Reid Hawthorne. Charlie couldn't believe it. Didn't want to even think about it. He knew of Reid, heard of him while in school. Reid was a year older than Charlie, and always made it a point to show off. In any class, quidditch game, it didn't matter Reid Hawthorne was always talked about and it killed Charlie to be in his shadow until Reid graduated.
Charlie felt his insides twist at just the thought that he had Olivia within his sight, let alone them having to work together on a mission.
"Ouch!" He said, as he quickly sucked on his thumb where a bee had just stung him. He was over at the Burrow helping his dad.
"You have to be easy Charlie, they are very clever!" His said to him, decked out in his Beekeepers outfit. "They can detect if you are stressed, you have to be completely calm! Then they will accept you."
Charlie grunted a reply, and pulled on the mismatched gloves. His dad bowed to the open box that revealed all the buzzing honey bees. "Hello, my friends. I am Arthur Weasley, and I'm very pleased to meet you." His dad said to the stinging creatures.
Charlie rolled his eyes as he watched the bees allow his dad to remove the honeycomb from the hive. His dad turned to him beaming.
"See, when you're nice things get done!" His dad said adding the honeycomb to the others. "I don't know why you are so grumpy. This was your idea."
His dad was right, it was Charlie's idea. He has written to his dad months ago asking if he would take up persevering honey, had sent him a Muggle book explaining just how the process worked.
Of course no one knew the reason why Charlie even needed the honey. Or why he requested that his dad place the beehives near the honeysuckle bushes in the gardens.
"Just got a lot on my mind." Charlie said.
Arthur nodded his head, sensing what he meant. "Where is our Ollie at?" He asked his son.
"With Lupin. They're having tea together at the flat." Charlie answered. "But later she goes to meet with that bloke from the meeting last night."
Arthur nodded again.
"I was going to take to Dumbledore and see if I could help-" Charlie started to say.
"That's not a good idea, son." Arthur said, closing the beehive.
"Why not? They could use some help on the mission and-"
"Are you wanting to help or are you wanting to keep an eye on that Hawthorne guy? Because if it's the latter, you should stay away from that mission. You're judgement and head won't be in the right place and that could cause for mistakes to be made and the Order can't afford to make mistakes with this mission. As you already know." His dad said taking the box of honeycombs to the shed.
Charlie followed behind him. "I wouldn't make any mistakes."
Arthur loaded the honeycombs into the press. "You already have made a mistake. By even considering to interfere with this mission, it shows how much you respect and trust Ollie."
Charlie sat on a sat next to some jars. "I respect and trust her. It's him I don't." Arthur pointed at the jars and Charlie held one under the spout.
He caught the honey in the jar, as the press squeezed it out of the honeycombs.
"Even if you don't trust him, you know that Ollie can hold her own, and that she would never do anything to hurt you or anyone else she loves." Arthur said as he moved the lever of the press.
Once all the honey was out of the honeycomb Charlie put a lid on the jar.
"But-"
"There's no but's Charlie, you can't do this for her. You have to let her do this mission on her own. This is a test of your relationship, don't allow one bloke to break it." His dad told him, giving him a firm look.
Charlie nodded, "Fine, I'll not interfere. And thanks, Dad. For doing all this." He gestured to all the honey persevering equipment.
"I enjoy this. Makes me feel like if the bees keep making honey than the world is not entirely falling apart." Arthur said, pointing to the jar of Honey Charlie still held. "Take that to Ollie, she'd love some for her tea I'm sure."
"I will," Charlie said. "I'll take two jars actually."
•••
Olivia sat on the couch next to Lupin, with her legs tucked under her, and a steaming cup of tea in her hands.
"So how's Tonks?" She said sipping from her cup.
Remus rolled his eyes and huffed. "Is that why I'm over here? So you can get a piece of gossip?"
"No, but it is something I wanted to take to you about." Olivia said, "The trio told me that she's having trouble metaphoring. Something about feeling guilty."
"Dora feels awful for what happened to you. That you have to live in hiding. But I'm afraid that is not the only reason she may been depressed." Remus said biting a gingersnap, and leaning back on the couch to face her. He chewed for a while and swallowed.
He didn't look Olivia in the eyes. "She wants to be with me." He said quietly.
