What Brings Us Closer Together
Charlie wiped the tears from his eyes as he walked away from the body of his younger brother.
He had never been one to cry. Not as a child, not as a teenager and definitely not as an adult. You had to have a strong pain threshold to do the job that he did. It was funny how he had only related crying with intense physical pain up until now. It was probably a side effect of working with dragons too long. Eventually you got used to the burns that they gave you and if you didn't come home with one, you'd go around and check each dragon for signs of disease.
He needed some air. The Great Hall was full of the dead and stank of almost everything. His family refused to leave Fred's side and he got that, why would they? He had just died less than half an hour ago.
Charlie had never been good with deaths.
He hated looking at the person who had once been alive just lying there looking like they were sleeping and just knowing that they weren't going to get up ever again.
It wasn't as if he hadn't seen someone die, or a dead body before. He had seen many in his twenty-five years of being, but they had been people in the Daily Prophet, a colleague, that champion in the Triwizard Tournament, it had never been anyone that he was close to and that was what made it hurt all the more.
He sat down on the broken and battered front steps and ran his hands through his hair, feeling all the dirt and grit under his fingers.
He was slightly overwhelmed. Everything had passed by in a blur and now that he thought about it, he was very lucky to be sitting where he was. Why should he live when so many people had died? What made him so special to be graced with life when others were struck down with death?
He blinked more tears away as another wave of reality hit him. It seemed to come in bouts, that everlasting dose of reality. It brought you back to earth when your head was in the clouds. Fred was dead he would never wake up, he would never walk the earth again, he would never play another prank, he would never do any of that again.
Charlie bit his lip as he choked on his tears as memories of Fred rushed back to him and it suddenly struck him how much time he didn't spend with his younger brother.
He was always off with Bill as they were the closest in age and shared common interests and Fred had always had George and eventually Ron when he came along. Charlie hadn't thought that Fred may have wanted to hang out with him.
He supposed that the six year age gap between them had kept them apart. When Fred and George were learning to walk, Charlie and Bill were zooming around on their broomsticks in the paddock up the hill. When Fred and George got on their brooms for the first time, Bill and Charlie were at Hogwarts.
As they had grown older, he had become a little better acquainted with his younger brothers and sister because they could have proper conversations, but there always seemed like there was something missing there. The age gap between him and Ginny was ten years, and it felt like he hadn't grown up with the twins, Ron or Ginny and therefore wasn't as close to them as he was to Bill.
The only memories he had as a child of Fred and George was when he had watched them get sorted, the trip to Romania when they were fifteen and the Quidditch World Cup.
He would never get another chance to spend time with Fred. Weren't older brothers supposed to protect their younger siblings? Well, he had failed on that front.
He felt a tear roll down his cheek, which progressed into steady, silent sobs. The tears pooled in his eyes and he squeezed them shut, forcing them out of his eyes and down his face.
"Charlie?"
Charlie sat up straight, wiping his nose and eyes on his sleeve quickly.
"Hey Perce." He said, turning around to see his younger brother standing behind him, looking concerned.
"I saw you walk out and thought you might want some company." Percy said softly, stepping over the debris and sitting himself down next to Charlie.
"Thanks." Charlie said, looking sideways at Percy.
Percy shrugged it off, "What are you thinking about?"
"Fred." Charlie said, "I was such a terrible brother."
"Why do you think that?" Percy said, looking taken aback.
"I didn't protect him. He was my little brother, Perce, and I didn't protect him." Charlie said, his voice breaking and he buried his face in his hands. He felt Percy's comforting arm around his shoulders.
"Hey, you can't have been a worse brother than I was." Percy said, "I abandoned the family for two years. I didn't see hide or hair of anyone."
"You weren't responsible for his death." Charlie said softly.
"And neither were you. The only person who can be held responsible in this is the bastard Death Eater who set off that curse." Percy said.
"I should've spent more time with him, taught him how to play Quidditch instead of making him watch Bill and I play endless games. I should've fought by him tonight." Charlie said, wringing his hands together.
"Charlie, don't beat yourself up about this, it wasn't your fault." Percy tried.
"Don't you dare try and tell me that!" Charlie shrieked, rounding on Percy with venom in his eyes and a sting in his voice. "You were gallivanting off with the ministry for the most part of the war. You only came back today. Is that how it works with you? You see your side falling so you come crawling back to your family who you've rejected for two years?! What makes you think that you have the right to tell me that it wasn't my fault that Fred died? You hated him, he was just a bloody stick up your arse wasn't he?! So don't you dare come out here and try and tell me that it's not my fault." Charlie's voice broke again on the word 'tell' and he turned away from Percy to hide his face in his hands.
"Charlie," Percy said in a low, serious voice, "He was my little brother too."
Charlie looked up, tears glistening in his eyes as realisation washed over him. He and Percy were in the same boat. They had both just lost one of their younger brothers and they both had that protective instinct that was giving them both so much grief right now.
"Oh god, Percy, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean any of that. I'm just upset, and angry and my emotions are a mess and you were the closest person… I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have said that. Oh god." Charlie said, tears spilling down his face as he apologised to his brother.
"It's alright." Percy said, patting Charlie on the back. "I was going to get it from someone sooner or later. I was dumb and I was proud, and I'm so, so sorry. Honestly If I could go back and do it again, I'd be someone that you could all call a friend. Just please believe that I'm sorry."
"I believe you." Charlie said. "I'm sorry too, I'm sorry for yelling at you, I'm sorry for not paying any attention to you when we were growing up, I'm sorry for not staying in touch after I left Hogwarts."
"I just can't believe that he's gone." Percy said, looking at the ground, "I never even got to say goodbye, I never told him how sorry I was for being a pompous prat when I should've nurtured his and George's dreams."
"There's so many things that I wish I had done differently." Charlie said sadly.
"You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone, huh." Percy said.
There was a pause in which both boys looked out over the wreckage of the Hogwarts grounds. The beautiful scenery that just hours beforehand had looked like a magical Utopia now looked like a graveyard. Charlie sniffed slightly before glancing at Percy to see that he was crying softly.
"Hey," Charlie said, softly punching Percy on the arm. "We'll make it through this, you and I."
Percy sniffed and smiled slightly at Charlie.
"He may be gone, but we're still here and this has just taught us that anyone can die. Your brother, your sister, your father or your mother and you don't think it'll happen to you so you don't make the most of them and spend time with them, but then it does happen and you find yourself like we are now, regretting every action you've ever taken." Charlie said, drawing Percy in for a hug.
It felt good to hug his younger brother, especially since he had had no contact with him for years, It was something about that action that made Charlie feel like he had hope again. Percy was back in the Weasley family's life and it felt brilliant.
Charlie didn't know what the next day would bring, but he hoped that it would bring them all a little bit closer.
AN: I really like the friendship between Charlie and Percy and how the family became reacquainted after the war.
For:
The Hogwarts Games – Men's Tennis Round 1
The Family Bootcamp Challenge – Prompt #17: Apology
The Chinese Moon Festival Competition: Family Slice.
I'd love it if you could spare the time to leave me a review :)
Potter on
~The Original Horcrux~