![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleTitle: I Have Felt the Wind of the Wing of Madness Pass Over Me
Author: Ruth Sadelle Alderson
Pairing: Draco/Ginny, Bill/f
Rating: FRT
Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money off of this.
Archiving: My webpage (http://www.graphousa.net/rsadelle/fiction/), anyone else should ask. Archived versions must retain all headers.
Summary: Life in the aftermath.
Author's Note: I worked on this and let it sit and had it edited for so long that I no longer remember who all helped along the way. Many thanks to those of you who did. Title comes from Charles Baudelaire: "I have cultivated my hysteria with delight and terror. Now I suffer continually from vertigo, and today, 23rd of January, 1862, I have received a singular warning, I have felt the wind of the wing of madness pass over me."
"Now, Mrs. Weasley, I understand how you feel."
Even from outside the room, Bill could hear the condescension in the mediwizard's voice.
"The kind of care and supervision your daughter needs is, frankly, more than you can provide. We're trained to do this."
"No."
Bill glanced across the waiting room. The twins sat like bookends on either side of Ron and Hermione. The latter were clinging to each other's hands so tightly he wouldn't have been surprised to find them unable to let go. Charlie was in the chair next to him. He was still the oldest, but it was comforting to have his next-oldest brother at his side. Percy was on the other side of Charlie, mercifully silent for once.
"Molly," their father said. "Perhaps we should listen to him."
"No! Don't you even think it, Arthur Weasley! She is my child, and I am bringing her home with me."
Ron's other hand came up to cradle Hermione's between both of his. She was nervous enough about becoming a mother without hearing this.
"Molly--" their father said.
"Mrs. Weasley--" the mediwizard said.
"No." Her flat refusal cut across both their words. "She is our child, Arthur. She is coming home with us. That is final." She came out of the mediwizard's office with her head held high and eyes snapping.
"Ron, take Hermione home. She should be resting. Fred and George, you have a business to run. Percy, you have work to do at the Ministry." Molly straightened her cloak. "Bill and Charlie, you'll have to help us take Ginny home."
Behind her, Arthur gravely shook hands with the mediwizard.
Molly swept out of the waiting room and down the hall to Ginny's room. Bill and Charlie obediently followed her, and Arthur trailed behind the three of them.
"Hello, dear." Molly softened with Ginny. "We're going home. Here, put your cloak on." She held the cloak while Ginny slipped into it. "All right, then, dear?" Molly gathered up Ginny's things and bundled them into a bag, which she gave to Charlie. She pushed Ginny toward Bill. "Take your brother's hand." She took Ginny's other hand, and they left the room with Arthur in front of them and Charlie bringing up the rear with Ginny's bag.
***
Ginny just stood, when they first brought her home, and looked at the house for a long time.
"Come inside," Molly said, and Ginny went with them into the house. She went straight from the door to Molly's old rocker next to the fire in the front room.
She spent a lot of time there over the next few weeks, just rocking. Molly fretted over it. Charlie confided to Bill that he thought it was eerie, but then Charlie had to go back to Romania before Ginny was better enough that she could tolerate being outside of the house.
It was Arthur who found her standing on the threshold one day and stood with her until she took that first step outside.
***
Bill answered the door. He recognized the man from the papers, and from the waiting rooms at the Ministry, when they were interviewing Ginny.
"Draco Malfoy," he said.
"Bill Weasley," Draco said. He looked past Bill then, and said in a completely different voice, "Ginevra."
Bill stepped back to let Draco past him. When he closed the door and turned, Ginny and Draco were kneeling together in front of her rocking chair.
"Ginevra," Draco said over and over. Ginny whispered back just as fervently, too softly for Bill to hear her words.
Bill watched them swaying into each other until it felt too much like he was intruding, and then he went to the kitchen.
"I think we'll need to clear out Charlie's room," he said to his mother. "It looks like we have one more refuge from You-Know-Who's ranks."
"What are you on about?" She asked, distracted by whatever it was she was doing. Mending, it looked like.
"Draco Malfoy's here," Bill said. "He's in with Ginny."
Molly put aside her work--one of Percy's robes--and went to the living room.
Draco and Ginny had stopped talking and were just clinging to each other. Molly stopped in the doorway with a sharply indrawn breath. Draco noticed her then and stood, bringing Ginny up with him.
"Hello, Mrs. Weasley." Draco reached out with the hand that wasn't being held by Ginny.
"Draco," she said, taking his hand. "You'll be staying." It wasn't really a question.
He dipped his head in acknowledgement. "Yes, ma'am."
Molly clapped her hands together. "We'll put you in Charlie's old room. Bill, you can help me clear it out. Ginny, offer Draco some tea."
Bill doubted Ginny's ability to make tea, but maybe his mother didn't really expect her to do it either.
