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The Hell of Fourth Year.
The bastard…the arrogant, self-righteous, bastard! Charlotte stalked through the corridors of the school angrily, her mind going over the confrontation she'd just had with the old wizard in McGonagall's office. My parents died in his war, they died because of him, but he doesn't care about that because he doesn't have any scruples if it helps him on his quest for personal recognition. I swear, if he ever does that again, I will murder him!
Gone was her once good mood, now she was incandescent with rage over what Dumbledore had just done. She doubted the old fool would do anything about it considering his habit of burying everything and keeping it under wraps.
Why is it everyone in the magical world keeps telling me my parents wouldn't have wanted this, or they wouldn't have wanted that? Everyone does it, and they honestly think I care what they would have wanted! I make decisions based on my own choices, not because people tell me a couple of ghosts would have wanted me to do something different. But everyone I've met, adults at least, keep shoving Lily and James Potter's memory into my face; Lucius Malfoy even threatened me after Dobby was freed, but then I promised if we ever met again and he so much as lifted a wand in my face again, I would castrate him while his prick of a son watched.
Charlotte closed her eyes as she began to feel claustrophobic inside the warren of corridors inside the castle. She needed to get out of here. Now, before someone came and there really would be blood everywhere, but if she could get to the grounds…
The bell rang, making her sigh in irritation. Classes were out, she realised to herself, which meant the students would be coming out in platoons, and she didn't want to deal with them. She looked around the corridors, trying to identify any landmarks so she could pick a way to head out to the grounds where she could be by herself without anyone to bother her.
Unfortunately, it wasn't to be. Charlotte came across a group of Hufflepuffs, among them was Hannah Abbot and Ernie MacMillan. Oh, joy! The moment the group realised she was there, they stiffened, particularly when Charlotte flicked out her wrist and one of her wands appeared in her hand. The sight of one of the wands Charlotte had used to brutal effect in the First Task stilled them. A sadistic grin spread over Charlotte's face when she caught their reaction, and for her own sick amusement she flicked it around like a cat's tail. The Hufflepuffs were so scared they watched it.
"Don't say a word," she ground out. "I'm not looking for a fight, but if you so much as threaten or taunt me, I will be sending your remains to your families in a matchbox. The good old days are gone, if you push me again I'll murder the whole lot of you! Now get out of here!"
The group rushed away. Charlotte sighed and slipped the wand back in its holster. She didn't like being the bully, but she was glad that bunch were scared of her and weren't so arrogant anymore to antagonise her. But as her eyes followed the group of Hufflepuffs, she gritted her teeth together.
She always tried to keep her darker impulses under control most of the time - after she had killed the Dursleys, Charlotte had committed a couple more murders, but the resultant police search had done a lot to drum in the dangers of going too far, and when she had discovered Dumbledore's involvement in so much of the pain in her life and how he had some game in mind for her particularly when he had begun interfering in her education in visible and in invisible ways, she had pushed herself out of sight so he wouldn't notice some of her skills since he would intervene.
While she had sometimes broken that rule, she had gone to a lot of trouble to keep herself from going too crazy. But as she watched the Hufflepuffs as they ran away (she hoped Helga wouldn't have a go at her for what she'd just threatened to do, although that was remote), ignoring the looks she was getting from the rest of the students nearby, Charlotte wished she had lashed out a few times against that bunch of sheep away from her in the past.
She sighed when they were out of sight and she resumed her trek through the castle, keeping her wand exposed so then everyone knew she was armed and ready for anything they threw at her. As she walked through the corridors of the school, passing the students whose crowds were becoming less and less dense as they got to their lessons. But there were still a few students who had yet to get to their classes.
"Charlotte, there you are!" she heard Ron Weasley shout behind her.
Charlotte closed her eyes and stopped and she turned around and shook her head at the sight of the redhead. "What do you want?" she snapped, mentally counting for patience.
"Oh come on," Weasley puffed out his chest in what he probably thought was a macho way. "Don't be like that, Lots," he went on, taking hold of her arm in his own hand. "Professor Dumbledore says I am your date for the Yule Ball."
