Chapter 3: Back to the Start

Author's Note: I have slightly adjusted Bill's age so that he and Charlie are just one year apart instead of two so that we could have them both at the castle for the events of this fanfic.

She's got a smile that it seems to me
Reminds me of childhood memories
Where everything was as fresh as the bright blue sky

September 1st , 1989

In every person's life, there are moments that go on to influence their future. Deceptively, they are usually the most mundane, innocuous things that are only recognised for their importance in hindsight.

Kate Bianco looked up from where she plucked a handful of weeds from the veggie patch, wiping sweat from her brow.

A second pair of gloves laid discarded on the edge of the wheelbarrow.

"Dad?"

Kate pulled off her own gloves, hearing only the chuckle of a kookaburra from one of the gum trees overhanging the garden in reply. She slowly walked around the passages of raised garden beds, dodging ranging chickens as she went.

An old worn slouch hat was the first sign of her father. A sloping, weather-beaten face turned, and he waved her over to where he crouched by the lettuce crop.

"Down here!"

Kate crouched beside her father, his sunny blond hair peeking out from the brim of his hat. The little nicks and scars on his arms and legs were on display in his khaki work shorts and worn navy buttoned work shirt rolled up to his elbows. Anchored by his leather ankle boots, he was a steady weight, muscular and safe.

"Something's been getting into your Mum's garden." said Adam Bianco, lifting the gnawed lettuce leaves.

Kate frowned, "Gnome?"

"Most likely," he said, tuning to his daughter with grin, "Know what to do?"

Kate nodded, and pulled out her wand from her pocket and twirled in a circle.

"Appare Vestigium."

There was a swirl of brilliant gold that settled on the surrounding dirt, leaving behind a trail of glittering tiny tracks.

With a quick glance to one another, Kate and her father carefully tread alongside the tracks, all the way to the compost bin.

Adam threw the lid of the bin open, and inside was a gnome – that proceeded to choke on it's turnip at the sight of them as Adam gave a loud cry of "Aha!"

Producing his wand, he pointed it at the gnome, "That'll teach you… greedy little bugger – Anapneo,"

The soggy remains of the turnip were magically drawn out of the gnome's airway.

"Stupefy."

In another quick flick of his wand, a blue light shot out, stunning the stirring creature.

Picking up the small cap-wearing creature, Adam gave Kate a smile and nodded to the tree line in the distance, "Alright, let's go drop him home."

Kate, brimming with eagerness, fetched two brooms from their bulging broom shed, always accepting an invitation to go flying with her Dad.

Side by side, they flew to the edge of the property where the gnomes had made a burrow for themselves by the creek bed. Adam pretended to drop the gnome jokingly half-way there, but the gnome was safely returned before the father and daughter began their return trip to the glaring white home in the centre of the clearing.

Not before Kate caught the sight of a black dot growing larger just beyond the trees.

"Helicopter!"

Her Dad lifted his wand quickly "Ventus!"

A gust of wind knocked the helicopter far enough off course that the broomstick riders would not have been spotted by the muggles.

"Good spot!" called Adam over the wind in their ears, "We should probably fly lower, back into the Fidelius Charm's protection!"

The short barks of Leo, the family's dog, guided them in to land. The dog rubbed against Kate's legs in greeting, walking with them up to the house with happy brown eyes and tail wagging furiously.

In the kitchen, dishes were scrubbing themselves. A radio warbled with an announcement of the approaching witching hour with the singing sorceress Celestina Warbeck. A pot on the stove stirred itself, smelling richly of tomatoes and garlic. Walking past the living room, a fireplace flickered green.

Adam swept his wife into his arms, exaggerating his accent, "G'day, darlin'."

He danced her in a circle to the tune of 'A hot steaming cauldron of love' on the wireless.

Strawberry blonde hair was swept up in a clip and the fresh smell of lemon and talc powder filled the air, along with a joyous womanly laugh.

Elizabeth Bianco rested hands on her husband's cleanly shaven cheeks, turning to her daughter, "Both of you need a shower before we go – off with you."

