A/N I couldn't help it, I had to put some Charlie in there.
That night was a mandatory Weasley family dinner. Plus the Grangers of course. And Harry. Hermione shifted her weight on the seat. She was uncomfortably, she was hungry and she was cranky. Percy was prattling on about his new promotion, Bill and Fleur were being sickeningly cute, as were Harry and Ginny and Ron continued to glare at her. Charlie was still in the shower and the twins hadn't turned up yet.
"I forgot something in my room," she mumbled before bolting upstairs away from all the activity in the lounge room.
"Hey Hermione!" Charlie called as she passed his open door. She stopped in her tracks and backtracked to his room. "Come in and talk to me for a minute."
"Sure, I was just trying to get away from the madness anyway." She sat on the edge of his bed and watched as Charlie brushed his hair and finished getting dressed.
"How was Australia?" he asked putting on a fake Aussie accent. Hermione laughed.
"Good, warm, sunny. It was winter over there put it was still so warm. I might have to drag Fred there one day."
Charlie's face turned serious as he joined Hermione on the bed.
"You know, you can partition the courts to overrule the parent's arrangement for you to marry."
"Charlie, I'm nearly thirty weeks pregnant with Fred's child. Who do you think they will side with? And being married to Fred won't be so bad. I do really like him."
Charlie took her hands in his.
"So why don't you get it overruled? That way you can get together and fall in love all on your own without being pushed together. You deserve better then that."
Hermione snatched her hands away.
"Don't tell me what I deserve Charlie. I deserved to have a normal upbringing, I deserved to live my life without having to fight in wars and kill people and spend months on the run, separated from the people I love. I deserve the bloody world and Fred's going to give that to me. So don't you sit there and tell me what I deserve because life doesn't work that way but I got lucky. I'm not going to throw that opportunity away for me or my baby just because you think that I deserve something better. I'm perfectly happy with the cards I was dealt. This baby was the catalyst, he wasn't the reason!"
Hermione stomped out of the room, not even noticing Ron standing just outside the door, leaving a very confused Charlie in her wake.
"W-What did I say?" Charlie stuttered when Ron came in.
"Hermione hates people telling her what to do. You basically told her that what she was doing was wrong. She was telling you that until she got with Fred her life was crap but now it was going to be better," Ron translated the Hermione-speak.
"But what did she mean by catalyst?" Charlie said, still confused.
"She meant that her and Fred were always going to be together and the baby just sped up the courtship."
"Oh," Charlie said dumbly, marvelling at his youngest brother's ability to understand the book worm even in her hormonal state and while they were fighting.
"Don't hold on to all that anger for too long, Ron. She's not going to keep saying sorry forever."
The two brothers sat in silence, each contemplating the other's words.
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