Hermione woke up to Charlie in the shower before dawn the next morning, when Charlie came out she asked him, "Do you always get up so early?"

"The dragon's get up at sunrise so we have to have them fed as soon as they wake. Life starts early here and we go to bed early because we are so tired."

"I can see that, do you eat breakfast before or after feeding?"

"After if you hurry and shower you can go with me I have the babies to feed today."

Hermione hurriedly showered and came out of the bathroom pulling her hair up in a messy bun and then sat down and pulled on her boots. Charlie whistled when he came back in the bedroom, Hermione had on a pair of well washed jeans that were very snug and a tight t-shirt. "Lady you look hot, grab your vest and gloves you will need them."

Hermione followed Charlie out into the darkness; they both said lumos and lighted their wand; as they got to the gate to the reserve proper they had to wait in line. "We will have to show our id, this just started we have been having some trouble with poachers."

Hermione followed Charlie into the hatchling building and quickly pulled on sterile clothes and boots. She then followed Charlie's instructions and mixed up milk and chicken blood for the newborns. When the mixture was completed the two of them carried large buckets into the pen and began feeding the babies. Hermione giggled when they climbed all over her getting to their breakfast. As the babies got their bellies full they just kind of dropped over in a stupor. Hermione sat with two Chinese fireballs laid on their backs on her lap in a full belly stupor.

Charlie looked over at Hermione with the babies in her lap and wondered what she would look like holding his child. At that minute he knew he was lost; he would have to marry Hermione he was head over heels in love with her.

The two of them laid the babies into the bed boxes that were scattered across the pen and went to clean up the feeding equipment and headed back out. They would have breakfast and then come back and clean the pens and put new bedding down.

Hermione was shocked when she walked into the cafeteria for breakfast, there were hundreds of people scattered around the big dining hall. What even surprised her more were how many girls there were and how many of them were in robes and dressy clothes. "Charlie what do all the girls in dress robes and dresses do here at the reserve?"

Pete answered for Charlie, "Those chicklets are support staff and medi witches along with a few of the big shots wives. The gals dressed like you are; are our friends they work with the dragons. "

Hermione laughed at Pete's answer, "Sounds like maybe you've not had luck with the support staff."

Pete growled; "they think they are too good for the likes of us; they know nothing about dragons and think because they have education we aren't any good."

Charlie started laughing, "Pete believe it or not Hermione is one of the educated, she's already completed a quarter of her college education at Oxford and has signed her apprenticeship papers in potions. She has more education then most of those gals except for the medi witches."

"Yeah but your Hermione can talk to the dragons and loves them. That bunch doesn't care at all about them it's just a job for them."

Charlie nodded, "unfortunately, that's the truth they really don't care a darn thing about the dragons."

Hermione finished eating and watched the other people scattered around the hall. She saw what Pete and Charlie were talking about; some of the girls were laughing at the way the dragon handlers were dressed. She also saw one pointing to her and knew that it was snide remarks coming out of her mouth. Hermione had read enough lips that she knew they were making fun of her dirty jeans and t-shirt with blood and milk on it from the babies. Hermione wasn't one to take people talking about her after seven years of Malfoy she didn't take much anymore; as the girl started walking by Hermione stuck her foot out and tripped the girl. Needless to say the dragon tamers all got a laugh out of it and the girl came up ready to hex.

Hermione had her wand out and ready to hex the girl before she could get her wand out. "Go ahead and try; I've fought death eaters you are nothing."

The girl took a good look at Hermione and realized that she meant every word she said. Then she took a second look at Hermione and gasped, "Your Hermione Granger, Harry Potter's friend. "

Hermione nodded; when the girl started trying to fawn over her she turned her back on her and sat back down beside Charlie. The girl continued to try to talk to Hermione, "look I don't want to talk to you please leave!"

Charlie knew that Hermione hated being fawned over and knew if the girl didn't leave soon that Hermione would hex her. Because he was afraid of that he grabbed her hand and pulled her to the door. When they finally got free of the girl; Charlie started laughing. "Come on beautiful don't let her ruin your day, we still have pens to clean."

Hermione laughed, "Do you think cleaning pens are something I should be looking forward to?"

The two of them showed their id's and entered the compound, Charlie showed her the easiest way to clean the pens and the two of them along with several other people worked together and made short work of the pens. Hermione was glad when they finished, Charlie had promised her that they could go see Noreen after they finished.

The two of them walked over to the pens and noticed that Noreen was lying down; when they got closer they noticed that she had three eggs lying between her front legs. Hermione smiled, "Oh Noreen you are taking care of your eggs." The dragon looked at Hermione's eyes and told her that she had laid them early that morning. She also went on to tell Hermione that she would take good care of her babies that they didn't need to take her young ones away from her.

Charlie was listening to the same conversation and then talked back to Noreen, "I'll let the other tamers know that you want to take care of your own babies."

Noreen nodded to Charlie and breathed a little fire on her eggs and turned them over. Charlie and Hermione walked her for a few more minutes and then told her bye.

