Chapter Text
It was just after 7:00P.M. and Charlie was only on the Rez because the individuals involved in the disorderly conduct call weren’t Quileute. When he arrived at the scene, Tribal Officer Michael Tasi was standing near his SUV and watching the offenders with a level, unimpressed stare.
Charlie could imagine why the young man was thin-lipped and uninterested in approaching the group. "A drum circle?" Charlie incredulously asked as he came to stand beside the younger man.
“We would have been more appreciative of the gesture if they’d been using actual drums,” Officer Tasi dryly replied. Michael was one of the youngest members of the reservation police and he was also Charlie's favorite person to team up with when he was called to deal with business on the Rez. Charlie appreciated the man's calm composure in tense situations.
Charlie sighed and looked over the offenders.
They were kids, hardly older than Bella and obviously high out of their minds. The metal trash cans littering their impromptu campsite - which was not located on or anywhere near the reservation's designated camping grounds - had clearly taken a beating. So trespassing, camping without a permit, and the destruction of private property would be tacked onto the drug charges.
Charlie had been saying it for years, but calls like these were what reinforced his insistence that spring break and summer vacation should not exist.
While he was speaking with Officer Tasi, the kids' behavior had escalated and they had started adding nonsensical and highly offensive chanting to their banging. As Officer Tasi became visibly more offended, Charlie set to work breaking up the party before anyone ended up with long-standing reputations as druggies and racists, as opposed to only druggies. Also, Charlie didn't want to arrest a tribal officer for aggravated battery that evening.
It was half an hour before the kids were calmer and starting to sober up. A few individuals were still giggly and air headed, but others were beginning to realize the implications of their actions and behavior that evening.
With the situation in hand, Charlie took a moment to sit back, breathe, and take stock of himself. But as he did so, he realized that in all of the ruckus he hadn’t noticed his personal phone going off.
Frowning, Charlie pulled the cell from his pocket.
“Trouble, Chief Swan?” Officer Tasi asked. They had worked together frequently enough for the younger man to know that Charlie never spent time on his phone when he was on the job, not even when work was particularly boring.
“I’ve missed some calls from Harry - he's tried to call five times in the last ten minutes,” Charlie saw.
Officer Tasi quickly became alert. “Is something going over at the Clearwater's place?”
“What? No, no. Not Harry Clearwater. My nephew, Harry. I spoke wiith him a few hours ago and it’s… it’s 3:30 in the morning in his part of the world. I’m sorry, Michael, but I need to-”
Tasi was already motioning for him to go ahead.
With a grateful nod, Charlie strode away from Tasi and the group of kids they had detained, dialing Harry’s number as soon as the others were out of earshot.
Charlie had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that something was very wrong. He spoke with his nephew often, and even though Harry glossed over the going-ons of the British magical community whenever they chatted… Charlie had never been in any doubt that his nephew was always in danger.
Sure enough, when the call connected it was a woman who answered the phone.
“Is this Charlie?” she asked by way of greeting, her voice trembling. “You’re Harry’s uncle, right?”
“That’s right,” Charlie said, suppressing his growing panic by taking deep, slow breaths. In an instant, Charlie was arming himself with every lesson on calm and in charge he’d learned during his career in law enforcement. “Who is this, and where is Harry?”
“I - I’m Hermione. Harry’s my friend,” the woman replied, her voice hitching as she attempted to repress her own emotions and stay calm.
Hermione. It was a name Charlie knew well. Harry talked about his friends constantly, and Hermione was one of the people closest to him. Charlie had been sitting at the edge of his seat for years waiting to hear Harry announce that he had finally, finally, finally manned up and kissed the girl and that they were officially dating. Instead, Harry announced that he had manned up and kissed a boy named Cedric Diggory.
With a deep breath and a firm reminder to himself to focus, Charlie asked again, “And Harry?”
“He’s hurt. Death Eaters attacked the Leaky, and… he’s hurt. They've managed to get into the alley and the battle's moved that way, but who knows how long it will be before someone comes back - and - we tried calling for help but they aren't only here - there are Death Eaters everywhere, and Harry’s hurt, he needs help, but we've run out of-”
“Do you have access to a chimney?” Charlie firmly interrupted.
“Y-you’re connected to the floo?” the young woman breathed.
“That’s right. I've got an ocean-cross connection. Can you get Harry to a chimney?”
“Yes! What’s the address?”
“Washington, Left Fork. How soon can you get here?”
