teacher123: Thanks. I figured the plotline at this point for Charlie and Abby would not be as well received as Simeon and Bella's. Just hope for them. And I hope this chapter answers your question.
RubeusHagrid34: Always encouraging and fun to hear your response. It's fun to hear your…enthusiasm for the ships. I'm glad you're enjoying this.
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Chapter Twenty-Four: The Truth About Him
The night was already beginning to fall over the reserve as Charlie looked out into the courtyard, watching as some of his newly mended companions enjoyed the last few hours of their day off by playing a rousing game of English football. It was tempting to go down to the grass and join them in their enjoyment of sport, but not only was his body physically exhausted from the long day, Charlie's mind was elsewhere. From the window of his room, his eyes kept the door that went into the main building in view, waiting for a particular someone to emerge.
He had waited there for the better part of his day, though he was also partially hiding from Giselle at the same time, leaving his window only once for a shower. His stomach growled for a form of nourishment, but against his mind, the powerful hunger didn't win out and had fallen silent. With his forehead against the cold glass, his brain feeling slightly numb, he could only wait for the person he sought and nothing else.
It was tempting to fall asleep there against the window, his body not having any source of energy to feed upon or any rest since two days before. While the temptation was there, the desperate need for answers was stronger and kept his eyes open, though they drooped low. He knew he wouldn't sleep until he had spoken to someone and resolved all curiosity anyway, and there was no hope in putting his head to a pillow until his concerns were addressed.
A few researchers and keepers wandered out of the building, having finished another delicious dinner by Nisha. The pack of them took seats in the lush green grass, sitting down to watch the Muggle sport be played out by wizards as Fritz Zellweger scored a point for his team. Chattering and cheering away happily under the approaching sky of dusk, it seemed that everyone outside was content with their day off.
As the noises filling the field distracted his attention, Charlie nearly missed Abby as she exited the main building and headed straight towards her dormitory, the hood of her jacket shielding her weary face from the crowd.
Catching the glimpse of her from the corner of his eye just as she walked down the path towards the girls' building, he immediately felt what little energy he had spring out of the reserves, allowing him to sprint from his room, out the door and jump down the flights of stairs. Bursting through the door he ran across the courtyard and through the football game, much to the displeasure of everyone around him. Pushing his way through the angry players, excusing himself past shocked spectators, and dodging the curses being thrown at him in all directions, he made it across and ran into the building he intended, Abby having already disappeared inside and the sound of her footsteps leading up the metal staircase.
"Abby," he called out, running up the steps, skipping many at a time in the attempt to catch up to her. "Abby!"
Making it to the third landing, the backside of her was visible, walking towards her room down the corridor with her hood lowered and her hands in her pockets. In a fast jog, Charlie went after her, getting closer with every stride.
"Abby," he called again, grabbing her shoulder as he finally caught up to her.
The woman whipped around, releasing herself from Charlie's grip and smacking his hand away as she did so. Looking at him head on, her green eyes burrowed into him accusingly as she crossed her arms.
"What do you want?" she asked, near spitting her words towards him.
"Why did you leave him?" Charlie jumped into his agenda instantly, not pausing to wonder why Abby was so bitter without reason.
"What?" she replied, shaking her head.
"Darren," he explained in one word, causing the young woman before him to take a step back in surprise. "Why did you leave Darren?"
"I didn't leave Darren," Abby fought back with gritted teeth.
"I found the letters," confessed Charlie, preventing Abby from denying it any further. "The ones from him in the bottom drawer of your desk, letters that pine for you and claim love for you and ask why you left to begin with, but ones you don't respond to regardless."
Abby paused, her mouth hanging open slightly while her eyes couldn't bear to blink. It was as though someone had stupefied her on the spot before she finally took a deep breath and blinked.
"You read my mail?" she asked, though the answer was already evident by Charlie's last sentences. Nervously, she ran her fingers through her loose hair, pulling on strands as if it would help relieve the thoughts running in her head. "You read my mail?"
