So... This has been in my drive since august... I guess now is a better time than ever to post it up, eh?
Merry Christmas, I guess...
This is a drabble that revolves around the character(s) that appear in 'Of Dragons and Love' Reading that before this may help to better understand the events in this (or not)
It was Christmas time once more and the Burrow was more lively than ever; the entire family, and near-family members, had returned once more to their childhood home. Among the sea of ginger hair that was trademark of the Weasley family was a smattering of dark hair belonging to Crystal, Harry, and Hermione and a single blonde head belonging to Fleur Weasley. The shortest of the four, that is to say, Crystal, was in the garden outside attempting to rid the, otherwise nice, expanse of grass of gnomes. Every once in a while she would curse as one makes its way back over the fence. She was so focused on her chore that she didn't notice the two oldest Weasley brothers make their way outside to watch her until Bill clapped as she successfully flicked three of those tiny potato-heads a good forty feet from the fence. Finally she turned around to find the source of the noise and greeted the two with a smile.
"Are you two going to help or are you going to stand around growing icicles?" she asked throwing one more gnome over the fence for luck before turning to fully face the two as they made their way towards her. Both of them grinned as they walked through the garden. While Bill walked with his hands up to pat her on the back, his brother's were full holding some kind of fluffy thing between his calloused fingers.
"Neither sounds particularly appealing, actually" said the eldest Weasley as he stopped in front of the smaller woman.
"Then what are you doing here?"
"Making sure you that you haven't injured yourself out here while we weren't looking " he replied and Charlie nodded in agreement.
Crystal scrunched her up her face into a pout at that comment "I managed just fine without either of you for the first seventeen years o-" she was cut off mid-sentence as she sneezed. A shiver followed not long after as the cold finally caught up to her.
The smile on the dragon keeper's face immediately faltered, morphing into concern as the fluffy thing in his arms unfolded into an oversized jumper and he pulled it carefully over her. "You've clearly lost that ability since you met me then" he said as he pulled the jumper over his girlfriend's head "It's freezing outside and you're not wearing nearly enough layers"
Still struggling to make her way into the jumper, Crystal gave her muffled reply "I've wouldn't have had to stay outside for so long if I had some more help" then her head and arms finally found their way through the correct holes she grinned in satisfaction at accomplishing such a feat.
"You seemed to be doing just fine by yourself" said Bill.
Crystal wanted to argue but stopped before she muttered a word. She paused for a moment in thought ..."Don't you want to reclaim your record from Charlie?" she asked finally with a mischievous grin.
That seemed to set them off, "That time was clearly a fluke"
"It was not!"
"Then prove it."
The two brothers then started to throw the gnomes out of the garden at a break-neck pace leaving Crystal to stand there and admire their energy.
Content that they were deep in competition, she walked back into the warmth of the Burrow and made herself a warm cup of tea before settling into the sofa by the fireplace. It wasn't long before the warmth of the fire began to wrap her in a bubble of comfort and she began to drift off to sleep, blissfully ignoring the cold that was most certainly bubbling up. Unfortunately for her, when she woke up again she definitely wasn't as awake or healthy as she was earlier that day. She could feel a slow, steady throbbing in her head and a strange weight on her eyelids as she moved to grab her, now cold, tea. Realising that her hot beverage was only half of what it should've been she fumbled around to retrieve her wand from where it fell into the sofa. With great effort the dragon keeper managed to retrieve her wand and reheat the tea to a suitable temperature but not before the two oldest Weasleys burst into the room having apparently figured out that they had been set up.
From above her mug she spied the two brothers standing in front of her; Bill was looking smug with a defiant looking Charlie standing not far behind.
"It was definitely a fluke," the ex-curse breaker announced as Crystal put down her cup."The record is still mine"
She smiled "How far?"
"Up to the base of the hill"
"I got rid of the most" Charlie supplied with a childish reluctance to lose.
