You know those moments when you've done nothing wrong, but you just know that no one will believe that. You know the feeling?
Harry Potter, standing on the staircase of the Burrow, was feeling it now…
Charlie Weasley had snatched a piece of paper Harry had handed to Ginny, and had opened it near his parents at the foot of the stairs.
With pantomimed surprise, Charlie saw the parchment was blank; but rather than just hand it back to Ginny sheepishly, Charlie's face morphed into shock, horror and disbelief as though the parchment was covered in salacious scripts detailing such sordid secrets that would make the worldliest of individuals blush with embarrassment.
After glancing at the paper, Charlie, with shuddering hands, folded it slowly and clasped it to his chest.
Of course, noticing this, Mrs Weasley was quite concerned.
"What's the matter, Charlie?" She asked.
Charlie walked around the Weasleys and glanced up at Harry; his eyes flicking around, avoiding looking Harry in the eye. Trying to make himself appear small, Charlie went up the stairs and, glancing at Harry all the while, he passed Harry, who was confused (he didn't see what Charlie did when he saw the paper), and Charlie acted as though he was astonished and terrified at Harry's audacity.
And that's how Harry felt like a deer in the headlights, with absolutely everyone (with the exception of Ginny) looking at him like he'd just barbequed an orphan's pet bunny.
Unnerved, Harry wanted to get away as quickly as possible.
"Erm…" Harry said, still trying to process what was happening. "Goodnight…"
Before anyone had a chance to respond; Harry, displaying surprising speed, was up the stairs and into Ron's room.
Whilst Harry was tossing and turning, wondering what on earth had happened with Charlie, the Dragon-Keeper himself was fending off the probing inquisition of the Curse-Breaker.
"What on earth is in that letter, Charlie?" Bill asked, as the two prepared for bed.
"Umm…" Charlie said. "I donwanna talk about it." Charlie gulped, as if the memory of reading it brought horrors unbidden from the darkest dregs of his mind.
"Come on, Charlie." Bill continued; believing that Charlie was having him on. "How bad could it be?"
In response Charlie threw himself under the blanket of his bed and curled into a ball, burying his face in the bed and holding a pillow over his head.
Rolling his eyes, Bill walked over to Charlie's coat to pull the letter out and read it himself, but Charlie, springing from the bed, tackled his brother into the wall, sending a calamitous clang around the burrow.
Which of course was nothing strange to the inhabitants of the abode.
"No Bill!" Charlie exclaimed. "I love you too much to allow your eyes to melt from your skull!"
"Your eyes didn't…" Bill said blithely.
"But it's even worse the second time!" Charlie said, and picking the paper up, he went to bed, and placed it under his pillow, as if to put temptation out of Bill's reach.
Charlie soon went to sleep, but poor Bill was tossing and turning for ages.
Unable to take it any longer, Bill, with dexterous magical skill, extracted the paper from under Charlie's pillow.
Opening it under the glow of a Lumos Charm, Bill's genuine shock was greater than Charlie's fake one.
"Charles!" Bill roared, waking Harry from an uneasy sleep upstairs and leaping across to his brother and pulling him from his bed. Fuming, Bill couldn't find the words to say.
"Hi Bill." Charlie said, smiling as if his dreams had been filled with buttercups and rainbows.
"There's nothing in here!" Bill stated, slapping the paper.
"You don't say." Charlie smirked, and tried to return to his dreams of flowers and colours.
"Get up!" Bill pulled his brother back into a sitting position. "You said that it held horrors unimaginable!"
"Actually I said nothing." Charlie replied politely.
Bill's lips moved but only muffled sound came out. "mmmblebumble." Bill said.
Charlie yawned dramatically, and made to return to his slumber; but a creak on the staircase roused him.
Harry, having been awoken by Charlie's tackle upon Bill, went down to the kitchen to get a glass of water.
On his way back, Harry bumped into Ginny, who was on her way back from the bathroom. Instinctively, Harry grabbed Ginny's shoulders to steady her; which as luck would have it was the exact moment Bill and Charlie emerged from their room. Harry and Ginny turned to look up their stairs in unison, and Bill and Charlie exchanged significant looks.
"Why always me…" Harry breathed to Ginny.
"Sorry!" Charlie called down the stairs. "C'mon Bill, let's give them some privacy."
Bill looked confounded. "Oh. Right. Yeah." And he followed his brother back into their room.
"So…" Bill began. "Do you think there's something going between the two of them?"
"I'm certain of it. This letter proved my suspicions." Charlie brandished the letter again.
"But it's blank."