Helping clean out Charlie's room turned out to be a lot more work than he'd expected. It wasn't enough to just box everything up and haul them up to the attic. Oh, no. His mother wanted to go through everything and sort out what could be stored, what should be sent to Charlie in Romania, and what should just be gotten rid of.
It was supper time--past supper time, really--by the time they had everything but the furniture out of Charlie's room.
"Right then," Molly said. "I think that'll do." She looked around the room, checking for anything they'd missed. She nodded in satisfaction and gave the last box to Bill. "Take that up to the attic and wash up. I'll see about supper."
***
When Ginny's nightmares woke him, Bill met his mother on the landing. They went together to Ginny's room to find that Draco had gotten there first. Molly let Bill draw her away from the door.
***
Bill made an excuse--something about checking in with the bank--and escaped to London for the day. It wasn't completely made up; he did check in with his boss, a kindly woman, for a goblin, who told him his job was still there when he was ready to come back.
Checking in took far less than an hour, and he still had the rest of the day free. He wandered down Diagon Alley looking into shop windows and wondering if there was anything he could get for Ginny.
He couldn't think of anything she would like, but Flourish and Blotts had a new book on enchantments that he thought his father might like. Most of the enchantments could be applied to Muggle artifacts, although the author was careful not to actually say that. Sneaking it past his mother would be difficult, but not as difficult as it would have been before Ginny came home.
"Well, well. If it isn't William Weasley, in the flesh."
Bill turned to face the person who belonged to that voice. "Mariana Hoffman. To what do I owe this," he paused deliberately, "pleasure?"
She leaned against a set of shelves. "I saw the red hair through the window and thought it had to be a Weasley. I was hoping it would be you." She smiled. Bill was reminded of a shark.
"And what did you want a Weasley for?"
She smiled again, a little more charmingly. "I want to know what made a member of Wizarding Britain's most upstanding family become a Death Eater."
The hint of a smile Bill had let develop on his face disappeared. "Go to hell, Mariana."
"Come on, Bill. Give me an exclusive. An interview with a Death Eater's biggest brother."
Bill could almost see the literally screaming magazine headlines. "No."
"A statement, at least." She even had parchment and a quill out now.
"No, Mariana. No interview, no statement, no comment." Bill tucked the book of enchantments under his arm and turned back to his perusal of the new arrival shelves.
Marian stepped away from the opposite set of shelves and put her hand on his arm. "Off the record." The parchment and quill had been neatly tucked back wherever they had come from.
"You're a journalist."
"I'm no Rita Skeeter," she said with a disapproving sniff. "Off the record."
Bill sighed and relented. "Off the record, it's awful." He turned to face her again. "Ginny's mad. Completely nutters. Draco Malfoy showed up. She was pregnant with his child before You-Kn-- before Voldemort killed it. It's terribly hard on Mum." He flipped the book over and over in his hands. "I didn't even know her well enough before to know how she's changed."
"Pay for your book," Mariana said. "I have a room."
Bill was tired, and tired of trying. He paid for the book and followed Mariana out into the street. She took him down Whirligig Court, a street a bit too long and windy to actually be a court, and up the stairs of a skinny building.
Her room turned out to be just that. One door that led to the loo, another door that might have been a closet. A hook over the fire held a kettle for tea, and there were two mugs on the mantel. She had a large bed taking up most of the room. A small table, a pair of chairs, and a bookshelf stacked with newspapers and magazines took up most of the remaining space.
"We'll skip tea, shall we?" She took the Flourish and Blotts bag from him and wrapped her arms around his neck.
They did have tea, later. She brought it to him in bed. Tea in bed at half past three on a Tuesday was about as far from helping to care for his mad younger sister as he could get. It was marvelously relaxing.
"Better?" Mariana's fingers trailed down his back.
"Mmm." Bill sipped his tea. "Infinitely so."
She chuckled. "I doubt that." She brought her hand up his back to tickle the back of his neck. "But at least you can go back to taking care of your mother and sister without finding yourself at St. Mungo's."
He turned and looked up past the curves of her breasts. "That's where they wanted to put her. Mum wouldn't let them."
Mariana bent down and kissed the top of his head. "And now she's home."
"Yes." He put his tea on the floor and rolled over onto his back.
"And Draco Malfoy with her," Mariana mused.
"Yes." Bill pushed himself halfway up. "I know what you're thinking."
"An interview with him would be almost as good as an interview with your sister."
"No." Bill sat all the way up. "The last thing he needs is reporters disrupting what is probably the first bit of peace he's ever had."
Mariana raised her eyebrows. "What's this? Sympathy for a Malfoy from a Weasley? Things really have changed."
"Everything's changed," he said. "My baby sister was a Death Eater. Why," he asked, "would she do that?"
