Author's Note: I am resurrecting this story! Real life has gotten in the way for a long time but a couple months ago I found myself thinking about Emily and Charlie again. Many apologies for not having this all ready to go from the beginning! Enjoy the next installment, with hopefully more to come soon :)

Chapter 10

Charlie went straight to Gryffindor Tower, packed the small amount of belongings he'd brought with him, and left the castle so he could apparate from Hogsmeade. He remembered that Bill had invited everyone to Shell Cottage for dinner that evening, so he figured it was safe to apparate home to the Burrow. He could finish packing, leave a note, and be back in Romania by the next day.

And so he arrived at the Burrow, but was surprised to see light coming from the kitchen. He walked in, expecting mayhem, but it was only his mum, pottering about with a few chores.

"Mum! I thought you'd be at Shell Cottage," he said.

"That's funny, I thought that's where you were, dear," she replied. But she must have been able to read his face, because she added, "What's the matter? Has something happened? Is everyone ok?" She looked over at the family clock, and was relieved to see that everyone else's hands pointed to "visiting," rather than "mortal peril."

"Everything's fine, mum, nothing like that." He let out a sigh. "I've just come from Hogwarts. I'm… I'm going back to Romania."

"And what did Emily say about that?" Mum sure was perceptive, Charlie had to admit.

"Well, she wants me to go! I don't understand it." He put his face in his hands and sighed again in exasperation. "She basically told me that I shouldn't stay for her because I would come to resent her for it."

"Oh Charlie… figuring out a long-distance relationship is always hard, your father and I -"

"This wasn't a normal row, Mum! She told me to leave."

"Charlie, has it occurred to you that the way Emily is acting might be caused by her past? She's never had anyone to love her, or care about her the way you have this summer. She must be scared, the poor thing."

"I guess you might have a point, but for right now I can't see what else to do. If she doesn't want me around, then I might as well go back to Romania."

"You have to do what you think is best, dear," Molly said. "But I wouldn't give up hope yet."

"Thanks Mum." He hoped she was right. "I'd better be off."

Molly waved him goodbye as he apparated from the yard to the airport. He decided to act the Muggle and take a red-eye plane to Romania. He'd be back among the dragons by the next day.

Charlie was happy to see his friends at the Dragon Sanctuary again. Not all of them were British so they'd only heard the news of Voldemort's fall from afar, and were eager to hear Charlie's firsthand account. As Charlie gave them all the news, he had a realization: one of his friends here, Jack, was American and had gone to Ilvermorny. Charlie pulled him aside later that night and asked him if he knew of Emily.

"Emily Newport? Oh yeah, she was a few years below me. Absolute genius. Kind of a loner though. How d'you know her?"

"She came to Hogwarts to help with the rebuilding," Charlie said. He didn't really know what else to say; he was fishing for information but didn't want to sound like a gossipy old woman.

"That doesn't surprise me. She was always into stuff like that. Fixing old stuff. Rotten life she had though, she stayed at Ilvermorny for every vacation because she didn't have any family. She got teased quite a bit, but I tried to look out for her. She reminded me of my little sister."

Charlie remembered that Jack's little sister had died as a young child. Charlie had seen a picture of her and she did have the same light red hair. Jack's parents had died too, but Jack had been adopted by a wizarding family. This had never seemed odd to Charlie, but after finding out that Emily had been in the Muggle foster care system, he was curious.

"I hope it's ok to ask, Jack… why were you adopted by a wizarding family, but some magic kids like Emily were put into foster care?"

"I think it must be because I was older. I was 6 and I was a bit of a troublemaker with my magic," Jack chuckled. "Before my parents died I used to get into all kinds of scrapes… I think someone from MACUSA had to come and explain to them what I was even though I was so young. I think Emily was too little and flew under the radar. I want to say she was found by the No-Maj authorities when her parents died; she'd wandered off or something. It's unfortunate the way it happened… I'm sure a wizarding family would've taken her in if MACUSA had known about her."

Charlie was silent for a moment. Jack would probably be better at understanding Emily than he was. But that didn't matter now. The only thing to do now was to get back to work with the dragons.

"You ready to go check on that Swedish Short-Snout who just hatched an egg? We can try to get some milk from her for dragon's milk cheese." Jack looked surprised at the abrupt change of subject, but agreed that they should be off.

As time went on, Charlie managed to think less of Emily and focus more on his work. But he wasn't as cheerful as he used to be, and his friends noticed. Most of them assumed that the war, and his brother's death, had changed him, which was true, of course. Charlie, for his part, did his best to keep up the charade. He went out after work, laughed at the antics of his adventurous friends, and he buried himself in work as much as possible. He wrote to his parents once or twice a month; just enough to keep them from worrying. And if he secretly hoped for news of Emily, he never let on.

Occasionally he heard about her, in the news. Emily and Hermione had started a transfiguration research group at Hogwarts, and that news made it into the Daily Prophet. It was excellent that the school was rebuilding its academic reputation, they had reported. Emily had published a new article in Transfiguration Today, coauthored with Hermione. Ginny wrote that transfiguration was one of her favorite subjects now, although she had also been scouted by the Holyhead Harpies (and Charlie couldn't have been more proud to hear this). He took all of this in, thinking that Emily must really be doing fine now, without him. He thought about writing to her, more than once, but thought better of it each time. He tried to tell himself that they must have made the right call, if each of them were doing so well on their own.

And Charlie was excelling with his work, too. There was a rumor that a new dragon sanctuary might be established in Scotland. The MacFusty clan, who had taken care of the Hebridean Black dragons for centuries, were dwindling in number. The Ministry hoped to assist them, while still allowing the clan to be in control, as they had traditionally done. Not many dragonologists would be needed, and the MacFusty clan was going to be picky. Charlie found himself rumored to be one of the top picks.

Jack had broken this news to him, excitedly. "This would be perfect for you! Back in your own country, easy to apparate to your family any time you want! What could be better?"

Despite the honor (though it was still a rumor), Charlie found himself grumpy. "I've gotten used to the distance. I kind of like it now."

"Oh come on! I haven't forgotten you asking me about Emily Newport, you know. I've seen her in the news - she works at Hogwarts now. Sounds awfully convenient…"

Charlie let out a groan. "Jack, it's just a rumor anyway. We'll see what happens after Christmas." For it was November, and it was doubtful there would be any substantial news on the subject until after the holidays. His mother had convinced him to come home for Christmas, and he had forced himself not to ask if Emily would be there. He didn't know which scenario he would prefer - an awkward visit where he wouldn't know what to say to her, or an entire holiday in England without seeing her face.