A/N: The melodramatic chapter. Raven, Moira, Erik's reaction, everyone's reaction
July 1989
Raven thinks something is really wrong with her brother. Charles has been acting weird all summer. He refuses to come swim with them, citing urgent research (never mind the fact that it's a holiday, boiling, and Charles has never refused a swim before), he nixed their traditional night of camping out on the grounds saying that he's worried the gnomes may gnaw through their tent (which is utter nonsense because the most the gnomes have ever done is stumble in, in which Erik always sends them flying), and every time Erik leans over him to help him get something down from one of the shelves (Charles claims that the only reason Erik is taller is because Erik managed to hit his growth spurt first, but Raven is fairly sure that Charles is always going to be the shorter one) he squeaks, flails, flushes, and runs away.
It's making Erik brood more than ever, and it's not nearly as fun to play Quidditch with him (even with her brand new Nimbus 1700, courtesy of blackmail photos and Charles' generosity) when he keeps shooting aggrieved looks at the window of the library where Charles is holed up (yet another weird thing, usually he would read outside while they practiced Quidditch) and hitting the Bludgers with greater and greater ferocity.
"Seriously, has the Wolverine snuck in?" she demands after a Bludger nearly took off her head, "Or do I look like Tony snuggling up to Charles all of a sudden?"
"You need to fly higher," Erik snaps angrily as the Bludgers around him whirled faster, "You fly like that in your next game and you'll be crushed."
"Did you and Charles have a fight or something?" Raven asks curiously, carefully floating out of range.
Erik let out an angry breath, "I don't know," he mumbled.
Raven frowned, flying closer, "What do you mean you don't know? Did you guys argue about anything recently and not make up? Did you mess up one of his books on accident? Did he get you involved in one of his experiments that went horribly wrong, and you resent that?"
"I don't know because he runs off and hides somewhere every time I'm about to ask, and he hasn't been in my mind since summer started," Erik ground out, glaring at the ground.
(And now Raven knows something is really wrong with Charles because Charles walks in and out of minds like breathing, and he had once described Erik's mind to her as "like coming home." When she had given him a doubtful look, because while she loves Erik she knows how spiky and dark Erik can get about certain things and she's sure his mind reflects that, Charles had laughed, patted her head, and said quietly, "There's more to Erik than just his nightmares, you know." If Charles is staying out of Erik's head on purpose…well, it could be for a number of reasons, all of them having the common theme of the fact that her brothers are stupid.)
In the afternoon, she manages to confront Charles in the library.
"What is wrong with you Charles?" she demands, sitting on top of the table and swinging her legs back and forth.
"I have no idea what you mean Raven," Charles replies stiffly, turning a page.
"You've been acting weird all summer," she accuses him, "You won't hang out with us; you're always in this stuffy library!"
"I like the library," Charles mutters.
"And you've been avoiding Erik! He says you haven't even been inside his head for awhile!" she says, throwing down the last fact like a gauntlet.
Charles flinches, still staring down at his book, "It's for the best really," he said softly, "It was kind of…childish, wasn't it? Always slipping into his mind whenever I wanted to? Besides, I thought Erik might appreciate the privacy."
Raven stares at her brother incredulously, "Who are you and what have you done to Charles Xavier?"
Charles bites his lip, hesitates, and then asks quietly, "Is Erik really upset?"
"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Raven asks, frowning.
"I don't think I should," Charles says sadly, staring longingly out of the window.
Raven sighs (boys are so dumb sometimes) and asks again, "What's wrong Charles? And stop saying nothing is wrong, something is, and you're going to tell me or I'm going to owl the twins and Tony to pester you."
Charles pulls on an expression of vague horror but still stubbornly maintains, "Nothing is wrong Raven. And don't bother the twins or Tony; I'm sure they're very busy."
"Busy blowing things up maybe," Raven snaps, "Did you fail all your classes somehow? Are you terminally ill? Did Professor Burbage ban you from ever speaking about genetics again? Are you secretly in love and pining away—?"
Charles chokes and says quickly, "No! None of those."
She stares at Charles with wide eyes, "Oh my god," she breathes, "You are. You're secretly in love and pining away!"
"I am not!" Charles protests, waving his hands around.
"But with who?" Raven continues, ignoring her increasingly frantic looking brother, "You weren't acting weird until pretty much right before summer, but we haven't met anyone new since then. Maybe your hormones finally kicked in, and you decided you like someone we already know?"
"It's nothing like that," Charles says frantically, but Raven bulldozes on.
"It's not Tony is it? Because that would just be terrible. Or Hank? Because you know he's mine. The Weasley twins are too young. If it's Pepper, Tony will kill you. Darwin's nice, but I think he has an eye on Alex. It's not me because that would just be weird. Erik wouldn't be too bad though, you two would look cute together," she muses relentlessly, and then she notices that Charles' face is red enough for his head to resemble a Quaffle.
"It's Erik," she crows, pointing at him, "Why didn't I see it sooner? Oh my god, I have to tell Tony—"
"Be quiet!" Charles hissed, casting silencing charms around them, "And you're not going to tell anyone!"
"Why not?" she asks curiously, tilting her head to the right, "So this is why you've been acting so weird, especially around Erik. When are you going to tell him?"
"Never," Charles snaps, turning the pages of his book with much more violence than the poor book probably deserved.
"You can't be serious," Raven said disbelievingly.
"Deadly serious," Charles replied, not looking up.
