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Chapter Twelve

To the untrained eye, it didn't look as though Adair Wood was going through a devastating breakup. She didn't take to her bed for entire days, she didn't go about with unwashed hair, she didn't eat any more or less than she normally did.

In fact, to the average reader of the Seeker Weekly or even The Daily Prophet, it looked as though Adair was having the time of her life. Several times she was caught by the photographers, running through the streets of London with Jasmine and Sienna as they attempted to stay in shape for the upcoming season. Rather than hiding from the press, Adair grinned at them and made sure they took the most flattering photos of her in her running clothes, tight leggings and sports bras mostly.

She was more social than she'd ever been before and Oliver sighed as he closed The Daily Prophet he'd been reading over his morning coffee. His sister had featured prominently in the gossip section. The reporter had been speculating about her recent bout of hard partying, accompanied by one of the running photos.

"I should talk to her, shouldn't I?" Oliver asked, sliding the paper towards Katie.

She gave a sigh to match his own "I'm not sure, Oliver." She shook her head. "She's going through quite a bit. Grief shows up differently for different people."

"Grieving or not, this looks bad for the team," he replied.

"You all are always caught out partying," Katie said. "Your sister is no different now and it's the off season."

Oliver swiped a hand over his face. "You're right."

"She'll be fine. The season starts soon enough and that will take most of her time." Katie stood, dressed for her shift at St. Mungo's. She pressed a kiss to Oliver's forehead.

"You don't have to keep going to work, you know?" Oliver said as she was almost to the door.

"What would I do? Stay home all day with you?" Katie rolled her eyes before leaving.

Oliver chuckled, before turning back to the paper.

ooooOoooo

"I'm so glad you're here!" Adair said, pulling the door to her flat open, ushering Katie and Oliver inside. There were already several people there, ready to celebrate Adair's birthday. Friends and teammates alike had gathered for the party.

"Help yourself to food and drinks!"

"Hostessing is very out of character for your sister," Katie whispered as they made their way to the drink table.

Oliver glanced at his sister out of the corner of his eye as Seamus twirled her around and then pulled her onto his lap, whispering something in her ear that made her laugh wickedly.

Katie pushed a Firewhiskey into his hand, which drew his attention away momentarily. When Oliver looked back, he noticed Ginny staring at his sister in confusion and possibly disappointment.

When Ginny caught him staring, she made her way over.

"Bloody hell," Oliver mumbled, realizing immediately that Ginny didn't know what had happened.

"It's not my place, Ginny," he said before she could even speak.

"You don't even know what I was going to say," she insisted.

"Yes I do. You were going to ask me why Charlie and Adair broke up."

Ginny sighed. "And you aren't going to tell me?"

Oliver shook his head. "That is between either you and Adair or you and Charlie."

"Charlie isn't being very responsive at the moment," she replied. "And Bill won't go into details about his stay at Shell Cottage. Your sister claims she's too busy to see me alone when according to the gossip columns she has ample free time."

Oliver shrugged. "I can't help you there."

"Adair seems very blase about it," Ginny said, looking back at her friend.

"We can agree on that," Oliver said. "I've never seen her quite like this before."

The night passed in a blur of drinks and loud music. At the end of the night, only Oliver, Katie, Harry, Ginny and Seamus remained.

Ginny seemed ready to wait everyone else out in order to speak to Adair alone. Harry was asleep on the sofa next to her.

Adair got up to fetch another drink, untangling herself from Seamus' arms and Oliver followed her.

"Is everything alright?" he asked.

Adair arched a brow as she poured a tumbler of Firewhiskey. "Do I not seem happy?"

"It seems that way, but it doesn't seem like you."

She finally turned to face her brother. "People change, Oliver. You especially should know that."

Oliver was quiet for a moment. He glanced back at Ginny. "She wants to know what happened between you and Charlie."

Adair nodded. "I know. I hope you didn't tell her."

"Of course not."

"Good. I'd rather nobody know."

Uncharacteristically, Oliver pressed a kiss to his sister's forehead. She hadn't divulged anything of her conversation with Charlie to him, but something in her had changed completely after the World Cup.

He retrieved Katie and they left.

Adair knew it was coming, there weren't any more buffers between her and Ginny, so she faced the other woman head on when she approached.

"You've been avoiding me," Ginny said.

