DISTANT GAME ━ charlie weasley

iv. strangers in the night

Charlie is still shellshocked about her sudden appearance and how calm she seemed. Hello? You disappeared from me for an entire night? Nonetheless, he quietly tells her "Hey." Avery moves into the kitchenette, and Charlie rounds the coffee table to go follow in Avery's tracks. She begins making their coffees (which Charlie hadn't even noticed he'd lacked yet) and Charlie leans his elbow against the counter, taking note of small wisps of strawberry blonde hair escaping from her bun. He realised it was near a hundred percent tidier than the usual state of her hair in the morning.

Charlie bites his bottom lip. He feels hesitant about speaking, especially knowing how blunt she usually was with him. He just watches as she busies herself at the counter, paying no heed to him until she brandishes a hot mug of coffee towards him, giving him a quick, rushed smile. Charlie accepts it with a quiet thanks and begins staring at the gathering froth, trying to pluck up the courage he needed to talk. Where has that bold Gryffindor courage went to?

He notices Avery, seemingly unaware of his internal struggles, rummaging through the cupboards for cereal to go into the blue bowl she held. (They both had a free period that morning and slept in past breakfast.) Charlie clears his throat, running a fingertip around the rim of his mug. "Erm — where were you last night?"

Avery looks up at Charlie, pausing her scavenge shortly. She furrows her eyebrows, "What do you mean?"

He clears his throat again. "Like — why didn't you come back to our dorm? I waited outside your common room, but you didn't come and I was worried when you didn't come in last night.

"Oh." Avery says, recognition flashing across her features. "I was so exhausted, I just stayed in my old room for the night." She frowns slightly, "Sorry I made you wait."

"Uhm, it's fine. It's alright. No harm was done anyways. You're fine."

She gives him a slight smile — it was the closest she'd smiled at him yet, in their whole two weeks of being roommates. "You don't need to worry about me, you know. I can handle myself."

Charlie blinks a couple of times, before enclosing his hands around his mug and turns away from Avery, his eyes trained on the floor. "I know. I — I'm going to get ready."

As Charlie enters his room, the door slamming lightly behind him, Avery can't help but feel he seemed more upset than he let on, watching his ginger hair disappear out of view behind the shut door depicting his name. And she didn't know why, even though the exact reason was that she continued to detach herself from Charlie. And to be honest, Charlie was growing more and more tired of this distant behaviour he was receiving. She may have apologised, and she may have smiled, but there was something still so guarded about the way Avery Carmichael treated Charlie Weasley that he simply hoped would stop soon.

———

PROFESSOR RAKEPICK'S DEFENCE CLASSROOM always had a different kind of atmosphere to all the rest. Rakepick was energetic, lively. She was an encouraging teacher, though stern if need be. She did come off as brusque quite often, but that was mainly because it was sometimes the only way she could get things done in a class full of dimbos. Her class was filled with many objects that she'd discovered in her years of being a bank curse-breaker, and every so often it would be customary to see someone blasted into one of her picture frames having been the subject of a more powerful than necessary Stunning spell. By this point, Rakepick has taken note of the liability of her dear pictures, so secures them in place with a charm. Her picture posing in front of sleeping trolls will never obtain another dent or scratch ever again.

"But the thing is, Tonks, I just don't know why I'm getting the cold treatment?" Charlie Weasley sighs, dropping his guard momentarily before finding a curse get wordlessly thrown his way, flames growing the progressing flames on the folded edge of his shirt sleeve. "Shit." He says, fanning the flames as he narrows his eyes at her. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't set me on fire like that."