20

Chapter 20: Mistletoe Mayhem

The remainder of term went relatively the same as all the days before it though the first years were oddly subdued much to the amusement of the upper years.

Today however, was the day that many of the students had been looking forward to with the fervor usually reserved for Quidditch matches. Today the scarlet steam engine known as the Hogwarts Express was scheduled to transport a large portion of the Hogwarts population home for the winter holidays.

"Check mate," Ron announced with a satisfied smirk as he watched Harry's king toss of its crown and bow. This was the third straight game of chess that Ron had won this morning and it was enough to convince Harry that he would much rather be an observer than a player for this particular game. Honestly, Ron was just too good, not even Hermione, who had taken to reading books on chess strategies in an effort to dethrone Ron, could last very long against the youngest Weasley male.

"Honestly Ron, you really should enter a muggle chess tournament, you don't order the pieces and they don't fight but you would do extremely well," Hermione announced yet again from her spot on the opposite bench in the compartment where she and Neville had taken to observing the proceedings.

"Perhaps, but it wouldn't be as fun as Wizards Chess," Ron said yet again as he began to set the board up for yet another game much to Harry's distress. The sooner they were home the sooner Ron would have some competition. Harry loved him, he really did, but losing so thoroughly so many times in a row were quickly taking the fun from the game. In fact, Harry had long since settled on watching the looks that would cross Ron's face as he concentrated on the next move that he would make.

"How about we play some exploding snap instead?" Harry suggested before Ron could finish his set up and begin the next round of torture.

"That's a great idea Harry!" Hermione piped up with a grin and a knowing glint in her eyes that told him that at least one other person knew just what he had been attempting to do. "Why don't we ask the Twins to join in too? They're only a few compartments down aren't they?"

"I'll go!" Harry chirped with a grin as he hopped up from his seat and headed towards the door of the compartment. "I thought I heard something happen anyways. I wonder what it was?"

"This is brilliant brother mine."

"Absolutely, I love us so much."

"Yes, I can't believe we didn't think of this sooner."

"Alright, that's that set. Hand me the vial then."

"Here you are handsome."

"Thank you handsome."

"Remember, only one drop."

"I know I- Oh bloody hell!" Fred cursed as a small body rammed into his back causing the hand that held his precious bottle to jerk forward with enough power to spill far too much of the precious liquid it held.

Both Weasleys watched in horror as the delicate green leaves and plush red berries glowed an unpleasantly bright pink before they faded back to exactly as they had been before. Once the glow faded they looked into each others gaze only to find the panic that they themselves felt reflected back at them.

"Not good!" They both said together before they moved to hold the doorway closed and prevent the victim of their planned prank from befalling the horrors that were sure to happen now.

Before either of their hands could reach the handle the compartment doorway slid open and the very person they were trying to protect fell victim to their trap.

Harry's emerald green eyes widened in a moment of panic as he ran into what appeared to be a pale pink barrier, stumbling backwards he met the same force and his panicked eyes sought out the Twins horrified expressions.

They were too late.

Harry was trapped.

"Fred? George? What's going on?" Harry asked in a confused voice as his eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. "Why can't I get out of the doorway?"

"Sorry about that Harry," Fred said with a grimace before he turned away from Harry's sad and confused face and instead examine the sprig of mistletoe that hung above the compartment doorway and trapped Harry.

"Yeah, it was only supposed to take effect once we reached the station but since miss Chang here bumped into Fred," George continue as he glared at the small Ravenclaw second year who blushed and looked down at her feet as she shrunk under his gaze.

"She caused me to dump the whole bloody vial on the mistletoe," Fred growled as he tried to yank the mistletoe down by hand with no success.

"Unfortunately," George continued as he turned away from Cho and looked back at Harry with such a sad expression on his face that Harry could feel any anger that he had with the twins melt away, "We don't really have any idea what this much of the potion will do. We had meant for it to compel... You know, into giving you a little peck. With this much though, who knows what'll happen?"

"Don't worry though Harry!" Fred piped in again as he jumped down and rubbed at the palms of his hands which were now red from his attempts at physically prying the mistletoe down. "We'll just have to play guard is all, it should be fine."

A moment later Fred would regret that he ever said that phrase...

"So... He's trapped under that mistletoe?" Cho asked carefully as she examined the three students before her.

It was only luck that she had come out of her compartment moments ago, she had decided that she would go and see how long it would be until the sweets trolley would be coming through and had instead found herself running into someone else's back and caused him to spill something.

