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Charlie had never been particularly interested in women.
Molly assumed that would change as he grew. One day he would see a girl and the hormones would soar. One day he would come home blushing and stuttering over a girl. One day Charlie would babble to her for an almost embarrassing amount of time about how pretty a girl was and Molly would have to remind him to wait until after marriage to knock her up.
That day never came.
When Charlie was about sixteen she began to suspect that maybe none of those things had happened because her second son was interested in men.
While Molly didn't quite understand gay people, ultimately it wouldn't be an issue if Charlie was gay. Molly's motherly love was unconditional. Besides, Charlie and his future partner could always adopt a baby.
So Molly began to look for the signs. Maybe he would stare at a family friend for a bit too long. Maybe he would babble about a boy for an embarrassingly long time. Maybe he would accidental mention a secret boyfriend.
None of those things ever happened.
The only thing Charlie babbled about for an embarrassing amount of time was dragons.
During the Christmas break of Charlie's final year at Hogwarts he pulled Molly and Arthur aside, "Can we talk? In private? I have something I-"
Molly cut him off, "Of course."
She had a pretty good idea of what was coming.
The three of them sat together at the kitchen table. They weren't likely to be disturbed for Percy was studying, Ron and Ginny were playing together in the yard, and the twins were… actually they had no clue what the twins were doing. Well statistically speaking there was a twenty-five percent chance that Fred and George weren't wreaking havoc.
"What is it son?" Arthur asked, "Did you find a girl? You did didn't you?"
"Well, about that…" Charlie started.
"He did!" Arthur exclaimed, "What's her name? Please tell me she's a muggle? I'll settle for muggleborn. Half blood is okay too. Pureblood if you must, but-"
"Arthur dear," Molly said, "I don't think that's exactly what this is about. Let Charlie talk."
Charlie swallowed, "Yeah, I, uh, I'm not, uh, I'm not interested in girls. Well, I mean I have friends who are girls. Tonks is great. But uh, I don't like girls in that way, if you know what I mean."
There it was. Molly tried to hide that smug feeling that grew in her chest.
Arthur didn't miss a beat, "Oh so you found a bloke then. That's perfectly alright. Just please tell me he's not a pureblood. I mean, if he's a pureblood then fine, but I have a lot of muggle questions and it would be great if he could answer them."
Charlie shook his head looking vaguely horrified, "No-"
"Thank you so much for telling us sweetie," Molly smiled, "I'm glad you finally told us. I started suspecting you were gay a year ago but I wasn't sure."
"No-"
"It's okay Charlie," Molly grabbed his hand.
"We love you anyways, son," Arthur reassured.
"You don't understand," Charlie said with determination, "I'm not interested in boys either."
Oh. That was unexpected.
Arthur tilted his head, "But if you don't like girls, and you don't like boys… then who do you like?"
Charlie looked down, "Nobody. I don't like anybody that way, and I'm relatively sure I never will. I think the word is 'asexual'. I'm sorry for being broken-"
Molly couldn't let him go on, "Hey! Listen to me. There is nothing to apologize for. You are not broken."
Charlie moved his head back up, "But I'm still letting you down. I'll never bring home a possibly non-pureblood significant other for you to interrogate dad. I'll never give you grandchildren."
Arthur shrugged, "So what? You have six siblings that could do that instead. At least one of them will, probably. What's important is that you're happy."
Molly nodded, "Arthur's right. We just want you to be happy. There no reason to be ashamed, okay?"
Charlie smiled, "Okay."