Chapter 2: The Arrival

Fleur Delacour was walking around the kitchen and humming a happy tune. The prospect of being married to her beloved Bill in only one week thrilled her to no end. Nothing could take her away from the cloud that she was on, she only wished that Bill was there now so that she could hold him in her arms and run her fingers through his long red hair.

"Oh Fleur," Molly Weasley made her way into the kitchen, "why did you stop, you have such a lovely voice."

"I am just missing Bill," Fleur said, "I wish 'e was 'ere."

"I know," Molly said, "but this should cheer you up," she said handing Fleur a piece of parchment.

"When did zhis arrive?" she asked Mrs. Weasley

"Just this morning by owl." Fleur read the note.

Dearest Fleur:

I am writing to you from the Leaky Cauldron, where I am staying the night to pick up a friend of mine from King's Cross Station for the wedding. I will be bringing him home the day after tomorrow, I am sure that you and the family will love him, he is a gentleman, a scholar, and will be very helpful around the house in preparing for the wedding. I love you more than I could ever express in words, but I will have the rest of both our lives to try.

I remain yours forever,

Bill.

PS Please give the other note to my mum, merci.

Fleur couldn't help but smile at the merci at the end of the note and then took the other note to give to her soon to be mother-in-law. "Molly," Fleur called out enthusiastically, "eet's from Bill, and zere is a note for you as well."

Mrs. Weasley came and took her note, "thank you Fleur." She read Bill's note to her:

Mum:

I am staying the night at the Leaky Cauldron and will be coming home the day after tomorrow. I will be bringing my best man with me and would like it if he could stay with us. He doesn't need a bed and is even content with sleeping outside. I only ask that he be allowed to stay with us, I want all of you to meet him, and be warned that he is a Muggle, so some things may be odd or new to him. Will see you soon.

Your son,

Bill

PS We will need a place to keep two horses for about a week.

Molly was thrilled to hear that Bill would be home…she checked the date on the note, "today!" she exclaimed aloud prompting a response from Fleur and Ginny.

"What is it?" Ginny asked slightly alarmed.

"Harrel must have delivered these," Mrs. Weasley said in a frantic tone, "Bill is coming here today, and he is bringing his best man with him!"

"Bill is coming home today?" Fleur said in delight.

"But we can't have his friend seeing the house like this" Mrs. Weasley said in an alarmed tone.

Fleur and Ginny, who had become like sisters over the last little while, knew that there was no arguing with Mrs. Weasley at this point. The result being that the three of them, and Mr. Weasley when he arrived home from work, spent the day sweeping, dusting, and other wise making the Burrow presentable for Bill and their arriving guest, as well as preparing a place for the horses, which was done by transfiguring a tree into a small stable. After they finished sprucing up the place, they settled down for a little rest. After a few moments, they heard horses approaching and prepared to greet Bill and their guest.

Bill and Sean rode in on the two horses that Sean had arranged with the Order of St. George to be left for them in London. They came to a stop a few paces before the Burrow and dismounted.

"You can see the stable from here" Bill said to Sean as he gestured to the stable to the side. "We'll take the horses there together and then you can meet the family." Sean nodded and they led the horses up the hill to the stable.

Soon after they finished loading the horses they started towards the Burrow and saw a few figures coming out of the house. Bill ran ahead as one figure began running towards them, Sean could see them embrace. Bill picked up the young woman and spun her around in the air, before placing her on the ground and planting a long passionate kiss on her lips.

"I missed you," Fleur said to Bill.

"You know I will always come back to you" Bill said "I'd be stupid not to."

"William Weasley," Mrs. Weasley said as she embraced her son.

"Hey mum," Bill said as he embraced her and kissed her on the cheek.

"Hey there big brother" Ginny said coming to Bill's side and giving him a hug.

"Nice to see you son," Mr. Weasley said giving Bill a man hug "how is work?" Bill waved Sean over and he came by the light next to the front door, he was still dressed in his monk's hood and cloak, with his crucifix on the outside of the robe…and then he threw back the hood.

All three of the women had to suppress gasps when they saw him remove his hood and reveal his blonde crew cut, strong handsome face, and Prussian blue eyes. Since she was the only one who was single, Ginny was especially taken aback by the 5'10" 175 pound muscular monk standing before them all.

"Fleur, Mum, Dad, Ginny," Bill began "this is my good friend Sean O'Sullivan, I have invited him to be the best man at the wedding."

