Charlie Summeby (diligent_) wrote, @ 2020-01-20 16:55:00 |
|
|||
|
One thing that does separate him though from a lot of his more extroverted house mates, is that he has always been a little more on the quieter side. Preferring to listen to others, rather than necessarily be the one doing the talking, he found he learnt far more about his friends this way. It would allow him to figure out who they were as people, and what their very best qualities were as a person. It would also mean he could figure out how he could be the very best friend they wanted and needed him to be.
Unfortunately, for Charlie though, while he might try and see the best in everyone, they do not necessarily have his best interests in mind. This has meant that in the past he has been walked all over by those that have taken advantage of his good nature. In particular, was one previous girlfriend who regularly had him running around for her, cheated on him and caused him problems, knowing his conflict adverse nature would make him reluctant to say anything to her. Abusing his trusting nature, she blamed everyone around him in an attempt to drive a wedge between him and those that were warning him against her. It took many talks from a close personal friend, before he finally put himself first and kicked Rachel to the kerb at long last.
While he was never exactly a popular kid at school, Charlie was always well liked among his peers, with friends across all the houses thanks to his easy-going nature. Unassuming and largely unjudgmental, he regularly accepted everyone regardless of house or their background, treating everyone with the same level of tolerance and patience. It was this same patience that earnt him a spot on the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team as a chaser, because while he wasn’t necessarily the most gifted at the sport, he would practice manoeuvres and plays time and time again, until he felt he had gotten it just so. All in all for Charlie, school was a place filled with warm memories of midnight feasts in the common room, picnics by the lake and weekends spent drinking Butterbeer in Hogsmeade.
The good times could not go on forever and at some point, Charlie had to grow up. Unlike a lot of his peers that all seemed to know exactly what they wanted to do after school, he was very much at a loss. He was a fair chaser, but he knew he probably wasn’t quite Professional level talent. He did consider a career like Healing, but blood had always made him a little icky feeling. So, unsure of what else to do, he instead at the insistence of his parents, took a ground level job working for the Ministry in the Department of Magical Games and Sports. While it was only a basic administration job initially, he found that it was something that he enjoyed greatly. He enjoyed the constant hum of the Ministry, the fact that there was always something to do and always others around with him. That being said though, while the department might have been someone else’s dream, to Charlie it was just a job. He was not helping anyone, and he was not contributing to society. Putting in for a transfer, Charlie applied for a job in what he thought was a slightly more meaningful department.
Unfortunately for Charlie though, his second week of work in Department of Magical Transportation was the day that everything went to hell, and the great Harry Potter was killed. Overnight, the unassuming Administrative Assistant found himself far deeper in a world of paperwork and heart ache, then he ever thought possible. He was forced to decide who had transit passes based on government rules, cancelling floo locations and other such things because he was told to, rather then what his heart was telling him to do. He was faced with having to keep families separate because someone didn’t have enough money, they were the wrong blood type or because they didn’t perfectly fit within the very specific rules outlined by the government. While he knew he had a job to do, it broke his heart.
More then that, it wasn’t just happening to people he didn’t know, these we very real people who were in pain and suffering. People he had grown up with, people he had gone to school with, who were all suffering due to the circumstances of their birth. Overnight, he found himself wanting to cry for a world that had once held so much opportunity and promise, that now seemed lost. Unsure of what he could do to help being a half blood of rather humble upbringing, he did the only thing he could do. He tried his best to survive, to help those that he could when he could. Moving into a modest one-bedroom apartment in Diagon Alley, he put in a final transfer to act as Assistant to the Head of Disease Contamination in the Department Of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. While it was sill hardly a dream job, it was at least one that he felt like he could do something to help others with. Living on the edge of the slums in Diagon Alley, he had witnessed first hand the living conditions of those who lived there. If all he could do was to make others living situation a little better, than that would be good enough for him.