Chapter Six: Charlie Weasley and the Firewhisky Talk

Disclaimer: All characters, places, spells and objects that are in JKR's books are hers. I do not own them. I am just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while.

The bar was loud and the Firewhisky was flowing, as well as several much stronger drinks; it was just the way he liked it. It was just the kind of atmosphere that Charlie liked to have in a bar. He had always been a sociable person and enjoyed a good chat with people over a drink, and who didn't? It was actually the first thing he looked for when he visited a new dragon reserve — a decent local pub. And he had spent many a night in Romania, taking a break from the dragons at the local pub just outside the reserve. It was a local pub that actually had a lot of atmosphere, but then, dragon trainers hardly tended to be the quiet, subdued type and he was quickly learning that Aurors (and the rest of Harry's non-Auror friends, even the new Hogwarts Herbology professor) were the same.

He guessed it was due to the level of potential danger in the job. It didn't really attract wallflowers who wanted to hide. Each day, one did not know what to expect, every day was different and trouble could flare up with a single breath of a bad-tempered dragon or the hex of a wizard's wand. They never knew at the start of each day whether they would end it in their own beds or in hospital ones.

Words were now floating in the air as several of the witches at the bar got up to sing karaoke. Charlie's eyes fell on a cute blonde who was now singing a Weird Sisters song about love that he had heard playing in Ginny's room earlier that week, very loudly. The witch actually wasn't that bad and she was definitely worth talking to later in the night. He was actually highly disappointed when the song finished and he could not remember feeling that way when the song had finished playing in Ginny's room. But then, this blonde witch wasn't his sister and that made a huge, huge difference.

"You alright, Charlie?" George asked as he came over with some more drinks.

"Not bad," he shrugged, while offering his brother a small grin.

"Just eyeing up the talent?" George glanced over at the bar. "And it's not that bad, either. Hannah has some very attractive friends, not to mention her staff."

Charlie laughed. "Too bad you're already taken."

George rubbed the back of his neck rather nervously as he let out a small laugh. "Yeah, Angelina would skin me alive for looking at another witch. Very passionate woman."

"Your secret's safe with me. I won't even tell her that you glanced over for me," Charlie said with a smile. "I really don't miss having a passionate witch calling the shots over me. Stopping the fun."

"Oh, it's not all like that, but that's not really the point. So," George continued, "you going to do something about it? Talk to the blonde?"

"I'm only in Britain for a few days," Charlie sighed. "It wouldn't really be worth it."

"Come on, Charlie; listen to your little brother." George grinned. "Sometimes these things are worth it, even for the shortest of times. Look at Harry, Ginny. They knew they might not have long when they got together, there was a bloody war going on at the time."

"I guess," he said as both sets of eyes turned to Harry.

Charlie watched as Ron clapped his arm around Harry's shoulder and they both joined in, along with some more of their old Hogwarts friends, in some very bad, alcohol-fuelled singing. The Hogwarts professor only broke off kissing the new owner of the Leaky Cauldron when the wolf whistles and calls of 'Longbottom' of the others became both deafening and highly distracting.

"Oh my, he's as bad at that as he is at dancing," George told him. "More drinks?"

"Always."

Charlie had never actually seen Harry act like this, but then, he really didn't know Harry as well as the rest of his family. He had only actually briefly met him during the Quidditch World Cup Finals, at Bill and Fleur's wedding, and in the aftermath of the Battle of Hogwarts. He did know enough to know that he was good for Ginny and seemed to make her happy. The way Ginny's face would light up when she saw him was really unbelievable. He had such a fantastic effect on her, but that still didn't change anything, and he hardly knew Harry as an actual person, the real person his little sister was marrying, and not the hero who was in the newspaper pages.

If he wanted to, he could look at Harry as most of the wizarding world did. There were only minor dents on what was reported, mostly through what his family had told him. He knew that Harry was a major Quidditch fan, and had seen for himself that he was a good flier, but had chosen the noble line of work of being an Auror, which was not too surprising, according to the rest of his siblings. He knew that Harry was noble; he had seen that in the way Harry had acted with Ginny at Bill and Fleur's wedding. He had never seen Ginny as quiet as over those few days, although it would take a member of the Weasley family to notice that; Ginny could put on a great act when she wanted to. And he had learnt at the battle of Hogwarts that Harry would do whatever it took to do the right thing — it took a better man than many to face He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named alone.

