Charlie woke on Christmas morning to the soft white light of a snowy dawn. As he pulled himself out of sleep his eyes rested on the small pile of presents below his feet. Buck and Fergus were already up and opening their presents. Reg was the only one who had returned home for the holidays.
'Merry Christmas Charlie!' they chimed, ripping the paper from their gifts. Charlie started on his pile. Bill, Kirley and Joey joined them, Bill was already wearing his Weasley jumper with a gold B on a red background. Charlie unwrapped the squashy package that could only be from his mother, and found his own jumper; a gold C on a red background. They headed down to breakfast in their pyjamas, Charlie and Bill in matching Weasley jumpers.
The Great Hall was magnificent in the soft light of the day. The icicles that hung from the enchanted candles glittered, and the floor was covered in a white layer of snow. The twelve Christmas trees with frosted branches and needles stood sentry around the hall.
The staff table had been widened to make it large enough to fit all the remaining students, and chairs had been added around it. Charlie found himself sitting opposite Tonks and to his embarrassment, beside Lucy Tarrick.
'Hi Charlie,' she smiled; now it was his turn to blush. He looked up to get an indication from Tonks as to what he should do but she was talking to Annie.
'Hi,' he settled on. Good start.
Dumbledore invited them to eat up soon after so Charlie occupied himself with eating instead of talking and made a mental note to sit next to Don at Christmas lunch.
Once they had changed into warmer clothes Charlie and the gang headed out to the grounds where Bill showed them how to cast a Glacius charm on bits of the Lake, and they spent the rest of the day skating on the icy surface.
At lunch, Charlie sat by Tonks and pulled a cracker that went off like a cannon blast and a pirate captain's hat landed on the table.
'I think that's yours,' Charlie laughed. Tonks was already wearing an eye patch she had won in a cracker with Annie. Across the table Stan Shunpike had a feathered hat that made him look like a startled flamingo.
'Then you can have these,' Tonks said, taking the pirate hat and pushing a pack of Exploding Snap cards towards him, 'Merry Christmas!'
The last few days of the Christmas holidays flew by. Before they knew it the rest of the school was back at Hogwarts and the Gryffindor first years had to surrender the comfy chairs by the fireplace once more.
The gang was in an abandoned classroom off the Charms corridor one rainy day when Charlie considered seeking advice about the Robin and Lucy situation. He had succeeded in making conversation with Robin in Charms the other day and she seemed pretty nice. She had even asked him to walk her to Defence Against the Dark Arts class.
Annie was settled on a desk reading a Charms textbook. Don was also reading – a thick hardback book that his grandparents had sent him for Christmas by a Muggle author named Shakespeare. Tonks knelt on the floor attempting to build a house of cards with Charlie's Exploding Snap deck; the added challenge was that the cards had been engorgio-ed so that each card was now the size of Charlie's hand. So far she had three floors and they looked pretty stable.
'Where's Buck?' Don asked.
'Detention,' Charlie answered. 'He kept calling Professor McGonagall "pussy cat" so she gave him a week's detention.'
Tonks laughed.
'What did you want to ask us about, Charlie?' Annie prompted.
'Uh,' he didn't really know what to say.
'Ooh, is it about Robin?' Tonks asked, looking up from the cards. 'You looked like you were getting on great in Charms, didn't they Annie?'
'Yes, you did! We all saw you walk her to Defence.' Don nodded helpfully, getting back to his book.
'I was wondering what I should do next,' Charlie thought he sounded really lame, but Annie's eyes lit up and he found himself being given a torrent of advice, none of which sounded great. Sit by her in class? Why would he do that when he could sit by Buck? Hold her hand? Gross, she's a girl! Help her with homework? If he actually understood half of his subjects, maybe.
Charlie was saved from more helpful suggestions by Tonks accidentally knocking over her house of cards which collapsed with a flash and a series of loud explosions.
Professor Flitwick waddled in to find all four of them on the floor, laughing. Tonks failed miserably at keeping a straight face as Flitwick told her off for being distracting. To be fair, it's hard not to laugh when your hair is smoking and your eyebrows have been burnt off.