It was luck that that someone happened to be one of the Weasley twins. It was even better luck that her running into him had caused this to occur.

If it were true... Well, if it were true then people needed to know! After all, if Harry Potter, the dear of Hogwarts, were trapped under the mistletoe then traditions needed to be followed.

Moving quickly Cho dashed back into her compartment and quickly told her friends the news.

"Harry Potter is trapped under the mistletoe across the hall!"

"Where are all of these bloody girls coming from!?" Ron snarled as they tried to fight their way through the rabid crowd of females who were currently swarming his little brother.

It had started slowly with only a few second year Ravenclaw's but like moths to an open flame more had followed.

It had all been so peaceful, the girls were calm and would give Harry a quick peck on the cheek before moving aside so that they could all coo at his blush which was actually pretty funny to see. Fred and George were on one side and he, Neville and Hermione were on the other just incase they were needed to step in and save Harry which after about twenty girls it was.

A Ravenclaw fifth year was the one who started it and she would be lucky if Ron never saw her again.

She had walked up for her turn just like everyone else but instead of giving a peck on the cheek and walking away she had grabbed both of Harry's cheeks and kissed him right on the lips!

After that chaos erupted. He and the others moved to block Harry from the others while Fred and George pulled the woman off of Harry but the girls didn't take well to that, it was scary.

Before they knew it they were being pushed and pulled away from the compartment doorway, away from Harry, and found themselves fighting through the crowd to get back to their place to help Harry.

Somehow in all of the commotion it seemed like some of the male population of Hogwarts had joined in the fray. Some were fighting their way through the crowd and back to their compartments with looks of horror on their faces, clearly they didn't want any part in this for which Ron was thankful. Others however were forcing themselves back to the front of the crowd as well and Ron doubted that it was for the same reasons as he, Neville and Hermione were.

Through a small gap in the others' heads Ron could see one of the twins pull a sixth year Gryffindor off of Harry who looked absolutely terrified as he tried to wrestle the other teens hand away from his side and Ron saw red. The family knew about what that monster had done to Harry, Ron himself had played witness to some of the nightmares his little brother had when Charlie wasn't there and had heard from Neville that they still happened from time to time. If this person caused Harry to remember that then Ron would gladly show him the full extent of the Weasley temper!

With new energy Ron made his way through the crowd with his wand drawn and jinx's flying. Between his wand and the elbows he threw when needed they made much quicker progress than they had before.

As the Hogwarts express pulled to a stop inside Kings Cross Station confusion wracked through those who were currently awaiting their family on Platform 9 3/4.

Why was no one getting off of the train?

They could clearly hear voices from the train though they couldn't quite make out what they were saying.

Finally one of the doors towards the front of the train opened and a few students practically fell through the open doorway bringing their trunks with them as they lay there and panted.

After a minute they stood, straightened their robes and made their way to their confused family where their explanation drifted through the silent station.

"It's like a madhouse in there but they should be done soon."

What exactly did that mean?

Slowly a small trickle of students found their way off of the train and back to their worried families. Many of these students looked ruffled, some of them were sporting the beginnings of bruises and others carried with them the aftermath of jinx's having been cast on them. Oddly however, most of them had an odd glaze in their eyes or a goofy smile as they mumbled things about having actually gotten a kiss or how cute someone's blush had been as well as, oddly, the mention of mistletoe.

Just what was happening on that train!?

"Perhaps one of us should go and look for them?" Molly wondered out loud as she and the remaining members of her family stood together and waited for the others to come off of the train. "What on earth could be taking them so long?"

"They might be looking for Trevor," Charlie said from beside her, his eyes still firmly locked on the train as he spoke. "Harry told me that they had to shrink his tank for the ride home. If they didn't put him into the cage, or even if they had he's quite the escape artist, he might be hiding."

"Oh look!" Ginny cried out happily as she pointed towards a head of red hair as it made its way towards them.

"Oh good," Molly said with a smile as their focus shifted from the train and to Percy who was quickly drawing near with a frown firmly in place. "Perhaps he could tell us what's happening on the train."

"Thank Merlin you're here Charlie. You need to get onto the train now! Harry's in the last compartment and a good percentage of the Hogwarts population is trying to give him a kiss. It's out of hand, no one can even get close enough to see what's going on and that's all I've been able to figure out."

