William "Bill" Weasley was not a person who one could consider normal, at least if you were to ask his mother. Not only did he wear an earring – almost unheard of for men in Wizarding society – but he had a distinct love of danger. His career as a curse-breaker was legendary among the goblins because he took big risks and came out ahead.
But even his love of danger could not make him turn down a direct request from Director Ragnok himself!
It would have been his first inclination were it any other goblin that made this request. He had been ordered to Paris on an immediate basis — pulling him out of an important dig in Egypt — and Ragnok had come in person to deliver that order. The problem was, all he had to go on was that he was to assist a Friend of the Goblin Nation. He had no idea what the job entailed.
Being a Friend of the Goblin Nation was no small thing for a Wizard, so he was quite curious who he would be dealing with, and more than a little apprehensive. Worse, Ragnok had then produced a Wizard-made Portkey and told him to go immediately. He didn't say it, but his message was clear: no delay would be tolerated.
Whoever this person was, they were held in very high esteem indeed.
He arrived in the waiting room of the Parisian hospital without fanfare, and before he could even approach the desk, he was whisked away by a rather cute Healer. She said nothing – not even her name – and led him to an elevator that took them to the second floor. He wanted to flirt, but sensed that it would not be well received at the moment.
She led him down a hall and into a room near the end, and Bill stopped dead in his tracks when he found himself facing a very attractive Veela. He would have put her age at about twenty in a human, but for her he guessed it might be more like fifty. She was incredibly beautiful, as were all Veela, and he couldn't stop himself from peeking at her left hand.
Damn, he thought. Married.
"You are Beel Weasley?" she asked.
"Yes, ma'am," he nodded, thankfully unaffected by her allure. "Director Ragnok sent me. What can I do for you?"
The woman didn't bat an eye at the reference to the Goblin leader. "You can take an Oath, Monsieur Weasley," she said seriously, "zat nothing you see or do 'ere will leave zis room wizout our consent. Zis ees very serious, and I give you my word zat eet ees nuzzing illegal or immoral."
She's nothing if not direct, he mused to himself.
It was definitely a risky proposition. If he took the oath and found something untoward in the job, he would have no recourse. Then again, he did love danger, and the request came from Ragnok himself, so it was damned if you do, damned if you don't. He elected to do.
He drew his wand and held it in the air. "I, William Arthur Weasley, do hereby solemnly swear on my magic that I will keep the secrets entrusted to me by the people in this room on this day, barring their permission to speak. So mote it be."
He felt the magic take hold, and fought down a sense of foreboding.
"Thank you," she nodded, her voice softening slightly. "We 'ave requested your assistance to deal wiz a matter of Dark magic. My son-in-law ees affected by something, but we do not know what eet ees. We need to find out, and take whatever actions are necessary."
Bill nodded his understanding; it seemed a reasonable request. "Well, I can't say what I can do until I see him," he said honestly.
"What's your name?"
"You may call me Arienne."
Not recognizing the name, he just nodded again. "And what are we looking at?" he asked.
"A curse scar," said the Healer next to him. "And I'm Healer Naomi Parks, Mr. Weasley, I know your brother Charlie if you need a reference. In any event, we believe that the scar is somehow connected to a Dark wizard, resulting in an occasional merging of consciousness. We don't understand it beyond that. All I can tell you is that the patient had a vision this afternoon, seeing from the eyes of the wizard in question, and was subjected to intense pain when the wizard cast the Cruciatus Curse."
Bill frowned deeply as he listened to the explanation. There were very few ways to create a connection with those properties, and none of them were good at all. He was liking this less and less, but at least the people involved so far seemed to be on the level.
"That's not good," he admitted. "You should be prepared for bad news on this one. I'll do what I can, but something that works like that is the Darkest of Magic, and I only know of a few things that can cause it, all of them heinous."
Arienne closed her eyes, and a pained expression crossed her beautiful features. "You must do what you can, Monsieur Weasley," she said softly. "'E as been through too much, and I do not think 'e will be able to take much more."