"How else would I know about the letters?" Charlie mockingly shrugged.
"Asked me?" she suggested, raising her voice as her arms fell to her side.
"Well, I haven't exactly gotten the whole story from you yet," snapped Charlie maliciously. "And you didn't really mention the fact you were the one who ended everything between the two of you and he still loves you."
"I haven't lied to you and I didn't leave him," repeated Abby, getting louder with every syllable she spoke, her fists becoming tight.
"What happened then?" he shouted, not caring who heard them arguing in the middle of the corridor anymore.
"He left me first," she yelled back at him.
The conversation in the corridor ceased, both of the contributors too shocked over what had just been said to say another word. Sounds coming from outside began to enter the corridor, cheers for a brilliant save cutting through the thickness of the silence. Abby turned her green eyes away from Charlie's interrogating look, concentrating on the pattern of the carpet.
"What happened between you two?" Charlie finally managed to say, shaking the shock away from his mind far enough to give him power of speech. "What have you been letting fester inside of you all year long?"
"Aren't you afraid you won't get the whole story?" threw back Abby smartly, facing Charlie, but refusing to meet his eyes.
"Tell me what happened," he said, his anger tone fading a little as he spoke. Daringly he took a step forward, coming close enough to touch Abby's shoulder if he needed to.
Abby kept her quietness for a moment, wringing her hands together at her front. Running all of the fingers on her right hand over her left ring finger, she closed her eyes as if she were about to spring the waterworks, but instead looked up and right into Charlie's brown eyes.
"It started fine," she began, crossing her arms again and holding her upper arms with the opposing hands as if she were trying to keep warm, "but don't all relationships. I was a training Healer and he was a resident Healer in the plant poison ward who had the goal to one day enter the Ministry of Magic. We talked in the tearoom while on breaks, and shared our goals with each other. He thought my own ambitions to heal creatures rather than wizards were admirable, and we started going out once I was out of the training stages.
"Back then, he supported everything I did, and I did the same thing for him. There was mutual respect between us, and maybe that's what I liked so much about what we had together. There wasn't any compromising on any part, we could both have our own lives and live them without having to worry about the other objecting. He was completely on board with my decision to become a Creature Healer, and he stood by me through the entire process, from helping me study through the night to just holding my hand before I walked into my first job out of St. Mungo's."
With a heavy sigh, she stopped, blinking without a tear in her eyes again. As much as Charlie wanted to know about what had occurred those five years while he and Abby had no contact, seeing the look in her eyes made him wish he had not started the conversation with her.
"It all changed when he asked me to marry him," she continued after a short breath. "It seemed like a no-brain decision, but I didn't know what I was getting into. I met his mother, and his grandmother, and his whole family, all purebloods with a long lineage of bringing up successful politicians and brilliant writers and groundbreaking Healers. They all cringed at the knowledge I was a poor illegitimate Muggleborn child of a waitress in Brighton, hardly Barton daughter-in-law material. They did everything in their power to assure I didn't ruin their pure reputation."
A part of Charlie wanted to her stop her storytelling, every word she spoke seeming to drain a little more from her voice. The nagging conscience in his head begged him to make her cease, but he had to know.
"Mrs Barton asked me to live in their estate with them almost at once," explained Abby, a shiver running down her spine as she mentioned the name of her would-be mother-in-law. "She said it was to accustom me to the workings of their household, but it was more like so she could keep an eye on my behaviour and slowly conform me into what a Ministry worker's wife should be. Darren quit being a Healer and entered the Ministry a week after we were engaged.
