Ron stumbled down the stairs of the Burrow, heading blearily to the kitchen.
Despite the dark and his tired state, with experience he slipped between the closely placed chairs and tables, finally making it to the kitchen sink. He grabbed what he pretty much hoped was a clean glass and filled it full of cold water. Of course he could have done this with magic, if only he had his wand.
He'd misplaced it early in the day though; it was somewhere in the Burrow, of this he was sure, but where exactly was a mystery.
Once he'd finished his drink, Ron placed the glass in the sink gently to avoid waking the rest of the household and then slipped back through the living room, pausing only briefly in the almost complete silence and dark.
The sound of snoring was all he could hear, but he was fairly sure that was his mother, as Molly had a cold and was snoring loudly pretty much every night. Ron found himself staring at the sofa though, was it just him, or did it look a little lumpier than usual?
The dark didn't help him come to a conclusion of course, and in the end he decided it simply must have been, before he plodded back upstairs to bed.
0o0o0
Molly rushed around the kitchen, filling the glasses with orange juice, making sure the tea kettle was heating properly, moving the bacon so it wouldn't burn, turning the forks that the bread toasted on so that they wouldn't blacken too much. She only stopped when she heard the thunder of 5 grown kids running down the stairs. Ginny, Harry, Ron, George and Percy piled through the door way, getting stuck despite the fact it was so wide. They sat and smiled warmly as Molly transferred the bacon and toast onto plates. As they tucked in, Arthur entered and smiled at his stout wife. She handed him an enchanted mug that both kept his tea warm and prevented spills while he flew,
"Have a nice day at work dear" she said as he kissed her on the cheek.
"Bye kids" he said turning to the table,
There was a grunt from George and Ron as they were too busy eating, a wave from Ginny, a smile from Percy, and Harry even managed to speak,
"Bye Mr Weasley".
The head of the household then left through the side door, and the rest, save from Molly carried on eating happily.
As distracted as they were by breakfast, they all looked up in unison as the end chair -usually saved for Mr Weasley- scraped across the floor, and a heavy body fell into it.
"Morning mum" the redhead yawned, covering his face with his arms that were crossed on the table,
For a moment they all stayed silent, until Molly hurried to the chair he sat in and hugged him fiercely,
"Charlie" she squealed happily.
He sat up and pried her off of himself, "Yeah, hi mum" he repeated, settling back into the chair, "I hope you don't mind -though you didn't seem to notice- I slept on the couch last night", he said pulling his hand through his thick, matted hair. "Oh yeah, and by the way Ron" he added, looking up once more and pulling a wand from his back pocket, "Don't leave your wand on the sofa, it was digging into me all night", he pushed it along the table where it rolled to the young man in question.
"Of course we don't mind!" Molly said, she then turned to Percy who was in the next chair and she shooed him away so she could sit down herself,
"What's with the sudden visit?" George asked, putting down his fork, as he'd finally finished his food.
"Couldn't sleep in my own bed, so I needed somewhere to crash" he shrugged, his muscles moving sluggishly as he did, still exhausted from work the day earlier,
"Why ever not?" Molly pushed, taking his hand that lay on the table.
"I got kicked out" he said blankly, suddenly becoming more aware of his lack of a shirt,
Charlie didn't mind being shirtless, but it was somewhat of a problem in front of his mother. Without even a thin layer of clothing, not only could his large scars and burns be seen, but so could the massive dragon tattoo on his back, a tattoo that his mother would definitely disapprove of.
"Can they do that? I thought the dragon reserve supplied the accommodation", she then dropped his hand as a thought dawned on her; "You didn't get fired did you!" Molly said, fiery anger filling her eyes,
"No no no" Charlie laughed dismissively, "Me and my housemate just had a disagreement" he concluded, crossing his arms in an attempt to hide one of his worse scars that stretched diagonally across his stomach.
"You didn't have a housemate last time we visited" his mother said,
"Well-" Charlie paused and looked over the people at the table, he then sighed in defeat, "I say disagreement, it was more of what you'd call a- a lovers spat" he admitted.
