Accidents Happen C21:

Chapter 21: Charlie gets a shock or two.

Thank you for tuning into the latest update of Accidents Happen, please read and review!

But FIRST!

Last chapter that wasn't really a chapter 21 gave you, the public of internetville, a ultimatum! What story did you want me to write? Well the results are in and after countless sessions of planning, drafting and editing, I can finally say: Chapter One and very shortly - as in within two days- Chapter Two have been uploaded! My story is called to hide in the dark and it has ample Dark!Harry but not all the time, so for you light lovers out there, there is plenty of funny, light harry with a 'certain- knack for pranks' - by the great Albus Dumbledore himself. Now, please, after reading and reviewing this, would you kind awfully just hopping over and reading and reviewing this new story of mine? It would make me very happy!

Secondly,

I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has PMed and reviewed me, it is very uplifting and I can only hope you shall carry on!

Speaking of carrying on, on with the story!

'Charlie, what's wrong?'

'Yeah mate, you look terrible!' George said with a look of fascinated concern as he peered at me from across the dorm. Today was the two day mark before the full moon and although I can change my appearance, it doesn't do much before a full moon to hide my ill health.

'Your eyes are bloodshot and, to be brutally honest-' Fred ticked off symptoms on his fingers as he went along.

'You look like you're on death's door!' finished off George.

As much as I love the twins, they haven't yet realised that when I'm ill, I'm really ill and that this was a monthly thing.

'Should we get the nurse?' Fred asked as he pulled my eyelids wide and stared into my left eye, wand point illuminated and straight in my face which I promptly batted away.

'No, I'll go later, I'm fine now, I'll go if it gets worse,' I groaned from my half-dead state.

'You sure?' George said as he crossed the room to my bed and sat on the end.

'We could take you-'

'Guys, seriously, I'm fine!' I snapped and Fred backed off with a affronted expression on his face, 'Sorry mate, didn't get much sleep and I feel pretty bad, I didn't mean to get cross at you... Sorry, just- sorry,' I said wearily as I rubbed my temples with the ball of my palm.

'Mate, it's alright! We all have bad days, you are just having one today!'

'And in 28 days time again,' I mumbled.

'What?' George gave me a suspicious look. Damn. Why did I say that?!

'What? I didn't say anything-' I gave him a strange look which was returned by more suspicion.

'Riiiiight,' he said before turning to rummage through his trunk, he pulled out a book and marked something in it before placing it back.

'Anyway, we have to do our Defence homework which is on-' Fred looked at his homework book 'Dark Creatures: list five and give the defence you would use. OR Dark Creatures: are all bad? For example: Vampires and Werewolves. Which should I do? The five creatures one means more research but the discussion one is less research but probably a bit longer... Which should I do?'

I stared at the floor for a bit before looking up. I could help him on the whole dark creature debate and perhaps let on too much or I could help him do research that involves the cementing of a belief that werewolves are out to kill you and possible condemn myself to exile from my friends but let him do a shorter homework OR I could convince him not to do it at all and sneak into the kitchens for a snack. Yeah that sounds good.

'Why do it at all? Let's go and sneak out tonight!' I said brightly, hopefully hiding my fear.

'Charlie! It's your dad! He'd know what we were up to! Besides, if we do go to the library we can collect some pranking supplies from that store we found yesterday when we were setting up that trip wire,'

'It was a pretty good trip wire. Malfoy's face was priceless!' I laughed much to the irritation of my lungs which felt like they were temporarily on fire.

'Charlie, do you think all dark creatures are bad? Like werewolves?' George asked from the window ledge where he sat with a jinxes book open on his lap.

'No, erm, not necessarily. Greyback is horrible and mean and I hate him but most I think are okay,' I said slowly, changing my answer in accordance to George's facial expressions.

'Why do you hate Greyback?' Fred asked, 'I mean he's horrible and nasty but I don't hate him as much as it sounds like you do,'

'He ruins lives, that is enough for me,' I said darkly.

'Do werewolves have human friends? Or do they only like werewolves?' Fred said very innocently, unlike George who had always thought something was up with my illnesses and regular disappearances as he knew that I missed school regularly and often would come back looking like death warmed up.

'I think they have human friends as long as the humans aren't too horrible to them,'

'Ron says that all werewolves are evil and that they should be put down,' George said casually.

'WELL RON'S WRONG!' I shouted before clamping my hand over my mouth in shock, blinking back the tears that threatened to fall I got up and said 'I've got to go,' before sprinting out of the dorm. I needed somewhere to think, I needed fresh air, I needed to fly.

George's POV:

'Charlie seemed to know a lot about werewolves Fred,' I said hoping that Fred may see my train of thought.

'Yes, well he knows lots about that sort of thing anyway, doesn't he? That's why I asked him. Wonder why he ran out?' when it came to friends, Fred was your man, you could no man more loyal anywhere but it did mean that he always was blind to any faults that his friend may possess.

'Well it was after we said that Ron said that werewolves were evil,'

'No, we didn't say that, you did. I'm going to find Charlie, I think you should stay here, sorry Georgie,' and with that Fred left after Charlie leaving me alone with a mystery.

'Okay, so! Charlie said something about 28 days which is the 15th! Which is the first day of the full moon! He stands up for werewolves... Because he knows one? Or maybe he is one?! Strange disappearances after looking ill... Doesn't say anything about that in the books, hmmm... Now I wait,'

General POV:

Fred chased Charlie down the corridors, he tumbled down passages, leapt down the steps four at a time and span round corners- which often led to him crashing into indignant seventh years from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Pulling out a copy of the map, Fred spotted Charlie tearing out of the building and towards the broom shed next to the Quidditch pitch which sported the Gryffindor tryouts for the team which Fred was really supposed to be helping out at. As Fred sprinted to the pitch, he was accosted by Oliver Wood from above.

