Stand Against the Moon // Tomarry

Chapter 11: Ten - Absence

Credit where credit was due, it only took Bill a month at Gringotts to figure out Harry had no intention in creating equality between humans and non-humans. (Riddle had been hanging out at Bloody Eyetooth once a month for almost two years, off and on, and if he'd cottoned on, he'd kept mum on the subject.)

Bill chose Harry's own home as the theatre for his complaint, apparating to the front stoop and walking right in, since it had long been made clear to him that he was welcome to do so. He found Harry in the living room, curled up on one end of the couch with a muggle fiction book that Mitchell had got for free from his job at the bookshop because the cover had come ripped. (The werewolf had said it was worth a laugh, and while Harry had certainly laughed, he'd also found himself enjoying the book; it wasn't hard for him to relate to a main character who had the fate of his world resting on his shoulders, after all.)

"Harry?" Bill called, announcing his presence, though Harry had known who it was the moment he'd entered the house, plenty familiar with Bill's scent. "Can I talk to you?"

Harry took a moment to find his bookmark in the couch cushions – he really needed to find a better place to put the bloody thing than in his lap, especially since he tended to shift as he read – then turned his attention towards the older wizard. Only for Sirius to poke his head in the doorway, saying, "Hey, thought I heard– Oh, hi, Bill."

Bill's hands clenched around the chair he'd come to a stop behind and he threw a strained smile over his shoulder. "Hey, Sirius."

Sirius' eyes widened. "Oh. Oh, that does not look like a good expression. Does that look like a good expression?" he asked Harry.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Piss of, Sirius. Bill, why don't you sit down? You look distinctly unwell, and I'm not much up for your mum rushing over because something happened to you."

Sirius vanished from the doorway, but Harry knew he hadn't left human hearing-range of the living room, obviously curious about what had Bill over without warning.

Bill dropped heavily into the chair and sighed, looking stressed. "I overheard a conversation between a couple of the goblins today which...well, it made me a bit...uncertain."

Harry raised an eyebrow at him. "You are being unusually delicate about this," he commented when Bill didn't continue immediately. "What could the goblins have possibly said to have you so off?"

Bill took a deep breath, then burst out, "They seem to think your plan is to crush humanity under your boot!"

There was a moment of silence while Harry's other eyebrow reached the first, then Sirius started laughing out in the hallway.

"I'm pretty sure," Harry commented, "that I don't have boots big enough to accomplish that particular feat." Sirius let out an amused howl. "Pun unintended. Sirius! Either piss off properly or get your arse in here, you bloody loon!"

Sirius, wisely, moved off down the hall, laughing all the way.

"Harry," Bill whispered, looking hurt, "whatever happened to equality between humans and non-humans?"

Harry put on his most childish expression – difficult, now he looked Hogwarts age – and innocently asked, "What's equality?"

Bill flinched and looked away.

Harry sighed and sat his book down on the cushion next to him before sliding forward to plant his feet on the floor. "William," he called seriously, using Bill's full name to make him look up, "I need you to do something for me. I need you to look at everything you know about our world – about humans and non-humans both – and then I need you to tell me how a truly equal society is going to work."