Charlie Weasley had listened to his mother for too many years, talking – almost begging – about how he should find a nice woman he could spend the rest of his life with.
It was probably the reason why it had taken him two years before he could finally send a letter telling her to come and meet the person he had decided to spend – hopefully – the rest of his life with.
There was of course other factors playing in which Charlie liked not to think of – and had been reminded of the last two weeks.
Said letter was the reason six red heads were making their way through the almost abandoned streets of Romania.
Molly Weasley was looking for the bar her son had told her he would meet her at.
"You must be the Weasleys." a female voice said, making the whole little family spin around in the middle of the street.
"I'm Elizabeth Jones, Char told me you'd be coming. He must be running late though." she said and led them to the bar where they all sat down.
"I was surprised that he even asked you to come here.. Not that.." she smiled sheepishly, "He isn't fond of talking about his life in Britain and he always seemed like he would like his life here and there to be as separated as possible." she explained to the listening family.
"Charlie always liked his privacy very much." Mrs. Weasley said and Elizabeth nodded, she knew all too well about that, though Charlie hadn't managed that well when he was around her.
"So tell me, how long have you and my Charlie known each other?" the smiling mother asked her and she saw Molly's husband and the young girl she thought was named Ginny listen intensely while the three boys didn't seem to need to know much, finding the different people in the bar much more interesting.
Elizabeth smiled, "It must be about seven years now, we met the very first day of my stay here." she told them and Mrs. Weasley seemed delighted, though there was a worried glint in her eyes now.
"Charlie didn't mention you worked on the reserve as well, isn't the job exhausting? And you must get hurt so very often when you work with those big creatures." the worry was clear in her voice as she said it but Elizabeth just smiled again, surprised that Charlie had even mentioned her – if it wasn't just a way to ask about Charlie's work which seemed much more likely.
"Me working as a dragon tamer? No.. I'm a nurse." she told Mrs Weasley and this seemed to please her very much, just like everything else about this young woman pleased her.
From the tan skin with the handful of freckles put neatly over her nose and cheeks, only three or four shades darker than her own skin even though she was so much in the sun, to the pleasant brown eyes and light blonde hair which was cut short as to not disturb her doing her work.
"Charlie came in the first day I worked here and he's come every week ever since."
A worried, now without all the delight, expression crossed the woman's face. "Every week, is he hurt that often? Is it serious? I told him to be careful, uh, why won't he just listen for once?" the woman began, her lips forming a thinner line than before but the rest of her face set in a pout which Elizabeth couldn't help but chuckle at.
"Don't worry Mrs. Weasley, it's nothing major, just a few burn marks, maybe some scratch marks, it's nothing we can't handle at the hospital, it is after all our specialty." Elizabeth said, softening the glare the old woman send her at the laugh.
"I've told him that he can just as well come and get it fixed instead of running around with all those scars. It's probably also the only time of the day besides dinner where he isn't occupied with his dragons, you know how he loves his dragons." A grin spread across her face as she remembered just how much time had passed the last couple of years with Charlie's Dragon.
"At least someone takes care of him then, thank you dear." Mrs Weasley said and Elizabeth made a hand movement telling her it was no big deal, mostly not talking because she was looking around for Charlie, he had told her that he would be here an hour ago and it wasn't like him to run late.
After a minutes search, she gave up and turned to Mrs Weasley again. "So, I've heard so little about Charlie's family, please tell me how you're all during home in Britain." it felt weird to say home since Britain hadn't been that for the majority of her life, which her thick Romanian accent made perfectly clear.
This time it was all of them who talked, enlighten her on all the weddings and the children which had come after the war and how they were all trying to still get over all that had happened – nobody worded that, but it was clear in the way they all talked about it.
It was somewhere in this speech that Charlie came over and kissed Elizabeth on the cheek. "Thank you Liz, a Hungarian Horntail had injured its wing and fell down a good part of the mountain, we needed to get it sedated and down to the infirmary." he explained her and she simply nodded, giving him a smile, not noticing the smile that had spread across most of the Weasley families faces.
"Where's Dragon?" he then asked, brows furrowed.
"I honestly thought he was with you and he was the reason you were late." Elizabeth told him, and Charlie's face broke into a grin as he shook his head.
"I'll go get him, say hello to your family, they've missed you." she said as Charlie made a move to run out himself to find his boyfriend.
"He's not exactly in the best mood." Charlie warned her and she chuckled, "I could imagine, but your boyfriend is gonna meet your family now that you finally pulled yourself together and got them to Romania."
A mix of disbelief and confusion from what they just heard spread among the Weasley family but both Charlie and Elizabeth decided to ignore it as Elizabeth ran out to get Draco, hoping he had gotten over his two weeks long sulking for having to meet the Weasley family who, after his words, "Would kill him the instant they saw him".
"Er.. Your boyfriend Charlie?" Molly Weasley asked. She had never known her son was gay, which both embarrassed her and ashamed her – not her son, but the fact that she had been too blind to notice.
Charlie shuffled his feet, he could handle dragons in their wrath and Draco in his tantrums, but telling his mother that the man he wanted to spend the rest of his life with was the heir to the Malfoy throne, seemed like a suicide mission, and though Charlie was a Gryffindor, he didn't like suicide missions.
Charlie didn't say much, avoiding the question every time they asked to his boyfriend – it would be so much easier to explain with a 'see, this is him, take it or leave it' – and instead asked them how they were doing and how Bill was doing and after that how Harry and Hermione was doing, and why they hadn't brought them, they were after all married to Ron and Ginny.
There came a time where he couldn't pull it off any longer though, where his boyfriend in the best aristocratic way – or as aristocratic as it gets when there's a scowl on his face and almost fear in his eyes – entered the bar and with secure steps – or so Charlie thought he wanted them to look like – walked over to the table.
Charlie stood up and kissed him, surprising both his family and the young boy himself. He kissed him in a way which clearly told that this was where he belonged, and this was the man he loved, and nothing could change that.
No one did. Ron complained a bit, but even he had to admit that Charlie had a good effect on Draco – and, though never out loud, that Draco had a good effect on Charlie.