The Unmarried Weasley's Tale

Chapter One: Bugger off, Rita Skeeter!

A/N: Charlie had always been one of my favorite Weasley's and I decided that there was and should be a reason why he isn't married.

Charlie Weasley, or as Rita Skeeter so fondly called him, "the unmarried Weasley", was annoyed. Maybe it was because his brother in law and little sister's kids were jumping off over him(Albus kept asking him about the dragons and unicorns). Or maybe, it was because of his mother adding in side comments about how "Isn't it time you got married and what about that girl you work with?" And it probably had to do with the fact that James and Albus fought so often that their voices now sounded like background music to him. And, maybe it was because his sister kept hounding him about when he was going to get married.

He was 36, for Godric's sake, and it was his BIRTHDAY. That had to mean something, right? Right? Who cares if his younger brother by eight years had kids now? And his younger sister by nine years had kids now? Who cares?

Okay, fine. Charlie cared just the tiniest bit. But he didn't want kids. Children were tedious and annoying. Cute, yes, but he much rather preferred the company of dragons.

The entire family was all at the burrow. It was dinnertime. Everyone was eating and having fun. So then why, Charlie wondered, does my mum have to keep telling everyone about how I'm not married? And why does Ginny, my little sister, have to comment in, too?

"You know," Ginny Weasley said. "I heard that Luna Lovegood is getting married. I'm going to be one of her bridesmaids."

"That's great, Ginny," Charlie mumbled. "How is this relevant to this conversation about dragons?"

"Why do you always talk about dragons?" Ginny shot back. "And besides, you need to hear this. As far as I'm concerned, you haven't even kissed a girl."

Bill immediately burst into peals of laughter, as did George, Angelina, and Percy.

"Oh, Ginny." George cackled. "How little you know about our older brother that has an weird obsession with dragons."

"He was quite the popular one at Hogwarts," Bill smiled. "He was Quidditch captain and that usually appeals to people."

"Kind of like Oliver Wood," Angelina pointed out. "But more focused on girls."

"I've kissed more girls than you've boys." Charlie defended himself.

"Char-lee," James Sirius Potter called out in his babyish way. After all, he was only, like, five. Or four? Charlie rubbed his head. Maybe he was three. "Have you ever been in love?"

Charlie, who had just token a mouthful of pumpkin juice, immediately spit it out as Bill choked on his chicken. Percy turned purple.

"Sorry," Harry Potter embarrassedly commented, scolding his son for asking such a personal question.

"Yeah," Charlie vaguely announced. "Yeah, I have. I was going to marry her until-never mind." By this time, he was furious. He wanted to have a fun birthday, a good one, without being reminded of what had happened ten years ago on this exact date. So, Charlie did what he normally did when he was upset. He walked up and went to his old bedroom. Yes, it was a little childish, but it still was what he did.

The entire table lay silent(excluding James and Albus' squabble over the food) at the sudden exit.

"Until what? Who was it?" Ron blurted out. "I didn't know Charlie was going to get married."

"Neither did I," Molly Weasley cried out. "How could I not know about my own son going to get married?"

"They weren't engaged, mum." Bill assured his mother. "He just had reunited with his old friend after the war and they started to date, until a freak incident just happened."

"How do you know?" Ginny nosily asked. "How come we didn't?"

"He only told me and Perce," Bill said. "And it was private. He didn't want any of you to know."

"Know that he was going to get married? I'm going up to talk to him." Ginny exclaimed furiously. "He had no right!"

"No, Ginny-" Percy tried to stop her, but it was too late, Ginny was already walking up the stairs to her brother's old room. She opened the creaky door, and slammed it shut.

"Charles Weasley, you had no right to keep such a huge secret from us! I can't believe you didn't tell us about her! You're too secretive! No wonder you two broke up-"

"Ginny," Charlie told her softly. "She's dead. She died."

"Wha-What?" Ginny stuttered. "She died?"

"Yeah." He sighed. "She died."

"Who was she?" Ginny asked.

"I don't want to talk about it Ginny. This night has been bad enough." With that, Charlie Weasley kicked his younger sister out of his room and went to bed.

Nevertheless, Ginny Weasley was not one to give up. She questioned Charlie everyday after like clockwork. And just like clockwork, he would never tell her the truth. He would always reply, "It was Fleur," or "It was Angelina," or "It was Oliver Wood"(seriously, what was with her family's obsession with Oliver Wood?).

Until one day, Charlie replied a little differently. "If you want to know so bad, why don't you ask Bill?"

So, Ginny did. And all Bill did was go into his drawers and hand her a photo of Charlie and his friends.

"She's the," Bill struggled to find an adjective to describe her. "She's the unique one."

At first, Ginny rolled her eyes but as soon as she looked at the photo, she understood. The girl popped out from the paper. You notice her and it's captivating. She had dark brown eyes, Asian features, and dyed, icy hair. Ginny had sworn she looked like someone she knew, but she couldn't remember.

"Who is she?"

"You might know her sister. She's Aria Chang. Her sister is Cho." Ginny immediately gasped with recognition. She knew that the facial structure reminded her of someone.

"She was incredibly different. They were best friends."

"I see," Ginny nodded. "What happened to her?"

"Check a pensieve." Bill said irritably. "The story's long and complicated."

"Where am I supposed to find a pensieve?" Ginny complained, but nevertheless, she managed to convince McGonagall to use the pensieve in the Headmaster's office. Now, all she needed to do was kidnap Charlie and force him to pour out his thoughts.

So, Ginny did. Well, she attempted to. But each time, her attempts had been failures.

"What should I do?" She groaned to her husband. Harry shrugged.

"You could ask Percy. Or maybe Cho," Harry said helpfully.

