My Eldest Weasley

The Burrow

Bill

"And, here we are," I smiled at Fleur excitedly as we made our way towards my childhood home, the Burrow.

As the name suggested, it looked like a once large pig-pen had added extra stories at the top. The later additions could easily be spotted because of how crooked the structure was. It looked like the base was awkwardly balancing all the floors and 4-5 chimneys atop it. A jumble of rubber boots and a very rusty cauldron lay at the front door.

To some, it might seem like a dilapidated, old house but to me it was the most loving place on earth. I had spend my entire childhood there, and even now found it peaceful to be among my bickering siblings and parents.

I turned my gaze to Fleur, silently reading her expression, trying to gauge what she thought of it.

As we drew near the smell of something baking reached us, and I watched a faint smile grace her lips as she took in her surroundings.

There was not a single trace of judgement in her eyes as she took in several fat brown chickens that were pecking their way around the yard or the house itself, and I fell a little more in love with her to see total acceptance shining through her eyes.

As we were crossing the yard, the front door opened, followed by crash of coat hanger that generally stood right inside the house.

A moment later, Tonks walked out, swinging her cloak about her mumbling apology to someone inside. As her gaze landed on us, she forced a smile and walked towards us, knocking the cauldron near the door on her way. "Ees she always zat clumsy?" Fleur murmured quietly to me, watching a sheepish Tonks making her way towards us.

Generally, I'd have laughed at her clumsiness, but considering how awful she looked, I couldn't bring myself to do that. She had dark purple circles around her eyes and her usually spunky pink hairs were drab brown.

"Wotcher Bill. Hiya fleur." She greeted us half-heartedly.

" 'ello Tonks. I'm alright. 'ope you are well too?" Fleur replied.

"Came to see mum, Tonks?"

"Yeah, it's been a while, and after what happened..." She swallowed hard and Fleur's fingers tightened on mine.

It had been difficult few months for all of us. The dark lord had doubled his attempts of getting the prophecy from department of mystery at Ministry of Magic, and with dad still recovering from the attack, we were short staffed at the Order, working double the time we previously were to stand guard and recruit people towards us.

But the final blow had been the Battle of Department of Mystery. Even though it exposed the truth about the Dark lord's return, it came at a terrible price of death of Sirius that has left us all devastated, especially Harry.

It was shortly after this that Tonks had explicitly let Remus know how she felt about him, only to have him vehemently reject her. All this emotional upheaval had left Tonks so depressed that she had difficulty with her metamorphosis powers.

Remus, on the other hand, had volunteered to try recruiting werewolves to our side. While he claimed he was the only one who could easily do the job considering he was one himself, we all knew his real motivation was to keep himself busy to grieve for his best friend's death and stay away from Tonks. Fleur was shocked when I had shared this with her, one evening.

Few weeks ago

"A werewolf?" She exclaimed, her lovely eyes wide as we ate our dinner. "It's not like what you think, love. Remus is one of the best guys I know. So selfless and brave, I'm not really surprised Tonks fell for him."