Teenage Mind (Charlie)

[Deleted]

October 2025

The October air was crisp, and fallen leaves crunched beneath Oliwia's feet nearly every time she stepped foot beyond the castle's walls. The weather was nice, too, mostly; the summer's thunderstorms had mostly gone away, and she could have spent all day outside if she didn't have classes to attend. Perhaps the best part was the weekend, when she didn't have to make up excuses to stay in the Herbology greenhouses for a little while longer and could wander around the grounds and enjoy herself, instead.

On that particular day, she had chosen to go outside as soon as breakfast was finished. She probably could have brought a schoolbook or two with her (and maybe she should have), but she had opted for something else: a jewelry-making loom kit. She had enough time for the rest of her weekend to get her "real" work done, so being outside for a little while wasn't going to hurt anything. Besides, she had made herself a pretty decent set-up: She was pretty far from the castle itself, which meant that no one was going to end up disturbing her while she made some bracelets, and she had set her coat down to act as a blanket or a barrier between herself and the grass underneath her. From where she sat, she was also able to see the Forbidden Forest, which—although off-limits to her and the rest of the students—still made for something nice to look at.

For a while, she was totally and completely alone. There were other people on the grounds, but they were at a far enough distance that nothing really carried beyond the sounds of conversations in the background. Oliwia was more focused on the task she had in her hands, which was more enjoyable than tedious. She had chosen to use Hufflepuff colors for the bracelet that she was making—black bands intertwined with yellow ones, in roughly the same pattern as the scarf that hung loosely around her neck—and thought that it was looking really nice so far.

Then, only glancing up so that she could tuck a strand of hair behind her ear so that it wouldn't keep falling forward and into her line of vision, Oliwia caught sight of another student, a girl whom she recognized as being an older Hufflepuff, kneeling much closer to the edge of the forest than she. Oliwia spoke up only because it didn't look as though the older girl was aware that she was so close to entering forbidden—and potentially dangerous—territory and also because she was the only one around to caution her. "You're a bit close to the Forbidden Forest, you know…" she called, simply wanting to remind her. There, Oliwia thought; now no one could say that she hadn't said anything about it.

charlie marie weekly

[charlie marie weekly]

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The annoyed groan that Charlie had let out when she arrived at the location for her Care of Magical Creatures class and realized it was the weekend was certainly loud enough to hear all across the school grounds. She should have realized it when she was at breakfast and she was the only one in the entire Great Hall wearing her uniform. In her defense, rubbing the sleepiness out of her eyes didn’t usually happen until after she had a cup of coffee in the morning, and sometimes even that was halfway through her first class of the day. Thankfully the weather wasn’t anywhere close to horrid and the sixth years hadn’t been required to bring their books to class yet, so really the only inconvenience of her day so far was waking up early and putting on the wrong clothes. It had happened before and would probably happen again, knowing how she normally was during the school year.

Quickly deciding to make the most of her slip-up, Charlie turned on her heels to face the Forbidden Forest a little ways off in the distance. While she was technically not allowed into the woods, that hadn’t stopped her at all last year from skirting around the outside edge of the trees. It was unbelievably tranquil even a few feet inside, and it totally beat going for a stroll in one of the open fields or around the Quidditch Pitch. Plus there were critters that liked to hang out on some of the larger rocks along the border of the forest. Critters that slithered and skittered: snakes and lizards. She was currently in possession of one of the local lizards, having been caught by her brother’s pet ferret, but if she could add a snake to her new collection, she would. Charlie wasn’t positive that her roommates would be exactly thrilled to have a snake in the room, as they were already giving the lizard wary looks (especially the snooty French girl), but it was easier to be forgiven than to ask for permission. If she had it her way, she would have brought her reticulated python to school with her. Then they really couldn’t have said no!

