"This is totally insane!" Bill laughed as he strode down the hill with Charlie and Percy a few paces behind him.
Tents littered the fields, the different colours of the nationalities obscured the grass like a watercoloured canvas. The Sun was high in the sky as they made their way through the crowd, keeping their eyes peeled for a sign of their father, Ginny, Ron, Harry or Hermione. The atmosphere was electric for the final of the quidditch world cup. Ireland vs Bulgaria.
"This game is going to be one to remember, I will bet that much boys." Bill laughed loudly. Two blonde girls smiled coyly in their direction as they walked past, Bill turned his head to watch them walk away and crashed straight into and old man in a towel dressing gown carrying a bucket of water back to his tent.
"Sorry mate" Bill apologised loudly clapping the man on his arm.
Charlie rolled his eyes and the old man wandered off muttering about how the young wizards have no respect these days.
"Nice" Bill said now turning his attention to a small group of more blonde girls with pale skin standing around a tent covered with the Irish Flag. "Don't you think Char?"
Charlie glanced over at the girls and shrugged, "I guess, I'm not really into blondes though."
"Hey now, don't give me that, the girl from your work was blonde wasn't she?" Bill said.
"Yeah, well that was like, not a serious thing, you know?" Charlie muttered.
"What happened to her anyway? You never mention her in your letters" Percy asked.
"Got caught in the path of a green Welsh's fire. Suffered 1st degree burns, healers couldn't do much for the scars. Went back to live with her parents. Not much of a looker after that." He finished casually.
Bill and Percy both open mouthed were lost for words finally, as Charlie had hoped. He didn't really feel like talking about relationships right now. He just wanted to have some fun.
"Damn." Bill said. "Well has there been anyone else?" Bill asked, a smile creeping into his face.
Charlie stared at him, not amused by his curiosity. "No. I told you before a Dragon sanctuary isn't exactly the best place to go looking for girls to date" he said sharply.
"Charlie I'm just saying it's been almost a year since anyone actually saw Arabelle, I mean sure mum and dad get the occasional letter but face it you've got to move on" Bill sighed.
"Okay let me stop you right there." Charlie snapped stopping in his path, a burly teenage boy slammed into Charlie at the abrupt halt but Charlie barely noticed. Working with the dragons had made him strong and muscular. "We're not talking about her, I don't want to hear it. Besides I am moving on with my life."
"Okay. Fine." Bill said, following Charlie as he strode off.
Percy ran after them crying out "Dad said the tent was towards the east of the stadium, guy's you're going the wrong way" but neither of them were listening.
The afternoon sun was still warm as they all sat around the fire that Arthur and Hermione had started. Arthur's face was beaming with pride as he placed the frying pan of sausages onto the fire, even though Hermione had done most of the work, but no one wanted to tell him that. The fields were rammed with people all in high spirits for the match, and despite the tiff earlier with Bill, Charlie couldn't stop the smile that had appeared on his face. He was in the midde of a discussion with Harry about some of the world class seekers.
" I heard Bavaria the Spanish player is pretty great" Harry said taking a sip from his mug.
"Oh Bavaria is good alright but he got an smashed against Italy by Marco Racchi" Charlie laughed.
"Hey weasley" a tall dark haired boy cried from opposite them.
All the weasleys turned towards him but only Charlie let out a sigh and stood up. "Hey Chris how are you?" Charlie asked.
"I'm good man just got a promotion at the daily prophet. Long time no see huh? Last I heard you moved abroad to work with dragons, pretty bad ass I gotta say, hear the pays pretty good too"
"Yeah. Romania." He replied ignoring the last comment. Charlie was pretty modest about the money his job earned him.
"Nice man, hey look, I'm sorry about you and Arabelle, I know it was a few years back now but man, didn't see that coming. You two were the power couple at school."
Charlie felt a lump rise in his throat and he clenched his firsts. Hard.
"Yeah well, you know how it goes, but it was a long time ago now" Charlie forced the words from his mouth.
"Yeah of course" Chris said, "well anyway, it was good to see you. Hey Bill" he said nodding in Bill's direction.
"Hey Chris, how you doing" Bill said turning from his conversation with Ginny and Hermione.
"Not bad thanks, hope you're all well anyway, his eyes flicking to Harry who was still seated next to Charlie. "Enjoy the game."
"You too" Charlie replied "take care man."
He slumped back down into his chair. "Friend from school" he said to Harry. " Well kind of, figures he works for the prophet, he always was a nosy git, I swear he used to sit near Arabelle and me to eaves drop when he thought we weren't paying attention".
"Yeah there are stories about you two still being told even now" Harry laughed sitting back in his chair.
Charlie closed his eyes as they began to sting, it was still hard to talk about her, at least in Romania he could get away from it but back in England it was all he could think about most of the time. He hated it.
"Tell me that one about professor Flitwick Catching you two in the charms classroom was true!" Harry laughed.
He couldn't stop himself, the laugh came out of him from no where "No way are people still talking about that, haha the look on his face! I couldn't look him in the eye for two months"
As Charlie took a sip from his mug, it happened. He wasn't sure what came first the sensation of his stomach dropping like he had just swallowed rocks, or the sound of that laugh. The laugh that he would never forget as long as he lived. He snapped his head to the left in the direction of the laughing. His eyes scanning the crowd as if he was searching for a snitch in the rain. Blurs of people surrounded his vision until he saw the large group of girls laughing and chattering in swift French. All of them tall and beautiful, but only one stood out to Charlie. He saw her long dark hair falling to her naval in a big plait, with her hair decorated with a halo of tiny delicate flowers. The white flowing top showing off her tan skin that was once so pale, but even from where he sat he could see the pink marks that the boiling water had left on her skin the night he had told her he was leaving. He felt a connection that drew him to her and he knew she felt it too because as soon as he laid eyes on her, her head snapped in his direction, their eyes meeting for the first time in years across the distance, and as they stared at each other across the crowd of people her smile came back, lighting up her face the way it always used to when they were younger, and even after all this time it still made his heart stop beating.