A/N: Umm. not much to say. Thanks for reading/reviewing; it is truly appreciated!

Disclaimer: Ugh - just read all the other ones. The same applies to this chapter, too. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Ariane - I thought you weren't coming," Charlie murmured into her hair, breathing in her scent.

"I wasn't," she answered. "I debated for a really long time, and then I knew I had to see you so I got in my car, but there was a traffic jam and then I had to go all the way under the channel - "

"Shhh. As long you're here now, right? That's all that matters." He hugged her tighter to him.

"Charlie - I - " She started to pull away from him.

"What is it? What's wrong?" asked Charlie, confused.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm sorry that I came running after you, and I'm sorry that I blamed you for my father's death. I'm sorry for showing up late, and -"

"Ariane, it's okay. I don't care about any of that." Ariane smiled weakly at him, which he returned with a grin. For some reason, they both started laughing, side splitting, hiccupping guffaws, and earning looks from the more distinguished elite French class in the lobby.

"Maybe we should go," suggested Ariane. Charlie nodded, and led her into the elevator. They got to his room, and he pulled his card key out of his pocket. He fumbled with it for a while when Ariane took it out of his hands. "Honestly, it's not that difficult. Here." She slipped it through the scanner and opened the door easily. She handed the card key back to a very sheepish Charlie.

"So why did you decide to come, Ariane?" Ariane looked down at the ground.

"I love you, Charlie. I guess that's the only real reason there is."

"But you said that you almost didn't come." Ariane pursed her lips.

"You're right. I did say that. Two years ago, I made a list." Ariane pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper. "I wrote it after a hard breakup, a hard relationship, really; it's a list of the things that I'd never do again, or ever, for a guy. And running after someone is one of the things on the list - the first thing, actually." She handed it to Charlie. "But then I decided that if I lived by this list, then I'd never - well - I'd never get you back. And I don't think I could live with that."

"But wait, what's this about running after me? It seems to me that I was doing all of the running. Apparating, running," said Charlie.

"Yes, you did. But I somehow got it into my head that meeting you here would constitute as running after you, and I thought that would be, um, not keeping my integrity, if you will," Ariane told him. Charlie looked at her curiously.

"So what you're saying is -"

"No, Charlie, I'm not saying that at all. I think your level of integrity outshines mine because of your steadfastness in this relationship. Honestly, I've never met a bloke this determined before, and I quite frankly didn't understand it until this morning."

"This morning?"

"After you left on Thursday, you left a note with the hotel written on it, remember?" He nodded. "Well, I threw it away. Right after you left; I didn't even want the temptation. Friday, I spent all day at work, you know, to try and forget about everything, and then this morning, well, I wenrasherging." Ariane mumbled that last few words together under her breath.

"What? I didn't catch that last part." Charlie noticed that Ariane was turning slightly pink.

"I went trash digging," she said, averting her eyes. "And it was trash day, too, so I had to go through the big bin in the front yard, but then it's the whole building's trash, and I didn't know which bag was mine." Charlie started snickering until she glared at him.

"Er, sorry, darling. I know that isn't funny."

"It was bloody disgusting, is what it was."

"But you found it?" Ariane reached into her pocket and pulled out a tiny, crumpled piece of paper that looked as though it had seen better days, probably before the spaghetti sauce and other unrecognizable bits of trash had come in contact with it.

"I found it. And then I got in my car and started here. Well, I took a shower first, obviously, but, um, yeah."

"So by going trash digging, you realized that you had to come?"

"Er, well, no. I thought about what you said. I knew it was true, I really did. I had even come to the same conclusion on my own, but then when I saw you, the words just didn't come out. After you said it, it really sunk in, though. I tried to ignore it, but the fact that you still said you loved me - I couldn't disregard that. I couldn't disregard the fact that I still love you, too. But I'd forgotten where you were staying here, so I had to go into the trash-"

"Well, there's true love if I ever saw it," laughed Charlie.

"Ha bloody ha."

"Seriously, love, I would dig through all the trash bins in Britain if it meant having you here with me."

