Through the Zero Hour

William Arthur Weasley had been born into a world in the midst of war. The only period in his life when there wasn't the spectre of war hanging over the heads of wizards and witches everywhere was during the time that he'd gone to Hogwarts and the first few years after. He realized later that it had only been the eye of the storm because they were experiencing the other side of it now.

Currently, he was huddled up in a foxhole with Harry Potter, the young man who carried the yoke of responsibility of ending both Wizard Wars around his neck, while many witches and wizards battled around them. Bill was acting the role of protector for his brother's best friend, a man who at age seventeen was too old and world weary to be so young. It was a strange situation they'd gotten themselves into, and yet for Harry, Bill had done it willingly.

He had been surprised when he found out Ron had become the friend of the Harry Potter. Then he learned about him through the talk of his family. When his mother had told him of the horrible life he'd lived with those Muggle relatives of his, he'd been incensed. Even his father, who loved Muggle things beyond all rational sense, quietly admitted the Dursleys were wretched people.

Bill had many convictions as a man of principle. One of those was that Harry should be allowed to have some happiness in his life. That was just one of the reasons he was here with him. He was on his stomach, keeping his eyes on the scenery and ears aware of the fighting sounds around them while Harry rested on his back beside him.

What Bill didn't know at that moment was that Harry surreptitiously studied him. It was one of the few times the young man had the clear opportunity to do so. It was during his sixth year that he first knew he felt something for the oldest Weasley brother that wasn't quite what he'd expected, but he had kept the secret feeling to himself.

A long-fingered hand reached for Harry's shoulder. "Are you all right, mate?"

"I'm going to die, Bill," he said dryly as he looked away from him and stared out into the darkness. He seemed resigned to his fate, almost accepting.

Bill just stared at him, not sure what to say. Potter then turned over on his stomach and rested his forearm beside his. They both looked and saw skin on skin, how one arm was covered with freckles and the other wasn't. After a moment, Weasley found his voice.

"I don't want you to die today."

"I don't, either," Harry said as he turned his head slightly to look at him, "but to end this War, it has to happen, even if it's not today."

Bill reached for his hand and almost crushed it in a vice-like grip before relaxing and letting it go.

Harry took his show of emotion and dared to ask him something. "You've dated a lot, right?"

"Oh, sure, lots of girls," he said in that off-handed way he had. "There wasn't anything important, but I've had lots of fun."

"Was Fleur fun, too?" he asked.

"For a while," he said with a shrug while still keeping his eyes watchful. "Then she went back to France. No harm, no foul."

"What about… blokes?"

Bill slowly turned his eyes to Harry. "No, can't say as I have, even though my mother seems to think my long hair and earring are magnets for the wrong crowd."

Harry swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down in his throat. Then he nodded at Bill in understanding.

"What about you?" he asked back, taking Potter by surprise. "The Boy Who Lived must many people trying to get his attention."

He laughed uncomfortably. "Hermione says I'm hopeless, and maybe she's right. My first kiss was awful-wet and gross and not worth the hype."

"You haven't kissed the right person," he answered with a smile warming his voice.

"No, maybe not," he agreed before adding, "but that is something I'd like to do before I die."

That irritated Bill. "Stop that! Do you have a death wish or something? I'm trying to help you stay alive."

"No, I don't have a death wish. I want to live to be an old man, but you and I both know that won't happen."

He didn't comment. Instead he put up a quick shield as debris flew over their heads. There were sounds of battle all around them, but it didn't seem that anyone had come upon their hiding place yet.

After a moment of silence, Harry finally asked, "We're friends, right? Us? You and I? Not just me and Ron."

"Yes," he replied in a tone of voice that indicated it should be obvious.

"Would you do something for me if I asked you?" He was almost timid in his approach.

"Almost anything," Bill said again with his gaze far off.

Harry smiled at that. He was just being Bill. Yes, his eyes were away watching for safety reasons, but had they been in the kitchen of the Burrow or the Headquarters, his mannerisms in some ways would not have been that much different. He wasn't one of those that needed constant assurance, and he was comfortable enough in his skin that he could hold a perfectly fine conversation without constantly having to be in eye contact, unlike others Harry had met.

"Would you," he swallowed before continuing, "kiss me?"

Bill turned sharply and looked at him then. "Harry," he said with some surprise, "are you into blokes?"

"No," he said with surprise as he shook his head. "I don't like blokes, but I do like you. I don't understand it. It's just… how it is."

