Closure
Iris decided to try something romantic while Charlie was away for the day. While she did not want to admit that feelings were changing, that would be like admitting that the law itself wasn't horrible and she refused to do that, she couldn't help but find herself wanting to spend more time with Charlie.
She went into the bathroom, used engorgio on the clawfoot tub, and ran some warm water in it before she went out to the front garden to collect some aromathereputic herbs and flowers. Iris returned with the handful of cuttings and crumbled them into the water before adding a few dashes of oils and a handful of bath salt. It smelled wonderful.
Charlie would be back relatively soon from the sanctuary, well she expected, and she wondered what the spontaneous meeting had been about. Part of her was concerned that Charlie's recovery was taking too long and that they had called him back to release him. If that was the case, Iris's romantic plans would have to take a turn more towards trying to just lighten his mood rather then anything else she had thought of.
When Iris was happy with the bath she cast a warming spell on the water to keep it at a solid temperature until Charlie got home. She turned her attention to herself and decided to do something with her enormous amount of hair, settling to twist and wrap it up into a bun, all off her neck and back. She was already wearing mascara, and went ahead and put on some lipstick and blush. In her eyes, she had pretty skin so she didn't need to much other then add some color once in a while.
She opened her closet and her mind went to one piece of clothing and she reached for it but her hand stopped just before she grabbed it. The black dress hung near the back of her closet, untouched for years now. It was once her favorite, one that she felt extremely attractive in, hugged her in all the right spots, and showed off her best aspects.
Along with all the good feelings, was ones of hurt. Iris had worn it on her honeymoon with Ben. He had taken her to a Muggle restaurant and she had felt like the Muggle Queen, and by the look on his face, Ben had thought the same of her. She had worn it on a few of their anniversaries, and then she had worn it to his funeral. She had then worn it to Tonks and Lupins, and then to Fred's. It had went from being a happy occasion dress to a poor one. Iris turned her hand over and looked at the ring still on her finger. She had removed her engagement ring years ago, but left her wedding band on.
Even when she and Charlie had married, they never exchanged rings. He had bought himself one, but it had been lost during the fire. Iris let out a long sigh and took her fingers and laid them over the golden band, sliding it off her finger. It took a little force, it had been on her finger for nearly ten years. She then took the dress off the hanger and walked into the bedroom, opening a drawer at the bottom of her dresser. Inside there was a couple small boxes that held keepsakes from her and Ben's marriage, along with one of his sweaters and his school robes.
Iris opened one of the boxes and placed her wedding band with her engagement ring and Ben's wedding band. That was when she couldn't hold back the sob that escaped her lips. Tears ran down her face and she didn't wipe them away. This was her closure that had been escaping her for years now. She grasped the ring she had given him and brought it to her lips.
“I will always love you.” She admitted out loud, “but I know you'd want me to live. I haven't been living, I've been surviving.” She had faced some of her darkest days with Ben by her side since she was a preteen, then she had to face her worst without him. She had two of her closest friends, watched them die along with her husband, in eight years. Still, just like she did when she was a teenager, she was left still standing.
The same darkness had stolen her loved ones, friends, family, her husband and her joy. She made the decision that she was not going to let it win over her anymore. She would always have love Ben, til the day she died, but she also had an opportunity to move forward and have a wonderful life. Iris had been married into the Weasley's, she honestly could not have picked out anything better. She loved them and they loved her already, she was their family in every sense of the word already. Charlie was a good man, he always had been, he had tried to be a good husband, in the only ways he knew how to be because he had never even dated anyone... Then he had been thrown not only into a relationship but marriage out of the gate.
She had been hard headed, cold, and truthfully cruel to him in her hurt. She had no one to lash out to so she had lashed out to Charlie simply because he was there. In the inner most part of her heart, she knew exactly what had made her last out that way, what had been causing her to act the way she did. It wasn't because she wasn't ready to move on, it was actually the opposite. When she had opened the letter and saw Charlie's name, her heart had fluttered because she was actually rather excited. This was her chance to be happy again, her chance to see what could have been between her and Charlie all those years ago.
What shackled her down, was the guilt.
The guilt of moving on with the person she had liked before Ben, the person that had asked her to run away with him. The person she almost did runaway with. The guilt about everything was suffocating.
She placed the rings together in the box, and then folded up the black dress and laid it over Ben's sweater, before closing the drawer. She wiped her tears and stood up, knowing she would have to clean her face and fix herself back up.
She removed her makeup, and cleaned her face. She planned on putting a little makeup on, but wanted to let her eyes get less puffy. She was in her knickers and bra, looking for a different dress, when she heard the bedroom door open.
“Iris, you in here?”
