Thanks for all the lovely comments, keeps me writing quickly! Sorry for the short chapter but the next one will be up asap!

Chapter Five

Despite the ceremony being so lovely, the reception was much more fun. It was late afternoon when the reception began. I have never seen so much food in my life, but considering the way Mrs. Weasley has been treating us with meals, I did not find myself surprised. An old woman passed us with a miserable look. She was one of the Weasley's old aunts. "You changed your hair Ginevra," she muttered to Idella as she passed. We all couldn't help but laugh.

Idella took off with Ginny again, but neither Charlie nor I cared. We were both very happy she finally found the family she always wanted. They invited us to come with them but she was going to talk to a few of her cousins so we told them to go on without us. Ron bought Charlie and I over two glasses of Butterbeer before going to sit with Harry, who looked miserable, again. I felt bad for him, so much pressure on one person.

"Wooh..." Charlie said as we walked by the dessert table. It was so colorful and had every dessert known to muggle and then more. "An ice cream bar?" Charlie said in disbelief. "How is this not melting?" he asked looking closely at the bright scoops of every flavor.

"It's charmed," I said with a laugh as if it was obvious. As smart as he was, I forget sometimes that he didn't grow up in this world and little things still surprised him. Unable to resist we made ourselves some sundaes as a few of the Hogwarts students approached us. Ginny and Idella came back our way.

"It must be overwhelming," one of the boys said to us. I believe his name was Neville. He took a few scoops of ice cream.

Charlie and I smiled. "Oh yeah," Charlie agreed looking around. "But at least everyone is friendly." They stood with us and pointed out a few interesting people. They all agreed Hagrid was the greatest person you'll ever meet. There seemed to be a lot of unique personalities floating around, but in the end it made everything fun. "Oh my...is that Viktor Krum?" Charlie exclaimed overly excited. I laughed as the three boys rolled their eyes.

"Yes the wonderful seeker," Seamus said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, but he smiled. "We had to deal with all the girls chasing him our fourth year...but he only had his eyes on one." Viktor Krum pushed through the crowd towards Hermione.

"Hermione?" I said even though it was now very obvious. They all nodded. More people passed by us. Seamus pointed out a very interesting looking father and daughter. Dressed in bright yellow attire, the two were looking around with dreamlike expressions. They were out on the floor dancing in a very strange way. I tried not to stare but it was hard.

"The Lovegoods," Neville said. "Luna's in Ginny's year."

"She's beautiful," Charlie stated without another thought. She was in fact pretty, but seemed very different. She wasn't Charlie's usual type. His type, or what I thought to be his type, was Selina. So I found it weird he found this Luna attractive, considering Luna's happy and dream like face was the opposite of Selina's bitter or smug expression.

"Dare you to ask her to dance," Seamus teased in his thick Irish accent.

"You're on," Charlie replied to him while walking away. Luckily her father walked away just in time as Charlie approached her. I couldn't hear him, but Luna did hold out her hand which meant she accepted his offer. Idella and I laughed. He was normally a confident guy.

"Well since everyone's dancing," Lee Jordan said offering his hand to Ginny as Seamus and Neville refilled their bowls with ice cream. She kindly smiled and took it. Was he her boyfriend? I then caught 'Harry' staring in detest from across the room.

"Harry looks mad," I whispered to Idella.

"Yeah because they recently broke up," Idella whispered back. "Apparently he broke up with her because he didn't want her to be in danger or something." Once again, Harry's reasoning made sense, but it's too bad he had to make those decisions. From the dark glare he was giving Lee, Harry must still like her. We watched everyone out on the dance floor. Charlie looked lost yet amused as he danced with Luna and her strange moves. Idella and I refilled our butterbeer cups while taking a seat.

"You seem to be loving it here," I said to her taking a sip.

"I am so mad!" Idella stated loudly shaking her head. Before I could ask she continued. "Mad because I missed out on this part of my family for seventeen years! I love it here. They are so much more like me than my family at home. I wish I grew up with them."

"Well better now than never," I said and she nodded. Before we could even finish our butterbeers, two older boys began walking over towards us.

"You must be Idella," the one with light red hair said stopping in front of us. "I'm another one of  your cousins, Patrick, but I'll forgive you if you can't remember my name since there's about fifty Weasley's here." We laughed. "This is my friend Eric Stanley. We work with our cousin Charlie." He motioned towards the tall boy with hazel eyes and auburn brown hair next to him. "What's your name?" he asked looking at me.

"Bradley Willis," I answered.

"Well we were wondering if you two would like to join us for a dance?" Patrick asked. A dance wouldn't hurt. Patrick offered his hand to me and I took it. It was just a dance, and meant nothing. Patrick seemed very friendly, but if I could be dancing with anyone it would be Kent. Idella took Eric's hand.

The night passed on and the fun only continued. Everyone was so friendly. Hermione and Ron kept coming over to talk to us. The only one who kept his distance was Harry. He seemed occupied talking to a few of the older guests, but Hermione did say he has been anxious lately. I stepped away on my own to get more to drink when I saw Remus Lupin coming my way. "Hello," I greeted.

"Having fun?" he asked me and I nodded. "Can I speak with you for a moment?" he asked and I nodded. They must have found a job for me, that was quicker than I expected. We stepped away from the crowd for obvious reasons. "I know about your condition." My eyes widened. So it wasn't about a job, he knew about me with fire.

"You do..." was all I could say.

"Yes," he answered nodding. "For cautious measure we had to locate all your files from the Ministry and it was documented on yours." My face fell. "No worries, I destroyed the record, but the situation is still dangerous. Do many people know about this?" I shook my head. "Good, you want to keep it that way. I saw you have a remedy to keep the effects down? I have a similar one." I nodded. He was a werewolf and I remembering studying that particular remedy.

"Yes sir," I answered. "I'm running low."

"As I assumed," he nodded. "We still would love your help but might give you a more low key job. I will have a few friends of mine look into getting you a new remedy. For the meantime, I suggest working on control."

"Thank you," I said. "What do you mean by control?" I asked.

"Well I wouldn't know much about controlling my particular case, but I'm sure you could learn to control yours." Interesting. "I've studied similar cases to yours, curses and potions gone wrong. Many have had long lasting effects but it seems ninety percent of the witches and wizards learned to live and use their 'difference' to their ability." I hadn't thought of it that way. I nodded and thanked him before he walked away.  

When I rejoined the crowd I spotted Charlie and Luna still dancing and Idella was dancing with Eric Stanley once more. A wide smile was plastered on her face. Hermione was alone by the punch table so I walked over to her. "Enjoying your night?" she said to me.

"Yeah-" I began saying but a light from a far caught my attention. Hermione turned around to see what I was looking at. Was that a patronus I saw? Quickly the patronus came full force towards us and landing in the center of the room. Everyone fell silent.

"The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming," the voice said. There was no need to specify the 'they'. The Death Eaters were coming.