"But why Charles?" she complained, "You've been freaking pining and—"
"Raven," Charles interrupted, looking up at her with tired eyes, "Do you remember what Erik said, the one time you asked us when we were ever going to start dating someone?"
"That was last year, right? He snorted and said never—oh. But Charles, he didn't mean you!" she exclaimed, "All you have to do is blink your big blue eyes at him and—"
"He's my best friend Raven," Charles cut in tiredly, "What if he says no? What if he only goes out with me because I want to? What if he's disgusted with me?"
"He'd never be that," Raven replies fiercely, grabbing onto Charles' hands.
"But too many things could go wrong," Charles counters, pulling back, "I'm not risking Erik's friendship on—on whatever this is."
"So what, you're just going to sit here pining and avoiding him?" Raven asked incredulously, hands on her hips, "How is this the better solution?"
But Charles glares at her stubbornly, and no matter how much she pleads and argues with him, Charles refuses to talk to Erik about it, and in the end she grudgingly promises to not reveal his secret to Erik for now (she tells Charles after their long argument that only really ends because they hear Erik coming that it's because she can sort of see his point about the problems it could cause, but really she agreed because these two idiots have to figure it out themselves. Yeah, it's true this sort of thing could screw up their odd little family unit, but Raven doubts that. There's a reason they've been running a bet for years now about when Charles and Erik would finally wise up, even if Erik is obsessed with revenge and Charles is oblivious, except now he's not, and she really wants to know why, but he's being emotionally constipated, and this sucks) in exchange for him to stop avoiding Erik and trying to act normal again.
He does at least stop running away from Erik and judging by the decreasing number of spikes on the armor and more normal Quidditch games, he's at least occasionally going into Erik's mind. Erik seems a bit confused (and a little suspicious because that's Erik), but he accepts Charles' explanation about worrying about his marks and not wanting to project the stress into Erik's mind with a look of happy relief (that Raven adds to her mental list of Reasons Why Charles Is Being an Idiot and God Will They Just Get Together?).
Somehow she manages to restrain herself from telling anyone or knocking her brothers' heads together throughout the awkward summer, but thankfully she can tell from Charles' long, lingering looks and Erik's growing irritation whenever Tony or Hank gets too close to Charles once they get back to Hogwarts that hopefully, it won't be too long now.
September 1989
Supposedly unicorns were pure creatures that would bring happiness to anyone who saw them, but so far Charles still felt gloomy even with the silver and gold foals prancing around him. It was hard acting normal. He didn't remember how to not notice how close Erik was to him anymore, how to not to look at his best friend and want to kiss him (Snog him, his traitorous mind helpfully supplies), and how not to flood Erik's mind with affection every time he went in.
(He hadn't been exaggerating when he had described Erik's mind as coming home; it was the first mind that he had been willingly let into, the only one where there is a special gate made specifically so that he could go in, the only mind that he has explored so many times and yet still, Erik manages to surprise him. It's the place that he goes to when he feels happy, excited, sad, angry, frustrated, or just tired, and it's really really hard to stay out now, but he can't risk more than a cursory trip to allay Erik's worries because he knows that if he lets himself sink in, he won't be able to hold back his thoughts and feelings of loveyouloveyouloveyou, and then Erik will know.)
It's also thoroughly depressing that he's turning into a lovelorn thirteen year old girl, and Raven keeps telling him to "man up, god Charles!", the twins seem to think pranking everyone in sight with their new and improved toilet plunger wands will cheer him up, Tony keeps cracking dirtier and dirtier jokes ("—and then he said, 'Have you heard of Platform 9 and ¾? Well, I can think of something else with similar measurements!'" "Please shut up Tony, Hank is going to die of embarrassment if you keep talking."), and Erik keeps looking at him and asking if something is wrong.
He wants to tell him (just confide in him like he has always done), but he can't. And he feels like tearing his hair out sometimes because the one person he'd talk to about something this serious was Erik (he never would have voluntarily talked to Raven about this, but she's too good at guessing) but Erik was the one person he couldn't tell. He's going to go insane—
"Charles?"
He turns around to smile weakly at Moira MacTaggert, a Gryffindor fourth year in his Care of Magical Creatures class, "Yes Moira?"
"Do you have the notes on the hippogriffs? I was out last week, caught a cold," she explained, leaning down to pat one of the unicorn foals.
"Oh yes, here you go," he replied, digging out his notes and handing them to her.
She takes the notes, and then stares at him, biting her lip. He wonders if there's ink on his face again (he'd been throwing himself at his schoolwork to avoid thinking about his problems. It was only partially working.)
"Is there something else I can help you with, Moira?" he asks gently, rubbing at his cheek.
She flushes and blurts out, "'swithmenextweek?"
He blinks, "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" he asks, as he carefully probes her mind.
"Um, I mean, do you want to go to Madam Puddifoot's next weekend with me? When we go to Hogsmeade? Like a date?" she manages to stammer out as her mind screams oh god this is so embarrassing, what was I thinking, but he's so cute and I think I really like him.
He's about to refuse (while Moira has been one of his more pleasant classmates in Care of Magical Creatures, he had plans to go investigate the Shrieking Shack with Erik, Raven, and the twins, and he has absolutely no desire to step into Madam Puddifoot's), but then he reconsiders the idea. He knows he has been, well, obsessing over Erik (as much as it pained him to admit it, even in the privacy of his own mind), so maybe the solution is to go out with someone else? Maybe his problem was that he had little experience with such matters; maybe if he went out with other people, with a nice girl like Moira, his feelings toward Erik would fade back to the way they were and supposed to be. And Moira was pretty with long red hair, obviously likes him, and hadn't he admired how patiently she could deal with the younger students (even the Weasley twins, amazingly enough) and laughed at her dry sense of humor (like Erik)? If he tried, perhaps he could fall in love with her (instead) and everything would work out?