Finding her way to the edge of the trees in a matter of minutes, Charlie immediately began her slow creep, eyes scanning for the signs of reptilian movement. While her python didn’t move much, she still had a knack for spotting smaller, wild snakes, and lizards were always in abundance around the grounds if you looked hard enough. It didn’t take long until she heard a voice calling out to her, causing Charlie to break her concentration on her search to see who it was. A girl sitting a bit away was seemingly the source, and Charlie shrugged at her warning. “But I’m not in it, right?” she countered back happily, as she knelt down again to start lifting up rocks near her feet. Sometimes these were perfect homes for the smaller lizards, and she was intent on finding something today.

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[Deleted]

October 2025

"But I’m not in it, right?"

From her voice, it was clear to Oliwia that the girl was one of the Americans, which also might have explained why she was venturing so close to the forest. She was right, though, supposed Oliwia: She wasn't technically in the forest; she was just on the outskirts of it, but wearing her school uniform on the weekend probably wasn't the fastest way to avoid being noticed by other people, either. (Why was she wearing her school robes on a Saturday? Oliwia wasn't sure about that. The girl didn't appear to be bothered by it, so it really wasn't any of her business what she was wearing. There was nothing that said that they couldn't wear their uniforms on a Saturday, either; it was just that it was slightly unusual.)

"No," Oliwia conceded; the older girl wasn't in the forest, and she decided that she would watch her for a moment longer just to see what it was she was up to. She was just bending down and picking up rocks. What she was doing that for, Oliwia couldn't say. Was she looking for insects or something, maybe? "Have you lost something?" Oliwia checked, wondering if the girl needed assistance. She hadn't asked, but she figured that she would offer.

charlie marie weekly

[charlie marie weekly]

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One of the problems with hunting for reptiles in the dirt that Charlie was now realizing, was that she had quickly made a mess of her uniform that she had so diligently hopped into earlier in the morning. The knees on her pants were already stained with a splotchy, chocolate-like mud that had an accompanying array of fir needles and blades of dead, dried grass. As for her bright, vibrantly yellow Hufflepuff tie? Charlie had decided to use that as her article of clothing to wipe her hands off on. While the house elves were apparently the ones that did at the laundry at school (and did an excellent job at that!), the tie was certainly going to be easier than her sweater. Plus, she sort of didn’t want to look like a complete idiot with muddy handprints all over her body. Pants were one thing and a tie was easy to hide, but looking like she had just rolled around all over the school grounds wasn’t exactly the best way to make a good impression. And if her mom saw her right now, she probably would have screamed in horror. While Charlie liked to take her mother’s advice more wholeheartedly than some of her siblings, this definitely wouldn’t have boded well for her back home. Considering this look would leave her less than impressionable, Charlie knew not to go all out in her excavating along the forest edge.

Thinking of home, there hadn’t been too many chances to go digging around in the wild for snakes and lizards in California. She saw plenty of tiny ones out sunbathing almost every day, but they weren’t easy to catch and were sort of lackluster. Even if the search was proving to be more difficult here, mostly to do with Scotland’s lack of sunlight and bearable temperatures, it was more exhilarating than chasing down a small lizard in the parking lot to a McDonald’s. Charlie may have done that once or twice, mostly to her mother’s chagrin because of the silliness of it all and that fact that they were all going to McDonald’s. In all seriousness, her reason for being outside now was mostly Sunday’s fault for piquing her interest in the local wildlife again. She had virtually given up the previous year because all of her searches proved tedious and she had been too concerned about not making it to classes on time or getting her schoolwork finished. But this year, there was no stopping the hunt. There was already the one lizard in her collection, and she was positive she could find another today.

Gently setting a decent sized rock back in its original place, Charlie heard a sound coming from off to her side again, causing her to look up. She had forgotten about the girl sitting nearby, even though it had only been a minute or two. All the bending over and getting down on the ground had caused the blood to rush to her head, completely consuming her with the drive to find a lizard or snake. “Nope!” she answered, as she straightened up and craned her neck in order to spot more large rocks. “Unless you’ve seen a snake around. I’m hoping to catch one.”

