A/N: Aaaaaand… I'm back! Woohoo, party on, and all that fun stuff… continuing Charlie's line of biting people, we've now made it into those wonderful teen years full of hormones and fighting and all that boy stuff I never understood.
"Charlie!" The boy in question turned as his best friend, Jake Lincoln came running up to him after a summer away from each other.
"Jake!" The two boys did a rather complicated, ridiculous-looking secret handshake in the middle of the Hogwarts Entrance Hall.
"Think we're too old for a secret handshake?" Jake asked, checking to see if anyone had seen, particularly any cute girls.
"Nah." Both boys tossed the notion aside nearly at once.
"Where were you on the train?" Jake asked his friend. They usually sat together to catch up on all the happenings of the past three months that they couldn't put into letters.
"Prefect meeting. Remember? I told you about getting the letter a few weeks ago."
"Oh right. I was distracted. Have you seen Aly yet?" Alyssia Bones was Charlie and Jake's other best friend (and for whom Charlie had a crush so secret that not even Jake knew about it).
"No, why?" he asked, "didn't you see her on the train?"
"Oh, I saw her, but I was wondering if you did. Summer has been really good to her."
"Summer's been really good to who?" A new voice asked. Both boys turned and looked guiltily into the eyes of the girl they had just been talking about.
"Nobody." Charlie answered hastily, holding out his arms for his friend to walk into. "Come here, I've hardly heard from you all summer!" As Alyssia hugged her friend, his eyes bugged out as he noticed her newfound femininity and how good it felt against him.
Charlie tried to put the conversation (and the fact that his best friend was noticing the object of his affection as a girl for the first time) behind him as he watched the sorting. His younger brother, Percy was being sorted this year and he and Bill had a bet going on whether the boy would be in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw.
After the feast, Charlie sought out his older brother.
"Pay up." He said, holding a hand out.
"Aw , come on Charlie, you know I wouldn't have held you to it if you'd lost." Bill said, pleading with his younger brother.
"Yes you would have. Don't lie." Amelia Bones, Bill's girlfriend and Charlie's friend's older sister said, smacking him in the arm.
"Ame! Not you too! Geez, alright already, here you go." Bill said, fishing a coin out of his pocket. "I don't know why you're so worked up over it, it's just a sickle."
"It's a sickle more than I had earlier though, isn't it?" Charlie said, walking away happily.
He made his way up to his dorm to get everything settled and catch up with the guys some more. It seemed he was late, as the male bonding session was already well under way.
"I know, right?" One of the boys was saying as Charlie approached the door. "She is so hot! Who knew a few months away could do Aly so much good?" Charlie stood in shock outside the door. More of his friends thought she was hot? But she was his best friend. That had to mean something, right? As the boy detailed something he wouldn't mind doing to the girl, Charlie lost it. He threw open the door and headed straight to the voice he'd last heard, throwing his fist into the boy's mouth, belatedly realizing the silver sickle was still in his hand as it crushed his fingers from the force of his punch.
Oh well, he thought, if it hurt me that bad, it had to hurt Nick that much more. That thought didn't satisfy him and he continued his assault on the boy, not caring about the ruckus he was causing. Nick didn't know what was happening (though he got an idea of it pretty quickly) and tried pushing his roommate off him. He ended up shoving Charlie in the face, and Charlie bit him in response. The metallic taste of blood in his mouth made him spit out the digit he was biting and he finally allowed himself to be pulled off the boy, mainly because the arms tugging at him were stronger than he was.
"Charlie! What the hell were you doing?" his older brother's voice asked harshly. Charlie was reminded that Bill has made head boy and had the authority to punish him as needed. Without waiting for an answer, Bill pulled Charlie by the scruff of his neck to the side of the room. "Jake, Liam, make sure Nick goes to the Hospital Wing to get checked out. His face isn't looking all that great."
"When does it? " Alyssia asked, popping up to investigate what all the ruckus was about. "Holy cow!" she exclaimed, taking in the scene and figuring out what had happened. "What did you do, Charlie? Where did the blood come from?"
"Charlie bit me!" Nick cried out.
"What the hell?" both Bill and Alyssia exclaimed.
Charlie didn't answer and felt the pressure of his brother's hand increase against the pulse point on his neck. He looked down at the ground in stony silence.
"Charlie?" Alyssia asked again.
"Nick was saying stuff about you."
"What kind of stuff?" she asked curiously.
"The kind of stuff that makes a guy beat up on his roommate because that's the guy's best friend that's being talked about."
"Ok, I think I get it." Bill said. "Aly, how about you go back to the common room? Charlie and I will be down in a few. Boys, why haven't you gone to the hospital wing yet?" he asked. Everyone hurried to obey the Head Boy.
"You know Charlie, just because someone makes suggestive comments about the girl you like, it doesn't mean you have to hit them."
"Yeah, but…" As Charlie told his brother what had been said, Bill let out a low whistle.
"Good for you. You're a good friend. I'm still going to have to give you detention for fighting, but I'm proud of you. You have seriously got to stop biting people, though." He said, wiggling a finger at his brother that had very faint, very small scars in the shape of teeth on it.
