I hated travelling by portkey. People always said that after you've travelled by portkey a few times then you'd get the hang of landing on your feet instead of plummeting to the ground. But that was a lie. At least for me anyway. Even now, after numerous portkey trips, I landed on my back each time with the wind knocked out of me.

Today was no exception.

Letting out an annoyed sigh I rose to my feet and dusted off my legs. Fixing my backpack I turned to look at the sign. It pointed to a dragon reserve that was a few metres up the road. Walking the rest of the way to the reserve I headed in to look for the reception, feeling the wards around the reserve shift to let me in. Ignoring the looks that I was getting from some of the people that lived on the reserve, I scanned the area for the reception.

Seeing the sign for the reception I was hesitant about actually heading in. Here I was, in the middle of a country that I had no previous knowledge of. On the advice of one of my closest friends, Bill, I had accepted the position of a researcher for the ministry to learn about dragons. Chewing on my bottom lip, I headed towards the largest cabin.

Opening the door I walked into the reception and introduced myself to the woman behind the desk. Rifling through a stack of paper, she looked up briefly at me.

"You're going to be trained under Charlie Weasley, is that correct?"

I smothered an eye roll; now I knew why Bill was so adamant that I went on this trip. What was it about this particular brother of Bill's that had him trying to continuously pair me up with him? But much to Bill's annoyance, we hadn't set eyes on each other since we'd left Hogwarts.

"That's right." I said after a short pause.

The woman nodded and held out a key for me to take. "As per requested by the ministry the two of you will be sharing a cabin." She pursed her lips slightly, "Is that alright?"

"It's fine." I pocketed the outstretched key. It really was fine. Right now my main priority was reaching wherever I would be staying to get rid of the backpack I was carrying.

"Good," she said with a smile as she came round the desk to stand beside me. "I'll show you the way to the cabin."

"Thanks."

After a short walk to the cabin I would occupy for the next year, she headed back to her desk. Exploring the cabin I eventually made my way up to the second floor. At the top of the staircase were three doors; one bathroom and two bedrooms that were side by side. Seeing my name on one of the doors I opened the door and paused at the sight of a man sitting on my bed.

I furrowed my eyes and glanced back at her door, "I thought this was my room?"

"Oh it is," Charlie said from where he was sitting, the mischief obvious in his eyes. I glanced over his carefully; he looked the way he had when he left Hogwarts the year before I did. Only that he'd clearly put on more muscle.

"Then can I help you with something?" I asked as I walked into the room and dumped the backpack at the foot of the bed.

He sat on the bed, watching me as I removed my shrunken suitcases from the backpack and transformed them back to their original size. Unzipping one of the suitcases I glanced up at Charlie to find him still watching me. I moved around the room, putting my clothes away into the cupboard and placing some of my things out to make it seem more like home. The entire time I was aware of his gaze burning into my back.

With a sigh I turned to face him, my hands on my hips. "What do you want Charlie?"

"Nothing, I was just enjoying the view."

I rolled my eyes, a small scoff slipping past my lips. If Bill thought that I would fall for this crass idiot then he had another thing coming.

"Don't try anything Charlie, I'm here on ministry business."

A low whistle slipped past Charlie's lips, "You've changed since Hogwarts; are you all work, no play now?"

"No, but Bill's already clued me in on what you're like." I crossed my arms, "It'd save us both time if you just stop whatever it is you're thinking of."

"And what exactly am I thinking of?" He asked, looking me in the eyes.

"Charlie."

"Fine I'll leave," he said holding his hands up in surrender. "But make sure you call me if you need me to keep those pesky dragons away."

"I think I'll manage."

"Well I'm next door, just in case." He leaned against the door frame, watching me closely. "You know, Romanian winters are really cold. If you ever need to share body heat I'll be more than happy to help you out."

"I'm sure you would be," I said walking towards him. "But I think I'll just cast a warming charm instead."

"Well the offer's always open, whenever you're ready to accept it."

Rolling my eyes, I shoved him out of the room. "Goodnight Charlie."

"I like a hands on woman."

I slammed the door shut. "It's never going to work so you might as well just give up now."

Spending the first night away from home was always difficult. It didn't help that I could hear the dragons moving around outside. Letting out a sigh I turned over and closed my eyes, waiting for sleep to take over.