With a quick look in Bills direction the two set off quickly and crossed the platform to the closest compartment door before they wrenched it open and even here the bodies were packed so tightly that if not for their larger statures they would have easily been forced back out of the door they had just come through.

As they forced their way through the throng of students Charlie could easily feel his temper flare up. More than once he had been compared to the dragons that he worked with and that was just fine with him. Dragons were fiercely protective and guarded what was theirs with their very lives just as he did and Harry was his. His soul mate and at the moment these people were after what was his.

This wouldn't end well for them.

Finally reaching the end of the last cart Bill and Charlie stopped short while they took in the scene playing out before them.

Close to the front and making their way forward were Ron, Hermione and Neville. Each had their wands out and were mercilessly using a combination of jinx's, hexes and elbows to steadily make progress towards the front.

A handful of feet away from them there was a gap in the crowd where Fred and George were fighting against several others who were much bigger and much older than them but, despite the bruises which had already beginning to form the twins stood their ground. As they watched Fred quickly reached towards the compartment door, grabbed the back of someone's robes, and used an impressive amount to swing the much larger man backward and to the floor.

As they were pulled away Charlie was able to see quite clearly that his mate was trapped inside the doorway of what must have been his compartment by what seemed to be a pale pink and translucent barrier.

For a split second their eyes met and Harry's mouth opened as if to call out to him only for it to be invaded the next second with someone else's tongue. As Harry's eyes filled with tears Charlie's vision went red.

Before Charlie could give it a second thought his wand was in his hand and a stunner had hit the fool in the back causing him to crumple to the ground in a boneless heap.

Charlie quickly followed this up with more stunners, stinging hexes and a variety of other non lethal spells performed on whoever was unlucky enough to be in his way as he made his way forward and to where his little mate sat huddled against the doorjamb of the compartment watching him with his beautiful emerald eyes.

Charlie.

Charlie was here!

He would help me, he knows spells and he's so strong, he'll be able to help!

Before Harry had a chance to think his mouth, which he had kept firmly shut this whole time, opened on it's own accord and Charlie's name was on the tip of his tongue only to morph into a silent scream as something big and wet was shoved into his mouth and yet another one of the upper year students took their place under this mistletoe that trapped him here.

No. I don't like this! The other persons tongue was moving and gross and it felt wrong, so very wrong! Tears welled up inside of Harry's eyes which had somehow managed to stay locked with Charlie's own and Harry was shocked to see the anger shining through in Charlie's own blue eyes.

Was Charlie mad at him? Why would he be? Harry didn't do anything wrong unless Charlie thought that he wanted this? No. Charlie knew better didn't he?

Harry watched in fearful fascination as Charlie lifted his wand and pointed it at the person who was still doing that gross thing with his tongue and wouldn't let go of him. So Charlie wasn't mad at him, that was good.

A flash of red whizzed through the air from Charlie's wand and landed square in the center of the other persons back before he went limp and fell to the ground taking his slimy tongue with him.

As Charlie continued to send out those bright flashes of light Harry fell to the floor and pushed himself back against the doorjamb while using his sleeve to wipe out the taste of that other man, either he didn't believe in oral hygiene or he didn't have any luck with Bertie Bott's.

As people continued to fall to the flashes of light Charlie made his way forward somehow managing to step on almost each of the fallen teens hands.

As Charlie knelt down in front of him Harry vaguely registered the fact that most of the other students were quickly fleeing the compartment while Bill and the twins were bringing the others back from whatever state of unconsciousness Charlie had sent them into.

"Are you okay?" Charlie asked, his blue eyes soft and full of concern as they looked at him and Harry couldn't help but smile at him.

"Yeah, but that was gross. It just felt... Wrong. You know?" Harry asked as he wiped at his mouth yet again.

"Yeah, it's not always unpleasant though, you just need to do it with the right person is all."

"Like you?" Harry asked as he cocked his head to the side as he thought. Doing that with Charlie sounded oddly... Pleasant. Perhaps Professor McGonagall was right, most eleven year olds probably didn't think like this but then again, most eleven year olds weren't involved in a soul bond. No eleven year olds were involved in a soul bond! There was no precedent for this. In the eyes of the law Harry was already an adult, in the eyes of the wizarding world who knew him as only an eleven year old he was old enough to make his own decisions and Harry chose Charlie so was this really so wrong?

Harry's question was rewarded with a possessive gleam in Charlie's eyes as he moved closer and kissed Harry on the tip of his nose.

"Yes, like me."