Interfering old bastard, Charlotte cursed Dumbledore in her head before she took a good look at him. Weasley looked too certain of himself, too proud and too confident, and the way his chest was puffed out while he looked so smug the expression itself looked right at home on his face.
Charlotte had seen that expression before on one of the Weasley brothers. Percy had never really been her favourite Weasley, although none of them really were given how much the twins bullied the rest of the students with their pranks, but the older boy's pomposity and smug smarmy demeanour was a big turn off and it made her wonder what was wrong with the collective intelligence of people when a girl like Penelope Clearwater decided to date him.
Still, it was Clearwater's problem, not hers.
But she had never imagined seeing so many of Percy's traits in Ronald and while she had to admit the two were similar when she saw him like this, she also remembered the differences.
One brother was smart and career-driven and wanted to succeed so then he could escape his domineering bitch of a mother, although that seemed to be a trait common to all the Weasley children from what she had gleaned after looking into the minds of the twins, Percy, and even Ginny; Percy and the twins had spent years and years developing their repertoires and skills - while she disliked the twins, she had to admit they were good at what they did - and in Percy's case he had been saving every single coin he could so he could immediately leave the Burrow at the earliest opportunity. She'd seen it in his mind. He had kept the cash in little bags under the floor underneath his bed and he planned on using it to buy or rent a flat as quickly as he could. The Weasley parents knew he had taken little jobs and while they had received a few coins, the majority went into the bags. Charlotte had no doubt he had moved out by now.
The twins and their sister were the same, they may love their mother although it was more tolerance than anything else. They were just biding their time so they could wave her goodbye and live life the way they wanted. Charlotte could respect them for that given what she had seen of the woman herself.
What that in itself said about the relationship with Molly Weasley and her kids was amazing.
In contrast, Ron Weasley didn't want to leave his mother. He wanted to be this, he wanted to be that, just so long as he was better than all of his siblings, but he simply refused to do anything to make himself better.
It was a crazy paradox.
But truthfully if Ron Weasley ended up becoming a couch potato or some magical equivalent of a slob, why would it be her problem?
In the meantime, she had something else on her mind.
When did Dumbledore come up with the idea to put me with this pretence of humanity for something sponsored by the Ministry? My bet is Weasley was told recently.
"Well, Lots, aren't you happy?" Weasley had a smug grin on his face; Charlotte wished he wouldn't grin or smile since not only did he resemble Percy, she could see bits of food in-between his teeth. That was bad enough and made her sick, but what annoyed her the most was how Weasley was using that stupid nickname. She had been called Lottie when she had been a kid, and she had been sick of it, especially when she had been made fun of. Charlotte preferred her full first name, but Char, Chaz, or Charley. She had no doubt Weasley didn't even know or realise there was no possibility of them ever getting together although realistically she wouldn't have gone out with this piggish bastard.
How many times had she gone to the trouble of spelling it out clearly for the moron she hated the nickname? Charlotte had no idea herself, although since she had done it back to back all year last year, she was unsurprised she had lost count.
"No, I'm not," she replied bluntly.
Weasley's smug smile faded. "What do you mean?!" he tightened his grip on her arm.
"I am not going with you. I don't care what Dumbledore told you was going to happen when he came up with this stupid plan to try to get us together," she sneered at the word, "But I am not going with you. I don't even know if I'm going to go."
"What do you mean you dunno if you're gonna go? You have to go!" Weasley shrieked, tightening his grip on her arm. Charlotte needed to use all of her self control not to react as the grip became painful. Just a few more seconds.
"Why, because the Ministry wants me to? Because Dumbledore wants me to?"
"Yeah! You're representing Hogwarts. You need to go. Oh, and you can come to Gryffindor again!" Weasley added the afterthought.
Charlotte shook her head. "Grammatical issues aside since you just said "you can come to Gryffindor again" when instead you should have said "you can return to Gryffindor" did you never think I don't want to go anywhere near that stupid tower again? As for representing Hogwarts, I'm not a student here anymore, and I really don't care about Hogwarts anymore."