"You don't have to; I already did. And besides that, if you did go through all the trash bins, I wouldn't come near you; the smell alone would kill me." Ariane's gray eyes caught Charlie's blue ones, suddenly serious. "I love you, Charlie. I'm sorry I put you through this."

"Ariane, it's not your fault. And I understand why you reacted the way that you did. I also know that it seems really early in the relationship to have such deep feelings for you, but I can't help it. I love you. And you don't ever have to be sorry, because I will never stop loving you." Ariane smiled at him, touched. He stood up and took her into his muscular arms. She looked up at him.

"Charlie - are you sure you're a bloke?"

"What?!" he cried indignantly.

"You're just always so damn bloody understanding and romantic."

"Well, that's just Weasley charm."

"So it's all a façade?"

"Of course not. The hereditary charm is just a bonus. It's all one hundred percent Charlie Weasley, understanding and romantic as he may be."

"Good. That's how I like him."

"And I'm pretty sure I'm a bloke." Ariane felt a grin stretch across her face.

"A wally, at the very least. Not to ruin the mood or anything, but how did you manage to get a room here? And where's Bill?"

"Bill is in the room next door to us. And apparently he won some bet with the girl he's with, whose relatives run this hotel."

"So we get to stay here, free of charge?"

"Bottom line, yeah." At that moment, a knock came at the door. Charlie opened it, and saw Bill and Fleur standing there.

"Ariane, glad to see you here," said Bill.

"Hi, Bill."

"Ariane, this is Fleur. Fleur, Ariane."

"Hi, how do you do?" asked Ariane politely. The other girl looked at her curiously, as if trying to size her up. The two women were almost exact opposites in looks: Fleur had long, blond hair while Ariane had shorter black hair; Fleur's eyes were blue and readable whilst Ariane's were darker and contained mysteries. Fleur took Ariane's outstretched hand lightly.

"I eem doing vell," said Fleur. "Bill and I, we were tinking zat we shood go and see some of ze sights of Paris. we wood like to start with ze Tour Eiffel. Wood 'oo two like to join us?" Charlie looked at Ariane, who shrugged her shoulders.

"Sure, why not?" said Charlie. "It's not often that you get to go to Paris with your brother and the two most beautiful women in the world."

The four headed out into the city of lights to be tourists and enjoy their time together. When they got lost, all were grateful to have Fleur with them, or else it could have gotten disastrous. When they finally found the Eiffel Tower it took all the Weasley charm from Bill and Charlie to get the other two to go up. Fleur was easier to convince, but Charlie discovered a new side of Ariane.

"No, Charlie, I'm not going up. It's just - it's too dangerous."

"No, it's not. I mean, sure, it's a weird Muggle invention - oops, sorry - but it's still perfectly safe. I bet tons of people go up every day."

"Right, so those tons of people probably strain the cables so it's not nearly as sturdy now as it was when it was first built. I'm not going up," she argued.

"Oh, come on, Ariane. I promise you'll be safe. If anything happens, I'll be there to catch you, okay?" It took several more minutes of urging before Ariane finally agreed, but only under certain conditions. They took the elevator to the highest level, Ariane's eyes squeezed shut and her hands were clamped to Charlie's tighter than a pickle jar. Charlie could feel the blood draining from his fingers.

"Darling, it's okay. You can open your eyes," he whispered to her.

"NO!" Ariane's voice was so filled with conviction and determination that Charlie decided to not push the matter any further. When they finally got back to ground level, he noticed Ariane's legs shaking violently. She slowly loosened her grip on Charlie's hands, and opened her eyes. "Thank God that's over," she breathed.

"I didn't know you were so afraid of heights," Charlie commented.

"I'm not afraid of heights. I just don't like them," she said simply.

"I dunno, Ariane. I thought you were gonna faint or something for a while up there," stated Bill.

"I was not!" she protested. "Was I?" She looked at the other three, all nodding their heads. "Well, I guess - I guess I do get a little queasy at certain heights."

"It's a good thing you didn't grow up with Quidditch, then," said Bill.

