Got a new Charlie/Hermione story for you. You may recognise it cos I had it up but then I deleted it as I hadn't updates it in so long but here we go again, I have made a few changes to the chapter! I hope to update once a week or so, I've only written the first 5 chapters and want to try and stay 4-5 chapters ahead so you're not waiting for crazy amounts of time for updates. Anyway, enough rambling, I hope you enjoy this story and please do leave a review, I always appreciate every single one of them and if you have any ideas of what you want to happen just let me know please!

- HermionesPolyjuice

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter or anything associated with it and wouldn't dare take away anything that JK Rowling has brought into our world. That being said, Dobby did not need to die.

Chapter 1 - Eilidh

"Have a fabulous time."

"I will. Don't screw too many boys," she responded with a laugh. She grabbed onto her suitcase and flung her backpack over her shoulder before touching the brightly glowing, chipped teacup with her pinky. She cast one more look over her office and smiled at her best friend at work, Lucy, before feeling the distinctive jerk from behind the navel and she was squeezed into darkness. The very uncomfortable feeling of portkey travel lasted much longer than normal and she was beginning to feel very sick.

She landed with a thud on a cool, stone floor and immediately threw up.

"You're not the first to feel the effects of inter-country travel," a kind sounding voice came from above her as she felt a hand stroke her back. Wiping her mouth she stood up and took out her wand from her jeans pocket.

"Evanesco," she muttered clearing away her vomit very embarrassed by the situation. "I am so sorry about that, portkeys are not normally an issue for me." Her face grew redder as she turned to face the slightly elderly man standing behind her. He chuckled.

"Don't apologise. Like I said everyone tends to be sick after their first travel," his dark green eyes twinkled as he smiled broadly down at her, the creases in his face reminding her of her grandfather.

"John McCusker, Head of the Romanian Reserve, nice to meet you," he said holding out his hand.

"Hermione Granger, nice to meet you too," Hermione said shaking the older man's hand.

"Welcome to Romania. We have just a few technicalities to go though first before I can take you to the reserve," John said and with a quick wave of his wand the black suitcase disappeared.

"I've sent it ahead to the reserve, it'll be there when we arrive," he told Hermione as she looked somewhat confused.

Hermione was finally allowed to take in her surroundings. She was standing in the middle of a very large hall, with many small offices leading off each side. The ceiling was relatively low but made of glass so the hot summer, Romanian sun streamed into the room lightening it up. Despite being able to feel the heat of the sun beat down on her, Hermione still felt relatively cool. Magic was a wonderful thing.

John led Hermione down the hall and headed into an office on the left side. Hermione followed him and was amazed at the sight of the office. Despite seeming small from the outside, it was incredibly large on the inside, the ceiling also made from glass. A large, marble desk sat in the far corner facing the ceiling to floor window. Hermione caught sight of stretches of fields, forest and even the mountains in the distance. Her heart began to flutter as she thought about her new job at the dragon reserve.

"I've been waiting for you," a voice wafted from the corner. Hermione's head spun around to see a young looking man, probably not even in his 30s reclining on an emerald green sofa. He stood up and walked over to them. Hermione took in his appearance as he made the few steps over towards her and John. He was tall with a muscular build and very tanned. He was wearing a pair of shorts and a blue polo shirt, not very official looking despite them being in the Romanian ministry. At least Hermione figured they were at the Romanian ministry. He had a mop of messy brown hair and kind looking amber coloured eyes.

"Kieran Hurd at your service, welcome to Romania, Miss Granger," he said with a smile, showing off very straight, very white teeth, sticking out his hand for Hermione to take.

"Pleased to meet you Mr. Hurd," she replied as they shook hands.

"Please, call me Kieran. I may be a ministry official, but I'm way too young to be called Mr," Kieran said with a laugh. Hermione smiled back at him. "Right, so just a few pieces of paperwork to be completed before you can start work." Kieran headed over to his desk and gestured Hermione to follow.

"I'll be waiting for you outside," John said quietly to Hermione, who nodded to acknowledge she had heard. Hermione followed Kieran over to the desk and sat down in the leather armchair next to it.

"Firstly, I need you to fill out this Wand Registration Form. Any witch or wizard who comes to Romania must have their wand registered, and tracked –"

"Tracked?" Hermione asked with a gulp.