"I wanted to support Darren in his endeavour, as he had done for me, and I let his mother teach me about being a proper witch of society. I knew it wasn't a life made for me, but I wanted for him to be happy, and part of that was making sure his family was pleased with me. For the best, I just shut my mouth and went along trying to make sure I met the standards they set for me. I didn't know how much it was changing me, or rather hiding me. I stopped being Abby, and I was suddenly Abigail Ridges, fiancé to Darren Barton and nothing else. What was worse was that Darren didn't even really care that I wasn't myself anymore. I'd destroyed everything I was, I let them mould me into their ideals of a real lady, and he didn't care it was being done right under his nose. He was changing before my eyes, and I don't think I'd ever felt so alone."
Charlie's left hand gave a twitch, the muscles urging him to hold Abby; to hold onto her, hug her tightly, and not let go. It was starting to become evident as to why she'd left everything behind her, and he was quietly kicking himself for having his doubts earlier in the day.
"It all snapped after the accident," Abby's voice interrupted Charlie's thoughts.
"You were in an accident?" His eyes widened, moving another step forward instinctively, looking for invisible bumps and bruises as if he would see them through her clothing.
She shook her head. "I wasn't. Anna was."
The image of a short ten-year-old girl dressed in pink with dark brown hair and eyes to match popped into Charlie's head at the very mention of the name. Almost every year, he'd seen Annabelle Ridges-McKinnon at King's Cross in London, waiting outside the barrier of Platform 9¾ to welcome her older witch sister home for the summer with a homemade banner or poster with crude crayon drawings on them. She'd always been a lively little girl in his memory, who Abby always wrote to from the Gryffindor common room and spoke of endearingly while in school. Imagining that the sweet little sister of Abby had been in an accident, he could only hope he would never experience that with any of his brothers or Ginny.
"She'd fallen into a bad crowd while I had been away, and she was pretty good at keeping it a secret from mum and Lyle," detailed Abby, clearing her throat a little as she spoke. "One night, she made a bad choice and got into a car with two boys who shouldn't have gotten behind the wheel. There was a bend in the street they missed. I don't know a lot about what happened then, Anna doesn't like to talk about it that much and mum and I don't try to make her discuss it unless she brings it up, but one passenger didn't make it."
The guilty conscience throbbed again against the back of his head, badgering at him to make her stop the talk and just throw his arms around her to beg forgiveness for his demanding to know. All sensation in his arms had been frozen, his body physically incapable of moving as Abby spoke.
"I rushed for the hospital the second I found out," she pressed onward with her story, though Charlie suspected she wouldn't have done anything other than that. "It broke me to see my baby sister the way I did in that early morning, bandaged beyond all recognition with my mother biting her nails at her side and Lyle demanding answers from every doctor or nurse that passed the room. I took leave of absence from work, and temporarily moved back home to take care of my mum. I was able to use magic and help Anna get better, but with doctors around most of the time, getting even the smallest fractures healed was a task, and they would notice she was getting better too quickly. It was a slow process, and my stay with mum was prolonged every day.
"If anything good ever came of what my family went through in those months, it was that I finally saw Darren for what he was. He never came to see Anna or my family throughout the ordeal. The odd owl came, asking if I had the time to go with him to another benefit gala or charity ball and put on an appearance in front of his co-workers, normally with a little note 'Best to your Family' at the end of the letter. It's not hard to ask how Anna's health was, he knew about it and everything and there was never even a hint that he cared at all about what was important to me."
He didn't know how Abby could keep dry eyes as she spoke. The intonation of her voice was a good indication of her thoughts, but it was as though she lacked the ability to shed tears at the thought. The mere mention of a Quidditch accident that resulted in a broken bone would make his mother burst into tears in an instant. Abby had seemed to have suffered more than anything Charlie could ever remember in his twenty-two years of life, and she didn't cry.
"Anna got released two and a half months after her hospitalisation, but her readjustment into normal life was a difficult thing," Abby went on. "She'd been immobile for ages, and she had to learn to walk again and regain strength in her muscles before she could even think about going back to school or even going out on her own. I continued to stay home with mum and Anna to help, whether it was doing the dishes after meals or holding my sister up as she tried to walk around the flat. I think after the fact I was still at home when Anna could walk on her own, my mum knew something was up between Darren and me.