The next morning I woke up and rushed out of bed. I needed to catch Charlie before he left the cabin, to ask if I was allowed to see the dragons first hand today. By the time I was ready and downstairs I found Charlie lacing up his shoes.

"Charlie," I called out as I approached him.

He looked up at the sound of my voice, "Good morning love, what can I do for you?"

"I was wondering when I could see the dragons."

He stood to his full height. "You can't."

I felt my mouth open in shock, "I can't? What do you mean I can't?"

"Exactly that." He made to walk out of the cabin.

"Charlie." I caught his arm to halt him. "I don't think you understand – I'm here on ministry business, I need to see the dragons. And as the dragonologist –"

"Dragon tamer," he cut in halfway, "It sounds sexier than dragonologist."

"Like I was saying – as the dragon tamer that was made responsible for me, I need your permission to go and see the dragons."

"And I don't give you permission."

"Charlie." I let go of his arm, "I need to do this; I'm here for a year to work and to do that I need to see the dragons."

Looking away from me, Charlie walked into one of the other rooms and returned with a big book in his hands. Standing in front of me, he gave me the book.

"If you want to see the dragons then get studying. It's protocol." He gestured to the book, "Once you're done you can see the dragons."

"Once I've read this book? That's it?"

"Of course not. Once you can identify fifty different breeds of dragons then you can go with me."

The mammoth task that had been given to me took a lot of time. If I was being honest then I had to admit that I hadn't thought that it would take so long. Charlie had claimed that I needed to be able to identify fifty different breeds as well as their basic characteristics. I had already been here for 2 months and had yet to see a dragon face to face.

Last night I was finally able to compete the task and Charlie had reluctantly told me to be ready by 8 am the following morning. Honestly. He had yet to figure out that I knew that the test wasn't protocol, at all. Rather it was made for his reassurance and a small part of me wanted to hex him. If I had confronted him then there would have been no need for me to spend hours a day learning how to differentiate ever possible variation of dragons that were on the reserve. But after some thought I realised that, as he was the expert dragon tamer, then there must have been a reason that Charlie saw the knowledge as essential.

This morning I was stood beside Charlie in front of a dragon pen that contained a dragon that was curled around what looked like a nest. It, well she, was obviously a very tame dragon as she glanced over at Charlie and I, noticing our presence, and stood from the nest. Instead of attacking us, she paced slowly around the cage. My eyes moved to the nest that she had been previously hiding; it contained 3 eggs.

"Are you pleased that you can finally see the dragons?" Charlie asked as I buried my hands into my pockets at a particularly violent gust of wind. The warming charm protected from most cold.

I grinned at Charlie, "Yeah."

"Alright," he muttered, reaching out to take a hold of my arm and pulling me alongside him as he walked closer to the dragon pen. "This is a –"

"Norwegian Ridgeback."

"Smart ass," he muttered, bumping his shoulder against mine. "Anyway, she's called Norberta."

I let my eyes drift back to Norberta once I'd recognised the name; Hagrid had told me about her after the battle. "She's the one Hagrid donated?"

"The very same." He nodded towards the other Norwegian Ridgeback in the pen. "He's the father of the dragons; Norwegian Ridgeback males get very aggressive around young dragons and eggs. They sometimes end up breaking the eggs by accident so we need to take precautions."

"So female ridgebacks don't get so aggressive?"

"They can do, that's why I've got the move the eggs today and put them in incubation."

I furrowed my eyebrows as Charlie walked towards the locked entrance of the pen. But I'd read that –

As Charlie was approaching the pen I called out, "Is this her first set of children? Or have you removed previous offspring from her?"

He glanced over his shoulder at me, not understanding the importance of my question, "This is her first set of offspring; we've tried to pair her up a few times but she's fought against every male apart from Raja over there."

"Raja?"

"He was born into a reserve in India. We're involved in an international breeding programme."

Charlie reached for the magical lock on the pen and I saw a sudden shift in Norberta's behaviour. Her wings were raised in a defensive stance as if preparing herself. My eyes widened putting together something I had read a few days ago and what Charlie had told me about her. Raja remained by Norberta's side, taking a clearly offensive stance.

"Don't do it Charlie," I warned as I quickly approached him.

I knocked the lock out of his hands and stood between him and the pen. He raised both eyebrows at me.

"Come on love," he said in a placating matter, "This is the work I have to do so move out of the way."