"More so we know where they are and magic isn't being used in the proximity of muggles. Oh and so we can expel anyone who begins to use dark magic," Kieran added with a slight chuckle. Hermione, however, couldn't quite see the funny side.

"And you've had to expel people from the country before?" she asked timidly.

"Only a few but that was years ago so nothing to be worried about," Kieran replied with a smile as he handed her a rolled up piece of parchment, "If you could just start filling this out while I find the other forms I've gone and put down somewhere."

40 minutes later, Hermione re-emerged from Kieran's office somewhat exhausted. She had had to fill out form after form detailing every tiny thing about her, her past and her new job – she felt like she had been writing an autobiography in the shape of forms.

"All done? You are probably the quickest employee to have finished that process; there was one who made me wait for over 2 and a half hours as he completed it all. Who was it? Oh yes, Charlie Weasley, how could I have forgotten?" John rambled on. Hermione's ears started when she heard the all too familiar name of Weasley. How could she have been so silly? Of course, Charlie was out here. She knew he worked out in Romania and yet during the past months leading up to her departure she hadn't even twigged she would be working with him.

"Charlie?" Hermione questioned curiously.

"Ah yes, thought you may have heard of him. When he arrived, what about 10 years ago, straight out of a year of training he had no clue how to fill out any bloody form or any bloody paperwork. He would arrive for rounds in the morning looking exhausted. It took us a while to find out he had been up all night, every night trying to work out how to do his ruddy paperwork. We all thought he had been busy with something else," John's eyes sparkled with amusement as he said the last comment. "He learnt though, he was the best learner we'd had in a while. And now I reckon he's the best dragon tamer on this reserve, and probably in the world." John was now leading Hermione out of the hallway and into the Romanian air.

She couldn't help but let out a slight gasp as she took in the scenery. Bright green, rolling hills spread for miles in front of her leading into a large mountain range atop with snow despite it being the height of summer. To her left a huge forest also ran for miles, thick green trees rising high into the clear blue sky. To the right she spotted a small town, consisting of old buildings made of light stone that caught the sunlight perfectly. A small church rose up in the middle and Hermione imagined a town square filled with bustling people going about their business among market stalls and bars. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

"You like it?" John asked after he noticed Hermione had stopped walking. She nodded.

"It's stunning," she replied simply.

"I just need to pick up something in the village and then I'll take you to the reserve."

"Welcome to the Balaur Reserve," John said as they landed with a pop outside a large, white tent. Hermione looked around. There wasn't much to see besides the large tent and s few trees, but she could hear the distinctive sound of a dragon breathing fire and her heart began to race with excitement. She was finally here. After months of planning, decisions and mind changing she was finally in Romania, where she had wanted to be for far too long. Excitement was turning into an understatement. "You can't see much from here but I'll let these two dashing gentlemen to show you around and introduce you to everyone and tell you how everything works around here. Goodbye, Hermione. See you tomorrow on your first day."

"Thank you, John. See you tomorrow," Hermione said kindly watching the older man head in the opposite direction from the main tent to a small hut she presumed was his office.

"Fancy seeing you here," a familiar voice wafted from behind her. She spun around to see two men behind her. The shorter one was easily recognisable from a mile away with his flaming red hair pulled back into a ponytail. He was wearing a plain grey t-shirt with a pair of khaki trousers tucked into big, brown boots. His friend was slightly taller and lankier, his muscles, although very obvious, much less toned and large as Charlie's. His mop of brown hair was kept rather untidily and Hermione was convinced she spotted some old twigs and leaves sticking out.

"Charlie!" Hermione said excitedly. He took the few steps over to her and wrapped his arms tightly and swung her around as if she were a young child.

"It's been such a long time," he said as he put her back on her feet.

"I know, what over three years ago?" Charlie smiled at their last encounter, mere weeks after the Battle of Hogwarts, when her family had been invited over to Sunday lunch with the Weasleys. What a day that had been. Full of laughter and excitement, Fred had been released from St. Mungo's only a few days before and Percy had just resigned. The mood in the wizarding world was so light-hearted and that day had just been perfect.

"Ugh, don't. I can't believe how fast these past years have gone. I'm getting so old," she said with a sigh.

"Old? You? Never, you're not even, what, 22 yet? Just wait till you're 29 and nearly 30, then you can start feeling old," Charlie said, his face going at little pale as he recalled how close to 30 he was. Hermione smiled at him. There was cough from behind them making Charlie jump.

