Entry tags:

fic: taming the weasleys, hermione/percy, lavender/charlie, rating: adult

Taming the Weasleys - 9/11 - Adult - Percy/Hermione, Charlie/Lavender
Title: Taming the Weasleys (9/11)
Author: silvernatasha
Rating: Adult
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Summary: Despite their mother's nagging, Charlie and Percy Weasley are perfectly happy being single and have no intention of settling down and getting married. The women in their lives, however, have other ideas.
Ships: Percy/Hermione, Charlie/Lavender, slight Charlie/Angelina, slight Fred/Angelina.
A/N: Written for midsummerfest and loosely based on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. View the dramatis personae here.
Word Count: 2114.

Chapter Nine: In Which Charlie Finally Makes a Move

It took Charlie a good fifteen minutes to find Lavender after he managed to restrain himself from injuring Percy. He found her in the garden, behind Arthur’s shed with her cloak wrapped around her to stave off the cold. She was sitting in the ground, picking the petals from a daisy with a rather intense look on her face.

“Is this patch of dirt taken?” he asked quietly after watching her for a moment. Lavender looked up, a little surprised to see him, and gave a slight shrug. Charlie took that as some sort of agreement and sat down next to her.

“Percy’s always been a fucking prat,” he told her, bitterness creeping into his tone more than a little bit. He didn’t mean it to, but sometimes you couldn’t help but get annoyed with what Percy did, and he had clearly offended Lavender, which bothered him more than it should have. “Ask anyone. They’ll tell you the same bloody thing. You really shouldn’t pay any notice to anything that comes out of his mouth.” Charlie wrinked his nose. “When he comes back from his honeymoon, I can hit him for you if you want.”

Lavender gave him a brief smile, a vague sort of humour behind her expression. “That doesn’t make me feel much better. But, thanks, I suppose.” She giggled a little half-heartedly.

Charlie reached out, lifting her chin up and forcing her to look at him. Her skin was soft to the touch and Charlie managed to resist the impulse to move his hand up and stroke her cheek. “You know, I’ve always had the nagging feeling that I’ve known you from somewhere before we met. A familiar face.”

Pink tinged her cheeks and Lavender looked away, discarding the daisy. She gave a slightly derisive snort, as if to ask if it were her face that was familiar.

He frowned in thought, trying to recall something that seemed to be just out of reach. “What was it? The photos? What was it called?” Charlie snapped his fingers. “Mischievous Mediwitches! Of course.” He looked at her curiously. “Am I right in thinking there was a bottle of Skelegrow involved?”

Lavender blushed. For a moment, she was quiet, but then she broke into giggles. “It was the photographer’s idea,” she said, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear. She grinned at Charlie. “He kept joking about how many bones would be growing…”

Charlie gave a guffaw of laughter. “I’m glad you said that, not me.” He plucked a daisy from the grass. “Why are you so embarrassed about it?”

She frowned. “Wouldn’t you be embarrassed about nude pictures of yourself? I did it for the money. Thought it would be a laugh. And it was, yeah, but… now that I look back on it… I don’t know if it was such a good idea. I don’t really like the photos.”

“I think they make you look gorgeous.”

Lavender rolled her eyes. “Oh, don’t be ridiculous. I bet you’ve never seen them.” She gave Charlie an appraising glance. “You probably just asked Percy what the feature was called.”

“Nope.” Charlie shook his head. “I remember the pictures. You had your hair curly. Like, really curly. Like this big cloud around your head. And weren’t there crisp white sheets? I remember the pictures vividly. Very vividly, if you know what I mean. That photographer bloke was right about that bottle.”

She stared at him, mouth opening and closing a few times as she tried to form words. Had he just implied what she thought he’d just implied? Her cheeks flushed. “You… with my picture?” That provided Lavender’s imagination with some interesting imagery.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because… you wouldn’t now, would you? If you’d known me when you first saw those pictures, what would you have thought?”

