September 1984
Those boys were teasing her again.
Charlie's mum always told him that he walked around with his head in the clouds and that he never noticed anything, but he had noticed her and her funny colour changing hair and how it went red when she was angry or embarrassed. In the few weeks since they had begun at Hogwarts, he had also noticed that she often sat alone and that sometimes the Slytherins pointed to her and whispered, before going up to her and saying things that obviously weren't very nice. He knew she was trying to ignore them, like the other day on the stairs, but it didn't seem very fair.
He decided that perhaps he needed to stop teasing her about her name and start being nicer, because she looked like she needed a break and right now and he might be the only friend that she had.
He watched as she walked from the Great Hall, only to have one of the Slytherins stick out his foot and send her flying.
Right, that was it! Charlie jumped up from where he was sitting and ran forwards.
"You should pick on someone your own size," he threatened in his most menacing voice. It was only now that he realised quite how big the Slytherin boy was.
"And what are you going to do about it, Weasel?"
Hoping he looked a lot braver than he felt, Charlie pulled out his wand, desperately trying to think of any of the spells he had heard Bill using.
"Oooh, ooh is the little first year going to curse me?" the Slytheirn mocked.
"I don't know why you're laughing, Flint. He can definitely do better magic than you already," a familiar voice cut in.
"I don't know how. I thought you Weasels were all Muggle lovers. I'm surprised you even do magic at home!"
"At least we're not learning Dark Magic."
The Slytherin boy gave Bill a dark look and sloped off.
Relieved to have escaped unscathed, Charlie thanked his brother.
"Just don't go around trying to curse Slytherins too often, even if they are all gits," Bill gave his shoulder an affectionate squeeze and returned to his friends.
As Charlie walked from the hall, he noticed a lone figure lurking in the corridor. Her hair was red again.
"Thanks for that," she mumbled. "You really didn't have to."
Charlie stood up as tall as he could. "S'all right. I already told you, I'll protect you. I'll curse however many Slytherins you need me to!" He gave her a bow and although her face remained impartial, he could have sworn she was trying not to smile.
"Well...I'll see you around," she said quickly and began walking away.
"See you around, Dora," he called after her.
She didn't retaliate. Charlie smiled. He'd make a friend of her yet.
