No Means to Use the Stove

Empty Wardrobe

"Mmrrrmm..." he groaned in leisured satisfaction and reached for the other side of his magically enlarged childhood bed. His hand met only the mattress, as the other side of the bed was empty. He sighed, disappointed, but then chuckled. His girl had done it again. Crept out of the bed early in the morning to help Mum in the kitchen. As if Molly needed any help. But that was Anna for you. She just couldn't keep away from the household work, or any other work done around her, really. She was unable to watch people doing tasks without offering her help.

It was quite adorable, really. Especially when it was such a load for her, without magic. In a way, Charlie had to admire her. If he himself had been forced to live as a Muggle, he would have only eaten out, or then those frozen meals or something. There was absolutely no way he'd ever even try to cook in the Muggle way. It was like a nightmarishly-lengthened Potions class with no other results than normal food. Deep down, Anna had to be pleased she didn't have to do things the hard way any more. He was there to help her, and he was going to be there for the rest of their lives.

Grinning happily, Charlie Weasley got up, grabbed his towel and went for a quick shower before breakfast. It was nice to be home at the Burrow again. It was nice having finally told Anna about magic and introduced her to his family. It was nice of them to come to spend some time here, together, and make her feel welcome.

Fred and George had come, with Alicia and Angelina and their pair of twins; Ron had come with Hermione; Ginny and Harry were here with their daughter... they all were here. All that were left, that is. Charlie didn't want to think about Percy and Bill. The war had ended six years ago; he didn't want to think about it now. Instead, he focused on thinking about his living siblings.

Funny, how all the others had married their schooltime sweethearts. He was the only one who had met his mate somewhere out of Hogwarts. Charlie grinned again, this time with a hint of manly pride in his smile. He had found the best of them all, and a Muggle on top of it. Quite an adventure, falling for a strange Muggle....but he had always been an adventurous man. The sound of the shower got mixed with the cheerful whistling of one Charles Weasley, an adventurous man of the world.

Still whistling, Charlie returned to his bedroom, stepped into his trousers, grabbed a pair of socks from the cupboard drawer and opened the wardrobe to find clean robes. It was only then when he realized something was amiss. The wardrobe seemed...different. That is, it seemed emptier than in the previous evening. It took Charlie only a blink of an eye to take in the fact that all Anna's clothes were missing. She wouldn't have taken all of them to be washed at the same time, would she now?

Charlie felt dizzy. He did know what were the implications of the situation where one found his fiancee missing along with all of her clothes. He just didn't want to believe she had left him. Really, why? They hadn't argued or anything. He had thought everything was fine. Everything had been fine, hadn't it?

Charlie couldn't help feeling nauseous. What did he know about women? He had had his fair share of casual girlfriends at Hogwarts, but that was a lifetime ago. After that, he had been in Romania with the dragons and no women in sight. And then there had been the war. And anyhow, all he did know about women was about witches. What if female Muggles were just constructively different from the wizardkind ones? Weren't the Muggles all the time divorcing each others and such? Maybe it was a Muggle custom, just to leave your partner without an explanation if you suddenly got bored of them.

Nausea was replaced by frenzy. She had just left! Without even a....then he saw the note. Only a heartbeat later, bare chested Charlie Weasley stood, a crumpled piece of paper tightly in his fist, facing his family that were seated around the kitchen table, eating breakfast.

"What did you say to her?" he demanded, barely controlling his voice.

"What is the matter, son?" Arthur rose from his seat, worried by his sons agitated state.

"What did you say to her, to make her leave?"

"Anna, has Anna left?" her mother rose as well and moved to his side.

"Yes! Yes she has left!" he yelled, "and I want to know why!"

"Well you bloody well can stop shouting at us and start thinking about what have you done to upset her yourself," that was Ron, of course.

"Ron, watch your language. And Charlie, won't you sit down and calm down. You are scaring the children," Hermione stated sedately.

