Chapter 17: A Conversation with Bill
By the time Moody had finished his lecture, dinner was getting ready to begin. After quick showers, everyone was enjoying dinner in the Great Hall. Conversation was light and enjoyable with everyone participating. Well everyone except for Bill and Fleur; Harry decided he needed to talk to Bill later about whatever was wrong.
It wasn't until late that night that Harry and Ginny found Bill with Fleur on top of the Astronomy Tower "Hello Bill, Fleur, can I ask you what is wrong? You both were not very talkative tonight at dinner" Harry spoke quickly, hoping that he was not going to get killed by the curse breaker.
"It's ok Harry; actually I wanted to talk you and Ginny for a few minutes without the rest of the family around and I was trying to figure how to do it without drawing a lot of attention. Please sit down." Bill motioned for them to sit down in chairs Fleur had conjured.
"First off, I know you already know this, but as the eldest, I feel it is my duty to find out certain things. You understand that a soul bonded couple is considered married and adults in the wizarding world with all the right, responsibilities, and privileges that go along with it."
Both Harry and Ginny rolled their eyes and nodded, which made Bill relax considerably. "I know you both already knew that, but I had to make sure. As the eldest, that is one of my most important responsibilities."
Bill looked somewhat pensieve while trying to gather his thoughts about whatever else he needed to talk about. After a moment he spoke, "Harry, now that you are an official member of the family, I have to tell you about what I did when I was younger. I only ask that you remember that I was young dumb and stupid at the time, ok?" Harry and Ginny both nodded. "Ok, here we go, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron and Ginny all had memory charms placed on them.
Mum, Dad and I agreed to tell everyone the truth when they turned 17. Ginny of course learns the truth tonight, Ron will find out tomorrow night probably. You see, they all believed that I have always been a Curse Breaker, when in reality I wasn't." Bill looked out over the Forbidden Forest; Harry could see that this story was costing him a lot to tell it.
"When I was in my 7th year here at Hogwarts I had it all. I was Head Boy, a great girlfriend and terrific friends. I was excelling in all my classes and enjoying my time here. I knew I was going to join the Auror Corp; it was what dad had wanted to do before mum got injured and I thought it would be pretty cool. In late September of my 7th year I was approached by the Ministry for a job, they offered me a job as a Hit-Wizard.
"Do you what a Hit-Wizard is?" Harry shook his head, "A Hit-Wizard is basically a Ministry approved Assassin/Black Ops operative. They have the same basic training as an Auror but from there they study the Dark Arts, Muggle Weapons, Advanced Potions, etc. They report directly to the head of MLE and had standing approval to use the Unforgivable Curses, amongst other talents. I took the aptitude tests in December and began training shortly after that while still attending Hogwarts. When I graduated I was already better trained then any Auror except Mad-Eye Moody.
"I was very effective and extremely ruthless, exactly what the Ministry wanted. I was also paid a lot of money for what I did. The Ministry believed that money would help with the guilt; of course Voldemort supporters were bribing the Ministry so they saw it as spreading the wealth. I didn't care, I was rich and I was providing for my family. I made so much money in my first 6 months after Hogwarts that I paid for Charlie's last couple years of school and setup trust accounts for the rest of the brood to pay their tuition.
"I also hid away a lot of my money in unlisted vaults, just in case. Everything was fine until I started getting strange orders. You see, we never received orders from the Ministry itself. We always had an outside contact so that the Ministry could wash their hands and have plausible deniability. My contact said his name was Raven, I later discovered that he was Lawrence Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy's younger brother and loyal Death Eater.
"I met Raven one evening in a Muggle Pub, it was one of our normal meeting places. He gave me my newest set of orders; I had to try to drop the Blood Wards on a home in Surrey, the address was Number 4 Privet Drive. I had no idea that you were there; as far as anyone knew you were in the United States or Australia or wherever. I began to look at the Wards when Dumbledore appeared out of nowhere ready to kill. I have never seen him so upset in my life.
"He asked me what I was doing; I told him I had orders. He asked to see my orders and I gave them to him. As Chief Warlock, he always reviewed all orders and had his ways of verifying orders. As soon as he checked if these orders were real I knew they were forgeries. We then apparated to the Hogshead bar where I told him all about my contact and the orders I had been given since I started with the Ministry. As I later found out that Raven was using Hit-Wizards to remove certain 'obstacles' for Death Eaters. I would average maybe 2 Ministry jobs a week while I was doing 5 or 6 'other jobs' in that same time. I met with Raven the next day and told him that the only way I could bring the Wards down was to kill the ward caster, which was Dumbledore.
"That was when Raven then told me to kill Dumbledore. I didn't question this order to his face, I accepted it and left. The one rule we as Hit-Wizards had was that we couldn't assassinate a member of the Wizengamot without verified orders from the head of the MLE, the Minister and the Chief Warlock. I ran to Hogwarts and told Albus what had happened. It was during that meeting that I learned about who I had killed and why. I also learned that Raven was Lawrence Malfoy. I was so upset; I remember that I wanted to disappear and kill myself.
