Charlie
Pure chaos. That was the only way Charlie could describe the twins’ joke shop this close to Christmas. And he worked with dragons for Merlin’s sake. He had no idea what he was signing up for when he offered to help out. Stock a few shelves, chat up a pretty bird or bloke, joke around with some kids. Instead, he hadn't stopped running back and forth to the stock room for this, that, or the other.
He was more than happy to accept when Lee came in and told him to go take a break. Plus he had spied his sister bouncing through the sales floor to the break room, which usually meant food. As he reached the door he heard a heated conversation, Ginny’s shrill ‘Mum’ voice and Georgie sounded more than a little exasperated. Time to play big brother.
“What’s all this then?” Charlie asked entering the room. He made a beeline to the stacks of takeaway containers on the table.
“Mind your own,” George and Ginny said at the same time.
They looked at each other and smiled. Good, tension broken, and he didn't even have to do a thing. On second thought, the only time these two agreed on anything was when they were plotting. Now he was curious.
“Alright, I’ll just go ask Fred.”
Guilty faces. Yupp.
“Fine, he may be able to help,” George conceded. Then turned to Charlie. “How do you feel about a bit of matchmaking?”
“Who are you trying to set Freddie up with?” Living in Romania meant he lost out on most of the gossip.
“Hermione,” George and Ginny said, again in unison.
“That’s getting creepy… Wait, Hermione? Hermione Granger? That’s an odd pair, innit?”
“Just how many Hermione’s do you know running about?” George asked.
Charlie chose to ignore him.
“On paper, sure, but those two are perfect for each other,” Ginny said, taking the box of noodles Charlie was helping himself to and summoned a plate.
“Not to mention, they’ve been hot for each other for years off and on,” George said, ignoring Ginny’s fussing, picking up another box.
“I think I need the back story, when did this start?” Charlie asked, accepting the plate from Ginny.
“It was Fred first wasn't it?” Ginny asked. Apparently, this was a tea conversation as she pulled the kettle down.
“Yeah, third year, it started when we found her crying over something stupid Ron had said. He kinda made it his mission to cheer her up without anyone noticing. I think he admired how strong she was, even if a bit of a swot.”
“It was the next year for Mione,” Ginny picked up, “Malfoy called her a you-know-what, and Fred nearly pummelled him, with his fists. George and Ron defended her too of course, but it was like Fred just saw red. She thought it was very sweet, if not a bit violent.”
“He went on a tirade after that, just couldn’t let it go. He was relentless on Malfoy for months after that. Every time he saw the git he was throwing jinxes.”
“Alright, this all just seems like fairly innocent kid stuff,” Charlie said, confused on how a couple of random moments equaled true love.
“It's more than that though, they’ve always had this chemistry. I’m not sure how to explain it. They would always seek each other out to tease and nag and always ended up laughing about it. It's like some sort of gravitational pull,” Ginny said with a faraway look in her eyes.
“You've no idea how many times Fred would sneak into the library or time a prank just right for her to see it. Just so she would argue with him. It was exhausting really, looking around a corner for her to finally come into view because he ‘couldn’t wait to see how angry she would be.”
“What really cemented it I think, for her, was at the battle. I went over to her to thank her for doing that muggle CRP thing and I don't even know if she even realised she said it out loud, but she just looked through me and said ‘I just couldn't lose him.”
“Then she spent nearly as much time as I did sitting in that blasted hospital room. She said it was because it was quiet there and she just needed a bit of peace, but more than once I woke up to see her crying and holding his hand.”
“Okay, now it makes a bit more sense,” Charlie said. “So what’s the plan?”