"Kids, come with me, and we'll finish our breakfast in the garden. We'll have a picnic, won't that be fun?" Angelina effectively gathered her own twins as well as George's and Alicia's twins, and Harry's and Ginny's little Lily ,and shepherded the children towards the door.

The moment the door closed behind them, Charlie banged his fist on the table. "Why did she leave?"

His family was silent. His mother shifted uncomfortably and his father swallowed. The sound of the swallow echoed loudly in the silence. Finally, it was George that spoke, in a manner surprisingly soothing for a Weasley twin:

"Charlie, mate, I really think you would know that better than us."

Charlie felt numb as the last hope abandoned him. If it wasn't them, it had to be him and Merlin help, he couldn't see what had he done to make her leave.

"Hey, it can't be that bad, bro. All you got to do is go to her and crawl a bit and say you're sorry. It doesn't even matter if you don't know what about," it was Ron again and without noticing the disapproving look his wife sent him, he continued with his experienced marital advice: "It's just a brawl, you know, those come and go."

"We didn't fight," Charlie sighed, "and she doesn't want me to go after her." He dropped the crumpled note on the table and leaned his head on his hands. Molly picked the note and read it.

"Well, I say!" she exclaimed then, with righteous anger for her son. "To leave one's fiance like that and without any reason whatsoever!"

"Don't know about her reasons," mumbled Charlie from behind his hands.

"Well, doesn't say anything about them in her note," Fred offered, after reading the note himself, "and one would think she'd said something to you before making such a drastic move."

"Obviously she didn't really love you in the first place, the ungrateful wench," his mother tiraded disregarding the surprised glances her choice of words collected from her children. "Must be a Muggle thing - no offense, Hermione, but their lot do regard relationships more lightly than we do, don't they?"

They all looked at Hermione, who seemed uncomfortable. Charlie rose his head to hear the answer as it was something he had pondered himself just a few moments ago.

"Well, I guess it's partly true. The Muggle world, at least the western Muggle world, does have quite a free dating culture. According to the statistics, the approximated time for a serious relationship or a marriage to last is only two and a half years." Hermione glanced apologetically at Charlie. "I'm sorry, Charlie."

"Hush, love, it's not your fault," Ron kissed her forehead, "and it's not a Muggle thing either, Mum, it's a cultural thing."

"Never mind," Charlie murmured, "two and a half years...well, we had eight months. I guess it leaves us way under average."

"Charlie, " Ginny opened her mouth for the first time since he had come downstairs, "are you sure the situation is that bad? Shouldn't you just go and ask her what is the matter."

"Yes," Harry agreed with his wife, "it must have been hard for her, to suddenly be dropped into a totally different world."

"Well, she could have said something, couldn't she?" Molly hadn't calmed down. Seeing her oldest living son so miserable had really gotten to her. She had waited for so long for him to settle down and now this. "The girl seemed perfectly fine to me until she all of a suddenly decides to pack her things and abandon us!"

"She really seemed to love you, though, son." Arthur patted Charlies shoulder in an uncertain manner.

"Well, I suppose she doesn't anymore. And no, Ginny, Harry, I'm not going after her. She asked me not to. If she doesn't want to see me anymore, I won't torture her with my presence." With those words Charlie got up and moved towards the staircase. His family watched him go.

After a moment of silence, it was Harry that spoke. "I don't want to sound rude, but if it really is over, he still has to see her for the one last time."

"What do you mean?" Ginny asked, but her father nodded solemnly.

"Yes. Maybe he should wait for a while, to see if they can work it out, I mean. If they can't, it has to be done."

"It's the Ministry's policy, although it seems a bit harsh to me," Fred grimaced.

"I have never approved of it," Hermoine sighed.

"What?" Ginny asked again.

"Neither have I, but it's the law," Alicia agreed with Hermione.

"What!?" Ginny exclaimed, frustrated.

"Charlie has to Obliviate her."