Charlie saw her go but didn't try to stop her; he understood the need for some silence after the noise and general unruliness of the party. However, when 20 minutes had passed and she still had not returned he thought he should probably go to check on her, to make sure she hadn't been ambushed by the twins.

She had wandered further than he had bargained for. When he found her she was perched on the bottom branch of the tree they had all sat under only weeks before, after their water fight. He wouldn't have seen her at all if he hadn't noticed her gently swinging feet out of the corner of his eye. From the distance he was at, it was only her feet that were visible. It was the lowest branch of the tree but even so it was a good ten feet off the ground.

"Do you have a thing for trees, then?" he asked, making her jump so badly that she nearly fell out of the tree and for one terrifying moment, he thought she actually might. She righted herself, though and looked at him indignantly as he scrabbled up to join her

"I might do, do you have a thing for sneaking up on people?"

"I might do" he replied, being equally non-committal. "Are you ok?"

She looked at him in surprise "why wouldn't I be?"

"I'm not stupid" he watched her intently "I know that you organised this wedding almost single-handedly and nobody has yet said 'thank you'"

"I don't care" she said; he raised an eyebrow "no really; I know they'd do the same for me without me even having to ask if I needed them to. Besides," she said, shifting uncomfortably "every minute I spend worried about their wedding is a minute that I don't have to spend worrying about our wedding"

He frowned "you know I'll do everything I can to make you as happy as possible"

"I know" she said resting her head on his shoulder "but it's still pretty big isn't it? I mean it's hardly a small change to adjust to"

"Well, you two look rather cosy up there" called a voice from below them; Hermione leaned forward to see Fred and George grinning at them from the foot of the tree. She just laughed, Charlie blushed.

"Do you plan on gracing the rest of us with your presence at any point this evening?" smirked

"Or would you rather have some 'alone time'?" finished George

Both Hermione and Charlie blushed furiously and Hermione opened her mouth to retort when they heard Angelina's voice a few feet away

"Boys, leave them alone!"

Katie's voice chimed in "yes, come on, we want to dance and, if you're not back soon, we'll just have to find other partners"

The twins plastered sickly sweet grins on their faces and slipped away with their fiancées. The quietness surged back again but it had become awkward. They sat for a couple of seconds not wanting to be the first to speak, Hermione broke first

"Well, I suppose we should be getting back", she shifted slightly and tried to judge the best way to try to jump down.

"Just a minute" he said "I've got a present for you first" he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box "I know it's essentially a sham wedding but I thought you deserved this at least"

She opened it to see a beautiful engagement ring inside. It had only one diamond in the middle and was beautifully simple in its design. "Oh Charlie" she gasped "It's beautiful but I can't accept it, it must have cost a fortune"

"The cost is irrelevant" he smiled, taking the ring from the box and sliding it onto her finger, completely ignoring all protests "I want you to have it, and I will be very offended if you don't"

She hugged him so fiercely that, for a second, they were both in danger of falling out of the tree "you are quite possibly the sweetest person I've ever met, Charlie Weasley" she whispered. There was a pause

"We really should get back" he sighed eventually and helped her down.

They walked back to the orchard in silence until Charlie suddenly turned to her "Hermione" he said "how exactly did you get so high u in that tree without damaging your clothes or your shoes?"

She just laughed and tapped the side of her nose.

Once again he had meant to ask her to dance but, once they were back in the orchard, she was whisked away by Ginny for a "girls' dance".

He sat down again next to Bill who elbowed him lightly "where did you two go for so long?" he smirked

Charlie raised his chin slightly, knowing that whatever he said, Bill was determined to misinterpret it "up a tree" he said in the loftiest voice possible

Bill was slightly taken aback "up a tree? Why?"

"Because that's where she was sat when I found her" Charlie shrugged "we just talked"

"Talked?"

"Bill, you're beginning to sound like a parrot"

"Sorry. Seriously though, you sat up a tree with Hermione Granger and you just talked?"

"Well, what were we supposed to do" Bill just raised an eyebrow at him and grinned, Charlie rolled his eyes. "I don't think of her that way, she's my baby brother's friend"

"Even so" said Bill, nodding towards Hermione who was still dancing with Ginny "she's quite easy on the eyes, isn't she?"

"Bill, Fleur would kill you if she heard you say that" but, now that Bill had mentioned it Charlie did notice that she was quite pretty, but it was in such an understated way that he hadn't really noticed. She was quite good-looking but she still wasn't his type.

Eventually she made her way back over to him, flushed and smiling

"Come on" she said

"What?"

She rolled her eyes "it will look really bad if you're the only person I haven't danced with tonight"

He got up and joined her, it was a slow song and, for a moment, they simply revolved silently on the spot. Eventually she broke the silence "What was Bill grinning about?"

Charlie tried to think of the best way to phrase it "he was trying to play matchmaker with us"

"So was Ginny, as soon as she saw the ring! Is it a past-time in your family?"

"Not especially, just them and Mum, they like to interfere and over-analyse things"

"It almost makes me want to give them something to over-analyse"

They lapsed into thoughtful silence and both were struck by how easy it seemed to be, compared with their first lunch when they could barely think of a thing to say because they felt so awkward. The few days they had spent in each others' company had made everything easier, to Hermione he was almost as good a friend as Harry and Ron.

They danced several more songs together before the end of the night and left just after midnight with everybody else after waving Harry and Ginny off. Hermione linked her arm through his, she no longer needed to try and work out whether this was an acceptable thing to do or not, it was ok because it was Charlie.

Halfway across the lawn she stumbled and nearly fell on a root that protruded from the grass. He caught her and they both froze for a moment as they realised that their faces were now only inches apart. A wolf whistle from one of the twins broke the silence and Hermione giggled

"Well" she shrugged "at least we've given them something to overanalyse"