Chapter four
Sex had always been such an open item for Charlie. It encouraged two, or sometimes three, people to fully enjoy themselves in a way that only they could. It had never occurred to Charlie that sometimes sex isn't the answer to your life's many challenges. Sometimes you hide yourself so deeply in the entertainment that you don't notice that you are diving into the wrong pool and that the pool you are supposed to be diving into is so much more enjoyable.
On a totally unrelated note, Charlie began following the instructions on Dr. Mead's note Charlie flooed to the Restaurant and walked toward the Muggle School stopping twice to make sure he had gone the right way. As he reached the entrance to the school office a handful of women raced out of the building and into cars parked on the other side of the road.
That's weird, Charlie thought but he proceeded anyway. Pulling the heavy glass door open he was greeted immediately in Romanian.
"Good morning Sir, I'm Alex, What can we do for you?" her hair was the darkest shade of Brunette that Charlie had ever seen, her eyes slanted upwards sexily matching her perfectly winged eyeliner. However, Charlie hadn't noticed any of that, he noticed the slim waist line created by her almost knee length pencil skirt, and he especially noticed the round cleavage line that was extenuated by her unbuttoned blouse. As his eyes wandered she coughed, bringing his attention back to the present.
So this is the famous Alex that Dr. Mead Spoke about.
"Ah…" he continued in Romanian, coughing a few times to steady himself "Dr. Mead told me to meet him here for a meeting about my reputation?"
"Dr Mead?" She paused, "Are you sure you have the right place?"
"Umm, I think so." Charlie pulled the parchment from his blazer, "Is this the address?" He handed her the piece of paper taking the opportunity to get slightly closer to her.
"Ohh, Adam?" She giggled, "I'm sorry no one ever calls him Doctor. My apologies I'll give him a call. Have a seat."
Charlie sat in the closest chair available so that he was close enough to see her, and to hear her struggling to talk to 'Adam' in English.
"Adam? Yes, it Alex. A man to see you?" She motioned to Charlie "Sir what's your name?" she asked in Romanian.
"Charlie Weasley."
"Charl Wesley?" She mimicked into the phone, "A'right, yes, yes, hmummm, yeah. Okay."
"Sir, he said he'll be a while, either have a seat and wait or you can go in and find him yourself. He says he's a little bit busy."
Charlie decided that waiting around all morning did not sound like fun, so he ventured into a room similar to the one he had left at home. Full of children. Their screams of happiness echoed off the hollow walls. One student, who had been climbing on a nearby wall, launched himself at Charlie.
"Geronimo!" He yelled as he landed right on Charlie's shoulders.
"OUCCHH. KID watch it!" he hollered, planting the kid firmly back on the ground.
"Sorry sir." The kid stuck out his tongue sarcastically and ran off in the opposite direction cackling evilly. So this is why he's so busy? He thought. Great!
Charlie proceeded through the large building, picking up chairs and tables that had been conveniently knocked over. He was about to take out his wand and fix the room in one motion, when the sudden realisation hit him. Half of these children could be muggles. It would not look good for him to screw up his only shot at redemption, his only shot of getting his life back.
"Sir who are you?" A little girl asked in Romanian.
"Charlie, who are you?" The girl just giggled and ran off to her friends on the other side of the room. Charlie shook his head. What are they up to?
Expertly Charlie picked up the kids' mess and placed it in places high enough that they shouldn't be able to reach. This continued for over an hour. The place was trashed and there was still no sign of Dr. Mead anywhere.
"Hey sir?" A lady with a name badge 'Terrie' called from within a small room. "Do you mind giving me a hand?" she was quite a short lady, Charlie noticed she would only came up to his chest. Her uniform hung loosely around her larger body and her hair was pinned so tightly to her head that he was sure it gave the illusion of muggle Botox.
"Um, sure. What do you need?"
She motioned to the child sleeping in her lap and the multiple other toddlers clinging to anything other than their cots while they slept face first on the floor. Charlie expertly found his way to her sitting form and unwound the toddler from her waist. As he took the child into his arms he motioned toward an empty cot. "There?" Terrie nodded.
"Anywhere."
He didn't think that was really the most hygienic answer. As children really shouldn't be sharing cots at such a young age. What would happen if a muggle child contracted a Magical disease? Or vice-versa? Either way he placed the small child delicately into the assigned cot. Then realising that each cot had a name inscribed into it that matched a bracelet worn by almost every child.
"Gotcha." He stated, mainly to himself. As Charlie placed the last child into her assigned cot he heard a large sigh of relief come from the lady sitting on the floor.
