--Chapter Two--

Harry awoke to the feeling of a warm body spooned around him. Smiling softly, he wriggled around in the arms surrounding him to face a sleeping Charlie. Harry thought he looked beautiful in his sleep, his features relaxed and a small smile on his face. Longer locks of his red hair were waving as they caught in the quiet puffs of air that tumbled from his partially open mouth.

Harry was torn between wanting Charlie's company and watching the man sleep. After a sudden thought, he turned to the other bed in the room and noticed, with relief, Ron was not there and the bed had not been slept in. He didn't think either of them would recover if his best friend found him naked in bed with his older brother. He turned his head back, meeting smiling blue eyes and sighed happily, his own grin spreading across his face.

"Morning," he said softly.

"Morning," Charlie replied and that was all that needed to be said between them. They chatted amiably as they dressed and after a warm embrace and a lingering kiss, they made their way downstairs.

Mr and Ms Weasley were on holiday in Italy, a treat bought from the bonus Arthur got with his promotion, so only the Weasley children and Neville, Hermione and Lee, the respective partners of Ginny, Ron and George were seated around the large kitchen table when Harry and Charlie entered, holding hands.

There were catcalls and wolf whistles as they sat adjacently at the end of the table and Harry blushed at some of the more lewd suggestions from Fred and George and Harry felt that the latter of which, who was draped possessively around his own lover, had no room to talk.

"So what is everyone doing today?" Harry asked as he bit into some toast.

"Well, Hermione is doing all the reading we could possibly have to do for our last year but I thought maybe we could all have a game of Quidditch. Percy's already at work so he can't complain about the noise and it's a lovely day, nice for a match," Ron said as he piled his plate higher with food.

"Sounds like a plan," Charlie agreed and there were murmurs of agreement from he rest of the table.

"I might join you though, Hermione," Neville said sheepishly and the others laughed knowing full well his lack of talent in the air.

No one mentioned the fact that Charlie ate his breakfast with only one hand as his other rested comfortably on Harry's thigh, or that Harry moved his chair so close that his whole body touched warmly with Charlie's, but the indulgent smiles they shot their way, showed they had noticed.

After breakfast, as planned, the group headed outside, Hermione and Neville taking up residence in the shade of a tree while the other boys and Ginny collected their brooms from the shed. They split up into teams: Bill, Fred, Ginny and Harry against Ron, George, Lee and Charlie. It would only be the second time that Harry had played seeker against Charlie Weasley as he mostly refused to play after an embarrassing incident where he almost died as he admired how good Charlie, his arse especially, looked straddling a broom and lost the snitch to the older man. This time, he was determined to win, even if he had to resort to dirty tactics.

The game was mostly friendly with harmless banter and showing off between the teams. Harry was enjoying himself immensely as he and Charlie swooped and dived around each other and the lust and surprise on Charlie's face as Harry tricked him was hilarious. Earlier, when Charlie was performing a particularly difficult feint, Harry had stretched his body out like a cat under the pretence of yawning, knowing full well that his sweaty top had lifted up to display his flat abdomen. Fred and George had killed themselves laughing when their brother almost killed himself because he was too busy checking out Harry and even Ron had laughed when Harry had then turned around and wiggled his bum at the flustered Charlie.

They had been playing for several hours and Charlie's team were still winning by ten points when Harry saw the snitch. It was hovering just behind Charlie who, looking the other way, had not seen it. Quickly picking a course of action, Harry flew over until he was face to face with he man he loved. Charlie raised an eyebrow at his sudden appearance but Harry only smirked before grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him into a searing kiss. Charlie moaned, his hands coming to rest on Harry's waist as Harry deepened the kiss, thrusting his tongue into his mouth. Harry had almost forgotten the purpose of his kiss as he lost himself in the pleasures of Charlie's mouth. He opened his eyes as he got control of himself, made sure that Charlie's were firmly shut, before looking behind him to where the snitch sill fluttered.

He tilted his head, changing the angle of the kiss and then moved one hand slowly round from the front of Charlie's body, caressing him softly and stretched it out behind their closely joined bodies, closing his fingers over the tiny golden ball.

Charlie pulled away from the kiss at the sound of cheering, blushing as he saw that the others hand all stopped and were watching them. He turned to Harry, expecting an equally flushed appearance but was met with a wicked grin. He pulled a confused face and that quickly turned to one of complete shock as Harry held up the snitch.

He quickly realised what Harry had done and was just about to give him a piece of his mind for such sneaky cheating before lips closed over his and he forgot why he was upset.

--

Charlie had been extremely embarrassed over the events of the Quidditch match, although he couldn't help but see the funny side as well. The twins had teased him mercilessly for the rest of the day, but that had been expected and the others kept congratulating himself and Harry on their relationship.

They had spent most of the day laying around and chatting and now in the evening, they were sat in the same spot they were the night before, but with Harry sat in the V of Charlie's legs who in turn was leaning against the large tree. Tonight there was no game playing and instead the group were just laughing and joking together. It was relaxing, Harry decided, to be wrapped up in a lover's arms as you listen to the laughter of your friends and Harry couldn't help wish that the atmosphere would stay with him forever.