Adair nodded. "Yeah I have. And I can't right now, but that doesn't mean I want to talk about it either."

"Neither of you will tell me anything," Ginny said.

"That means one of two things," Adair replied. "That nothing happened and it just didn't work out or that what happened is between Charlie and I." Adair took a deep breath. "Ginny, I love you. You're my best friend, but you've been too involved in this from the beginning. Charlie and I are adults."

Ginny hung her head. "You're right. I just don't want either of you to be hurt."

Adair gave a small laugh. "That's sometimes unavoidable, Gin. Even if you love someone. Sometimes that love just isn't enough. And that's okay. We'll move on."

Ginny hugged her friend tightly, pinning Adair's arms to her sides.

Just like Oliver, Ginny gathered her husband and left the party.

"Are you coming to bed?" Seamus asked from across the room.

Adair was quiet for a moment. "I don't think I'm up for anymore company tonight," she said, tracing the rim of her crystal tumbler.

Seamus walked up to her and made her look at him, fingers under her chin. "Is everything alright?"

Adair nodded. "I'm just exhausted."

"Can I see you tomorrow?"

"Of course."

Seamus looked at her for a moment longer. "Happy birthday, Adair." He kissed her lips and then left as well, leaving Adair completely alone.

She hadn't lied to Seamus. She was exhausted. To her very core she was tired. In her mind, body and soul she was fatigued.

She drug herself to bed, trying to not think about how much of her birthday had revolved around Charlie even though he wasn't there.

ooooOoooo

Charlie had, at the last minute, switched shifts with Sandor. The night before he had received his mother's bear Patronus that Percy and Audrey had welcomed their second baby into the family. He had never missed greeting a new niece or nephew as soon as he possibly could and he wasn't going to start then.

But when he got to St. Mungo's and was told where to go, he found himself lingering outside of the door. In his haste to switch shifts and get everything arranged so that he could make the quick trip back to London, he hadn't thought about what it'd be like to see a newborn baby when his own loss was so fresh.

Bill almost ran smack into his brother as he left the room to find a cup of coffee.

"Charlie!" he exclaimed.

They steadied each other.

"I didn't expect to see you," Bill said.

"I didn't expect it would be this hard," Charlie said, more earnestly than he'd intended.

"You don't have to go in there. You can leave and I'll pretend I never saw you. I'll make something about your job."

Charlie shook his head. "I need to do this," he said with a deep breath.

Bill watched as his brother visibly bolstered himself, drawing his shoulders up before entering the room and plastering a smile on his face.

Charlie's entire family knew that he wasn't seeing Adair anymore, but no one but Bill and Fleur knew what had happened. Regardless, everyone who was already present in Percy and Audrey's room seemed to be looking at him differently. His mum and dad gave him sad smiles, Fleur squeezed his hand when he walked by the chair where she sat holding Louis, and George made some horrible attempt at humor. Victoire and Percy's eldest, Molly, were the only two who acted normal; hugging him as tightly as they could and jabbering away until he could free himself.

"Hey Charlie," Percy said, when his brother approached the new parents. He actually stood up and hugged his older brother, which he had never done in his entire life.

The hug lasted a little bit too long and Charlie laughed it off as best he could, pulling away to take a step towards the bed.

Audrey adjusted the blankets around the baby so that Charlie could see his newest niece.

"She's beautiful," he said quietly.

"We're calling her Lucy," Audrey said as she handed her new daughter to Charlie.

Bill came back in to see his brother holding the baby. Over the years, he had seen Charlie with infants many times and he always looked happy, but this time was different.

Charlie had lost his smile and was staring down at the baby, almost wistfully.

The baby was sleeping peacefully in his arms and Charlie drifted into his own mind. He saw Adair, unconscious, in the healing tent at the World Cup, he replayed their argument in her flat afterwards.

He sat for a moment and thought what things might look like if they had gone his way, if he was expecting a baby, if he and Adair were even still together.

Emotions rose in his chest. Grief, disappointment, hurt and anger all intermingled until he had to stand, trying to steady himself.

Charlie deposited the baby rather roughly back into her father's arms, causing her to startle and cry. When he turned back around, Angelina was nudging George hard in the ribs, trying to silently indicate the open Daily Prophet lying on the end table. The gossip section was open and there was Adair on the dancefloor of some London club being twirled around by one of the English beaters. She had a full bottle of Firewhiskey in one hand. Her leather skirt was extremely short and even as she twirled quickly, readers would certainly notice the sheerness of her white tank top. The beater brought her in close and while her back was pressed to his chest, she took a long pull from the bottle. The headline read "Quidditch's Own Party Princess."

