The Irreplaceable Charlie Weasley

Chapter 12 - Charlie's Goodbye

Charlie

"And then I looked him in the eyes and he just backed down." Dominik slammed his beer bottle at the table, laughing so hard, finishing his story. Andrei almost fell from his seat and I brushed a tear away, laughing so much.

"Dom, there is no way the Ukrainian Ironbelly just gave up when you didn't give him food," I said, still laughing. His story was ridiculous and unbelievable but the way he was telling it was too funny not to listen.

"If that was true mate, you wouldn't be sitting here in front of us." Andrei followed.

"You bastards, never believing me." Dom rolled his eyes, knowing full well he was full of it. "You'll see when..."

But he didn't finish the sentence. His eyes widened as he looked at something behind Andrei and me. We both turned around and my heart skipped a beat when I saw Bill's Patronus moving towards us.

"Charlie. Gather everyone you can. There is a battle at Hogwarts." Bill's voice said and we all stood up at once.

"Alright!" I clapped my hands together. "For all we know they can be fighting for hours already. Get everyone and send out as many messages as you can, we need to go now!"

"There won't be time to set a portkey, Charlie," Andrei said.

"We'll apparate and hope for the best. We can't lose any time." He nodded and we started gathering people around.

All across the village people started apparating, nodding at me or looking taken aback by the sudden change of atmosphere. I was just hoping we weren't too late and the people we have been getting to join us in all these years will be of help during the battle, no matter how many we will be able to inform on such short notice.

"Good luck, mate." Andrei pulled me into a hug before apparating. We agreed that we should all apparate to Hogsmeade and go to the school from there since we didn't know what was happening and where the reinforcements will be needed most.

When I got there, everything was quiet. It looked like it was half abandoned. As more people appeared, the windows and doors of Hogsmeade houses started to open.

"C'mon! There's a fight going on at Hogwarts. Grab your wands and let's go!" I started running from door to door, shouting at the confused villagers.

"Who are you?" I turned around to see a rather large man standing there.

"Charlie Weasley. We brought more people. We heard there's a battle. Who are you?" The man looked astonished and frightened at the same time.

"Horace Slughorn." He introduced himself. "I came here to get more people."

"Good." I nodded. "Then you can start pointing them to the direction where they should enter the School Grounds." He didn't say anything, just nodded, and hurried past me.

I waited a bit longer, for more people to appear but when I saw that several older villagers, unfit to fight, were shouting from their windows where they should go, I joined the group, marching towards the school.

Once we reached the barrier, we stopped. There were so many of us that I was certain we were going to win this without even knowing what was going on. We listened for a bit but couldn't hear anything. Then a few rows in the front started shouting literal battle screams. The rest of us joined as we wanted to let the fighters inside know that we are coming to help.

Once we got to the Courtyard, I didn't have time to look for any familiar faces. Everything was in pure chaos. I needed a moment to focus and distinguish between our fighters and the enemy.