A few days later, as they sat in the library researching the uses of moonstone, Don announced that it was his 12th birthday.
'What? Why didn't you tell us before?' Tonks hissed, keeping her voice down as Madam Pince glided past.
'It didn't seem very important,' Don shrugged.
'It's your first birthday in the Wizarding world!'
'It's really no big deal.' Don told her, but she wouldn't hear of it. 'Going to that Quidditch game was probably the best present I could have had.'
Charlie noticed that Tonks looked to be thinking very hard after that.
'So when is everyone's birthday?' Charlie asked, realising that he didn't know that important thing about half of his closest friends at Hogwarts.
'February 21st,' said Tonks.
'October 11th,' said Buck, they all remembered him telling them the whole week leading up to it that he was getting yet another new broomstick from his parents.
'November 14th,' said Annie.
'That's three days away!' cried Tonks, too late she realised she'd raised her voice and Madam Pince swooped down upon them, shooing them out of her library lest their loud voices disturb her precious books.
Tonks took Charlie to one side as they walked down to the Great Hall.
'I've got an idea for Annie's present.'
What that idea was didn't become clear until the day before Annie's birthday. They were sat down, once again, in the library after lunch when Tonks said that she needed to go to the Owlery to post something to her Mum.
'I'll come too,' offered Annie.
'No, no, that's okay,' Tonks assured her, a little too quickly. 'Charlie has a letter to post too, don't you Charlie?' he managed to keep quiet while he nodded, tears in his eyes as Tonks had just kicked him in the shins under the desk.
'We'll see you guys later,' Tonks called as they left the library. 'Chill out, we're leaving,' she muttered to Madam Pince with a roll of her eyes. Once they were well away from the library Charlie decided it was safe enough to ask what was going on.
'Annie's birthday present,' she said simply, but he was still none the wiser. 'C'mon!' together they ran through the castle to the Owlery.
'Seriously Tonks,' Charlie gasped for air as they reached to top of the Owlery steps, 'what's the plan?'
'You know the colour change charms we've been doing with Flitwick?' she asked. He nodded, still not following. 'Well I got the idea from Fergus and his green hair – we could charm the owls different colours! You know, because Annie loves owls and charms.'
Charlie nodded appreciatively, 'that's a hell of a lot better than the fudge Mum was sending me for her.' He looked around at the high storeys of the Owlery; all of the alcoves were crammed with feathered inhabitants. 'So how're we going to do this?'
Tonks' face split into an excited grin, a gleam in her eyes that Charlie would get to see a lot of over the coming years.
By the time the bell rang for the end of lunch the Owlery looked like a rainbow had vomited everywhere: most of the owls were different colours of blue, red, green, yellow, pink and purple, and large expanses of the walls were a similar story.
They surveyed their handiwork and grinned at each other.
After dinner they managed to talk Annie and the rest of the gang into going outside for a walk.
'It's a nice night,' Tonks chirped as she led the way out into the blustery November night. Don and Annie looked at her with concern. Buck grumbled about the chill.
Charlie checked his watch: nearly eight o'clock, almost time. A few minutes of small conversation later and Tonks cried out in feigned surprise:
'Look!' she pointed to the Owlery. The golden light from the windows basked the grounds around the tower in a warm glow. The others didn't know what they were meant to be looking at until the first owl emerged for its nightly hunt. A moment later an entire parliament of multicoloured owls streamed from the tower.
It was a glorious sight to see as the torchlight glinted off the rainbow of feathers, sparkling and shimmering as they set out into the night.
Annie was transfixed by the sight, even Buck stopped moaning.
'Happy birthday Annie!' Tonks cheered, giving her a hug.
'You did this for me?' Annie couldn't believe it.
'Me and Charlie,' Tonks shrugged before she was enveloped in a crushing hug. Charlie received similar thanks.
'It's amazing!' There were tears in Annie's eyes as the last of the owls set off into the darkness of the night.
