Christmas at the burrow was always a hectic occasion. Everyone was bustling around the house, talking, yelling, and interacting together happily, everyone that was, except for Hermione who was sitting in the orchard watching Mr. Weasley, Bill, and George setting up the tables for the family. She kept asking herself why she had decided joining her children at the Burrow for Christmas was such a splendid idea only a few months after her and Ron's divorce had been finalized.
Honestly it made no sense, but there she sat proof of her own naiveté. After her parents' deaths of course she didn't have any other options, though seeing Ron snuggled up to Katie, was just heartbreaking. She huffed in frustration, and let her mind wander.
It was just before dinnertime when she felt the grass beside her shift, and she turned to find Charlie. She lifted a single brow in question, but the older man merely shrugged. She averted her gaze, and they sat, much closer than she thought strictly necessary, and watched the sun set below the hills.
"Beautiful." Charlie whispered as the last wisps of golden sunlight sunk below the horizon revealing the sky in twilight. The snow glimmered with an almost supernatural glow, and Hermione couldn't help but agree with his sentiment.
"It is, isn't it?"
"I wasn't talking about the snow." Charlie spoke, this time much closer to her ear. Hermione's head whipped around, and she found her herself closer to the man than she could ever remember being. She froze. His breath smelled of peppermint, and his blue eyes shimmered with passion. She leaned in closer, forgetting who he was, and their lips met.
Gently, her mouth parted at the same moment that his did, and they were lost in each other. Somehow, they ended up tangled in each other's arms, and Hermione let out another sigh, one of contentment, but she turned, and found herself in the arms of the wrong man. Charlie looked down at her in confusion as she fled the orchard. What had he done?
Hermione sat in the bathroom looking at herself in the mirror. What had she done? That was Ron's brother for Merlin's sake! The guilt engulfed her completely, however futile it was. Ron had left her, no, them. He'd left Hermione and their children to go on an adventure with Katie, and it was he who should be guilt ridden, not her. At least, that's what she had been telling herself for months. She gathered her strength, and left the washroom. She was holding herself together well, until she walked into the kitchen doorway overlooking the sitting room, and saw Ron kissing Katie; Ron with hands running down Katie's back, and Katie smiling sweetly at her children.
A silent sob escaped her. Ron was with Katie. Ron was happy, and there she sat, pining after the boy she'd loved for nearly twenty years, and she couldn't control herself anymore. She cried, and she cried hard. She didn't even struggle as strong arms wrapped around her, giving her the only sense of stability she had known in almost a year.
Charlie whisked Hermione up the steps to his childhood bedroom, and sat down on his old bed with the petite brunette in his arms. He rocked her in his arms as she had her children, and tried with everything he had to make the tears stop; to fix the miles of damage his foolishly blind little brother had caused the incredible woman in his arms.
As Hermione's wracking sobs sounded around her almost surreally, she didn't care that it was Charlie that held her as she cried, not Ron, or that it was Charlie that kissed her tears away. The only thing that mattered was that she was snuggled in a pair of strong arms that held her tight, and protected her from all the pain of him.
She drifted to sleep to the sound of Charlie's heartbeat. Maybe that was where she went from here.