After the Moon

After the Moon

*

Bill

***

"Do you need anything?" asked a concerned voice. "Something to drink or eat? Could I get you another blanket, perhaps?" The bed shifted as another man's weight settled on the other side of the bed.

Remus forced his eyes open. "Stop that, will you?" he pleaded. "That motherhenning isn't at all like you, love. It's beginning to feel like it was your mother there instead of you. And that's not a feeling I'd like to have about my lover." True, the werewolf might be exhausted and weary after the full moon, but he was never too tired to try to lift up the spirits. Or to talk to his lover.

The said lover chuckled and leant down to place a light kiss on the werewolf's slightly fevered forehead. "Sorry," he said. "I'd never want to put disturbing images into your pretty little head. It's just that Mom is indeed here. She wanted to know if we were going to come to the family gathering this evening. I of course said that we wouldn't come, as you're in no condition for such a visit. However, Mom can't be put off that easily. Now she's sitting in the living room and claiming that if I'm not constantly doing something for you, either you aren't in a very bad condition or I'm not caring for you properly. Annoying, she is."

"That she truly is," mumbled Remus. Molly Weasley was the finest of women, true, but at times she did get really annoying. If you were well, you attended to her family dinners, no excuses would do. If you were not well, only she could care for you properly. "When is she going to realize that the only things I need after full moons are you and some proper sleep?"

Bill gave him a dry smile. "Probably as soon as you stop actually needing the healing potions my not-so-dear brother-in-law thankfully keeps brewing for you every month."

Remus gave him a sheepish grin. Yes, he did need the potions that Severus brewed for him as an act of peace towards their now shared family, needing all support he could get from the redheaded army.

It was weird, really. Nobody had expected Percy to be the first child of his family who got married. Even less had anybody expected that the first person ever to call Molly and Arthur their parents-in-law would be Severus Snape -- or, rather, Severus Weasley. "One more Weasley surely can't hurt anyone," they had said, and then shocked the Wizarding World in its entirety. The black sheep of the Weasley family had caught the most antisocial and definitely most antimarriage person ever walked on the face of the Earth. Or the other way around, whatever, nobody knew, really.

Some even said that Severus was simply using Percy on his advantage and had married him only to make it look less suspicious. Remus, however, knew better. He and Severus had reached some kind of a truce, although they would probably never be friends. They were merely civil for the sake of their lovers -- Percy had always been closer to Bill than to any other one of the Weasley brothers, despite their very different characters. Anyway, Remus knew that Severus took any kind of commitment very seriously. If he cared enough to marry Percy and even take the Weasley name, he was really in love.

Besides, if Severus hadn't truly cared for his husband, no might on the Earth could have convinced him to adopt a child. And yet there was a little whirlwind called Marigold Weasley running around, her golden hair always a mess and her brown eyes sparkling. It was a miracle in itself that a single child could cause more trouble than Fred and George combined, but the fact that such a child would grow under the care of the two strictest men anybody knew was a cause of eternal astonishment to everybody. Both former Death Eater spies, however, loved their daughter more than anything, and would let her do anything -- as long as she didn't harm anybody or anything else. Marigold was polite, true, but wild as the wind -- and cute.

Remus himself wasn't that fond on the thought of marriage. True, it was a nice thing, and a proposal was one of the most wonderful gestures you could do for your beloved. However, he saw no point in getting married just for the sake of it. If they were in love and stayed together even otherwise, what was the point? And thus, he and Bill had stayed unmarried despite all the hints and suggestions towards the opposite.

Anyway, the conversation hadn't ended yet. "Then we will go there," Remus said, and yawned. As Bill gave him a suspicious gaze, he added irritably, "Just let me sleep now, and I'll be fine by the evening. We can leave early so that I can get back to sleep, and everybody will be happy."

Bill nodded, and then left the room. When he informed his mother that they would indeed come to the family gathering -- a Sunday tradition of the Weasley family and all its extensions -- the witch broke into a broad smile. She had known the result of this fight fat beforehand, but that didn't stop her being happy.

As soon as she had left after reminding him for the last time to arrive early, Bill went back to the bedroom to check up on Remus. Like he had suspected, the werewolf was already fast asleep again, really exhausted. With a weary smile, Bill again settled onto the edge of the bed, watching his lover in silence.

It wasn't easy, their relationship. True, it could have been harder -- after Percy and Severus had come out to their friends and family, the extended Weasley clan had been prepared for pretty much anything. Their age difference wasn't quite as big as with the other pair, either. However, there had still been prejudices, especially from outside their family. The most hurtful comments had been those of the people who claimed that Bill, a full human, should have had nothing to do with a "filthy werewolf," such as Remus. Many a longtime friendship had been ended from his side after the so-called "friend" had insulted his lover. It was shocking how otherwise perfectly rational and tolerant people could abandon somebody for such a trivial reason. None of his friends had ever been trouble with him being bisexual. Why would they mind the fact that Remus was a wolf once a month? He was a lot tamer than some girls with their monthly problem!

