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[thecoolone]

Bill sits with his feet up on an adjacent chair, a copy of Coptic Charms and Curses from Troubled Times in his hands. It's one of a curse-breaker's bibles, really, although he's not looked through it in some time.

Idly, he wonders how a copy of it ended up in Room 42 but he knows the answer.

It's magic.

At his side are a small replica of a pyramid, a glass containing some sort of ruby red liquid, and the inevitable parchment, quill, and ink. The ink today is sapphire blue. Every now and again, the pyramid gives off a greenish glow.

Comments

[leplusbeau]

*Fleur leans over the top of Bill's head to see what he is reading. Attack of the blonde hair!*

[thecoolone]

He lets his fingers tangle idly in the long blonde hair, slowly turning around.

His face breaks into a huge grin. "Hullo, my love." He rests the book on the table so the title is visible. Really, it's a bit droll and some of the ancient curses are in Hieratic which makes it that much more difficult to read and decipher. The hieroglyphs themselves are enough, but...

...but enough of this: the woman who makes his face light up in delight is here. "Fleur, Fleur: your name is like a song."

[leplusbeau]

*She giggles as she shakes the loose bits of hair around his head.*

Great big mush. Can I write that in my vowz? "'ere, among my friendz and family, I marry Bill, the biggest mush I have ever squished."

[thecoolone]

Bill laughs out loud. "You can write whatever you like into your vows, love. Whatever you like."

He taps his finger to his chin. "I think I'll say... oh, something about things that would be better kept private, just so everybody knows exactly how lucky I am. Scandalous things that will shock my mum into never wanting to see any of her other children wed. How does that sound?"

Catching her fingers in his, he tugs her toward him. He simply likes having her close.

Teasing her is fun, too.

[leplusbeau]

*eyes wide*

Leave the pink flamingo out of thiz! We were both very drunk!

[thecoolone]

Laughter.

It's something he didn't have enough of for what feels like a very long time; he stands and puts his arms around her and holds her close for a moment. "Sit with me, love, and we can make up all manner of stories about more than just the pink flamingo. Tell me what you've done today. I missed you. I missed your touch, and I missed the way I can feel your eyes follow me."

At some point he needs to at least owl his mum and dad, tell them the news. The lack of Weasleys has been a bit discomfiting, come to think on it.

[leplusbeau]

*She blushes just slightly and demurely settles on Bill's knee as they sit.*

Told Bernard. We laughed. Juste sat out by the lake most of today and...well, I thought. About who to tell. And how.

I think I will leave my mother a note in the kitchen. She'll find it when we are celebrating our tenth anniversary.

[bythebrook.livejournal.com]

At some point when Fleur isn't around, Ophelia creeps up cautiously.

"...Bill?"

[thecoolone]

"Hullo."

He doesn't know her, but he knows who she must be. Standing, he pulls out a chair for her, offering in gesture for her to sit. "Ophelia?"

[bythebrook.livejournal.com]

She nods and sits cautiously, looking ready to bolt at the slightest provocation.

"Are you alright?"

[thecoolone]

He studies her for a moment before responding, but it's more from curiosity than anything else. "I'm well... you? You were there, weren't you? Helping us?"

Bill leans back a little bit: Ophelia has a big presence and she wants a lot of room, so far as he can tell. He doesn't want to crowd her.

In fact, he admires her for coming by. "I'm so glad to finally know you."

[bythebrook.livejournal.com]

She's still nervous, but her pride is unmistakable.

"I was there, yes. Couldn't leave you and Tonks and the baby and not do anything."

She smiles shyly at him.

"Glad to know you, too."

[thecoolone]

"Then I owe you a debt of gratitude." He flashes her a small grin. "Just so you know, Ophelia: I know. I know what happened before that... with the two of you, and that you still felt compelled to..."

Bill's voice trails off. The enormity of her action strikes him all of a sudden, and it feels selfless.

"Tell me what you saw there? Tonks and I had three days inside that castle to gather information, but we were hiding. Tell me what you saw so that I might know what I missed. I heard there was at least one Dementor inside."

