Feels Like This [Monday]

[charlie marie weekly]

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December 27th, 2026

Monday wasn't home yet, so Charlie had turned the living room of the penthouse into a pile of pillows and heavy blankets. She was almost completely hidden inside the nest, except for her face, which stuck out just enough so that she could see the giant tv screen. Nature documentaries that she had watched dozens of times had been playing on repeat ever since she got back from her trip to Horizont Alley earlier in the day. While her intention for that trip had been to 'accidentally' run into Jimmie Blishwick, it hadn't gone that way. Instead she'd found an old classmate, Evy Oliveira, a Slytherin girl that had decided to go to Beauxbatons instead. Their conversation had been okay, but also not how she had intended to spend her one full day of her impromptu trip to London. After she returned back to LA tomorrow afternoon, she wouldn't have another chance to do this until she graduated in the spring. The idea was to move back here and try to get a job as an apprentice magizoologist, or something equivalent. Then she would have infinite chances to find Jimmie. It just sucked that she would have to spend another couple of months waiting for that opportunity.

Wriggling out of her blanketed cocoon, she slipped the giant pair of three-headed dog slippers onto her feet and plodded over to the kitchen. When they had all lived there, it had been crammed full of food of all sorts to match their different diets. Now it was just what Monday needed and a quarter-filled cup of iced coffee from Spellbucks that she had grabbed before returning home. She knew her sister was due home soon, so waiting a little longer to eat wouldn't be the most difficult thing to do. But she also wanted to eat her disappointment away right now. Sliding open the freezer section, a frozen chocolate frog package sat under the trays of ice. That was better than nothing, and Charlie pulled it out. Fingers freezing just from trying to peel the wrapper off, she resorted to using her teeth. The beep and click of the front door opening made her pause with a piece of plastic stuck to her lip, only the corner of the chocolate frog opened.

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[monday meadow weekly]

December 27, 2026

Living in the same penthouse as she had been since she and her siblings had relocated to England without their parents was sort of lonely without all of them running around the place, so having Charlie back in London temporarily was nice. Monday wasn't totally sure how Charlie had managed to convince their parents to come to London for just a full day—and two days after Christmas—but she didn't mind. The only downside was that Witch TV didn't stop just because it was the holidays, so Monday had been called into the office and left Charlie to do her thing. It wasn't like Charlie couldn't handle herself, after all. She was newly eighteen, so she could do magic without running into any problems.

A few hours later, though, and Monday returned home, glad that at least she wouldn't be coming home to a house party. She had to admit that she sort of missed the spontaneity that came with having eight teenagers under one roof, but getting some one-on-one time with Charlie wasn't a bad deal, either.

"Hey, Charlie, I'm home," Monday called, setting her purse aside and slipping off her coat, scarf, gloves, and shoes. Walking into the kitchen just in time to see Charlie trying to rip open a Chocolate Frog packet with her teeth, however, Monday laughed. "Merlin, don't be a Dorcus!" Was her sister a witch or not? It would have taken her all of two seconds to cut the top off to get the frozen chocolate out with absolutely no hassle.

charlie marie weekly

[charlie marie weekly]

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Going about things the normal, no-maj way happened a lot with her. Utilizing her wand and magic only came out during school or if it was something that she desperately needed it for. Most of that came with the fact that she wasn't used to being allowed to use it outside of school still. In regards to the chocolate frog packaging, a simple cutting spell would have gotten her what she wanted immediately. Or a pair of scissors. There was one of those in a kitchen drawer somewhere probably. At least there used to be. With everyone here up until summer, it was sort of difficult to tell what stayed and what went. She hadn't been back since moving out, and obviously Monday was going to make adjustments that worked for her. Regardless, teeth worked just as well at ripping open plastic packaging as magic or scissors did. And the battle would make the chocolate frog worth it.

"What? I was hungry," she explained, trying to pick at the tiny opening she'd made with two of her fingers. Peeling that apart was going to be a pain. "You weren't saving it were you?" It seemed like a dumb question, but Charlie had seen stranger things in this fridge over the last two years. Like the occasional blood bag getting put there, or food in various stages of decomposition because it got shoved all the way to the back of the fridge. A frozen, uneaten chocolate frog was essentially a prize since it still existed without the confines of the freezer. Unless it was new, escaping the entire family thus far was an almost unimaginable feat.

