Chapter 35 - Charlie Weasley


Halloween was approaching and Lizzie had taken to distracting herself with the children. She laid on her stomach with hands over her eyes. "Bah!" She said and her hands left her face to the eye-level image of Teddy making smiling back at her and clapping. Lizzie giggled and he smiled wider. She looked over at the couch to see Annie sleeping on Remus's chest as he nodded off.

The distant rumbling of an engine became clearer and Lizzie turned her head on the good side to hear better. "Lizzie!" She heard a familiar voice shout from outside.

Lizzie scooped up Teddy and clutched him to her hip as she pushed open the front door of the cottage and looked out at Charlie on Sirius's motorcycle.

"I fixed it," he yelled over to her. She rolled her eyes considering he'd broken it out of fear she might leave on it. Which was idiotic considering apparition existed.

The door creaked open behind her. "Oh for the love of..." Remus muttered and Lizzie laughed, handing him his son with a kiss on Teddy's forehead. Remus handed Annie to Fluer who was now several months pregnant herself and fawned over the little girl, hoping for one of her own.

"You be careful," he said after her but she gave him a slightly reproving look at the sentiment and got on the back of the bike with her arms interlocked around Charlie's waist.

"How did you manage this?" She asked Charlie.

"This was the least of it," he said cryptically.

"Where are we going?" Lizzie asked.

"That's a surprise..." he said.

"We'll be back!" Charlie shouted. Remus glared back but Lizzie could see the trace of a smirk on his face, it broke into a smile when Teddy reached up to grab his nose.

The engine hummed and vibrated the seat as Charlie sped off down the dirt road. He didn't drive excessively fast, but the slight rush was a nice break from the mom-brain haze she'd been in for days. Lizzie laid the side of her cheek on Charlie's back between his shoulder blades, listened to the engine, relished in the crisp autumn air, and closed her eyes to capture it in memory.

They drove for awhile. Lizzie started to recognize the Scottish hillsides and frowned in confusion. "This isn't a road trip to Hogwarts, is it?" She asked when he came to a rolling stop at a fork.

"Nope," is all he said and she could hear the smile in his tone. They drove up the hillside a little longer, the view from the modest height they were at was spectacular. Then he slowed and came to a stop in front of a stone pathway that ascended up an incline framed by trees. Lizzie got off the bike and looked around rather perplexed. Charlie sighed in anticipation and smiled, then bucked his head up the pathway for her to follow it. He followed behind her, hands deep in his pockets, and stopped when she had as soon as it came into view.

Stone walls were illuminated by the slightly setting sun and she took in the image of an old-fashioned cottage-style home. The door was bright red, brown shutters on the windows, and azalea bushes lined the exterior. Lizzie looked at Charlie, he looked a little sheepish and smiled weakly.

To her left she saw a garage with a large barn style door partway ajar, parked inside was what appeared to be a red Ford Anglia. "I'm confused," Lizzie said.

He walked ahead of her up the path and opened the door. "After you," he said.

Lizzie stepped immediately inside a kitchen. It was modest, white washed cabinets and stone toppers to the counter. As she walked around a small center island lined with a couple breakfast stools, she noticed small cubby holes in the left wall of the upper cabinetry. Each had a jar with a label, each label indicated a blend of coffee, and a kettle sat waiting on the stove top. The entire right wall was lined with mugs on hooks.

Lizzie moved into a sitting room and it finally dawned on her what this was. Just above a small dish cupboard was a clock, much like Molly's, except it had arms for Annie, Remus, Teddy, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Charlie, and Lizzie.

One wall contained a hearth with a long mantel. The mantel was lined with photos of her, Ron, and Hermione, the Gryffindor Quidditch Team from her third year when they won the cup, and another of her as team captain in her sixth. There was a picture of her and her parents, the one from Grimmauld Place of her and Sirius on the motorbike, and several others, including a recent one of her and Teddy on a picnic blanket by the the ocean, his face covered in strawberries and at least half a dozen more pictures of either her, Charlie, or one of the many uncles holding Annie.

The opposite wall that framed a very comfortable looking sitting room with a handknit blanket no doubt from Molly, a rack of all the Christmas sweaters Lizzie kept over the years, and a bowl of foil wrapped chocolates on the coffee table next to a basket of crayons, sported a collage of photographs from the years. Lizzie stared in disbelief, it was all of them, framed and moving. Her parents, the marauders, her baby pictures with all of them, her friends, the Weasleys, it was a time capsule back to only the happy moments.

Her Firebolt hung on the wall nearest the back door to the yard, along with a Gryffindor banner, a rack of brooms, and quidditch gear.

