A/N: Hope you enjoy the new chapter! Please leave a review! JKR owns Harry Potter.
Summer
Hermione was beside herself with the news that Charlie brought her that day, the Hogwarts term was finishing up, and Charlie and herself had been granted a week off to go visit with the Weasleys. They would be leaving the following morning, getting there a day before Ginny got back, they had wanted to surprise her.
"Wait, whose covering for us?" Hermione asked, she wanted to make sure that their dragons were taken care of. Charlie looked up from the approved vacation requests that were in his hands.
"Well everyone is just going to tack one dragon onto their rotations." He said, giving her a shrug, she eyed him closely.
"What about Mariah?" She asked, she had a soft spot for the newest dragon they had taken on. So far the only people that she had let near her was Hermione, Charlie and Eric. She was a small greenish dragon, nobody had thought that she would be a problem, but she was a feisty one and would hide if anyone else went into her enclosure.
"Don't worry, Eric said that due to the circumstances he would watch her, she's in good hands." Charlie assured her, and she nodded.
"I'm so excited." She gushed, and Charlie smiled.
"Well I hope you aren't too excited to pack. Cause we are leaving early tomorrow, I want to get to the Burrow as soon as possible." He said, going to the closet and pulling out a duffel and tossed it to her. Hermione grinned and caught it. She then walked into her room, and opened up her dresser, tossing in what she would need. She tossed in a couple sweatshirts, she would probably need them in Britain. She was in the bathroom, grabbing some of her things when she heard Charlie yell something.
"What was that?" She asked, and heard a booming laugh. She felt her stomach do somersaults and she felt some blood rush to her cheeks.
"I said," He said as he rounded the corner to the bathroom and stood in the doorway. "We should head out, dinner bell just rang." He said, and she nodded.
"Let me just put this stuff in my bag?" She said, and he nodded.
"Yeah, no problem." He said, giving her a smile. She quickly looked away from him and squeezed past him to go to her room, she dropped her things unceremoniously into her bag and went to meet Charlie by the door. She pulled her hair back into an elastic while she waited for Charlie to pull his boots.
"Okay, all ready." Charlie said, slapping his knees and standing up.
Hermione smiled at him and opened the door, letting Charlie go first. He thanked her and made his way down the steps. They walked side by side to the Cantina, they looked around and Hermione noticed that none of the other guys that they usually ate with were there yet.
"We get first pick." She said, and Charlie laughed.
"Please, you know we're just going to sit at the same table. We may be a rowdy lot, but we need some semblance of sameness." He said, and she laughed.
"Not sure 'rowdy lot' quite covers it." She said as they got their food. They walked together to their table and took their normal seats next to each other. They started eating and after a few moment, Will and James sat next to each other, across from Charlie and Hermione.
"What are you all smiley about?" James asked Hermione, who was smiling still from excitement from going to the Burrow the next day.
"Our vacation request got approved." She said, and Will and James glanced between her and Charlie.
"Wait, 'our'? You are going on vacation together?" He asked, and Charlie nodded.
"Well yeah, Hermione has been staying holidays at our house for years now." Charlie explained. "She dated my little brother even." He said, and James' mouth fell open.
"Why have we never heard this?" He asked, his eyes wide.
"Really? I could've sworn we've talked about it before." Charlie said nonchalantly. James shook his head vigorously. Will just shrugged and continued to eat his dinner. James eyed them suspiciously until Hermione raised his eyebrows at him. He then looked down and ate his dinner in silence.
"So, you have any big plans for while you are back home?" Will asked, and Charlie grinned.
"Well my little sister is finishing up at school and she doesn't know that we are going to be there when she gets home." Charlie said, and Will nodded.
"That's really cool." He said, and James nodded in agreement. They finished up their dinner, just chatting a little.
"Well, we are getting up early, so we should probably get going so we can get some sleep." Hermione suggested, glancing at Charlie, who stood up. She followed suit and they said goodbye to the other men at the table.
They woke early the next morning, and made their way to the portkey location. They came upon a grungy looking pillow and they picked it up, holding it between them. Hermione locked eyes with Charlie, and she opened her mouth, about to spit out what she was thinking.
"Charlie.. I-" She was suddenly spinning quickly, the portkey was transporting them. She shut her eyes tight, ever since the World Cup her forth year, she hadn't been a fan of traveling by portkey. She heard Charlie call something, and opened her eyes to see him let go of the pillow, she gathered her Gryffindor courage and let the pillow slip out of her fingers. She felt herself fall before landing hard on the ground.
"Ugh…" She groaned, sitting up slowly. She heard a chuckle and she looked up, Charlie was standing over her holding out his hand.
"Hard land?" He asked and she looked at him pointedly before accepting his hand. He pulled her up to her feet and she kept a hold of his hand just a moment longer than she needed to. She liked that his hands were calloused from their work, they were rough but they also felt extremely comforting. She let go of his hand when she felt his squeeze hers a little.
She looked over at the building they had landed next to, the Burrow loomed over them. She let out a sigh, it had been a while since she had seen the rest of the Weasley's.
"Hey, you alright?" She heard from next to her, and she looked over at Charlie. He was watching her face, worried. She nodded slowly.
"You made sure to tell them that I was coming, right?" She asked him, she was going to write them to tell them but Charlie had told her that he would tell them.
"Well…" He said, looking up at the building in front of him.
"Charlie, youdid tell them, right?" She asked again, and he smiled at her.
"Must have slipped my mind." He said, and she felt her heart beat hard against her chest.
"Charlie, how could you not tell them?" She asked, her voice sounded a little shrill to her own ears.
"Hermione." He said, placing his hand on her lower back. "Don't worry about it, I just wanted to surprise them." He said, and she stared at him.
"Charlie, I didn't want to surprise them, I left quite suddenly. Ron and I had just ended things. It's not like it was on a fantastic note." She said, she took a step away from Charlie, facing him now instead of the Burrow.
"Hermione, I promise it will be okay." He said, they stared at each other for a moment. "Shall we go inside?" He asked, Hermione took a deep breath before nodding. She faced the house once more before walking to the door with Charlie, her nerves firing in all directions when he opened the door and stepped to the side to let her walk in first.
