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The sun had finally set by the time Andromeda made her way back downstairs. Teddy, hopped up on sugar and excitement, had taken an especially long time to get to sleep.
Summer was finally here, lengthening the days and bathing them in warmth as they’d spent the day at the Burrow, Teddy chasing Victoire around while the family looked on from picnic blankets. It was rare that the children saw each other now, with the girls living in France most of the time. When they were staying with their dad, it was only natural Bill wanted to protect his time with them. And as much as Teddy missed them, Andromeda knew they weren’t a priority.
She made her way to the kitchen and flicked her wand at the hob. A nice cup of chamomile tea would calm her after wrangling an excitable five year old into bed. She heard the water start to bubble and turned to grab a mug from the cupboard, when she nearly screamed.
For sat at her dining room table, was a man. A man that was definitely not supposed to be there.
“William Weasley! You know better than to startle an old woman! Especially when she’s just spent two hours getting her grandson to sleep!”
“Give off, Andy. You’re barely fifty. And it can’t have been more than an hour and a half.”
“Gods, it feels like longer when you’re reading Babbity Rabbit for the seventh time,” she laughed, turning to make her cup of tea. “Would you like one? What are you doing here anyway? Aren’t you staying with the girls?”
Bill cleared his throat, and shook his head. “No, thank you, I helped myself to some water while you were upstairs. Speaking of, I really need to update your wards, it was far too easy for me to walk in here.”
Andromeda waved her hand at him in dismissal, pouring hot water into her mug and moving to sit at the table with him. “Why are you here, Bill? Is there something wrong? Something with Dominique? Molly said she was worried about how the constant back and forth was affecting her.”
The tips of his ears started to turn pink. “It’s not Dominique. Although Fleur could make things a little easier. But no, that’s not why I came.”
“Then what is it?”
He looked up at her, uncertainty shining in his beautiful eyes.
Andromeda’s heart began to race.
“You know why I’m here, Andy.”
“No.” She pushed herself away from the table, rising to her feet. “No, Bill, we said we wouldn’t talk about this again.”
Bill grabbed her hand, pulling her back down. “I know, I know what we said. But I can’t just go on pretending. Not anymor–”
She shook him off, putting her hand to his chest to stop him talking. “Bill. No. It was a mistake.”
It was like she’d slapped him.
“A mistake? It wasn’t a mistake? Not to me?”
Andromeda stood again, walking to the sink to start the washing up, desperate to ground herself before she said something she regretted.
“Andy. I know we’d said it was foolish. That there were plenty of reasons it shouldn't happen again. But it was never a mistake. You– Me– I knew what I wanted that night. Didn’t you?” Bill’s voice was firm. Confident. The voice of a much younger man, not tainted by the loss that had plagued her.
She couldn’t.
She shouldn’t.
“Bill, you don’t understand. You don’t want this. You don’t want me. I’m a widow, I’ve got Teddy, I’ve lost everyone dear to me, I'm tainted. And that’s all besides the fact that I’m old enough to be your mother.”
He scoffed, his brow furrowed in anger. She turned to look at him and the expression on his face took her breath away. She was suddenly very aware of the wolf that prowled under his skin. His eyes were dark, his teeth almost bared. He stood to his feet, walking over to her and boxing her in against the sink.
“Don’t tell me what I don’t want,” he growled.
Her hands came up to rest against his chest in an attempt to put some space between them. But her fingers flexed against the muscles she found there. The muscles she’d known intimately.
“Bill–”
“I’m tired of it, Andy. I’m tired of being told what I want and what I don’t. I had it enough with Mum, and then I had it more with Fleur, now I’m back to Mum again, and I just can’t take it.” He towered over her, his chest heaving with the intensity of his words. “So no more. I decide. And unless you can tell me you don’t want this, that your heart isn’t pounding the same way mine is right now, then I’m taking what I want.”
He dipped his head to the side of hers, her breath causing the piercing in his ear to sway, his breath ruffling her hair and sending goosebumps across her flesh. She felt his hardness against her thigh. Her hips ground against it involuntarily.
“Say the words, baby. I need to hear you say you want this. And not that it’s another mistake, or a lapse in judgement, or whatever bullshit you come up with. That this is real. You and me.”
She stifled a laugh. Baby. She was a literal grandmother. But, Merlin, did Bill make her feel young again. She couldn’t. Could she?
“I’ve lost people too. I’m tainted too. Who wants a man with two kids in France and a difficult ex-wife? Who wants a man with a scar like mine? Who wants a man with wolf in his blood?” His voice was sad. She wanted to fix it. To heal him. She was desperate to show him how wanted he truly was.
Surely the way his fingers were brushing up and down her arm were clouding her judgement. But hadn’t she dreamed of moments like this when she was alone at night? Hadn’t she pined after what they’d had together so briefly after Bill’s divorce? The way he’d touched her… The way he’d worshipped her.
“Gods, Bill. Yes. I want this. I want yo–”
Before she’d even finished speaking, he was on her. Kissing and biting her lips like a man starved. Like a wolf who’d finally caught his prey.
“Thank fuck, don’t know what I’d have done if you said no, been going mad,” he murmured against her skin, his words frantic and his mouth more so as it moved to kiss down her neck, his hands slipping under the straps of her dress.
She moaned against him, her fingers tangling in his long hair and pulling him closer.
He pushed his knee between her thighs, and her hips began to grind down, sparks of pleasure shooting through her, reminding her of the last time they'd done this. She flung a hand back behind her to brace herself.
CRASH.
They froze. She’d knocked a pan from the sideboard into the sink. Loudly.
Neither of them moved, didn’t even breathe as they listened for the small boy upstairs.
“Nan?”
Bill groaned, pushing his face into her neck. “Why are the gods never kind to me?”
Andromeda laughed, swatting him with a tea towel and adjusting her dress.
“Go back to bed, Teddy!” she called, hoping it would be enough.
They waited a beat, listening for signs her grandson had returned to his room.
Bill’s hands slowly slid over Andromeda’s hips, forging a path round to her arse and he pulled her back onto his knee, a devilish grin on his face.
“I think there’s a Boggart in my cupboard!”
Bill retreated, bending down to smack his head on the kitchen counter.
Andromeda had tears in her eyes from holding back her laughter, at the timing of her grandson and the dramatics of the man in front of her. “Go,” she said to Bill.
He looked up at her, his body going rigid with her apparent rejection.
“To the sofa, you foolish man. I’ll go see to his Boggart,” she grinned, kissing his cheek as she passed. “Stay quiet and then maybe I'll come and see to yours.”
Andromeda laughed at the moan he let out and headed upstairs. He was right. He deserved to get what he wanted. And who was she to tell him otherwise?