The gentle instruction was followed by the two that had been out in the garden all morning, Kate going to her room to double check that she had packed everything.

Leo padded in on the floorboards behind her, settling down by her doors leading out onto the wrap around balcony, catching the breeze through his long black and tan fur. All the while he watched her, head resting on his paws.

Kate took in the light blue sheets on her bed, the large shell she'd found at the beach down the road on her dresser, and the enchanted mobile of quidditch players throwing a quaffle back and forth and two in pursuit of a snitch by her desk.

"Katie."

Kate crossed the hallway to her older sister's room, lingering in the doorway beside the mirror that judged your outfit. The purple bed spread was always the first thing Kate saw on entry to the room, a feather boa across her headboard. In front of the vanity stacked with sleek-ezy potions and an enchanted brush, was her long-legged, guitar playing boyfriend, Heathcote. Though everyone called him Heath.

Blonde hair hanging down by her waist, Felicity fussed around Heathcote where she was cutting his glistening black hair.

Heathcote often sounded as if he had a cold when he spoke, his English accent heavy, "Think, like, 1973 Jimmy Page…."

Felicity nodded with an expression of the upmost concentration, beginning to comb and snip his hair with her wand.

She glanced up at Kate with a quick grin, "I'll just finish up here, won't be a minute…"

"Why doesn't she help?" asked Heath, waving Kate over, "Hack away, little love."

Kate hesitated, "Are you sure?"

"I can take a potion that has my hair down to my ankles in seconds if I need to," said Heath, eyes sliding to her, shining with mirth, "But I trust ya'."

Felicity rolled her eyes and showed Kate what she was doing, "Just like this…"

At the end, Heath stood, pulling off the towel Felicity had wrapped around his shoulders. He bent over, shaking out his hair, before standing up and observing it in the mirror.

"Wicked… exactly what I wanted…" he said as he fussed with the pieces falling around his forehead.

He turned and kissed Felicity warmly on the cheek, before throwing himself across Felicity's bed.

Felicity picked up a potion off her vanity and turned to Kate.

"This potion… you use on your legs in the shower and it will stop the hair growing back for about six months," she explained, before showing Kate a specific little swirl of her wand, "But if you run out, there's this spell…"

Kate nodded, accepting potion upon potion that her sister claimed would be useful.

"Did Mum show you the spell for… you know…"

The girls were referencing the spell a young witch would put on her underwear once a month. It made it so that as soon as anything touched the fabric, it would be magically vanished.

Felicity blinked, holding up a finger, "Oh, you should change into your uniform and I'll show you the spell to tailor it."

Kate frowned.

"But it got fitted for me when I got it on that trip to Diagon Alley…"

Felicity turned to Kate with a patient expression, "We can't have you walking around with your skirt down to your ankles, Kate."

"I've practice to get to, I'm afraid," said Heath, standing and kissing the top of Felicity's head, "See you, Fliss,"

Heath reached out a hand and gripped Kate's shoulder, bending to her height.

"Katie," he said in farewell, clipping her chin, "Don't worry, you'll love Hogwarts – probably won't even want to come home at break."

Heath left out into the hallway and down the stairs, heard saying goodbye to the girls' parents before the Floo flared.

Kate observed herself in the mirror as Felicity tailored her uniform. It was far from scandalous, yet the slightly shorter hem of her skirt skimming the tops of her knees left Kate feeling exposed.

"Won't I get cold?"

"Bless you and your white cotton knickers..." said Felicity, holding a hand to her chest, before lifting her wand again, "If you need to let your clothes out when you're growing, you can just use this one…"

Felicity stood back and squinted at Kate's face, tilting her head this way and that.

"Your teeth are pretty good… your eyebrows aren't bushy yet either…"

Kate's hand went to her slack black tie with Hogwarts' insignia on it, "How do I…"

Felicity fetched her Hufflepuff tie hanging from over the mirror and stood beside Kate in front of the mirror.

"Under… over… up underneath…down through…"

Kate, delighted with her accomplishment, looked at it in the mirror.