Sean began to personally greet all the people before him, starting with Fleur. "You must be the bride, enchante mademoiselle," Sean said in his thick Irish accent as he kissed Fleur's extended hand.

"You speak Fraunch?" Fleur asked.

"Oui," Sean responded.

"I can tell that you are not from France with your accent," Fleur began in French, "so where did you learn?" she asked still in French.

Sean responded in perfect French with "In what I do, we are often sent to foreign lands. I always like to learn some of the language, I became fluent in French when I was given an assignment there."

"It's so interesting to hear my language spoken with an accent instead of me always speaking a different language in my accent" Fleur responded with undisguised enthusiasm.

"I am glad to bring you some measure of happiness," Sean responded "I promise only to speak to you in French."

Fleur was beyond impressed with Sean's cavalier and gentlemanly manner as well as his prowess at speaking her language. He next moved on to Ginny who was awning him to no end. This was the first real young adult male she had seen, and despite his imperfections, she thought he looked perfect.

"You must be Ginerva," Sean stated as he gently took her hand and brought his lips to it. Although no one would have noticed it, Sean was pausing to stare at the young woman in front of him. Ginny was now sporting a sexy athletic figure to go with her long red hair. Her features were maturing quite nicely and she had become a beautiful young woman at sixteen years of age. She now stood at five feet six inches, an inch taller than her best friend Hermione Granger.

Sean came out of his pause to continue to the obviously awe-struck woman in front of him. "Your brother has told me much about you."

"Oh," Ginny sighed, "Y…Y…you can c-c-c-call me G-g-g-Ginny, and I…I…I hope that it was all…good." Sean was slightly confused as to why Ginny was acting the way she was around him, but didn't think much of it.

"Of course," Sean said, "he tells me you are quite the brainy athlete and that you are a great little sister." After a brief pause with Sean waiting for a response, and Ginny simply staring at him almost dumbfounded, Sean said "a pleasure to meet you," and then moved onto Mrs. Weasley.

"You must be the mother," Sean said as he kissed Mrs. Weasley's hand the same way he had Fleur and Ginny. "You are obviously a good woman for Bill to turn out the way he did."

"Oh," Mrs. Weasley said flustered, "thank you." It was obvious to Bill that what he had written about his family loving Sean was dead on accurate, if Sean didn't practice celibacy in the Order of St. George, he would've had more women than Casanova.

He reached out and took Mr. Weasley's hand in a firm hand shake, "Mr. Weasley, it is a pleasure to meet you."

"Like wise young man" Mr. Weasley responded.

"Well," Mrs. Weasley began, "I am sure that you and your friend"

"Forgive me for interrupting," Sean interjected, "but please call me Sean."

"Terribly sorry" Mrs. Weasley said, "but I am sure that the two of you would like to come in and relax, I've made some soup and you could have some hot tea."

"That would be wonderful," Bill replied, with his arm now around Fleur's waist as she leaned against his chest.

They all went inside and sat down in the main room while Mrs. Weasley brought Bill and Sean their soup and tea. Bill had warned Sean that there would most likely be a lot of questioning from his family, so Sean was prepared.

"So," Mrs. Weasley began, "where are you from originally Sean?"

"I come from Ireland," Sean stated.

"Where about?" she further inquired.

"A town called Mullingar, it's northwest of Dublin, around the central part of the island" Sean replied.

"Is that where you studied," Mrs. Weasley continued, "Bill tells me you are quite the scholar."

"I don't know about that," Sean replied slightly embarrassed, "I have studied quite a bit though in my life."

"In Ireland?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"As well as France, China, Japan, Thailand, Hungary, and Romania" Sean replied, pausing to recall all the places where he had studied and learned.

"Wow," Ginny said unable to contain her wonder and fascination. "What were you studying?" she added.

Sean paused for a moment; he didn't think it best to tell them that he was mainly studying different fighting styles in China, Japan, and Thailand, so he said what he had been studying in the other three.

"My guardian wanted me to get a good education, he says that knowledge is power. So, he sent me around the world to learn about different cultures and languages. I also learned about the basic things such as mathematics, history, the arts and so forth."

"Do you speak any of the languages of the places where you went?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"I learned all of them while I was there" Sean answered. There wasn't much conversation for a while after that since Ginny, Fleur, and Mrs. Weasley were all looking Sean over…they couldn't believe that he was a Muggle, he looked like some kind of Olympian deity with short hair or a male Veela.

