Disclaimer: So yeah, no changes. Great surprise!

Author's note: This chapter was a bitch to write – at least the first half! It totally didn't want to be written and but up such a fight, that it made the entire chapter late! Bitch! Anyway – second half was surprisingly easy when I first started it.

I do not approve of lying to parents, but sometimes a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. And in Charlie's case that is avoiding being told off by his mother.

That big baby...

The Ridgebit Dragon Sanctuary, Romania. August 2nd, 2002.

She had waited the entire day for Charlie to do something – say something – but nothing happened and the minutes ticked past in a terrifying speed and if Hermione looked out the window she would be able to see the bloody sky, coloured by the descending sun.

He had had occasions to talk to her. Breakfast had been a silent affair as usual, although the silence hadn't seemed as comfortable as she had grown accustomed to and the other dragon keepers kept throwing her and Charlie odd looks. She had then realized they had been louder than she had expected.

He was by the her office at lunch too – Helga's eggs had hatched and he had to register, which he did without a spare word to Hermione.

That had hurt.

Now she was beginning to dread the up-coming dinner. Dem had returned and was probably in the middle of cooking some Greek delicacy, and the others would come back too and they would all head in only to have to sit through another mealtime with no speaking and they would all look at her worriedly all the time.

By Merlin she hoped her premonition was wrong.

She needed someone to talk to her – to assure her that she was the same person as yesterday, that she hadn't magically changed overnight.

That couldn't happen could it? You couldn't just turn into another person just like that, right?

She shuddered suddenly horrified at all the possibilities magic provided, and at the feeling that she had known before she was cursed and lost her memory. She had done a lot of reading on Obliviate but she hadn't found the knowledge she was looking for; was it possible to change personality due to the spell? Was she a different person now and if she was, would that mean she would change when she regained her memory? If she did?

Would Charlie still like her if she were Hermione instead of Tatiana – Hermione was his younger brother's ex-girlfriend.

She was his younger brother's ex-girlfriend.

Oh, Merlin's socks!

Hermione felt suddenly breathless at the thought and she heard the quill crack in her hand as her grab tightened drastically.

The sound of voices in the yard made her drop the broken quill and jump from her seat, her heart hammering in her chest. He was going to be with them outside, and she had to know if he still wanted her – if he wanted Hermione too.

She left the stuffy room without a last glance at the work she had been so engrossed by mere minutes before her angsty little incident, and hoped with more force than she's expected that Charlie wouldn't turn her down.

She easily recognized his red haired head among the dark and blonds in the yard and smiled tentatively when she caught his eyes.

Please, smile back!

He averted his eyes and Hermione's heart dropped to the ground where it shattered into a million tiny pieces.

xXx

Dinner had been silent.

Silent and uncomfortable. Hermione hadn't eaten anything, only pushed her food around her plate and ignored the curious looks and concerned glances. She had left them at the first opportunity and stayed hidden in her room rereading her books and drawing angry doodles on a sheet of parchment, frustrated with herself for already having finished all the paperwork. Stupid efficiency.

Soft knocks on her door made her heart pick up and climb up in her throat.

"Yes?" she called after clearing her voice.

"Hi." Elias smiled, testing the waters, and entered the chamber when Hermione sighed and gestured for him to come inside. "I wondered if you wanted to talk?" It was a statement but came out sounding like a question, Elias' uncertainty obvious.

"What would I want to talk about?" she answered and felt a bit bad when he winced at her cold tone.

"I don't know." He gave her books a brief glance and decided to rest against the wall next to it. "Maybe you want to talk about your fight with Charlie?"

"There's nothing to talk about – he broke his promise and didn't apologize or feel bad about it." She sighed and ran a hand over her tied-back hair. "But I'm sorry it's creating such a tiresome atmosphere." She was touched that he wanted to help and normally she would have adored his clumsy attempts to talk about feelings and being there for her but her anger and frustration were a lot greater than that and she found it very hard to find the patience needed to communicate with her friend. She needed him to leave soon.

"Normally," Elias started and Hermione felt the last bit of patience ooze from her body like sand between her fingers and took a deep breath to try and calm down. "Well – in my experience, fights involve two people, and it takes to people to work it out. Maybe you should try and talk to him?"

An with those words all Hermione's fond feelings were washed away and an ugly roaring beast of anger decided to take over her body and give Elias a piece of her mind.

"Well, in myexperience," the beast said, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "Love takes two people – both of them feeling the feelings."

"What?" Elias' voice were very thin, and his face spoke loudly about how he wished he had misheard her.

"Why don't you go and fix your own unsolved business of love before trying to teach me something about it?"

