The accident
Bill has worked as a curse breaker for many years. He was specialised in ancient curses and cultures that perished the earth long ago. During the years he had learned some rather painful lessons.
By now he was one of the best curse breakers worldwide, he wasn't afraid to take a risk, without rushing headless into a possibly dangerous situation, had a good intuition, was able to stay calm when things seemed to get out of hand and maybe most importantly he prepared for every new assignment diligently.
For his current task Gringotts had sent him to China and together with a team of Chinese scholars and curse breakers he tried to open a tomb from the Han Dynasty. It has been very resilient so far, there were many different traps that went from making them go in circles to possibly lethal.
They have been working on it for almost a month and hadn't been able to remove more than the first layer of curses. Everybody started to get slightly frustrated.
Bill knew how important it was to stay focused and careful and not try to force anything, many beginners started to become negligently about safety measures and tried too forceful to break through the curses when their first attempts at entering somewhere had been futile. He had seen and heard about quite a lot of tragic accidents that happened because of impatience and subsequent carelessness.
As always Bill had carefully cast several curse revealing spells that had been negative before entering one of the anterooms to the grave-chamber. Immediately upon entering he knew something was wrong, but before he was able to warn the others or just make the slightest move he and the two wizards who had been with him where hit with an old curse and darkness surrounded them.
He woke up in a hospital to the sounds of his mother's sobs and a Chinese healer trying to explain to her in his broken English what had happened to him.
When they realized that he was awake, the healer started to cast several diagnostic spells on him and poured various potions down his throat, while his mother grabbed his hand and kept crying and calling him her baby boy.
Bill tried to move but except for his eyelids he was unable to move any parts of his body. Panic started to rise up in him and it must have shown in his eyes, for the healer started to explain to him the condition he was in.
Apparently the curse was destined to degenerate the muscles in his body rapidly. Without treatment he would have died within 30 minutes, when given the proper treatment the chances of complete recovery were nearly a 100%. Luckily the other members of the team that had been right behind them had acted immediately and leviated them out of the chamber and apparated them to the hospital straight away.
They had also immediately informed his family about the accident and his mother took the next international portkey to be with her son.
The only bad news was that the recovery would take around three months. He should be able to move his body after a few weeks, but the heart's recovery took the longest and in this weakened state he was to rest. After his heart was stronger again he would have to start training to strengthen his whole body to get back to his old form.
Bill had a hard time to cope with the fact that he would be pretty much an invalid for the next months.
He had to stay in the hospital in China for a week before he was declared stable enough to be moved to St Mungos.
Even though Bill loved his mother dearly, after being coddled by her for only a week he already started fearing for his mental health. His only hope was that other members of his family would keep her busy, and that her excessive fanning over him had more to do with the fact that she didn't have anyone else to dote on in China.
When he arrived in St Mungos his whole family including brothers and sisters in law, nephews and nieces and Hermione Granger were already waiting for him. While the others smothered him nearly to death, Hermione stood a little further back, smiling warmly at him.
-O-O-O-
Hermione had been scribbling furiously on a draft for a new law on houself rights when she got the message, that Bill Weasley had been severely injured.
She left immediately to be with the Weasleys and see if there was anything she could do to help them out.
Molly wanted to be with her "baby" so Hermione organized the international portkey for her.
She made tea and took care of the little ones and soothed many agitated nerves for the rest of the week.
When he finally arrived back in London, she stood back since she had never been close to him while the rest of the family nearly smothered him to death.
He would have to stay at the hospital for three more weeks, but his family made sure he didn't start feeling lonely. At first Hermione only visited him together with Ron or Ginny, but after a while she also dropped by on her own after work.
She brought him magazines and books and sometimes they would discuss an article. Mostly they talked about their jobs. Hermione learned that curse breaker was a quite fascinating job and that he was good at telling stories. He on the other hand sympathized with her fight against the ignorance of witches and wizards when it came to the rights of magical creatures. He had to admit that some of the cruel treatment and sentences made his blood curl.
Bill's condition got better and better quickly and soon he was allowed to leave the bed for a few hours every day. He had to be very careful still to not overexert himself.
He was released from hospital and even though he was happy to leave that place he was not happy to move back in with his parents and have his mother around him every minute of the next two months.
It wasn't that bad though since his mother had to divide her attention between him and her grandchildren that she babysat.
All in all he enjoyed having his family around him, he didn't feel suffocated by them anymore like he did after Fleur had left him and Fred had died. He had thrown himself into work after that and neglected his family.
But with his family around and nothing to keep himself distracted he had to face the loss of his brother and finally deal with it. He had long talks about it in particular with his father and George, it was painful but also liberating. He had supressed the pain for so long that when he finally let it out it almost overwhelmed him but after that he finally started healing.