“Yeah, in here.” She called from the closet. Charlie turned and jumped.
“Oh you have no clothes on!” He shouted, turning red in the face.
“You know, in a marriage usually the man is happy, not horrified by that information.” Iris muttered, grabbing her blush pink dressing gown and throwing it over her shoulders.
“I didn't mean it like that, I'm not horrified.” Charlie quickly told her, “I just... I really need to talk to someone.”
“What happened at the sanctuary?” Iris asked, seeing he was flustered. She walked up to him and pulled him with her towards the bed to take a seat.
“I thought they were going to fire me.” He told her honestly as he sat down next to her. “But that wasn't it, a couple of my colleagues were able to round up the dragons after the fire and get everything as back to normal as they could... They noticed damages to the dragons.”
“Damages? How do you mean?”
“Like injuries, they think the dragons were antagonized to the point where they had to fight back and that's what caused them to go crazy and burn the sanctuary. We've had some issues with poachers trying to sneak on for years, but it looks like they finally did it successfully.”
“But why agitate them rather then just... Killing one and getting out?”
“If they could ruin the sanctuary, and cause all the dragonologists to flee for their lives then why stop at one?” Charlie looked at her and his eyes told the story.
“When you could have hundreds.” She put the pieces together. “So then it wasn't an accident, the people responsible could be charged with attempted murder.”
“Murder.” Charlie said simply. Iris's mouth fell open at the simple word.
“I'm so sorry, did you know them?”
“Not much, he was a good kid, just started. Reminded me of myself back when I was fresh out of Hogwarts.” Charlie told her, rubbing his face. “He usually worked with some of the smaller dragons, but one of the Horntails I guess just...” He couldn't find the words and just shook his head.
“How about we get out of the house tonight? We can put on something nice, we can get dinner and maybe do a little shopping.” She offered, hoping to get his mind off of the heavy events.
“Is there something you need in Diagon Alley?” He asked her, and Iris held out her left hand. Charlie's eyes widened, seeing her ring finger bare.
“I was thinking we get some rings?” She told him. Charlie grinned and looked at Iris.
“You know, if I didn't know any better... One would think that you care about me.” He said again to her. This time Iris smiled at him, differently then she had before and lifted her hand to the side of his face.
“Well, one would think you'd be right.” Iris admitted to him. Charlie had not been expecting that, at all, and the shock on his face made her give a small laugh. “You seem surprised.”
“I sort of am.” Charlie told her, wrapping his fingers around hers, and pulling her hand from his face so that he could hold it.
“I owe you one hell of an apology, Charlie. I've been terrible to you. I have treated you wrongly just because you were there. I told you I would try to make this work, and I've been stubborn and hard headed.” She admitted to him.
“Iris, you've been there every moment since I got hurt. You have been making it work, even if you haven't said it, I've seen you change. Trust me.” He told her. Iris felt guilt that he had endured such terrible treatment by her.
“I promise you, I'm going to do better. I had ran a warm bath and everything, thinking we could get cozy, and I took off my ring from Ben to show you I'm really going to give you my all.” She told him, and Charlie felt his throat tighten after he heard bath and cozy. He could put the pieces together as to what that meant... And it meant intimacy. Intimacy he had never experienced before because he had never been in a relationship before. Iris on the other hand, had been married. She had experienced this kind of intimacy and closeness before, and more then likely was excellent at it. “You're turning red, are you alright?”
“Yeah.” He quickly blurted. “A um... A bath sounds... Good.” He nodded. “I wouldn't mind that, and then we could go to Diagon Alley?” He offered and Iris nodded.
“Sounds like a plan.” She agreed and stood up from the bed. “I put in a bunch of soothing and relaxing herbs for you.” Charlie looked up at her, the robe she had on cut a v down her chest, and the fact that her hair was all on top of her head let her neck and face be completely free for his eyes to roam. Iris had always been beautiful, but he had never thought of her when he was alone to his teenage testosterone because she was either the object of Bill's affection or Ben's, his brother, or his roommate. Now, she was his. He stood up and reached out a hand to grab her arm, and pull her close to him.
Iris had thought that he was going to kiss her, or throw her on the bed and ravage her, either option was fine with her. But she was taken by surprise that Charlie just pulled her to him, and simply hugged her. Iris wrapped her arms around his neck, standing on her tip toes, and hugged him tightly back. Charlie was not a particularly tall man, but Iris was very short.
Charlie held Iris for a while, enjoying the fact that she was finally hugging him back. It was a small thing in truth, but he genuinely enjoyed it. Iris tilted her head back and looked up at him, and Charlie leaned down and kissed Iris for the first time since their wedding.