I couldn't do anything but stare at her back as she trotted along the road. She sprang down the road, a tiny figure disappearing into the horizon. Her last words lingering in my head. She knew Fred. But I can't seem to remember her face. Or her, actually. She must be a regular customer of the shop, I assume. And Fred must have been the one who attended her. She looked so small, but what if she only appeared small and was actually older? Why am I bothering with it, anyway? She was only a girl who came in to buy something to entertain her sick brother-twin, I quickly correct myself. Shrugging, I take the money and put it in my coat pocket. I lock the door and pull the shutters. I tap my wand once to clear out anything disorganized and make all the open drawers and boxes close. I wave my wand again and the keys to the backdoor come to my hand. Moving towards the backdoor I button up my coat. I lock the backdoor and step outside.

The street was fairly crowded. Wizards, witches, families, small children huddled in groups, some chasing after their pets, other few showing off their newly acquired items in loud bragging voices, few drunken wizards barely managing to stand but trying to walk nevertheless and the pubs raging with loud chatter and laughter.

"Alright brother?" a husky voice greets me from behind. I am not startled because the voice is too familiar.

"No way" I turn around and as expected, legendary Charlie Weasley was grinning like a fool.

"Now I can't pay my little brother a visit?" Charlie slings his lanky arm over my shoulder, as he reads my awkward expression.

"No, Weasley senior. You most certainly cannot do so. But do you have an appointment?" I cross my arms.

"Right! I do. Miss Granger set the appointment for me. She even set the dress code, so let's see. She said a nice pair of jeans with a dark sweater and unimaginably good looks. The dress, I am not sure about but looks, well I am definitely your appointment" he ends with a cocky smile.

"You do know you sound a little bit gay?" I chuckle.

He laughs as well,"And they say you've been mourning?!"

"You know, some day I might write a book on the so called 'they' that everyone refers to and never can really point out exactly who" I start walking with his arm still slinging over my shoulder.

He paces alongside "That will be a good thing to do. When you are gray and old, perhaps. Let's go eat. You lead."

"Seriously though? You're not the person to be found in such a place with such crowds of humans, those dragon buds of yours left ya?" I ask.

"I believe change in nature is a must, so right now I am here. But truthfully, Mum told me that you were gonna be alone here today. So I thought we'd have dinner together. Start weeping and I will leave. I ain't here to babysit" he answers me.

"Trust Mum to do something like that. There, let's go in here" I stop at a place which looked decent.

"Shall follow your lead, like I told." He retrieves his arm from my shoulder and we enter.

It was warm inside. We were shown a table for two and took our seats. We began to debate on which dish to order and as we did, the waiter came on time to take the order. With our drinks been arrived and food being made, we were much more relaxed. Charlie has not changed much. Or maybe because he was the elder one, so with mischief in his blood we saw him already grown up; he was also taught to be the responsible one as he had a good lot to look after. He became a true inspiration for us when he was the Quidditch Captain. That badge we always handled with care, unlike Percy's Head Boy badge. He remains tall and lanky but has a Quidditch fit body. With his beard, he looks older than he actually is. It does not look bad on him either. Nothing ever has, to be honest. He talks about his dragons. We all thought he was going to go for a career in Quidditch, but who knew his love for the creatures? Now he is one of the best known in the country for his work, not that his stories are still not sung in Hogwarts as the Captain. It is a surprise though; he never had a serious affair with any girl that with his charming rugged looks. He had tons of flings though. Girls still dream of him, as I was asked on a number of occasions by girls of different ages about his relationship status. I have not been with any girl for quite some time now, but I still think that this ginger in front of me remains a heartthrob for girls.

As Charlie keeps the conversation going, I take my drink and lean back on the chair to glance around the place. It was fairly crowded. There was a group, who seem to be celebrating something because there is a cake in between and they all seem ecstatic. My guesses are on someone's birthday or some personal gain of someone in that party, and just as I am thinking it, my focus shifts on this couple on my left. Apparently, the boy had brought his pretty blonde girlfriend here to tell her something not pleasant for her. This I think because she is whimpering really, loudly, which got me to look their way. I shift my gaze and catch on to something new. At a table for one, the waitress is totally hitting on this guy, who does not seem local to me because his facial expressions shows he is having a hard time making her understand his needs, let alone understand her needs. Then, there's a family or two families or it also, could be one big one, because there are like, five children and four adults.

"Done your scanning the place and people around? Anything interesting?" he always knew when Fred and I did this. It's because we always did it. That is how we sometimes got ideas for our inventions, like this one time both of us noticed a boy feeding water to his pet cat and the cat's tiny tongue just got very little milk in a sip and the boy too had to bend very low to help his cat. We thought of something to enlarge the tongue and with that came the Ton-tongue Toffee. This gave us inexplicable results, Harry's cousin being our first experimenter.

"That waitress over there, any good for you?" I prompt him.

"The one totally hitting over that foreign bloke? She's alright." He casually nods.

"Who was the last girl you been with Charlie?" I ask him with a blunt look.

"I do not remember. How does that matter? Mum sent you after this topic? Or was it our pestering little Gin?" he sips his drink.

"No one has, but everyone is surely concerned. What is it with you? Bill has a daughter. I am sure mum at least expects a serious relationship, if not marriage?" I raise another question.

"Mum's not here now. Let's leave her out of it, for now. You tell me, what is it that you want? Or, you think?" he leans over the table.

"Me? I want you to be as you please. To do as you please. But all I ask is, do you not want a girl at this age?" I shrug.

He looks me straight in the eye and says "Someday, perhaps" and a waiter brought our food.

"And George, you giving me, life advice is not what I came to you for, at least not entirely. What I need from you is to be able to laugh at my single status and hook me up with a girl, no matter what I say", he tells me as the waiter left us with our food and he took the first bit of his.

We fed our ravenous stomachs, thanks to mum feeding us constantly and deliberately making us huge quantities of food we had developed quite a wolf-like appetite, and Charlie and I split the bill. We had one final chat about the girl whining, Charlie guessed she was moaning because the boy had informed he was leaving her and I guessed that it was because she had lost her pet and so was weeping. We left the place and the air was much colder than we were last out. We pulled on our coats and parted ways. He was going back to the burrow and I to my shop. I asked him to inform the others that I will stay in the shop, now onwards.

Little did I know, as I was walking towards the shop, what was in store for me.