Olivia smiled and cheered. "That's great!" But by the way he winced. "Or not I'm guessing, why is that not a good thing?"
He huffed again. "Well maybe because I'm an old poor werewolf, and could offer her nothing but a sad pathetic life with me." Olivia reach over and smacked him up side the head. "Ow! What was that for?"
"Because you apparently you are thicker in the head than a troll if you believe you have nothing that could give Tonks a wonderful life." She said sternly.
"It's the truth!"
"We both know that is a load of shit." She said frankly. "If you think age, money, or being a werewolf are good enough reasons than being able to give Tonks a life full of endless love and happiness, than you deserve more than a wack to the head."
Remus frowned at her. "I can't possible provide her a quality life! She deserves better than that."
"Then spend every day of your old poor werewolf life trying to give it to her." Olivia said. "Spend every waking day trying to give her what she truly deserves!"
"She deserves more than this world could give her!" Remus argued, and Olivia leaned back smiling into her cup. "Oh very clever! You little-"
"I didn't do anything but prove to you how you really feel." Olivia interrupted. "Listen, no one would ever be with the people we love most if we thought we could possibly ever be able to give them what they deserved."
"Then why be with them if we know they deserve better?" Remus argued.
Olivia's mouth ticked up to one side showing off her double dimples. "Because at least we are able to see what they are worth, and can appreciate and love them the way they should be. Even knowing that they deserve better than what we can give them and choosing to spend everyday trying to be what they deserve is better than not having the people we love in our lives. Because even if we think we're not enough, they still see something worth loving."
Olivia sat down her cup on the table in front of them. Remus was quiet. Olivia reach over and held his hand, making him look her in the eyes. "We are worth loving. Even on our worst days. Or our furry days-" Remus chuckled. "Everyone deserves to be love and to have love."
He pulled his niece into his side hugging her. "When did you become so wise?" He joked. "You have such an old soul, Sunshine, feels like I'm talking to my grandmother." Olivia laughed.
"I'll talk to Tonks about her feeling guilty. And you talk to her about what you're feeling." Olivia said.
"Maybe when I'm ready. I think it's gonna take some time for me to get to a point that I can feel worth loving." Remus said softly. Olivia nodded.
"Don't take too long, though. We never know how much time we're given." Olivia whispered. More to herself than him. Remus stiffened a bit, but relax.
"I know." Was all he said.
She took a deep breath. He smelled different, stronger. Her Uncle Moony always had the faint smell of chocolate but she could smell more than that now. The chocolate scent was still there but now she could smell old books and pine. Olivia took a another sniff.
"I showered before I came here. So I'm sure you don't have to keep sniffing me." Remus joked. Olivia leaned away from him, but she could still smell him.
"Sorry, it's just that- it's probably nothing." She laughed it off. Remus furrowed his brows.
"What is it?" He asked
"It's just I can smell you. Like your scent is so strong today for some reason." Olivia explained.
Remus tilted his head. "My scent? Wait, hold on." He said standing up he went to the other side of the room near the kitchen. "See if you can smell me now."
Olivia smelled the direction of where he stood. "Yeah, still the same thing. Chocolate, old books, and pine."
"What other scents to smell here in the flat. Really focus in. What do you smell beneath my scent." He asked, still standing away from her.
Olivia was confused but listened to what he said. Closing her eyes she let the air fill her nose. She could still smell Remus but- there- there was something else.
Cinnamon and gunpowder. She focused in on it. "The twins! I smelled the twins! Cinnamon and gunpowder." She said. Remus came back to the couch he grabbed a jacket from one of the hooks by the door.
"Which twin does this belong to?" He said handing it to her to smell. Olivia smelled the velvet jacket. "The twins smell similar but they have two different scents." He explained.
"Peppermint. It's Fred's." She said. "George smells like eucalyptus."
Remus looked concerned now. "I think this may be a side effect from your scars." He said quietly. "You're developing by being able to smell the scents of people. Everyone's is different. You can smell how I smell others, it seems."
"Well that's fine. I'm not going to be shifting every full moon. It's okay if I can just smell when someone hasn't bathed in awhile." She joked trying to take the concern off his face. "Oh gosh, Mundungus is gonna smell horrid isn't he?"
