The Burrow was uncharacteristically quiet. Mr and Mrs Weasley were out with Ginny, purchasing her school supplies. Bill had gone with them for added security. The twins were at their shop, desperately attempting to keep people's spirits up with humour and hijinks.
Seemingly overnight the wizarding world had gotten even darker. The ministry had decreed that all muggle-borns were to report to the ministry for questioning. The majority had gone into hiding, seeing the decree for what it truly was. What was left of the Order were still trying to meet to see what could be done, but they had to be careful. It hadn't escaped any of their notice the pairs of eyes that followed them when they did venture out in public.
The sudden roar of the fire shocked Charlie out of his musings. It was far too early for his family to be back from their outing. Wand gripped tightly, he made his way to the sitting room.
"Charlie!" a frantic voice called out. In a flash, Charlie had leapt into the sitting room and grabbed the intruder by the shoulder, wand pointed dangerously at their throat.
"Rose?" He took in her disheveled appearance with suspicion. He knew Rose had gone back to stay with her wizard parents, so why did she look as if she'd just been in a fight? She looked terrified, her eyes trained on his wand "Charlie, it's me. Please, I didn't know where else to go!"
"What was the first creature Kettleburn had us learn about in our first Care of Magical Creatures class?" he asked, not looking her in the eye in case it was an imposter after all.
"It was a firecrab, we had to sketch it without it setting fire to our parchments" Rose replied quickly. Charlie instantly backed off, convinced this was the real Rose Davis. "Sorry Rose, we've got to be really tough on security. Not that I'm not pleased to see you, but what are you doing here? What happened?" He lead her over to the sofa so she could sit and recount her story.
"It's this awful decree against muggle-borns. My dad's parents were muggles so he was summoned to the ministry. Obviously he wasn't going to hand himself in, so we laid low. Jacob worried when he hadn't heard from any of us so flooed over, but they must've been watching because then all these ministry officials appeared demanding dad went with them. Jacob was stood nearest to my parents so apparated them out. I can only guess he's taken them out of the country." As Rose recounted her story she became more teary as the emotion of the day caught up with her.
Charlie handed her a tissue and slowly rubbed circles on her back. "Hey it's okay, they're safe now. I bet Jacob will throw them off before getting them out of the country." He paused for a moment, before continuing: "how did you get away though?"
"I didn't at first, they wanted to bring me in as well. But when they looked at mum's blood status they let me off with a warning and left. I grabbed the bag I had ready just in case and flooed here. I didn't know where else to go." Rose suddenly looked worried, in case she'd put the Weasleys in any more danger.
"Were you in Ravenclaw or not, Rose Davis? You know you're welcome here any time. That includes when hiding from our corrupt ministry." Charlie laughed at the outraged look on her face. Rose rolled her eyes before gently smacking his arm away.
The two shared a companionable silence for a moment before Rose became serious again. "Hey, Charlie?" she asked hesitantly.
"Yeah, what's up?" he glanced sideways at her, ears going slightly pink.
"I've made up my mind, I am going to join this fight. Someone has to make a stand. We can't leave it all up to a 17 year old, death-defying or not." Rose said with fierce determination. Charlie gave her a wide grin and pulled her to her feet. "Rose Davis, how would you feel about joining the Order of the Phoenix?"