Chapter Three

3.1

Percy took a deep breath in as he felt all air pushed out of him from what he had just heard. It was a mistake, an error, it had to be some kind of error. William Weasley was now a recorded lycanthrope. This information was floating around the Ministry already and it had probably happened a while back and been drowned out by the news of Dumbledore's passing the same night. He had to deny it. If only for his own sanity, he had to imagine that such as thing to happen to his eldest brother wasn't true, it was a lie, it was not going to make any difference to him since he was living outside of his family anyway.

One of the men who was in a position below him stuck his head into the door, looking a little nervous. "Is it true?" the man asked. Percy raised an eyebrow as he stared at Richard. "That your brother got bitten and did the change?"

"I don't know anything about that," Percy said. That wasn't really a lie, everything he had heard said hadn't been from Bill himself or any type of first hand knowledge. He wouldn't be convinced of it until he had the facts presented to him.

"Yeah. Well I guess you wouldn't care about it anyway, you never seem close with your family," Richard shrugged and Percy nodded before busying himself sorting papers. He took a slow breath as he tried to steady himself. Bill had always been the brother he had looked up to the most and as the oldest of the children, he had tried to be a good big brother and a good role model for them. Bill was always trying to keep the peace within the family as well and although he and Charlie were closer, when he had tried to join their games, it had been Bill who had encouraged Charlie to let him be a part of it.

Weren't there also rumors that Bill was going to get married? Percy didn't want to jump through the hoops which would get him invited to that union but the lady who he was marrying, what would she think of this attack? Most people would run away from such a thing. He couldn't believe that anyone who had fallen for his brother's handsomeness would want to be with something so….so repulsive. It made the hair on his arms stand up just thinking about it.

Well, it didn't really have much to do with him anyway, nor did he know how to prevent it or aid in it not happening. He just had to keep his head and shoulders straight and up and pursue his work. Power and career would grant him what he wanted in life, not that foolish notion of family.

3.2

"You said you would help me practice on the broom," Charlie said as he put a hand on Bill's shoulder and shook him. Charlie was going into his third year at Hogwarts whereas Bill was a fifth year. As they sat there Percy watched them.

"I can help you too, I can calculate the air pressure or something, isn't that good with brooms?" Percy said and Charlie sighed.

"No little kids. It's just us older kids," Charlie whined and Bill chuckled.

"He can just come and watch, right?" Bill asked. "If you just sit there and watch, you can learn things yourself and then you'll do great at flying lessons when you get to the school in a couple of years."

"Really?" Charlie sighed, "We'll be going fast though. I'm not going to slow down just because you're letting him watch."

"Watching you fly quickly will be more interesting," Percy told them and Bill shrugged as he turned to Charlie who sighed and nodded.

"Just don't tell the others," Bill said as he put a finger to his lips. "It's a secret."

"Yeah, you better keep it a secret," Charlie said and Percy nodded quickly to them. Bill laughed as he pushed a hand through his hair and as the memory faded, he felt as if something else was brushing through his hair.

3.3

Bill flinched as he felt a hand brush through his hair and he looked up into the darkness. He smiled as he felt the icy hair fall upon his cheek and grinned at his fiancée. "Hey," he said and Fleur kissed his forehead.

"You were having such a hard time, baby," Fleur said as she got some of the ointment and put it on his wounds. She sat at the side of the bed and took his hand, she squeezed it a little. "Bad dream. I have a lot of bad dreams sometimes but my best dreams are with you."

Bill smiled as he took her in. Fleur was always so unbelievably gorgeous, her voice was so charming with her French accent, and her mind, her creativity and intelligence. She might only speak English as a second language but he could listen to her forever since everything she said had so much depth and purpose.

"It was a good dream actually….a memory…" he said and Fleur smiled to him before going over to kneel where she had just been sleeping.

"A good dream, do I get to know it?" she asked and Bill took her hand again.

