So, here's the last actual chapter, which I hope will calm your worried hearts, but we're not done with these two just yet, because there's a big, lemony epilogue to come - and I'll post that next weekend, if all goes to plan :-)

"I need to tell you all about what's been happening for me this year," Charlie said.

Several people put down their forks. Charlie had never addressed the entire table at a Weasley family Sunday dinner before. He was the quietest of them all, took time to frame what he wanted to say and rarely spoke loudly enough to be heard over Fred, George or Ginny. But he had been practising all night for this.

"I was hurt during the final battle," he began. "Not physically hurt, but hurt mentally. I didn't understand how that could even happen til Hermione explained." He took a deep breath. This was still hard to say, but he knew he needed to tell them before he could finally move on in the way that he wanted to.

"I was nearly hit by a lethal spell at the same time as some of the twins' Peruvian instant darkness powder was released, and the two things got linked in my head and, after the war, every time it started to get dark, I would panic." He took another deep breath and looked down at the table. "It was alright when I had company, but when I got to Hogwarts last September I could only sleep during the day and I had to sit up all night with lights and a fire. I didn't even make it through the first week without turning into a grumpy bear."

He looked up and directly at Hermione, who sat a bit further down the table. "That's where this wonderful witch came in. Within a few days, Hermione realised something was wrong with me, saw beyond my bad mood and made it her business to find out the truth."

"That sounds about right," said Ron, though not unkindly.

Charlie looked at his brother and nodded. Then he looked at his mother. "When I was in the darkest time of my life, unable to sleep and ill from being so tired, Hermione Granger turned up in my hut, in a pair of pink striped pyjamas, with an orange cat under her arm. She climbed into my bed and held me so I could finally sleep at night again." Molly's eyes filled with tears and, unable to reach Charlie's hand, she reached out for the hand of the young witch who had helped her son. She had loved Hermione before, but Molly knew that this was a debt she could never fully repay.

Charlie continued. "And she's held me every night ever since, and she helped me get help for my problem until I could finally sleep alone in the dark, which I did for the first time last night. And I was OK, and I slept." He looked at Hermione and gave her a small smile, which she returned with a nod.

Harry looked nervously at Molly, wondering what would happen when she put together this new information with the Christmas bedroom arrangement. But Molly was avidly watching Charlie and Hermione and seemed not to be thinking beyond the story that her son was telling.

"I'm ashamed of the fact that I've hidden this from you all for so long. I've let some of you think that it was Hermione who had the problem when it was Hermione who was helping me. She conjured nightlights and she let me be scared and raw and she made it OK. She helped me find a healer and she gently pushed me til I got over myself and went to see her. I owe her so much."

The entire table was silent. They had never heard Charlie speak this much in his entire life.

"And I love her," Charlie continued, ignoring Molly's delighted gasp and Bill's slow grin as he realised that he was about to win the family bet. He would insist on using the money to take them all out somewhere nice; they deserved a treat. "I love her more than any of you can imagine, and I'm going to take her outside and tell her that properly in private now, but I wanted everyone to know all that first. Because although I've loved her for a long time now, I wanted to get better before … well, I wanted to make sure that, when I told her how I felt, she knew it was because I wanted her and not just because I needed her. Excuse us." Finishing his speech just as quickly as he had begun it, Charlie stood from the table and reached for Hermione's hand. Too stunned to do anything else, she took it, stood up herself, looking around at his family, and then followed him into the garden.

"They're lining the windows, aren't they?" he said, once they had stopped, just a few yards from the house, and Hermione had turned around to face him. "Do you want to go further away?"

"Yes. I mean yes, they're all up the windows, but I don't mind." She reached for his face with one hand. "I'm so proud of you for telling them," she said. "And for making it through a whole night by yourself. I feel like you've really, properly beaten this now."

Charlie placed his hand over hers, keeping it on his face. Hermione tried to ignore the fact that Molly was now visibly crying with delight, her hands flying everywhere as she held court and ran a commentary on what she imagined was being said in the garden.

"Fred came to see me first thing," he said. "Apparently it took them a while to build up the courage, because they thought I'd be angry with them when I found out what they had done." He laughed. "They played exploding snap until midnight to see who drew the short straw and had to face me after what happened yesterday."

Hermione nodded. "I know. George came to see me early this morning as well. He somehow managed to squeeze himself through the catflap. He's the reason I'm here. He took me back to their flat to have a long bath and a longer chat and then wouldn't let go of my hand until we apparated over."

