Based on characters created by J. K. Rowling

The Arrangement

"I've fixed you up with a blind date," Bill said casually to Charlie as they sat in the dining hall eating breakfast.

Charlie choked on his toast. Coughing and turning redder, he grabbed for the glass of pumpkin juice next to his plate, which he spilled in his lap, leaving a huge wet spot precisely on his crotch. When he jumped up, several girls around him giggled. He turned even redder. Bill pointed his wand at Charlie's robes and shouted, "Tergeo!" and the spot disappeared.

Still sputtering, Charlie managed to down some of the juice. Bill pounded him on the back. "A blind date?" Charlie yelled. "Are you mental?"

"Don't have a hippogriff, bro," Bill said, "I'm not asking you to marry the girl. I was just thinking how nice it would be if the four of us went out for a night on the town."

"The four of us? And who would the other two be?"

"Well, they're kind of like sisters and one won't go out without the other," Bill said.

"Kind of like? Kind of like? What does that mean?" Charlie asked. "Who are they?"

Bill smiled, showing lots of teeth. "Don't worry about the who part, just worry about showing up; and you never know, you might get lucky." He wagged his eyebrows significantly.

That stopped him cold. Might get lucky? Sure, why not? He trusted his brother and Bill would never do anything to psychologically harm him, he was sure. Physical harm was quite another story, but that went with the territory.

"I just don't know why you won't tell me who they are," Charlie whined.

"Butch up, Nancy boy. Trust me." Charlie looked at him dubiously.

Catching his expression, Bill looked insulted. "Okay, schmok, do you know Rose Abbott in Hufflepuff?"

Charlie's eyes got real big. Rose Abbott had a bit of a reputation in Hogwarts as being easy and she had the biggest tits he'd ever seen. Charlie nodded his head vigorously.

"Well," Bill said, "She's my date and her friend is Florence Goldstein."

Charlie ran the name through his mind. Goldstein? He knew an Ezra Goldstein, who played Quidditch for Hufflepuff; probably her brother. Ezra was huge bloke who took great pride in his position as beater. He'd knocked Charlie for a loop a few times. If Ezra was Florence's sister, well he didn't want to think about that, it interfered with his more playful fantasies. "Sure," he said, "I'm in."

Saturday night, they waited outside the Three Broomsticks for their dates. Charlie was going over some compliments he'd heard works on the ladies, while Bill whistled nonchalantly.

Bill looked over at his brother; Charlie was smiling and nodding and he had his hand out like he was about to shake hands with someone. Bill shook his head. "Listen," he said, "when I give you a signal, I want you to take Flo and vamoose. Got that? Rose and I'll need some alone time, if you know what I mean."

"Where am I supposed to go?" he asked.

"Don't care, just bugger off," Bill said. "Take Flo outside and snog her knickers off. You can do that, can't you?"

"I don't…Of course I can, but out in public like that? Why can't we just stay and snog with you?"

"You want to snog me?" Bill asked.

Charlie turned deep red. "No!"

Bill sighed. "Look, the only reason I asked you to come is so you will get rid of Flo while Rose and I can be alone. I swear she and Flo are joined at the hip. She's like her moral police or something. I don't need her around. Got it?"

"No," Charlie said looking confused.

Bill slapped his brother on the back of the head. "See if you can keep up, okay? Rose wanted to go out with me, but she's got this guard dog to protect her 'reputation', so you, little brother, are going to make sure that Rose & I get that quality time we need, I don't care what you do, but you are going to take care of Flo and get her away from Rose. Now do you understand?"

"What if Flo really is a dog?"

"I don't care," Bill said. "Shh, here they come."

Rose and her friend Florence were walking arm in arm giggling. Damn! Charlie thought, Rose is hot. Flo released her friend and looked at Charlie. She smiled shyly and Charlie took a deep breath. Flo looked a lot like her brother Ezra except for the facial hair; Flo had more and she had one eyebrow. She couldn't be described as a beauty, but she wasn't a dog either. I like hairy girls, Charlie was thinking as he followed his brother and Rose.

Bill grabbed Rose tightly and they went into the Three Broomsticks where they found a booth where they snuggled together. They quickly ordered butter beers and almost immediately Bill and Rose began some heavy snogging. It was clear Bill had hit the jackpot. Of course Rose was thinking the same thing because she was out with Bill Weasley, the most popular boy at Hogwarts.

Charlie and Flo stared at each other, trying not to look at Bill and Rose. Charlie was trying to think of something flattering because no matter what Flo looked like, he wanted to get a little action.

Bill came up for air and looked at his brother. "Now, bugger off," he mouthed. Rose pulled his head back to hers and they went back to heavy snogging.

"Uh, do you want to go outside for a while?" Charlie asked. "It's a lovely day for a walk."

"I'm not going anywhere," Flo said, "I'm going to make sure she doesn't do anything stupid with your stupid brother." She folded her arms defiantly across her chest.

Charlie was not easily dissuaded. "Want to see something cool?" Before she could say anything, Charlie pulled something squirmy out of his pants' pocket. He held the creature up to his face and made crooning noises, stroking it lovingly. Flo squinted in to take a good look, but all she could see was a tiny creature in his hands that looked like it was changing colors.

Charlie opened his hand slowly, still petting it with his other hand. It was the strangest lizard Flo had ever seen.

"What is it?" she whispered, obviously in awe. She reached out precariously to touch the brightly colored feathers on the little creature's head.

He smiled. "It's a crossbreed. I crossed a moke with a firelizard. "When she's happy, she's all yellow, like she is now, but when she gets pissed off, uh, I mean, when she's upset she turns a fire-orange color and she spits fire." He kept petting her head. "Not when she's this small, of course, see, she shrinks. She has to get bigger before she can spit fire."

"It gets bigger?" Flo asked.

He nodded. "Oh yeah, she can get up to the size of a small iguana, but she stays small so I can carry her around. Her name's Katy, by the way. Don't worry, she won't hurt you. "

"Is she the only one of her kind?" Flo asked mesmerized.

He nodded. "I think the feathers are going to drop off when she gets bigger," he said stroking the multi-colored feathers that encircled her neck. "Firelizards don't have feathers and neither do mokes." One of the feathers came off in his hand.

"May I have that?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Sure." Their hands touched as he gave her the feather. She looked at him and smiled shyly.

Charlie smiled back at her. "I probably should let Katy run loose for a little while. There's a area out back where she likes to run around. Want to come with me?" he asked. "I'll bet she'd like for you to hold her." He held the lizard out in front of Flo. Katy turned a brighter yellow and the feathers around her neck stood out. "Wow, she really likes you."

Flo bit her lower lip and reached for the lizard. She stroked it and crooned, just like Charlie had done. "Sure," she said. "I'd love to. Let's go."

As they headed out the back door of the Three Broomsticks, Flo glanced back at her friend, now in partial undressed with Bill's hands up her blouse. "Oh yeah," she said. "They'll be fine."

A/N: For my dear friend Katy (Bad Mum) who invented the firelizard. Thanks! Please read her story "What you want to do". It's a wonderful story! --Rita