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As winter grew closer, Eleanora started to feel sadder about all of the people she'd lost in the last few years. It had become a yearly thing, letting grief hit her as the weather grew cold and snow flurries started to fall over the sand outside of Shell Cottage. She thought about Moody, who always bundled up in an enormous coat as soon as fall started to turn to winter because he hated being cold. She thought about Sirius tromping up the stairs singing 'God Rest Ye Merry Hippogriffs' and making them all hot chocolate in the kitchen of Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Most of all, she thought of her mother who always tried her hardest to make Christmas a special occasion for Eleanora and Daisy. Even if she hadn't been the best mother, or even a good one, there were always cookies in the oven and presents under the tree on Christmas morning. Eleanora missed them all.
On the afternoon of the first snowstorm of the year, which came late and left the beach covered in white in mere minutes, Bill and Eleanora bundled up to walk arm and arm over the sand to watch the cold waves crash in the swirling wind. "Do you have to work tomorrow?" Eleanora asked, her eyes lost in the gray cloudy sky above their heads.
"Yep. I'm taking some time off for Christmas, though." Bill let go of Eleanora's arm to wrap his around her shoulder, pulling closer for warmth.
"Good," murmured Eleanora. "It gets lonely around here without you."
Bill was silent for a long time. "Do you ever think about getting a job outside of the Order?" he said at last.
Eleanora looked up at him in surprise. "Why? Do you want me to?"
Bill shrugged and gave her a small smile. "Oh, I dunno." He looked away, out at the churning sea. "It's up to you."
Eleanora's expression still hadn't relaxed. "Last time you told me to get a job, we were in the middle of a fight."
"That was different," Bill said with a sigh. "I was sick and you know I didn't mean any of the stuff I said."
Eleanora still looked suspicious, her eyes narrowed as she gazed at Bill's distant face. "It came from somewhere," she said at last, her voice soft but not unsure.
Bill sighed again and ran a hand through his hair, which was whipping around in the wind. "I dunno, El," he said resignedly. "It just feels like you had this passion for potions all through school and I just... want you to do what you love."
"I liked potions because Snape was nice to me, and see how well that worked out?" Eleanora's tone was sharper than either of them had expected, but she didn't back down. "And anyways, things change. I have to focus on the Order now, we're literally in the middle of a war."
"But don't you think the Order work is sort of... eating you up from the inside out?" He shot a tentative look at Eleanora. "I mean, it's all you think about now-"