Deciding that she would actually like to use the scissors (her wand had disappeared somewhere over by the couch), Charlie started pulling open drawers to look for them. Anything that had a point to it would work, really. "Meet anyone famous today? Like, more famous than anyone at the parties mom used to bring us to," she asked.

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[monday meadow weekly]

December 27, 2026

"What?" Charlie demanded. "I was hungry."

Monday, who fortunately wasn't their mother, wasn't about to lecture Charlie. She probably should have set something aside so that Charlie had something to heat up for dinner if she wanted it before she got back, but she hadn't thought that far in advance.

"I wasn't saving it," she reassured Charlie. "Honestly? I didn't even know that was in there," Monday admitted. One of their siblings must have left it behind when they had gone back to the United States. They had probably had reason to, Monday knew; she doubted those things were vegan.

"Meet anyone famous today? Like, more famous than anyone at the parties Mom used to bring us to." Charlie had started looking through drawers, and Monday walked over to her sister's side, shaking her head.

It usually wasn't that exciting at Witch TV. The day-to-day work was mostly just doing things that people couldn't bother doing for themselves. There was, however, some irony there, since the Weeklys were famous themselves. Sure, the kids weren't as famous as their parents were, but it wasn't as though they were nobodies. And that was also how Monday had scored her internship to begin with. "Unless you count, like, the people who work for Witch TV," Monday giggled, "not really." She knew people's coffee orders more than she knew most of their names, though.

Glancing at the Chocolate Frog, Monday smiled. "Okay, do you want actual dinner, or…?" A Chocolate Frog would probably hold Charlie over for a little while—but not for as long as a full meal. "I can order us a pizza from Hogsmeade?"

charlie marie weekly

[charlie marie weekly]

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Excellent! A free frozen chocolate frog was without a battle was amazing. If Thursday was here, the two of them would have had to battle it out on some video game, winner taking it and then some. Charlie always lost when that happened, though turning down the competition would have been in poor taste. Connecting on different levels with all of her siblings was important in maintaining the Zen she enjoyed. Disrupting that, or having it disrupted by something like the Hogwarts fire and siblings running off everywhere to start their careers, really messed with the balance of everything. So getting moments like that were more important now than ever before. The same could be said about the one-on-one time with Monday she was getting today.

“Like the show hosts? What’s that one everyone is talking about? Potterwatch? She’s pretty funny,” Charlie said as she finally found a singular chopstick in the back of an otherwise empty drawer. Brandishing her disposable piece of environmental destruction, Charlie wedged the end of it into the corner of the wrapper that she had already ripped open, using the chopstick to unseal the rest of it. “I saw one where she went on a tour with a hot cursebreaker in a pyramid,” she added as she started to gnaw on one of the frog’s legs.

Her attempts at getting anything more than chocolate shavings from the frozen frog were futile. Monday stepped in to save her from this plight though, offering to order pizza. “Pleeease,” Charlie said as she pulled the cold chunk of chocolate from her mouth, looking like a dog had been drooling all over it. The pizza from Hogsmeade meant Blishwick’s place. An unbeatable force of sauce and cheese that honestly put even the best pizzas back home to shame. She’d had Blishwick on her mind all day, a little more couldn’t hurt her. And that was when she got an idea. “Wait! Could we eat there? I don’t get sick from side-along apparation anymore.” Could Jimmie be there?

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[monday meadow weekly]

December 27, 2026

"Like the show hosts?" Charlie asked eagerly about her work at Witch TV. "What's that one everyone is talking about? Potterwatch? She's pretty funny."

Monday knew who Charlie was talking about, and she was one of the Witch TV hosts. Vivian Jordan was her name. Although she hadn't interacted with her too much around the office, Vivian definitely carried a certain vibe. She was definitely young and cool, but she wasn't unapproachable. (Or she wouldn't have been unapproachable if Monday weren't just an intern, which meant speaking to most people unless they spoke to her first was a no-no.)

Eyeing her sister's strange technique for opening the chocolate wrapper, Monday wasn't sure which was stranger—Charlie's new use for one single chopstick or how she went on about some episode of Potterwatch that had featured an attractive Curse-Breaker, apparently.

Instead of finishing the piece of chocolate she had bitten into—and wasted a perfectly good chopstick in pursuit of—Charlie took the chocolate out of her mouth at the mention of pizza. Monday was pretty sure that Charlie could have swallowed it, or at least she could have gotten a napkin for it.

