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Bill Weasley was starting to hate living with his parents. No, he wasn't starting to hate it... he'd hated it ever since Eleanora and his siblings left for school. Usually, Bill had a really good relationship with his mum and dad. With six younger siblings, they'd always pretty much treated him as their equal. He loved them both, but living with just them and Percy after years of free reign in Egypt, it was starting to drive him a little bit insane.
Between his dad's constant questioning about his job, and his mum's complaints over his appearance, Bill almost missed living Egypt, but he knew he needed to be at home. He kept thinking about the Triwizard Tournament. Charlie would be coming to stay for a few weeks because he was helping with one of the tasks, and Bill had promised his siblings and Eleanora he'd visit to watch some of the events with them. Eleanora. She'd written him just a few days ago to say that she was entering the tournament and he hadn't been able to stop thinking about it since. He was worried about her. Well, he was always worried about her. Their entire friendship had been built on Bill worrying about Eleanora, right from the beginning, but this felt even bigger. He'd been thinking about her a lot since the World Cup. Ever since he'd met her, she'd just been the weird little first year who'd tried to get into the Forbidden Forest to prove a point to a bully, and later, his brothers' best friend. He couldn't tell which was worse. But something had changed. Maybe it had happened when he stayed up all night helping his mother take care of her, or maybe it had happened at the cup, it didn't really matter. There had been some sort of seismic shift, and suddenly she wasn't just the twins'-friend-who-stayed-with-them-over-holidays.
He tried not to think too deeply into any of this. He knew there was nothing he could do to stop Eleanora from entering the Tournament at this point, it was nearly impossible to talk her out of dangerous ideas, and whatever he was feeling would have to wait. For the present, he was more focused on avoiding the one topic his mother kept trying to bring up. Avoiding it at all costs, because Molly Weasley wanted Bill to get a girlfriend.
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"Come on, tell me it's almost done, El." Fred rested his chin on Eleanora's shoulder and peered into the cauldron.
"No, and your constant hovering isn't making it go any faster," said Eleanora, waving him away. Fred sighed and moved to sit next to George, who was curled up asleep on the floor. Fred, George, and Lee had been taking turns staying up with Eleanora all night to finish the aging potion.
"Sorry, sorry," Fred said, grabbing a pillow to prop George's head on to make him more comfortable. "You're brilliant, Eleanora, we can't thank you enough for doing this, you're honestly the most amazing person I've ever-"
"Shut up," said Eleanora, grinning over at him. Sunlight was just beginning to pour through the windows of the boys' dormitory. "It shouldn't be long now." She stifled a yawn and continued stirring the potion.
