AN: My first "proper" fanfic, it´s a one shot. Set five years after the war. Hope you all enjoy it, please leave a review. I would love to hear your thoughts on it, but please no flame.
Disclaimer: Obviously, I´m not Rowling and I don´t get paid to write, and I don't have any link with the wizarding world except in my imagination.
Collection of scars
Hermione Granger sat alone in her flat this Friday, staring at an old picture taken five years ago. In the picture were some of the people she loved covered in dust and blood, but somehow still smiling. Except George, there was a small smile on his lips but his eyes were hollow, which was to expected after losing one's twin. After the war Hermione had taken her NEWT´s and gone on to train as a healer. She had decided that what she wanted first and foremost after the war was help those in need, and somehow try to make up for the lives that were lost in the magical war.
As she sat she focused all her energy on thinking of happy memories of those that were long gone. She remembered scolding Fred and George after testing on first years, which she knew only would drive them to create more and how she used to have a silly school girl crush on the famous Weasley Twin who now were six feet under. She shifted her thought hastily to the present so the tears in her eyes would not spill. After the war the Weasley´s were tighter than ever, and Charlie had moved home from Romania and started working at a smaller dragon reserve in Wales. Hermione and him had become quite good friends after the war, bonding over their love of magical creatures and her healer abilities.
She still remembered that first day Charlie had asked her to heal him. They were in the garden of the Burrow and he had just come from work. He was looking panicked, he had somehow managed to get a burn on his arm as he was leaving. He had asked her to heal him so his mum wouldn´t go ballistic. And so Hermione did, warning him that it would leave a scar. To that he just laughed and said "I have a whole collection of those, maybe you can see them some time". She had just smiled and laughed, and that was the start of their beautiful friendship.
As she sat lost in memory her floo roared to life and out stepped none other than Charlie Weasley. His bright orange hair was hanging softly around his head, it was around the same length as Bill´s now, and he was scrunching up his face as he clutched his arm to his chest. "Blimey, Hermione! You´re floo is as crazy as a dragon. It just knocked me into the fireplace for no good reason!" Hermione was on her feet in an instant, checking out his arm. "Charlie this is a dragon burn, not from my fireplace" she huffed. She quickly healed his arm and summoned some burning salve from the bathroom and gently covered his arm in it.
They both sat down on the couch while she was putting a bandage over the wound. "What did you do this time?" You see, this wasn´t the first time Charlie had come into her flat with a new wound, it was almost a weekly ritual. One Hermione was exited for and dreaded at the same time. She didn´t want to see Charlie hurt of course, but she loved having him over as she had developed feelings for the kind dragon tamer. Charlie turned a bit red at the ears, not that Hermione noticed, and said "I got a bit too close to the pen when Asphodel were in a state, she was so worked up she managed to spit fire outside of the pen." It was a lie on his part, he had of course been hurt by a dragon, but he had been playing with a baby dragon and it had sneezed on him six consecutive times, causing the wound.
He looked to Hermione, and she was staring at him with those big beautiful brown eyes, and somehow the atmosphere in the room completely shifted. It had become tense with expectation, and both Charlie and Hermione noticed for the first time how close they were sitting. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips on its own accord and she could see Charlie´s aqua blue eyes darting to them before meeting her eyes again, with a determined look. He slowly cupped her face in his hand and leaned in. He stopped a few centimetres away from her lips, and she closed the distance between them willingly. She felt sparks transforming through the kiss and heat pool in her stomach. His tongue traced the seam of her lips and she parted them. Their tongues danced in an age old combat for dominance while Charlie´s hands had moved to Hermione´s hair and waist. Her own hands had found their way to his soft hair and his chest. The kiss soon became heated and Charlie ran his hands up and down her sides, but at last they had to break apart from air. Charlie laid his forehead against hers and whispered "Hermione, I´ve fancied you for quite some time and I think you´re absolutely the most brilliant witch there is, would you please be mine and let me take you out to dinner tonight?" Hermione couldn´t find her voice so she kissed him hard and then whispered a yes against his lips.
In the end she did get to see his collection of scars, and she would never admit it but she was impressed.