Charlie shook his head. "I've already bloody seen it," he said harshly. Everyone looked away from him.

Between what was going on in his head and the crying baby he couldn't take the chaos and so he walked out of the hospital room without another word to anybody. He kept his head down and tried to calm his thoughts, but instead felt his eyes welling.

As he rounded the corner to go to the elevators, Ginny, Harry and James emerged. Charlie wanted more than anything to hide, but he there was nowhere to go.

"Hey Charlie!" Harry exclaimed when he saw his brother-in-law.

He gave a half-hearted wave.

Ginny immediately saw that something was wrong with her brother and handed James to Harry. "You go ahead. I'll be right there," she said. She waited until Harry had disappeared around the corner.

"Gin, I'm not really in the mood," Charlie said, before his sister could begin.

"I don't want to be your prying little sister. I'm here as a friend if you want to talk."

Everything was so fresh after having seen baby Lucy and then the Daily Prophet photo. He rubbed his face with his hands before looking at Ginny again.

She had never seen him look so miserable. "Oh Charlie." She took him by the arm and drew him to a bank of chairs in the waiting room, as far away from other people as she could manage. "Something really bad happened, didn't it?" she asked quietly.

Charlie could only nod and look down at his hands in his lap.

"You don't have to tell me what happened," Ginny said.

"I miss her," Charlie responded.

"Well go see her while you're in London," Ginny suggested. "She's in the city and doesn't start travelling for a few more weeks."

Charlie shook his head. "I don't think I can. She doesn't want to see me. She seems much happier without me. I said things to Adair that I never should have even thought."

Ginny sighed. "You could apologize."

"It's not nearly that simple. Things have passed between us that I don't think you can come back from."

Ginny could only nod. She had never seen Adair or Charlie in the states they were in before.

"It's really over this time," he said more to himself than to Ginny. When he did remember his sister was still there, he looked up at her. "I've got to get back to the sanctuary. I only managed to get one shift switched."

Ginny nodded once more, but before he rose, she took his face in her hands and kissed his forehead. "I love you. We all do."

Charlie gave her one last sad smile before standing and stepping into an elevator.

ooooOoooo

Ginny had been anxiously hopeful, but also slightly relieved when neither Charlie nor Adair could make it to James' first birthday party.

Charlie could not get a shift switched around again so soon and Adair was travelling to Madrid for the season opening festivities.

Both had sent gifts: a very lifelike miniature dragon that Charlie gave to all of his nieces and nephews on their first birthdays and a large replica of a flying Snitch with a tiny set of English Quidditch robes.

Adair had been grateful for the timing. She would have gone if she could, but the thought of seeing the entire Weasley family so soon after everything would have been absolutely awful. And that wasn't even taking into consideration what it would be like to see Charlie again.

Instead, she was in a lavish hotel room in the center of Madrid preparing for the evening's season-opening ball.

Every national team from around the world was in attendance. There was a charmed event space that would hold everyone for dinner and dancing and speeches from the Commissioner and other league officials.

Adair slipped into a scarlet sheath dress that had a plunging neckline and high slit up her left leg. She wore her hair in loose waves about her shoulders. Her jewelry was the same simple diamond set that she had worn to the ball before the World Cup.

She was painfully aware that she was alone in the hotel room, that everything had changed for her in a matter of months, perhaps in a matter of moments back in September.

Under the ample makeup she had applied, she saw that she looked tired and worn down.

There was a knock on her door and she slipped into her black, strappy heels as she made her way to open it.

"You look beautiful," Oliver said when he saw his sister, Katie on his arm.

"You both make a very striking pair yourselves," she said with a small smile.

The three of them made their way to the event space and though it had only been a year since she'd been to the same event, she forgot how immense it truly was. There were over forty teams in attendance, plus their dates. When they entered the room a babble of languages spilled over them. It was fascinating to see many teams in their national dress.

Oliver pointed to a cluster of tables that had the English flag hovering over them. "It looks like we're over there." He took Katie's arm and Adair followed in their wake until they were at the tables where some of their team had already settled.