I set my hands on my hips. He should've known that would never work on me. "No Charlie don't."

"I'm a trained dragon tamer, I think I know what I'm doing."

Realising that I wasn't planning on moving any time soon, Charlie approached me. Placing two hands on my waist, he picked me up and threw me over his shoulders. His shoulder dug into my stomach, winding me slightly. Slapping my hands against his back, I started to kick him in an attempt to make him lose the hold he had on me.

"Charlie –"

"I know what I'm doing."

When he was a few metres away from the pen he finally let me up. Once he was sure that I was steady on my feet, he turned and jogged back to the pen.

"Charles Weasley!" I called out, rushing after him. Typical male, he couldn't even listen to me for a second before needing to show off. "Listen to me!"

Ignoring me as if he couldn't hear my voice, he let himself into the pen. He outstretched a hand towards Norberta as if that was supposed to calm her and gently made his way towards the nest. Both dragons followed his movements until Norberta made a sudden movement. She reared her head back and opened her mouth to breath out fire just as Charlie picked up the nest. He let out a small curse as the fire singed his arm. Exiting the pen, he set the nest down gently onto the ground before locking the pen. Looking down at his arm for a moment, he turned to face the two dragons who were now roaring ferociously.

"I told you so," I muttered, walking around him to pick up the nest of eggs.

"Don't," he snapped, seeing me pick up the eggs, "Don't do anything with the eggs."

"Shut up Charlie," I snapped finally making him look at me sharply. "I read something a few days ago about female dragons and their young. There was a reason that she was guarding the nest and Raja was on the other side of the pen; she was protecting them from him."

"That makes sense," he muttered under his breath, "Breeding pairs of Norwegian Ridgebacks have always been kept together and due to the male's aggressive nature they eggs have always been removed."

"Of course it makes bloody sense!" I shifted the nest to hold it with one arm and put the other hand on my hip, "Now move either Raja or Norberta into a different pen."

He began to object but I glared at him sharply. He did as I said but mumbled something about "stopping the bloody letters Mum sends her."

Charlie called over another dragon keeper and they both moved Raja to a separate pen; one that was close enough to Norberta that he wouldn't worry about her. Once Norberta was alone, I entered the pen cautiously. Charlie called out my name and I knew he would try to get me to leave the pen so I only shushed him. Inching forward slowly I set the nest a few metres away from her and hurried to exit the pen. Stan outside the pen I watched as Norberta breathed fire onto the eggs and curled herself around the nest.

"See," I said giving Charlie a look, "A mother's instinct isn't to harm her children; it's to protect and provide for them."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." He rolled his eyes and motioned for me to follow him, "We've still got more dragons to see, so keep up."

"No," I said my eyes flickering down to the burn on his arm; how was he not screaming or whinging in pain? "You need to follow me."

Brushing past him I headed towards our cabin and heard his footsteps follow after me. Once we entered the cabin, I headed into my room and motioned for him to sit down on the bed. Summoning the first aid kit, I exposed the burn to my gaze and sucked in a breath from between my teeth.

"Does it hurt?" I asked as I opened the first aid kit.

"It's going to hurt if you poke at it isn't it?"

Ignoring his snide tone I looked for the burn paste and mumbled under my breath, "Of course it's going to hurt, it's a bloody burn from a dragon. Stupid male always needing to act like nothing hurts when it does and always needing to prove he's right even when he's clearly wrong."

Taking his forearm in one hand, I gently spread the burn paste across the burn. I watched his face to see if I was being too rough. Seeing that I wasn't, I glanced back down at his forearm.

"Arrogant, boastful, pretentious –"

"You're forgetting ridiculously handsome," he cut in.

"Shut up Weasley." Putting the burn paste away, I pulled out a roll of gauze. Pointing my wand against the gauze I muttered an anti-irritation spell before wrapping the burn with the cause. This would hopefully stop the burn from becoming irritated from rubbing against anything.

"You know," he began as I cut the gauze and tied it off, "It almost sounds like you care. I have to admit that when you went into the dragon's pen, it was hot. Not just sexy hot but like I'd take you to bed at the slightest hint hot."

Really because I felt scared shitless.

"Charlie?"

"Yes love?"

"Shut up before I make you shut up."

"And how would you do that?" he asked flirtatiously, tilting his head to the side and looking at me.

