Charlie spent the next few days distracting Arabelle, asking her to watch his quidditch practice, walk around the grounds of the castle, and do her work in the library with him, hoping that he could keep her out of the common room and as far away from Luke Regis as possible, he even had her eating at the other end of the great hall to him at meal times.
Soon, however Arabelle became suspicious of Charlie's weird behaviour. He had asked her for the second time this afternoon since lessons had ended to go for a walk around the grounds.
"Charlie please, I'm tired, can't we just go to the common room" she pleaded as they walked out of the great hall, having just finished dinner.
"But I wan't to go for a walk" he moaned.
"again? the Hogsmead visit is tomorrow we can walk then!" she cried, "I'm going upstairs are you coming or not?"
Charlie reluctantly followed her up the giant staircase towards the common room. He scanned the room quickly upon entering and was relieved to see, as busy as it was there was no sign of Bill and his friends.
"I'm going to write a letter to home" he declared " the twins swore that I didn't write at least once a week they'd collect all the spiders they could find and release them in my room" he grinned at Arabelle. He got out some parchment while Arabelle curled up in the armchair by the fire. Charlie sitting on the floor beside her began to write about what had happened this week, with Arabelle reminding him of any parts he had left out.
"Tell them we'll send them both something from Zonko's when we go tomorrow" she finished.
"and Honeydukes, Fred asked for some of those exploding bon bons we got them last time" Charlie added.
Arabelle frowned at this "Oh I'm sure Molly won't go too ballistic, they dropped them down the toilet last time 'just to see what would happen'!"
Charlie turned to face her "I'll just say they're from Bill" his eyes flashing mischievously.
As if on que Bill strode in through the portrait hole followed as usual by his gang of friends. Charlie's stomach dropped. he folded up the letter and shoved it into the envelope.
"shall we go post this?" he asked Arabelle.
"What now? It's pitch black out, it can wait til morning" she replied distractedly, she was smiling at Bill who was waving at them from across the room.
Bill strode over to them and collapsed into the sofa next to Arabelle. "Hey guys, haven't seen you two for a while, where have you been?"
"In the castle obviously" Charlie snapped "where else are we going to be?".
Both Bill and Arabelle looked at him open-mouthed in shock, it was rare for Charlie to snap like that, especially at Bill who out of everyone he was especially good-natured with.
"Uhh...well yeah of course but you know what I meant Char" Bill said taken aback.
"Well if you ask a stupid question you're going to get a stupid answer" Charlie mumbled into his bag as he put the letter in it. He glanced over at Bill's friends who were hanging back on the other side of the room, but were all looking in their direction. Luke was among them, Charlie turned back to face his brother, giving him a look of warning only Bill could see.
"Right, well" Bill faltered "I'll uhh, see you around I guess" and he got up and headed back over to his friends.
Arabelle looked bemused, turning towards Charlie and frowned. But before she could say anything he got quickly to his feet "I'm going to bed, night" he strode off leaving Arabelle looking more confused than before, sitting alone by the fire-place. He stopped to look at her from the top of the staircase, and immediately wished he hadn't. no longer than two seconds after Charlie had left, the chair next to Arabelle had been filled by Luke Regis. Charlie could have kicked himself, why had he acted like an idiot running off like that? He had given Luke the opportunity he had been waiting for. He watched him lean in to talk to her, Charlie leaned forward too, trying to hear them from up on the balcony, but the room was too loud and they were sitting too far away for him to hear anything. In the corner of his eye he saw Bill's friends looking at them and practically giggling like a bunch of first year girls. Bill looked uneasy however, biting his bottom lip and frowning over at them. Charlie couldn't watch anymore, he groaned loudly, pushed the door to the boy's dormitories hard open and began to climb the stairs. All he could do now was put his faith in Arabelle.