Mariana's hand stroked soothingly down his back. "She's a grown woman. She made her own choices." She kissed his bare shoulder. "We all make our own choices. Including Mr. Malfoy." The predatory look was in her eye again. "It's his choice whether or not he wants to be interviewed."
Bill shook his head. "No. That was off the record. Officially, you don't know where he is."
Mariana's eyebrows went up again. "You're quite cunning when you want to be, Bill Weasley." She traced the line of his ear with one fingertip. "I," her lips brushed his ear, "like that." She sat back. "And if I find him some other way?"
"If someone else tells you where he is, then it's his decision."
"Fair enough." Mariana put her mug up on the wide headboard. She wrapped her arms around Bill. "Care for a second round?"
He left afterwards. She was still naked in bed when he let himself out, and he had a fleeting wish to just stay there, but his mother was expecting him home.
He wished again that he'd stayed when he got home and walked in on Draco and Ginny facing off in the living room and Molly hovering in the doorway.
"Now, Draco, Ginny--" she tried to say over their shouting.
Bill put a hand on his mother's arm. "Mum. Let them." He pulled her back. "They're both adults. They don't need us making their decisions for them."
"You're a slut!" Draco shouted.
"And you're a rapist!" Ginny shouted back.
Molly flinched. "I can't just let them do this."
"You have to, Mum." Bill put his arm around her shoulders. "She's not a baby anymore. Neither of them are children."
"The baby probably wasn't even mine," Draco spat.
Molly gasped, and only Bill's arm around her shoulders stopped her from stepping into the middle of the argument.
Ginny drew herself up to her full height. "Get out," she said to Draco. "Get out of my house."
Bill had never seen anyone in his family be so cold. He could see what she'd been as a Death Eater.
Draco saw it too, or else he had grown used to doing what she wished. He turned and left the house without another word.
"Ginny--"
"Mum, no," Bill said. "Let her alone." Ginny sat down in her rocker and Molly let Bill take her into the kitchen. "She has to grow up."
"She's grown up enough," Molly snapped, but she stayed out of the living room and took her frustrations out on the beginnings of dinner instead.
Bill took the book, which Molly's distress had prevented her from seeing, upstairs to his room. He sat at his desk--it really belonged one of the twins, but they hadn't taken it and his was in Egypt--and looked out at the pond. Draco was on the edge of it, sitting completely still.
Bill tucked the book into a drawer and dug into one of the other drawers for a stack of parchment and a quill. The blank parchment filled as he caught up on his correspondence. There were a few professional inquiries, a letter from Charlie, and notes from a few friends who were just hearing that he was back in England.
Draco stayed still by the pond as Bill's stack of letters grew.
He debated over his last letter, but he eventually wrote a short note to Mariana thanking her for the tea and company.
Ginny came out of the house some time after that. Bill watched her head across the yard to the pond. He was too far away to hear what was said, but when they appeared to be done talking, she sat beside Draco and took his hand in hers.
Bill watched them sitting, still, until Molly called them all to dinner.
***
Bill didn't realize he was waiting for Mariana to show up until she actually did.
"Who told?" he asked when he saw it was her at the door.
"No one." She looked far more relaxed than Bill expected her to be with that bit of information. "I've talked to everyone who might know, and no one does." She smiled at him. "I only came to see you."
"I don't believe that for a minute," he said. "Come in."
***
Christmas at the Weasley household was as busy as ever. Ron and Hermione brought the baby, and Harry Potter. There were a few tense moments when the three of them saw Draco, but Draco only nodded silently at them from his place at Ginny's side.
There were Weasley sweaters all around. Draco's eyes watered suspiciously when he opened his; he whispered his thanks to Molly and pulled it on. Molly insisted on a seemingly interminable series of pictures of the baby in his first Weasley sweater.
"It's my turn," Ginny said when everyone else had been photographed with the baby.
Hermione and Ron exchanged a look.
"She's a member of this family too," Bill reminded them.
"She won't hurt him," Draco said.
Hermione stepped forward and settled Edward into Ginny's arms, and then hovered as close as she could without getting between the camera and Ginny. Draco stood to the side of Ginny's rocker while Molly snapped a few pictures.
"Hello, little one." Ginny rocked gently, and Molly clicked the shutter again when she smiled down at Edward.
Hermione stayed where she was, keeping a watchful eye over her son, but the rest of the family dissolved into chaos. The twins turned their attention toward torturing Percy. Molly retreated to the kitchen. Arthur engaged Harry and Ron in a discussion of Quidditch.
Bill saw Ginny stiffen. "Take him," she hissed. "Take him. I can't--"
Bill took a step forward, but Draco slid around the chair and took Edward from Ginny before he could get there. Draco hastily handed the baby off to Hermione. Bill stopped where he was and watched Draco slide into the chair with Ginny and pull her half onto his lap.
