A/N – A few years later, and we're determined to finish this off. (What can we say? We're awfully fond of this story.) Enjoy, review, etc.

Nancy swirled her butterbeer around in her glass, wishing she'd ordered something a bit stronger as she waited for Charlie to meet her. They'd settled on Madame Beaugarten's for lunch, a nice little pub about equidistant from the Daily Prophet's offices and the Ministry for Magic that was always packed with London witches and wizards on their breaks.

Since she'd slept at the office the night before, Nancy hadn't wanted to wait for the end of the day to talk over her meeting with Mac. She was officially filling the vacant spot in the "Crime" section that tracked missing people. It seemed a bit trivial, considering the whispers in the hallways, but Mac had looked her in the eyes and, somewhat to her surprise, told her she was a good reporter and he wanted her there. And then he'd firmly reminded her to never miss a deadline again.

Glancing at the clock on the wall, she sighed. He was 15 minutes late. She should probably do a story on that…

Normally she'd have tracked Jenni down first thing, but her best friend was pounding the pavement at the Ministry for Magic all day today on HER new beat, and the last thing Nancy wanted was to screw that up by interrupting with her own news.

She took another gulp and picked up the lunch special menu to watch the illustrated fish and chips do battle with the shepherd's pie mashed potato topping for top billing, and nearly jumped out of her chair when a hand landed on her shoulder.

"Just checking to see if you had decided on your order," said the waitress, Mina, who'd been timing her stops about 5 minutes apart.

"Er, I guess I'll go ahead and order," Nancy said, smirking as the outline of a breaded fish filet stopped jumping in the defeated mashed potatoes to listen to her decision. "Let me have the–"

"Spaghetti and meatballs, two orders, with extra cheese," Charlie interrupted, sliding into the chair opposite hers with a rueful grin that chased away any remaining crankiness. "It's the best thing in this place."

Mina dimpled at him and left without waiting for confirmation from Nancy, who raised a disapproving eyebrow, but was completely unable to hide the twinkle in her brown eyes. It wasn't her fault that he could be rather irresistible when he put his mind to it.

"Bold move, Dragon Boy."

"Ouch, I've been downgraded," he said, his grin widening before her laugh reminded him why they were meeting for lunch at all. He winced and stammered, "I mean, that is, ummm… how was your meeting?"

Nancy smiled and shook her head. "Not so bad, more of a lateral move than anything else, I guess. At least that's what I'm telling myself."

Mina reappeared with their food in record time, but somehow managed to put it all in front of Charlie and not refill Nancy's butterbeer before disappearing.

"I appear to have a fan," he said with a groan, pushing her plate across the table and pouring half his drink into her mug. "So come on, tell me."

"I'm on missing persons," she said, digging into her food. "Damn, you were right. This is delicious."

Charlie paused with his fork halfway to his mouth and watched her dig into the big bowl of pasta. She went at her food with gusto, just like she jumped into each part of her life. He set the fork back down without tasting anything, mulling over the assignment she'd been given.

"Is that all work you do from the office? No side trips or investigations?" he asked hopefully. There was, after all, a dark wizard hunting her. His blue eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out why she was able to forget that so often. It had been on his mind constantly since the party.

She looked up, caught with her mouth full. "Uhh, no, not necessarily. I mean, no overnight trips, but Mac knows I'm first class in apparition so that's not really an issue. I'd be following up on reports to the ministry of missing loved ones, interviewing the families, you know?"

Charlie thought back to the conversation he'd had with his father after the Tri-Wizard Tournament, and the scary things he'd lived through just in the past few weeks since applying for his transfer from Romania. One of the things they'd talked about was a ministry official who'd disappeared in Albania and wound up fueling You-Know-Who's return with her life.

He took a deep breath. "And you'll be doing this alone?"

"Well, yeah. They broke up the Jenni Ferguson, Nancy Gwin tandem," she said with a sad smile. "Normally you don't get to work in pairs as a reporter." She peered at him over her butterbeer, trying to follow his line of questioning. "It's not like it's dangerous stuff, just profiles to help raise awareness. This beat has existed since the dawn of newspapers – witches and wizards have a bad habit of wandering off. And since our ministry's not quite as bureaucratic as the muggle police force, close, but not quite, a lot of people turn to the Daily Prophet when that happens."

Setting her mug down, she waited for him to start eating and relax. When he continued to play with his fork and stare worriedly across the table, she sighed and put her own fork back into her now half-empty bowl.

"You might as well tell me what's on your mind. You're obviously not going to be able to eat until you say it," she said, trying to smile encouragingly.

Charlie could hear his father's words echo in his head - Just be careful who you talk to, you really don't know where people stand right now. This wasn't a conversation he could have here. And it wasn't something that he could explain all that coherently. He had come back because his family firmly believed Harry Potter – most of them had been there – and Charlie Weasley would do anything for his family. But Nancy was going to want more than familial loyalty to go on. He'd need Bill's help.

Nancy's hand reached out and covered his where it sat on the table.

"I mean it, I'll listen. I can be very logical, I swear," she said with only a hint of humor.

"I… what are you doing tonight?" he asked abruptly.

