innerslytherin (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
innerslytherin) wrote2007-02-15 12:35 am
innerslytherin) wrote2007-02-15 12:35 am
Entry tags:
FIC: Sweets for the Sweet
Title: Sweets for the Sweet
WC: 2,003
Rating: R
Character & Candy: Bill & Tooth-flossing Stringmints
Pairings: Bill/Fleur, Ron/Hermione
Warnings: Angst, angst, character-death, angst...
Summary: The siege of Riddle Manor is broken, and Bill has to pick up the pieces.
Notes: This is written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
scribbulus_ink's "Candy is Dandy" challenge. The bunny bit me hard, and is part of a much longer work, oddly. But this is the part that I wanted to get written out, because it's what really fits the challenge. Thank you to _lore and thesnapelyone for fast betas. As always, my dears, you rock.
Sweets for the Sweet
Fleur and the boy were gone. Bill had been telling himself that for the past six months, but today, with the end of the siege of Riddle Manor and the discovery of the dungeons, he could no longer avoid the truth.
"What good would a child be to him?" he gasped between the deep breaths he was taking to keep from sobbing.
Remus tightened his fingers on his shoulders and said nothing--it was the only response Bill could handle. After all, Voldemort had tried to kill Harry Potter when he was a baby. Just because Augustin had been barely two months old when he and Fleur were taken--
Bill's shoulders shook.
From down the dank passageway came the sound of rattling chains and a faint cough. "Is--is someone there?"
Remus' hands left Bill's shoulders, but Bill surged to his feet and caught at his wrist. "Don't go alone, Remus."
The werewolf looked as if he wanted to argue, but Bill wouldn't allow it. That traitor Snape had already tried to kill Remus once, had killed Tonks, and Bill disliked the way Remus seemed to have acquired a death wish. The older man had taken on missions that made the other Order members flinch, and yet he'd managed to walk out of them with remarkably few injuries.
With a final glance at his wife's body, curled around his dead son, Bill turned towards the noises. "At least let me guard your back."
Remus frowned, but nodded. "Don't do anything stupid, Bill."
It was almost amusing, that. Remus thought he was going to do something stupid. Bill followed him, wand drawn. He'd been in mourning for his family for six months. He'd known, from the beginning, that they wouldn't get them back. He'd been furious, but oddly enough, Remus had seemed angrier about Fleur's kidnapping than he had been about Tonks' death.
"Please, is someone out there?"
It was a young woman's voice, and she sounded frightened. Bill ran through the list of missing girls--Parvati, Luna, Hermione. Merlin, he hoped it was Hermione. Though he didn't want to be the one to tell her about Ron... It had been such a long war, and the siege on Riddle Manor had been sapping all their energy. Hermione had been gone longer even than Fleur. Could she be alive still?
Remus stopped, putting out a hand to hold Bill back. He cocked his head, listening, and Bill knew he was doing some werewolf trick that had been denied Bill. He swallowed the usual frisson of resentment and fought down the strange arousal he felt every time Remus did that. It wasn't right, for him to want Remus that way. He'd wanted Remus like that even when he'd been with Fleur, even when he'd had a beautiful and loving wife.
Remus turned slowly, watching Bill's face to be certain he was covering the passageway. Then Remus' lips were near his ear.
"Hermione," he breathed, and Bill shivered. "And a motion hex on the floor. It'll come down if we're not careful."
Bill's hand had lifted to curl around Remus' arm, despite that his gaze was riveted on the darkness at the end of the passage. "What do we do?"
Remus shook his head. "Only one of us can go. Can you hold an Invisibility Spell on me from this distance?"
"I'm not letting you go in there," Bill objected.
"Bill, think," Remus hissed. "You're young, you have your whole life ahead of you. If the ceiling comes down, it should be me in there, not you."
"You're stronger and more handsome. And the Order needs your leadership."
"Don't be a fool," Remus said, his whisper harsh.
"I'm not." Bill straightened and touched Remus' shoulder. "Let me do this, Remus. I couldn't save my wife, but I can save the woman Ron loved."
With his peripheral vision, he saw Remus' expression soften. "Good man," Remus murmured, slapping Bill's shoulder lightly.
Remus pulled away and began muttering, flicking his wand in strange little gestures at Bill. Bill felt a cold trickling down his body, getting into his ears and down his collar, and making him shiver again.
"Go on. Bring her back."
Bill wasn't sure he would be able to, unless Remus could extend the Invisibility Spell to Hermione. Or perhaps he was meant to make her invisible himself, and that's why Remus had spelled him. He didn't care.