Bill's own expression softened at her obvious compassion, and he nodded his understanding. "Then let me see him, Arienne," he said gently. "I'll do everything in my power. This request came from Director Ragnok himself, and if it's important to the leader of the Goblin Nation, then it's important to me."
Arienne smiled at him. "Then come," she nodded.
She led Bill to a curtained off area in the corner and motioned him inside. But when he entered, his heart leapt into his throat. Whoever he expected, it was most certainly not the two people that were in the small area.
It was Harry and Fleur Potter!
"Oh boy," he breathed.
"Monsieur Weasley," nodded Fleur quietly. "Will you 'elp us?"
Bill didn't react at first. He had learned of Harry's abrupt marriage from his sister's letters, and also of the falling out between Ron and Harry — and just how well deserved it was on Ron's part. On top of that, he was aware of the Howler that his mother had sent — and he knew his mum well enough to know what that was likely to entail, even if Ginny hadn't known the exact content.
His little sister had a lot to say about the idiocy of certain family members. And the less said about her opinion of the Potter marriage, the better. Bill felt for her — he really did — but she needed to get over it; Harry Potter was married, and that was that.
The boy could still be considered a friend of the family. Not only was he a good kid by all accounts, but he was still friends with the Twins and, at least theoretically, even with Ginny. But he wasn't entirely sure that Harry would so easily accept help from him given the situation with Ron and his mother.
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Mrs. Potter?" he asked slowly. "I like Harry well enough, but I'm not sure how he'll feel about me being the one to do this."
Fleur frowned up at him. "I do not know eizzer," she admitted.
"Then let's wake him up," he suggested. "I won't do anything unless I have his permission."
Bill had to admit that, forced marriage or not, Harry had done well for himself. Fleur was gorgeous, even for a Veela. Had she not already been married, he would likely have asked her out — and the cute thoughtful frown on her face did not do anything to dissuade him from that opinion.
"Very well," she sighed. "'ealer Parks?"
"There's no reason not to," shrugged the Healer. "And don't you dare get all formal with me, Fleur."
Fleur snorted cutely in amusement.
The Healer waved her wand over Harry, and it was only a few seconds before his eyelids fluttered open, and then immediately tracked to his wife. His confusion was apparent in the way his forehead scrunched up. He yawned widely before going back to staring at her.
"Fleur?" he asked sleepily.
"We 'ave brought a curse-breaker to look at your scar, mon amour," she said softly. "I think you know 'im."
Harry frowned slightly and turned his head to stare at Bill. He probably couldn't see without his glasses, because – rather amusingly – his eyes flicked to Bill's head for a moment. He almost couldn't suppress his chortle at that.
"Bill?" he called tentatively.
"Heya, Harry," he greeted. "Ragnok asked me to check you out, but I wanted your permission before I do anything. I'm not real sure how you feel about our family right now."
A sad look passed briefly over Harry's features. "It's fine, Bill," he said in a quieter tone. "Ron has his own problems. It's not your fault."
Bill noticed the lack of mention of their mother, but let it pass. Obviously, Harry wasn't going to hold it against him, which he could only count as positive. Now all he needed to do was pray that he didn't find something horrific.
"I'll tell you the same thing I told them," he said seriously. "I only know of a few things that can connect two people like they described, and they're not pleasant. I want you to be prepared to hear bad news, alright? I'll do whatever I can to help you, but I don't want you thinking there's a miracle cure here."
Harry nodded. "There never is, Bill," he sighed simply.
Bill grimaced at his fatalistic attitude, but put it aside for the moment and turned to his wife. "Mrs. Potter, I'll need to ask you to step away from him. On the off chance that something goes wrong here, I don't think he'll want you getting hurt."
"Fleur weel do," she said quietly.
And then Bill watched as she turned to have a quiet moment with her incredibly young husband, and was blown away by the depth of emotion he saw passing between them. He was not a particularly romantic man – he was more partial to the wild side – but he could recognize true love when he saw it. They were in deep, and he doubted they would ever surface again.
Finally she leaned over and gave him a gentle peck on the lips, and moved off to the side of the enclosure. Bill took that as his cue and moved forward to stand by Harry's head, contemplating the best way to approach it. He really hoped this wasn't as bad as he thought.