"There's a perfect little valley for a pitch just up the path out back. Ron, George and Lee are coming tomorrow to set up hoops," Charlie said. Lizzie was silent. "Brooms are courtesy of George, he gave you Fred's and his, Ginny and Angelina gave you theirs, they both signed on for the Harpies. Ron gave his, mine is there too. Enough for a team to play scrimmage," he explained. On the wall, her father's sweater was pinned beside hers. The snitches sat on a high shelf with hers and her father's seeker captain badges on either side along with his team picture. Beaters bats and the balls were in an old Hogwarts trunk by the door.

A lovely white wooden piano sat at the far end of the sitting room, at the other corner sat a record table and a tall shelf with her entire collection. "Piano is from Fluer. Hermione added to your record collection," he said.

There was a bedroom off the main floor, done up in simple decorations. "Guest room," he said.

Just down the narrow hallway was another room, larger than others with a long table down its middle. She counted the chairs, it could seat twenty. Along the wall was a tapestry, similar to the one at Grimmauld Place, but of the Weasleys starting at Arthur and Molly and ending in Annie, it included the Potters, Remus, Tonks, and Teddy, and there was so much room to add to it, because it wrapped all the way around the rectangular dining room. "Seats enough to fit immediate family...and then some" he explained. Lizzie's eyes started to sting as she exited back into the main room.

Charlie showed her out back, where she met a lily garden along the length of the area. Lizzie stared and touched each one, they turned into white butterflies as soon as she did. "Fireflies at night," he said. "Neville..." he added and then pointed to a planter full of magical herbs and plants. Lizzie smiled.

Charlie gestured for her to follow him and headed down the path along the side of the house toward the garage she'd noticed earlier. "This is from Bill and Arthur..." he explained, opening the barn door all the way to expose the refurbished car.

"It's not the same one..." Lizzie said. He shook his head.

"No, Bill found another, bought it. It does fly though," he said, the last part under his breath and gave her a shit eating sort of grin.

"But upstairs," he said, shooing her with his hands happily and Lizzie reentered the house. She headed up the stairs and the first tears fell at the first room off the landing. "TEDDY & ANNIE" was engraved on a sign on the door. She pushed it open to find a nursery done up in dragons and magical creatures.

The mobile was a quidditch team, and the dragon mural on the wall came to life, though it wasn't the least bit frightening. "Luna and Ginny tackled this..." he said. Lizzie picked up a plush niffler from the crib and smirked at it. The shelves on the walls were lined with moving pictures of Remus and Teddy, Tonks and Teddy in that lone week she had him, Lizzie and Teddy, Andromeda and Teddy, and the only photo of his parents' wedding day. There were as many of Annie and the family and a bunch of the kids together.

"We can expand this into two rooms in a couple of years easily. For the time being I figured it'd be easier to have a nursery for both..." he explained. Next to a plush chair in the corner sat a stack of children's books, an old toy broom she imaged was probably hers, and another knitted blanket from Molly. The trunk of toys contained what appeared to be a baby safe collection of wizard weezes and fireworks.

The next room was the main bedroom, the bed was done up sort of like a Hogwarts dorm, with a four poster, only bigger with better curtains. Hedwig sat perched in the corner baking in the late afternoon setting sunlight, and her trunk sat at the end of the bed. Her favorite picture of her parents dancing sat on the bedside table. The horridly embroidered pillow she'd made Hermione years ago sat in the center of the bed. The armoir was filled with clothing already, much of which new.

"Hermione did this," he explained, "that too," he added pointing the wall behind her which was lined with books. Lizzie smirked.

"You built us a house," Lizzie said finally in a whisper.

"I built... you... a house," Charlie said. "The room down the hall is for Remus if he wants to move in here. There's a small place a mile into the tree embankment I cleaned up that I thought would be alright for full moons, especially if Bambi is with him. I can watch Teddy on those nights, or Andy, there's a guest room... I did not plan to live here if you don't want me to," he said carefully. Lizzie frowned.

"Charlie, why wouldn't I want you to live here?" She asked, but she read him. He'd hardly touched her since that night at Shell Cottage over a year ago. He'd kissed her and embraced her, but he hadn't touched her. Remorse and shame seemed to weigh heavy in the air. "I knew it wasn't you," she said finally. "I knew that immediately. You don't have to be ashamed of that, all of us were adversely affected by those...and by...me..." she said. His eyes swam as he stared at her.

"Ron was ready to strangle me after weeks with the locket. Clocked me, cracked my cheekbone... I could have killed both of them the entire time we were hunting horcruxes... I thought about it. I imagined it. Remus even hit me, he hexed me. I know Hermione fought urges of stabbing me in my sleep... I ended up landing myself in a grave in Surrey, suffocating in a casket with a corpse... Charlie... those things surpass evil. Ask Ginny... that diary... she tried to kill people... I swear I have never blamed you..." he didn't look completely convinced.

