It had taken four months of separation and then suddenly meeting face to face again for Harry to realise that his 'budding' love had actually been the real thing. He loved Rabastan and he wouldn't let anyone stand in his way of getting what he wanted. He had a chance of love and happiness, of a family of his own and anyone who tried to stand in his way would not like what would happen to them, because he wanted this. It had been all he'd wanted for so long, to have it dangled in front of him, so tantalisingly close, but just out of reach, it was maddening. Anyone who tried to keep him from grasping his biggest wish now that it was so close to him would pay, and they'd pay dearly. He'd make sure of it.
Bill Weasley rubbed at his tired eyes and wrinkled forehead with a hard, firm pressure. He had a blinding headache forming and it was all thanks to the massive stack of old, dusty books in front of him. He had never wanted to be a lord. He'd never wanted to be involved with the Ministry and he'd never even thought of becoming a part of the Wizengamot. This entire process was frustrating and not something that he'd ever wanted to do. He liked Egypt, he liked being a curse-breaker. He'd taken a desk job at the London bank a little reluctantly at the behest of Dumbledore, he wanted to help the Order of the Phoenix, of course, he did, but this was more than he thought he could handle.
The old laws and traditions were not something that he'd ever been interested in and he could think of nothing more eye-wateringly boring than sitting around a table and debating said old laws and traditions with equally old and boring men.
He didn't know how Harry could stand it, then Dumbledore had shared his fears with him, fears that Harry was just copying the votes of Lucius Malfoy. A very frightening prospect seeing as the man was hell-bent on eradicating muggleborns and raising purebloods to a higher status than they already had and enjoyed.
He hadn't had much contact with Harry Potter, he'd seen the boy perhaps a handful of times when Harry had been fourteen, first when he'd come to the Burrow for the Quidditch world cup and then later when he and his mother had gone to see him at the last task of the Tri-wizard tournament as family members of a competing champion, as Harry had had no family of his own. But outside of that, he hadn't really seen or paid attention to the short, scruffy little boy who had been friends with his youngest brother.
Now, Harry wasn't speaking to Ron, he had upset Ginny, and he was declaring that he wasn't going to fight you-know-who at all in this coming war. He couldn't believe this same boy was the son of James and Lily Potter. Two famously well known, extraordinary people who had given their lives to keep Harry safe and had died at the hands of you-know-who and now Harry wasn't even going to try and stop the evil wizard who had attacked him. He didn't understand the audacity of Harry's decision not to fight against the very man who had killed his own parents. The same vile man who wanted to destroy their entire world.
So now they found themselves lost. They were now fighting he-who-must-not-be-named and Harry Potter, the boy who had abandoned them when they needed him to fight the most. He understood that it was a frightening prospect, but they needed to band together and face that fear and stand up to you-know-who and his Death Eaters. They couldn't give in just because they were afraid. It went against everything that they and their house stood for, they were Gryffindors! They were a part of the house of bravery and now Harry had tucked up his tail and run to the enemy just because he was scared. Bill sighed and thunked his head into the boring book that he was trying to force himself to read and memorise. At least Percy was happy about it all. He was definitely back on his high horse and he was declaring that he'd known all along that Harry had been the enemy and that Ron should have severed ties with him years ago. He was strutting around the Ministry in his brand new robes, carrying a dragonhide briefcase as if he were the Minister for Magic himself. He was boasting to anyone who would listen, and a lot of those who wouldn't listen and didn't give a stuff, that his oldest brother was to become the first Lord Weasley in several generations. He would have made a much better candidate for Lord Weasley, Bill thought miserably. Unfortunately, as the oldest son of his father, born of his legal wife, he was the heir to the Weasley family, so only he could take the place of Lord Weasley in the stead of his father. The only way to get out of it was if he were to die, then the lordship would fall to Charlie, as the next oldest son of his father by his legal wife.
Which reminded him that he needed to write to Charlie again, he hadn't heard from his brother in a while and he hadn't seen him in two years now. He was still sending the occasional letter to their mother, but they were becoming increasingly bare of information, which was upsetting their mother. It made him wonder if Charlie had found a girlfriend and was just busy with his new relationship or if something had actually happened to him. Being a dragon handler was a dangerous job after all and if Charlie had been permanently or seriously injured then it could account for his short words and his tension-filled letters and his non-existent visits.
He really needed to invite his brother home so that he could talk to him face-to-face and see what was going on, until then, he more than had his hands full with Percy acting like a king, the twins falling over themselves laughing at his new position as a lord, Ginny's morose brooding and Ron's anger and jealousy issues.
Unfortunately, his great-aunt Muriel was of the same mindset as Percy about the whole thing and when his mother had sent a letter to Muriel telling her about him taking on the mantel of Lord Weasley, she'd sent him a set of garish robes that might have been in fashion during the goblin rebellion of sixteen-twelve to congratulate him. Needless to say, he would not be wearing them to the Wizengamot meetings. Or ever for that matter.
He was still waiting to be processed into the archives as a lord. He didn't have the Galleons needed to speed up the process like Harry had had at his disposal to fast track his early claim of his titles. It was made harder for him as the Weasley family had been stripped of their lordship generations before and getting the title back was always going to be a hard-fought, uphill struggle.
The Ministry was stonewalling him and insisting that his application could wait until after the seasonal holidays, which meant that he wouldn't even get to see the inside of the Wizengamot meeting halls until at least March. He'd thought about bribing the wizards in charge of his application to get them to do a faster job, but he didn't want to use such an underhanded, not to mention illegal, tactic to have his application processed a few months early. If he got caught by the wrong people then he would be in huge trouble and his application would be torn to shreds and he'd be unable to help the Order with their needs concerning the Wizengamot. He was their only chance, so he had to get this right.
He sighed yet again. At least it gave him a bit more time to read through this mountain of books that were older than the Ministry itself. He wasn't understanding half of what he was reading and though Dumbledore was helping him, he could only do so much because he had his duty to the school as the headmaster. The last he'd heard, Lucius Malfoy was not making that easy for him at the moment, either. If half of what Dumbledore was telling him was true, then Harry wasn't making it any easier for the headmaster either.
His hands clenched and he flipped the page of the book over to continue reading the boring tirade of information. Harry had abandoned them to their fate and he had joined with the enemy. In his eyes, that made Harry part of the enemy too and he'd never thought that he'd be saying that about the Boy-Who-Lived. But then, he would never have thought that their apparent saviour would have joined with you-know-who and allowed himself to be adopted by a Death Eater. It was only a matter of time before he was completely corrupted and started properly fighting against them and then what? They couldn't give in, not ever, they had to fight the growing darkness, with Harry or without him. Perhaps if they killed enough Death Eaters and contained the growing darkness, they could get Harry back long enough for him to kill Voldemort and then they could throw the treacherous boy in Azkaban for his abandonment of them and the side fighting for freedom for all people.
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