(Eng) Weasleys, Pranks and other Curses

20

The night was over and Bill woke us up rudely before I could think of asking George something. I still had to think about Hermione's calculation. The potion was no longer working. It had already stopped working when he had offered me the antidote. No matter how many times I thought about it, it made no sense.

"Rise and shine, sweethearts," laughed Bill, who had closed the door behind him knowingly. George had jumped up as if bitten by a bed bug.

"What time is it?" he asked coolly, all at once, as if it were the most normal thing in the world that we had spent the night in the same bed.

"Time to get your bedding out of Camille's bed before Mum catches up with me." Bill winked at us again and listened at the door with played obviousness. But George obeyed and disappeared without another word to me.

"You guys got it pretty good, didn't you?" Bill dropped onto the mattress with such momentum that I almost took off.

"What are you talking about?", I tried to deflect, hoping that Molly Weasley was really on her way.

"Open your mouth." Bill held out the medicine to me, and I had gotten so used to it by now that I responded without thinking about it. "I talked to Fred about it." Bill waited until I washed the taste down with a big gulp of orange juice. "What exactly is stopping you? You clearly feel the same way don't you? Are you embarrassed because it all started with that potion? Are you too proud?"

Annoyed, I pushed the empty glass toward him. "Why are you still single, William?", I teased him and his affected look revealed how accurate I could be with my attacks. "Exactly. Because people like us have to think very carefully about what we do. How much longer do I have in the UK? By the time my parents reappear on the scene, at the latest, I'll be gone. If someone in their department finds out about it before then, maybe sooner."

*

The next night Hermione and Ginny had volunteered to take over and this time Misses Weasley had allowed the third bed to be brought in with magic.
I had dictated a letter for the two of them to send to Maddie and then the night had turned into so much giggling that Bill had burst in in the middle of it to remind us that this was a serious situation.
That was probably why he took over the third night. Or because he didn't trust anyone else to keep me calm.

"How does it look?", I asked, put in my place by his serious expression after all.

"Better." Relieved, Bill expelled his breath and unwound the rest of the bandage to apply the strange paste he'd been mixing with his brothers for the last few days. "This is going to feel pretty weird, but I think if it works, you're over the worst of it."

Weird was the understatement of the century. My skin tingled as if my arm had fallen asleep, and at the same time my flesh underneath went alternately cold and warm. "Ugh. Next time have the vulture kill me right off," I moaned. I was so tired of this whole procedure.

"You don't joke about something like that."

"I joke about whatever I want," I grumbled at Bill, regretting that I had looked over at him. My arm looked better?! That was supposed to be better?!
The pale flesh looked bloodless and waxy, almost as if it had died. But here and there, individual dark spots pulsed, like black leeches.
I gagged.

"That's what you get." Bill finished his work and for the first time I was almost pain free. "Well?"

"Amazing," I admitted, carefully raising my arm a few inches.

"Hold it still for now. By morning it will have taken full effect."

Bill sat back down at his desk and began to look up something in his books, and there was nothing I could do but lie motionless and hope for sleep. But sleep would not come. The image of my arm kept flickering behind my eyelids when I closed my eyes.
Was this my life?

"Bill." I didn't wait for him to give me his full attention. "I don't want to run anymore."

The eldest Weasley son just looked at me intently for a moment. "Your parents are trying their hardest," he began the same excuse everyone always gave me.

"Do they really? Wouldn't they have to be here then? Wouldn't they have to be the ones sitting by my bed day and night changing my bandages and," I broke off. "I know you still admire them and I'm not saying they aren't quite outstanding at their job. But they are crappy parents." There it was. The truth. But I wasn't done that quickly. "You know what I think, no, what I've noticed for a while now? My parents aren't making any progress with this one curse and it's frustrated them for quite a while. So much so that they've lost interest in me."

"Camille, I'm sure -"

"Not as sure as I am. I've been going through their records. They haven't added any new notes or annotations to their file about this curse in almost a year."
I snorted in anger and felt my arm start to pulse again. I needed to calm down, no question about it. Closing my eyes, I took a few deep breaths.
"I don't want to run anymore, so I won't run anymore." Determined, I opened my eyes.

To my amazement, Bill nodded in agreement. "Then you should use the rest of fall break to catch up on as much material as possible. Use Hermione's inexhaustible knowledge while you still can," he smirked and I felt my heart skip a beat again.

Yes, that's exactly what I would do.