2.| ✮𝓛𝓸𝓿𝓮, 𝓑𝓲𝓵𝓵. ✮ {𝓑. 𝓦𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓵𝓮𝔂}

\ℯ𝒾ℊ𝒽𝓉\

~

"And... you stir the flour in- Fred!" Eleanora shrieked as Fred dumped the bag of flour everywhere, enveloping the entire kitchen in a white cloud.

"Whoops." Fred didn't sound too sorry. He and George were bent double laughing, waving through the flour clouding the air. Eleanora scoffed and shook her hair out to no avail. Trying to teach the twins to bake Christmas cookies without magic was no easy feat. They'd spent the entire afternoon marveling over every step, making more mess than anything else.

Mrs. Weasley chose that moment to check their progress, and choked the minute she entered the kitchen. "What- on earth-"

At this, Eleanora burst into laughter with the twins. "Sorry, Mrs. Weasley," Eleanora half-coughed. "We'll clean it up."

"You'd better." Mrs. Weasley hurried out of the kitchen shaking flour out of her curls as she went. Eleanora and the twins leaned against the counter, half-laughing half-coughing before Eleanora waved her wand and swept the flour back into the bag.

"You two... are the worst at baking," Eleanora said, wiping at her eyes. She jumped as the front door opened, and in walked Bill carrying a trunk, followed closely by Daisy. "Dais!" Eleanora leapt towards her little sister and threw her arms around her. "You're back!"

"I'm back!" Daisy giggled and hugged her sister back, and then ran at the twins, wrapping her arms around George's waist with such force, he was knocked backwards a few feet.

While George hugged Daisy back and Fred lifted her up onto the counter to let her help with the cookies, Eleanora moved to wrap her arms around Bill's neck and trail her fingers through the ends of his hair. "Thanks for getting her from my dad's," she said, smiling up at him with loving eyes. Daisy had spent the first few days of her Christmas break at Cillian's but asked to come to the Burrow for the actual holidays.

Bill leaned down to kiss her, stumbling slightly and catching himself against Eleanora's waist. "No problem, love."

Eleanora's face quickly changed to worry. "How was the appointment?"

"It went fine," Bill said gently. "The healers say I'm their favorite patient."

"Course you are," Eleanora laughed, stepping out of his grasp. "Come on, I'm trying to teach those two to make cookies."

She led him back into the kitchen where Fred, George, and Daisy were now drawing pictures in a pile of flour still sitting on the counter. While they entertained themselves, Bill and Eleanora took over the actual baking. They both knew their mother's recipes off by heart, and collaborated to make some combination of the two.

Over the last month, Bill had grown even thinner and more tired than ever, but he never lost his gentle demeanor. He also never complained, so Eleanora found herself constantly asking him how he was feeling. His health hadn't taken any dramatic turns for the worse since the diagnosis, but there had definitely been a steady decline. Eleanora felt a little stab in her heart every time she noticed the ever-darkening shadows under his eyes, the way he couldn't seem to gain weight, the way he sometimes had difficulty breathing even when doing simple tasks. She knew she needed to keep a brave face for him, though. If he was going to stay strong through whatever happened, she needed to too.