QL - Round 8 - Pride of Portree - Beater 2 - Platonic - Charlie/Bill Weasley.

Additional Prompts: [object] Pocket watch; [Drink] Butterbeer.

THC - Round 6 - Ravenclaw - Potions - Standard.

Prompt: [Negative Pairing] Fred/George Weasley

THC Challenge #2 - Family is the core that keeps us together, but also rips us apart.

Word Count: 2982

Beta(s): CupCakeyyy, B. Weasley, Aurora, S. Lowelle, and Crissie.

Note: A bit of the speech for the children are written purposefully as a child - it's only one or two that the word truly doesn't fit with SPAG, but it's intentional.

The sun had set long ago, causing the shadows to merge into infinite darkness. This hid the unique nooks and crannies of their family kitchen.

"This is a bad idea."

Bill and Charlie Weasley stood wide-eyed as they stared at the fridge on the other side of the room, the off-white colour drawing them in. The two boys shared a cheeky grin before moving forward in opposite directions as if they were going to corner the fridge to get what they wanted.

Not even two feet away and Charlie started to show his nerves. "Billy," he whispered. "Are you sure?"

Bill nodded with confidence beyond his ten years of age. "Mum and Dad are exhausted from Ginny crying all night, they won't hear anything."

The younger, nine-year-old, boy nodded. His eyes widened slightly as he watched Bill pull out their father's wand and point it at the protection charm over the fridge - more specifically, point it at the fridge, as they couldn't see the forcefield, but knew it was there. Charlie took a hesitant step back, but sent his older brother a nod of confirmation. They were doing this!

After a deep breath, Bill proudly cast: "Alohomora."

Surprise filled the boys' faces as the fridge opened. It had worked!

Feeling accomplished, Bill watched Charlie step forward and open the fridge, joining him instantly.

"You got rid of the protection charm!"

His eyes lingered on the big birthday cake with 'Billius' proudly written on top, then the case of butterbeer next to it. He was torn in two deciding which one to go for first: The cake, hand-made by his mother, filled with incredible flavours, or the butterbeer, the taste of alcohol and something they weren't allowed.

"Amazing!" his brother muttered with a grin on his face. He reached forward and then...

"What're you doing?" a little voice asked from the bottom of the stairs.

Bill swung around defensively, dropping the wand onto the floor, while Charlie quickly closed the fridge to look as innocent as possible. With a quick look at the pyjamas, they identified the culprit.

"Freddie, what are you doing out of bed?" Bill asked and approached the three-year-old before he dropped down to his level.

Fred gave a small shrug and instead hugged Bill.

Bill gave Charlie a concerned look and indicated that it was time to return to their room. Charlie quickly grabbed their father's wand and walked over to the stairs, taking Fred's other hand. Bill was more holding his arm as there was something in the boys' hand - it seemed like a pocket watch. "Let's get you back to bed."

As they walked to their younger brother's room, they felt him pull back. "I don't want to!" Fred let out a small sniffle.

Without hesitating, Bill picked him up into his arms. "What's wrong, Freddie?"

This wasn't going to plan at all, their little brother was upset and would wake everybody up. After Charlie had the sense to return the wand, Bill could only think of one thing to avoid getting them all in trouble. "Let's just take him to our room."

Charlie agreed.

Once in the safety of their room, Bill set the three-year-old down. "What's going on? You love to sleep! You take the longest naps out of anybody I've known."

The youngest of them didn't miss the teasing and smiled slightly before letting out another sniffle. "George took my blanket again. It has an F for Freddie, and he took it and won't give it back."

"Is that why you're awake?" Charlie asked as he sat on his own bed.

Fred shook his head. "George let Ron share our bed, too, and there's not enough room. I think he likes him better than me."

Bill rubbed circles onto the upset boy's back. "No, I'm sure that's not true. Ron hasn't been sharing a room with you for a long time, perhaps George was just being nice?"

"Can I sleep here?"

The two oldest boys of the family looked at each other. How would they explain that to their parents? Would little Freddie rat them out in the morning? At least it would be better than forcing their brother to go back to his own room, which might make him cry.

"Of course, you can share my bed," Bill offered sincerely.

It wasn't long until all of them fell asleep, the birthday cake forgotten, the butterbeer untouched, and without being caught. Or so they thought.

Waking up with a foot in his face hadn't been the most pleasant way to start his birthday, though, Percy surprising him with a drawing definitely made up for it.

His heart swelled at the thoughtfulness of his brother, a wide grin spreading over his face. He knew how much Percy was a perfectionist and couldn't imagine how long it might have taken him. "That's me, and you, Mum, Dad, Charlie, Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny," he pointed out, watching as Percy nodded excitedly along the way, obviously pleased that it was clear enough.

The two of them walked down together, and ate pancakes and bacon together. The birds were happily chirping and his mother was bustling around the kitchen - the perfect birthday morning atmosphere.

Disturbing the peaceful calm, his favourite brother bounced down the stairs - Charlie! Of course, he wouldn't say that out loud. The same box was thrown in his direction with a loud 'Catch'.

