A/N: This character has been in mind for some time, but I wasn't sure how to incorporate her. Hope you enjoy it, pottersweetie. :)

Charlie:

She's platinum blonde, with legs a mile long and fierce eyes to match. When she walks into my bar that night, every head swivels to face her, soaking her in. It doesn't take me long to realize the reason behind this strange attraction.

There's no other answer. She's part Veela. She hides it well, appearing just as any other human as she sits at the bar and asks a dumbstruck Tommy for a drink, but I can see it in her. I'm good at seeing that sort of thing straightaway.

Merlin, she's just so beautiful.

x x x

Skylar:

Yeah, I recognize her. I mean, how could I forget? The Tri/Quadwizard Tournament. Fleur Delacour. I don't think anyone could forget. Especially not when she looks like that.

She has the whole bar in an uproar around her, and she barely even notices. I look up from cleaning tables to see even faithful Laurence momentarily distracted from his girlfriend. Tommy, who's forgetful to begin with, seems to have no idea where the drink Fleur's requesting is stored. I abandon my table with a sigh, deciding to help.

"What does she want, Tommy?" I ask, swinging back behind the bar next to my coworker.

"S-single-malt wh-whisky," he stutters back at me, a ridiculous smile stretching out his face from side to side. I spare him a smile and give the boy a gentle push towards the back.

"Go stick your head in a bucket of water or something. I'll take care of it."

"Th-thanks, Skylar." The silly grin remains, but he manages to find his way out in any case.

Apparently impervious to this girl's unearthly beauty, I nonchalantly pour a glass of whisky and slide it across the bar to her. She accepts it with a surprisingly nervous smile and an almost inaudible, "Merci."

I take pity and lean in on my elbows, cocking my head to one side. "Are you okay?" I question.

She doesn't look up, but her eyes twitch slightly. "I just… I hate this part." A French accent twists the words around her tongue.

"What part?"

"The part where I sit at the bar alone and everyone stares."

"Ah." I twist my mouth wryly. "I can't say I know how you feel."

She grins a bit more. "I'm sorry… I don't mean to…"

I wave my hand carelessly. "It's fine. I can imagine that it's hard. I can imagine that you don't want… you don't want to be alone. Alone but watched." A sigh escapes from between my lips. "No one does."

Fleur doesn't respond after that, other than another small smile and a muttered "Oui." I go off to take care of other customers and don't give her another thought… at least not until Charlie comes out of the back room.

He seems instantly drawn to her, like every other male in the room. But unlike the others, he approaches her.

"Are you Miss Delacour?" he asks her, sauntering up with a patented Charlie grin.

"Uh, oui?"

"I remember you – the Beauxbatons champion of the Triwizard Tournament."

She takes a bigger gulp of the single-malt. "I don't really like to recall that…"

"Right, right, I'm sorry." She finishes the drink and tries to hand the money to Charlie, but he won't take it. He just keeps smiling. "It's fine, Miss Delacour, it's on the house tonight."

"The house?"

"Free."

At this point Tommy comes over and tells me to finish up with the tables while business has momentarily slowed down, so I find myself out of earshot. But it doesn't take a genius to figure out that Charlie is hitting on her.

Merlin, for all his talk of Kath, what is this supposed to be? Flirting with some innocent French girl? Just because she's pretty?

Why does it matter to you? a voice in my head inquires snidely.

It doesn't, I reply firmly. It's just that she's probably waiting for someone.

And right on cue, someone walks through the door – in the impossible, ironic form of Viktor Krum. Tall, strong, and Bulgarian, he silences the room with his very presence, stalking across the room with an atmosphere surrounding him that Cornelius Fudge would kill for. Charlie, still enraptured with Delacour's company, doesn't seem to see him come in. But Fleur does, and (I notice with a hint of glee), she turns to him immediately.

"Viktor! You're late!"

"I know, I apologize." He sits down next to her, casting my redheaded boss a glare, who in turn looks a bit put off.

"Would you like something to drink?" Charlie asks him meekly.

"Water." He smirks and looks away, his gaze resting fully on Fleur. The French girl finally seems at ease, her expression instantly relaxing as she basks in the familiarity of her companion.

Looking deflated, Charlie returns to his rightful place behind the bar, but I'm suddenly feeling irritated and in no mood to talk with him. I sneak into the back room and have just begun pretending to look for something when I hear his footsteps follow me in.

"Skylar?"

"Yes." I don't bother turning around.

"I'm…" He heaves a great sigh. "I'm sorry you had to see that."

"See what?"

"Me blatantly hitting on a taken Fleur Delacour."

I laugh shortly. "Oh, that. Haha, it's fine, Charlie. It's cute."

"No, it's not. It's horrible." He sits down on a barrel in the corner of the room, and I suddenly get the feeling he's apologizing more to himself than to me. "It's just that I haven't done that in the longest time. Care only because of looks."

When I don't say anything, he keeps going. "With me, it's always been more than that. I have to get to know the girl first, it has to be the personality, the spirit, the witty words and the fiery comebacks that draw me in. It's just been so long since Kath…" He trails off wistfully, my heart melts, and I finally turn around.

"Charlie, we all have the moments in which we forget. We act like people who aren't us, and we make mistakes, and we think things…" Merlin, I can't even tell him how much experience I'm speaking from. "You're over-thinking this. Fleur is just another pretty face, and she stood out for that reason. But the point is that Viktor came and you didn't do anything wrong."

He hangs his head and I wonder if he was even listening. "She would hate who I've become."

"Charlie bloody Weasley. You're an amazing guy, and I know for a fact that if Kath was standing here now, she'd feel the same way she did back then." Of course I don't know this for a fact, having never met the girl, but it doesn't seem like anyone could ever feel badly towards Charlie Weasley.

"Now get out there and serve someone a bloody rum."

He looks up then, and flashes me that Weasley grin as he jumps off the barrel and walks back out. For a moment I just sit there and laugh to myself, because of how reversed our roles were in that moment, and then I realize I should be helping him. So I run back out, leaving the empty room behind.

A/N: I forget whether it's the next chapter, or the one after, or maybe both – but either way things are going to get shaken up a bit. :D Just a heads up!