Snakes and Ladders (Fem!HPxLM) (DISCONTINUED)

Thalassophile

Charlie could pinpoint the exact moment the twins noticed him as their expressions changed, it would be unnoticeable to anyone else, but because he spent quite a while of his life living with them, he saw the moment their eyes widened, and they went slightly slack-jawed.

Slowly edging through the small crowd of the early evening rush, Charlie reached the bottom of the spiralling staircase and made his way up. He looked at them for a long moment, committing their new faces to memory before pointing to one. It was a strange feeling looking at them face to face. The same faces he grew up with and yet... not.

"Fred?" he asked, his question aimed at the twin with the shorter hair, and he swore he saw sparks at the brightness of the resulting smile he got at getting the right twin's name. 

"How did you know?" George asked, surprised because even when growing up, Charlie had struggled to match the correct name to the correct twin, and now here he was after three years of being away, getting their names right first try.

Charlie shrugged his shoulders, an awkward hand rubbing the back of his neck. 

"I dunno." He replied, "just a gut feeling."

They stood for a short moment, an awkward silence between them as customers moved around them.

"Why are you here, Charlie?" George's voice wasn't cold by any means but slightly detached like he was talking to someone he wasn't close to, and Charlie supposed he was in a way. 

"I, uh, I wanted to figure out what had happened. I saw your names blacken on the family tree, and I worried, you see," Charlie said, slightly taken aback by George's almost aloof tone. 

The twins looked at each other the same way they usually did when having a silent conversation. They had done it so often as kids that he and Bill swore up and down that they could talk to each other using only their thoughts.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by Fred speaking; his voice defeated as if he had lost an argument even though no words were exchanged.  

"Follow us," he said, turning and walking to a far corner where a door stood, hidden behind a heavily warded curtain. They stepped through, Charlie expecting to walk into a stock room but instead found himself in a spacious office, the walls painted a charcoal grey with shelves built into the wall itself. The most surprising thing about the room was the man sitting behind the desk because why in Merlin's good name were they standing in Lucius Malfoy's office of all places? 

By now, Charlie's confusion was more audible in his surprised gasp and mild stuttering and mumbling. It caught Lucius' attention, drawing his eyes away from the legal documents he was reading and to the trio that had just entered his office. 

His eyes widened marginally, and he made eye contact with the twins. He cringed slightly in sympathy for the twins and what would be a very long and awkward conversation for them before he quietly stood from his seat and backed out of the room.

Charlie was pulled from his rambling inner monologue at the sound of the door clicking shut. Then all his questions overwhelmed him and spilt out like water in a bucket. Only the bucket had a very large hole in it in the shape of Charlie Weasley's mouth.

"Guys, what the shit is going on? Why in Morgana's name are we in Malfoy manor, of all places? They hate us. You do know they hate us, right? Or did you both get a bump to the head and forget that somehow? And why do you look nothing like what you should be? Is this a breakdown? Are you both having matching mental breakdowns?" The questions were rambled off in quick succession, and George nudged Fred with his elbow. Fred nodded before pulling out his wand and firing a quick lip-locking jinx at the dragonologist. 

Now unable to talk, Charlie had a very affronted expression painted on his face as he slowly raised his middle fingers towards the twins. It was something Hazel had taught the twins, and they, in turn, taught him. They both laughed and fired middle fingers back at him before they sobered.

"Sorry, Cheesecake", Fred said, using an old nickname the twins had for him when they were toddlers.

"But we need the time to explain everything without the chance of being interrupted. We'll remove the jinx if you promise to stay quiet until after we've finished," George finished. 

Charlie considered for a moment before nodding solemnly. He had a bad feeling that he would not like what the twins were about to tell him.