"One day, my love," he murmured.
Bill had to turn away.
***
"We need to--" Draco stopped, searching for the right word. "Renew our handfasting."
"All right," Bill said.
"We'd like you and Mariana to stand with us and witness."
"I'd be honored. I'll owl Mariana."
"Thank you." Draco offered Bill his hand to seal the deal. "We've decided on Sunday." He looked directly at Bill, almost through him. "We'd prefer it small."
"Of course. I won't tell anyone else."
"Thank you," Draco said again.
Bill watched him walk away and then went upstairs to owl Mariana.
***
"Honestly, why you always travel by floo is beyond me."
Bill laughed and held out a hand to help Mariana out of the fireplace. "We're the scruffy Weasleys. It comes with the territory."
"Your territory could use some dusting." Mariana shook soot off of her robes. "Where can I change?"
Bill took her upstairs to Ron's old room. "I'll meet you downstairs." He went up to his own room and exchanged his everyday robes for the plain white Draco had asked him to wear.
"We're all washed out in this," he said to Mariana as he came back down into the kitchen. She turned and he caught his breath. "Except for you."
"I've always looked good in white." She plucked at a fold of her robe. "Completely impractical."
"It's only for a few hours." Bill took her arm and led her out to their place in the small circle Draco and Ginny had marked out by the pond. Molly and Arthur were already there.
Draco and Ginny came out of the house together and walked across the lawn, hand in hand, to the circle. They took their places, and then turned to face each other.
"With this cord," Draco started, looping a red cord around their joined hands, "I bind myself to you."
Ginny repeated his words half a syllable behind, and she took the second loop.
"For a year and a day, and beyond. Until death herself parts us. I pledge myself to you. Let us be joined. Bless this union."
"Bless this union," the other four echoed.
Draco and Ginny leaned toward each other and kissed, lips and bound hands the only points of contact between them.
They stepped out of the circle, and the others followed them back up to the house for tea.
***
Bill flopped down next to Mariana and kissed her cheek.
She leaned up into it. "Hi. How's your family?"
"Good." Bill stroked her hair and looked over her shoulder to see what she was reading. "Ginny's pregnant."
Mariana closed the magazine and turned her whole body to face him. "Is she happy about it?"
"She doesn't know yet."
"And you do." It wasn't quite a question.
"I knew Mum was pregnant with Ginny before she did."
"Just Ginny?"
"Just her." He rolled over onto his back. "I know how it sounds."
Mariana propped herself up on one elbow. "Do you think she'll be happy when she finds out?"
Bill rolled to his side to face her. "Draco said she wanted the baby before."
"That was before. Things were different then. She was different then."
"She's a Weasley."
"She was a Death Eater." Mariana put her hand against his cheek in a surprisingly conciliatory gesture. "I don't think you really understand what that means."
***
"We're moving," Draco announced at breakfast one day.
"Day after tomorrow." Ginny added. She slipped her hand into Draco's. "Our own place."
Bill exchanged a look with his father and braced himself for his mother's reaction.
"Nonsense," Molly said briskly. "That mansion is far too big for the two of you. You'll just rattle around."
Draco was unruffled. "I sold the estate and bought a cottage."
Molly wavered. "I don't know that--"
"I do," Ginny said firmly. "We're moving. Pass the butter, please."
Molly tried to broach the subject with one or both of them several more times, and Bill overheard her and Arthur arguing about it before supper.
Despite her misgivings, or perhaps because of them, Molly was part of the small entourage that stepped into the fireplace on the appointed day. Draco and Ginny wanted them to see the house from the outside first, so they arrived at an inn in the middle of a small town somewhere in the middle of the Yorkshire Moors.
"We're just outside of town," Draco said, and he and Ginny led the way down the main street and out into the countryside.
Draco's idea of "just outside of town" was far enough that even Bill was tiring by the time they went through a gate and down a long lane to what was a truly charming cottage.
"Wait," Draco said after he unlocked the door. He swept Ginny up into his arms and carried her over the threshold. The motion pushed her robes against the soft curve of her abdomen. Bill wasn't sure if it was that or her delighted shriek of laughter that made his mother cover her mouth to keep in her gasp.
***
"I'm going back to work next week." Bill hated to spoil the afterglow, but he did need to tell her. "In Egypt."
"Yes, I know."
"You know?"
Mariana rested her hand on his thigh. "I have very good sources."
"I can see that." Bill brushed his fingers up and down the soft skin of Mariana's body.
Mariana arched up into his touch like a satisfied cat. "You're going to be one of them."
Bill opened his mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. "Am I?"
"You are." She threw one leg over both of his and hitched herself closer to his body. "I've put in a request to be the Prophet's Cairo correspondent. There's been no announcement yet, but I know they'll give it to me. I hope your flat's big enough for two."
