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With a sigh of relief, Charlie shut the door to his old room behind him and leaned against it for a moment. The Burrow was a madhouse today; all his brothers and his sister had arrived with their families to celebrate Easter with the Weasley grandparents. His parents loved their house being filled with the laughter of countless children once more, but Charlie was glad for the respite his old room provided him.
Everyone was here already, except for you. You weren’t scheduled to arrive until tomorrow, for the actual Easter celebrations. There had been some last minute emergency back at the dragon reserve that had demanded your immediate attention; under usual circumstances, Charlie would have stayed as well, but the circumstances were anything but usual this time.
He carefully placed his bag on his old bed and produced the giant chocolate egg he had secretly crafted in your kitchen back in Romania before he had left for England. His mother had told him how to do it; gifting each other chocolate eggs had been a tradition in the Weasley family since Charlie could remember.
He had given it his all; he had spent countless hours meticulously carving the scales out of the crimson coloured chocolate before he had sprinkled it with a fine layer of golden glitter to make it look like the egg of a Chinese Fireball; he knew they were your favourite breed.
Charlie brushed his old dragon miniatures on the desk to the side with his elbow before he delicately placed the dragon egg on the wooden surface. He lifted the top off and set it aside before he dug deep into the pocket of his trousers and pulled out the small red box containing your present and placed it in the middle of the lower half. He assembled both halves again, making sure the scales on the outside were aligning, and sealed the crack in the chocolate with a flick of his wand.
He observed his work with a self-satisfied grin before placing the egg in the wicker basket he had stuffed with hay and some smaller chocolate eggs and pushed it back under his bed until the time for its great appearance had come.
Relieved that this part of your surprise was finished, he left the room to go help Bill put up the garden decorations his mother had forced on him, whistling happily to himself. He was so caught up in his thoughts, he didn’t notice the two intrigued pairs of eyes watching him leaving his room from the shadow of the crooked staircase.
When he returned an hour later, he stopped dead in his tracks upon finding the door to his room standing slightly ajar. The colour drained from his freckled face as he frantically raked his mind for the memory of whether he had locked the door or not. He pushed it open and went straight for the hiding place of his special Easter basket. He crouched down on the floor to peek under the bed and found his worst fear confirmed; the basket was gone.
His heart pounded faster as the panic started to set in; he had to find the dragon egg again. He searched the whole floor for it, then the next one down, and the ground floor afterwards. He was just rummaging through the kitchen as the sound of crinkling paper and giggles reached his ears from the adjacent living room.
Charlie spun around and followed the laughter to find his nieces and nephews assembled in a circle on the carpet, surrounded by heaps of coloured wrapping paper, mouths smudged with chocolate. In the middle of the carnage sat his basket, the red dragon egg the last thing to survive the feast.
“Where did you get that?” he asked them with the sternest Uncle-Charlie-voice he could muster.
The little rascals froze on their spot as their eyes collectively darted to their scolding uncle.
Little Lily finally plucked up her courage to answer him. “The Easter Bunny brought us chocolate!” she stated defensively. “We were even sharing!”
Charlie stemmed his hands into his hips. “The Easter Bunny, huh? Does this,” he pointed to his chocolate dragon egg, “look like a regular Easter egg to you?”
They all shook their head. “No, Uncle Charlie,” muttered Hugo.
“That’s because it’s something special,” Charlie lowered his voice conspiratorially. “It belongs to the Easter Dragon.”
James crossed his arms in front of his chest critically. “The Easter Dragon?”
“Exactly,” Charlie crouched down next to them. “He lives in Romania and like proper dragons do, he guards his treasure until the time is right. And he wants you to give his egg back.”
James hummed and leaned over to his cousin Fred II without taking his eyes off Charlie. “Do we believe that, Freddie?”
The other boy shook his head. “Not at all, James.”
“Thought so.” With a sudden lunge forward he tackled Charlie, who immediately lost his balance and crashed to the ground. James wrestled Charlie’s wand from the waistband of his trousers and held it up triumphantly before leaping off his stunned uncle.
“Run!” he shouted to the other children. Fred grabbed the precious egg and lead the pack out into the garden in a full sprint, James hot on his heels.