"Thank God" She sighed, which in turn alerted him that she was indeed Muggle. "That usually takes me hours to do. I usually just get stuck there until Adam or Kelly shows themselves down this end."
She brushed off her uniform and cracked her neck, it had obviously been a long day for her.
"By the way, I'm Terrie." She stuck out her hand awaiting him to shake it. "Who are you? New?"
Charlie took this moment to thank merlin that he had a few muggle friends that showed him the customs of 'handshakes' as a formal greeting. Wizards shook hands, but it seemed like such an incredibly difficult thing for muggles. If it was to firm or not firm enough it was insulting, but if it was a woman and you hurt her it would be extremely insulting. Charlie hoped that his mates had been toying with him about the 'laws of a handshake'.
"I'm Charlie. Charles Weasley…" So far so good he thought.
"OHH." She stated quite loudly, stirring some of the sleeping children. "You're that chap that Adam's been talking about. The man that royally fucked up?" Charlie winced at her curse.
"I wouldn't say that. More like an honest mistake. That had pretty bad repercussions."
"Whatever you say. But you're the reason this place exists. So I wouldn't be so 'it was just a mistake' about it."
Charlie got the idea that Terrie was this rude to everyone. He seemed to recall some of the kids bickering about her in the hall. Saying things like "Do you think that guys gonna' replace the devil lady?"
Charlie just smiled at her and decided he would leave her to do her job. Even though he couldn't imagine having her look after any of his nephews or nieces. She did somehow land this job, she must at least be qualified?
Charlie journeyed down the hall, noticing how much quieter it was than before. The children seemed to have disappeared into rooms, no longer hanging out in the hall ways. It was then that Charlie noticed two identical twins sitting in a corner reading a book to each other.
"Hey" He spoke to them in Romanian. "Where are you supposed to be?"
The girls just stared at him, blinking a few times. Charlie recognised this look, it was confusion and fright. One of the girls held up their book and pointed to the title. It was in English.
"Oh. English right?" They nodded recognising his British accent and instantly calming. "I asked, where are you supposed to be?"
The girls looked at each other, obviously deciding silently who was going to talk to the stranger. The girl closest to the wall finally spoke up.
"I don't know. All the instructions are in Romanian and we don't speak Romanian. Only Mr Adam speaks English."
The other girl chimed in "And now you."
"Well." Charlie started. "How about we go find Mr. Adam, I need to see him too." The girls nodded and raced up to grab a hand of Charlie's each. The twins looked about four, but small four year olds. Both girls had tanned skin with dark brown eyes and almost black hair, each girl wore one colour. Charlie guessed that it was so the teachers could tell them apart.
"I'm Anna." She work a pink dress with a floral pattern and a ribbon around the middle, she wasn't wearing any shoes just frilled mid length socks. "And that's Grace." She wore the same outfit in green, although Charlie noticed that she wore leather shoes and her hair was much neater than her sister's.
"Okay, Anna and Grace. Let's go find this Mr. Adam."
The three walked through the school in silence for a while. Until Anna spoke up. "What's your name?" she looked up at him expectantly. Charlie got the idea that Anna did enough talking for the two of them.
"Charlie." He stated with a smile.
"Ohhhh. Like Charlie and Lola? Do you have a sister named Lola?"
Charlie laughed. "Who's Charlie and Lola?"
Anna looked devastated. "It's a TV show. Its on ABC for kids. Although, that was in Australia, maybe Romania doesn't have ABC for kids. Are you Romanian or English? You speak English?"
Charlie let out a throaty laugh, this kid could talk. "I live in England but I used to work in Romania. That's why I speak both languages. And I really can't answer about the TV show, I don't own a TV."
"Ohhh." Anna started, "You're a people like Mr. Adam?"
Charlie didn't know how to answer that question.
"I am a person, yes." Is what he resorted to.
"No silly, I know you're a people, but are you a people like Mr. Adam?"
"I'm not sure what you mean Anna. Maybe I'll talk to Mr. Adam and let you know if we are the same type of person?"
Anna was about to ask another question when Grace pulled Charlie's sleeve. "Mr. Adam's over there." She whispered.
Charlie had a quick look at his watch, it was two hours later than their planned meeting. Thank Merlin he didn't wait in the lobby. Anna let go of his hand and raced toward the man. Leaping into his arms as he turned around.
"Adam Adam.. Charlie, not like Charlie and Lola, that Charlie helpeded us find you. We was sitting in a corner reading this." She showed him the book from earlier. "and he speaked English to us. But he didn't know the timetable either so we comed to fined you….."