Chapter 20: Mistletoe Mayhem

The remainder of term went relatively the same as all the days before it though the first years were oddly subdued much to the amusement of the upper years.

Today however, was the day that many of the students had been looking forward to with the fervor usually reserved for Quidditch matches. Today the scarlet steam engine known as the Hogwarts Express was scheduled to transport a large portion of the Hogwarts population home for the winter holidays.

"Check mate," Ron announced with a satisfied smirk as he watched Harry's king toss of its crown and bow. This was the third straight game of chess that Ron had won this morning and it was enough to convince Harry that he would much rather be an observer than a player for this particular game. Honestly, Ron was just too good, not even Hermione, who had taken to reading books on chess strategies in an effort to dethrone Ron, could last very long against the youngest Weasley male.

"Honestly Ron, you really should enter a muggle chess tournament, you don't order the pieces and they don't fight but you would do extremely well," Hermione announced yet again from her spot on the opposite bench in the compartment where she and Neville had taken to observing the proceedings.

"Perhaps, but it wouldn't be as fun as Wizards Chess," Ron said yet again as he began to set the board up for yet another game much to Harry's distress. The sooner they were home the sooner Ron would have some competition. Harry loved him, he really did, but losing so thoroughly so many times in a row were quickly taking the fun from the game. In fact, Harry had long since settled on watching the looks that would cross Ron's face as he concentrated on the next move that he would make.

"How about we play some exploding snap instead?" Harry suggested before Ron could finish his set up and begin the next round of torture.

"That's a great idea Harry!" Hermione piped up with a grin and a knowing glint in her eyes that told him that at least one other person knew just what he had been attempting to do. "Why don't we ask the Twins to join in too? They're only a few compartments down aren't they?"

"I'll go!" Harry chirped with a grin as he hopped up from his seat and headed towards the door of the compartment. "I thought I heard something happen anyways. I wonder what it was?"

"This is brilliant brother mine."

"Absolutely, I love us so much."

"Yes, I can't believe we didn't think of this sooner."

"Alright, that's that set. Hand me the vial then."

"Here you are handsome."

"Thank you handsome."

"Remember, only one drop."

"I know I- Oh bloody hell!" Fred cursed as a small body rammed into his back causing the hand that held his precious bottle to jerk forward with enough power to spill far too much of the precious liquid it held.

Both Weasleys watched in horror as the delicate green leaves and plush red berries glowed an unpleasantly bright pink before they faded back to exactly as they had been before. Once the glow faded they looked into each others gaze only to find the panic that they themselves felt reflected back at them.

"Not good!" They both said together before they moved to hold the doorway closed and prevent the victim of their planned prank from befalling the horrors that were sure to happen now.

Before either of their hands could reach the handle the compartment doorway slid open and the very person they were trying to protect fell victim to their trap.

Harry's emerald green eyes widened in a moment of panic as he ran into what appeared to be a pale pink barrier, stumbling backwards he met the same force and his panicked eyes sought out the Twins horrified expressions.

They were too late.

Harry was trapped.

"Fred? George? What's going on?" Harry asked in a confused voice as his eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. "Why can't I get out of the doorway?"

"Sorry about that Harry," Fred said with a grimace before he turned away from Harry's sad and confused face and instead examine the sprig of mistletoe that hung above the compartment doorway and trapped Harry.

"Yeah, it was only supposed to take effect once we reached the station but since miss Chang here bumped into Fred," George continue as he glared at the small Ravenclaw second year who blushed and looked down at her feet as she shrunk under his gaze.

"She caused me to dump the whole bloody vial on the mistletoe," Fred growled as he tried to yank the mistletoe down by hand with no success.

"Unfortunately," George continued as he turned away from Cho and looked back at Harry with such a sad expression on his face that Harry could feel any anger that he had with the twins melt away, "We don't really have any idea what this much of the potion will do. We had meant for it to compel... You know, into giving you a little peck. With this much though, who knows what'll happen?"

"Don't worry though Harry!" Fred piped in again as he jumped down and rubbed at the palms of his hands which were now red from his attempts at physically prying the mistletoe down. "We'll just have to play guard is all, it should be fine."

A moment later Fred would regret that he ever said that phrase...

"So... He's trapped under that mistletoe?" Cho asked carefully as she examined the three students before her.

It was only luck that she had come out of her compartment moments ago, she had decided that she would go and see how long it would be until the sweets trolley would be coming through and had instead found herself running into someone else's back and caused him to spill something.

