Chapter 11

Charlie thought that there had never been a sadder Christmas. Even that one time when he was stuck on a mountain in Romania and had barely escaped from freezing to death had been more cheerful than this. His whole family had been stuck at aunt Muriel's place ever since the wedding. Well, not his whole family. Ginny had returned to Hogwarts and was home for Christmas only. Bill mainly stayed at the shell cottage with Fleur and Ron had disappeared with Harry and Hermione when they death eaters attacked after the fall of the ministry. Charlie thought he'd never forget Kingsley's voice coming out of his patronus and the death eaters swarming down on them just moments after. With every death eater that they fought off, Charlie was worried that surely the next one to be unmasked would be Holly. It was now very clear to him why she'd been so adamant about not coming to the wedding. She must have known all along that she'd be taking part in the attack on the ministry that very night. He did not understand why she had not warned him. Was she too far gone already?

"Charlie, do you want some Christmas pudding?" His mother asked him quietly.

Charlie could clearly see that his mum had been crying again. He could not remember a time when her eyes had not been red.

"I'm alright." He did his best to smile at his mother, but failed.

"Isn't that Holly?" Ginny suddenly said from where she was sat in front of the fireplace.

"What?" Charlie went to sit down next to her. Wordlessly Ginny pointed at a picture in the daily prophet. Ginny had been right, it was Holly. She was standing with a few other wizards in front of the door that lead to the department of mystery. Holly looked like she had that one time Charlie had seen her at the ministry. Dark and beautiful. He quickly read the article underneath the picture.

"So she's an Unspeakable now. I'm not surprised. She's obviously kept many secrets from us." Ginny's voice was full of anger. Ever since Snape's betrayal, his family was convinced that Holly had been a double agent as well. His mum had told Ginny how his and Holly's relationship had been a lie to protect the girl. Charlie had just pretended he didn't care about Holly anymore and that he hadn't seen her since that one time when Holly came to see him after having received the dark mark.

"It's all death eaters working at the ministry now. Your father and Bill won't be able to return to work." His mum said from the armchair where she listlessly started on knitting yet another jumper. "I'm glad we cast the fidelius charm on this and Bill's place as soon as the ministry fell back in August. None of us are safe now."

Ginny had tears in her eyes. Ever since Ron, Hermione and Harry had disappeared his sister seemed to have lost all of her cool composure. And Charlie thought that she was more worried about Harry than their brother.

"I will have to go back to Romania at some point. Not to stay, just to check in with things there." Charlie quickly added when he saw the shocked expression on his mother's face.

"Can I come with you? I can't go back to Hogwarts now." Ginny asked, her voice sounding very defeated.

"Absolutely not! You will stay here." Their mother almost shouted.

Charlie was almost relieved. He wasn't really planning on going back to Romania at all, but he needed to speak to Holly. Maybe he could sneak into the ministry. He deserved the truth from her.

Ginny and their mum started to argue and Charlie thought it best to disappear to the room he shared with the twins. But as he soon as he got there he felt like leaving again. Fred and George were experimenting on some new products for their joke shop and by the looks of it, had already blown up their side of the room. Charlie did not fancy to get blown up next. So he wandered out into the garden and after a moment of hesitation left through the wooden gate for a quick walk around the fields that surrounded his aunt's house. He had only walked for half a mile or so when he heard a faint popping sound behind him. Charlie had his wand out in no time and turned around to face whoever had just apparated behind him. Charlie exhaled noisily when it was Wanda.

"What are you doing here?" He asked the small house elf.

"Mistress Burr has tasked Wanda to find Mr Weasley. But it has been very difficult. Wanda could not enter the place he was at. Mistress Burr has been furious with Wanda, but it will be okay now." The house elf said happily. Her clothes looked shabbier than Charlie had ever seen them and he did not like that at all. Before Charlie could say anything else, the house elf had disappeared again. Charlie was not sure what to do now. Surely Wanda would appear with Holly again any moment now. But Charlie had wanted to meet Holly on his terms. He needed to think about what exactly he was going to ask her. He needed time to prepare himself, to tuck his feelings away. And then Wanda was back, with Holly in tow.