Anyway, he shouldn't be worrying about that now. Those people he had deliberately lost touch with, telling them not to contact him again until they were sensible again. What mattered right now were his remaining friends, and, more than anything, Remus. His beautiful, brave Remus, who was ready to fight down his exhaustion and pain just to make Bill's mother happy. It was unbelievable, really.

It was a miracle that he had managed to get such a perfect lover. Their lives had been so different that nobody could have expected them to end up together. Remus had been an only child, grown up with his parents as his only company, as he, a werewolf, couldn't even befriend other, "normal" children. Ever since he'd been three and he had been bitten, he'd had to struggle to get himself a place in life. Too proud to accept a single knut from his wealthy family, he had walked in worn-out, patched robes for most of his adult life, until he'd just recently got a steady job. Pale and sickly, he nowadays was even weaker than before, the War wounds taking a great toll on him, but he never, ever complained.

Bill himself was the eldest of a large family. He'd always been around people, always sought new contacts and friends. The only trouble he'd ever had to face in life had been the undeniable poverty of his family, but he had come over that and got a respectable and well-paying job when he'd still been very young. He was strong and muscular, and he never fell ill, but whenever something went wrong, he was immediately whining. They were the exact opposites, he and his lover, the two sides of the same coin -- and that was just the reason why they completed each other so perfectly.

It was a miracle that Remus even stood him. And it was also the only thing Bill would never complain about.

*

"Oh, welcome, you two!" exclaimed Ginny enthusiastically as Bill and Remus fell out of the fireplace. "Mom's been frantic about the possibility that you might not come after all, and she's driving us all crazy."

"I always knew there was a reason for you to love me, little one," Bill muttered, annoying his twenty-two-year-old sister greatly. "Come on, Remus. Let's go make my dear mother un-frantic."

Remus followed him, although not without giving Ginny a tired smile in greeting. She smiled back, then disappeared to wherever it was she ever disappeared to. Meanwhile, Remus and Bill headed towards the living room. It was a tradition that both before and after the Sunday dinner, everybody would sit -- well, the children would crawl and walk and run and whatever -- in the living room, chatting and laughing and being social in general. Needless to say, this was the part of these family gatherings Severus hated most.

Anyway, almost everybody else seemed to be present already; only Harry and his dear fiancé Draco Malfoy were missing. It was funny, really, Bill thought, how all the Light spies seemed to belong to their family. After Severus, Percy had joined the Death Eaters, his sole purpose to gather information, and later, Draco had joined as well. Now Severus was with Percy, and Draco was with Harry, and thus all the spies were always present in the extended Weasley clan's family gatherings.

All those who were already present looked up upon their arrival. Severus and Percy were in one corner of the room, Marigold running freely around the room and making noise to her heart's content -- which was a lot. Charlie and his wife Sarah, with their children Colin and Caroline, were seated on a large couch, along with Fred, Hermione, and their little Dean and Luna, both of whom honoured with their names their parents' deceased friends. Then George, his husband Seamus Finnegan-Weasley, and their Gary, Malva, and Minerva. Last were Ron and Padma, and their Teri, Terry, and Timothy. Oddly enough, the only unmarried and childless one -- well, besides Bill himself, of course -- was Ginny. As all eleven children were under the age of five, and Marigold was the only one over four, the noise was rather noticeable.

As always, Marigold was the first to react. "Hi, Unca Bill!" she exclaimed, and ran to hug Bill's legs. "Hi, Unca Wemuz!" Of course she could already talk very well. However, whenever she wanted some extra attention, she used her "baby talk," which everyone thought to be adorable -- his fathers, too, thought that.

"Well, hello to you, too, little one," Bill replied happily at the eldest of his nieces. "Where's Harry?"

"He won't come," Ron informed him. "They had some urgent business to attend to."

"I see. Where's Mom, anyway? I'd like to show her that, despite she having doubts, we did indeed come!"

"I'm right here, William Arthur Weasley, and I heard what you said!" called out his mother's well recognizable voice from the next room. "Show some respect to your elders, will you?"

"Absolutely, Mom." Bill smiled as his mother and father walked to the living room. "So, when's dinner?"

"Behave yourself," scolded Remus him. "It's not like we only came here to eat!"

"Well, I at least came here only to eat," Ron said, earning a sharp glance from Padma but not caring. "So, when will we get to sink our teeth to your delicious cooking, Mom?"

"Soon enough," replied Molly calmly. "As soon as Ginny helps me set the table."

"Why do I always have to set the table?" complained Ginny, who had walked into the living room just in time to hear of her task. "Is it because I'm the youngest? It's not fair!"

"It has nothing to do with your age, dear," Molly said perfectly calmly. "It's just that everybody else has children. It wouldn't be fair to leave their spouses to deal with the little ones alone, now would it?"

"Bill doesn't have children!" the other redhaired witch replied. "Why can't he set the table even once?"

