When she woke up the next morning, she still felt no anxiety, only a strange kind of numbness. It was like everything was happening around her and to her, completely beyond her control. She ate breakfast as normal with everybody else, ignoring the concerned glances of those around her. As she and Ginny stood up to go and get ready there was a 'whoosh' from the fireplace and Charlie stepped out followed by another young man.

Without really thinking about, she crossed the room in two strides and hugged Charlie.

"I thought I wasn't supposed to see you before the wedding" Charlie smiled patting her back

"Superstitious nonsense" she grinned, stepping back quickly and turning to the other man who remained as yet unnamed. Charlie jumped as though suddenly remembering he was there

"This is Felix, my deputy best man" (Bill was going to be 'senior' best man) "He's my best mate on the reserve"

"Nice to meet you" Hermione said warmly, shaking his hand

"And you" he replied in a lilting Irish accent "I've heard a lot about you" he added, nudging Charlie, who blushed

"Well" said Hermione quickly, to save him from further embarrassment "Ginny and I need to go and get ready"

"But it's not for another 5 hours" Charlie said, startled

Hermione laughed wryly "Have you seen my hair?" she tugged at one of the unruly curls "It will, frankly, be a miracle if Ginny and I can make it look even half decent in that time"

"I think they got the miracle they wanted" whispered Felix in Charlie's ear. They were both stood at the top of the makeshift aisle in the orchard waiting for Hermione and Ginny to appear so that the ceremony could begin.

"What?" Charlie asked, glancing to the other end of the orchard where music was starting up and Ginny appeared, shortly followed by Hermione. Then he saw what Felix was talking about.

"Well, she certainly looks more than 'half decent'" Felix grinned. He was right, her hair had been tamed into soft curls and her dress was beautiful. It was simple and elegant and flattered curves that Charlie had never even noticed that she had.

Hermione, for her part, was barely paying attention to the ceremony itself. As she had entered the orchard all her nerves had hit her at once, with the force of a kick to the stomach, but once she saw Charlie she relaxed. It wasn't because she suddenly had a moment of clarity in which she could suddenly see how their life together was going to be blissful and perfect. It was because she was marrying Charlie, Charlie was friendly and safe and it could have been so much worse.

The drawback to her more or less zoning out was the fact that she forgot to be nervous about the kiss and when the minister said the words "you may now kiss the bride" she visibly jumped. She stared at Charlie wide-eyed for a moment and he blushed to the roots of his hair but leaned forward anyway and lightly pressed his lips against hers. It was perfectly chaste but it made her stomach inexplicably flip and, when they broke apart she found that her hair had somehow tangled itself in his hair. Both found that it was difficult to restrain the smiles that spread across their faces.

Sometime later Hermione found herself standing at the edge of a dance floor with Charlie, both wondering when it would be appropriate to start dancing. Hermione wasn't sure if it was appropriate to dance with all her male friends anymore.

"Everybody's waiting for us to start the dancing aren't they?" Charlie whispered

"I'm afraid so"

"Alright then" Charlie grinned "Well, let's make it memorable then"

She raised an eyebrow at him but followed him into the centre of the floor. She had never laughed so much while dancing. Charlie's idea of a 'memorable' dance seemed to be vaguely based of a waltz but with a lot of spinning at high speed and wild improvisation.

This seemed to break the ice somewhat and Hermione rather enjoyed the rest of the party. If there was one thing the Weasley family was good at, it was throwing a party. It was made even better by the fact that Charlie was perfectly happy to let her dance with all of her friends (something that none of her past boyfriends had been especially happy with, as 95% of her friends were men). At one point, she collapsed on a chair next to him, having been virtually thrown around the floor by one of the twins.

"Do you want to dance again?" she grinned, slightly out of breath "I'm very aware of the fact that I'm not fulfilling my role as a good wife if I spend more time dancing with other people than I do with you"

"It's alright" he smiled "I don't like to dance that much"

"But you haven't danced at all, apart from our dance together"

"Yes, well it's easy for you to find a partner. It's very difficult for me to find anybody I'm not related to"

Hermione had to remind herself of her promise not to cry when the time came to leave. She found herself in the middle of a three-way hug with Harry and Ron and, though, neither of them seemed as outwardly emotional as she was they were both very quiet and hugged her so tightly she could barely breathe.

Then Charlie wrapped an arm around her shoulders and they side-long apparated to the reserve in Romania. Hermione found herself standing at the door to a small wooden hut, with a number 23 painted on the door in peeling white paint. She looked around to see perhaps hundreds of identical huts in neat little rows. All were slightly bigger than the average summer house with a veranda out the front and a tiny garden at the back. Charlie nodded at her to open the door and they stepped inside. She couldn't contain her gasp as she did.

Much like the tents they had used at the Quidditch World Cup, the hut was about 4 times as large as it should have been on the inside. There was a neat little kitchen/dining room, a bathroom with a large bubble bath, a lounge with the largest, squashiest sofa she had ever seen and 2 bedrooms. One bedroom was a double, clearly Charlie's room, it was very light and airy but also very simple, there was no mess or clutter and no pictures on the walls. She had glimpsed inside the other room on the way up the stairs, it was quite small, with only really room for a single bed and a chest of drawers.

Now that they were both stood in the main bedroom, they were suddenly reminded of what they would have to do tonight and butterflies began to flutter in Hermione's stomach. She swallowed hard and, in an attempt to put her nerves at bay for now, she began to unpack. Charlie followed her lead and sat down to write a few letters. He wasn't paying too much attention until he heard her swear loudly and then groan in what sounded like embarrassment. He swivelled round in his chair and froze, trying not to stare and failing miserably.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed it, I promised I'd update soon so here it is...thankyou so very much fopr all the lovely reviews. I should clear one thing up though, I had an anonymous review questioning the chapter where Hermione said that Romania only got 2 hours of daylight in the winter. I have to confess here that that came from wikipedia, I've never been to Romania and don't know wanyone who has but, according to wikipedia there are sometimes only two hours of daylight in the Romanian Mountains during winter (which is where I pictured the reserve as being). The reviewer assured me that this was untrue so I apologise for that. Anyway, let me know what you think...