milliways_bar | (no subject)

Elaine comes over, tray in hand, beaming. "Good even, Bill! What a pleasure to see you in the bar again. And where is your lovely Fleur this evening?"

She hasn't seen him in months--she's glad he still comes here.

Because he's polite and was raised with manners, Bill stands, taking Elaine's hand in his. He nods to her. "Hullo, milady; it's been rather a while, hasn't it?" With a smile, he squeezes her hand. "Did you know that picture you made graces our living room in our London flat? It's fascinating: I can tell who's at the bar by looking at it. It changes from time to time."

He's never been one to question magic, and whether or not Elaine put magic into the painting, something did. "Fleur is up in the bath, combing out her hair. She'll either join me or she won't, but if she doesn't, I'll tell her that you asked after her. She'll be delighted, I'm certain."

Bill lets go of Elaine's hand. "So tell me: how have you been? You look rather on the radiant side."

Elaine is rather pleased that the picture she made for him hangs in their flat--it was the first picture she'd ever sold for money, and she's proud of that fact. "I'm glad it delights you so." And she's glad when she talks about Fleur, because she likes her and is glad Bill has her.

"I have been very well, Bill. I'm married now," she says, managing to blush and grin at the same time.

"Goodness!" He means that in every sense of the word. "It has been a long time. I suppose I don't get to kiss the bride, do I." He smiles at her, though, and it's an easy and comfortable smile. "My congratulations and very best wishes. Who's the lucky groom, and how long as it been?"

Recent events, it seems, have been very much on the happier side.

"His name is Ryan Chappelle and we got married on New Year's Eve. He took me to Hawaii as a Christmas gift and he asked me quite suddenly and we were married the same day." She laughs at herself, how the last sentence just rushed out of her. "I'm still getting used to it, but we are very happy."

"That's such lovely news. So very lovely. And in the tropics, no less."

Bill thinks about his spur-of-the-moment wedding to Fleur and how happy it's made him, and he knows he wouldn't change the least thing about the way they did it. The time may come when his family insists on a "real" wedding -- as if theirs wasn't official enough -- but till that time, he's happily ignored that fact.

"There's something rather appealing about running off and getting married without a lot of planning, isn't there." He almost smirks.

"Most definitely," Elaine says. "I helped plan Tony and Michelle's wedding, and I thought I'd collapse by the end of the day. It was nicer the way we did it, with the sun setting over the water--there could not have been a lovlier stained glass window than that sunset."

"Look at the smile on your face." Bill likes it very well when the people he likes are happy. "I'm sorry it's been so long since we've spoken. A lot has happened." He glances almost involuntarily to the door, and the part of him that's both staunch British male and egotistical is very glad she wasn't there the night Fleur brought him in so very close to death. If he were counting, that would be the second time since he's lived at this place.

He's going to have to stop relying on her to save his arse. And one of these days, he'll do just that. Only not right now.

"What have you been up to, Bill?" she asks curiously, but gently.

She doesn't want to be thought of as nosy.

"Just getting back to work." He pulls out a chair for her, and sits back down himself. "Fleur's been doing a bit of fashion modeling, and we're trying to decide if we want to live part-time in Egypt."

He doesn't mention anything that happened; it all seems like so much water under the bridge at this point. Besides, the attack didn't really have any residual effects beyond the scars on his hand, and those aren't particularly noticeable. Raven did a very good job healing his face.

He's hardly even having nightmares about it any more.

Take that, post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Oh, I imagine she's wonderful at the modeling." She'd seen magazines back in Los Angeles, she remembers. She imagines that Fleur would be in very high demand. "She's just so lovely. And how does Fleur like Egypt?"

He taps his finger thoughtfully against his lip. "She's been there only one time and she seemed to like it, but it's a country that can take a good deal of time to get used to... very different from anything she knows, really. But Fleur's no naive blonde airhead: she knows quite a bit. I'll let it be her decision."

Still, he gets a faraway look in his eyes as he talks about Egypt, because it's a place he loves so very much.

"You've heard about Bernard and Tonks and little Anthony, I take it?" Why not. A change of subject before she starts asking how long he's been out of work.

Elaine nods. "I suppose it is quite different to what she's been used to."

Elaine, as always, beams at the mention of children. "Yes, I have heard. It's so wonderful, isn't it? I do love babies--I shall have to pay them a visit."

