I humbly apologise for the lack of any updates here! It is due to dissertation dread/a trip to Berlin/other assessments! Pitiful excuses I know but sometimes you just can't write. I hope you all enjoy their first date...I know Charlie did.
The rest of the week sort of flew by in Charlie's mind. Nothing much happened for him, other than Fleur and Bill leaving the Burrow and making their way back to Shell Cottage, which he was both sad and pleased about. No more banging headboards against his bedroom, but then no Bill to banter with. At least it didn't take much to visit Shell Cottage, but knowing those two he'd have to give a few days warning otherwise he'd walk into something he most definitely didn't want to see. The house began to feel more and more normal to Charlie, not completely, it could never truly go back to how it used to be. Especially when Fred's hand was no longer on the family clock, he hadn't noticed it at first, though when he did he ask his mum about its whereabouts she burst into tears and told hi that it had just fallen off and that it was somewhere inside the big old clock. Charlie nor his mother could stand to dig it out and so it stayed in the clock, lodged and lost but not forgotten.
The house had pits and peaks of busyness and solitude. Charlie found himself in both of them. Bill and Fleur were to come to tea twice a week and this made the house a lot busier in the evenings, however the days were a whole other story.
Percy and Mr Weasley were back in the Ministry working long hours in an attempt to help reorganise the Ministry of Magic, they always came back late from the office, tired and hungry but both said that there was already so much progress. George still spent much of his time at the shop in Diagon Alley however made appearances at his mum's insistence, knowing full well that he was not alone in his grief. Ron and Ginny were often around the house, though often with their respective counterparts, disappearing into the fields behind the house and to quiet rooms in the house.
Charlie questioned his mums leniency with the two couples and got an answer that thoroughly surprised and outraged him.
"Don't you think they deserve some peace Charles?" She had sounded a little affronted.
"Well yeah…I mean after everything…" Charlie replied stuttering over his words, completely shocked that she would take such a stance.
"Yes. They've been through too much, too young and they deserve time to be young." Charlie heard the tears in her voice as she thought over what the trio had told them one evening that week.
It hadn't been forced out of them, and they still hadn't told all but they had explained where they went and how they lived and the kind of mission that had been left to them. The entire family had been shocked, there were rumours running wild throughout the Wizarding world but hearing the story first hand and the dangers that the trio had faced made the family really begin to question the seriousness of the trio's involvement. How had three teenagers defeated the Dark Lord and faced so many other dangers on their own?
And so the days were quiet with the two couples spending their time together away from the house. Leaving Charlie and his mother to go about the Burrow doing odd jobs that needed doing. The house wasn't in it's best state as Charlie soon came to find with the list that his mother presented him with at the start of every day. He was doing gardening in the summer heat, his mother by his side and he honestly didn't mind that, the degnoming had started and the land needed weeding, soil turning and such. He knew his mum was enjoying his company after spending so many years away with only a few visits a year at most and so Charlie too made the most out of this time.
Sunday came by and after a shower, washing the days grimy tasks from his body Charlie set out for London. He arrived in Diagon Alley to find the streets bustling with patrons enjoying their Saturday evening, but Charlie turned away from the Wizarding world and made his way through the Leaky Cauldron and out into the just as busy streets of muggle London. He followed streams of people down the warmed streets, everyone dressed up, suddenly making Charlie very self conscious of his own clothing choices. Not something that usually occurred to Charlie, but for some reason he worried that he'd stand out as different, although he was wearing a light blue shirt and his good pair of jeans and he'd even cleaned his boots up a little for the date. His mum had been very keen to know where he was going so dressed up but Charlie had quickly left the house causing more questions to be thrown his way as he jumped the fence at the end of the garden and apparated away without answering one.
The tubes were confusing to Charlie and after struggling for fifteen minutes and then having to ask a stranger passing by which line he should be taking to get to Notting Hill Gate, did he make it through, although he did have trouble with the machines both buying tickets and attempting to get through the gates themselves and as such he was running considerably late. Dashing up the moving stairs to get out of the tube and onto the streets above he found himself faced with swarms of people walking the street making it exceedingly difficult to find the one person he was looking for.
"Charlie!" Called a voice and he turned and found that he could just make out the eyes and forehead of his date above the crowd. Turning around Charlie quickly made his way to just below the Notting Hill Gate tube sign where she stood. Charlie couldn't help but let his eyes rove over her body as he came to face her. Her dark hair was loose about her, shining in the late evening summer sunshine, coming down just below her shoulders and curling a little. But her hair wasn't what captivated him so, her body had been hidden under ungainly uniform the only other times he'd actually seen her. And here she stood in a short dress that hugged her every curve, and did she have curves. The dress was a simple, powder blue that brought out the tanned colour of her skin, skin that glowed in the evening sun. Her legs were toned and slender, leading to a hips and a waist that undulated perfectly with a slight chest on her. She looked beautiful and sexy to Charlie all at once and as he came to stand right in front of her perhaps a little too close, it took him a moment to be able to recalculate his brain to actually speak to the woman before him.