I leaned in close to him, bringing my face millimetres away from his. "How would I silence you?" His eyes flickered down to my lips before returning to my eyes, "With a simple silencio of course."

I pulled back abruptly and packed away the first aid kit.

Truthfully when I had arrived in Romania I had underestimated the amount of work that I would have to do once I got here. I was supposed to be checking out the facilities in order to estimate the amount of funding that the ministry should look to donate to the reserve. But I had underestimated the number of dragons and staff on the reserve. Today I had decided to take a break from the seemingly endless pile of paperwork that I needed to do.

Instead I chose to curl up in front of the fireplace with a good book. Hearing the sound of approaching footsteps I looked up to see Charlie walking towards me with two mugs in his hand. Bookmarking my place, I set the book on the coffee table in front of me.

"What are you doing for Christmas this year?" Charlie asked, handing me one of the mugs as he sat down.

"I was going to go home for Christmas." I took a sip of the hot chocolate. "What about you?"

"It's back to the burrow for me." He set his feet in my lap. Glancing up at him I pushed his feet away. "What are your plans for Christmas day?"

"Well Christmas is family time. But my brother's coming back home in the evening so the big family meals been postponed until the evening."

"Then spend the first part of the day with me."

I narrowed my eyes at him as I raised the mug to my lips again, "Why?"

"Mum's been bugging me to let you meet her," he admitted as I thought it over.

"I don't know –"

"Come on," He cajoled, "You'll get to see more of my handsome face."

"And here I was thinking that I'd finally get a break from you."

"So that means you're coming then?" He grinned at me.

When Christmas day came round, Charlie had appeared on my front door just as I was about to apparate to the burrow. Seeing him standing on my doorstep I rolled my eyes but invited him inside.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, slipping my feet into my shoes as I watched him study the pictures on the wall.

"Mum insisted that I pick you up."

"But I would have been able to get there on my own."

"That's what I said." He glanced at me from over his shoulder, "But I've learnt that an argument with mum is something no man can win."

"If she can get you to shut up then I can't wait to meet her." Ignoring my previous remark, he walked towards me and held out his arm. "Maybe it's better if I apparate us, I know about the incident during your first apparation test."

"Who told you?"

"Bill." Charlie let out an annoyed sigh but waved his wand to apparate us away to the burrow anyway.

When we were steady on our feet, Charlie stepped forward in front of me to knock on the door. It opened only second later and a woman that I assumed was Mrs Weasley stood on the other side.

"Where is she?" She asked.

"Gee Mum," Charlie said smiling as he looked at me from the corner of his eye. "Your son that you haven't seen for months is standing before you but all you can ask about is a strange girl."

"Charles Weasley." She said warningly, making Charlie step to the side, leaving me open to his mother's gaze. Mrs Weasley smiled warmly at me. "Hello dear."

"Hi Mrs Weasley." I waved my hand timidly.

She rushed forward and pulled me into a tight hug. "Call me Molly."

I met Bill's eyes as he stood behind Molly. He was grinning down at me as his mother stepped aside to let both of us into the house. Charlie walked ahead of me, having taken my coat from me, and I glanced up at Bill as he dropped into step beside me.

"You know, if Mum had her way then you'd already be calling her Mum too."

Charlie had dropped back to walk beside us and heard Bill's remark. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder when I went to ask Bill what he meant. "Ignore Bill; he's sleep deprived because of the new baby and Mum, well Mum gets a bit too emotional at Christmas time."

When we entered the room where everyone was sat talking I let my eyes sweep across the room full of people.

"Can you guess who everyone is?"

"Well," I glanced at the couple by the fireplace, "I obviously know Bill and Fleur and Ginny is the only red haired woman in the room that isn't your mother. Ron, Harry and Hermione are easy to identify. I'm assuming that the one over there with his nose in his book is Percy –"

"A right ponce –"

"And the woman next to him must be his fiancée. But then there are the twins."

"Which twin is which?" He asked nudging his shoulder with mine.

"They're identical," I said giving him a look, "I doubt that you can tell them apart all the time. How the hell am I going to tell them apart?"

"Well I guess you'll have to find a way to tell them apart then won't you?"

"I guess I'll just go ask them then," I said before excusing myself.

Walking over to the twins I introduced myself. The twin on the left raised my hand to his lips and I raised an eyebrow. He glanced over my shoulder in the direction that I had just walked from.

