Chapter 5
The next day, Zinnia returned from her early morning walk around the boundary and was surprised to find Charlie at her doorstep.
"Um, I thought we were meeting up later?" she said, a little confused.
Charlie scratched the back of his head, and looked sheepish.
"That's true, but I have a favour to ask," he explained, fiddling with the cuffs of his slightly-too-small handknitted jumper. "I would have just sent a letter with Errol, but he's well, he's getting a bit old, and he seemed off his feed this morning, so I didn't think it would be a good idea to send him out."
Zinnia had no idea who 'Errol' was supposed to be, but going by Charlie's assessment of his health, this all sounded sensible.
"Alright…" she drawled. "So what's the favour?" she asked, crossing her arms.
Charlie sighed. "You're aware that my brother Fred was killed recently," he stated, looking her in the eye.
Zinnia nodded soberly. That part had been hard to miss, what with every Weasley she had met thus far clearly in the middle of grieving.
"Well, seeing as you've never heard of us Weasleys before, you're probably unaware that he had a twin. My brother George. And well. None of us are taking Fred's death well, but George, it's like…"
Zinnia bit her lip as Charlie struggled to articulate what exactly it was like to watch his brother's hurt. She reached out and touched his forearm lightly in an attempt to ground him.
Charlie (perhaps unconsciously) leaned into her touch and raked his free hand through his hair.
"It's like part of him died right alongside Fred. They were identical twins, to the point where people used to get them confused all the time, or just treat them as a single entity… and last night I found out that he can't even look at himself in the mirror without breaking down. And it doesn't help that most people who look at George keep accidentally instinctively looking for Fred, because they were basically inseparable, and…"
Zinnia winced. Ouch. Oh ouch. She thought she might be getting the picture.
"And so you want to introduce George to me," she interrupted Charlie's brief pause, "because that means he's going to be somewhere you can keep an eye on him so he can't wallow in the dark tonight, and I'm not going to burst into tears or get awkward about seeing the ghost standing next to him."
Charlie blanched. "Fred's not a ghost, he passed on to the next world, thank Merlin, Morgana and all that's merciful, but otherwise?" He shuddered lightly. "Pretty much that exactly." He shook his head and attempted a smile, but it was a mockery of any happy expression. "At the very least I can trust you to not to accidentally get George's name wrong when you see him."
Zinnia inhaled and exhaled slowly, mulling this over. She got the distinct impression that Charlie was thinking of a specific incident when he said that, and goddess she wanted to slap whoever had done that. Identical twins weren't that identical. She had grown up with a few, and if you looked closely, and actually paid attention, it was usually easy enough to figure out to tell them apart, even if it was sometimes tricky to figure out which one you were talking to.
(Charlie's insistence that Fred was not a ghost was noted and filed away for later. Zinnia wasn't quite sure what to make of that, but she supposed that everyone approached the subject of death and spirits differently, and it was not the first time she had met people who believed in ghosts.)
"Well, it definitely sounds like your brother needs help," she said. "And I might have a bit of an idea about what might help with the mirror thing, though it may bother your mother."
Charlie grimaced. "Considering she currently can't even look at George without bursting into tears…"
Ouch, Zinnia winced as she pictured it. That couldn't be good for anyone.
"…I'd say that her getting aggravated would actually be an improvement," Charlie admitted.
Well. In that case…
Goddess, she never could stop herself from getting involved, could she? Zinnia thought self-deprecatingly. Still, she admitted to herself what she had decided the moment Charlie asked for a favour.
Zinnia nodded firmly. "Alright then. Bring your brother and some of your Mum's cooking for dessert, I'll supply the booze and spaghetti for dinner. Oh, and I just remembered!" She grinned. "I managed to pick up a crappy old VHS player and the right adapter to hook up to Aunty Rose's decrepit monster of a TV. Do you or your brother have any favourite films?"
Charlie blinked. He had understood maybe one word in three in that last bit. Whatever it was Zinnia was talking about sounded very muggle. (Was she a half-blood, or was the Australian magical community just less isolated? Was there a polite way of asking? He didn't want to come off as a bigot, and he had run into trouble with that one before, just because he was a pureblood, and it could be a sensitive topic, especially in light of the recent political climate.)
