2 September, 1984

Dear Sirius,

Update: It's 3am and I just woke up and I'm miserable and I hate it here. I miss my bed and I miss my room. I miss my mum and my dad and I miss my house. Inez snores when she sleeps and Polly has got a cat that is staring at me from across the room and I don't like it and I want to go home and nobody told me that Hogwarts was awful. I didn't want to be a Hufflepuff. I wanted to be a Gryffindor but now I suppose I see why I wasn't one - it's because I'm sitting in my bed crying my eyes out at three o'clock in the morning like a perfect ninny and I'm sorry I'm wasting a whole owl just to tell you what a sissy I am but I'm very sad and writing you sometimes makes me feel better. I wish you could write me back but I know you can't and I'm sorry if my saying that made you feel bad that you can't write me back. That's assuming you even get these after I mail them off to begin with. You likely don't. I mean, why would you? You're in prison and I'm just nothing but really, really foolish. I hate it here and I want to go home.

Nymphadora.

Charlie Weasley lay in his bed, staring up at the canopy. The other first year Gryffindors had snuck down to the common room and hadn't bothered to wake Charlie up when they went. They didn't know he'd been awake and he'd heard them when they had gone. "Should we wake the weird kid up?" one of them had whispered.

"Nah, let him sleep, he won't know we left," came the answer.

Charlie was in the bed furthest from the door. He rolled to face the wall and reached down to the floor where he'd left his rucksack. He scrounged about inside it and pulled out Dragon and hugged the stuffed beast to his chest, pressing his face into the neck and breathing deeply the scent of home.

The dormitory was so quiet, he couldn't hear any of the usual noises. Even when all the other Weasleys were asleep, the Burrow always had noises happening. There was the grandfather clock that would bong-bong-bong on the hour and the sound of the ghoul banging on the pipes in the attic. There was Percy's rat that was always roaming around, squeaking all about the house, and the scritch-scratch of his little claws as he scrambled through the walls. And little sounds like sometimes the chickens would be restless, or Errol would be roosting in the tree outside his window, and if the window was open you'd hear little hoots and clucks. Plus Bill and Percy both snored and the three boys shared a bedroom usually. Sometimes his dad would be downstairs late listening to quidditch on the radio, or his mum might fall asleep with Celestina Warbucks singing in their parents bedroom. And if it was windy, then the house would creak as it gently shifted ever so slightly with the breeze, the way a very thick, old tree might do.

But one thing that the Burrow never, never, never was was quiet.

He'd tried very, very hard not to be labelled the weird kid, and he wondered what it was that had given him the title so quickly? He reviewed the evening in his mind.

He didn't think he'd been too, too weird when he'd been standing on the platform in London, and then it had been just him and Tonks in their compartment in the train and Tonks certainly had been just as weird as him in a lot of ways, so it wasn't that which had caused him the title... But Ethan Sprout, one of the kids that had been down by the docks on the Hogsmeade side of the make had been sorted Gryffindor. Had he said something weird then? When they'd been waiting for the boats? He couldn't remember. The other two boys - Cameron Marbauger and Darin Sinclair - he didn't think he'd talked to them much other than during dinner, but it was hard to remember. He'd talked to a lot of people and Charlie wasn't very good with names. It had been Ethan Sprout that had called him the weird kid, though, so it must've been something that he said or done by the boats.

It was a mystery.

Maybe it just was that obvious he was weird.

He glanced at the little muggle clock that his dad had tucked into his school trunk after reworking it with magic in his little workshop so it didn't take eleckytricity. The face of it was black and glowed with red digital numbers that seemed to hang in the dark like ghosts. It was after 3am.

He wished so much that Tonks had been put in Gryffindor. Even if she had been, she'd be way over in the girls dormitories anyway, but he reckoned it would be a comfort just knowing he had a friend with him there in Gryffindor Tower. Though she was still in the castle, just - where ever the Hufflepuff common room was. Of course, she probably had forgotten him already.

He hoped not.

There came a quiet knock on the dormitory door.

He lay very, very still, eyes wide in the dark, holding his breath.

The door creaked opened.

"Charlie?" came a whispered voice. "Oi... Charlie?"

He rolled over quickly, sitting up. "Bill?" he breathed the name in disbelief.

"Hey. Lumos." There was a flash and Bill's wand lit up and Charlie could see him poking his head 'round the door, squinting through the dark. "Oh cool, you got the good bed!" he said.

"Yeah?" Charlie asked. He realized he was holding Dragon still, flushed, and shoved Dragon under the blankets quickly.

"Yeah," Bill said. He stepped into the room. "I heard voices in the common room and saw it was the other first years, but no you. How come you're not down there?"

Charlie was quiet. He hung his head.

Bill sighed. He knew too well the look on Charlie's face. "Ah forget'm Charlie. Sometimes it takes a bit of time to fit in with your roommates, you know?"

"Yeah," Charlie murmured.

Bill hesitated. "Okay. Look. This is by no means an all the time offer, but for just this one time, just this one night, and never - never - never again ..." he paused. "Doyouwanttocomeupstairsandsleeponthefloorofmydormitory?" he spat the whole last bit out in one long breath of a word.

Charlie looked up. "Really?"

"JUST THIS ONCE," Bill emphasized.

Charlie nodded eagerly, "Please?"

"Go on. Bring your pillow and your duvet." He paused. "And Dragon. My roommates won't make fun. I'll beat their faces in if they think about it."