This is something concrete; he can have this conversation easily enough. And then, once there's common ground... they can really talk.

If that's what Ophelia wants.

[pjpettigrew.livejournal.com]

Peter comes in from the lake area. He's still wearing extraordinarily threadbare, no-colour Muggle clothes, possibly because it hasn't occurred to him to ask the bar for anything better. He's also appreciably thinner than he was when he accidentally left the bar in February.

As he scans the bar, checking for faces that he knows (and the only familiar ones he's seen so far have been Desire of the Endless and Val Wiggin-Skywalker), he spots a redhead...one he remembers talking to before.

A redhead who's had a rather rough time lately, according to what he's heard.

He hurries over before he can think better of it. "Bill. Desire (http://www.livejournal.com/community/milliways_bar/6100131.html?thread=252264355#t252264355) and Val (http://www.livejournal.com/community/milliways_bar/6100131.html?thread=252266147#t252266147) said...they said that damned Malfoy took you and Tonks..." The sentence trails off into nothingness. He tries again, but can only manage a harsh whisper. "Jesus, Bill--are you all right?"

His expression is a cross between worried, furious and absolutely appalled.

[thecoolone]

Bill stands, extending his hand. "Now here's a face I didn't think I'd be seeing again. Peter: where have you been? Just when I was beginning to think you weren't half bad, you up and disappear." He grins. "I'm fine, I'm fine. Tonks is fine. We played them a bloody good game, the two of us. I rather think we make a decent pair after all."

He gestures to a chair. "Something to drink? Eat? You look as if you could use it."

[pjpettigrew.livejournal.com]

This response gets a look of surprise, and then a delighted smile. He sits in the chair indicated. "Yes, thank you. Something to eat would be great. Could you order for me, please? I'm a bit out of the habit.

"As for where I've been...I'm not sure. The last time I was in the bar was around the first of February. There was an expedition to look for Elizabeth Bennett. Turned out she was stuck in a picture in the House of Arch. We got her out. After that, I don't know. I don't know if I walked through the wrong picture or around the wrong corner or what. I couldn't even tell you what world I ended up in. It could have been ours--though it wasn't wizarding world territory. Or it could be another dimension.

"All I know is that there were a lot of people there who were sick and hurt. And--well, I was busy. For a few days, I thought. Three. Five at the most.

"Then on Saturday I walked into the bar again...and found out it was the third of July." He gestures helplessly. "Bloody temporal distortion.

"I'm glad that you and Tonks are all right." Definite relief in that tone. "If you don't mind my asking...what game did you play on them? If you don't want to answer," he adds hastily, "believe me, I'll understand."

[thecoolone]

"Time and timing, it's so odd. First things first." He calls over a wait-rat and orders two plates of shepherd's pie and two glasses of ale. That taken care of, he turns back to Pettigrew.

"And second things second: I've been here now... half a year, Peter, and I've learnt a few things. Rather, expanded on the education I first started receiving with you, and picked up with Tom Riddle. So all those initial apprehensions I had about you: I laid them down somewhere a number of months ago and don't remember where they are. They're gone."

For the most part.

Moving the book and supplies aside, he leans forward. "Now... do you know any of the basics of what happened? About the Quidditch match at Hogsmeade and about the increase in... incidents in our world lately? Or do I start at the bitter, bitter beginning?"

It's fine with him if he needs to, and it might even prove to be somewhat cathartic. There has been a lot of dancing about details, but there's so much that Bill has yet to share with anybody.

Not even Fleur.

[pjpettigrew.livejournal.com]

Peter pauses in eating for a moment. "I thank you for that, Bill," he says quietly. "But your initial apprehensions were reasonable. I didn't like the fact that you didn't trust me, but there was never a time that I couldn't understand it.

"Mmmm. Let's see. Val mentioned the Quidditch Cup in Hogsmeade. I hadn't heard anything about increased incidents in our world at the time of my--involuntary departure? Alice--sorry, that's what Val and I call Lucius Malfoy, because of the hair--got hold of some guns somewhere, and kidnapped you and Tonks with the help of some other Death Eaters. Personally, I can't believe he could bring himself to touch Muggle inventions. And Alice sent Bernard back Tonks' engagement ring, which was not smart.