Felicity sectioned off the top of Kate's hair and secured it with a mulberry ribbon, "There. Go grab your trunk – else we'll be late."

Kate did exactly that, spending the longest amount of time kissing Leo all over his furry face in farewell, telling him that she loved him dearly.

Eventually, her sister and her parents beckoned her through the floo to the leaky cauldron in London. From a backstreet, the family paired off and apparated to King's Cross Station.

Walking through the station, Felicity answered Kate's last questions about the castle, assuring her that she would be helped by Felicity's old Hufflepuff friend, Tonks, as Kate's sister had graduated the previous year and was not returning that year. Nymphadora Tonks had often visited the Bianco's in summers, going to the early Weird Sisters concerts with Felicity to support Heath and his bandmates.

The family of four passed through, helping push Kate's trolley towards the Hogwarts express.

Felicity pointed to a blur moving through the compartments of the train.

"I can see Tonks there, the pink hair – oh, and she's down…" Felicity winced in sympathy, before continuing on, "That looks like a Weasley helping her up."

Bill Weasley shuffled sideways against the foot traffic of the hallway into the Prefect Carriage at the front of the train. He glanced over his shoulder to the brother closest to him in age.

"Mrs Diggory or Rosmerta?"

Charlie tilted his head side to side, squinting his eyes, before saying, "'Merta – she played quidditch back in the day and knows how to make a mean butterbeer froth."

"Fair call." said Bill, tipping his head in concession, scooting around a Ravenclaw Prefect.

"How about… Hooch or Sinistra?" asked Charlie, eyes already creasing with laughter.

"You're a sick man," said Bill, shaking his head, sighing, "Ah, alright…"

Bill licked his lips in thought for a moment, eyeing the baggage hold above the boys' chosen booth.

"Professor Sinistra."

Charlie coughed before breaking into laughter as he lifted his trunk overhead with ease. He turned to his older brother with a beckoning hand.

"Here, pass up your trunk – I'll do both."

Bill handed his trunk over without complaint, lounging across his side of the seats and resting his hands behind his head, "I raised you well."

Charlie snorted, shirt lifting from where it had been tucked into his trousers with his effort to rearrange the two trunks neatly above them.

"You're only a year older than me – the only thing you taught me was how to roll over before I vomited in our cot."

Bill laughed as his brother righted his shirt, eyes flickering across the walkway from them.

"Holly Honeydew's watching you."

"What for?" Charlie frowned in confusion before he lifted a panicked hand to his face, "The twins haven't gotten me, have they?"

Bill shook his head, smiling.

"Charlie," said Bill, tipping his head to the brunette that had been eyeing his brother, "She's pretty."

Charlie did not spare a glance to the girl, "She couldn't pick a Knarl out of a group of Hedgehogs to save her life."

"To be fair, when would it?" said Bill, with raised eyebrows. He inclined his head before speaking again, "Not everyone is good with animals, mate."

Charlie shrugged.

"Anyway," said Charlie, tapping out a rhythm on the table between them, "I'm not too fond of dark hair either."

Bill grinned, leaning back further in his seat, "So, you do look at girls?"

Charlie gave an exasperated look in response.

Bill nodded behind Charlie, "What about Vera Lovelock?"

"Her eyes are too far apart."

Bill's eyebrows lifted, and he gave a faint mirthful smile.

"Argh!"

THUD!

Charlie did not need to lift his eyes, "Hullo, Tonks."

"Charlie!" said the pink-haired witch, dusting herself off, "Got to go, I'm afraid – see you at the carriages!"

With a grin, she was off and gone once more.

Charlie blinked, watching her go, "Merlin, where's the dungbomb?"

"Speaking of," said Bill, suspicion thick in his tone, "Have you seen the twins?"

The twins would be the first Weasleys that Kate would meet that night. First laying eyes upon them at the boats when Hagrid suggested they split into groups of four.

Tonks had farewelled her and promised to save a space for her at the Hufflepuff table. She had bounded off towards the carriages where she slung her arms around two red heads in Gryffindor robes.