Charlie begged for the pizza and then seemed to change her mind. Monday was glad to have waited before saying anything about it, though, because the difference was that Charlie didn't want to order a pizza; she wanted to go to the pizza parlor itself to eat it.

Delivery was more convenient, but Monday didn't mind going out to eat, either. She'd only just gotten back from work. Plus, Charlie mentioned that she didn't get sick from Side-Along Apparition anymore, so that was an added bonus for both of them.

"Sure, yeah," Monday agreed. "Just, uh, give me a sec to get my coat and stuff back on, okay?"

charlie marie weekly

[charlie marie weekly]

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Watching her sister leave to grab her jacket, Charlie realized that she was completely underdressed after being in her cocoon for so long. Or maybe she'd be fine at this hour in an oversized hoodie and sweats? They didn't exactly scream Weekly fashion, and she knew her mom would have a conniption if she knew her children went out into public looking like this. Charlie had never cared, and she absolutely had done worse things over the last few years that her parents wouldn't agree with. Merlin, they weren't even happy that she was here right now, despite giving their permission. She was going to be back in London the second she graduated anyways, so she didn't see any problem with spending Christmas here.

Wriggling out from under the multiple blankets that she had piled on top of herself, Charlie kicked off her fuzzy slippers and headed towards where she'd thrown her jacket onto a kitchen chair earlier. It was only
upon sliding it on that she realized that her phone wasn't in her pocket. "Mo! My phone isn't over there is it?" she called, assuming her sister was near the front entrance. She could've sworn she'd had it under her pillow fort, but it didn't seem to be there.

After some digging, Charlie got frustrated enough that she pulled her wand out, "Accio phone." A clatter arose from under the couch, and then a long scraping sound before it shot out from underneath and up to her hand. She cringed at the noise it made, knowing it wasn't going to be pristine when she flipped it around. A new crack glistened in the top corner, and a second Reparo tidied it up instantly. Thank Merlin for magic. She would have been through half a dozen phones this school year alone at this point. "Nevermind!" she yelled back as she headed towards the front door, looking over her phone more. "You'd think the no-maj's would have figured out a way to make these things less fragile by now. But every time I drop it, it breaks." The thought of simply not dropping it had never crossed her mind.

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[monday meadow weekly]

December 27, 2026

As Monday was getting ready to leave again, she could hear something of a minor commotion. Charlie seemed to have lost her cellphone, which wouldn't have been so bad if Monday had had some idea of where it was. It didn't seem that Charlie did, either, because summoning it would have solved that. Summoning something without knowing where it was, though? Good luck.

Monday could hear Charlie going that route regardless, and apparently having to repair her phone somehow in the process. It could have been worse, Monday told herself, and she didn't think that Charlie really wanted or needed her to butt in and assist her. If her sister did need her, Monday didn't doubt that she would know.

Fortunately, as broken phones went, Charlie sounded as though she had the situation under control. She expressed her disappointment, however, that No-Majes hadn't made the devices more capable of withstanding damage.

Although she wasn't the most No-Maj-tech-savvy witch, Monday adjusted her coat collar and thought for a moment. "You could probably find someone to strengthen it with magic," she suggested. "It'd be pretty practical, too, for, like, dueling and stuff."

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[charlie marie weekly]

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"I mean, I guess that's an idea," Charlie answered reasonably as she got to the front door. Her shoes slid on easily, still tied from her escapade to Horizont Alley earlier in the day. "I still need to get mine set up to work in the magic zones here." That supposedly required sending it away for a while so that the Minsitry department could set it all up. Since she was still at Ilvermorny for the time being, there seemed to be no reason to get it yet. She also didn't feel like she could live without her phone for that long. The social media addiction was real bad, and not having access to that while at school would only cause problems. With graduation so close, that would be asking to fail and get held back. "Do you think web-streamed dueling will become a thing?" she asked her sister as she started to pull her arms through her jacket sleeves. That was a curious observation by Monday. But she knew more about what the magical media looked like. Drooling over Potter Watch episodes that had stupidly attractive Cursebreakers wasn't exactly peak media consumption, despite Charlie thinking it was.

Checking to make sure she had everything (wand, phone, herself) one last time, she raised a now gloved thumb up to her sister. "Ready when you are." The side-along would be instant, and Charlie was pretty sure it wouldn't make her sick. Coming back home could maybe be an issue, as she'd be loaded up on pizza and soda by that point. But that was an issue for her future self. Holding her hand out for Monday to take, Charlie mentally prepared herself for the jump out to Hogsmeade. A couple deep breaths always helped right before to get her breathing set. Even if it did happen in the space of a millisecond, she could still feel the tug and pull of the disapparation, and that had a lovely way of taking her breath away momentarily.