The table sat in shock for a moment, before once again, Molly spoke loudly,
"Well I hope you're going to go straight home and apologise to that girl!" she said standing,
"What!?" Charlie almost laughed, "I didn't even say it was my fault, why do you always assume it is!?" he replied,
"I don't care if it is or isn't, this is the first time you've ever had a girlfriend I've known of, and I want grandchildren", she then looked to the rest of her offspring sat at the table, "From all of you!"
Harry's eyes widened with panic.
"Fine, I'll go, I'll go" Charlie said standing,
"Good" Molly replied, turning back to the kettle that had begun to whistle,
Charlie saw it as the opportune moment to creep away without her seeing his tattoo. When he got to the living room he took his time getting dressed, as his muscles still ached against him. Recently work had been keeping him back extremely late and he was working more and more manual labour filled hours; this is was just one the reasons he had had an argument with his other half. By the time he'd slipped on a vest, and a light cotton shirt and then gotten back into the kitchen, most of his family had left for work. Molly stood at the table drinking tea and reading the morning's copy of the Daily Prophet, and Ron sat opposite her eating the last of his toast.
"Visit again soon Charlie" Percy said from behind him, putting a hand on his shoulder,
"Yeah, will do, have a good day at work Perc'" he replied as his brother left the house, "So, you busy today Ron?" he then asked looking at his youngest brother,
He looked up, "No"
"Fancy coming to work with me? You'll have to come to my house first, and you'll probably get home tired and smelling of dung, but you'll get to see some dragons" the man suggested with a smile.
"Sure, sounds like fun"
0o0o0
The two Weasley boys stood a little way down the hill from Charlie's cottage.
Of all of the brothers, Ron looked the least like Charlie. They did share height, as Ron was a tall man these days, and did indeed tower over his mother, his sister, Harry and even George. They shared little else however. Charlie's hair was longer and thicker, it was so long that he had it tied into a small ponytail, his hair was also a more vibrant shade of red, as he spent many hours a day in the baking sun. This amount of hot weather had also made his skin a healthy tan colour, as well as leaving him with a lot more freckles that were found mostly on his nose, chin, chest and shoulders. Finally, despite his height, Ron was altogether a very skinny man, were as Charlie was heavily muscled.
"So if you're locked out, how are you going to get back in?" Ron asked, as Charlie began to walk up the hill,
He turned and walked backwards as he replied, "A little persuasion" he shrugged.
When Charlie got to the door, Ron stopped and held back about ten feet to give Charlie plenty of space. The elder man knocked on the dark wooden door, and there was a reply, although Ron couldn't hear.
"It's Charlie, come on, let me in",
There was another muffled response.
"Hey, come on, I'm sorry" he said with a sigh,
"No, bugger off!" Ron then heard from the other side of the door,
Charlie grumbled again, "Fine, but I'm coming back again later" he said, albeit rather lamely. There was no audible reply, "Okay I'm going", he repeated.
Ron placed his hands on his hips, "That didn'..." his brother lifted his hand for silence before he could finish the sentence however,
He stooped a little and pressed his ear to the door, listening for something, perhaps wondering if his partner was still hanging around; there was a loud, dull thud as the person on the other side hit the door though, obviously privy to the fact that Charlie was still there.
"Fine, fine, I'm going, but I'm still going to come back" he said stumbling away,
"That didn't go too well then" Ron said again, giving him a sort of sympathetic look,
"Yeah" Charlie admitted, "Let's just get to work"
0o0o0
"Remind me never to go to work with you ever again" Ron groaned, stretching his arms high above his head,
"Okay" Charlie laughed, leading the way up the hill once more,
"Are you really bothering to talk to her again? No offence but your girlfriend sounds completely mental" the younger sibling sighed,
"Err, yeah none taken" Charlie replied sarcastically.
When they got to the door, he knocked lightly on it, but there was no answer,
Charlie removed his wand from his waist band and held it to the lock, "Ellohamora" he whispered, and the mechanism clicked. He entered the house and waved to Ron to follow him, when they got to the centre of the living room he signalled his brother to stay put however. Ron nodded and Charlie went ahead into what Ron assumed was the bedroom,
He was sure he heard: "Oh, it's you", but his brother then closed the door, muffling the conversation.