"What?! How could you have left Hogwarts? Or Gryffindor? You brought honour to the House, and I say you can come back!" Weasley shouted in her face as he leaned closer in a foolish attempt to intimidate her. Charlotte closed her eyes as she felt the spittle land on her skin, and she only just restrained the urge to kill the idiot. But the hand clenched around her arm made her wince as Weasley squeezed tighter in his anger.
A burst of light slammed out of Charlotte's wand and hit Weasley in the chest with the force of a cannonball and propelled him down the corridor before he skidded to a halt against the wall. Weasley wheezed while he winced in pain when his head collided with the wall. Charlotte walked down the corridor slowly towards the fallen redhead, wondering to herself how long she would have before someone turned up to investigate.
The pair of them had made a lot of noise. Weasley had done a lot of shouting, and anyone nearby would have heard the commotion. Besides that, while Dumbledore was likely in the Hospital Wing, the portraits would have informed one of the teachers in place of the Headmaster, and one of them was probably on their way. If that was the case Charlotte did not want to be here.
She walked closer to Weasley and levelled her wand at his prone body. But so far all Weasley seemed to be doing was moaning on the ground; she didn't know if he was doing it because he was genuinely hurt or doing it out of self-pity, or even both.
She glared down at the pathetic wizard in front of her and patiently waited for him to get some semblance of control back. Unfortunately, he was just content to lie there and moan. Snorting to herself in irritation and losing her patience, Charlotte fired off a mild bludgeoning curse at Weasley's chest, knowing it would make him moan even harder but she hoped a little dose of pain would make him aware she was speaking to him.
"I don't think I was clear, so I will say it again and hopefully get it through your stupid thick skull…I am not going with you to this Ball; the idea alone is disgusting. You disgust me, you filthy, smelly, ill-mannered, ignorant, bad-tempered, pig-headed, arrogant, miserable arsehole of a neanderthal. I have had to put up with three years of you, and if you think I'm going to dance, smelling your body odour and your greased hair simply 'cause you don't know how to wash yourself you've got another thing coming. I don't care what Dumbledore tells you; I am not going to date or marry you just because that old bastard says otherwise. But if I do go to the Yule Ball, it will be my own choice, with my own date, and if you try anything to ruin it, I will take the law into my own hands!" Charlotte hissed.
Weasley moaned.
Charlotte sighed and walked off giving up since it was clear Weasley was not listening to her. "Well, don't say I didn't warn you," she called back and she walked quickly away, not really knowing and not caring one little bit if someone came along and helped Weasley or if he just lay there for the rest of this period.
She came to the castle doors and she clicked her fingers, thankful that the Founders had given her access to this little ability so she wouldn't need to break out of one of the ground floor windows of one of the disused classrooms. She closed her eyes as she found herself on the ground, and she smiled at the simplicity of nature; while her view of the school and the Wizarding World had been tarnished fairly quickly and with each year she lost more and more faith they had common sense between their ears, she did love the fantastic views of the Scottish highlands.
Charlotte had the grounds pretty much to herself, and she slowly walked around them. She stopped by the Quidditch pitch and looked around as she looked at the three Quaffle hoops and the spectator stands. As much as she wished she didn't, Charlotte couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia surge through her as she remembered her first matches back in her first year, how she had nearly been badly injured in all of them, from when Quirrell had cursed her broomstick, and where Dobby had enchanted that bludger to smash her off of her broomstick.
Charlotte chuckled a little as she thought of her male House Elf; while she'd been put out by what he'd done and his attempts to stop her coming back to Hogwarts for her second year, and she prayed he never tried anything like that again even if she knew his heart was in the right place.
