Chapter 6

Bill stepped over and around the sleeping bodies on his sitting room floor and closed the door quietly behind him. It was still early, but he couldn't sleep. Late last night— just a few hours ago— Ron had finally told what happened to Ginny.

You- Know- Who and the Chamber of Secrets.

Bill laced up his running shoes and started off at a jog, too agitated to warm up.

The Chamber of Secrets! It had been a prank, a lark. He had told his brothers the legend in response to Ron begging for a story the night before Bill left for his sixth year. He left Fred and George in their room, still excitedly discussing the monster, then carried Ron upstairs under one arm and tossed him into bed. He thought Percy had stopped off at the bathroom, but when Bill returned, Percy, who was starting at Hogwarts the next day, was spreading a blanket in what little floor space remained between Bill's and Charlie's beds. It was a laugh, scaring them all with a tale of a hidden chamber and an unknown monster, but there wasn't anything funny about Ron's version.

Bill turned a corner and sped up. A fortnight. It had taken him a full fortnight to get Ron to open up. Bill's family would be here for another three weeks, but today was his last day of holiday. He would have to find a way to spend some extra time with Ginny. The idea of her returning to England without him having a chance to debrief her was intolerable.

She had come out of her shell a bit to explore the tombs and other ancient sites, but it had taken a lot more brotherly goading than usual. It wasn't until Percy (Percy!) had accused her of being a Hufflepuff that Ginny shrugged off their mother's protective arm. And she was afraid of the dark. Despite the insult, she had stuck to Percy like flobberworm mucus; he had been carrying the torch.

Bill lengthened his stride, already feeling the calming effects of exercise and fresh air. Ron said Dumbledore's response had been to send Ginny to the Hospital Wing for bed rest and hot chocolate. As if she had read a horror story, not lived one. Mum and Dad were pretending nothing about Ginny was different. Percy, Fred, and George were ignoring her nightmares because they didn't want to make her feel bad. Only Ron was actually doing something; only Ron, in his own clumsy way, was giving her permission to seek comfort and reassurance.

That was going to change.

Bill had to do something. Something practical, something concrete, something helpful. Whatever they said, Mum and Dad hadn't planned a second trip to Egypt because they loved the desert in summer. They hadn't just brought Ginny and Ron to Egypt; they had brought them to Bill, and he had to find a way to counteract the lingering effects of such powerful dark magic.

The Muggles' morning call to prayer echoed over the city as the first rays of dawn penetrated the gloom. There was the Spell Damage ward at Imhotep Hospital in Alexandria, but Ginny wasn't in any immediate danger. His supervisor spent a few nights sleeping alone under the stars after a bad site. Amy preferred company and water; they'd had a great weekend in Port Said shortly after they had started dating last autumn. Bill usually buried himself in the library to determine where he went wrong and increased his runs to twice a day. Back in training, when someone got rattled badly enough to affect their magic, the goblins had simply taken them down a few levels and given them easier assignments until their performance improved.

He dodged a scattering of broken glass. Ginny was strong and smart. If he could smuggle her into the curse breaker's training course and go through a few lessons with her, help her confront her fear of the dark, that could boost her confidence and help her recover. Dark magic preyed on fear and ignorance, and you couldn't shake the effects by disregarding them. He knew that from experience.

One thing still bothered him, though. How was it that Ginny had been so apparently invisible? She was bright, friendly, and funny and had always been popular with their cousins and even the other kids she met on Platform Nine and Three Quarters every year. All right, he supposed writing in a diary was a girl thing, but. . . .

Shit. Bill stopped dead in the middle of the pavement, breathing hard. His little sister was a girl. A girl with no female cousins, with six brothers who generally regarded anything girlish as sissy and stupid. A girl who loved Quidditch, who fought like a boy, who went to school with secondhand everything. As much as his brothers hated it, he knew clothes mattered a lot more to girls. Damn. Why hadn't he thought of this last year?