'No problem,' he thought, rubbing a possibly bruised rib.
The following morning everyone was talking about the multihued owls in the Owlery. Among the students it was spoken of with praise and admiration for what they thought was a great prank, but among the staff there was only suspicion as to who could have done it. Filch was especially angry as he loudly informed everyone he passed that he would be sweeping up coloured feathers for the rest of his life.
As Charlie was packing up after Charms class Professor McGonagall walked in and began speaking to Professor Flitwick in an undertone.
'Whoever did it has a fair amount of skill.'
'It's a shame we'll have to give them a detention for it,' Flitwick added, 'it would be interesting to see them use that same skill in class.'
'Indeed Filius, though I have my suspicions: Nymphadora Tonks for one.'
'Weasley! What are you still doing here?' Flitwick squeaked.
'Just leaving now, sir,' Charlie practically ran from the room as McGonagall's eyes narrowed behind her square rimmed glasses.
'McGonagall's on to us,' he told Tonks breathlessly as he rejoined the school down at lunch.
'Crap.'
That weekend saw Ravenclaw quickly beaten by an unexpectedly strong Hufflepuff Quidditch team. It looked like the Quidditch cup race would end up between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, as a badger haired Tonks kept reminding Charlie. She looked like she was imitating Professor Kelly's hairstyle, but insisted that it was in honour of Hufflepuff's win for the entire week after the match.
During that time, Charlie and Tonks served detentions with an extremely grumpy Filch after McGonagall sussed them out as the perpetrators of the 'rainbow owl prank'. Their punishment involved sweeping the Owlery of all the mouse skeletons and removing the coloured patches of the walls where their spells had missed the owls – without magic. Charlie's arms felt like rubber for at least three days after and Tonks had sprained her wrist after slipping on some owl droppings.
Charlie celebrated Bill's 14th birthday too, with a box of treacle from home which the brothers shared between them. Bill also received a new jumper with a Gryffindor lion pattern.
As they headed into December they found themselves in detention once more after Charlie and Tonks had catnapped Mrs Norris and tried to turn her pink. When Professor McGonagall caught them, Charlie was at a loss as to explain why they were doing it, but Tonks stepped in: 'honestly Professor, we just thought she'd match Filch's curtains better this colour'.
Unfortunately neither Filch nor Professor McGonagall found that answer as amusing as Charlie did because the next day the pair was scrubbing the Entrance Hall floor after a particularly rainy evening.
Bill and Charlie owled home to say they were staying at Hogwarts for the holidays; Charlie was pleased to find that the rest of the gang were also staying.
'You can't miss your first Christmas at Hogwarts, can you?' Buck pointed out.
Hagrid was seen depositing huge fir trees around the castle which soon became covered in fake snow, everlasting icicles and even live fairies. Mistletoe sprouted up all over the place and it soon became common practice to see people staring at the ceiling en route to class, checking for any unexpected shrubbery.
Charlie's 12th birthday was soon upon them and he was rudely awoken by Bill charging into his dorm and jumping onto his bed.
'HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE BROTHER!' he yelled, Fergus yelled too as the noise woke him up. Charlie tiredly focused on his older brother, covering his ears.
'Go away Bill,' he mumbled. He'd had Astronomy the previous night and only had six hours of sleep.
'Something wrong Charlie?' Bill chuckled, 'I seem to remember you doing the same thing to me when we were younger. Well suit yourself; I'll just take all these presents away if you don't want them.'
That had Charlie's attention. He was up like a bolt. 'Presents?' There was a large pile of brightly wrapped gifts awaiting him at the foot of the bed.
'Open them!' Buck encouraged, pulling on a dressing gown. 'Open my one first – the blue box.'
Charlie opened a couple of his presents before breakfast. Buck had bought him a miniature model of the Chudley Cannons' seeker Galvin Gudgeon. He set it down on his bedside table and Gudgeon promptly fell off his model broom. From Bill he had a selection of items from Zonko's Joke shop, including a box of Dungbombs, Hiccough sweets and sugar quills. He got the usual haul of homemade sweets from his parents and even a box of Honeydukes chocolates from Aunt Muriel.
