Charlie

fifth year hufflepuff muggleborn, quidditch keeper "And of course it wasn't okay. But that's what we have to do, right? We have to tell people it's okay even when we know it isn't."

[purpleshield1548-deactivated202]

[gifvictorious]

[charlieashworth]

[an owl with no sender drops a card along with Charlie's morning post. In silver script it reads:] “Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” ― Shel Silverstein

Charlie wasn’t sure where these notes were coming from and at first she had been slightly creeped out. However, this simple note with a simple quote from a childhood book she read? Charlie couldn’t help but feel comforted. A smile formed on her lips and she tucked the card away in her bag. 

[kizziewells-blog]

Fragility // Charzzie

[kizziewells-blog]

She nodded her head with so much vigor, to anyone else, she would probably resemble a bobblehead doll in the moment. “Oh yes you do. More so than anyone else around here. And you know it too.” Ordinarily she wouldn’t press this hard when it came to Charlie and emotions, the two were like oil and water, but this was subject she wouldn’t drop in it’s entirety until they got back together. They were both being silly, in her opinion, and wasting too much time apart, friends or not.

“I’m almost insulted you don’t know. Almost,” Kizzie replied, clicking her tongue. “I want to be a Healer o’ course! The way I see it, I can go right into Mediwitch training as soon as school lets out, finish that up in two years, start my residencey, and two years after that roam the halls of St. Mungo’s. Now, I don’t know if I want to specialize in anything yet; working with children would be great but so would being a therapist of sorts or maybe making house calls or be a live-in nurse. Anyway, if all that doesn’t work out I could…be an artist like my papa. Or a musician. Or I could come back and teach here even.” It may sound like she had a lot of options, and she did, but anything past being a Healer wasn’t something she wanted to seriously consider. Because then that meant she wasn’t a Healer for one reason or another and she couldn’t allow that to happen, no matter what. “And you, my little buttercup, you got any plans?”

[charlieashworth]

Charlie was reaching the end of her abilities to discuss her feelings when it comes to Josh so she offered up a grunt that gave next to nothing away; or at least she hoped so. 

Her eyes rolled up at Kizzie but the smile appeared as she continued to rant on. There wasn’t really any reason but Charlie was content to listen to her best friend prattle on about anything and everything. Wanting to avoid a nap, the Hufflepuff forced herself upright and returned to her sitting position besides Kizzie. Tugging at the magazine at the bottom of the basket, she distractedly turned the pages. Her response didn’t go through her usual filter and she almost regretted the tone in her voice, “Surviving.” Her simple answer held a lot in it so she didn’t look away from the article on a random celebrity. She shrugged, not willing to take it back since it was the truth as she turned the page. Her eyes widened at the male pop star on the page and held it up with a squeak of excitement, “Look!” 

[pelagic-writes]

“You act like that trait isn’t totally inherited,” Josh responded, referring to the Ashworth’s ability to fix anything with a motor. “You mechanical wizard, you. Did you get much work in on your car over the holiday?”

[charlieashworth]

“Touche.” She smiled as she snuggled the bunny in her arms against her neck. “I did. Pops wouldn’t let me out of his sight so I spent a lot of time at the shop.” 

[vicjusticelife]

[pelagic-writes]

The idea of the bunnies outdoors made Josh glad for them. “You’re right,” he agreed, fingertips brushing against the fur of the rabbit in his hands. ”Should be warming up soon, too. At least that’s what my dad says, and he’s a regular farmer’s almanac.” Josh could only count a handful of times his father wasn’t dead-on in his weather predictions.

[charlieashworth]

She snorted at his comment. “I’m still not convinced your dad isn’t a wizard. He’s freakily accurate with the weather, I don’t trust it.” Her expression turned musing, “Though that’d probably make my pops a wizard too. A mechanic wizard though.” 

[yayhollywood-blog]

Victoria Justice poses for Venice Magazine’s Spring 2016 Issue photographed by John Russo

[kizziewells-blog]

Fragility // Charzzie

[kizziewells-blog]

“Oh, I know,” Kizie said with a small smile. “It’s Josh, if anyone can actually get over him then they have to be a robot or something. He’s one of the better catches in the entire school. You’re lucky.” She took the opportunity to start braiding some of Charlie’s hair as she lay down in her lap. Any other attempts to touch her head would have been met with an almost instinctive slap to the arm. Fucking with Charlie was fun most of the time but sometimes it could be dangerous too. “Well, yeah, if you were him.. But thankfully you’re not because then I wouldn’t have my Chuckles around and I need her real bad.”

She sat back and ran her fingers though her bestie’s hair, humming a little tune while thinking about how simple them hanging out was but how big it really was at the same time. After all, whoever hurt Charlie could’ve done something worse to her. And she may not have her best friend with her right now. “Hey, when we leave, can we move in together somewhere? Equidistant between your dad’s place and mine so we’re not too far but we’re not too close ither.”

[charlieashworth]

Her expression deadpanned, “I don’t have him, Kizz.” She enjoyed the way her friend’s hands felt running through her hair. It reminded of when her mother would braid her hair intricately as often as she could. A pang rang through her but she ignored it. She already was discussing emotions on one topic, she wasn’t going to bring up another one. 

