Chapter Twelve – Trapped and Freed.

Charlie was beginning to achieve a high level of what is known as cabin fever, he believed as he had now been holed up inside of the increasingly tiny Shell Cottage for the entire month of January and three quarters of February. He had watched snow, rain, hail, wind, sandstorms and a little bit of sun from every window in the house. He was the undefeated champion at every kind of card game and had even invented thirty six new games and was of course, champion at those too. He had cooked, he had cleaned, he had read, he had sketched. He was going insane.

"I think Charlie needs entertaining," Bill sighed as he came downstairs and into the kitchen where Adele and Fleur were sitting at the table doing a jigsaw. "It's someone else's turn, I cannot play one more bloody card game with him!"

"Busy," Fleur said in a bored voice. "We 'ave three thousand jigsaw pieces to match up."

"Yeah, it's crazy in here, watch out!" Adele joked as Bill filled the copper kettle with water from the tap and set it on the stove to heat.

"He's just so used to being active and out and about, it's really killing him being here," Bill sighed again and Adele felt the usual twinge of guilt as she put a couple of jigsaw pieces together.

"Adele could keep 'im entertained, I'm sure she'll think of something," Fleur smiled as she fitted a few more pieces of the jigsaw together. "Hmm?"

"I'm not going to dignify that with a response," Adele replied with sarcastic haughtiness as she undid what Fleur had just put together and corrected it with the pieces she had in her hand. "He's a big boy, he can entertain himself."

"Merlin, now we've resorted to poor innuendos," Bill sighed as he filled four cups with water from the kettle. "And I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this kind of talk about my little brother!"

"Oh, eet's all natural Bill, if 'e iz anything like you then Adele is a very lucky lady!" Fleur said, making Bill and Adele both cringe in unison. "What?"

"Too much, just too much," Adele mumbled, shaking her head at Fleur.

"Well, I 'ear they get it from Arthur," Fleur added quietly but rather matter of factly all the same. Adele gaped at her, open mouthed and quite frankly, deeply horrified.

"I'll take his tea up," Adele said quickly, getting up from the table and throwing down her jigsaw pieces. "No, God please, let me," Adele begged as Bill went to escape the kitchen himself. She took the mugs from the counter and hurried out of the door and up the stairs.

"Your muzzer told me," Fleur said to Bill, her voice following behind Adele as she reached the top of the stairs. She was glad to be out of that conversation. She knocked on Charlie's door and went straight in, pushing the door open with her elbow.

"Tea?" Adele said brightly, smiling at Charlie who was laying on his front on his single bed and reading a rather fat novel.

"Cheers," Charlie smiled back, reaching for the mug that Adele was offering him. "This is utter twaddle."

Adele lifted the novel so she could see the title. "This is Chaucer!"

"You say it like it's supposed to mean something to me?" Charlie said rather sarcastically, sipping his tea as Adele sat on the edge of the bed.

"Chaucer was, is, one of the greatest playwrights of the Muggle world, good Lord Charlie, don't you know anything?" Adele sighed, mildly out raged at his words. "True, they are difficult to read but come on!"

"Says the jigsaw queen of Shell Cottage?" Charlie teased, nudging Adele playfully. They laughed at each other and drank their tea while Adele flicked through the Wife of Bath with mild interest.

"I've got something to tell you," Charlie said slowly when the tea was almost drunk and they had been sitting in silence for five minutes.

"Oh yeah? What?" Adele asked lightly but her insides were squirming like worms. Did he know? Had he found out? Was it that obvious?

"I got a letter from Romania," Charlie began with a slight sigh. "I'm going back. They need me, they've been infiltrated by Death Eaters more than once in a bid to steal dragons for You-Know-Who and seeing as I pretty much abandoned them to deal with it, I feel it's my duty to at least support them through this."

"I see," Adele nodded, drinking in his words. "I understand. Do what you've got to do."

"I want you to come back with me," Charlie added, looking at Adele rather seriously. "I need to know you'll be safe."

"Oh Charlie, I don't know," Adele began uneasily, instantly thinking about more run ins with Cassie. "What about Fleur and Bill? Plus, there's the messy situation with your wife."

"Forget about her, she's nothing to me any more. Plus, we'll hardly even see her. Come on Adele, please agree. I really need to go but I can't go without you."

"Well, it would be good to get out of this house I suppose and the Ministry are hardly going to be looking for me in Romania," Adele agreed. "Plus, it would give Bill and Fleur more space, they've barely had a minute to themselves since they got married."

"Exactly," Charlie nodded, smiling widely. "I should tell you, we'll be camping and acting as look outs."

"Correction my man, you'll be on look out, I'll be somewhere safe and warm," Adele corrected with a grin. Charlie rolled his eyes and tossed Chaucer on the floor.

"It'll be romantic, duh," Charlie explained, rolling on his back and casually putting his head in Adele's lap. "Sleeping under the stars, a fire, the threat of danger at any moment...come on!"

"Oh yeah, romantic, cold rain, hard ground, all kinds of horrible creepy crawlies," Adele teased, messing with Charlie's hair. "You've got ulterior motives Mr Weasley, I can tell."

"Maybe," Charlie replied with a shrug but his eyes creased with his wide smile. "You'll have to come and find out."

Adele smiled but she had the niggling feeling that Charlie may just be too pre-occupied with the Dragons to notice she was even there.

ooo

Adele had left Charlie to break the news to Bill while she excused herself to have a quick breath of fresh air in the garden. She walked to the edge of the bare garden and stepped over the small white picket fence that protected anyone from the cliff edge just a few metres away. The ground was soft and grassy but the wind was quite forceful and Adele edged as close to the edge as she could without fear of being blown off and into the sea below.

She had decided something in light of returning to Romania, that she would no longer be afraid. Adele fished in her jeans pocket and found the Galleon that Dolohov summoned her with. She fingered it and watched it gleam in the barely there sun before squeezing it tight in her fist until it began to dig in her palm and hurt. He didn't own her, he had no right to summon her at his will, she was her own person and would not let a weasel of a man control her life.

Something inside told her that her dear Aunt would never leave captivity alive and quite frankly, Adele believed her to be already dead. If the Ministry were happy to kill witches and wizards then Deatheaters would not blink an eyelid at murdering a Muggle.

Adele closed her eyes and flung the Galleon over the cliff edge as far as she possibly could. She imagined it flying through the air, powered by her own strength and hitting the sea with the force of an atom bomb. She opened her eyes, hair blurring her vision but she could not see the coin nor where it landed. It was gone. Dolohov was gone. She was gone.