Disclaimer: I do not own Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

"The fourth golden ticket was just found," Charlie said to me as we walked through the streets. Charlie didn't have to do his paper route today, and I didn't have to go into the warehouse until later that day, so I usually came to pick him up from his school and walk home with him.

I gave him a searching look. His face was glum, and tufts of his golden hair was escaping from his hat. His red scarf that he got from his birthday was tied securely around his neck, and he stared straight ahead. "Oh? Who found it?"

"A boy from Arizona. Mike Teevee."

Charlie was feigning nonchalance, but I knew him better. I knew him better than I did the rest of my family. After our father died when Charlie was little, our mother worked long hours, trying to provide for us. I took over in taking care of Charlie while our mother was working because our grandparents were bedridden and weren't able to help out as much. As we grew older, I slowly let the mothering role go and became the older sister he needed. I got a job through high school to take the weight off of our mother's shoulders, letting her be home more to be spend time with us.

Charlie was best brother I could ask for, and I didn't mind having to mother him while our own mother worked long hours. A pang went through my heart as we walked through the streets. I wished my brother all the happiness in the world. He deserved it after everything he's been through.

Charlie stopped walking, and I turned around to see his mittened hands balled into fists and his teeth gnawing at his lip. "I just..." he began, but stopped, looking at the ground. "I want to find one. I want to have a Golden Ticket, and I want to tour Wonka's factory. I want something different for once, something that's special." He looked up and to his right, and with a start I realized that we were outside the gates to Wonka's factory.

"But four tickets have already been found," Charlie continued. "I want one really bad, but they're almost all gone!"

I stepped forward to stand in front of my younger brother, despair written over his face. "Charlie..." I swallowed and put a hand on his shoulder. "Charlie, I know that the odds are stacked against you. It's a huge world, and only one more ticket is floating around. I know that it's looking more and more likely that you won't find one. It's not guaranteed that you'll find a ticket. It'd take a miracle." I felt my heart breaking at the sad look on his face. "But you know what? If anyone deserves a Golden Ticket, it's you, Charlie Bucket."

He looked up at me. "Really?"

I nodded. "I can't think of anyone who should have one more. If I had any money to bet, I'd be placing it on you."

A small smile appeared on his face, and I smiled in return. "Come on," I said, slinging an arm around his shoulder. "Let's go home. I know that you have homework to do." I spared one last look at Wonka's factory – imposing, grey, and impossibly far away from both of us – before turning on my heel and walking towards home.

My fingers brushed over a rectangular plastic wrapping in my coat pocket that Grandpa Joe surreptitiously asked me to buy, and I smiled to myself. Maybe there was a chance to keep hope alive.

When I walked through the front door of my house much later that night, I was exhausted. My feet ached, my eyes itched from tiredness, and every part of my body longed for my lumpy mattress. I couldn't wait to change and to fall into a dreamless sleep.

As I walked into the room and closed the door, I froze at the scene in front of me. Usually when I came home late, no one was awake. This was not the case tonight.

Grandpa Joe had his arms around Charlie, hugging him, and I could see Charlie trembling a bit. My eyes fell on the squares of chocolate still in the confines of the cheerful wrapper – without a speck of gold paper in sight.

My heart broke for my younger brother, and as I met Grandpa Joe's eyes over the top of Charlie's head, I could see the same hopelessness mirrored in his sorrowful gaze.

"Good night, Amie," Charlie said to me, two nights after the midnight chocolate bar disappointment. He hugged me briefly before trudging into his small room, adjacent to the one I shared with our mother. I watched him go, wanting so desperately to see him smile happily again and with the hope of a Golden Ticket, but as the end of the contest loomed nearer, his hope had slowly dwindled away.

I turned my attention back to the small television. The newsman was currently reporting on the weather for tomorrow – gloomy and grey – while my grandparents listened with rapt attention.

I lounged as much as I could on my uncomfortable straight backed wooden chair. I was aching with exhaustion, but I haven't been around my family as much, and I wanted to preserve another half hour of being in quiet company with them before I went to sleep.

Mum appeared in my vision, draping a thick quilt over me. She gave me a weary smile, the dark circles under her eyes more prominent these days. The hours at the laundry business was taking a toll on her. She smoothed strands of my thin brown hair out of my face, before gently kissing my forehead. I smiled at her as she walked over to perch on the edge of my grandparents bed, settling down to watch the news.

We were both taking on more hours than usual, and I knew that I had to find another job and soon. My job at the warehouse was getting steadily worse, with Chaplin criticizing me at every turn. I dreaded walking through those doors ever day, but I knew that if I didn't, we wouldn't be able to pay for the things we needed. My family's welfare was the most important thing to me. I needed to find another job to help take the weight off of my mother's shoulders, and to help her relax.

A half hour passed, and I was about to stand up and go to bed, when the anchorman on the television was handed a sheet of paper. He glanced at it for a split second before turning his attention back to the camera. "That's it, that's it!" he said loudly. "It's all over! The Wonka contest is all over! The fifth and final ticket has been found, and we've got a live report coming in directly now from Paraguay, South America."

The screen crackled, and a dark haired man replaced the anchorman. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said in a thick accent. "It is finished. The end has come. The fifth and last Golden Ticket has just been found right here in Paraguay. The finder is lucky Alberto Minoleta, the mulitmillionaire owner of gambling casinos throughtout South America." The reporter reached for a large picture of the man, and continued talking, but all I could hear was the buzzing in my ears.

There were no more Golden Tickets. No more for Charlie to find.

"Turn it off," Grandpa Joe said sourly, and I watched as my mother leaned forward, switching the dial until the screen went black. "Well," Grandpa Joe continued, "that's that. No more Golden Tickets."

"A lot of rubbish, the whole thing," Grandma Josephine said.

"Not to Charlie it wasn't," Grandpa Joe argued. "A little boy's got to have something in this world to hope for. What's he got to hope for now?"

"Who's going to tell him?" Grandma Georgina fretted, and my heart plummeted as I imagined the look on his face when he learned.

"Let's not wake him," my mother said. "He'll find out soon enough."

Grandpa Joe agreed. "Yeah, let him sleep. Let him have one last dream."

I said my goodnights to my family in a daze, the quilt still wrapped around my body. I walked towards the door to my room, but hesitated. It had only been over a half hour since Charlie went to sleep. Was he awake to hear that? The walls of the house were thin.

I tentatively pushed the door open, the light spilling in on the room and on Charlie's tearful face. When he saw me standing in the doorway, more tears spilled out. "Amie," he choked out.

I hurried forward and sat down next to him. He immediately sat up and wrapped his arms around me, his body wracking with sobs. I hugged him back, the tears that I had been holding back for a long time now escaping. In that moment, I wished that Willy Wonka had never sent out the tickets, and we had never heard of the contest.

Maybe then Charlie would be spared this painful disappointment, and a glimpse into the harsh reality of life.

A/N

I am so sorry about the wait! College has taken a crazy turn for the workload, and my entire spring vacation was spent at a friend's house. I still have an immersion paper for literary journalism to write, but I wanted to give you all an update instead.

So we're almost to where Amie will meet Willy Wonka! Just one more chapter, I think. My Easter break is later this week, and since I'm staying on campus (this is what I get for choosing a college far away from home), I will have plenty of time to write! I'll definitely try to have the next chapter up this weekend.

Thank you to everyone that has reviewed, followed, and favorited this story! I love hearing what you have to say.

Please review!

~SirAvery