“Half an hour at the least, if we're lucky. We’ll have to smuggle him out of the Leaky and get him stabilized-”
“Will you bring the medicine - I mean, will you bring the potions he’ll need? I don’t know how to locate the magical areas of Seattle-”
“We've got someone who can provide treatment, but his place isn't safe enough for us to take Harry and he certainly can't come here-”
He’ll be okay, Charlie fervently insisted to himself as he said, “Good, Hermione. Get him here.”
“We will,” she shakily replied.
Ending the call, Charlie took a deep, fortifying breath, then another, and then he started back towards Officer Tasi where the man was standing near their parked cruisers.
“Chief Swan?” the man asked as Charlie approached.
“I’m sorry, Michael, but I need to go. I’ll radio Bucharat and have her pick up this lot for processing, but I need to-”
“Go,” the man commanded with a nod. “I’m fine, and these idiots will be, too. Go.”
Charlie wasn’t good with words at the best of times, and now? Instead of saying thank you like he probably should have, Charlie held Tasi’s eyes and gave him a firm, grateful nod before getting into his cruiser and starting towards Forks.
He was halfway home when he remembered Bella. Shit.
Fumbling for his cell, he dialed his daughter's cell. When he was asked to leave a voicemail, Charlie next tried Billy's house.
“Hey, Brother,” Billy cheerfully greeted when he answered his phone. “Do you need the council’s help with that noise complaint after all?”
“Is Bella at your place?” Charlie responded.
“Bella? Charlie… She and Jake went to Port Angeles for a movie. Didn't she tell you she was going?”
Port Angeles. With Jake, Jessica, Angela, and all of the other people she was attempting to reconnect with now that she'd gotten her head out of that Cullen boy's ass.
“Right. Yes. Sorry, I forgot. I’ll try her cell.”
“Wait, what’s going-”
Hanging up on his friend, Charlie tried calling his daughter again. His only solace was that when his calls connected, he was listening to a ringtone instead of going strait to voicemail, so her phone was on and hopefully she would get the message and step out of the theater to take his call.
He had to call five times before Bella answered, but eventually she did just that.
“Dad?” she quietly asked, her uncertainly audible - Bella was as accustomed to Charlie blowing up her phone as Charlie was accustomed to Harry blowing up his, so he wasn't surprised when she sounded uneasy before he'd had a chance to tell her anything was wrong.
“Bella, where are you?”
“I just got home. Mike was sick and Jacob was acting really weird, so we decided to head home early. Jake might have caught-”
“You’re at the house?” Charlie confirmed even as he urged his cruiser to go faster and contemplated turning on his lights and sirens so that he could get away with going 50 through a residential neighborhood.
“I just got back,” Bella confirmed. “Charlie, what’s wrong?”
“I’ll explain everything when I get there,” Charlie promised. “Just… Bella? I need for you to listen to me and do as I say. Can you do that?”
“I might?" she uncertainly replied. "What do you want me to do?"
“I need for you to clean out the fireplace. Remove the grate, take down that holly Sue put up last Christmas, get rid of those candles you like to set in there… And then you need to build a fire. Get some firewood from behind the shed, and there’s lighter fluid under the grill. After you have a fire going, move as much of the furniture as you can to the edges of the room. Light a fire in the fireplace, then get everything as far from the fireplace as possible.”
“Dad?” Bella quietly responded. Then, she told him, “You’re scaring me.”
“Bella, light a fire and clear out the living room," he slowly repeated. "Can you do that?"
“I - yes.”
“Then do it. I’ll be home in ten minutes and I’ll explain everything, I promise.”
“I thought you didn’t know who your father was,” Bella murmured as she watched her father frantically rearrange the living room, clearing space in the middle of the room.
She’d managed to get a fire going in the hearth and she'd gotten the coffee table and Charlie's recliner pushed against the far wall. However, when Charlie arrived he took one glance at the cheery little fire burning away in the hearth and he turned around, went outside, and went around to the back of the house. Behind the shed, he grabbed as much firewood as he could carry.
Bella had always thought the living room's hearth and chimney were disproportionate in size to the rest of the house. The grate was tall enough for a grown man to stand in, and the mantel took up nearly all of the living room's northern wall. And Bella's fire in that huge hearth? It was tiny. She'd only put a match to two logs, but when Charley returned from his trek behind the house, he threw everything he was carrying into the hearth and then he made a second trip to the shed. By the time he returned to the house with another armful of wood, Bella had started going around the house and opening all the windows, because the fire was massive and it was making the house sweltering hot.
