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Author: Kalarien Story: Charlie Weasley and the Mountain of Dragons Rating: Young Teens Setting: Pre-OotP Status: WIP Reviews: 0 Words: 18,389
Chapter 5: Let it snow... He closed the door to the loo, leaning against it, feeling his light gray tee shirt wrinkle up under his back, and soaking up the only bit of privacy he was going to get on this trip. His head began to ache as he slammed his frustration out in staccato rhythms on the wood. I shouldn't have tried. It was absolutely useless. She hates me. His attempt at getting to know Liz better had been an unmitigated disaster. From the moment she opened the door, he had been doomed. He'd thought that it had been planned out from the beginning, that he would be smooth and debonair, he would say what he had planned perfectly, that she would fall into his arms, knocked out from her love for him. Today, class, we have a lesson in antonyms. When she'd opened the door, dressed in only her nightgown, he'd been thrown off right away. He didn't know why, but somehow he had believed in the back of his head that she always wore day clothes, even though he knew that couldn't be true. It just fit with her demeanor: always proper and correct. Then she'd snapped at him, and he was at a loss as to how to respond. She had sat with queenly grace in her armchair, as if it were a throne, managing to look down on him, even though they were at eye level, grimacing at him as though she could barely stand his presence. He'd felt like a scolded child. He hadn't been able to do so much as opened his mouth. The words that he'd figured out so well earlier wouldn't come out. Instead, he'd strugglied like a fish swimming upstream (what's with the turning into Nils already? Why am I using these fish analogies?) to get his speech out. Then she'd cut him off, chastising him for wasting her time. Now, class, what should Charlie do? That was indeed the question, wasn't it? What should he do, now that he'd obviously ruined any chances he'd had at getting closer to her? Tomorrow was going to be the most awkward, he decided. I made a fool of myself in front of her, an idiotic fool. She'll never have any sort of respect for me, she'll never have any esteem for me. I don't know if I could stand it... He turned on the tap and stuck his head under the gushing water. It was icy cold, and he spluttered. Lifting his wet head, he glared at himself in the mirror. His hair was dripping wet, and it soaked his tee-shirt, turning it a dark gray. His eyelashes stuck together, together with the redness of his eye lids giving him a bleary look, but he was much more awake for his dunking. What to do... There was no way to take back what had happened, no way to take a Time Turner and stop himself outside of her tent. He could make her forget...but he didn't want to do that, it was immoral and unfair. Besides, that would be running away, and Charlie Weasley never runs away. He took a towel from the rack and rubbed it over his head. There has to be something I can do... He threw the towel back over the rack and opened the bathroom door. "Finally!" cried Nils as Charlie stepped out. "I need to pee like a racehorse!!" He jumped up and dashed into the newly vacated bathroom, slamming the door behind him. "You know, I don't know if I told you this, Charlie," he called through the door (raised in a barn, as Mum would say), "But I was talking to Liz earlier. She really liked that rock I gave her. I told her that you helped pick it out." All right, who let this guy come on the trip? (Now he's even making my inner voice angry!) "That's...er, great, Nils." He called, and proceeded into the bedroom to change his shirt. Of course she would like the rock. Nils gave it too her. And since he, Charlie, thought it was a useless piece of junk, she obviously must love it. Obviously. He crawled into his bunk, pulling the blankets up to his chin. The only thing to do know is to pretend nothing ever happened, right? Nothing ever happened, nothing ever happened, nothing ever happened, nothing ever... He continued his mantra well into the night, after Wilhelm and finally Nils were in bed and snoring. He continued it, until his eyelids dropped and he couldn't hold them up any longer. Then he dreamed. *** The trek up the mountain was labored, in more ways than one. The newly fallen snow meant that they were either wading or lifting their legs high to step forward. Every few hundred feet they stopped to brush snow off of each others packs and catch their breaths. It made for very slow going, and was especially tortuous because they had hoped to get to the top before they made camp. Now it looked as though they might only make it half-way, if