"I... raped you. Our daughter was conceived because I... and why would it have made me even consider doing that, Lizzie? I'm no better than your uncle, no better than any of them..." he said and his chest swelled around an anxious tremble.

"Charlie. It's an ode to your resilience to have resisted it even a little bit. We hadn't even told you what it was before you sat in a room with it all day..." Lizzie pled. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "He made me do horrible things, Charlie, things I can't fathom now, things that will haunt me forever... I can't blame you, I would be the biggest hypocrite if I tried... so please don't blame yourself."

"But you're scared. You're scared of me. You ran away for a year to get away from me," he argued.

Lizzie shook her head. "I didn't know what was going to happen. I only kept Annie because I had a shred of hope she'd still be yours even though I was paranoid somehow, because you were possessed, that she'd be his..." Lizzie said desperately.

"If I had died in birth like Voldemort's mother did. If she had died. If she didn't turn out to be half of you... I didn't know what I would have done. If I saw him I probably would have killed her and then myself. I didn't want you to witness that conflict. It was crippling... I didn't want you to suffer the loss."

Charlie was holding back a wave of emotion.

"He didn't fail to kill me, Charlie. I was just given the option to come back. I had the choice to move on to the otherside, to be with all of them but I... I was convinced to come back," she said, wiping watery eyes of her own.

"Who convinced you?" He asked.

"Cedric... I don't know how to explain it... the inbetween I guess it was... He wouldn't let me see any of them because he said nobody would have the heart to make me go back if I did... but he wanted me to go back to end it, to go back for Teddy, to go back for...you..." she said. "If I'm being honest, I didn't want to. I wanted to stay with them. So badly..." Lizzie's face was hot to the touch now and she felt an urge to sob. She pulled off her glasses and pinched the corners of her eyes.

"But he said they didn't want me on the other side until I had a family, until I had a...home... that I had no business dying at the hands of evil..." Lizzie inhaled a shaking breath and sat at the edge of the bed. The view from the window was postcard worthy. "Charlie, this means everything," she whispered.

He knelt in front of her by the bed and put a hand on her face. "I just want you to feel safe," he said.

She set her glasses on the end table and buried her face in her palms. "I love you," she whispered. It was the first time she'd said it out loud since she'd been back. He stood up, moved her hands away from her face, and splayed his arms on the bed, one hand on the mattress on each side of her. He stared for a heavy moment with swimming blue eyes and then kissed her. Lizzie moved herself backwards on her hands and he hovered over her, kissing her passionately. She pulled his open flannel off his shoulders and his t-shirt up over his head. He unbottoned her shirt and unhooked the clasp at the front of her brasier. Lizzie peeled them off her shoulders and undid his jeans while he hastily tugged hers down off her waist. He pushed her knees up above his hips and moved in her like she was an extension of himself. Something felt vastly different, Lizzie didn't feel the urge to lock her breaths in her chest or hold still. Her face was in his hands, his mouth was on hers, and the rest of it all washed away like crashing and receeding waves on a shore. She laid in his arms until the sun set on the horizon, and knew this house was exactly what Cedric meant on that train. Nobody had any business passing on if they left the world without a home to bid farewell to.

"Does Remus know about this?" Lizzie asked.

"Not yet," he said, running fingers up and down her arm resting on his chest.

"Thank you," she said in a cracked voice. "I'll never be able to thank you..."

"You don't have to," he whispered and kissed her hair.

"Can we drive the car back to get Remus and the kids?" She asked. Charlie laughed a little. "I want to show them the room, they're going to love the dragons," she whispered.

"Well wait until Remus sees his, full moon wallpaper," he said facetiously.

"Oh, stop, you're mean..." Lizzie laughed.

"I'm kidding," Charlie said. "He's taking the Hogwarts posting by the way," he added. "We're not far from Hogsmeade..." Lizzie smiled at this.

"Great, now Hermione will insist there's no excuse for me not to take the NEWTs..." she groaned sarcastically.

"You should take them. What do you want to do, Lizzie?" He asked. She hadn't thought about this, but somehow it had still always been on her mind.

"I don't know... Ginny keeps talking up the Harpies, but not being able to hear on the left and losing so much vision makes me nervous. Don't know if I want to play competitively... Kingsley wants me to join Ron and the boys as an auror, but I can't say I want to do that anymore either. Been mentally writing a few books, maybe I'll do that. I don't really know," she said, clutching the blanket a little closer to her body.

"Not feeling as ambitious then?" He asked.

"Not particularly..." she admitted. "Just exhausted... still exhausted."

"Well, you accomplished more by 20 than anyone else has in a lifetime. I think you ought to take it easy..." he said. He propped himself up on an elbow and looked down at her while he brushed hair from her face.

"I really want to show them their home," she whispered, a smile cracking at the corners of her mouth. He nodded.

"Just one night alone in the house?" Charlie asked, burying kisses into her neck.

