The weeks that followed after the thing with Regulus was quiet and soon it was time for halloween. The closer it got the more exited Charlotte got. She loved halloween and it was always amazing in the castle. This year some of the seventh years had planed a party, a typical halloween party, and Charlotte couldn't be more exited.
"Good morning." Lily said to both Alice and Charlotte when she woke up thursday morning. They were all exited about the party and it was the only thing they had talked about in days, and this morning was no exception.
"Good morning." Both Alice and Charlotte said back and continued getting ready for the day. Sometimes Charlotte hated that they had to wear the uniform for classes, she loved wearing her own clothes. But that only meant that she had to use more time on her hair and makeup to look perfect and so she did.
The girls continued to talk and discuss the party when they were walking down to the great hall for breakfast. They all had found the perfect costumes last weekend when they where in Hogsmeade. It had felt so good to be back in Hogmmeade and it looked just like Charlotte remembered it and she loved being there.
In the great hall the boys sat at the table also discussing the party. They were also looking forward to the party, maybe not as much as the girls but they were still excited about it.
Sirius saw this as a chance to get closer to Charlotte again. It had been a few weeks since the whole thing had happened with Regulus and after that Sirius had apologized and explained everything to Charlotte. So they had decided to start from zero and see what happened from there. It wasn't exactly what Sirius wanted, but it was a good start. So with this party he hoped to spend more time with Charlotte and get closer to her again.
When Sirius had heard what his brother had done, both James and Remus had to hold him back so he wouldn't kill him. He was mad that his brother got the girl, but how could he throw it away like that? She was the most amazing girl in the world and he threw it away. The only thing was that Sirius had done the same, but he didn't mean to.
"Sirius, are you listening?" Remus said and waved a hand in front of Sirius face. Sirius had been starring at nothing and stopped listening to what his friend were talking about a few minutes ago.
"Sorry, I spaced out." Sirius said and the others chuckled at him. They all know that things between him and Charlotte was getting better and she was the only thing he was thinking about this days.
"We can see that." James said and chuckled, as much as he still hated the thought about Sirius and Charlotte together, he liked this better. They both seemed more happy and alive now when they were friends and talking again. But he knew how she felt about it, that nothing could happened between them. Charlotte didn't want to mess up the future with doing something like this.
"I just have a lot on my mind." Sirius said trying to defend himself but his friends just laughed at him.
"Something like a red headed girl." Remus said with a smirk and they could see Sirius cheeks turning a light pink. They had been teasing him about Charlotte ever since they started talking again and Sirius blushed every time.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Sirius said trying to play it off, not that it worked. He tried doing this every time they teased him.
"I bet you don't." James said and they all chuckled.
"Hi boys." Lily said and sat down next to James. They all jumped, they had been so lost in their conversation that they hadn't heard the girl approaching them. The girl noticed the surprised looks on the boys and chuckled when they sat down next to them. Alice left to find Frank and Charlotte sat down next to Sirius.
"Hi." Charlotte said and smiled up at him. Sirius tensed when he felt Charlottes arm brush against his when she sat down. They had been getting real close again during the last days. Charlotte had been trying to keep her distance, but had a hard time doing so. Every fiber in her body was screaming to her that this was a bad idea, but she couldn't stop.
"H-h-hi." Sirius stuttered out, what this girl could do to him.
"Are you looking forward to the party?" Charlotte asked him and put food on her plate the same time.
"Yes. I think the whole castle is looking forward to it. You?"
"I can't wait. The girls and I have been planing for the party for days. So now I have the perfect costume." Charlotte said and smiled. It hadn't taken to long to find her costume when they started looking. It was amazing and went perfect with her red hair. Now she was just looking forward to wearing it.
"I heard from James. He said that's all Lily has been talking about or days." Sirius said and smirked and Charlotte couldn't help but to laugh. She could see them in front of her and how James was rolling his eyes at Lily ranting about the party.
Sirius and Charlotte continued talking and joking. They were in their own little world and the others was looking at them and smiling at how close they were getting. The only once that were concerned was the only once that knew the truth. Remus and James shared a look of concern, they both knew that Charlotte had to leave someday.
