For A Moment - A Wonka AU

Prologue

17 year old Charlotte Fickelgruber lived a very boring life. Nothing exciting ever happened. She just lived the same, ordinary life in the city. Well, maybe not ordinary ordinary. But it was ordinary to her. She was the daughter of Felix Fickelgruber, one of the three most famous chocolatiers in the Galeries Gourmet- maybe even the world! But that wasn't anything exciting. In fact, she despised her father,

As you may know, not all famous people are exactly 'good people'.

Her father was a scammer, a fraud, in cahoots with his two rivals, Arthur Slugworth and Gerald Prodnose.

And the worst of all?

She couldn't do anything about it.

She knew all their secrets, the key to putting them out of business.

Yet no one would ever believe her.

So she kept silent.

Well, that was until she met the peculiar Willy Wonka.

It all started on a cold June Saturday in her father's shop, (unwillingly) helping the employees restock. Well, she didn't not want to help them, she just didn't want anything to do with helping her father. Bored and in dire need of entertainment, Charlotte was drawn away from restocking by a peculiar man standing in the middle of the Galeries- well, not exactly standing. He was...

...dancing...?

"What in the world...?" she asked herself, pressing her face against the glass window of her father's shop to get a better look.

The man looked young- maybe in his early twenties. He had a bright smile on his face and curly brown hair half-hidden underneath a brown top hat. He wore a tattered purple overcoat over a faded green vest and a colorful scarf tucked in around his neck. He wore a pair of light grey mailman's trousers, which were slightly dirty, and some brown, leaky boots upon his feet.

Charlotte had never seen him before, perhaps he was new here? Either way, she was definitely intrigued. She wondered for a moment if he was on drugs or if it was just part of his personality to dance around in the middle of the street, but she found herself unable to tear her eyes away from him as she watched him do his little dance. Nobody was really watching him, just moving out of his way to avoid getting hit, some giving him side eyes but not saying anything. Well, nobody except- wait was that...?

"Officer Affable...!" Charlotte's eyes widened. She saw Officer Affable walking over to the man. She wasn't too worried, since the officer was always one of the nicer officers, but she didn't want to see the man get in trouble. She felt herself wanting to go outside and warn him, but she knew that was unreasonable, so she just watched.

Officer Affable tapped the man on the shoulder, snapping him out of whatever daydream he was in and back to reality.

"Oh, hello!" Even though she couldn't hear him, Charlotte was good at reading lips, so she was able to understand what they were saying.

Officer Affable gave a small nod in acknowledgement and pointed to a sign on the door of-

"That old place...?" Charlotte's eyebrows rose in surprise. Was the man interested in renting that old shop across the street?

"No daydreaming allowed," Affable explained at the sight of the man's confused expression. He then held out his hand for the three-sovereign-fine to be paid in expense.

Charlotte saw the man's expression drop as he dug around in his pocket for some change. He eventually pulled out- Charlotte squinted to see- four silver sovereigns and handed three to Affable. Affable gave him a small, apologetic smile, before turning away again, leaving the man alone to think about what just happened.

Charlotte scoffed, watching the man disappear within the crowds again. "Stupid daydream policy...so dumb," she grumbled, pulling away from the window and running to the door of the shop. She wanted to catch up with the man before he got away, to see who he was.

But that thought was instantly crushed, because when she got to the door, she heard her father's voice behind her.

"Charlotte?"

She froze and turned around to find her father standing behind her, his arms behind his back and a curious look on his face. "Y-Yes, Father?" she stammered, which was what she usually did when she knew she was in trouble. Although this time, she didn't exactly know if what she was about to do was wrong.

"What are you doing, gazing out the window? The shelves aren't going to stock themselves, you know," Fickelgruber grumbled in response.

Charlotte sighed in defeat. There was no point in arguing with her father, so she just nodded. "Yes, Father...I'll go do that."

Fickelgruber grunted and watched as she walked back over to the shelves, beginning to stock them again.

Who was that man....? she asked herself as she carelessly placed chocolate bars in their places on the shelves.

Whoever he was, she didn't know. But she'd hopefully find him again tomorrow.

Because, just from those few moments of observing him, she felt a ping of hope in her heart. Although, she was unsure why.

Maybe he'd be the missing piece to her story.