that. To make things worse, conversation was strained when it did happen and tense when it didn't. Wilhelm was in the best mood, and had tried starting conversations with the rest, but had only succeeded with Nils, giving up after only a few minutes. All the man ever talked about was himself. Liz and Charlie were both in bad moods and neither had gotten much sleep the night before. Nils had tried talking to Liz for a moment, but had gotten a curt "Not now," in reply and had given up. Charlie was silent, except for the occasional order, which he snapped off without his usual politeness and gratitude. The silence was just as bad, though, because there was nothing to distract anybody from the cold and the events of the past days. Well, at least he hasn't said anything, was the only vaguely positive thought Liz could think. We could be having a row right out here in front of Wilhelm and Nils. That would be embarrassing. Liz lifted her foot out of a particularly deep drift, and avoided looking ahead of her at Charlie's back. He was walking alone, seemingly lost in thought. After considering what had happened the night before-after all, she had nothing better to do-Liz had realized how childish she'd been. Wasn't that what she was trying to get away from? Wasn't she trying to be a mature adult, hear him out? Judge him after she'd heard his side? Instead she'd played pretend, acting as though she was better than everyone else, including the man who was her boss, and dismissing him before he'd even had a chance to say anything. She didn't even know what he had been coming to visit her about. For all she knew, he could have been asking about something simple and had been thrown off by her strange behavior. What's to say he hadn't wanted to talk about...the weather! The weather was always a good thing to talk about. Maybe that was it. After all, the snow had been getting thicker and it was threatening the trip. It was probably the weather, she decided. A fat snowflake landed on her nose and she blew at it, most of it melting with her body heat before she managed to dislodge it. Then a thought struck her. Why should he come to talk about the weather with her? Nils was the weather expert in the group; it wasn't as if she'd have anything to offer in that sort of conversation. But it must have been something that wasn't important; otherwise he would've just come out and said it, right? Just like you just came out and said what you wanted to say yesterday? Another snowflake landed on her eyelashes, making them stick together. She brushed angrily at her face. She found that the wetness there was surprisingly warm and she realized that she was crying. Why can't everything just be fairy tale simple? Why? Because none of us have fairy godmothers, I suppose. I may be a which, but that doesn't mean my life is necessarily easy. A hand on her shoulder broke her out of her thoughts "Liz," Nils's voice called out above the wind (since when is the wind so high?), "We're stopping, until the storm dies down. We're going to set up our tent-it's bigger and if we don't have time to get both up it will be better." Liz nodded, perplexed. She hadn't noticed that the weather had changed, and, in fact, she didn't recognize any of there surroundings. I must have really been out of it, she decided, and followed Nils to where Charlie and Wilhelm were stooped over the spread out tent, the edges flapping in the wind, held down mostly by hastily performed magic and a large rock on one corner. She called out to Charlie "What should I do?" He gestured toward a pile of poles to his right. "Get those put together! We'll need them before long!" She nodded and dropped her pack, setting to work, distracted from her worries and tribulations by her fight for survival against an unbeatable predator. The snow fell... *** "In, in quick!" Nils made a show of counting heads as the others rushed into the one standing tent. The other was sitting uselessly in Liz's bag, half untied, but not ready to be set up. There had only been time to get the boys' tent up before the whiteout came. It had come down to the choice of taking shelter or getting lost in a blizzard. Charlie paused once he got into the living area of the tent, shaking the snow off his boots. Liz and Wilhelm were standing near the heat vent, their gloves already off, rubbing their hands together for warmth. They were both flushed red with cold and exertion. They looked up at Charlie. He didn't have anything to say to them, didn't know what to say. "I...I'm sorry, guys. I really thought we'd be up there by now." "'Sokay, boss." Nils was coming in after sealing up the door. "We get to have a nice little break; at least it's warm in here." "It's not like we're