A/N: Thank you all for the lovely reviews and your patience! Here's a longer one for you 😊

The next morning, I woke early to ready for a day of travel with just a few things left to gather.

As eight o'clock approached, the nerves started to set in. I began to pace the length of my empty flat. Before I could spiral too far into the anxiety of the unknown, there was a knock at the door.

Taking a deep breath, I reached for the doorknob and braced myself. The person standing on the other side of that door was someone I would be working close with for the foreseeable future and it could be anyone. With all the stress of getting things ready to leave in just a weekend, there hadn't been time to worry until now and it was hitting me full force.

Of all the scenarios that flooded my head as I opened the door, not once did they involve Charlie Weasley. Judging by the look on his face, he wasn't expecting me either.

"Hermione."

"Charlie."

For a few minutes it was nothing but silence as we stared at each other stunned.

I hadn't spoken much to Charlie. He had been around for some holidays and came with to the quidditch world cup, but I had always stuck close to Harry and Ron which didn't leave me much time to connect with him.

"Well, this is a touch awkward. I'd love to catch up, but we have a port key about to leave." He pulled a candy wrapper from him pocket. "Can I help carry anything?"

I shook my head, partly in response and partly to clear it. "No, I have it all in here, but thank you." He gave my bag a curious stare but otherwise said nothing.

He held out the wrapper and I grabbed the other end. Less than five seconds later, we were being squeezed from one location to the next.

I tried to land as gracefully as I could before taking in my surroundings. To say we were in the middle of nowhere was a gross understatement. Before us was miles upon miles of open grassy hills and country side. It was quite stunning.

"This is us over here."

I turned around to where Charlie had directed his attention and found in the middle of all this open space, the house we would be sharing. In the shock of seeing him standing in my doorway, I hadn't given it a chance to sink in that not only was Charlie my new partner, but also my roommate.

Well, I supposed it was better than a complete stranger. At least I knew it wasn't someone that would try to murder me in my sleep. There was no way a Weasley boy would be rude. Well, except Ron, but he seemed to be the only one that couldn't help it. "Shall we?"

He nodded his head in agreement and we went into the house. The furniture was tasteful and the set up was a bit unique. You walked into an entry way and on the left was the sitting room. In front stood the kitchen which looked very modern and included a breakfast bar. To the left of the kitchen was a dining room that appeared to seat eight. On either side of these rooms was a hallway.

The hallways were identical and I took the one on the right. On each side were two rooms. The room on the front of the house was a decent sized bedroom with a walk-in closet. On the opposite side of the hallway was a comfortable looking office that was set up with bookshelves and a desk. The bathroom was at the end of the hall. I was pleased to see a full bathtub and a vanity big enough to set my things on.

I appreciated the layout of the house. It meant the living room and kitchen would be shared, but it would be easy enough to have space if we needed it.

I set my things down and tried to wrap my head around my current situation. It was official. As of today, I would be living with my ex-boyfriend's brother. And that wouldn't be awkward at all now would it. I rolled my eyes despite the fact that no one could see the action.

When I was told it would be someone from the Romanian reserve, I had no idea Charlie was even a contender. I mean, I knew he had been doing this for a long time, but I had no idea he was high ranking enough to be offered a position like this. I had always assumed he was just a handler. Maybe if I had taken more time to have conversations with him when he was in town, I wouldn't be so shocked right now.

When I came out of my room to check out the kitchen in more detail, Charlie was already in there with his back to me opening cupboards.

I had to admit, the man is fit. I could see the muscles rippling in his arms and shoulder blades as he moved from cabinet to cabinet. He wasn't the tallest Weasley boy, but he was still at least six feet with tanned skin from his time outdoors. I hadn't noticed before but his hair was slightly more auburn than his brothers.

I cleared my throat to announce my presence and he turned around quickly.

"Oh, hey. Is everything to your liking?"

"Yes, thank you. It's more than I was expecting actually."

He smiled, showing off his straight, white teeth. As the daughter of dentists, it would always be one of the first things I noticed about people.

"It comes with the position. The crew will be in small huts. We get the nicer living arrangements, but we will also have to deal with working at home a lot and frequent drop ins from the team."

"I supposed that makes sense. Do you have any idea what we are supposed to do next?"

I really hadn't received much information or direction and was hoping Charlie was provided more insight. All I had was a general idea of what the outcome would be, but no background or frame of reference to make it happen.