Mr. Weasley however was thrilled to finally have a real Muggle in his home as a guest, he didn't know where to begin. "Where have you been lately?" Mr. Weasley finally got out.

"I have been in Romania for the past while" Sean answered.

"Ah," Mr. Weasley began, "have you by any chance met my son Charles, he tames dragons there."

"Bill actually asked me about that," Sean began, "but I've been there on assignment and haven't had opportunities to look people up."

Mr. Weasley couldn't help himself any longer, he let out a Muggle question that had been tormenting him for ages, "Can you tell me…" Mr. Weasley began with a very eager and inquisitive tone, "what is the purpose of a rubber duck?"

Sean remembered having one as a child, and he explained that it was a simple toy used to entertain infants and young children while they were being bathed, absolutely thrilling Mr. Weasley.

Most of the evening passed with Mr. Weasley prying Sean for more information about Muggles and their way of life. Sean was apologetic about not being able to answer all of his questions, explaining that he had lived a monastic lifestyle since he was five years old so he couldn't answer all of them. He was however able to give Mr. Weasley a basic answer as to how an airplane stays up, which fascinated Mr. Weasley to no end.

After dinner Sean volunteered to clean up, but Mrs. Weasley explained that the dishes would clean themselves. Sean was taken aback, and then he saw the dishes being cleaned without anyone having to scrub them. He couldn't mask his astonishment, Fleur and the Weasleys watched as Sean ran his hands around the dishes looking for wires or anything else that would explain how this was possible.

After a minute or two Bill offered to show Sean to his room.

Sean awoke very early the next morning like he was used to doing back at the monasteries, he made his bed and looked around for anything else he could do. When he found nothing, he dressed himself in his training robes, which were fashioned in the style of Chinese martial arts robes with a black belt holding them closed, took some of his weapons that he had in his duffle bag, and went outside to train.

He loved being outside in the open air, especially in the secluded countryside where the Burrow was located. He took a long and deep breath first, and then began his warm-up. After doing fifty knuckle push-ups, he did one hundred sit-ups and some stretches. The last part of his warm-up was his split, he found a couple of stools in the stable, set them about a foot apart, jumped up in the air, and spread out his legs across them. He had learned to drown out the pain and strain, and instead focused on emptying his mind as his legs and groin muscles held up his body.

After about a minute, he came down and began to practice his unarmed combat, he punched, kicked, blocked, elbowed, kneed, and parried at the air until he was satisfied. He then picked up his two swords and practiced with them, first one at a time in each hand, and then together. After this he did the same with a pair of large knives. He then strapped a metal crossbow to his left arm and practiced shooting arrows at a notch in a nearby tree. He hit the notch dead center with the first arrow, and then fired nine more, each one splitting the previously fired one perfectly down the center. He finished his training by running around the burrow grounds, letting out several heated breaths as he finished.

Unknown to him, his training had attracted an audience, Mrs. Weasley had been the first to notice after she had sent Arthur off to work, and just sat in front of the window watching him.

After a while Fleur and Ginny had joined her and remained there watching, with the three of them giving off audible gasps when the wind would bring Sean's robe out enough for them to get a glimpse of his toned mid-section. "'E is so 'andsome," Fleur swooned, "like something frum a fairy tale."

"Gilderoy Lockhart couldn't hold a candle to him, that's for sure" Mrs. Weasley remarked.

"He must be a male Veela." Ginny stated. "If all Muggles look like him," she continued "then I need to go live in the Muggle world after Hogwarts."

They were all caught up in their observing when Bill came in and made them all jump when he asked, "Is there something going on out there that I should be aware of?"

"Ahh!" the three of them gasped at once, as they turned to see Bill standing in the doorway with his long hair flowing back and a smile across his face.

"It's okay for Ginny because she's single, but mother," Bill said in a playfully mortified tone, "you should be ashamed of yourself."

"Oooh," Mrs. Weasley said looking back at Sean as he did a foot-sweep followed by a turn-around kick and then a flying heel kick, "if I wasn't married I would go after that young man."

"I wish I was older," Ginny added with disgust.

"You are a great man," Fleur said to her fiancée as she came to give him his good morning hug and kiss, "but I 'ave to admit that your friend is very 'andsome."

"I think he's gorgeous," Ginny stated straight up, "are you sure that he's a Muggle?"

"I'm sure," Bill said as he finished kissing his Fleur and brought her to rest under his head as she leaned against the front of his chest. "But I am glad to see that I was right."

"Right about what?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"That all of you would absolutely love him."