It was luck that that someone happened to be one of the Weasley twins. It was even better luck that her running into him had caused this to occur.

If it were true... Well, if it were true then people needed to know! After all, if Harry Potter, the dear of Hogwarts, were trapped under the mistletoe then traditions needed to be followed.

Moving quickly Cho dashed back into her compartment and quickly told her friends the news.

"Harry Potter is trapped under the mistletoe across the hall!"

"Where are all of these bloody girls coming from!?" Ron snarled as they tried to fight their way through the rabid crowd of females who were currently swarming his little brother.

It had started slowly with only a few second year Ravenclaw's but like moths to an open flame more had followed.

It had all been so peaceful, the girls were calm and would give Harry a quick peck on the cheek before moving aside so that they could all coo at his blush which was actually pretty funny to see. Fred and George were on one side and he, Neville and Hermione were on the other just incase they were needed to step in and save Harry which after about twenty girls it was.

A Ravenclaw fifth year was the one who started it and she would be lucky if Ron never saw her again.

She had walked up for her turn just like everyone else but instead of giving a peck on the cheek and walking away she had grabbed both of Harry's cheeks and kissed him right on the lips!

After that chaos erupted. He and the others moved to block Harry from the others while Fred and George pulled the woman off of Harry but the girls didn't take well to that, it was scary.

Before they knew it they were being pushed and pulled away from the compartment doorway, away from Harry, and found themselves fighting through the crowd to get back to their place to help Harry.

Somehow in all of the commotion it seemed like some of the male population of Hogwarts had joined in the fray. Some were fighting their way through the crowd and back to their compartments with looks of horror on their faces, clearly they didn't want any part in this for which Ron was thankful. Others however were forcing themselves back to the front of the crowd as well and Ron doubted that it was for the same reasons as he, Neville and Hermione were.

Through a small gap in the others' heads Ron could see one of the twins pull a sixth year Gryffindor off of Harry who looked absolutely terrified as he tried to wrestle the other teens hand away from his side and Ron saw red. The family knew about what that monster had done to Harry, Ron himself had played witness to some of the nightmares his little brother had when Charlie wasn't there and had heard from Neville that they still happened from time to time. If this person caused Harry to remember that then Ron would gladly show him the full extent of the Weasley temper!

With new energy Ron made his way through the crowd with his wand drawn and jinx's flying. Between his wand and the elbows he threw when needed they made much quicker progress than they had before.

As the Hogwarts express pulled to a stop inside Kings Cross Station confusion wracked through those who were currently awaiting their family on Platform 9 3/4.

Why was no one getting off of the train?

They could clearly hear voices from the train though they couldn't quite make out what they were saying.

Finally one of the doors towards the front of the train opened and a few students practically fell through the open doorway bringing their trunks with them as they lay there and panted.

After a minute they stood, straightened their robes and made their way to their confused family where their explanation drifted through the silent station.

"It's like a madhouse in there but they should be done soon."

What exactly did that mean?

Slowly a small trickle of students found their way off of the train and back to their worried families. Many of these students looked ruffled, some of them were sporting the beginnings of bruises and others carried with them the aftermath of jinx's having been cast on them. Oddly however, most of them had an odd glaze in their eyes or a goofy smile as they mumbled things about having actually gotten a kiss or how cute someone's blush had been as well as, oddly, the mention of mistletoe.

Just what was happening on that train!?

"Perhaps one of us should go and look for them?" Molly wondered out loud as she and the remaining members of her family stood together and waited for the others to come off of the train. "What on earth could be taking them so long?"

"They might be looking for Trevor," Charlie said from beside her, his eyes still firmly locked on the train as he spoke. "Harry told me that they had to shrink his tank for the ride home. If they didn't put him into the cage, or even if they had he's quite the escape artist, he might be hiding."

"Oh look!" Ginny cried out happily as she pointed towards a head of red hair as it made its way towards them.

"Oh good," Molly said with a smile as their focus shifted from the train and to Percy who was quickly drawing near with a frown firmly in place. "Perhaps he could tell us what's happening on the train."

"Thank Merlin you're here Charlie. You need to get onto the train now! Harry's in the last compartment and a good percentage of the Hogwarts population is trying to give him a kiss. It's out of hand, no one can even get close enough to see what's going on and that's all I've been able to figure out."