'Do you think they're poisoned?' he asked Bill as they scrutinised the "best wishes" that she had written in the card that accompanied the gift.
'I dunno,' Bill shrugged, 'maybe she's forgiven you for hiding those Filibuster's fireworks in her kitchen.' Charlie recalled her anger when she opened a kitchen cupboard and a firework shot out and exploded in her kitchen, leaving the smell of smoke in the room for weeks.
'I doubt it; I bet she just got me confused with you. Look, she hasn't even written my name in the card!'
It was a similar story at breakfast. The gang descended on him as soon as he sat down and loaded him with presents. Don had got him a Muggle book of dragon tales since Charlie had expressed his fascination with the creatures not long ago. Annie gave him a new quill the same fiery colour as his hair.
But the biggest surprise was from Tonks which he got that evening. She had been hinting at something all day but he didn't find out what it was until after dinner: she had smuggled a salamander from Care of Magical Creatures! He kept the bright red salamander in its box as he headed back up to the Gryffindor common-room that evening; the box contained some of the harmless flames that Tonks was good at casting.
He completely neglected his homework that night and instead set about making a den for the creature, which he decided to name Salvador.
Salvador the Salamander stayed in Charlie's possession for a whole week until someone noticed the smoke coming from the first year dorm and reported it. Ten house points each were taken from Charlie and Tonks, even though Professor Kettleburn said he didn't care "where the damn lizard had gone, as long as it didn't breed" and even promised that Charlie could come and check on Salvador whenever he wanted.
The end of term arrived and the school emptied considerably until it was predominantly first years, staff, the ghosts and Peeves left in the castle. Their days were occupied by snowball fights in the grounds and relaxing in the Great Hall. No one sat in their houses for meals.
A few days before Christmas, Charlie found himself sitting by Robin James and her friend Lucy Tarrick. He was a bit confused when they giggled and blushed every time he tried to talk to them. He didn't know what to make of it until he asked the gang about it later. Annie and Tonks rolled their eyes.
'Finally noticed, have you?' Annie sighed.
'At last! Robin keeps badgering me about you – it's really annoying,' Tonks moaned.
'What?' Charlie still didn't quite understand, 'She asks you about me? Why?'
'Are you being this dull on purpose?' Annie asked, scrutinising him. 'No, I don't think you are. That's amazing.'
'What's amazing?' He was getting frustrated now, not least because Robin and Lucy were now waving at him from across the grounds. His ears grew warm.
'He really doesn't get it,' Tonks was also staring at Charlie in amazement.
'Get what?' He looked at Don and Buck and found that they were also clueless.
'They fancy you!' Annie laughed, 'it's obvious.'
'Who? Robin and Lucy?'
'No, Filch and Mrs Norris! Of course Robin and Lucy!' Tonks shook her violet head. Charlie flushed red.
'Ah, he's got it now,' Annie noted.
'Yeah, he kind of looks like a burnt carrot now,' Tonks added, making Charlie blush even deeper red.
'Welcome to lobster territory,' Don grinned.
'Oh shut up,' Charlie hissed, trying desperately to stop the burning in his cheeks.
'So which one are you going to ask out?' Buck asked eagerly.
'Neither!' he shoved Buck into a tree. 'I barely know either of them!' It was true; he had probably spoken to Robin more than Lucy but that was only because she sat near them in Charms and Herbology.
Don and Buck thought the notion of anyone fancying Charlie was brilliant and kept making jokes until Charlie decided to slip a fistful of snow down the back of Buck's robes. 'Ow! Cold!' He cried, hopping on the spot as Charlie, Don, Annie and Tonks collapsed with laughter. Charlie wasn't laughing for long though, as Buck got revenge by dumping a mound of snow on top of him.