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[Deleted]

October 2025

As she watched her, Oliwia noticed that the other girl's uniform had become caked pretty thoroughly in mud and muck. It was probably a good thing that it was a Saturday, or she probably would have gotten told off by one of their teachers for that. Sometimes, though, it just couldn't be helped; Oliwia knew that, too. It wasn't unusual for her to end up with dirt under her fingernails from Herbology lessons, though that wasn't anywhere near as bad as how the older girl currently looked. It could have been worse, and Oliwia guessed that a few cleaning charms could probably get her appearance back to something closer to "normal".

It turned out that the older girl had gone to so much trouble because she was looking to catch a snake and wanted to know if she had seen one. Oliwia had been busy making bracelets; she hadn't seen or been looking for any snakes, but she knew that that didn't mean that there weren't any there. She relayed as much to the older girl, hoping that it might be helpful. It was probably best not to ask what it was that she wanted the snake for, though. "I haven't seen any snakes, like," she answered her, shrugging. "Maybe in the grass?" There were probably some around, and there were plenty of other creatures in the Forbidden Forest. "Or in a hole?"

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From the way the other girl put it, maybe today was going to end up being a bad day to hunt down snakes. Even though Charlie had only been searching for a few minutes now, it felt like the edge of the forest wasn’t going to yield the sort of results that she wanted. The most logical response to that was for her to enter the forest, effectively breaking school rules, to continue her search for the ever elusive snakes and lizards of Hogwarts. She was sure if she was caught doing so by a professor, the easiest response to give was that she only wanted really fresh ingredients for her potions class. While she’d never actively hurt an animal, she had a feeling that would absolve her of some of the trouble she could end up in.

She also still didn’t get what the big deal about the forest was. Sure, it was super deep and dense with overgrowth, but so were most forests in the UK. She had been plenty of places all over the world with her parents where there were woods. And she was allowed to play in all of those. The only problem here though, was that the rumors she had heard stated there were dark creatures residing inside. The werewolf argument was nonsense, since they were only dangerous once a month and she knew exactly where the student werewolves went during the full moon because of her brothers. She desperately wanted to meet the centaur herd there, mostly because she wanted to discuss divination and the stars with them, but also because she had never met a centaur before. And then there was the fact that going into the woods meant more places to search for snakes. So when the girl stated she hadn’t seen any in the vicinity, it made Charlie stare longingly into the forest.

“What about in there?” she asked the girl, pointing at the trees. Even in the middle of the day, she could only see twenty or so feet before the darkness from the trees took over and blocked all else out. “You’re a full-time Hogwarts student right? Do people really get in trouble for going in? Because I feel like that’s just to keep us from being a liability where they can’t see us.” It really didn’t make sense to her at all. If there were magical creatures in there, the students definitely should have been learning about them by this point, and the school should allow people in if they want to. Even if it was supervised, it was better than outright banning the forest. Doing that only made her want to go even more.

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[Deleted]

October 2025

"What about in there?" the older girl asked her. Oliwia saw that she was pointing in the direction of the Forbidden Forest. Surely the Ilvermorny transfer students had been made aware that the forest was, indeed, forbidden. "Forbidden" wasn't just part of the name; they actually weren't supposed to be going in there, not without a member of the school's staff and not without some explicit reason.

The girl then asked if she was a "full-time Hogwarts student" and if people actually got in trouble for entering the forest. "Because I feel like that’s just to keep us from being a liability where they can’t see us," the girl added.

Well, she wasn't a part-time Hogwarts student, Oliwia thought to herself. If anyone actually did study at the school part-time, she hadn't heard about it. But that was beside the point. The point was that the other girl didn't seem so sure that there were plenty of creatures lurking within the forest that were probably dangerous enough to cause serious harm. Of course, things at Hogwarts over the past year had been relatively tame—as life at Hogwarts went.

"Yeah," Oliwia commented, wondering what the girl thought that she sounded like if not a Geordie. She hadn't been speaking in Polish. "I'm a 'full-time' Hogwarts student," she explained, "but, er…" It didn't seem wise to suggest going into the forest. Plus, how many snakes were there in a magical forest? Could the girl just… conjure a snake? Maybe that would have been easier to accomplish. It wasn't as though Oliwia had ever tried it out.

