Where Dark Meets The Light

Chapter 18: What Comes Next

Neville and Charlie were sitting together at the breakfast table. The silence between them was a comfortable one. Neville had managed to sleep through the night and Charlie had caught a few hours himself as well.

The only other person there was Sirius, who was grumpily sipping on his first cup of coffee.

Neither of them had spoken about that night, and both were more than happy to forget it ever happened. Charlie more so because remembering meant going red in the face whenever he looked at Neville. The other boy had however kept his promise, and nothing had changed between them. It was Charlie who was struggling to accept what happened that night, not Neville much to Charlie's surprise.

Like he'd promised, he hadn't told anyone about what happened, and now after several days' things started to go back to normal for Charlie as well. Things were exactly like they were before, and he couldn't be more grateful for it.

When his dad shuffled into the kitchen he barely looked up from his toast and enjoyed the silence some more before everyone would wake up. He looks at Neville who is looking absently out the window while nursing a cup of tea.

Charlie always enjoyed moments like this, the silence before a long day, when everyone was still waking up and not really paying attention to him.

Tomorrow they would return to Hogwarts.

He wasn't sure if he was ready to leave his safe little bubble though. The thought about it made the scar on his wrist itch and he rubbed it before he could stop himself. A quick glance up showed him that the action hadn't gone unnoticed and now Neville was frowning at him.

Damn it.

Now Neville was going to make him talk about his feelings again. He somewhat hated that the other boy knew him so well, no one else had taken notice of the nervous tick.

Little by little the other inhabitants of the manor started to tickle in. Despite him having already finished his toast and tea, he remained seated. There few Order members present today, he noted. His parents had tried to hide it from him, but the making alliances were not going well. More often than not Order members returned with empty hands and a sullen mood. Sometimes they were hurt. All in all, the times that they came back with nothing versus when they came back with a good mood and excitement were vastly in favor of the former option.

He wondered what that meant. Did they stand a chance?

The silence was broken by the arrival of an owl with the daily prophet. The owl dropped the parchment paper on the table with a thwap and he snatched it before his dad or anyone else could stop him.

New Hogwarts year starts tomorrow

Was the leading title.

Will the boy-who-lived return to Hogwarts after a breakdown? St. Mungo's staff says no. read more on page 8.

Before he could flip the page, the paper was snatched out of his hands. His mom looked angry (when wasn't she nowadays?).

"I've told you time and again not to read that rubbish." She says snippily.

Charlie sighs. "Well if you told me what was going on, then maybe I wouldn't have to resort to the Prophet as my source of 'information'." He snaps back. Damn it, he didn't want to start a fight this early in the morning, but he couldn't help but let the frustration out a little.

"It's for your own good, son." James tried for the millionth time.

Instead of it soothing his irritation, it snapped it out of control. "Are you kidding me? How long will you keep that up? I have a mass murderer after me and you think that keeping me in the dark is keeping me safe?" He rubs his eyes, suddenly not feeling as rested anymore. God the missed hours of sleep hit him hard at times like this.