Playing With Fire (Charlie Weasley X Reader)

Epilogue

1 YEAR LATER; 1995

"You infuriate me beyond belief," Charlie growled and narrowed his eyes.

"Cry about it," I responded and rolled my eyes.

"Merlin, you are the worst," he whined as I placed a draw four card on the top of the stack of cards. I watched with a devilish smile as he drew four more cards. "You guys are ganging up on me."

"Damn right we are. We half-bloods have to stick together," I said and smiled at Alcott as she played a card.

Alcott's girlfriend, Fatima, placed a card down that reversed the order that we played in, and Alcott smugly placed a draw two card down. Charlie set his jaw and obliged dramatically in a spectacle of pure acquiescence.

"You're all heartless," he commented as I played a card. "Honestly, you wouldn't stand a chance if you picked a wizard game."

"You're just mad that you can't win a single muggle game," Alcott said with a laugh.

"Yes, I am," he confirmed. "And it's so much worse because I know Y/N sucks at wizard chess."

"Bold accusation to make with so little evidence," I sang. "Uno."

"You know it's true," he said before he tossed his cards down on the table. "I resign. A man can only take so much failure before his resolve begins to crumble."

"So dramatic," Fatima laughed, "but we should get going. We have the morning shift."

I pouted but collected the cards.

"I had a lot of fun," I told them as I tucked the cards into the box. "I think we should play Clue next time, huh Alcott?"

"Definitely," she confirmed with a cheeky smile as Charlie groaned. "Thanks for having us over."

"Anytime," Charlie said and stood. "It's hard to be here alone with her," he said and gestured over his shoulder at me.

"What a sore loser," she teased and hugged Charlie before approaching me. "It's okay, Y/N, I know he's absolutely enamored."

"Have a nice night," I said as I hugged her and waved to Fatima, who was talking to Charlie beside the door.

"You too."

As soon as Alcott and Fatima had gone, Charlie groaned and flopped back onto the couch.

"Entertaining is so draining," he said and tilted his head back onto the cushion of the couch. "I'd like a week of zero social interaction, here, in our cabin."

I hummed in response as I put the box of cards away and cleaned up the table where we had played. He sighed loudly.

"What's wrong?" I asked and faltered in my place.

"You're over there but I want you to be over here," he said and pouted.

"Aren't you sick of me yet?" I asked as I approached him and sat down on the couch. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to him.

"Nope," he answered shortly and leaned his head into mine. "I'll never be."

"That's a pretty big promise," I said and cuddled into his side, drawing my knees up to my chest.

He exhaled loudly and his breath tickled on my forehead.

"My mother is visiting next week," I reminded him and pulled away from him slightly. He let his arm drop and watched as I turned to face him.

"She's staying here?" he asked even though we had already discussed this.

"Yes, in my room," I answered.

"Your old room," he corrected with a nod of his head.

"I think I want to sleep on the couch while she's here though," I said thoughtfully. "I don't want her to think we're canoodling in the other room."

"Merlin," he groaned and laughed. "Canoodling?"

"Point still stands," I hummed and turned my nose up.

"I promise I won't attempt to instigate any form of canoodling," he promised and held his hand out. I wrapped my pinky around his. "You can sleep in our room without any doubt."

"She could still assume," I said.

"We'd have to be the quietest canoodlers to exist then," he said. "Honestly, love, there would be no speculation. She'd know if we were canoodling. It's not exactly a quiet process."

I bit the inside of my cheek to suppress my laugh.

"I'm tired," I admitted and tucked my face in his neck to hide my yawn.

"Let's go to bed," he suggested and stood up. He pulled me to my feet and led me to our bedroom before we began our nightly routine: checking our schedules, setting an alarm, picking our clothes for the next day, brushing our teeth.

I was cuddled under a mound of blankets watching Charlie mill around. After a bit, he lifted the covers and slipped into bed beside me. His breathing was steady and comforting, and I could barely make out his features after he clicked the lamp off.

"Charlie," I said softly, my voice cutting through the near-silence of the cabin.

He hummed in response.

"What's going to happen?" I asked, hating how weak my voice came out.

"What do you mean, love?" he asked patiently and rolled over to face me.

"With You-Know-Who's return," I clarified. "Dumbledore contacted me about a secret society... What's going to happen?"

"I don't know," he admitted after a few moments of silence. "I wish I did, and I wish I could tell you that everything is going to be okay but... I really don't know."

I sighed and stared at the ceiling.

"Do you think we'll be okay?" I asked.

"Yeah," he responded and I could hear the rustle of the sheets as he nodded his head. "We'll have to be. To think anything else is to submit, and we're not going to do that, okay?"

"I feel like nobody's talking about it."

"To talk about it is to make it real," he said. "And nobody wants it to be real."

"Do you remember when he was around?" I asked.

"A bit," he answered. "Everything was a lot darker. But that's why we need to stay strong, so that it isn't like that again. We have to fight to make sure that we can live happily."

"I'm going to write back to Dumbledore tomorrow," I decided aloud. "I'm going to ask him for more information about the order."

Charlie's hand found mine in the dark.

"We'll do it together."

ugh, I hate to have an ending like this. it really makes one yearn for a sequel. would any of you guys be interested in a sequel or would y'all prefer to keep it short? I could definitely write a sequel...

EDIT: Sequel coming soon!

I decided to post this one early in celebration of hitting 10K reads on this book and 1K on 'Chasing You', not to mention that Harry Potter Smuts is almost at 3 million. I'm really sad to see it end because I loved reading all of your comments, and please know that I appreciate all of the support and feedback that I get. Much love!

-TheLemonSheriff🍋