"But the record's still mine"
Crystal was about to speak up to prevent a full out 'uh-huh/ nuh-uh' fight which would undoubtedly worsen her headache when the voice of one Molly Weasley saved her from such efforts with the lure of delicious homemade food. Without as much as a second word the two men stopped dead in their tracks silently agreeing to forsake their argument for food and the three of them made their way to the already crowded dining room, finding a way to squish themselves around the table and enjoy the meal before them.
As the meal went on conversations started up gradually building up to be as lively as usual but Crystal found herself struggling to pay attention as the noise merged with the steady thrum of pain in the back of her head. She opted to politely nibble the food in front of her instead of joining in on the conversation as she normally would. Noticing this, Charlie have her hand a squeeze asking her softly if something was wrong. Naturally, the younger keeper denied it before faltering at his gaze, admitting that she might just have caught a tiny cold. With an exasperated sigh, he made her promise to finish the food and get some rest before resuming the conversation, all while keeping a watchful eye on his girlfriend like the mother-duck he was.
The conversation to which Charlie returned involved a very flustered Audrey who had been put under 'strict interrogation' by the Weasley siblings to 'test her suitability' for their spectacled sibling, all in good humour of course.
"I can't believe Perce managed to get himself a nice girlfriend"
"And look how smitten he is!"
"I bet he's already planning the wedding"
Percy's already red face went one shade deeper as he spluttered out some form of excuse only to stop dead in his tracks, think for a moment and add "Charlie hasn't even popped the question yet!"
Charlie almost choked on his meal, he stole a sheepish glance at his girlfriend but she seemed more focused on trying not to fall into her mash than in the conversation. With a flushed face, he swiftly changed the conversation topic without a second's delay and the conversation restarted itself on the topic of Fleur's growing baby bump.
Once everyone had finished their food, having stuffed themselves to at least twice the capacity of their stomachs, Crystal stood up with a wobble and excused herself to bed. Charlie let his gaze follow her as she made her unsteady ascent up the stairs, ready to jump up and catch her in case she fell. When he was confident that she was away from any plausible dangers, Charlie let out a breath he didn't know he held and set about trying to find his older brother. Except, he didn't have to try too hard as the said brother appeared behind him.
"That was a pretty unsubtle change in conversation back at the table" said Bill, leaning against the doorframe.
Charlie flushed pink, glancing nervously around him "Could we talk about this in private?"
Bill's eyebrow twitched "Fleur's talking with mum about recipes, so my room?"
Charlie nodded quickly in agreement and they made their way into the bedroom.
Luggage was scattered in various stages of unpackedness around the room leaving very little space to sit around. Bill took a seat on the bed and gave his brother an expectant look.
"Well?" he asked, already knowing the answer "You're going to ask her right?"
Charlie nodded, blushing.
"Then what are you waiting for?"
"W-well, I'm nervous..."
Bill gave him an incredulous look "She'll definitely say yes"
"But what if I mess it up? What if when I take out the ring a gnomes flies in and eats it or..."
As Charlie kept on rambling, the door slid open and a bleary eyed Crystal walked in "Hey Charl-" she paused, torn between watching Bill's shocked face and listening to Charlie ramble.
"... I mean what am I supposed to do, Bill? Just whip out the ring and say "Crys I've liked you since I first met you and want to spend my life with you"?!"CHarlie started pacing around the room "I mean, what would she say? She deserves more tha-" at this point he finally turned around to face a wide-eyed, blushing girlfriend.
There is an awkward silence for a while that Bill would've almost found funny if he wasn't smack in the middle of it. Then, slowly and tentatively, Crystal spoke, barely above a whisper "...I would say yes."
"Wha-"
"I would say yes, you idiot!" she said louder, her face bright red before pulling Charlie down by the collar and kissing him, hard. Bill took this as a cue to leave, he made a mental to say 'I told you so' to his brother later but, right now, he felt like he should leave the two lovebirds to their canoodling without him so left to find his own wife. He just hoped they would move to their room before Fleur comes in...