Charlie did know what 'films' were though. There was a cinema near the reserve where Charlie and his colleagues sometimes went when they needed a break from everything. All those films were in Romanian or German though. Charlie had a feeling that there wouldn't be many of them for Zinnia to find in the muggle stores of Ottery St Catchpole.
"Uhhh, I don't know about George, but I thought the ones with that tomb raider with the whip were pretty funny," Charlie hazarded.
Zinnia cocked her head to one side. "You mean Indiana Jones?" Fortunately she didn't wait for Charlie to confirm, because those particular films he had only heard of second-hand when one of his muggleborn colleagues had been explaining the storyline to liven up the common room one night. Zinnia considered this suggestion then nodded. "Yeah, that's probably doable. I think I saw a few of those at the video rental. I'll see what I can dig up," she said.
Charlie felt his shoulders drop in relief. "Thank you. I know this isn't exactly what you had in mind for tonight," he said.
Zinnia shook her head and waved a hand dismissively. "Don't even worry about it."
…..
When Charlie told George that they were going to go drinking with a friend, George of course assumed that it was a fellow Hogwarts alumnus.
"I dunno Charlie," George said, slouching on the back step. "I'm not sure I'm up for company. Tell Oliver or whoever it is that I'll catch up with them later."
Charlie had clapped one callused hand on his brother's shoulder, and for a moment, George felt like a kid again.
"First of all, I've already seen Oliver this week," Charlie retorted, "and he has a new baby, so he's not going out drinking on pain of his wife murdering him for going out to have fun without her. Second of all, she didn't go to Hogwarts, so you've never met her before."
George blinked. "Olly has a kid?"
Charlie sighed. "Yeah, George. He got with one of the assistant coaches of Puddlemere. Heidi Fledermaus, Durmstrang alumnus. Apparently they went into hiding together, and one thing led to another. Poor kid is called Celaeno."
George blinked again. "That sounds familiar…" he hummed to himself, mentally rummaging through the stories that his grandmother had told them when they were small children, 'Celaeno' sounded Greek…oh. Oh no.
"He didn't," George said flatly. "Tell me Charlie, that our idiot friend did not actually name his daughter after a harpy. Tell me that he has not already decided that his baby is set for the Holyhead team, ironic name and all."
Charlie laughed. "Oh he sure did. That kid is doomed, because apparently Heidi was all for it."
George facepalmed. "I'm going to have to insist on corrupting her for her own good. I love Quidditch, but there are limits."
Charlie scoffed. "It could have been worse George. Apparently he wanted to call her Quaffle. Heidi asked though, what if their little girl grew up to be a Seeker or a Beater? It wouldn't fit then, and where would they be? And then Olly thought 'Harriet' might be a good idea, after his favourite Seeker of all time," George snickered and Charlie rolled his eyes, "yeah, he said that and then apologised if he had 'hurt my feelings' but didn't take it back, but apparently his elder sister already named her baby Harriet – apparently she met someone when she was in exile – so he decided in the end to not double up to save on confusion at family reunions."
George blinked. "Good grief. The kid got off lightly then." He laughed a little roughly. "And Harry will be relieved not to have another namesake."
Charlie nodded, "Yeah, I feel for the professors at Hogwarts in coming years, there's going to be Harrys all over the place." He snorted. "From what you all used to tell me about how well Harry and Snape got on, if the mean bastard hadn't had the decency to die during the war, that right there might have been enough to send him into early retirement."
George nodded, and there was the tiniest spark of his old sense of humour in his eyes.
"So who is it you want me to meet then? Fellow dragon handler? Girlfriend? Does Mum know about this?" George asked.
Charlie groaned. "Her name's Zinnia and she's Old Mrs Fawcett's great-niece from Australia, no, not exactly, and yes, Mum's met her. Mum was the one who introduced us," he grimaced. "Tried to set us up actually, I suspect because Zinnia made the mistake of being a witch roughly my age living within a stone's throw of the Burrow who had been nice to Mum."
George raised his eyebrows. "And that didn't work out because…? Does she not like dragons? Is she a troll?"
"George!" Charlie scolded. "I have no idea what her opinion of dragons is because it has yet to come up in conversation, but she said that she's not in a good place for a relationship for a moment."
George snorted derisively. "So she gave you the brush off?"