'Don, you've been reading that book for like a week now,' Buck noted.
'It's a good book,' he didn't look up as he turned the page. They were back in the Library and everyone but Don was trying to finish off the mountain of homework that had steadily built up since the start of term.
'What is it?' Don shut the book and passed it over to Buck, who looked at it with distaste as he read the title. Buck disliked any book unrelated to Quidditch by definition.
'Hamlet by William Shakespeare,' he passed it back, 'who's that?'
Don rolled his eyes. 'Seriously? He's one of the best Muggle playwrights ever.' Buck shrugged. 'My grandparents sent me this as their "we get that you're a wizard" present, just because this one has three witches in it. They're called "The Wyrd Sisters".'
'Cool band name,' Tonks added, lying on her stomach, absently flicking through a massive version of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. Charlie sat with Robin, who he had sort-of asked out the day before.
'Do you think?' Don considered the name, 'Myron and Kirley were just saying yesterday that our band needs a name that's a bit more catchy than "Wagtail and Friends".'
'Yeah, that name sucks.'
'How is the band going?'
'Not too bad, I've talked my parents into coming shopping for a magic bass when I'm next home as a joint birthday and Christmas present,' he grinned, 'but for now I've borrowed one from the music class and we're starting to write our own stuff. We're thinking of doing gigs next year – mainly covers of Muggle and magical stuff.'
'Sounds cool,' Buck still eyed the Shakespeare uncertainly.
For the first time at Hogwarts Charlie began to hate his lessons. Every professor was now gearing them towards exam preparation so Charlie barely had any time to relax. Add to that his new 'relationship' with Robin, which was going better than expected, Charlie was feeling drained. Then, as February dawned a new challenge was introduced: Valentine's Day.
Charlie had never had to celebrate Valentine's Day – it was always a day of dread when Aunt Muriel would descend upon the Burrow when Charlie's parents went out for the evening. Muriel would then spend the evening moaning at Charlie and his siblings about how she'd had to turn down the Chief Something of Somewhere, or the Grand Something Else of Merlin-knows-where, to spend the evening babysitting them.
'They've been dying to spend an evening with me for decades,' she would squawk, ignoring their looks of disgust, 'I've practically been beating them off with a stick!'
But now Charlie had a reason to celebrate Valentine's Day for himself, though if he was honest with himself, he didn't even like Robin in that way. Sure he liked her as a person, but he didn't feel totally at ease like he did around Tonks, or Don, or Annie, or Buck.
'You're only eleven,' Bill pointed out when Charlie asked him about what he should do for Valentine's. 'You're not going to be in love with your first girlfriend anyway.'
To which Charlie snorted, 'I'm not in love with anyone!'
Bill chuckled.
But when Valentine's Day finally dawned Charlie had it all worked out.
He stepped into the Great Hall and scanned the sea of heads for the usual violent pink shade that was Tonks and instead found it to be turquoise blue. Robin was nowhere to be seen. Upon closer inspection Tonks was also not looking her usual bubbly self, in fact she was surveying the heart shaped confetti on the table with disgust.
'I thought you'd be a fan of Valentine's Day.' He commented.
'What made you think that?' she asked, looking at him as if he was crazy.
He had no idea. 'Well, you're a girl, right?'
'I hadn't noticed,' she replied dryly, turning back to her toast.
'I just meant, uh, I meant that,' he tried to backtrack quickly, he failed. 'Never mind. Is Robin here yet?'
'No, she and Alex are fussing over her hair. Please, for Merlin's sake, say something nice about it. They wouldn't shut up last night – it was all "Charlie this" and "Charlie that" and "hey Tonks, you hang out with Charlie all the time, do you think he'll like this?" Ergh, even Alex was getting sick of it by one o'clock this morning.'
'Why don't you like Valentine's Day?' Charlie changed subject.