"Ahhh. The famous Charlie Weasley."
His voice was quite deep and intimidating. Adam's eyes met Charlie's, shifting Anna in his arms he extended his hand for a firm but friendly hand shake.
"I see you've made yourself useful! Maybe this will work out well after all."
Charlie smiled. "I hope so."
Adam crouched to the girls' level. "So, girls its nap time for you, so do you want to go and find Miss Kelly and show her you're still awake?" the girls nodded and ran off in the direction of their bunks.
As Adam rose Charlie noticed, Adam's tired yet tall frame. His muscular shoulders slouched forward hiding his dark green eyes that were ringed with the lack of sleep. Charlie thought it looked like he hadn't shaved his dark face in over a week. Maybe it's just his personal style? Thought Charles trying not to judge the man's work ethic.
"I'm sorry to say, but my lunch break is already over. So we will have to wait until after work to begin our meeting." Adam turned, motioning for Charlie to follow him.
"Did you need a hand until then?" Charlie offered.
"You know, that would be great. There is quite a lot to do, but with two more hands it could be possible." Adam began muttering to himself about the amount of jobs that needed to be done.
"So Charles. Are you gifted in your magic?"
"Yes, I think so, why?"
"I have a few jobs that need to be done without the Children or staff noticing. Things like plumbing, broken beds, food and a few locks that our magical children just keep getting into. Things just 'break' around here Charles and I can't really explain to the Muggles why. The 'tween' unit are mostly magical and their powers are sometimes too much for me to handle, let alone trying to explain it to a Muggle who can't comprehend the situation."
"Please call me Charlie, and I'm sure all of those things are manageable. Just point me in the right direction."
"Alright…. Charlie… if you want to start with the pipes , out to your left and down the stairs, then when the kids wake up you can start on some of their beds, then come help me make food?"
"Sure." Charlie nodded, hoping he had remembered all that.
Charlie did as instructed, heading down the stars directly to his left. As he descended the stairs he realised the issue and the need for expert spell casting. Water flooded the hallway, reaching as high as Charlie's knees.
"Damn it." He trudged through what he presumed was the basemen, to the source of the leak.
"Merlin what smells?" he could smell that damn, green smell. Green as in something growing deep within.
"Lumos" he cast his spell into the corner of the room. "Damn it."
As the light hit the water it became clear that this had been a problem for quite a long time. Moss grew off the walls, and weeds weaved themselves around buckled drains.
Silently casting a powerful relocating spell Charlie drained the water from the room. Placing his wand back into his pocket Charlie began silently casting wandless spells that began cleaning and repairing the pipe. A solid silver stream of light followed the thoughts within his mind. Cleaning moss from the bricks, unclogging drains and welding pipes back into their former positions. His final spell reverberated throughout the walls, it echoed through the rest of the pipes within the vicinity checking that they weren't damaged and patching weak spots.
Charlie admired his work, he hadn't practiced this kind of wandless magic since he'd been taken from the dragons. By the looks of it he hadn't lost his touch. Usually his wandless magic was used to restrain, mend chains and prevent burns, but cleaning and repairing pipes was definitely no harder.
The now clean brick walls held three small Muggle washing machines. He had no idea how to operate a washing machine as he had always just cast a cleaning charm over his clothes, but feeling determined Charlie found clothes that had been previously sitting in the water and magically separated them evenly into three piles. The reds, blacks and whites. He'd heard Harry and Hermione talk about the hassles of washing colours incorrectly. He hoped that he had remembered the colour groups correctly.
Feeling proud of completing his first task Charlie promptly set to the next task Adam had asked of him. Beds and other items that magical children had broken. Thinking for a moment Charlie started with the teen's bunks. They shouldn't need a nap time right?
His assumption was correct. There wasn't a teen to be seen. Charlie slipped into the first room and closed the door with a powerful locking charm. Again weaving his wandless magic Charlie found and mended beds, mirrors, toys, pictures and some more personal items Charlie didn't think young teens really needed in their 'so called innocence'.
After finishing the third and last room of the teens' Charlie felt a wave of vertigo hit him. Quickly he steadied himself with a hand on the closest wall. It was too late however, his vertigo worsened and his knees buckled.
SMMMMAAAAACKKK -And then there was nothing but black.
~ Even the Mighty Charlie Weasley is prone to over working
who would have guessed?
Adam seems like a nice enough work mate/boss?
Anyway, R&R
All the best another AnonymousAmature~