She felt bad when she saw the tears welling up into Elias' eyes but she also felt relieved. Relived that she wasn't the only one to be in pain. And it really wasn't her fault that Elias wasn't man enough to tell Terence how he felt.

The angry beast inside of her smiled smugly and decided to deliver the finishing blow; "Be a bloody man and tell him about it, if you ever want something to come out of this ridiculous infatuation of yours."

Elias apparated away with a loud crack and Hermione groaned. She hadn't needed to say the last bit and now she had probably scarred him for life.

Even the Tatiana persona was growing into an intolerable one.

The door swung open with a loud bam and Terence Higgs entered, his wand held tightly in his right hand, his eyes shooting daggers.

"What did you do to Elias? He was practically in tears!" He looked an awful lot like some of the dragons when infuriated, and it was surprisingly not funny.

"I just told him to grow a pair! I'm sick and tired of watching him walk around waiting for things to happen by themseves. And you! Merlin, you aren't the least bit better! You oblivious, insensitive bastard!" Her bad conscience had vanished as she spoke and realized just how little justification the man had. How dared he show up and scold her, when he was so stupid and blind to his own life?

"Oblivious? What's that have to do with Elias?" Hermione raised an eyebrow and gave him a long look of 'Am I right, or am I right' and he frowned. "Never mind. I might be oblivious, but I'm not that oblivious, Hermione."

The last word took her breath away and something cold and paralysing spread in her body.

"You know my name?" she whispered as she stared at her colleague with wide eyes. "You know who I am?"

"Of course I do, I'm not stupid."

"For how long have you known?" she asked, her voice growing stronger by the second.

"Since the beginning of course." He gave her a hard long look. "How could I not have known – you're the most famous witch in the world!"

"You knew all along – you knew before I did!" She stood and took a step towards the wizard without really knowing why. Terence frowned in confusion.

"Er... What?"

They stood for a long moment and stared at each other as she tried to sort out her thoughts and he tried to figure out what had just happened.

"Charlie just told me yesterday. I really can't remember anything past two years ago!"

Hiss eyes widened in realization, "We just thought you were hiding from the paparazzi and trying to live a life without everyone trying to get you autograph and stuff. We figured it was some bullshit story you made up, so we pretended to believe it. And with your connection to the Weasley family it seemed like a pretty good idea to hide out here with the dragons and with Charlie as a link to your old life and friends and suchlike. The big search for you back then could just be to make your story more plausible."

It was now Hermione's turn to frown in confusion and she took a step away from Terence, her eyes not leaving his face for even a moment.

"Who we?"

xXx

August 9th, 2002.

Charlie returned the serious gaze with one like it.

"I don't know Konstantin. We've just had old Helga hatch a new batch so you need to be completely certain that this is worth it."

"I've never been more sure in my entire LIFE!" Charlie fought the urge to cock a brow as he remembered all the times Konstantin had made him drop anything he was doing to inspect the new dragon species, the ghost haunting his room, or the fairy eggs he'd discovered in the garden.

All of them turning out to be something different completely.

As a matter of fact, Charlie had always somehow suspected Konstantin to some sort of distant cousin to the Lovegoods. Immigrating to Russia would seem something they would do.

"Konstantin, we're really busy back here. I don't think I can spare anyone." He was maybe exaggerating a bit, but there was some truth in it.

If anyone would have to go it would be him.

That meant that he probably wouldn't be able to make it to George's wedding the 15th.

And that meant, that his mother would hunt him down or disown him, both things he would prefer to avoid.

He felt bad already.

"I found its nest." And that comment was the last nail in his coffin.

"Ill arrange a portkey for the day after yesterday. I don't know who it will be, but I'll bring someone. If we're going to inspect its nest two of us isn't nearly enough. As a matter of fact three is neither. If you get me killed, I will bring you with me."

"You just come to my cottage, and I'll show the way." The Russian smiled and disappeared as the flamed flashed green the last time and died down to red smouldering embers.

Charlie sat back in his armchair and hid his face in his hands.

"Who are you going to bring?" Charlie spread his fingers and smiled at the old wizard sitting on the sofa smoking his pipe.

"I don't know, Max. You? You know a lot about different breads, don't you? You would be convenient."

"Not with Oliver," Max said and gestured to the open window where said dragon was resting its head on the windowsill. "You know he won't let me go willingly, so he'll either be a pain back here or completely ruin our expedition and likely get us killed over over there." They sat for a moment in silent, deep thought. "I think you should bring Tatiana."

"I can't do that – she won't talk to me!" Charlie brought his hands down hard on the armrests and sighed at his own stupidity. Of course Hermione would be the best choice. She knew everything about dragon breads and possibly a bit more.

