At the top of the map it read, in familiar handwriting, 'Discover the secrets of the First Task and you will know the truth of this maps origin.'

"Gotta go!" Lyla proclaimed, abruptly standing up from the table, and kissing her siblings' heads before rushing out of the Great Hall.

She exited swiftly through the doors opposite the Great Hall and pulled the sleeves of her sweater down to grasp them in her hands after entering the cold, night air. She walked briskly across the grounds but didn't run, she was captivated as warm mist from her breath hung in the air and the stillness of the lake was broken only by the gentle listing of the Durmstrang ship.

She unfurled the parchment once again and examined it shrewdly in the moonlight. There was a childish drawing of the lake on the far right side of the map with a Viking ship and a mermaid tail sticking up from it. The winding dashed line that represented the course Lyla was to follow veered away from the lake toward Hagrid's hut. She began dutifully walking in that direction, wrapping her arms around her shoulders, holding her sweater to keep it from sliding off as the night grew darker and the temperature colder. When a large, powder blue carriage came into view, Lyla consulted the map again and saw an oddly shaped object with three wheels and what was probably the French flag planted outside of it. Lyla chuckled at the humor and turned away from Hagrid's hut, past the Beauxbatons' carriage and continued toward the Forbidden Forest where there was an 'X' marked on some ambiguous spot along the treeline.

"Charlie!" Lyla called in a hushed voice as she walked along the trees, peering into the forest. "Charlie!" she called again, a playful grin dancing across her face, "Char-"

"RAWR!"

"AHHHHHH! SON OF A GRINDYLOW!"

"Shhhh sh sh" Charlie hissed, laughing hysterically and putting his hand over Lyla's mouth.

Lyla beat her fists against his chest and her shirt had slid down her arm again. "You are insane, do you know that?" she asked, pushing him away from her when he bent down to kiss her exposed shoulder.

He simply spread his arms and shrugged while his body continued to shake with laughter. "Oh, oh, come on. Come here." He wrapped his arms tightly around her and looked down at her.

"What are you even doing here?" Lyla asked, pouting flirtatiously

Charlie's eyes twinkled mischievously "Come and see." He grabbed her by that hand and led her around the edge of the forest to a clearing on the lake, hidden by the thick trees that extended around it.

"Oh my Merlin" Lyla gasped, squeezing Charlie's hand and pressing her body against his hard, rough arm.

Charlie stared down at her and watched the fire reflecting off her gaze turn her eyes a dangerous shade of green. Her chest heaved at an increased rate and he felt her hand become clammy in his. "They're for the first task" he whispered, "We brought mothers from Romania...I'm not quite sure why they wanted mothers but..."

"Can I..." Lyla swallowed and trailed off darting her eyes from Charlie's to the dragons

"Oh yeah!" he said, excitedly guiding her closer toward the dragons. "I can't let you too close" he explained apologetically "That would be a lot of paperwork."

Lyla smiled in response to his humor and continued staring at the dragons. They were riled up, screeching and huffing at the handful of handlers around the pen who were fortifying the binds on them that kept them land bound.

"HEY CHAR-LAY!" a deep, booming voice called from in front of the dragons "You takin a piss or are you gunna actually work?!"

Charlie shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Stay here" he said softly before jolting back to his colleagues and grabbing hold of a line attached to the Swedish Short-Snout and pulled it downward.

Lyla settled onto a large boulder near where Charlie had left her and watched as the broad, sleeveless men wrangled the dragons. Charlie's skin appeared to be the lightest of the group and it gleamed in the light of the nearby fire. His shirt was spoiled with sweat and dirt that Lyla supposed had resulted in a few falls while subduing the frightened dragons. She watched as his knees bent and his heels dug into the ground as though his thick legs were taking root while his arms flexed, etching deep valleys in his glistening skin; unveiling muscles that Lyla never knew even existed on the human body. What Lyla noticed, more than anything else, though, was the smile on Charlie's face: it was an enigma and wholly indescribable. His eyes suggested instinctual concentration while his wide, crooked smile indicated mischievous exhilaration. The sweat pouring from beneath his hairline gave Lyla the impression that, in addition to the strenuous labor he was engaged in, that he was a little scared. Then, there were the words coming out of his mouth, being tossed between him and his colleagues, that were incredibly foul; shouted in a tone that could shake the earth.

