It was December the first. London was humming with Christmas' preparations. The air was crispy cold but that did not stop the city to be alive. People were rushing in and out the subway stations, car horns were honking. It was a normal day in the city, the extra agitation only due to the holiday approaching.
It had been a rough year, after the terrorist attack that targeted London two years ago, the country had gone into war. The government has been reelected since then and they managed to hold one of their electing promise: all troops were back in Britain for December. Everything was as well as it could be.
Unbeknownst to the Muggle, the magic community was buzzing. It wasn't just the fact that Christmas was coming, no it was just that the last trial of the Death Eater was going to end soon. After more than one year of trials the whole magic society was tired. But that did not mean that everything was solved.
Hermione Granger, aspiring Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, was currently rushing through the crowd. Her arms were carrying at least five different files and she looked determined. As always she looked very neat, her attire totally professional. It was 6am and Hermione was going to work. She had worked hard the last night and you could see that in the black lines under her eyes. But as she said herself: "you don't go to the top by laying on your ass".
She went to her office and immediately she began to sort her mail. She always arrived at 6am so that she had time to sort a bit her stuff before new owls arrived. At 6:50 she stood up and went to fetch a bag in one of her cupboard. She filled a bowl near her door with owl's food and then folded quietly the bag and put it back in the cupboard. She sent proceed to retrieve the flowers one of her admirer had send her the previous day. Each day she will receive a different bouquet and she liked it.
She exhaled deeply and braced herself for the day to come. As soon as 7 rang someone entered her office. Another file she had to examine before the end of the day. That was when she blessed her reading's habit, she did not get tired easily when it came to reading and she could read faster and memorize faster than everyone else. She soon get absorbed in the file treating of an altercation between a goblin and a Muggle.
She stopped working at 10 because it was coffee break. The whole service stopped working for fifteen minutes and exchange pleasantries, discuss and build friendships. Hermione loved that here she was not considered as a bookworm. Yes everyone was still looking at her for help whenever they had a big file but it was more rewarding now that some people's life were at stake.
After the welcome break everyone get back to work. Their department was one of the most important as they controlled everything related to law. That was why people usually did not stay long in this department. It asked too much and the higher you get the more difficult it was. No one last more than five years in that service. With already one year in the counter Hermione was already experienced. And she was vice-head. It was really impressive how fast she had climbed the ladder of success.
But that had a toll on her. She managed to see Harry and Ron every Monday for lunch and the rest of the gang once a month for dinner. But it sometimes felt like she was obligated to go and not what she really wanted to do. She had no social life except those two meetings and the coffee break. She did not sleep well and sometimes she forgot to eat. As a consequence she was getting thinner and had to take some medications to not have a break down. But she loved her job and helping people.
It was Monday and she was quite happy that she would get to see her two best friends for lunch. Yes best friends. Despite Molly Weasley's scheming her and Ron knew that the kiss they shared was a onetime thing. They might have loved each other when they were younger but the war had really enable them to see they weren't made for each other. They were now both working as Aurors and so they hang out a lot together. It was always refreshing to see them so when the clock hit 1pm Hermione grabbed her coat and went to their favorite restaurant.
Of course she was the first to arrive. She rolled her eyes at the thought. But when she saw them coming to join her she could not help but smile. They both hugged her before going to the table and ordering. As always, the conversation flew easily between them. Nothing could break their friendship.
It was already dessert when Ron dropped his bomb.
"So Hermione are you ready for tomorrow?" he asked without much thought. Hermione was always ready for everything, after all. But he feared he had forgotten something so he was actually looking forward hearing her list of things done.
"I'm sorry but what happens tomorrow?" She was a bit taken aback by his question. Today was a normal day right?
"Well we're taking the portkey to visit my brother Charlie for the holidays as you must remember". Ron was surprised. But, with all the work she put herself in, it was no wonder she might have momentarily forgotten something.
"We're going to see your brother?!" She was clearly not ready to hear that. She never knew they were supposed to leave Great Britain soon. And how was she supposed to leave for holidays when she was overloaded by work?
After some research, they discovered that Hermione never received the owl inviting her over for the holiday. But, not wanting to disappoint the Weasley's family and after a long heartfull discussion with her best friends, Hermione agreed to come. After all portkey existed for a reason. She could still work even if she was in Romania.
It was only when she came back home early that she realized she actually would have to face Charlie Weasley. After their last encounter she was not sure she wanted it to happen. But she was Hermione Granger, war heroin, so she braced herself and began packing. She finished one hour later at 6:30. She prepared something to eat and got back to work. She finally went to bed at 1am and swore a little when she had to set up her alarm clock at 4. She had to wake up earlier in order to be on time at the portkey.
Charlie was currently busy, trying to tidy his room before going to work. He knew that after his long day of work he won't have the courage to do it. He sighed. He was definitely happy to see his family but they will arrive at the worst time possible, someone was stealing from the reserve, and he was not sure he could stand to be so close to Hermione without doing anything. His thoughts began to drift towards their last encounter.
Eleven months ago
It was New Year's eve at the burrow and the Weasley had invited all their friends. That is the reason why Charlie was currently speaking with Neville Longbottom. They were currently discussing the effect of dragon blood on plants when Hermione approached them. They stayed together the whole evening and talked about their respective job or remembering stories from Hogwarts.
When midnight was nearing Hermione went to look for her best friends, Neville for Luna and Charlie decided that he should met his parents. As Ron was currently speaking with his father, Hermione and Charlie went that way together.
They were suddenly stopped by a magical force. They looked around themselves, quite stunned. Charlie finally found the reason of their stillness: they were beneath mistletoe. George had decided that the best way to remember his dear twin was to put some charms on mistletoe. He, of course, planned it more carefully than he would have before. Which means that person from the same family had to kiss yes but only on the cheek. The same goes if one of the person was married: the only person he had to kiss on the mouth was his spouse. But, if the two persons caught by the mistletoe were single, then they had to kiss.
Charlie looked expectedly at Hermione, praying that she was in a relationship. When he saw her cheeks blushed he groaned inwardly.
"Let's do it quickly, ok?" he suggested. Hermione only nodded. He decided to take things in hand after that. He took her in his arm and slowly made her lift her chin. He took his breath in and put his lips on hers.
He was planning on just doing a quick pick on her lips but he felt himself attracted to her more than was reasonable. He pressed his lips a bit more against hers and he felt her surprise. But she seemed to like it because he could feel her opening her lips, granting him entrance. He was about to grant her request when the crowd began the countdown. They quickly parted, quite shocked about what happened.
They did not have time to speak as suddenly Ron, Harry and Ginny joined them. Feeling out Charlie left them after a few minutes. He expected to bump into her later but an hour later he felt his wand vibrating. That was the sign that he was needed at the reserve so he packed and left, having just enough time to warn his mother of his immediate departure.
Since then he hadn't seen her or hear about her. Well, he always took things in their own time so he decided not to worry about it yet. He would see the next day how she would act and he would mimic her behavior. Of course he would not deny that he was attracted to her but it wasn't as if he was desperate. Yes she was quite handsome but he had seen more beautiful girls. And he was quite a charmer so he knew if he wanted her he would have her.
Having settled this problem for the moment, Charlie came back to the task at hand, aka finding which of his clothes were clean and which weren't. Once this gruesome task was finished it was time for him to go to real work.
When he finally came home, his whole body was sore and he was starving. He just had enough force to gulp down a dinner and take a shower before collapsing on his bed. Just before falling asleep he smiled, happy at the thought that the next day he would finally see his family.
Hope you like it. Please give me your opinion on this first chapter. And if you see any mistake tell me :)