"Then either make her talk to you or just don't. She's the only one we can spare back here. The twins are useless when split, Terence is your second in command so he'll be needed back here, Beth is the less illiterate person I have ever met,Elias is our healer plus his spell work isn't that good, and Paolo. Well that pretty much explains itself. You need Tatiana."

"I know," Charlie admitted in a low voice and wondered how it would work. Hopefully Konstantin would act as a buffer between them.

Hopefully she would stop being so bloody angry and explain to him just exactly what was wrong.

Hopefully he would work up the balls to apologize to her.

He was a bloody idiot. Nothing more, nothing less.

"And you'll have to let your mother know."

No, no – please no! Anything but Mum, was the first thought running through his head.

"But she's gonna kill me," was the words that left him.

"As she ought to. She has sent you a dozen invitations to your brother's wedding. Not that I don't understand your need to go to Russia, but the both of us know that she won't."

"Sometimes I'm not that sure whether you're on my side or not. This is one of those situations."

"Floo your mother and tell her you won't be able to make it to the wedding. Don't postpone telling her – she doesn't deserve that." The older wizard pushed off the deep sofa and left the room after petting the sleeping dragon on its scaly head.

"Bloody conscience," Charlie muttered and stepped back to the fireplace and took a handful of floo-powder. He took a deep breath before flinging the powder into the dying embers and loudly disclaiming. "The Burrow." He sighed again and stuck his head into the flames.

"Mum?" He heard a loud squeal and something crashing and then the sound of running before his mother burst into the sitting room, excitement clear on her face.

"Charlie, dear! How nice of you to floo us. How are you?"

"I'm fine, Mum. Actually I don't have that much time, I'm just flooing you to tell you that... um..." He couldn't say it. It was already obvious how his mother's enthusiasm was replaced by The Scowl – the worst of its kind; The Disappointed Scowl. "I'm sorry,Mum, but I have to go to Russia and make sure that some dragon aren't going to attack anything. I won't be able to make it to the wedding."

And just like that The Scowl turned into The Worried Look.

"All by yourself? Charlie, that sounds awfully dangerous! Why don't you come home for the wedding and do it later with more keepers?"

"Mum – I have to do it now! And I'm not going alone," dear Merlin, forgive me for lying to my Mum, "my girlfriend's going with me, and she's a real talented witch."

Merlin was never going to forgive him, he realized when he watched as his mother's worried expression turned overly excited in a heartbeat.

"Your girlfriend? How come you haven't told about her before? When are we going to meet her? Who is she?"

"Yes, Mum, my girlfriend. And I haven't told you about her because it's still very new. And I have no idea when-"

"Molly, where's the – oh, hullo Charlie. How're things in Romania?" Charlie felt a great deal of relief as he father walked into the room and diverted his mother's attention for a moment.

"He's not coming to the wedding, but he's gotten himself a girlfriend," Molly exclaimed and looked back at her son. "Now tell me who she is!"

"You finally found yourself a gal, did you son? I guess I owe George a Sickle after all."

"Arthur, you know what I said about gambling – and with your own son! You should be ashamed!" Charlie and his father shared a look and smiled. "Your girlfriend, Charlie!"

"Um, yes." Charlie panicked slightly as he contemplated whether to give them the old story or tell 'the truth'. "Er – hullo, Dad. Well," the old story, "her name's Tatiana, she's Romanian and she's a dragon keeper too, although she mostly do paperwork. But that's because Max is acting as a surrogate mother for Oliver, a Antipodean Opaleye hatchling that-"

"Girlfriend, Charlie!"

"Er, yes. Well, she's worked with us for a couple of months and her spell work are brilliant-"

"Personal information."

"Well, she's an orphan, and only goes by her first name because she's- er... still mourning the death or her parents. They died in a landslide."

"Oh, that poor thing!"

"And, yeah... I think that's about it."

"When will we meet her?"

"Oh, er... I don't know, Mum, but I actually have to go now – I have to set up things so Tatiana and I can leave first thing in the morning, you know."

"Of course dear. Give everyone our regards, and let Tatiana know, that we look forward to meeting her one day, right Arthur?"

"Yes, Molly. Take care of yourself, will you Charlie?"

"Yeas, and you too. Good luck with the wedding, I'll send George and Angelina a present. Bye." Charlie pulled his head out of the fire and too a deep breath to calm his heart.

Al right, all he had to do now was informing Hermione that she was going to Russia with him

Bloody perfect.

All that lying – and to his own mother! If she knew she would be so ashamed!