"Right, yes. Hermione, this is Jack. He was in my year in Ravenclaw and I managed to persuade him to go into dragon taming. Took him a few more years to be convinced Romania was the place to be though," Charlie finished with a laugh.

"Hello, Hermione. How are you? I've heard a fair amount about you," Jack said, his thick accent very identifiable as Scottish. Hermione's heart skipped a bit. He'd heard about me? From Charlie? What had he meant? What did he know about me?

"Nice to meet you Jack, hope it's only been good things," Hermione responded, her cheeks blushing somewhat. Jack let out a deep laugh.

"Only the best," he said with a wink, making Hermione's cheeks go even redder.

"Right, Miss Granger, on with your tour I think. Let's show you your yurt I first," Charlie said.

"Yurt?" Hermione questioned as Charlie and Jack led her away from the main tent down the path.

"It's where you'll live. They're not overly large, but are very comfortable. Every employee has their own, so there are about 30 or so and they're about 15 minutes from the main tents and enclosures," Charlie replied as they continued down the path, which was lined with trees.

"They're Romanian Apple Trees, the most delicious apples you'll find. Here try one," Jack noticed Hermione looking at the odd shaped trees and picked an apple from one of the branches and passed it to her. She took it gratefully only realising now how hungry she was feeling, and took a bite from the shiny green fruit.

"I see what you mean, they are truly delicious," Hermione said as she took another bite.

"They're a great snack on the way to work in the morning," Charlie added. "Right, the yurts are all down the left here." They turned down a rocky path, now lined with Romanian Pear Trees. They walked for a few minutes until the yurts came into view.

"That one's mine," Charlie said as he pointed to the second on the right, the front door painted an emerald green.

"My one's the orange one just over there," Jack said pointing to a yurt on the left.

"And yours is just a bit further down here." Charlie led them down the path before indicating a yurt, whose front door was painted a deep teal.

"Teal, my favourite colour!" Hermione exclaimed. She heard the two guys laugh behind her.

"Yes, they're all painted to the employee's favourite colour. Don't ask me how, that's way too complicated for my small brain," Charlie explained. He handed Hermione a silver key, "We like to keep a few muggle things around here," he added with a smirk.

"I'll just go chuck my bag inside. I'd much rather see the reserve," Hermione said and she hurried towards the front door and unlocked it. Without even looking inside she threw her backpack onto the sofa and headed back out to Charlie and Jack, who were both happily munching on pears.

"Right, to the main tents now," Jack announced and they headed back the way they had come.

"So this is the medi-tent, fairly obvious and not too exciting, although you will definitely become quite acquainted with it and the medi-witches," Charlie said with a laugh.

"Yeah, I reckon I'm in here probably every other day or so because of something or other," Jack agreed. Hermione felt a little worried at that comment. She knew dragon taming wasn't the safest of jobs but she wasn't expecting to have to visit the medi-tent quite that often.

"Not all tamers end up that often though," Charlie added upon catching sight of the worry in Hermione's face. "Jack's just incapable of applying burn lotion and taking pain potions so has to go there for every tiny cut. I think he went once because of a papercut." Hermione let out a laugh as she saw Jack's face go bright red.

"That's not true," Jack said with a huff, folding his arms across his chest.

"He also has a bit of crush on one of the medi-witches but refuses to admit it," Charlie added with a whisper in Hermione's ear. His breath tickled her ear and she couldn't help the shiver that spread down her spine from it. She felt rather than saw Charlie smirk as he took a step away and turned more professional.

"Right, so that's all the boring stuff. Now we can show you the enclosures. We will need to be quick, however, before we get told off for interrupting feeding," Charlie added and he led her through the back of the medi-tent. Hermione almost shouted in surprise. In front of her was hundreds and thousands of acres spread out in front of her.

"So, here are the dragons. This will be where you will be situated the most. The area is split into various smaller areas for different species, with climate of each section suitable for that specie. You'll quickly learn where each dragon lives," Charlie explained.

"Each enclosure is surrounded by protective charms so the dragons can't escape into other ones," Jack added.

"Right, so the best way to see the entire enclosure is from up there," Charlie pointed to the sky. Hermione gulped.

"Um…you know what. I think I'm OK. I'm sure I can picture it," Hermione stuttered.

"Trust me you can't picture it until you've seen it. It's one of the best sights," Jack said.