Her eyes closed slightly as she listened to Kizzie hum. Listening to her best friend sing reminded her once more of her mother and how she hadn’t sung anything since before her mother passed away. The guitar that sat in her bedroom back home had collected plenty of dust over the years. Blinking up at her, she smiled softly, “Of course we can. Do you know what you want to do post-graduation?” 

[pelagic-writes]

He sighed, sitting on Charlie’s bed. He was careful to keep the small mammal level and upright. “I just don’t think we have that kind of time,” he lamented. “Do they like playing with each other?”

[charlieashworth]

“I’m not going to give up on that.” Charlie then moved to sit on her bed as well, leaning back against the headboard, bunny settling in her lap. “They do, yea!” Suddenly, and she was sure part of it was his presence, she went calmer than normal. With a softer voice, “I have a little play pen for them to play in when they want to run. When its warmer out, I can let them out onto the grounds.” She paused before continuing, “They shouldn’t be stuck indoors constantly.” 

[xschmittersx-deactivated2017011]

[charlieashworth]

[An owl drops a small bundle of twigs for Charlie Ashworth one morning at breakfast. They sprout buds and flower into cherry blossoms when she picks them up. There's no note.]

“What the hell?” Regardless of the fact that she had no idea who sent her the branches, she couldn’t help but feel a strong sense of calmness overcome her.

[kizziewells-blog]

Fragility // Charzzie

[kizziewells-blog]

“Yeah, but I think my dads would be a little too upset. Maybe we can find a way to join our families in a big ceremony,” Kizzie suggested. But then she made a face and shook her head. “Not true! While I can cook I can’t kick ass as well as you do and I’m sure he’s super proud of that. I’ll write him a letter to send my love back. And to see how he’s doing of course. I’ll get my papa to check on him.” She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Be glad it’s not that many people. The last thing I want right now is to be entangled in a Thelma and Louise plot. Have to make sure we have things set up for us first before we go on the run. New names, appearances, sleeping arrangements, stuff like that.”

Kizzie laughed a little at Charlie’s response to her careful-yet-subtle interrogation tactic. If it was one thing she reveled in it was poking through Charlie’s armor and getting to the soft squishy stuff on the inside. As far as she knew she was the only one who could do it, save for Josh.

“You know you never tell me that enough to my liking,” Kizzie teased, running her fingers though Charlie’s hair. “See, I like to think I have this sort of magic, Love magic if you will. I can see when people are shooting love beams out of their eyes even before they notice they’re doing it—figuratively speaking of course. And you, my friend, are shooting them all over the place. You’re not over him are you?”

[charlieashworth]

Charlie groaned at her from her burrowing attempt into the bed. “Shut up.” She rolled her body so that her head landed in Kizzie’s lap. Her eyes went up and glared at her. “I would like to state that I am admitting to not being over him. Which really, is sort of impossible.” Her tone was hesitant as she continued on, “Do I have regrets about breaking things off? I do but if I were him, I wouldn’t want to try again. Especially after recent....events.” She shrugged and grabbed a licorice stick and bit into it hard, “It’s not that simple to just,” her hands motioned in the air, “go back.” 

The Hufflepuff hoped that perhaps Kizzie would ignore everything she said in favor of pretending their conversation hadn’t turned serious. Instead, though, she was aware Kizzie would attempt to comfort her. And even as embarrassing as she was feeling at the moment, she was grateful for it. 

[pelagic-writes]

Josh laughed in response, pleased to note that Charlie seemed perfectly content with her rabbits. Drawing his eyes away from her, he returned to Damon. “Come on young man,” he chided the animal. “Show some teeth.” He bared his own as an example.

[charlieashworth]

She watched Josh with her pet and smiled in a way she didn’t pay attention to. She shook it off. “We’ll have teach them. Give them private lessons on how to be fighty.” 

[kizziewells-blog]

“You better share those with me,” she grumbled, crossing her arms. “And I’m not taking that loud. I don’t think. And it won’t be horrible! I’m sure he feels the same way!” She clapped her hands together. “I’ll go ask! He has to be around here somewhere.”

[charlieashworth]

“Repeating it out loud means he could hear!” She grabbed the nearest cup from someone and chugged it. “No! I highly doubt he feels the same.” She threw the empty cup and grabbed Kizzie tight to keep her in place. “NO!” 

[pelagic-writes]

Josh hummed a response, tiny rabbit body in his hand. “They are cute. Maybe we can train them to be attack rabbits. Like the one on Monty Python. Vicious.” He bared his teeth at the rabbit, who snuffled its tiny nose forward out of curiosity.

[charlieashworth]

A laugh came from her belly and she snuggled the rabbit against her chest. She never had been one for pets before but they were growing on her. “Hell yea! They’d be the most feared pets in the castle.” She held up the bunny to face her, “How’s that sound Artemis?”

[kizziewells-blog]

Kizzie ignored her obvious attempts to avoid the subject. “Charlie, do you realize you’ve never said that when you were together? I mean, you were kids but still! This is important!”

[charlieashworth]

“Oh look! More shots! I’ll take ten. Twenty. Keep talking Kizz and I’m going to thirty.” She held up her hand. “You can never repeat what I just said. He could hear you. That’d be horrible.”