She blinked. "I'm going home to celebrate not getting fired, I guess."

"No, don't do that," he said quickly. Her apartment still gave him a sick feeling, just knowing that Jenni had been attacked there… "What about, let's meet up with Jenni and Bill. The four of us."

Nancy had never seen him so intensely serious. "Ok, we can do that. But not at my place?"

As they stared at each other across the table, Nancy's bag started to shake at her feet.

"Damn! That vibrato charm scares me every time," she grumbled, reaching into her sac to pull out the small green book. "Cheese Kanoodles."

The message was from Jenni: I need to vent to someone. You going to be off work at a normal hour? Don't tell me about the meeting! Let's do that face to face. My place! It's cleaner and creep-free.

She smiled and looked back up at Charlie. "How do you feel about puffskeins?"

A few hours later, Jenni sat in her oversized chair and tucked her feet underneath her. She giggled as she watched Nancy and Charlie fight over a proper nickname for the ball of fluff she'd christened Charlotte. Nancy had shown up first, and filled Jenni in on her odd lunchtime conversation. Jenni was relieved that her friend hadn't gotten demoted, and puzzled by Charlie's insistence on a sit-down conversation with the four of them.

"Really, I still think a better name would be Lottie," Charlie said. He'd been mum on the real topic of the evening since arriving, preferring to wait for Bill. "You can't name a female anything with the name of Charlie. It's not… natural."

"And what's wrong with Charlie?" Nancy asked, fighting the urge to laugh as Charlotte's long pink tongue tried to discover Charlie's inner ear. "I for one happen to like the name. It shouldn't affect YOUR manliness at all to share a name with a fluffy, pink ball of adorableness."

Jenni let her thoughts drift as Nancy and Charlie argued playfully. The reporter in her was fighting the urge to grab her quill and parchment. She knew this was something important since Bill and Charlie had both warned the girls today that the conversation would be off the record, completely.

Jenni was broken out of her thoughts when Nancy tossed Charlotte onto her lap, "So when is Bill supposed to get here?"

Charlie shrugged. He wasn't sure why Bill was running late but he reassured Nancy and Jenni nonetheless, "He said he would be here. I'm sure he's on his way."

No sooner had Charlie spoken when the door opened. "Sorry, there was a bit of an issue at Gringotts. New assignments and a new hire."

Jenni smiled as Bill leaned forward to kiss her on her cheek. "And I have some good news," he whispered. Her cheeks turned a brilliant shade of red as she realized Nancy had heard him and was grinning at her. Nancy's grin became wider as Bill tried to squeeze himself next to Jenni in her oversized chair.

"So, now that we're all here," Jenni started to say. "Let's –"

"I want to hear Bill's good news first," Nancy smiled innocently.

One of Charlie's eyebrows shot up; his hearing was obviously not as advanced as her best friend's. "What's this about good news?"

"Well, since the two of you are so nosy and you're going to find out anyway…" Bill tried to look annoyed but failed. "As you heard there was a new hire at Gringotts and new assignments. So, the new hire is Fleur Delacour and..."

"Hey, isn't she that veela from the Triwizard Tournament?" Charlie interrupted. "I remember Fred and George mentioning how she wanted to 'eemprove er eeenglish'."

Bill shifted uncomfortably as Jenni gave him an unreadable look, "Yes, that's her. Anyway, my new assignment is to work with her."

"Your new job is to help a veela speak better English?" Jenni fought to keep her voice even and her instant spurt of jealousy in check.

"No, no, her English is good already, and she's only part veela," Bill began, unaware of Jenni's obvious discomfort.

"Oh," Charlie laughed, "have you already been giving her private lessons then?" Charlie winced as Nancy's elbow caught him hard in the ribs.

"Anyway," Nancy spoke loudly, "I'm sure that's not the good news you wanted to share with Jenni is it?"

"No it isn't" Bill grinned. "The good news is my assignment also involves me staying here."

Jenni wasn't sure how it was possible, but her heart leapt and dropped at the same time. She forced a smile as she tried to sort through the thoughts of Bill and some veela working in close proximity that ran through her head. She was sure she understood what Charlie's taunts of private lessons had meant and she didn't like it too much.

Just as she was about to reach a boiling point and give vent to her confused feelings, a very loud hum broke her out of her thoughts. All eyes turned towards her and Bill. It wasn't until she looked at Bill and realized the humming noise was coming from him and getting louder, a lot louder. Finally a long pink tongue snaked out of the small ball of fluff being bounced in the air by Bill causing him to almost drop Charlotte.

Jenni grinned as Nancy brought out a pitcher of pumpkin juice and whispered to Jenni but loud enough for Charlie and Bill to hear as well, "Apparently he charms more than just veela!"

Bill turned a furious shade of red as Charlie roared with laughter. Even Jenni couldn't help laughing. It seemed as if Nancy had spoken the truth. Charlotte was quite taken with Bill. Her pink tongue kept snaking out toward the forbidden territory of Bill's nose and ears.

Bill hurriedly passed the puffskein to Jenni, and leaned over to Charlie, "I thought you told them."

