Matryoshka Vignettes
Sing A Song of Sixpence, A Pocket Full of Weasleys (4/4)
By Jeconais
Author Notes:
Charlie - Fri, 10th April 1998 3:35pm
"Yo! Charlie, get your scrawny arse over here."
"Just a minute!" Charlie yelled, deciding that the only way to deal with a cantankerous dragon was the direct way. He swayed back and then launched a punch at the dragon’s nose.
The dragon reared back in shock and sat down heavily.
"Bad dragon," Charlie scolded firmly, crossing his arms and staring up at the male.
The dragon looked faintly embarrassed, while Charlie reached up and rubbed the side of its head affectionately. "Now, are you going to be good?"
The dragon nodded once, and then turned, plodding off back toward the food area.
Charlie smiled and turned, jogging the length of the field in double-time to his boss.
"What’s up, boss?"
"Got a new mission for you, shrimp."
"And if I don’t want a new mission?"
"Tough, I said you’d do it already. You need a holiday. This will do it."
"I don’t," Charlie protested.
"No, you’re naturally this ornery, aren’t you?"
Charlie smirked. "We all have our talents."
"Like I said, it’s tough. You’re going off to Bora Bora."
"First, where? Second, why?"
"Bora Bora, an island in French Polynesia. As for why, the owners want some charms done."
"So why me?"
"Because anyone can do it, but if you want something done right, you need a Weasley? Isn’t that your catchphrase?"
Charlie blushed.
His boss looked amused. "Seriously, it’s because you’re the best we’ve got at hiding dragons, and that’s the sort of scale we’re looking at. They want the entire island covered with the same charms we use here — the "this land is empty, but don’t ever walk across it" that you specialise in."
"Right," Charlie sighed irritably. "Protecting some rich git’s assets? Who is the client?"
"Buggered if I know. Orders came from so far up the chain I get a nosebleed thinking about them. All I know is that they have the sort of clout that makes the likes of you and me appear very unimportant."
"Bugger," Charlie groaned. "And I can’t get out of it?"
His boss pulled out a piece of paper and slid it across the table.
Charlie picked it up and looked at it closely. He blinked and read it again. "Is that a telephone number?"
"No, it’s what they agreed to pay for a good job."
Charlie gulped. "Maybe I was a little hasty," he acknowledged.
"That’s what I thought, pipsqueak," his boss agreed. "You’re a lucky bastard, Charlie, take the job, have a holiday in paradise, and don’t screw up."
"Right. How do I get there?"
His boss tossed him a Portkey. "Get a shower, shave, put on some clean clothes. Portkey activates in an hour."
"Thanks, boss."
"Get the hell outta here, shorty."
Charlie grinned, tossed off a sloppy salute, and walked out of the tent, whistling to himself. He walked into his own tent, and had a quick — but cold — shower, thinking that the idea of hot water wasn’t such a bad one.
After a shower, he examined his clothes, and on the idea that the clients might have a cute daughter, he pulled on his best leather trousers, dragon hide boots, and a sleeveless top.
He glanced at himself in the mirror and grinned. He looked like a young dragon tamer — just a little wild and perfect for any attractive unattached girls he might, or might not, come into contact with.
With a cocky grin at himself, he waited until the Portkey activated and felt himself tugged through the space.
As he arrived, he realised that he might have made a tactical error.
First, it was hot. Really hot, in fact it was far too hot to be wearing leather trousers.
Second, he was on sand, and there was no way he was going to be able to look cool while walking on the sand in these boots.
A pop attracted his attention, and he turned, to see a well-dressed house-elf look at him solemnly, and then indicate a path.
A little bow-legged, Charlie walked up the beach, relieved that the path was a more normal surface, and that he could walk normally.
As he looked around, he couldn’t help but be impressed, and he absently pulled out his wand to have a look at the charms concealing the place. Although done by amateurs, they weren’t bad at all. He could see a few places he could make improvements.
A faint cough caught his attention, and he looked around to find the elf waiting for him patiently. Fighting the urge to blush, he followed the elf the rest of the way up the path, and into a living room that could have housed two of his biggest dragons and still had room for a party.