Lizzie shook her head. "No, Annie doesn't fall asleep unless I sing to her, so we really ought to go get them..." she said. He stopped kissing and laughed into her neck.

"What?" She laughed.

"You never struck me as a mum as all before, not even a little bit..." he said, smiling.

"Everybody... needs their mum," she said. He was down with his face near her hips and Lizzie tensed a little.

"You have five minutes," she said under her breath. He laughed at that and pushed her legs apart, but it tickled, and Lizzie couldn't stop laughing. "Ok, stop, stop, I can't - I can't when I'm laughing," she said between gasps for breaths. He pinned her legs and pushed a hand down firmly on her stomach over her scar and the giggles turned into breaths of pleasure. She grabbed fistfuls of the sheets and he continued until she could barely move from the release.

"You're absolutely moving in," Lizzie said with heavy breaths and he pulled her in close and safe to his body.


Remus was speechless and gave Charlie a vice-like hug in gratitude.

"You must not have told him you were living here," Lizzie said facetiously and he broke the hold. Remus laughed and kissed the side of Lizzie's head. He was the only one who truly felt the same about having something like this.

Charlie was careful about everything that was put into it. There was no reference to Voldemort anywhere, not even the victory articles or their medals of honor. There was nothing about Dumbledore either, nor the Dursleys or the Black family aside from Sirius and Tonks. He hadn't even built a single closet, cellar, or cupboard under the stairs. There was high shelf with at least a year supply of wolfsbane, courtesy of Slughorn.

Charlie explained that the property was abandoned. He'd heard about it from Aberforth, confirmed that it had never been claimed or adopted, so he purchased the deed and repaired it. Spent little money ultimately in doing so and refused to let Lizzie pay him back a dime of it.

It brought back everything lost in the most beautiful way possible. It was a culmination of love from everybody left behind in this wake, everyone still recovering, rebuilding, and that this time around neither of them had lost everything.

Lizzie carried the children upstairs and Teddy clapped happily at the dragon soaring around his room. She took Annie outside to turn the lilies into fireflies, and to point out the brightest star in the sky. Then, draped over shoulder in a daze Teddy said "Li-Li... sog" and she smiled, her eyes heavy and ready to cross over into unconscious oblivion, Annie already in the crib. She whispered the song and hardly hit any actual notes before there was a puddle of drool on her shoulder. Charlie leaned against the doorway and stared, arms crossed at his chest, admiring everything about her in that moment. He took the baby from her arms and put him into the crib gently.

Lizzie felt a soft nudge and followed him to their room nearly dead on her feet. She slumped onto the bed in her clothes and let him peel them off. He kissed her temple, and she pulled him in for intimacy. "No, go to bed, you're dead on your feet," he said. Lizzie gave a tired laugh and kissed him before rolling over onto her side.

He wrapped an arm around her stomach and let her sleep. "Thank you for coming back," he whispered into the side of her head. Lizzie didn't say anything, didn't open her eyes, but she squeezed his hand. For the first time in her life, she dreamt of something she wanted to remember.


Charlie stared at her in slumber for hours contemplating something he felt uneasy about. She didn't want to marry but he wanted nothing more. He could put aside that if he could at least put aside her fear that there was something cursed about her daughter or their relationship. He wanted to dig a knife into his temple at the thought of her living with the memory of what he did to her. The imagine of her standing bleeding and bruised in the kitchen, horror struck by him. The way she screamed not to touch her and finally after all the years of abuse had the reaction she should have had. He'd broken her. It didn't matter he'd promised himself he'd be the last one to ever hurt her. He didn't care what she said, he knew she left because of that, and he was scared most of her leaving again, but even more so of her taking their daughter with her.

Charlie kissed her head apologetically. Guilt bubbled as he drew his wand and placed it at her temple. He removed her memory of the night in shell cottage, replaced it with what should have been loving intimacy to conceive a child. He didn't do the same for himself and punished himself with the memory of the worst thing he'd ever done, but she didn't deserve to live with it.

On Annie's birthday a couple months later, he handed Annie a box he knew she couldn't open. It was small and she quickly got frustrated and waved it at Lizzie to help her. Lizzie freed a velvet box from the confines of Charlie's baby-proof prison and opened it to find a ring.

He grabbed her hand and squeezed but didn't say anything. He knew she could read it. Lizzie clenched her jaw and blinked back tears before nodding her head. She paused at an uneasiness she couldn't place but couldn't remember ever feeling unsafe in his arms. He was the one who had never hurt her. He built her a home, and she found the desire to officially become part of her own family.


I still plan to add to this with time jumps into the future. If there is anything in particular you'd like to see more of, please comment or message me. I'm planning a follow-up series of the children's gen. No promises yet on when that will launch.

Thanks so much for reading!