This is written for the Hogwarts Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments) forum, specifically for Assignment #5 Forestry: Famous Forests; Task 1: Write about someone in the LGBTQ plus community.

1994

Stories paint soulmates in a beautiful light. They give their happy ever afters and love infinite and eternal. The only thing that the stories always, without doubt, get right is the fact that every single person receives a name at some point in their life. It appears, usually around puberty, somewhere on a person's body. The name itself can change, whether it's because a person changes their last name or their first name. What the stories get wrong is that soulmates aren't always romantic, although such things are often not spoken about – much like soulmates themselves.

Charlie Weasley is a few years past twenty when his soulmate's name appears. To be honest, he hadn't noticed originally, too busy corralling some hatchlings while their nesting mother watched, in amusement Charlie reckons, willing to leave Charlie to take care of them. It's gratifying that the female dragon is willing to trust her hatchlings to him, willing to let him close. A few years previous, Charlie had almost lost his arm to her when she'd crashed into the reserve, injured and bleeding. The experts at the time had concluded she'd fought off a group of wizards who'd probably wanted her for poaching purposes. And, since at the time there'd been a sickness spreading in the hatcheries quite a few of the workers had been elsewhere, leaving not enough people to force the Romanian Longhorn into a spelled sleep.

Charlie, however, had been unwilling to let the dragon bleed out and after some daring stunts that left his hair singed, arm burnt, and a refusal to mention the story his mother, he'd managed to help heal her. In the following months, he'd managed to earn her trust and even work with her hatchlings - such as the current case.

When the last hatchling has decided to rest back under their mother's wing, Charlie lands on the ground and places one hand on his hip, the other holds the broomstick. "You could have helped," he tells the dragon, who snorts smoke at him and closes her eyes. Charlie laughs and heads back to the barracks, last duty over for the night. He's not got any of the night patrols, thankfully, and can join the nightly ritual of poker instead.

And it's during that poker game that one of his co-workers congratulates him on the cursive writing on his wrist, almost hidden, even though such topics are usually private. Charlie, who is used to maintaining his calmness in front of fire-breathing dragons, doesn't stiffen or hesitate as he bluffs his way into the next round. When he loses, he bows out, mentions sleep, and retreats to his small room to look at the writing.

It's on his left-hand, and although he'd thought it was cursive writing originally, it reveals itself to be more of a scribble than anything else. But, squinting and tilting his head, Charlie can make out the words.

Draco Malfoy

Not quite the name Charlie had wanted. And Charlie isn't even sure whether he wants a soulmate at all. The stories have never really sat well with him and he's never really wanted people in the way everyone says he should. He's thought it'd be different with a soulmate who's his. But...

But Malfoy is in Ron's year - he'd be something like eight years Charlie's junior. A kid, to say the least. One whose family contains Death Eaters and are something like enemies to his family. It's a match made in hell; Charlie thinks wryly. Something that he doesn't have to deal with now, not when he's in Romania and Malfoy's in Hogwarts.

So the next day Charlie gets himself a wristband to cover the name and goes about his life.

1995

Although out of the country, Charlie does keep in touch with his family on an almost regular basis. Bill is the one who he's most in touch with. They're the eldest of their siblings, the only ones who've left the country to be elsewhere. They're close, although Charlie does try his best to be close with his other siblings. It's difficult, though, when he's out of the country and they're in Hogwarts and, well, school drama is rather... boring, when you're overseas and work with dragons. The only important messages Charlie gets are Ginny's reports on how Quidditch is going as the reserve gets very little news; his mother's update on how his siblings are going and his father's newest obsession; and, lately, updates on what's happening in the United Kingdom.

Charlie may be in Romania and untouched by the darkness invading the United Kingdom, but his family is there. He may have left them, may have removed himself from their home and closeness for the isolation of the reserve and fires of dragons, but they're still family. He cares for them. But they don't ask him to return. Instead, Dumbledore sets him to recruiting foreigners for the war.

