Twisted (Charlie Weasley)

Chapter Forty

I found myself in shock that night as I crawled into bed. At some point throughout the evening, Artie crawled into bed with me and snuggled into my side. His small body provided me with warmth as I was too shaken to even cry for the man who had saved me from my parents all those years ago. 

Sleep did not come easy that night, and instead, I found myself staring up at the ceiling. There were a few cracks in the drywall that seemed to form different shapes, and it was like looking to the sky and finding shapes in the clouds. Starring at the ceiling provided a sense of calm, that and the even breaths of Artie as he continued to sleep through the night. 

Outside I could hear owls hoot and crickets chirp. A sign that life continued to go on despite the fact that Alastor Moody was now dead. Somewhere out there Dora was bawling to herself, mourning the death of her mentor, the one who taught her everything that she knew about being a mentor. A man no one could imagine being dead because, despite the multiple wounds over the year, it seemed nothing could truly take the man down. Somehow we had imagined him above death, the same way we had viewed Dumbledore. A man who we lost only a month ago.

"Mummy?" Artie said softly as he stirred from his sleep. I pulled him closer to my body and placed a big kiss on his forehead. "You sad?"

I gave my son a nod, "Yes Artie, mummy is sad."

"Why mummy sad?" He asked softly, and as he did so I brushed his hair back out of his face. He was in need of a hair cut now, his hair growing too long in a very similar fashion to his fathers. Molly had fretted a little about the length, but I had sent her a look signalling that it was not up to her to decide what was done with my son. Something I rarely had to do nowadays and something I knew would happen less and less as the woman gained more grandchildren. Artie was just her first, her learning curve for being a grandma.

My fingers continued to move through my son's hair as he looked up at me, "Mummy's friend had to go away, and mummy is going to miss him." I told him softly, "But mummy can't visit him, not yet at least. He went somewhere that everyone goes one day, but once you are there you can't leave." 

Artie didn't say anything more as we laid in the bed together. Eventually, he lulled himself back to sleep, though sleep did not come to me that night and I ended up watching the pink haze of the sunrise slowly take over the sky. Birds began to chirp outside the window of the bedroom Artie and I stayed in, and carefully I pulled myself out of the bed and grabbed a pepper up potion off of my dresser. I knew it was likely the only way I would be able to survive my day as I couldn't see myself sleeping anytime soon.

Quitely I slipped out of the bedroom and closed the door behind me and made my way down the steps to the living room where George still laid on the couch. Bill sat next to George on another chair in the room and Fred looked as though he slept on the ground beside the couch in the way only a twin would have. Most of the guests that had been there the night before had returned to their respective house and it was for the most part just family in the Burrow now. 

"Morning George, Bill," I said softly as I took a seat with them in the living room. The majority of the family still remained asleep from the hectic night we had before, "Did you find..."

Bill shook his head, there was no need for me to finish my sentence for him to know that I meant Mad-Eye's body. A search that seemed to have turned up with nothing. I felt a stabbing pain in my gut at the fear of what people like Bellatrix and Rodolphus would do with his body... how much resent would they hold for the man who had arrested them and placed them in Azkaban?

My gaze quickly turned to George who was slowly sitting up, "How are you feeling today George?" I asked softly, "Do you need to take anything? I have a couple of potions with me if you want me to grab something for you..."