The elf indicated a sofa that could double as a bed for a thin dragon and Charlie wandered over and dropped heavily into it, his legs stretched out in front of him. It made him realise that he really needed a cool hat to complete his look.
"Please make your self at home," a cool, but familiar, voice said dryly.
He looked up and smiled slightly. "Daphne Greengrass."
"Indeed," she agreed, moving over to sit opposite him.
She was wearing an outfit that made him wonder exactly how long someone was supposed to wait before asking a person who’d lost their love out on a date.
"It’s good to see you again," he said.
"Thank you," Daphne replied, sitting elegantly on the couch opposite him.
He looked at her closely, trying to detect any lingering sadness. It was a technique he used on dragons and with varying success on females of his own species. As far as he could tell, she wasn’t grieving, so she must be somewhat over what happened. It had been a while now, and this sort of island would certainly help.
"So," he asked, offering her his most charming 'I’m a naughty boy’ smile, "what can I do for you?"
"Wards, Mr Weasley," Daphne said coldly, reminding him that at one stage she had been the Ice Queen, before Harry.
Never one to step back from a challenge, Charlie leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees, a pose that just happened to emphasise his muscles, and the cool scars he’d got from working with a dragon. "First, please call me Charlie, and second, what sort of wards?"
"There is going to be a lot of magical traffic," Daphne said in a clipped tone of voice, "in and around this island over the next few months. There will also be some Muggle friends coming and going. I value my privacy, so we need a permanent charm that will discourage people from coming within a few hundreds yards of shore - without an invitation, of course."
"That I can do," he said smoothly. "Have you thought about the Fidelius Charm? It would be easier."
"We already have that in place," Daphne replied. "However, it is far too inconvenient."
"Right," Charlie nodded, wondering why he hadn’t spotted that earlier. He smoothly stood, turned, and dropped down next to her, pulling out a notebook from his pocket, using it as an excuse to sit nearer her.
She had a light perfume that did funny things to his mind, distracting him. He shook his head, and when he had looked again, she had moved away from him slightly.
Not wanting to press it too far, right away at least, he didn’t move any closer to her.
With a quick spell to familiarise himself, he started to sketch the layout of the island. He was pretty proud of his artistic talents, and practised - both because of the love of drawing, and because chicks dig a rugged man with a sensitive side.
"What I suggest," he said in as smooth a voice as he could. "Is base charms here, here, and here," he added small dots to the map, hoping that it would draw her closer again.
It didn’t.
"And then," he continued. "We use this building as the main focal point."
Daphne nodded.
Deciding to give it one more try for the day, before pausing, he twisted, adopting the most casual pose he could, and grinned at her. "It shouldn’t take long, a day or two. Do you want me to stay over night?"
"Will you please stop hitting on my wife?" an amused voice asked from the doorway.
Charlie turned, the voice sounded familiar, but because of the shadows caused by the slowly setting sun, he couldn’t see who it was.
"I had it under control," Daphne said, sounding irritated.
"I know, love," the voice said, "but I kinda like Charlie and I think he’d appreciate leaving here with his bits fully intact."
"You don’t let me have any fun anymore," Daphne whined playfully. "I wasn’t going to hurt him.... much."
Charlie turned to look at her in surprise, to find himself staring down her wand. He looked at her blank expression and gulped. "Err, would it help if I said that I’m sorry?"
There wasn’t a flicker of either amusement or pity in her eyes, and he started to think that as bad as things were, they couldn’t get any worse.
Unfortunately, they immediately did.
"Do you think we should mention it to Mum?" an unmistakable voice asked.
"I don’t know, brother mine, perhaps we should just take notes — after all, he is an expert," a second unmistakable voice replied.
Fred and George.
"All those stories," a third voice added, "about twelve o’clock Charlie, because he’d always pulled by midnight."
He heard a derogatory sniff from Daphne. "I’ve been chatted up by a lot better without any success," she said coldly.
"Except for me," the original voice said, walking into the light and settling down next to Daphne.
"Bugger," Charlie groaned.
"There’s that charm again, Fred," George said. "Are you taking notes?"