He remembered the frizzy curls, the way her brown eyes had flashed with excitement when they were discussing curses. They'd worked together on the Horcrux hunt, Bill providing her with curse-breaking expertise even from his bed in the hospital wing. Fleur had been oddly jealous, but Bill had laughed it off.
"She's a child, Fleur!"
"She ees eentelligent and English."
Bill laughed. "Why would I want--right. Fleur, if I wanted an English woman, I'd have had one by now. I love you, you little idiot."
They'd made love, then, tender but passionate, because Fleur was a woman of fire and ice and burning with desire. The subject had been dropped.
"Hello?" The voice was more quavery now, and Bill felt a flash of anger. He wondered what they'd done to her, to make such a strong, intelligent woman so afraid.
What had they done to his wife?
"Hermione," he whispered finally, reaching the outside of the cell he thought was hers. Merlin, he hoped it was her and not some creature that was able to mimic human voices.
"Who--who is that? Ron?"
Bill swallowed hard. "Bill, Bill Weasley."
She let out a choked noise. It sounded like laughter, he thought. "Where am I?"
"This is Riddle Manor," Bill said. He began working on the curses set over the door. "You're spelled in, Hermione. I have to get you out."
"Oh, Bill, I--I'm sorry," she said quietly. Suddenly her face appeared in the barred window set into the door. Her skin was smudged, her hair tangled. There were scratches down one cheek, and dried blood on her forehead. "I--they had Fleur down here."
Bill lifted his gaze to her face and wondered if that was her idea of a comforting thing to say. "Ron's dead," he said bluntly.
She gave a little gasp, but it wasn't surprise, whatever it was. She looked down again. "I know. I've known for a while." One hand crept up into her hair and tugged. "It doesn't matter. I wouldn't have had him after this."
Bill went back to work on the curse. It was a complicated thing, and it would kill them both with lightning-tongues of agony if he didn't get it broken before opening the door. "I suppose you think he wouldn't love you anymore."
"No, of course he would. He was good. He was a very good man."
"And you're not good?"
She shrugged. "Fleur loved you so much, Bill."
"Shut the fuck up, Hermione," he growled, and the way her eyes widened reminded him that, even if he didn't have what Remus had--could never have what Remus had--he was still a disfigured monster to normal humans.
She retreated into the darkness of her cell; from the noise of her chains, one foot was dragging awkwardly. "I thought it would make you feel better."
"Bill?" Remus' voice was low and hoarse.
"Not yet," he called back.
"Do you have anything to eat?" Hermione asked. She sounded small.
He grunted and fished in his pocket. There was a package of sweets. He tossed it through the bars, hoping that wouldn't kill them both.
Scrabbling noises that ended just as the curse cracked in half and fell away. The crackling of a wrapper. Then Hermione made a broken sound.
"Tooth-flossing stringmints," she whispered.
Bill did a nonverbal Alohamora and the door swung open. "It's all I have on me."
She was crying. "You're real, aren't you?"
He stared down at the huddled form. "What's real?" he muttered, and gathered her in his arms.
"I sent tooth-flossing stringmints to my parents, when I was a third year," she whispered. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he was appalled at how thin she felt. "I thought--this is like one of my dreams." She gave a choked little laugh. "Sometimes I think I'm already mad. I used to hear a baby crying, sometimes."
"It's not a dream," he said, pushing away thoughts of Augustin. "I'm taking you out of here."
"Fleur--I'm sorry, Bill."
He sighed. "Eat the sweets."
She splintered a bit off and put it in her mouth and sealed up the packet carefully, tucking it into the breast pocket of her robes. Then she rested her hand against his chest. It frightened him that her touch sent another shiver through him. He couldn't feel that way about his little brother's girlfriend.
"Bill?" Remus' rough voice sounded strained.
Bill cleared his throat. "We're coming back."
He repeated the Invisibility Spell Remus had used, flicking his wand over Hermione's head. It was ridiculously easy to hold her with one hand. Then again, the werewolf bite had made him stronger than most people.
They covered the ground more quickly on the way out. Bill touched Remus' shoulder as he passed. The werewolf tensed, but didn't seem surprised. He'd probably smelled Bill's approach, or heard him.
"Is Voldemort dead?" Hermione whispered.
"No." Remus' voice sounded angry again. Bill wondered, sometimes, where the anger went, when Remus pushed it away from him--just turned it off!--and how it didn't flay him to the bone when Remus let it back in.
"Come on!" It was Kingsley's voice, loud and jarring, from the stairs.
Remus dashed past them suddenly. "Keep her safe, Bill," he ordered. "What's happening, Kingsley?"