His siblings continued to visit him on a nearly daily bases. Also Hermione continued to drop by regularly.
Hermione soon learned that it was all too easy to fall for Bill Weasley. He was charming, intelligent, witty and still handsome even with his faded scars.
She began to look forward to visiting him, it became the highlight of her day. Soon she began to take a little more care with her appearance before she met him, she was by no means a vain person but who doesn't want to look his or her best for the person he or she crushes on.
She tried to be subtle about her feelings, only a slight touch here a small smile there, she wanted to test out the waters before being more forward.
Bill began to genuinely like Hermione and he started to look forward to her visits. She knew what she wanted and she fought for it, she was with both feet on the ground, she was incredibly intelligent, very perceptive, kind and caring, her humour was dry and she was beautiful in her own way. Though not a raving beauty like the women he usually spend the night with.
He noticed that she sometimes was quite bossy with Ron and Harry and could seem a little snotty when she felt insecure.
Bill respected her and thought of her as a friend, he wouldn't be opposed to a casual affair after he recovered, but he had learned about Hermione that she usually wasn't one for casual affairs, she was the kind of girl that wanted a serious relationship and if there was one thing that Bill still wasn't ready for it was a serious relationship.
He knew though that she probably felt more for him than just friendship. He saw the way she smiled at him and how she would blush whenever he complimented or touched her. He tried not to encourage her but other than that decided to ignore it and hope that it would just pass.
Bill recovered quickly and after two and a half months he was declared healed and able to start his training to strengthen his muscles.
The time had passed by faster than he thought it would in the beginning but he was glad to be finally able to leave the house again and actually do something.
-O-O-O-
Hermione still dropped by often in the evening and if he wasn't too exhausted they would go for a small walk.
He felt very comfortable around her, he could just be himself and didn't have to try hard to be especially witty or clever or play any of those silly games that women and men play.
Also Hermione felt very comfortable around him, he didn't seem to be intimidated by her sharp mind like so many other men were and he was interested in what she had to say.
He didn't seem interested in her in a romantic way and that saddened her, but she appreciated the beautiful friendship that had developed between them.
They had started out by talking about articles from magazines then their jobs and finally their talks had become more and more personal, there was one topic though that Hermione was really curious about but Bill refused to talk about – Fleur.
-O-O-O-
Soon Bill was as good as new and able to go back to work. He still had to take it easy though, so he now was assigned to train the new curse-breakers. To be honest Bill didn't like this job very much, he preferred working in the field and it seemed to him that most of the curse-breakers in training were a little slow on the uptake.
The thought that kept him going was that this was only temporary and then he would be back to travelling around the world looking for treasures.
To not get totally out of shape and challenge himself a little he examined artifacts that private clients would bring to him.
-O-O-O-
It was no surprise to anyone in the family when Ron announced his engagement to Susan Bones. They had met again two years prior at a function from the Ministry and hit it off.
Bill found it kind of ironic that it was only him and Charlie without a spouse. He tried to be happy for his brother but couldn't help but feel a sting at seeing all his younger siblings happily in love with their respective partners, most of them even had children already.
He loved his nephews and nieces, but he felt a void inside him that was what he wanted as well, a wife and children. But when Fleur had walked out of his life she had taken that dream with her.
During the course of the evening he and Charlie ended up in a corner by themselves with a bottle of Firewhiskey.
"So tell me Charlie old mate," Bill slurred slightly, "how come you're not married yet?"
"Guess I haven't found the right one so far," Charlie sighed deeply.
"What none of the burly female Dragon keepers caught your fancy?" Bill joked.
Charlie only chuckled into his glass. "Well you're also still alone mate."
"Yep, I love them and leave them", Bill declared.
"Still not over her?" Charlie said knowingly.
Bill slammed his glass on the table, "let's not talk about her," his voice broke.
It pained Charlie to see Bill like this and he didn't think his brother's obsession with that French woman was healthy at all, why he still pined after her after all this years was beyond him. He couldn't understand why Bill just wouldn't let go and move on. But he kept his opinion to himself, he knew Bill wouldn't appreciate it.
They sat for a few minutes in silent before they were joined by a slightly tipsy Hermione Granger.
"Mind if I join you?" She hiccupped.
"Not at all, dearest," Bill winked at her.
Charlie mostly observed the two teasing each other, only occasionally joining in. He hoped Bill wouldn't do anything stupid but on the other hand he hoped that maybe Hermione was the woman who could make him forget about Fleur.
He left the two to their own devices after a while and went to bed
-O-O-O-
Bill woke up when something was tickling his nose. He felt a body pressed close to him and a soft hand caressing his chest. When he slowly became more conscious he realised that what had been tickling him was a strand of brown hair.
He froze when the woman lift her head and gave him a brilliant smile.
He had made a huge mistake.