"I am," Fred agreed. "Step one: hit on someone who supposedly lost their love recently."
"That’s the step we’ve been missing," George said in a stunned voice. "We’ve always been hitting on girls who aren’t in mourning."
"Daphne isn’t in mourning," Charlie retorted automatically. "She wasn’t sad, I checked, like I do with the dragons." He paused and blushed, really wishing he hadn’t said that.
"Step two: treat a lady like beast."
"This is fascinating," Daphne added coldly. "Please feel free to continue."
Charlie gulped.
"I think that it’s time for us to display some sibling loyalty," Fred said with a sigh.
"I guess," George agreed. "But can’t we let her curse him first?"
"Nah, the carpet’s too nice."
"But they’re rich."
"True, but think of the hassle."
"I guess."
Charlie watched in shock as Fred and George walked over to Daphne and grabbed her arms, heaving her to her feet.
"I ought to hex you two as well," Daphne muttered.
"But you love us," Fred announced, "come on, we’ll show you the plans we’ve had done."
"They’re ready?" Daphne asked, sounding interested.
"Yep, but we can’t do anything with them with the current regulatory climate."
"We’ll sort that out," Daphne said absently, and walked with the two men out of the room, leaving Charlie alone with his elder brother and a supposedly dead man.
"I’m not going to live this down, am I?" Charlie asked.
"Nope," Bill and Harry said together.
"And if I were you, I’d think yourself lucky, Daphne was telling Fleur some stories of what she used to do to persistent idiots who couldn’t take a hint, back at Hogwarts," Bill added.
Charlie groaned. "Fleur’s here as well?"
"Harry and Daphne arranged for Gringotts to send me here to deal with a problem — sound familiar?"
"Aren’t you supposed to be dead?" Charlie asked Harry.
"What, and disappoint my press?" Harry asked dryly. "Boy-Who-Lived, remember?"
Charlie stood, walked over to a wall, and banged his head into it a few times.
He looked at Harry, "I really did think that you were dead and that as she wasn’t sad, she might be open, and she is a fox."
"I know," Harry agreed, "which is why I’m amused and not showing you just why I was the person to defeat Voldemort."
Charlie gulped; the last bit had been delivered in a cold voice that matched Daphne’s from earlier.
"Word of advice, Chuckles," Bill said. "Treat Daphne like I do and not how Fred and George do. As far as I can tell, she considers them friends, she considers Harry everything — so, because we’re friends of Harry’s, we get politeness and the occasional smile. You don’t want to know what comes after that."
"Right," Charlie said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I’d be more shocked at you being alive, but I’m far too embarrassed at the moment."
"Don’t worry about it," Harry said with a shrug. "You got away with no permanent damage."
"Would she really have cursed me?"
"Sure," Harry said. "Daph believes in direct action to people who stand in her way."
Charlie nodded.
"And Charlie," Bill added serious. "It’s really bad taste to hit on a widow, even if she’s not showing any visible signs of mourning."
"Yeah, I’m getting that," Charlie agreed. "Sorry, Harry."
"Don’t apologise to me," Harry said with a laugh. "I knew you weren’t going to get anything more than a cursing. But a direct and honest apology will help with Daphne."
"Right, gotcha. So, why are you alive?"
"Short version? Daph decided that she’d invested far too much in me emotionally, and that she wasn’t going to let me die. I had a choice of going to heaven alone, or returning back to earth with her. It wasn’t really a decision. I’ll get to heaven eventually, but I wasn’t going to wait a hundred years for Daph to show up — and there was no way I was going to run the risk of some other lucky bastard getting her attentions."
"Bill, Charlie, I hope you’re paying attention," Fleur said as she joined them. "Thanks for letting me have a nap."
"You’re welcome," Harry smiled at her.
"I am, dear," Bill added.
"Good," Fleur said, smiling widely at him, reminding Charlie that Bill was a lucky git as well.
Harry smoothly slid to his feet and sat on the other side of the couch, nearer Charlie so that Fleur could sit with Bill.
"Shall we get to point?" Harry asked. "Or tease Charlie some more?"
"The point, please," Charlie said before Bill could say anything.