"It was a memory of me and Charlie and Percy when we were kids," he said before sighing. He had been injured at Hogwarts and even though Percy was still in England, there was such a divide between him and between everyone else. As for Charlie, how would he take this change in him. Of all his brothers, he had obviously been closest with Charlie. Percy was six years younger than he was and Ginny had been born just before he turned eleven. He loved all of his siblings but it wasn't the most fun to be spending time with toddlers and babies. Charlie had been just the right age for them to bond together.

Now, in saying that, his dragon-loving brother would probably talk about how cool and underrated werewolves actually were even if that was just to get his mind off of the pain and for them to have some fun together. Whether he meant it or not was debatable but he would say it.

Charlie was a person who brought with him a lot of optimism and positive energy. Maybe he should write to him, try to get some advice. They were both the oldest boys in the family, together as a unit there were meant to be mentors. Now he needed his sibling to help him.

"Oh, your mother told me something last night when you were sleeping," Fleur said as she kissed Bill's cheek. "Your brother Charlie who…he trains the dragons," she shivered as she remembered facing down the dragon at the Triwizard Cup. "He is coming here to see the family since it is now your summer break."

"Makes sense," Bill nodded as he started to sit up and Fleur quickly moved forward in case he might need some help.

"I think he wants to see you most," Fleur told him before looking at her wedding ring. "I would like to meet all of my brothers-in-law one day," she told him and Bill gently kissed her and let his head rest against hers.

"I hope that you're able to as well," he said honestly as he thought back on that memory. How would Percy react if he heard this news about him? Was he going to be understanding and love him unconditionally or had he already turned his back on his entire past to go with his entire family and he's just be a foul and disgusting beast to him.

3.4

A few days later, Bill was trying to wake himself up although every time he faced a calendar a little fear flowed through him. What was he going to do at the next full moon? Where was he going to go? Was he going there with someone or was he going to get instructions about it? He already had an idea of what he would experience but that didn't answer all of his questions.

He saw his father exit from the kitchen and looked down like a shy schoolboy.

"Ah, good to see you up," Arthur said and Bill nodded. "Charlie just arrived this morning, he's out back but he'll be -"

"Dad," Bill said as he wrapped an arm around himself and Arthur stopped, knowing that this was going to be a serious conversation that even Fred and George with all of their jokes and pranks wouldn't be able to diffuse. "What's going to happen next time?" he asked as he looked at the wizard version of a calendar and Arthur took a deep breath.

"We're still figuring out all of the plans but we've got some help who are going to be calm, gentle, and confidential and I promised your mother that I'll accompany you but we're going to have to lock you up and I don't want to say that but hopefully it will be as painless as possible," Arthur said and Bill nodded although he still looked very drained as he stood there, hearing all of this. "And once it is over, I'll accompany you home."

"You mean that you might see it?" Bill asked nervously and Arthur walked over and hugged his son. He took a few steps back.

"I will see it because even if you are in that form, you need someone to check on you and to bring you food. So yes, I will see it, but I do love each of my children very much so and hopefully you'll understand that what I am doing, I am doing as a father," he said and Bill nodded before hearing the sound of the back door open and he watched Charlie coming in covered in mud.

"Look at you!" Molly said as Charlie smiled and dropped everything to hug Bill. "I just asked you to do a simple degnombing and you come in looking like that and now you're getting your poor brother covered in mud."

"He doesn't mind," Charlie said as he hugged Bill and took a deep breath in as Bill embraced him back. "When I heard what happened to you, it made me physically sick with worry," he said before stepping backwards. "Your scars make you look cool though."

"I think they make him look brave," Fleur said as she walked towards Bill and put her hand on his shoulder. "It's nice to meet your properly, I'm Fleur DeLacour."

"Charlie Weasley," Charlie smiled before seeing how much Fleur loved Bill and grinned towards his brother, raising his eyebrows up and down teasingly. Bill hugged Fleur back although she avoided where Charlie had put mud on his brother. Hopefully things would be okay.

End of Chapter Three

Thank you for reading

Thank you to AnnaMarry for leaving a review on Chapter Two