"Ros." He said, his hand coming to the back of his neck as he felt the beginnings of a flush. "Sorry I'm late…had trouble with the tubes." He told her honestly.
"It's fine, I mean I totally get it, they're difficult to get used to." There was a pause. A pause that suddenly had Charlie wondering whether he had perhaps been too rash in his thoughts on Ros. Maybe their somewhat seemingly magnetic connection had all been in his imagination?
Taking a deep breath, Charlie lifted his eyes from the woman below him, in height and watched the other people making their way through the busy London streets, laughing and talking all the time, silence couldn't really be found out here on the street.
"So what do you want to do?" He asked her, glancing back down to meet her brown-eyed gaze.
"Aren't you supposed to have thought of that already? I mean it was you that asked me to go on the date in the first place." She said, folding her arms and looking up at him cockily.
"Well, I am only just becoming newly reacquainted with England right now so I feel that perhaps I am a little out of the know." He said, though he did have ideas up his sleeve, he hadn't actually come fully prepared…but when had he ever?
"Alright then." Ros calculated and looked about as though searching for inspiration.
"Food first." Charlie announced suddenly.
Ros smiled, "Absolutely." She agreed before reaching out and taking his hand and dragging him to her side to walk and then let go quickly as though suddenly embarrassed at her own audacity. Charlie looked over to her and saw a blush on her cheeks and grinned to himself, shoving his hands into his pockets and holding back his usual large strides to walk in time with her.
"So where are we going?" He asked.
"You'll have to wait and see." She told him with a soft smirk that he found adorable. "Still enjoying being home?" She asked him as they continued down the streets of London.
"Absolutely. It's actually really nice, it's been too long I think, no, I know it's been too long."
"How long?" She asked.
"About a year since I was last home and that had only been for a week or so."
"That is a long time. I bet your family is glad to have you back..." She said, leaving the question open.
"They're all very happy, all seven of them." He told her looking for a reaction, and he received she turned to him aghast.
"Seven?" She exclaimed loudly in the street.
Charlie guffawed "Yes seven, including mum and dad."
"Still, that seems very excessive."
"Well, it's what I've always been used to."
"So what number are you?" She asked interestedly, moving slightly closer to him as they continued to walk. Charlie could see her glancing up at him from the corner of her eye every so often as she lead them down the streets.
"Number two of six." He still didn't feel right attempting to even explain Freddie so he left him out, which felt no better than if he'd actually brought him up in the first place, but Charlie continued on in the hopes that the conversation would move on and so could he.
"Wow…That's a lot of siblings." She pointed out.
"Yup."
"I was the number one and only. I bet that's a strange thought for you and your overly large family."
"Yeah…I just couldn't imagine not having them." He said, but felt his heart ache at the fact that one of them was missing. "So it's you and your mum and dad?" He asked attempting to move the conversation wholly onto her.
"Yeah, they worked a lot, but we have a good friendship base at home. It seemed that there was a large influx of young couples who were settling down in our village at home at the same time my parents moved there." She told him.
"Where's home for you then?"
"In the Yorkshire dales, a tiny village surrounded by fields and farms, miles from any decent shopping, nothing like here." She said and gestured about herself, seeming somewhat in awe of the city that surrounded her.
"Sounds very much like where I'm from, but I'm down in Devon." He told her as they meandered on, him following her lead through the muggle streets.
"How did you get here then?" She asked with a confused face. Charlie almost hit himself in the head, he hadn't thought about the fact that he was supposed to have come from home, Devon to go on a date with her.
"Oh, um, my-my brother has a flat in London." He stumbled over his words.
"Oh cool. I'd ask where but I still haven't got to grips with London so I wouldn't know. And likely you wouldn't even know." She said and bumped her slight body into his. Her arm grazing his own in the dying summers heat. Her skin felt soft against his arm and Charlie found he rather enjoyed the feeling and somewhat revelled in it when she didn't move away from him a blush on her cheeks once more.
"Good observation." He told her looking down to see a smile playing on her lips. "And you're here for what was it?"
"An internship, only for two weeks but it's not paid so that's why I'm working in the bar. I'm also living on a friend's sofa while I'm here. Very glamorous." She said with a roll of her eyes.
"So what are you doing the rest of the year?"
"University, going into my final year now, I'm studying English Literature."
