Four Weddings and a Dragon - Charlie Weasley

Chapter 24

AN: Thanks so much for reading! I loved writing this fluff. I usually write Dramione so be sure to leave a comment letting me know if you think I should write more Weasley oriented stuff. Thanks again, DDD.

It was much too cold and much too early in the spring for the Weasleys to take Draco Malfoy camping for the first time. They went anyway, Draco eating warmed beans out of tins along with Charlie, Percy, George, and Ron, exactly as they did when they were kids. They had to make this trip while the nights were still long and dark, perfect for revenge.

Well concealed in a wood, they pitched Arthur Weasley's musty old tent, which still did regular duties in spite of being a part of British wizarding history. After midnight, the five of them set off on a hike to the grounds of Goyle Hall.

"I thought you told me there'd be vicious guard dogs out here," Charlie said to Draco, disappointed not to get to meet any.

"They've always been here before," Draco insisted, ducking under twisting, leafless, unkempt tree boughs as they crept toward the house. "They're probably the same dogs as the ones from my childhood, but grown fat and blind and lazy by now."

Ahead of them, by the light of his wand fastened over his ear, Percy was reading a huge sheet of parchment, an official surveyor's report.

"Hey, put the light out before someone spots us," Ron chided him, nervous, glancing over his shoulders, rummaging through his cloak for his Deluminator.

"Keep your hair on, Ronald," Percy hissed in return. "We need to be precise in our plotting. If we set this off anywhere but at the hairline fracture the last survey found in the house's foundation, the hex will come flying right back at us."

"And you do not want that," George beamed, his teeth flashing white in the moonlight, never happier than when he was finishing one of his brothers' sentences. Hauling one of his oldest, most notorious banned products under his arm was cheering him up as well.

Percy frowned over the survey of Goyle Hall he'd nicked from the Ministry's land registry. "Listen, George. You're sure you've taken ALL of the identifying trademarks off it?"

George tutted. "Please, I'm no amateur. None of our products is ever traceable back to us unless we want it that way for marketing purposes. Isn't that right, Ronnie?" he said, grappling his junior business partner into a headlock.

Ron shoved him off. "I should hope not. What am I even doing here? It's cold, it stinks..." he said, stifling a gag. "Really. Charlie's got the dogs, Percy's got the map, Malfoy's got the silent explosive potion, George has -- that."

"Yes, so your job is to stand here and wring your hands and look pretty," Charlie said, mussing Ron's hair.

"Pretty? Him?" Malfoy nearly shouted. "I'm standing right here, you know."

"Consider yourself on look-out," Percy said to Ron.

He scoffed. "That's the baby brother's duty. And not to get technical or anything, but I'm older than Malfoy. Though I don't suppose you qualify for any kind of brotherly duty, do you Malfoy?"

Charlie punched Ron lightly on the arm. "When it comes to getting our own very special kind of justice for Hermione and Rosie, I say he qualifies."

"Come now, let's get along, Weasley," Draco said. Somehow, in a crowd where everyone was named Weasley, they all knew he was talking to Ron. "I owe you my thanks, actually. Every time you mangled Hermione's heart at Hogwarts, she wound up with me for some very lovely evenings of consolation."

George laughed far too loudly, doubling over at the waist. "You don't say? Perfect! Krum got there before Ronnie, and now this."

For a moment, Ron was speechless, blinking in the dimness. "Wound up -- with -- with Malfoy? Doing what? What -- what in the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?"