"Well, today I think we should just get settled and move in. I have a list of things we will need to do and organize. We have to finalize the layout before Thursday when the team of builders will be arriving. A lot of the work can be done by magic, but the spells are difficult and so it takes a bit. While the building Is happening, we will need to pick a team and you'll need some training yourself so you can help train the team once they are here. That portion will take a bit of time. We can't take on our first residents until the team is fully trained and working together well. While all of that is happening, we will also need to brainstorm and collaborate on our list of policies and procedures, scheduling, and generally how we want to run this place."

I let out a low whistle. "That doesn't sound daunting at all."

"It's going to be a lot of work, but I have been at the Romanian reserve for ten years. There is a lot of information I have that can be applied here. We won't have to completely start from scratch. We will be able to use that as a baseline and decide what to change. I'm looking forward to your fresh perspective on that side of things. I'll admit I'm better with the dragons this type of stuff sometimes."

I nodded slowly, blushing faintly at his words. "Alright then. If we are taking today to get settled, I think I'll start unpacking."

"Me too. Meet you back here about one? I'll make us some lunch."

I was pleasantly surprised he was offering to cook. Ron had always made it very clear that the kitchen was a woman's place and he wanted no part in it.

I agreed to his plan and went to my room to unpack.

While magic had been helpful for packing, I decided to unpack the muggle way. Something about it made me feel more settled.

Not having to arrange furniture was helpful. My books filled the shelves easily and I set up my desk with my favorite quills and ink within easy reach.

I sat in the chair for a moment to get a feel for the space. It was cozy yet professional and the desk faced a large window looking out into the back yard and that beautiful landscape. I assumed that at some point the dragon enclosures would take up the majority of the view.

Just before one, I finished putting away the last of my clothes and headed towards the kitchen.

"I hope you don't mind. I just made us some peanut butter and jelly. We don't have much in way of fresh supplies until the garden is completed. I'll make some chickpea spaghetti for dinner."

I took my plate with a sandwich and a few potato crisps. "This is great, thank you." I was surprised by his choice for dinner. "I'd be happy to help cook as well. I'm not great but I have a few specialties. Just curious, did you know I don't eat animal products?"

This had been a huge issue in my relationship with Ron. I just couldn't bring myself to use animals for food if I could avoid it. I spent too much time trying to save creatures and animals that it felt hypocritical to then use them for food.

Surprisingly, his face flushed. "I didn't know for sure. At family events I've noticed you typically don't take the meat. Honestly though, this is how I cook for myself. Meat is a rarity on the reserve since grains and vegetables are easier to source and keep our reserve self-sustainable. It's also really hard to work with animals day in and out, learning their personalities and then come home and have them for supper. I just couldn't do it anymore."

I gave him a warm smile. I was touched that he had noticed me during the busy Weasley meals enough to know my preference, but also surprised that we thought so similarly.

"It might just be easier to live with you than I thought Charlie Weasley." I shot him a playful smile.

He looked hurt for a second. "Did you think it was going to be difficult?"

Crap, I should have been more careful with my word selection. "Well, I had no idea who I would be living with or what to expect. I've only had three days to get used to the idea. But I have to admit I was a mix of nerves and relief when it was you on the other side of my door this morning." He looked at me quizzically. "Relief because even though I don't know you that well, I know you're not a jerk. Nervous because I lived with Ron for a while, both on the run and after the war, and it was not a pleasant experience. Part of why we never worked out."

He nodded his head as he finished chewing. "You will learn very quickly I am nothing like my brother. Did they give you any clues as to who you'd be paired with?"

"No. They just told me on Friday that either I took this assignment or the reserve wouldn't happen."

His sandwich dropped to his plate. "That's it?" I nodded. "Well no wonder you looked so shocked. I was approached six months ago about the idea but told to keep under wraps. They had asked what it would take to get me to leave the Romanian reserve and I said I didn't think the reserve stood a chance at being successful unless they got someone like you to run it. They didn't really say anything, just took a few notes and then I didn't hear anything until last week."

"Who exactly is behind this anyways? I know the ministry, but haven't heard anything from any one specific person or committee."

"Kingsley has taken charge of coordinating it with the Romanian reserve to make sure everything is satisfactory. He wants to be able to be completely hands off though. I'm assuming he listened to me when I told him it needed to be you because he knows that you can be trusted to run this place almost independently with very little oversight. Eventually the reserve will become its own independent village, but one with huge responsibility. Our ability to lead this team will depend on its success and the quality of life for the dragons."