There's a little thing that hurts inside to know she'll never be pregnant or give birth--but it doesn't hurt so much that she can't be happy for others who have that joy.

"They look so very happy. They've a lovely family." He gives her a small grin: Bill isn't the sort to ask people about their family planning wishes or dreams or plans. He's always thought that too much of an invasive question, really, because people will do what they do if he asks or doesn't. He came from a very large family and it's what he's used to, but it doesn't mean everyone wants or needs such a thing.

"Well. Next time I'm in Egypt, I'll have to find you and your Ryan something rare and exotic as a measure of my happiness for the both of you. And I do take requests."

Elaine laughs. "That is sweet, Bill." She falls silent for a bit. "I would...I would like pictures, if you take them. I've never seen Egypt before," she says shyly.

If she can't go there...she'd at least like to know what the places look like.

He stops for a minute, almost taken aback by the simplicity of the request. "I could show you pictures now, of course, if you wanted to see them. I've got loads of them upstairs."

She grins. "That would be lovely."

There are so many places she'd like to see...but it's only by pure luck that she will get to see them.

"Well then." He draws out his wand. "Don't you go anywhere; but when I say 'duck' you might want to lower your head... accio 'Luxor Today'! There." Tilting his head to one side, he waits, and then... "Duck."

A magazine comes whistling down from his room; he catches it handily. "That," he explains, "is what we lazy wizards do rather than run up and down a set of stairs to get our exercise." Laughing, Bill opens the magazine and sets it out in front of Elaine: it's a full-colour Muggle publication mostly for tourists and has page after page of photographs. There are pyramids and the Nile and street scenes and cityscapes and the Sphinx and Valley of the Kings and the temple at Karnak and... on and on.

"Tell me if you see anything you like here."

Elaine ducks when Bill says to, and laughs when the magazine comes flying into his hand.

At the pictures, Elaine's mouth falls open. "It's so...different." She's taking everything in, the desert and the pyramids, the people and the street scenes.

She points to the temple. "That is...amazing looking."

Bill nods, agreeing with her assessment. "It is rather amazing." Upside down, he studies the picture of the Karnak temple. "They say it takes half a day just to walk the grounds and get a feel for the place, but it can take years before one knows it well."

He happens to know it well.

"And what this publication won't tell you is that there's an entire separate side of it that only wizards know of; Egypt is steeped in all manner of antiquities beyond what you see here. There are layers up on layers upon layers and not just in Luxor and Karnak, but everywhere in the country. It's got a... defining odour to it, and a feel, and the sun is so bright it makes one's eyes ache, and the wind is warm and full of sand, and..." His voice trails off.

Clearly, it's a place he loves passionately.

He thinks he's just made up his mind: he's going back.

Elaine smiles as he speaks. "It sounds like you love it very much. And it is very hard to imagine a whole other world besides this. The world just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I should be quite nervous if I thought I had to keep up with it."

She laughs.

It is a very big world, without doubt. "Here, let me show you something." Again, Bill draws out his wand; this time, he taps it to the magazine. "Vivere... There."

The picture springs to life: it rises from the page, a tiny and perfect representation of the temple at Karnak. Perfectly small tourists wander round the columns; lights go on and off, a warm breeze blows round the table. "There. A little more of a taste of the place for you. I'm no good at large-scale work like that, but I can manage it on a photograph, especially if it's one of a place I know well."

Elaine's eyes widen and she looks at the small, perfect structure. "It's...it's so big. If the people are that small in comparison..."

She can feel the breeze, warm and dry, against her hand.

"Isn't it marvelous?" Bill's smile is evident: he adores the place. He points to a location in the middle of the temple. "One of my first curse-breaking assignments was just under here. Started out with another curse-breaker; it's both safer and educational." He laughs. "I've not worked with a partner on this type of thing in a long time, but you'd be amazed at the way the ancient Egyptian wizards thought to guard their tombs. Amazing."

Sitting back, he shakes his head at the memory. He also remembers going out and getting completely, utterly pissed afterward by way of celebration, at the wizarding bazaar behind the city of Luxor.

"Oh...like what sorts of ways?" Elaine is curious about everything. Her eyes are rather riveted to the small temple, though. She's imagining being down there, and what it would be like.

