Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to Warner Bros, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, Heyday/1498 films, JK Rowling and Raincoat books. I don't lay any claim to it. The characters Simeon Slovensky, Mirabella Ribisi, Seth Johansson, Giselle Leblanc, and any family members or friends attached to these characters are the property of my friend, Rachel. The characters Abigail Ridges, Herbert Wilde, Nisha Wilde, any other extra minor and supporting characters, and the storyline belong to me, Jennie Chang. Please do not use any of these characters or storyline unless we are both consulted and give permission first. This disclaimer will be updated as needed.
Dedication: To Rachel for her help with making characters for this story and aiding in the planning effort. You rock with the thing called creativity.
Prologue
The morning of September the first was a busy one for the people at Heathrow Airport in London. The heavy fall of rain wasn't making good flight conditions, causing the planes to be delayed and leaving people stranded and frustrated with the airlines, who already had their hands full trying to reschedule flights and assure their complaining customers that all would be taken care of. With all the hustle and bustle of everyone rushing to make the first possible flight out of there no one really noticed as three redheads, an older woman and two young men, popped out of thin air past all the security measures and headed towards the departure gates.
"Same every year, packed with Muggles," Mrs Weasley piped as she walked along clutching her handbag, knowing that no one amongst the crowd was paying attention to her besides her two sons. "Do you think your planes will be on time what with all this rain?"
"Even though they don't have magic, mum, Muggles do fairly well for themselves," her eldest son, Bill, answered while his brown eyes wandered looking for a sign that would lead them to the proper gate as he readjusted the weight of his bag on his shoulder. "They have special automatic machine things that give them information and help them navigate in weather like this."
"It still would have been better if your employers could arrange magical transportation," Mrs Weasley stated the fact plainly, looking back as her two boys walked behind her. "Portkeys and the such are much more reliable."
"A Portkey for one person didn't seem to be worthwhile, mum," the second son, Charlie, explained the logic of his boss while he walked. "To go through the process and legal work with the Ministry for one person to get back, it just isn't worth the time. Broomsticks aren't the most reliable in the rain, the Floo network doesn't extend out to Eastern Europe, and international Apparition just doesn't work."
"And a certain brother of mine would certainly know Apparition isn't their strongest talent," Bill whispered, poking fun at his younger brother with a laugh.
"Shut up!" Charlie gently punched Bill in the arm, going a little red in the face at remembering his first attempt at the Apparition test in which he had gone a little too far south of his preferred destination and landed on top of an old lady that soon after needed a strong memory charm to forget the incident.
"Charlie, you're leaving first," Mrs Weasley stated, not having heard her sons momentary joking. Looking up at some of the flight times on a board, the three Weasleys scanned over the chart, and sure enough there was an on-schedule flight into Bucharest, Romania leaving in ten minutes time from Gate 32.
"Down that corridor then." Bill pointed to a long hallway on the left with a sign hanging above it reading in bold black: Gates 25 to 35.
Without another word between them, the three Weasleys sped up their walking pace and rushed quickly down the long stretch of gateways. Almost running down the carpeted corridor, they blended in perfectly with the large crowds of Muggles hurrying about, remaining perfectly inconspicuous to the naked eye.
Finally they reached the proper gate and came to a halt at the long line-up of Muggles waiting to board the aircraft. Reaching deep into the pocket of his pants, Charlie removed a blank airline ticket. Nothing had been recorded on his ticket, and it was just what Charlie needed to get on.
Inhaling deeply into his lungs, he held the ticket in front of his lips and blew on the blank boarding pass with a long exhale. His breath activated the magical charm placed on it, and instantly, the flight information began to appear before his eyes, exactly the information needed to get on that particular flight.
"That's it than," Charlie declared, making sure the enchantment had remembered to spell his name right as he gave it a quick check with his brown eyes, "this is my flight back to work."
"Have a safe trip, Charlie dear." Mrs Weasley tiptoed to kiss her second-born child on both of his very freckled cheeks and give him a tight motherly hug. Pulling out of his arms, she put her stern authority face back on, almost as if to scold as she spoke, "And while you're gone, no tattoos or piercing. And remember to get your hair cut regularly."
"It's his body, mum. Let him do what he wants with it," Bill interrupted his mother's warning. Mockingly, he tossed his head back, letting his long ponytail of flaming red hair fly onto his shoulder as his fang earring swung on his earlobe. He shot a very smart look at his mother, who looked back with questioning of her eldest son's decisions regarding appearance before turning back to Charlie.
"Owl once you arrive safely back at the reserve," Mrs Weasley reminded with a click of her tongue, showing that she was trying to remember if there was anything else she should tell him. "Oh, and see if you can get time off at Christmas. It's been so long since you had Christmas at home."
"I'll try," Charlie sighed, knowing that he was rarely lucky enough to afford to go home for holidays.
"Last call for passengers boarding on Flight 178 to Bucharest, Romania at Gate 32," the voice of a flight attendant called out over the intercom.
"Bye mum!" Charlie hugged his mother one last time before walking backwards towards the gateway as he waved goodbye. "Give my regards to Percy and dad. And see you later, Bill."
Bill and Mrs Weasley waved as Charlie handed the young brunette flight attendant his boarding pass and entered the winding tunnel towards the plane, and towards his home away from home across Europe in Romania.
A/N: I originally posted this story elsewhere a long while ago, though due to a hacking problem, it was since deleted. It did win a few awards on that site though, and once another site I'm working for is finished remodifying their fanfiction section, it will be there too. There is a whole trilogy, and this is the first part. This was going to be the only part, but in the planning stages, it started growing and...I wound up with three.
This takes place during Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, only following Charlie Weasley and some original characters in Romania.
Special shouts to Rachel, who made the banner for this story and created many original characters.
