A/N - I wrote this because I failed my road test today, and I needed a constructive way to deal with that. I remembered that Charlie failed too, so I immediately set to write this.
Failure
Charlie Weasley was a nervous wreck. He'd barely gotten any sleep and was frightened to his wit's end by the prospect of what would occur later that morning. He refused tea – he didn't want to be the least bit jittery today – and tea had a way of making him jittery.
Bill was far away in Egypt, where he wouldn't see Charlie in this state. There was nothing in the world that had made Charlie so nervous. Not even Bill's stories of Death Eaters – who came to kill bad little boys who didn't eat their green beans – had scared Charlie more than he was right now.
He tried to go over everything in his mind again. He would need to focus on his destination, to place his mind firmly on where he was going. He'd have to be determined to get there. That was important – he could end up stranding himself somewhere strange or unpleasant if he got that part wrong. And he would have to turn, deliberately moving into nothingness so that he could re-emerge where he wanted to be.
"Destination, Determination, Deliberation. Destination, Determination, Deliberation," he repeated under his breath while he chewed a strip of bacon. Ron and Ginny chewed silently, watching their brother's eyes.
"Good luck today, Charlie," Ginny said, after finishing her bacon.
"Yeah. You can do it. No one can fly as good as you, and no one will be able to Apparate as good as you either," Ron said, before some egg flew into his face. "Knock it off, Fred! You know I don't like it when you throw food at me."
"That's why we do it, Ronnie," George replied as he flung some more egg at Ron.
"It is not polite to throw food at people," Percy said, using his napkin to burnish the new Prefect's badge that he would be wearing during the next school year. Some sausage knocked his glasses askew by way of response.
"Boys, eat your food," Charlie's dad said, looking up over his newspaper. "Are you ready, son? We have an appointment."
"Yeah, I'm ready dad," Charlie answered, shoving his plate toward Ron while silently thinking the mantra Destination, Determination, Deliberation. "I know how to do it, and I think I'll probably do well enough to pass."
"Well, we ought to be going, then. Goodbye, dear," he said, kissing his wife on the cheek.
Arthur Weasley got Charlie to the Ministry Atrium by Side-Along Apparition, and quickly checked him in. After his wand was weighed, they strode past the Fountain of Magical Brethren toward one of the gilded lifts that Charlie remembered from his previous trips to the Ministry. They entered one that had only just recently been vacated.
"Level Seven," a woman's voice coolly rang out when the lift stopped. "Department of Magical Games and Sports, incorporating the British and Irish Quidditch League Headquarters, Official Gobstones Club, and Ludicrous Patents Office."
The doors opened and Charlie watched the hustle and bustle of his favourite department in the Ministry. Ludo Bagman, of whom Charlie had always been fond, was juggling a trio of Quaffles while talking to an intern. The two Weasleys shook their heads as the doors closed on the lift and they began their ascent to the next level.
"Level six," the woman's voice said this time, "Department of Magical Transport, incorporating the Floo Network Authority, Broom Regulatory Control, Portkey Office, and Apparition Test Centre."
"That's us," Charlie's father said, holding up a slip of parchment. "We go to the Apparition Test Centre, ask for Wilkie Twycross, and then you take your test."
"Twycross? Oh, come on, Dad! He was our instructor at school. We learned nothing from him!"
"Oh, come off it, Charlie. Wilkie taught me how to Apparate when I was sixteen because my father was a friend of his. And look at how well I do. The sooner we see Wilkie, the sooner you can get away from him, okay?"
Charlie complied, and they strode over to the desk of the Apparition Test Centre where the Welcome Witch kindly asked for Charlie's identification badge before telling them that "Mr. Twycross will be with you in just a few moments."
It wasn't long before that thin, wispy, nearly insubstantial-looking man arrived and took Charlie to a back room where they would conduct the test. He was carrying a clipboard with an inkpot built into it, and looked ready to criticise the slightest mistake.
"Alright, Mr. Weasley, we'll start you off with Apparating into the hoop just to your right," he said, indicating one of the practice hoops that Charlie so very clearly remembered from lessons at school. It was five feet, and he could manage that easily. He focused, gripped his wand, and turned. He was now in the hoop.
"Good. Now, you'll want to Apparate across the room. I'll stand next to where you'll want to be." The little man disappeared and reappeared across the room. "Just over here, if you will.
Charlie again successfully completed this task, placing himself exactly where he wanted to be. Twycross seemed to be scribbling notes on his clipboard, and soon he said "Now, the last one will be to test your ability to Apparate over a distance. It is, after all, for that purpose that we learn this. There's a hill just to the north of Hogsmeade. I trust you know it."
Charlie nodded, he knew that hill well. He used to climb it every time he went to Hogsmeade. There wouldn't be the slightest problem. He just had to remember. Destination, Determination, D—.
It was gone. Just like that from his mind. He'd been repeating it to himself the whole time, and now he'd forgotten it. He turned to face Twycross, but the man was already gone, apparently to the Apparition point to await Charlie. He'd just have to trust his gut.
He held his wand, focused on Hogsmeade, and turned. And then he was on top of an old woman who had just emerged from Honeydukes. He extricated himself from the tangle, and handed her back her bag, and helped her scoop up as much chocolate as was salvageable from the road, when Twycross appeared next to him, scribbling hurriedly on his clipboard.
"Well, that one was something of a catastrophe. Not the right destination, obviously not the right determination, and a bit too much deliberation."
Deliberation. Charlie winced, realising which part of the process he had forgotten.
"Let's go back to the Ministry and review this, shall we?" asked Twycross as the old lady got herself away from them as quickly as possible.
Charlie and his father listened as Twycross explained the value of true deliberation and necessary determination. He also pointed out that the destination was highly important as well. After going over some examples and giving some ideas on how to improve his consistency with long-range Apparition, Twycross told Charlie that he could return two weeks later to try again.
Charlie Weasley had failed his Apparition Test. His brothers would never let him live this down.