"I wouldn't go very far," she stated, trying not to interfere too much. There weren't any members of the school's staff around, so the girl wasn't going to get into trouble just for skimming the edge of the forest. Anything truly dangerous would have been farther inside.

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Maybe asking the girl if she was a full-time student here wasn’t the best way to go about it. Charlie didn’t have any other words for what she was trying to ask though, since she had certainly answered that she was a Hogwarts student now to some people when asked about her current schooling. Ilvermorny, as far as she was concerned, was where she had gone for the first four years of her education. And now she was here for the next two, maybe three. While graduating from her home school would definitely be preferable in the long run, it wasn’t like Hogwarts was all that shabby either. She enjoyed the castle and accompanying grounds way more than Ilvermorny, and there were infinitely more things to do here than there were back home. She was already starting to hope that if Ilvermorny did end up opening by next school year, that she would be given the chance to stay at Hogwarts to see it through to graduation.

Regardless, the girl answered that she was indeed a Hogwarts student, so that meant she had a wealth of knowledge on the grounds that Charlie had only started trying to understand over the last year. “Why?” she asked inquisitively. She really just wanted someone to tell her what exactly lurked in the woods, aside from the rumored werewolves and the centaur herd. “Have you ever gone in before?” Charlie added. If there were animals in there that seemed to be dangerous, she really wanted to come across them. The school would never let anything truly bad live in there, since that would be ridiculously unsafe. At least that was her own reasoning for it. “I think it’s sort of weird that the teachers are always warning us not to go in, but don’t even stop us if we want to. If they really didn’t want us to explore, they should just put up a wall, don’t you think?”

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[Deleted]

October 2025

"Why?"

Well, it was dangerous. There were all sorts of things that were supposedly living in the Forbidden Forest, everything from centaurs to possibly even werewolf cubs. Oliwia was admittedly skeptical about the latter, mostly because she wasn't exactly sure how werewolf cubs were able to be created, considering that regular werewolves were usually human most of the time.

"Have you ever gone in before?"

"No," Oliwia answered the girl, shaking her head. What reason would she have had to go in? She wasn't trying to go and get herself killed by anything. Maybe if she knew more about magical creatures, like some of the students who had grown up around them, it would have been different, but even Care of Magical Creatures class didn't exactly take them on hikes into the Forbidden Forest. She was a fourth-year; she wasn't a magizoologist.

"I think it's sort of weird that the teachers are always warning us not to go in," the other girl mused, "but don't even stop us if we want to. If they really didn't want us to explore, they should just put up a wall, don't you think?"

Oliwia paused. A wall wasn't necessary unless they needed it—either to keep the students out or to keep whatever was living in the forest inside of it. And whatever was living in the forest, as far as she knew, didn't really bother anyone unless they entered the forest itself. Lots of non-magical creatures were like that, too, she reasoned; they didn't attack unless somebody entered what they felt was their territory, but they would attack. Offhand, Oliwia didn't know how many magical creatures were like that, but she felt that it was safe to assume that a few of those kinds of creatures lived in the forest somewhere. Even most snakes would attack if provoked, wouldn't they?

"Er… What sort of snake are you looking for?" Oliwia asked, trying to think of how she could be of any real assistance without getting in trouble for running off into the forest. "Just a snake, or…?"

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Charlie supposed that the forest probably wasn’t commonly treaded ground, now that she had discussed the topic with several other students over the last year. None of that really made any sense to her, only because she could never get a straight answer about what was actually dangerous within the woods. Not even this girl could tell her the exact details, and her lack of entering only made Charlie that much more frustrated about being warned without a good reason. But if everyone seemed to say it was a bad idea, she could only take their word for it. As for what was rumored to be within the forest, she wasn’t even slightly scared of centaurs, and the stories about werewolves were laughable at best. Clearly very few Hogwarts students had grown up with werewolves for siblings, because they were only dangerous once per month. The fact that this concept was still perpetuated when there were werewolves integrated within the school was absolutely ridiculous – but that was an argument for another day.

