InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "i see stars! lots of them!"

Charlie Weasley (tamethebeast) wrote in wished,
@ 2010-03-04 19:04:00

Entry tags:

!1998: 03, !incomplete, charlie weasley, fred weasley, george weasley

|WHO:| Charlie Weasley | Fred & George Weasley
|WHEN:| Thursday evening, 04 March
|WHERE:| WWW [to start]
|WHAT:| Charlie pops into WWW, perhaps to spy on his brothers a bit and see how they're doing since they have not had much of a chance to see each other in a while.
|RATING:| G/PG
|STATUS:| Incomplete | Closed

He told McGonagall he wanted to go to Diagon Alley, and would take care of anything she needed him to. Of course, there were already Order members watching over various parts of London. Charlie, however, seemed to want to make it his duty to have a reason to go somewhere, or assumed McGonagall would require he had one other than simply wanting to see his brothers for chit-chat.

Finally popping into Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, a shop that put a grin on his face the moment he walked in, Charlie spent a few moments looking around. It was certainly more than the last time he stopped in—and it must have been months, he thought. Knowing better, he left his hands in his pockets. Merlin only knew what sorts of charms would rub off and turn a limb purple or cause him to be covered in a thick coating of his own fiery ginger hair (and he knew he did not need to be more hairy than he already was).

"You're birthdays are coming up soon," he said to the twins. It was not as though that would exactly be a surprise to them. "I have absolutely no idea what to send you. Perhaps, I dunno, a pie from Hogwarts: some good cooking from house elves that I'm sure you two miss terribly," he smirked.

With a slight pause, he looked between Fred and George. "How are you?" he asked, looking around, "I'm glad you two have done well with this shop. It's bloody brilliant."

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

weasleyforge
2010-03-06 04:11 am UTC (link)

Fred shrugged when he was asked how it was going. It was brilliant, a good majority of the time, really, but talking about how brilliant shagging regularly without having to work for it was wasn't exactly the sort of conversation he had with Charlie. George, sure, but then again George tended to throw things at him or turn him odd colours when he talked about Verity, and go off about The Rule. "Always happy, mate," Fred laughed, like there wasn't another way to be, and generally that was true. He'd had his moments - When George had almost taken that hex that killed Hagrid, when they'd found Ange's parent - those moments where things were absolute rubbish and even he and George knew enough not to joke.

But most of the time, no matter how dire things were, he could find something to be happy about. Even if, especially if, it was work.

Somewhere in the shop a clock struck, complete with Whizz-Bangs and flashes of coloured smoke, and Fred took a pocketwatch from the pocket of his bright purple suit and then looked around the shop. "Alright, you wankers, buy it if you want it. Don't have to go home, but you have to get the hell out of here. We're important men, you know. Have places to be." Which was having dinner with Charlie, really, and then back to the flat to work out that new idea with the rune stones and the sharpening wands, but they didn't need to know that.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

tamethebeast
2010-03-06 05:06 am UTC (link)

"Brilliant!" he replied. Charlie had a tendency to place his concerns with his family and friends' happiness first. Having someone would not place him on cloud nine, so to speak. The only thing Charlie would do in regards to formulating and acting upon a social life would be attending Quidditch matches (professional ones, anyway, since he knew a few on various teams) and fannying about to pop in on various family members simply to get away from the castle. He enjoyed his job and he had a purpose there, but playing the waiting game—assuming Hogwarts was about to be targeted at any moment—ate away at him.

Raising an eyebrow of disapproval as he watched Fred and George close up the shop (and in a very unconventional way), Charlie kept his lips sealed. The twins seemed to have changed a lot more than he really thought. Since Charlie did not spend enough time with them, he could not really say it was off for them, but the Weasleys were not raised to show any amount of disrespect or use foul language in public. Charlie always thought their mother knew if they even had a bad thought in their head and could not imagine her reaction to seeing Fred call customers 'wankers'.