"Harry's lookalike, Tim Hunter, and a lot of people--gunslingers among them, as well as most all the people here from our world--went to the rescue. And Regulus Black helped some, Desire said. And Faith stabbed Alice in the gut, and then someone, I don't know who, poked his eye out. And he hasn't been in the bar since.

"And that's what I know. Which, come to think of it, is mostly about the rescue and not about what actually happened."

[thecoolone]

"Alice. Hmm." He nods in a small bit of satisfaction. "Lucius was only there for us at the very end."

He sits back. "I followed Tonks through the door to Hogsmeade on a whim, more than anything. You see, I'd been following the press, both Muggle and wizarding, and had noticed an increase in Death Eater-style attacks. My specialty is Egypt; there were quite a number of incidents there, and they tie in with some other theories I've been working on, but we can save that whole angle of discussion for another time. I followed Tonks, and we were in Hogsmeade, and there was an explosion so I followed the sound only to find the Dark Mark hovering over the centre of town. I drew out my wand to investigate, and that's when I found myself surrounded by Death Eaters. When I awoke, I was in a darkened room. And Tonks was there. They'd taken both our wands, of course."

He pauses as the rat returns with their food and drink; he slides both across the table to Peter. "Tuck in and don't wait for me. The story only gets more interesting."

After a sip of ale, he continues. "You know they held me before. I was bloody glad to see Tonks, and see her all right. Together... perhaps because I was just too angry with the entire situation to know what I was doing... we managed to overpower our guard. She's something, Tonks: she's got that auror training and I'm fairly good at solving puzzles after all that time in Egypt. So we took his wand and mask and robes, and I moved Tonks under the guise of being one of them. It was much simpler to overpower a second Death Eater so that Tonks might be disguised for the duration. We found ourselves in some sort of... I suppose it was a castle. At any rate, a very large dwelling and it was filled with Death Eaters."

He stabs his fork into the shepherd's pie. "That's when the fun began."

[iamnotstorm.livejournal.com]

Abandoned quill is fair game as far as the tiny calico ball of fluff is concerned. He likes feathers, feathers make good prey because they don't bite back. One teeny tiny calico paw reaches up in an attempt to snag it, though that proves difficult while staying hidden.

Not far off Sarah Rainmaker is perched at a table near the observation window, brow furrowed just slightly, lost in her own reading at the moment, apparently somewhat shocked by the small novel she was reading.

[thecoolone]

Out of the corner of his eye: stealth. A private, tiny stealth mission.

With claws.

Bill moves the quill towards the table's edge. Who's he to deny any sort of feline their fun?

[iamnotstorm.livejournal.com]

Squeak, the kitten, could almost see it then, which made aiming a bit easier. Another almost sneaky batbatBAT and he had it, rolling around and growling for a moment before dashing off with it in his teeth, dragging it along behind as it was longer than he was, attempting to squeak around it to get Sarah's attention.

She finally smacked the book closed in disgust, "That's not how it happened at all!" Realizing that she'd just begun talking to herself she scooped up the kitten so that she could pretend she'd been talking to him the whole time. She blinked twice at the quill, "And just where did you get that?"

[thecoolone]

From the table next door, Bill toasts her with his glass of red-whatever-it-is.

[iamnotstorm.livejournal.com]

She blinked twice, then half smiled, shaking her head as she slid from her seat to pad over, the kitten, and his prey, tucked into the crook of her arm, "Hi. Sarah Rainmaker, this," Indicating the kitten by ruffling his ears, "Is Squeak. Well... Mister Squeaky Cricket Fuzzypaws the Third."

[thecoolone]

Bill reaches out and scratches the kitten on the forehead. "That's a mighty name for such a small warrior."

He grins at her. "Hullo, Sarah Rainmaker; I'm Bill. Bill Weasley. It's my pleasure to meet the both of you. And Squeak is more than welcome to keep the quill if he likes; I've more."