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Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any characters and places associated with the story. I'm only responsible for my original character Alice Reed.

Chapter 4

"Alice! Alice wake up!"

Alice jolted awake and nearly knocked heads with Charlie. The room was dark, signaling that it was still night but she could see that Charlie was distressed. "Charlie what is it? What's wrong?" She asked him as she placed her hands on his cheeks.

He grabbed onto her wrists tightly. "It's my dad. He was attacked while he was on watch tonight. Dumbledore is downstairs speaking with Mum. He brought Ginny, Ron, and the twins from Hogwarts."

Alice nodded. Any sleepiness she had been feeling moments ago was gone as soon as she heard Arthur was hurt. "Alright, let's go downstairs to the others. Maybe get you some tea to calm down."

Charlie let go of her so she could put on her dressing gown before they went down to the kitchen.

When they got downstairs the first thing they noticed was a hysteric Molly. She was sitting at the table crying her eyes out while Ginny tried to comfort her although she also looked like she was near tears. Fred, George, and Ron were also sitting at the table. All of them had grim expressions on their faces. Sirius and Remus were also down in the kitchen. Dumbledore was down there just as Charlie said but he was getting up to leave. "Molly, you can go so St. Mungo's as soon as you're ready, Arthur should be with the healers now. I must go to the Ministry. I'll come back with more news as soon as I'm able to." He said his farewells and left the room.

Alice squeezed Charlie's hand before going over to the stove. She spent the next few minutes making a pot of tea for everyone. She hoped it would help calm everyone down a bit.

The tea did seem to help calm everyone a bit but all the Weasley's were distressed. Mr. Weasley was the core of their family and hearing that he was hurt made the dangers of this upcoming war so much more real.

When Alice finished her tea, she got up and began clearing away some of the empty dishes she then went over to Molly and placed a comforting hand on her arm. "Molly, would you like me to go pack you a bag with some clothes. I'm sure you'd like to go to Arthur as soon as possible."

Molly tried to smile up at the young woman. "That's kind of you, dear, but that won't be necessary. I'll go change and head over to St. Mungo's with Charlie."

Upon hearing that only the elder Weasley would be accompanying their mother to the hospital the four younger Weasley's began arguing.

"No." Molly's stern voice broke through their raised voices. "It's likely that no one will be able to see your father for a while. I will send Charlie to fetch you as soon as we get any news. Now off to bed all of you."

The four of them hung their heads in defeat before leaving the kitchen and heading upstairs as their mother asked.

"Don't worry Molly. We'll look after the kids until you look back." Sirius spoke up although everyone left in the room knew that if he were the only one in charge nothing would get done and no one would be fed.

"Everything will be fine Molly. Go get ready and get to your husband. The healers at St. Mungo's are the best in the world. Everything will be fine." Alice reassured her.

Molly nodded in thanks and left the room to get ready. Remus and Sirius soon left as well leaving Alice and Charlie alone in the kitchen. Charlie exhaled deeply and rested his head on the table.

Alice placed a hand on his back and rubbed it in soothing circles trying to comfort him, she hated seeing him so upset.

After a few moments of silence Charlie finally spoke up. "This war is feeling so much more real now. First you got hurt a few weeks back and now my father is in St. Mungo's. I don't even want to think about what else we'll have to go through before all of this is over."

Alice had been thinking about this a lot lately. Although she found the situation surrounding her own injuries amusing at first, she did realize how serious this war was becoming. "It's terrifying that the world has to deal with You Know Who again but with all of us working together with Dumbledore I think we have a chance."

Charlie looked up at her with a small smile. He was about to say something when Molly came in. "Are you ready to go Charlie?"

He got up and nodded.

"I'm not sure when I'll be back. Like is said earlier I'll send Charlie with any news." Molly told Alice.

"Alright. Give Arthur my best once you can see him."

Molly smiled at her. "I will. Thank you for everything Alice."

Alice shook her head and smiled back at the kind woman. "There's no reason to thank me. Now go."

Charlie waved at her as he followed his mother out of the room.

Number 12 Grimmauld Place was a flurry of activity over the next few weeks. Harry and Hermione came to live at the house again for the holidays, the Weasley's were in and out of the house quite often as they went to visit Arthur at the hospital, and many more Order members began staying for dinner after meetings to share the holiday spirit and to avoid the cold winter air a little longer. Even though the shock of Arthur's injuries was still fresh there was a renewed sense of hope and joy that filled the house. Whenever Molly saw someone in the house who wasn't working on something important she would rope them into decorating for Christmas. The decorations brightened up the dark dank house and almost made it feel like a home. Even Sirius, who had been in a foul mood since summer ended was happily walking around and humming Christmas carols.

Arthur was able to return home, just in time for Christmas. Everyone was overjoyed, Molly most of all. In anticipation for her husband's return, she cooked the most elaborate Christmas dinner anyone had ever seen.

Once everyone was positively stuffed they began to exchange gifts. Alice tore the wrapping paper off one of her gifts and immediately laughed at what she saw. Inside was a package of cauldron cakes and a handwritten note that said, 'Try not to eat all these at once, we know how that will end - Charlie'.

A few people looked over at Alice, clearly interested in her reaction.

Alice glanced over at Charlie and saw that he had a mischievous look in his eyes. He clearly knew that she had opened his present. "Charlie, you arsehole." Alice said with a laugh while shaking her head at him.

At that Charlie began to laugh too.

At this point, everyone was looking between the two of them. "Alright what's so funny you two?" Fred asked, wanting to be in on the joke.

When Charlie finally calmed down he started explaining. "Back in third year Alice claimed that she could eat more cauldron cakes in one sitting than me. So of course, we decided to put that to the test. We bought out all the packages of cauldron cakes from Honeydukes and then had a cauldron cake eating contest in the Gryffindor common room. It was the event of the year."

