Charlie was in bed, alone. Lyra was gone. The warmth that had radiated through his body seemed a distant memory.
Of course she was gone, he hadn't seen her since the day she had escaped from Bill's wedding. He had gone nigh on a year without a glimpse of the woman he so desperately loved, who held his heart and taken it with her.
Then he had seen her, a glimpse of her in the distance as she fought Death Eaters. And then nothing.
Hagrid had carried her horrifyingly still body out of the forest, cradled it in his arms and wept salty tears. That was the moment Charlie's heart had broken, snapped in to pieces never to be retrieved again.
Charlie woke up. Sweat poured off his body as he sat up, desperately trying to shake off the feeling of hopelessness that pervaded his soul. In the dim half light he could see Lyra lying on the bed beside him, but further away than usual after they had rolled apart in the night. With shaking hands he reached out to her and within seconds of his fingers touching her arms he relaxed.
He moved closer, placed his arm across her waist only to smile involuntarily when her own hand moved up of its own accord to hold his arm in place. Together, entwined, they drifted back to sleep for their last night before they returned to London.
They woke a few hours later, still curled together. His head was resting on her hair and his hand was linked with hers, which she was holding in front of her heart. When he woke, it was to feel the buzz of her lips murmuring "I love you" against their joined fists. Once she realised he had woken, they lay together just quietly talking before they eventually conceded it was time to get up.
Their packing was fast, having done most of it the night before, and so by midday they could not delay their return any more. The portkey lifted them away from Cairo, away from their honeymoon, and returned them to real life in Grimmauld Place.
They landed in the kitchen, their bags having been dispatched to their room before leaving Bill and Fleur's villa. It was empty.
"Hello?" They both called out, before finally they heard a noise coming from upstairs.
"Ly!" Sirius cried, and ran downstairs to his goddaughter and her husband. Lyra threw herself into his arms, and he relished the opportunity to embrace her again after nine days apart. He nodded to Charlie, welcomed him home, before relinquishing Lyra.
"All your presents are upstairs" he explained, and led them to the drawing room. "But first I want to introduce you to someone." Lyra looked inquisitively at her godfather, but he didn't add anything else until they got to the drawing room.
Before them stood two House Elves.
"Mistress Ly!" Shrieked the older, more wizened of the two. Lyra and Charlie both greeted Kreacher warmly, who was ecstatic to see the pair of them. The smaller House Elf was smaller, and seemed shyer.
"This is Pixie" explained Sirius, "Kreacher is going to move with you and Pixie will stay with me. But for now she belongs to all of us."
"Sirius!" Lyra cried out, and Charlie thanked him. Charlie liked the old elf that would be moving with them, especially as he knew how desperately loyal Kreacher was to Lyra and would protect her with his life, a sentiment that Charlie himself shared.
Pixie was a quiet elf, with delicate feathery ears and small brown eyes. She looked young, and was young, having only been bought by Sirius the day after Lyra's wedding at the grand age of a year old. She had a light voice, hence her name, but was also cheeky, just like Cornish Pixies.
Once Lyra and Charlie had opened the rest of their presents from friends and family, it was time to go to the Burrow to see the Weasleys for dinner before Ginny's birthday the following day.
They arrived in Mrs Weasleys kitchen to a cacophony of noise; Weasleys shouting, the pots and pans clattering as the food within bubbled and disturbed the lids. They stood there for a minute before being noticed and within seconds silence filled the room before being destroyed by a loud shriek.
"Lyra!" Called out Fleur, as she flew across the room to her. She quickly pressed kisses to Lyra's cheeks before continuing.
"'Ow are you?" She asked, "'ow was your 'oneymoon? Did you see zhe pyramids? Ride on zhe.. Ehrr.. Zhe camels?" Lyra nodded enthusiastically before the rest of the women present swamped her in hugs.
"Lyra, dear!" Molly exclaimed, "ohh, tell us all about it!"
"Did you go to Egypt?" Hermione asked, "I've always wanted to go!"
"I've never been either, but Charlie showed me around. We went to Cairo, and the pyramids, and we rode on a carpet! That was incredible, we flew over the pyramids. It was beautiful! We stayed in Bill and Fleur's villa, thank you for that Fleur - I've got everything back at the house for you. And we went to Romania for the first couple of nights, climbed the mountain again.."
"'ow was zhe first night?" Fleur asked slyly. Lyra blushed a bright crimson and everyone laughed, although Ron, who was standing nearby, flushed and moved away to where the men were quickly. Lyra didn't need to answer the question, for the blush upon her cheeks and the radiant expression on her face answered it for her.
"So what was your favourite part?" Asked Ginny interestedly. Lyra blushed again, and paused, hesitated before she continued.
"Probably the carpet ride" she eventually said, "that was amazing, we saw Cairo from the sky, and the pyramids, and the camels", she sighed, a dreamy look on her face. They chatted late in to the night, dinner was eaten and cleared away and still they stayed, describing their honeymoon to their family. Eventually, the lure of sleep became too great and Charlie and Lyra returned to Grimmauld Place where they toppled into bed together for their first night in England as husband and wife.
A/N ok, I know this isn't great.. It's taken me ages and a lot of deletions. Wedding is fundamentally over now, just one chapter to go and that's because I've had at least one request to write James and Lily watching Lyra's wedding from the afterlife.