* * *

It was a breath of relief when August came and Charlie found himself outside of the Marauders' home once again. It seemed as though his family may as well live there permanently because that seemed to be their regular home during the summer holidays. Staring up at the large house, Charlie shuddered at what he believed to be awaiting him on the other side of the door. Not a word had been heard from Hattie towards him since he received the large bundle of letters of which she poured her heart and soul into each word overflowing with hatred. He couldn't blame her for feeling the way she did, after all, he had promised her the world but ended up failing her by not being able to cope. In his defence, dealing with Hattie's problems, her growing attitude and dragons all at once were easier said than done.

His hands shook as he pushed the front door open and his chest felt heavy as he stepped across the threshold. The overwhelming aroma of freshly baked goods filled his nostrils and it suddenly felt as if he was truly home but the ache he felt when he heard the familiar laugh travel through the house was something he couldn't easily ignore. Nevertheless, Charlie ushed himself through the hallway and into the kitchen-dining room where everybody was gathered like a loud rabble.

Nobody acknowledged his presence until Peter glanced up from his paper. "Ah, Charlie, mate, it's good to see you," he greeted with a warm smile and the room fell silent and nearly all heads turned to him as if he was a giant spectacle.

Charlie nodded with a grin and hugged his mother as she outstretched her arms for him. "How is work, dear?" She asked and ushered him to the table where he took a seat next to Ginny who leaned into her older brother for a hug.

"It's alright," he shrugged, "not much different to what I told you a few days ago in my letter but it'll be nice to have a break."

Bill stared at his brother as if a stranger had taken a seat at the table because the man before him seemed foreign to him. He wasn't gushing about any of the dragons or a new scar he had received nor did he tell a gripping tale of how he got his latest burn which would make his mother squeal and gush over him and how he needed to be more careful. Instead, a stranger in his brother's body sat on his chair with a straight back with a stick up his backside, his figure rigid and his smile was not cheeky and joyful. No. It was forced and Bill wasn't entirely sure anyone else noticed it but this so-called facade wasn't going to wash with him.

Thankfully for Charlie, the attention dispersed from him and the liveliness of the room returned. He sat idly listening to around four different conversations, all of the sentences jumbling together and not making much sense to him but his main focus wasn't on trying to decipher each individual conversation, but rather on a particular person who hadn't even glanced his way once since he arrived.

Harriet Black looked so beautiful as she sat beside Percy and was in a deep discussion about the latest area of work that Percy was involved in at the Ministry. Her hair had grown longer and her body had filled out a bit more. The smile she wore as Percy cracked a joke was like one he hadn't seen in years. As much as he had seen her when she was getting better smiling and laughing, this time it seemed much more than just a smile or a giggle. this time it was a full-on guffaw and her smile was bright enough to light up the entire room!

His heart swelled watching her be happy but it grew selfish as he yearned for it to be him making her laugh. He wanted to be the one to be by her side not his brother. He wanted to make her slap her knee as she threw her head back screaming with laughter. He wanted it to be his arms wrapped around her shoulder and pulling her close not Percy's.

Charlie sighed and quietly excused himself despite nobody hearing him. Well, nobody he realised. Bill was hot on his tail following Charlie out of the room and grasped his wrist, dragging him into the living room.  "What's going on?" He demanded from Charlie.

"Nothing, I'm fine."

"Bull."

Charlie shook his head and his hands dove into his back pocket pulling out the stack of letters banded together with some string. He thrust them towards Bill and collapsed on the armchair leaning his head on his hand. Bill turned them in his hand quizzically before pulling them apart one by one and briefly scanning over them.

Dear Charlie,

I HATE YOU! I wish you'd never interfered with my life maybe then I wouldn't be such a burdening brat to you! When you come back to England, don't come near me, I don't want to cause you any more trouble.

- the brat.

Dear Charlie,

Once again you broke a promise. No, you broke more than one.

1. You promised to never lie to me.

2. You promised that I was no trouble for you.

3. You promised to never leave me.

4. You promised to be the person to help me get better.

5. You promised that you would never hate me.

You broke every single one of these and a handful of other promises you made. Clearly promises are just throw away comments to you. You claim that I'm the difficult child but I'm struggling to understand you. You promised to help me, then you went back on your word, the promised to help again, then went back on it. So many times. You clearly don't care otherwise you wouldn't go back and forth so much.