"Company secrets, Missus. 'Fraid I can't divulge." Bill laughs again. "I'm teasing. Do you know what a glamour is?"

That would seem to be the place to start.

Elaine's read lots of stories. "Is it...a sort of magic disguise?"

"Exactly." Bill taps his wand to the table beneath their fingers; it shimmers for a moment and then takes on the appearance of a piece of blue silk, fluttering in the breeze. He knocks on it with his knuckles and there's a rapping sound. "You see? It's still the table, but it doesn't look like it any longer. Finite."

The table is just a table again. "That's a simple glamour. The ancient wizards were so expert at them one can barely tell they're glamours at all, and they worked them on huge scales. For instance, there are tombs at the Valley of the Kings, and they're well-known, marked and preserved. However, there are also wizard's tombs there, entirely hidden from non-wizarding eyes by some of the most expert glamour work I've ever had the privilege to see. After studying for the better part of a decade there, I've almost got to the point where I can tell where one might be."

He watches with a combination of boredom and fascination at the little picture-come-alive. "They also use magical creatures, like... oh, let's see, sphinxes and mummies and pythons and a host of others, hugely long-lived, some immortal, as guardians. There are also complex series of traps combined with glamours: step on the wrong slab of marble and you're dead in an instant. Their weapons still frighten me. But the rewards... well, you've seen some of what they've hidden. That gemstone I gave you is a very nice example of the types of things one might find."

Elaine is utterly silent as he tells her about the spells. "That's...incredible. I can't imagine how much knowledge you need to have in order to do the work you do."

Very learned people still impress Elaine quite a bit--though she is by no means ignorant anymore, either.

"How long did you study to do this sort of thing?"

Bill shrugs gently. "I started preparing while I was still at school, but the bank hired me straightaway, and I apprenticed for a year before they'd let me out on my own."

He's very good at his job. It's glamourous, but in a different way.

"You must have learnt quite a bit in that year. How did your mother and father react when you told them what you were going to do?"

"Good-bye and good riddance?" He laughs. "No, no. I think they didn't like it particularly well. At least not my mum, but Dad was fascinated by the prospect of visiting there. And they had their hands full: I've got five brothers and a sister, all younger. So I'm quite sure they didn't mind as much as they might have, were I their only child."

He did have to promise to write from time to time, though.

"Yes, that is a large family. I believe I met your brother, Fred, once."

Elaine grins. "I suppose one can't worry too much when they've got six other children to run after."

Bill rubs his forehead: he can't really imagine having that many children, or watching them, or caring for them. But his mum and dad did it, and they did it spectacularly well.

"Fred's a bit... well, he's one of two. Twins, you know. You've got to meet George to get the full picture on him."

He taps his wand to the magazine; the little picture disappears and flattens back into the magazine page. "You're welcome to keep that if you want, you know."

"Might I? I'd love to show David the pictures." Realizing Bill didn't know who David was, she explained, "Oh, he's a little boy who wandered into the bar, abandoned by his mother. He lives with Ryan and I now." She smiles softly.

"You've got a family -- that's -- it's wonderful. Of course, show it to David. I've got many more if you need anything else." He reaches over and squeezes Elaine's shoulder. "Now I'm doubly happy for you. How old is David?"

Elaine constantly reminds herself that she is not David's mother, but she has a hard time helping that.

"He's ten. He's a very sweet little boy. Quite shy, though, so he doesn't come into the bar often, even with us."

"Still... that's so very sweet. I assume you've moved, then? To some larger accommodation?"

Really, the rooms here are fine for one or two, but not for more than that. "If David likes the magazine and wants to learn more... I'd be so very glad to share the rest of my books and periodicals with him. I've got a number of them upstairs. All you need to do is ask."

"Yes, we moved into a flat in the Staff Wing a few months ago. It's quite lovely and we're very comfortable there."

She smiles. "I appreciate that, Bill...and speaking of the flat, my shift is nearly over...and I should get home." She stands. "Greet Fleur for me and I hope you have a very, very pleasant evening."

He stands with her; it's that whole gentleman thing at work. "And you, love. It's been a pleasure." He kisses her softly on the cheek. "Take care of yourself. I'll see you soon."

Elaine smiles. "Good night, Bill."

And with that, she goes up to Bar, turns in her tray, and has gone home for the night.