Holly looked ghastly. Her face was pale, her hair unkempt. There were dark shadows under her eyes and with her black robes she bared close resemblance to a dementor.

"Charlie." She said eventually, her voice hoarse.

At the sound of his name coming out of the mouth of the woman he loved so much, something became loose inside him. All he wanted was to hold and kiss her. And so he did. Charlie only stopped when he felt the wetness of her tears against his face.

"Charlie, I am so sorry. I thought that if I'd tell you about the ministry you'd try to stop it and risk your life for nothing. The ministry had fallen months before that, just not officially. And as soon as I heard that he planned an attack on Potter the very same night I told Shacklebolt to warn you and your family." Holly sobbed. "And then I could not find you."

Charlie held her even more tightly. "I know. It's okay, Holly." He kissed her forehead. "I should have contacted you. I was just confused. It just didn't look good. And I had to be there for my family, after Ron leaving, mum was in really bad state."

He pulled a tissue out of his coat pocket and gave it to Holly, who cleaned her noise and wiped her face. "Ron has left?" She asked.

"Yeah, he went with Harry to…" Charlie stopped himself. He didn't really know where they had gone, only that Dumbledore had left them something to do. And somehow it didn't seem to be something he should be sharing with Holly. Holly had of course noticed him not finishing the sentence, but did not push him. It almost felt to Charlie like Holly was allowing him to keep secrets from her. And that could only mean that there were things she did not want Charlie to know about either.

"I am going to work in the ministry now." Holly said, trying to change the topic.

"I saw. Department of Mysteries."

"Yeah. There are quite a few of us who've been put to work there." Holly played with the tissue in her hand and Charlie was worried about what she was struggling to tell him.

"But that's okay, isn't it? You'll be safe there. And you won't be forced to do things you don't want to do." Charlie asked eventually when Holly still hadn't made any effort to say anything more herself.

"Yeah. Well, kind of. It's a punishment." Holly was still not looking at him, still playing with the tissue. "I was only stunning people the night we attacked the ministry. The dark lord was not happy, so he tasked me and some others with finding out as much as we can about the things kept there. He's hoping we'll get killed as all of the Unspeakables are either dead or too ill to help us. So we'll have to work by trial and error."

Charlie did not know what to say for a moment. "Why isn't he more direct about it?" He asked eventually. The last thing he wanted was for Holly to be in danger but he hadn't thought that subtlety was in the dark lord's repertoire.

"He can't kill a bunch of purebloods outright. There are so few of us as it is and it would make everyone even more nervous than they already are." Holly finally put the tissue away.

"But you are smart. You will be okay, won't you?" Charlie could not keep the sense of dread he was feeling out of his voice. He knew that the department of Mysteries, if you did not know what to expect, was one of the most dangerous places in the wizarding world. Everyone knew the story of the intern that had disappeared some years back.

"Of course I will be. I do not intend to die." Some of Holly's usual strength and determination had found itself back in her voice.

Charlie kissed her again. "You are still wearing the ring." He said, in a pleased tone.

Holly smiled. "I have been wearing it ever since you gave it to me. I'll always wear it."

"Promise you'll never take it off."

"I'll take it to my grave, I promise."

After Holly had left again, Charlie had walked for another hour, trying to organise his thoughts. Seeing the ring he had given her on Holly's hand after all that had happened, had given him an idea. When he returned to aunt Muriel's house he was glad to see his brother Bill having a cup of tea in the kitchen.

"Where have you been?" Bill asked him as soon as he entered the house.

"Just for a walk. Can't stand being inside all the time." Charlie said and made himself a cup of tea.

"I get it. But you can't disappear on mum. She was close to organising a search party." Bill looked as if, in fact, she had not been just close to organising a search party, but as if he was here to be part of said party.

"I'm sorry. Where is she now?" Charlie added milk and sugar before taking a sip of his tea.

"She's gone to lie down. I made her a cup of tea with something extra." Bill pulled a flask out of his pocket and shook it. "She was much calmer then."

Charlie grinned at his brother. A shot of firewhiskey always helped.

"Well, when I was on my walk I bumped into somebody." Charlie looked around for Ginny and saw her in the garden with the twins. "I've been talking to Holly."