"I saved you a seat," Leo said, patting the chair in between him and Jasmine. Her fellow Chaser was deep in conversation with her latest squeeze and so Adair turned her attention to the red wine and Leo.

"I always forget how crazy this is," Leo said, looking around at the huge Baroque hall and all the people who were in it.

Adair nodded her agreement. She downed her first glass of wine and tried not to think about what it felt like to be alone after Charlie had accompanied her to Canada for the World Cup.

The speeches happened first and Adair couldn't pay attention to any of it. She was continuously emptying and refilling her wine glass.

Plates appeared on the tables next and Adair made a show of cutting up her steak and pushing the vegetables around.

She looked up and Oliver caught her attention from across the table. "Eat something," he mouthed sternly.

Adair stabbed a piece of steak and popped it into her mouth, while at the same time flipping her brother off.

As everyone finished and the plates were cleared away, Adair stood to go to the bar. She wanted something with a little more burn than the Spanish wine. She wobbled a bit as she navigated through the tables.

Leaning her forearms against the bar and ordering her Firewhiskey, Adair kept her eyes trained ahead, not feeling much like making small talk.

"Well I'll be Goddamned," someone drawled behind her.

A smile instantly came to her face and she turned to see the most handsome man she'd ever seen in her life.

"Colt Cambell," she grinned. "I heard they finally let you join the American team. Who'd you have to bribe?"

"You always did know how to hurt me, darlin'," he said with a laugh. "Come here and let me get a better look at ya." He took the hand that wasn't holding her fresh Firewhiskey and twirled her under his arm. "Just as pretty as ever."

"You don't look too bad yourself," she replied. And he didn't.

Colt was tall and lean with shaggy blond hair and blue eyes. He had a jawline that could cut through butter. He was wearing cowboy boots under his dress robes.

He pulled her a little closer to him. "Dance with me."

Adair allowed herself to be pulled onto the floor. Colt's hand was low on her back. "Texas hasn't been the same without you," he whispered in her ear.

A shiver ran down her spine. Their connection when she played in Texas had been immediate and crazy. Colt had shown her what life in the West was like and she had been taken immediately by both his cowboy chivalry and the wildness that came with it. He had given her her taste for late nights and Firewhiskey, for her 'don't give a damn' attitude, and her aversion to serious relationships.

"Oh bloody hell," Oliver said from across the room where he still sat with Katie.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"That fucking cowboy is nothing but trouble," Oliver groaned, watching his sister stare up at the American Seeker, laughing and pressing herself against him as he whispered in her ear.

ooooOoooo

A week later, Charlie was reading the coverage from the International Season Opener in the Seeker Weekly. He hated himself for it, but he had been keeping track of Adair the best he could since after the World Cup. Every time he saw a picture or read an article it was like he was pushing a knife into his own chest, especially when she looked so happy and vibrant with her friends and teammates.

The worst came when he reached the middle of the magazine. There was a full spread image of Adair going into a hotel. But she wasn't alone. The caption read, "The English Rose and American Cowboy." He went on to read that the very good looking man in the photo was Colt Campbell and that he had played with Adair when she was in Sweetwater. To Charlie it looked like they might have done more than play Quidditch.

The man had one arm wrapped snuggly around Adair's trim waist and he was whispering something in her ear, kissing down her neck, his other hand toying with the slit in the skirt of her dress; apparently unable to stop himself even in front of the cameras.

Even as he knew it shouldn't, the image made his blood boil. He watched over and over again as they disappeared into the hotel to do things he tried not to imagine.

There was a knock on his cabin door and he shut the magazine quickly, going so far as to toss it behind the sofa.

"Come in," he called. Sandor entered.

"I wanted to see if you wanted to go into town and grab a pint," he said.

Charlie nodded absently. "Yeah sure. Give me a few minutes to change."

"I'll meet you outside," Sandor smiled. "Oh and this was on your doorstep." He handed over an envelope with his address done in beautiful calligraphy and a wax seal with a "W" on the back.

"Thanks," Charlie said. When Sandor had left once more, he opened the envelope and found an invitation to Oliver and Katie's New Year's Eve wedding.

I hope you liked this update! Please let me know what you thought. I love honest feedback and constructive criticism. Also, if you have any ideas for the story, I'd be happy to try and incorporate them. I love a headcanon!

Happy reading,

Avonmora