Now she was sitting at the bottom of the stairs, watching with wide eyes as Charlie finished relocating the couch and began to spread out blankets and sheets across the floor in front of the fireplace.
“My mother wasn't able to track my dad down until I was almost seven,” Charlie explained. “It was difficult because my father was British, but also because... Bella, this is going to sound crazy, and you’re going to think I’m insane, but please just... listen to me and try to trust me… Magic exists. It’s real.”
“What?!” Bella squeaked, her eyes going impossibly wide and the blood draining from her face.
“Magic is real,” Charlie firmly and confidently repeated. “Part of the reason why my mother had such a difficult time tracking down my father was because he was British and he lived in England, and the rest of the reason she had such a difficult time of it was because he was a wizard living in a magical wizarding community. If he didn't do business with non-magical people from time-to-time, she never would have located him. When she went to tell him about me, she found that my father had recently gotten married - to a witch - and they were expecting a child of their own. My little brother, James. Your cousin is his son, Harry. And Harry... This entire situation is complicated, but right now Harry's hurt. He can’t be taken to a hospital so his friends are bringing him here.”
“W-why didn’t you ever tell me about any of this?” Bella gaped.
Honestly, she wasn't sure she believed him - Charlie, her father Charlie, who was one of the most normal, most boring people in the world (especially in comparison with Bella's free-spirited mother) - Charlie didn't have magic in his life! If he did, he wouldn't resign himself to spending his days dealing with speeding motorists and the occasional drunk and disorderly call. He wouldn't plop down in his recliner at the end of the day and immerse himself in television and sports. Fishing wouldn't be his most exciting pastime. He wouldn't live in this hum-drum house or this hum-drum town or-
When Charlie replied to Bella's question, his eyes were dark and solemn as he firmly informed her, "The less you knew about all of it, the better. Wizarding England is a dangerous place and it has been for a very, very long time. You've never met your cousin and I never told you anything about him for your safety." Shaking his head, Charlie returned to his task while bitterly muttering, "Harry should have come to live with me after my brother was killed. But circumstances… didn’t allow it at the time.”
“So he’s… he's coming to stay with us now ?” Bella tentatively asked. She was trying to wrap her head around the fact that she had family - a lot of family, apparently - who Bella had never even heard of before. She'd never had aunts or uncles, cousins or grandparents or- This was almost as hard to wrap her head around as the fact that Charlie was involved with magic - a kind of magic she had never encountered before, even!
“He’s been hurt,” Charlie curtly stated in response to her question. “His friends are bringing him through the floo - wizards are able to travel from one fireplace to another if the hearths have been spelled properly - and Harry's going to need medical attention when he gets here.”
With a shaky breath, Bella said, “O-okay. What do you need me to do?”
Charlie released a long, heavy sigh. He couldn’t believe that it was that easy.
Honey, we’re related to people who can do magic, and your injured wizard-cousin is dropping by the house via magic chimney travel.
Okay, Dad! How can I help?
Vaguely, in a quiet place at the back of his mind which wasn't consumed with worry for his nephew, Charlie noted that Bella’s reaction to his announcement and the ensuing explanation was the most unbelievable thing which had happened so far that evening.
“Honestly, Bella, I think it would be best if you stayed out of the way," Charlie informed his daughter. "I don’t know what kind of injuries Harry has, and I’m not sure I want you to have to see… If Harry stays, he’ll be in my room while he's recuperating. Go upstairs and take the sheets off the mattress. Make sure there's a toothbrush and towel for him in the bathroom and-”
Bella nodded and stood to hurry up the stairs. However, she’d barely gone two steps before the fire in the grate roared. The fire's already massive flames abruptly doubled in size and turned green.
Turning, Charlie watched in horror as his nephew, who Charlie hadn’t seen in person since he was a newborn baby, tumbled out of the fire along with a red headed man and a bushy haired woman, all of them covered in blood.
“Bella, out!” Charlie snapped even as he rushed forward to help support Harry while the young man was lowered him to lie atop the blankets piled on the living room floor.
“Put pressure on the wound,” the woman, Hermione, instructed. “Professor Snape will be here in a few minutes - if anyone has a counterspell for a curse like this, it will be him . We only have to-”
What followed was one of the longest nights of Charlie Swan’s life.