At the Moment

A HariPo fanfic

by mew-tsubaki

Note: J.K. Rowling's characters are in another companion story to my fics To the Future, From the Past, and In the Present. As usual, there are O.C.s, but duh, because Charlie's with an O.C. Anywho, please enjoy the story and let me know what you think of it in a review. BTW: I don't know how many chapters this'll last, but it will be shorter than the companion stories.

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The Seventh Hint

It wouldn't leave her brain.

That interaction with Charlie had set some indiscernible thing off inside Mira, and again, she knew she was changing. She'd never be the same Miraphina again. But her emotions raged, and she wasn't sure she minded not being the old Mira.

At supper, she peeked in to remind Dana and Cirdrine that she had to go see Professor Black for detention, but her mind was elsewhere. Her eyes drifted to the staff table a few times during her brief chat with her friends, one time in which she met Charlie's eyes again. He noticed her, and quickly looked away, but her feelings weren't hurt. Things were becoming right again. But this time, they were right how they should be forever.

An improper and inconvenient time, right? Mira recounted from the reading. She sighed as she approached Professor Black's classroom. Mira saw Ginny outside the door and they glared at each other just as their teacher appeared, and the three of them went inside.

WHAM!

"Don't drop your things on your desk," Professor Black stated to the redheaded witch. He watched as Ginny glared at him, but he ignored it.

Meanwhile, Miraphina yanked on Ginny's sleeve. "Ginny! Try not to make Professor Black angrier than he already is." The last thing Mira wanted was another detention, but something flitted across her friend's face. She studied Ginny's face before the redhead turned away. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Ginny snapped, and she sat down, putting a seat between Mira and herself.

Mira felt affronted. "Well!" she huffed, and she plopped down in her chair.

"Stop talking," Black ordered. "And I didn't say either of you could sit." Mira immediately rose, but Ginny cupped her cheek in her palm, deciding to stare out the window than pay attention to them. He glared at Ginny, but left her alone. He turned to Miraphina. "Miss Atherton, if you would be so kind as to run to my office down the hall and grab the stack of papers in the middle of my desk." Black tossed her a key to his office. "Don't actually run, though."

"Yes, sir," Mira answered. She walked out of the classroom, glad to get away from those two. Ginny was being a bitch again, and Mira didn't feel like getting caught up in what she was sure would turn into another staring match between the Weasley daughter and their Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

The brunette took her time getting to Professor Black's office. The papers were in the middle of his desk as he had said, and Mira locked the office back up when she was done. She dreaded going back to his classroom, but she ventured there anyhow. She stopped when she heard voices talking inside the room.

"Nothing's wrong, but everything might look better if you kiss me." That sounded like Ginny's voice. But Mira shook her head. The only other person that had been in that room was Black. It can't be him, right? the Hufflepuff asked herself.

But the voice of the answer was certainly Professor Black's. "That can be arranged," he replied.

Mira cracked open the door a bit and gasped loud enough that she was surprised they hadn't heard her. It was Ginny and Black all right, and they were kissing very passionately. Mira was confused on a few levels: first, he was their teacher; second, he was a lot older than them; and third, Mira remembered Ginny saying one of her brothers was dead because he had rescued Black –So why was she kissing this older teacher that Mira thought Ginny despised so much?!

But at the same time Mira had gasped, footsteps to her left had stopped. She turned and saw in horror for Ginny that Charlie was standing a few feet away. The look on his face was questioning. It was obvious that he wondered why she was at the door, staring at him.

Their eyes locked like they had earlier in the day, and Mira suddenly forgave Ginny for everything, because she knew Ginny was going to get it when Charlie saw her and Black making out. But at that thought, Mira couldn't shake something else:

She was picturing herself in Charlie's arms, kissing him the way Ginny was kissing Professor Black.

She could see him towering over her, his lips crushing hers, their breaths one. Worst of all, she wanted it so badly that it was painful to remain frozen where she was. Truly worst of all, she didn't see that line of thought flicker through Charlie's eyes.

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Rewind to about thirty seconds ago…

Charlie had reached the floor where Sirius's classroom was. The now-eldest Weasley boy (if he can still be called that) turned the small packet over in his hand. "I can't believe this," he muttered to himself. "Only now does Mum do her spring cleaning and she finds that she never gave Sirius his Christmas present. Why the bloody hell do I have to deliver this?"

A gasp ahead of him forced Charlie's attention to something outside of his own ponderings and he stopped. His eyes met Miraphina Atherton's and his mind briefly flashed to the chemistry that had occurred between them earlier that day, but she looked like she was in the early stages of choking, considering how beet red she was. She was standing in front of the doors to Sirius's classroom.

Charlie pushed his time with Miraphina earlier out of his mind. "Miss Atherton? What are you doing here?" he asked the Hufflepuff.

"I- uh-" She seemed to be choking on her words. "I have detention with Professor Black," she finally stated.

"So why are you still out here in the hall?"

"Um, he sent me to fetch something from his office," she replied.

He nodded. "I can see that you've procured what he needed, so go on in, Miss Atherton."

"Well, I-"

"I'll come in with you," Charlie offered, stepping closer to the doors. Now he was standing beside her; he kept himself just out of reach, though, because he wasn't sure what it was that had happened between the two of them, though he denied he liked it. He held up a package for her to see. "I have to give him something myself." And then he swung the doors open.

That caught Ginny and Sirius's attention. But that didn't compute with Charlie. Why was she with Sirius? And why like…? They were frozen, Sirius's arms around her waist and Ginny's fingers entwined in his hair.

Charlie felt his blood boil. His nostrils flared. He inhaled and prepared to scream at them. What had happened to Ginny hating this man so much that she wished him dead?! And what the hell was Black doing touching his sister in such an intimate way?!!

But the sound of footsteps brought his attention to Minerva McGonagall. The witch was running as fast as she could in her billowing green and black robes. Worry was evident in her eyes. She was out of breath when she reached Charlie.

"Minerva? What's wrong?" he asked her, glad he could focus on something other than killing Sirius Black.

"Have you seen Remus, Charlie?" she asked, practically ignoring Miraphina's presence. She clutched his arm for support as she tried to regain her breath.

Charlie shook his head just as Sirius came out of his classroom. Apparently, Ginny and Sirius had detached themselves the moment Charlie had turned his head, and Sirius had just heard Minerva ask about Remus.

Minerva saw Sirius appear beside Charlie. "Sirius, have you seen Remus?"

Sirius's brow furrowed. "No, I haven't. Why?"

"It's- It's Tonks," she spluttered, tears pooling in her eyes. "She's suffering a miscarriage as we speak."

Charlie's jaw dropped and Ginny gasped from just inside the room. Sirius, however, clenched his jaw. "And no one's seen him?"

"Not since earlier this evening, no."

"This evening, you say? Well, what does the sky look like?"

Realization dawned in her eyes. "Oh. Well, it's cloudy tonight. We can't see the moon or a single star."

Sirius side-stepped the Transfiguration teacher and marched to the other side of the corridor and gazed out the window. Right then, a few clouds parted, enough to see the moon. The full moon.

A far off howl echoed at the foot of the mountains.

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Drama aside, anyone surprised by Ginrius? No? Yes? Let me know in a review. Oh, and 8's kinda a Charlie chapter, and it's…good.

Meh, you'll understand when you read it.

-mew-tsubaki