Character

Billy Hargrove

Chaotic Good

Written by grummelwau

Making Bad Decisions — with Steve Harrington

Canon DivergentHumanMale

Hawkins, Indiana, USA
Young Adult
Bisexual
Single Ship

Fandoms

Stranger Things

28 stories
37 posts
19 followers

Bio

RECOVERED VHS ARCHIVE // PROPERTY OF HAWKINS VIDEO CLUB // BEST VIEWED ON PC

HAWKINS HIGH COMMUNITY BOARD // LOCALLY FAMOUS // SURVIVORS FILE OPENED

Billy Hargrove

NEVER STOPPED HAUNTING HAWKINS

A THREAT?

A MONSTER?

A HUMAN...

STRONG ADVOCATE FOR
BAD DECISIONS

BAD AT FEELINGS
EXCELLENT AT CONSEQUENCES

LOCALLY FAMOUS FOR
BEING DIFFICULT

LOOKS EXPENSIVE
FUNCTIONS POORLY

William "Billy" K. Hargrove

HAWKINS, INDIANA

19 years old. Mind Flayer Survivor. Former Keg King. Bad desicions in denim. Cautionary tale with good hair. Built different — mostly scar tissue. Runs on Tylenol, spite, and unresolved issues.

Looks like trouble. Is trouble.

👻 Headcanons/trivia
🛟 Registered lifeguard
🚬 Smokes too much
🚗 Drives too fast
💥 Swears too much
🏀 ~~Basketball and swimming champ~~
(in recovery)

HAWKINS GOSSIP BOARD

“Billy Hargrove got kicked out of three schools in California for fighting teachers.”

Couldn't be further from the truth. I fought other students. Not teachers. HUGE difference.

“Hargrove moved in with Steve Harrington! These two are attached at the hip now.”

Gross, but kind of true. ~~So back off.~~

“The Hargroves are cursed. First the son was in a coma, then the parents divorced, now the son woke up but the sister took his place.”

I'm not even surprised if it's true at this point.

PHOTO WALL

THREAD TRACKER

📌 F l a s h b a c k s

• Paper Cuts Deep

📌 Stranger Things 3.5 — AU

•  Dreadfully Alive
•  William
•  She's Not My Sister

📌 Stranger Things 4.5 — MSL
🔖 Fabulous Killjoy

•  Heaven Can Wait
•  Kids These Days
•  Screenwriters
•  Surprise Me
•  Should I Stay or Should I Go
•  Almost a Rescue
•  You're Saving Me Too
•  The Scapegoat
•  I Chose You

How To Make Plans:
•  Step 1: Share the Salt
•  Step 2: Swallow the Hook
•  Step 3: Tell the Truth
•  Step 4: Close the Distance
• Step 5: Quit the Chit-Chat!

MOST USED QUOTE

RECOVERED PERSONAL FILE

Billy Hargrove was born on March 29, 1967, in San Diego, to Neil and Mary Hargrove. His early childhood was marked by volatility and fear. When his mother finally fled the marriage to escape Neil’s escalating physical and emotional abuse, Billy was left behind — abandoned to the very storm she could no longer endure.

Raised in an environment shaped by violence and control, Billy learned to survive the only way he knew how: by becoming untouchable. He crafted a persona built on intimidation, arrogance, and volatility — the perfect defense mechanism. If he was feared, he couldn’t be hurt. If he hurt first, he wouldn’t have to feel.

Years later, Neil remarried. Susan Mayfield entered Billy’s life, along with her daughter, Maxine. In 1984, Neil uprooted the family entirely, purchasing a house in Hawkins, Indiana, determined to start over somewhere far removed from the past — and, perhaps more pointedly, far from anything that might threaten the control he held over them.

Drowning in more anger than ever before, Billy lashed out at the world through reckless bravado. Picking fights, drinking too much, partying too hard — all distractions from the suffocating reality of life under his father’s thumb and the resentment he carried toward his new family. He chased adrenaline the way others chased comfort: speeding down empty roads with no regard for consequences, flirting carelessly, testing limits simply to prove he could.

But anger, left to fester, becomes something else. The darkness Billy cultivated as armor eventually drew the attention of something far more sinister — the forces of the Upside Down...

Possessed by the Mind Flayer and forced into becoming its instrument, Billy descended into a nightmare that stripped away every illusion of control he had ever clung to. Yet buried beneath the rage and ruin, a fragment of the boy he once was remained.

Against all odds — and with the unexpected help of those he once pushed away — Billy broke free. He survived the Mind Flayer’s grip and emerged with something he had never truly been given before:

A second chance.

PINNED RELATIONSHIPS FILE // CONFIDENTIAL

Steve
Harrington

RELATIONSHIP STATUS:
complicated but obvious to everyone, including themselves

LAST SEEN:
driving around Hawkins at 2AM

KNOWN HABITS:
fighting → teasing → flirting → pretending neither happened

RUMOR:
Steve got his nose punched by soldiers for Billy.