With a quick look in Bills direction the two set off quickly and crossed the platform to the closest compartment door before they wrenched it open and even here the bodies were packed so tightly that if not for their larger statures they would have easily been forced back out of the door they had just come through.

As they forced their way through the throng of students Charlie could easily feel his temper flare up. More than once he had been compared to the dragons that he worked with and that was just fine with him. Dragons were fiercely protective and guarded what was theirs with their very lives just as he did and Harry was his. His soul mate and at the moment these people were after what was his.

This wouldn't end well for them.

Finally reaching the end of the last cart Bill and Charlie stopped short while they took in the scene playing out before them.

Close to the front and making their way forward were Ron, Hermione and Neville. Each had their wands out and were mercilessly using a combination of jinx's, hexes and elbows to steadily make progress towards the front.

A handful of feet away from them there was a gap in the crowd where Fred and George were fighting against several others who were much bigger and much older than them but, despite the bruises which had already beginning to form the twins stood their ground. As they watched Fred quickly reached towards the compartment door, grabbed the back of someone's robes, and used an impressive amount to swing the much larger man backward and to the floor.

As they were pulled away Charlie was able to see quite clearly that his mate was trapped inside the doorway of what must have been his compartment by what seemed to be a pale pink and translucent barrier.

For a split second their eyes met and Harry's mouth opened as if to call out to him only for it to be invaded the next second with someone else's tongue. As Harry's eyes filled with tears Charlie's vision went red.

Before Charlie could give it a second thought his wand was in his hand and a stunner had hit the fool in the back causing him to crumple to the ground in a boneless heap.

Charlie quickly followed this up with more stunners, stinging hexes and a variety of other non lethal spells performed on whoever was unlucky enough to be in his way as he made his way forward and to where his little mate sat huddled against the doorjamb of the compartment watching him with his beautiful emerald eyes.

Charlie.

Charlie was here!

He would help me, he knows spells and he's so strong, he'll be able to help!

Before Harry had a chance to think his mouth, which he had kept firmly shut this whole time, opened on it's own accord and Charlie's name was on the tip of his tongue only to morph into a silent scream as something big and wet was shoved into his mouth and yet another one of the upper year students took their place under this mistletoe that trapped him here.

No. I don't like this! The other persons tongue was moving and gross and it felt wrong, so very wrong! Tears welled up inside of Harry's eyes which had somehow managed to stay locked with Charlie's own and Harry was shocked to see the anger shining through in Charlie's own blue eyes.

Was Charlie mad at him? Why would he be? Harry didn't do anything wrong unless Charlie thought that he wanted this? No. Charlie knew better didn't he?

Harry watched in fearful fascination as Charlie lifted his wand and pointed it at the person who was still doing that gross thing with his tongue and wouldn't let go of him. So Charlie wasn't mad at him, that was good.

A flash of red whizzed through the air from Charlie's wand and landed square in the center of the other persons back before he went limp and fell to the ground taking his slimy tongue with him.

As Charlie continued to send out those bright flashes of light Harry fell to the floor and pushed himself back against the doorjamb while using his sleeve to wipe out the taste of that other man, either he didn't believe in oral hygiene or he didn't have any luck with Bertie Bott's.

As people continued to fall to the flashes of light Charlie made his way forward somehow managing to step on almost each of the fallen teens hands.

As Charlie knelt down in front of him Harry vaguely registered the fact that most of the other students were quickly fleeing the compartment while Bill and the twins were bringing the others back from whatever state of unconsciousness Charlie had sent them into.

"Are you okay?" Charlie asked, his blue eyes soft and full of concern as they looked at him and Harry couldn't help but smile at him.

"Yeah, but that was gross. It just felt... Wrong. You know?" Harry asked as he wiped at his mouth yet again.

"Yeah, it's not always unpleasant though, you just need to do it with the right person is all."

"Like you?" Harry asked as he cocked his head to the side as he thought. Doing that with Charlie sounded oddly... Pleasant. Perhaps Professor McGonagall was right, most eleven year olds probably didn't think like this but then again, most eleven year olds weren't involved in a soul bond. No eleven year olds were involved in a soul bond! There was no precedent for this. In the eyes of the law Harry was already an adult, in the eyes of the wizarding world who knew him as only an eleven year old he was old enough to make his own decisions and Harry chose Charlie so was this really so wrong?

Harry's question was rewarded with a possessive gleam in Charlie's eyes as he moved closer and kissed Harry on the tip of his nose.

"Yes, like me."