It started in third year, the first day of Care of Magical Creatures, though it was years before Charlie Weasley realized that was the start.

A misty September morning greeted Charlie as he wandered out of the Great Hall for his first class of Care of Magical Creatures. His best friend, Nymphadora Tonks, laughed next time with bright eyes, her mind working mischief and her tongue speaking plots. She was a grand mischief maker, and no one ever suspected her- sometimes he envied that she was a metamorphagus, but she always used it to his advantage, too.

Then, as they started out the front door to go find Professor Kettleburn, Cecilia Brewer approached them, looking flushed and eyes twinkling.

"Er, hi! Charlie!"

He smiled politely as Tonks went quiet next to him. "Hullo, Cecilia."

"I was just- er- I just wanted- to- can I ask you something?"

Charlie saw Tonks smirking and wondered what he'd missed. "Er- sure?"

"Will you go to Hogsmeade with me? I- I mean- as a date?"

His eyebrows rose. "A date?"

The prospect had never occurred to him. He supposed an afternoon in Hogsmeade with Cecilia would be pleasant- she had always been good for a laugh, and the girl could drown you in sarcasm. But Charlie didn't exactly think those were the right reasons to go on a date with someone. There was an emotion he had read about that he didn't quite feel for her.

"Er- yes, that is, if you want to."

She looked so hopeful and his heart twisted. "I... I don't know if that would be the best idea, Cecilia."

And he all but ran to Care of Magical Creatures.

The next weekend he'd thought about it, processed the event, and heard some very poignant words from Tonks on the matter. He pulled Cecilia aside and spoke to her in careful tones.

"I'm sorry- you're... Beautiful, and clever, and hilarious, and I do care about you, but I'm not sure I feel that way about people."

Her eyebrows creased. "What way?"

"Like..." He struggled to articulate. He had mulled it over plenty, but he couldn't think of how to put it into words. "Like that butterflies-in-your-stomach feeling where you want to- to kiss someone and hold their hand or whatever. I've never wanted to ask anyone on a date. And I'm sure if I did feel that way about people, I'd definitely want to go on a date with you, but I don't and I don't want to lead you on."

She stepped closer. "I- I think I understand. Could you, maybe, er, go to Hogsmeade with me anyway? I- I think it would be nice if we were to just hang out."

Charlie smiled, relieved she'd taken it well. "Of course!"

It only advanced two months later.

The Forbidden Forest was drenched in snow when Professor Kettleburn led the class out into the woods. Tonks was joking about how she'd set up James Killian and Ophelia Nott on a date, and Cecilia was walking with them, shocked as she learned the truth about Charlie's best friend.

Then they had emerged in the clearing, and Charlie met his one true love:

An antipodean opaleye was tied to a tree. She was the most beautiful thing Charlie had ever seen.

For the first time in his life, Charlie was obsessed, passionate, in need of someone's presence- and it was a dragon. For the next four years, that didn't change.

He petitioned Professor Kettleburn constantly to bring in dragons. Charlie read every book in the library and spent every holiday break asking his parents about it. Bill teased him when Charlie never did go on a date to Hogsmeade- but there was something far more interesting than dating: there was dragons.

It was when Bill got married that Charlie realized he really hadn't ever fallen in love with anything but dragons.

And it wasn't that he wanted to kiss the dragon or hold its claw- that was laughable to even imagine- but that he finally had a passion. At Christmas, Bill was talking about Fleur, and then George about Angelina and Ron about Hermione, even Ginny had someone. And Charlie was showing off pictures of his dragons that he'd been training and taking care of. They were beautiful.

Charlie Weasley was thirty-nine years old when he first came across the term "aromantic", and forty at "aro/ace". But it didn't matter, because he achieved label he wanted when he was eighteen:

Charlie Weasley, Dragon-Handler.