He can already imagine Raven's screams of rage, but he still smiles and says, "Of course Moira, that sounds lovely."
October 1989
Erik is not happy. He's fully aware that all of the suits of armor around the school have developed lethal looking spikes, that the Slytherin first years and some of the older Slytherins as well have nightmares about the clicking and whirring the spider-chandeliers have taken to doing, that he may have broken a few bones during the Slytherin Quidditch matches, that he's probably lost Slytherin at least a hundred points for various snide comments that keep sliding out of his mouth, that Raven is furious at him for reducing Hank into a whimpering mess every time he looks at him (he doesn't know what she sees in that boy), that Pepper and Darwin have been quietly keeping out of his way, and that there's a rumor going around that he's raising a metal army complete with lake monsters to take over the school, but he doesn't care because he's really pissed off.
"She doesn't even know him all that well!" He rants to a bored looking Raven, "They go to Madam Puddifoot's for dates! Charles hates subpar tea and that's all that blasted store sells!"
"Right, have you told Charles all this?" Raven asks, filing her nails.
"I did, but he claims that you get used to Madam Puddifoot's and that the tea isn't that bad. 'Isn't that bad,' my arse, the one time I made tea using tea bags, he gave me a whole lecture about the horror of tea bags and how proper tea has to be made and served," he fumed, pacing back and forth.
"He seems happy enough. Maybe he just likes her a lot?" Raven suggests idly, examining her nails.
He snorts, "Her? What could he like about her? She's a mealy mouthed, boring, sanctimonious little Gryffindor—"
"Don't diss my house," Raven says, pointing her nail file at Erik, "And Moira's not that bad. She's pretty, she's smart, I hear she's pretty handy in a duel, there's a lot of things Charles could like about her."
Erik grits his teeth, "I don't like her," he says mutinously.
Raven throws up her hands, "Why do you care so much, Erik?" she asks, looking at him closely, "Shouldn't you be happy that your best friend has landed himself a hot girlfriend?"
"I—I don't care!" he sputters angrily, "I am happy for him! I am so happy for him!" he gesticulates, baring his teeth for emphasis.
"Please stop smiling, you look like a serial killer," Raven says emphatically, "Are you mad because he doesn't spend as much time with you anymore, or because you're jealous?"
Erik pulls a disgusted face, "I am not some child who cries because his friend won't play with him anymore," he said sarcastically, "And why would I be jealous of him?"
"Who said you were jealous of Charles?" Raven asked slyly, "I'm thinking that you're jealous of her."
"That's ridiculous," Erik snapped, finally settling down into an armchair.
"I don't see how it is," Raven persists, gold eyes staring at him intently, "You never liked it when Charles grabbed onto Tony's arm, or when he was holed up in the dungeons with Hank—"
"That's because he always manages to blow up more things when Hank is around and Tony probably has germs," Erik interrupted, glaring at the blue girl, "What's your point?"
"My point, dear brother," Raven says smoothly, "Is that you've never really liked other people getting too close to darling Charles. Maybe the reason for that is because you want him to be yours?"
"You've been reading too many of those trashy books Raven," Erik said scathingly, standing up, "I'll tell Angel to stop lending them to you."
Raven sighed and looked upward, "God help me, the two of you are so dumb," she muttered, rummaging through her bag, pulling out a glass bottle, and throwing it at Erik, "Catch."
Erik stares at the bottle dubiously, "Isn't this one of those horrendous love potions Charles' minions got hold of last year? I could have sworn they were all confiscated."
Raven shrugs, "Me and the twins stole them back," she says blithely, "Smell that."
"Why?" he demands, holding the bottle farther away from himself (knowing Raven and the twins, it would probably explode in his face and give him clown makeup).
"It's not going to explode," she replies, rolling her eyes, "It's important. Smell it."
He opens the flask and takes a tentative sniff (metal, the ocean, Quidditch gear leather, mint, and a strange combination of tea, ink, parchment, and something else that he's not entirely sure what it is—)
But that's a lie because he does. He knows that scent; he'll probably know that scent until the day he dies, and the fact that he's smelling it from a love potion means—
"This isn't a real love potion," he says hurriedly, handing back the blasted thing to Raven, "It's one of Charles' experiments, and he's always putting in odd combinations. It doesn't work the same way."
"Keep telling yourself that," Raven says in an amused tone, sniffing the potion delicately, "I for one can tell you that it really does smell like the things you're attracted to. Like I smell new brooms, Cauldron Cakes, Hank—"
"This doesn't change a thing," he says harshly staring at his own hands (how long had he—? He had thought that he and Charles were like brothers but it seemed that he— He had never even really thought about stuff like this before, it had seemed so stupid, so dumb, but when considers dating Charles, kissing Charles, it doesn't sound that bad—but no.)
"What do you mean?" Raven demanded, "You smelt Charles, didn't you? How doesn't that change anything?"
"He has a girlfriend," he snaps (mein gott, why hadn't he figured this out sooner), "He probably sees himself as my brother."