He guessed you couldn't ask for better for your little sister.

Not many people found their sister dating one of the greatest wizards of modern day, or at least, that was what the Daily Prophet had named him this week as they did in so many articles in the run-up to the wedding. Looking at it objectively, Ginny really could not have done any better than she had done, in marrying Harry.

Charlie threw another shot of Firewhisky down his throat and let his eyes briefly focus on the young witches at the bar, particularly the blonde, who had captured the attention of a couple of Harry's old school friends and fellow Aurors but not Harry himself, who was spending his time talking to his friends instead. At least he could trust that Harry would never hurt his little sister that way. Harry seemed to only have eyes for Ginny, which was good — really good at that.

That didn't mean, however, that he was free from the sin of hurting Ginny. He had already hurt her and hurt her really badly. It had been painful to watch her over Christmas of that year, the war year, when she had let her guard drop. And despite all the best intentions behind it, it was Harry who had done that to her. He had to know that because the Weasleys were nothing if not protective of their own — Harry may be close, almost a Weasley already, but Ginny came first; she was his little sister, after all. Harry would not be allowed to do that again — not be allowed to hurt her like that again.

Weasley bonds were tight.

Charlie watched Harry finish his song (another of those Weird Sister love songs that Ginny had been listing to this week) before he got to his feet and took a seat next to him.

"Harry," he spoke softly but there was a level of authority in the words he picked, "I want a word with you."

"Charlie," Harry gulped back.

They both paused briefly as Ginny's horse Patronus appeared at George's side and rather glumly he got to his feet. He looked like he wanted to stay and watch the scene develop here instead. George may have been reluctant, but Harry obviously was not in the slightest. Harry had instantly jumped to his feet, pulling his wand out the second that the silvery phantom horse appeared.

Charlie really didn't need any more reassurance than that about what Harry would do for his sister. You could truly tell just by looking in his eyes, how much he would do for her. Surely if you'd found that, you were never too young to get married, especially if you knew how short and precious life could truly be.

"Ginny," Harry breathed.

"Don't worry, Harry," George reassured him, "if it was really life and death, she'd have sent for you. It really can't be that important; I'm sure she's fine, just trying to ruin my night, or Angelina's got her to check up on what's going on here, that's all. Nothing important. Enjoy the evening and I'll see you in a bit."

Both of them watched George follow the horse Patronus out of the bar and into Diagon Alley, Harry breathing Ginny's name and reassuring himself that she would be fine.

Charlie had to smile at that reaction as he sat back down. He had no doubt that his sister knew how to handle herself. He had been subjected to her anger and the wrong side of her wand too many times. Besides, George, if any of them did more than the others, really watched out for Ginny, even more so since Fred's death. Maybe that was because Ginny didn't mind his interference as much as she did from the rest of them. If he said she was going to be fine, she'd be fine.

Instead, he turned his mind back to the conversation at hand. It had long been decided that he would be the best person to give Harry the talk. After all, he was the most detached from Harry; he could be the most objective about these things.

"Actually, Harry," he started, "it was Ginny I wanted to talk to you about."

"Yeah?" Harry sounded nervous.

That was a good starting point. Charlie didn't normally relish people being nervous in his company, he was much too sociable for that, but he did know how to frighten people when he needed to. His temper could be as legendary as his mum and sister; they all had that rather forcible aspect of the Prewett personality. He guessed that was why he was so good with dragons; they also had rather forceful personalities. But for this, it was only right for Harry to be a little nervous, even if it was just to show him how serious they were.

"We all like you 'n' all, think you're a pretty top bloke," Charlie smiled at him, "but blood is thicker than water, especially in the Weasley family, and no matter how old she gets, Ginny will always be our little sister."

Harry looked utterly confused at these words. "I'm not sure I get what you mean?"