Bill checked for traffic and crossed the street, resuming his run. He didn't know what the other first- year girls had thought of Ginny, but he could guess what she thought of them. Silly, vapid, boring, giggly things, from his memory of first year. He gave a slight shudder. He still wasn't particularly fond of first- and second- year girls (except for Gin- Gin, of course). He was planning on taking her flying for her birthday next week, but maybe he could do something more. Something . . . feminine. What were twelve- year- old girls into, anyway?

He needed to talk to Amy.

()()()()

Amy shifted backward into the warmth of the wizard lying behind her. Someone was calling her name.

"Amy! Come answer the Floo!"

Amy moaned a little and wondered why Bill was yelling about the Floo when he was right here. . . . Her outstretched arm hit empty mattress, and Amy opened her eyes.

"Amy Green! If you don't get your lovely arse in here in the next ten seconds, I'm Apparating over!"

He could try. In a fit of pique after yesterday's closet incident, Amy had changed the wards on her apartment. And while the idea of Bill Weasley in pieces certainly had its appeal, those pieces would be scattered in front of her front door, and she would be the one who had to clean up the mess. Not to mention Obliviate her Muggle neighbors.

"Hang on, I'm coming!" Amy threw back the covers (she always slept with a blanket, even in the heat of an Egyptian summer), pulled her robe from its hook on her open closet door, and snatched a scrunchie from the top of her dresser. She shrugged into the robe, finger- combed her hair into a bun, and twisted the elasticized fabric around it as she walked into the living room. Wrapping the robe loosely around her bare legs, she dropped onto the floor in front of the small corner fireplace, where Bill's head floated in emerald- green flames, unperturbed by the sparks dancing around his ears.

"What?"

"I need you to do me a favor."

Big surprise. "What?"

"Do something with Ginny today."

"What?"

"Ginny. I was hoping you would take her out today, go shopping or curl your hair or whatever girls do on their days off."

She had been planning on sleeping in and eating a pint of ice cream without getting dressed. Maybe a fresh pair of pajamas before dinner.

"I've had the boys all weekend, but Ginny has been by herself with Mum and Dad. Please?" Bill batted his lashes, looking ridiculous.

"She doesn't like me."

"Don't be stupid. Of course she does."

No, she didn't. Amy's intuition told her so, but it was also telling her Bill wouldn't understand. She tried a more rational approach. "What makes you think she even wants to hang out with me?"

"I just thought she might like a witch's company for a change. Other than Mum, I mean."

Amy sighed, remembering her relationship with her mom at twelve. She definitely would have preferred a day out with a grown- up she didn't like to a day in with her mom. "You ask her, and if she wants to come over, I'm game." Bill opened his mouth. "I'm serious, Bill, I'm not going over to your parents' and inviting myself to take their daughter for a day. If Ginny wants to come, bring her on over. And don't try to Apparate."

()()()()

"Hey, Ginny." The girl looked at her strangely but muttered a sullen hello and slunk into the room. Amy looked at Bill, still standing in the hallway.

"Please, Amy."

He was serious, not flirty or teasing, and his eyes didn't stray down her robe, which was securely tied this time. Amy wasn't sure how she felt about that.

"She had a rough year. I just found out the details from Ron last night, and I think some attention from another witch would help her. She's always been with boys, and I think she had a hard time fitting in."

Amy looked over at the young witch, who was bent forward examining the TV and VCR, and her heart softened. She remembered the anxieties of her first year at boarding school and she'd been fourteen.

"I talked Mum into letting her spend the night. I'll pick her up in the morning so you won't be late for work."

"Don't bother. I already called in."

Bill looked surprised. "You didn't have— I mean, I didn't mean for you to miss work."

"It's no big deal. I was scheduled to do inventory with Sicktooth, but I volunteered you instead." Amy smiled sweetly, anticipating Bill's protest, but he just nodded.

"If you like. I'll come get her anyway."

"Now who's being stupid? She's twelve years old, Bill. I'm sure she knows how to Floo. Besides, we won't want to get up that early."

"Eleven." Bill hesitated, looking from his sister to Amy and back again.

"I'll be twelve next Wednesday!"

Seriously? No wonder the girl had had trouble fitting in if she was this sheltered. Amy began closing the door.

"Wait, take this." He handed her a slip of parchment.

"Your line of credit at Gringotts?"

Bill shifted from one foot to another and lowered his voice. "Buy her something nice, new robes or whatever witches are into right now. You know," he shrugged, a dull flush climbing up his neck, "whatever the other girls will have."

Amy stared at Bill, but he wouldn't meet her eyes, continuing to shift restlessly in her doorway. She sighed. Every time she got good and angry with him, he went and did something nice. His line of credit . . . no one in the entire wizarding world, much less an ancient city like Cairo, would turn down a line of credit issued to a Gringotts's employee.

"Bill, I can't take this. It's worth hundreds of galleons—"

"I can cover it. Just don't lose it," he added. "And buy yourself something too. As a thank you."

She looked at Ginny again. Her clothes were clean and neat but hardly fashionable. Amy hadn't needed to meet the rest of the Weasleys to know the family was poor. All those kids on a government salary? And if the girl had had a rough year, a little retail therapy could go a long way.

Amy nodded and made to close the door again, but Bill stopped her by placing one hand on the door and tugging on her sash with the other. She wasn't an idiot. She'd magicked that knot.

"Freshly showered is a good look on you."

"Goodbye, Bill," Amy said firmly. "Tell your brothers I said hi." And she closed the door in Bill's face. Gods, that felt good.

"This is a telly, right?"

Amy smiled. "Uh- huh. In the States we shorten 'television' to 'TV.' And that's a VCR, or videocassette recorder."

"What does it do?"

"You can record TV and play it back later, or you can play movies in it."

Ginny straightened and looked at her. "Movies? Really? Percy has always wanted to see one, ever since he learned about them in Muggle Studies."

"Really. Have you ever been to the movie theatre? We could do that today."

Ginny shook her head. "What's it like?"

"Well, they show a different movie in each room. The rooms are big, with rows of chairs and no windows, and the screen is huge, so when they turn the lights off that's all you can see. And they sell candy and popcorn and drinks at exorbitant prices, so people are always smuggling in their own."

Ginny looked back to the VCR. "Could we play a movie on that instead?"

"Sure we can." Amy hadn't missed Ginny's avoidance of most of the tombs, or her attachment to anyone with a flashlight. The girl was seriously scared of the dark.

The two witches stood feet apart, separated by awkward silence.

"I haven't eaten yet. Are you hungry?"

Ginny shrugged.

"Do you want something to drink?"

"Bill says you put ice in your tea. Is that true?"

Amy grinned. She never failed to be amused by how that horrified him. "Ice and lots of sugar. Would you like to try some, or do you want something else?"

"Something else, please."

"All right. Did you bring a bag?"

"Oh!" Ginny pulled a drab green package out of her pocket. "Bill shrunk it for me."

"No problem." Amy restored the backpack to its normal size with a wave of her wand. "Come on back."

She stopped in the kitchen to pour Ginny a glass of juice and then led her into the bedroom.

"Ignore the mess. Your brother woke me up this morning, and I wanted to take a shower before you got here." She turned her back and dropped her robe. "Other than watching a movie, what else would you like to do today?"

"Whatever you had planned is fine. I'll just tag along."

Amy fastened her bra and turned to her closet, pretending not to see the curious looks Ginny was shooting in her direction. Amy didn't know about British girls, but she and her friends had been too self- conscious to stand around in their underwear when they were that age. She flipped through her shirts.

"What do you think, blue or green?" Amy turned around with two shirts in front of her.

"Oh, er—" Ginny looked surprised to be asked for an opinion. "The green one."

Just as she thought, the girl had good taste but no fashion sense. The correct answer would have been "what pants are you wearing?" Amy tossed the green shirt on the bed and returned to the closet. The silence lengthened. She heard Ginny take a drink of juice. Amy shoved her work robes out of the way and pulled out a pair of beige linen pants— no, she was wearing purple underwear, and she didn't feel like changing.

