Chapter 2

Both Arabelle and Charlie had grown a lot over the summer. Charlie had gotten broader shoulders and grown a good five inches, although he was not as tall as Bill who was at least six-foot now.
Arabelle had grown into her looks as promised over the summer, her long dark hair was now thickly curling halfway down her back. She had also grown a lot this summer too and was now only a few inches shy of Charlie. She also looked older than 14 Charlie thought, as she sat opposite him at breakfast one morning in the great hall, she was studying her time-table for this year.

"Oh of course we would have to have care of magical creatures first thing on a Monday" she groaned jokingly, then looked up at him and smiled broadly.

"you say you hate it, but i know you secretly love it, you know it's a great lesson, plus we should be doing unicorns this year too" he grinned enthusiastically.

"Oh unicorns! That will make standing out in the snow for an hour so worth it this winter" she cried rather sarcastically and rolled her eyes. "She's going to have to do better than that to make me enjoy myself."

Charlie shook his head and shoved his last piece of toast into his mouth "I will win you over one day, if it's the last thing I do."

"right, okay Charlie sure thing, will you hurry up, I'm not giving her another reason to hate me by being late on the first day back" she got up and started walking towards the entrance hall. Charlie followed, noticing how heads were turning as Arabelle strode out the great hall. He shrugged it off, people were always gossiping about them, and it was the first day back after all.

However it didn't go away, if anything Charlie noticed it more. Arabelle, blissfully ignorant as always of course didn't pay attention enough to notice. But Charlie had, and what he noticed he wasn't sure he was very happy about. Rather than girls always whispering as they walked past, it was more the boys who were turning to look.

A week later Charlie and Arabelle were sitting in the Griffindor common room, their heads together over some particularly nasty potions work Snape had set them. Bill was sitting on the sofa by the fire-place surrounded by a bunch of his friends, who were all being very loud, laughing and joking.

"that's it!" Arabelle cried slamming the book shut on Charlie's fingers, "it's too late, I've can't concentrate, we've been at this for hours and I can barely hear myself think" Shooting a dark look at Bill making sure he heard her.

Bill turned his head smiled brightly at them as though he had no idea what Arabelle was annoyed about. He beckoned them over, but Arabelle just scowled at him, collected her books and headed off towards the girl's dormitory. "Night Charlie." she threw over her shoulder as she walked away.
Charlie made his way over to Bill and his friends, who he found less intimidating since he was now nearly as big as most of them.

"what's up with Ari?" Bill asked looking more concerned now, worried he had actually upset her.

"Oh she's just annoyed, Snape was extra gittish to her today, said that it didn't matter how good her potions were, it would never change where she came from" Charlie said in a low whisper so only Bill could hear. Bill scowled, clearly annoyed.

"What's the deal with you and Arabelle, Charlie?" One of Bill's friends, Luke Regis a Burly 6th year shouted over to Charlie.

Charlie was taken aback by this "wha...what?"

"You know" he said grinning at his friends before turning to look at him, his dark eyes flashing "are you like, a thing?"

"Luke" Bill cried, "seriously! Stop, I told you not to talk about her like that" "I was just interested" Luke said grinning at Charlie again "so?"

"Yeah I know you're bloody interested" Bill cried again.

"Uhh...we're not, you know, it's not like that" Charlie struggled to find the words he was trying to say, "we're just friends" He could feel the colour burning up his cheeks.

"So she's fair game" he grinned even bigger, Charlie thought he looked a bit stupid, smiling goofily at his friends, pushing his blonde hair out his eyes.

"Fair game?" something about this had annoyed Charlie, he now understood what was going on and why Bill was annoyed. He stood up to his full hight.

"Isn't she a bit young for you Regis?" he said trying not to grit his teeth.

"Ah well, she doesn't look that young anymore does she? All the lads are saying so." The boys around them looked at each other and started laughing. Charlie clenched his fists.

"Luke I swear if you so much as go near her, let alone talk to her I will put you in detention" Bill said "don't make me abuse my power as a prefect" he threatened.

"Sorry Bill but we both know you can't do that, and since there's nothing going on between your bro and her I can do what I like" Luke stared back at the two brothers. Charlie was getting more annoyed by his cockiness, as if Arabelle was some trophy he wanted to own and show off to everyone. Bill looked as if he was going to punch Regis any moment.

"you know what?" Charlie smiled at Luke, "yeah you should go for it"

They all looked at Charlie in surprise. Bill stood up and turned to Charlie so only he could hear him. "what are you doing? I don't want an idiot like Luke anywhere near Arabelle, he is awful to girls, besides, you're right she's way too young for him" Bill hissed.

"Bill, calm it. You're forgetting one thing. It's Arabelle we're talking about. She would never go within five feet of a plank like Regis. Let him try, I can't wait to see her hex him across the room"

Bill slowly smiled, his eyes looking relieved. "Yeah you're right, she can finally teach Luke a lesson about what happens to arrogant twats." he laughed.
"So Luke" Bill Turned back to his friends " when are you thinking of asking her out?"

Charlie walked off to his dormitory laughing. Arabelle would never be impressed by someone so thick. But still there was this feeling in the pit of his stomach he hadn't ever felt before. Something in-between disappointment and anger. It wasn't like she needed him to look after her, but still it was his responsibility to make sure she was okay, right? He was now doubting his actions,
he hoped Arabelle saw right through Regis, and saw that she was way too good for him. But now he was doubting himself, what if she liked him? Something told Charlie Luke had anything but good intentions for Arabelle. Charlie slowly dragged himself up to his dorm, not that he was expecting to get much sleep tonight.