Charlie reached for Hermione's waist with his other hand. "Can we clear some things up, love? Because I feel awful that you thought I was rejecting you on valentine's day. Fred told me what you thought." He took a deep breath, remembering what Carrie had taught him about staying calm. "I didn't say no because I didn't want you, love. I said no because I wanted much more than sex with you, and I didn't think that was what you wanted."

Her eyes widened, as he continued speaking.

"I really did want to make love to you." His eyes were dark and she had no doubt of his feelings for her now. "Love." He emphasised the word, gazing into her eyes until he was certain she had taken his meaning. Then he leaned in closer. "I still do, if you'd like that. And my reluctance had nothing to do with all that stuff you were talking about that night. It was because I have real feelings for you, and I want to properly be yours. If you'll have me?"

Hermione's gaze had softened while he talked. "I want you too, Charlie. When you asked me if I wanted love or sex, I assumed it was because you didn't want anything deep." He nodded. He should have considered that, given his previous reputation for adventure and non-committed fun. "That was wrong of me," she said, "and I'm sorry for that. And … until last night, I thought I did just want sex and experience, but it turns out I don't."

Charlie nodded again.

"Did they tell you what they did, last night, with Fred?" Hermione continued. Charlie closed his eyes and looked slightly pained as he murmured in the affirmative. "Don't blame them," she stroked his cheek with his thumb and smiled. He knew her love for his twin brothers was very deep and totally platonic. "It was their way of trying to get me to admit how I felt, and clearly it worked. I do want you, Charlie, and I'd love to be with you. But are you OK with the fact that I want to travel as well? I thought you wanted to settle down now? That's another reason I didn't talk to you more about things…"

Charlie grinned. "I'm more than OK with that. I did want to be closer to home after the war, but I'm ready to roam a bit again. Not all the time, but a bit of both would be great. In fact, I have a proposal for you, but this is far too much talking and I need to kiss you … may I?"

"Of course…" It was barely a whisper, and it was barely out of her lips before they were being covered with soft kisses by Charlie. His head tipped smoothly to one side as he took both of her cheeks in his hands and moved his mouth over Hermione's. She sighed at the sensation it provoked, and Charlie took that opportunity to gently tease her lower lip with his tongue before using it to search for and then tangle with her own. Hermione felt a thrill at the sensation and realised she wasn't going to sleep much that night. Or so she hoped. She moved her face back from his slightly, needing to clarify that. "You're not going to make me wait longer, are you?" she checked. "Because I want another massage when we get back to Hogwarts, and I want you to finish it properly this time."

Charlie immediately felt himself get hard. "Anything my lady wants." He wove a hand into her hair, pulling it gently from her face. "I'm at your service, witch." He kissed her neck before growling his next words into her ear. "Love … sex … massage … all night long… It's a good thing I'm not afraid of the dark…"

Hermione groaned, half from the sensations he was evoking in her and half from knowing that they were being watched and that she needed to maintain some control in front of their rest of his – no, their – family. Putting her hands on his shoulders, she kissed Charlie's mouth very thoroughly again before they finally pulled away from each other, both breathing heavily.

"We're going to have to face them sometime," he whispered into her neck.

"I'm ready if you are," she said.

"I'm ready if you'll stand in front of me."

Hermione laughed. "Did that turn you on?"

"Of course!" Charlie gave her one last, long kiss and then moved carefully to stand behind Hermione, finally facing his family, who were all looking out of the windows. He wound his arms around the smaller witch and then said, in a louder voice than usual, "OK, nosey buggers, out you come."

Within seconds, they were assembled and applauding. Charlie and Hermione took a quick bow, which was slightly out of character for both of them, but they were a bit high from the speed and intensity of what had just happened.

"I have one more announcement, which I might as well tell you all together," Charlie said. "Fred?"

Fred stepped forward, bowed to Hermione and presented her with a small gift-wrapped package. He then took another out of his pocket, enlarged it with his wand and, to Charlie's surprise, handed it to his brother. "That's a personal apology from me and George for nearly snogging the woman you love," he said, very quietly and with a wink. "You can unwrap it here, but don't look inside the actual gift til you get home," he whispered, even more quietly. Charlie reached out and pulled his brother into a hug.

"What's mine for?" Hermione asked Fred as she turned the gaudily-wrapped parcel over in her hand.

"Yours," said George, "is from all three of us. We'll let Charlie explain."

