Yours truly ; Charlie Weasley

Twenty-six

"Would either of you start of by telling me why you've decided to seek couple counselling?" Doctor Vixen asked as she sat in her chair, one leg over the other and her hands folded in her lap.

"Go on Ember." Charlie said in an annoyed tone. He leaned back against the sofa and rested his arms up on the back of it. "Tell her why we're here."

I rolled my eyes at the tone I could hear from him and then offered a small smile to doctor Vixen.

"Well, Charlie and I started dating the year I was turning eighteen and the year he would be turning nineteen, and we've been together ever since. Though in last December, two days before his birthday, he left me. It was all very out of the bl—"

"It was not out of the blue." Charlie interrupted me. He had been in this mood all day because he doesn't want counselling. "It's not my fault you didn't see the signs."

I scoffed and looked at him.

"Like you saw the signs of my pregnancy?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. "Because it was pretty much fucking obvious that I was knocked up."

I turned back towards doctor Vixen and forced a small smile.

"It really happened because of the war and what happened." I explained. "Charlie's younger brother died, I hit my head and after the war, at St. Mangos, that caused me to have a seizure. I was in a coma for about a month. Though when I woke up and I was allowed to go home, I was the one taking care of him. He was depressed, lying in bed. He only got up to get something to eat or drink and he didn't get dressed. I didn't know that would end up with him packing his stuff when I got home from work."

Doctor Vixen looked at the two of us for a moment before she straightened up.

"Charlie, you don't seem to agree with how Ember sees the issues in your relationship.

I looked at my boyfriend as he shrugged with a bored look on his face.

"I mean— yes, I do, I guess. I know that I hurt her when I left, but I've explained the situation and I am trying to completely gain back her trust, but I don't know how to do that."

Doctor Vixen nodded slowly before she grabbed the notepad in the air, then ripped off a blank sheet of paper. She curled it up in her hand, then handed it to Charlie.

"You see that?" She asked. "Try and get it back to how it was before. Without the use of magic."

Charlie looked at her like she was dumb, then glanced at me and shrugged.

"You can't do that."

"Exactly." She nodded. "Look at that piece of paper as your trust with Ember. I'm not here to attack anyone, I'm simply here to help but you need to understand how trust works. Once you've broken that, it is very hard to recover and with most people, it's impossible to restore."

Charlie let out a sigh and leaned back on the sofa again. I felt his eyes on me for a minute before he looked away.

"Regaining trust takes time. You need to be patient, reliable, honest and open." Doctor Vixen said. "So Charlie, why don't you tell Ember how you feel about your situation?"

Charlie said the same things I had already heard from him. We spend about an hour talking to Doctor Vixen about our relationship and we made a new appointment for next week, before we headed home.

"I'm gonna visit my family tomorrow." I informed him when I had take off my shoes and my jacket. Charlie looked at me for a moment and simply hummed in response. "I'm gonna tell them you're back."

"Oh?"

"Yeah." I breathed. "I hate keeping secrets from them."

I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a glass, filling it with water. Then I turned around and looked at Charlie as I leaned back against the sofa.

"You know I do love you, right?" I asked and took a sip of my water. "That's why I'm making us go through counselling — because I want us to work. I want us to be able to communicate."

Charlie let out a sigh as he folded up the sleeves of his shirt while approaching me.

"I know." He nodded. "I'm sorry if I've seemed dismissive of it. I just wish I could go back in time and decide to stay instead of leaving."

He placed his hands on either side of me on the counter, and pressed a kiss to my forehead, before he rested his against mine.

"But Angel, the communication has to go both ways." He told me. "Remember what Doctor Vixen said. Honesty. I need to know where you hide your alcohol because if you keep drinking like that, you'll end up an alcoholic and in the end, that'll kill you."

I looked up at his eyes but I didn't say anything. I knew he was doing it out of love, but drinking had been the only thing I knew how to control after he left, and then it sort of slipped out of my control. Now I just crave it to numb my feelings whenever I'm depressed.

"I know it's my fault you started." He said softly and brought a hand up to my face. He brushed his knuckles over my cheekbone before running a finger down my jawline. "So let me help you before it gets out of hand."

I took another sip of my water before I put the glass on the counter. Charlie removed his hands and I walked over to where I hid the alcohol beneath the floor. I could feel his eyes on me as I loosened the board in the floor. I threw the loose board on the floor, then sat down and leaned against the fridge as I looked up at Charlie.

His eyes were focused on the bottles that I had hidden underneath the kitchen floor. I watched him approach slowly. He crouched down and picked up one bottle before looking at it.

"I'm gonna get rid of these." He said. "Plus the whisky in the cupboard. This is now an alcoholic free household."

I didn't protest. I knew he did it because he cared. He did care, right? I mean, he must if he goes out of his way to throw all the alcohol out, even his own whisky.

Charlie pulled out bottle after bottle and put them in a bag before the whisky in the cupboard went the same way.

"I'll leave for about fifteen minutes, yeah?" He asked and offered me a soft smile. "I'll see if the leaky cauldron would want these."

I simply nodded and watched as he got his shoes and a jacket back on before leaving the flat.

I sighed loudly as I reached for the board and put it back in the floor. Then I leaned back and stared at the ceiling.

What am I now supposed to use after a nightmare?