So, here is a long chapter as a thank you/apology.

Chapter Twenty-Five

After hearing the story the Ashburns wanted to go visit Allyssa again, but Charlie convinced them to come to Hogsmeade with Severus and himself for lunch.

"Why isn't Hermione going to come?" Jeremy asked as they made their way toward the doors.

"She's covering Severus's classes for him," Charlie answered.

"Who's covering your classes?" Mrs. Ashburn asked as she carefully navigated the moving staircase.

"Vic – Professor Krum, the flying instructor, is covering for me."

"Why do you need a flying instructor? Do you teach kids how to grow wings or something?" Jeremy asked, earning him a quizzical look from Charlie and an amused glance from Severus.

"No, Professor Krum teaches the first years how to ride a broomstick; he also acts as a referee for quidditch matches," Charlie clarified.

"You really fly on broomsticks, like the witches in cheesy cartoons?" Tony asked, laughing.

"Yeah." Charlie frowned, "Allyssa never told you about any of this?"

Mrs. Ashburn gave him a sad smile. "Allyssa liked to keep the two halves of her life separate. She never really talked about what she was learning in school, or gave any specifics; the most we could ever get out her was that she was doing well and a little bit of information about her friends, so that she didn't look secretive about who was sending her letters over the summer, not that she ever got that many." Mrs. Ashburn gave a mournful chuckle, "Honestly, I get more information from Severus's letters than I ever have Allyssa's."

Charlie nodded, trying to remember Allyssa ever talking about her home life and coming up empty.

Finally, they exited the front doors. The six of them continued on the path in silence until the little village came into view. Unsurprisingly, it was Tony that broke the silence by asking a question, "So, do you have to pretend to be muggles now?"

"No, Hogsmeade is a magical community; everyone that lives there has magic, or at least grew up in a magical family," Severus answered.

"Cool. So there's lots of wizard shops and stuff?" Tony asked his pace quickening with excitement.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that. After lunch I'll take you to some of the better ones, if you want," Charlie offered.

"Awesome! Hear that Jeremy? We get to go to wizard shops!" the little boy exclaimed, pumping his fist into the air.

"Sure, but what good will it do us? All that stuff needs magic to work, it's only good here, in the wizard world," Jeremy responded, bitter.

Charlie frowned down at the shorter boy. "That's not true. Magic works no matter where you are, but it's safer to use in the wizarding world so we don't expose ourselves to muggles." Charlie turned back to Tony, who had sobered with his brother's comment, "My brothers run a store that sells premade charms, if you want, I'll take you there and you can pick something out."

Tony was awed by the man standing in front of him. Not only had he worked with dragons, but he was offering to buy him a premade charm so he could do magic? "Are you really going to marry my sister?" Tony asked innocently.

The question stopped everyone in their tracks. Sure, they all knew that it was going to happen, that it had to happen if Allyssa was going to stay in the wizarding world – which she had to do because Ice couldn't live in the muggle world – but none of them had any desire to discuss it. All eyes flew to Charlie, whose face had come to match his hair. "Umm. . ." he said, eloquent. "Yes?" It came out more question than statement, so he cleared his throat and tried again, "Yes," he paused, "if she'll have me."

For some reason, Charlie's answer relaxed everyone enough so they could continue on their way.

"So, Charlie, you mentioned that your brothers ran a shop of some kind, what's the rest of your family like?" Mr. Ashburn asked, speaking for the first time since they'd left Hogwarts.

At the mention of his family Charlie's thoughts automatically turned to his mother and her unreasonable disapproval of Allyssa. Shaking his head, Charlie tried to focus on the question, "Well, there's Bill, my older brother, he's a curse breaker for Gringotts." Remembering his audience Charlie rushed to clarify, "A curse breaker dismantles wards and booby traps meant to keep people out, and Gringotts is the wizarding bank. Then, there's Percy. He works for the ministry. Fred and George, the twins, run the store in Diagon Alley. I'm sure you've heard of Ron, he's an auror. Then, there's -"

"What's an auror?" Tony asked, pronouncing it aura.

"Aurors are the people that arrest Dark Wizards, up hold the law, you know, stuff like that," Charlie shrugged, not really sure how to explain something so basic.

"They're like police officers?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, sure," Charlie replied, having no idea what a police officer was.