"What have I said about throwing things in the house?" their mum scolded.

"Sorry, Mum," both boys automatically said without remorse behind it.

Bill looked up at his mum for approval before opening the box. "Ink?"

Charlie nodded. "So you can write to me when you're at Hogwarts! It's colour-changing!"

The confusion instantly changed to excitement. "That's great! Now there's definitely nothing to stop me writing to you!" He turned to his mum. "Except an owl?"

"Have you finished your pancakes?" she asked, ignoring his prompting. Bill shrugged off her non-response and opened up the ink as Charlie made his way over. "Don't spill that!" their mother warned.

"Do you think I could use it for homework? Imagine the professors' faces!"

"That's mine!" came a shout from upstairs, followed by a smack and then a cry. "It's mine!"

"No! Dad gave it to me!"

"No, he didn't!

"Yes, he did!"

"Nu-uh!"

"Hu-hu!"

"BOYS!" Molly interjected as she practically flew up the stairs to get to the bickering twins.

Charlie and Bill shared a confused look, they had thought last night was an anomaly.

Percy sighed from beside them, having come over to see the ink. "They've been arguing for weeks."

"They have?" Charlie and Bill asked in unison, confusion spreading over their faces.

Percy nodded. "George asked to switch rooms with me."

"They'll grow out of it," Bill stated with confidence.

However, by the argument going on upstairs, that didn't seem very likely. An object flew across the room from the top of the stairs and crashed against the wall.

"THAT'S MINE!" came a loud desperate cry from upstairs. "He always steals my stuff!"

Bill put away the ink and moved over to the object. Bending down, he carefully picked up his father's pocket watch. It was the same one Fred had been holding last night. "Why would Dad give them this?"

He turned it over in his hands, seeing how there was definitely a new scratch since last time he had seen it, before opening it. Tick. Tock. It still worked. Closing it, he looked at the scratch again with a hint of sadness. It went straight through the pattern and definitely stood out as something that wasn't supposed to be there. Carefully, he pocketed the watch. He would wait until his father got back from work to give it to him.

"Is it okay?" Percy asked, concerned.

Bill gave him an uncertain nod. "It still ticks, so it's working."

Percy nodded and joined Charlie back at the table to eat.

But Bill just couldn't let this go and moved up the stairs to see why his twin siblings were arguing so much.

"It's just not fair!" Fred was complaining.

George was pouting the whole time. "He steals my stuff!"

"He doesn't like me, anymore!" Fred countered.

"You're mean!" George stated directly to Fred instead of his mother.

Fred burst into tears.

Bill couldn't work out why his mother wasn't intervening and letting them cry, so moved to comfort Fred. "Why are you two fighting?" he asked, though, looked up at his mother.

The mother of seven sighed. "You all take turns to fight, you and Charlie used to argue all the time when you were younger." She paused and looked around. "I think it's time we add an extension, I don't want Ron kept up all night."

Right at that moment, another cry was heard. This time coming from his parents' room: Ginny was awake. "I'll settle the twins down." He learnt early in life to help his parents and had helped out countless times when Ron was a baby.

His mother nodded thankfully and walked off.

"This has to end, you're brothers! You're twins!" Bill said, however, it didn't have the desired effect.

With a loud moan from one, the other started to rant. It was so much more vocal and articulate than he could have ever imagined for them being so young. Though, they were nearly four.

"He is mean and steals my stuff and only wants to play and never wants to play with Ron and I just want to be me and not him, just me!"

Fred cried a bit more. "I just want my brother back."

"I don't." With that, George stood up and walked off.

Bill couldn't help that he had just made things worse, however, he could definitely relate to George more than Fred - he had constantly searched for how to be different from his brothers, and being the eldest made it easy, but being a twin? He couldn't imagine always being compared to and mixed up with another person.

A sniffle brought his attention back down to the three-year-old who was tightly hugging him. "Why don't he want to be my friend?"

"I don't think that's what is going on, Freddie," he replied softly. "I think George just wants people to know that he's George and not Fred."

"I know! I know he's not Fred because I'm Fred!"

Bill rubbed his brother's back. "Yes, but if you were wearing his pyjamas, at first glance, I wouldn't know that you weren't George."

The three-year-old calmed down at that, which made Bill feel strange. "He don't want to be me, but I want to be him."

Confusion set into the oldest Weasley brother as he watched his little brother walk off. He sighed. He should go back down. It was his birthday, after all, he should celebrate.

His mother had ushered them all into the living room and Bill was bouncing with excitement. He knew his father was expected home any minute now, which meant it was almost time for cake! And nearly time for him to bravely ask his mum to taste butterbeer.

"At least one of you will know why you're all sitting here," she started calmly, holding a sleeping baby Ginny in her arms.

Bill wiggled. "Is it for my cake?"

His mother shook her head.

"A present?" Charlie guessed.

Another shake.

"Are we in trouble?" Percy asked after a long silence as all the Weasleys tried to work it out. Bill felt his heart stop at that guess.

"Thank you, Percy. Yes. Who wants to admit to sneaking into the kitchen last night?"