Bill opened and closed his mouth once before saying a quiet, "Thank you." He then rubbed the furrow that had formed between his eyebrows. He quickly looked at Harry a time or two, but the subject dropped.

Harry rolled to his back again while they waited. After some more sounds of the skirmish, a patch of earth exploded on Bill's left so he scooted closer to Harry on his right. "We'll have to move from here soon if we can."

"Right," he agreed looking up at him.

Lying in his supine position, he looked so vulnerable that Bill couldn't help speaking his mind. "I have never kissed another man. It never even entered my mind…"

Harry didn't know how to answer him, so he said nothing, preferring to withstand the other man's intense gaze. When Bill removed the glasses from his face, the fear weighing heavily in his stomach was replaced with fear of a different sort. He swallowed hard as the redhead moved closer. Though he'd asked him, he hadn't thought beyond the question.

"Just… just close your eyes," Bill said, sounding quite nervous.

Harry nodded almost imperceptibly with a wide-eyed expression before shutting them tightly. Slowly, he felt Bill's weight shifting over him, and then the other wizard's breath was warm on his face. He could have whimpered because waiting for it was so nerve wracking.

Then he felt a soft pressing against his own mouth, and he sucked in a breath at the touch. At that moment, Bill followed the natural course of a kiss, and he angled his head to take advantage of the partially open mouth. He suckled Harry's lips with his own while he put his fingers into his black hair.

Bill's kiss felt nothing to Harry like the one he had with Cho, though her lips had also been soft. He instinctually reached up his hands to clutch at the redhead's ribs as the man continued moving his lips over him in a studied slowness. He lifted his head up higher, not wanting to think, not wanting to stop, only wanting to feel the pleasure that was coursing through him because of Bill's touch.

Harry opened his mouth again, and Bill took the opportunity to tease his tongue with his own. That he also did slowly, tasting thoroughly and completely. When he pulled away from him, Potter looked completely debauched. Bill controlled a secret smile because what he had done had not been nearly enough to earn the look on Harry's face.

"Thank you," he said breathlessly as he looked up to Bill, whose red hair was falling all around his face.

"You're welcome," he answered with his own voice full of surprise because he'd actually kissed the other wizard.

"What now?" Harry asked shyly.

"We get the hell out of here," Bill whispered as he slid off of him and inspected their surroundings again. "And then… I don't know what then." He gave Harry an unsure look.

Potter reached over to Bill's face with two fingers and placed them on his lower lip, almost reverently. "Okay."

Using his body as a shield against the spells flying around them, Bill pulled Harry against him. He cast a quick barrier charm so they could retreat to a safe zone away from the battle.

~*~

When the Order had regrouped, the members who had survived were treated for their injuries. Bill had sustained a shoulder injury when he was trying to get Harry out of the foxhole, so he was rushed away by a few of the other Order members while Potter was taken off in the opposite direction. The two wizards didn't have a chance to talk about what happened during the battle, the fighting or the kiss.

In the days that followed, Bill's attitude changed as his mind was heavy in thought. Harry had seen his own death and known of its imminence. Then Potter dared admit his feelings to him despite the future he knew he wasn't going to have. It was almost too much to for the curse breaker to take.

One calm afternoon, he sat ruminating over his thoughts, staring blankly out the kitchen window at Grimmauld place.

"Bill, what's wrong with you? You've been quiet for days now."

He was startled not to have noticed Tonks come into the room. It was an uncomfortable intrusion upon his solitude, and he set down the glass he held in his hands.

"I think I'm in love," he finally admitted slowly to her.

"Congratulations. Now why don't you sound happy about that?" she asked as she sat down near him.

"Because I didn't expect to be, not with this person, and I've been trying to make sure that it's really love I feel and not something else."

She shook her head and gave him an odd smile. "I've seen you with women before, Bill. You know when you like them, and they sure know when they like you."

"That's the problem," he said softly. "This isn't a witch." He put his fist to his mouth and looked aimlessly away.

"Oh," she said with surprise. "How did that happen?"

"I have no idea," he said with a self-deprecating laugh.

"So you've never…"

"Nope, and he said he hasn't ever either. He just likes me," he closed his eyes as if the thought pained him.

Tonks gave a short laugh. "Love is a weird beast, Weasley."

He nodded his head emphatically, and then stood up. "Thanks for listening."