“An Adder,” Charlie stated plainly, as if that was all she needed to say for the other girl to understand the specific breed of snake she was looking for. “They’re native to Scotland. Sort of small snakes compared to what I’m used to. They have black zig-zags on their backs?” She hoped that the description would help the girl, in the off chance that she had seen one before. The real problem was that it was completely out of season for adders to be out and about, and it wasn’t exactly the warmest day in the world. The few rocky outcroppings that they would most likely sunbathe on had already been thoroughly checked over too. Charlie held her hands out in an approximate length as she stepped closer to the girl, “Maybe about this long normally? I really don’t know if they’re going to be out right now though…”

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[Deleted]

October 2025

The girl explained to her that she was looking for an adder. "They’re native to Scotland. Sort of small snakes compared to what I’m used to. They have black zig-zags on their backs?" she offered her. The girl then came closer and held her arms out so as to approximate the size of one. "Maybe about this long normally?" she added, though she said that she didn't know if they would be out just then.

Now, Oliwia wasn't too certain of how good she would be at telling snakes apart, but adders were the venomous ones; she was pretty certain of that. This girl sounded like she knew what she was talking about, saying that she wanted an adder, though. She didn't exactly know what to make of that, upon hearing this older girl say that she was looking for a venomous snake, but she reasoned that a regular snake was probably better than a magical one. At least she had somewhat of an idea of how to handle a non-magical snake, not that she had ever done that. She had seen people with snakes on television, though, like those adventurers who specifically went into some remote jungle to look for endangered species.

"Erm…" Agreeing to help, in spite of her reservations, sounded like the better idea in that moment. Oliwia didn't know what she had inadvertently gotten herself into, but she supposed that she was stuck. And she didn't want to get on the bad side of someone who was looking for a venomous snake; that was just asking for trouble. "Would you like some help?" she checked, beginning to pack up the jewelry supplies that she had brought outside with her. There was no sense in leaving those sitting around if they would be inching into the Forbidden Forest, both because they might get lost and because it would be a clear sign that she had walked off somewhere.

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She hadn’t expected the other girl to off to help. Not everyone was so keen on getting down and dirty while hunting for snakes – if her mom saw her right now with mud-stained designer jeans under her school robes (that she didn’t need but was forced to wear for appearances sake), she would freak. Like nuclear level meltdown. It didn’t really matter that a quick cleaning spell would have them looking brand new with the swish of a wand. She had to be an image of perfection. How she was allowed Alfonso was beyond her, though it probably had something to do with throwing her own fits when she was younger. Now she just hoped her python was still there when she could finally go back to California. Her mom wasn’t the type to just get rid of animals like that, but having to feed him mice every couple of months certainly wasn’t her cup of tea. Charlie had somehow managed to convince her before leaving that doing so was simply following the circle of life, and that she would make sure to be vigilant with maintaining her vegan diet. Which went out the window the second she made it to Hogwarts.

“If you don’t mind them biting back if we find one,” Charlie grinned as she watched the girl start to put all of her things away. It seemed like she had an interested party to bring on her expedition now! “I’m Charlie, by the way,” she introduced herself. “If we’ve met already, sorry. There are so many people here…its crazy.” Even after a year at Hogwarts and she was still finding out new people in Hufflepuff. It really was an impressive amount of students to have all in one place. Plus the mixing of Ilvermorny houses into the Hogwarts ones lead to all sorts of fun combinations and meeting of people she only sort of knew before the move.

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[Deleted]

October 2025

Helping a girl she hardly knew to look for snakes wasn't something that Oliwia did every day, but the other girl seemed nice enough about it. Besides, as things at Hogwarts went, looking for regular, non-magical snakes was on the safer side, on the whole. Oliwia, having felt since she had started at Hogwarts that Herbology was one of the more "normal" subjects on offer, wasn't bothered by getting dirty in the process. It was more that she was agreeing to something that—in her mind, at least—felt as though it was almost illegal, even if it wasn't actually illegal.

