Here Right Now | Charlie Weasley

Chapter 31 : The Leak

CHARLIE stared at the letter in his hands, frowning as his eyes traced over the letter for the fifth time. He shook his head, and suddenly the dim from the Great Hall permeated his senses.

"You alright?" Freya asked, her voice low. 

She was sitting next to him while they were eating breakfast.

"Yeah. Sorry." He apologized, his eyes flicking to her.

"No need, that letter looks serious." She smiled, her eyes full of curiosity.

"Yeah. Repeat what you were telling me please, I kind of missed half of it." He pulled his mouth apologetically and she rolled her eyes.

"Well once I graduate, I will go on what muggle's call a "gap" year. Then I will start my healer training at St Mungo's." Freya said proudly, the excitement evident in her voice.

"Where you going on your gap year?" Charlie asked. 

He stuffed the letter into his robe to read later. He grabbed the other letter he received but didn't open yet. He slipped that into his robe too, promising himself to read it later that day.

"I got hooked on Africa. I think so far I'm going to South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Zambia."

There was a sly tone to her voice, but Charlie was too immersed in his thoughts to notice. Freya looked at Charlie, waiting for him to connect the dots. She's been itching to tell someone but it just didn't seem to register with him. The red head sighed deeply and looked at her apologetically.

"Merlin, Freya, I'm sorry. We can talk later, yeah? I need to sort this out, otherwise I won't be able to concentrate." He stood up and left a forlorn Freya.

"Sure, yeah. See you later." She muttered and went back to eating, feeling her loneliness.

She was in the middle of their big group of friends, but without the red head there, she was being ignored. Not on purpose of course, but by her own lack of involvement recently. She had a lot of friends in Hogwarts but they were all Kane's friends too. The breakup was sudden but the decline of her friendships were on a steady downward slope.

All she wanted was Jackson and he was on another continent.

Meanwhile, Charlie found himself in a conundrum. The letter from his father was vague but damning. He needed to find Charlotte to tell her, before classes started. He wanted to walk over to the Slytherin table, but he could see Charlotte chatting away with her friends and the Quidditch team. He didn't want to interrupt her and some part of him knew the table will sneer at him for even coming near them. He made up his mind, opting to tell her later in class. He went outside and caught a small, blonde first year with her hands full of parchment and books.

"Hi, can I borrow a piece of parchment?" He tried to sound charming, a smooth smile on his face. 

Her blue eyes went wide and she nodded in agreement.

"Thanks love." He continued to smile. 

She stood there staring at him in wonderment, students filing past the two.

"Can I have it now, maybe?" He gently asked and she went completely red. 

She nodded again, and with great difficulty extracted a piece for him. He winked at her.

"Thanks darling. Have a good day." He walked away, leaving a stunned girl who was developing her first unrequited crush.

He scribbled down a note for Charlotte, charmed it to her and walked towards his first class of the day. He hoped she would read it soon, the news he had couldn't wait another day. Or even the first few hours of school. Hogwarts might be a magical place that kept its old world charm but the world outside of it was constantly moving and evolving. This news was bigger than either of them imagined.