CHAPTER FOUR: APPARATION AND ARACHNIDS

Hugs and greetings were given to Charlie by everyone present as they all rushed up from the table to say hello to the brother, son, or friend that they hadn't seen in quite some time. Charlie looked about the same as he always did; a multitude of freckles making him look almost tanned, vibrant, Weasley red hair, and a large grin plastered upon his face. It was obvious that he was happy to be home.

He hugged all members of his family, giving a one-armed hug to each of his brothers and laughing in slight embarrassment as his mother kissed his cheek after nearly squeezing him to death. He then greeted his 'adopted brother' with a sound pat on the back, that sent Harry's glasses sliding to the end of his nose with its force, and a "How're you doing, Harry?" Moving on to Hermione, who he didn't know quite as well, he nodded politely to her and greeted her with a friendly hello.

Now that he had been properly welcomed back home, an extra plate was set at the table as they all, once again, sat down to eat the breakfast which Mrs. Weasley and the twins had prepared. Charlie, as the rest of them had only minutes before, looked at the food skeptically and raised his brow in a 'Do you really think I'm foolish enough to eat any food that those pranksters have messed with?' manner. Mrs. Weasley assured Charlie, as the rest laughed at his display, that the food was just fine—or at least she hoped so—and that the twins would have hell to pay if they had done anything to 'improve' it. The twins did their best to give off an aura of innocence, though failed miserably at doing so.

It turned out that the food was just fine; apparently the twins had thought it wise to wait a while before pulling their next prank, a decision that was appreciated by everyone present. Soon they were all full, though they sat around catching up for quite some time (except for Mr. Weasley who had to go to work as soon as he had finished his breakfast). They talked about many things, from the incident that had taken place that morning—which Charlie found quite humorous, though the subject sent Mrs. Weasley into a very long and angry lecture—to whatever had happened to Norbert, who Charlie assured them was just fine.

It was already nearing eight o’clock, the time that most of the residents of the household would have woken up, when everybody decided that they should probably get up and ready for the day. Of course, Fred, George, and Charlie had already showered and dressed before arriving, so there were only six left to fight over who would get to use one of the only two bathrooms in the house first.

Mrs. Weasley, naturally, would get to use the bathroom connected to the master bedroom first and it was decided that since it was polite to let guests and ladies go first, that Hermione would have the honor of showering first in the other bathroom. Ginny would go after Mrs. Weasley, Harry after Hermione, then Ron and Bill would fight it out to see who would be forced to go last, using whichever bathroom was vacated first.

They were all ready before long, it collectively only taking them a little over an hour, and were once again assembled downstairs (minus Mrs. Weasley, who had errands to attend to). Unsure of what they wanted to do for the day, they sat down in the family room in order to discuss the matter.

It turned out that they all had a bit of Christmas shopping left to do, though the 25th was little more than a week away, so they planned on making a visit to Diagon Alley, an idea which they were all quite keen on. Ron rushed from the room to inform his mother of the plan, hoping that he could convince her that Charlie and Bill were chaperons enough and therefore there was no need for her to accompany them; they were 17 years old after all and even Ginny was 16 by now. He rushed back into the room only a minute or two later.

“She said it was fine,” he informed them all, “Although she did seem a little bit worried,” he added, letting a sly grin crawl onto his face, “...about the twins that is. She said she’s not quite sure she can trust them to behave themselves without an adult with them,” he finished, letting out a hearty laugh as the twins rolled their eyes.

“But, we are adults,” Fred declared earnestly, somewhat irritated at his mother for talking about him and his brother as if they were still in need of a babysitter.

“Yeah! And Bill and Charlie are adults, too,” George added in addition to his brother’s statement. Charlie shrugged his shoulders as if to let them know that he could do nothing about the matter and to just let it go.

Bill smiled slightly while shaking his head at his brothers before adding, “You know mum, she’ll always think of us as her ‘babies’ no matter how old we are.” Ron nodded his head in agreement to that, looking annoyed at being reminded of the fact. Harry let out a slight chuckle. Ron glared at him.

“Well, we’d better get going if we want to get to the Alley before it starts getting crowded as it usually does during this time of the year,” Hermione cut in, eager to go. And she was right, after all, as she usually was, the earlier they got there, the better.

Everyone bustled about, making sure that they had their money with them and grabbing cloaks and scarves, mittens and hats, before they were finally ready to go. They all had their apparation licenses (except for Ginny who would just meet them there after flooing in to the Leaky Caldron), so they decided that they might as well just apparate; they didn’t mind having to walk out a couple of kilometers to the apparation point, for apparating was a much more preferable mode of traveling than by floo.

The air was brisk and cool, though refreshingly so, as they made their way down the worn dirt path leading away from the Burrow and out into the countryside. They were a lively bunch as they went merrily along their way, happy for their time off from school or work and excited about the upcoming holidays that they would be spending together, chatting away about what they should do for the next couple of weeks.

Hermione suggested ice skating, the twins put their votes in for having a party at the Burrow while Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were out some day or using their flat above Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, while Ron suggested playing lots of rousing games of quidditch. The rest agreed that ice skating and quidditch sounded like rather good ideas and that the party sounded like fun.

