How High the Moon

.ψ.

Chapter Ten: From My Sleep

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Is our world spinning backwards?
What has brought about this change?
Cause you see that people aren't the same

I wish I were dreaming
And could wake up from my sleep
And find us all the way we used to be

Cause the love that used to be is dying
Is anybody even trying?
And I don't know how, I don't know why
But somethin' in my soul is crying

Sometimes love has to drive a nail into its own hand
Sometimes love has to drive a nail into its own hand
Sometimes love…

-'Sometimes Love', Chris Rice

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Charlie raced down St. Mungo's quiet corridors faster than a chaser at the world cup, clutching the messily written note in his sweaty hand like it was the most important quaffle of the game.

-Weasley patient's condition has changed. Family requested.-

That was it.

The writer hadn't bothered to mention if this meant Bill was dying or already dead, the pillock.

Charlie's heart was about to spring right out of his chest. His legs felt like wooden stumps underneath him after the freezing broom ride to get there. He didn't care. Thoughts of his brother were a blur in his mind.

The sheepish look Bill used to get when he snuck out their bedroom window to see Francine Fawcett the summer of his seventh year. The time when Bill showed him the secret passage that lead out to the forbidden forest. (Right after Charlie'd gotten caught sneaking out there to watch the unicorns for the forty-second time in his first three months at Hogwarts.) How Bill had come out to watch his first game. How he'd said that he was proud of him, even though they'd lost. That was the day Charlie stopped looking at Bill as his big brother and started seeing him as his best friend.

Charlie felt a burst of speed that he didn't know he had left as he sprinted up the clammy stairwell and pushed away the haunting idea of never seeing Bill again. He wouldn't think that way. He couldn't.

Life without Bill in it wouldn't be worth jack shit.

And suddenly Charlie found himself in the Dai Llewellyn wing, standing just out side of the door to the Cletus Cragstone ward with his hand suspended above the doorknob.

"He'll be alright. He'll be alright. He'll be alri…" Charlie chanted silently and stepped in before his courage failed him.

Nothing could ever look as wonderful as the picture he found inside: Gin and Ronnie, smiling happily. Fred and George, babbling away about a new girl they had hired to help out with the shop. (Sans a few inches of red hair.) Dad's arm around Mum's shoulder. Mum sniffling into his sleeve and beaming at her children.

And in there next to the bed sat Fleur, grinning madly from ear to ear with a death grip on her fiancé's hand. Her conscious fiancé.

Charlie wanted to sing.

Even Stella's presence couldn't ruin such a perfect moment, but thankfully she left as soon as she saw him. She did have some sense of decency, he decided, even if she was a slimy Slytherin. It was hours before she returned.

There was a crisp knock, quickly followed by her dark head poking round the door.

"Check up time." She stated matter-of-factly. She didn't bother to apologize for barging in on them, not even a 'by your leave'. Just walked in and started running her short hemlock wand over Bill's body, performing diagnostic spells.

"Plain rude if you ask me." He thought to himself.

At least she was quick about it. Fifteen minutes later, the rest of the family had stopped paying attention to her and gone back to filling Bill in on what he had missed while unconscious.

"Charlie." She singled him out quietly and grudgingly. "Bout time you got here. He came round nearly two hours before you showed up. Don't tell me that damn bird of hers got lost again?"

"No. Bird's fine." He replied sullenly. He didn't want to talk to her.

"Oh. Good." She went back to making notes on her clipboard, her wand tucked behind her ear.

The silence was stiff between them. He avoided looking at her for several minutes before she took the hint and left. No one else seemed to notice when the door closed behind her and she was gone.

Good riddance.

.ψ.

The night was cut short when Bill fell asleep around eleven o'clock. One by one, family members retreated back to the burrow. Only Fleur was staying on at Stella's flat now that Bill was obviously out of the woods and even she was eventually dragged from the room by her mother-in-law under strict orders to take a draught for dreamless sleep. The poor girl hadn't had more than an hour or two of rest since the battle at Hogwarts, and even her magical beauty was beginning to fade a little under the strain. These days she just looked pale and drawn instead of gorgeous.

And Bill wouldn't be left alone anyroads, because Charlie decided to stay until his brother woke up. He didn't really want to go back home until Bill came with him, but he didn't want to spend anymore time at Stella's place either.

Around seven, he heard Bill's rusty tenor.

"Where is she?"

Charlie didn't have to ask who. What he wouldn't give to be so in love with a girl! (Even if it did turn a bloke into a complete bampot at times.)

"Stella's place. Mum made her down something to sleep."

"Good. She looked like she needs it." Bill said with a fond hint of over-protectiveness in his voice and a tired yawn.

"You've got a point. You two look like a matched pair right now." If Bill had been anybody else that comment probably would have earned Charlie a black eye, but even if he was scarred for life and looking like crap his brother knew what he meant.

