's face.
"No," she said firmly. "Anyone I date will have to love Harry as much as I do." He looked relieved.
"Then you might do better to date in the wizarding world -- it's a safe bet that they'd probably love him already, just for being the Boy-Who-Lived."
Nell scowled. "They'll have to love him better than that. All your children lived, after all, didn't they?"
Silence fell. She cocked her head, realising that she had just made a major error. "Oh God. I'm sorry, didn't they?"
Molly sighed. "We had a daughter, between Charlie and Percy. We were a target during the War -- Arthur's never been shy about his political views -- and she wandered too far from the wards. We were lucky -- we found her body. So many didn't, you know." She dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief her husband quietly handed her.
"Oh, God," said Nell, feeling utterly horrified at her casual words. "I'm so sorry."
"So you can see why we honour our children so much," said Molly, recovering but still a bit damp-eyed.
Nell nodded. "Of course."
Molly's line of questioning dried up for the time being, and they conversed on more light topics -- Mr. Weasley's latest confiscation, the twins' pranks, Bill's anecdotes.
But the reprieve couldn't last, Nell well knew.
Sure enough, Molly began again. This time, she started with Bill. "Are you dating again, dear?" She added, parenthetically to Nell, "He recently broke up with his Hogwarts' sweetheart."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," she said sympathetically. "I had a bad breakup recently myself. Are you still friends?"
Bill nodded. "It was completely mutual -- she wanted me to settle down, and I wanted her to come to Peru or Egypt or wherever with me. So we decided to part as friends, and maybe meet up when our priorities go together better."
"Oh, that's a bad idea," said Nell immediately. "Cecily wanted to try again after a bit, and it just made everything three times harder. Once you have an end, let it stay an end."
"Who's Cecily, dear?" asked Mrs. Weasley mildly.
Nell hadn't noticed that she'd said Cecily's name out loud. She cringed inwardly; she hadn't really intended to come out to her safe-house hosts if she could avoid it, in case of any unpleasantness. Harry had to stay here, where he'd be protected.
She sighed. No hope for it, and maybe the Weasleys would take it as well as her mother had. "Oh, Cecily is my ex-girlfriend," she said, no sign of her inner turmoil showing.
Mrs. Weasley gasped. "Girlfriend?" Nell nodded. Mrs. Weasley's eyes blazed. "How dare you try to adopt a child! Doesn't he deserve a stable home life? How do you think you're going to give him that, if you're out living that kind of lifestyle?"
"What kind of lifestyle, exactly, do you think I live?" Nell asked evenly. She maintained a serene expression, but inwardly, she was cursing a bluer streak than the Marauder book. Damn, damn, damn. She'd thought better of Molly, really.
She cast a sudden look at Harry. He was listening, wide-eyed. She smiled hesitantly at him, and he smiled back, just as hesitant. She gestured to him, and he came to sit closely next to her. As long as Harry didn't mind, she supposed, she could take whatever Molly said.
Currently, Molly was sputtering like an over-boiled kettle.
Mr. Weasley was calmer; calm enough to explain Molly's overreaction. "The wizarding world is small, Nell. A woman deciding not to have chidren -- well, it's not considered to be very responsible. The prejudice against Muggleborn wizards and witches is dying down, I hope, but most witches still want large families."
Nell snorted. "Doesn't sound like the prejudice has died down much," she said, indicating Molly, who puffed up even more at this flippancy.
"It's downright selfish!" she exclaimed. "And it's not decent."
"Now, Mum --" started Bill.
"Don't you 'now mum' me, William!" she screeched. "You!" she turned her fulminating glare back on Nell, who recognised the signs of a bawling-out, now that Molly -- or Mrs. Weasley now, she supposed -- had regained her senses. And volume. Nell winced.
Harry was listening to all this quietly, and when Nell sneaked a glance at him, he had his eyes shut tightly. She was surprised, really, that Mrs. Weasley hadn't sent the children from the room. She supposed that the other woman had simply forgotten.
Suddenly, "Shut up!" said Harry, jumping up from his seat. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!" And he dashed from the room as if his heels were on fire. Ron barrelled after him. Ginny and the twins must have sneaked out earlier, Nell absently noted. She hadn't exactly been paying attention, the last few minutes.
The shouting stopped. Nell looked away from the door. Mrs. Weasley was holding her throat, her eyes wide.