The Safe Wizards

23: Bill's Anger

Charlie arrived at his brother's house upset, he felt betrayed, scorned and broken. Of course he understood that it was not Harry's fault that he had two soul mates, only magic was responsible for that, but he felt that the dark-haired man had been lying to him since the beginning of their relationship. He was replaying their story and felt the stab of every memory of Harry telling him that he didn't want to reveal their story because he needed time. Now he understood that the real reason was the dreams he was having about his other soul mate.

"Cha? What's going on?" asked Bill, concerned at the look on his brother's face that was so defeated. He was even close to tears.

"I... He..."

He couldn't construct a complete sentence. Feeling lower than dirt, dead inside was one thing, saying it in another voice was another. The tears began to flow and he could not hold them back any longer. Charlie felt his brother guide him to the couch before taking him in his arms. He was vaguely aware of Fleur saying she would be upstairs as he couldn't help but cry in his big brother's arms. He felt like a wounded little boy, but he couldn't help it, every bit of his broken heart hurt.

It took him a long moment in Bill's arms before he finally managed to calm down enough to speak.

"Harry is my soul mate," he began, making his brother frown. "But he has two soul mates."

Just voicing it out loud made him feel like he was being stabbed again.

"What? How is that possible?" Bill asked dumbfounded. "How do you know that?"

"Hermione gave me a letter for Harry when I sent him my first letter after seeing him the last time I was here." He paused for a moment to suppress the grief that was flaring up. "It was an excerpt from a book in which the author explains that it is possible for a person to have two soul mates when one of them is a vampire or an elf. If Harry consumes his bond with his other soul mate, it will destroy ours."

"Oh... OK."

Bill waited a few moments for him to continue, but Charlie didn't know how to say what hurt the most.

"It's not just that, is it?" the spellbreaker asked.

Charlie nodded, searching for breath and words as the pain choked him.

"He's... He asked Hermione to do this research because he was dreaming about him after being with me."

The shock on Bill's face was obvious. He was shocked for a few seconds, then understanding and anger took over his features.

"Is that why he didn't want you to talk about it?"

Charlie nodded, wiping away the tears that threatened to flow again.

"I'm going to kill him!" exclaimed Bill, suddenly standing up.

"No!" the dragon rider shouted, holding him by the arm, his stomach churning at the thought of Harry getting hurt.

"Look at the state you're in Cha, he wouldn't have hurt you this bad if he'd ripped your heart out!"

"I love him, please don't hurt him."

"Okay," Bill decided grudgingly, much to the relief of the younger man. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know, I need a little time to think about it."

"Fleur has the guest room ready for you, you can stay here as long as you want."

"Thanks."

Charlie hugged his brother and went to greet Fleur. They exchanged a few words, but the dragon rider couldn't concentrate, he couldn't think of anything else but Harry. He quickly excused himself and went to his assigned room. He replayed everything that had happened since the morning in a loop in his head until he fell asleep from exhaustion.