"Really, with all the magic in the world, you'd think we'd have invisible underwear by now."

Ginny choked, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "Wouldn't that defeat the purpose, if everyone could see you?"

Amy laughed, sliding her jeans over her hips and buttoning them. "I meant invisible under clothes. I'm sure some wizard somewhere has a charm to see through clothing."

"Probably more than one of them."

So, the girl wasn't as innocent as she appeared. Well, she did have six older brothers. Amy took her hair down and dried it with a quick charm.

"You have beautiful hair." The words sounded pulled from Ginny against her will. Amy might have been wearing green, but it was Ginny who was envious.

"So do you.″

"It's ginger."

"I know. It's gorgeous. You're going to draw plenty of attention with that hair and those eyes." Ginny had rich brown eyes, almond- shaped and warm (at least when she wasn't looking at Amy).

Ginny frowned. "Boys always make fun of it."

Amy smiled and crossed to the dresser to pick out earrings. "Boys tease the girls they like. You should keep it long. It's much easier to flirt with long hair."

Ginny flushed but continued to watch her. "Is that what you're doing with my brother, just flirting?"

Amy fumbled the earring. "Excuse me?"

"You and Bill. Everyone knows you're more than friends."

Amy's mouth opened and closed. She'd underestimated the witch. "I hardly think that's any of your business.″

"It is too. Bill is my brother, and I think you're playing him."

"Do you now?"

The two witches stared coldly at each other. Amy put extra venom into hers; the irony was unbearable. And what would it be like to have someone that staunchly on your side, that they would challenge someone so much older and wiser and more experienced on your behalf? Not for the first time, she wished for siblings.

Ginny looked away. "He likes you," she said, then gave a little laugh. "Actually, I'm surprised he let me come over." She grinned mischievously. "I know loads of things he wouldn't want you to know."

Amy grinned back, the tension broken. "Like what?"

Ginny raised her brows.

Oh, Amy had definitely underestimated this witch. She tilted her head, considering. "Tell you what. I promise to tell you everything I know about kissing boys if you promise not to ask about me and Bill. Deal?"

Ginny stuck out her hand. "Deal."

()()()()

Bill opened and entered his flat quietly; his brothers were still asleep on conjured mattresses on the sitting room floor. He had gone straight to his parents' after his run and Flooed Amy from there, but the bossy witch hadn't given him a chance to say he already had permission for Ginny to visit. Mum fed him breakfast, of course, and then after a quick shower, he Side- Along Apparated Ginny to a hidden corner of the alley behind Amy's building. She lived in a Muggle American expatriate neighborhood, and Bill thought she was more homesick than she wanted to admit. And maybe more angry with him than he wanted to admit, if she had changed the wards on her flat. He usually Apparated just inside her door when they had plans.

He tossed the paper on the kitchen table and began making tea. He wanted to write to Dumbledore, Hogwarts's Headmaster, and find out who was this year's Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. He was hoping the professor would agree to give Ginny some extra guidance and correspond with him during the school year. Bill had just Summoned parchment, quill, and ink when Percy came into the kitchen, striped pajamas crooked and hair tousled. About the only time you ever saw Percy looking less than distinguished was at breakfast.

"You nearly whacked me with that ink pot." Percy scowled and dropped into a chair. "What's for breakfast?"

"Help yourself."

Percy's scowl deepened. "You're not going to cook breakfast for a guest?"

"Not when he's my little brother. Tea's ready."

"You can be a real git."

"Like when the twins and Ron come visit your place, you're going to cook for them."

A slow smile crept over Percy's face at the idea and Bill grinned back. Merlin, that could be next year; this was Percy's last year at Hogwarts. It hadn't been six years ago that he had watched a skinny, freckled, bespectacled boy try on the Sorting Hat— had it?

Percy got up and began opening cupboards.

"So, seventh year. Got any big plans?"