"Of course, but now I'm curious. Who is it? Do I know him?" she inquired.

"You know him," he confirmed. "Everyone knows him."

Bill walked out of the kitchen leaving Tonks to try to figure out the mystery wizard's identity.

~*~

Tonks did not speak to anyone about Bill's confession. She wasn't his judge, and she wasn't his mother. She figured that he would deal with it in his own way, and in the meantime there were other more important problems than being in love with a member of the same sex.

A few days after Bill had told Tonks his trouble, they were all gathered around the kitchen table at the Headquarters for a solemn meal after the loss of Hestia Jones on a particularly dangerous mission. Bill quietly watched Harry sitting on the other side of the table across from him. His head was turned down, but once the green eyes looked up directly into Bill's own, nearly searing him with the pain there. Harry quickly went back to poking his potatoes like they had offended him.

With the loss of one of their own so raw, it only served to make Bill ache, especially in relation to Harry. They both knew he was a human sacrifice, and eventually he would fall. Man or not, how could he dare love someone who would be viciously snatched away from him?

Then a different voice spoke to Bill in his head. You dare because if you let the War steal your happiness, they have already won.

He nodded to himself as if coming to a decision and then looked up. He saw Tonks studying him. The way she glanced from him to Harry and back again signaled to Bill that she had figured out the identity of the other wizard. He put his finger to his lips and confirmed her suspicions.

When the meal broke up, Molly competently had her kitchen helpers organized, neither Harry nor Bill being a part of that group that evening. He took that as an opportunity to talk to Potter for the first time since the kiss they'd shared nearly two weeks previous.

"Harry, could I talk to you?" Bill asked neutrally.

"Yes," he said and started to leave the room.

When Bill glanced over his shoulder to see if anyone was following them, Tonks gave him the thumbs up for encouragement. He shrugged to show he didn't know how things were going to turn out, and he walked after Harry.

Harry sat down on the step and Bill looked down on him for a while before sitting beside him. "How are you?" he finally asked.

He gave him a look that showed he didn't think much of the question, but he answered, "Fine."

"You know, that's the problem with the English language. It's easy to lie. We get into a habit of asking questions we don't really care about with answers we don't really want to know," Bill declared.

"Then what's true? Why did you want to talk to me?" Harry asked with a hungry look.

"I really wanted to know how you were. I haven't talked to you in two weeks, not since we…"

He didn't say it, but he stared at Harry's mouth. Potter nervously licked his lips under the other man's scrutiny.

"Do you hate me, Bill?" he blurted.

"No," he breathed out so softly that Harry almost didn't hear it. "I really, really don't hate you. Not at all."

"Oh."

"Yeah," he answered eloquently.

Harry tapped nervously on his knee, and Bill stared at his hand. Finally, he reached over and deliberately put the back of his hand against the back of Harry's and entwined their fingers.

"I don't know how to do this, Harry," he confessed on a shaky breath, "but… I'm willing. Just don't think that I'm going to stand idly by while you sacrifice yourself. That won't happen no matter what my feelings are."

Harry let out a nervous laugh that sounded inordinately loud in the hallway. "I never expected you to say that."

"Which part?" Bill asked with a defensive tone.

"About being willing," he answered and changed hand positions so that their palms were touching each other. "I never expected any of this, you know."

"I know," he replied and looked away in thought. "Me neither."

"Isn't it going to hurt you when I go?" he asked.

"You and your death wish," Bill mocked through the pain. "It already hurts me while you're still here, so what difference will that make?"

Harry took his free hand and raised it to touch the other man's face. He smiled at him softly, but had no more time to do anything else.

"Harry, Bill," saluted Remus Lupin softly in his hoarse voice.

Immediately Potter guiltily struggled to free his hand from Bill's, but the older wizard didn't let it go. Instead, he answered as if nothing unusual had just been happening at all. "Remus," he said softly and held onto Harry until he stopped his struggle.

He looked from one man to the other, studying their faces, but he did not say anything. Lupin walked past them up the stairs without a word of comment.

Bill let out the breath he'd been holding and relaxed the grip he had on Harry's hand. "That's one down and the rest of the world to go."

"So this is how it's going to be?" Potter wondered aloud.

"Yes, especially the part about you staying alive and living to be an old man," Bill said as he stood up and pulled Harry to him.

"I can't do that," he replied as he held on to the red head for dear life.

"I know," Bill whispered sadly in his ear as he embraced Harry.

"I know."