Charlie cursed in Romanian and scrambled to his feet. He cursed again as he realised his wandless state and set off after them.
Although their legs were fundamentally shorter than his, they were surprisingly fast, he had to give them that.
He was chasing them through the garden and back into the house again. George had joined him as he had leapt over the fence of the chicken compound. “Why are we running?” he had shouted at Charlie with his unmistakable mischievous laugh, but Charlie had been too out of breath to answer.
They raced them through the kitchen and up the stairs to the top landing. Charlie thought they had them cornered there, but these kids were surprisingly resourceful. They had climbed out of the window and onto the roof one by one and were clambering down on the many nooks and ledges of the Burrow by the time Charlie had reached them.
He could hear Hermione hysterically screaming from outside as she saw Hugo dangling from the ancient drains, but by the time she had her wand out, he had already let go and landed safely in James’s arms.
Charlie dashed down the stairs again with newfound determination; if he managed to reach the porch before they did, he would be able to intercept them and get his treasure dragon egg back.
He skittered out of the patio door to see the kids already making their way off the porch in the direction of the fields unfolding behind their garden. Freddie was still carrying the egg under his arm.
As they passed Victoire, who was lounging in a sunchair at the end of the patio, flicking through the pages of a magazine, she stuck her foot out all of a sudden without even batting an eye. James, who had been running in front, stumbled and came crashing down on the floorboards; the other children were unable to stop their momentum and tripped over him, landing on top of each other in a cluster of arms and legs.
“That’s for ratting Teddy and me out earlier,” Victoire stated indignantly, got up and strutted off.
Charlie was finally able to catch up with them, this flanks burning from the lack of air. As Freddie scrambled to his feet rubbing his elbow, he was able to take in the amount of damage the fall had wreaked on what had been the focal point for his great surprise for you only an hour ago.
The crimson chocolate egg had crushed beneath the weight of his nieces and nephews, the shattered remains scattered all over the floor. Charlie’s eyes quickly scanned the area for the small box the egg had held; unseen by the children, it had rolled under Victoire’s sunchair. Before anyone else could get their hands on it, he quickly scooped it up.
“What in Godric’s name happened here?”
Charlie jumped at the familiar voice coming from behind him. He quickly got up off the floor and hid the box behind his back as he turned around to face you.
He smiled in what he hoped looked like a surprised and innocent way as you strode up the steps from the garden to place a quick kiss on his lips.
“What’re you doing here already, love?” he murmured against your lips. “I thought they needed you back at the reserve until tomorrow.”
You hummed as you smiled up at your oddly flustered looking boyfriend. “We were able to settle things quicker than we thought we would, so I caught an earlier portkey.” You eyed him up and down. “Is everything alright?”
He was spared an answer as the kids, who had disentangled themselves from one another, took note of who had just arrived.
“Auntie Y/N!” they screeched as the raced past Charlie and almost knocked you back down the steps into the grass.
You laughed and ruffled their hair. Lily hugged your waist tightly and exclaimed “Look at what we nicked from the Easter Dragon!” She was waving one of the bigger shards of the chocolate egg in your face.
Your eyes found Charlie’s as you smiled down at the girl; they were shining with the laughter mirrored on your face. “The Easter Dragon, huh? Now that’s a dragon I’d like to meet; do you want to tell me all about him?” You picked Lily up and made your way over to the big tree at the corner of the garden where the old swing Charlie and his siblings had played on when they were children was situated.
All the kids followed her without so much as another glance at their uncle. Only Lily stuck his tongue out to him over your shoulder.
Charlie smiled to himself at the sight of you surrounded by the youngest members of your family. He opened the box he had still held hidden behind his back until now to check its content. He sighed with relief upon seeing that the ring situated inside was unharmed.
“Do you think she noticed something?” Bill had walked up to him, leaning on the railing lining their porch and casting a quick glance at his younger brother.
Charlie snapped the box shut again and stuffed it deep into his pocket. “I don’t think so.”
“And what are you going to do now? Your plan seems pretty much ruined to me.”
Charlie shrugged it off. “Doesn’t matter,” he grinned, “the Easter Dragon always finds a way.”