Charley Effie Black

Chapter 82 - Char! It My Birthday!

Charley looked over at Oliver as they stepped up to the door. Her smile hadn't seemed to disappear the whole week that they were gone. She gently placed her hand on the doorknob and twisted it open. "We're home!" she called out. They heard the scrambling of feet as they walked into the living room and suddenly there were four kids hugging on her, Lottie carrying Charles and making the small baby wave at her, and Nymphadora stepping out of the kitchen (clearly annoyed) with Remus following behind.

"Char! It my birthday!" Genevieve exclaimed. "You come for my birthday!"

"I did come home for your birthday!" Charley agreed. She picked up the little girl and kissed the side of her head.

"I'll take our trunks to our room. We can go through the presents later," Oliver whispered to Charley, pressing a kiss against her cheek and walking up the stairs.

.

"Thank you for helping us with this cake. I had no idea what I was doing," Nymphadora admitted as she watched Charley decorate the cake.

"Charley, why'd you leave Lottie with the kids for a week?" Remus asked.

Charley paused and looked over at Remus. "I'm not even going to answer that question," she muttered.

"She can't handle it, Charley. Five kids! How-"

"Do you think Oliver and I are idiots? We're not! We gave Lottie a list of numbers that she could call if she needed help," Charley muttered.

"All so you could run off and get married?"

And Charley snapped. He didn't understand anything about what was going on. That was clear. And it was annoying her. So she attacked him. And she went low. "Just because you didn't get to get married to Mary, doesn't mean the rest of us have to miserable too, Remus."

"Who's Mary?" Nymphadora asked, looking over at Remus.

Remus glared at Charley. "You know nothing about that, Charley."

"Wow. Really? Kind of like how you know nothing about my life right now."

"Mary was..." he paused as he looked over at Nymphadora. "You don't get to speak about her."

"Why not?"

"Because."

"Because she died and she was close to you? In that case please never speak of my parents or Haz again. Which includes scolding me for not replacing Haz."

"You're eighteen, Charley! You know nothing about the first war! You know nothing about life yet! Right now, you're just a self-centered child!" Remus exclaimed, his brows furrowed.

Oliver and Lottie burst into the kitchen. "What's going on?" Oliver asked.

"Get out of my house."

"Can't handle that?"

"Yeah, Im eighteen years old and I might not know much about the world. But at least Im not a forty year old man who can't get over something from eighteen years ago," Charley told him.

"Mary has nothing to do with this!"

"She has everything to do with this! I've spent the past fifteen year of my life trying to be in yours, but you haven't had a life since Mary died. You died that day too and you refuse to let anyone around you be happy!"

"That's not true!"

"It's not? You won't move on, Remus. I get that you loved her, but isolating yourself isn't helping. I just wanted to be your niece again, and you attack me for everything I do. Nymphadora genuinely cares about you, but you push her away."

"I only get after you because you're not be responsible. Lottie can't watch after five kids, Charlie. You need to stop being selfish and think of people around you!"

"I am thinking of the people around me as I tell you to get out of my house," Charley told him.

"How-"

"Because you're a narcissist," Charley stated. "Leave." Remus rolled his eyes and left the kitchen. Oliver looked at Charley before rushing out of the kitchen. "Olly, where are you going?" she called out after him. She followed him outside where he was yelling at Remus.

"You don't get to talk to my wife that way!" Oliver yelled at Remus.

"She brought up my girlfriend!"

"You yelled at her for no reason, Remus! You're confining her! I hate to be the one to break it to you, but she's not your daughter, she's not your niece, there is no attachment from the two of you. She's read about what you did to her parents in the First Wizarding War, and I know that she's been trying to find a reason to keep you close and find the good in you, but I don't know if she can find it, Remus!

"All you ever do is criticize people now days. I know you're probably stuck in the seventies and eighties, but look around Remus, if you keep this up, no one is going to be around you anymore. Nymphadora keeps hoping to find a part of you willing to love someone again, Charley's been trying to find the good guy her mom described before the war and who she briefly met as a child when he'd take her to see her mum. They're both reaching their breaking points, so if you don't change the way you act to people, you will be back in the first wizarding war. No friends, no family, and no trust."

"Nobody is thinking that."

"Oh yeah?" Oliver asked. "Want to go inside and ask?" Remus glared at Oliver's arrogance before launching himself at Oliver. Oliver quickly got on top of Remus and pinned him to the ground. "Until you can respect my wife and her choices, don't come to our home," Oliver muttered before getting off of Remus. He kept an eye on him as Remus apparated away.

Oliver turned to Charley who ran over and hugged him tightly. He pressed a kiss on the top of her head and rubbed her back softly as she held him tight. "Come on, Char. Let's go sing to Genny," he said to her softly before walking back into the house.