Love, William

Chapter 5 - Theodora's Flying

Bill was used to the racket that woke him up every morning by now. He was hoping that the rest of his siblings had the same idea as he did – get more sleep the night before the tournament – but when he gazed at his alarm clock and saw that it was only six-thirty in the morning, he quickly realized that he was the only one.

He sighed, got up, and stretched. He heard the twins running down the stairs and he could swear he heard Charlie tickle Ginny in the hallway. At least mum wasn't shouting this morning. That was a record – two days in a row.

He slowly opened the door of his room and popped his head out cautiously, just in case something would explode in the hallway.

"Never a dull morning, is it?"

Bill turned around toward the voice. He saw Theodora standing in the doorway of Ginny's room, watching Charlie chase after their youngest sibling as she was squeaking not to tickle her anymore.

"Yeah." Was all he could muster.

Theodora wasn't the first person he expected to see this morning as she was usually with the twins. He tried smiling and hoped that his untied hair was able to hide his red cheeks.

He hated that he couldn't say one word to her without blushing or getting butterflies. But he couldn't deny that he sort of liked it either.

—

The past few weeks have been one of the best he had in a long time. He came to terms that perhaps him having a crush on her wasn't so bad. He hardly ever thought about the age difference between them anymore and he enjoyed spending time with her – every minute of it.

He and Theodora sneaked out a few times to watch the stars as they did that night when Charlie and Ron forced him to go after her.

He had so much fun with her and he found out so many things about her. He now understood why she was friends with the twins – they might get on his nerves sometimes but they were such good and protective friends to her.

She told him how they have been there for her every time her mum sent her a mean letter, every time she felt alone and missed her brother, every time a boy broke her heart.

He loved listening to her talk about Quidditch even though it never interested him more than a few games he played with his siblings at the Burrow. He loved to hear how she started to correspond with Charlie – asking for a piece of simple advice about her Care of Magical Creatures essay. He couldn't stop listening to her talk so greatly and fondly about his younger siblings.

He told her about his internship in Egypt and how hard it was to become a Curse Breaker. How they don't tell you in school what you have to go through to get the job. He told her how much he loves it and that he feels like he will never get sick of what he does.

She was the first person he felt like he could tell anything to without being judged and she seemed so interested in everything he had to say. He felt accepted talking to her and even though he didn't like admitting it, he felt like that for the first time.

Bill still wasn't sure how he felt about the fact of how close they got all of a sudden and he was suspicious of the twins and Charlie as they stopped teasing him and pushing him toward her. They were perfect angels and he knew them well enough to know they had to either be up to something or something between him and Theodora changed.

He caught himself waking up excited every morning to spend more time with her. He was astonished how they never ran out of things to talk about and he constantly thought of things that Theodora might find funny because he loved hearing her laugh.

Theodora surprised him when she told him what exactly she will do in the shop when she manages to open it with the twins. Bill thought that she was going to work alongside his brothers and sell their products. He didn't expect at all that she has basically robbed the library near her home of all the books that are business-related as she decided to stay behind the scenes and run the whole thing.