They soon reached the apparation point just beyond a small, wooded area and, all at once, apparated to Diagon Alley with a residual pop. When they opened their eyes again, feeling somewhat disoriented, they found themselves in a large, open aired room known as the Apparation Centre. There was a large arch leading from the courtyard area into Diagon Alley itself; it looked much like the brick arch outside of the Leaky Caldron, only this one remained constantly open, seeing as there was no chance of muggles finding themselves here by mistake.

They hurriedly exited the Centre as many more wizards and witches apparated in, denoted by the many pops that echoed about the room. Coming out through the archway and finding themselves in front of Gringott’s wizarding bank, they spotted Ginny standing there waiting for them, and, meeting up with her, all decided to step inside and grab a few extra galleons before heading to the stores.

Charlie, Bill, Harry, and the twins each had their own vaults, while Ginny and Ron had a key to the Weasley family vault. Two goblins were quickly called over to assist them, leading them off in two groups: Harry along with Charlie and Bill in one, while the twins, Ginny, and Ron ended up in the other. Hermione remained in the lobby with one of the tellers, exchanging some pounds for galleons and sickles.

“So, what shopping do you have left to do?” Bill asked both Harry and Charlie as they were led off by Swiftfoot the goblin towards the carts that would take them down to their respective vaults.

Harry pondered the question out loud as the three of them climbed into a cart along with Swiftfoot and began to barrel along the track leading down into the depths of Gringott’s bank. “Umm...let’s see, I have Hermione, Neville...your parents, and the twins left. At least, I think that’s it,” Harry informed them, though he failed to mention that he still needed to buy a present for Charlie, feeling somewhat awkward about stating that fact aloud to Charlie himself.

Charlie nodded to show that he had been listening before reciting his own list of people that he still had to buy presents for. “I have Ron, Ginny, Percy, mum and dad, my friend Aurora—” here he was cut off as Bill asked if it was his girlfriend Aurora. Charlie promptly smacked his brother upside the head, vehemently denying the accusation before continuing, “and...well, I still haven’t gotten Bill here a present,” he admitted, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly as if it didn’t matter to him if he got Bill a present or not, before smiling good naturedly to show that he was merely joking.

Bill pretended to be scandalized, though as Harry and Charlie soon found out, he hadn’t bought a gift for Charlie yet, either. “Yeah, I have the twins left, Artemisia, Hermione, Seifer, and Charles here,” Bill supplied, knowing perfectly well that Charlie hated being called by his real name, Charles, and purposefully using it because of that. ‘Charles’ glared at his brother, though there was no heat behind it, as Harry laughed lightly.

He had never really gotten to know the two eldest Weasley sons that well, although he liked them both a lot, especially Bill. They were both really nice and, although he felt somewhat silly about admitting it (even to himself), he thought they were really cool, too. Charlie’s being a dragon tamer and living in Romania and all was awesome, while Bill’s chosen profession of a curse breaker along with his ponytail and fang tooth earring made him very interesting and unique, not to mention someone that Harry admired.

He remembered vividly his first impression of the two, back in the summer before his fourth year at Hogwarts. He remembered the ease with which Charlie had greeted him, giving him a friendly handshake, the calluses and blisters under his fingers obtained through his career of working with dragons signifying him to Harry as Ron's second eldest brother. Then there had been Bill. He'd come as quite a shock seeing as how Harry had always expected him to be rather similar to Percy. Yet he was remarkably different from any of his other brothers; the only word he had been able to think of to describe him at the time had been cool. He'd been wearing clothes as if he was headed off to a rock concert and had an easy, laid back manner about him that had made Harry immediately comfortable in his presence.

Harry’s thoughts were interrupted as the cart came to a sudden halt in front of vault 1139. Charlie hopped out, quickly extracting his key, and opened the door to his vault. He took out enough coins to fill the small coin pouch that he’d brought with him, dropping it in the pocket on the inside of his cloak as he exited the chamber, closing the heavy, wooden door behind him, and stepping back into the cart.

They were soon whisked away, once again, as the cart took them next to Bill’s vault. Harry and Charlie waited patiently for a minute as Bill collected some money, as Swiftfoot stood stiffly beside the open door. He was done fairly quickly and then they were off to Harry’s vault, barreling down the track speedily in their little cart. Harry felt that one of these days he would be flung right over the edge of one of the carts as it took a corner at breakneck speed, making him feel a bit queasy, though he suspected that they were magically enhanced to avoid such dreadful accidents.

He was quite glad when they slowed down and came to a stop in front of his vault, afraid that he might be sick if the ride continued for very much longer. He hurriedly stepped out of the cart, inserted his key into the old, silver keyhole, and turned the knob to open the door to his vault. Grabbing a handful of golden galleons, he stuffed the pouch he’d brought with him until it was quite full before heading back to the cart, not looking forward to the ride back to the lobby, though eager, none the less, to get out of the twisted maze that wound under the bank.