"Brilliant. I was never one for literature unfortunately, although my brothers girlfriend never seems to not have a book in her hand." He told her, the words just coming freely about his family, naturally.
"Well I love it." She told him as she reached out and grasped his forearm and pulled him off the main street and into a tiny oriental restaurant that had lanterns hanging from the ceiling, casting a soft glow over the few patrons sitting at the small tables. "You do like Indian right?" She asked, suddenly looking quite young and vulnerable in Charlie's eyes.
"Of course." Charlie said and watched in relief as a smile lit up her face. In fact Charlie had only ever experienced Indian food once before and it hadn't been his favourite experience. David being a muggleborn had introduced the cuisine to him on one of his many visits and had insisted he try the hottest one. Charlie had since vowed to never again eat Indian food. But this girl, who's hair shone in the setting sun, casting auburn tones to it's deep brown colour and who's eyes were shining happily, this girl he didn't think he could say no to.
They were seated towards the back of the tiny restaurant, the tables by the windows already having been taken, they were given menus and left to their own devices.
"How do you feel about ordering a few things and then just sharing?" She asked staring down at her menu in concentration.
"Sounds good for me, I have to say it has been a while since I've had Indian so I mean you can have free reign on the menu…just nothing too spicy." Charlie told her.
"I thought you said you liked Indian food?"
"I do. I do, I just, not too spicy." He told her without meeting her gaze, keeping it on the worn wooden table below him.
"You could have said, we can go somewhere else." She told him and almost readied herself to leave.
"No, please." He told her reaching out as he did and holding her hand in his own in an attempt to appease her. She looked a little shocked but tucked herself under the table a little more and Charlie released his hold on her, his hand tingling somewhat.
"Ok, well maybe we'll share some bits and you can have a not so spicy dish and I'll have something super spicy." She grinned at him over her menu.
Charlie laughed and picked up the menu to look at only to find that he didn't really understand what was being presented to him, foreign names that he just could not understand. Placing the menu down instead of attempting to understand it, which had always been Charlie's technique through school, and instead surveyed the girl in front of him while she was busy looking at the menu. Her hair, down and curled slightly looked exceedingly soft and all Charlie really wanted to do was run his fingers through its length. Her eyes had a dark, smudged around them making her seem sultry, especially when she glanced up to meet his gaze and smiled softly at him. Charlie also noted the magnificent view of her cleavage from his viewpoint, the advantage being his height.
She looked up suddenly at the approach of the waiter who asked for the order to which she replied with what sounded like a lot of food. She finished her order with a pointed look to Charlie at which he looked back at her and shrugged his shoulders quickly.
"He'll have a korma." She said with a roll of her eyes that had both Charlie and their waiter laughing. "And two lagers." She said and the waiter left.
"Guessing my food order was one thing but my drink order too?" He demanded of her, unconsciously leaning forward into the table. Charlie noted that she took a similar position to him, both leaning into one another.
"Well, it may have been a guess but seeing as how I have taken your drinks order before I do know that you happen to like beer." She told him smirking all the while, her hand lifting to twirl her hair around her finger and Charlie was all of a sudden very jealous of said finger.
The two sat as drinks and food kept appearing on the table, talking all the while, about families and friends as steadily the food on the table began to disappear.
"I'm so full." Ros moaned, falling back from the table and into her chair swigging from her third beer.
"Agreed." Charlie, drinking his fourth beer raised his glass in a mock salute to her. "That was amazing."
"I thought you didn't like Indian food." Ros teased.
"Well maybe you've converted me." He told her with a wink and watched as she blushed, Charlie couldn't help but love the way her skin changed as she blushed.
"What time is it?" She asked suddenly.
With a look at the watch on his wrist Charlie told her that it was 10.30pm in shock. A look out the window showed the couple in the restaurant how much time had passed without their realisation. It was dark on the streets, only the street lamps lighting the way.
"Wow, we should get the bill." Ros noted and quickly asked for it.
"I'll pay." Charlie told her and took the bill from the waiter as he brought it over.
"No I'll pay half at least." She told him reaching into her handbag for her purse.
"No, no. Honestly." Charlie told her rummaging through his own wallet for his muggle money and once more, becoming stumped at how it all worked. Looking up he caught her watching him with a smirk that had her biting her lip.
"Need any help there sir?" She asked coyly.
"Well if you don't mind helping…still not used to it." He muttered under his breath feeling embarrassed as he passed his wallet over to her, only to be stumped as she held the hand with wallet in one of her own as she worked her other hands fingers through the compartments. The hand holding his own felt delicate and tiny beneath his but it was warm and soft he looked up to her face to find her concentrating on the task at hand and he hoped, once again, that she wasn't paying too much attention to the foreign money in there. Pulling both her hands away she then quickly reached into her own purse pulled out a note and handed the mixture of his own muggle money and hers to the waiter, standing quickly as she did and making her way out into the cooling Sunday evening.
