Like so many Muggleborns that attend Hogwarts, Charlie Bradbury found herself loathing her inability to perform magic all summer. In all fairness, for the first few weeks, she barely noticed the absence. Her parents were back and alive. Just as she remembered them. She insisted that they eat dinner together every night, spend the evenings watching their favorite movies and reading aloud their favorite books, going on road trips to nowhere in particular, and everything else she had missed so dearly in her old life. For their part, her parents were a bit overwhelmed by her, in their eyes, sudden desire for their attention. But they dismissed it as an overactive case of being homesick.

But, as weeks progressed, Charlie found herself having to make an effort not to bring her wand with her whenever she left her room. Once, when her mother asked her to assist her with doing the weeding in their small garden, a particularly stubborn and thorny weed cut her hand open while refusing to be pulled from the ground and she had pulled her wand out with the intention of hexing it into oblivion. Only her mother's calming words of, "Charlie, didn't you say that using magic outside of that school will get you expelled?" were able to quell her rage.

With only a few days before the term was to begin, Charlie was absolutely stir-crazy. She had often sympathized with Harry and his longing to escape the Dursleys' but she never thought that she would feel it herself. But feel it she did nonetheless.

She found herself in her room that afternoon, absentmindedly stroking the feathers of her owl. The bird, which she had promptly named Artemis, was a beautiful snow owl just like Hedwig that Sam and Dean had gotten for her as a birthday present. She had been at a loss for how to care for the bird, until she had received a book titled, "Everything Under the Sun on Owl Care" along with an extensive amount of things that the book recommended. She had thought that this gift would have been from the boys, but the attached card gave her a small surprise. "The two idjits (she had been infinitely been amused by the fact he had spelled it as such) sent you a bird without a word on how to care for the damned thing. Thank Crowley for letting me know. Happy Birthday from the two of us, I guess. -Bobby"

That had been in the beginning of summer. Right after she had gotten home as a matter of fact. Her parents had been less than enthusiastic about her having a pet owl, but after seeing how happy it made her they relented and told her to keep it in her room. Artemis was not a fan at all of being cooped up in her cage, she would hoot in annoyance until Charlie let her out and would frequently take trips off into the countryside and return with frogs, mice, and once even a skunk. That had been a very long day.

"What do you think, Artemis?" Charlie asked, stroking the bird's feathers. "Should I try to sneak into the Triwizard Tournament? I mean, if Barty Crouch could do it, why can't I? I bet I can figure out a way past the aging barrier. I could ask Dean to put my name in! He loves bad decisions."

The owl gazed at her reproachfully, almost as though she understood that her owner was thinking about making very bad decisions. This was not lost on Charlie, who sighed and laid back down on her bed. "Fine, fine, I won't try to enter in the Tournament. But seriously! Cedric Diggory is great and all, but what about our house? Diggory only figures out they're dragons because Harry tells him! I mean, sure, everyone else cheats but the principle applies."

The owl hooted softly, and then again in annoyance much louder. Charlie sat up at the sound and looked at her bird in curiosity, blinking in surprise when she saw that a second snowy owl had somehow shown up and was now resting beside Artemis. The owl dutifully held out her foot, and Charlie saw that a letter had been attached to it. "You can't be Hedwig, can you?" she asked in a low breath, reaching over to untie the letter and stroke the owl's letters.

The owl did turn out to be Hedwig. The letter, which Charlie knew from the first glance at the penmanship, was not from Harry rather it was from Hermione. This surprised Charlie for a number of reasons. The first being that she had rarely spoken to Hermione outside of their Charms lessons, which Gryffindors and Slytherins shared the past year. The two had gotten along well during the class, save for both of them being more than a little competitive, and Flitwick had proclaimed them to both be prodigies at Charms.

The letter read: Hello Charlie,

I hope this letter finds you well. I'm sending this a few days before the term starts and I head off to King's Crossing to go to Hogwarts, and I do hope that Hedwig manages to find you beforehand. I realize that asking her to cross the Atlantic is horrible of me, but Harry insists that she went much further when she was carrying letters to Si-… sorry my pen slipped. (She had indeed tried very hard to cross off all of the first two letters to Sirius's name, which Charlie found very amusing.) Anyways, I was rather hoping that you and I would be able to study Charms together this year. I've already seen the schedule for myself and, since we do not have the same Charms class this year, I was hoping we could figure something out.