As they made their way back up to the top and stepped out of the cart, Harry quickly spotted Hermione sitting on a plush, tan colored chair off to the side, reading a small book that she had, as it seemed, tucked inside of her robe before leaving. Apparently she was done with all of her transactions and merely passing the time until the others returned and they could be off. Harry made his way towards her, sitting down on a small couch that, along with the chair Hermione was occupying and one other just like it that was empty at the moment, formed a little sitting area.

Hermione muttered a distracted hello, too engrossed in her book to say anything more stimulating, as Bill and Charlie also sat down, Charlie stealing the other chair as Bill sat down on the couch beside Harry. After Hermione had finished the page she was on, she closed the book, making sure to mark her place (although the book would automatically open to the spot where she had left off when she resumed her reading), and glanced up at the three that had just joined her.

“Good book?” Harry asked somewhat teasingly, smiling at his friend.

Hermione either didn’t notice the teasing tone or, more likely, chose to ignore it as she responded, “Yes, actually, it is,” not bothering to supply any more details about what she was reading. Harry merely nodded, used to Hermione’s bookworm ways.

It was then that the other group came back; Fred and George were laughing uproariously and drawing quite a few stares, Ginny seemed frustrated at something, and Ron looked as if he had just been scared half to death, his face as pale as a ghost’s.

Harry shared a quizzical look with Hermione as he, Hermione, Bill, and Charlie wondered what on earth could have happened. Ron looked quite shaken as he approached them and Harry hurriedly scooted over, closer to Bill, so as to give Ron a place to sit down. “Umm...Ron? What happened, mate?” Harry asked softly, a concerned look crossing his face as he looked at his ashen faced friend.

“S-s-spiders,” Ron stuttered, his voice trembling with fear as a shudder ran up his spine. “Spiders in my h-hair...” he added, his hand moving up to his fiery red locks of its own accord as he recalled what had transpired only a minute or so ago.

Ginny glared at the twins as Ron vaguely explained what had happened, though Harry was pretty sure by now that he could guess what had taken place: The twins had put spiders in Ron’s hair. That’s what Ginny was mad at them for and why Ron appeared so shaken.

Harry let out an exasperated sigh. Why did the twins have to go and do that? They know how much Ron hates spiders. And why does Ron have to be so fearful of spiders in the first place? “It’s okay, Ron, it’s not as if they hurt you or anything,” Harry attempted to reassure his friend, patting him gently on the back.

“I-I felt them. They were all o-over me,” Ron continued to mumble, still stricken by the experience. Harry gave up on attempting to comfort his friend as he got up and let Hermione claim his spot; Bill stood up as well.

“Perhaps we should split up,” Ginny suddenly suggested, sending Harry and Bill a ‘look’ as if saying Just go along with it and I’ll explain later. They got the message.

“That’s a great idea, Gin,” Harry quickly piped up, receiving a glare from Ginny for using her much despised nickname (she thought is sounded too much like the liquor.)

“Yeah,” Bill agreed, quickly catching on to what Ginny was planning, “Ron and Hermione can stay here for a while, Fred and George and Charlie can go off and buy presents, and Harry, Ginny, and I will go off together. That way we can buy presents for each other without having the recipient find out what it is. Then we can all meet at the Leaky Caldron at about one o’clock for lunch,” he suggested, sending a wink to his sister as she smiled in satisfaction at his quick thinking.

Everyone else seemed to find the idea to be a good one, too. So they all split up, leaving Hermione and Ron sitting on the sofa as the other two groups headed out the large, double doors that led to the bustling, shop-filled alley.

My descriptions of Charlie and Bill were drawn directly from the books themselves and I would like to include these excerpts of how Rowlings describes the two from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Chapter Five:

"Charlie was built like the twins, shorter and stockier than Percy and Ron, who were both long and lanky. He had a broad, good-natured face, which was weather-beaten and so freckly that he looked almost tanned; his arms were muscular, and one of them had a large, shiny burn on it."

"Bill came as something of a surprise. Harry knew that he worded for the wizarding bank, Gringotts, and that Bill had been Head Boy at Hogwarts; Harry had always imagined Bill to be an older version of Percy: fussy about rule-breaking and fond of bossing everyone around. However, Bill was—there was no other word for it—cool. He was tall, with long hair that he had tied back in a ponytail. He was wearing an earring with what looked like a fang dangling from it. Bill's clothes would not have looked out of place at a rock concert, except that Harry recognized his boots to be made, not of leather, but of dragon hide."

Now, here's a list of other Bill/Harry fics I've read, for anyone who is interested. Enjoy!
On Fanfiction. net:
-The Sought by Jaylee1 (One of the best Harry/Bill fics I have ever read. This fic is very cute, too.)
-That Summer by Reija Linn (A rather sad and depressing story, but well written and a good read.)
-A Day in Greece by Lyssaphra (A rather short story, but still good.)
-A Rose by Any Other Name by Dailynn (A Harry-gets-sent-to-Azkaban story. I must say that I am addicted to them. I haven't read very far, but what I have read is very good.)
-I’m sure that there are more, but I wasn’t able to find them. I’ll search for them some more and, hopefully, be able to add more to the list later.