Chains That Bind

“Come inside for a second with me.” Iris told him after the ceremony, “we'll be right back, then we can do the pictures.” She told Molly who was busy ushering people into the tent and getting ready for cocktail hour. Iris wrapped her hand around Charlie's elbow and all but pulled him behind her, and into the Burrow. She walked directly over to the potion cabinet and sorted through some, handing two little bottles to him. “You need to drink these.”

“How did-”

“It's not hard.” She told him firmly. Charlie nodded and downed the potions, he honestly did not know what he was even drinking but he trusted Iris to give him the correct ones. “Eat this.” She held out a piece of bread and a little wedge of cheese for him to scarf down quickly. “Better?”

“A little.” He nodded. Whatever she had given him seemed to help sober him up.

“Good, now we can go take some decent pictures for your Momma to be proud of.” We can even make it onto the wall.” Iris gestured at the photo wall where all of the wedding photos had been hung as each child got married.

“Ooo, the wall. Never thought I'd grace the wall.”

“Neither did I.” Iris almost chuckled as she turned to head out the door. Only then did Charlie notice the back of the dress, dipping down to her mid back with a ridiculous amount of little round pearly buttons that went down to her bum. Her curvy bum. Ah... Yes, now he understood why his roommates would go on an on about Iris's bum.

He had to let out a little chuckle, remembering the conversations of who had the best bum, which had been awarded to Iris unanimously, then who had the best breasts, which had actually been a tie between Chiara and Penny.

“What?” Iris asked, and in a moment of bravery he admitted.

“You have a great bum.”

“And that made you... Laugh?” She asked, chuckling herself.

“I just remember back in school all the nights where we would decide who had the best bum, and you always won.”

“Really?”

“Mhmm. Hands down, every time.” He genuinely watched her smile, and almost look... Sheepish at the compliment.

“Well, thank you...”

“Thank you.” Charlie smiled, feeling like this was almost flirting.

“Come on Romeo, we have to go take some photos.” She motioned for him to follow her back outside to where everyone was gathering for photos.

Thankfully after what seemed to be hours, they were then ushered into the tent for cocktail hour and food. Iris lamented how grateful she was because she had not been able to eat anything, being to busy with wedding things to actually be able to eat.

“At least it wasn't as eventful as Bill's.” Iris joked as she was handed a plate of food.

“That's true, we actually were able to enjoy the party, and have our dinner.” Charlie said with a smile, taking the plate offered to him.

“And we get to have our cake too.” She pointed at the cake about ten feet from where they sat, all dressed in white with delicate flowers.

“See, totally better then Bill and Fleur's!” Charlie joked. Iris actually smiled and took another bite of her dinner.

“Let's be honest, anything was better then Bill and Fleur's... And your hair isn't dreadful.” She snickered, Charlie groaned at the memory of his mother butchering his hair the morning of the wedding and how dreadfully short it was. Bill's hair had looked glorious, and long, while Charlie looked like his hair had been run through a paper shredder.

“It was horrendous.” He nodded, “she was ruthless when she cut it too.”

“I didn't recognize you at the wedding, Ben actually had to assure me it was you.”

“At least she let me keep the beard.” Iris nodded,

“I'm glad, it suits you. I think you're the only one that can actually pull off facial hair in the family.”

“You think?” He asked, running his hand over his cheek and chin. Iris nodded as she finally took a bite of her food and hummed happily. “I think Bill mentioned them doing a do-over for their five year anniversary.” Charlie told her, “what did you try first?” She pointed at the potatoes on her plate.

“Those.”

Charlie followed her suggestion and took a bite, enjoying the wedges of cheesy, creamy potatoes.

“Gonna' need to find out who made them.” He mentioned, still chewing. “Did you get any leeks?”

“There was leeks?” Iris asked, perking up. Charlie had remembered that Iris was a huge fan of leeks when they had meals at Hogwarts, one time Pitts even made her her very own platter of roasted leeks with some sort of cheese or something on them. He had mentioned it to his Mum, and Molly had told him she would make something for Iris for the wedding.

“Suppose to be, let me go ask my Mum.” He stood up and went to find his mother. She quickly ran over to the table and handed a plate of the roasted leeks over to Charlie. When he returned to the table he noticed Iris staring off past where the tables were set up, and followed her line of sight to see the blue hair of Teddy Lupin being played with by Ginny and Harry.

“I miss them.” Iris said sadly.

“I do too.” Charlie hadn't known Remus well, but he had known Tonks his whole life. Molly had always hoped that Bill or Charlie would marry Iris and Tonks, it didn't matter who married who. But he was aware that Iris and Tonks had been close friends, best friends. They did a lot together, and had stood beside one another when each got married. “I found the leeks.” He offered them to her.