"I'm going to cast some detection spells," he explained. "You shouldn't feel a thing, but be prepared just in case. Let me know when you're ready."
Harry nodded immediately. "Go ahead."
Bill took a deep breath, raised his wand, and set to work. Curse breaking was not really as much about breaking curses as it was about determining which curses needed to be broken. He had an impressive arsenal of detection spells to work with, and only rarely did he need a special spell to break something. More often than not, it was just the application of standard spells along with a great deal of finesse.
But this was not going to be one of those times.
He hit on the answer in a matter of mere minutes, and he did not like it in the slightest. It was one of the Darkest forms of magic, and how Dumbledore had failed to notice it for four years running was a complete mystery. To say that he was unhappy would be an understatement, especially given the other implications.
After casting a few more specific spells to get the details, he sighed and pulled up a chair by Harry's bedside.
"Bill?" prompted Harry.
"Is everyone here who needs to know this?" he asked.
"My 'usband is working," frowned Arienne. "I will tell 'im later. Please tell us."
Bill nodded, closed his eyes, and took a deep, steadying breath before speaking. "There is a little known Dark object called a Horcrux," he began, noting the blank looks on every face in the room. "They're used by wizards trying for immortality. In simple terms, the wizard splits his soul through an act of murder, and then uses the Horcrux ritual to encase the split fragment in an object of some kind. So long as that fragment exists, the Wizard cannot leave this plane of existence."
"Voldemort," breathed Parks, obviously quick on the uptake.
Bill nodded. "That would be my suspicion," he agreed, "but I don't think this was intentional. From what I can tell from the fragment that's lodged in that scar, Voldemort must have made five or six others. His soul is probably so unstable at this point that the rebounded Killing Curse ripped off a shard, and it went the only place it could."
"Eet must be removed," growled Fleur. "Surely there ees a way?"
Bill closed his eyes and bobbed his head from side to side as he considered the options. He had only come across an actual Horcrux once before, and it was extremely difficult to destroy. Of course, he hadn't known how at the time, but still. They were remarkably resilient buggers.
"There are two ways I can see to do this, those being the dangerous way, and the unlikely way. The dangerous way is to use an exorcism spell to remove the fragment, and then hope we can destroy it before it attacks and possesses one of us."
Grimaces went around the room, and Parks asked, "And the unlikely way?"
"Well," said Bill slowly, "Unless you have a basilisk and a phoenix handy, it's basically impossible. I suspect I know where we can get the basilisk venom—" he shot an amused look at Harry, who grinned sheepishly back at him "—but I'm not sure about the phoenix. I know Dumbledore has a phoenix companion, but I've heard you're not on good terms with him at the moment."
To Bill's surprise, Fleur and Harry exchanged amused looks at the comment, and Harry responded. "Erm, Fawkes likes us, Bill," he smirked. "Actually, he kinda moved in with us. I'm sure he'll be willing."
"But 'e just burned," frowned Fleur. "I am not sure eef 'e can travel."
Harry frowned for a moment before– "One way to find out, I guess," he shrugged. "Fawkes?"
Bill had no idea what Harry's point was, until a small ball of flame erupted over the bed, revealing a slightly smaller than usual crimson phoenix. And, to Bill's utter amazement, it first landed on Fleur's shoulder and nuzzled her cheek, and then quickly relocated to Harry, where it curled up in his armpit and laid its beautiful head on his shoulder.
Harry smiled softly at it and gently scratched its neck. "Hi, Fawkes," he smiled. "I hope we didn't put you out too much. We were hoping you could help us get rid of a slice of Tom I apparently have in my scar." Turning to Bill, he asked, "What would he have to do?"
Bill snorted in amusement as the phoenix flipped over on its back so Harry could rub its tummy. He had never seen such an affectionate bird before, let alone a phoenix. But that was beside the point; they had more important things to worry about right now.
"We'd have to put some basilisk venom on your scar," he sighed. "That would destroy the Horcrux, but it would also kill you in short order. The only way to prevent that is for Fawkes here to cry some tears on you afterwards to neutralize the venom. And even then, it's risky."
