Charlie felt like he'd been hit by the Hogwarts Express. His head was thumping and his chest was sore, his arms ached and his legs felt heavy. With a groan he opened his blurry eyes. Slowly, the Hospital Wing came into focus. Tonks was sat on a chair beside his bed, feet up, lounging. She raised an eyebrow at him.

'You're in my bed.'

Charlie pushed himself into a half-sitting position and looked around him. Sure enough, he was tucked beneath the crisp white sheets of the third bed from the door – Tonks' usual spot.

Charlie smirked. The skin around his mouth tightened and the region around his eye throbbed. He reached up a bandaged hand to touch it and found the skin to be tender. 'Ow.'

Tonks suddenly jumped up and wrapped her arms around him.

'Owowowowow!'

'Sorry!' She jumped back from him. 'I'm just so relieved you're okay Charlie, we were so worried. I mean you were knocked off your broom.'

Charlie remembered why he was in the Hospital Wing. The Snitch chase, trying to stop Williams. The bludger crashing into him, winding him, flying backwards off the tail-end of his broom and tumbling in mid-air, robes whipping in the wind. Then darkness as he passed out.

'What happened?' he croaked, rubbing his sore ribs. Tonks settled onto the side of his bed.

'You were going after Williams and Alderton got you with a bludger. He was in here earlier, Alderton I mean; I don't think he meant for the bludger to hit you that hard. But you were knocked off your broom; no one knew what to do you were just falling so fast. Buck and Joey only just managed to catch you before you hit the ground and that was with McGonagall slowing you down with a spell.'

That explained why Charlie felt so rough.

'What about the match? Did we make the points?'

Tonks covered Charlie's hand with hers. His hopes fell.

'Williams caught the Snitch just after you fell. He didn't even realise you were hit. But Gryffindor missed out on the Cup by twenty points.'

Charlie lay back on the bed, covering his head with his hands. 'It's my fault. If I'd have just rolled out of the way-'

'No.' Tonks forced Charlie's hands away from his head and pinned them to his sides. 'It's not your fault. It's Quidditch. You know as well as I do that that's the way it goes and you can't do anything about it. The Wasps missed out on the League Cup last year, but did they give in and blame themselves? No, they got right back onto training and are favourites for this year. So you stop blaming yourself Charlie Weasley and get yourself better.'

Charlie was struck by how much she sounded like his mother.

'Yes, miss!'

'And none of that cheek,' she grinned, letting go of his hands. 'Bill, Annie, Don and the rest of the team will be back later. Everyone bar Jones was here earlier but Madam Pomfrey sent them down to dinner.'

'You didn't go with them?' Charlie asked.

'She couldn't make me leave.'

Charlie chuckled. 'So where's Gwen?'

Tonks shrugged, 'No idea. No one's seen her since the end of the match. She checked on you and left. We reckon she's gone into the forest to live out her days as a Quidditch-obsessed hermit.'

Charlie's chest ached as he laughed. Tonks looked at him with concern.

'And Scabior?'

'Slytherin party. They've been at it since the end of the match. Dumbledore sent you off to the Hospital Wing with Madam Pomfrey and presented the Slytherins with the Cup.'

'I thought Scabior didn't like the other Slytherins?' Charlie frowned.

Tonks merely shrugged. 'Well unless he's joined Jones in the forest that's where he is.'

Charlie was let out of the Hospital Wing the next evening. Madam Pomfrey assessed that his ribs were well healed and that the bruises would resolve themselves over time. So, black-eyed and tender, Charlie gathered his get well soon cards and his hamper of home-made sweets from home and set off for Gryffindor Tower.

'Salve,' he told the Fat Lady.

'And you,' the portrait swung forward.

He was met with a barrage of noise. Gryffindor house was wide awake and cheering the return of their seeker. Joey and Jon seized the hamper from Charlie's arms and pulled him through the portrait hole. A massive banner made of a bed sheet read "Welcome home Charlie!" in huge red letters with "glad you didn't die" scrawled underneath.

Charlie found himself being clapped on the back by almost everyone in the House until he reached Annie, Buck and Bill who seemed to be the ringleaders of the entire party.

'Welcome back Charlie!' Annie cried, hurling himself at him. He winced; his ribs were still sore.

Buck clapped him on the back. 'Glad you're okay buddy.'

Bill however, hoisted Charlie onto his shoulder and yelled for attention. The common room obliged and fell quiet, Kirley stopped playing his guitar.

'As some of you may have heard, we didn't win the Quidditch Cup this year!' The Gryffindors booed. Over their heads Charlie spotted Gwenog Jones in the corner, looking glum, a model Quidditch pitch on the table in front of her beside an untouched bottle of Butterbeer.

'But at least our seeker, my little brother Charlie Weasley, is alive and well!' Cheers from the House and heckles from Buck and Fergus. 'And our keeper, who was out of action for the latest match – Barry Ryan has returned ladies and gents!' Ryan bowed in acceptance of his applause. 'That is not to say, however, that our interim keeper, Miss Meaghan McCormack, won't be missed from the Quidditch pitch!'

