Charlie leaned back into the small arms that encircled him from behind. "You need to sleep." Her voice soft as to not to disturb the silence of the night, he leaned into the embrace.

"As do you, doesn't seem to matter though."

She chuckled against his back, "Not my fault, the bed's cold when you're gone."

Charlie turned in her embrace, his face still unreadable in the moonlight, encircling his arms around her small frame he pulled her flush against him. He relished in her smile as she gently untangled his arms from around her, keeping his hand to pull him towards the bedroom.

Charlie grinned as he stretched; his eyes snapped open as his arm felt the cold empty bed next to him. He covered his face and groaned; it had been so real.

"Charlie, they're back, get out here."

He jumped from his bed at the sound of his sister's voice, pulling a shirt on over his head he headed down the stairs into the kitchen. His youngest brother was hunched over a map with Harry as they plotted out the location of Hermione.

"When do we leave?"

Six heads jerked towards the doorway. Ari handed Charlie a mug and guided him towards the table. "Charlie, you're going to stay behind."

"Like hell I'm staying behind!" The bang from his fist hitting the table resounded through the room.

"We can't have you running in and blowing things at the first sign of Hermione, Charlie. This isn't going to be easy and we all need to be focused."

Charlie glared at Harry, "You think I don't know that. You think that I don't understand the importance of the success of this mission?" His chest rose up and down rapidly as he seethed.

As they waited for the cover of night, Charlie poured over the outlines of the house with Ron. Plans had been made, details examined and re-examined, scenarios played out over and over, and yet he was still nervous. What if it didn't work? What if this plan of theirs angered her captors into killing her?

Bill grasped his brother's shoulder, pulling him out of his downward spiral of thoughts. "It's time to go."

Charlie huddled in the bushes next to an auror whose name he couldn't recall at the moment, his eyes focused on the light seeping out from a basement window. She was right inside. At Harry's signal he crawled across the ground, as Harry and the others surrounded the house to capture the men inside Charlie's one focus was on that light, get Hermione out, no matter what.

Dropping in through the small window, he strengthened the disillusionment spell he had cast over himself and pressed his body against the wall. Checking for signs that they had heard him enter the building, he began moving down the hall.

Crouching down, he pushed open the door, he couldn't breathe; she was there in front of him, chained to the wall. Her body sagging, the blood encrusted chains digging into her wrists. A whispered, "Alohomora" unlocked the cuffs and dropped the chains from her wrists, her body thumping into Charlie's, her weight barely enough to move him.

"No, please no." she whimpered against him. Charlie picked her up as gently as he could and turned to retrace his steps back to the window he had entered through.

"Did you really think it would be that easy?"

Charlie froze as the voice echoed throughout the room. His hand itched to use his wand to kill the man. Slowly Charlie sat Hermione against the wall; drawing his wand he turned to face his opponent. "She's leaving with me whether you like it or not."

"Not this time, you kept her away from me once and it will not happen again."

Charlie shot off a hex, keeping his body a shield in front of a now unconscious Hermione.

Paul hit Charlie with a slicing hex, sending him to the ground. Hissing, Charlie flung his body towards Paul knocking the man to the ground. Pressing Paul's wand into the ground, he dug his own wand into his neck. Breathing hard, Charlie pressed his wand even harder into Paul's neck, "I'd kill you now but she needs me more." Pressing his knee into Paul's stomach he used his wand to tie him up. Standing he kicked Paul in the side before snapping his wand and rushing back to Hermione.

Charlie could hear the sounds of fighting seeping through the ceiling, "Peters, Peters." He pushed against the window, searching for the auror he left waiting him there.

"I'm here, Weasley, do you have her?"

"Yes, I'm going to send her up to you. She needs to get to St. Mungo's right away, make a portkey though, she doesn't look like she could handle apparition right now." Looking back down he pressed a kiss to her forehead, "You're going to be okay, I promise."

Charlie hoisted Hermione up through the window and into the waiting man's arms, before running up the stairs to join Harry and the others in the fight.

Peters ran into the emergency ward at St. Mungo's, Hermione's body lying limp in his arms. Immediately the Healers took her from him and rushed her through the wards where he could not follow. The room was silent as the other wizard and witches stared at the blood soaked robes of the newest arrival to the waiting area.

"Was that Hermione Granger?"

"What's going on?"

The whispers flooded the room only to silence a few minutes later when Charlie and Harry burst through the door. Harry headed to Peters as Charlie rushed to the admittance desk to find Hermione. The three were slowly joined by the rest of the Weasley family as the waited.

Two hours had passed when Ron came into the waiting area, his wounds from the fight healed at the office, with Hermione's parents in tow.

"Is she alright? Where is she? Can we see her?" Hermione's mother rattled off questions faster than anyone could answer before her husband was able to calm her down and get her to take a seat.

Harry kneeled in front of Hermione's parents, "We found her two hours ago and brought her in. Mrs. Granger she was hurt pretty bad but magic can do miracles. I've seen it happen."

His words seemed to calm Hermione's mother but her father's eyes never left a distraught Charlie, who had isolated himself from his family. Placing a hand on his wife's back he whispered in her ear and then stood to move to Charlie's side.

"Charlie?"

Startled Charlie turned his tear streaked face to look at the one man he did not want to face. "I don't think I can tell you how sorry I am, Mr. Granger."

Mr. Granger sighed as he took the chair next to him. "Charlie, we don't blame you for this. She's been in danger since we put her on that train when she was eleven years old. We've never really understood exactly what she's been through since we sent her to your world but we know that she's never been completely safe."

"I should have protected her better. If I had been faster, stronger, more aware, I could have kept her from any of this."

"Hermione was always a magnet for trouble, when she was five I built her a tree house, she wanted to help so much that I finally let her come up into that tree and help me. I turned my back for a second and she was falling. I can still see her falling towards the ground, helpless to stop her. She was in the hospital for three weeks after that."

"This is different."

"Charlie, that wasn't my fault and this isn't yours. You went head first into danger for my baby girl and I will always thank you for that."

Charlie shook his head and began to respond but his attention was drawn to the opening doors of the emergency ward.

"Hermione Granger's family?"

They stood as the haggard looking Healer made his way across the waiting room.

"How is she?"