"Bellatrix and Snape have turned on the other Death Eaters! Harry and Neville have gone after You-Know-Who!"
Remus darted a glance over his shoulder. Even in the dim light, Bill could tell that was triumph in his eyes. "It worked!" Remus exclaimed, and then he was gone, up the stairs.
Hermione shuddered. "Harry and Neville," she whispered. "Bill." Her cold face pressed against his neck. He shivered again.
"I'll keep you safe," he promised.
"I want to be there!"
"No. You don't want to see him."
"You don't understand," she whispered. "No one else knows--"
They reached the stairs. He climbed slowly, not willing to chance a fall with Hermione in his arms. "Knows what?"
The light revealed that her robes were in rags. He clenched his teeth.
"Snape is on our side. He kept me alive."
"Snape?"
"He is!" she wailed. "He wouldn't let the Lestranges kill me! He brought me food when he could. He--he gave Fleur the potions she asked for."
Bill stiffened. "Potions."
Hermione didn't speak.
"Hermione--"
"The crying baby. That wasn't a dream, was it?"
He shuddered. "Augustin."
"Oh, Bill." Her arms around his neck tightened. "I'm sorry."
"Snape killed them, didn't he?"
"Fleur--Fleur said she wouldn't be used. That her...her blood...wouldn't be used." Hermione lifted his head. "She meant her son, didn't she? Blood of her blood."
Bill had never felt so cold. Fleur had chosen death for them? She had--
Then Charlie was there, good old Charlie, strong Charlie, capable Charlie. He took Hermione from Bill, who lifted his hands to his face. He could hear Hermione speaking, Charlie replying. Then he was being led somewhere, the shouts from upstairs growing fainter. Heat hit his shoulders and head, and he shuddered.
"Bill. Bill. Bill."
He dropped his hands and met his brother's gaze.
"Keep Hermione safe. No matter what happens. Keep Hermione and Poppy safe."
And then Charlie was gone, and Poppy was leaning over Hermione on a transfigured bed, and Hermione was reaching out a hand to him. He stared at her for a long time before he realised she was holding the packet of tooth-flossing stringmints.
Shuddering slightly, Bill reached out. Instead of taking the sweets, he took Hermione's hand and gripped it tightly.
He would keep them safe.
WC: 2,003
Rating: R
Character & Candy: Bill & Tooth-flossing Stringmints
Pairings: Bill/Fleur, Ron/Hermione
Warnings: Angst, angst, character-death, angst...
Summary: The siege of Riddle Manor is broken, and Bill has to pick up the pieces.
Notes: This is written for
scribbulus_ink's "Candy is Dandy" challenge. The bunny bit me hard, and is part of a much longer work, oddly. But this is the part that I wanted to get written out, because it's what really fits the challenge. Thank you to _lore and thesnapelyone for fast betas. As always, my dears, you rock.Sweets for the Sweet
Fleur and the boy were gone. Bill had been telling himself that for the past six months, but today, with the end of the siege of Riddle Manor and the discovery of the dungeons, he could no longer avoid the truth.
"What good would a child be to him?" he gasped between the deep breaths he was taking to keep from sobbing.
Remus tightened his fingers on his shoulders and said nothing--it was the only response Bill could handle. After all, Voldemort had tried to kill Harry Potter when he was a baby. Just because Augustin had been barely two months old when he and Fleur were taken--
Bill's shoulders shook.
From down the dank passageway came the sound of rattling chains and a faint cough. "Is--is someone there?"
Remus' hands left Bill's shoulders, but Bill surged to his feet and caught at his wrist. "Don't go alone, Remus."
The werewolf looked as if he wanted to argue, but Bill wouldn't allow it. That traitor Snape had already tried to kill Remus once, had killed Tonks, and Bill disliked the way Remus seemed to have acquired a death wish. The older man had taken on missions that made the other Order members flinch, and yet he'd managed to walk out of them with remarkably few injuries.
With a final glance at his wife's body, curled around his dead son, Bill turned towards the noises. "At least let me guard your back."
Remus frowned, but nodded. "Don't do anything stupid, Bill."
It was almost amusing, that. Remus thought he was going to do something stupid. Bill followed him, wand drawn. He'd been in mourning for his family for six months. He'd known, from the beginning, that they wouldn't get them back. He'd been furious, but oddly enough, Remus had seemed angrier about Fleur's kidnapping than he had been about Tonks' death.
"Please, is someone out there?"
It was a young woman's voice, and she sounded frightened. Bill ran through the list of missing girls--Parvati, Luna, Hermione. Merlin, he hoped it was Hermione. Though he didn't want to be the one to tell her about Ron... It had been such a long war, and the siege on Riddle Manor had been sapping all their energy. Hermione had been gone longer even than Fleur. Could she be alive still?