"What are the timeframes?" asked Naomi.
"Probably five to ten seconds to destroy the fragment," he frowned, "and so long as his skin is unbroken, I'd guess maybe thirty to forty-five before the venom is fatal, but you would know better than me on that score."
"Risks in partial completion?"
"None that I can think of," shrugged Bill.
Naomi then turned a questioning look on Arienne, who – to Bill's amusement – turned a similar one on Fleur. They were passing the buck! Not that he could blame them; he wouldn't want the responsibility either.
Fleur thought for a moment and then turned to Harry. "I think you should try eet," she told him.
Harry nodded. "I don't like it," he admitted, "but better that than keeping Tommy alive."
Bill snorted. "I'll also record the signature," he told them. "The goblins have ways of tracking things like this down, so hopefully we'll be able to take away his anchors pretty quickly. If you had a vision of Voldemort, then I have to assume he has some form of body back, which isn't good. The sooner we get rid of these, the better."
"Definitely," nodded Harry.
The next hour was spent getting everything ready. Fawkes apparently decided that they didn't need to go down to the chamber and flashed away, returning shortly thereafter with a fang, presumably from the basilisk – and the thing was huge! Upon seeing it, Bill found new respect for Harry.
Fleur paced nervously for most of the intervening time, while Arienne and Naomi sat on the periphery and had a quiet conversation. Bill and Harry enjoyed watching the women, both quietly amused. The women were more nervous than the men, including the one this was about to be done to.
Finally Bill sat down and asked something that was bothering him. "Harry," he said slowly, "what's going on with you and Dumbledore? This kind of thing is right up his alley, so I don't understand why you wouldn't have talked to him about it."
Harry snorted grimly. "He probably already knows, Bill," he sighed. "Bastard stuck me with abusive guardians and then kept me there on purpose, and on top of that he stole over eighty million Galleons from my estate, which I didn't even know existed. I think it's pretty obvious why I wouldn't trust him after that."
Bill paled at the content of Harry's matter-of-fact recitation. If that was true, then they had serious problems. Although, it went a rather long way toward explaining how Dumbledore ended up thrown out of Gringotts on his arse. Even all the way out in Egypt, Bill had heard about that one through the Gringotts Grapevine. And the goblins didn't like it when people stole from their clients, let alone one of the ten largest, which he knew Harry to be.
"You're serious?" he breathed. "You have proof?"
"We do," nodded Arienne. "Zat man will pay for 'is crimes, Monsieur Weasley. Of zis you can be sure. 'E 'as already made it much easier for us by being so foolish wiz ze trials. 'is reputation is not what it once was."
Bill had no idea what trials she was referring to, but it really didn't matter; he would find out later. He nodded slowly and turned his gaze back to Harry. "Let me know if I can do anything to help," he said seriously.
Harry just smiled. "Thanks, Bill," he offered quietly. "That means a lot to me."
"To both of us," smiled Fleur.
Her smile was breathtaking, and Bill had to admit he was a bit jealous, but he wasn't as stupid as his brother apparently was. "You know, for a scary bird woman, you're not what I was expecting, Fleur," he said with a boyish grin.
Harry snorted in amusement, and to Bill's relief, Fleur grinned toothily back at him. "Your bruzzer 'as a very different opinion, I assure you," she retorted.
"She transformed in the middle of the Great Hall," said Harry. "Literally scared the piss out of him."
Bill sadly noted the pain in Harry's eyes. What was Ron thinking? This kid could easily grow up to be one of the greatest Wizards in history, and Ron threw his friendship with him away like so much dirty laundry. The kid was an idiot! And what was there to be jealous of, anyway? Fleur was pretty as hell, yes, but what he had to go through to get her...
Shaking himself, Bill put those thoughts aside for later. "Let's get this done," he said finally. "It should only take a few minutes, but it'll hurt like hell, Harry. You sure you're up to this?"
"If it gets rid of Tom?" he asked. "You're damn right I am."
"Then let's do it."