"How bad is it Charlie?" Bill asked after a few seconds.

"Well I gotta tell you, you aren't the prettiest thing on two legs. I wouldn't want to kiss you, leastwise. The scars aren't so bad anymore, but you look really peaky. Mum is going to force feed you like a regular mother dragon once you get out of here."

Both of them laughed, picturing Mrs. Weasley regurgitating a half eaten deer carcass and trying to stuff it down Bill's throat. Then they simply sat there for a moment, enjoying one another's company.

"I still can't believe she wants … she still wants to be with me, you know?"

"Huh? Fleur? Of course man, she's mad for you!"

Bill smiled, closing his eyes. "I know."

This did nothing to help Charlie's current feelings of loneliness.

"You love her, don't you?" He couldn't help the jealousy in his voice.

"Yeah, little bro. I do."

Stella chose this inconvenient time to pop in and do her round. Charlie would have given every last galleon he had to his name to have another healer, any other healer in the room right in the middle of a conversation about women and love. He knew he'd never loved her, but he had been awfully fond of her just the afternoon before. Funny how finding out what she really was could change things so quickly.

For her part, Stella chose to ignore him.

"How are you this morning Bill?" She inquired with forced cheerfulness as she took her notes. Her nervous fingers played with the ties on her ugly uniform betraying her real emotions.

Charlie thought it was ironic that he was probably the only person in a few hundred feet that knew she was actually upset. Usually Bill was the more sensitive of the two of them when it came to other's feelings. Still, Charlie didn't know why she was troubled, and frankly didn't care. He wasn't going to bother worrying about it.

"Like I've been sleeping on a bed of roses." Rumbled Bill good-naturedly.

"Yes, well I'm told that those can get quite prickly." She tried to be playful and made small talk with Bill for a minute, but Charlie could see right through her. No matter how hard she tried, Stella would always be a terrible liar.

He gritted his teeth and avoided looking at her until she left, but couldn't help staring at the door behind her.

"What happened with you two?"

Charlie groaned. He should have known that Bill would figure out that something was going on. You couldn't be such a popular guy without learning a thing or two about reading peoples' moods.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He folded his arms.

"Come off it. You wouldn't look at so much as her shoelace, and she skipped around being worried about you showing up late here and trying not to let on."

"She was worried?"

"Oh, my idiot brother." Bill smirked. "I forget that you aren't wise in the ways of women. Remember how she was going on about asking you if that bird made it on time?"

"Yeah."

"She was worried, trust me."

"It doesn't matter. I don't want anything to do with her."

"Why? I mean, the girl isn't Fleur or anything, but she would look particularly shagable if I weren't almost a married man." Said Bill with his trademark roving grin.

"She lied to me. Been lying from the start." He muttered sourly.

"Care to tell me what about?" His brother looked at him like he was thick.

"She was in Slytherin."

Bill raised a nearly hairless eyebrow. "So?"

"So? So!" Charlie exploded.

Bill just sat there quizzically, like he was waiting for the punch line on a joke.

"They aren't the nicest people on earth, but you're acting like her school house is the crime of the century. What's wrong with you Charlie?"

"Merlin! You are probably the only person in the world who knows all the crap they pulled on me, and you go defending them?"

"Merlin yourself, man! I never thought that my own brother would be a bigot." Bill looked perturbed and Charlie felt childishly guilty. He didn't like to upset Bill at the best of times, and now his brother was sick. But still, a bigot?

"I am not!"

"Then why are you lumping thousands of people into one narrow-minded little mold, you twit? You seemed to get along well enough with all my girlfriends who were in Slytherin. Gretta, Kristine, Meghan McCormack…" He counted them off on his fingers. "Addie Moon, Kala …"

"That girl had the nicest pair of …"

"That's not the point."

"Then what is the point, oh high and mighty lady's man?"

"The point is before I went out, you two seemed to really be hitting it off."

"I didn't … it wasn't like that."

"Whatever, little bro. Now she won't even look at you. Why are you being such a git about this? Is the house she was in at school seven years ago really important enough to lose a … well, at least a friend over?"

"Yes! No. I don't know!"

"Well if you don't know, then why are you doing it?" He asked with a frustrated sigh.

Charlie didn't want to answer that question, not even to himself. He didn't say a word.

Bill just grinned at him stupidly and laid a thin hand on his. "Talk to her, huh? She did help me out, after all. I'd hate for you to piss her off and wake up one morning with poison in my tea cause you're being a prat."

He had to laugh.

"Are you sure her sense of humor hasn't rubbed off on you somehow?"

.ψ.

Bill soon escaped from St. Mungo's, but this unfortunately meant that Stella was a frequent visitor at the burrow. It wasn't bad enough that Charlie had to see her at every mind-numbingly dull meeting for the Order.

Oh no.