"So I headed for Gringotts, to grab some money and disappear. I was filled with so much grief; I killed women, children centaurs, house elves, dogs, cats, etc. I thought I was doing it in the name of the Ministry, but I was really a pawn for the Death Eaters.
"By the time I arrived at Gringotts it was late at night; I wasn't worried because I knew Gringotts is open 24 hours a day. I was walking down the street when I saw Lawrence leaving with 2 large bags of gold. I then heard the Goblins screaming that someone had assaulted someone in their bank. This is a large fuck up because Goblins are not creatures you want to mess with. My rage and training kicked in and I acted. I withdrew my katana and attacked. I decapitated him while he was facing away from me. I then mutilated his body so badly that no one could identify him without his head.
"I used my sword, knives, acids, potions, and hands, whatever I could find. By the time I was able to control myself Mad-Eye and Kingsley Shacklebolt arrived to investigate the assault inside the bank. They took me to Hogwarts again where I met with Albus. Ordinarily I wouldn't care about killing someone, but I left him in pieces and I feared that the Malfoy Family would do to me parents. Albus and I immediately destroyed my katana and all my Hit-Wizard gear.
"We floo'd Mum & Dad and told them what happened. The next day, Lucius demanded that the murderer be found brought to justice. Evidently Lawrence keep a journal about who he was meeting with and why because Lucius came to the Burrow and demanded that I be turned over to him, not the Ministry.
"Dad hexed him on the spot and Mum almost killed him. When I found out that Lucius had threatened my family I made a deal with him. I handed over all the money I had hidden away, over 3 million galleons. Lucius, of course, wanted more. That is why dad and him never got along. Lucius wanted my head and dad wanted me safe, even with the money I paid him.
"That is where Mackrack came to the rescue. Thanks to my handling of Lawrence Malfoy, Gringotts felt like the were indebted to me; so they paid off Malfoy to keep him quiet and gave me an opportunity to get out of England. I went to Egypt and became a Curse Breaker and Wards Master.
"Officially Lawrence Malfoy's murder was blamed on a rouge Goblin who saw him running from the bank. That Goblin was killed in an accident the next day. Gringotts acquired another set of Hit-Wizard gear and I continued with this 'Night Job' as a free lance Hit-Wizard while cracking Curses. When I applied for the transfer back home, it was met with some resistance because I was supposed to stay in Egypt, far away from Malfoy.
"So I asked for an audience with Mackrack himself, and I explained why I needed to come home, Mackrack approved it without question.
"Harry, there are two reasons why I am sharing this story with you. The first is because as I said, you are a member of the family now and I thought you deserved to know that truth. I will say that Percy, and the twins took it a lot better then I thought they would. Please do not share this with anyone; it is still a very subject with mum and dad plus I can still be charged with a number of crimes. I hope that once Voldemort is gone, I can come clean and apply for a full pardon. I also wanted to tell you this story is to give you a lesson that I know you must learn soon.
"Harry, one day you are going to have to kill some Death Eater; unfortunately there is no way around it, especially with you being the Chosen One. I want you to remember that if you have to kill in order to protect someone; whether it is Ginny, me, Ron, Hermione, any other member of the family, or the wizarding world in general, then you are a decent person who had to make a difficult decision. If you kill for the thrill of killing that is what makes you a monster. It is what separates the members of the Order from the likes of Bellatrix Lestrange, Voldemort, Lucius Malfoy and the other Death Eaters. You have more power and spell knowledge then anyone I have ever met, that includes Dumbledore.
"I know you get this a lot, but if either one of you ever need anyone to talk to, I'll listen and I swear that no one will hear anything from me. It might be easier talking to me since I am your older brother and closer to your age. I know that you would have loved to talk to Sirius, but well…and I know Remus is as close to you as Sirius was…but…well the offer's always open to you."
"Thanks Bill, you have my word, no one will know about this. And thank you for offering a listening post; I might take you up on that."
Bill smiled for the first time all day, "Thanks Harry. By the way, since you two are married and all powerful now, I thought I should remind you about a certain charm that will make sure there are no baby Potters running around nine months from now."
Harry and Ginny both blushed deep crimson at these words, "Actually Bill, I have been on the potion since I was 12 years old, it helps with my monthly cycle." With those words from Ginny, Bill's face went totally scarlet; Harry & Ginny laughed and headed back to their suite. After they left, Bill turned to his girlfriend and pulled into a very close hug. It took a lot to tell his family that he was a killer, but for some reason it took more to tell Harry and Ginny.
Maybe it was because Ginny always looked up to him, maybe because he feared what Harry would do to him; but whatever the reason, it left Bill emotionally drained and crying softly. Fleur knew this and lowered both of them back into one the chairs together and held Bill closely until they both fell asleep under the stars.