"Well, just put it this way: if you hurt Ginny, intentionally or not, you'll have the six of us to answer to and we have some pretty powerful magic in this family. I'm very fond of those dragons; George and Ron own the joke shop; Bill is a pretty handy curse-breaker, he could have you locked in a tomb in an instant, and Percy could bury you under so much paperwork that it could cause real problems, and you'd never see the light of day through it again." He fixed Harry with a stare and saw the younger man gulp, no doubt as he pictured all this in his mind. The Weasleys could be pretty damn handy when they wanted to be, especially when it came to protecting their tribe, as their mother had shown at the battle of Hogwarts. "And don't think Fred would let a little thing like death stop him from hurting you if you don't treat Ginny as she should be. And we're very protective of her and have incredibly high standards on what is good enough for her."

"I'd never hurt Ginny," Harry protested instantly, without a second to think over the words that Charlie had just said. "Never."

"I know that," he nodded. "We all know that you would never intentionally hurt her."

"What?" Harry spluttered.

"You've already hurt Ginny before." He held up his hand to stop Harry's protests. "You hurt her when you broke up, and we know it wasn't intentional, which is why we didn't hurt you when we were all back for Bill's wedding." Charlie smiled at him. "If it hadn't been for Ginny's protests, we would have found another way to get rid of Voldemort. As I said, Ginny's one of our own, she comes first, no matter what."

Was Harry really unaware of all this?

He'd been in a different country and yet aware of how much Ginny had been hurt. But then again, he'd seen her after Bill and Fleur's wedding, after Harry had run with Ron and Hermione, and before Ginny had put that great act up. And then he'd seen the pain she had been in at Christmas. Harry had only seen the aftermath. Whereas Charlie had seen those moments, those emotions and the pure human panic, devotion, pain and worry.

Charlie thought that the pair of them had talked for hours about that year. At least, that was what the rest of his brothers had said had happened, that Harry and Ginny had stayed up until all hours talking, discussing the effects of the war. Maybe they needed one more talk.

Whatever it took so that he did not hurt her.

"I wouldn't—" Harry gulped out.

"I know, and we don't blame you," Charlie interrupted him. "Just remember, Ginny is only human too, despite the act she puts up. She may be a famous Quidditch player, as brave as any Gryffindor is, and knows how to put on a superb act whenever Rita Skeeter writes yet another nonsense article claiming that you two are going to break up, but she does hurt. We've all seen it when she thinks we're not watching, but you can only throw so much at even the strongest people. And we're her big brothers and we hate to see her hurt, it's only natural," Charlie continued, pausing only to take another shot of Firewhisky. "Don't hurt her, Harry."

Harry looked him straight in the eyes. "I won't."

"Well, that's good enough for me," he said as his grin expanded, "just know we'll be watching, and Fred has time to do nothing but watch these days."

Harry smiled back rather nervously. "I hope not too closely," he said as he put his cards on the table now. "You know what Ginny's like if she thinks one of her brothers is interfering with her life."

Charlie laughed; Ginny may be the youngest and the only girl in the family, but that had never stopped her getting her own way most of the time as all her brothers knew to their expense. Size was nowhere near a guarantee of power when it came to Ginny, she could be just as powerful and as forceful as the rest of them. And she was the family Quidditch player, which was no mean feat in itself and just went to show how fierce she could be. That was no sport for the light-hearted, especially at the very top level, and if the newspaper back pages were to be believed, she was on the verge of the very elite in the game and a call up to international level.

"Oh, it won't be that close," he said with a widening grin as he realized that Harry really didn't know what he was taking on, "I reckon I could take Ginny; I deal with dragons on a daily basis, but still, you're right that there are certain things that a brother doesn't want to see. Look after her, Harry."

"I will."

"Well let's get back to drinking then," he said scanning the bar. "There was a rather cute witch over there Harry; no offence, but I'm going to see if I can still get a date for Friday."

Maybe George was right. Maybe it was worth the risk once in a while. No matter how limited the time, sometimes it was worth approaching a girl. And what was the worst that could happen? He'd have a date and someone to dance with at the wedding. Surely that couldn't hurt things.

With that Charlie got up and approached the cute blonde witch at the bar. His brothers may be keen on settling down but he was far from ready. And while Ginny may be old enough to be getting married and have found the perfect man to settle down with, he very much doubted that she was going to actually settle down. He knew that he was still too young and had not met the right person to settle down with and he doubted that he would find someone who suited him as Harry seemed to be right for Ginny. But in the meantime, it was fun exploring those options.