Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all that entails belongs to the brilliant J.K. Rowling, not myself. I merely own the idea for this story and any new characters.

Yay! New chapter! Told you I'd update quick! Hope you enjoy! I kind of delved into a lot of back story and it's a little slow because there isn't much 'action' per say, but you learn some new things about some characters and their relationships!

Chapter 11: Seeking Guidance

"If you want breakfast, get out of bed!" Fred shouted through the door the next morning.

"Otherwise we'll eat all of it!" George added.

"I'm up!" Ron shouted back as he went to roll out of bed. However, he had become rather entangled in the blankets and consequently fell on the floor in heap. Cursing, he detached himself before making his way down to the kitchen.

He was greeted by several mumbled hellos and vaguely noticed that everyone looked as tired as he felt.

"Morning dear," Mrs. Weasley said, as she set a steaming bowl of oatmeal on the table for him.

"Morning mum," Ron replied before sitting down between Bill and George. He glanced up at Hermione who was seated across from him. She looked utterly exhausted and her eyes had a slightly glazed over look. Her hair, always rather bushy and wild, was a mass of tangles she hadn't even attempted to tame. It looked rather like a lion's mane in all its unruly glory, and Ron couldn't help but smile.

She looked up at him and managed a small smile.

"Morning," she said. "How'd you sleep?"

"Terrible," Ron said and she laughed. "You?"

"Terrible," she replied.

Ron chuckled before focusing his attention on his oatmeal. For the first time in his life, Ron had no desire to eat, but he forced it down as best he could. He then excused himself to get dressed, before realizing he had no clothes with him besides the pajamas he was already wearing.

"Mum," he called down the hallway, "what am I supposed to wear?"

Mrs. Weasley appeared at the end of the hallway, balancing a laundry basket on her hip. "These," she said, indicting the clothes in the basket.

Ron followed his mother into his room where she deposited the basket on one of the beds.

"Where did you get them?" he asked, staring at the clothes. Even from a distance he thought they looked rather expensive, not to mention brand new.

"Julie dropped them off a few hours ago when you were still asleep," Mrs. Weasley replied.

Ron rummaged through the clothes, "Mum…" he said quietly as he looked up, "How can we afford these?"

Mrs. Weasley pursed her lips, "Julie said to consider them a gift," she replied, but she didn't meet Ron's eyes. "She said she wasn't sure how much she'd be able to salvage from the Burrow and wanted to make sure we had enough clothes to last us."

"Wow…" Ron breathed, "That's really nice of her."

Mrs. Weasley nodded, "She always has been a very generous girl," she said. "Why I remember when the Langley's house burnt down three years ago. She gave them more than enough money to get back on their feet."

"Well she can afford it," Charlie said entering the room. "She's the richest woman in Britain, and consequently one of the richest in the world."

"How did she get so rich?" Ron asked, utterly dumb-founded.

"A lot of hard work," Mrs. Weasley informed him.

"She's a very well-respected author in both the wizarding and muggle worlds," Charlie explained. "Not to mention the fact that she owns quite a number of businesses and she comes from a rich family."

With a wave of her wand, Mrs. Weasley sent the remaining clothes flying into open drawers and the closet. "Yes, but she still worked very hard to achieve her own success," she said. "You would benefit a great deal if you picked up a few of her habits. Now get dressed, you've dilly-dallied enough this morning already." She hitched the empty laundry basket back up onto her hip and left.

"Her dad used to own the Prophet before it started going downhill a few years back. Now he owns various magazines and smaller newspapers, both muggle and wizarding," Charlie continued.

"Why would he own muggle stuff?" Ron asked.

"Her mom's muggle born so he does it to keep up appearances for the sake of her extended family," Charlie explained.

"It's still weird," Ron said.

"Not really," Charlie said as he sat down on the edge of the bed closest to the door. "The Goeller family has always been big on muggle-relations. He uncle used to work with dad years ago before he retired. I remember because that was how I met her."

Ron sat down on the other bed and looked at Charlie, who was now gazing wistfully at the ceiling.

"You went to school with her, right?" Ron said.

"Yeah," Charlie nodded. "She was top of our year, and not a bad beater either."

"She played beater?" Ron said, utterly astounded, "Chaser I could see, or even keeper, but beater? She's not big at all!"

"Size is no real indication of power though," Charlie reminded him. "But yeah, she played beater. Brilliant player, she could wail that bludger clear to the other side of the field in nothing flat."

"So she's smart, generous, athletic," Ron said, listing off Julie's qualities, "Is there anything wrong with her at all or is she as perfect as she sounds?"

"She can be pretty bossy," Charlie admitted. "Hell of a temper, probably second only to mum's."

The two brothers laughed.