--End--
Author: Ruth Sadelle Alderson
Pairing: Draco/Ginny, Bill/f
Rating: FRT
Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money off of this.
Archiving: My webpage (http://www.graphousa.net/rsadelle/fiction/), anyone else should ask. Archived versions must retain all headers.
Summary: Life in the aftermath.
Author's Note: I worked on this and let it sit and had it edited for so long that I no longer remember who all helped along the way. Many thanks to those of you who did. Title comes from Charles Baudelaire: "I have cultivated my hysteria with delight and terror. Now I suffer continually from vertigo, and today, 23rd of January, 1862, I have received a singular warning, I have felt the wind of the wing of madness pass over me."
"Now, Mrs. Weasley, I understand how you feel."
Even from outside the room, Bill could hear the condescension in the mediwizard's voice.
"The kind of care and supervision your daughter needs is, frankly, more than you can provide. We're trained to do this."
"No."
Bill glanced across the waiting room. The twins sat like bookends on either side of Ron and Hermione. The latter were clinging to each other's hands so tightly he wouldn't have been surprised to find them unable to let go. Charlie was in the chair next to him. He was still the oldest, but it was comforting to have his next-oldest brother at his side. Percy was on the other side of Charlie, mercifully silent for once.
"Molly," their father said. "Perhaps we should listen to him."
"No! Don't you even think it, Arthur Weasley! She is my child, and I am bringing her home with me."
Ron's other hand came up to cradle Hermione's between both of his. She was nervous enough about becoming a mother without hearing this.
"Molly--" their father said.
"Mrs. Weasley--" the mediwizard said.
"No." Her flat refusal cut across both their words. "She is our child, Arthur. She is coming home with us. That is final." She came out of the mediwizard's office with her head held high and eyes snapping.
"Ron, take Hermione home. She should be resting. Fred and George, you have a business to run. Percy, you have work to do at the Ministry." Molly straightened her cloak. "Bill and Charlie, you'll have to help us take Ginny home."
Behind her, Arthur gravely shook hands with the mediwizard.
Molly swept out of the waiting room and down the hall to Ginny's room. Bill and Charlie obediently followed her, and Arthur trailed behind the three of them.
"Hello, dear." Molly softened with Ginny. "We're going home. Here, put your cloak on." She held the cloak while Ginny slipped into it. "All right, then, dear?" Molly gathered up Ginny's things and bundled them into a bag, which she gave to Charlie. She pushed Ginny toward Bill. "Take your brother's hand." She took Ginny's other hand, and they left the room with Arthur in front of them and Charlie bringing up the rear with Ginny's bag.
***
Ginny just stood, when they first brought her home, and looked at the house for a long time.
"Come inside," Molly said, and Ginny went with them into the house. She went straight from the door to Molly's old rocker next to the fire in the front room.
She spent a lot of time there over the next few weeks, just rocking. Molly fretted over it. Charlie confided to Bill that he thought it was eerie, but then Charlie had to go back to Romania before Ginny was better enough that she could tolerate being outside of the house.
It was Arthur who found her standing on the threshold one day and stood with her until she took that first step outside.
***
Bill answered the door. He recognized the man from the papers, and from the waiting rooms at the Ministry, when they were interviewing Ginny.
"Draco Malfoy," he said.
"Bill Weasley," Draco said. He looked past Bill then, and said in a completely different voice, "Ginevra."
Bill stepped back to let Draco past him. When he closed the door and turned, Ginny and Draco were kneeling together in front of her rocking chair.
"Ginevra," Draco said over and over. Ginny whispered back just as fervently, too softly for Bill to hear her words.
Bill watched them swaying into each other until it felt too much like he was intruding, and then he went to the kitchen.
"I think we'll need to clear out Charlie's room," he said to his mother. "It looks like we have one more refuge from You-Know-Who's ranks."
"What are you on about?" She asked, distracted by whatever it was she was doing. Mending, it looked like.
"Draco Malfoy's here," Bill said. "He's in with Ginny."
Molly put aside her work--one of Percy's robes--and went to the living room.
Draco and Ginny had stopped talking and were just clinging to each other. Molly stopped in the doorway with a sharply indrawn breath. Draco noticed her then and stood, bringing Ginny up with him.
"Hello, Mrs. Weasley." Draco reached out with the hand that wasn't being held by Ginny.
"Draco," she said, taking his hand. "You'll be staying." It wasn't really a question.
He dipped his head in acknowledgement. "Yes, ma'am."
Molly clapped her hands together. "We'll put you in Charlie's old room. Bill, you can help me clear it out. Ginny, offer Draco some tea."
Bill doubted Ginny's ability to make tea, but maybe his mother didn't really expect her to do it either.