“Thank you Charlie, that was really thoughtful.”

“I remembered how much you liked them. I wanted to make sure we had some.” He told her, turning back to his meal. Iris didn't say anything, but in a moment that shocked him, she simply reached over and gave his hand a gentle squeeze.

They cut the cake, and it was actually quite amazing, Iris and her sweet tooth ended up with a second slice. Then there was dancing. So. Much. Dancing. Charlie and Iris had a awkward first dance, where they didn't really have eye contact and stayed an appropriate space from each other. Then Charlie danced with his Mum. While there was typically a father daughter dance, Iris's father did not come, nor had he been invited, so instead fathers and daughters had been invited to dance instead. Iris simply looked on, and Charlie felt a surge of anger as to who's idea that was to keep the father daughter dance, but just exclude the most important daughter.

“I know what you're thinking.” Iris said, not looking over at him, instead her head was looking down at the glass of champagne bubbling in her hand. “It's ok. My Dad and I have not been on good terms for years, it doesn't bother me anymore. We weren't like you, your Mum and Dad loved you guys unconditionally... That was never the case for Jacob and I.” Charlie felt another pang of anger, Jacob had not shown up. He looked up and scanned the crowd, seeing if maybe her brother had came but he had missed him. “He's not here.” Iris said, bringing the drink to her lips. “He's in Africa on some mission and couldn't get away, chasing some Dark Wizards.”

“I'm sorry, Iris.” Charlie told her, honestly feeling bad that her family life had been so hard. The hardest thing they had been through was when Percy wasn't talking to them, and then when Fred died. Those only hit them so hard because they were such a close family. “You have me now. I'm not going anywhere.” He told her honestly. Her blue eyes looked at him, as though she was trying to gauge of he was telling the truth or not. He remembered the sombre declaration at Ginny and Harry's wedding, I've been alone in a room full of people. “And Bill, George, Ron, Ginny, they're all yours too. Technically so is Percy but I know he still drives you batty.” She actually laughed at that, and that encouraged him to keep going.” You have Fleur, Victoire, little baby in Fleur's belly. Harry, Angelina. They're you're family now. You have brothers and a sisters... And you have Mum and Dad, you know they've always loved you.”

“They have.” She nodded, “more then my own.”

“Harry said the same thing. I think that's what makes parents like... Real parents.” Iris nodded.

“Absolutely. They're the best parents in the world, truly.”

Charlie marked that as a win, Iris loved his family and that was one step closer to perhaps finding peace among the chaos that they had been thrown into.

When the party was winding down, Charlie realized in a moment that made his head spin, what was then going to happen. He had to go home... Alone with Iris. Only now they were married, things were a given as to what was suppose to happen on wedding nights. Things that both excited Charlie, and made him sick to his stomach.

While he had never seen a reason to date, he was a young guy, and those thoughts and urges did rise to the surface on occasion. Seeing Iris look so pretty did little to help squash those thoughts. The simple satin dress accentuated Iris's feminine curves and her skin. Her white blonde hair had been twisted back into some ornate braids by Fleur and Ginny, who also wove flowers into her hair like a crown, and left half of her hair down to simply fall into the perfect long curls that she was known for.

The white dress, fair hair, and her blue eyes, she reminded him of a leucistic lynx he had once saw near the reserve. They are indigenous to Romania, so it made sense to see it, but he had never saw one in real life, let alone one in such a rare color. It was beautiful. Even in the moment, it reminded him of Iris.

“Charlie, sweetheart, here.” Molly called, pulling him out of his reverie. “I made you some plates to go so you and Iris don't have to worry about cooking tomorrow, or if you wake up hungry tonight.” She cooed, handing him the to-go plates.

“Oh, yeah. Thank you Mum.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek before turning to Iris.

“My dear, I'll take care of everything else, you don't need to worry.” She told her newest daughter in law, a twinkle in her eye. “I'll put a preservation serum on the flowers and drop them by, Charlie has food for you two, and I'll have Arthur and Bill bring the presents over tomorrow morning, oh! I'll make you breakfast tomorrow as well, I'll have them drop that off with the gifts.” Molly tutted.

“Oh, wow, thank you Molly. You don't have to do that.”

“My dear,” Molly took Iris's hands and looked at the young woman, “if you feel comfortable, you can call me Mum now. I always thought myself your Mum, but now... Well.” She didn't want to admit her elation with the marriage, but she was thrilled that Iris was hers now. Iris smiled warmly at her Mother in law, remembering the conversation she had with Charlie earlier.