Her smile disappeared as she remembered how Wood had essentially blackmailed her emotionally into staying on the team after she had been exposed to the Dementors the previous year. She had been so tired and fed up with how she couldn't play Quidditch without something happening which would land her on her back in the hospital wing, and she had decided to hell with her image, she would just quit. Unfortunately Wood had begged her to stay on, going as far as to use emotional blackmail. In the end, sucker she was, Charlotte had stayed on, but she had told Wood if she got injured in any way in the final matches of her Third Year, then she would leave and she wouldn't give a damn how he felt. Wood hadn't liked that, but it was fair. Fortunately, she hadn't been injured or affected by the Dementors, but for Charlotte, the appeal of Quidditch had run its course; after her third year she had felt she had played enough games. She had originally planned on telling McGonagall about her choice for this year, but since she had resigned from Hogwarts and she had been kicked out of Gryffindor House - Thanks for all the stupid matches you've won, Charlotte; you have our eternal gratitude but you're not a Gryffindor anymore - it was academic.
Charlotte had never been as obsessed with Quidditch as her peers. She had only been on the team because McGonagall had seen her catch that stupid Remembrall Neville had carried around that Malfoy had thrown in that stupid attempt to cause trouble, but while it had been fun she had only been the seeker because she had felt it would help build the image she wanted for herself, allowing her to blend into the school without Dumbledore knowing or even interfering with her long term plans.
There was nothing for her here, and by the end of the year, she hoped the Tournament would be finished with and she could also hopefully find out who had put her name into the Goblet of Fire, and when she did she would make them pay. Charlotte turned around and walked away from the pitch and she walked slowly around the grounds. She could see the Beaxbatons carriage in the distance, and if she looked around the castle itself at a certain angle to the lake, she could see the Dumstrang ship. Charlotte planned to steer clear of them both although what the students themselves would do if they spotted her she had no idea, she wasn't going to put it to the test.
Coming to a boulder embedded in the ground, Charlotte sat down, wincing as the cool damp of the rock seeped through her stockings and skirt but she waved her wand and it disappeared. She leaned back on the rock and she thought about what she was going to do.
The Founders' task of heading to that library sealed away for centuries was at the back of her mind, but truthfully she knew she had plenty of time to get there. She wasn't expected to read through a library containing a number of books in one day. But her heart just wasn't in it; the confrontations with Weasley and Dumbledore had snatched her good mood away and now she knew she was press-ganged into a Ball, she needed time to think.
She didn't want to go to some pointless Ball. In fact, she had no idea why there was such a thing in the first place, but she didn't know what she was going to do.
To attend she would need a date, and the thought of dancing with someone made her sick since she didn't trust anyone in the school. Charlotte sighed and she wondered to herself how her life had come to this so quickly. In the summer she had been busy, using the time turner she'd copied to commit crimes while being in the same place at the same time, breaking into the Tower of London and the Louvre among other places, and mastering the animagus transformation.
Now she was in a life and death Tournament where she had been harassed and threatened, and she had lost an eye and she had needed to put some of her plans into operation or she'd simply flipped them over on their heads. Charlotte had originally not planned on quitting Hogwarts. She had originally planned to get her exams, but her intention of keeping her head down until that point was gone forever. She had been so looking forward to getting one over on Dumbledore, making him take a taste of his own medicine after manipulating so much of her life for so long.
She had to admit it was a good thing he hadn't tried to contest or overturn her resignation from the school, although she had been worried he would use his influence to interfere despite the Founders and the goblins reassuring her it could never happen. If there was one thing she had learnt it was whatever Albus Dumbledore wanted, Albus Dumbledore inevitably got.
XXX
As she walked back into the castle hoping to get to the Founder's forgotten library and collect some books - she had no desire to spend a lot of time in the school anymore in case she had a confrontation with other people who had a grudge against her like Malfoy or some of the more extreme Slytherins, Snape, or even with people whom she truly did not want to speak to anymore; in this case, Dumbledore was at the top of the list, but right next to the old bastard were Hermione Granger, the Weasley twins, Ginny, and several other people - and from there head home back to the windmill and study from there, Charlotte was grateful for the chance she'd had to cool off.