And it's not just recruiting either that Charlie does. He exchanges messages with others in the Order of the Phoenix, takes care to get in touch with old friends. Most importantly, he gathers allies for himself, earns favours and debts.

The thing is that Charlie is well known for being unabashedly who he is. He stands up for what he believes in. He does whatever he thinks is right. Stubbornness and determination are engraved in his bones. When people think of Charlie, they think of a good guy, a little bit strange perhaps, but someone who's willing to lend a helping hand when required. They think of his freckles and pale skin and red hair. They think Weasley.

Charlie was placed in Gryffindor, which means whatever he wants it to mean, more than anything else. But Charlie wasn't placed in Gryffindor straight away, not that it matters too much. Not now, when Charlie is an adult, when he has grown out of the robes and shoes he wore in Hogwarts. He's a changed person and refuses to be stifled by clinging to the Gryffindor stereotypes. He didn't build his foundation on bravery or chivalry or anything similar.

People forget that Charlie snuck into the Forbidden Forest more times than he was caught. People forget that friendliness and kindness can earn you friends anywhere. People forget that bravery doesn't mean standing in plain sight. People forget that if you work with creatures such as dragons, you generally know how important they are on the black market, know whether you need to be more wary of poachers or whether you shouldn't be worried for now. And to know that, you need to get that information from somewhere.

So yes, Charlie recruits foreign wizards and witches for help. Yet he also gains favours and debts and allies. He fades into the underbelly of Romania and makes himself a name. He walks pathways previously ignored, gets information in ways that many people wouldn't approve of. He avoids committing any crimes he believes to be against his morals, but he helps in the best way he can, in a way that his mother wouldn't approve of but Bill and some of the others would understand.

And sometimes Charlie thinks about the name on his wrist. There's a high chance that they'll be divided by this war, on opposite sides because of their families. And it's somewhat sad, but Charlie hasn't met Malfoy. He's only heard Ron and his year mates' criticisms and complaints. Besides, Charlie doesn't really want a soulmate, and sometimes he can't help but be glad there's something preventing them from meeting. And just like that, life moves on.

1998

Charlie sees Draco Malfoy for the first time a few months after Voldemort had been killed. They'd passed by one another, each hurrying opposite directions, which seems a bit like a metaphor for their lives.

Except the war is over and Malfoy scorned Voldemort when the time came and fought against him. It's all rather confusing and Charlie really doesn't care for soulmates right now. He's too busy doing all sorts of things. He's on leave from the reserve, and he knows himself well enough that it's for the best, it'd be dangerous to throw himself into working with dragons in such a state. Yet he dislikes being left to his thoughts, caught in grief, wrapped in it, thoughts of what-ifs circling his head endlessly. Therefore, he does whatever he can to help. He helps out at home, helps his mother, checks on his siblings, and watches as they either fall into themselves, lost in grief, or explode outwards, fracturing.

Family life is messy and chaotic. His mother often cries. His father does his best to support all of them. Bill struggles to find the balance between his new family and his old family. Percy loses himself in his work, often storming away after a fight with Ron. George is drowning in his grief and dealing with it the best he can. Ron flinches at loud noises and remains on a hair-trigger. Ginny, at some point, has grown into a young woman that constantly fights beneath the restrictions their mother places on her.

And somehow Charlie is caught in the middle of it all, left oscillating without anything to give him direction. What manages to pull him together isn't his family in the end nor is it his soulmate. It's him, favours and debts still owed, listening to the whispers navigating the underground of the United Kingdom and hearing pleas for safe harbour, for refuge, for escape. It isn't for criminals, as far as Charlie's sources can confirm, but newly graduated students, children, more than adults.

And, well, Charlie meets with one who plans to organise it all - Pansy Parkinson. A Slytherin in Ron's year. He doesn't mention it to his family or the few friends left in the United Kingdom once the war's over. He keeps it to himself and meets with her in a small restaurant down a dark alley in muggle London.

"Weasley," Parkinson greets, surprise hidden in her words, but he still hears it.

"Parkinson," Charlie says in reply, nodding at her. "Who do you want to get out of the UK and why?"

