The Bertram's cottage was a cosy three bedroom stone cottage facing onto a nice lake. The small garden surrounding the house was filled with multi-coloured flowers and plants, some magical and non-magical. At the back of the cottage was some woodland and some hills that the group were excited to spend some time walking.

The four friends spent their first evening barbequing, a muggle way of cooking outside without magic. Charlie and Ophelia watched as Dev and Amory worked to get the barbeque going (eventually using a little bit of magic to get it lit) and cooking the food. The dinner of baked potatoes, sausages, burgers and vegetable skewers was tasty. They also drank elven wine that Ophelia had stolen from the Rowle's wine cellar.

Their first full day at the cottage was spent swimming and kayaking on the lake. Again Charlie and Ophelia were amused by the amount of effort that muggles put into moving across lakes in small boats. A quick charm meant they were speeding past Dev and Amory in their own kayaks as they insisted on doing it the muggle way.

By the time they had the barbeque lit Charlie's sides hurt from laughing. As the sun didn't set until ten at night the hours after the barbeque were spent playing exploding snap on the picnic table in the garden. As they had planned a hike for the next day so they all decided to have an early night.

Charlie climbed into bed, in the twin room he was sharing with Dev, he listened to Dev's soft snoring and tried to sleep but he found that he couldn't. Eventually after several hours of running recent events through his head he fell asleep, exhausted. He was unfortunately awoken only a few hours after he finally fell asleep. He sleepily ae his breakfast and followed his friends out the door and started up the hill.

They were two miles up the hill before Charlie started to wake up. He was thankful when two miles and a half miles in Ophelia handed him a flask of coffee. "You look exhausted."

"I feel exhausted."

"Did you not sleep well?"

"No."

"Me neither." She replied, though she gave no further explanation of why.

The walk was slow and steady and after the coffee and some fresh air Charlie began to enjoy being outside, surrounded by trees, plants and birds. He listened quietly to Amory's observations on plants and Dev's comments about the view of the lake from the hill. They reached the top and looked out over the scenes in front of them. Amory had told them to look for the mountains in the distance but the cloudy Scottish summer day meant that the normally visible mountains were hidden by dark grey clouds. They could however see green fields, lush woodlands and the blue lake next to the cottage.

After staring out over the land they lay down on a mat Dev conjured up and ate some of the bread and cheese that Amory had brought up in her backpack. They sat at the top of the hill for over an hour before they made their way down. The walk had taken them much less time than they had anticipated so they had most of the afternoon to enjoy. With some persuasion directed at Amory they spent much of the afternoon playing Quidditch. As the cottage was so rural with some muggle avoidance spells cast on it upon their arrival they could fly much more freely than Charlie could fly in the burrow.

That night they had a third barbeque. Charlie and Dev took control and only managed to burn about a quarter of the food. The massive feast was consumed quickly. The four of them were so focused on enjoying each other's company that they didn't notice that sun was setting until it was almost completely dark.

The days that followed were spent much in the same way. Swimming in the lake, walking in the forest, the occasional game of Quidditch or wizard chess and cooking together in the evening. Charlie could hardly remember a more enjoyable time.

On the last day full day of their holiday the four friends decided to climb Ben Nevis. It was the tallest mountain in the United Kingdom so would definitely be a challenge for the four relative inexperienced walkers, but with unrivalled determination and some sandwiches made by Ophelia in their bags they apparated to the foot of the mountain early in the morning and set off.

The first hour of walking was spent in relaxed conversation as they walked up a steady incline. As the climb got harder the talking diffused. They found that the path was quite popular and a large number of muggles were also making their way up the path. An older couple in their sixties with mountaineering sticks make some small talk with the group. Dev and Amory did most of the talking, as half bloods and muggle borns they were able to lead the conversation with the muggle walkers better.

It took them almost five hours to get to the top, afterwhich they sat down on the ground and pulled out their sandwiches and snacks. After eating Dev and Amory decided to find a quiet space to apparate back to the cottage, too exhausted from the climb to make the journey back down. Ophelia and Charlie decided that they would make the climb down, not ones to give up on a task.

The walk back down was almost as physically exhausting as the walk up. The rocky path made it difficult to make their way down without stumbling. They laughed and joked, trying to stay clear of conversations that would mention magic in case they were overheard by one of the nearby groups of muggles who were following them down or passing them on the way up Ben Nevis. Ophelia walked ahead of him as the path was too narrow in parts for them to walk side by side while other people were passing them in the opposite direction.

On one of the muddier parts of the path down Charlie and Ophelia helped each other across the rocks to prevent each other from falling.

"This has been the best week." Charlie said, as the stumbled over rocks.

"I know. I am so sad that we go home tomorrow." Ophelia replied, "I am not ready for this week to be over."

Just as Charlie was about to reply he saw Ophelia start to slip and reached out a grabbed her by her arm. He caught her before she could fall and using both hands he pulled her up and towards him. She giggled in an action that was somewhat out of character and Charlie grasped her arms to steady her.

