By Your Side // Bill Weasley

Chapter XXIV "Meeting the Family"

Chapter XXIV “Meeting the Family”

The time came for the visit in Ireland that Avalea’s mother and grandfather had organised. Avalea and Charlie organised the transfer of Valeria and her babies and Charlie kept Avalea updated on how they were settling in. They had packed a bag to stay at the house in Ireland and got ready to apparate there. They were almost the last to arrive but noticed that her grandad wasn’t there yet either. Her sister greeted her with a tight hug and her parents did as well, followed by Bill.

“It’s great that it worked out.” Ariana said to the two. Arnica grabbed Mushu and pet him.

“Everyone is outside. We all haven’t been together in a long time.” Felias told his daughter who smiled. She got all the wedding invitations ready that her and Bill created. She smiled at Bill who looked a little nervous.

“Are you ready to meet my family? Your family, soon enough.” She asked him and he looked at her smiling face, took a deep breath and nodded. Avalea led him outside where everyone was sitting around the tables that were set up.

“Hey everyone, it’s been so long.” Avalea exclaimed and greeted everyone.

“Ava, it’s been so long since we saw you, come here.” Queenie said and hugged Avalea.

“This is my fiancé, William Weasley. He prefers Bill. Will these are Theseus Scamander, my grandmother’s brother, Queenie Scamander, Tina’s and Newt’s daughter. Next to her is her husband James, their children Taron and the twins Jace and Leta, then we have Silas Scamander, Uncle Newt’s and Tina’s other child, his wife Mary and their son Rolf.” Avalea told Bill, who saved the information of all their names in his head. “Where is Talia?” Avalea added.

“She’s still working, she’ll be here soon.” Mary replied.

“It’s nice to meet all of you.” Bill greeted them. Tina and Newt stepped forward first and embraced Bill and Avalea.

“It’s nice to see you again, Bill.” Tina said and smiled at him. Avalea felt him visibly calming down. Queenie came towards the two and embraced Avalea first and then Bill.

“You chose a good one, he’s cute.” Queenie whispered into Avalea’s ear making her chuckle.

“It’s very nice to meet you Bill. Congratulations, on the engagement.” Queenie told them and everyone else followed suit in giving their congratulations. Jace, Leta, Taron and Rolf were the last to greet and congratulate the couple.

“We’ve heard a lot about you Bill. Congratulations to you both.” Leta told them.

“Thank you. We hope you can make it to the wedding.” Avalea told them.

“Yes, you can travel with my brothers and sister during the Easter break.” Bill told them with a smile.

“We don’t go to Hogwarts. I attend Beauxbatons Academy in France and my twin Jace attends Mahoutokoro in Japan.” Leta replied.

“And we go to Ilvermorny, I’m going to be a fourth year Thunderbird and Taron a fifth year Horned Serpent.” Rolf replied.

“But we’d be happy to come to your wedding.” Leta added. They suddenly heard a crack and turned towards it. Albus Dumbledore just apparated to the family reunion and started to greet everyone starting with his daughter.

“Never noticed till before but she has his eyes.” Bill softly said to Ava.

“That’s about the only thing though besides characteristics and mannerisms. She’s basically the full fledged carbon copy of my grandmother.” Avalea told him and summoned a moving photo of her laughing grandmother when she was younger, which looked quite like Ariana.

“She was beautiful.” Bill told her and embraced her. Avalea’s grandfather stepped towards them with a soft smile.

“Hello Mr. Weasley, it’s very nice to meet you Bill. Welcome to the family.” Her grandad told her fiancé and shook his hand. Bill looked speechlessly for a moment at his old headmaster.

“Thank you Professor Dumbledore.” He said.

“Call me Albus or just Dumbledore, we are going to be family after all.” He offered and Bill looked a little surprised. He had no idea how he was supposed to call him by his first name when he had always called him Professor Dumbledore. He wasn’t even sure his parents called him anyway else but he couldn’t remember. He nodded and looked weirdly at Avalea as Dumbledore went to greet the others.

“Albus?” Bill whispered to Ava.

“He does have a first name, you knew it.” Avalea said chuckling at his expression.

“Of course but he was my Professor for 7 years, I don’t think I can ever call him Albus.” He said flabbergasted which made Avalea laugh softly at the face he made.

“Give it some time, Will.” Avalea said. They moved on from the interaction and conversed with the others.

“So Bill, what do you do for a living?” Queenie's husband asked him.

“I’m a cursebreaker for Gringotts in Egypt.” He replied which intrigued the teenagers and they started to bombard him with questions. He told them about his work with a big smile on his face which made Avalea smile as well.