Charlie picked a petal from the daisy and flicked it at her. “If I saw those photos now, I’d be wondering why the hell I hadn’t asked you out yet.”

Lavender picked the petal from her dress, holding it gently between her fingers. “Why haven’t you?”

Avoiding her gaze, Charlie gave a shrug. “I dunno. I suppose I’m not really very good at that sort of thing. People always seem to think that I am, but… no-one likes rejection, do they?”

“You think I’d reject you?” Lavender asked softly. She let the petal fall to the ground, her attention now focussed wholly on Charlie.

“You’ve been teaching me… thought you might have professional issues or something.”

For a moment, Lavender just stared at him. Then, she started to giggle. “Professional issues?” she repeated. “Parvati suggested my name for this in the first place because I wanted to… I saw you in Diagon Alley and thought you were really good-looking and, god, that sounds so pathetic, doesn’t it?”

Charlie’s cheeks flushed red. “Not really.” He looked at her a little apologetically. “Actually, it makes me feel a little better.”

“About what?” Lavender asked a little uncertainly. She’d just admitted that she’d taken the job of teaching him because she fancied him from afar, and he was saying that was perfectly alright. It felt a bit strange.

Not quite able to look her in the face, Charlie suddenly became interested in his shoelaces. “About the fact that I took my first aid certification test three weeks ago.”

“But I’ve still been giving you lessons!”

He gave her a sheepish grin. “Yeah. But I didn’t want to stop seeing you.”

Lavender let out a shaky laugh. “Well,” she started, “now that we’ve admitted that, what do we do now?”

Charlie’s fingers brushed her chin. “I have an idea where to start,” he murmured, leaning forward and pressing his lips to hers in a soft, almost hesitant kiss. When he pulled back, Lavender’s eyes were still closed and she nodded slowly.

“Yes,” she agreed a little breathlessly. “That seems like a very good place to start.”

*****

“I think he’s testing me,” Angelina declared with a solemn nod. She refilled her glass, not noticing the slight frown that Parvati gave her.

“Testing you?” Parvati asked, rather amused by Angelina’s current condition. She was a very talkative drunk, but apparently very serious, too.

Angelina nodded again. “Testing. I know he talks about all these witches in Romania, but I reckon that deep down he wants a committed relationship.” She took a gulp of her drink and blinked. “He is testing me to see if I am committed to being with him before we even go out. That’s the only explanation.”

“If you say so,” Parvati agreed with a slight sigh. Where’s Lavender? she wondered, glancing around. The wedding reception was getting along quite nicely, despite the lack of bride and groom.

Angelina whined. “You don’t think he’s just completely thick, do you?”

“He’s a man,” Parvati commented dryly. “It’s always possible.”

“What do you think I should do?” Angelina asked, eyeing Parvati. “You’re an advice columnist, after all.”

Parvati bit her lip. She never liked it when people brought that up. At work, all the questions were put to her by owl, so she had time to think about what she was going to say. Being put on the spot like this made her feel horribly nervous - what if she said the wrong thing? “Well, if you’re not sure how he feels about you… maybe you should be a little more direct?” she suggested a little timidly.

Taking a sip of her drink, Angelina mulled this over. “I should go and find him,” she announced, standing up and nearly knocking her glass over as she moved her arm. Parvati surreptitiously moved her glass out of the way, hoping to avoid any accidents. “I should just go and find him and tell him how I feel. Get it all out in the open.”

She looked expectantly at Parvati. “Well, come on, then.”

Parvati frowned. “What?”

“Please come with me.”

Sighing, Parvati stood, smoothing down her dress. She hadn’t expressly told Angelina to do this, so if it all went horribly wrong, it wasn’t her fault. “Fine. I want to try and find Lavender anyway.”

Angelina was swaying a little on her high heels as they wandered around The Burrow. Normally, it would have been fairly easy to spot a redhead among the masses, but a Weasley family occasion such as this made it a little more difficult.