The other girl brought up another concern that hadn't previously crossed Oliwia's mind, though. She had forgotten that snakes could bite, even if she wasn't going to get near something that could, say, paralyze or kill her with just a tiny drop of venom. "I'm Charlie, by the way," the girl introduced herself, apologizing to her if they had met already. Oliwia didn't think that they had met one another formally, so she didn't mind. She absolutely agreed that the number of students at Hogwarts had become almost unreal. She didn't fully understand why people who were from magical families and had other options would have chosen to come to Hogwarts, but it seemed that that had been the case for some of the transfer students.

"I'm Oliwia," Oliwia introduced herself in reply, checking again to make sure all of her jewelry supplies were back where they need to be. Because the spelling of her name didn't correspond with how it was pronounced (at least by people who didn't speak Polish), she added, "It's, er… O-L-I-W-I-A. Like 'Olivia', only there's a 'W' and not a 'V'…" Why couldn't her mother have named her Olivia—with a "V"—instead, Oliwia wondered? She had spent so much of her life explaining her exceedingly Polish name to people. It would have made her life so much easier not to have to do that, she thought.

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Aside from animals, unique names was basically her entire shtick in life. If there was ever a glorious purpose for a Weekly, it was Charlie Darwin having simultaneously the most normal and horribly accurate name out of all of her siblings. She wouldn’t have minded if her parents had tagged her with a day of the week, that way she wouldn’t have seriously stuck out amongst them even more than the siblings already did. Explaining the days of the week and how yes, it was indeed a pun because of their last time, and yes their dad did run a calendar company so it’s even funnier because of that, had gotten tiresome. Hogwarts students seemed to understand though, probably because there were a lot of wild names from all sorts of historical, astronomical, or cultural backgrounds. Listening to the girl explain the spelling of her name, and how it was Olivia with a W, made Charlie grin.

“Good way to differentiate you from any other Olivia’s out there. You know how many Charlies there are? Lots. And they never expect me to be one,” she said rather proudly. The only time that became a real issue was with old people, who immediately thought she was a Charlotte or a Charlene. While the former wouldn’t be all that bad (and she’d absolutely accept that as an extension onto her name if it cleared some things up), she could never see herself as a Charlene. That didn’t fit at all. “I’ve also got seven siblings named after the days of the week, so yeah…Olivia with a W, I understand your plight.” A laugh escaped from her as she watched the girl pack up the rest of her things. Hunting snakes came next, and she was beyond excited for it. With Olivia with a W’s extra pair of eyes, finding one would be no problem.

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October 2025

When Charlie grinned at her, Oliwia expected it to be because of how unusual her name seemed. That was usually the reaction she got—or people who mispronounced her name completely because they assumed it was pronounced exactly like "Olivia" if it had a "W" in it. Instead of finding it weird, though, Charlie simply mentioned that it was a good way to tell her apart from all of the other people named Olivia in the world. "You know how many Charlies there are? Lots," she explained. "And they never expect me to be one."

That wasn't all. Charlie added, "I’ve also got seven siblings named after the days of the week, so yeah…"

Oliwia had heard of them, though none were in her own year. Apparently, their last name was actually Weekly—as in the days of the week—although Oliwia had thought that that was just a joke at first. She felt bad for them, guessing that that probably happened more often than even she imagined. It wasn't their fault, though; their parents had been responsible for that.

"Olivia with a W, I understand your plight."

As for her own mother, her name was at least normal… in Poland, though the other country might as well have been a different planet to some people at Hogwarts. Most people didn't seem to understand that it was a cultural and linguistic difference, though, so it was helpful that those with "different" names stuck together. "I haven't, er, actually looked for snakes before," Oliwia admitted, satisfied that everything she'd brought with her was where it needed to be and that they could go looking for the reptiles.

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