Love Burns (Charlie Weasley X Reader)

Chapter 33: Rising Action

Chapter 33: Rising Action

I sighed loudly, looking at Charlie to see if he noticed. When he didn't acknowledge me, I sighed again, louder. He smiled to himself as he worked on his paperwork.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, not looking up.

"No, why would there be?" I asked and sighed again, sitting across from him at the table. "Is there something wrong with you?"

"Well, I think I may have heard you sighing and I assumed the worst," he said, looking at me over his paperwork. "But I guess I was wrong?"

"Now that I think about it, there is something that's been bothering me," I said and pulled my knees to my chest. "I have to work with Hana tomorrow. Just Hana."

"What's wrong with Hana? She didn't seem all that bad when I talked to her the other day," he said.

"She's so unpredictable," I said. "Some days, she's threatening me and getting me put on probation. Other days, she's all friendly and obsessing over my ring, like the other day when you were there."

"I thought it was nice that she complimented it. It was nice to have somebody appreciate it," he said.

"Yeah, that was nice but you weren't there for the whole conversation. She was being pushy and annoying and assuming things. I asked her to drop it and leave you out of the conversation but she couldn't do that because she knew that it would annoy me."

"I think you're making her intentions seem worse than they were," he said and smiled. "I'm sure she didn't mean any harm."

"You weren't there," I repeated. "She was insisting that the ring was supposed to be an engagement ring and got Dmitri playing along. They were saying that you were going to propose but that you backed out because I was being weird about it. I told them that they didn't know what they were talking about but they wouldn't let it go."

Charlie nodded but didn't respond.

"It just bothers me that they acted like they knew so much about our relationship. I think I would have known if you were proposing," I continued.

"Maybe," he said, hunching over to fill out the paperwork.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"I don't know."

"Charlie."

"Maybe they were right," he said and shrugged his shoulders.

"Yeah, sure," I said and scoffed. "You're joking. You are joking, right?"

"It's not exactly easy to propose to someone when they tell you right before that they don't want to get married and reveal their plans to kill their husband," he said and met my eyes. "It was supposed to be an engagement ring. I picked it out with proposing in mind but once you told me how much you didn't want to get married, I decided to... I don't know... tone it down?"

"Charlie," I said, furrowing my eyebrows.

"I didn't want to stress you out on Christmas and I didn't want you to say no, so I changed my mind," he said. "It's not that big of a deal."

"Then why didn't you tell me?"

"How do you suppose I should have told you?" he asked. "You get closed off when we talk about marriage. The moment you saw the ring box, you looked like you were going to run away."

I crossed my arms and slumped down in my chair.

"Are you pouting?" he asked and laughed. "Love, it's not a big deal."

"It kind of feels like it might be," I said, watching as he stood and rounded the table to hug me. He kissed the top of my head.

"It felt like it was going to be the end of the world in the moment," he said, brushing my hair back, "but I still have you and that's all that matters."

I continued to pout, setting my chin in my hand as I watched him. He gathered up his paperwork and tucked it away in his work bag before standing in front of me.

"You're still sulking?" he asked, kneeling down in front of me.

"No."

"Yes, you are," he said and pulled my hands from my face, pressing a kiss on my cheek. "Stop it. It's not a big deal. You didn't want to get engaged so it's not an engagement ring, okay? I'm just glad I get to see you wearing the ring." He ran his finger along the delicate chain with a smile.

"I guess."

"Now stop being pouty and come help me with lunch."

***

Winter came and went. In no time, the sparkling layer of snow that covered the sanctuary melted, leaving behind muddy walkways and thin patches of grass. The air slowly warmed until coats were shoved into the backs of closets. The Sanctuary felt normal, like it hadn't since the first attack. Warm weather drew people out of their cabins and the walkways were alive with people.

It was nice.

Still, at night, we faced the truth. Charlie and I would flip through the Daily Prophet and search for familiar names, terrified we would see someone new on the wanted list, or someone wanted on the list of the dead.

Searching for news about Ron and Harry and Hermione, and the countless other Hogwarts students who were forced into hiding after speaking out against Voldemort. Never finding what we hoped to.

There was a strange feeling, a feeling as though the war was building up.

The end was coming.

But I didn't know who would come out on top.