Parkinson folds her hands and places them on the table between them. "Some of my schoolmates," she says. "Ones who were forced into the fighting and committed crimes. Our Ministry wants scapegoats right now, people to blame for the worst things that happened. The media wants people to be named, wants to ruin them. So many of us had families under threat. We want peace now, more than anything else. Freedom, whether it comes with magic or without." And that final sentence is the one that caught Charlie's attention - safe harbour had been asked for, magical or muggle in nature.

"I can organise safe houses in various other countries," Charlie says at last, and this is something he can help with. He wasn't good enough in the war. He'd failed in the war. Now he could do his best to make amends. "And maybe smuggle some people out, I'm not sure. My name holds very little weight going through the correct methods but... I'm owed debts and favours. But I want unbreakable oaths that these people won't commit another crime unless it's for self-defence."

Parkinson sucks in a breath. Charlie's terms are dangerous and they both know it. She breathes out evenly. "Alright," she says. "I can do that. We can't necessarily be seen in contact as that'll throw the suspicions onto you and we want to avoid that. One of my year mates came forward and said he has reason to be in contact with you though." She narrows her eyes and Charlie- Charlie knows who it is. It's Malfoy. It has to be. They've never met, only seen each other in passing this year for the first time.

"Yeah," he says, slumping back in his seat and tilting his head to look up. "Yeah, he does. It's not known, but I can swing it if needed."

"Alright," Parkinson says and Charlie echoes the word. And that's how he finds something to do in the wake of a war, during the reconstruction of pretty much everything magical, and how he starts to climb out of the grief he was drowning in.

1999

Charlie and Malfoy meet for the first time and it's awkward. They have little in common and have never spoken before. And, well, Charlie's expected something to change when he meets his soulmate. It's meant- meant to be like in all the stories. Love at first sight, butterflies in the stomach, wanting to kiss and have sex and whatever but- but it's not. It's not like that at all. It's awkward and awful and they spend most of their time trying to have a conversation in silence than anything else.

The only thing they manage to figure out is how to smuggle Millicent Bulstrode out, who's wanted for crimes her father committed as a Death Eater, but since he's dead the Ministry seems set on taking it out of Bulstrode's hide. It makes Charlie glad he's helping but it makes him wonder whether he's doing the right thing, whether the Ministry is doing the right thing.

It's hard to know what the right thing is, though, when you've been on a battlefield that thought children were good soldiers.

Regardless, over the next few months, Malfoy and Charlie meet a few times, without talking about their relation - being soulmates - once. Their dynamic changes from tentative acquaintances to something like friends when Charlie finds out that Malfoy goes for the same Quidditch team as he does. What really cements their friendship, and the transition from Malfoy to Draco, is Draco learning that Charlie could have joined one of the major Quidditch teams but turned it down to work with dragons. Draco, stunned, spends five minutes in shocked silence and then another ten minutes shouting at Charlie about the outrage of turning down a seeker position!

It's one of the first times that Charlie laughs for longer than five minutes since Fred died. At the end of Draco's tirade, Charlie is wheezing, bent over, and wiping tears from his eyes.

After that, the months start passing quickly and they meet up, not just to figure out how to smuggle fugitives out of the United Kingdom, but also as friends.

2001

Two years pass and Charlie and Draco become better friends, even if they don't touch on their soulmate connections. Instead, what happens is that no one needs to be smuggled out of the United Kingdom and Charlie uses up his favours and debts. But their world has starting finding a new normal, has started settling into it. Without a need for secrecy, Charlie and Draco start hanging out in more noticeable places - to the point that Charlie's family learns about it.

It's one of the worst fights Charlie has with his family.

He'd fought with his mother once, rather badly, when telling her his decision to help out with the dragons in Romania. Now, he fights against most of his siblings, raising his voice in defence of Draco. He refuses to show his wrist, refuses to give that reason, because he's just asking for once, if they could trust him! Shouting such things manages to quiet his family, somewhat, and they give in, albeit reluctantly. Charlie doesn't care too much though.