"Well," Harry said, crossing his legs at the ankles. "The general plan was to bring you on board slowly, like we did with Bill — you are here to work, we want those charms, but we want more from you as well.
"Unfortunately, your Casanova attempt, while amusing, has put a slight clink in that, as I need to talk to Daph before telling you anything more. So, Bill, Fleur, can you tour guide Charlie for an hour or so, while I go and check out what Fred and George have come up with, and decide what we’re going to do about it?"
"Sure," Bill nodded. "Come on, Chuckles."
Charlie found himself on his feet and out the door before he could agree.
"You screwed up, Charlie," Bill said seriously. "Can’t you keep it in your trousers for just half an hour?"
"I’m sorry," Charlie sighed. "Honest. I’ve been on duty for six weeks; the only females I’ve seen in that time have been dragons — both literally and figuratively. I know I was pushing it a little, but you’ve seen what Daphne looks like."
Bill sighed and looked at Fleur. "I can understand, I guess," he said.
"Oh?" Fleur asked.
"She is good looking," Bill replied meekly. "Not as good looking as you, of course, but I did wonder if she had any Veela blood inside her."
"She doesn’t," Fleur said. "And she is good looking. And I like her attitude."
Bill gulped audibly.
Fleur laughed under her breath. "So, now that we have that out of the way, let us show him the crypt first."
"The crypt?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah, it’s why we’re here," Bill smiled. "We’re actually going to be living here for the next few months."
"It is much nicer than back home," Fleur agreed.
As they approached the well, Fleur cart-wheeled ahead and launched herself into a back flip off the edge.
Charlie blinked.
"I think she’s having a competition with Harry and Daphne to see who can make the best entrance," Bill explained. "There’s magic at the bottom to slow you down, so it’s perfectly safe," he finished, jumping of the edge.
With a shrug, Charlie launched himself in to a double-front somersault with twist.
As he landed, he looked around and followed the brightly lit trail.
"Isn’t that Egyptian?" he asked as he joined Bill and Fleur.
"Yep, and warded to the ceiling and back. And there are probably all sorts of booby traps."
"What’s it doing here?"
"No idea, hopefully we’ll find out when we open it."
"And that’s fun for you?"
"As much fun as chasing an errant dragon," Bill replied.
"Point taken," Charlie said dryly. "Any clue as to what’s going on?"
"Nope, we’re in, you’re not. As much as you’re my brother, until you’re in, we’re not saying a word."
"I thought you might say that," Charlie grunted, not really surprised.
"What I can tell you, is that Percy’s in as well."
"Percy?" Charlie asked, shocked.
"Yeah, don’t know what happened exactly, but he’s going to see Mum and Dad soon."
"Damn."
"Pretty much what I thought," Bill agreed.
"We should show you the rest of the island," Fleur said, turning and walking back toward the building.
He followed her with Bill, and smiled as she elegantly jumped and bounced out the roof.
"Try not to go straight up," Bill advised, as he jumped in the centre.
Charlie laughed to himself and followed Bill up, somersaulting out and landing on his feet perfectly.
"You’re a git," Bill sighed.
Charlie grinned at him cheerfully and followed as his brother and sister-in-law led him around the island — which was bigger than he had expected. "What are we doing about Ron and Ginny?"
"Staying the hell out of it," Bill said firmly.
"Ginny was in love with him," Charlie said pointedly.
"And she blew it," Fleur said firmly. "Daphne is as good for Harry as he is good for her."
"Sorry," Charlie said, raising his hand defensively. "She is still our sister."
Bill turned and leant against a nearby tree, looking out to sea. "She is," he agreed. "And you’re closer to her than I am, but things didn’t work out. Neither of them are blameless, they both made mistakes, but Harry broke up with her, and Ginny moved on from there. As far as I’m concerned Harry acted honourably. You do know why they broke up, don’t you?"
"Yeah," Charlie agreed.
"And?"
"I agreed with him doing it, all right?" Charlie sighed. "I didn’t like Ginny being a target, like Harry said, and thought he did the right thing, at the time."
"So how can you be upset that he moved on?"
"Because she’s my sister, and she’s hurting."