Helping clean out Charlie's room turned out to be a lot more work than he'd expected. It wasn't enough to just box everything up and haul them up to the attic. Oh, no. His mother wanted to go through everything and sort out what could be stored, what should be sent to Charlie in Romania, and what should just be gotten rid of.
It was supper time--past supper time, really--by the time they had everything but the furniture out of Charlie's room.
"Right then," Molly said. "I think that'll do." She looked around the room, checking for anything they'd missed. She nodded in satisfaction and gave the last box to Bill. "Take that up to the attic and wash up. I'll see about supper."
***
When Ginny's nightmares woke him, Bill met his mother on the landing. They went together to Ginny's room to find that Draco had gotten there first. Molly let Bill draw her away from the door.
***
Bill made an excuse--something about checking in with the bank--and escaped to London for the day. It wasn't completely made up; he did check in with his boss, a kindly woman, for a goblin, who told him his job was still there when he was ready to come back.
Checking in took far less than an hour, and he still had the rest of the day free. He wandered down Diagon Alley looking into shop windows and wondering if there was anything he could get for Ginny.
He couldn't think of anything she would like, but Flourish and Blotts had a new book on enchantments that he thought his father might like. Most of the enchantments could be applied to Muggle artifacts, although the author was careful not to actually say that. Sneaking it past his mother would be difficult, but not as difficult as it would have been before Ginny came home.
"Well, well. If it isn't William Weasley, in the flesh."
Bill turned to face the person who belonged to that voice. "Mariana Hoffman. To what do I owe this," he paused deliberately, "pleasure?"
She leaned against a set of shelves. "I saw the red hair through the window and thought it had to be a Weasley. I was hoping it would be you." She smiled. Bill was reminded of a shark.
"And what did you want a Weasley for?"
She smiled again, a little more charmingly. "I want to know what made a member of Wizarding Britain's most upstanding family become a Death Eater."
The hint of a smile Bill had let develop on his face disappeared. "Go to hell, Mariana."
"Come on, Bill. Give me an exclusive. An interview with a Death Eater's biggest brother."
Bill could almost see the literally screaming magazine headlines. "No."
"A statement, at least." She even had parchment and a quill out now.
"No, Mariana. No interview, no statement, no comment." Bill tucked the book of enchantments under his arm and turned back to his perusal of the new arrival shelves.
Marian stepped away from the opposite set of shelves and put her hand on his arm. "Off the record." The parchment and quill had been neatly tucked back wherever they had come from.
"You're a journalist."
"I'm no Rita Skeeter," she said with a disapproving sniff. "Off the record."
Bill sighed and relented. "Off the record, it's awful." He turned to face her again. "Ginny's mad. Completely nutters. Draco Malfoy showed up. She was pregnant with his child before You-Kn-- before Voldemort killed it. It's terribly hard on Mum." He flipped the book over and over in his hands. "I didn't even know her well enough before to know how she's changed."
"Pay for your book," Mariana said. "I have a room."
Bill was tired, and tired of trying. He paid for the book and followed Mariana out into the street. She took him down Whirligig Court, a street a bit too long and windy to actually be a court, and up the stairs of a skinny building.
Her room turned out to be just that. One door that led to the loo, another door that might have been a closet. A hook over the fire held a kettle for tea, and there were two mugs on the mantel. She had a large bed taking up most of the room. A small table, a pair of chairs, and a bookshelf stacked with newspapers and magazines took up most of the remaining space.
"We'll skip tea, shall we?" She took the Flourish and Blotts bag from him and wrapped her arms around his neck.
They did have tea, later. She brought it to him in bed. Tea in bed at half past three on a Tuesday was about as far from helping to care for his mad younger sister as he could get. It was marvelously relaxing.
"Better?" Mariana's fingers trailed down his back.
"Mmm." Bill sipped his tea. "Infinitely so."
She chuckled. "I doubt that." She brought her hand up his back to tickle the back of his neck. "But at least you can go back to taking care of your mother and sister without finding yourself at St. Mungo's."
He turned and looked up past the curves of her breasts. "That's where they wanted to put her. Mum wouldn't let them."
Mariana bent down and kissed the top of his head. "And now she's home."
"Yes." He put his tea on the floor and rolled over onto his back.
"And Draco Malfoy with her," Mariana mused.
"Yes." Bill pushed himself halfway up. "I know what you're thinking."
"An interview with him would be almost as good as an interview with your sister."
"No." Bill sat all the way up. "The last thing he needs is reporters disrupting what is probably the first bit of peace he's ever had."
Mariana raised her eyebrows. "What's this? Sympathy for a Malfoy from a Weasley? Things really have changed."
"Everything's changed," he said. "My baby sister was a Death Eater. Why," he asked, "would she do that?"