Just then, they arrived at the Three Broomsticks. Charlie motioned for everyone to sit at a table while he went and ordered butterbeers for everyone. With the help of the bartender Charlie was able to deliver all six butterbeers to the table in one trip.

Mrs. Ashburn looked affronted, "Jeremy and Tony are too young to drink. Besides, it's a little to drink, don't you think?"

Charlie was taken aback. Too young to drink? Next to him, Severus was smirking, enjoying his colleague's confusion; he wasn't cruel enough to let it last more than a few minutes though. "Nelle, this is butterbeer. It contains only the barest hint of alcohol, if any. However, if you would prefer the boys drink something else, might I suggest pumpkin juice?"

Mrs. Ashburn's red face contrasted sharply with her blonde hair. "No, no, butterbeer is fine." Her gaze flicked wildly across the room as if searching for something. "Charlie, you were in the middle of saying something when Tony interrupted to ask about the aurors, would you like to finish?"

"Ah, sure. Well, the only one of my siblings I haven't mentioned is Ginny, but I assume you've heard of her already," Charlie said lamely.

"Heard of her, yes, but, ah, what is she doing now? You know, after graduation," Mrs. Ashburn asked, still seeming embarrassed.

"She's playing for the Holyhead Harpies, an all-female professional quidditch team. She got married last summer to Blaise Zabini, another professional quidditch player," Charlie answered.

"How do you play quidditch?" Jeremy asked.

"Well," Charlie started before pausing to rub the back of his neck, trying to figure out how to explain the sport, "you have seven people on the field at a time: three Chasers, one Keeper, two Beaters, and one Seeker. There are four balls: two bludgers, the quaffle, and the snitch. The Beaters try and keep the bludgers away from their team by hitting them toward the other team. Bludgers are spelled to fly at the players at high speeds. The Chasers try and throw the quaffle into one of three hoops to get points. The Seeker catches the snitch, a small golden ball with wings that's wicked fast, before the other team's Seeker. When the snitch is caught the game ends."

"Why would you spell a ball to fly at people? Isn't that kind of dangerous?" Mrs. Ashburn asked, frowning.

Charlie shrugged. "A little."

"What if neither teams Seeker catches the snitch?" Tony asked.

Charlie shook his head, "It's against the rules for any player other than the Seeker to catch the Snitch."

"But what if nobody catches the Snitch?"

Charlie frowned, uncertain as to why the little boy was confused, "The game doesn't end until thee Snitch is caught."

"But what if you've reached your time limit and nobody's caught the snitch?" Tony pressed.

Charlie shook his head again, "There is no time limit in quidditch. The game can last three minutes, three hours, three days, or three months, as long as it takes for someone to catch the snitch."

"Awesome," Tony remarked, once again staring at Charlie in awe. "Will you teach me how to play?" Tony pleaded.

Charlie smiled, but shook his head, internally kicking himself for forgetting one of the most important details of the game. "Sorry, kiddo, quidditch is played several hundred feet above your head." Seeing the confused expressions on the faces around him Charlie clarified, "We play quidditch on brooms."

Instead of looking broken hearted like Charlie expected Tony looked like he had just cast his first spell. Seeing how excited the idea made the little boy Charlie couldn't help but chuckle and promise, "If it's okay with your parents, I'll take you to a match some time."

"Really?"

"Absolutely."

"Would Allyssa come with us?" Tony asked. "She doesn't really like sports, not muggle sports, anyway."

Charlie was once again shocked back into reality by an innocently asked question. Here he was, having lunch with his future in-laws while his fiancée lie in the hospital wing, in a coma. They had no idea when she would wake up – and what state she'd be in when she did – yet here he was making plans to take her little brothers shopping and to a quidditch game.

Another thought struck him as he considered Tony's question, did Allyssa like quidditch? He didn't know. They'd had one date and quidditch hadn't come up. "Maybe," Charlie finally answered.

For the rest of lunch the conversation remained politely benign. Severus spoke up as they were exiting the Three Broomsticks, "Charlie, why don't you take the boys on a tour of the village while I take Mr. and Mrs. Ashburn back to the castle?"

"Sure, sounds like a plan," Charlie said to the older man.

When the other adults were a sufficient distance away, Charlie turned to his two charges and said, "The only place to start a tour of Hogsmeade is Honeydukes. This way!"

"What's Honeydukes?" Jeremy asked as he fell into step with Charlie."