never going to get there," Liz agreed. "We've just got to wait a bit and the snow will clear up." Charlie collapsed onto the worn couch. "Still...I'm sorry that you've all been stuck under this inept leadership. I can't even get us up the mountain; what's going to happen when we get to the dragons?" "You've been a fine leader, Charlie," Wilhelm responded, at this point sitting on the floor, pulling off his boots. "You've been stuck with a bout of bad luck, but you've managed to get us this far alive and well. So we're a little bit later than you wanted to be, that just means that when we get there we'll be a little bit more ready." "Come on, boss, don't be so hard on yourself. You couldn't help the snow, or the Graphorn...you couldn't help any of it." Nils was obviously convinced of his own ability to comfort people and had set himself down on the couch next to Charlie, his hand on his shoulder. It was extremely annoying. Charlie made a general gesture, a sort of dismissive wave of his hand, and the others, taking it as meaning that he wanted to be alone, cleared out and into the bedroom. Except for Liz. "Well?" he asked angrily. "What do you want?" "You're sitting on my bed." She told him, pulling out extra bedclothes from the closet across the room. "Though if you'd rather, your highness, I can leave. Would you like tea or anything while I'm out? Maybe a nice martini with a little olive? I'm sure I can find a liquor store out here somewhere," she continued sarcastically. He gave a snort of forced laughter and stood up, though he was rather reluctant to leave. He lingered in the doorway a moment, expecting her to make him leave the room, but, surprisingly, she didn't. Rather, she started stretching blankets over the patched cushions. "Any idea about when the snow will let up?" "Nils said that these things don't last more than a few days or so," he answered, sulkily. "I guess that we'll be on our way back down the mountain within a week. We'll have to stretch out our rations, but I think we'll make it." She finished with her blankets then turned around. "For what it's worth, Charlie, this trip has turned out much...different than I thought. I don't think I even expected us to get this far." "It just seemed like it would be so easy. It would be like a walk in the park coming up, then 'poof!' we'd be there and just take a couple days of notes, then on our way back. I didn't plan for anything like this, or the Graphorn..." He crossed the room and collapsed into the recliner that faced the couch. "You couldn't have." Liz remarked matter-of-factly as she sat down on the blankets, wrinkling them. "There was no way you could have looked into the future and known that any of this was going to happen...unless you believe in Divination, in which case I'd have to beat some sense into you. How anyone could take Professor Trelawney seriously is beyond me. "But, seriously, Charlie, don't be so hard on yourself. Yes, there were things that you could've done better, and things you could have been more prepared for, but really, if you'd prepared for every contingency, we wouldn't have made it up this far: we'd still be stuck at the bottom carrying a hundred kilograms of gear each. I would've gone on strike. "This has been an adventure, all right, but somehow I sense that we're all going to come out of it a little more mature and useful to society." A loud snore sounded from the other room. Charlie recognized it as Nils quack: Wilhelm more whistled than actually snored. Liz smiled a little half smile. "Emphasis on 'little'. In any case, Charlie, this trip will teach us all something about ourselves, each other, and the world. Even if we get home a little worse for wear, we'll be better for it." While he listened to this little lecture, Charlie had been opening and closing his mouth, ready to contest her every statement. But now he closed his mouth, looking at her thoughtfully. "You're right," he said after a moment. "Glad you agree with me. Now get out of here." He stood up and she pushed him towards the bedroom door, where he paused, eyes shining. He felt very young and very old all at once. "Thank you, Liz." His throat was very thick, and he didn't know how he managed to get the words out. "No problem, Charlie." *** First off, this has been the first chapter for a couple months, and I wish I could say it's not my fault. It is, but just because I do too much. I should be getting them done faster, now (cross my fingers). Then, I need to thank Incurable Romantic for all her support and crazy OotP talks over iced chai and strawberry lemonade. And last, but certainly not least, Yolanda for her wonderful beta-ing. You are amazing!!!!
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