Bill raised his eyebrows. With a sigh he added some of the amber liquid from his flask to his and Charlie's tea. "I suppose we'll need this for whatever comes next. I thought you hadn't seen her since that time you stayed in my flat?"

"Well, not exactly." Charlie quickly filled Bill in about everything that had happened, not leaving out anything. When he came to the part of him proposing to Holly, Bill added some more firewhiskey to his tea. After Charlie had finished, neither of the two brothers said anything for a long while.

"And you've decided to tell me all of this because you need me to help you two getting married." Bill said eventually, and much calmer than Charlie had expected.

"Yeah." Charlie grabbed the flask and took a sip straight from it. "I mean, I know that legally she's married to Barnaby Lee." He added.

Bill rested his chin on his hand. "But that's only legal in the wizard community."

"Exactly." Charlie was relieved that his brother seemed so on board with his idea.

"Do you remember that time we sat at breakfast in Grimmauld place? We spoke about Holly and about how you'd never be accepted as a respectable son in law. You know, I think once this is all over, Alexander Burr would welcome you with open arms. After all, you've stood by his daughter all this time. You've helped Holly and looked after her." Bill smiled at him. "I'm still not sure what side she is on, but I am sure that you two love each other."

Charlie didn't quite know what to say. Deep down, he wasn't so sure either which side she really was on, but he did love her.

"We do. So let's get this muggle wedding on the road."

The holidays were filled with family time so the two brothers did not have a lot of time to talk about their plan. But by the beginning of February things had calmed down. And then it turned out that Bill knew a lot about muggle weddings. He confided in Charlie that when Fleur was so coldly received by their mum, Bill had looked into getting hitched the muggle way. After a quick stint to the muggle council in Exeter and some confundus charms, Bill had organised the necessary papers and then they went to Ifracombe to talk to a priest. They found a lovely church a bit further into the country but where you could still see the sea. It was a small church and the priest was ancient but it would do perfectly. Especially since the priest was happy to marry them the first Saturday in March and did not even want to speak to the bride to be beforehand. Bill thought that maybe the priest thought that him and Charlie were going to get married. Charlie did not really care what the priest thought, he was just happy that it all was going so well.

"You need witnesses." Bill said and helped himself to another piece of pizza. They were in the now empty flat in Shoreditch. They couldn't really talk at aunt Muriel's house and Bill did not want to drag Fleur into it so the Shell Cottage was no good either.

"Well, I would of course want you to be my best man." Charlie said, no doubt in his voice. He had been Bill's best man, so it only made sense.

"Obviously." Bill grinned at him, looking very pleased with himself. "But Holly needs someone as well."

Charlie thought about that. For a short moment he thought that maybe Ginny would do it, but then he remembered how angrily Ginny had spoken about Holly when they had read about her in the daily prophet. There wasn't really anyone in his family that he could ask. There was Tonks, but she was pregnant and Charlie was not really sure how she felt about Holly after everything.

"What about her cousin?" Bill asked eventually.

"Marcus Flint? Really? He's not a girl." Charlie was not really keen for Flint to be there.

"It doesn't have to be a girl. And you said that she cares about him a lot."

"I suppose so. Well, I am going to talk to her. She doesn't really know about all of this yet." Charlie took another bite of his slice of pizza. "We've only been sending messages to each other with Wanda, her house elf. I'd really like to tell her in person, but it's difficult at the moment."

"How is she doing?" Bill asked, his voice worried and Charlie really appreciated his brother for it.

"Not too well. She doesn't really talk about what she's doing in the department of mysteries but I can tell that she's afraid." Charlie played with another slice. "But I'm still glad that she doesn't have to be out there and do you know who's bidding."

"Do you think she ever did?" Bill did not meet his eyes. "Do you think she's been out there torturing and killing people?"

Charlie put the pizza down. "I don't know. I'd love to say that I'm sure that she'd never do anything like that. But I think that'd be naive."

The two brother finished the rest of the pizza in silence.

