Bill Weasley had always had a way with the ladies. But right now he felt worse and better than he had ever done before. Bill was in love for the first time in his life. Sure there had been crushes, a few snogs here and there, but nothing like this. He would do anything for her, even part with his long red locks if she wanted him to. Bill was ready to give up everything to get her. Even his coolness status, which hadn't mattered much to him in the first place. He was ready for marriage. He didn't quite like the thought of being eternally bound to another person, but as he wanted her to be his forever marriage was a good thing.
He couldn't remember quite the time when he had first fallen in love with her. It could have been anytime. She had been around him for such a long time that it was hard imagining not loving her. But he knew precisely the moment when he figured it out. It had been summer vacation last year. He had just got transferred from Egypt to London and because he hadn't found a place to live yet he had stayed with his parents.
Three years earlier:
Things were good in the wizarding world. Harry and Dumbledore had finally defeated Voldemort. Bill expected that McGonagall found them to be even better than most wizard/witches. It was the first time in years that she hadn't had any Weasleys in her house, or at Hogwarts. "Pah" Bill thought. "Hogwarts must be an incredible boring place without Fred, George, Ron, Ginny or me to liven it up." He automatically excluded Percy and Charlie. Percy for the obvious reasons, and Charlie because he was never quite as eager to get into trouble as the others were. But now it looked like a little Weasley was on the way. Even if Ginny had just graduated that summer she was currently pregnant.
The problem with that pregnancy was that Ginny didn't have a boyfriend. What worried the six Weasley brothers even more was that she; the most stubborn of them all, refused to tell them who the father was so they could do some serious damage to the idiot that dared touch their sister. Each brother had been fuming about it for ages, until he got distracted. George and Fred had too much to worry about with the joke-shop, Percy had his job at the ministry, Charlie had his dragons and Ron got a letter from Harry asking him to come visit Sirius and him for the rest of the summer. It was just Bill left to worry.
Bill decided that the red hair was a curse when it came to Ginny. She was usually short-tempered, but the combination of the temper and her pregnancy made it nearly unbearable for the others to be in the same room as her.
But then one day she came to visit Ginny. He supposed she had come because Ginny had owled her begging for friendly company, but still it was great just having her there. They kept cooking dinner together, taking walks together, taking care of Ginny and just in general having fun. Bill knew that he was falling more and more in love with her, and that he shouldn't be doing it. He had been doing great as a bachelor so far. A player of the field. But now she had to come along and somehow her being there changed the way he had lived for so long. He didn't think she felt the same way about him, after all he was somewhat older, so he didn't push it like he normally would've done.
So Bill had simply let everything continue the way they were, content by just being there, around her. Then one day, close to the end of summer, he saw Ginny and her having a very animated conversation, both of them kept waving their hands in all directions. It looked like a fight, except they were both smiling. He just shrugged and went to do his laundry. Molly and Arthur had decided to take a week in Germany as a holiday, just the two of them. Molly had been worried about Ginny, but he was there to take care of her and she came to visit them.
"Bill?" She suddenly appeared behind him while he was doing the dishes in the kitchen. "Yeah, what is it?" His hands were all pruny from having spent too much time in the water. He lifted one of them up and grinded his fingers together to feel the unfamiliar sense of skin. "Uhm. Ginny said that I ought to tell you something." She sounded so nervous, so unsure of herself. "What did Ginny say that you had to tell me?"
He kept doing the dishes while he waited for her to speak. "She wanted me to tell you, no she said you ought to know it. Ah shit. I am not sure how I am going to say this." He could sense that she kept biting her lip. "Oh, well here goes double or nothing. Bill, I think I am falling in love with you." She rushed on. "I really wasn't going to tell you or anything, and you mustn't feel burdened by it. Ginny just felt it would be fair on you if you knew, and had a voice in the matter." Bill felt that his voice had as a matter of fact disappeared. He just turned around and kissed her on the lips, putting his soapy wet hands around her.
Back to the present:
He kept walking back and forth on the floor, smiling at the memories and wondering what the future held in store for him. He could feel the little black box in his pocket. Bill suddenly heard a key in the lock and sat down on the couch to wait for her. Finally she came into the room. They smiled at each other and kissed. He grinned down at her, feeling scared and ecstatic at the same time. "How do you feel about marriage?"
"I would like marriage, but you can forget it if you want me to propose to you. You're the male in this relationship Bill and you have to do some of the work. After all I told you I loved you first." Bill smiled, he had hoped, and known that she would say something like that. He went down on his knees in front of her and held out the little black box. "Hermione Granger, I love you. Would you do me the honour of becoming my wife? " He could hardly hear her reply through her tears.
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A/N: Decided to take the author note on the end (?) of this one. I am not sure how wizards do the dishes, probably some spell, but I had to have him do something sensible… I hope you as a reader enjoyed reading. The title is supposed to mean EMBRACE EACH OTHER in Latin, but this is my first year with it. Bear over with me.
I didn't really want to bring the pregnant Ginny onto the stage, but Hermione had to come to the Burrow for a sensible reason, when Ron wasn't around. Besides Ginny had to be pretty busy during her last year at Hogwarts when she didn't have any over-protective brothers around. Accidents do happen. Be careful whatever you do.
Love
Anastacy.