Work Text:
Charlie is eleven when he first realises he isn’t like his friends. They all like girls and talk about who is pretty, but Charlie doesn’t care.
Charlie is twelve when Bill gets a girlfriend. He sees them kissing in the common room, and he wonders why they would want to kiss each other.
Charlie is thirteen when his friends are all talking about female witches they fancy. They have magazines and they talk about these women like they are objects and make crude sexual jokes. He smiles awkwardly and tries to fit in, but he knows he really doesn’t.
Charlie is fourteen when he has to sit through sex education at school. They tell them about sex and relationships and dating, but nothing about people who don’t want any of those. There must be something wrong with him.
Charlie is fifteen when he realises he is broken. He doesn’t fancy anyone, he doesn’t want a girlfriend, he never wants to get married, even though everyone else does. And if he doesn’t when the rest of the world does, that means he must be broken.
Charlie is sixteen when he has his first kiss. He kisses a girl from Hufflepuff under the mistletoe at Christmas, but he doesn’t enjoy it. He knows she wants to be his girlfriend, but Charlie can’t date someone he doesn’t fancy. When he tells her this, she cries.
Charlie is seventeen when he first learns about asexuality. The relief that he isn’t broken makes him cry. He tells Mum, and she cries too, glad he is finally happy.
Charlie is eighteen when he sews an ace flag onto his robes and goes to work with dragons. People ask him what the flag means, and they don’t think it’s weird.
And Charlie doesn’t think he’s weird either.