I'm done, Charlie, I'm so bloody done with you. It's becoming so tiring for me to depend on you when you obviously don't want anything to do with it. With me. Was it all a pride thing? To be able to say you helped poor little Hattie? So you could be the superhero? Am I a charity case to you?

Well, don't worry now Charlie. Because this charity shop has closed down. We don't need donations from people who just want to look good for show anymore. We don't need you at all. I'm doing fine, if not better with you so don't bother trying to windle your way back in again because trust me, I don't need you anymore.

-the brat.

Bill's hand covered his mouth as each letter came and went. He didn't need any clarification to know that these were all written by Hattie. He tied the string back around them and tossed them onto the table. "Charlie, this was just anger talking, she didn't mean any of that." He told his brother.

Charlie scoffed, a snigger following, "you're clearly delusional, Bill. Hattie hasn't not meant anything she says in years. The girl says everything that she means. She tried killing herself for Merlin's sake! This isn't lies, this isn't just the anger, Bill! This her true feelings towards me because I was weak and couldn't sort my crap out and treat her the way I should have and promised her I would. She trusted me. She put her all in to try and get better with my help but I failed her. I failed you all. And I failed myself."

"Cry me a flipping river, Charlie, why don't you? Jeez, Hattie's mind was all over the place! She might have truly meant most things but I literally dragged her away from you, she was kicking and screaming wanting to stay with you. Why would she be like that if she hated you?"

"Did you even read the letters she wrote?" Charlie snapped, how could Bill not understand? Hattie loathed him.

"What letters?"

Charlie and Bill bother snapped their heads to the doorway where Hattie stood with her hands shoved into her pockets. She was rocking awkwardly on the balls of her feet waiting for an answer. Once she was finished talking with Percy she glanced up at the table to see both Charlie and Bill not present and as much as she really didn't want to talk to Charlie she knew she needed to. If not she would combust.

"I- uh-" Bill began but Hattie's eyes fell onto the coffee table before he could form an actual sentence.

"Where did you get those from? They are personal!" She shouted, snatching them off of the table and holding them to her chest.

"You sent them to me," Charlie replied dryly tearing his eyes off of her and focussing on the bookcase in the corner of the room.

"No, I didn't," Hattie told him, "they were not to be sent."

"Well then, somebody sent them for you," Bill said, "I'll leave you two to talk." He kissed her forehead and exited the room shutting the door behind him quietly.

Hattie stood unsure of what else to say. Charlie wasn't supposed to ever read those letters. She was told by a therapist that writing letters to the person that you were angry at but not actually sending would help her. It was a way for her to release her feelings at that moment rather than bottling them up to avoid relapse as much as possible. Charlie wasn't supposed to know any of it.

"I don't blame you, you know," Charlie whispered slicing the thick air like a knife. He ran his hands through his hair and peered up at her with sorrowful eyes. "I would feel the same way if it was me."

"You should never have read or known about anything in those letters. I was only venting."

"No, they were true, you don't need to sugarcoat it."

Hattie dropped the letters and pushed Charlie's hands off of his knees, replacing them with herself as she perched in his lap, putting her arms around him and hugging him tightly. "Charlie, I could never hate you. I was just angry because I didn't want to leave you. I didn't want to leave Romania without you and you didn't even say goodbye. But I understand now, dad, Remus that is, helped me to realise that. I was being a brat. I was putting to much strain on you and you were the one suffering. It's too much to expect you to cater for my every need when you had a job and other things to juggle already, I was just a burden-"

"You could never be a burden to me, Hattie. I just couldn't cope. You were scratching yourself open in the night and I couldn't give you my full attention to help you because of work. You needed someone who didn't have other commitments to be able to be there for you all day, all night."

"Oh."

"Yeah... I love you, forever and always, you know that?"

"I... I thought you hated me."

"I hate the fact you could ever imagine me thinking that. Baby girl, I love you so much and I don't want you to ever forget that."

"Okay, Charlie."

"Is that all? Nothing else?"

"I don't know what else to say, Charlie, not going to lie."

"Oh..."