GORGEOUS｡･ﾟﾟ･ᶜʰᵃʳˡᶦᵉ ʷᵉᵃˢˡᵉʸ

❽ on the tab

☆○o。on the tab  。o○☆

After saying goodnight to everyone Annika and Charlie went outside to apparate to a muggle pub where no one would recognize her. The couple ignored Arthur, Molly, Bill and Ginny's hopefully looks, Percy confused expression (he's a bit slow), and the twins and trio's suggestive looks and jokes.

Charlie held Annika's hand to apparate and didn't let go even when they entered the pub and sat at the bar.

"Whiskey on ice, please," Charlie told the bartender while helping Annika take off her coat.

"A glass of champagne please," Annika told the bartender sharing a smile with Charlie.

There was a moment of comfortable silence as they both settled into their seats before Charlie spoke, "I meant to write to you," he whispered leaning in close, "I wrote you lots of letters, it's the sending them that scared me." Charlie's cheeks were dusted pink and Annika had never seen a man as confident and put together as Charlie look so shy.

"Well if it's any consolation, every time Mila came in carrying a letter I hoped it was from you," Annika whispered back, suddenly finding Charlie's shyness contagious.

"Whiskey on ice and a glass of Champagne," the bartender broke the intense staring contest Annika and Charlie were participating in.

"Thank you, put in on a tab please," Charlie said passing over a muggle debit card before Annika could even think about paying. Charlie leaned in and whispered in her ear, "Maybe next time you'll be quicker." Annika blushed.

---

"So what did Molly say when she found out you left Hogwarts," Annika said laughing at Charlie's story. He was telling her about how he snuck out of school 3 months before graduation to go work as a Dragonologist in Romania. And after 2 glasses of champagne, a gin and tonic, and stealing sips from Charlie's whiskey it was the funniest story she had ever heard.

"She didn't say anything that's the scary part. For months I didn't get one letter from my mother. The twins told me that when they came home for Summer she pretended she didn't know who I was when they said my name," Charlie retold the story nursing his second glass of whiskey on ice and evidently less drunk than Annika, "so I came to the burrow and she wouldn't let anyone open the door I had to scream that I wasn't sorry about leaving school but I was sorry I didn't tell her about it and that I loved her and she ran out of the house crying and hugged me."

"So she was just sad you didn't tell her about it?" Annika asked blowing bubbles into her third glass of champagne and making Charlie laugh.

"Yeah my mom told me that she wished I had stayed but she came around in the end," Charlie took a napkin and helped wipe away a drop of champagne on Annika's chin, "What about your parents? Are you close with them?"

"...these days not really," Annika said with a sad sigh and Charlie hoped he hadn't crossed a line.

"Sorry I shouldn't have asked."

"No no," Annika laid her hand on his, "it's okay. It's just... when I was younger I was so busy trying to act tough and be a rebel that I disrespected my parents and our relationship has never healed from that." Annika's biggest regret as a teenager was taking out all her emotions on her parents and damaging her family.