Charms and Curses

The two continued on their journey, and this time, they were actually talking to each other.

"So, Bill, tell me about your family."

Bill chuckled. "Well, they're a rowdy bunch. The lot of us drive mum insane when we're all home at the same time, but she really wouldn't have it any other way."

Fleur nodded, her eyes telling him to continue.

"There's dad. He works for the Muggles Department in the Ministry of Magic. Anything Muggle fascinates him. I remember about that time when Ron wrote me about him meeting Hermione's parents for the first time..." Bill's eyes brightened, then darkened. That was the same time that Lucius Malfoy had slipped that diary into Ginny's schoolbooks. He hurriedly continued on.

"Mum's real name is Mariella Bradford Weasley, but no one ever calls her anything but Molly. She's a great mum, has a formidable temper when one angers her, but she'll always be there for you, you know what I mean? Even after I left Hogwarts and moved to Egypt for work, every Christmas, I would find a parcelful of fudge and cookies and pies, and a hand-knitted jumper, without fail. And mum would fight anything from Voldemort down to garden gnomes, tooth and claw, if they ever dared to harm any of her babies."

"Zey sound lovely." Fleur said wistfully. "My fazzer left us when I was ten...a lot of part-veela or veela women are doomed to nevair find true love...Gabrielle, she's my leetle seestair, barely remembers 'im. But tell me more about your family. What of your siblings?"

"Well, there's Charlie, he's the second oldest after me. He was a damn good Quidditch player when he was at Hogwarts, but decided not to play professionally afterwards, instead going to go to Romania and work with the Dragons at the Dragon Reserve there. You might have seen him around at the time of the First Task."

"Oui! 'e was ze redhead 'oo talked to 'arry after ze first task, right?"

"Yep, that would be him. Come to think of it, you probably know Percy too, he took over many of Mr. Crouch's duties. Tall, wears glasses..."

"Ah, yes, of course. 'e is ze serious one, is 'e not? But zis girl in ze Ravenclaw 'ouse said zat 'e was a sweet boy, really. Penelope somesing or anuzzer."

"Oh, that would be Penelope Clearwater, his girlfriend." Bill smirked, "I remember how the twins gave Percy a hard time about that one."

"Oh? Poor Percy...why did ze twins give 'im such an 'ard time? Are zey not afraid zat Percy would take revenge when ZEY get ZEIR first girlfriends?"

"No, I doubt that. That sort of thing wouldn't occur to Percy, and besides, Fred and George would probably not care a whit if they got teased when they got girlfriends. Percy and the twins couldn't be more different. The twins are as mischievous as he is rule-abiding, and they love to play jokes on everyone they know. I think the only ones whom they have had chances to play jokes on, and didn't, are Harry and Hermione. But then, come to think of it, I guess the combined forces of mum and Oliver Wood would be enough to deter them from playing tricks on Harry, and Hermione is smart enough, AND, if Ron's words are any indication, tempery enough, that she might just get them back tit for tat if they decided to play jokes on her."

Fleur giggled. "Zey sound like wonderful people, I 'ope zat, if it is not too much trouble, you can take me to meet your family someday, after we complete ze mission. I know Ron already, but what about ze leetle seestair, I sink zat she was ze one dancing wis ze forgetful boy at ze Yule Ball?"

"Oh, well, that's Ginny. She's the youngest, and also the only girl. So she gets babied a lot, but not necessarily always understood. She's a sweet thing, though. Had the biggest crush on Harry, probably still likes him. We - we all need to treat her more like a young woman than a child sometimes, I think. And give her more attention and understanding." Again, Bill's voice took on that somewhat sad, dark tone. Fleur glanced at him, then laid a gentle hand on his arm.

"Oui, I sink I understand what you mean. It is an 'orrible feeling when one always tries to overprotect one's leetle seestair, and zen it ends up zat one cannot protect 'er at all."

Bill turned sharply. How could she possibly know about...about Ginny and the catastrophe with the Chamber of Secrets?" But Fleur continued speaking softly.

"I 'ave no idea if you 'ave ever gone srough zat sort of experience, but last year, at ze Triwizard Tournament, ze second task, I was attacked by ze grindylows, and could not rescue my leetle seestair from ze water. Sank Merlin zat 'arry and your bruzzer 'elped bring 'er to shore, I do not know what I would 'ave done ozerwise." She blushed at the memory, then turned to look at him. "I am a quarter-veela. It is not often zat I would 'ave occasion to feel shame, but zat time, all I felt was shame and despair. When one cannot even keep ze ones dearest to zeir 'earts safe..."

Bill looked at her in astonishment. So, she did understand, after all. "I know what you must feel like. In her first year at Hogwarts, something terrible happened to Ginny. She was given, by an evil man, the old diary of Tom Riddle." Hearing Fleur's gasp of horror and knowing that she knew who Tom Riddle was, he continued, "She was lonely, and we, her brothers, prats that we all were, didn't pay much mind to her, so she started confiding in that diary. Tom Riddle, through that, managed to possess her and used her strength to release a monster into the school. When we all found out, all of us, her brothers, all we could think was, 'How could we have let such a thing happen to our only sister? How could we have not noticed that something was wrong? How could we have been so bloody self-absorbed?!' Even the twins...they were glum for the entire month after finding out."

Fleur was silent for a while, then she said softly, in a voice devoid of accusation, astonishment or disappointment, "Well zen, we 'ave somesing in common.. But zis is why we are on zis mission in ze firs place, no? so we can prevent anysing bad from 'appening to our families and loved ones evair again." And with that conclusion, and a determined expression on her face, she continued onward, and Bill smiled to himself as he followed.

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