"No," snapped Charlie, starting to get thoroughly irritated on Zinnia's behalf. "She gave me an actual explanation, and…" he nearly told George about the part where she had propositioned him for a casual fling, but decided it was none of his brother's business. "Look," he said more calmly, but firmly, "you'll get it when you meet her. She's not the type to play games or say things she doesn't mean. She's not sure where she's going to be living in a couple of months, so she said it wouldn't be fair to get involved in anything serious, and with us both on the rebound…"
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, what?" George held up a hand to pause his brother. "What do you mean… Charlie you dog, you never told me you were with anyone!" he exclaimed, grinning.
Charlie grimaced. "It was never serious, and it's over with now, so it's a moot point," he said repressively.
George looked his brother over, and whatever he saw made him sober. "Ouch, brother of mine. So the 'not serious' was their idea?"
Charlie buried his head in his hands. This was exactly why he hadn't told anyone, but George had always been the best of his siblings at reading people, so Charlie wasn't surprised his little brother had figured him out. He also hadn't missed how George was using gender neutral language, and he was pretty sure even Bill never noticed him furtively dating Jacob Fontaine for half of fifth and sixth year.
A hand alighted on Charlie's shoulder. "Sorry, I shouldn't have teased," George admitted.
Charlie looked up and put on an expression of mock-surprise. "You, George Weasley, forgoing a chance to tease?" He reached out a hand and pretended to check George's temperature the muggle way.
George swatted the hand away and forced out a laugh. "Oh ha, ha, Charlie." He grew quiet, staring out into the distance.
Charlie nearly swore out loud. Fred was usually the one who had been the one to start mocking people, George had generally joined in for the fun of it, but had also always been the one to pull back before it went too far.
"Sorry," Charlie offered.
George looked up, startled. "What?"
Charlie sighed. "I know I just implied otherwise, but I could always tell you and Fred apart, even before Snape got you, you know?" he said, referencing George's missing ear. "Fred was always the ringleader, and you were the one making sure that things didn't go too far." He shook his head at George's obvious surprise. "When I was younger and stupider, I thought it didn't matter that I didn't let on that I knew. It was a bit of a joke, and you two," Charlie grinned a bit. "You two were such little shits sometimes that it was funny to rile you both up by calling you the wrong names on purpose." He grimaced. "It was only later that I figured out that Mum's attention was always so shot to bits chasing after 7 kids that she genuinely made mistakes all the time. So yeah. I'm sorry George. That was a mean prank I pulled on the two of you."
There was a brief silence.
Charlie was about to open his mouth to apologise again, when suddenly George tipped his head back and started cackling.
"Hahahah Charlie that was a good one. Oh Merlin." He wiped his eyes. "That makes so much sense actually. We could never figure out how it was that whenever you got me and Fred separate gifts and gave us advice you got it right which twin needed what, but then the rest of the time… you know there was one conversation where you switched what you called me four times, and I was the only one there because Fred was trying to get past the ward on your trunk to put scarab beetles in there?"
Charlie grinned. "Was that the time in Egypt after you and Fred tried to destroy that awful fez I talked Perce into buying that clashed really badly with his hair?"
George's jaw dropped. "Noooo. No me and Fred are the family pranksters!" (Charlie carefully hid his wince at the present tense.) "What! Charlie!" he sounded simultaneously shocked, outraged and a little impressed.
Charlie just clapped his brother on the shoulder, deciding to keep the conversation rolling since this was the first time he'd seen George show any emotion other than depression since the Battle of Hogwarts.
"You forget," Charlie said waggling his eyebrows, "before you two came along, I was sandwiched between Bill of the perfect grades and the 'little brother, what little brother, I am the only Weasley child, that's just my annoying embarrassing cousin who keeps embarrassing me in front of my fanclub' attitude, and Percy the goody two shoes tattletale." Charlie grinned. "I was just always sneakier than you two. Why do you think me and Bill suddenly started getting on a lot better when we were living on separate continents? Why do you think Dad never seriously put his foot down about you and Fred giving Percy hell? He figured you'd all grow out of it just like me and Bill did."
George stared at his elder brother. "So many things make so much more sense now," he admitted.
Charlie snickered, then cast a quick tempus.
"Shit. We're going to be late if we don't get cracking."
George chuckled and groaned. "Charlie that was genuinely awful, you can go back to hiding your sense of humour, it's for the best."
Charlie just laughed, and made no promises.
If it could distract his little brother from his grief for even a while, Charlie was going to dust off every single one of the worst jokes in his repertoire without regret.