Charlie was in there for a long time, but thankfully, there was no sounds of fighting from within the room- no noises of a different kind either though,
Ron eventually ended up sitting lazily on the couch, thumbing through a practical potions guide, until the door finally opened once again. Charlie crept out, closing the door behind him,
"So?"
"So, so"
"How is she?"
"Pissed, and worried, I'm gonna stay here for a little longer, but it looks like I'm camping out on the Burrow couch again tonight" Charlie replied, sitting next to his brother.
"Mum's gonna be at you, you know" Ron said looking over to him,
"I know, but there's not much I can do now, I've said my piece" he shrugged,
"Okay, well see you in a couple hours then"
Charlie nodded but gave no other reply.
0o0o0
Charlie returned not that long before midnight, but Ron was still awake. He had to admit that he was a little worried about his brother, Charlie hadn't had a girlfriend before (to his knowledge), and the idea that he could be losing her distressed him.
"That was exhausting" Charlie commented, sitting on the sofa and putting his head in his hands,
"How is everything?" Ron asked,
"It's... complicated" he replied,
The younger brother thought for a moment, "What did you do to upset her?"
Charlie sighed and looked up to his brother, "I- we were having an argument about something he said" Had Ron just misheard his brother? 'He'? "And I made a comment, a really stupid comment. I said that sometimes I felt like he was so distant-" No, he was definitely saying 'he' "-that it was like he could just leave me without a second thought, like he would just pack a bag while I wasn't there and catch a train and not care if he ever saw me again".
"What did he do to make you say that?" Ron asked once his brother was done,
Charlie let a sad smirk cross his lips, "You picked up on that huh?"
"It was hard not to" he shrugged.
His brother sighed again, "He said that I didn't understand him, that I didn't know how he felt, so I said that maybe I would understand him better if he wasn't so cold, and if he actually let me in once in a while. He tried to argue that he did let me in, 'all the time', but I was being an arse, so obviously I let my stupid mouth make that comment about him leaving", he frowned gravely, "Of course, I don't really feel like that. I love him" Charlie concluded, his eyes fixed on the ground.
The two Weasley's were silent for a long moment,
"Does he know?" Ron asked suddenly,
"Does he know what?" Charlie replied looking over to him,
"Does he know that you love him?"
"Well, yeah, of course he does"
"Have you ever said it to him?"
"I- no" Charlie admitted.
"Has he ever said it to you?"
"No, but I'm sure he does. That's why I'm sure he knows that I love him"
Ron looked at his brother closely, "Sometimes, you need to hear something out loud to know it's true, sometimes it's not real until you say it".
Charlie groaned and slapped his own forehead with his hand, "Holy crap, when did my baby brother become smarter than me?"
0o0o0
Ron jogged up the hill to keep up with Charlie's long strides.
They'd stayed up talking for a good few hours more; Ron had admitted that a lot of what he'd said had come from Hermione after they had had a similar argument, and Charlie made vague comments about what his boyfriend was like.
It was the wee hours of the morning in Romania and Charlie was determined to tell his lover just how he felt, the time be damned.
Charlie knocked on the door heavily, again and again, for nearly five minutes until there was an angry reply from the other side,
"What!?" he snapped, clearly audible through the wood.
Charlie took a deep breath, Ron kept his distance,
"I love you! Okay? I love you, I love you, I love you! I'm an idiot, and I didn't mean anything I said when we argued because... well because I love you", by now he was smiling like an idiot for having gotten the truth off of his chest, "Not sure if I mentioned it" he added with a breathy laugh.
There was a moment of quiet, but then all at once, the door's lock clicked, it was thrown up, and a body jumped into Charlie's arms.
Ron was taken aback; Draco Malfoy was in a firm embrace with his brother,
"I love you too, and for the record you are an idiot" he said as they held each other close. He then pulled away and smiled at the redhead, "Thank you for saying- well for saying it", he let out a relived laugh,
"Ron's to thank" Charlie insisted, looking to his brother with a ridiculously happy smile now stretching up his lips,
Draco looked over to Ron and nodded to him in thanks before turning once more and kissing Charlie deeply.
Ron watched wide eyed in horror,
Holy shit, he'd just saved Draco Malfoy's relationship.
A.N- This is a reedit and reupload, because I was working on the final chapter, don't worry if it seems familiar!