Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry - Ancient Runes Class - Graphorn - The creature's dual horns represent "2". Write about the best of friends, a pair of people who stick together through anything. Alternatively, write about siblings being there for each other. Prompt used: "I don't know about you, but ..."

The Hunger Games Trilogy Challenge/Competition - Quote - "Look, if you want to be babied you should have asked ..."

The Harry Potter Chapter Challenge - The Goblet of Fire - The Hungarian Horntail - Write about Charlie Weasley

Disney Character Competition - The Tramp - Bill Weasley

The Star Challenge - Adara - Write about any of the Weasleys

Hogwarts fair 2014 Challenge - Niffler Lucky Dig - 250 tokens.

Wand Wood Challenge - Chestnut - Write about Charlie Weasley


Title: Brothers

Pairing: None


Charlie helping his brother, Bill. About brothers being there for each other.


Charlie banged on the door. "Open up," he shouted, but there was no reply. He tried to look through the windows, but all the lights were out. If he didn't know any better, he would suspect that the house was empty.

The floo was closed too, but the clock at the Burrow stated that Bill was at Shell Cottage.

Like it showed every time someone came to knock on the door.

He wasn't able to apparate into the house because of the wards, so he walked around, looking for a way in. Charlie checked the back door and windows, but they were all locked tight. He didn't want to blow a hole in the wall, but he would if it came to it. Bill had locked himself up for too long now.

Charlie tried to unlock the doors, followed by the windows, but he had no luck. The rest of the family had already come by, and one of them would have thought of that, but it didn't hurt to give it another go. He soon realised that trying to be careful was a waste of time. He was getting in there. He knew he wasn't going to leave Bill sinking into depression.

Charlie had come back from Romania when everyone else had tried and failed. Clearly Charlie was the last resort, as no-one else knew what to do. Charlie hadn't even known that Fleur had left Bill, due to the delay in owls. The birds were scared of the dragons, and would drop the post in town instead. But the Wizarding town was still a distance, and the workload was so heavy, that none of them had the time to go and check the post.

Seeing as the letter arrived just after the pervious post was collected, and it took a month before someone could go and check, Charlie had found out long after the event. When he did get the post, there was a letter from a month before stating that Fleur had left Bill, and a second dating a week before regarding Bill locking himself away.

If only he had gotten the letter sooner... but he was here now. His brother needed him.

He couldn't find a way in and sighed, trying to remember the layout of the house. There was no furniture by the back door, he recalled. He walked to it.

"Bombarda," he said, blasting it down. He was feeling quite annoyed at the situation. When his family stopped over, why didn't one of them do this? Force their way into the house and make Bill listen to sense, it would have been the most sensible option. Why didn't they use a portkey to visit Charlie, to tell him in person? He would have come back straight away to help any of his family through a crisis.

Charlie waited until the dust had cleared. He had tried to make the spell weak when aiming for the door, but had taken away quite a bit of wall with him. It wouldn't take too long to fix at least. He stepped over the few bricks and wood laying across the floor, and walked into the kitchen.

The first thing he spotted was the sink. It was piled high with dishes from his mum. The countertop was the same. Charlie quickly realised that his mother must have left dishes of food outside the door for Bill on a regular basis, and he was bringing them inside.

At least he was eating, that was always good. Charlie ignored the bottles that had once held firewhiskey, littering the counter, a couple on the floor, and as he walked, he realised there were more than a few broken bottles crunching under his shoes. Before moving from the room, he cleared the broken glass away. It was dangerous.

He moved through the house, his nose wrinkling at the smell. Unwashed clothes, rotting food and alcohol. He walked into the living room to find his brother asleep on the sofa, his hands wrapped around a bottle that had emptied onto the floor. Bill smelt as bad as the house.

...oOo...

Charlie watched him for a minute, taking in the state of his brother. The same brother that had supported him when he wanted to go to Romania, and his mother got upset. The same brother that fixed his and his mothers deteriorating relationship over their differing in opinion over Romania. His only older brother - the only one that looked out for him, because the rest were too busy getting into trouble. The only one he could take his troubles to.