"No pressure or anything." I could feel a little ball of stress beginning to form in my chest.

Charlie reached out and put his hand over mine. "Hey, you don't have to do this alone. I've been doing this a long time. I've got the dragon and personnel management side down like nobody else. My strong suit isn't the business side. Scheduling, planning, finances, I don't juggle that well. It doesn't mean I don't want to learn, but it's definitely not my strong area. I really think between the two of us we are going to have an amazing place here."

I was touched by his honesty. It's not easy to admit your faults, but Charlie seemed to be very self-aware of his strengths and weaknesses. "You really aren't like Ron. Are you?" It was impossible to ignore. I often compared the Weasley brothers and lumped the family as one, but even in this short amount of time, I could tell I was wrong for doing that.

Charlie picked his sandwich back up and smirked in a way that made my stomach flip a little.

"I can say for certain that Ron and I are nothing alike. That's one of the hard things coming from a large family in a small community with a father who works in government. Everyone knows our family, but only know dad well. We are all fairly close in age so no one really knew who was who and between that and school we always got lumped into one person."

"I grew up as an only child so it's hard for me to understand. It must have been really hard."

He shrugged. "You get used to it. I know you've mostly been around Ron and Ginny, but we are really all very different. We are all very smart. Mom did a great job teaching us prior to Hogwarts so it was easy to get good marks. Bill is probably the smartest of us. Nowhere near your intelligence of course, but there's a reason he has done so well as a curse breaker. He is amazing at solving complicated spell work and works great under pressure."

He cleared our dishes and kept going. "Percy is smart, obviously, but his goals aren't knowledge motivated. He has always just wanted success and to be important. His drive comes from wanting that verses wanting to do it for himself. Fred and George, well, you probably know them well too. I really admire what they've done. They took their ability to deconstruct components of spells and potions and used it to do something that makes them both happy and successful, even if mom doesn't approve. Ginny is strategic and athletic."

He braced himself on the counter. "Ron has never really found himself. He got lost in Harry's shadow a bit. I mean, he definitely has had his moments and I know he was a part of defeating Voldemort, but he still seems pretty lost. There has never been anything to push him to be better and he's always been happy to just follow along behind someone more important and hope people will notice him. I mean, he had a chance at being an Auror handed to him and he just didn't do the work. I'm pretty disappointed and keep hoping I'll see more from him, but he still hasn't found anything else."

I bit my lip. He was completely right. "I know. I'm pretty disappointed as well. There was so much going on at school that I thought it was mostly stress that held him back. When we were in the thick of it though and he left, I realized that wasn't it. He wants instant gratification and recognition without working for it. There are a lot of reasons it didn't work between us, but his lack of ambition and motivation was high on the list." I eyed Charlie curiously. "You've described all your siblings well. What about you?"

His cheeks flushed slightly. "Well, I'm just a guy who talks to dragons better than humans."

"I'm not so sure about that, I think you're doing a pretty good job right now." Was I flirting? What was this? It would be such a bad idea on so many levels to start something with Charlie. I chastised myself for even having the fleeting thought.

"Yeah, I suppose I am. How about that?" he returned my smile and my stomach did a little flip.

I had to redirect this conversation before it got out of hand. "Are you feeling settled in? I'm pretty much done so whenever you'd like to start going over things, I'm ready."

He dried his hands and grabbed a folder he had left on the table. "Yeah, I didn't have much to bring so it didn't take long to get it put away. I have a lot of notes. After that initial meeting, I started to think deeper on what I would want if I ever had the chance at being a part of designing a reserve."

We both moved from the breakfast bar to the formal table and spread out the papers.

The sketches and detail he had laid out were amazing. It was clear he had given this thought long before the new reserve was in the works.

"Charlie, this is amazing. Are you sure you're ok with all this?"

"All what?"

"Having me as a partner? You've had dreams of this reserve. I hadn't given it a spare thought until I was handed the position. It hardly seems fair."

He had the audacity to laugh. "Hermione, trust me, I want you here. My passion is being with dragons. Not just near them. Interacting and being involved with them. I don't get to do that if I'm trying to run this place alone. I need an equal. Someone I can trust to have not just my back, but cares for the dragons as much as I do. I know enough about you that I know you're that person. We are in this together and I have no doubt this is going to be the best damn dragon reserve there will ever be."

I cleared the emotion from my throat. His passion and conviction were almost overwhelming. "Well then. Let's get started."