It didn't take long before they had to leave for classes. They all talked and joked when they walked out of the great hall. You could feel the excitement in the air that it wasn't long before the weekend would arrive. The excitement left a five of them when they saw Professor McGonagall approach them. Four of them was afraid they had been caught doing something stupid and the other one that they had figured out who she was.
"Ms Granger. Professor Dumbledore asked for you to meet him in his office immediately." Professor McGonagall said and looked over the group of friends. This made two of the five relax but three couldn't help to be nervous for what Dumbledore had to say.
"Sure. Can you tell the professor that I'll be late?" Charlotte asked her friends with a smile, trying to make it look that it wasn't something serious they headmaster wanted to talk to her about. None of them answered they just nodded before Charlotte left them standing in the hallway looking at her walking away.
Charlotte had walked the way to Dumbledores office a lot of times so the walk there didn't take long. So just a few minutes later she stood in front of the entrance and waited for the door to open after she said the password.
Before Charlotte knocked on the office door she took a deep breath. She didn't know if she was ready to hear what the headmaster had to tell her. She knew she wasn't ready to go home, even if she missed her brother more than anything, she wanted to stay a little while longer.
"Come in." A voice sounded through the door and Charlotte had no more choice to open it and meeting her fears. The first she saw when she opened the door was the blue eyes she had seen so many times before.
"Hello, ms Granger." Dumbledore said and motioned for Charlotte to sit in the chair a cross from him. He could see that she was nervous and he gave her one of his smiles she had seen so many times before to make her calm down. It worked and Charlotte immediately felt more relaxed and ready to hear what the headmaster had to say.
"So how are you feeling, ms Granger?" The headmaster asked Charlotte with a smile. Charlotte knew he knew everything that went on in the castle, so he must have hear about the thing with both the Black brothers.
"I'm fine, professor." Charlotte answered.
"Good, good. So down to business. I've been looking in to find a way to send you back to your own time. It isn't easy when I don't know what spell they used to send you here, but I've been doing some progress and I should be able to send you back around christmas." Dumbledore told her and Charlotte felt her heart drop. She just had two months left with her parents. But that also meant that she only had two months left until she would meet her brother again.
"Thank you professor." Charlotte answered with a fake smile. She knew she had to talk to James right away, but she didn't know what to tell him.
"That's all. I'll send an owl to the teachers explaining why you're late." Dumbledore said and Charlotte didn't hesitate to stand up to leave. She gave the professor a fake smile before hurrying to find her friends.
Charlotte found her friends after five minutes of her running around the castle. The first one to see her was Lily who smiled widely and waved.
"So how did it go? What did Dumbledore want to talk about?" Lily asked concerned for her friend. She could see that something was bothering her and wanted to help her to feel better.
"He just wanted to ask something about my parents and brother." Charlotte said trying to play it off. "James, I have to talk to you."
"Sure." James said and gave Charlotte a look to ask if it was about her secret and she just nodded and his eyes widened.
"We'll meet you at the next class." Charlotte said and took James hand to pull him to a place were they could talk alone. James just fallowed her and was getting more and more nervous about the whole thing.
"What did he say?" James asked as soon as they were alone and could talk without anyone hearing them. Charlotte took a deep breath and ran her hands through her hair.
"First he asked what how I was feeling and so on. After that he told me he hadn't found a way to send me back yet, but he thinks he will have found away at the end of the year." Charlotte said, not looking at James as she told him the information she had learned from the headmaster. She didn't want to see his reaction when he heard what she told him.
"Oh." Was the only thing James could say. He knew Charlotte would leave at some point but hearing this made the whole thing a lot more real. He didn't want her to leave, he knew it was selfish but he cared a lot for her.
"I knew I had to leave at some point, but hearing him saying it made it all so real." Charlotte put her face in her hands trying to calm down. This was a rude awakening for both of them.
"Same here." James whispered. How would they explain everything to their friends? What would they say when she left? What would Sirius do? He would be heartbroken when she disappeared, and Charlotte felt the same way. She didn't want to leave him.
"We have to pretend like nothing is wrong, we cant't tell them about this." Charlotte whispered, she hated lying to her friends but she had to. She had been getting scary good at it as well.
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