"Dragons?!" screeched Mrs Weasley, dropping the large pot of potatoes she was carrying.
"In Romania." happily added her second eldest son Charlie, mistaking her horror for vivid excitement. Mrs Weasley, however, now looked like she was about to faint.
"In Romania..." she repeated dimly before dropping herself onto a chair with a very concerned look on her face.
"What is it, mum?" he asked, genuinely concerned.
Charlie had never been good at reading people, even if their emotions were exteremly obvious. Once, he mistook the twin's evil grins for innocence and ate the yellow-green toffee they'd given him. This was not an experience he liked to relive.
"Charlie, are you seriously thinking of working in Romania?" his mother asked him seriously, snapping him out of his reminisce.
He sighed, "Yes, mother."
"With dragons?"
"Well yes, I'm good with animals, you see." he tried to be polite but she was taking his exiting news slower than he expected, he just wanted to get on with it: maybe tell Dad and Percy.
"Well of course, because Dragons are a very safe beast to work with" she snapped sarcastically, "Bill works in the bank, Percy wants to work at the Ministry-"
"But I'm not Bill or Percy, mum! I'm not good at charms like Bill, so I can't go and work at Gringotts and you know I'm not organised like Percy, the Ministry would laugh at me!"
Mrs Weasley sighed again. She pulled herself to her feet and picked up her pot again, she picked up her potatoes from the floor. "Well decide if you want to be normal or get killed, I don't care anymore" she sighed, "Now get out of the kitchen; there's not enough space in here as it is." She picked up her brush and started to scrub the dirt off them, muttering things like 'safety' and 'stupid dragons'.
Charlie walked slowly out to the garden; he threw his head upwards and looked at the bright red sky.
"What am I going to do?" he asked himself. In his eyes, he had two options:
Work at Diagon Alley, The Ministry, or a 'safe' job. Just like Dad, Bill and most other people in the family. It would make Mum happy, that was for sure.
Or, his mind told him temptingly, he could be anomalous and go and work with Dragons in Romania; in other words, pursue his dream.
A sudden bang from inside the house made Charlie spin around, lose his balance and crash to the grassy floor. The window of the twin's room had been blown open, and an expanse of bright purple smoke billowed out into the late blue sky; soon after it, an equally as purple Fred and George followed. After quite a bit of coughing and brushing violet dust from his hair, they caught sight of Charlie sitting, dumbstruck, on the floor.
"Sorry, Charlie!" they called out to him in chorus.
"Why on earth are you purple?" he called back, half angry and half amused. The twins turned to look at each other with matching evil purple grins.
"Oh, nothing!" they giggled and with that they disappeared back into their room, leaving nothing but violet smoke drifting into the sky and a laughing Charlie on the floor. He pulled himself to his feet and brushed the mud off from his clothes. He thought about Fred and George. . Charlie assumed that the bang and smoke was something to do with their supposed joke shop, although mum would probably find out soon and she wouldn't like it. He was right.
"BOYS!" Mrs Weasley screamed from inside the house, "DO YOU WANT TO BLOW UP THE HOUSE?"
"No, Mum." he could hear the twins saying, and he chuckled. They were defiantly not going to turn out like mum wanted to.
But why should they? His mind said, Why can't I be like them - different, anomalous?
Then it struck him, of course he could be anomalous! He would go to Romania! He would work with dragons! He would be a role model for the twins, even if they were up to no good!
Charlie turned, his head high, and he strode back into the house, a massive weight lifted off his shoulders. It was the time to be different, the time to be Charlie.
A/N: This was written for the Small Challenge in HPFC and my life would be soo much better if you reviewed :3 do it, for me? For Charlie?
Always,
Holly xx