"I can tell you for a fact that during the summer at least, Charles had way more than brotherly feelings towards you," Raven says gleefully, leaning over.
"Then why does he have a girlfriend now?" he demands darkly (he feels a surge of hope that he stomps on violently. It doesn't matter how well some of the awkwardly painful moments over the summer suddenly click together, the fact remains, Charles has a fucking girlfriend.)
"His head's not screwed on right," Raven snaps, drawing a red flannel blanket around her, "But I confronted him during the summer, and he was freaking pining over his oh so hopeless love of you, so you can just—"
"That was this summer," he points out, stabbing viciously at the fire with a poker, "It's nearly winter break now, and he has a girlfriend. Have you even talked to Charles about this—thing, whatever it is, since he started going out with her?"
"Well, no," Raven replies, frowning at the fire, "I tried once in the beginning, but he said that he really does like her, but I'm pretty sure he was trying to convince himself of that—"
"You don't know that," he cuts in harshly (why couldn't he have smelled that stupid love potion sooner? Why did it have to be after Charles had evidently moved on, has not touched the gate in his mind for months?), "You will say nothing of this to anyone."
Raven gives him a flat, unimpressed look, "You two are so dumb," she sighs, shaking her head, "I'm telling you, if you just tell him, right now—"
"No," Erik replies sternly, "You said he was happy with her; I'm not going to be the one to change that."
(And he's not, no matter how much Raven shrieks at him or he feels sick every time he sees Charles hold Moira's hand or he feels a stab of loneliness when he walks the fortress of his mind by himself. Keeping Charles happy is important; he's done it as well as he could for eight years now, and he's not about to let a sudden attack of hormones ruin that. He makes Raven swear a variation of the Unbreakable Vow that only induces pain instead of death, telling her flatly that if she didn't, he was going to deny everything and anything she ever told Charles. He can handle it; he's handled worse before, and this is nothing compared to that. He'll just try to put some distance between the two of them because he doesn't trust his instinctive dislike of Moira to not make Charles suspicious. He can do that; it's not even as if Charles has had much time for him anymore with all the dates. They haven't even played chess in a while. He can give Charles the space he needs.
Never mind the fact that he really does start transfiguring old, rusty chains in the lake into metal sharks to ease his stress, or that the few times Charles tries to pull out a chair for Moira in Erik's line of sight, it happens to jerk away at the last moment, or that every time Charles gives him a hurt expression from his cold words he feels like begging for forgiveness, or that when he tries to shield his newly discovered feelings toward Charles, he discovers that they have permeated into the walls of his fortress and all he can do is throw a glamour of grime over them, but he doesn't know how to actually fully hide them. He's dealing with it, he is.)
December 1989
No matter what Raven says, Hank is sure that this Christmas is going to end in tears, if not blood. No matter how many professors are around or how many robots Tony has loaned them, or how many people Raven can quickly turn into as a distraction, Erik Lehnsherr was going to snap and kill them all.
He had been irritable at the beginning of the year, scary yes, but no more than usual, but then Charles had started going out with Moira (who Hank quite liked because she was nice), and Hank didn't know a single third, second, or first year (and quite a few upperclassman as well) who didn't live in mortal terror of the Slytherin fourth year.
("Does he really have a metal army with lake monsters?" Sean, a wide-eyed Hufflepuff second-year had asked him.
He remembers seeing Erik stalking around the lake with his wand out, and something with far too many teeth gleaming in the water, but he doesn't want to scare the boy so he had given him a sickly smile and said no.
Sean had been unconvinced, and the next day none of the Hufflepuffs would go within twenty feet of the lake.)
And now Charles and Moira were sitting at the Christmas Feast table together, and Erik was emitting so much murderous tension that Hank can't imagine how Charles is still smiling (Raven had said that Charles was trying this new thing where he stayed out of people's heads, but Hank doesn't need to be a Legilimens to know that Erik wants Moira to drop dead).
They somehow manage to get through the meal with no bloodshed (although Erik stabs at his turkey as though it has personally offended him), and Wizard Crackers are as fun as always (he quite likes his aviator goggles and balloons), but then it all goes to hell when Peeves shows up with mistletoe and dangles it over Charles and Moira.
"Kiss, kiss!" he cackles, and Charles obliges, giving Moira a rather chaste peck on the lips.
All of the silverware on the table rattles, the chandeliers swing dangerously and seem to be on the verge of unraveling (and it's not a trick of the eye, he sees Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape reaching for their wands), the suits of armor actually reach for their swords, and Erik stands up abruptly and stalks out of the Great Hall (but not before a few knives bury themselves in the wall where Peeves' head had been).
Charles automatically hurries after him, and Hank is dragged by Raven toward the doors as well.
"Why are we doing this?" he moaned unhappily, "I haven't even written my will yet!"
"Hush Hank," Raven said curtly, skin taking on a grayish tone to blend into the walls, "I want to see this. Maybe those two idiots can finally get their act together."
It doesn't sound like it to Hank, given the volume of the voices coming down the hall.
"Why won't you tell me what's wrong, Erik?" Charles is pleading, holding his hands out.
"Like you did over the summer?" Erik sneers, arms crossed, "Why don't you go into my mind and see what's wrong?"
Charles looks away, "I can't—"
"You can't," Erik mockingly repeats, "Of course. Well then, if you'll excuse me Charles, I have a project waiting for me, and we mustn't keep your lovely girlfriend waiting," he says bitterly as he turns to walk away.