Remus stopped, putting out a hand to hold Bill back. He cocked his head, listening, and Bill knew he was doing some werewolf trick that had been denied Bill. He swallowed the usual frisson of resentment and fought down the strange arousal he felt every time Remus did that. It wasn't right, for him to want Remus that way. He'd wanted Remus like that even when he'd been with Fleur, even when he'd had a beautiful and loving wife.
Remus turned slowly, watching Bill's face to be certain he was covering the passageway. Then Remus' lips were near his ear.
"Hermione," he breathed, and Bill shivered. "And a motion hex on the floor. It'll come down if we're not careful."
Bill's hand had lifted to curl around Remus' arm, despite that his gaze was riveted on the darkness at the end of the passage. "What do we do?"
Remus shook his head. "Only one of us can go. Can you hold an Invisibility Spell on me from this distance?"
"I'm not letting you go in there," Bill objected.
"Bill, think," Remus hissed. "You're young, you have your whole life ahead of you. If the ceiling comes down, it should be me in there, not you."
"You're stronger and more handsome. And the Order needs your leadership."
"Don't be a fool," Remus said, his whisper harsh.
"I'm not." Bill straightened and touched Remus' shoulder. "Let me do this, Remus. I couldn't save my wife, but I can save the woman Ron loved."
With his peripheral vision, he saw Remus' expression soften. "Good man," Remus murmured, slapping Bill's shoulder lightly.
Remus pulled away and began muttering, flicking his wand in strange little gestures at Bill. Bill felt a cold trickling down his body, getting into his ears and down his collar, and making him shiver again.
"Go on. Bring her back."
Bill wasn't sure he would be able to, unless Remus could extend the Invisibility Spell to Hermione. Or perhaps he was meant to make her invisible himself, and that's why Remus had spelled him. He didn't care.
He remembered the frizzy curls, the way her brown eyes had flashed with excitement when they were discussing curses. They'd worked together on the Horcrux hunt, Bill providing her with curse-breaking expertise even from his bed in the hospital wing. Fleur had been oddly jealous, but Bill had laughed it off.
"She's a child, Fleur!"
"She ees eentelligent and English."
Bill laughed. "Why would I want--right. Fleur, if I wanted an English woman, I'd have had one by now. I love you, you little idiot."
They'd made love, then, tender but passionate, because Fleur was a woman of fire and ice and burning with desire. The subject had been dropped.
"Hello?" The voice was more quavery now, and Bill felt a flash of anger. He wondered what they'd done to her, to make such a strong, intelligent woman so afraid.
What had they done to his wife?
"Hermione," he whispered finally, reaching the outside of the cell he thought was hers. Merlin, he hoped it was her and not some creature that was able to mimic human voices.
"Who--who is that? Ron?"
Bill swallowed hard. "Bill, Bill Weasley."
She let out a choked noise. It sounded like laughter, he thought. "Where am I?"
"This is Riddle Manor," Bill said. He began working on the curses set over the door. "You're spelled in, Hermione. I have to get you out."
"Oh, Bill, I--I'm sorry," she said quietly. Suddenly her face appeared in the barred window set into the door. Her skin was smudged, her hair tangled. There were scratches down one cheek, and dried blood on her forehead. "I--they had Fleur down here."
Bill lifted his gaze to her face and wondered if that was her idea of a comforting thing to say. "Ron's dead," he said bluntly.
She gave a little gasp, but it wasn't surprise, whatever it was. She looked down again. "I know. I've known for a while." One hand crept up into her hair and tugged. "It doesn't matter. I wouldn't have had him after this."
Bill went back to work on the curse. It was a complicated thing, and it would kill them both with lightning-tongues of agony if he didn't get it broken before opening the door. "I suppose you think he wouldn't love you anymore."
"No, of course he would. He was good. He was a very good man."
"And you're not good?"
She shrugged. "Fleur loved you so much, Bill."
"Shut the fuck up, Hermione," he growled, and the way her eyes widened reminded him that, even if he didn't have what Remus had--could never have what Remus had--he was still a disfigured monster to normal humans.
She retreated into the darkness of her cell; from the noise of her chains, one foot was dragging awkwardly. "I thought it would make you feel better."
"Bill?" Remus' voice was low and hoarse.
"Not yet," he called back.
"Do you have anything to eat?" Hermione asked. She sounded small.
He grunted and fished in his pocket. There was a package of sweets. He tossed it through the bars, hoping that wouldn't kill them both.
Scrabbling noises that ended just as the curse cracked in half and fell away. The crackling of a wrapper. Then Hermione made a broken sound.
