Postage
Marriage Law.
Those two words were enough to shack the foundation of Charlie Weasley's world.
But the name of the person he was suppose to marry... Charlie blacked out.
Iris Rosewood.
The bright eyed girl from his teenage years. Bill's friend. Then his friend.
Bill was going to murder him. He knew it. Yes he was married, but Bill had the biggest crush on Iris when they were younger and hoped that she would one day see him as more of a friend. Then when Rowan had died, who had a crush on Bill, he knew that Iris would never be able to be anything more then friends with him.
Charlie had always seen Fleur as a French knock off of Iris, like Bill had just found someone who looked like Iris (even down to being part Veela), since he couldn't have the real one. The only difference was that Fleur was taller then Iris, with a significantly smaller bum and hips.
Oh yeah. Charlie was dead. Bill was going to strangle him and then dance on his corpse.
Honestly, he had no idea how he was going to tell Bill that he was legally required to marry Iris. She had been a part of their lives for years and had continued to be part of their life even after Hogwarts.
Iris had married Ben soon after they graduated Hogwarts. Bill had been devastated, and Charlie had thrown himself into Dragon training in Romania. It was almost five years before Charlie saw Iris again, they had run into each other at Hogwarts while he was dropping off the dragons for the Tri-Wizard tournament. They had met eyes from across the clearing where she was standing and that was it. He had tried to find her and speak with her, but she had left before he could find her. The same could be said at Bill's wedding. He watched her dance with Ben, and smile and laugh when he said something to her, and watched as he protected her from harm, apperating them away as soon as Shacklebolt's patronus had shown up.
Then he had seen her at the battle... Weeping over a body. Ben's body. She had lost her husband, and Tonks, her best friend, during the same battle along with Remus and Fred like he had. He had attended Ben's funeral with most of his family, and Iris had stood in the front row alone, dressed in black from head to toe. Most of their school friends, who had lived, had came as well. They had hugged her and wished her well and given their condolences, but Charlie knew words didn't help when you were putting someone in the ground before their time.
They had buried Rowan years ago. Then came Cedric. Tonks, Lupin, Fred, and Ben had all been lost in the battle. He knew from his family that they had done what they could to keep Iris around. Bill and Fluer had spent a lot of time with her, and Mum had invited her to every family meal that they had, and to all the holidays. Iris was at Ron and Hermione's wedding, and he knew she was invited to Harry and Ginny's which was coming up. He also knew that she had an invitation to George and Angelina's wedding as well.
Always across the room, and always silent anymore. He remembered the girl from his Hogwarts years as full of joy and charisma, strongest of their year, smart of a fox, and kindness of a saint. This girl looked like Iris, with longer hair he noted, but this was a version of Iris he would have rather never seen. This was an Iris with a broken soul, and he had never felt such sadness as watching her wilt like a cut flower.
The second letter he opened was one from his Mum, an invitation to dinner that night. It was not really a invitation, he knew what his mum was saying between the lines.
Come home tonight. Was what she was actually saying. He wondered if his Dad or Percy had heard anything about this, or if it had just came from nowhere. Kingsley was someone they considered a friend, a little heads up would have been nice.
He heard another one of his co-workers begin to swear and he knew he had just read the letter from the ministry.
“Weasley! You're from Great Britian, did you get one of these insane things?” He asked walking over to where Charlie was attempting to eat his lunch.
“I did.” He held up his. “Atleast I know the woman.”
“I do too and that does little to settle my nerves! She was ghastly when we were younger!”
Charlie didn't rub it in his face that Iris was anything but ghastly. He just kept silent, finished his lunch while he heard his co-workers going off, and then wrote to his mother that he would floo in for the night and have dinner.