By the time Raven has shifted back and run up to Charles, Erik is gone, and Charles has a lost expression on his face.
"He hates me, doesn't he?" he whispers, staring at the ground.
"Erik could never hate you," Raven replies, hugging him, "God, you two are such idiots!"
Charles pulled away from Raven, "I better get back to Moira," he said with a wan smile, "She might worry."
Raven let out a muffled shriek as soon as Charles was gone, "Those two idiots! They're so dumb! They're so stupid! Why did I let Erik convince me to swear a Vow, why?"
Hank doesn't really know what to say to that (well, he does want to question Raven about what swearing a Vow actually felt like and exactly how it worked since it wasn't a real Unbreakable Vow but some variation that did not require a Bonder and only ended in mild pain not death, but he's pretty sure that she'll punch him if he tries at this point), so he takes a leftover Cauldron Cake from his pocket, unwraps it, and offers it to her.
She looks at it and laughs, "Thanks Hank," she said, kissing his cheek as she takes the cake from his suddenly nerveless hands.
"Y-you're welcome!" he squeaks, hoping that he's not as red as he thinks she is.
Raven chuckles as she takes a bite from the cake, "I guess we can't do anything until Charles breaks up with Moira," she says thoughtfully, "Erik has too many hang-ups about that, and Charles would never cheat on anyone."
"Charles is going to break up with Moira?" Hank asks, dismayed.
Raven clucks and pats him on the back, "Moira's alright, but in the end everyone's going to be a lot happier when those two idiots finally figure things out. God knows I'll be."
(And while Hank does like Moira, he does have to concede that life will be easier when Erik doesn't look like a shark stalking its prey every time he sees him in the halls and Charles stops moping around. A happier Erik and Charles might be able to keep the twins and Tony in line, more or less. Hank was still annoyed that they had recently teamed up to created this monstrosity of a robot that had climbed to the top of the Astronomy Tower and kept waking everyone up by blasting wizard rock in the mornings.)
February 1990
Moira knows that it's time. Charles is basically the perfect, gentlemanly boyfriend, holding her hand, taking her out on nice dates, smiling at her, bringing her thoughtful gifts, listening intently to anything she has to say, and kissing her every once in a while, but Moira can tell he isn't happy with any of this.
She had known about Charles Xavier for a long time since he kept coming in and out of the Gryffindor common room to see his sister, but she had never actually gotten to know him until they were assigned as partners on the Flobberworm assignment. He had been so nice and enthusiastic (which had surprised her since she didn't think there was any creature more boring than a Flobberworm), and who could blame her for finding him charming?
She had known that he had never thought of her that way (the few times that she had tried suggesting meeting in the library or at Hogsmeade had always ended with her being dragged into his crazy group of friends), but she had still decided to try asking him out because, why not? He was single, he wasn't likely to make a scene if he truly wasn't interested, and if he agreed, he could grow to like her after all.
He had agreed, and if anything, she found herself liking this sweet Ravenclaw boy even more as they talked and went out. She likes that he's caring, overly enthusiastic about classes, and naturally compassionate, and she can see herself with him much further down the line. But she also sees the tiredness in his eyes ("Oh, just stayed up to finish my homework, no need to worry about that, Moira."), the way his mouth tightens every time Erik Lehnsherr walks past without a word, the way he neatly turns his prattle about the genetics of magic into questions about the Quidditch League the minute she begins to feel bored, and the way he always asks her where she wants to go and never suggests his own locations for their dates.
He's not happy, and even though Moira has been holding on, just hoping that eventually he would be, but she's come to see the truth (even though she hasn't wanted to). Charles was just trying to be whatever he thought she wanted him to be, and not himself (the laughing, grinning boy who had stared at Flobberworms as though they were unicorns). It's selfish of her to keep holding onto him for her own happiness (even if she thinks it'll break her heart to let him go) if he will never be happy with their relationship.
She draws in a deep breath (she is a Gryffindor, she is brave enough to do this) and says quietly, "I'm sorry Charles, but I really don't think this is working out."
Charles stares at her in dumbly, "Sorry, I'm not sure I understand," he said in a shocked tone.
(And she knows how hard he has been trying for her, but he has looked so unhappy lately, and even if he claims it's because he has a lot of schoolwork, she knows it has something to do with Erik Lehnsherr. Erik Lehnsherr hates her, and Erik Lehnsherr is Charles' best friend, and everyone knows that Erik and Charles are fighting, and she can't help but think it has to do with her. Normally she wouldn't care, since Erik Lehnsherr is an ass, but the effort of being the perfect boyfriend while dealing with his best friend's estrangement is tearing Charles apart, and she doesn't want to see him this way anymore.)
"I like you Charles, I really do," Moira said, biting her lip and looking away (more than you can imagine), "And I knew you were only sort of fond of me, but I thought that could change if we started dating, but it's been five months, and you should be with someone that you can be yourself and be happy with."
"That's not true!" Charles protested, "I am happy and myself with you—"
"Charles," Moira interrupted seriously, "Let's not kid ourselves here. You hate Madam Puddifoot's, you couldn't care less about the Quidditch League, and you would rather hang around the library weekend nights than go for a stroll around the lake. You're not yourself around me, and I've tried to make you feel comfortable enough to be, but it—it hasn't been working out."
Charles shakes his head and looks at her with a hurt expression, "But—"
Moira shook her head (she's not going to cry in front of him), "It's okay Charles, we had fun. Hopefully the next person you're with, you'll be comfortable enough to be yourself and be happy."
