For Charlie

[ferretface_git]

The first night, he pretended not to notice.

It wasn't unheard of, crawling into bed alone. She had a tendency to wander at night, and sometimes that wandering took her all the way to morning. She would stumble in, dazed and smelling of earth and salt water, and he would pretend not to be relieved to see her.

They did a lot of pretending, the two of them.

But he woke the next morning and the other half of his bed was empty, while hers was made and untouched. He'd gone to breakfast, scowled over a plate of toast, and then stalked through the compound, and later disguised a quick check of all her favorite places as a routine morning walk.

She was nowhere, but it hadn't occurred to him yet that she might be gone. She'd gotten her silly self lost somewhere, but the startling thing was that he was actually somewhat worried. Worried, but not to the point that he would allow himself to search out the proper authorities, not to the point that he would begin to ask strangers if they'd seen a wispy blond girl with marbles rattling around in her pretty, empty little head.

She had other friends, but he'd stubbornly refused to get to know any of them. Edmund was the only person he'd ever seen her with that he knew by name, and there was no level of desperation in the world that would send him looking for that twit.

So, instead, he was walking with purpose -- certainly not terror -- down the boardwalk, hoping to come across someone, anyone who might know what the silly little girl had done with herself. That person had better have shown up soon... he was nearing the end of his unraveling rope.

Comments

[teenagerenegade.livejournal.com]

Bored, Charlie's looking for Luna, slouching down the boardwalk with his hands in his pockets, and he almost walks straight into Draco before he realises who he is.

He brightens.

"Hey, man...you haven't seen Luna today have you?"

[of-badfaith.livejournal.com]

The boy's questions effectively cut off Draco's first instinct to shout What have you done with her, you bastard! Lucky for the Muggle, perhaps, but Draco was unfortunately caught off guard by his politeness...

And the fact that he had no bloody clue whom this person was.

"... And you are?"

[teenagerenegade.livejournal.com]

"Oh, hi," says Charlie, automatically holding out his hand. "My name's Charlie. Charlie Bartlett. I'm a friend of Luna's."

[of-badfaith.livejournal.com]

Draco's eyes narrowed skeptically, and the long pause that followed seemed indication enough that he wasn't going to shake the boy's hand.

"I haven't seen her," he drawled, making an effort to look entirely unconcerned, "She does enjoy wandering off to do... whatever it is she does when I'm not around. I doubt her absence is any cause for alarm."

[teenagerenegade.livejournal.com]

"I usually see her every day, whether she's wandering or not," he says, jaw tightening a little. "Are you sure you haven't seen her?"

[of-badfaith.livejournal.com]

"I believe I might have noticed if I'd woken up with someone in the bed next to me," he muttered, then, he rolled his eyes and admitted as if it caused him great pain, "I was looking for her just now. She's not in any of her usual places."

[teenagerenegade.livejournal.com]

"Well, fuck," says Charlie. Luna's a little odd, a little hazy, but she is a creature of certain habits.

"Where've you been?"

[of-badfaith.livejournal.com]

Gritting his teeth and drawing in a deep, calming breath, he admitted, "Everywhere. The falls, the beach, the damned butterfly garden, the trampoline, that horrible grindylow pool, the horse stables. Everywhere."

[teenagerenegade.livejournal.com]

Charlie's jaw tightens and he looks worried, deeply worried, chewing on the inside of his lip.

"We have to tell someone," he says.

[of-badfaith.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, and who exactly are we going to tell?" he asked, arching a brow, because he had about as little faith as possible in island law enforcement, and he'd certainly never been the trusting type.

"What about horrible Pevensie bastard? You don't think he's gotten his dirty little hands on her again, do you?"

[teenagerenegade.livejournal.com]

Charlie's face doesn't really change but his posture noticeably does. He straightens up, one eyebrow twitching.

"Excuse me?"

[of-badfaith.livejournal.com]

"You heard me," he said, oblivious as to why that might have been the wrong thing to say. There was a very good chance Luna had mentioned Charlie and Edmund's relationship, but there was an equal chance that he simply hadn't been listening.

[teenagerenegade.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I did," says Charlie, still mild, but unimpressed. "Come on. We'll go tell the IPD and then I'll explain to you why it's not cool to talk about my fucking boyfriend like that."