Lyla pulled her sweater tightly around her form as she shivered, but not from the cold. From watching Charlie she was completely captivated and, she noticed as the feeling stirred in her chest, a little scared. This was not the little Charlie Weasley she remembered growing up. Even after that night they spent talking it was this moment that Lyla realised who he really was.

As the second oldest Weasley sibling, following after the extroverted and intriguing Bill, Charlie was a quiet introvert and slight in stature. If Lyla had never met him on that first train ride into Hogwarts, she probably never would've noticed him. Between the two of them there had been enough tension and uncertainty in that train car that she could taste it. While Lyla had always been incredibly outgoing she had spent the beginning of the train ride nervously thinking about Hogwarts and avoiding all eye contact with the red headed stranger across from her. It was right after the food trolley had passed that Charlie had done something very uncharacteristic and initiated conversation with Lyla.

"You nervous too?" Charlie asked, his voice cracking

At first Lyla looked at him defensively but, when she saw his blue eyes innocently staring back at her she took a deep breath and admitted: "Yeah I am!"

"My brother is a third year and he's told me the most horrible things. My mum says they're not true but..." he looked down at his feet

"My sister is a third year too! My dad says the only thing she's told me that is true is that in order to get into all the houses you have to stick your hand into a whole that could have bugs or candy floss in it and you'll never know which!"

"Nah!" Charlie scoffed, blushing and smiling back at Lyla "That can't be true!"

"I don't know" she replied nervously. After a few silent seconds she spoke again, shifting in her seat "What house do you think you'll be in?"

At this, Charlie sighed. "I don't know. My family have been in Gryffindor for years and years but...I don't know I just don't think I have what it takes, you know, bravery and chivalry and all that. Maybe Hufflepuff."

"Well" Lyla whispered, comfortingly, "they say that the Sorting Hat knows us better than we know ourselves. I'm sure that with two parents from Gryffindor you have been given the qualities of one as well!" Charlie half smiled in response but still remained uncertain. "At least you have an idea from your family tree! Mine is all over the place. My mum was a Hufflepuff and my dad was a Gryffindor but my sister was sorted into Ravenclaw, like my uncle. I don't think we have any Slytherins in our family though, so I'm not worried too much about that...kinda"

"Nah" Charlie said again, "even if I'm not in Gryffindor, I know for sure that, due to my strong family line, I have been passed down the gift of..." he paused dramatically "being able to sniff out any and all Slytherins that cross my path!"

Lyla squealed with laughter as Charlie snuck his nose up into the air and sniffed loudly before breaking down into hysterics as well.

It was his endearingness and sense of humor that bound them together in friendship instantly. It was the disappearance of her father one year later that fixed them in each other's lives permanently

"Lyla! Lyla!" Charlie called up to her. She jolted and took notice of the quiet that had fallen over the forest. "Lyla, come meet my mates!" he waved her over to him, jovially.

She skipped down toward the group, smiling brightly. She slowed to a stop next to Charlie and waved at the group of men standing around her.

"Okay, so, everyone this is my old friend Lyla, and, Lyla, this is Javier," A strikingly handsome Brazilian man with dark hair and piercing dark eyes made intense by an iridescent white scar through his eyebrow winked and nodded his dimpled chin toward Lyla. "Dorin"

"I've heard a lot about you" Lyla said shaking the hand of an incredibly tall man of African descent who wasn't wearing a shirt, which exposed the metallic grey and milky white tattoo of the Worm of Linton coiled on the right side of his lower abdomen, slithering up his torso.

"As I have yew" Dorin replied in a harsh Scottish accent, smiling robustly at her but examining her warily with his eyes.

"This is Meg" Charlie continued gesturing to the person standing beside Dorin.

