Charlie landed in Britain's Ministry of Magic in the late afternoon, hair askew from the portkey and a little more than slightly dizzy from the journey. He took the lift to the head of the misuse of muggle artefacts office to visit his dad. Many people greeted him, some surprised at his return but mostly happy to see him.
Arthur looked shocked to see him, which Charlie thought was reasonable, considering he was meant to be in Romania with the dragons. He slipped his hand into his pocket and felt for the small blue dragon's egg, no larger than a chicken's. He had smuggled it with him after its mother had passed away after laying just one egg. It was unusual for that breed to only lay one egg, but she had already been dying, so it was no surprise.
"Charlie!" Arthur's voice snapped him out of his thoughts, and he removed his hand from his pocket. "What are you doing here, son?" Arthur asked, voice laced with surprised confusion. Charlie pulled his copy of the family tree from his rucksack and placed it on his dad's desk.
"Where are the twins?" he asked, a demand in his voice, and Arthur's face drained of all its colour.
The man stuttered on his words for a while, trying to form an answer before he finally gave up.
"I don't know" was the simple answer, and Charlie felt a rage build in him.
"You don't know?!" he hissed, face thunderous "and you're doing nothing about it?!" he demanded, his dad's mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water.
"Your mother didn't think it was a big deal", he excused, and Charlie slammed a fist hard on the desk.
"Not a big deal?! They've been removed from the tree", he shouted, snatching the family tree from the table and marching out of the office, ignoring his father's calls for him to come back. For too long, he had sat back and watched the twins, his younger brothers, get treated like second-class family members but no more. If his family weren't going to figure it out, he sure would.
It took him a while, but he eventually found the twin's joke shop that they had mentioned in a letter about two weeks prior but was confused to see that it was nothing like how they had explained it to him in the letter.
Instead of the ginger man tipping his hat, the statue had brown, almost black hair that switched between long and short. The name was different too. No longer was it Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes but Riddle Me This that glowed gold in the sunlight.
Charlie had a heavy feeling in his gut as he pushed his way through a small crowd and made his way into the store. He looked around for a while, trying to spot his brothers but couldn't see anyone who looked remotely like them. Surely he would be able to recognise his brothers?
And then he saw them at the very top of the stairs. They had changed. Drastically. But he could tell they were George and Fred just by their aura. They still looked as mischievous as ever, but he couldn't understand it. What had happened?