Silence filled the room. They all knew better than to make a sound unless it was an admission. Bill looked around, he felt light-headed and sick; he was going to get into so much trouble and probably wouldn't even be allowed his birthday cake. He closed his eyes to just enjoy his birthday for a little bit longer before being punished.

"It was me."

Everybody's eyes snapped to Charlie.

"Bill had told me that he wanted to taste Butterbeer, so I was going to sneak him some as a birthday present," he explained, taking all of the guilt.

Bill had opened his mouth, however, another voice beat him to it. "That's not true! Both you and Bill were down there! And you didn't touch the Butterbeer!"

"George? You were part of this?"

"I'm George!"

"No, I am! Look at my pyjamas!" retorted Fred. Bill's realisation hit him right then, he hadn't paid enough attention to the twins to notice that they both had George's clothes on.

Their mother, however, looked furious.

So, Bill stood up. "It was all me, Mum. I convinced Charlie to sneak downstairs with me because I wanted to be the first to see the cake you made me, and wanted to try some butterbeer because I knew you wouldn't let me. Fred..."

"I'm George!"

"...one of the twins came down and caught us. But we didn't take anything. I'm sorry."

His mother's angry eyes darted around the room. "I am very disappointed in you, Bill. I expected better…" she said, but was interrupted as an owl swooped in and dropped a letter right into Bill's hands. It was his Hogwarts acceptance letter. However, instead of being excited, he sniffled and waited for his mother to continue to tell him off. Though, that never came. She had gone silent for the first time he had ever witnessed. Bill hadn't had enough time to work out why when his dad returned home.

"Hello family!" he announced and paused with a grin on his face. "Have you opened it yet?"

Bill shook his head. And his father's excitement radiated off him and into Bill. The now eleven-year-old couldn't help but grin. He turned to his mother for approval, who nodded, and then opened the letter. He barely scanned it before shouting, "I'm going to Hogwarts!"

There was a second of silence before Charlie and Percy joined in his excitement, along with his dad.

His mother disappeared, only to come back with a small cup of something. "Happy birthday, Bill."

Bill handed his letter to Percy - who eagerly read every word - and accepted the drink. "Butterbeer? Really?"

He received a nod. He had gotten his birthday wish, even after breaking the rules. But shouldn't he be punished? With a look down into the cup, it was confirmed that it looked exactly as he had imagined it.

His whole family were waiting for him to take his first taste. Well, not his whole family. Ginny was still asleep, Ron was now taking a nap on the couch, and Fred and George were shoving each other. Knowing he'd likely regret this decision, either way, he shook his head and held out the valuable drink to his mother. "I don't deserve it."

"What? That was your chance!" Charlie exclaimed, suddenly, his mouth had dropped open in absolute shock. "Are you crazy?"

Bill simply let out a laugh. "Not as crazy as those two," he answered, pointing at Fred and George. "They're really hating each other right now."

Their mother, who seemed to be still 'letting them work it out', allowed her temper to grow. She handed off the sleeping infant, grabbed her wand and levitated both of the twins into the air. Bill had never seen his mother use magic on any of them, so this had really caught him off guard.

"If you two can't behave for two minutes, then I'll be separating you permanently!"

"No, Mama!"

"Yes!"

Came the twins' replies. They couldn't be more different.

Bill watched in mild horror as the twins were levitated into two different bedrooms and the doors were locked. She then turned to Bill and Charlie with absolute seriousness. "Ensure to keep them fed and watered."

"Are they animals?" Charlie asked, mollified.

"No, but three-years-olds can be stubborn."

Bill glanced at Charlie in confusion. Thankfully, the twins had only lasted about an hour of being 'grounded' and even though the bickering didn't end for months, they both quickly learnt that meal times meant no arguing.

Bill was finally packing for Hogwarts. It was strange. He didn't want to leave his family. His mother and her sternness, his father and his excitement, his brothers and all of their quirks, and his baby sister who was almost walking. He was going to miss so much.

He grabbed one of his jackets and felt something hard in one of the pockets. Bill's eyes widened as he caught sight of his father's pocket watch. His birthday had been months ago and he'd never returned it.

Part of him wanted to rebel and keep it as a reminder of his dad. However, being the eldest, he had this innate feeling that he had to be a good example and therefore, should tell the truth.

It didn't take him long to find his dad in the garage and smiled at the excitement radiating off him - though, it didn't stop the nerves that he'd get in trouble. "Hey, Dad?"

"Ah, Bill! Come and look at this," he encouraged instantly.

"I need to talk to you first."

At the serious tone, his father looked up. "Is everything okay?"

Bill gulped. "Ages ago, during one of the twins' fights, they were arguing over this." He pulled out the pocket watch. "I forgot to give it back to you."

His father gave him a soft smile. "I was wondering what happened to that." He reached for it, but never took it. "You should have it."

"Are you sure?"

A nod. One that filled Bill with joy. "It's a family heirloom and I would have passed it down to you, one day. Just make sure that you pass it down as well."

"I will."

And Bill did. It took nearly thirty years but he passed it down to his eldest daughter; Victoire.