Chapter Seven
Charlie helped Hermione attach her letter to the Flacon's leg, and gave him instructions about the delivery, all the while speaking to he bird on a mixture of Romanian and English. The mixture of the two accents was slight and appealing. There was a tense silence after Charlie sent off Zeus when they realized they were alone together in an amazingly sexual bedroom.
"Er… so Zeus should return in a day or two with a reply." Charlie stated the obvious nervously.
"Your accent!" Hermione suddenly burst out, surprising them both. It was like her vocal cords decided to rebel against her brain. "It's a mix, just like when you were talking to Zeus."
"Yeah, that's how it normally is." Charlie said, blushing. The sexual tension now dissipated, he went on to explain. "I've spent so much time in Romania, speaking Romanian with a Romanian accent that it blend with my English. I usually suppress it at home though…" He trailed off, stopping himself from admitting that he usually only slipped up when he was distracted by being very tired, drunk or having some very strong emotions.
Hermione nodded, understanding his decision to suppress the additional component to his accent. She was also slightly surprised to find she was glad that the very sexy new discovery was a private one that other women would not get to witness. At least, not with ease. She tried to tell herself the feeling had nothing to do with her tendency to be possessive, but couldn't even convince herself.
They left in a comfortable silence, and parted with murmurs of goodnight at her door. Hermione snapped the door shut and padded over to the bed. She pulled back her covers and grabbed Charlie's book off the desk. The sheets were cool and silky as she slid between them and settled back on the pillows. Charlie's sent mixed with that of parchment wafted to her nose as the cracked open the book to chapter one.
Charlie strolled down the hall, running his fingers through his hair. It was a nervous habit that reared its ugly head whenever he was nervous, anxious, or deep in thought. Right now he was all of the above. Hermione seemed to have that effect on him. Surprisingly though, he didn't dislike it. As a matter of fact, he might even go so far as to say he enjoyed it.
He descended the stairs to the basement, shaking his head and making a mental note to see a shrink. After this evening he was beginning to think he'd inhaled too much dragon flames fumes and knocked something loose in his head.
When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he yawned and rubbed the back of his tense warily. He always had difficulty sleeping, and it was always worse when he was stressed. Between Hermione and work, he knew better than to hold any hope for getting much sleep tonight. Outside he seemed perfectly normal, but inside his mind was always on overload, flying from one thought to another. It was such a rapid fire of thoughts that, when he was learning Occulemency, his best mate couldn't follow or understand them. Charlie still thought he was being overdramatic, having never had any problems following his own thoughts.
With a sigh, he turned on the television and sat on the couch. He conjured a table and summoned several piles of lengthy parchments, inkwells and several new quills. He settled in to his large pile of paperwork for his new job just as the American "Sherlock Holmes" film, with Robert Downey Jr., started.
Hermione groaned, rolled to her back and kicked frustrated. She was so tired, but couldn't fall asleep. She threw back the covers and padded to the door, intent of a cup of tea. She entered the kitchen silently, turned on the kettle and sat at the table to wait for it to boil. She could practically taste the tea already.
Moments later she become aware of the muted sound of voices from the basement. Her initial reaction was to tense in preparation for a fight. She scolded herself for allowing exhaustion and Charlie's presence to cause he to lower her guard to the point of leaving her wand in her room, and taking so long to notice the strange voices. The panic quickly subsided when she realized the voices were from a television.
Her curiosity piqued, she shut off the kettle and padded over to the basement. She descended the stairs and easily identified the voices as the sound of Sherlock Holmes, about three-quarters of the way through. Her lips slide into a wry smile at the memory of watching the movie with Harry and Ron. Harry had actually cast a silencing charm on Ron because the redhead refused to stop asking questions about even the most simple muggle aspects of the movie. He then cast a binding charm on the poor guy when he kept squirming and getting in their way of the television while yelling silently at Harry to take the charm off.
She remembered seeing the clock in the kitchen, and was only mildly surprised to realize it was well after midnight. She was much more surprised to see Charlie, fully awake and doing paperwork on the couch. He was dressed in plaid pajama pants and a black tee shirt, and his hair was very tasseled. He looked adorable, but beyond exhausted. A testament to that was the fact he still had yet to notice her presence. She'd become sharply attuned to her surroundings thanks to her membership in the Golden Trio. But Charlie's skills and abilities dwarfed all three of theirs combined.
She came to the decision that they both needed some Dreamless-Sleep potion and performed a quick bit of wordless, wand less magic to summon some from her purse in her room. She silently thanked Merlin that her time spent on the run with Harry and Ron had taught her to tap into her reserves to perform such high-level magic despite her exhaustion. She levitated the potion to the counter in the kitchenette and set the kettle on the stove. As the kettle heated, Hermione padded behind the couch and rested her hands on Charlie's shoulders. Startled by the sudden contact, his muscles tensed beneath her hands.
"Your up late." Hermione observed.
Charlie relaxed, recognizing the soft, melodious voice. Feeling his shoulders relax a bit, she waked around the couch, sat next to him and turned his body by pushing on his shoulders. Confused, Charlie turned and shifted so he was sitting facing away from Hermione, and placed his quill on the table. Hermione replaced her hands on his shoulders and became to knead them, slowly forcing the knots from his muscles, allowing them to further relax. Charlie bit back a moan, amazed that such small, delicate looking hands could work such wonders.
By the time the kettle whistled, Charlie's shoulders and back felt better than they ever felt, at least since he started Hogwarts. Needless to say, he was rather disappointed when he hands stopped their magic when she stood to turn off the stove. He turned to watch Holmes and Watson try to infiltrate the sewers and save Parliament. Only moments later Hermione returned and sat on the couch with one leg bent to lie on the couch, crossed beneath the other whose toes lightly brushed the floor. Charlie was surprised when she held out a second, steaming mug to him.
"I put some Dreamless-Sleep Draught in, it looks like we both need it." She explained. A shy smile spread over Charlie's lips and showed pleasantly in his green-blue eyes.
"Thank you."
Bill flooed to his brother's house tumbled out of the fireplace and nearly ran headlong into his wife.
"Charlie, Hermione… me and Fleur are here!" Bill called out by way of greeting. He shared a confused look with Fleur when no greeting was returned. They walked further into the house where the soft sound of the television attracted them to the basement. They descended the stairs and saw in info-martial playing. They made their way around the couch, where they were met with a sight that made Fleur squeal and clutch Bill's hand. And Bill grin widely with a mischievous gleam in his eyes.
Charlie was stretched out on the couch, dead asleep on his back. With him was Hermione. Her legs fell between his own, and twisted around the leg furthest from her. Her body overlapped his, so it rested next to him. She rested with her back to the back of the couch, and her head on his chest. Her hand was also on his chest, clutched around his shirt. His arm was curled around her waist with his hand resting on her hip. His other hand rested over the hand on his chest and his face was turned down and buried in her hair. The sight was all around adorable… and rather telling too.