"Don't worry, I'll get her on a broomstick someday," said Charlie slyly.

"No you won't, Charlie Weasley. Never. You might regret it if you try," threatened Ariane. The other three laughed, although they could see that she was probably very serious about her warning. "Now, honestly, can we go someplace that's more ground level?"

"Eef anyone is 'ungry, I know a very neece petit café aroond heer," said Fleur.

"Sounds good to me," said Bill.

With Fleur leading the way, the four headed towards the café; Ariane simply thankful that she was back with her feet on the ground and Charlie simply thankful that she was at his side once more.

* * *

Ariane awoke first the next morning, and slipped quietly out of the huge bed. She looked fondly at the redhead still sleeping, his position seemingly uncomfortable. He was sleeping on his stomach; his left arm was twisted around his back and his right hip turning his legs on their sides. His mouth was open, and he was snoring slightly into the pillow, muffling the sound. Ariane stifled a giggle at his awkward arrangement of limbs. She snuck quietly into the bathroom, turning on the shower.

She came back out of the bathroom, and Charlie was still sleeping. The creak of the door jarred him into alertness, and he awoke with a start.

"Oh, my neck," he groaned.

"No wonder," Ariane commented. "I've never seen anyone try to sleep as if they were a DNA double helix."

"A what?" asked Charlie groggily.

"Never mind." Ariane sat down on the bed.

"What's that on your head?" questioned Charlie, his eyes starting to focus more.

"A towel!"

"Why?"

"To dry out my hair, I guess. I mean, I'll blow dry and straighten it later, but it's just to get the excess water out of it now."

"'Blow dry' and 'straighten'?" repeated Charlie, sitting up.

"Yeah," said Ariane. She walked over to her tiny suitcase. She pulled out a straightening iron and a blow dryer, and handed them to Charlie.

"Weird," he muttered, turning them over in his hands. He shook his head. "I have a better way." He leaned over to the side of the bed and grabbed his wand. Ariane grabbed at the towel wrapped around her head.

"Wait, what are you going to do?"

"Trust me; it's just a simple drying charm. I've been using it for years. Take the towel off." Ariane looked at him suspiciously, and then unwrapped the towel from her head. Charlie muttered something under his breath. Ariane felt all the water get sucked from her hair.

"It's dry!" she exclaimed. Then she noticed the slight smirk on Charlie's face. "Oh my God," she groaned. "It poofed, didn't it?" Just from the laughter that Charlie was trying to hold in, Ariane feared the worst. She ran to the mirror, and found her black hair had frizzed in the worst way, almost resembling an afro. Charlie had gone to full blown laughter by this point. Ariane turned back to him. "Charlie, you fix this!"

"Honestly, Ariane, I don't know any straightening spells. There's a potion out on the wizard market, but I don't know how to make it!"

"Oh for crying out loud! I don't believe this."

"It's not that bad, Ariane, honestly," said Charlie in between chuckles. Ariane threw a pillow on the ground at him. She grabbed her straightening iron and marched into the bathroom. "Wait, I still need to use the loo!" he called after her.

"Tough!" she replied through the locked door. Charlie swung his legs off the bed and marched to the bathroom door.

"Alohomora!" he said clearly, pointing his wand at the door. Ariane gasped in shock and a strange mix of horror and amusement as he strode through the now unlocked bathroom door.

"Charlie, we NEED to have a talk about this magic stuff."

"Why? It's convenient enough for me," he teased.

"Yeah, I bet," she muttered as she began straightening the first layer of hair.

"So tell me how this 'straightening iron' works," said Charlie, coming up behind her.

"I'd be careful if I were you. This is really hot; it'll burn you if you come any closer."

"I'm pretty used to burns, darling. I work with dragons," he reminded her.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Ariane finished with the bottom-most layer, and started on the second.

"How long do you spend doing your hair every day, anyways?"

"Normally only fifteen or twenty minutes," she said. "But then again, normally I don't look as though I've stuck my finger in a socket."

"What's a socket?" asked Charlie curiously. Ariane laughed.