Charlie's eyes gained a mischievous gleam as he said, "You'll see."

And they did. They saw blood pops, lemon drops, Bertie Bots Every Flavor Beans, fudge in every flavor imaginable and then some, chocolate frogs, sugar quills, and more, and due to Charlie's generosity, they to try everything they wanted to take home whatever they desired – as long as they promised not to show anyone else their more magical treats.

They continued like that all the way through the village: Charlie leading the way to the more interesting stores and getting the boys anything they wanted, with few exceptions. He did, however, refuse to buy the boys any books because they really wouldn't be of much use to them; he also refused them a broomstick for a similar reason.

Finally, with arms filled with bags, Charlie called a halt. "Well, that's everywhere. Ready to go back?"

"What about your brothers' store?" Tony asked around a mouthful of candy.

Charlie shook his head in amusement. "That's not here. We'll go another time."

The Ashburns left before dinner that evening. After their departure Charlie sat in Allyssa and Hermione's common room with Hermione, Sam on his lap and Ice curled around his shoulders.

Charlie sighed. "So, how was your day, Hermione?"

She shrugged, not looking up from her cup of tea. "It was fine. Snape didn't trust me to teach a practical lesson so he assigned a two foot essay. Due tomorrow."

Charlie flinched. "I bet that made you popular."

Again, she shrugged. "It doesn't really matter." Suddenly, Hermione's eyes were staring into Charlie as she asked, "How was your day with the Ashburns?"

Charlie sighed. "Fine. We talked." He smiled, remembering Tony's never ending questions, "Her brothers seemed to enjoy their day."

Hermione offered small smile, "Of course they did: they spent the day surrounded by magic and – from what I heard – eating candy from Honeydukes, what kid wouldn't enjoy themselves?" Hermione shook her head in amusement before looking off into the distance, her expression sobering, "Allyssa always said never bought her family any gifts from the wizarding world because she didn't want them to be unsatisfied with the world they were living in, always wishing for things they could never have. I've always thought that she hid this from them so that when she returned home for the holidays there wouldn't be anything there to remind her of this life." Hermione let out a breath before allowing her gaze to once again meet Charlie's, there were tears shining in them. "Charlie, what are we going to do? Madam Pomfrey is running out of ideas, and – and it's been a week for Pete's sake! That's practically unheard of in the wizarding world, right?"

Charlie moved over to the couch where Hermione was sitting, carefully removing the animals from his person before doing so. He pulled her into his arms, making comforting noises as she cried into his shoulder. After she'd quietened her sobs he rested his cheek on the top of her head and said, "I don't know, 'Mione, I really don't know."

Sam, perhaps sensing the morose mood, jumped up onto the couch and proceeded to give both their faces thorough tongue baths.

"Someone seems to have regained their good mood," Charlie remarked, laughing, as he attempted to restrain the medium sized dog. Thinking back on his earlier conversation with his future brother-in-law, Charlie looked at the dog, considering. "What if Jeremy was right, and Sam's mood swings are connected to Allyssa?" he asked absently.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Of course Sam's bad mood is related to Allyssa; she must miss her."

Charlie shook his head, his brows furrowed in concentration. "No – well, yeah, I'm sure she does, too – but she's not in a bad mood all the time, not like Ice is." Charlie paused before hesitatingly saying, "What if Allyssa is still connected to Sam, but not Ice?"

Hermione's eyes widened as she realized what Charlie was saying, "That would mean she can't access her magical core, even subconsciously." Hermione stood and started pacing, talking as she walked, "That probably means there's some kind of block." Turn. "Or she's completely depleted her magical core." Turn. "How does this information help us?"

Hermione walked back and forth several times before speaking again. "Magical stimulators could be damaging if we're dealing with a mental black; Legilimency is dangerous on unconscious subjects – slightly illegal too – and, from what I know about Allyssa, her mind is probably a fortress even when she is in a coma; that leaves . . . waiting, just like we have been for the past week," Hermione finished as she collapsed back onto the couch.

AN:

First, I want to thank everyone that signed the petition. Second, I want to apologize for the humongous gap between updates (I'm not going to promise that it won't happen again because I don't like lying) and tell you that you can all thank crazy1person2you3been4warned for convincing me to update.

Next (yes, I have a plan for the next chapter): Some random stuff (TBD), Ice and Sam become very important, and Sleeping Beauty wakes up!