Charlie shook his head, "No, I only told them there were some details that needed to be shared and since you have more firsthand experience in the matter, I thought it would be best if you were here to explain everything. I'm looking forward to the full story myself."

Their quiet, serious voices cut through the happier noises that Charlotte, Nancy and Jenni were making, and a sense of foreboding settled over the two women.

"Just what are we talking about tonight, anyway?" Nancy asked. "This sounds bigger than promotions and assignment changes."

Bill took a deep breath, and said, "Just what do you two know about Harry Potter?"

"Harry? The boy who lived? I mean, he's famous, of course. He's in the paper a lot, not sure if it's always fair, but he's newsworthy." She looked between Bill and Charlie. "And of course, we met him this summer. At the Burrow. He's a nice kid."

"I'd better start from the beginning," Bill said, and started explaining how the Weasleys had gotten to know Harry, on up to the Tri-Wizard tournament last year, and the terrifying, disastrous ending that was still shrouded in some secrecy.

As his story wound down, Jenni tried to absorb what Bill had just told them about Harry and Ron's fourth year at Hogwarts. She remembered Charlie mentioning briefly once before that his family members were involved with the happenings involving Harry and the rumors of You Know who. There were so many things being thrown at her and Nancy all at once – Sirius Black was not the murderer they thought him to be, Peter Pettigrew was still alive, unregistered animagus existed and of course Harry's declaration that he had seen You Know Who come back.

Jenni jerked her head up when she heard Bill mention a meeting with the order. "What's the order?"

Bill's face grew even more somber as he gazed at Jenni, "It was formed by Dumbledore the first time You Know Who began to grow in power. The Order of the Phoenix."

Nancy's eyes grew big, "How did you find out about it? Who's in it? Is it still around?"

"You have to understand that there are certain things I won't be able to tell you about the order. Not because I don't want to," Bill added quickly noticing Jenni's stern look. "There were a lot of things Dumbledore made sure members couldn't inadvertently let slip."

Jenni caught Nancy's eyes briefly before turning back to Bill. "You're a member."

Bill sighed. It was a statement more than a question but he nodded to Jenni, "Yes, I'm a member. I have connections with the goblins that could be useful."

Both women turned their eyes to Charlie. "I'm not exactly a member," he said, answering the obvious question. "Think of me as in training."

"So then you believe Harry," Nancy asked with a slight tremble in her voice. "You believe him when he said he saw Y-y-you Know Who?"

Charlie and Bill both nodded. It seemed as if a chill had drifted into the small apartment. Even Charlotte stopped humming and burrowed deeper into Jenni's hair as if to escape the evil that was being discussed.

"Which brings us to our next topic," Charlie looked meaningfully at Nancy. "The two of you aren't safe. Especially you Nancy."

Jenni nodded, "He's right. Nancy, your apartment is an area that's been targeted already."

"That's all well and good, but where am I supposed to go?" Nancy asked defensively, feeling a bit singled out, and unsure of what they expected her to do.

"I mean," Charlie glanced at Bill, "There's always room for one more at the Burrow."

Nancy shook her head quickly. "Are you crazy? You think we could live together? We just started TALKING to each other again."

"What if you moved in with me?" Jenni asked timidly. "We were talking about needing to save money, and it would be great to not come home to an empty place?"

"That would make me feel better, too," Bill said, speaking up as Charlie was clearly still trying to process Nancy's last comment, well-reasoned though it had been.

Nancy shrugged, "I don't know, all my things…"

"Please?" Jenni gave a pleading look.

Nancy sighed, she never could refuse Jenni. "OK. Fine, but I still have to pack everything up."

After several more minutes of discussing the move (Charlie was to escort Jenni and Nancy home after work to pack this week) and emptying Jenni's stash of cheese kanoodles, pumpkin juice, and double stuffed oreo cookies, Bill and Charlie agreed that Molly would send out a search party if they didn't return home soon.

Nancy and Charlie headed to the kitchen to clean up. When she set down the bags she'd carried in to throw away, Charlie pulled her into a bear hug.

"Thank you."

"Mmmmf." Nancy turned her head so she could speak clearly and not directly into his chest. "What for?"

His arms tightened around her. "I know it can be very hard to accept nice, rational ideas that make you safe."

Jenni stood up after a moment, and Bill followed her to the door. She turned around quickly and without thinking pulled Bill toward her for a deep and meaningful kiss. He pulled back slightly dazed. "What was that for?"

Jenni innocently shrugged, "I thought you might need something to think about when you're all alone with your veela."

Bill chuckled, "Haven't you learned yet. No veela could compare to you."

Before Jenni could respond, he pulled her even closer. His lips met hers as one hand found its way into her hair, the other arm around her back keeping her pressed close. As they kissed Jenni felt goose bumps everywhere Bill's hand touched her. She was trembling so hard was sure Bill had noticed it too. He pulled back and began to turn red. As he pulled away, Jenni noticed Charlotte had found her way to Bill's shoulder and was once again humming loudly.

Nancy's laughter broke through the silence, as she stepped out of Charlie's arms. "Jenni, if I didn't know any better I'd say Charlotte was a cat instead of a puffskein. I swear she's purring. It might not be the veela you have to worry about!"