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Chapter 1
"You can do this" she said to her reflection on the bathroom mirror "it's normal to feel nervous, but you can do this."
Giving her mirror self one last look of encouragement she straightened her blue scrubs and walked out the bathroom towards the Healer Training Director's office in the third floor.
Today was the first day of her residency year as a Junior Healer, the practical training year.
After the war she had returned to Hogwarts to finish her education, trying to buy some time to decide what she wanted to do, everyone was offering her jobs, everyone wanted "The Mastermind" of the Golden Trio to work for them, but honestly, Hermione Granger didn't had a clue about what she wanted to do with her life, she hadn't expected to survive the war after all.
So she went back to Hogwarts to finish seventh year and after graduating she found herself working in the Ministry of Magic, for the Department for Control and Regulation of Magical Creatures and while she liked her job very much, she even enjoyed it, after almost a year it started to feel off, like she was doing what was expected from her instead what she was meant to be doing.
She was very good at it, but she didn't feel the joy radiate from her when she talked about her work like Harry did when he shared the details of his new mission as an Auror or the way Ron's face would illuminate when he discussed his last Quidditch match.
So after doing some soul searching, she came to the conclusion that, while she loved caring for magical creatures and their rights, she actually enjoyed more taking care of humans, and so she decided to quit her job at the Ministry and went to the Healer Academy instead, she had spent a good four years studying and had graduated just last May. And now the fun part began, the practical training part, the actual healing part, she would now be practicing in living people and that was a little bit intimidating because if she messed up, there would be actual consequences.
She had spent the last year of her healer studies doing what was called an "internship", which meant that she had to be in practical training in St. Mungo's in the morning and have theoretical classes in the afternoon, and while she had performed some healing during that time, almost everything was done by the Senior and Junior Healers while the rest of them - the interns- just watched and took notes.
But now, she was a Junior Healer, which meant she would do most of the job, still supervised by a Senior Healer of course, in case she got in over her head, but most of the responsibility would be on her.
After the graduation the new healers were sorted out to go to one specialized wizarding hospital to complete their practical training year. The selection was held the day after the graduation ceremony and they had to be present at said hospital the following month to start.
She had been sorted to the Dragonology Research and Healing Center, which was, of course, located in a Dragon Reserve, in Romania of all places. In spite of being located in such a secluded and rather small area, it was one of the biggest medimagic research centers in the wizarding world, given all the impact the magic of the dragons had in all aspects of the wizarding life. Their skin, blood and other body parts were used in so many potions, antidotes, and in common use products.
She was surprised at first, she hadn't expected to move so far away but she knew the challenge it would represent, if there was a place where she would get some hands-on practical training it would be there, Dragon Tamers almost lived in the healing center, coming in every other day with work related injuries, after all, taking care of dragons wasn't an easy task, that's what Charlie Weasley always said when he got scolded by Molly for having one or more bandages covering his body every time he went to visit his family at The Burrow.
It was actually Charlie Weasley the main reason why she was feeling so nervous today. The fact that she may encounter him for the first time since their incident last Christmas made her stomach flutter with unease.
She had made sure to avoid interaction with him since then, which wasn't hard because he hadn't been back to London after Christmas and now she was here, of all the places she could've been sorted to, she was here in the very same Dragon Reserve where he lived and worked, she could only imagine what it would look like for him once he knew that she was going to spend a whole year there. It would look like she was following him or something.
She stopped in front of the Director's office, trying to steel her nerves before knocking twice and heard the man's voice inside asking her to come in.
"Good morning Sir" she said as she made her way into the office and stood in front of him offering her hand to shake "I'm Hermione Granger, the new Junior Healer resident"
"I know who you are Miss Granger" Richard Winterbottom stood from his chair, he was wearing a white healer robe with his name on it, offering her a warm smile he shook her hand giving it a strong squeeze, motioning for her to take a seat in front of him "I've heard wonderful things about you, we are very pleased to have you here."
"Thank you Sir, I'm very excited to be here as well, this is one of the biggest research centers in the world" Hermione sat, her hands clasped on her lap trying not to show her nerves "I'm really interested on how the dragon's magic impact our abilities as witches and wizards."