She'd also had the chance to think about the Yule Ball. Personally she didn't want anything to do with it, especially if it was Ministry sponsored. Charlotte's contempt for the Ministry had reached new heights when she'd discovered what they'd done with her parents' belongings. While she was a thief and saw the hypocrisy for herself, she had to ask herself what the point was behind Bagnold and Fudge's attempts to keep her family property away from her. In the end, she'd decided it didn't matter, but at the same time, while she would love nothing more than to avoid the whole thing, she saw that if she did that then everyone would think the worst of her and although she didn't care what people thought about her at this stage, Charlotte would love nothing more than to show them up.
She was just turning a corner when she walked into someone.
"Oh, sorry, Charlotte."
Charlotte gasped and she looked up into the concerned face of Cedric Diggory. "Cedric," she whispered, flushing as she found herself in his arms. "Hi…"
"Are you okay?" the Hufflepuff seventh year asked her in concern. "I've been looking for you for days."
Charlotte tilted her head. "Why?" she asked curiously, flushing a little by how close to her bum one of his hands were.
"To find out how you are," Cedric replied as though the answer was obvious. Suddenly he looked down and wouldn't look her in the eyes, or sunglasses to be more accurate in her case.
Charlotte was surprised. No-one in Hogwarts had ever truly given two thoughts about her wellbeing before, so she was surprised. But what surprised her the most was how she had probably scared Cedric to death during the First Task; he had treated her with kindness and yet she'd repaid him by attacking him. But as she looked deeply at his face she could see something was bothering him, and so she put aside her curiosity about how he felt about her when most just saw her as a dark witch to ask him what was wrong.
"Cedric, what's wrong?" she asked.
Cedric took a deep breath and he lifted his head to look her in the eye. "Will you go to the Yule Ball with me?"
Charlotte's mouth dropped in surprise. "Y-you want to g-go out with me?" she whispered.
"If you don't I'll understand," Cedric smiled, or tried to smile.
"No, I'm flattered, but I thought you were already dating Cho Chang?" Charlotte said, remembering seeing the haughty Ravenclaw bully on Cedric's arm, simpering around him. She had often wondered what the attraction was since Cho was a bully and she guessed Cedric hadn't seen that part of Cho yet.
Cedric sighed. "Not anymore we're not," he said. The tone of his voice and the stiff posture he'd suddenly taken made it more than clear to Charlotte he didn't want to discuss the matter, and unlike other people - Lavender Brown and Hermione Granger among them - Charlotte knew when to leave well enough alone.
Charlotte bit her lip and looked deeply into his eyes. He was serious. "How long have you been looking for me?" she asked.
"For the last few days, but," Cedric shook his head as a thoughtful look crossed his face, "it's weird. I've been looking for you for ages and yet today I seemed to have a clear view of where you'd be."
While Cedric was confused about the matter of how he'd found her so easily whereas nobody hadn't unless it down to sheer pot luck, Charlotte was not as clueless. There was no doubt in her mind at all Cedric had been directed her way by the Founders, and it made her wonder if finding the library was the only thing on their minds or if they were doing this to get her and Cedric together. She decided to put that out of her mind for now and wait until she visited them again to get her answers.
"So….will you go with me?" Cedric bit his lip hesitantly, making Charlotte barely resist the urge to kiss him.
Charlotte looked at the handsome wizard. So much was going through her mind that it was hard to keep track. The news she would be forced to attend a dance sponsored by the Ministry had instantly made her tempted to simply avoid the whole thing out of spite for Fudge and his moronic administration, and do something more constructive with her time and energy like robbing a bank or a house.
But Cedric asking her out…it was shocking. Charlotte had never been on a date in her life in Hogwarts because she'd always looked into the minds of the boys to see if they were even worthwhile and each time she had been disappointed since they'd wanted to use the image of her on their arms to show off to everyone in the school. But as she looked into Cedric's eyes she could see the same honesty he'd exuded when they'd met before Bones destroyed her eye.
But looking into the eyes of the sweet guy in front of her, Charlotte smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "I'd love to go," she said.