Charlie eventually was able to meet Holly in the flat in Shoreditch two weeks into February. Holly looked much better and even though she did not tell Charlie anything specific about what she was doing at the ministry, she seemed to be able to cope with it. Charlie had not forgotten Snape telling him about Holly being a keen learner so the department of mysteries would be the perfect place for her to learn new things. When Charlie told her about his idea of getting married the muggle way Holly was unsure at first. She was worried about Bill and Charlie being out in the open for any length of time. But it was obvious that she really wanted to marry him so she agreed in the end. And when Charlie brought up the need for her to have a witness, Holly said she would ask Marcus Flint without hesitation.

The next couple of weeks went by in a blur. Charlie and Bill went to Exeter again to buy muggle suits and wedding rings. Charlie had some muggle money but it was not enough to get anything fancy so he ended up with two plain golden wedding bands. Bill used a neat little charm to engrave Charlie and Holly's names as well as the date of the wedding inside the rings. And before Charlie could blink it was the first Saturday in March and he was standing by the altar wearing his muggle suit with Bill beside him. It was a beautiful day outside and the inside of the church was illuminated by the sun shining through the stained glass windows. That was the only decoration they had but Charlie thought it was perfect. Bill had been nervous at his wedding but Charlie just felt completely at peace. He just knew that he was doing the right thing.

When Holly finally walked down the aisle with Flint by her side, Charlie could not help but to smile at her. She was wearing a long flowing white dress and there were daisies in her hair which was falling in waves down her back. She looked beautiful. The ceremony was short and even though some of what the muggle priest said seemed strange, Charlie thought it was fitting. When he finally got to kiss Holly, Charlie thought he was going to burst with happiness.

And then it was all over. Flint and Bill had left and he and Holly were at the room they had booked in a small B&B by the sea. Holly was nestled against him and they were watching the flames in the fireplace.

"I think if anyone would have told me then that I was going to marry that girl drenched in blood at the bottom of the slides I'd have thought them crazy." Charlie said quietly.

"So would I." Holly smiled up at him. "I was so angry that day. At myself mostly, for having gotten myself in that situation. For having to depend on somebody."

"Well in hindsight I'm glad that you did." Charlie kissed her forehead. "Maybe I should send McNeagan a thank you card."

Holly rolled her eyes, but laughed. "I think I knew I was in trouble when your shocked face at your mother proclaiming us boyfriend and girlfriend offended me."

Charlie blushed. "It was just strange. And I was worried that you'd be disgusted." Charlie stared into the fire. "My mum always told us stories about how people rushed everything the first time you know who was around. Like marrying after having fallen in love only the week before. I always thought that that was stupid. Why would you want to put yourself out there when you didn't know if you'd survive the night? But now it makes sense. When there is so much hate and violence around, you'd want to do everything to let the light in. And nobody knows how long any of us have, so why waste time? And I think that we've waited long enough."

He kissed Holly deeply and carried her over to the bed. And for a long while they didn't speak at all.

Charlie woke up to the sound of Holly getting dressed. He sat up and looked at the clock at the bedside table. It was three am.

"What is happening?" He asked sleepily.

"I've got to go." Holly rolled up her sleeve and Charlie could see the dark mark burning a deep red.

"Why is it red?" Charlie thought that it would only appear when the death eaters were called and that it would be black, like it was the first time he saw it on her forearm.

Holly bit her lip. Charlie could see her debating with herself whether to tell him the truth.

"He wants something done." She said eventually.

"What do you mean?" Charlie got out of the bed and walked up towards Holly, who backed away slightly. "Holly, what does he want you to do?"

"There is someone he wants out of his way." Holly did not meet his eyes.

"He wants you to kill somebody?" Charlie felt the colour drain from his face. Why was she not more upset by this?

"I don't know if it is just me he is calling. But yes, someone is going to die tonight." Holly bent down to tie the laces of her trainers. Then she waved her wand and a black robe appeared out of nothing. In her other hand was a golden mask.

"Don't go, Holly. You can hide with my family. Please." Charlie could not stop staring at the mask in her hand.

"Your family hates me. And it would put them in even more danger. Fidelius charm or not, the mark has some very dark magic attached to it. I could lead him straight to you."

"What if it is someone in my family he wants dead? Or one of my friends? Someone in the order?" Charlie said desperately, trying to convince her to stay.

"I'm sorry, Charlie." Holly disapparated and left Charlie to stare at the spot where she had stood just seconds before.