"I…I…um…can't really…um…I guess what I'm trying to say…is that…um…I'm scared of heights," Hermione muttered to the ground, her cheeks turning pink with embarrassment. Jack snorted but when Hermione looked up she saw Charlie looking at her, his face completely unreadable.

"What?" she asked timidly looking straight into Charlie's dark brown eyes.

"Oh, nothing, I was just thinking," Charlie stammered but Hermione knew he wasn't being entirely truthful. An awkward silence filled the air between the three of them, causing Hermione to fiddle with a stray curl, something she did when she was nervous.

Thankfully, the silence was broken only a few minutes alter but a loud bell.

"Feeding time!" Charlie exclaimed, his eyes twinkling in the dusk. Hermione looked up excitedly.

"Do…do I get to watch?" she asked.

"Of course, you'll need to know what happens for tomorrow," Charlie said.

"Tomorrow?" Hermione enquired.

"Yes, tomorrow. You'll officially be a dragon tamer on the Balaur Reserve this time tomorrow and will need to help," Charlie told her. He wrapped his arm around Hermione's shoulders and led her slightly out of the way.

"I had better help, I am actually officially on duty," Jack muttered and he ran off into the tent to help the other employees.

"Are you not on duty?" Hermione asked Charlie as she waited eagerly for the feeding to begin.

"No, not this afternoon," he said, smiling down at her. A few moments later about 15 dragon tamers emerged from the tent carrying large baskets, filled with what Hermione assumed to be old carcasses.

"Each dragon has their favourite meat and needs to be placed in a certain area of their enclosure. Don't ask why, it's the one thing I don't quite understand about dragons," Charlie explained.

"So which dragon is in this enclosure?" Hermione asked nodding towards the one straight ahead of them.

"That belongs to the Regal Copper. She's expecting to lay an egg in the coming weeks so we have her in this enclosure so it's easier to check on her. We switch around the closures if a dragon is expecting to lay an egg or if they're sick or something so it's easier to keep an eye on them than having to trek or fly a few miles every hour to check on them," Charlie clarified upon seeing confusion etched across Hermione's face.

"That's quite clever, actually," Hermione said approvingly.

"Why such a tone of surprise?" Charlie asked, which to his surprise caused Hermione to flinch.

"You alright?" he asked, unsure about what just happened.

"Yes, fine. It's just Ron always used to say that," Hermione said and Charlie nodded in understanding. He had heard about Ron and Hermione's break-up. Their relationship had only lasted about six months and culminated in Ron completely losing it and kicking Hermione out of their small apartment. Fortunately, for the Weasley family and Hermione's sake they had managed to make it up a while later and had remained good friends since but every now and again thoughts of Ron sent shivers down Hermione's spin.

"Look, here they go," Charlie said excitedly pointing towards the Regal Copper's enclosure where two men had just entered carrying a carcass between them that looked distinctively like

"Horse? That's her meat of choice?" Hermione said surprised. Charlie laughed. "And she eats the bones and everything?"

"Yes, surely you would know that with all your training?" Charlie asked, surprised at the question.

"They didn't really go into fine details like that if I'm honest," Hermione admitted as she watched the men carefully place the meat under a large oak tree. They carefully arranged it so it faced the smaller oak tree opposite it before slowly backing out of the enclosure.

"Any second now," Charlie whispered his eyes locked on the large canopy of trees. "There!" Hermione squinted her eyes and saw some movement in the distance. Slowly a large dragon came into view and Hermione was struck with amazement. She'd seen photos after photos of dragons during her training but never a live one and she was mesmerised. Hermione knew this particular dragon wasn't the biggest of breeds but she wasn't any less spectacular. She was a beautiful coppery colour, hence the breed's name, that caught the setting sun and shone brightly. Her underbelly was a lighter pink dotted with silver with the silver speckling across her entire body. Her eyes were large and green, contrasting beautifully with the copper colour of her body. As she spread her wings Hermione gasped at the beauty of the dragon. Charlie couldn't help glance down at her now co-worker and smiled at the sight of Hermione's face and the love that filled her eyes.

"She's beautiful isn't she?" he whispered quietly. Hermione couldn't manage any words and just nodded her head, not taking her eyes off the beautiful dragon. The dragon flapped its wings, but never took off, as she walked towards the meat. Once she reached it she sank onto her legs and began gnawing at the meat. It took Hermione by surprise at how much she admired the dragon and wasn't in the least bit surprised by the actions as she heard the cracking of bones.

