Regulation and Control

( Owl to Oliver )

( Owl to Fleur )

Who: Bill Weasley, Charlie Weasley
What: Bill's awake when Charlie walks in Friday night.
When: Late. 11-12ish Saturday evening
Where: The Burrow

The Weird Sisters were on the Wireless as loud as Bill would go without fear of Molly charging downstairs, but since he felt alright and didn't particularly want to sleep, he was on the couch with an Arithmancy text, chomping at the bit, but otherwise satisfied with this activity until he was sleepy enough to turn in. Willoughby circled in front of him on the rug, apparently unable to find a comfortable position. He was about as antsy as Bill felt, and he stuck his hand under the couch and felt around. It closed upon a dusty rubber ball a moment later.

The dog sat up immediately, ears cocked and Bill grinned. "It's a bit late to be out in the yard, boy." Nonetheless, he sat the book aside and went to the door, where he stuck his bare feet into his shoes as he pulled on a windbreaker, an activity made more difficult as the dog scooted between his long legs. When he opened the kitchen door, Willoughby raced out as if he'd already thrown the ball. "So this is what I get for letting you sleep all day?" he called softly as he walked into the side garden, past Arthur's shed, and tossed the ball into the garden near what he knew to be a gnome hideaway.

Who: Bill Weasley, Charlie Weasley
What: Bill writes another story and has a sleep, followed by a serious fraternal conversation
When: August 7th, late afternoon- evening; August 8th, morning
Where: The Burrow
Rating: PG-13 for language, mostly
Complete

( Bill ate drowsily and then lay back down. )

Who: Bill Weasley and Percy Weasley
What: Percy is compelled to visit the Burrow
Where: The Burrow
When: Percy's lunch hour
Rating: Lowish, I'd suspect? Potential language, of course
Status: Closed // Incomplete

( Percy found himself not ten yards from the kitchen door, staring up at the Burrow as if he were looking at some long-lost relic. )

Who: Bill Weasley
What: Bill examines a book purchased on Diagon Alley
When: Early morning hours, August 6th
Where: The Burrow
Rating: PG

Bill opened his eyes to silence and a dull fire in his limbs, a sensation he recognized as a blessed ebb between the waves that brought him under. He flexed his fingers until they could feel the pillow shoved against the wall beside him, then he rolled over and fumbled for the light on the bedside table. When he turned it on, he shut his eyes and opened them slowly to allow his eyes to adjust gradually. It made him slightly nauseous, hungover from the potion. The glass of water remained on the bedside table, but it was cool to the touch. There had been ice in it; either Charlie or their mother had left it while he was sleeping.

( I am like a mouse. )

Who: Bill Weasley
What: Rock bottom.
When: Early afternoon, August 5th
Where: The Burrow
Rating: PG

( Soon he would be sleeping. )

Who: Bill Weasley, Molly Weasley (cameo, NPC), Adrian Pucey
What: Bill attends his monthly Mindhealer appointment.
When: July 30th, late morning
Where: St. Mungo's, London
Rating: PG
Closed; complete

Molly and Bill Weasley sat together in a comfortable silence during the trip from Ottery St. Catchpole into London, Molly working dilligently on a knitting project while Bill examined the leatherbound book in his lap. It was the journal he'd picked up from the secondhand store in Diagon Alley, after his visit with Jane, and it was clear that it was old enough that it did not connect to the current wizarding journal network, though it possessed magic of a nature he had not yet determined. This he had not shared with his mother, nor did he poke and prod at it with his wand, but wrote a sentence on the first page experimentally. "Today is Tuesday, June 29th, and I am going to an appointment with my mindhealer." The ink glistened wetly on the page; the book did not absorb it as the journal Ginny had possessed years ago had done.

Bill set it aside when the buildings they passed on the road became taller, and he waited expectantly for them to turn the corner to St. Mungo's.

Once the car slowed, Bill and Molly exited the car and headed inside. He kissed her cheek in the lobby and made his way by himself to Adrian Pucey's office. He knocked.

(  Adrian let that subject drop. He'd made Bill notice the elephant in the room. )

( Owl to Fleur )

Who: Nymphadora Tonks, Lila Tonks, and Bill Weasley
What: A visit
When: Afternoon
Where: St. Mungo's
Rating: Lowish, since there's a kid present

( Never knew the best was yet to come )

Who: Bill Weasley
What: Bill has a brilliant idea.
Where: The Burrow, where else?
When: July 18th, very early morning.
Rating: PG
Closed, Complete

If Bill had studied from home rather than at Hogwarts, he reckoned that he might've looked something like he did now, sitting at his desk, spread across with papers, an abycus, several number charts, many of them not made with a Greco-Roman number system, and a number of woebegone quills. There was ink under his fingernails from the constant writing. Occasionally, he would pick up a paper from his desk and pace the room with it, brow furrowed, concentrating until the beads of sweat formed on his brow and temples in the heat. His wand was in his trouser pocket, as good as abandoned. Any magic performed here occurred somewhere between his mind and the press of quill to paper.

Transpositional and substitutional ciphers were far too outdated, and Bill was convinced that the solution was to use number theory to write the cipher Charlie was looking for, but the inherent problem was the same for anyone in arithmancy and ancient runes, or in any type of code-writing: the cipher must be designed so that a layperson could use it. Bill did have magic on his side, this was true, and the cipher might become encrypted into the journal in such a way that it would respond and translate messages only at his command.

Then an idea occurred to Bill. If the message automatically encrypted itself once written, and would decode for any individual Charlie selected, then there was a possibility that a changing-cipher system based on quantum mechanics might be used to mathematically construct personalized keys with each message, ones that Charlie need never learn because the translation would be two way between Charlie and the receiver of the message. Anyone interfering with the code would ultimately change the cipher just by observing it. Not only would the message be strictly two way, but the system would also detect attempts at eavesdropping.

