Stories from the Vault - Hogwarts Mystery One Shots

Charlie's Gift

"A dress up party?" Rowan asked, after she and Sarah opened the glittery invitations Penny had given them. "What on earth for?"

"After last year, it seemed like everyone was so down about everything happening at Hogwarts," said Penny. "Bea felt so out of place after coming out of that portrait..."

"A group of us were left to die in a Cursed Vault by someone we trusted..." said Sarah.

"Bill graduated and left me. I mean, us..." said Rowan.

"Exactly," said Penny. "A lot of bad things happened at Hogwarts last year, but that doesn't mean a lot of good things don't happen at Hogwarts everyday. So, for the first Hogsmeade Weekend, I planned this little party. Come dressed as something great about Hogwarts!"

"I don't know, Penny," said Rowan, "Now that we're sixth years, we really need to be spending all our spare time revising for our NEWT exams."

"See, Rowan? You can come dressed as a textbook," said Sarah. "I think it's a lovely idea, Penny." Sarah wasn't sure she was entirely behind the idea of themed parties, but she knew last year had ended especially tough for all of them, and naturally Penny's way of coping would be to plan a party. Sarah would do whatever she could to help her friends move one and find a little more happiness.

"Great," said Penny. "It's about lunch time. Should we go in and discuss what we'll be dressing as?"

"Can't," said Sarah. "I promised I'd sit with Charlie today. We haven't had much chance to hang out this year yet."

They headed into the Great Hall. Sarah found Charlie near the end of the Gryffindor table, so she sat down and selected from the pile of sandwiches to add to her plate.

"Hullo, Sarah," said Charlie brightly through a mouthful of corned beef.

"Hullo, Charlie. How've you been?"

"Can't complain. Ready for today's dragon quiz?" he asked.

Sarah couldn't help but smile. "Fire away."

Charlie grinned. "I see what you did there. Okay...describe a Peruvian Viper tooth."

"They're the smallest breed of dragon and they'll hunt and eat humans."

"Nice work. Next, describe a Norwegian Ridgeback."

"They have spiny wings and they feed on aquatic creatures."

"Excellent," said Charlie. "I'm telling you, Sarah. We both need to become dragonologists when we graduate. We'd be great together."

Sarah smiled to herself as Charlie continued to drill her about dragons all through lunch. Charlie had gone with her to face a real dragon in the last cursed vault. She'd been worried that actually seeing and almost being killed by the creature would dampen his enthusiasm for dragons, but she was pleased to see that Charlie appeared to be completely back to normal. Even if that meant the conversation was somewhat repetitive.

"Charlie, I've known you for three years now," she finally said after they'd eaten their fill and strolled into the courtyard for some fresh air. "Isn't there anything you'd like to talk about besides dragons?"

Charlie frowned at her. "Why would I want to talk about anything else?" He looked around and caught sight of the distant quidditch pitch, the tops of the stands just visible. "I suppose we could talk about quidditch..."

Sarah laughed. Charlie Weasley was one of her favorite things about Hogwarts.

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