Percy shrugged, stacking eggs, bacon, and butter on the worktop. "Revise like crazy for N.E.W.T.s. Help Dumbledore as Head Boy. Spend as much time as possible with Penelope. Not murder Fred and George. Take better care of Ginny."

Bill let the last one slide. "Sounds like a good list. What's she like?"

Percy was cracking eggs into a skillet, but he paused at Bill's question. "Penny? She's brilliant. And genuinely brilliant, of course— she's a Ravenclaw— and beautiful, with dark curly hair and blue eyes, and gentle, and kind, and— she's great."

Percy seemed to have forgotten about his breakfast. Bill interrupted his reverie with a single drawn- out word. "And?"

"And nothing," Percy said, though his ears were red. He grimaced at the dripping eggshell still in his right hand and tossed it in the bin. "She's a nice girl."

Bill grinned. Leave it to Percy. "Not so nice she won't snog in an empty classroom, I hope?"

Percy's ears were glowing now, but he laughed. "No, not that nice."

A companionable silence settled over the kitchen, and Bill worked on his letter until Percy returned to the table with a plate of bacon, fried eggs, and toast.

"Ugh, how do you eat that?" Bill's stomach turned as Percy cut into an egg with the side of his fork and yolk ran everywhere.

" 's good." He swallowed. "Who's the letter for?"

"Dumbledore. I want to know who your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is going to be. I want to write to him about Ginny."

"Oh." Percy focused on his breakfast.

"Look, Perce." Bill twisted the quill between his fingers. "About what I said last night. . . . I don't really blame you— any of you— for what happened to Ginny. I'm sure you all tried to look after her."

"I was the oldest," Percy said stubbornly. "She was my responsibility."

"Percy, I've always been the oldest— I can't remember before Charlie was born. That kind of responsibility is a lot of pressure. I know what it's like when someone you're responsible for gets hurt. But sometimes something bad happens, and it's not your fault— you did everything you could, but it just wasn't enough. You weren't quick enough, or smart enough, or strong enough. And it sucks, it really, really does, but sometimes there's just nothing you can do."

Percy looked close to tears. "You weren't there. You didn't have to tell Fred and George, or write to Mum and Dad, or see Ronnie's face—" His voice broke.

Bill felt that horrible knot in his chest, because he was the oldest, dammit, and Percy— and Ginny, and all the rest of them— were his responsibility. And it didn't matter when you knew it wasn't your fault, and it didn't matter when you knew you couldn't have stopped it. You still felt responsible, and you still had that horrible knot and this awful sick feeling. Bill rounded the table and pulled Percy up by the arm. "C'mere. Come on, Perce, it's all right."

Percy had to slouch to bury his face in Bill's neck. "We thought she was dead. All day, hours and hours, just waiting for Professor McGonagall to tell us she— she was—" He took a heaving breath. "I'm sorry, Bill. I couldn't do it. I couldn't face them. Ron went after her, but I just stayed up in my dormitory."

Bill looked to the doorway to make sure everyone was still asleep, but Charlie was standing there with a questioning look on his face. Bill raised one hand behind Percy's back and made a sharp "get out" gesture. He usually wasn't that harsh with his closest brother, but Percy would be mortified if he knew Charlie had seen him crying.

"I'm going to be a better brother, I swear." Percy wasn't crying anymore, but his voice still sounded froggy, and both brothers were still holding tight.

"You are a better brother, Percy." Bill tightened his grip to the point of pain and shook Percy roughly before letting him go. "But you know the best thing you can do for Ginny this year?"

Percy shook his head and sniffed, dragging his sleeve across his nose.

"Leave her the hell alone. She can't make friends with the Head Boy breathing down her neck." Percy gave him a small smile. "Now, finish your breakfast before Mum finds out and refuses to feed me."

a/n: Next week: Amy and Ginny go shopping and talk about boys (what else?), and Bill lets Amy in on the secret. Now that the forums are back (hurray!), I can remind you that my missing moments challenge is still live and active. Just remove the spaces: http:/ forum. fanfiction. net/ topic/ 44309/ 55920858/ 1/