She pats him on the back, and then runs up to her dorm room, sits on her bed, and finally let's herself burst into tears.
(She had loved him, she really had, but in the end he didn't, and she didn't think that he could no matter how hard either of them had tried, and that hurt.)
Charles walks down to the library, alone with his thoughts, which is quite depressing. This year really has not been going well: he's been too preoccupied with dating (he had to try to make this work, but it hadn't) and moping to make any headway on his research into the relationship between Muggle sciences and magic, he's been dumped by his girlfriend (and he thinks he should feel more upset over it, but instead he feels numb), his sister is extremely irritated at him, and he's estranged his best friend. And it's still early February.
(It hasn't been all bad though. Sometimes he had been happy with Moira, for a few moments at least. Moira's a nice girl, she really is, and she is funny, and kind, and patient, but when he peeked, her mind is a simple plain that in no way resembles Erik's fortress, she is willing to listen to him talk about genetics and magic, but he can tell she's bored by the subject, and she's never made his breath catch the way Erik simply walking down the hall occasionally will. But he had ignored all of that because Erik's not interested, especially not since winter break when he had plucked up the courage to try going back into Erik's mind, something he hadn't done since he had started going out with Moira because he thought that if he was trying to get over his feelings toward Erik that it would be easier if he wasn't constantly reminded of all the reasons he loved him. He had knocked tentatively on the gate; Erik had ignored him, and he had been too crushed to try and go in. Christmas had also been a dismal affair. He had gotten generic packages of Chocolate Frogs and Cauldron Cakes from Erik and Raven respectively, had given equally generic boxes of Honeydukes sweets because he didn't know what to give best-friends-turned-crushes-turned-people who no longer talk to one another and Raven was too irritated at him for him to ask her for her measurements for new robes, and then he had been depressed when he had gone with Moira to Madam Puddifoot's lackluster Christmas special instead of participating in their annual snowball fight.
And Erik's birthday is soon, and he's already bought the Broomstick Servicing Kit that he's fairly sure Erik needs after so many violent Quidditch games, but with how stonily Erik had stared at him during their Christmas gift exchange, he's not sure how well this is going to go—)
"You broke up with Moira!"
He looks up to see Raven bounding toward him, white teeth a brilliant slash against her blue skin.
"That was rather fast," he comments, scooting to the side of the window seat so that she could sit down, "And actually, she broke up with me."
"I saw her going up to her dorm. I kind of feel bad for her, and I have to admit that you two were kind of cute together, but I told you it wasn't going to work out," Raven replied adamantly, leaning forward, "You guys just don't click. Now go talk to Erik."
Charles let out a frustrated breath, "Raven, we've been over this—"
"No Charles," Raven interrupted, golden eyes narrowing and hair shifting to a darker red, "We've already tried it your way, and it's completely fucked up our group dynamics."
"Language," he admonishes her gently (he has to stop her from talking to Tony and Logan), but Raven carries on relentlessly.
She rants, "Fred and George have teamed up with Tony since you haven't really been available to consult, and it's as terrible as you can imagine, Pepper and Darwin haven't been around to help because they're trying to figure out how to make the spider-chandeliers stop clacking menacingly so that Snape won't murder all the Slytherin first years that come to him crying, Hank has been conducting some weird research into animagi and runs away when he sees me because he thinks Erik will come by brooding or that you'll come by too and then Erik will murder something, and Erik is driving me insane. He keeps talking to me, but who am I supposed to rant to? Thanks to that stupid Vow—"
"Wait, Erik made you swear a Vow? An Unbreakable Vow?" Charles cuts in worriedly (those were dangerous, what was Erik thinking?), "About what?"
Raven gives him a disgusted look, "It wouldn't be an Unbreakable Vow if I could tell you, would it?" her face suddenly brightens up, and he swears her eyes grow more cat-like, "Are you mad Charles? At how irresponsible Erik was acting? Doesn't that make you just furious? If I break the vow, I could die."
And this is all very true ("If the person who accepts the conditions of the Unbreakable Vow breaks them, they die."), and Erik knows all of this (god knows how many times they've pored over various books together for "training" before this year), yet he still did it, and it's all very well getting mad at him (even if he hates it, he deserves it after all), but taking it out on Raven?
He's suddenly quite angry.
As he stands up and quickly walks out (to the lake because even now, with all this distance, both literal and metaphorical, between them, he knows exactly where Erik is), he swears he hears Raven whoop, but he's probably hearing things, so he ignores it.
By the time he finds Erik standing by the lake, pointing his wand at something in the water, he's out of breath and quite irritated.
Erik! He yells, standing by the gate (his gate) that looks a bit rusty from disuse.
Erik turns around and pulls on a sneer (and it almost makes him want to draw back, but this is important so he stands his ground), "What do you want, Charles?"
"You made Raven swear an Unbreakable Vow!" he yelled, "What were you thinking? Why?"
Erik's face took on a shuttered look, "Is that what she told you?"
"What, you thought that I wouldn't care? That I wouldn't find out?" he demands angrily.
"It only took you what, three months? Given all the time you've been spending with your girlfriend, I'm surprised that you even noticed," Erik retorts, sneer reappearing at full force, "Shouldn't you be with her right now?"
Charles glares at him, "Moira just broke up with me, and don't try to change the subject," he snapped, "Why did you make Raven swear an Unbreakable Vow of all things? She could die!"
