Seven Days
Charlie walked with Iris the morning of Ginny's wedding as she snipped flowers here and there of reds, blacks, oranges and yellows. It was a fiery mix, and he found it fitting colors for Ginny. Iris put together the bouquet like it was just second nature, placing flowers together and adding greenery and the pussy willow that Ginny had asked for. She would stop and admire the bouquet periodically, studying it, then adding or taking away what she deemed was good or bad until she had a full, dramatic bouquet that was perfect for Ginny.
“What do you think?” Iris asked him.
“It looks like Ginny.” He told her, and it was truthful. It looked like his little sister embodied in a floral bouquet, down to the snarky part of her personality.
“Hopefully she will feel the same, I'm going to apperate over there, make sure she likes it and see of there is anything left to work on or if they need you.” She told him.
“Ok, just let me know. Do you need any help here?” He offered.
“No, I already handled everything.” She assured him before there was a soft pop of her apperating off to the burrow.
They had successfully went a week living together. Still, Charlie felt like he and Iris were more roommates that shared a bed then a couple getting ready to be married. He did his best to do things with her when he got back from the reserve, and he had tried small displays of affection. While they weren't met with distaste, they weren't reciprocated. He could handle that, so long as she wasn't actively pushing him away.
He decided to take a walk through the fields, a few of Iris's workers started to trickle in for the shifts and Charlie decided to introduce himself. He had honestly expected them to not know anything about him, but was met with-
“It's finally good to put a face to a name!”
“Oh you're so handsome! I'm happy for the two of you.”
“So you're Charlie! Iris told us about you!”
What all she had told them though was the question. They all had known Ben, hell they worked for Ben and Iris, and he wondered how many others would be ok with her starting a new relationship pretty soon after being widowed.
“You're Charlie?” There was a girl who asked. He turned and looked at her, simply nodding.
“I am, and you?”
“I'm Melody. I was the first person Ben and Iris hired here.” She explained. “Iris has become a really close friend, in addition to being my boss for almost ten years. I don't know what she's doing, but it seems unlike her to just jump into another marriage.” Charlie felt a noose tighten around his neck. This girl was a muggle, Iris had explained all her workers were, so he couldn't tell her the truth and he wasn't sure what Iris had already told this girl.
“It's... Complicated, but Iris and I have been friends since we were kids, and when we were in school I was actually Ben's dorm mate.”
“You knew Ben too?” She asked, her features softening a bit.
“I did. He was my friend.” He told her, “the accident that killed him, and Iris's best friend-”
“Tonks, yeah I met her a couple times.”
“Well, it killed my little brother too.”
“Oh. I'm sorry, I feel like a right arsehole now.” She admitted. “It was hard watching her go through that, and I'm just protective.”
“I understand.” He nodded. “It was hard for all of us, thankfully my family has always been close-”
“You're a Weasley!” She exclaimed, seeming to connect the dots. “You must be Bill's brother!”
“I am.” He smiled, her change of mood was good.
“Now I know you, you work at that animal reserve in Romania! Ben talked about you and how you really found your passion. He was happy for you.” The mention of Ben talking highly of Charlie to his staff hit Charlie harder in the heart then he thought it would. They had been friends in school, then had drifted apart in their later years, to the point that when he moved to Romania he lost contact with ben as well as Iris.
“Well, I was happy for him. What he and Iris did here, with you're help of course, is just amazing.”
“Oh, we don't do much. Iris and Ben were really the brains behind it all. Iris is the most amazing botanist I have ever met, she can do things with flowers and plants that I thought was impossible.” Melody said, causing Charlie to let out a nervous laugh.
“She really is talented. I'm proud of her, not a lot of people wanted her to go into botany, most people thought she would be better in law enforcement.”
“Oh I could see that, she's short but she has a six foot six personality.”
“And temper.” Charlie nodded, making Melody laugh.
“Ah, you do know her well.”
“I'm been on the receiving end of her temper a couple times.” Charlie shrugged.
“Charlie!” They heard a voice call out, “I need you in the greenhouse!” Iris was back and waving to him by one of the long tunnel greenhouses.
“Duty calls. It was nice meeting you.” Charlie excused himself and Melody waved him off as she turned to go back to what she was doing.
“She didn't threaten your life, did she?” Iris asked.
“Oh Melody? No, she's fine, just worried about you.” He explained.
“She's just protective, she was a friend of Ben's when he was young.” Iris explained. “Your Mum needs help with the tent, and the chairs. Harry also forgot to get boutonnieres, so he asked if I could throw some together that matched Ginny's bouquet.”
“Did Ginny like the bouquet?”
“She said it was perfect.” Iris smiled, “now I just have to get the boutonnieres ready.”
“You need help before I go?”