"OK," Charlie readied himself again for another speech. "Open yours first," he whispered to her, and Hermione pulled off the wrapping paper to find a tiny, soft cotton patchwork rucksack, barely bigger than the beaded bag that she had carried while she, Harry and Ron had been on the run.

"We know you're a whiz at undetectable extension charms," said George, "so we figured you should have something little and fun to put everything in when you travel the world."

"Oh! It's lovely," Hermione said, looking between the three wizards. "Thank you."

"Well it was Charlie's idea," Fred said, looking at his older brother. "I merely went to the muggle shops this morning. Marvellous muggle idea, Sunday opening."

Charlie smiled at Hermione. "After Fred set me straight this morning, I went to see Minerva and we had a chat. Now, none of this is final, and there's plenty of time to think about it before you need to decide, but I happened to mention that I really loved doing Hagrid's job this year but that I had fallen for a certain witch who was really torn between loving her own teaching job and wanting to travel."

He gave Hermione a moment to process that before he carried on.

"And it turns out that neither Minerva not Hagrid want to retire in the traditional sense of the word; they both just want to teach less. Apparently," he chuckled, "Hagrid's having a lovely time in France but Madame Maxime needs to do some work now and again as well! So Minerva is proposing that, once we reach the end of this year, you and I could do a job share with them, so we could all teach for half the year. Taking turns. And they can have more time to do whatever they want to do, and you and I can travel and still have half a job back at Hogwarts…"

Hermione gasped as he finished. "Really?"

He nodded. "I've got plenty saved from my dragon keeping days and you've got your Wheezes royalties; we don't need to work full-time."

"That would be perfect!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Good," he grinned. "That's what I thought too!"

"You will come back for at least half of my Sunday dinners each year though, won't you?" Molly asked.

"Yes, absolutely Mum, don't worry," Charlie said. "And I don't suppose we'll roam forever. Just enough to let Hermione sow her wild travel oats!"

Fred snickered when he heard that. "Open your present then, Charlie," he said quickly, trying to avert a telling off from his mum.

Charlie tore the paper off the gift-wrapped package in his hand and laughed when he saw that Fred had also bought him a muggle rucksack. It was much bigger than Hermione's though. And Fred had charmed it to look like it was made from dragon skin rather than patchwork.

"We know you like to work out, Charlie, so we thought you should have the chance to carry your stuff the muggle way," Fred grinned. "And besides, you'd look girly with a tiny backpack; we don't want Hermione to be embarrassed walking around the world with you!"

Charlie laughed loudly. "It's great, thank you!"

"And Hermione," George said, "if you like, we can open an international account at Gringotts with the rest of the wages we owe you for this year and then your product royalties can be paid directly into it each month. Apparently you can get a special muggle card that gets attached to it that you can use to buy stuff anywhere in the world."

"What a wonderful idea!" Hermione was touched by their thoughtfulness.

"I can't wait any longer," Molly's voice came from near the house, and she ran over to the two of them with open arms. "Welcome to the family officially, Hermione," she said. Hermione looked at Charlie, who shrugged.

"We're not getting married or anything, Mum. Not yet, anyway."

Molly patted him. "Of course not, Charlie. Not YET, I know that."

Hermione smiled. Having spent last night feeling sad because, for the first time in months, she hadn't been in Charlie's arms, she was closer to liking the idea of settling down than she had ever been. And if settling down could mean she still got to have adventures with Charlie by her side as well as enjoying the comforts of home and Hogwarts, well that was perfect. She remembered her promise to her parents and wondered if he would be up for visiting Australia first. Maybe New Zealand and Bali as well…

Charlie looked at her fondly, and then a thought occurred to him. He ran inside the house and it was a good five minutes before he re-emerged. That wasn't a problem, because it gave Hermione a chance to answer everyone else's questions and to catch up with Bill and Fleur, who she hadn't seen for a few weeks. But eventually Charlie re-emerged from The Burrow, and both Hermione and George laughed loudly when they saw what he was holding.

"Not quite giving up the male ego yet then, Charlie?" George joked.

"No," Charlie smiled at his brother good-naturedly, but this was important to him. He handed his old quidditch sweater to Hermione. "I won't be weird about it if you want to keep George's as well, but I want the chance to keep you warm every night now, even when I'm not in your bed."

Hermione stood on tiptoes to kiss him. Even though Charlie was the shortest Weasley, he was still a good few inches taller than her. "What a lovely thought." Then, quietly enough so that his mother couldn't hear, she added, "but I don't see any reason to let you leave my bed now, Charlie. So you can keep me warm yourself…"