"But he does have a lover," replied her mother, never giving up her admirable calmness. "Get married, or get a baby -- preferably both, and preferably in that order -- and Bill will have to set the table."

"So a spouse amounts to more than a lover?" asked Bill, raising his eyebrows. "That's rather old-fashioned, Mom -- not to mention a really miserable attempt at tricking me into marrying Remus at last."

"Well, I'm an old-fashioned woman," replied Molly happily. "And I'm not trying to trick you to anything. Instead, I'm quite hoping you would pay attention to your mother's wishes as she lies on her deathbed, her last wish being to get to see her children all happily settled down."

"Like you ever would stay on your place long enough to die," Percy cut in dryly. "Give them a rest, Mother. If they don't want to get married, don't force them. Neither of them believes in getting married for the sake of the marriage itself, so do stop pestering them about it."

Bill gave his favourite brother a grateful glance. Percy had got it all out quite well.

Remus gave a tired chuckle at this. "I would help you if I could, Ginny," he said then sincerely. "However, I'm afraid that the silverware wouldn't agree very well with me."

"Oh, and on that note," Molly hastened to say, "you do remember to set different cutlery for Remus, don't you, Ginny?" She gave her daughter a warning glance.

"Of course, Mom," Ginny sighed. Well, at least she should have remembered it pretty well by then. After all, she had heard the same warning every Sunday for Merlin knew how long.

"Very well." Molly smiled and clapped her hands. "Now, let's get to work!"

Soon enough Molly and Ginny had the table set and the dinner ready. The extended Weasley clan -- twenty-six people, and only one, Remus, did not have the name of Weasley -- sat on their respective places, that was, randomly around the table. Well, Remus did have his own particular seat, but that was only because he couldn't use the silverware the others had.

"Are you sure you're all right, Remus?" asked Hermione at one point in the middle of the happy conversation and the children's laughter, frowning slightly at the werewolf. "You look really pale."

"She's right, you're very pale," noted Bill. "I told you it's too early for you to get up and about again!"

"Oh, don't worry, Bill," Remus chirped cheerily -- as if. "I'm perfectly fine, really. I'm just a bit tired."

Just then, Teri looked up from her plate. "Unca Wemuz faint," she said with all the confidence of a three-and-a-half-year-old. And truly, just when she'd voiced this little prediction, the werewolf fell over in his chair and then just lay on the floor, unmoving, his face white like a sheet of paper.

"Remus!" exclaimed Bill, kneeling instantly down next to his lover. To his great relief, he did indeed find a pulse. It seemed that Remus had been just too exhausted. However, this discovery did not lessen the fury in Bill's eyes as he looked up at his mother. "This is your fault," he hissed. "I told you that Remus was too tired to come, but you still insisted. He only agreed to make you happy. And now look what happened!"

"This hardly is your mother's fault, Bill," Sarah hastened to say, eyeing carefully her mother-in-law, who looked very shocked at both Remus fainting and Bill's outburst. "Just get him somewhere to rest, okay?"

Immediately Bill came back to his senses. "Oh, yes. Of course." Easily lifting Remus onto his arms like his lover had been just a little child -- a result of the combination of his considerable strength and Remus's frightening thinness --, he walked towards the fireplace. "I'll take him home," he said. "Don't expect me back." And with that, a whisk of Floo powder, and a shout of, "Lupin-Weasley house!" he was away.

*

Once back home, Bill immediately took Remus's unconscious form to their bed. Sighing, he removed his boots as well as the werewolf's outer clothes, folded the clothes neatly on a nearby chair -- he was rather messy, like a true Weasley other than Percy, but Remus was all for tidiness.

"I knew it would be too much for you," he muttered as he removed the rest of his own outer clothes, then lay down next to his lover and pulled the bed covers over them both. "I knew it, and yet I let you do it. Thus, I was wrong -- it was not Mom's fault, it was mine. My fault alone."

'No, it wasn't,' said a tiny voice inside him. 'It was nobody's fault, really -- just your most loved ones being themselves. And that's the very reason why you love them.'

Bill could really do very little but agree. However, when he pulled Remus against his chest, wrapping his arms around the werewolf, he felt the ribs under the almost nonexistent layer of skin and flesh. That startled him, and he cursed in his mind -- not his Mom, not himself, but Remus's Lycanthropy.

It was what was slowly killing his lover. Every transformation, every accidental silver burn, everything. All those things were taking their toll on him, sucking him a bit drier of his strength and might every time. And, even though it was the very hardest for Bill to admit, he knew that sooner or later, he'd lose his lover to the curse. Either the Cure would be invented, or he would lose Remus entirely.

Bill was a good cursebreaker -- one of the best, even, they said. However, he was not perfect -- he could do nothing to the Lycanthropy, nothing but watch his lover's slow wasting away. This was the one curse he couldn't fight or win. But he'd be damned if he didn't at least try his best.