Charlie grabbed his stuff in a big clump and followed after Bill as Bill held the door open wide and let Charlie out into the stair well. They climbed up the spiral staircase - up, up two floors to the third year's dormitory, and Bill wrenched open the door.

Inside the Third Year dorm, the other boys were awake and Charlie saw Chauncey Strikes, Brixton Custar, and Edwin Moss inside, the lights all on and bright. Chauncey stood on his bed, his face transfigured with a chicken beak and a good deal of white feathers everywhere about the bed. Edwin was laughing, clutching his stomach and kicking in the air while Brixton grinned from one of the desk chairs.

Brixton looked over and saw Charlie and said, "Hey you were supposed to get us snacks, not a kid, Bill!"

Chauncey let out a loud chicken squawk.

"Oi shut up, someone's gonna hear you. Hurry up and get in here, Bill, before someone does!" Brixton said. Then, "Look, the fowlus transfigurus spell worked!"

"That is absolutely brilliant. Mark the page for sure!" Bill snorted.

"Finite incantantum!" cried Brixton and Chauncey's face twisted back into his usual features. Chauncey's fingers flew to his face, feeling to make sure that everything was indeed back to normal.

"Looked better as a chicken," Bill commented meanly. Chauncey grabbed his pillow and chucked it at Bill roughly. Bill laughed, catching the pillow and hurling it back. "You lot, this is my kid brother, Charlie. Charlie's cool, so he's going to come up here and hang with us tonight."

"Hi Charlie," Brixton said.

"Hiya squirt," Chauncey said.

"You're not as good as snacks but you'll do, I s'pose," Edwin said.

"Bleeding hell, if you want snacks, you know where the kitchens are - go and get'm yourself for once," Bill said to Edwin.

"You're better at getting around the castle," Edwin answered.

Bill shrugged.

"Never gets caught by Filch, that one," Edwin said, pointing at Bill. "Right talented. You should be proud of him."

Charlie looked up at Bill. "I reckon I am already," Charlie said sincerely.

Bill flushed, then rolled his eyes and messed up Charlie's hair. "C'mon, you wanna play animal crackers with us?"

"Oh brilliant, you have animal crackers? Came through with the snack after all, haven't you!" Edwin said, sitting up.

Charlie followed Bill to the second bed from the door, where Bill bent down to open his Hogwarts trunk. He pulled out a sack full of animal crackers and tossed it on the bed beside Edwin, who hooted with excitement. "Here Charlie," Bill said, "You can put your stuff down here between me and Brixton's bed. You alright with that, Brix?"

"Yeah that's alright. I apologize in advance if I step on you in the morning though, I might forget you're there."

"It's alright," Charlie said, who would rather be stepped on a hundred times than be all alone in his own dormitory.

Bill threw himself over his bed and leaned down so he was folded in half over the edge, and helped Charlie get his blankets and pillows all set up and he even threw an extra pillow from his own pile down at Charlie. "Here. Stupid elves only gave you one pillow? We nicked a bunch last year from the laundry room. You can have one of mine. We'll go get you some extras tomorrow, alright?"

"Alright," Charlie stammered.

"Don't worry Charlie, Brix is so small you won't even feel him if he steps on you," Chauncey said.

"Shut up, Chauncey!" Brixton yelled.

Bill tucked Dragon under the pillow and winked at Charlie, then sat up. "C'mon up here, Charlie, we're going to play animal crackers. Oi, Ed, give the bag here."

Edwin chucked it over. He'd already collected a handful of crackers out in his hand and he grinned, "I've got some of the best ones for you guys." He cackled.

"I've got the best animal cracker ever," Bill answered, and he dug into the bag and pushed the crackers around, seaching for a particular one. He held it in his hand, palm closed, then took a couple more out and tossed the bag to Brixton, who took his crackers before Chauncey could snatch it up.

Chauncey, by far the one with the most bravado, blindly took the first four crackers his fingers touched reaching in - he took his chances on fate. "Bloody hell," he said, "I got an ostrich, a snake, and an orangutan."

Edwin hooted with laugher - and also because he'd bit into a owl cracker and the boys all cracked up, even Charlie, though tentatively. Edwin flapped his arms and ran a circle around the room, hooting all the way, then tripped on the end of Charlie's duvet and fell flat on his face. Bill cried, "Bang on impression of Errol!" Edwin laughed so hard he cried.

"Here we go," Brixton said, biting the head off the cracker in his hand. The next moment, he was growling like a bear and holding up his fingers in ferocious bear paws. Brixton's tawny brown hair fell over his forehead as he did it and he blew it up out of his face as the other boys laughed.

"Alright, alright you lot, we're about to win." Bill turned to Charlie. "Here. Don't let them see."

Charlie took the cracker from Bill and looked at his palm. A grin crawled across his face and he looked at Bill then he turned and ate the cracker in a single go.... and let out a roar, like a dragon.

2 September, 1984

Dear Sirius,

I wrote you at 3am and if you get that letter you can ignore it because I was being super silly and it's 9am now and I'm at breakfast and mum sent me a package with a whole bunch of different flavor lip balms! I LOVE LIP BALMS SO MUCH SIRIUS! I got two of them that are pineapple flavor and I know you love pineapples so here is one of the pineapple ones for you. I hope you get it, I bet your lips get chapped in jail. Don't get too excited about the flavor though, they don't usually taste like they say they will. They usually taste like wax. But I hope the pineapple one tastes just like pineapple.

I love you.

Nymphadora.