Erik blinks, and the sneer slides off of his face, "Moira broke up with you?" he asks blankly, "Your girlfriend broke up with you?"
"Thank you Erik for emphasizing that fact," Charles huffed, crossing his arms, "And stop trying to change the subject; why did you make Raven swear an Unbreakable Vow?"
"It wasn't an Unbreakable Vow," Erik replied distractedly, "It's a variation that causes mild discomfort but not death when broken. Shouldn't you be more upset over your break-up?"
(Of course Raven had exaggerated it. This is like that time when he had been ten that Erik and him had been fighting about Erik making five year old Draco Malfoy's cake explode during one of his mother's garden parties, and they had been refusing to talk to one another until Raven had come crying to Charles that she had broken her arm while playing Quidditch with Erik. He had stormed over to give Erik a piece of his mind, only to find out that Raven's metamorphmagus abilities extended to faking injuries. In their combined outrage, they had started talking again, and it seemed that Raven, despite being a Gryffindor, had only grown more devious over time.)
"You still shouldn't have made her swear it!" Charles said, embarrassedly rubbing his arm, "And I am mildly upset about the break-up, just not—Moira is great, but it wasn't really working out, so I am not devastated or anything, I'm just…" he trailed off weakly, not sure how to explain without giving everything away, "Anyway, back to the main point, why did you make Raven swear a Vow?"
Erik stares at him for a long moment (and Charles does not drink in the sight of Erik's angular face like a lovesick teenage girl), before hesitantly saying, Come in.
What? He blurts out in surprise (he had thought, with a sinking sensation that winter night, that Erik may never let him in again).
The gate swings open, and Erik repeats quietly, Come in.
He slowly steps inside, and frowns when he sees the griminess of the walls. Erik always kept his mind-fortress so clean (a reflection of his natural orderliness or his propensity towards metal? But this wasn't the time for that), so exactly what was this?
Wait, Erik frantically sends as Charles reaches out a hand to wipe the grime away, I need to talk to you first—
And Erik's affection roils around Charles' hand, twists and turns up his arm, and whispers, I love you, I love you, I think perhaps somehow I have loved you since you promised I wouldn't be alone, and you're mine, not hers, what do you seen in her, she doesn't know you, Raven said you loved me first and you are the only one I can imagine being with, but you were with her and I couldn't say anything, made Raven promise not to say anything, tried to push you away so it wouldn't hurt as much, but you just said that you're not with her anymore, so is this okay, am I too late again, you probably don't think of me that way anymore, why didn't I try smelling that love potion that day, why?
(It's everything he's ever dreamed of, everything he has fantasized and discarded with disgust, everything that he had deemed impossible, and he has to pinch himself because things like this don't happen in real life, do they?)
He feels Erik hovering worriedly at his side, I'm sorry, Erik says heavily, that was too much and—
He flings himself into Erik's arms (and nearly causes them to topple into the lake, wouldn't that be fun to explain?) and sobs into his neck, Raven was right; We really are idiots.
Erik's arms wrap around his back slowly as he whispers disbelievingly, Then you—you're okay with this?
Charles floods Erik's mind with a torrent of everything that he has been holding back () and whispers back, I love you, I have always loved you, I was so scared that you would hate me, that we wouldn't be friends anymore, that you wouldn't want to be with me anymore, so I tried to ignore it, act normal, I thought going out with Moira would make me forget this, but it didn't, and you ignored me, I thought you hated me, but you don't, you love me, and Raven was so, so right, and I'll buy her all of the Cauldron Cakes in Honeydukes after I'm done kissing you, although I'm still kind of irritated at how much she made me worry.
Erik stares at him with wide, dazed hazel eyes, "Kissing me?"
Charles gives him a brilliant grin, leans forward, and (finally, finally) presses his lips against Erik's unresisting mouth. Erik groans (mine, mine echoing in the walls of his mind) as he clutches at him and kisses him back ferociously.
( They only break apart when they hear a clicking noise, and whirl around to see an ecstatic Raven holding a camera and bouncing up and down with glee.
"Finally!" she exclaims, pumping her fist up in the air before her eyebrows suddenly drew together, "Oh man, I lost the bet!"
And Charles should be irritated that Raven would exaggerate something as serious as an Unbreakable Vow and bet on him and Erik, but he's too happy, tucked in Erik's arms and cloak, so he throws her a wide grin and soothingly convinces Erik to not go chasing after Raven and her camera by drawing him down for another kiss.)
Pepper is quite pleased. She has managed to rake in the entire pot of winnings centered around the multi-house bet of when Erik and Charles would finally see sense and get together. Raven and Stark had been the second closest, but Raven had been fed up with the "emotional constipation of boys" and had moved her bet to sometime in sixth year, and Stark had already lost because he had bet on this Christmas ("Christmas is a time for romance! Why don't you come to the Stark ski-lodge in Colorado with me, Pepper? I can teach you how to ski while holding your hands—" "As much as I would like to see you balance awkwardly on two planks of wood and possibly topple down a mountaintop, I have a family to visit, Mr. Stark.")
Five hundred galleons (gathered discreetly from various students and one or two professors) is a very nice sum of money, and she'll look forward to exchanging and spending a decently sized portion of it on a pair of black, strappy Christian Louboutin wedges that she had had her eye on ever since she had seen them one summer when exploring a fancy Muggle boutique.
It also helped that Stark had put about one hundred galleons in the pot.