"Boy, we really do come from different worlds, don't we?" Charlie took the straightening iron out of her hands and wrapped his arms around her waist. He looked at them in the mirror. Ariane smiled at their reflection.

"I don't think it really matters, do you?"

"Of course not," she answered. "Now let me finish straightening my hair." Charlie chuckled and backed off. He turned to the shower on and jumped in. He started singing his old alma mater loudly and off-tune. Ariane smiled, shook her head, and finished her hair at about the same time Charlie finished showering. "So what's on the schedule for today?" she asked.

"I'm not sure. I suppose we should ask Bill and Fleur, but I'm not sure if they're awake yet," said Charlie, waggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh, stop it. Bill's a grown man," Ariane said, batting him playfully on the arm.

"Yeah, but he's also my big brother," Charlie claimed in self defense.

"Whatever. We can call him."

"How?" Ariane rolled her eyes. She walked over to the phone next to the bed and looked at the instructions briefly. She picked up the receiver and dialed a few numbers. There were several rings before someone picked up.

"HELLO?" shouted a deep male voice. Ariane, startled, dropped the receiver. "HELLO? IS ANYONE THERE?" Ariane fumbled with it, and picked it back up.

"Bill?"

"YES? WHO IS THIS?" Charlie snickered from the other side of the room.

"Bill, you can stop shouting," Ariane said into the phone.

"WHAT?"

"Bill, just talk like normal!"

"OH, OKAY."

"Bill! It's Ariane! Listen to me, stop shouting already!"

"ARIANE? Oh, sorry. Sorry, I guess I'm not very good with telephones."

"That's alright. So, Charlie and I were wondering if you and Fleur were going to be ready anytime soon to go out and explore some more."

"Uhh, hold on." Ariane could hear him and Fleur talking in the background. "Uh, yeah, Ariane? We'll be ready in about half an hour."

"Okay, we'll meet you guys in the lobby. Bye."

"Bye." Ariane waited to hear the line on the other end hang up. "Bill? You can hang up now."

"What? Hang up what?"

"The phone. Put it back."

"Oh, right." Ariane heard the phone click, and she put down her end as well. She looked over at Charlie.

"We'll meet them in about half an hour, down in the lobby," she told him. She rubbed at her ear where Bill had yelled into it. "Your brother sure can be loud." Charlie laughed loudly.

"Yeah, it seems to be a bit of a problem in our family. Ron did the same thing to Harry a few years back."

"Why didn't you have a problem with it, then?" Charlie averted his gaze.

"I kind of had to write Hermione and ask her how to use a phone, to be perfectly honest. I remembered Ron's incident, though, and thought that if I did that, you'd probably never go out with me."

"You thought right," Ariane laughed. "Hermione - that's the one with the bushy hair, right? The one whose parents are dentists?"

"Yeah, I had to write her a lot about Muggles, well, before I told you about us."

"'Us' being witches and wizards?"

"Yeah. And by the way, what's a dentist?"

"A person who looks at people's mouths and makes sure they're healthy," answered Ariane, laughing when she saw Charlie's grimace at the thought of spending one's occupational life staring at teeth and saliva. Ariane suddenly turned serious. "So are we okay now, Charlie?"

"Of course we are," he answered. "I think the real question is, are you okay?"

"Yes. I think so. I mean, all this news about my father is going to take some getting used to, but - well, I know it's not your fault, and it's not anybody else's. Except for - what was his name again?"

"You-Know-Who," supplied Charlie.

"Voldemort," said Ariane clearly as Charlie flinched. "But he can't hurt us unless we let him, and I refuse to let him come between us again."

"Good," said Charlie. "I won't either." They held each other for several moments, and then Ariane started bustling around, throwing things in her purse to get ready for the day, which was bound to be great. After all, she was a woman in love in the city of l'amour.

*Okay, I know that chapter didn't really go anywhere, but at least they're back together, right?? I had to get my little Ron-on-the-phone tribute in there, so I hope that I did JKR justice (if not, I apologize profusely!) Anyways, until next time, thanks again for reading and reviewing.