"Was she right? Did she win?" Ron questioned.

"Yes, I did. I ate fifteen cauldron cakes and Charlie only managed thirteen." Alice said proudly.

"And then she proceeded to throw all of them up on McGonagall's shoes when she came up to see what all the commotion was about." Charlie added with a smirk on his face. By this point the entire party was laughing.

Alice's cheeks started burning red so she hid her face in her hands. "Merlin that was embarrassing. It took me weeks before I could look her in the face. Sometimes when I talk to her I still think she remembers it. It's terrible."

After the story, everyone got back to opening their gifts. Alice picked up the cauldron cakes to move them aside when she noticed that there was something underneath them. Underneath was a picture of her jumping on Charlie's back after a quidditch game. They were both laughing and occasionally Charlie would spin them around in a circle. Alice looked up from the picture and looked at Charlie, catching his eye. "Thank you." She said quietly.

Charlie smiled at her gently.

The rest of the party flew by in laugher and happiness. By the end of the night everyone was stuffed full of delicious food and their spirits were much higher than they had been in a while. Slowly people started excusing themselves to go to bed, including Alice and Charlie. They gathered their gifts and made their way upstairs.

Charlie turned to Alice when they reached their floor. "Thank you for the dragon figurine you got me. It's beautiful."

"You're welcome. I can tell you've been missing your dragons a lot lately. I thought it'd be nice for you to have a reminder that you'll be going back to them."

Just as they were about to head into their respective rooms, Alice turned back around. "Hey Char? Where did you get the picture?" Alice asked him. She remembered the day clearly, Gryffindor had just won a match against Slytherin and the entire house was ecstatic. They celebrated until the early hours of the morning. But what she didn't remember was taking this picture.

Charlie turned back around to face her. "Remember Thomas was really into photography that year?" He paused and waited to see if Alice remembered their old friend from school. Once she nodded he continued to speak. "Well I saw him developing this one so I asked if I could keep it. I figured it was about time you got a copy."

Alice rolled her eyes but she still had a smile on her face. "You could have given me a couple years ago, you know."

"I could have. But then what would I have given you for Christmas this year?"

Alice laughed before her gaze softened. "Well I'm glad you waited. It was a perfect gift." She felt a small surge of confidence wash over her so she walked over to Charlie and placed a kiss on his cheek. "Happy Christmas Charlie."

The kiss surprised Charlie. It shocked him into a spell that didn't break until he heard Alice's door shut. "Happy Christmas, Alice." He whispered into the empty hallways before retreating into his own room.

A few days later Charlie found himself sitting in the kitchen with his mother. They somehow got on the topic of Alice.

"Why don't you ask her out? She'd be good for you. She's smart, beautiful, one of the kindest people I've ever met, and she has a real job." Molly asked her son.

"Mum, she's an Auror. Her job is just as dangerous as mine. It's actually worse because people throw curses at her left and right sometimes. I just have to watch out for fire and maybe a claw or two."

"Well at least she's making a decent wage. But really Charlie, why aren't the two of you together? It's clear that you both care for each other."

Charlie sat there for a moment and really thought about why they weren't together. "I've been in love with her since we were 16, but I've always been scared that she doesn't feel the same way." Charlie finally admitted.

"Charlie..." Molly started but she was quickly cut off.

"No, Mum. Look, she's greater than life and it would kill me if I lost her again. And anyways, there's a war starting. This is no time to be starting relationships when we don't even know if we'll survive to the next day."

"That's exactly why you should. We need to cherish every happy moment we can because we don't know what the future will bring."

"I supposed you're right."

"I am right. I'm your mother."

Charlie smiled at his mother and turned to walk out of the kitchen. A new determination washed over him. He was going to go find Alice and tell her exactly how he feels. What he didn't expect was to find Alice standing just outside the kitchen with a few tears making their way down her cheeks.

"Alice!" Charlie started.

"Charlie Weasley, you complete dolt." Alice grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him down, placing a searing kiss on his lips. She pulled away after a few moments and looked up at Charlie. His eyes were half lidded from the intensity of the kiss. "Why didn't you tell me you love me? I've been in love with you for years too."

Charlie's eyes widened. His mind couldn't believe the words that had come out of her mouth. "You love me too?" Charlie asked, almost in disbelief.

Alice nodded. "Yes, of course I do. How could I not?"

A few happy tears fell out of Charlie's eyes before he moved forward and engulfed Alice in a hug, spinning her around in the hallway.

Alice laughed at his reaction. When he placed her back on the floor they just stood there staring into each other's eyes with huge matching grins on their faces.

Charlie placed his hands on Alice's cheeks. The way he looked at her took her breath away. There was so much love in his eyes and she realized that she'd seen this look a few times before but she had never realized what it meant until now.

"I love you so much Alice. I'm sorry it took me so long to admit it." Charlie said after a moment.

"I love you too, Charlie. And I should apologize too, I've kept my feelings for you a secret for so long."

Charlie smiled at her and began to lean down to catch her lips in another kiss.

"Finally!"

The pair quickly split apart as soon as they heard the voice. They looked over to the stairs and saw Ginny standing there with a large smile on her face.

"I was starting to think you'd never get together." She didn't even let them say anything before she was making her way back up the stairs. "Fred! George! You both owe me five galleons. Charlie and Alice just kissed!"

Grumbling could be heard from upstairs. Alice buried her face in Charlie's chest in embarrassment. "I can't believe they had a wager going about us."

Charlie chuckled and wrapped his arms around her small frame bringing her closer. "I'm not surprised by that at all."

They stayed in each other's arms for a moment longer before heading upstairs to Alice's room to get some privacy.