She was aware of a sudden cacophony of voices, swarming around her like a cloud of angry bees. Arms were lifting her, cradling her.
A hand brushed her cheek; fingers flitted against the pulse at her wrist.
Her head was spinning violently. The entire world felt as though it was doing cartwheels.
“Venice?”
The deep voice rumbled through her. She summoned every ounce of energy and pulled her eyes open.
A shock of red hair…concerned brown eyes…Her heart leaped in her chest.
“Charlie!” She gasped, struggling to sit up, to move at all. The arms tightened around her, holding her in place.
“Easy, easy…we’re taking you to the Burrow, Venice. Just hold on.”
Disappointment surged through her.
It wasn’t Charlie’s voice.
It was Bill, Bill that clutched her tightly to his chest as they moved, Bill that cradled her like a doll in his muscular arms. She caught the swaying of his chest now, and the motion of his legs striding across the ground.
She sagged against him, shivering as the heat from his body pressed against her cold, clammy skin.
“It’ll be okay, Venice, just breathe. We’re almost there.”
Bill’s arms tightened around her and she was faintly aware of the uncomfortable sensation as they Apparated.
Molly’s voice hovered around her a moment later like an anxious butterfly. She heard the gentle rumble of Bill’s voice, and somewhere in the background, the concerned hum that was Ginny.
“M-M-Molly?”
She stuttered the words past lips that felt frozen.
Warm, gentle hands pressed against her own.
“Yes, Venice?”
“Where’s Charlie? Is he all right?”
“I’m sure he’s fine.”
Eyes still focused on Bill, she didn’t see the tears that flooded Molly’s eyes, or the look she sent Ginny.
Bill hugged her even closer as he started moving again. Her head lolled limply against his shoulder. Her head was still spinning, making her dizzy. Her chest ached with each breath, and a dull throb began to bloom at the base of her skull. Her eyes slid shut, and she began to drift….
Back downstairs, Bill was at a loss for the right words to explain. Ginny’s face was pale and drawn, and Molly was weeping silently into her handkerchief.
“I’ve got to go find Dad,” Bill muttered after a long, uncomfortable pause. “The faster we start looking, the faster we can find out what happened.”
He strode purposefully from the kitchen, but not before Ginny saw the tear slip down his cheek.
~~~
She woke alone, in Ginny’s room. The moon cast pale, silver light across the walls. For a moment she could only lie there, staring at the ceiling, numb. She felt empty; she wrapped her arms around her chest, for one crazy moment fearing she could feel the gaping hole in her chest.
It was hard to breathe past the lump in her throat.
She couldn’t just stay here, huddled under the blankets.
She had to find him.
She threw the blankets back, shivering as the cold air hit bare skin; she was still wearing the green dress. It was covered in dirt, the bodice torn, the skirt tattered. Her eyes flooded.
She stumbled to the door on wooden legs, unable to shake the feeling that this was all a terrible dream.
The door swung open before she could even reach for the handle, flying inward and revealing Ginny. She nearly dropped the glass she held in one hand.
“Venice! You shouldn’t be up! Are you okay?”
“I’m sorry, Ginny…I have to go…I have to go home…I need to go find Charlie…”
She pushed past Ginny, pointing herself toward the stairs. Her knees wobbled and she almost collapsed as the hallway took a vicious spin. Ginny caught her elbow and, with surprising strength, hauled her upright.
“You need to get back into bed, right now…Did you hit your head?”
Venice stared at Ginny blankly.
“I need to go,” she repeated. She tried pulling away from Ginny, but the other girl’s fingers only tightened on her arm.
“No; come on. Back into bed with you.”
Ginny pulled her back into the bedroom, pushed her back down onto the bed, and tucked her in with more force than necessary.
“Now, you stay here! I’ll go get Mum. I’ll be right back, Venice.”
Ginny disappeared out the door; the light died as she shut it behind her.
Venice tried to relax against the pillows, but the throbbing at the base of her skull made it impossible. She closed her eyes against a wave of frustrated tears.
Charlie’s screams were echoing in her head and they tore at her, down to the very fibers of her soul. She felt useless, scared, and frustrated.
She curled into a ball beneath the covers and wrapped her arms around her knees. She was so cold, even beneath what was surely a mountain of blankets.
She forced her eyes closed, forced herself to breathe slowly, and evenly.
She was almost asleep when the door opened again.
“Venice?”
This time it was Molly.
She didn’t want turn over, didn’t want to have to face Charlie’s mother, not without being able to explain what had happened, why Charlie was missing.
“Venice, dear, are you asleep?”
She kept quiet, concentrating solely on breathing.
After a moment, Molly tiptoed from the room, shutting the door silently.
Feeling guilty now, on top of everything else, Venice pressed her face into the pillow and let the tears flow.
~~~
Venice slept through most of the next two days, exhausted both mentally and physically. She was almost certain Molly was slipping her sleeping potions, but if so, she welcomed them.
Sleep was a needed relief from the guilt, and the fear, and the constant ache in her chest from the hole Charlie’s disappearance had left behind.
Slowly, between bouts of sleep, she told her side of the events to Molly, who never seemed to leave the room. It sounded ridiculous, even to her own ears.
The explosion…the way he’d vanished without even a sound…
It frightened her.
Molly in turn had shared what little Arthur and Bill had discovered. There wasn’t much, just a lone, vague footprint in the dust, inside Charlie’s apartment, that belonged to neither Charlie nor Venice.
That was it.
One single footprint.
Venice couldn’t put into words how disappointed she was. She’d been praying, and dreaming, that they’d find something helpful, something that at least began to explain what had happened
Finally, she couldn’t take Molly’s concerned looks any longer.
She wanted to go home, to her apartment. She needed to be alone.
Molly fretted over her all the way down the stairs, and through the kitchen, fussing at her as she fastened her cloak securely over the green dress she’d refused to change out of.
“Are you sure you don’t want one of us to come with you?” Molly asked, frowning, patting at Venice’s hair.
Venice nodded, managing a small, tight smile.
“I’ll be fine, Molly. Thank you.”
She turned then and darted out the door, before anyone could try and talk her out of it, and before she gave in to the fresh wave of tears.
At her apartment, the smell of flowers assaulted her nose as soon as she opened the door. She walked past the kitchen with her eyes closed, not trusting herself.
In the bedroom, Charlie’s Weasley sweater lay across the foot of the bed, where he’d left it only a few days before.
She burst into sobs, snatching up the sweater and pressing her face into it, inhaling the wonderful, intoxicating scent that was Charlie.
She sank onto the bed, crying helplessly. The ache in her chest was growing, the emptiness growing harder and harder to bear. It threatened to consume her entirely.
She crawled under the covers, hugging the sweater close. If she closed her eyes, it was almost easy to pretend he was there, beside her, hogging the blankets, snoring gently.
“Oh, Charlie…I miss you,” she sobbed.
Curled around his sweater, a sad excuse for the person it belonged to, she finally slipped into a fitful rest.
A Story for Charlie by Darkness Enshrouds
Chapter Notes: I'm SOOO SORRY for the lack of updates!! You can all hate me, it's okay. I just couldn't get this chapter to work the way I wanted/needed it to, but I think I got it now...either way, enjoy! :D