"That's actually one of the main reasons you were sorted here, your own research was a key factor on the selection."
Before Hermione could respond, there was a high beeping sound coming from the small chart board that was sitting on the desk in front of her, Healer Winterbottom lifted it to his face as he stood up from his chair in a hurried pace.
"Well I'm afraid the rest of this conversation would have to wait Miss Granger, we have an emergency coming in" he went to the door and opened it while the charts in his hand started to buzz and beep again "if you could follow me, we'll be starting your training sooner than expected"
Hermione stood up quickly and followed him down the hallway into one of the lifts on their way down to the Emergency Area of the Healing Center, there were a lot of healers running around everywhere, from bed to bed, some people where bleeding, some had clothes that were still on fire, it was madness.
"What happened?" She heard Healer Winterbottom ask one of the healers.
"A very angry Horntail made its way out the sanctuary wards and into the village" the healer replied while she kept rubbing some ointment over the arm of a witch that was seating in one of the beds "The Dragon Tamers managed to subdue it before it could cause more damages, but there were still a few cabins that catched the fire"
"Healer Granger, I need you to go and help the other Healers clean and treat the burn patients before the Tamers arrive with what I can only imagine would be some very nasty burns and cuts"
"Yes Sir" she made her way towards the beds with patients on it, lending a hand to the Senior Healers treating them, applying burn-healing paste and securing bandages.
"A little help here please!" Two tall wizards appeared through the doors, they were carrying a blonde guy whose clothes were still smoking and had a huge gash on his leg, covered with an improvised bandage made out of what it appeared to be the sleeve of a shirt that was soaking in blood, they made their way to an empty bed and lied him down while several healers approached them.
"Healer Granger come here please!" She made her way to the bed where the blonde guy was screaming in pain as one of the nurses was trying to remove the improvised bandage from his bleeding leg "I need you to diagnose his condition so we can medicate him properly"
Hermione aimed her wand all over his body casting diagnosis spells as the information started appearing in her charts, with the injuries he had and the potions and spells they need to give him to make him better
"Hey you're new" said the blonde guy, appearing calmer after he drank the pain potion she gave him "I haven't seen you before"
"She's our new resident Junior Healer" added Healer Winterbottom while he kept inspecting the cut in his leg "it's her first day"
"Well aren't I lucky to be healed by such a pretty witch like you" the blonde smiled cheekily at her and gave her a wink, she had to suppress a laugh that even in his state he was in such a flirty mood
"Healer Winterbottom, we need you here!" A nurse yelled from the other end of the emergency room.
"Alright, all yours, clean and bandage the wound" he said walking away and leaving her to tend to the injured guy.
"You know, if you're going to see me naked at least you could tell me your name love" He said when she banished his pants so she could have better access to the wound.
"Seriously Mack? You're flirting with her?" She heard a familiar masculine voice behind her but she didn't turned, she kept cleaning the wound and applying a few drops of dittany on it.
"Bite me Weasley!" He said still smiling, looking at her
"I would, but Penelope already did and you know I don't like to share"
"I'm going to put a bandage over this and also a splint to immobilize your leg, your muscles are badly damaged but they're not completely torn, still you will have to spend at least a week without walking in order to heal properly" Hermione managed to say as calm as she could knowing that Charlie Weasley was standing behind her.
"A week?! That's too bloody long" said the blonde dragon tamer with a pout.
"You're lucky it's just a week, a dragon bite can tear off your leg completely! Now stay still so I can immobilize your leg"
"Only if you tell me your name love"
"I'm Healer Granger..."
"Wait...Healer Granger?" She felt a hand at her shoulder pulling her to turn around.
She turned around slowly and she felt the air escaped her lungs at the sight of Charlie Weasley, his shirt was ripped in the front showing part of his muscular torso, with a few scratches here and there over his freckled skin, his jeans were ripped on the knee and burnt in the other leg, his hair was shorter that the last time she saw him, barely reaching his shoulders and she couldn't help but think that he looked even more handsome in this disheveled way, he looked wild and dangerous, just by looking at him she felt a warmth crawl from her stomach and down between her legs.
"Hermione?" Surprise was written all over his handsome face.
"Hello Charlie"