Charlie was a pacifist.
He would advocate for the peaceful solution, not the solution that would cause the least conflict and the least lives but the one that would stop the fighting altogether. He'd been told that it wasn't a realistic ideal and that he didn't know how the real world worked but it was just how he was built.
If there was one thing he knew, however, it was that his family was not one to avoid war, to cower in their homes and ignore the suffering of others.
What luck they had, he thought bitterly, resignedly, to die at the conclusion of one war and come to life in the middle of another.
Their home was in a remote area, the nearest communities were four days away, but the newscasts on the local Mistrali channels still reached them, even if reception from the other kingdoms over the CCT was spotty.
He belted a satchel firmly over the sleeveless longcoat that fell past his knees. The coat wasn't quite as sturdy as the potion-treated and rune-woven protective clothing of Gaia but it approximated the standard-issue Auror robes in terms of durability and practicality. That is to say: easy to clean, comfortable, and would survive a dozen firefights.
Tonks once mentioned that Amelia Bones had ranted for an hour about Aurors who customized their robes for 'better' quality and material, as if the look of their robes would offer them more protection from malicious spells or objects. Sure the standard-issue Auror robes weren't made of silk but they were more suited to saving your life damnit.
Bloody ponces.
There was one feature of combat clothing in Remnant that was new to him though. The cloth used to make Huntsman garments was Aura-absorbent according to advertisements – it used the wearer's naturally emanating energy to increase protective qualities. Wizards didn't leak magic into the environment like Huntsmen did with Aura unless they were doing spells. If they did, magic-absorbent cloth would probably have revolutionized the clothing industry in Gaia.
There would be less successful assassinations among the high-born anyway.
He paused and sighed at the thought. That was the voice of his grandmother in him speaking. Cedrella Weasley had died the year after he went to Hogwarts. She'd loved playing with her numerous grandchildren; she'd been their primary tutor as children and her views had colored the minds of the first three children of Arthur and Molly Weasley. It was a shame that he and Bill hadn't realized that Percy had been too young to really understand her words until after their younger brother had entered the Ministry and broken with the family.
Percy knew better now. The Blacks were about power, but there are many permutations of power. To Cedrella Weasley nee Black the power to create personal choices was the most useful. It was that, how to accumulate that power, which she had taught her descendants.
It had been a year since his family had transitioned into Remnant. Bill had nearly killed himself from exhaustion making sure they knew everything they needed to know about the world before they really entered it, making sure they had enough resources, making sure they would have choice.
This choice, it was not one that Bill should have to deal with. His brother was stretched thin enough. It was Charlie's choice to go to war.
It was fortunate that the hotheads of the family were still physically pre-adolescent, he mused, or they would be out there already under the banner of the Faunus Revolution.
How could they not, with the twins' fox ears and Charlie's own feathery mane? The whole family would not stand for any of their own being called lesser beings, not even afforded the citizenship that Gaia begrudged the muggleborn.
Bill would not approve of his choice. Grandfather had named his elder brother Scyld after all, and for the old man's kindness, doubly so since Remnant was not ideal for a peaceful life, the eldest of them would do everything to live up to the name of protector. Even if only for the family.
Charlie loved his family too. Loved them with a fervent wish that they be able to live happily. If his joining the war was sufficient to prevent his younger brothers and sisters from being bloodied once more then he would become a warrior strong enough to end the war. He would war so that his family could know a longer peace. There were shadows enough in his family's eyes, shadows that he could only imagine.
Charlie had sat out most of the horrors of the Blood War abroad, where the fighting was not so visceral, campaigning for support in the Dragon Reserves. When he was part of a battle, most of it was scouting from air in his animagus form. He'd died on dragonback, high above the blood and gore of the battlefield.
From the news, this 'increasing aggressive conflict' between human and faunus was not yet war, but they all knew that was where it was going, seeing the parallels, and noting the increasing escalation between 'terrorist actions'. It was not yet a battlefield, but when it became one, Charlie would stop it, before it engulfed the rest, before the kids got involved. It was not an option here to stay as detached as he did before. Not this time.
He checked his weapons again. The elaborate bracer on his left arm would shift into a kite shield at the touch of his Aura. The falchion holstered at his left hip would extend into a broadsword if needed. There was a pistol holstered at the small of his back, already loaded. All these were buckled snugly and ready to use at a moment's notice. He wrapped a scarf around his neck and chin, allowing the trailing hem to fall over his satchel, protecting his supplies.
He took a breath and looked around. Castelrose, which was the name in the records to denote the hidden tower and its ancient rose garden, was quiet and softly serene in the light of the broken moon.