Remus relaxed, and laughed. "More than you know."
•••
Later than evening, Olivia arrived at The Den, to meet up with Reid about the details of their mission.
Lupin had let him stay at his house while he had the mission so that they could have a safe place to work at. Olivia walked inside of the house.
"Reid, you here?" She called out. From upstairs she heard someone moving about.
The stairs creaked as he came into view. "Right on time, Red." He said checking his watch.
Olivia walked over and sat in one of the armchairs. "Alright let's get this over with." She said
"You wound me! It's as if you don't want to spend quality time with me!" Reid joked as he took the couch. "I am offended!"
"I just want this mission over with. So I can go back to my quiet surveillance missions." She said.
"Don't like getting down and dirty do you? Never would have guessed you for the quietly boring time, Red." Reid said propping his crossed feet on the table.
"You've forgot one thing, Hawthorne. It's not that I enjoy the quiet boring missions, it's that I'm suppose to be dead. And meeting with vampires in night clubs, isn't really keeping a low profile." She explained.
Reid nodded, "Right, sometimes I forget about the whole being dead thing. But at least you'll be in your disguise. No one won't figure out that it's really you."
"That's if nothing goes wrong." She breathed. "I can't let anyone know about me, Reid. It's not only my life that's on the line if someone finds out about me. Others would suffer because of me."
Reid's face became serious, all joking aside. He looked her in the eye. "I promise, as long as I'm by your side, no one will find out about you. I'll protect you, Red. You can count on me." He said.
Olivia smiled softly, "Thanks. Now, let's get to work."
Reid and Olivia spent hours going over all the information that Reid had gathered. They structured every detail, from time, layout of the building, who would be there, the safest ways to get in and out.
They left no stone unturned. This mission would be successful.
"I think we've covered everything." Olivia said, finishing her third cup of tea to the dregs.
"I have that book in my room if you want to read up on vampire cultures before Saturday." Reid said standing up, Olivia followed him to his room.
The bed was nearly made, all his clothes hung and spaced apart evenly in the closet. She let out a whistle. "You really like to be organized don't you?" She joked.
Reid looked through the titles of books on the desk, "Make fun all you want but I know where everything is and it's all perfectly stored." He said.
"Well I'm completely a mess, I'm sure if I stay in here for long it will not look like this when I leave," she joked
Olivia noticed a picture frame on the nightstand. She picked it up and looked at it. It was Reid as a boy, an older woman had her arms wrapped around him from behind, they had the same matching hazel eyes.
They both were smiling widely. "That's my Mum." Reid said from where he leaned on the desk. "I came home for the summer holiday, we decided to go camping. She loved the outdoors. The sun on her face."
Olivia tried to swallow down the sadness she felt swelling up hearing him say, "loved".
"We would go all the time during the holidays. She was a witch and my dad a Muggle. But when he found out, he left her. So it was always the two of us. Camping was the most normal thing about my mum. We'd hike all day and then she'd read to me by the fire at night." Reid went on, looking anywhere but at her.
"One night, we went to bed like we had done a hundred times before. There had been no reports about animal attacks or any dangers in the area. I woke up to the sound of my mum screaming for me to run." Reid said and Olivia wasn't sure if she was breathing anymore.
"He had ripped through the tent, it was large enough that me and my mum had our separate rooms. But instead of his claws shredding into my side of the tent, he found hers." Reid said coldly, he talked as if he wasn't really here, as if we was reliving it again all over in his mind.
"I jumped out of bed bare foot. I ran into the main areas of the tent, to find my mum bleeding and scratched to pieces. But she still stood wand raised pointing it at the beast before her. Standing between it and from where I was sleeping. I can still hear the way her voice sounded when she told me to run away."
"But instead of listening and running away like she told me, I grabbed her hand trying to pull her with me. I thought maybe we could just get enough space between us and the werewolf that she could get us out of there. But when I grabbed her hand, that's when he attacked. She tried to pushed me out of the way, but he scratched down my neck," he said tilting his head to show the scar as he ran down it with his finger.
