Harry and Charlie had already been staying at the Leaky Cauldron for about a week now. They didn't do much while they were there, but did go into town and buy last minute things for the start of the next term. Hermione and Ron would be meeting up with them soon, but until then, they passed the days and nights catching each other up on what they had done over the summer.
As expected, Harry was pretty quiet about his summer, but Charlie took his mind off things with stories about Hagrid and his creatures. These stories ended up taking Charlie's mind off things as well, and honestly? It felt nice to feel like a normal kid for once, just spending time with his best friend.
A few days before they were expected to be back at Hogwarts, Charlie awoke with a panicked start. Ever since he came to The Leaky Cauldron, he'd been experiencing the most troubled nights he'd had in ages, which would easily be explained by his encounter with his father. He would toss and turn all night long, and then when he did find himself falling asleep, he would replay his father's aggression in his head and be instantly pulled awake out of fear.
This terror of his father just kept getting worse as Charlie got older, but he didn't know what to do. He couldn't possibly tell anyone about it. His father was the Minister of Magic, surely no one would believe a silly, thirteen year old over such authority. Regardless of that fact, Charlie felt uncomfortable with the situation anyways, so he was okay with people not knowing. It was his own problem to deal with for now. If anybody knew, there would be this infinite risk of people looking at him like he was broken or scared or vulnerable, and Charlie didn't want any of the extra negative attention.
He groggily pulled himself out of his bed and looked at the clock; it was 8:15 in the morning. Charlie was sure that Harry wouldn't be awake quite yet, so he planned on going down to breakfast by himself. He pulled out a light grey, long sleeve out of his trunk, and paired it with a pair of light blue jeans and white shoes.
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As he looked at himself in the mirror, Charlie rolled up his sleeve slightly, styling his shirt like he normally does. However, as he did so, he noticed the harsh purple and blue bruising from his father's grip on his right wrist. Shaking off the instant memory, he rolled his sleeve back down before giving himself a reassuring smile in the mirror.
It's okay, everything's okay.
Just keep telling yourself that.
It's okay.
Everything's okay.
Charlie turned on his heel and left the room. As he walked down one of the resident halls of The Leaky Cauldron, he stopped for a moment outside of Harry's door. The brown eyed boy didn't even have move closer to hear the faint snores of his best friend within the room. Laughing slightly, Charlie continued down the hall towards the stairs.