He turned to the tunnel carved into the mountain, the only easy way to access the hollow that was now their home. A caldera, said Hermione. The mouth of a dead volcano. It was probably once a shallow bowl, but had imploded, creating the cliffs and overarching natural stonework that protected Castelrose from airborne Grimm attack and discovery by flying ship. The implosion created a fertile niche within the mountain that, according to the family histories, once sustained fifty people for almost one whole year without resources coming in from outside. The tunnel took him five minutes to navigate, avoiding the traps and dead ends by memory. He paused at the end of the tunnel, where moonlight washed over him again.
"I can hear your breathing." He frowned into the shadows of the rocky pillars near the tunnel entrance.
A huff sounded from the darkness. Tonks stepped into sight and doffed her hood. He eyed the long daggers strapped to her thighs, the light armored clothing under the hooded cloak, the bag slung over a shoulder.
"I can't talk you out of this, Nym?"
She shrugged. "They'll be angrier if I let you go alone." She fell into step as he started down the pathless mountainside.
Even though he was a little irritated at her, he felt something coiled darkly inside him ease. Just having another of his family beside him raised his spirits, bolstered his resolve. He didn't realize he was so stressed about this until her presence relaxed him a little.
"You should know how to ask for help with these things," Tonks stretched her arms, working out the kinks in her shoulders. How long had she been waiting for him there? "coming from a big family and all."
A smile broke out on his face. "I was mostly used to asking Bill." Scyld, he reminded himself. Scyld, not Bill.
"Hah, yeah, that wouldn't have gone down well."
They were content with silence after that, walking down the mountain in the before-dawn cold. The moon was bright enough for Tonks to be comfortable with a steady but ground-eating pace. But Charlie strode forth surely, unbothered. His ability to see in the dark still fascinated him. He and the twins once spent hours after midnight awake and just walking around the mountains. He knew the paths even without the nightvision. It was just some hours before true dawn but it was best to get away cleanly before anyone woke.
"Thanks," Charlie said quietly after a while.
"I was getting bored anyway. I've read more books this year than I ever had in the last lifetime. My skin was starting to become papery."
He snickered. Percy and Hermione had insisted that they take the exams for educational advancement and Bill had backed them. The two most studious of them were hilariously disappointed that the General Education Certifications were taken at twelve years of age. It was bad enough that the three oldest of them had to cram six years of education into six months of study. Bill was unfairly gifted with books and had won high scores even with studying for the Advanced Academic Registers at the same time. He and Tonks were left with each other to commiserate over having kids younger than them be so terrible taskmasters.
Charlie glanced at Tonks. She had almost not accompanied them when Grandfather made his offer. But they were still together and they were still family. He nudged her with a playful elbow.
"You're coming so you wouldn't take those exams Bill took, aren't you?"
She smirked as she evaded and kicked lightly at his ankle.
"Shut up. He looked half-dead after those. I already took NEWTS once, I'm not taking them again. And it's Scyld now." Her eyes were alert as they approached the foothills. Bill, Fleur, and the twins were able to approximate an anti-Grimm ward using dust and runes but the protection only extended so far and didn't deter the more determined beasts. The foothills should be more infested than the mountain.
Charlie straightened, allowing his ears to analyze the noises of the night even as he grimaced internally at her quick correction. The names they had before were not meant for this world. They made a rule never to speak their old names outside Castelrose. It had been frightening, when Grandfather had given them new names.
It was still a little depressing. But he reminded himself, it was all in how you saw them. It was also a promise that in this world they would belong, that they would find a home. All they had to do was take it. Take it and protect it. Walking side by side with family in a forest filled with oddly lovely moonlight-dappled shadows, the bleak dread he felt at the path he was determined to walk wasn't so bad anymore.
AN: I wrote this while thinking about Fan the Coals and that's where the pacifism is from. Uchiha Itachi. o.0 This isn't a kinslayer!Charlie fic though, no worries. It makes for interesting thoughts on AUs but not in this fic.
So Castelrose. Unoriginal, but I'm a fan of secret strongholds so it's a thing.
Charlie's a faunus here. And so are the twins. I based it mostly on if you're an animagus in Gaia, then you're a faunus in Remnant. Charlie likes animals so much he went off to live with dragons. Him passing off the chance to become an animagus seems weird. And the twins, once they learned where the Marauders got their nicknames, would've instantly tried to learn.
Veela are birds, I think but still humanoid. I don't know if the legends say they can shapeshift into full animal-mode so Fleur isn't a faunus. If she was though, she'd be a raptor, fierce and keen-eyed.