Harry burrowed back impossible further into Charlie's arms, which tightened around his waist reflexively. He leant his head back so that he could see Charlie's face and smiled at the man. Harry had things he really wanted to talk about and he knew that there was no time like the present to discuss serious matters. The others were not paying them any attention so he knew the chances of them overhearing were minimal.

He looked down to where Charlie's arms rested and laid his own hands on top of the larger ones, absently tracing patterns over the freckled skin. Taking a deep breath, he decided to go for it.

"Charlie, I wanted to speak to you about something," he started quietly, and Charlie hummed in return. "I was wondering about what's going to happen when I go back to school, are you going back to Romania? Will I not see you until Christmas?" The last questions came out in a rush as he tried to say them before he lost his nerve.

"I'm not sure, Harry, but I'm definitely not going back to Romania. I quit before the summer. I love dragons and I love Romania but I miss my family and I miss you," Charlie tried to reassure him.

"Will you…come see me on Hogsmead weekends?" Harry asked carefully, "We haven't really had a proper date and it would be nice to show you off to all my classmates," he finished teasingly. Charlie moved his hand to cup Harry's chin and tipped his head up so that he could look him in the eye.

"Of course I will come visit you. I love you and I don't want to be parted from you anymore than I have to." He leant down and captured Harry's lips in a tender upside down kiss, tongues entwining and lips touching softly. They broke the bizarre meeting of mouths and smiled at each other before turning back to the conversation of their friends.

Harry felt as if a weight had been lifted from his heart and he felt lighter as he enjoyed the company of his friends and his lover. He knew he had nothing to worry about, Charlie loved him and that was all that mattered anymore.

--

For the next few days, life was pretty much the same for the friends staying at the Burrow. They spent their days playing Quidditch, shopping or just laying around the house and their nights talking, playing games, drinking and in the case of the couples, having sex. Due to this fact, there had been a large shuffle round in the house so that all the couples could be accommodated and the innocence of the singles' ears, kept.

As it was now, Harry and Charlie slept in what was previously Ron and Harry's room; Bill and Fred slept in Mr and Mrs Weasley's room as no one could possibly have sex in there; George and Lee spent their nights in the twin's room; Ron and Hermione were in Bill and Charlie's old room and Ginny and Neville, much to the chagrin of her brothers, slept in her room. The arrangement suited everyone well and meant that, so far, no one had walked in on others in a compromising position.

It was a Saturday morning, two weeks before the start of term for the younger members of the group, when Charlie received a letter by owl, early in the morning as he was just lying still watching Harry sleep. Ripping it open, he read quickly a smile gracing his lips as the message of the letter became clear. He glanced over at Harry, who was sleeping soundly, hair a mess and his smile grew wider. He dashed over to the Ron's desk and rummaged through the drawers for ink, a quill and clean parchment before scribbling a reply and giving it back to the tawny owl that was resting on the sill of the open window it had flown threw.

Sighing, he turned his attention back to his still sleeping lover. Charlie knew that the best option would be to keep the letter a secret so he quickly stashed it under the bed before climbing back into it and wrapping himself around Harry's warm body. He couldn't help but grin when he thought about Harry's possible reaction to this latest development. With that though, he fell into a dreamy doze.

--

True to his promise to himself, for the rest of the summer Charlie did no mention the content to Harry, or anyone else. Mr and Mrs Weasley had arrived home the day before Harry and the others would be going back to Hogwarts. Charlie was shocked when Harry immediately announced to them that Charlie and he were now in a relationship and that they loved each other very much. However, he was not as shocked as Harry when Molly burst into tears of happiness and pulled them both into a bone-crushing hug or when Mr Weasley shook both of their hands before placing them together and smiling when their fingers locked together.

Now, as he carded his fingers through Harry's unruly hair as they embraced on Platform 9 and ¾ he knew he had made the right choice. They had made it to the platform just over twenty minutes early, a first for all of them and he and Harry had spent the last fifteen of those minutes, kissing tenderly as they said goodbye. He knew that Harry was fighting back tears as he whispered sweet nothings to Charlie in between languorous kisses. Charlie felt guilty for putting his love through unneeded upset but knew it would be worth it in the end. He kept Harry held tightly in his arms and kissed away the few salty droplets that spilled from Harry's eyes, kissing Harry all over his face and in his hair.

"Oi, come say goodbye to the rest of us too, Harry!" Came the indignant shout from the twins. Smiling softly and pressing one last kiss to Harry's nose, Charlie let his arms drop and he grabbed Harry's hand and led him over to where the rest of the family were saying goodbye and allowed Harry to make his own.

The cases were already on the train and as the whistle blew, Harry turned to say something to Charlie but was cut off by the press of soft lips against his own. He melted into the kiss and it became almost desperate as Harry tried to imprint the image of Charlie into his mind so that it might last him until he next saw him. The whistle blew again and Harry knew he had to go. They broke the kiss and pressed their foreheads together, words not needed as they both expressed their love to each other in the tight press of their bodies together and the panting of breath.

Pressing one last chaste kiss to Charlie's lips, Harry forced himself to pull away and jump onto the train jus as it began to pull away. He let the tears fall unashamedly as he waved goodbye to Charlie's shrinking figure before taking a deep breath and following his friends to an empty carriage.