Kirley jumped onto a sofa, scattering plates of cauldron cakes from laps, almost smacking people over the head with his guitar. 'That's my sister!' He yelled, pointing at a very embarrassed Meaghan.

'Gryffindor House, can I have a round of applause for the Gryffindor team of 1986?' Yes he could. The rest of the house whooped as Bill read out the names of the players. 'Misters Barry Ryan, Jonathan Roberts, Joey Jenkins, Arthur Dent, Buckley Cooper and Charlie Weasley! Miss Meaghan McCormack! Aaand last but by no means least, Miss-Captain Gwenog Jones!'

Joey and Jon jumped over to Gwen and managed to get her to join the rest of the team who had been forced into a line-up in front of the fireplace. Charlie was deposited from Bill's shoulders onto Buck, who nearly fell back into the fire.

'Ladies and gentlemen of Gryffindor House, I present – your team! First place runners up in this year's Quidditch Cup!' Someone thrust a Butterbeer into Charlie's hand. 'We might not have the Cup but we sure as hell can party!'

The Gryffindor Almost-Won-The-Cup after party quickly gave way to exam season with the O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. exams starting the next day. Charlie, Tonks and Scabior also received owls informing them that they had reached the last week of their detentions.

'Thank goodness for that,' Charlie sighed. 'If I had to spend any more weeks with Binns I'd pop my clogs myself.'

Charlie's latest detention task was erasing graffiti from the History of Magic textbooks. Unsurprisingly, Tonks' mood was much improved since she only had two more hours left with Filch.

'Haha!' She cried as she skipped off to Potions. Charlie headed to Transfiguration.

He knocked on the door of the fourth floor History of Magic classroom at seven o'clock sharp, not that Professor Binns would have known if it was four in the morning or three in the afternoon.

'Come in,' came the wheezing voice of the only spectral teacher at Hogwarts.

'Evening Professor,' Charlie smiled, settling his bag down beside a desk.

'Well Westley, you know what to do.' Binns pointed with his quill to the stack of textbooks and resumed his marking.

Charlie heaved a pile of books over to the desk and grabbed the self-reforming rubber from beside them, setting himself to a further two hours of boredom as he turned page after page looking for graffiti.

About ten minutes into the session the classroom door opened a crack and Ellie Limus poked her head around the corner.

Charlie checked to see if Binns was looking. He wasn't.

'What are you doing?' Charlie mouthed at Ellie.

She shrugged. 'I came to join you.'

Charlie scrunched up his eyebrows. 'Why?'

In reply she slipped through the door and crept towards him, keeping a cautious eye on the translucent teacher at the front of the room, until she reached the desk beside Charlie and took a seat.

'I thought you could do with some company.' She whispered, taking a book from his desk and looking as though she was doing something.

Charlie looked once more at Binns, who seemed not to have noticed the new addition to his detention. In fact, he didn't even look up from his marking for another half an hour, at which point he jumped when he spotted Ellie.

'What are you doing here Miss - ?' He looked to her for her name.

'Limus, sir.' She supplied.

'What are you doing here Miss Limus?'

'I have detention, sir.' Charlie sincerely doubted that Ellie had ever been in detention. Yet Binns seemed to buy it.

'Ah yes, what was it for again?'

'I didn't do my homework, sir.'

Binns nodded as though he remembered. 'Righto, carry on Miss Lupin.' He stood up in the middle of his desk and drifted away through the wall.

Charlie stared after him. 'I can't believe he bought that.'

Ellie smirked innocently, 'I'm a very believable person.'

He laughed. 'I bet that physically pained you to say you'd not done your homework.'

She moved to hit him with A History of Magic.

'Watch it! You might hurt the book!' Charlie teased.

'I can leave you know.' She threatened.

'And miss out on all this fun?' He waved his hand towards the pile of books. 'You've got to be joking.'

When the two hours was up, Charlie and Ellie bid Professor Binns a good evening (he was back to marking) and left the classroom. Charlie gave a celebratory 'WHOOP!' and punched the air as they walked towards the Grand Staircase.

'Six months of detentions – done!' Ellie laughed as he celebrated all the way down the corridor.

They said goodbye at the fifth floor, Ellie heading off to Ravenclaw Tower and Charlie continuing up the stairs to Gryffindor Tower. But before they parted, Charlie called her back.

'Hey Ellie, do you think- maybe you'd like to come over my house in the summer?'

Charlie exhaled a deep sigh of relief as her smile widened. 'Yes! Of course! It'll be great to meet your family!' She gave him a tight hug and brushed her lips against his cheek.

Charlie wandered up to the seventh floor feeling rather pleased with himself.

The knowledge that Ellie wanted to see him during the summer holidays was the only thing that kept Charlie focused on revision as the exams were suddenly upon them.