'It's a stupid day that gives couples an excuse to be really over-the-top about how they feel about each other. I don't see why you need a day to be in love, if you're with someone you should be in love with them all the time, not just on Valentine's Day,' she took a breath and angrily stuffed some fried egg in her mouth. 'I just can't wait for the weekend – Ravenclaw vs Slytherin – it's going to be a great game!'
Before Charlie could get sucked into a Quidditch related discussion Robin bounced over and gave him a brilliant smile, he smiled back. It was kind of awkward, just standing there, smiling, but Robin thankfully thought of something to say.
'Have you got anything planned for later?'
'Uh yeah, I hope you'll like it, I put a lot of thought into it,'
'I'm sure it'll be great,' she smiled and seated herself beside Tonks. 'See you later Charlie!'
Charlie headed off to the Gryffindor table before he could burst into flames of embarrassment as Bill wolf-whistled at him.
After dinner that evening Charlie told Robin to meet him in the Entrance Hall, and then raced up to Gryffindor tower to change and make some last minute preparations.
On his bed Charlie found a little box of Honeydukes' chocolates, small candles, two glasses and a small bottle of Butterbeer, all wrapped in a Gryffindor bed sheet. Charlie had asked Bill to find the stuff for him. He grabbed the sheet, bottles and all, stuffed it carefully into his school bag, and headed back down to the Entrance Hall.
He decided that the safest route down would be the portrait of Godric Gryffindor on the seventh-floor landing. Bill had shown it to Charlie just last week.
'Starshine,' he told the portrait of a man with a similar mane of red hair to Charlie, and a ruby-pomelled sword.
'Have a nice evening, young brave one.' Gryffindor told Charlie as his portrait swung forward, revealing a steep passageway down to the Entrance Hall side-passageway.
Out in the grounds there was a willow tree beside the lake that Charlie took Robin to. He spread the bed sheet over the grass and invited her to sit down. It was quite awkward at first, Charlie thought, but Robin started the conversation as Charlie lit some little candles with the incendio charm and placed them nearby. Robin was very good at starting conversations.
'Your hair looks nice,' Charlie told her, remembering what Tonks had said at breakfast. Robin beamed.
'You think so?' she blushed.
'Yeah, really nice.'
Charlie did have to admit that Robin was pretty, in a delicate and porcelain way. With her wide hazel eyes, creamy coloured skin, and chestnut hair which flowed down past her shoulders. Not that he would ever have told anyone that he thought she was pretty. Especially not Don or Buck. While they talked they saw a number of other couples out and about in the grounds.
'Butterbeer?' Charlie offered, prizing the cork from the top of the bottle. The cork flew off with a loud bang and the foamy top exploded over him. Robin squealed and Charlie leapt up to stop the bubbles going all over his robes. When the Butterbeer stopped foaming and Charlie sat back down, he found that Robin was chuckling at him. He imagined that he'd looked pretty funny and joined in too.
Together they sipped Butterbeer and nibbled on the Honeydukes chocolate, making small talk about their lessons and which teachers had given them the most homework to do. Charlie actually found himself enjoying the evening and was slightly disappointed when Robin yawned and said that she was tired.
Charlie walked her back to her common-room. Well, it was actually the kitchen corridor, but she said the common-room was there. He even managed not to freak out when she held his hand. He was quite pleased about that. Though his ears did go red, which she noticed.
Charlie wished her a goodnight as they stood beside a stack of barrels, then headed back up to Gryffindor Tower.
Buck, Reg and Fergus were still up and waiting for him when he got back.
'How did it go?'
'What did you do?'
'Did you kiss her?'
'Eww, no, I didn't kiss her!' Charlie grimaced, throwing himself down on his bed, 'we just talked.'
That only served to interest them even more.
'What did you talk about?'
'What did she say?'
'Did she talk about me?'
'Why would she talk about you Ferg?' Charlie chuckled, enjoying the attention.
Fergus blushed and threw a pillow at him.
'So you just talked? That's boring,' Reg said, lying back down on his bed.
'Yeah, well at least I have a girlfriend,' Charlie retorted.