Bill's heart was pounding, and not from revelation. The grocery and apothecary list were ashes on his desk and Bill felt an acute urgency in his task. In order to create the cipher, Bill would need to construct a multi-variable equation that would self-determine the cipher key for each message based on the alphabetic content of what Charlie wrote. Since Charlie wrote in English, a language based on the Greco-Roman alphabet, the best way to construct the cipher would be from another language with another symbol system.

Walking over to his desk, Bill pulled out a fresh piece of paper and scrubbed his tired face with his fingers and began writing, his quill drawing shapes that were foreign to his fingers but familiar and friendly to his brain.

( Note tucked into Charlie's journal, on Bill's desk at the Burrow )

Who: Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour-Weasley
What: Lunch and spousal visit
When: Early Tuesday afternoon, after Fleur's visit to Mickey D's
Where: The Burrow
Status: Closed, incomplete

Fleur had Apparated into Ottery St Catchpole and walked down to the house rather than Flooing to the Burrow. There had been a time when arrival in the Burrow's fireplace would have been normal and welcome, but those years were over. Now she felt compelled to give warning of her presence before she came in. In her hand, she clutched a bag that came from McDonald's in London, although the food in it had been bought elsewhere: a very rare pair of hamburgers with the correct condiments. Fleur still remembered what Bill liked, although sometimes she'd been known to miss the nuances of his Healer's diet plans.

She made her way up to the back door of the Burrow and knocked to let Bill know she was there.

Who: Bill Weasley and Euphemia Borage
Where: Magao Caves, Gansu Province, China
When: Saturday, July 12
What: Jailbreak!
Rating: G
Status: Closed; complete.

Merlin, but she hoped the Burrow wasn't warded.

With a long breath, Pen bit her lip and closed her eyes, preparing for a last jump into the gardens of the Weasley residence. With any luck, Bill would be waiting and ready to open a window or jump out and wouldn't be rattling chains against the wall. A sudden push and she hurtled out of the sky over Ottery St. Catchpole, her body deflecting off a shield as she hit ward and slid down.

"Oh," was all she managed, dazed for a moment, as she realized that the Weasleys were every bit as smart as her interactions with Charlie would have suggested. Standing up, Euphemia shook her head, then began to run, body trailing the sphere until she was sure that no one had noticed her entrance. Then, with a quick dart, she ran towards the structure ahead, laughing as long legs stretched across the grass, pelting towards the Burrow. Reaching into her pocket, she took a quick look over her shoulder, then tossed a Knut at the window above, ducking quickly in case she'd guessed wrong as to its occupant.

( This was quarantine. )

Who: Fred Holden, Bill Weasley & Mircea
What: Biscuit delivery
Where: The Burrow
When: 9 am, Sunday, 13th July
Rating: PG
Status: Open;Complete

When she hadn't been busy fulfilling every man's lesbian tv repair fantasy or escaping the foul clutches of bowling alley security the day before she'd been attempting to make edible versions of the biscuits she promised Bill. It wasn't that she couldn't cook. For someone who didn't eat much more than raw meat and fish Fred had an impressive repertoire of culinary skill. The problem was she didn't eat things like biscuits and never had. Even as a kid she'd not had the taste for them. Poor Finn, the person in the house who had been human longest, was subjected to taste testing batches until she finally gave her approval. Fred tried a couple out on the kids who lived in the next house over, which was a ways over, and they gave their approval as well. This led to Fred making about six dozen biscuits. Hey, she was showing her grateful here!

Her intention was to drop off the goods to Bill, possibly check on Charlie without him knowing about it, and then get to work so she could kill off whatever remained of her stack of paperwork until it was time to break Charlie out of recovery. She'd returned the completed stuff she'd worked on while holed up at Ben's or her place earlier in the morning and she'd seen at least a few new things on her desk. Bollocks. Who assigned her this stuff when Charlie wasn't around? It wasn't like she had a supervisor other than him.

It was awkward enough going to the Burrow for Fred and she decided to try to minimise the awkward for others by wearing something that resembled clothing. Alright, honestly, it had more to do with respect for his mum should she be around. She'd dug out a skirt that actually hit mid-thigh instead of barely even making it to her thigh at all and halter top. The halter technically covered more than any of her other shirts since the neckline was higher in some areas and it covered most of her stomach aside from a strip of flesh from just above her navel to where her skirt sat on her hips. Maybe it wasn't traditional, conservative wear but you can't win them all and she was only suffering so much over the fact she might run into someone's mum and didn't want to earn that withering look of disapproval. She maybe should have toned down the bright purple and blue, both of which were nearly electric in contrast to the black and grey that accompanied them in her skirt, but Fred just didn't do dull colours well some days.

After apparating to outside of the Quibbler offices, Fred walked the rest of the way. Mentally she was going over what she had to do at work. She was pretty sure there were a couple new execution orders on her desk that she'd noticed when she'd glanced around. Something easy she hoped. Like the rabid gerbils maybe. That line of thought was interrupted as she approached her destination. How does it stay standing, she wondered as she walked up to the Burrow. Muggles would've had a field day with the defiance of gravity. She knocked on the door lightly, not wanting to wake anyone who may still be asleep in the patchwork structure.

Who: Charlie Weasley, Nymphadora Tonks, and other assorted Weasleys, perhaps?
Where: The Burrow
When: Wednesday night, after picking Harry up at Bas'
What: Somebody's in trouble...
Rating: TBD

( . . . )