That would be too easy.

The very next day after Bill got out, who should pop out of their fireplace during breakfast but Myra blooming Estrella herself?

And she was hard to get rid of too. Not only did she check on Bill every time she came, she also had to chat with Mum and Fleur about the wedding, only a fortnight away and approaching at full speed like the Hogwarts Express. Now that Bill was obviously on his way to a happy recovery, Mrs. Weasley was not half as hard on her as she had been at first. The next day, Mr. Weasley roped her into a three hour discussion on motorcycles, throughout which she shoot Charlie dirty looks. (He still hadn't untransfigured her bike.)

To top it all off, she quickly made friends with Gin, Ronnie, and Hermione. The four of them often holed up in an upper room on meeting days with a chess board, a couple piles of very smelly old books, and Tonks to keep them company. Ron said she was a pretty good chess player. Even Harry eventually warmed up to her, grudgingly saying that she had some pretty good ideas about tactics and a helpful library.

Only the twins and most of the order members still were suspicious of her. Much good that did.

Charlie himself still didn't know how he felt about her, and consequently avoided her as much as possible. Bill might have had a point about his attitude, but Charlie wasn't going to admit it anytime soon. Not until he knew where he stood with her, at least.

Sadly, the rest of the world did not share in his plans.

Four days before the wedding, the burrow was in what Harry called 'Defcon 5'. It sounded suitably sinister. The house was filled with mad women running mad errands and trying to store rented garden chairs in Charlie's bed, so when his mother sent him out on an errand he had almost been relieved. It would have been a perfect day for flying if he hadn't been headed to Stella's flat.

When he knocked on the door, he was treated to an all too familiar picture.

"Charlie Weasley, Sir!" The dowdy house elf grinned in quiet, badly concealed delight. "I is so happy to see you!"

"It's nice to see you too, Bimby." He smiled back. She was a nice enough little thing once you got used to her.

Quex was slightly less thrilled to see him.

The bloody snake tried to knock him out for the third time in days, but for once did not succeed.

"Bad snake! Bad!" The house elf howled like a battle cry, wielding a broom three times her height and chasing the winged creature off down one of the many obscure hallways. "Bad snake!"

As Charlie followed Bimby's directions down to the basement to find Stella, he heard several distant but very satisfying thwacking sounds.

Yes, he was definitely fond of that elf.

The basement was dark and murky, and his only guide to Stella was the sound of rock music. By the time he discovered the door it was coming from, he wondered why the muggle neighbors weren't calling the Aurors, or what ever muggles called when there was a disturbance.

Still, it was catchy –if unfamiliar- music with a solid driving beat and some very tricky keyboard work. The only musical talent Charlie had ever fostered was his brief stint in a young boys' choir to please his mum, but having Donaghan Tremlett for a best mate in school had taught him a little about judging good rock music. He paused to listen for a moment before going in.

…Oh, forget the view we've seen. Clear away the cobwebs, boy, and step out of my dreams. Now its my monopoly, so pick up the get out free, and please proceed to read: Get out of Hell. Ohhh, baby get out of hell, woah yeah…

The vocalist was quite good, but he needed to get back to Bill in an hour or so and didn't want to deal with Stella any longer than he had to. He knocked forcefully on the door, but there was no reply. Finally he opened it and stepped inside just in time to interrupt Stella and a small group of girls in the middle of their music.

Stella was so surprised that he thought she might have dropped her guitar if it hadn't been strapped to her.

"Charlie!" His amplified name echoed around the room.

Every last one of them turned to look at him like he'd just grown a fifth limb smack dob in the middle of his forehead.

Once the shock of a random bloke appearing in their midst wore off, several of the fine ladies were rather indignant. There were multiple rude comments at his expense from the members he did know, including Tonks and Jaci Jetter. Stasia Mackay even called him a gormless plonker and said several choice things about his performance in bed. How would she know? They had only dated for a few months back in his third year, and he'd certainly never gotten her anywhere near the boy's dorms.

It was a moot point. Stella quickly pulled herself together and ushered everyone else out, saying that it had been a good rehearsal and didn't Stasia have that appointment to get to? Charlie almost felt grateful.

Once they were alone, it was a different story.

"What do you want?" She rounded on him upstairs in the still unfinished kitchen, hands on her hips.

"Mum sent me for Bill's pain potion." He replied awkwardly. It was strange to be alone with her, especially now that he didn't know how he felt about her. She was still rather pretty, and …. Well, maybe Bill was right after all.

"Oh. Right." She fumbled around in the cupboards for a while without success. "It doesn't look like I have any here. If you can wait a few minutes, I'll floo Mungo's. Prudence down in apothecary still owes me a few favors."

She grabbed a bit of floo, called out her destination, and got down on hands and knees to put her head through the flames. While she was occupied, Charlie took a rare opportunity to admire her bum. It was really quite a nice bum, all told, though he was more of a breast man himself. Her conversation ended all too soon in his opinion.

