~
May, 1996
It was the night before Bill was supposed to go back to work when Mr. Weasley burst into his room with such force, Eleanora sat up with a start and hurried to grab her wand from the table. "Wand down, it's just me," Mr. Weasley snapped.
"Bloody hell, Dad..." Bill sat up and reached for a t-shirt. "What're you doing? It's the middle of the night."
"We have to go," Mr. Weasley said forcefully. He was still in his robes and Eleanora could tell he'd just gotten back from patrol duty. "There's been an attack at Hogwarts. People have reported seeing the Dark Mark. We've got to get there, Dumbledore's orders."
"What?!" Eleanora's eyes widened. "But Daisy-"
"Just hurry up and get ready. I'll meet you downstairs." Mr. Weasley turned and left the room. They could hear him taking the stairs two at a time to get Mrs. Weasley up.
Both Eleanora and Bill sprang out of bed and started throwing clothes on haphazardly. They were both thinking about their siblings at Hogwarts. What if something happened to Daisy? Eleanora thought, her mind reeling. She couldn't lose Daisy. The world couldn't lose Daisy. She was too bright and sunny and happy for it.
"She's going to be fine," Bill said, drawing Eleanora out of her thoughts and wrapping a jacket around her shoulders. "Everyone'll be fine." He seemed to be reassuring himself more than anyone.
"Wait a second," Eleanora turned to him. "You can't come."
"What?"
"You're still recovering. You haven't even left the house yet-"
"We agreed I could go to work tomorrow, I'm not-"
"Working at the bank and battling Death Eaters are two very different things. I can't have you getting-"
Bill stepped forward and held Eleanora's face in his gentle hands. "El... I'm not going to get hurt. And if I do, we'll get through it. We've done it before, we'll do it again."
"Bill-"
"I've got to be there for Ginny and Daisy and Ron and Harry. And most of all for you. I'm sick of seeing you run into danger without being there to help if you get hurt."
Eleanora bit dow on her lower lip and stared up at Bill, who looked so perfect in the moonlight filtering through the window. "Fine," she finally relented. "But stay close, okay?"
"Yes ma'am." Bill's face broke into a smile and he leaned down to kiss her, his arms wrapping around her middle. "And when we get home... we'll finish what we started..."
"The mood was ruined when your dad almost kicked our door in, sorry love."
"Damn." Bill grabbed his wand from the dresser and shoved it in the pocket of his robes. Then, taking Eleanora's hand, he led her out of the bedroom and down the stairs to the kitchen.
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were standing there already, dressed in their robes and looking ready for battle. "You're not coming," Mrs. Weasley said shortly when she saw Bill.
"He is," Eleanora jumped in. "We'll need all the help we can get."
"But-"
"Mrs. Weasley, he's coming."
Mrs. Weasley pursed her lips but gave Eleanora a curt nod. "Very well then, we should be on our way."
Bill and Mr. Weasley looked back and forth between the two women for a confused moment, and then Mr. Weasley gave his head a little shake and led the group out into the garden. "Now," he said, holding out what looked like an old sock. "We're taking a portkey to Hogsmeade. From there, we'll be flying to Hogwarts because of the barriers. Everyone get a hand on." Bill, Mrs. Weasley, and Eleanora all stepped forward to grab a little piece of the sock. Mr. Weasley checked his watch. "Alright then... three... two... one."
Eleanora felt her feet uproot from the ground as she spiraled through the air, still holding tightly to the sock. Traveling by portkey was one of her least favorite methods because she could never get used to the sensation. It wasn't like apparition, which started to feel normal after you did it long enough.
When they landed on the main street of Hogsmeade, the first thing Eleanora notices was the murky, sickly green light that seemed to flood the entire area. She scanned the sky for the Dark Mark, but couldn't find it. "Hogwarts is that direction." Bill pointed. "So the Mark is probably covered by the trees and buildings."
"Right," said Mr. Weasley. "Follow me, everyone."
The group walked quickly down the street in the direction of Hogwarts. The whole place seemed eerily quiet, even for that time of night. Eleanora had patrolled Hogsmeade about a hundred times and she knew it was never like this. There was always something going on. Now, it felt like a ghost town. Eleanora felt Bill's hand find hers in the near-darkness and she held it tightly, grateful that he was there. His bedroom felt so far away now, the safety and comfort of it stripped away as she followed the dim outline of Mr. Weasley closer and closer to the castle.
As they neared it, they could hear shouting on the lawn and their steps quickened. Finally, they burst out of the tree line in time to see spells flying everywhere, and figured trying hard to fight them. "Stay close," Mr. Weasley murmured, but at that moment, Tonks hurtled past them deep in battle with a hooded figure and Mrs. Weasley jumped away from the group to come to her aide. The green light was a bit brighter now that they were at the school, and Eleanora's eyes travelled slowly upwards towards the top of the castle, where the horrible skull with the snake through its mouth was hanging, larger and brighter than she'd ever seen it.
