The Irreplaceable Charlie Weasley

Chapter 3 - The Sneaking Stories

Charlie

I was enjoying my sixth year a lot more than my fifth. I finally felt like I had more time to do the things I wanted even though we had a lot of school work. The thing was, I think we got so used to the amount of work the professors were giving us that we managed to learn how to find free time.

I was spending quite a lot of my time with Hagrid. He finally deemed me old enough so I could go into the Forest with him. We met Torvus a couple of times and I can't even begin to explain how awkward it was the first time, even though Hagrid knew Nova and I snuck into the Forest and met Aragog.

We managed to save a unicorn, who got its leg stuck in a tree vine, and brought fairy eggs to a bowtruckle family. It was so fun that I would do it every day if Hagrid would have the time.

Nova also snuck me in a few times to see her salamander. Kettleburn gave her access to the Creature Reserve and she brought me along even though she made a promise to him that she wouldn't sneak in any students. Now, that's a true friend! We even took Pip once with us so he could meet Pyro. At first, he wasn't amused at all but when the salamander indicated that he wanted to play, he was up for it immediately.

Nova took the opportunity to sit down and draw them both together. She knew it would make Pip happy if she drew him again, even though she had a whole notebook filled with drawings of him. He just really liked her attention and we had that in common.

I was having so much fun with her. I could hang out with her 24 hours a day for a week and couldn't get enough of her. If we weren't in the Reserve, we were down by the Lake.

We loved going to Hogsmeade and not just for Butterbeer, sometimes we just strolled around and reminisced on our third year when we first visited the village and how much fun it was to have Bill around even though we swore we would never admit to him that we miss him at Hogwarts.

There was a moment before Christmas when we took a trip to Hogsmeade and Nova wanted to go for a walk. I wanted to get her opinion on my motivational speech for my Quidditch team. I knew I was good at catching the Snitch but I was not a smooth talker. The Hufflepuff vs Gryffindor game was approaching after the holidays and I wanted to impress my team.

We were coming up with all sorts of things to say and then we started to create really funny ones, where I would throw Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans at them or the one where I would threaten them with Tonks' dungbomb if we would lose. Nova was laughing so much that I never wanted to stop creating these silly speeches just so I could admire how beautiful she is when she laughs.

And there was this moment when she laughed so hard that she buried her head in my shoulder, grabbing my elbow with one hand and my hand with her other one. I tried to act as unphased about it as I could even though I was quite sure she could hear how fast my heart was beating. At that moment I didn't know what to think of it. For a few seconds we were holding hands and I know it doesn't sound as exciting but it was a rather big deal to me.

It made me realize that I would have to tell her sooner or later about fancying her but I couldn't gather the courage to say anything as she still seemed not to notice that there is something between us.

Nova also attended every single one of my Quidditch practices just to support me being Captain. Which reminds me that she was right when she said that I will find someone great to be a Keeper for my team. His name is Oliver Wood and he is brilliant!

He is a big Quidditch enthusiast and attended every Quidditch World Cup with his dad since he could remember. As a Captain, I was proud of my team and I don't want to brag but we destroyed Hufflepuffs this year. Only Slytherin and Ravenclaw to go. I fully supported Nova to quit Quidditch even though I can't help admit I will miss fighting for the Snitch with her.