'And where have you been?' he said with a very thick Scottish accent.

'Finding- Charlie- Lupin-' he panted before running off again which was no use as Oliver flew beside him.

'Where's he headed?'

'The pitch-'

'Well, let's go!' Oliver said happily before scooping up Fred from the floor and flying with him under his arm to the pitch.

'OLIVEEERRR!' he shouted as the climbed higher and higher. When they eventually reached the pitch, Charlie was already in the air and taken a position about 150 ft in the air, circled about a bit before dropping suddenly.

He fell vertically, he was out of control! Fred had to do something!

'CHARLIE! Oli, we have to help him!' Fred shouted, wide eyed and bewildered at Oliver.

'Merlin! Er- hold on!' Oliver said before flying down full pelt to try and stop Charlie.

20 ft.

10 ft.

5ft.

'NOOO! CHARLIE!' Fred screamed as he tried to lean off the broom to miraculously save him from his death. This was all his fault, he should never have asked Charlie about his homework!

About a foot before Charlie was about to hit the ground, he pulled up. Fred was too busy sobbing into Wood's jersey about his friends untimely demise to see.

'Fred-' Oliver prodded Fred in the arm, his voice sounded lost, like he wasn't sure what to do.

'No! He's dead and it's-'

'Fred! Look!' Oliver prodded him again.

'I don't want to see my friends mushed up- oh! Oh my- CHARLIE! YOU'RE ALIVE!' Fred screamed, on hearing Fred's screams and shouts, Charlie shot up to become level with their broom.

'What are you doing here? What do you mean 'I'm alive'?'

'We saw you- fall- and now- man, I am so happy you're safe!' Fred said and launched himself at Charlie and onto the hovering Bolt broom that Charlie occupied. Charlie seemed more than a tad startled by Fred's exuberance and that he was hugging Charlie for dear life, in fact his grip was so tight Charlie had to use his morphing to stop himself from growing bright red, he could barely stop himself from wincing in pain as slowly Fred constricted his lungs.

'Why are you here? I just came out for a fly,' Charlie said with a bemused look on his face as Fred released him from his death grip. Fred looked at Charlie apologetically and smiled.

'You see, when you ran out after I asked you about your homework I thought you might want to talk and I was worried, sorry mate-' Fred rubbed his nose as he always did when he was nervous. Charlie took one look at Fred and threw his head back and laughed, at his sudden change in mood, Fred stared at Charlie as if he were possessed.

'You- thought-!' Charlie laughed before wiping a tear from his eye and looking seriously at Fred, 'Mate, it's no problemo! I'm just tired, anyway, you wanna fly?' Charlie smiled and gestured to the wide Quidditch pitch.

At this Oliver added a word in, 'he's got practice now! We're finding our seeker and our chaser! Actually-' Oliver's face grew into a cunning, devilish smirk that Charlie couldn't help but be interested by, what was he thinking? 'Charlie Lupin, yes? Third year Gryffindor who was for some reason in my Defence class even though you were taking your NEWTs and was a teaching assistant, that plucky fellow who is now famous all around the school?' Oliver said with a small smile.

'Charlie James Remus Lupin at your service,' Charlie said with a wry smile and overly large bow.

'Yes, nice dive you did there, how many feet from the floor?' Oliver said with a wink to Fred who caught on to what Oliver was suggesting.

'2ft. I think, I can go lower, why?' Charlie said innocently though Fred knew he knew what was going on.

'Care to do it again but this time pick up the quaffed laying in the floor in the middle of the pitch?' he said pointing down at a full stop size red lump in the middle of the grass.

'You're on!' Charlie said with a smirk, he flew slowly over until he was directly above the little red ball and, with a small cheeky wave, he plummeted to the ground. Fred could barely breathe as he saw his best friend fall, even faster than a fall without magic would be, towards the ground. With his fingers crossed, Fred tore his eyes away from Charlie to turn to Oliver who peered excitedly down at the ground, a beaming smile on his face.

'Chaser?' Fred suggested, 'he's big enough to be effective but small enough to be quick,'

Oliver moved his head from side to side as if weighing up the options, 'but he's light and nippy like a seeker, either would be perfect for him,'

'I suppose it's all a matter of whether you want him out the way or doing amazing feats in the middle of the pitch,' Fred said with an air of knowledge about him.

'Yes, or we could simply ask him, he's already picked up the ball! We missed it!' Oliver said in annoyance, stamping his foot on imaginary ground. Charlie zoomed up with his hair even more windswept, the quaffed tucked comfortably under his arm, with a neat throw he gave the ball to Oliver who caught it deftly.

'Charlie, we have reached a slight dilemma, you see: we have two spots on the team that need filling and, well, the dilemma is, there's only one of you!' Oliver said very matter of factly. Charlie's eyes bulged at the prospect of being wanted on the Quidditch team and even more at that the captain wanted him for TWO positions.

'So, you see Charlie-'

'We were wondering-'

'Are you a chaser-'

'Or a seeker?' Fred said with a cheeky glint in his eye.

'I do believe I'm a-'

'LUPIN! I HAVE HAD IT UP TO HERE WITH YOU! I KNOW IT WAS YOU WHO PUT BUTTERBEER IN ALL OF THE PUMPKIN JUICE PITCHERS!' screeched an infuriated Professor McGonagall.

A/N: I feel a bit mean leaving you with such a cliffy as this, however, I felt it would be nice to see if you wanted him to be a chaser or a seeker? I have my eye on one, but just wanting to see where you lot lean...

Anyway, please review!

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Thanks for reading, any future plot queries, just ask xx