Eleanora spotted Lupin not far off and jogged over to help him, ducking and dodging hexes on the way. Bill followed, narrowly missing a jet of red light and turning around to hurtle one back at the attacker. When Eleanora reached Lupin, she turned to see if Bill was still at her back but he was nowhere to be found. "He can handle himself," Lupin shouted, grabbing her by the sleeve of the robes and pulling her out of the way just in time. "Glad to see you two back in the game, anyways."
"It's not a game- when they're trying to kill you," Eleanora said, shooting a spell at a hooded figure mid-sentence and pushing Lupin's head down just before the figure shot back. "Watch your back."
When Lupin stood up, he and Eleanora shared a brief smile before turning to collectively hex the figure, who seemed to still be trying to hurt Lupin more than Eleanora. "Expulso!" Eleanora yelled finally, blue light flying from the tip of her wand and hitting the figure, throwing him back several yards where he lay motionless.
"Nice one!" a voice came from behind her. Bill was at her back, fighting off a Death Eater who had tried to hit Eleanora while she was fighting with Lupin. The way Bill dueled made it look effortless, like he was almost bored. He and Eleanora fought back to back as Lupin ran off as soon as he heard Tonks get hit by a spell and cry out.
They moved closer to the school, where it seemed like most of the action was taking place. Eleanora's main goal was to get to the Gryffindor common room to check if Daisy was there. She had to be there. "Careful there, kid." It was Moody, knocking Eleanora out of the way of a killing curse.
"Impedimenta," Bill said, knocking the figure who'd sent the killing spell off his feet.
"Oh, you're back," said Moody, looking mildly impressed. "Didn't think Marks would ever let you out of the house."
"Yeah, me either," Bill said with a grin. "Oh, there's Ron!" He kissed Eleanora on the top of the head before running off to help his brother.
Moody raised an eyebrow at Eleanora, who merely shrugged and sent a jet of yellow light at a nearby hooded figure. Moody stood at her back, shouting things over his shoulder as he fought. "Got called here by Dumbledore! Said we'd all have to be here- because something big was happening- Didn't think he meant this-" He jumped out of the way of a green light, pulling Eleanora with him. "When I saw the Mark, I got the message pretty quick and sent out a distress signal."
"But Dumbledore already had," Eleanora said, hurtling around the edge of a wall to dodge another killing curse. Then, her gaze met Moody's, her eyes growing wide. "He must've known..."
"Or at least expected it," grunted Moody. "Either way, I don't think an attack is the biggest surprise we'll get tonight. Brace yourself for anything." And with that, he gave Eleanora a rough pat on the shoulder and ran off to help someone who had just been hit by a curse.
Eleanora stepped out from behind the wall and immediately found herself engaged in battle with a hooded figure who was shorter than the rest. She cast spell after spell, but the person seemed to be an even match for her. They looked familiar, even covered up by the hood and robes. At last, Eleanora managed to knock them of their feet with an immobilization spell. She almost moved on, but something drew her towards the person.
She carefully stepped over them, lifting the hood with shaking fingers, and felt all of the air leave her lungs. "Beatrice!" It was her old roommate from school. It didn't make any sense. She'd lost contact with Phillipa and Beatrice after leaving Hogwarts, but they'd always been so... good. This was the last thing Eleanora would've expected. She didn't have much time to process, though, because at that moment, someone tackled her onto the ground.
Eleanora started throwing punches the second she made impact with the hard ground, confused as to why someone would tackle her instead of just hexing her, but then the person sat up. "Stop it, Eleanora," Cillian said, "I was trying to get you out of the way. Three Death Eaters had you in their line of fire and they weren't about to hesitate to-"
"Thanks, Dad," Eleanora said, looking closely to make sure his robes were ordinary wizards' robes and not the ones the Death Eaters wore.
"I'm on your side," he said coolly, standing up and reaching a hand down to pull Eleanora after him. "Got the distress signal and came immediately. Have you seen Daisy?"
"No, but I reckon that's a good sign."
"Right." Cillian nodded shortly. "Wait-" He took a step forward, towards a body lying on the ground a few feet from Beatrice. "That's-"
Eleanora followed him, dreading seeing who it was. It wasn't until she stood over the marred, bloody face that she realized it was Bill. "No-" Tears pricked her eyes and she looked up at her Dad hopelessly. "We need to get him help-"
"Stay here," Cillian said forcefully. "I'll be right back."
Eleanora sat back on her heels and felt angry tears cascade down her cheeks. It was her fault. She'd let Bill come with them. She felt his chest. He was still moving and his heart was beating. "Stay with me," she whispered, frantically trying to staunch the blood flow, but it was coming from too many places. "Just stay with me."