"I said I'd pay." He told her as he joined her on the pavement once more.
"Yes and I wanted to help so we paid half each. Equal." She told him with a grin as she folded her arms about herself and shivered a little in the evening air.
"Well, thank you." Charlie said and placed an arm over her shoulders and pulled her into his side. She seemed grateful and snuggled deeper into his side as they began to walk slowly through the night.
"I'd say we could continue the night somewhere else but Sunday nights really aren't the best for late nights and I do have to be in the office tomorrow." She told him softly in the now quiet night streets.
"So this date would have continued if it could have?" Charlie asked curious, glad that she had seemed to enjoy his company as much as he had enjoyed hers.
"Yep." She told him lightly. "We'd have gone on to this bar that's not too far from here that's loud and raucous, especially on a Saturday night."
"Sounds like a great night." He told her and she giggled softly moving closer to his side so that they were walking with no space between them.
"We'll just have to have another one." She told him and looked up to see his reaction. Charlie couldn't help but grin down at her.
"Brilliant idea." He told her squeezing her shoulder and continuing down the street, perhaps with even more of a spring in his step.
The tube sign for Notting Hill Gate came into view and Charlie didn't want it to end, not quite yet. The streets were practically empty and there was a slight chill to the air now, but she was all the life that he needed in that moment; bright and warm against his side.
"Let me walk you home?" He asked quickly as the tube sign only got closer.
She stopped still and looked up at him curiously. "I hope you don't think I'll be inviting into the house, I mean a) not my flat, b) I'm sleeping on a sofa and c) I'm not that kind of gal." Out of his grasp he could see goose bumps appearing on her tanned skin, she ticked off each reason on her fingers and looked defiantly at him once she'd finished, as though asking him to argue with her.
"Well-no-I…I just want to walk you home and then I'll go home too." He told her, stumbling again and again on his words under her gaze. She smiled at him and moved back to fit into his side, taking the hand from his side and laying it back over her shoulder. She began walking again and Charlie kept pace with her his fingers moving softly against the skin on her shoulder, he couldn't help but let his fingers play with the soft skin below his fingertips. Ros didn't seem to mind, in fact she seemed to sigh at the ministrations in a very contented way.
"When do you go back home then?" He asked her suddenly.
"Well I'll be finished in the office on Friday and I won't be working at the pub next weekend but I'm hoping to camp on Hayden's sofa for that weekend and then go home on the Monday for a few weeks and then it'll be back to Bath for me."
"You'll be a lot further away soon then." He noted, a little disappointed having hoped that perhaps this could have been something…more.
"But I'll be coming back down to London quite a bit to see friends and such, I'll keep in touch with you. Let you know what's…going on." Ros said, though seemingly had turned shy.
"Brilliant." Was Charlie's only reply as they walked on.
"This one's me…well Hayden's that is." She told him and removed herself from his side, rubbing her arms as she did so. "I had a wonderful evening Charlie." She told him grinning softly at him.
"I-yes it was great." Charlie told her, feeling a blush creep to the tips of his ears.
Ros took a step forward her lip between her teeth as she moved so that her head was inclined fully to see into his face. Charlie lowered his own face, his hands running up and down her arms for her as hers rested softly against his chest and Charlie touched his lips to Ros's. She was soft in all senses in that moment, her lips beneath his own were warm and soft and brilliant, her arms soft and smooth, soon he was pulling her closer his mouth opening with her own and his tongue flicking against her own in a delectable way. They stood close, kissing softly in the moonlight of a summers evening until Ros pulled back and giggled at Charlie's face at the abrupt end.
"I've got to go in." She told him before reaching up on her tiptoes to press her lips once more against Charlie's still shocked lips before she turned to the door, where she struggled with the handle, jimmying it up and down a few times before it let her in. She closed the door but then bent down and Charlie watched as the letterbox opened and she shouted through.
"Thanks for a lovely evening Charlie. Night!" And with that she disappeared.
Charlie stood for a moment outside her door, shocked and in a state of bliss. He hadn't been with a girl romantically for a while and in that somewhat simple kiss with Ros he'd felt stirrings for the first time in a bit. But she'd run off so quickly, he couldn't have acted on them anyway. Charlie grinned at the now empty door and lifted his hand to the back of his neck and began to walk back up the street to where he'd seen an alleyway he could apparate home from.
What Charlie hadn't realised was that there was a blushing girl watching from her window, blushing a bright red and touching her smiling lips as he disappeared into the night and down the next street…or so she thought.