Abby walked around the old, dark kitchen of Grimmauld Place, awaiting the arrival of the other Order members. Tonks, Lupin, Sirius, and the kids were there, but Kingsley, Madeye, the Weasleys, and a few others were still missing. The Weasleys, she sighed. There was one Weasley she missed in particular, Charlie.
She ran her hand down the aging, wooden table as she reminisced. She and Charlie had been childhood friends, making mischief and chaos everywhere they had gone. She smiled, but that sweet smile soon faded into a deflated frown.
When her family had moved, and the two kids had gone off to college, they had lost contact. It had been years since they had spoken. Her heart sank with longing, longing to see him again. She had talked to Molly, but Charlie was always away, working.
She smiled again as she remembered her induction into the Order, though she was fairly new, everyone had already accepted her. She had shown up at Gringott's, planning on getting a job, all dressed in a pin-striped blouse and black, knee-length skirt, blonde hair pulled up into its usual, neat ponytail. And who had apparated in? None other than Charlie Weasley himself.
Her eyes had lit up, but then she had almost died laughing. His white t-shirt was all blackened and torn, his signature ponytail askew, pieces of red hair flying away, as unruly as his true personality. She would have recognized him anywhere.
He had walked over to her, tucking his loose hair behind his ear. "Sorry, I completely forgot about today, didn't have time to chan-," he had stopped abruptly, both in speak and in locomotion. Abby had smiled. "Charlie."
"Abby? Is that you?" he had asked, his eyes huge. She had nodded and he had gone up and hugged her. She could feel his well-formed muscles beneath his shirt, the smell of smoke engulfing him...
...A knock on the door, yanked Abby from her thoughts. She walked down the small hallway, that connected to the front room, and peered around the edge of the doorway. A large group of people stood there: Tonks, Lupin, and everyone else that had originally been there, as they greeted everyone who had just arrived, and Abby could make out the usual clan of Weasleys. Fred, George, Molly, Arthur, and Bill with Fleur. Her heart leapt, however, as she noticed an extra head of red hair. She stared, not daring to blink, as the form of Charlie Weasley became clearer.
She hid behind the wall, suddenly too nervous to move, barely able to breath as her heart raced. Why was she so nervous? It was only Charlie, afterall. She swallowed hard, her throat suddenly dry, before she came around the corner. "Madeye and the others weren't with you?" she heard Tonks asking Molly and Arthur. "No, they aren't here already?" Arthur asked, looking shocked and confused. Tonks grabbed her broom from the closet. "I'm going to keep an eye out for them," she said, face full of concern. She hopped on her broom, flying out the door as the sea of Weasleys parted.
Charlie froze, when he saw Abby, a smile slowly slid across his face. "Abbs," she smiled back, heart still pounding but it was bearable now. He held out his arms, she went up and hugged him, getting flashbacks of the day at Gringott's. Only this time, he didn't smell as strongly of smoke, but there was still a small trace of it. She was beginning to think that it was permanently embedded in his skin. They broke away after only a moment, but it felt like longer, she wanted it to be longer.
After all the greetings were said, everyone went and sat down. Fred and George told jokes, Abby sat across from Charlie, the fire was burning to keep the house warm, though Abby wondered why the house could be charmed to be invisible, but not to be warm. She tried not to stare at Charlie, but it was SO hard, his eyes were so deep, his arms so tones, his lips, so perfect...
Just then, Tonks burst in the door. "Dementors, everywhere!" she gasped, soon flying back out. Lupin was the first to follow, Arthur, Fred, and George next. Abby stopped Harry at the door. "Stay here," she told him, a hand on his shoulder. "But, you guys need me," he protested. "Precisely, if we need you, then you can come later. It's not worth risking yourself until we know if we need you or not," she explained, looking up repeatedly, trying to finish quickly so that Charlie wasn't on his own. She grabbed her broom and flew out after him.
She stayed near him, out of his sight, at least enough not to be obvious, but enough to keep a close eye on him. They began to get closer to a black mass, which stretched and condensed as fluidly as water. Abby began to feel the effects of the dementors, her heart sank and the air cooled. She took a deep breath, telling herself that it wasn't real, that it wasn't logical.
Out of nowhere, a swoop of black covered her view of everything, icy air filled her lungs, and a voice filled her head. It was a demented, evil, cold voice, one of a dementor. "He will never love you. Give up now, why go on without him?" She reached for her wand. If only it had been a deatheater, then she could have simply grabbed one of her throwing knives from her boots.
She tried to cast the spell, but only a feeble strand emerged from her wand's tip; she had never been good at dealing with dementors, why should it start now? Was there anything she was good at? Anything she deserved? She felt her wand slip from her hand, knowing that it now hurtled and flipped toward the ground.
Who cared? If she wasn't talented enough to use it when she needed to, why even have the honor of having one? Her breath caught, just as a flash of bright, blue-white light blinded her, pushing the dark thing back. "You ok, Abbs?" she heard. She nodded, dazed.
She landed clumsily on the ground, and numbly made her way back up the steps of Grimmauld Place, the others soon following. She went to go over the threshold to the living room, and tripped, falling hard to the ground. Everyone turned. "You alright, Abby?" Tonks asked. Abby tried to get back up, but couldn't. She looked up, her eyes meeting Charlie's for a brief moment, then they glazed over as she threw up and fell back, shaking.
"Abby!" Charlie, Tonks, and Lupin all ran forward. Charlie picked her up, she barely heard Lupin shouting orders, something about taking her over to the couch. She coughed, gasping for air. "Hang on, Abby," she heard a familiar voice, as the red above her blurred...
...When Abby awoke, the room was dark, save for the lit fire. She tried to push herself up, but wound up failing in the end. Compromising with her body's lack of strength, she turned her head, looking around. On one of the big arm chairs behind her, in a very uncomfortable position, sat Charlie, asleep.
His legs were slung over one of the arm rests, his head resting on the other, he was almost to long to fit. She wondered if she should wake him or not. She turned, feeling another presence in the room, in the doorway stood Lupin. He smiled and came to sit next to her. "How are you feeling?" he whispered.
"Tired," Abby replied. "He hasn't left you since you fainted," he smiled, looking over at Charlie. Abby looked in the same direction. "How long have I been out for?" she asked, turning back for the answer. "Three days. We thought we'd lost you, Ab," he patted her on the shoulder. "Molly keeps bringing him food, but he's barely eaten." With that, he stood, stretched and left.
Abby looked back over at her childhood friend, her friend that she hadn't spoken to in years and then months. Charlie. Good old, Charlie. He hadn't left her side, she wondered why he hadn't. He could have always come and checked on her, so why had he stayed?
A few moments later, Charlie rolled over, groaned, and stretched. Once his eyes had cleared, he smiled over at Abby, who had been smiling at him. "How're you feeling?" he asked, his eyes softening. He got up and sat down next to her, propping her up so that she could lay against him. "Better," she replied, enjoying his warmth, she realized just how cold she still felt.
Without thinking too much about it, she took his big, rough, gentle hand. "Had us all worried," he said, giving no indication that he noticed. She went to let go, but he held on just enough to let her know that he wanted her to stay. "Heard you didn't leave." "Yeah," he said, stretching his neck. The look on his face told her that he was mentally cussing Lupin for telling her. She snuggled into him deeper, his arm staying around her. She felt something touch the top of her head, a bit later, as she was drifting back off to sleep.
Had he kissed her on the head? Was Charlie, her longtime best friend, just a friend or did he feel the same way about her as she did him?