"Yes, and what clever individuals our sister and her companion are, to write a Love Letter in invisible ink." Charlie declared. "I knew what it was the minute I laid eyes on it. My sister senses were tingling."
"So…" Ginny said.
"So…" Harry replied.
"Erm, goodnight, then." The two said.
The next morning; the whole family and guests sat down for breakfast. Charlie made no mention of the 'Love letter.' And Harry was beginning to hope that the awkwardness of the previous night wouldn't resurface.
But it all came undone when Harry asked for the butter. As Ginny was closest, she obligingly passed it over. Grabbing the dish, Harry's fingertips brushed Ginny, and George, as George is wont to do, rekindled the embers of embarrassment by swooning into Fred's side.
Taking advantage of the situation, Charlie distracted everyone by asking Hermione if she had ever read this beautiful piece of literature. When Hermione asked what he was talking about, Charlie opened the blank paper up, and began to read.
"My dearest…" Charlie started. "I think that's all that's appropriate to say. Would you pass the pancakes? Thanks, Dad."
And now, once again, everyone was looking at Harry again, who gulped heavily.
Charlie folded it up again, and returned to the food upon his plate, happily munching away.
By mid-morning, everything seemed uneasy in the Weasley household. In fact, the only people who were not giving Harry and Ginny strange, quizzical or disbelieving looks was Percy, and that was because he was shut in his room, Bill, because he had left after breakfast and Mr Weasley, because he was at work.
Hermione went off to read, and Ron was busy with Fred and George, so Harry and Ginny decided to play gobstones in the corner. With a rather difficult shot, Harry leaned over, giving his full and undivided attention to the game.
"GASP!" Charlie jumped as he entered the living room, seeing the two crouched in the corner together.
And Harry's shot flew well wide.
"Do you want to do that again?" Ginny asked, trying to ignore her brother.
Charlie bounded out the room and into Mrs Weasley's bedroom. Mrs Weasley had the door open, and was surprised when Charlie started pulling down the curtains.
"You'll thank me later, Mum." Was all Charlie said in explanation, before bounding down the stairs?
With their gobstones game finished (Ginny was victorious), Harry and Ginny were packing up the gobstones when Charlie returned, and unpacking an exploding snap set. Charlie hastily placed the curtains across the corner, hanging a do not disturb sign on the outside.
"Well. May as well leave it there." Harry said. Ginny nodded in agreement.
"Harry!" Ginny exclaimed as Harry accidently exploded the card castle in Ginny's face.
"Harry!" Ginny's voice cried out from behind the curtain with the DO NOT DISTURB sign. Ron made his way across the living room.
Floating words appeared in front of him.
WARNING! ENTER AT OWN RISK! HIGHLY HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES!
YOU WON'T LIKE WHAT YOU SEE! DO NOT PROCEED FURTHER!
FOR FREE CONJUNCTIVITIS CURSES, CONSULT YOUR LOCAL CHARLIE!
"Sorry Ginny." Harry said.
"How was it?" Ginny asked, referring to the Dursleys and the Grapefruit.
"Oh, it was beautiful. Thank you, Ginny."
"What should we do next time?" Ginny asked.
"There's going to be a next time?"
"Well, why stop and once. Harry, I believe we're on the threshold of a long and prosperous partnership."
"Let us go into the kitchen to toast to first times, and all the times to come."
"They didn't!" George's face fell open as Harry and Ginny, having pushed Charlie's antics to the back of their minds, emerged.
"What on earth are Mum's curtains doing here?" Ginny wondered, but shrugging, made her way into the kitchen.
After squeezing some grapefruit, Harry and Ginny licked their lips in anticipation. (Not each other's lips, their own lips, to clarify.)
"By the power vested in me I now pronounce you Man and Strife."
Charlie Weasley was on his broom, floating above them.
"Let's get out of here Harry."
Harry followed without a second thought. Charlie didn't, much to their delight.
"Hey Hermione!" Charlie said, passing Ginny's room. "Got a good picture of the moon?"
"One second." Hermione rummaged through her trunk. "There."
"Gemino." Charlie copied it and returned the original picture to Hermione. "Thanks, Hermione."
Mr Weasley, returning from work, smiled happily as he saw his daughter approach.
"Hello Daddy!"
"Hello Mr Weasley."
Arthur, hugging Ginny, felt something sticky on her back.
"Ginny. There's something on your back."
Ginny turned around to allow her father to see what was there.
Mr Weasley was still and silent; and Harry and Ginny soon realised why.
Stuck to the back of each of their shirts was a photograph of the moon with the letters 'er' drenched in honey.