Fantastic Beasts {Charlie Weasley}

Chapter Eight

Charlie felt incredibly left out as he leaned his head on his best friends shoulder. Tanin was chatting away with Tonks during the lunch period the three shared, and wasn't paying the redhead any heed. So, in an effort to gain her attention, he sighed. When this didn't work, Charlie sighed once more, much more dramatically than before.

"Merlin's sweaty testicles, Char, what's wrong with you?" Tanin asked, glaring at her friend, as he interrupted the funniest part of the story she was telling Tonks. "Are you tired, or something?"

"No, I'm bored," Charlie said, exaggerating the final word. The two friends bickered as Tonks watched on, and small smile on her lips.

"They're like a married couple," She thought as the Gryffindor's argued.

"Why are you bored? There's an incredibly enthralling conversation going on."

"Yeah." Charlie rolled his eyes, pouting. "Between you two," he said, an angry look on his face as he motioned at Tanin and Tonks angrily.

"Oi!" Tonks shouted, though she was obviously not offended. She pointed a finger at the redheads face. "That was very rude, Mister Weasley."

"Indeed it was." Tanin grinned, glad to have Tonks siding with her.

Charlie tried, and failed, to suppress a smile. "I still can't believe I have to deal with two of you know. I mean you're practically identical."

"We're not identical," Tanin said, smiling.

"Yeah, we're completely different," Tonks said, picking up on what Tanin was implying.

Simultaneously, the girls morphed into slightly short, slightly stocky redheads with a faces full of freckles. Sitting at the nearly empty Hufflepuff table were three Charlie Weasley's.

"Looking good!" Fred and George shouted in unison, thumbs up in the air, as they watched the older students from the Gryffindor table.

Charlie sighed. "I hate my life."

    
    
  
 
Tanin stared at the slightly foggy crystal ball, trying to conjure up images, or, more accurately, trying to come up with some believable lie to tell Trelawney about something she saw. Not feeling in a very creative mood, Tanin gave up and rested her chin on her hand, preparing to tell her divination professor that she hadn't been able to see anything in the orb. As Trelawny walked towards the metamorphagus (actually, the metamorphigi, as Hufflepuff and Gryffindor had divination together this term, and Tanin and Tonks decided to sit beside one another), a small movement in the ball caught Tanin's eye.

Suddenly, a shape appeared. A cylindrical shape surrounded in warping fog and heavy rain. It became progressively more detailed, with a brick design on materializing on the shape, and Tanin was eventually able to make out people standing atop it. She realized that this was Hogwarts' astronomy tower, the very one she had seen Dumbledore fall from less than ten hours before, in her dream. The image in the crystal ball zoomed in, showing her the image from behind two wizards facing Dumbledore himself.

Tanin gasped, and sat up straight at the table. A few heads turned towards her as she stared intently at the ball. Trelawney raced toward her. "Tell me what you see, child," she said, but Tanin didn't register the words. She was too engrossed in the vision. Several more students stared at her, eyebrows furrowed as they assumed Tanin was faking for attention. It seemed like a very Tanin-y thing to do.

However, this was not one of Tanin's jokes or attempts to gain attention. She continued to stare as Dumbledore's mouth moved, and he reached out to one of the men, who's back was faced towards her. This man had short, white-blond hair, and broad shoulders. But, from the way his shirt hung loosely on his young frame, a frame that looked to be no older than she, he must have been in poor health; physical or otherwise. The boy shook his head vigorously, his hands quivering as he pointed a wand at the headmaster. Tanin, for whatever reason, as she did not know this boy in the slightest, felt her heart ache for him. Something inside of her wanted to pull the young man into a hug and tell him that everything would be alright, that he could put his wand down.

But she couldn't.

Dumbledore was disarmed.

The image disappeared.

Tanin was confused.

Trelawney grasped Tanin's shoulders, pulling her to face the woman. "What did you see? Tell me, child! Tell me!" Trelawney shrieked, a mad look gracing her magnified eyes.

Tanin's eyes shifted from her teacher to the crystal ball, and back. "Mam's making shepherds pie for Boxing Day."

The professor narrowed her eyes. "Shepards pie?"

Tanin nodded her head, numbly.

Trelawney let go of the student, and straightened her back. She smiled. "New beginnings, Miss Scammander. You will experience new beginnings, that's what that means." The professor walked back to her desk at the front of the class.

Tonks snorted. "New beginnings, my arse. And I thought I was mad, that lady makes us look normal. Us!"

Tanin forced a laugh, but Tonks wasn't paying enough attention to notice. "Yeah."

"I mean," Tonks continued, as the bell rang for passing, "even if you did see that, what's shepherds pie got to do with new beginnings?"

The girl shrugged. "Maybe because I said we had it on Boxing Day. Or maybe 'cuz my mam likes making it from leftovers."

Tonks furrowed her eyebrows. "Do you even celebrate Boxing Day in Ireland?"

Tanin nodded. "Yeah, but we call it Saint Stephens day. Mam's grandmother was a muggle, and we've celebrated it since then."

Tonks hummed. "You learn something new every day."

The girls has finished collecting all of their belongings and were heading out of the divination classroom. They had only took a few steps when they were bombarded by Charlie, whose face was red and was breathing heavily.

"Charlie?" Tanin asked, "Did you run all the way here?"

Charlie rested his hands on his knees, bending forward in an effort to catch his breath. "No," he shook his head, still gasping for breath. "Of course not."

Tanin raised an eyebrow. "Really?" She shook her head. "Charlie, what on earth are you doing?"

The redhead straightened his back, his breath finally returning to semi-normalcy. His eyes shifted from Tanin to Tonks and back again. "Just wanted to walk with my best friend to our  next class. Defense with Slytherins, remember?"

Two confused looks were shot in his direction. Tanin and Tonks glanced at one another, before looking back at Charlie.

"Okay..." Tanin said, stepping closer to Charlie. She turned to look at Tonks. "See you at dinner,  right?"

Tonks' eyes shifted between the two Gryffindors, before a small grin creeped on her face. "'Course, Tan. See you later."

As the two walled away, the smile on Tonks' face grew. "They are so getting it on," she said, shaking her head.

"I hope my bridesmaid dress is going to be pink," she whispered to herself, walking away from her classroom. A small Ravenclaw boy starred at her, worried for the girls sanity.

"Really brings out my eyes."