"Tooth-flossing stringmints," she whispered.
Bill did a nonverbal Alohamora and the door swung open. "It's all I have on me."
She was crying. "You're real, aren't you?"
He stared down at the huddled form. "What's real?" he muttered, and gathered her in his arms.
"I sent tooth-flossing stringmints to my parents, when I was a third year," she whispered. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he was appalled at how thin she felt. "I thought--this is like one of my dreams." She gave a choked little laugh. "Sometimes I think I'm already mad. I used to hear a baby crying, sometimes."
"It's not a dream," he said, pushing away thoughts of Augustin. "I'm taking you out of here."
"Fleur--I'm sorry, Bill."
He sighed. "Eat the sweets."
She splintered a bit off and put it in her mouth and sealed up the packet carefully, tucking it into the breast pocket of her robes. Then she rested her hand against his chest. It frightened him that her touch sent another shiver through him. He couldn't feel that way about his little brother's girlfriend.
"Bill?" Remus' rough voice sounded strained.
Bill cleared his throat. "We're coming back."
He repeated the Invisibility Spell Remus had used, flicking his wand over Hermione's head. It was ridiculously easy to hold her with one hand. Then again, the werewolf bite had made him stronger than most people.
They covered the ground more quickly on the way out. Bill touched Remus' shoulder as he passed. The werewolf tensed, but didn't seem surprised. He'd probably smelled Bill's approach, or heard him.
"Is Voldemort dead?" Hermione whispered.
"No." Remus' voice sounded angry again. Bill wondered, sometimes, where the anger went, when Remus pushed it away from him--just turned it off!--and how it didn't flay him to the bone when Remus let it back in.
"Come on!" It was Kingsley's voice, loud and jarring, from the stairs.
Remus dashed past them suddenly. "Keep her safe, Bill," he ordered. "What's happening, Kingsley?"
"Bellatrix and Snape have turned on the other Death Eaters! Harry and Neville have gone after You-Know-Who!"
Remus darted a glance over his shoulder. Even in the dim light, Bill could tell that was triumph in his eyes. "It worked!" Remus exclaimed, and then he was gone, up the stairs.
Hermione shuddered. "Harry and Neville," she whispered. "Bill." Her cold face pressed against his neck. He shivered again.
"I'll keep you safe," he promised.
"I want to be there!"
"No. You don't want to see him."
"You don't understand," she whispered. "No one else knows--"
They reached the stairs. He climbed slowly, not willing to chance a fall with Hermione in his arms. "Knows what?"
The light revealed that her robes were in rags. He clenched his teeth.
"Snape is on our side. He kept me alive."
"Snape?"
"He is!" she wailed. "He wouldn't let the Lestranges kill me! He brought me food when he could. He--he gave Fleur the potions she asked for."
Bill stiffened. "Potions."
Hermione didn't speak.
"Hermione--"
"The crying baby. That wasn't a dream, was it?"
He shuddered. "Augustin."
"Oh, Bill." Her arms around his neck tightened. "I'm sorry."
"Snape killed them, didn't he?"
"Fleur--Fleur said she wouldn't be used. That her...her blood...wouldn't be used." Hermione lifted his head. "She meant her son, didn't she? Blood of her blood."
Bill had never felt so cold. Fleur had chosen death for them? She had--
Then Charlie was there, good old Charlie, strong Charlie, capable Charlie. He took Hermione from Bill, who lifted his hands to his face. He could hear Hermione speaking, Charlie replying. Then he was being led somewhere, the shouts from upstairs growing fainter. Heat hit his shoulders and head, and he shuddered.
"Bill. Bill. Bill."
He dropped his hands and met his brother's gaze.
"Keep Hermione safe. No matter what happens. Keep Hermione and Poppy safe."
And then Charlie was gone, and Poppy was leaning over Hermione on a transfigured bed, and Hermione was reaching out a hand to him. He stared at her for a long time before he realised she was holding the packet of tooth-flossing stringmints.
Shuddering slightly, Bill reached out. Instead of taking the sweets, he took Hermione's hand and gripped it tightly.
He would keep them safe.
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::le sigh::
:(
I liked this a lot. But Fluer. ::tsks::
That's such a horribible thing to do!
LOVED IT! (in a weird way!)
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(Anonymous) 2007-02-16 08:43 am (UTC)(link)I love Fleur here, her heroism, it's so sad that that she would choose death for her and her son, but it's so Fleur-defiant!
Bill breaks my heart. Truly well written!
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Though I am curious as to what made Bellatrix turn... nevermind I think I just got an idea...
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