Pairing: Charlie Weasley/Luna Lovegood
Rating: K through M
Must Haves: serious romance (mainly non-humor), post-Hogwarts
No-Nos: parody/humor as a main genre
Bonus Points: If someone is surprised Charlie isn't gay, if someone gets engaged, if there are dragons
Prompt by wynnebat
A/N: This story has been written for wynnebat in the HPFC Fic Exchange. I am a reserve writer filling in the prompt, so that she can receive her story. Though I have to say, I really think that this is a marvelous knew pairing for me to use. :D Wynnebat, I hope that you enjoy the story, I know that I enjoyed writing it and I am really pleased with how it turned out.
Thank you my excellent beta Stephanie O for betaing this for me. :D
I am now officially moving it back to my account, this story will no longer be able to be found in the HPFC Exchange account. Thank you.
-Dragons and?-
He had known her since she was a baby. Living so close together, and her being the same age as his sister. He was nine years old when he first saw her as a new born baby. His mother and her mother had been really close friends, and were overjoyed to find that their daughters were the same age.
He saw a fair bit of over the next two years until he went off to Hogwarts, and occasionally in the Summer. Just before he had moved out he had learned of her mother's death. After that he didn't hear or see much of her for many years. Only occasionally receiving a letter from his sister, with mentions of her. The first time he saw her was at Bill and Fleur's wedding. It had only been a glimpse, and not enough to remove the image of her being a little girl that had stuck in his head over the years. It helped to reinforce the image as she was dancing in such an unusual way when he saw her. Then in the chaos that ensued because of the war that was all he saw of her.
It wasn't until several months later that he saw her in a new light. He had joined in the final battle at Hogwarts. He knew that he was late, but it was better to be late and fighting than to let his family die. In the midst of battle, he saw her.
She was twisting and dodging while simultaneously casting spells, at Bellatrix Lestrange. There wasn't anything of child left in her, and if he was honest with himself, there wasn't much of child left in her since her mother had died. She was a young woman fighting for her life, her friends and family. Fighting for everything he was fighting for.
He knew that there was no denying it.
She caught his eye, and smiled knowingly. Shaking his head he had returned to battle, still trying to process the image that she had struck in his mind.
After the battle everything went by rather quickly, from Fred's funeral to returning to work, and suddenly finding the world normal again, or as normal as it ever was.
Real life had quickly caught up with him, and before he knew it several years had past. He didn't see her again, and from what he from his sister and youngest brother she had taken to travelling the world. He didn't think of her all that much, but the image of her from the final battle was still burned into the back of his mind, and took the opportunity to pop up when he was least expecting it.
It was the middle of August, three years after the final battle, that he finally saw her again.
He had gotten ready for a normal day of work. It only took a quick floo to get to the reserve. He nodded to several of his co-workers as he passed, making his way to the dragons that he was supposed to be working with. He froze when he got there, eyes locked on the image before him.
Luna Lovegood was sitting on the mother dragon's back, holding one of the baby dragons, and scratching it's ears while absently humming a song. All five of the dragons were purring contentedly.
He closed his and shook his head, trying to clear it of the unbelievable image. He waited a moment, counting to ten before opening his eyes again. No, it was still the same, the only that had changed was that Luna was now looking at him with her trademark dreamy smile.
He opened his mouth to say something, but quickly closed it when she shook her head.
Deciding to just wait it out, he sat on the ground and leaned against a tree, listening to her lullaby that she was humming. He had almost dozed off when he felt a gentle hand rest on his shoulder. Waking from his near doze he realised that the humming had stopped, and there was now a loud snoring along with the faint smell of smoke.
He opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was that Luna was standing beside him. It was her hand on his shoulder, and she was smiling at him lightly. The second was that the dragons were all asleep and snoring out little puffs or fire.
"Hello Charlie," said Luna, with a cheerful lit to her voice.
"Luna!" he exclaimed, his brain finally catching up with him. It seemed that her lullaby had also slowed down his thinking process, which could have only been helped by the shock that he had experienced. "What are you doing here?"
She giggled lightly at him, "I'm here to see you of course, silly."
"Mmm-mm-me?" he spluttered, it seemed that her song was not the only thing that distracted him. Her voice did an excellent job of it too, he couldn't help but listen to it and lose track of what she was saying.
She leaned down and grabbed one of his hands, before lightly pulling him to his feet. He found that he had no willpower to resist her. She led him on a walk around the Reserve. She would stop every so often and pet the dragons. He was amazed by her simple beauty. He wasn't sure what it was about her, but her very air seemed to give off an elegance, a grace, that he hadn't seen before, from her knowing smile to her dancing feet.
Eventually, after what had felt like a glorious eternity, they had arrived at the headquarters. His mates from work were all inside eating lunch, and chatting away. His friends made several catcalls and wolf-whistles at Luna and him when they noticed the couple. One even came up and slapped him on back.
"Charlie old pall, you never told us you had a girlfriend."
"Your not gay!" one of them exclaimed in surprised bemusement. "I could have sworn that you were...then again you never did show any interest anyone. Though now I can see why, a real beauty you have there."
Charlie groaned, "We are not dating."
Luna turned her to face him, a smile dancing around her lips. He got caught off guard by the glint she had in her eyes. Her eyes, he had never noticed before how big and beautiful they were...
He was pulled out of his thoughts by the chuckles of his friends. Glancing around he noticed that everyone had caught his laps in concentration, he was unable to stop his ears turning a deep shade of red from embarrassment.
"Not dating he says," chortled the friend that had clapped him on the back, John. John who stood a good six inches taller than Charlie smirked mischievously. "Now that is something I'd like to see."
"No, not yet," chimed in Luna's musical voice. All eyes turned to her. She moved closer to him, "But we will be."
His mind froze, she was so close that he could feel her breath on his face. Her lips were mere inches from his.
He had almost forgotten that there was anyone else in the room, when John bellowed, right in Charlie's ear, "Kiss her already."
He jumped and spun around to glare at John. Before he could do anything more some else spoke up. "Oh leave them alone John, you wouldn't want him to get back at you, know would you?" it was the only girl who worked at the Reserve, Rebecca, who also happened to be John's girlfriend.
It was John's turn to blush, his face turning a rather nice shade of vivid red.
After that Charlie introduced Luna to the group. They spent a good while chatting, and joking around. After a while John stood up, apparently having decided that he didn't want to get jabbed in the ribs any more from Rebecca.
"Rebecca...er, I mean we, that is Rebecca and I," he fidgeted nervously, he was about to sit back down, when he caught sight of glare that she was sending his way. "We, would like to announce that we are getting married next March." He quickly retook his seat, looking as though he desperately wished that one of the dragons would come along and eat.
Mirth danced in Charlie's eyes, "What's this now. Your engaged and you didn't tell us sooner."
John opened and closed his mouth several times, before looking imploringly at Rebecca, who returned it with a look that said you got yourself into it and you can get yourself out of it. He groaned and hid his face in his hands.
Charlie and everyone else in the room broke out into raucous laughter, except for Rebecca and Luna, who only shared amused glances.
John looked up with a confused expression on his face, before understanding flashed across it and he too joined in on the laughter.
All too soon their fun had to come to an end.
Everyone else had returned to work, and Charlie found himself alone with Luna again. Some how she had moved a lot closer to him than he expected. Her nose was mere inches from his. Without thinking he moved the distance between them and their lips met.
A/N: To all of my curious followers, I have changed my name from Lady Phoenix Fire Rose. Though I am rather undecided about keeping it like this. You will find a poll on my profile options for what my pen-name might become. Thank you. :D
