"Hey Bill, what do you think it's like in space?" Charlie looked across the room at Bill expectantly. Bill was his older brother, and in Charlie's eyes, Bill had the answers to everything.
Ten year old Bill frowned. He was a big boy, only one year away from going to Hogwarts, and he thought he knew quite a lot, but he didn't know that. "I'm not sure Charlie… Why do you want to know that?"
"Because I was thinking about what dad was saying to us the other night at the dinner table, about how there are Muggles who have gone into space in big space ships. They were called atto – arro - "
"Astronauts?" Bill supplied.
"Yeah, them. Astronauts. Maybe I could be one of them when I grow up! Do you think they have dragons in space?" Charlie's eyes lit up with excitement as he spoke, and he clutched Fire, his toy dragon, tightly in his hands, dreaming of adventure and far-away places.
"I don't think there'd be dragons in space, Char. They wouldn't have anything to eat, or anywhere to live," Bill pointed out.
"Oh yeah," Charlie said. His face fell momentarily before he thought of something that made him smile. "It's okay, I could just bring Fire with me, and then he could be the first dragon in space ever!"
"That's a great idea! Then you could be extra famous. You'd be a wizard and an astronaut, and the first person to bring a dragon into space!"
"Wow," Charlie breathed, staring at the stars that decorated his ceiling.
There was a knock at the door, and their father poked his head into the room. "It's getting late boys, time for me to turn out the light. Good night."
"Good night, dad," they chorused.
While Bill fell asleep quickly, Charlie stayed awake imagining his future as a famous dragon-whispering astronaut. He'd be rich and famous and there'd never be a single dull day in his life. He'd float among the stars, in a special suit just like his dad described, and he wouldn't be tied down to anyone or anything, he'd simply do as he pleased. It sounded perfect. That night, Charlie's dreams were full of dragons and space men and stars and even though he couldn't remember them in the morning, he woke up with a smile on his face and a goal in his mind.
A few years later, a more grown up Charlie considered the issue again. "Remember when I told you I was going to be an astronaut who works with dragons when I grow up?"
"Yeah," Bill nodded, smiling at the memory.
"Well, I might not become an astronaut. Dad said that it's really hard, and I'd have to pretend to be a Muggle, or else I'd be breaking the Statue of Secrecy or something. I don't know what that is, but it sounds important. I don't want to break it. I'd get in big trouble, and I wouldn't know how to put it back together again!"
Supressing his laughter, Bill smiled at Charlie to indicate that he should continue. He didn't have the heart to tell his younger brother that the Statute of Secrecy, if broken, could not be so easily repaired.
"So maybe I won't be an astronaut. I'll go someplace else, like Romania, and work with dragons. I read a book from the library, and it said that there are dragon enclosures in Romania. Imagine that, actual dragons up close!"
Although he didn't share one tiny bit of his brother's enthusiasm, Bill let Charlie explain all about what he'd read in that particular book, and others, and just like he had about the astronaut idea, he encouraged Charlie and made him feel like everything he hoped for might actually come true.
When Charlie announced his intentions to move to Romania and study dragons, his mother was upset and opposed to the idea. It wasn't that she didn't support Charlie's decision or want him to be happy, it was just that she had never been so far away from any of her children before, and she worried about how he would cope all by himself. His dad, unsurprisingly, shared her opinion.
It was Bill who talked them into letting him go, by arguing that this was what Charlie had wanted to do since he was little; for a long time, he had talked of scarcely anything else. Charlie had to promise to owl them at least once every week, initially every day, and to come home whenever he could. They were small, inconsequential details to Charlie. With Bill's help, his wish to work with dragons in Romania had come true, and he could barely believe it.
He kept in regular contact with most of his family, especially Bill. Charlie was the first one to find out that Bill was dating Fleur, and the first to know that Bill was planning to propose. He returned to England for the wedding, excited and admittedly a little surprised. Bill had never seemed like the type to settle down. Similar to Charlie, he had lived a comfortable life as a bachelor. Still, after seeing the two of them together, and the way Fleur didn't even bat an eyelid at his scars, Charlie knew his brother had made the right choice.
Charlie himself had been taken aback by the sight of his brother's marred face. He had been warned, of course, Mum had owled him straight away, and Bill had mentioned it in his latest letters, but nothing could have prepared him for how different Bill looked.
Charlie was sure that his horror must have been plain to see, yet Bill gave no indication he had seen anything out of the ordinary, greeting Charlie warmly as he always had.
Once they'd each downed a few Butterbeers in the kitchen of their childhood home, Bill pushed his glass aside. "You'll be my best man, right?"
"Really?"
"Course," Bill said easily. "There's no one else I'd even consider."
"Blimey Bill, I'd love to!"
Charlie never did make it into space, nor was he famous as anything other than one of the Weasleys who participated in the Battle of Hogwarts. But through all the things he achieved and all the things he didn't, Bill was a constant, the brother he couldn't live without.
Written for:
The Connect the Weasleys Challenge - Bill and Charlie
The HP Potions Competition - Dragon Tonic