"You're so right! I'll go ask Percy right now!" Ginny apparated immediately to Percy and Audrey's house. His two daughters were both sitting quietly and reading a book outloud. Ginny wished her children were as disciplined as that.

"Percy," Ginny softly asked. "Who's Aria Chang?"

Percy stiffened over his desk work. "What?" He pushed his horn rimmed glasses up his nose. "How do you know who she is? She's supposed to be a secret."

"Yeah, whatever." Ginny stared into Percy's eyes and threatened him. "Tell me who she is or I will hex you into eternity."

Percy gulped, knowing how skilled she was at the Bat Bogey curse and immediately spilled all the details on her.

"She was the same year as Percy. They were best friends. She was incredibly gifted in Potions but she constantly got herself in trouble. I remember her and Bill not getting off to the right foot, due to him being a Prefect. She and Charlie got along since they both liked Quidditch. She was on the Quidditch team. I didn't know her that well. But she was nice to me. She defended me once..."

-Flashback-

"Bill," Charlie shook his head. "I can't believe you gave Aria another detention. She didn't do anything wrong-"

"Charlie!" Bill exclaimed. "She hexed a poor Ravenclaw! I'm sorry your girlfriend keeps doing horrible things to innocent people!"

"She's not my girlfriend," Charlie immediately blurted. "And she had her reasons for hexing that Ravenclaw."

"Oh, yeah?" Bill cocked an eyebrow. It was his first year of being a prefect, and he needed to take that responsibility seriously. "Like what?"

"She was being rude," Charlie told him. "She called Percy a nerd and stuck up, so Aria defended him. It wasn't her fault. She was the one being nice."

"Someone called Perce names?" Bill immediately forgot about his frustrations with Percy and quickly soared off to hex this girl himself, and then landing himself detention along with Aria.

"Seriously?" Ginny said. "What happened in detention?"

"I don't know," Percy shrugged. "Except after that, Aria and Bill had mutual respect for each other. Ask Bill."

"You all frustrate me!" Ginny growled.

"Get a pensieve!"

"Will you lot stop with that?" Ginny cried out as she apparated out to Bill.

"Bill!"

"Oi!" Bill waved to Ginny. He seemed to be enjoying himself, relaxing outside with Victoire, Fleur, and Dominique. Louis was perched on Bill's shoulder. Ginny also noticed the addition of Charlie, who seemed frustrated to see his baby sister.

"What happened when you and Aria Chang had detention together?"

"How do you know that?" Bill and Charlie shouted out at the same time.

"Percy," Ginny replied casually. "And soon I'll know everything. Give me your memories and thoughts for the pensieve!"

"NO!" Charlie shouted just as loudly back.

"Yes!"

"NO!"

"Yes," Fleur smiled gracefully. "Eez seems like 'is sister should know about teez dee-tails of eez life, Biill?"

"Yeah!" Ginny smiled back gratefully. "I should know."

"You really want to know?" Charlie sighed angrily. "Fine, then I'll tell you everything about Aria Chang. Let's go to McGonagall's office."

"Wait, really?" Ginny asked confused as Charlie got up.

"Yes," Charlie sighed. "I guess you might as well know."

Something in her brother changed, Ginny realized. Once he was reminded of this Aria Chang, his entire demeanor changed. He just seemed to give up.

"O-Okay..." Ginny said confused.

Charlie and Ginny stood in front of the pensieve as smoke evaporated in their faces. Charlie squeezed his eyes shut and shuddered with supressed emotion. Sadness?

Ginny watched as she no longer was in McGonagall's office, and now in Hogwart's dining hall. The Great Hall.

Where they first met.

Aria Chang had dark brown eyes, like a liquid brown, and jet black hair with white tips. When she came to get sorted near the beginning, Charlie Weasley was captivated at once. He never saw someone like her. It wasn't because she was Asian, it was the fact that she was so confident in herself and gave off the radiance of not caring at all about anyone in the world. It amazed the young boy.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat roared after taking a mysteriously long time with Aria. Charlie thought that had been weird since Aria seemed obviously Gryffindor to him. Where the brave dwells at heart.

Then it came down to his sorting, he was down the line, and Charlie's heart beat quickened.

"Hm," The hat's voice came softly into Charlie's ear. "You're a weird one. Smart, yes. Very smart. You have good intentions for the world, yet you can be cunning. So that would mean Slytherin, but you aren't very ambitious. You do seem braver than most. A lot braver than anyone I've seen this hat go on." Charlie smiled internally. He was brave.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The hat screamed out and Charlie took a seat.

"Nice hair," He commented to the girl next to him. She looked at him apprehensively, as if she didn't know if he was lying or not.

"Thanks," She slowly said. "My sister tells me it looks awful all the time. But she's a complete brat."

"I'm Charlie. Charlie Weasley."

"I know. You were just sorted." Her voice was sarcastic and Charlie liked that.

"My name's Albus. Albus Dumbledore," She mockingly told Charlie who laughed.

"I thought you were Aria," He commented snidely which made her laugh as well.

"I like you, Charlie," Aria smiled happily.

"I like you, Aria," He sighed. "I doubt you were Dumbledore. He's like a million years old."

"I'd like to live till I'm a million years old," She wistfully said.

But she didn't. She was only twenty six when she died and that thought haunted Charlie Weasley for the rest of his life. What Charlie told her next was the only thing he heard in his head when she died.

"You probably won't," He teasingly said. "You'll probably live till you're like, twenty six."

A/N: I hope you all like it! Review, review, review!

Edit: I sort of had a problem with the one mentioned Asian character in Harry Potter having such a stereotypical Chinese name. As an East Asian, that was sort of annoying to me, but nevertheless, I still love the book series and JK Rowling is my queen.