"She approached me on the matter one night when Anna had already gone to bed, asking me why I hadn't bothered to go back and visit my future husband and family in almost four months and it all just tumbled out of me. I told her how I felt, and how guilt-ridden I was over not fully supporting Darren in his dreams when he'd been there for me when I went for my goal, but he couldn't be there for me when I really did just need him to hold me and tell me it would be all right."
Moving his arms at last, Charlie moved to hug the Healer in front of him, doing what her ex-fiancé didn't do for her, only to have her turn away the second his arms raised the slightest few inches. Retracting, there was little else he could do if Abby wouldn't allow him to come any nearer.
"Mum's advice was to stop telling her everything and start telling Darren about the problems we were facing," said Abby with a sigh, Charlie knowing that the conversation couldn't have gone very well if she was standing there in front of him explaining it. Her hand went into her hair, running all the way through her long mane as if she were trying to record memories into an invisible Pensieve. "It was really the only option to take in order to salvage any remains of a possible relationship, let alone a marriage. I knew it had to be done, but hearing it from mum cinched it all. I went back to the Barton Estate the next morning to talk things over with Darren.
"I got there, and before I could say anything to him, he mentioned his mother wanted a word with me the moment I arrived. I told him we had to talk about important things, but he insisted that Mrs Barton had been waiting for some time to have her own talk with me, and that we would talk immediately afterwards. He took me upstairs to the parlour and escorted me in, where his mother, aunt, and grandmother were waiting for me patiently.
"They told me to sit down, offered me tea, and proceeded with their agenda, no questions as to how my mum and sister were doing. They jumped immediately into the question of how long it had been since I'd worked and if I'd quit or just taken leave. I told them I was on personal leave, and without skipping a beat, told me to quit. Mrs Barton went on an entire speech about how my career choice was not respectable for a lady and that I wouldn't need to work anyway since they had more than enough money to support me. I tried to explain that I worked for enjoyment and not money, but it didn't click into their minds. Instead, they rationalised I would soon be too busy to work anyway. Darren and I were to be married in six months, I had wedding arrangements to tend to, and then there were the duties of wife to Darren, and mother to the sons I would be expected to bear immediately."
Pressing her hand to her forehead with a heavy sigh, Charlie could have sworn he saw a single tear brimming in the corner of Abby's right eye, which quickly vanished in a blink of his own.
"Needlessly said, those three women got an earful from me," Abby scoffed, shaking her head at the thought, a tiny flush making its way to her cheeks. "I told them that there was no way I could ever take orders like that and I wasn't going to put up with it any more. At that point, I turned to Darren, who stood there as if nothing was wrong with what his mother had told me. He said nothing at all to defend my thoughts on that matter. It was in that instant that I realised just how much he loved me. Everything tumbled down from there.
"Everything came out, and it was a mess. I told Darren he was an ungrateful fiancé, and while I had bent over backwards to please his family, he barely cared for mine enough to ask how they were. He'd let me become a different person before his eyes and he did nothing to stop it. He'd changed from the man I had become engaged to before. He'd left me emotionally, so I left him physically. I packed my bags and left the engagement ring, and quite frankly I'd have liked to have left it lodged in his throat."
It dawned on Charlie what Abby had meant by saying he left her first. It wasn't a literal meaning he would have thought of, but in words it was completely true. A strong urge bubbled inside of him, saying he was to fly all the way back to England with the sole purpose of hunting down Darren Barton and assuring he had a long painful stay at St. Mungo's.
"I spent months at home in silence," recalled Abby after a moment. "For a while, I started blaming myself for what had happened, if I'd said something sooner, maybe things would have worked out. I found it hard to blame him for everything; I know I had to have played some part in our breaking up other than just calling everything off. I know I still do put some guilt in me. I felt horrible for what it had come to, and I should have never let it come to that point, but I didn't say anything. We were both at fault for doing nothing to save our relationship."