In the future, when he looked back on that moment Charlie could not be sure what came over him but he leaned in and kissed Ophelia. It was sweet, gentle and quick. When he pulled away from her he felt the absence of her lips on his. He opened his eyes and looked at Ophelia. She looked stunned but not displeased. She leaned in closer to him, her eyes fixed on his lips. He leaned in towards her face and kissed her again. This time wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back.

It was quite a while before they broke apart and only after hearing one person yell at them to get a room. They walked down Ben Nevis hand in hand in silence after that. Neither of them knowing what to say. Charlie's mind was entirely occupied by thoughts of his kiss with Ophelia. Ophelia's mind was a confusion of feelings and emotions.

It took them a little over two hours to get from the summit to the base of the mountain. They looked for a quiet place to apparate back to the house in silence. Charlie wanted to say something before the apparated but couldn't think of what to say. Ophelia wanted to talk to him too. Her mind was filled with questions, namely; what was that kiss? Why did it happen? What do we do next? She couldn't voice any of those questions, so with her hand still in his they apparated back to the house in silence.

The apparated just a hundred metres from the front door of the Bertram's cottage. When they arrived Charlie turned round to Ophelia, searching for words to say to her. There was so much he needed to say but he couldn't find the words, "Ophelia I-"

Before Charlie could finish his sentence or even his train of thought his was interrupted by Amory who came out of the house and yelled, "Ophie, Charlie, get in here and help me prep dinner." Charlie opened his mouth to protest but Ophelia gave him a small smile as she turned and walked towards the house.

Charlie watched as she walked towards the house. He turned and looked out at the lake, trying to formulate his thoughts on the day. In the kitchen Ophelia started to chop peppers for their vegetable skewers. Amory enchanted a whip to whisk a chocolate moose together as she got the marinated chicken out of the fridge.

"So did I interrupt something outside?" Amory asked.

"It was nothing."

"It didn't look like nothing."

"Charlie and I kissed." Ophelia was surprised to find that she was greeted by silence, not something that was normal for Amory. Ophelia turned around and looked at Amory, her mouth agape. Amory stood there for a few moments before she was able to close her mouth. "Are you ok?"

"I…. I just can't believe it." Amoy said, "So, what happens now?"

"I don't know." Ophelia asked.

"Are you going to end it with Cato?"

"I don't know."

Amory sensed that her friend did not want to talk about what was going on any further and so abandoned the conversation and focused on changing the conversation to how Dev and Amory had spent the afternoon. Ophelia barely listened.

That night Charlie and Ophelia were both silent as they ate dinner. Dev looked around the group perplexed by the uncomfortable silence which had fallen over his closest friends. When he opened his mouth to ask his friends if everything was alright Amory shook her head violently and gave him a look at which he immediately filed his mouth with green beans.

Immediately after dinner Ophelia exclaimed that she was exhausted and went to bed. Charlie wanted to stop her, to insist that they talk but his mind was in a muddle and it was clear she was not ready for a conversation so he let Ophelia go to bed and settled down to play a muggle board game called monopoly. At first Charlie thought it was boring. None of the pieces did anything cool and the board did not seem to do anything of interest. However after a while he got into it and his competitive nature triumphed over his disinterest in the game. It took almost five hours to beat Amory and Dev. After his victory the three of them retired to bed. It took Charlie a while to get to sleep with the event of the day occupying his mind so completely. He finally fell asleep shortly before the sun began to rise.

Charlie slept late the next morning. He finally awoke when Dev brought him a bacon roll and a large coffee. Charlie was grateful for his best friend's intervention. He consumed his bacon roll and drank his coffee quickly in his bed before he got dressed and made his way down the stairs. It was almost midday at the point that he arrived in the kitchen with his bag packed. Amory was sitting at the table drinking coffee while Dev was putting his trainers in the corner. Charlie sat down and opened the daily prophet.

He turned to the sport and was reading about the match the day before between the Norwegian team the Karasjok Kites and the Ballycastle Bats. The Kites had won by more than three hundred points, a disappointing result for the Ballycastle Bats. By the time Charlie had finished reading the article Dev had his bag on his back and was getting ready to apparate home.

"What time are you due at your grandparents Amory?" Dev asked.

"Not for another hour." Amory replied, "I still have to finish packing."

"So we should probably head soon." Charlie concluded. "Shall I go see where Ophie has got to?"

Amory looked at Charlie with a slightly concerned expression on her face.

"Ophelia left about an hour ago." Dev said hesitantly.

"Oh." Charlie replied, before immediately jumping up cheerfully. "So we should all probably get going."

"Yeah." Dev agreed, looking at Charlie with concern on his face.

Charlie's fake optimism continued until after he had hugged Dev and Amory goodbye and apparated back to the Burrow. When he arrived he walked back to the tall lean building that was the Burrow somberly. His mind filled with thoughts of Ophelia.

And they finally kissed! Thanks so much for reading! I would love it if you left a review xx