“You know how to make boutonnieres?” Iris asked with a raised eyebrow, a smile playing at her lips.
“Well... No, but I've worn plenty of them before.” He told her. His mind supplied that this may indeed be flirting, but he wasn't going to push.
“The company sounds nice.” Iris admitted as she started to head towards the field. “He wanted me to just pick something that went with the colors, so I was thinking about the Drumline Tulips since they have that rich Gryffindor color to them with little hints of white. Then I wanted to make your mum a corsage too.”
“You could make Mum's out of sweet pea's, she grew them when we were young. Do you have any that would match Ginny's colors?”
“I do actually! That's a good idea, Charlie, thank you.”
He and Iris clipped nine of the tulips, one for each of his brothers, his dad, Harry, then Iris had the idea to go ahead and make one in Fred's honor, to lay on a chair that Ginny had asked to leave empty for her brother, and one for little Teddy.
Iris then showed Charlie the rows of sweet peas, they were not as in bloom as some of the other fields, she had explained that they were letting them go to seed, but there was still plenty of buds to choose from.
Charlie was once again astounded by the colors Iris had in her collection, blue, pink, white, purple, and red. She showed him a variety called Windsor, which was as close to Gryffindor maroon as one could get. She then picked some greenery, and a couple twigs from the tree that Charlie hated, they headed inside for her to make up the boutonnieres.
Before he left, he decided he wanted some coffee, Iris had showed him the world of espresso and he was not going back to anything else.
“Do you mind if I show you the dress I was planning on wearing?” Iris asked him as he fumbled with the coffee maker.
“Sure.” He nodded. The fact she was wanting his opinion on something was good, and he was happy to help. Iris headed up the stairs and disappeared, while Charlie looked for the instruction manual for the freaking coffee maker.
He was about to hex the thing when Iris returned with the dress on. He looked in her direction and saw her in a floor length sage green dress, and her hair loose around her shoulders and back.
“You look beautiful!” Was his first reply when he saw her. She looked up at him and then down at her dress.
“Thank you.” She played with the bottom of the long dress, twisting about a little. “I'm concerned it isn't dressy enough though. What do you think?”
“I think it's dressy enough. It's really pretty. I've never seen you wear green before.” Charlie noted. “It's usually blue or pink.”
“Well those are my colors.” She grinned a bit. “But I'm wearing blue to Chiara's and pink to Penny's, so I wanted to not repeat colors since there's going to be a shit-ton of photos taken at all these weddings.”
“What are you wearing at Barnaby's?”
“A dark green suit, I actually have to go get it tailored tomorrow. Then Tulip's is black.”
“Of course it is.” Charlie laughed. “What about to George's wedding?”
“Uh... What about something yellow?” She asked, and he was rather taken back at the fact she was asking him and including him in all her planning.
“Yellow would be nice, or red.” He offered, his brain supplying the image of her white hair with a red bow in it.
“I already have a red dress, if I can still fit in it, from one of the dances back when we were in school.” She told him, walking over to assist with making the coffee without a word.
“Thank you, I was about to hex the thing.”
“Trust me I have, it has no effect.” She told him.
Soon there was the sound of dripping and steaming, the coffee was brewing and Iris went to sit at the table and work on the boutonnieres.
Iris sat at the kitchen table, putting them together while Charlie made his coffee. Cream straight from the cow rather than purchased from the store was something he found himself liking much more. In the days he had been living with Iris, he had become quite the coffee drinker and even had a bottle of the cream at work that he shared with his co-workers that Iris had flavored with vanilla.
Charlie turned and went to go sit at the table with Iris, but stopped for a moment to admire the sight. His admiration for Iris grew by the day, it was Saturday, and she had a business she ran but here she was putting everything on the back burner for his little sister. She was delicately putting the flowers, greenery, and filler together to make beautiful little pieces of wearable art for the wedding when she could have had someone else do it. She also was not charging his family anything, and he knew that Iris's flowers were not cheap, they weren't unattainably expensive either, but he knew she was loosing out on a fairly large sale and would continue to because she had already told George and Percy that they could come and pick anything they wanted. He assumed that she had told the same to her friends, like Penny, Chiara, Barnaby, and Tulip.
She had been up before dawn to take care of her animals, her farm chores, had already put together Ginny's bouquet, came back home, got ready, and was now finishing the others, and it wasn't even ten yet. When she was finished she placed all of them in a basket for transport and stood up.
“I need to go talk to the farm manager and just make sure everything is under control, then we can go over to the burrow.”
“You want me to make you some coffee? Have you even had anything to eat yet?” He asked her.
“I haven't actually, but your Mum had pastries so I'll just eat some of those. Coffee sounds great though.” She told him as she opened the back door.
“I will attempt to make something you'll like.” He informed her and she actually smiled at him.
“Thank you, Charlie.”