"It's more his than yours," Charlie concluded quietly with a scoff, scratching the back of his head. "Abby...I..."
"Don't even try," she silenced him on the spot, raising her hand in order to halt his speaking. "I can't believe you, reading my mail and not even trusting in the fact I'd told you the truth. I told you I realised he didn't love me anymore and that is the truth. He may claim he still has feelings in letters, but its one instance where actions speaks more than words. Charlie, I can't believe you didn't believe me."
"I'm..." he began again, only to have a hand in his face again.
"I don't know what makes me angrier, this or the fact I saw you kissing Giselle this morning," she threw out her qualm onto the table.
Charlie stopped, his mind drawing blank on the events of the morning. "What?"
"Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about," spat Abby, wagging her finger as if she were scolding a small child. "I went down to Herb's office and I saw it. You can't deny it happened."
All afternoon he'd been trying to erase the thought of Giselle Leblanc kissing him, the sudden recall making him cringe under his skin and shiver down into his core. In his mind, it hadn't counted as anything. She'd kissed him. He hadn't kissed her back.
"Abby, it's not..." he tried to speak.
"No more, Charlie," Abby screamed out, turning her back and beginning to walk down the hallway towards her room again. "Don't lie to me. It's bad enough you don't even trust me to tell you the truth."
"I'm not, I just..." Charlie yelled back, raising his voice of overcome Abby's.
Before he could finish the sentence, Abby had already unlocked the door to her room and slipped in, slamming the door before Charlie could prevent it from closing in his face. Hitting his nose against the wood, he stumbled back a little, but immediately banged his fist against the door and jiggling the locked handle.
"Abby!" he called as his hands hit the door repetitively, hoping she would at the least hear him out on the matter. "Abby, open the door!"
As if by some miracle, the door opened and a crystal vase containing a bouquet of red roses were thrust against Charlie's chest just as it shut again. Holding the gift he had conjured for her less than a day ago, the outcome of everything seemed clearer than the glass vase. A fire began to burn down in Charlie's centre, filling him with a hot rage comparable only to the brightest blue flame from a Swedish Short-Snout.
"Fine!" Charlie shouted at the door. "Just fine!"
Dropping the vase, the roses and water spilt onto the floor in a large pile as the vase rolled along the corridor, stopping as it tapped the wall. With his wand, the entire mess vanished in a puff of vapour, the spell eliminating the memory of the roses that had once explained everything.
Stalking away, he crossed his arms across his sweater to find one rose had gotten a thorn caught in the knit. Forcefully, he snatched the flower from his clothing, causing it to snag the yellow fibres, and threw it to floor as he passed by the third floor common area. Unable to get out of the building fast enough, he leapt down the stairs in bounds as if running from the dangerous creature that would rip out his heart and soul faster than a Dementor could.
The sole surviving rose lay still on the carpeted floor in front of the common room. As though it were doomed to die from lack of care, it silently awaited fate to rid it of life until one delicate hand leaned down to pluck it from pending death. Grasped between a thumb and index finger, it rose to the level of a set of hazel eyes that darted from Room 317 to the staircase.
"This can't be good, Simeon," the holder of the rose spoke softly to her companion, the two of them leaning against the frame of the doorway, unable to put a word to everything that had happened only a wall away from them.
A/N: And the mystery of Darren Barton is revealed in gigantic monologue. Yeah, Abby can monologue, but Charlie doesn't have much to say about the topic anyway, so he let her go on.
I was partially inspired for the story of Darren and Abby from the Amanda Bynes' movie, What a Girl Wants. It contains the high society expectations and attempted transformation that inspired this, but their romance and the ultimate end is not from that movie.
And I bring this up cause no one may think of it in all the drama, but what were Simeon and Bella doing all alone together?
Hope you're enjoying, not much more to go.