"I know, and Harry does as well. But he also deserves to be happy, and Daphne does that. And when Harry’s worked through his anger with her, and the others, I’m sure he’ll tell them he’s alive."
"Anger? Oh, because they followed Dumbledore, not him."
"How would you feel, Charlie, if your best friends turned you down like that?"
"Pissed off," Charlie sighed. "Damn it. What happened to the Bill who punched first and did the logic later?"
"He grew up and married a beautiful woman."
"You are paying attention to Harry," Fleur said teasingly, and lightly kissed Bill on the lips.
"Besides," Bill continued. "What do you want Harry to do about it now? He’s happily married to Daphne."
Charlie paused shook his head. "Damn it, he did say that, didn’t he? I wasn’t exactly paying attention at the time. That makes everything moot, doesn’t it?"
Bill grinned and looked back at Charlie. "It’s a trust thing, Charlie. Harry doesn’t trust them not to go blabbing to Dumbledore, and he’s not ready for Dumbledore to know that he’s alive."
Charlie nodded. "I guess that make sense — but how can he trust me?"
"Because if Fred, George, Percy or I tell him he can’t trust you, you’ll be Obliviated."
"What!?"
"We’re not playing games here, Chuckles. We’ve got Harry’s trust because we’re Weasleys. Well — Percy and I have anyway. Fred and George have always been closer to Harry than we have, and they did something for them — and whatever it was, they got Daphne’s trust as well — and we’re benefiting from that. You’re in for the same reason, you’re a Weasley — you’ve got a chance at being in on this from the start. And if any of us doubt you, we’ll drop you."
"Do you?"
"Nope, wouldn’t have invited you if I did," Bill grinned.
"Right," Charlie nodded. "So, it’s important?"
"Depends on what you call important," Harry said, appearing from around the corner. "If you mean money and the acquisition of more of it, you’d be off track. If you mean changing the world, then you’d be about on track."
Charlie blinked a few times. "Excuse me?" he croaked.
"Daph’s willing to give you another chance," Harry said brightly. "So come on, we’re going to tell you what’s going on."
"Okay," Charlie nodded, and preceded Bill and Fleur back to the house.
Fred and George were already sitting with Daphne, who looked a lot more relaxed; she was laughing with the two of them.
As he entered, he managed to watch as she softened for a second as she looked at Harry, and then seemed to freeze as she noticed him. It was almost like she was two very different people, and he found himself curious to know what she was like when she was alone with Harry.
"So," Charlie said, sitting down. "I know why the old man and Fleur are here, why are you two here?"
Fred smirked. "We applied our natural genius to the whole scenario, and worked out that Harry was alive within a few days."
"How!?"
"Oh, when you know the recipe for a lie, detecting one is pretty easy," George replied. "We contacted them, and got an invite to meet them."
"Where we helped them as we’d been to Vegas before."
"And Fred wore a dress."
Charlie shook his head, suddenly feeling like he was sixteen again, and listening to the twins explaining why they had turned his dragonfly pink. He turned to Fred. "So, why, exactly, were you wearing a dress?"
"Because Daphne needed a bridesmaid and George had already seen the male stripper."
"You know, I think that is actually the most bizarrely logical thing you’ve ever said."
"Why, thank you," Fred replied simply.
"Actually," Daphne said in a cool voice. "They did a lot more than that. They arranged our wedding in less than five hours."
Charlie whistled under his breath. "Mum’s going to kill you when she finds out you were at his wedding and she wasn’t."
"We’ve got a lot of pictures," George said. "She shouts, she doesn’t get to see how good Fred looks in a dress."
"Or how hot Harry looked," Fred added.
"What about Daphne?" Fleur asked.
"We like our testicles in place, thank you very much," George said solemnly. "We would never describe Daphne as jaw-achingly beautiful in her presence."
"Absolutely," Fred agreed. "And we’d never admit to talking about bonking Harry over the head and seeing if one of us could take his place."
"Or that feeling, when she walked up the aisle, when you just had to thank God that you were a man," George finished.