I rather enjoyed our rivalry, my other friends don't share any particular passion for schoolwork. We do share Herbology, so perhaps we can talk then. Have a pleasant remainder of your summer.

- Hermione

P.S. Would you mind if I borrowed that book Mr. Crowley loaned you on medical Charms?

Charlie set the letter down, smiling. It was just like Hermione to want to set up a work buddy before the schoolyear even began. She didn't need it, of course, but doubtless constantly putting up with Harry and Ron's whining must get tiresome. Charlie had seen some of that as well and had subsequently become well known throughout Ravenclaw tower for exploding on people who complained about the homework.

She couldn't get enough of it! First of all she wasn't dead anymore, huge plus, next she was actually in the freakin' Harry Potter Universe! Third: she was actually studying magic, and not that scary stuff that existed in her universe! The good kind! She hated it when other Muggleborns would moan and whine about the course work. It's like, dude, you can literally turn your pillow into a puppy! Stop bitching!

She quickly wrote a letter in response, promising to speak to her about it in Herbology and swore that she would make sure that she would get the Medical Charms book to her on her first opportunity. She stroked Hedwig's feathers again, attaching the letter to the owl's foot. "Thank you for taking that to me." She crooned, admiring the owl's feathers. She offered Hedwig an owl treat and the owl happily accepted, hooting her pleasure before taking off back through the open window.

Artemis watched the other snow owl go for a long while before turning a reproachful look on Charlie. "Don't give me that look," Charlie said sternly, "You refused to take my letters to any of my friends in England. She didn't, so she gets an owl treat."

Artemis hooted again, indignant, and flew soundlessly through the open window and disappeared into the night sky. "Make sure you come back before I leave!" Charlie shouted after her, rolling her eyes. He had always thought that Rowling had been a bit too descriptive with the amount of sass that Hedwig gave Harry, but now Charlie realized that she had in fact dialed it back quite heavily. Owls were sassy.

"Charlie? Who are you talking to?" Her dad asked, knocking on her door.

"Just, Artemis, Dad!" She called back. "I'm just packing, you can come in if you want to!"

Her father did just that, followed by her mother. The two of them looked at her suitcase, which at the moment only had her robes from school in it, and then back to her. "Almost done I see." Her mother teased, smiling at her and taking a seat beside her on the bed. "What were you talking to Artemis about?"

"She's mad I didn't give her an owl treat," Charlie shrugged.

"Your mother gives her enough of those as it is," her father nodded.

Charlie looked at her mother in astonishment and she had the grace to look abashed for a few moments before her look changed to one of betrayal. "You said you didn't see anything!"

"See what?" he asked, grinning and winking at Charlie.

Her mother rolled her eyes, a gesture so similar to Charlie's own that it had to be hereditary, and sighed. "So, only a few days left before you leave. Have you heard from your Professors, or your friend with the American Magic Government?"

"Dean writes me once and a while, when he's not busy tracking down Sphinxes or Mummies," Charlie said. "I haven't heard from Sam in a while. He's probably busy too."

"What about Bobby? When's he and Karen going to come back over for dinner?" her Dad asked.

"Why don't you ask him, you two got along so well last time," Charlie said. It was true, both Charlie and her dad were gruff and cold to strangers so, naturally, the two were fast friends. Bobby even offered to take him on a hunting trip. Charlie had, before the offer had even left Bobby's mouth, put her foot down in defiance of that idea. "You two could go fishing or something."

"Yeah, maybe."

"So, ready to go back?" her mother asked, rubbing Charlie's shoulder. "Feels like we just got you back."

"Trust me, I know the feeling." Charlie muttered, fighting off a dark memory. "But I'll be back for Christmas break this year, I promise. And then it's only a few months until summer break again!"

"I still can't believe that you are a witch," her father said, shaking his head.

"But we are so proud of you, honey," her mother wrapped her in a hug and kissed the top of her head. "We'll miss you, make sure you write."

"Guys, you two are acting like we will never see each other again," Charlie said, though she returned the hug. "Don't worry. I'll be back, and you'll be here. I'll write you at least twice a week."

The family bonding, touching as can be, was being watched. Wanderer, the adversary to Guide, observed the setting with bored interest. "It's interesting when mortals make such claims into the future, almost as though they believe they can control it." He swirled his fingers through the air and smiled slightly. "Things are going too… well. Let's add some despair to this, shall we?"