(This year had been even worse than previous years because somehow Stark, most likely due to some influence on the part of the Weasley twins, had come up with the idea that sending her mechanical flowers every morning that were enchanted to serenade her with "A Cauldron Full of Hot Strong Love" would make her more likely to go out with him. She had taken great pleasure in intercepting the house elf and directing her to deliver the horrendous flowers to the fourth year Slytherin boy's dorm. It was wonderful to hear the crunching shriek the flowers made whenever Erik had finally had enough. She felt a little bad about bothering Darwin, but he had cast a Silencing Charm around his bed after the first few incidents. She didn't feel bad about sending the horrible devices to Erik at all, because it was his and Charles fault that Stark and the Weasley twins were out of control, and honestly the spiders were even starting to give her nightmares. She had dreamt one night that one of them had cut off her head and sealed it in a box, and that had been when she had moved up the date of her bet because she didn't think any of them could take it any longer.)
Of course, Erik (and Charles, but Charles wasn't her potions partner so she didn't have to deal with him as much) had not been very pleased to find out about the existence of such a bet.
"You helped Tony Stark set up a betting pool about Charles and me?" he hissed at her angrily as they chopped ginger roots.
"Mostly I helped Raven," she replied calmly, dumping the roots into their cauldron, "I believe Stark came up with the idea, but as always he couldn't actually follow through. Raven was the one who encouraged people to participate, and I was the one who came up with the rules and kept track of the money."
"Raven ran around the school, asking people to bet on when Charles and I would get together," Erik repeated dangerously, stirring the Wit-Sharpening Potion until it turned lime green and then tossed in the armadillo bile.
"She kept transforming into people from different houses so that we could get more people to participate," Pepper said smoothly, stirring the potion until it turned blue and then adding the ground scarab beetles, "It worked quite well actually; she even managed to convince a few of the professors to participate."
"Who?" Erik demanded as their cauldron began to bubble oddly.
"Calm down; do you want something to explode?" Pepper asked sharply, gesturing around the room where more than a few frantic students are backing away from their oozing cauldrons.
Erik took s a deep breath, and the cauldrons stilled, "Who?" he asked again, gruffly, remixing the armadillo bile in.
"I'm afraid I can't tell you that; the confidentiality of our clients has been entrusted to us, and we do not therefore give out such information," she replied sweetly, adding more ginger roots after the potion turned yellow.
"You sound more like a Ministry bureaucrat every day. You know I could set my spiders on you," Erik suggested darkly, stirring the potion until it turned lime green and adding in more armadillo bile.
"Try it," she replied blithely, stirring the potion until it turned purple, "I'm sure if I asked nicely, I could get even more singing flowers sent to your room. Besides, I think Charles would be very sorry to hear about that."
Erik glowers down at the simmering potion, and Pepper knows she's won.
(Despite Erik's fast-growing fearsome legend, Pepper knows that there is no way her fellow Slytherin will ever take over the world or even Hogwarts with his metal army because Charles would disapprove, and Erik hates disappointing Charles. At one time, very early in her Hogwarts career, she had considered dating Erik because he was quite good-looking if a bit psychotic, but had quickly nixed that idea when she had seen the fond looks Erik gave Charles as they played chess and Charles had happily prattled on about DNA, Muggleborns, Squibs, and purebloods. She had then decided to pitch in to help Raven with the betting pool, despite the fact that Stark was involved. The two of them are adorable, really, and it has been hell this year with the two of them being emotionally constipated idiots, and she and Raven took Moira out to the Three Broomsticks as an apology for all of her troubles, but it's good that they've finally gotten their act together. She'll get her revenge for all the trouble they've caused eventually.)
"You two coming with us to the Three Broomsticks this weekend?" she asks, checking the clock, "Or are you guys going to Madam Puddifoot's?"
Erik shudders, "We are never stepping foot in that place," he snaps, adding in more ginger root, "It's—"
"Very 'kitsch,'" she said, miming air quotes, "I've heard. Shall we be expecting the two of you then, or will you guys be having your first date at Hogwarts?"
Erik flushes (and she wishes that some of the Slytherin first years could see this so that they don't run screaming every time Erik appears in the common room), and mumbles, "We're staying here. It's quieter."
"Of course," she smiles at him, stoppering the dark orange potion, "Well, have a good time."
(She tells Raven and spends the next weekend with her and Darwin, spying from behind the bushes at Charles and Erik who are sitting by the lake, playing chess, swapping stories, and occasionally shyly leaning in for a kiss. However, Charles notices them eventually and has to restrain Erik from shoving them into the water for his new metal sharks. Stark then bursts in because he thinks the sharks are "the most awesome thing ever!" and muses out loud about if he could get more girls by kissing other guys, and reaches for Charles, which cements Pepper's view that Tony Stark is an adrenaline junkie with no survival instincts whatsoever as Erik dumps a laughing Stark into the lake. By the time Professor McGonagall sweeps up, demanding, "What is the meaning of all of this?", they're all soaked from either efforts to get Stark out of the water (Charles, Darwin, and Raven) or from efforts to make Stark stay in the water (Erik and herself). They each lose their houses five points apiece for "juvenile behavior unbecoming of fourth or third years" but from the grins on all of their faces, Pepper thinks that their group is finally back to normal.)
A/N: Pepper's head in a box dream is a reference to se7en where the actress for Pepper, Gwyneth Paltrow, gets her head cut off. The Christian Louboutin wedges are also the shoes that Pepper wore in Iron Man.