Mariana's hand stroked soothingly down his back. "She's a grown woman. She made her own choices." She kissed his bare shoulder. "We all make our own choices. Including Mr. Malfoy." The predatory look was in her eye again. "It's his choice whether or not he wants to be interviewed."
Bill shook his head. "No. That was off the record. Officially, you don't know where he is."
Mariana's eyebrows went up again. "You're quite cunning when you want to be, Bill Weasley." She traced the line of his ear with one fingertip. "I," her lips brushed his ear, "like that." She sat back. "And if I find him some other way?"
"If someone else tells you where he is, then it's his decision."
"Fair enough." Mariana put her mug up on the wide headboard. She wrapped her arms around Bill. "Care for a second round?"
He left afterwards. She was still naked in bed when he let himself out, and he had a fleeting wish to just stay there, but his mother was expecting him home.
He wished again that he'd stayed when he got home and walked in on Draco and Ginny facing off in the living room and Molly hovering in the doorway.
"Now, Draco, Ginny--" she tried to say over their shouting.
Bill put a hand on his mother's arm. "Mum. Let them." He pulled her back. "They're both adults. They don't need us making their decisions for them."
"You're a slut!" Draco shouted.
"And you're a rapist!" Ginny shouted back.
Molly flinched. "I can't just let them do this."
"You have to, Mum." Bill put his arm around her shoulders. "She's not a baby anymore. Neither of them are children."
"The baby probably wasn't even mine," Draco spat.
Molly gasped, and only Bill's arm around her shoulders stopped her from stepping into the middle of the argument.
Ginny drew herself up to her full height. "Get out," she said to Draco. "Get out of my house."
Bill had never seen anyone in his family be so cold. He could see what she'd been as a Death Eater.
Draco saw it too, or else he had grown used to doing what she wished. He turned and left the house without another word.
"Ginny--"
"Mum, no," Bill said. "Let her alone." Ginny sat down in her rocker and Molly let Bill take her into the kitchen. "She has to grow up."
"She's grown up enough," Molly snapped, but she stayed out of the living room and took her frustrations out on the beginnings of dinner instead.
Bill took the book, which Molly's distress had prevented her from seeing, upstairs to his room. He sat at his desk--it really belonged one of the twins, but they hadn't taken it and his was in Egypt--and looked out at the pond. Draco was on the edge of it, sitting completely still.
Bill tucked the book into a drawer and dug into one of the other drawers for a stack of parchment and a quill. The blank parchment filled as he caught up on his correspondence. There were a few professional inquiries, a letter from Charlie, and notes from a few friends who were just hearing that he was back in England.
Draco stayed still by the pond as Bill's stack of letters grew.
He debated over his last letter, but he eventually wrote a short note to Mariana thanking her for the tea and company.
Ginny came out of the house some time after that. Bill watched her head across the yard to the pond. He was too far away to hear what was said, but when they appeared to be done talking, she sat beside Draco and took his hand in hers.
Bill watched them sitting, still, until Molly called them all to dinner.
***
Bill didn't realize he was waiting for Mariana to show up until she actually did.
"Who told?" he asked when he saw it was her at the door.
"No one." She looked far more relaxed than Bill expected her to be with that bit of information. "I've talked to everyone who might know, and no one does." She smiled at him. "I only came to see you."
"I don't believe that for a minute," he said. "Come in."
***
Christmas at the Weasley household was as busy as ever. Ron and Hermione brought the baby, and Harry Potter. There were a few tense moments when the three of them saw Draco, but Draco only nodded silently at them from his place at Ginny's side.
There were Weasley sweaters all around. Draco's eyes watered suspiciously when he opened his; he whispered his thanks to Molly and pulled it on. Molly insisted on a seemingly interminable series of pictures of the baby in his first Weasley sweater.
"It's my turn," Ginny said when everyone else had been photographed with the baby.
Hermione and Ron exchanged a look.
"She's a member of this family too," Bill reminded them.
"She won't hurt him," Draco said.
Hermione stepped forward and settled Edward into Ginny's arms, and then hovered as close as she could without getting between the camera and Ginny. Draco stood to the side of Ginny's rocker while Molly snapped a few pictures.
"Hello, little one." Ginny rocked gently, and Molly clicked the shutter again when she smiled down at Edward.
Hermione stayed where she was, keeping a watchful eye over her son, but the rest of the family dissolved into chaos. The twins turned their attention toward torturing Percy. Molly retreated to the kitchen. Arthur engaged Harry and Ron in a discussion of Quidditch.
Bill saw Ginny stiffen. "Take him," she hissed. "Take him. I can't--"
Bill took a step forward, but Draco slid around the chair and took Edward from Ginny before he could get there. Draco hastily handed the baby off to Hermione. Bill stopped where he was and watched Draco slide into the chair with Ginny and pull her half onto his lap.
"One day, my love," he murmured.