Lyla focused on Meg and noticed that the mounds underneath the sweaty shirt were breasts as opposed to bulging pectorals and that Meg's hair was pulled tightly into a French Braid down the back of her neck that made her look like she had short hair. "Oh!" Lyla exclaimed, rather rudely, when she put two and two together. She cleared her throat and extended her hand, "Nice to meet you."

"Yeh ahm a bird." Meg said in response to Lyla's apparent shock. She returned Lyla's handshake forcefully, squeezing unnecessarily hard when she spoke again, staring at Lyla the whole time. "So dis da bird you fink luv ya beck o sum nunsense, den?" Lyla blushed with anger and wrenched her hand from Meg's grasp. Meg scoffed triumphantly and turned her gaze on an embarrassed and seething Charlie, "She smoll." Meg turned to walk away and a few of the men followed her back to where they had set up a drinking station by the lake.

Lyla looked up at Charlie with her eyebrows raised and an expression that read "...the FUCK she say to me?!" Charlie grabbed Lyla's wrist and squeezed it roughly, imploring her with his eyes to let it go.

Dorin appraised Lyla bemusedly, "Yer quite a fiery one" he commented "I can see why ahr Charley likes ya so...in ahr line of work its hard not to be drawn to a flame." He winked subtly at Charlie and brought the rest of the group over to the shoreline as well.

Charlie's grasp had relaxed on her wrist and he was rubbing the back of her hand with his rough thumb, the sharp pieces of callus scratching her smooth skin in silence.

Lyla stared at the moon bouncing off the various ripples in the lake, past the group conversing loudly. She thought about Charlie working with the dragons, who were now conscious but calm, and how it had frightened her a little bit. Then she focused on his hard, rugged hand touching her gently when just a minute ago it could've broken her wrist. "Charlie?" she blurted "You could hurt me." He dropped her hand, as though worried that he was. "Like you could really hurt me." she grabbed both of his hands back in hers and ran her hands over his raw skin. She dug her thumb into an open scrape on his palm and watched his face when he didn't even flinch. Then, she ran her hands up his arms, tracing old burns and scars with her delicate fingers and squeezing his muscles all the way up to his shoulders. "I can't believe how strong you are...you could even hurt me by accident!" She was rambling now.

"What the-" Charlie began, squinting in confusion

"You could..." she continued, her breath slowing. "but you wouldn't. You wouldn't hurt me, or anyone really." she sighed

"Especially not you" he said pleadingly, enclosing her hands in his and bending his head down to look her straight in the eyes. "What are you even going on about?"

"I don't know" she said, smiling bashfully, "I was just thinking about the day we met. You were skinny like a noodle then." He feigned offense and she chuckled. "And you told me that you thought you would be a Hufflepuff because you weren't strong or brave or chivalrous." She stared into his eyes. "I think that bravery is knowing the vast extent of your strength" she rubbed his upper arms and drew her hips into his "but having the control to use it when it's necessary and not just because you have it." Her eyes trailed down to his lips and she abruptly kissed him.

When she pulled away Charlie smirked and said, "Spoken like a true Ravenclaw." he pulled her sweater back onto her shoulder. "I know who I am," he pulled her body close to his, his hand pressing gently between her shoulder blades, "Good of you to catch up."

She shoved his shoulder playfully; rolling her eyes. "I just needed time to see, I guess." she exhaled purposefully. "I'm still - I still...you know. I don't know...can't quite."

"Hey!" he said casually, "I go back to Romania tomorrow. You'll be back in London. We live worlds away and no one is expecting you to do anything."

"Wellllll" she said playfully, running her hands down his back and onto his firm buttox, "we can do something..."

He chuckled and pulled his rear away from her grasp, "I can't" he whispered, resting his head against hers. "I'm expecting Hagrid soon. He wanted to see the dragons." Lyla pouted and wrinkled her nose. "Come on, we'll go sit with everyone. I want you to get to know them."

"I don't think they all want to get to know me." Lyla replied viciously

"Don't mind Meg" Charlie said, his tone calm but his body suddenly stiffened. He smiled over at her and pecked her on the cheek then took her hand and started walking toward the shoreline where the group was sitting around a fire.