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[monday meadow weekly]

December 27, 2026

Apart from her concerns about her cell phone's durability, Charlie mentioned that she still hadn't gotten hers set up to work in places where the magical presence was denser. Monday, who figured that almost everybody who actively used No-Maj technology must have done that (or purchased another device) already, was kind of taken aback. It wasn't as though their parents were lacking the money. She and Charlie probably could have gotten ten new phones each if they wanted them without being questioned by their parents.

They could sort that out after pizza, considering that Charlie didn't sound too concerned. She had a totally different question, however. "Do you think web-streamed dueling will become a thing?"

Monday shrugged her shoulders. "Probably." If someone could make some extra Dragots or Galleons off of it, she was sure that they would try to. Betting on sports seemed to be more popular in the United Kingdom, from what she had seen, so people would probably be into it. The same went for Quidditch—and just about everything else that was a sport or could be marketed as one. She could blame working at Witch TV for that knowledge.

Charlie had gotten her coat on and said that she was ready, holding out her hand for Monday to take. She did, holding on tightly to her younger sister before Disapparating with a pop from their place to the pizza parlor in Hogsmeade.

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[charlie marie weekly]

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Even with how tightly she was holding onto Monday, the pull of the disapparation always felt the same to her. Like a sudden yank that wanted to rip her into whatever magical ether it was they were currently traveling through. Charlie had tried to read up on the actual theory of it, though had a headache after the first few chapters when she realized that the inventors (is that what they could be called?) didn't even know what it was themselves. Considering how relatively slow magickind was on the research and development of things that actually mattered, she doubted anyone would ever look into it during her lifetime. They had only just gotten computers and phones to work, after all.

All of a sudden the apartment disappeared and they were in Hogsmeade. It felt strange being back so soon. Even in the dark, she could see the exposed shell of the castle as her eyes adjusted. Only seven months ago she and Monday had escaped together. Somehow that time didn't seem real to her. One of the counselors she spoke to at Ilvermorny said that it was just the way her brain was processing the trauma. That it could take time to come to terms with what had happened, and that it was fine to still not feel okay about all of it. She had tried to push it to the back of her mind as much as possible, blocking it out with school work, seeing friends again at school, and her hunt for Jimmie Blishwick today. But there were still times it crept back, as if it had happened just the day before. At least the nightmares were starting to become infrequent. She disliked taking potions to remove them.

Her grip on Monday's arm tightened as she looked in the direction of Hogwarts, even tighter than it had been during the disapparation, only to relax again as she remembered that everything was fine now and that they were both safe. And that they were here for pizza because she was starving. It was stupid that such a normal thing could bring her right back down, but it meant she was adjusting better than she had a few months prior.

"I could eat a whole abraxan," she admitted as they started towards the pizza parlor. Realistically, Charlie was pretty sure she could eat an entire large pie. That was on a normal day too. Today, she had barely eaten anything. The nerves for her Blishwick hunt had kept her from eating, and now she was paying for that. "I've been waiting for this for months. I don't know what they put into it, but there has to be something addictive that keeps bringing people back." Maybe it was...magic?

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[monday meadow weekly]

December 27, 2026

The two of them were transported to Hogsmeade, and Monday could feel that Charlie hadn't let go of her even after they were at their destination. It was unusual, since she knew that her sister could tell that there was no need for her to keep holding on in the way that she was. They were in the village. All they had to do was walk to the restaurant.

It took another moment for Monday to remember that, unlike her, Charlie hadn't seen Hogwarts since the fire. The castle was in the process of being rebuilt, so it didn't look exactly the same as it had in May, and word was that the school was going to be made even bigger than it had been before.

Although Charlie had been affected by the sight of Hogwarts as it was in its strange state, she wasn't so badly affected that she was unable to continue on traveling the short distance that they had left to get to the Happily Ever After Pizza Emporium. Monday knew that Charlie was back in better spirits when she commented that she could eat an Abraxan as they headed in the direction of the pizza parlor—and added soon after that she had been waiting for months to have pizza from the Happily Ever After Pizza Emporium again.

Monday had gotten used to the pizza from the Pizza Emporium, too, over time. She wasn't as obsessed with it as her sister, but it was pretty good pizza for being the only magical pizza option around. The names of the menu items took some getting used to, but that really wasn't such a big deal.

"Do you know what you're gonna get yet?" Monday asked Charlie to make conversation as they kept walking. "I don't think Blishwick's changed the menu any since you were last there."

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[charlie marie weekly]

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A waft of freshly baked crust and sauce had reached Charlie’s nose as they walked, her salivary glands instantly activating. There was nothing back home that even came close to this, her desire for Blishwick was too great. Pizza and Jimmie. Which also gave her a rush of excitement, because while she knew her crush probably wouldn’t be at the parlor, there was always the chance that she could be. With an extra bit of pep in her step after the failure of earlier in the day, she slightly picked up the pace. Even if Jimmie wasn’t there, pizza was. It was still a win for her.

”Mmm not yet. But that’s good to know,” she said as Monday explained that the menu hadn’t changed. She recalled eating a ridiculous number of slices back when the place first opened. That and the line had wound around Hogsmeade as everyone from the school had tried to get in on top of the rest of the magical community. Who knew pizza was such an intriguing thing? At least for the Americans, it was like having a slice of home. That was how she viewed it.

The parlor was finally in view, and Charlie ran towards the door to catch it as a couple exited. An extra blast of flavor hit her in the face as she waited for her sister to go inside. ”Merlin, I might just get a couple different slices. That way I can hold myself over until the summer…” she said as the warmth and scents became overwhelming. That was maybe the worst part about being forced to continue school at Ilvermorny this year. Once she had the chance to return, she was. Her eyes had been on the reserve in Hogsmeade, which meant she could come here at any point she wanted.

Sticking her head in as she waited for Monday, she didn’t see Jimmie Blishwick. That was okay. Sort of depressing and didn’t add to her feelings from earlier, but pizza would make up for it. That was the whole point of this, right?

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[monday meadow weekly]

December 27, 2026

Initially, Charlie said she wasn't sure what she was going to order from the pizza parlor, but she commented that it was good to know that the menu hadn't changed since she had been there. The Blishwick approach to pizza was a bit… eclectic, and the menu items could have changed names just to keep things interesting.

They soon arrived at the establishment, and Charlie held the door open for Monday. The aroma of pizza and its various ingredients hung in the air, and it really did smell good. Possibly motivated by the scents surrounding them, Charlie mentioned that she was thinking of ordering more than just a slice or two. "Merlin," she began, "I might just get a couple different slices. That way I can hold myself over until the summer."

"You're gonna make yourself sick if you eat too many pieces of pizza at once," Monday informed her as she walked inside, glad for the warmth within the Pizza Emporium. She kept her tone lighthearted, but she had to be the responsible one, too. Offhand, Monday knew that there were ways that even No-Majes could transport food across long distances without having it spoil. There must have been some way to make that same concept work to send her sister Blishwick pizza at Ilvermorny if she wanted it that badly.

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[charlie marie weekly]

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It was a relief that she could pig out on pizza without her crush witnessing it. If Charlie had it all her way, and this was a complete fantasy generated in her head during hour long daydreams of her future, Jimmie would see it eventually. There was nothing indicating that it would ever happen, which was the part that hurt the most and the one that she tried to actively avoid. What compelled her to come all the way here just for a few days during break was beyond her at this point. It had failed, and now she was going to hide it away with pizza. A fair trade.

"Don't worry about it," she waved her sister off. "I won't eat too much that apparating back will make me throw up." Her previous attempts at side-along on a full stomach had resulted in quite the creative mess. It was like swimming right after eating; except she was fairly sure that was a complete fabrication. But gorging on food and then magical transporting definitely did the trick.

The waft of pizza had hit her nose by now, and she almost started to second guess if she wanted as much. Because there was a whole tray of garlic knots being pulled out of one of the ovens that she could see. A to-go box of those would keep her happy until she had to head back to California tomorrow. Mouth watering as she approached the counter, Charlie immediately forgot what she wanted to order. That was the problem with the pizza parlor. There were too many options. It was a lot easier with a group of people because you could order a couple pizzas and deal with it. But individual slices? That was tough. "You can go first Monday," she stepped back to let her sister go ahead of her. "I forgot how big their menu is." So far, it was looking like the standard pepperoni or sausage before returning home and having to pretend to be vegan again for their mom. Now that, was fun.

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