Bill had to turn away.
***
"We need to--" Draco stopped, searching for the right word. "Renew our handfasting."
"All right," Bill said.
"We'd like you and Mariana to stand with us and witness."
"I'd be honored. I'll owl Mariana."
"Thank you." Draco offered Bill his hand to seal the deal. "We've decided on Sunday." He looked directly at Bill, almost through him. "We'd prefer it small."
"Of course. I won't tell anyone else."
"Thank you," Draco said again.
Bill watched him walk away and then went upstairs to owl Mariana.
***
"Honestly, why you always travel by floo is beyond me."
Bill laughed and held out a hand to help Mariana out of the fireplace. "We're the scruffy Weasleys. It comes with the territory."
"Your territory could use some dusting." Mariana shook soot off of her robes. "Where can I change?"
Bill took her upstairs to Ron's old room. "I'll meet you downstairs." He went up to his own room and exchanged his everyday robes for the plain white Draco had asked him to wear.
"We're all washed out in this," he said to Mariana as he came back down into the kitchen. She turned and he caught his breath. "Except for you."
"I've always looked good in white." She plucked at a fold of her robe. "Completely impractical."
"It's only for a few hours." Bill took her arm and led her out to their place in the small circle Draco and Ginny had marked out by the pond. Molly and Arthur were already there.
Draco and Ginny came out of the house together and walked across the lawn, hand in hand, to the circle. They took their places, and then turned to face each other.
"With this cord," Draco started, looping a red cord around their joined hands, "I bind myself to you."
Ginny repeated his words half a syllable behind, and she took the second loop.
"For a year and a day, and beyond. Until death herself parts us. I pledge myself to you. Let us be joined. Bless this union."
"Bless this union," the other four echoed.
Draco and Ginny leaned toward each other and kissed, lips and bound hands the only points of contact between them.
They stepped out of the circle, and the others followed them back up to the house for tea.
***
Bill flopped down next to Mariana and kissed her cheek.
She leaned up into it. "Hi. How's your family?"
"Good." Bill stroked her hair and looked over her shoulder to see what she was reading. "Ginny's pregnant."
Mariana closed the magazine and turned her whole body to face him. "Is she happy about it?"
"She doesn't know yet."
"And you do." It wasn't quite a question.
"I knew Mum was pregnant with Ginny before she did."
"Just Ginny?"
"Just her." He rolled over onto his back. "I know how it sounds."
Mariana propped herself up on one elbow. "Do you think she'll be happy when she finds out?"
Bill rolled to his side to face her. "Draco said she wanted the baby before."
"That was before. Things were different then. She was different then."
"She's a Weasley."
"She was a Death Eater." Mariana put her hand against his cheek in a surprisingly conciliatory gesture. "I don't think you really understand what that means."
***
"We're moving," Draco announced at breakfast one day.
"Day after tomorrow." Ginny added. She slipped her hand into Draco's. "Our own place."
Bill exchanged a look with his father and braced himself for his mother's reaction.
"Nonsense," Molly said briskly. "That mansion is far too big for the two of you. You'll just rattle around."
Draco was unruffled. "I sold the estate and bought a cottage."
Molly wavered. "I don't know that--"
"I do," Ginny said firmly. "We're moving. Pass the butter, please."
Molly tried to broach the subject with one or both of them several more times, and Bill overheard her and Arthur arguing about it before supper.
Despite her misgivings, or perhaps because of them, Molly was part of the small entourage that stepped into the fireplace on the appointed day. Draco and Ginny wanted them to see the house from the outside first, so they arrived at an inn in the middle of a small town somewhere in the middle of the Yorkshire Moors.
"We're just outside of town," Draco said, and he and Ginny led the way down the main street and out into the countryside.
Draco's idea of "just outside of town" was far enough that even Bill was tiring by the time they went through a gate and down a long lane to what was a truly charming cottage.
"Wait," Draco said after he unlocked the door. He swept Ginny up into his arms and carried her over the threshold. The motion pushed her robes against the soft curve of her abdomen. Bill wasn't sure if it was that or her delighted shriek of laughter that made his mother cover her mouth to keep in her gasp.
***
"I'm going back to work next week." Bill hated to spoil the afterglow, but he did need to tell her. "In Egypt."
"Yes, I know."
"You know?"
Mariana rested her hand on his thigh. "I have very good sources."
"I can see that." Bill brushed his fingers up and down the soft skin of Mariana's body.
Mariana arched up into his touch like a satisfied cat. "You're going to be one of them."
Bill opened his mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. "Am I?"
"You are." She threw one leg over both of his and hitched herself closer to his body. "I've put in a request to be the Prophet's Cairo correspondent. There's been no announcement yet, but I know they'll give it to me. I hope your flat's big enough for two."
--End--