Bill was the one that taught Charlie how to chat up girls, and would take him out around the muggles when their mother was busy with the younger ones. Bill was his best friend, and he'd be damned if he allowed Bill to stay like this.

...oOo...

Charlie began by collecting all the bottles up, putting them into a recycling bag, and apparating each bag to an alley, placing the bag with the bins. He was shocked at the amount of bottles he collected. Bill had been drinking heavily for the past month at least. His next step was all the dishes. He set them to all wash, and cleared the rubbish away. The counters were wiped down. He loaded the washing machine, and collected up all the dirty clothes, making a large pile in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs. He spent a lot of time cleaning that house, and searching for Firewhisky, tipping each bottle down the sink.

The place still stunk, and the charms he was casting were doing nothing. He needed to open windows, but he couldn't undo Bill's spells. He set the clothes to all wash, and looked around. That was all he could do for now.

It was time to wake Bill up.

...oOo...

"How'd you get in here?" Bill mumbled, blinking his eyes, trying to get his bearings. "Whats going on?"

"I've just spent the best part of the afternoon cleaning your house for you, no need to thank me. You going upstairs, taking a shower and putting on some clean clothes will be thanks enough," Charlie replied.

"What's the point," Bill whispered. "She's gone. Why don't you just piss off too?"

"Because I'm your brother, and if I have to hex you to do as I ask, you'll go and do it."

Bills gaze fell to the floor.

"She doesn't deserve you. Remember Bill, all the girls that would come after you -"

"Before this," he muttered, pointing to his scarred face.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Charlie replied. "That goes too well with the whole image you're going for. Long hair, pierced ear, scar, tattoos... I say make the most of what you've got. Now go upstairs and take that shower, I pulled out some clean clothes for you."

"Do I have to? I just want to lay here, and -"

"Look, if you want to be babied you should have asked mum. I'm not going to deal with your crap and your wallowing in pity. You are getting off that sofa, you are going to wash and change into clean clothes, because now there's a hole in your house, we both know mum would come if I asked. So it's either listening to me, or listening to her."

...oOo...

When Bill was clean and sober, he headed downstairs to find Charlie with a bag. "What are you doing?"

"You staying here alone is a bad idea, you'll keep thinking about Fleur and it'll eat you up inside."

"You're not taking me back to mum are you?"

"I don't know about you, but I'd rather not face mum right now either, she'll treat you like a toddler who lost his favourite toy." Charlie couldn't help the grin as he compared Fleur to a toy. "I'm staying at Grimmauld Place myself, and we'll be going there instead. I thought that you could talk to Remus, he'll be able to give you advice -"

"On what? He's been with the same bloke since he was like eleven or thirteen or something," Bill replied, as he tied his hair back and pulled a jacket on.

"Not when Sirius was in Azkaban, he wasn't," Charlie stated. "He can talk to you, help you get your confidence up. You're worried about your scars, I'm sure his are much worse. He actually transforms at the full moon, whereas you act like a girl who's suffering her very own time of -"

"I get it, don't... just don't say that," Bill said, shuddering slightly. "I still can hear mum sitting us all down and explaining about girls... month stuff. I never want to hear that phrase again in my life."

"And to think you're a married man and still can't handle hearing that phrase," Charlie said.

Bill shook his head. "That's besides the point. I don't get why I have to leave here?"

"Either you come with me now, or I'll go home and bring mum."

Bill stared at him for a moment to see if he was bluffing, but it was clear that he would go ahead with the threat. "Lead the way," Bill mumbled.

"You'll see, we'll help you get past this. You deserve better."

"I love her, Charlie. I married her, I wanted a family with her. She left me, I don't understand why she married me if she didn't want all this?" Bill admitted.

"Because she's foolish," Charlie replied. Foolish wasn't the word that he wanted to say, but he didn't want to upset Bill more. "She was stupid to let you go. You can do better, and you will. There are so many girls out there that aren't shallow and vain, that will love you, but first we'll work on the drinking and the confidence."

"Thank you," Bill said, softly, as they stepped through the hole where the backdoor used to be.

"It's all good. I know you'd do the same if it was me," Charlie replied, grabbing Bill's arm to make sure he came too, and apparating them to Grimmauld Place.


1686 Words

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