"I'm Fred," he said, introducing himself as I pulled my hand back.

"And I'm George," his brother said, pushing Fred out of the slightly.

I turned over my shoulder to throw Charlie a smug look; it was easy to find out which twin was which. But my expression froze when I saw his facial expression.

"What's his problem?" I muttered quietly.

"Would you look at that?" George said quietly as he wrapped an arm around my shoulder. "He really did get jealous."

"Would you boys leave the poor girl alone," Mrs Weasley said as she walked briefly out of the kitchen and spotted me. Swatting George's hand off of me, she took my hand and led me into the kitchen.

When we were in the kitchen, I leaned against the counter slightly, "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Actually there is," She said with a smile as she picked up a tray of warmed pumpkin juice. "Can you give these out?"

"Of course," I said taking the tray from her.

Mrs Weasley called my name quietly, making me look up at her. "You must mean a lot to Charlie; you're the first girl he's brought home."

"Ever?"

"Ever." I glanced down at the tray in my hands, "You know I was worried; he's so far away from home and he's on his own. I was worried about if he'd ever settle down and if I'd ever get another daughter-in-law. But I'm not so worried anymore."

I cleared my throat slightly, "I'm not sure about that – I, I should go and hand these out."

Handing out the glasses of pumpkin juice I talked to some of the people in the burrow. I tried not to give Mrs Weasley's words another thought but it was hard to do. When I reached Charlie, he took the tray out of my hands and put it on the table. Taking the last two glasses, he handed me one and took a sip of the other.

"You seemed to be getting along with the twins." He said suggestively.

"They're too young for me," I muttered from behind the glass.

At my words his expression changed and he returned to his normal self. Once all of the food had been brought out I found myself sitting beside Charlie at the table. My eyes widened at the sight of all of the food; I'd never seen so much food on one table. By the time we had all finished eating and we had been sitting down for about an hour, I rose to my feet. Merlin, I felt full and I had another Christmas dinner to eat today. Well, I guess I would be having a food coma tomorrow.

"I should go now," I said to Mrs Weasley as I headed to the door.

"Do you have to?" Mrs Weasley asked, setting a hand on my arm, "Can't you stay a bit longer? We've hardly spoken."

"She can't Mum," Charlie said, appearing at my side with my coat in his hand. He held the coat out and helped me put it on, "She's supposed to be having dinner with her family later as well."

"Charlie's right Mum," Bill said, coming up behind Molly as he held a sleeping Victoire in his arms. "Besides, she'll be family soon enough."

Ignoring his brothers words Charlie opened the door to. When I stepped out of the burrow, Charlie followed me out and looked back at his mum.

"I'll make sure she gets home safe," he assured her.

"Goodbye Mrs Weasley, Bill." I stepped back into the house for a second to brush my fingertips affectionately across Victoire's cheek. "Hurry and close the door Bill, Victoire will get cold."

When the door had closed, Charlie walked alongside me as I walked further away from the house and towards the apparition point.

"You were keen to get me out of there weren't you?" I asked teasingly, looking at a silent Charlie.

"Only because Mum would try to use you to get a lot of dirt on me," he assured me, wrapping an arm around my waist in preparation for apparition. "You've been living with me for 4 months now, you'll be a gold mine."

I nodded when something above me caught my eyes. "What's that?"

Following my gaze, he let out a curse. "It's one of my brother's inventions; magical mistletoe. It's not going to leave us alone until we –"

"Until we kiss?"

"Yeah that."

"Really," I muttered, turning to look at him, "You're making this a bigger deal than it is."

I reached onto my toes to press a chaste kiss to his lips. Pulling away from him I felt his arm tighten around my waist, pulling me against him. He dipped his head towards mine and pressed his lips against mine again.

A sudden wolf whistle rang out and we shot apart. Glancing back towards the burrow I saw that the front door was open and Bill stood grinning at us, Victorie no longer in his arms. Percy was standing beside him, his arms crossed across his chest. Percy seemed to grumble something under his breath before pulling out some coins from his pocket and setting them into Bill's open palm.

"Unbelievable," Charlie muttered, his words cut off when I leaned up to press my lips to his again, ignoring the bystanders.

There was a sudden shout of joy, one that was distinctly Mrs Weasley's. I felt Charlie smile against my lips as he apparated us away.