Tuesday – 3 more days to Halloween

Harry woke up feeling like a burden had just been lifted off him. True, he now had a mere 3 days to fight Voldermort, but now that everyone that mattered to him knew about it, the whole world seemed to be a better place to live in. Squeezing his eyes before opening them, he found himself wakening on a lovely tanned chest and with a heavy weight on his back. A non-manly feeling blossomed in him and he inwardly grinned mushily. 'Charlie.', he thought. 'I could get used to this…' Tilting his head upwards, he gave a startled gasp when he saw that Charlie was awake and staring raptly at him.

"Ted." Harry gasped. "Why – What are you doing?"

"Memorizing you."

Harry inwardly sighed. This had occurred yesterday too, though Harry had thought that it was a one-off thing and had not asked him about it. Apparently, it wasn't. "Did you sleep at all?" Harry asked concernedly, grazing Charlie's darkening eye rings with his thumb.

Charlie caught his hand and kissed his palm. "Of course, baby." He said soothingly. "Ready to get up and face the world?" He asked, referring to the fact that after their little chat during the meeting, Harry had sneaked away and thus had not faced the order members.

Harry made a face, and then pouted endearingly. "You love me, right?"

Charlie closed the gap between them to give him a lingering kiss. "Of course."

"Then you'll let me hide out in here?" Harry asked sweetly, referring to Charlie's room that they had stumbled into the night before.

"You know they'll be frantic finding for you…" Charlie warned.

Harry sighed. "Yes, I know… But…"

"It's okay." Charlie soothed him. "Let them search, you need the rest anyway."

"We need the rest…" Harry amended the statement, referring to Charlie's incessant staring at him in the nighttime.

Charlie made a noise of affirmation before rolling them over so that he was spooning Harry. He felt Harry's body relax with incoming sleep and he hugged that warm body even tighter. It was true, he hasn't been sleeping much, so entranced by the face of his perhaps soon-to-be-dead lover before him. Charlie mentally hit himself at that negative thought. There was no use thinking like that, Harry would survive. He must.

:

"Charlie, wake up." A feminine voice roused him from sleep.

Charlie opened his eyes to see someone he least wanted to see with Harry half-naked in his embrace. Molly Weasley.

"Mom?" He whispered in question, carefully letting go of Harry.

His mother merely beckoned him out of the room before letting herself out. Charlie slowly crept out of bed, his heart heavy with worry. While he had never been shy about his sexuality, he had never paraded it in front of his mother either. And for her to catch him naked with another guy, someone many years his junior in fact, it made him wary of what she would say.

"Why him?" his mother asked the minute he appeared.

"Mom?" he asked in bewilderment.

"Why Harry, Charlie?" Mrs Weasley turned with a look of sadness on her face.

"Mom… I know that he's a bit too young for me. But I love him, mom, I really do. He's the one…" Charlie said with conviction.

"No, Char, that's not what I meant! Sweetheart, he has a prophecy hanging over his head… He could d – "

"No! Mom, how could you say such a thing!" Charlie asked aghast. Of all issues, he never suspected this to be the issue his mother had problems with.

"Charlie, Harry's a good boy, and I love him like my own son, but you're first and foremost my son and I don't want you to be hurt if he…"

"Mom!" Charlie interrupted in outrage.

"Charlie, please face facts! He's most likely not going to survive this. I'm not trying to be discouraging. But you-know-who is as powerful as Dumbledore and – "

"Harry's as powerful as Dumbledore!"

"But without the years of experience that Voldermort has!"

Charlie turned his back on his mother, unwilling to argue another word.

"Charlie… I just don't want you to get hurt…" Molly Weasley said tearfully. "Charlie…" she called after he hadn't reply after a few seconds.

"Why are you here mom?" He asked in a cold voice.

"We were searching for Harry, and when we couldn't find him, I thought I'd find for you…" Molly replied in a sad voice. "Charlie, I'll leave now, but think of what I just said. Please, I want only the best for you. I'm your mother."

Charlie remained tense until he heard the door close behind her. Cursing himself for setting such a predictable password, he reset the password before going back to bed. As soon as he entered the bed, Harry opened his eyes and smiled.

"You okay?" Harry asked.

"Yes of course…" Charlie lied glibly.

"Don't be angry at her, she's right." Harry said softly as he caressed his lover's face.

Charlie jerked his face backwards, leaving Harry's hands in the air. "Harry, don't say that! She's wrong! What she said was vile, and wrong, and ghastly and wrong and….."

"And out of love." Harry finished. "All those words she said, she said it only out of love. Don't be angry with her, please Charlie."

"It's just not right… She claimed to love you like a son but…"

"But you're her son, Charlie. And that's the difference. Of course she'd want to protect you from being hurt, even if it's at my expense. Don't you think that's what I've been trying to do from the beginning? But I'm just too selfish. I love you too much." Harry admitted.

"I love you too. I'll never leave you." Charlie vowed.

Harry smiled somberly. "Good. But don't be angry at her… Alright?"

"Harry…"

"Charlie…" Harry said seriously. "She's only doing her job as a mother. You cannot blame her for her instincts. Forgive her. Please?"

Charlie sighed in frustration at Harry's request. "Only for you." He promised.

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A/N: HELLO THERE. Anyone has pottermore? Drop me a review with your username, then I'll add you (: