cloud nine commons | charlie

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charlie marie weekly

"gotcha!" sunday almost yelled victoriously into the empty dorm room. he'd been searching for the better part of an hour for the elusive creature. he was on his hands and knees, half under the bed with the small lizard grasped in his hand. he could feel it squirming and the feel of it's scales almost made him shudder but there was a certain shame in that. he kept a secure hold on it as he worked his way out from under the bed, sitting on his haunches as he looked at the cage in the middle of his bed, his ferret housed inside with a look on his face that sunday was sure meant he was angry that he'd caught the lizard he'd been hunting. he'd been woken up that morning to outlaw making a racket under his bed and upon closer investigation into what the ferret had been after, he'd seen the small lizard trying to find safety from the teeth of the beast. so sunday had taken pity, locked up outlaw and set upon rescuing it.

he grabbed the ferret cage with his free hand and undid the latch, which was surprisingly tricky with just one hand, but he managed somehow. he tipped it up to deposit outlaw into the middle of his bed and he put the lizard into the cage, hoping the bars were small enough to keep him captive till he could find the one person who would know what to do with it. "don't look at me like that." he said as he reached down to pick his ferret up and he put him onto his shoulder, feeling the little feet grip into his shirt and he tucked the cage under one arm and headed out to where the rest of his dormates were, breakfast.

the walk to the great hall wasn't very long, it was only really one floor above the dungeons where his common room was. he could see a few students starting to walk out the huge wooden doors as he approached but he was somewhat hopeful that his sister was still sitting at the hufflepuff table. he walked along the table, scanning the faces of everyone sitting and it didn't take him too long to find the face he wanted to see. he walked up to her, half jumping into the empty seat beside her. "guess what outlaw tried to have breakfast this morning?" he said as he sat the small cage on the table in front of them, almost write ontop of the papers that were in front of his sister.

[charlie marie weekly]

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It was only eight o’clock and Charlie had already lost count of how many times she had sighed over the papers gripped tightly in her hands at the Hufflepuff table in the Great Hall. The papers in question were variations of a letter that she had planned on sending to Whiskey today, and while it was easier to just message her now that magical phones were allowed, there was something about sending it via owl. She dared not call it ‘magical’ (since it was), but letters were handwritten and tangible objects. Personally, she felt like they meant a lot more than a long paragraph in a text or notification bump. The only problem was that she couldn’t decide which version of the letter to send. The biggest variation in each was the tone of it, and while she wanted to sound enthusiastic about seeing Whiskey during Hogsmeade weekends, she also didn’t want to make it look like she was crazily obsessed with the other girl. Technically she was, but there were better ways to go about showing that than through a ten page letter. So that one was placed in its own pile so that she wouldn’t get it mixed up with the others later on.

Looking over the rest once more, Charlie let out yet another long sigh and poked at the pancake on her plate that she had picked an hour earlier. Somehow it wasn’t cold yet (had the house elves replaced it when she wasn’t looking?), but the fact that she hadn’t bothered to eat this whole time had her questioning whether she even needed breakfast today or not. How could she eat when she had such a pressing decision to make? As far as she knew, this letter could be the one that sealed the deal. Maybe it was too enthusiastic considering she still had two years of school left and had no idea what made a proper relationship in the first place, and yet that wasn’t going to stop her from sending one of the letters.

That was, until an animal cage got set in front of on the table and caused her to jumble up all the papers hurriedly into one large, disorganized mess. She turned her head to say something rude to the person that had placed the cage down, but realized that it was Sunday, and he was saying something about how his ferret had found something for breakfast. Her eyes flicked up to the ferret, who was perched on her brother’s shoulder, then back to the cage, which had a lizard sitting in it. “Where’d you find it?” she asked, excitement starting to build in her, making her momentarily forget about the letter debacle.

@sunday ● 453 ● Samara by Blanco White

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Deleted]

charlie marie weekly

it wasn't until he'd put the cage down that he'd even noticed that his sister had been writing. it seemed she'd been writing a lot and there was a curiosity in him that he was sure was going to do him harm one day but it was this drive that he couldn't fight. he leaned forward a little to try and read some of the words she'd been writing, trying to make out if it was homework or some other message she needed to write. he couldn't help being nosy. he had so many siblings to keep up with sometimes it required being a little sneaky to find out information, though usually the snooping was done in secret, not in front of them.

he broke his focus when charlie asked him about the lizard and he leaned back so he was sitting normally to look inside the cage at the small lizard. "he was under my bed." he reached his hand up to tap outlaw on the head lightly. "but he could have brought him in from anywhere." he said as he crossed his arms and leaned them on the table in front of him. if there was one person in the castle that would know what to do with the little guy, it would be his sister. she loved all things reptile and while he didn't have a problem with the scaly animals, he did prefer the ones covered in fur.

he poked his finger though the bars lightly, wiggling it at the lizard and then frowning a little when his finger got stuck. he wiggled it for a few seconds before it came loose and he dropped his hand back down onto the table. "i think it's just a common lizard." he said, peering down into the cage. "i thought you could keep it? or help me find a good spot to let it go." he said with a smile at his older sister. "somewhere far from the jaws of the furious and fuzzy."

[charlie marie weekly]

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The lizard that Sunday had captured was tiny, and definitely out of place at Hogwarts. There weren’t really lizards in Scotland (she had checked before moving), aside from more common ones, and she had spent the better half of the last year at Hogwarts trying to see if she could find one. And here it was, sitting on top of her love letters to Whiskey, captured by Sunday’s pet ferret. Apparently all she had to do was stop looking and one would show itself to her. The real question was why Sunday was allowing his animal to run amok in the school, getting into places where neither he nor the lizard should be. As far as she knew, this was someone’s ingredient for potions. While she disagreed with that practice, preferring to use already dried lizard tails and the likes, it was definitely a possibility.

“Yeah…looks like you’re right. These little guys can be found pretty much anywhere,” Charlie agreed. Though the dungeon dorm room of a magical school certainly wasn’t the usual, in her experience. The typically liked hanging out on rocks to sunbathe, or hide under tree roots. Regardless, he was captured and in a cage now, and Sunday was offering it to her a potential pet. “He’s no Alfonso,” she stated as she leaned in closer to give the cage a better look, referring to her pet reticulated python that had been forced to stay in LA with her parents. “But if I can find a smaller cage for him, I can definitely keep him for a while. At least until spring time so that he doesn’t die during the winter.” She was already starting to run ideas through her head of how she could set up a little habitat for the lizard, as well as provide it with a heating charm to keep it in a temperate enough climate.

And then it hit her. All she had to do was ask Whiskey for supplies for it! That would provide the best excuse to meet her during the next Hogsmeade trip! Turning to look at her brother, she grinned, “I’ve got a friend that works at the animal sanctuary in Hogsmeade, y’know, the magical one? She might be able to send me some stuff for it.” Pulling one of the letters she had been sort of satisfied with toward her, Charlie started to scribble a rough draft of how she wanted to ask Whiskey for the help.

@sunday ● 410 ● Paris by Fickle Friends

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Deleted]

charlie marie weekly

he looked in at the little lizard and he nodded a little. he did feel bad that outlaw had ripped it from wherever it had decided to find shelter for the winter and he knew that it would be safer for the small animal population of the castle if the ferret was kept contained but he didn't like doing it to him. outlaw much preferred to be running about than in a cage. though if he kept bringing friends home sunday would have to seriously consider it. "i wonder where he was." he said out loud as outlaw moved down his arm, sniffing at the small cage before he set about searching for any crumbs down on the floor that students had dropped.

"nothing comes close to alfonso." he said of his sisters python, that had unfortunately had to be left behind in the states when they'd had to come across the pond to continue their education. he wasn't the biggest fan of reptiles so he hadn't really minded that the snake had been left at home but he did feel a little guilty that his pet had been allowed to come with him. "i can make this one smaller for you if you want?" he offered as he touched the metal on the door of the cage the little lizard was in. it shouldn't be that hard to figure out the right spell to use to make the small guy a decent home. "he'll probably be warmer in your common room anyway." he said with a little bit of a grin. he'd never been in the hufflepuff common room but he could imagine it was a little cozier than the slytherin one.

then she brought up a friend who might be able to help her with the lizard. "yeah i've heard of it." he hadn't been in there yet, he didn't actually know why though. he watched as she started writing another letter and he rested his elbows on his on the table as he looked at the lizard. "he needs a name." he said as he thought about it, resting his chin in his hand. "how about piano? you know. because pianos have scales?" he said with a grin.

[charlie marie weekly]

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“Probably trying to find his way into the walls,” Charlie theorized. It was a little strange that the lizard had found its way into the castle, when they were more the type to live and loiter around field stones. Unless it belonged to another student. The problem with that, though, was that it was a generic lizard – nothing special. If someone wanted a pet, they would have gotten a much larger one that was bred specifically for taking care of. This thing was wild as far as she could tell. “I’m sure there are a lot of warm places they can get to in the walls. And if it was in the dungeons, the kitchens are right there.” Knowing reptiles, it was most likely either trying to find a home near the warmest part of the Slytherin dorms, or had found a way to get all the way over to the ovens in the kitchen. She was sure if the house elves found it there, they would end up feeding it.

While that was probably a great life for a lizard, it would definitely thrive under her care. She viewed Alfonso as the apex of taking care of a pet. A lizard of this size would be like having a goldfish after taking care of a small shark. “Oh, yeah I guess we could just charm it smaller, couldn’t we?” That had completely slipped her mind, mostly because she wanted an excuse to visit the animal sanctuary. “We can do that outside, that way I can hold onto the lizard while you shrink the cage. It’s probably not a good idea to do it here…” Considering there were dozens of students around and food, she wasn’t keen on trying to wrangle a lizard in the middle of the Great Hall. Sunday placing the cage on the table alone had already made her want to cover up the cage. While she loved her reptilian friends, this was no place for one.

“Because of…scales?” It took her a moment to catch her brother’s gag of a name, and by the time her confusion lifted, a short laugh came out. That was a good one. “That’s pretty avant-garde, but I think it works.” Naming a lizard Piano was out there, but so were the names of all of her siblings. And herself, really. Adding another wild name to the Weekly mix only made sense at this point. “I’m done here, I think. If you want to go outside and do the cage thing now?”

@sunday ● 421 ● Warpath of Disease by Lorna Shore

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Deleted]

charlie marie weekly

"if only he'd been a little quicker." he said as he looked down at the lizard. he didn't want to keep outlaw confined while they were at the castle but if he was going to keep hunting lizards and bringing them back to the dorm then he'd have to consider it. that or he'd need to start feeding him more. it didn't matter when they were at the penthouse, outlaw could roam to his hearts content and he doubted he'd find anything to hunt there so there was no danger to wildlife. hogwarts was a different story though. "outlaw could have brought him in from outside too. he's been working out how to get out of the dorms recently but this is the first time he's ever brought anything back .. that's alive .. and that i know of .." he trailed off as he looked down at his ferret that was still snuffling around under the tables for whatever scraps had been spilled.

"yeah you can hold him. i've already held him once and that was more than enough. you know me, fur over scales." he said with a grin as he nodded. he'd charm the cage smaller. charms was one of his best subjects and he did like trying and experimenting with the limits or what he liked to think of lack of limits of that branch of magic. he watched her expectantly as he waited for her to get the joke he'd made. it took a little longer than he'd thought it would but eventually the penny dropped and his sister laughed. it seemed official, the little scaly creature would be called piano. which seemed to fit into the unusual names that filled their household.

he nodded as she asked if he wanted to go do the cage shrinking now. "yeah sure." he said as he ducked under the table to grab outlaw out from under the table and he pulled the squirming ferret up off the ground and he set him on his shoulder before grabbing something from a nearby plate and feeding it to him to bribe him into staying on his shoulder, at least until they got outside. he stood up from the table, stepping back over the bench and he reached to pick up the cage. "so who are you writing too?"

[charlie marie weekly]

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She wanted to tell Sunday that he needed to keep a closer watch on his ferret, but she knew that there really wasn’t anything she could actually do about it. If anything, it would to keep it safe from the cats in the Slytherin dorms, which if it was anything like Hufflepuff, the felines liked to roam free almost constantly. Their curiosity was immense, especially with so many students going in and out. While she personally wished she could have her python with her at school, she understood why that wasn’t a good reason at all. Once a student’s rat went missing, she would be the first one to be questioned about it. If Alfonso liked eating live prey, she would probably suspect him as well, but he was used to his diet of frozen rats. He enjoyed not having to fight for his food.

The more immediate issue at hand was the cage though, and she wasn’t sure how much longer it would be before the tiny lizard figured out how to escape. Currently it seemed to be apprehensive of the change of hands, from Sunday to her, and the fact that Outlaw was still snuffling around nearby. She would play dead too if a giant furry creature grabbed her and dragged her off to some unknown place, only to be put inside a cage. “I’ve got it,” Charlie stated as she watched Sunday reach for the cage. She was positive that she would have a better hold on the situation if the lizard tried to bolt. Especially because she didn’t have an inquisitive ferret sitting on her shoulder, watching the cage intensely.

As for the letter, she shrugged. “It’s no one,” she glossed over it, pushing her failed letter into the pile of the other ones that hadn’t gone over the way she thought they would. “I’ll only look stupid if I send it,” she added, before crumpling up the whole pile and casting a cleaning charm on it, the letter pile disappearing in an instant. Nobody needed to see those poor attempts at romance. She felt like she was better suited to do everything in person anyways.

“So, out to one of the courtyards then? We probably won’t have too many people watching what we’re doing out there.” If she was going to be keeping the lizard in the dorm with her, it was better if the wandering eyes of the professors weren’t focused on her like they could be in the Great Hall. She was positive that she would have to officially register it with the school if she wanted to keep it long term. For now, all she really wanted to do was to watch over it for a while, at most until the spring time when it started to get warmer out again. The school wouldn’t force her to let it free in the middle of the winter, would they?

@sunday ● 486 ● Song by Artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Deleted]

charlie marie weekly

he didn't argue when she said she had the cage. he'd learned long ago that arguing with his sisters usually either got him nowhere. there was something about the weekly name that screamed stubborn but he didn't think it was a bad thing when it came to his sisters. he didn't worry about them quite as much, because he knew what they were like. "alright." he said as he reached his hand up to rest it against outlaw's back as he took a step back from the table to let charlie grab the cage and stand up. it was then he looked back at the stack of papers on the table and he enquired about who they were for. there was something in charlie's voice that made him want to dig deeper, to delve into who she was really writing too. "that's a whole lot of letters and words for no one." he watched as she cast the spell to clean up the piles and saw them vanish almost instantly. "how do you know that if you don't send them?" he knew that if she didn't really want to talk about it she wouldn't, but he felt it was his brotherly duty to at least try to pry slightly before letting it go.

outside seemed like a good place to charm the cage into something a little bit more habitable for the lizard. less people, less teachers usually and anytime he could get out into the fresh air was a bonus for him. plus it would give outlaw the chance to explore something other than the dorm, though sunday would keep a close eye on him. he didn't feel like needing to rescue anymore small creatures, there was only so many places to keep them. "sure, down by the willow? i doubt there's anyone down there now." he said as he walked towards the doors that led to the outside areas of the castle. the further they got from the confines of the castle, the thinner the groupings of students got and eventually it was just the two of them. "okay." he glanced around and saw no one else around and he lowered outlaw down to the ground, watching the ferret start to play around in the grass and flowers that were growing just off to the side. "ready?" he said as he pulled out his wand and kneeled down onto the grass.

[charlie marie weekly]

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“Because I know how to use my mouth to talk,” Charlie explained, getting slightly agitated that he was pushing her letters to be of some use. Clearly she wasn’t getting anywhere if she had a stack that was thicker than her History of Hogwarts textbook. Ultimately she knew that she would probably flub her words when it came to a head face to face, but that was a risk she was willing to take. Trusting a heart-felt letter to make it to only the receiver was trusting the school owls with a lot. And she didn’t need someone else snagging one of her horrid copies before she got a chance to say what she needed to say first. “They weren’t very good anyways. If I change my mind, I have more paper,” she shrugged. And maybe she still would do that. Sometimes it was better just to get her thoughts on paper, and the exercise of writing all the failed letters had definitely helped her realize she wanted to do things in person.

Getting away from the throng of other students was pretty easy as they got closer to the willow. No one really dared get near it, even if it was relatively safe until you were directly under it. Charlie slipped the lizard, which was apparently now named Piano, out of the cage and held onto it gently as it tried squirming out of her grip. It would have been easier to let it run free, but the proximity of Sunday’s ferret and the impending winter made her worried that it wouldn’t make it through the next few months. She could take better care of it in her dorm room, and then let it go in the spring. “Ready when you are,” she stated as she watched him pull his wand out and get near the cage. “Wait. D’you think you could just transfigure it to glass? Then we wouldn’t have to worry about Piano escaping at all?” That was infinitely easier to deal with, and she could do a lot more with a glass case than a cage with bars on it. Though getting a heat lamp was still going to be tough…

@sunday ● 365 ● Slaying The Dreamer by Nightwish

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Deleted]

charlie marie weekly

he's pushed the point but he was really starting to get the feeling that she didn't want to talk about it. maybe he shouldn't let his curiosity get the better of him this time and just let it go. the last thing he wanted to do was make charlie more irritated with him. he'd noticed the subtle annoyance at the situation his ferret had put her into and he didn't really want to push the issue. though one thing he knew about his sister was now she'd seen the lizard, she'd not change her mind about looking after it until they were sure it could fend for itself, she could just be annoyed at him. "pretty sure i have some spare paper somewhere too, if you need it." he said with a grin as he dropped the subject.

he'd been right about the lack of students anywhere near the willow. the lack of prying eyes would make what they were doing easier, not that it was against the rules but it would just be easier for him to do the spell without people watching. he wasn't unconfident in his charms ability but he was nowhere near what he'd call good, even if the spell was easy mistakes could always be made. and if he had to pick a sibling to mess up in front of, he was glad it would be charlie. any of his brothers wouldn't let him forget about it in a hurry. "glass?" he said as he looked back at the cage and thought about it. it wasn't that it would be difficult to do but he did wonder about how glass would work for a lizard. he did wonder about airflow but he figured if anyone knew how to take care of scaly creatures, it was his sister. "yeah sure." he said as he raised his wand, spoke the incantation needed to complete the spell before he turned to his sister. "how's that?" he said as he reached to inspect the cage.

[charlie marie weekly]

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Piano seemingly decided to give up on his escape attempts, which was for the best. Charlie wanted to make sure the lizard was all healthy and set in his new life, because releasing him back into the wild this of year or into the common room would be a death sentence for the little guy. She couldn’t do that to him if she had a chance to keep him safe for a few months and then let him go once spring came. Obviously the first step was getting the cage set up, and Sunday seemingly agreed that changing the cage bars to glass could be done. Watching him cast the transfiguration spell with Piano peering precariously over the edge of her hand, the glass formed from the former bars and filled out the cage fairly well. “That looks good to me,” she responded, content with the job he had done. Leaning in closer, it looked like all the previous gaps and problems it had were gone, now filled in with four panels of glass.

“All I have to do now is get some stuff so it can function as a vivarium,” she mused as she gently let Piano go inside the glass box. He seemed confused at first, running towards the glass as if he was free to go, but stopping just short when he saw his reflection. “Let’s look for some rocks and get a good base going on the bottom, that way he’s not standing on metal all day,” Charlie added. Dirt would work fine for now, but she would put an order in via owl from one of the pet stores in Diagon Alley for actual stuff that could be used in the cage. That and food. Catching crickets in the castle was going to be impossible, and it wasn’t like she was lacking her own funds to use as she pleased. Just thinking about the project got her excited all over again. It would be a good hold over until she could see her snake again.

@sunday ● 340 ● climbing by Jinsang

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Deleted]

charlie marie weekly

well at least the cage was up to scratch. he had to admit that it didn't look half bad and it would do the job well enough, or so his sister thought and since she was the expert that was enough for him. he watched as she put piano back into the cage and he couldn't help but laugh a little as he tried to scurry for his freedom and came face to face with the glass. he did feel sorry for the little guy but it was safer to keep him in there than to let him go. outlaw wasn't the only lizard hunting animal in the castle, next time it could have been a cat that found the little guy. movement caught his attention in the corner of his eye and he reacted quickly, reaching to grab the ferret quickly before he could pounce at the glass. "she'll turn you into lizard food if you do that again .." he threatened the ferret that squirmed in his grasp. he waved his wand quickly, turning the glass from clear to black with a quick charm. "hopefully that calms piano down until we make it a home .. and stops." he lifted outlaw up so he could look into his face. "you from trying to eat him." he lowered the ferret back down onto the grass and tossed a stone into some flowers to keep his attention occupied long enough for him to forget about the lizard again.

he stood up from his position on the ground and looked around for things that could possibly go in the cage. he had to say this was a first, he'd never had to think about what a lizard would like before. he scratched his hand over the back of his head as he took a few steps away, scanning the ground for rocks and things. it didn't take him long to spot some small rocks and some moss growing between them. "you think lizards like moss?" he asked as he looked back at his sister, reffering back to her knowledge on what else it would need, besides rocks and dirt to stand on. "oh, he needs a light or something doesn't he. so he doesn't get cold?"