Charlie stopped by the shack and let the handler on duty know what Noreen had said, so that no one tried to take her eggs. He also let them know that she was warming and turning her eggs and taking good care of them. Then the two of them went back to their tent.

At noon they would have to head back to the pens and feed the babies again; so they had about three hours to rest. Charlie explained that most of the handlers did their morning rounds ate breakfast and finished up their morning rounds then returned and slept a few hours.

The two of them pulled their boots off and sat on the couch talking while they rested. Hermione told Charlie about the fact that she would have 24 hours worth of classes next quarter and that she was going to try to get into a Saturday charms class. "If everything goes right I can be finished at the end of winter and start my apprenticeship in the spring."

"Mione please don't make yourself sick trying to get done quickly, I would rather it take you longer then making yourself sick."

"I should be fine I'll be busy but I won't do much but study, even when you get back you won't have much free time. You'll be the newest Professor so you will get stuck with all of the Hogsmeade trips and the hall monitoring. "

Charlie pulled Hermione closer to him, "I don't know if I will like teaching Hermione; I really feel bad about leaving the reserve. We are really short staffed and we are getting more dragons every day."

Hermione pulled Charlie down and kissed him, "I know you do and I can understand why you love the dragons. If you don't like it don't stay! I will get done as quickly as I can and I'll apply for a position here. I know that you use a lot of potions I've seen the medicine cabinet I'm sure it would be cheaper to hire a potion mistress then order them."

"Make sure you talk to Severus about the potions he makes for us. I know that the director wants me to talk to him about continuing to brew for us. And needless to say he charges a very hefty fee many of them he has invented for us."

Hermione nodded and laid her head on Charlie's chest. She was tired and it felt so right laying there. Just before 11:30 Charlie shook Hermione awake, "Hey beautiful we need to get up and head back to work. We've got some babies that will be getting hungry."

Hermione smiled at Charlie, "Oh I'm so tired, how do you do this day after day?"

"Well its four days on and three days off that helps a lot. If you can get through today and tomorrow I'm free the rest of your stay."

"Oh I can mange I went with a lot less sleep then this during the war I guess I've just got lazy."

Charlie laughed and the two of them fed the babies and then had lunch. After lunch Charlie took Hermione into town, they were finished for the day and he thought she would enjoy seeing a little of the local color. Hermione for her part loved the little wizarding town; it was colorful and instead of a lot of brick and mortar stores like Hogsmeade it had lots of stalls. Each little stall was full of perfumes, jewelry, clothes and even food.

The two of them strolled through the town and Charlie bickered with a couple of the stall owners for a bracelet that Hermione wanted for Ginny and some perfume for Molly. She also found a beautiful gypsy skirt for herself.

The two of them headed back to reserve after finishing their shopping, as they entered the compound Pete was coming towards them. "Hey Charlie your owl was sitting on your tent stake a little bit ago. I let him in the tent and made sure he had water."

"Thanks Pete we're heading that way now I'll see what's going on with him."

The two of them walked to the tent and found Twany sitting on the perch. Charlie pulled off the note and laughed, "It's from mom!

Dear Hermione and Charlie,

I hope that Hermione is having a wonderful time. We miss having her here; I didn't realize how much I would miss her. Charlie you need to take good care of Hermione, don't let any of those dragons hurt her. The main reason I'm writing to you is that we have news here. Fred and George are both engaged, can you believe it they are still doing everything together. They are engaged to the Patil twins, should be interesting twin brothers marrying twin sisters. I love both of you and can't wait for you to come home.

Love, Mom"

Hermione laughed, "So the twins are engaged, that should make your mom happy."

"The only thing that will make mom happy is when all of us are married and have a house full of kids. Then she'll start on the grandkids to start marrying."

"Ummm Charlie you aren't wanting a houseful of kids are you?"

Charlie pulled Hermione down beside him, "No, I don't even care if we have any kids. I never really thought I'd get married. But, then I met you and well I fell in love."

"Charlie, we haven't even dated and we are already talking marriage. Do you think we are hurrying everything?"

"No why do you think that? I know we haven't had a traditional relationship; but, we have lived in the same house and fought side by side. I know you better then Bill knew Fleur."

"I know but sometimes it feels like we are doing things in a different order then the norm. But, with you living here and me in England it's a little hard to have a normal relationship"

"Well I'll be closer just before Christmas; Scotland is much closer then Romania."

Hermione nodded and looked up at the clock. "If we are going to eat we need to head to the dining hall."

The couple spent the rest of the week visiting local towns and seeing the sights around Romania. At least once a day they went out and checked on Noreen and her eggs. They also helped feed the babies even though they weren't on the duty."

By Friday Hermione was dreading leaving the reserve; she had made friends with most of the dragon handlers. She still didn't care for most of the support staff other than a couple of the medi witches. Friday night at dinner the handlers all gathered around Hermione and Charlie and had a small party with cake and ice cream for her.

Hermione felt like she was leaving her family behind when she got up on Saturday morning. She was supposed to catch the international portkey at noon; she didn't want to leave Charlie or the dragons.