"A young lady like yourself should come with us –"

"The giant squid will have to go through us to get to you."

One enthusiastically extended a hand, "Fred Weasley, and this is my little brother George."

"Delusional, this one." said George, with a jerk of his thumb at his brother and roll of his eyes.

Kate's smile ran away from her face as she recalled their first words, "Giant… squid?"

"Never fear –"

"– Our older brother Charlie said it hasn't eaten a first year –"

"– In at least a decade."

"This is Lee Jordan, by the way, he sat with us on the train."

And just like that, the four clambered into one boat, the identical Weasleys at the front and Kate and Lee behind them.

Looking back, Kate remembered a few things in great detail about her first night at the castle.

Tonks' hair had flashed an alarming shade of yellow when she saw Kate with the other First Years. She remembered McGonagall's voice yelling out "Bianco, Kate!" and how her legs nearly fell from beneath her at the words. She sat upon the stool and blocked out everyone's stares and looked for Tonks again, readying her legs for the journey to her table of –

"Gryffindor!"

The hat had barely touched a hair on her head.

The table of red-robed students clapped their first claimed student of the night. Tonks had changed her hair to a maroon and cheered Kate on still.

Not feeling the floor beneath her, Kate made the hesitant walk to a spot at the front of the Gryffindor table to whistles and whooping.

"Percy Weasley," said the nearest redhead, the one with the horn-rimmed spectacles, shaking her hand importantly, "Welcome to Gryffindor."

Angelina Johnson was the next to join Gryffindor, followed by Lee Jordan and Alicia Spinnet after some lengthy time under the sorting hat. They were all cheered for in the same manner as Kate by the older Gryffindors.

The cluster of red hair at the Gryffindor table grew as the last First Years ran down from the stool, celebrating like they had won the Quidditch World Cup.

The tallest red head with the 'Head Boy' badge none-too-gently ruffled the hair of the closest twin while the owner of the deep, hearty laugh pulled the other twin into a playful head lock, "Mum'll shed a tear – all of us together!". One of the twins, that Kate would come to recognise as Fred, slapped his horned-rimmed spectacle wearing brother so hard that his glasses flew off his nose and into his soup.

Wallace Thorburn was the Fifth Year Gryffindor Prefect that led the first years back to the Tower, bestowing the ever-changing password of Dewdrops on them before directing them all up to their respective dormitories. Politely taking turns in the bathroom adjoining their dormitory, the first year Gryffindor girls settled into their four-posted beds and slept.

All but one.

Kate tossed and turned. The stone walls leeched a coldness into the air, despite the wood burner in the middle of the dormitory. The quiet crackle of the wood did little to lull her off to sleep either. Her trunk at the foot of her bed, full of her things, was little comfort.

She had wished to hear her dog's feet tapping down the hallway. For the knowledge that her sister was sleeping behind the door across the hallway. To hear her Dad up late watching muggle news on the television. To know her Mum would be the first up in the kitchen in the morning with a kind smile and a gentle hand to stroke her hair.

And then she wished for the smaller things. For the cicadas in the cane fields bordering their property. For the white noise of the ceiling fan in her room. For the salt in the air.

With a glance out the window to the Lake, Kate briefly wished for her broom so that she could hop on and fly off home in the night.

The yearning for warm familiarity led Kate to the common room, to feel the unbridled heat of the raw flames and to stare into them instead of at her ceiling.

That's when she heard the portrait open and close, a pair of quiet footsteps coursing a path past where she sat.

"First night of patrols done…"

"Shame we can't always do them together, the way Vivian Lightfoot always blushes the entire time makes me feel like a prat. I don't know what to say to her so we just walk in silence."

The two eldest Weasleys emerged, the shorter of the pair clearing his throat.

"Dear Diary…Oh, that Bill!" his voice came out high and girlish, "One of these days he'll catch on to my coy looks and pull me into a broom closet and snog me senseless –"

Bill shoved his brother none too gently, despite a grin, "Sod off, Charlie!"