“Avalea, how is your sanctuary going? Mum and Dad told me you were running one in Egypt now.” Queenie asked.

“It’s great. I get to study and interact with so many creatures you only know from a book page or stories and it’s fascinating. It always breaks my heart when I have to give the creatures up again or put them back into the wilderness but it’s really rewarding as well. We just transferred a dragon mother with her baby dragons after we helped her for months. When we found her she was so malnourished and we were sure she couldn’t even hatch her egg but they were both very healthy now so they found their home in the Romanian sanctuary.” Avalea explained.

“She also has a Nundu that she’s studying and other creatures nobody knew existed anymore.” Tina told them.

“Next week I’ll travel to collect some creatures for two subjects for Hogwarts. Grandad asked me to provide the creatures for Defense Against the Dark Arts and some Care of Magical Creatures lessons.” Avalea told them.
“You know who our new teachers will be?” Arnica asked surprised.

“Yes I do, Grandad told me and I’ve written letters with both of them.” Ava told her sister with a grin.

“Tell me, please. It’s my O.W.L.s year and I need to know that I will have competent teachers.” Arnica begged her and pulled the old puppy face.

“No, they asked to be kept quiet, all I can say is that it’s going to be an exciting year. I’m quite curious to see how the Quidditch season will be.” Avalea told her sister. Suddenly a thought crossed her mind that she had never seen her sister play in a Quidditch match. Since Arnica only started Hogwarts the summer after she graduated she only saw her play at home or with her family.

“Speaking of which, up for a game?” Taron asked grinning sneakily.

“We’re short one person, let’s wait for Talia.” Avalea said. Bill asked the teenagers about their schools and their subjects and they happily discussed everything.

“Natalia is Silas’ and Mary’s daughter, and the closest to us in age. She’s a lot like Tonks, you’ll like her.” Avalea told Bill.

“Whatever you do though, don’t call her Natalia. Nat or Talia but never combined." Rolf told him.

“Noted.” Bill said and hesitated for a moment before he continued. “Can I ask, why did you all attend different schools?”

“Well, Natalia was the first of us grandchildren to attend Hogwarts and her experience was awful. The kids in her year were either bullying her or following her like a puppy from the moment they heard that her name was Scamander.” Rolf replied.

“I tried to help her as best as I could but it was really bad so I suggested the penpal programme and she made a friend in Uagadou and ended up changing to that school. It helped that Mary, her mother attended that one too.” Avalea explained further.

“Which brought our parents to the conclusion that Hogwarts wasn’t a very good idea for us either.” Leta explained. “My father attended Mahoutokoro, that’s why Jace goes there.”

“That makes sense. Thankfully Lea didn’t have it as bad. I can only imagine how it would have been if everyone had known who she was related to.” Bill told them.

“Times two as well. Scamander and Dumbledore. It would have probably been worse than what Talia got.” Arnica said.

“I at least could have helped Talia a little more. It was near impossible without blowing our secret.” Avalea replied with a frown.

“You did everything you could Ave.” A voice said from behind them. They turned around to see a similar looking woman to Rolf with brown messy hair that was pulled back with a clip, piercing blue eyes she inherited from her mother and a similar spunk to her than Tonks. Avalea immediately jumped up and tackled her cousin. Bill smiled at the sight. Everyone greeted Talia after Avalea let her go and she sat down and talked about work. They talked until the food was served and ate while they all talked amongst themselves. After dinner the kids all got their brooms and a family game of Quidditch was started. They divided themselves in teams, since they were only eight in total they divided into four and played without a seeker, with two chasers, one beater and one keeper. Avalea and Bill each picked their teammates and the parents and grandparents watched while Felias acted as the referee. Avalea, Talia, Arnica and Leta played like pros and were soon up by 50 points. Bill pushed himself even more and they caught up with 30 points later. The girls were on fire and roasted the boys completely. Arnica played as a Chaser, Avalea as a beater, Talia as a keeper and Leta was another chaser. Arnica and Leta were such a good team together that the boys had no choice. After they played 3 hours they decided to call it a night and the girls had won 150:70.

“Yes! We wiped the floor with you.” Arnica exclaimed. The grownups went to bed while the kids stayed awake and talked for a while more. Avalea told Talia about the creatures she has and Bill told her about his job as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: I'm sorry this took quite a bit. I'm currently missing the inspiration to write this story but I'll get back into it. If anyone can recommend a nice Bill or Charlie story to me maybe I'll get back into the groove.