"I dropped my wand and the wolf stepped on it and broke it. Then he clamped his teeth on my mum's side and threw her across the room into a metal pole. The sound of her head cracking on the pole still jolts me out of my nightmares. I was screaming so much that I didn't feel it when the werewolf bit into my arm. But I felt the burning it sent into my veins. I felt how it was burning me from the inside out. I couldn't do anything but lay there and claw at my own skin. Couldn't protect myself from the monster that killed my mum. I won't forget the color of his eyes. At the cold grey color of them that stared back at me."
"It was Greyback. He was who attacked me. And you." He said through gritted teeth. "But it didn't matter if I protected myself or not, he took one look at me and left me for dead. Probably thinking that gash on my neck would end me before the sun even rose."
"But it didn't kill me. I thrashed around for hours until I was able to crawl to my mums wand on the ground and apparite to St. Mungos." He said, looking up at her. "That was this passed December."
Olivia furrowed her brow, confused because if that had happened in December then he-
"Arthur Weasley was in the bed down from mine. Told me all about his friend Lupin, and how he was able to live a normal life. Lupin had come to talk to me, he's helped me so much since then." Reid explained.
"But I remember when Arthur's family came to visit. All the loving redheads gathered around his bed. I had been in there for weeks, the healers trying to help me work through my trauma. I was just a grouch. I remember hearing you all whisper, about me. How Molly had sounded scared at the thought of a werewolf near by. But you weren't scared." Reid said with a faith smile.
"How could I forget the way your soft voice carried over to me. "The full moon isn't for 2 weeks." You told them. The way they had looked at you, ha! You didn't care though, not as they went back to talking. This petite curly redhead turned my way looking over her shoulder. The smell of honeysuckles, citrus, and paint thinner, was forever burned into my memory. Your eyes found mine, and I instantly thought you had the prettiest eyes I had ever seen." Reid said sweetly, "Of course at the time I had bigger problems than girls and I just assumed you was another one of the many child Weasley had. Now I know you was dating one of them." He laughed.
"But for that moment, when you looked at me and smiled. A true kind and warm smile. I felt normal again. Like I wasn't recovering from a werewolf attack, like I wasn't grieving for my mum. I just felt like a normal guy noticing a pretty girl." He said shrugging his shoulders.
Olivia's chest was so tight. A tear slide down her cheek. She had thought was familiar, she should have remembered. "Reid." She said softly. He held up a hand to stop her.
"So the other night when you came here. You may have noticed I was a little shocked to meet you," he laughed. "Not for the fact that I thought you were dead, but because when the smell of honeysuckles, citrus, and paint thinner hit me, I was thrown back in time or something. Because I knew you, I remembered you, not from the newspapers, but because you were the girl. The girl."
"And I'm not telling you this to feel sorry for me, or to try to get you to fall for me. Nothing like that. I'm telling you, because you helped me, Red. That little moment we shared, got me to get my ass in gear. After that day, I took Arthur up on his offer to have Lupin stop by, he helped me get through my first full moon. And I was able to find work. I got my life back together. You reminded me I could be normal again. So thanks for helping me, Red." Reid said with a blushed cheeks and a smile.
Olivia walked around the bed and hugged him. "Normal is overrated anyway." She joked. Making him laugh.
•••
Charlie dropped off a jar of honey to the Jewelers. He came back to the flat to see Olivia but she wasn't there. He checked his watch, it was late, she said she'd be back by 7.
Charlie knew that being 30 minutes late wasn't much. But it still ate at him. Knowing that who she was with. Maybe he would just pop over there to check on her, and see what she wanted to do for dinner.
Without thinking into anymore, Charlie headed to The Den through the fireplace. When he arrived he stepped out into the living room.
Papers and folders covered the coffee table. "Ollie? You here?" He called out. No answer.
Charlie walked around the house looking for them, until he heard voices from upstairs.
On the second floor he found a door cracked up, he could hear Reid but not what he was saying.
The sound of the two of them laughing came through the crack of the door, and Charlie barged in. He found Reid and Olivia hugging. Both startled by his entrance.
"Charlie!" Olivia said, pulling away from Reid holding a hand to her chest. "You scared me," she said laughing it off. "What you doing here?"
Charlie stood there with his hands fisted by his sides. "Looks like I came to interrupt whatever was going on here." He said glaring at Reid.