Something has to give and it's Draco who tentatively brings up the name on his wrist. Charlie shares his own, laughing somewhat at the ridiculous tan line on his wrist. But it's awkward. The tension between them is heavy, the silence even more so. And Charlie- Charlie doesn't want this. His life still isn't like the stories. There is no romantic love hidden in his heart. He doesn't want more than they already have.

In the end, it's Draco who breaches the silence. He reaches out and says that soulmates are a choice, an option, they don't mean anything. They don't have to be anything.

"It's not like that," Charlie hurries to say because it isn't. He loves Draco but he's not in love with Draco. They're good friends and Charlie would probably do quite a number of things to ensure Draco's happiness. "I just..." He trails off because there are no words, not when he doesn't understand himself, not when he can't quite get his head around how he's not like everyone else. In the back of his head, he's started wondering if he's broken in some way.

Draco takes hold of one hand and squeezes it lightly before letting it go. "It's okay," he says and then he's gone.

2003

Charlie returns to the Romania dragon reserve and finds himself more happiness. It's hard work and rarely rewarding, but he'd missed it over the years. Once again, he's caught in the lives of friends he'd lost contact with and they welcome him back with open arms after smashing him a few times in poker. It's like a breath of fresh air. It's like a new beginning. It's like coming home.

He keeps in touch with his siblings, exchanges letters with at least one of them each week. He also talks to Draco through the letters, small things that seem unimportant, just fun details about his life. He mentions various dragons by names and how they've changed over the years. He talks about the hatchlings that are grown now and the new hatchlings he gets to meet. Draco never fails to respond with his own news and, on times Charlie doesn't mention some dragons, asks about them by name himself. It makes something in Charlie go warm and contented.

Things change once again with a book.

Charlie's never been an avid reader, most of the stories on soulmates he's read have come from his mother's bookshelf. This time, it's one of his co-workers who offers him the book. They say it's good and contains dragons which makes it even better. And so, in one of the rare weeks of peace, Charlie cracks it open and gets reading.

His co-worker was right - it is good. It's set in another world, where magic is everywhere and dragons can talk. Soulmates exist too but they're not all romantic in nature. When he finishes, Charlie actually bothers to read the notes on the author at the back, which mentions the author's struggle with dating when meeting her soulmate. It reveals that the author's soulmate had kept their relationship platonic and actually helped the author find her wife.

Deep in Charlie's heart, some bit he'd believed to be broken flares to life. Maybe- Maybe he doesn't need to be in love with his soulmate. Maybe soulmates can be friends. And- And if soulmates can just be friends, maybe there's nothing wrong with not wanting sex or a romantic partner? Maybe, just maybe, Charlie isn't broken.

After finishing the book, Charlie spends approximately twenty minutes begging his boss for a day off, which he's given, and then he takes an international portkey bought through the black market for a ridiculously high price, and appears in muggle country. With no one around, he then Apparates to the Malfoy Manor gates where Draco resides. He sends a patronus through, a silver blur more than anything else, speeding through the gates towards wherever Draco is. Draco appears in minutes, running towards the gates, looking rather worried.

"Charlie!" He gasps, upon reaching the gates, "Are you alright? Is anything wrong?"

And Merlin, Charlie can barely believe anything. He grins and laughs and steps forward, tugging Draco into a hug. Draco relaxes against him and Charlie finds himself leaning into his soulmate. "Did you know soulmates didn't have to be romantic?" He asks joyously. "They can be platonic and so many other things and I- I never knew."

Draco pulls back a bit, a smile curling on his face. "Charlie, we don't have to be what stories say we need to be or anything," he says. "I've been trying to tell you that." He tugs Charlie closer towards him. "We get to choose what we are and that can just be friends, family."

Charlie laughs again, can hardly help doing so. "I don't think I want romance at all," he admits, quietly, something that he's only said to himself in the privacy of his mind.

"Family," Draco reminds him.

"Family," Charlie agrees. It's a promise, more than anything else, and Charlie couldn't be happier.