Charlie headed up to the school after all the dragons had been secured. Dumbledore had invited all of the dragon handlers to stay at Hogwarts for the night, and Charlie had a bone to pick with his youngest brother. He had heard through Ginny that Ron and Harry had been fighting since Harry's name came out of the goblet, and from what he knew of Ron and what Ginny said, Charlie suspected that his little brother had gotten jealous and let the famous Weasley temper take over.
Approaching the Gryffindor Tower, Charlie winced as he heard an inhuman shrieking, that cut off abruptly. Cautiously, he proceeded to the portrait of the Fat Lady and gave her the password he had wheedled out of McGonagall. He arrived just in time to hear one of his brothers express the opinion that it sounded like Percy singing, and snorted. Now that he thought about it, that was a fairly accurate description of the noise.
One of the wins appeared next to him. "Charlie! My favorite older brother! Come join the party. Want a cream puff?"
He gave Fred-or-George an incredulous look. "You honestly expect me to willingly eat something that you're offering?"
Fred-or-George shrugged. "Figured it was worth a try. So are you staying for the party?"
"Maybe. I want to talk to Ron for a bit first," Charlie said casually.
The younger Weasley smirked knowingly. "Talk to him or talk to him?"
"None of your business," Charlie said immediately, but with no real heat.
"Well, if it's not the second one, George and I are going to have to, and that's just not fun."
Charlie arched an eyebrow at Fred. "According to Ginny, he's been a right prat since Halloween. What took you so long?"
"Did you miss the part where I said 'not fun?' Besides, we figured Mum or someone would come watch the first task and they - or rather, you - could deal with him." When Charlie just looked at him, Fred rolled his eyes. "If no one came, we were going to handle things tomorrow."
"I ought to spank the two of you for letting it go this far," Charlie said severely, frowning at him. "I thought you might just have been wrapped up in your own things, which would be bad enough, but you've been aware and ignoring it?"
"Uh...Hey, look, there's Ron over there," Fred said, pointing, and then vanished into the crowd, quite a feat for someone with the Weasley hair. Charlie scowled after him, and then made his way over to where Ron, Harry, and Hermione were gathered. Looping an arm around Ron's shoulders, he said, "Hello Ron, Harry, Hermione."
"Hi, Charlie," Ron said. Harry and Hermione echoed his greeting.
"You guys don't mind if Ron and I go off and talk for a while, do you? Great," he said, leading Ron away.
"But- I- Charlie!" Ron objected.
Charlie leaned down slightly to put his mouth near Ron's ear. "You don't want to have this conversation in the middle of the common room, little brother."
Ron shut up, and let Charlie lead him out of the Tower and to an unused classroom where (unknown to Ron), Charlie had had his first taste of firewhiskey. Charlie turned and locked the door behind them, then gestured for Ron to sit. Charlie himself opted to remain standing, arms folded across his chest.
When Ron was seated and looking at him, Charlie began speaking. "I've got two yes or no questions for you, and that's really all I want to hear. Have you been fighting with Harry since Halloween? And was it because you were jealous of the attention?"
Ron's immediate flush and his sudden inability to meet Charlie's eyes answered both of those questions as far as Charlie was concerned, but he wasn't about to let Ron take the easy way out. "Answer the questions, Ronald."
"Yes," Ron said quietly, still not looking at Charlie.
"I didn't catch that," Charlie prompted.
"Yes, alright, I did fight with Harry, and yes, I was bloody jealous!"
Charlie had never appreciated being yelled at, and he liked it even less when there was swearing involved. Without a word, he stepped over to where Ron was sitting, and pulled the younger Weasley upright, then sat down and pulled Ron over his lap before he could object. "I think that's enough of that," he said, bringing his hand down firmly on Ron's bottom. "I don't know what's gotten into you, but I intend to thoroughly discourage it from coming back. You do not yell or swear at me Ronald, and you certainly do not turn on your friends for something they can't help!"
Ron yelped as Charlie landed a particularly hard swat. Charlie continued spanking in silence for a while until Ron was well and truly crying, and then paused, shaking his hand out a bit. "Are we clear Ronald? Or do I need to continue?"
"No, clear, we're clear."
"Good," he said, scooping Ron up into a hug. "And I saw that you and Harry seem to be talking to each other again, so I suppose you already apologized?"
Ron hesitated. "Tried to," he said. "Harry said to forget it."
"Close enough," Charlie said with a small chuckle. "Now, before I let you go back to the party, I need you to promise me something," he said, his voice now completely serious.
"What?" Ron asked suspiciously. Growing up with the twins had taught him to be cautious about making promises.
"Promise me that you will never turn away from your friends without an extraordinarily good reason - and you're old enough by now to know what counts as a good reason."
"I promise," Ron said solemnly, and meant it with all his heart. The last month hadn't been much fun for him even disregarding the spanking he had just gotten and he was in no hurry to repeat them.
"If you break that promise, there'll be nothing remaining between my hand and your backside, and this spanking'll look like a couple of light pats," Charlie warned. "Just keep that in mind if you think about pulling something like this again."
Ron shook his head. "Never again. Promise."
"Alright. Let's get back to the common room - looks like there's a pretty good party getting started. You wouldn't want to miss it."