"She was always friendly and optimistic though," Charlie continued. "But brutally honest. I'll never forget when I asked her to read over one of my history of magic essays and edit it. It came back to me covered in red ink. She didn't just proof-read it for me, she waged war on it. She doesn't sugar-coat things, which is off-putting to some people. She also used to have a slight tendency to talk too much about all the stuff she's done. She'd talk about these amazing vacations she'd gone on with her family, or how she'd gone to lots of professional Quidditch matches. The thing that would really make people mad though was if she talked about the stuff she'd accomplished – how she'd made such a good play at a Quidditch game or aced a test."

"So was she kind of a stuck up rich kid?" Ron asked.

Charlie frowned, "That's a bit harsh," he said.

"Was she a high-maintenance kind of girl?"

"Surprisingly not," Charlie said. "As long as you were willing to carry on a meaningful conversation and show affection she was happy. Which was good for me because, well let's face it, our family doesn't exactly have money to burn." Charlie met Ron's eyes for the briefest of moments. It wasn't so much that he looked unhappy, but more embarrassed.

Ron nodded, completely understanding. He'd had hand-me downs his entire life and was always very aware of the fact that his family barely made ends meet at times.

"She was just 'one of the guys' for so long that I already knew her really well," Charlie continued. "She's one of the few girls - well women - I know who's totally anti-make-up. When we dated she'd just wear normal clothes most of the time and was always perfectly punctual. She'd get all dressed up for special occasions and 'big' dates, but she was pretty laid back, which worked for me. She can look great in anything."

"Did you wish she'd dress up a bit more?" Ron asked.

Charlie shrugged, "Sometimes," he replied. "I just didn't feel that it was a big deal though. Although when she did dress up…well, she outshone all the other girls. We had a Yule Ball at Hogwarts in sixth year and I'll never forget when she walked down the stairs to the common room to meet me. Everyone who was there fell utterly silent because of her transformation. Heads turned, mouths dropped…he transformation was beyond belief."

Charlie seemed lost in his thoughts and Ron couldn't help but smile. He'd never heard Charlie talk like this before. He allowed Charlie a few moments to reminisce before speaking again.

"You still like her, don't you?" he said quietly.

Charlie hesitated, then nodded. "Yeah," he said.

"Why did you break up?"

"I can't remember what exactly happened," Charlie said. "It just got too difficult to maintain a solid relationship after graduation because we were both so busy. I was traveling all over the place, she was at the Auror Academy – we didn't really have the time."

"Since you're back in Britain now you could ask her out on a date," Ron suggested. "Just say it's for old time's sake or something and see if she goes."

Charlie laughed, "And since when are you the expert on girls?" he asked. "Your one and only date was a disaster from what I've heard."

"Yeah well, I learned from my mistakes," Ron replied.

"I should hope so," Charlie said. He paused before continuing, "Did you ever make a move with the girl you liked?"

Ron grinned.

"Maybe."

"Ah come on!" Charlie said. "Don't leave me hanging here! I just told you a good portion of my love troubles so you have to tell me more than 'maybe'."

"OK, OK," Ron said. "Yes I made a move."

"And?"

"The feelings were mutual."

"That's great! So have you had an official date yet or what?"

"It's kind of hard to have a date when you're in hiding," Ron pointed out.

"Oh yeah, right," Charlie said. "You should probably send her an owl telling her you'll alright at least or something."

"She already knows so I don't have to."

"How could she already know?"

"Oh, she knows."

Charlie seemed deep in thought for a moment, "But there's no way she could know unless…" he trailed off and looked up. "Hermione?" he exclaimed.

Ron simply nodded.

"I should've known!" Charlie said shaking his head and smiling.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh it's nothing," Charlie said, waving away the question. "It was just really obvious now that I think about it."

"But how was it obvious?" Ron asked. "I never said anything, did I?"

"It's hard to explain," Charlie said. "It was more of how you acted around her and stuff. You sort of treated her like she was just 'one of the guys,' but not quite."

"OK, I'll pretend I understand that then," Ron said. "Just promise you won't say anything to anyone yet, OK? Hermione would kill me if she found out I'd said something."

"Sure thing little bro," Charlie said. "As long as you don't say anything about Julie to anyone."

"Course I won't."

"We should go on a double date if I hook up with Julie again."

"Yeah that wouldn't be awkward at all," Ron said sarcastically.

"Why would it be awkward?" Charlie asked, slightly confused.

"Because you're my older brother and it'd feel like I had a chaperon or something."

"Point taken," Charlie said. "But if you need any help with girls, don't be afraid to ask OK?"

"Yeah, I think I'll need all the help I can get," Ron said.

"We all do," Charlie said.

So yeah this was a pretty fluff filled chapter, but I wanted to introduce a bit more about Julie and set the stage for some stuff romance-wise at least. I'm rather unhappy with the dialogue, it seems too static. Actually I'm a little dissatisfied with the majority of the chapter. Anywho, hopefully I'll get the next chapter done quickly as well so that I can keep you guys reading! And hopefully, for my own sanity, it's a lot better plot-wise and everything else. Please remember to review though because reviews work wonders for my motivation!

Megan