Charlie scribbled down some scraps of knowledge about the International Warlock Convention of 1289 in the History of Magic exam, transfigured a fluffy bunny rabbit onto some comfortable looking slippers in the Transfiguration exam (though the toe of the slippers did keep twitching), and brewed a Hair-Raising Potion in the Potions exam that shocked his vibrant hair into standing on end in every direction for an hour after he sampled it.

'I thought that went well.' Charlie told the others, satisfied that he had passed all of his exams to progress to his third year at Hogwarts.

'Surprisingly, I'd agree.' Tonks nodded, lying back out in the grounds, using her bag as a pillow.

'Well everything but Transfiguration was alright for me,' Don sighed. 'It was all going well until my slippers jumped off the desk to follow me out.'

They all laughed.

'At least your hair's not still standing on end from that damn potion, I think I overbrewed it.' Buck complained.

Annie looked intently at his head of fluffy blond hair. 'But your hair isn't standing on end.'

'Let's just say the hair's not on my head.' He smirked.

'EW!' Tonks threw a fistful of grass at him. 'Gross!'

Buck gave a shout of laughter at her reaction.

The next week, having all passed their exams, Professor McGonagall went around the house tables handing out the options lists for third year.

'What are you going for?' Fergus asked Charlie, buttering some toast.

'Care of Magical Creatures is a must,' Charlie said, circling the option. 'But other than that I don't know.'

'I heard Professor Kettleburn is a bit mad.' Reg whispered. 'He engorged an Ashwinder once and it burned a hole right through the Great Hall floor.'

'Yeah, that's why Hogwarts doesn't do Christmas Pantomimes anymore.' Bill added, taking a seat opposite Charlie. 'So what options are you choosing?'

Charlie showed him the piece of paper. 'I'm not sure about the other choice.'

'To be honest I don't think you'd like Arithmancy or Ancient Runes,' Bill said thoughtfully. 'So it's either Divination or Muggle Studies.'

When none of the other Gryffindor boys could decide what they wanted to choose, Charlie asked Annie.

'Ancient Runes sounds quite interesting,' she told Charlie seriously, so he went to ask Tonks and Don instead.

'We were going to do Divination and Care of Magical Creatures,' they told him.

'Finally, someone with a decent answer.' Charlie sighed. 'Why don't you want to do Muggle Studies?'

Tonks seemed to find the question hilarious. 'If I wanted to study Muggles I'd go over my grandparents' house. Why would I want to study Muggles in school? Besides, Myron says Divinations easy – you just have to make stuff up if you don't "see" anything.'

Don nodded. 'I already know everything about Muggles, being Muggle-born and all, so what's the point?'

'That's it decided then. Care of Magical Creatures and Divination.' Charlie circled his final option with a flourish and handed his slip in to Professor McGonagall.

'Little Bill!' Myron called, throwing an arm around Charlie's shoulders. 'Morning Professor!' He tipped an imaginary hat to Professor McGonagall who pursed her lips and walked away.

'What Myron?' Charlie grumbled as he was steered back to the Hufflepuff table.

'I just wanted you to know that the band will be doing an End-of-Term concert next week, featuring our new guitarist of course. I've just had confirmation to use the bigger Charms classroom, so spread the word amongst your chums – we want as many people as possible to be there.'

'Will do.' With thanks, Myron released Charlie and took a seat at the breakfast table.

'See you there Charlie!' Myron called after him. 'It's going to be awesome!'

And awesome it was. The largest Charms classroom was packed with students when Myron pranced onto the stage, magical microphone in hand, to introduce the band.

Kirley and Don got some loud cheers from their friends in the crowd and Myron had to wait for them to quieten down before he could introduce their newest band member.

'Colleagues! Some of you may have seen this bushy-haired munchkin wandering around the school. Or not.' The crowd laughed. 'In fact, he was unknown to the three of us until a quite recent Gryffindor party where he happened to stumble upon Kirley's guitar and have a strum.'

Someone yelled 'GRYFFINDOR!' loudly.

'Now, now, I don't want to be throwing you out. Let's just remember that Hufflepuff is the best house.' Myron smirked at the mixture of cheering and booing from the crowd.

'Nevermind that, here he is – your very own, Heathcote Barbary!'

Charlie cheered along with everyone else as the bushy haired first year edged onto the stage, looking extremely pale beneath the mass of ringlets around his head.

Kirley strummed his guitar and the room shook.

'You might remember this one. It's an old favourite. This is the Night!'

So I wasn't expecting to upload again before the end of my exams. But this one is written and has passed it's beta-read with flying colours so I just couldn't resist. Never mind that I have an extremely important Chemistry A-Level tomorrow that I should be cramming for.

I'd just like to say a huge thank you to Marissa Lupin, EchoSparks and HelenThong for favouriting this story!

And to EchoSparks and comfychairs for following this story, and toEchoSparks once again for reviewing!

I won't promise when the next chapter will be up, but keep reviewing and I'll get the motivation to complete the next chapter for you.
C'mon, 34 of you have favourited this - keep up the response!

LittleGuitar94

:)