After Angelina nearly knocked Ginny over, Parvati took her by the elbow, steering her in the direction of the door. “Come on, let’s try the garden. I think you need a bit of fresh air, anyway. Clear your head a bit.”

Angelina nodded, letting Parvati guide her out to the garden. It was only February, but there were already several plants in flower, no doubt due to magical influence. Parvati shivered slightly, wishing that she’d picked up her cloak. Needless to say, the brisk weather certainly cleared her senses.

“Maybe he’s gone back to his place,” Parvati suggested. “I know family events always make me feel a little claustrophobic.” She frowned, remembering her and Padma’s twenty-first birthday - she hadn’t been able to move without bumping into some aunt or uncle or cousin or cousin of a cousin, most of whom had asked her why she hadn’t settle down and got married yet before pointing her in the direction of the nearest suitable male.

“Maybe,” Angelina agreed with a sigh. She paused slightly, frowning. “Did you hear that? I’m sure I just hear Charlie’s voice.” She set off across the grass, teetering on her high heels. Parvati rolled her eyes and followed her in the direction of the rickety-looking shed.

As Angelina reached a corner of the shed, she held out her arm to stop Parvati going any further, indicating that she should stay quiet.

Listening, Parvati could hear Lavender’s voice. “Charlie, not out here!” She peeked around the corner of the shed to see Lavender sitting rather happily on Charlie’s lap as he fiddled with the strap of her dress. His other hand had disappeared somewhere under Lavender’s cloak.

“I was hoping to get something to compare to the photos,” Charlie told her, resting her forehead against hers.

Parvati could just about see Lavender’s smile. “You haven’t got the photos.”

“Probably got the magazine back at my place. I always keep the ones I like.”

Still staring in surprise as Charlie kissed Lavender, Parvati only looked away when Angelina tugged on her arm. Wordlessly, Angelina started to walk back to the house, no longer wobbling as she walked. Inside, she closed the door behind them.

“I… guess that answers my question, then,” Angelina said a little hollowly.

Parvati frowned. “I’m sorry.” She was pleased for Lavender, of course, but right now she had to deal with Angelina.

Angelina sighed. “I suppose I’ll get over it.” She glanced at the door. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard him use that tone of voice before. Do you think I ever really stood a chance?”

“I, um, well, I don’t know.”

“You’re her friend, aren’t you? Has she always been after him?”

Parvati picked a little nervously at her nail polish. “Yeah, pretty much.”

Angelina grimaced slightly and nodded. “Great. So I was working with him for months and months and she just swans in and a couple of months later they’re practically shagging in the garden.”

Stifling a giggle, Parvati said, “It’s probably a bit too cold to be shagging out there.”

This earned a laugh from Angelina. “I dunno,” she remarked, “I’ve done it in colder.” She grinned. “You know, I’m almost glad that this is over.”

“Really?”

Angelina nodded. “Yeah.” She look a little wistfully at the door, as though she could see through it and into the garden. “I was actually starting to wonder if he was gay. Guess that answers my question. I suppose…” She trailed off when a small hand tugged at her elbow.

“Would you like to dance?” Fred Weasley’s son stared solemnly up at her. Angelina bit her lip.

“With you?” she asked a little hesitantly, wondering how you let a child down gently, especially when he was looking at you so expectantly.

He shook his head. “With Daddy.”

“Oh. Um, yeah. Okay. Go tell your daddy I’ll come and dance in a minute.”

When he scampered off, Angelina looked at Parvati, biting her lip. “Fred’s been owling me recently. Asking me out.”

“You’re free and single now,” Parvati pointed out.

“I suppose I am,” Angelina agreed. She glanced in the direction where Fred’s son had gone. “Do you think I should…?”

“It’s only a dance. Don’t have to be anything more than that if you don’t want it to be.”