As much as he wanted to say something, Charlie only offered an apologetic look to the few that made eye contact with him, smiling a bit and refraining from interfering with their business. "Since Diagon Alley is a ghost town, for the most part, would you two want to go elsewhere in London for dinner?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

weasleyforge
2010-03-06 05:14 am UTC (link)

Fred likely would have laughed at the censure, but he was too busy closing up with George to notice it. Language aside, and even the insults were all said with that same good-natured grin, he was friendly with his customers - and the majority of them who came shopping into a place with a reputation like the WWW could take a joke. He joked with the lot of them as he helped George ring and bag them up, and it seemed like everyone who'd been left in the store bought something before the last of them left and Fred could close the door behind them and tap his wand to the sign there, changing it to a flashing 'Closed'.

"Somewhere else would be a change, we must have paid the rent for Tom at the Leaky four times over last month." Not that they minded, much, and mum did still send them food on an almost weekly basis. As they were both rubbish when it came to cooking anything other than experiments, most of their diet was the Leaky or carry-out, or they begged the girls to do something for them when they got too pitiful. "Have somewhere in mind?"

Fred looked down at his bright purple suit, adjusted the matching tie, and shrugged at himself. He looked presentable enough - nothing had exploded on him today.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

weasleygred
2010-03-06 07:24 am UTC (link)

George had flipped two fingers at Charlie for the crack about his hag-admirer, and greeted him with a friendly smile, but then gone back to work, letting Fred socialize while he rang people up and then helped a few people find what they were looking for.

"Tom starts licking his lips whenever we come in. Old codger doesn't know what to do if we're not in there paying for pints," George offered as he came over, once the last of the customers were chased out. They'd been over there more than usual lately, since the girls weren't exactly in a frame of mind to put up with their plonking themselves in the middle of their flat and begging for food. George gave Charlie a clap on the arm as a more personal hello, now that he wasn't busy. "Good to see you, Professor," he teased, wrinkling his nose at the title.

George had a smear of something vaguely greenish on the collar of his shirt, and a little charred patch of skin on the inside of his wrist. But neither were enough to make him think he had to go up to the flat before he went out anywhere. Or bother about fixing it. "You said fish and chips, right?" He thought he'd heard that, anyway. "What about that place we went with that bloke we were buying packing supplies from, that time? It was pretty good."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

tamethebeast
2010-03-07 05:17 am UTC (link)

"You two really go to The Leaky Cauldron that often?" he laughed. Charlie went enough, and certainly would not have minded going that evening—but he wanted to leave the decision up to Fred and George where they went for dinner, with the hope they would go somewhere with greasy, fried food.

Charlie finally got the chance to greet George, "spending all your money on Tom? That's generous of you." George calling him a professor, albeit jokingly, was still not something Charlie thought he could get used to. Even so, he preferred the students calling him by his first name since he was not at all a proper professor—at least not the way he saw it. Teaching became a passion he never thought he would have, but in a way their parents were teachers with a class of seven students of all different ages, likes, and dreams.

The grin on his face remained as he awaited the twins to close up shop completely before they headed out. "Anywhere you want to go," Charlie shrugged as he zipped up his coat. "It's been a long time since I've been out, really." Charlie was not terribly picky regarding food anyway, and he trusted his brothers completely to choose where they went. It was easier and they likely knew all the good spots—Charlie certainly did not.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

weasleyforge
2010-03-08 04:59 am UTC (link)

"It had some pun name, didn't it?" Fred couldn't remember, and he looked at George and made a helpless sort of hand gesture that meant his brother was supposed to help him along. "The Dirty Tackle? Or was that that seaside pub in Holyhead where we met the girl with the blue thing?" He was pretty sure that was right, or he was thinking of the place where they took the bloke from Gringott's when they'd been trying to get the paperwork filed for Hogsmeade faster.

He shrugged after a minute, and finished the locking up he had to do before digging his wallet and things out from under the counter and heading to the door to let them out into the night of Diagon before he locked up and warded the front doors. "I think I can find that place again, anyway. Was in Whitechapel, right? We can ask one of those cabs to drop us off and just walk about until we find it." Which was how he and George did most things in London proper, anyway.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

weasleygred
2010-03-10 10:40 am UTC (link)

George shrugged in a wordless "dunno" sort of gesture to Fred. "Think that was the girl with the blue thing. . . . but that was good too. We can go there," George agreed with a smile for Charlie. "Yeah, I think it was Whitechapel." Or maybe not. If not, there was probably places to eat their anyway. Fred and George were brilliant at remembering the little details of their shop and products. Details of everything else - not so much.

