Charlie eased into the door to the clinic open, glancing warily around for his sister. Not seeing her, or Susan, who would possibly be just as bad, he crept down the hall in search of a healer. Neville Longbottom was the first one he came to, sitting in his office scarfing down a sandwich. The sight of the food made his stomach rumble and both his head and his hand throb even more.

"Longbottom," he said, startling the healer. "Got time for an unscheduled visit?"

Neville looked up and blinked, his mouth still full of food. He quickly swallowed, wincing as it made his way down his throat. "Yeah, I've got time. Are you sure you don't want to see Ginny? I don't think she has a patient for another half hour."

The red head winced. "No, definitely not. She yells when family does something stupid. Not something I want to deal with right now. The hangover is bad enough on it's own, thank you very much."

Neville held in his grin. "Right. No raving sister. Is all you need a hangover potion or is there something else I can do for you?"

Charlie held out his throbbing hand, the knuckles red and embedded with some tree bark. "I had a fight with a tree. The tree won."

He winced as he stood to come look at Charlie's hand. They really needed to be in an exam room for him to look the injury over. "Right, let's go next door so I can fix you up properly."

They walked to the exam room and Neville motioned for Charlie to have a seat on the table. As he started to clean the wound, he glanced up. "So, what exactly did this tree do to you to start the fight?"

"Stood there all docile when I felt the need to hit something," he joked. "It seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, not so much." He winced as Longbottom did something with his wand. "Ow! Bloody hell." At least he knew the healer wasn't hurting him on purpose. Gin would have.

"Trees generally tend to do that--be still and calm. Unless it's storming outside." Neville started to mend the muscles around the bloodied knuckles. Once the hand was cleaned, he went to fetch the hangover potion. "Now, I can either give you a pain potion for the hand or the hangover potion. Both of them together will make the pain worse and the hangover worse. I'll let you pick."

"Hangover," Charlie replied. "Maybe the pain in my hand will remind me not to do stupid things." He swallowed the brew that was handed to him, grimacing at the familiar taste. "Though, the taste of the hangover potion hasn't managed to keep me from getting drunk yet."

He hopped off the examination table and gingerly shook Longbottom's hand. "Thanks, mate. Um... I don't suppose you could refrain from mentioning this to Ginny. Not lie to her, just not bring it up if she doesn't ask."

Neville nodded with a grin. "Having been on the receiving end of that female Weasley's anger, I will not bring it up at all if I can. I'll even make sure to forget to write this down in your chart just in case she looks. I'll say I used the hangover potion for a MacDougal or something. Take care of yourself, Charlie. And try not to beat up any more trees."

He gave Longbottom a wry smile. "I can't promise that, but I will try."


[Summary: Charlie goes to the Clinic to get his hand fixed, and is very glad to see Neville instead of Ginny.]