"What's her name?" she asked Charlie, still not taking her eyes off the stunning beast in front of her.

"Eilidh," Charlie replied simply.

"It suits her. Why such a Scottish name?"

"We found her in the Shetland Islands. Dragon poachers had caught her but we rescued her and brought her back over here. We were going to release her back into the wild but she was so accustomed to it here that when we went to release her she refused so she's been here ever since," Charlie told her. "She was one of the first dragons I ever rescued, I've got a bit of a soft sport for her."

"I can see why, she's beautiful," Hermione murmured. With one last gulp, the carcass had gone and Eilidh let off a satisfied jet of flames. Despite knowing there were protective walls between her and the dragon Hermione couldn't help but take a few steps back in surprise. She heard a slight chuckle come from Charlie's mouth, which was followed by a loud rumble from his stomach.

"Hungry are we?" Hermione teased.

"You bet. Think I might have to go back and have my leftover chicken salad," he groaned, wrinkling his face at the thought of salad being his meal.

"You are such a Weasley, food is always your primary thought in life," Hermione laughed.

"Look, a man cannot be satisfied with a bit of leaves and a piece of chicken," Charlie said indignantly. Hermione laughed and disagreed.

"My mum gave me a lasagne to bring over but she decided to make one big enough for about 5 people, how about you come over and have some? Then you can tell me more stories about the dragons and get me ready for my first day tomorrow," Hermione suggested.

"Now that is a meal I can get behind," Charlie replied with a large grin.

"Perfect, just depends whether you can wait long enough for it to heat up," Hermione said with a smirk as they turned around and headed back through the medi-tent.

"You know there is such thing as magic that would get that done much quicker," Charlie teased.

"Yes, but I couldn't dare ruin my mother's cooking with magic, got to do it the traditional way," Hermione said. Charlie rolled his eyes but followed her back towards the yurts nonetheless.

"Please pass on my compliments to the chef, that was absolutely delicious," Charlie said as he leant back against his chair and patted his stomach. He had just demolished over half of the lasagne himself, something that Hermione was both surprised about and yet not at all.

"I shall do. Would you like any dessert? I think I saw she packed a lemon cheesecake," Hermione said as she sent the dishes to be washed up in the sink.

"Hmmm, that would be lovely but I can't think I could eat any more." Hermione's mouth gaped open, not for the first time that day.

"You've got to be joking!" she said totally surprised. "Never has a Weasley turned down some dessert."

"Oh, alright then. I guess I couldn't be the first," Charlie said reluctantly.

"That's more like a Weasley attitude," Hermione responded with a laugh as she headed back to the kitchen counter to cut two slices of lemon cheesecake.

"Bloody hell. Your mum definitely gives my one a run for her money. I've never tasted food as good as my mum's but this is delicious," Charlie said after stuffing a rather large piece of dessert into his mouth.

"I shall let her know in my next letter," Hermione said as she too placed a rather large piece of cheesecake in her mouth.

"Tell me more about the dragons," Hermione said once she had cleared away their plates and placed glasses of Butterbeer in front of them both.

"There's not really anything new that you won't learn whilst you're out here and I don't really want to tell you everything now so you can't enjoy some fun tales over the next few months," Charlie said, much to Hermione's disappointment.

"Fine, surely you can tell me about the people. Jack seemed really nice, as did John as a matter of fact," Hermione said imploringly. However, to Hermione's great surprise Charlie started and shook his head. She eyed him suspiciously.

"The first thing you should learn his is that you should not trust John-"

"What? Why?" Hermione interrupted before Charlie could say any more.

"He's a total arse when you get to know him. He always tries to get you onto his side when you first meet by making you think he's really nice and friendly and such. But he's not. He doesn't like dragons at all and we know for a fact he never sends off any of our requests to the Ministry or anything. This place is getting worse by the day. Please, Hermione, don't trust him. It'll all make sense soon, I'm sure," Charlie explained grimly, his face serious. But it seemed to Hermione that Charlie was missing something out and not telling her everything. She didn't push it, however, but couldn't help thinking about it as she tossed and turned that night trying to sleep. Her brain wasn't having it though and she found herself reading for most of the night.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, don't forget to leave any thoughts (good & bad) in a review 3