Charlie looked up, to see Daphne smiling fondly at the two of them, and Harry laughing. He shook his head, amused, but also amazed at just how well Fred and George had managed to get close to the couple in front of him.
"Can I see the photos?" Fleur asked eagerly.
Daphne nodded. "Later."
"Right, back on target," Harry said, seizing the attention in the room as if it was natural. Charlie looked at his siblings, and realised that they were serious about being in, with whatever Harry was doing. Fred and George had stopped playing, and Bill had his 'Serious’ face on.
"Charlie," Harry started, "Daphne and I left the Wizarding world because we were both pretty irritated with it, the corruption, the incompetence and the short-sightedness. We decided we’d never go back, and were happy with that.
"But then Fred and George showed up, and I started to remember the good times, and while not many, there were a few. And we started to talk about it."
"He started to talk about it, I wasn’t convinced," Daphne said dryly.
Harry grinned at her. "So, while we were doing a bit of a world tour, we started to look at other Wizarding cultures, and realised that good ol’ Blighty was an anachronism. So, we had a choice. We could abandon it, find a place like this, and never go back."
"Which had my vote," Daphne interjected.
"Or we could do something about it. To start with, I was with Daph, but then we kinda realised that we’d already made our decisions.
"We still had our fingers in the pie, dealing with the Malfoy family, removing Snape, that sort of thing. And as we hadn’t really left, well, we spent a week talking about it."
"He spent a week talking," Daphne interrupted again. "I spent a week listening and trying to decide if he was insane."
"And the result," Harry finished, "was that we decided we’d live here, but we’d fix it."
"Fix what?" Charlie asked, confused.
"Everything," Harry said brightly. "We’re going to put Percy in charge of the Ministry, McGonagall in charge of Hogwarts, and a friend in charge of the press."
"Just like that?" Charlie asked.
"Of course," Harry replied.
"You’re insane," Charlie said bluntly.
"No, he’s not," Daphne said quietly, her tone a little icy. "He’s a foolhardy Gryffindor who wouldn’t know a long-term plan if it bit him on the arse."
"But he’s got the Slytherin Ice Queen, and she can plan," Harry said cheerfully.
"And he persuaded her that he was right," Daphne agreed, lightly touching Harry’s arm in a gesture of apology. Harry threaded his fingers through hers and met her eyes for a second.
"What do you need me for?" Charlie asked. He’d already decided he was in, having Percy as Minister sounded like a good plan to him — especially if his younger brother was over his git stage.
"First," Harry said. "We need people we trust. There are going to be things that need doing, and we can’t do everything. Second, there are quite a few Death Eaters who are still around — Lucius Malfoy, despite being broke, is one of them. We’re pretty sure we know where they are."
"And?" he asked.
"We want a few dragons to convey an object lesson," Daphne said coldly.
Charlie gulped. "But dragons are pretty indiscriminate when you get them in the right mood."
"Good," Daphne said. "Two lessons. The small one is that being a Death Eater is a bad idea."
"And the big one?"
Daphne smiled, only it was a smile that sent chills up his back. "That hurting Harry is the easiest way of committing suicide this side of casting a certain spell at yourself."
Charlie settled back, a little surprised at the amused look on Harry’s face, and even more surprised by the way Fred and George were nodding in complete agreement.
"If you need some time to think about it," Harry said, "we can give you until tomorrow."
"What? Oh, no, I joined ages ago," Charlie said with a grin. "You’ve got Bill on your side, if he trusts you, I would anyway — as it happens, I’d be on board without him."
"Not us?" Fred asked.
"We’re devastated," George agreed.
Charlie ignored them. "And I know just the dragons you want. They’ve got the intelligence to know it’s a one off, and the personalities to enjoy a spot of Death Eater barbequing."
Harry smiled and stood, offering his hand.
Charlie stood and shook it, looking into the most famous green eyes in the world, and came to the realisation that Harry and Daphne were playing a role, that this whole plan was something they had come up with together, to achieve the effect they wanted.
He just hoped that one day they’d feel comfortable enough around him to be themselves. But for now, he was content to join his brothers in starting a revolution — and more importantly — being in the position to end the archaic laws the United Kingdom had on keeping dragons as pets.