“Thank you, Mum.” Molly couldn't help but let the waterworks begin, hugging Iris tightly in her arms. No matter the way, Iris was thankful that she had become an official member of the Weasley's. She loved Molly and Arthur like they were her own parents, in fact most of her happiest memories involved their home and their family.

“I love you dear.” Molly whispered in her ear, and Iris felt the tears come to her eyes.

“I love you too.”

---------------------------------------------------

Charlie apperated outside the front door and felt his ears turning progressively red. The front door opened and Iris looked at him oddly

“What are you doing?” She asked, seeing him standing on the front porch.

“I uh...” He tried to come up with some reason why he had apperated outside instead of inside the house, but found himself fumbling.

“Alright. Good talk.” Iris said, leaving the door open for him to come inside. He sheepishly followed her inside where he watched her put away the plates of food into the fridge and then help herself to a glass of water.

“That... Looks... Good...” Charlie mentioned, feeling suddenly parched. Iris filled her glass up again and handed it in his direction where he grabbed it and gulped it.

“Need some more?”

“Yes please.” He nodded.

“Well I'm headed upstairs.” She mentioned and he wasn't sure if she was simply stating what she was doing or if she was headed upstairs, as in... Well, he felt the blush returning and creeping down his neck, the cold water doing little for how hot the room suddenly became. Charlie put the cup in the sink, and rolled his shoulder's, hyping himself up for whatever was going to come.

He ascended the stairs and walked into their bedroom where Iris was still plucking the flowers from her hair.

“I swear Ginny and Fleur put glue on these.” She joked, trying to get a particular flower out of her hair that looked like a knotted mess. It looked almost painful in Charlie's eyes, he had long hair so he knew that knots and getting stuff caught did hurt.

“Here,” Charlie interveened and helped pluck the flower out, “they missed a thorn.” He mentioned breaking off the thirn and freeing the lock of hair.

“Thank you, I would have pricked myself.” She mentioned offhandedly, turning her attention to trying to get the buttons of her dress undone.

“Do you... Need help? It has a lot of buttons.” Charlie asked, actually taking a close look at the dress she was wearing and all the buttons along the back and down near her... Bum. Iris gave him a look and he noticed she seemed to hesitate before nodding, and pulling all her hair over her shoulder, exposing her back to him. “Did you cut your hair?” He asked, noticing it looked shorter, still not short by any means, but shorter for her.

“Yeah. The other day, your Mum trimmed a few inches off so it was healthy for the wedding.” Iris told him as he struggled with the button.

“What on earth... How did you even get this on?” He asked, still struggling with the first button. Iris chuckled a little.

“You can always try the untanglement charm.” She offered. Charlie nodded, grabbing his wand from inside his jacket pocket, pointing it at the dress buttons. He said the charm, and watched as the loops parted from the buttons, exposing her back down to the small of her back. “Thank you.” She mumbled, stepping into her closet and out of his sight.

Charlie wasn't sure what she was doing, but he decided that if she was getting out of her wedding attire, then he would to. He took his suit jacket off and hung it up in the closet, then took his white button up and tossed it into a basket of dirty laundry. He looked down at his new jeans and wondered if those should go in the hamper, which would leave him just in his-

Iris came out of her closet in a robe that was closed with a bow around her waist. They looked at one another and Charlie ended up blurting the quickest thing he could think,

“did you get your chickens in?”

“One of my employees did.” She told him, sliding her feet into a pair of slippers. He looked down at his feet, feeling every inch of embarrassment as silence went on between them. “Um... Do you... Just want to go to sleep tonight?” He asked, knowing that as awkward as this is, it wasn't going to get better if they tried to actually have sex, it would just get worse. When they did, he wanted it to be at least easy to do rather than something forced. He watched her shoulder's relax.

“I think that would be best.” She nodded, quickly retreating to her side of the bed. “I'm exhausted.” She mentioned, jumping under the covers, still clad in her robe.

“Yeah... It's been a long day.” He nodded, “we should sleep well though. I'm going to take a shower.”

“Ok.” Iris adjusted herself and looked like she was getting comfortable to sleep. What he didn't see was Iris peeking over to comforter watching him finish undressing. He took off the white undershirt and tossed it into the hamper. Charlie was shorter, and broader then the rest of his brothers, and his job left him heavily muscled. Iris saw just how heavily freckled his back was. He ditched his jeans and socks, then walked into the bathroom to start the shower, deciding to keep his boxers on until he was actually in the shower.

He knew he would have to get used to undressing in Iris's presence, but to go from zero to one hundred, clothed to butt naked... Nope, he couldn't do that overnight.