"Oi!" said Charlie, catching himself and laughing.

Bill sighed, "Even if she was even remotely interesting, I'm too busy with gunning for twelve N.E.W.T's this year..."

Charlie's feet halted, and his eyes slid suddenly to the fireplace. Something unreadable flooded his previously amused features. Slowly, he stepped over, seeming to be acutely aware of his size as he squatted down, his features softened in smile.

"Kate?" asked Charlie, eyes creasing gently, "Everything alright?"

Her insides seemed to jump in surprise at the fact that he knew her name.

Kate looked at her knees, "I… couldn't sleep and I didn't want to wake the other girls by tossing and turning."

"Homesick?"

Kate nodded, eyes still on her knees.

Charlie seated himself, crossing his legs and fishing around in his robe pockets.

"My Mum always says that sweets before bed will give you nightmares, but I think we can make an exception," he said lightly, extending a large hand. In the palm was glinting ruby foil, likely to be covering a chocolate ball the size of a snitch, "Chocolate cauldron?"

His eyes weren't brown like the twins, Kate realised as the flickering flames danced across his open, sloping face. An earnest hazel shone across at her, lines creasing at the edges.

"Thank you," said Kate, gently accepting the ruby ball.

His fingers were warm as they glanced past hers in the exchange, and Kate tried for some polite conversation.

"It's a bit nippy, tonight." she said, before plopping the chocolate in her mouth.

"There's a northerly blowing in," said Charlie, nodding. As if suddenly remembering something, he pulled off his outer robe and cast it over her knees, "Here."

Charlie rearranged his robe over her to make sure her socked feet were under, before running a hand through his hair, not as red as his brothers' – almost blond. Despite his smoothing, his wavy hair seemed to remain consummately flicked up at his ears.

"Thank you." said Kate, feeling warmed by both the caring act and the robe.

Charlie gave a quick, modest smile, before leaning back on an elbow against the couch, "Did you bring a pet with you to Hogwarts? Sometimes that helps with home sickness."

Kate shook her head, feeling her eyes prickle. She busied herself with tracing the two badges on Charlie's robe, one emblazoned with 'Prefect' and the other with 'Captain'.

"No… we have a dog at home, but the rules don't allow for them here."

Charlie clicked his tongue, nudging her gently with his elbow, "Stupid rule, really."

Bill edged closer from where he had been observing the two, perching himself on the arm of the chair opposite the two on the rug.

Kate had almost forgotten he was there.

With a nod to his brother, Bill offered Kate a mirthful smile, "Charlie wants a crup puppy, but Mum said it wouldn't happen under her roof."

Charlie suddenly became more like the boy that had been ribbing his brother earlier – shaking his head, eyes alight. He looked to Kate, as if pleading his case.

"I tried to reason that it would stay in the garden shed –"

"Yeah, right," said Bill, pushing off the arm of the chair and joining them on the floor, "You'd have it sleeping in your bed the first night –"

Bill leant closer to Kate conspiratorially, eyes glittering as they flickered to Charlie.

"– a bleeding heart for animals, this one." said Bill, whispering none-too-quietly.

Charlie pushed Bill back playfully, but the two brothers continued to regale Kate with funny stories from their home – The Burrow – and their time at the castle.

Bill's hair was slightly longer than Charlie's, tucked behind his ears and ending at his collar, and his eyes were – oddly – blue. He had a raring wit, she quickly discovered, and was more verbose than Charlie - who was not to be easily out done, though quieter than his eldest brother. The two played off each other seamlessly.

She saw great likeness to their younger brothers, Fred and George, in their verbal sparring, and voiced it to the elder pair.

Bill shared an amused glance with Charlie, a short laugh escaping the eldest of the Weasley brood, "Where do you think they learnt it from?"

Author's Note: Thank you for reading! :)

*Song at the beginning is Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns N' Roses.

Music will feature alongside this fic as I believe it's a good reminder of the era the events of this fic - and the Harry Potter books - will traverse through.