"It'll be about ten minutes. Thank Circe for Prudence, the girl's a lifesaver."

Then awkwardness returned with a vengeance. Every word they spoke seemed as forced and stiff as a starched handkerchief.

"Uh … want some tea, Charlie?"

"Sure."

Stella made tea, but was soon interrupted by Bimby. The tiny elf vigorously defended her right to prepare the sustenance, and Stella was once again relegated back to the table and a lack of conversation. After a minute or so, it was clear that it was up to Charlie to salvage some sort of dialogue.

He did still find her attractive, after all, and it struck him just then that he really never had known as much as he thought he did about her. He would never have guessed, for instance, that she was musically inclined. It was very surreal to find out that something you thought was so black and white could be so complex, like waking up from a strange dream and finding yourself still in it.

Maybe it was still worth a shot to get to know her. Some of Bill's old flirts from Slytherin hadn't been so bad. Maybe it was stupid to judge someone.

Maybe was the key word.

"So … Stella … you play guitar?"

"Yeah." Apparently he was going to have to try harder if he wanted her to talk to him again.

"You guys are pretty good."

"Thanks." She grunted, still not impressed.

"I didn't recognize the song you were playing when I came in. Whose is it?"

"Ours."

"Really? Who writes?"

"Me and Moira."

"Pretty good for a garage band."

"We have our brilliant streaks." She said with a tiny smile. Gorgeous, he was finally getting somewhere! "We actually used to be kind of well known, locally anyroads. It only lasted a couple of summers, but it was fun."

"I never would have figured you for a musician, Stella."

"Well, I never would have figured you for a biased blonk, but we all have our bouts of shortsightedness don't we? There's a lot you don't know about me, Charlie Weasley." She sounded a bit upset, but there wasn't enough heat behind her insults to make him worry.

"Guess I deserved that."

"Guess so."

They spent the remaining ten minutes in silence with their tea, desperately not looking at one another. After what seemed like eons, a cheerful, round-faced young witch appeared in the green fire and handed Stella the desired vials with precise directions on dosages. When she was satisfied that both of them knew what they were doing, she disappeared with a pop.

Stella was happy to show him to the door, but halted as she began to close it behind him.

"Charlie?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you mean what you said? About liking our stuff?" If he hadn't known better, he would have said she was afraid to hear his reaction.

"Yeah. I did." He smiled warmly, the same genuine smile that he had given Bimby earlier.

Stella smiled softly back at him. "We're doing a little gig tomorrow night, opening for some old friends downtown. I don't suppose you'd be free?"

"You mean a chance to get out of wedding world? I wouldn't miss it!"

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Authoress's Notes: Anyroad is a British term equivalent to anyway. A fortnight means two weeks, and is used very commonly in the UK, unlike the US, where it is a very old fashioned word.

The musical snipit is a bit of shameless self insertion, as it is one of my very own bits of music. It is something of a baby of mine, as I'm not the greatest at hot tempo rock music yet, so please bear with if you don't think it was very good. You should hear the guitar part before you judge.

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Possum(12)- Thanks. I wasn't sure if I had put too many details in or not. I didn't want to weigh the chapter down, but I wanted a bit more depth too. Glad too hear that you like the Bond bit. What did Mad-eye do to piss off Harry? That is an amusing secret for another chapter… I am the queen of cliffhangers, muahaha!

HarryPotterMagic(12)- What's wrong with Bill? Gottcha! Nothing is wrong with him, except the fact that he has a moron for a brother sometimes. We can work on that though. Silly Charlie still hasn't realized that he is hurting her, or figured out that somebody's feelings besides his matter, but again, we can work on this. It may take some painful training, but maybe he'll come round by the end of the story, no? Your jazz nights remind me of my high school days. (Feels nostalgic.) It's only been a year, but high school seems like it happened ages ago. Savor it while you can!

Fenix(12)- Yeah, I meant breathe, but it is a pain to go back and edit for just a few words here and there. Thanks for pointing it out, point for you. Again, I must agree with your conclusion about dear Chuck's mental capacities. On the bright side, it is monumentally hilarious to try to write from a blockheaded boy's perspective on events. Stella might just get that chance to knock sense into him … or maybe she'll knock it into him some other way … we shall see. You like Ronnie? I thought it was a stroke of genius myself. Your squirrelly questions shall all be answered … in due time. Its no fun if you find out right away, is it?

Evil Punk Rocker(2)- Welcome to the review family! It is wonderful to meet you. Have a scone! (Just don't accept any from the twins or their associates) Thanks for all your kind compliments; they really light up my day. I'm glad you like Stella and that you enjoy my twists on her character. If you liked the surprises so far, I think you'll love the real whammy that's fast approaching.