He followed Fred outside and gave Charlie a friendly nudge. "So you don't get out much, eh? Do they chain you to a desk? Or do they do some sort of charm that takes away your sense of fun, once you start teaching? We always suspected they did that to Filch."

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

tamethebeast
2010-03-11 08:06 am UTC (link)

"Whitechapel?" he said, raising an eyebrow, "we could always solve the Jack the Ripper murders instead of going to dinner." Charlie smirked and followed Fred and George out of the shop.

Being at the castle for the Order meant sticking around as much as possible. However, Charlie knew he would wind up with cabin fever if he never left—not to mention how close everyone in the family was now that he returned to England. Charlie could not simply remain in the castle so close to actually being with family. As much as he missed everyone, knowing he was in Romania and not able to see them was far different from being at arm's length and doing nothing to make the effort. Charlie grew rather tired of thinking he practically abandoned his family for those years.

As they walked, Charlie nodded and kept a straight face, "absolutely, George. I outsmarted the guard and outran the dogs to be here tonight." After a moment, he simply clapped George on the back, "is it really that hard to picture me behind a desk? I'm teaching Care of Magical Creatures, so I at least get to wander about in my own jeans and dirty boots." He laughed a bit, "usually I just let the class talk about the animals in a semi-guided discussion. I'm teaching them, but I'm not hard on them in any way, nor do I expect anything unreasonable from them."

Charlie was very relaxed in the classroom setting and hardly put too much structure or effort into worrying whether or not they covered all material. As well as Charlie did in school, academics were not his strong suit and he had to work hard at it—hence why he hardly had much of a social life on top of everything else he elected to take on as far as responsibility. Care of Magical Creatures was a class he thought was free reign as long as the students were happy, interested, and participating.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

weasleyforge
2010-03-18 01:11 am UTC (link)

"That's true," Fred said, smacking George on the arm as they walked and shrugging. "He could be teaching Ancient Runes or something, and then we'd have to disown him. At least with Magical Creatures we can pretend he's still just messing about with dragons and the like, so he's almost still as wicked cool as he was a few years ago."

Fred grinned at Charlie though, as he said it, to show he didn't quite mean it - not entirely at least - and a second later he threw an arm around Charlie's shoulders, letting George tap bricks and the like to get them out of Diagon Alley. Moving through The Leaky Cauldron, he could almost see Tom's face falling when they headed out to the muggle side instead of taking up their usual chairs.

"So, cab then?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

weasleygred
2010-03-22 03:17 am UTC (link)

"Outsmarted the dogs? McGonagall's slacking and buying the cut rate dogs that had puppies with their own mums, isn't she?" George asked Charlie with a grin, feigning a grunt at the clap to his back and then shrugging. "Dunno. I can't picture anyone behind a desk. Except people who I met already behind a desk. Fredders and me got nutters if we have to sit behind the counter too long and don't make enough money that it's fun while we do." Making money made them more patient than they'd otherwise be. They weren't greedy materialistic bastards exactly - but they were the sons of a poor family. They understood the value of money and delighted in making boatloads of it by being more brilliant than anyone else.

He chuckled though. "Probably a bit less students getting their heads almost bitten off, these days, yeah?" Since Hagrid hadn't been the safest of teachers, even if he was a brilliant bloke, and had always been good for looking the other way while the twins snuck some whiskey into the castle or the like. He'd even distracted Filch a time or two. (Granted, possibly not on purpose, but George chose to think it had been.)

He kicked at Fred's arse as he walked by, payback for the punch. "Yeah, but he doesn't get us dragon dung for discount now. So he's a prat," he answered, throwing Charlie a teasing smile.

He got them out of Diagon. "Yeah. But you pay. The last time I tipped the driver a fortune and I thought he was going to snog me," he told Fred.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(Read comments) -