He grinned, resting his chin on the top of her head "even better than Harry and Ron?"

She giggled "perhaps, but don't push it"

There was a sudden whoosh noise in the corner and they both spun round quickly, wands drawn. It was only the floo network, Harry's head was hovering in the green flames.

Hermione practically leaped across the room to speak to Harry and, once she had ascertained that nothing was horribly wrong they sank into easy conversation. It took some time for Charlie's heart to slow down. It was part of what he had heard Hermione refer to as a 'war hangover'.

He tried to tune in to the conversation at the fireplace.

"…so I'll be there for nearly a week before Christmas and Charlie's coming over the day before Christmas Eve" Hermione was saying, she looked so happy, he couldn't help smiling as well.

"Anyway" she sighed contentedly, flicking her hair over her shoulder "you haven't yet told me why you're here"

Harry grinned so broadly, it looked as though his face might split in half "Ginny's pregnant"

Hermione squealed "I knew it! I knew it! When's she due?"

"29th of May"

Hermione squealed again and then paused, her eyes slightly narrowed "hang on" she said, "that's only 6 months away…how long have you known?"

"A few weeks" Harry said sheepishly "we wanted to keep it to ourselves to begin with and avoid all the fuss"

Charlie tuned out of the conversation after that, he was pleased for his little sister obviously but he wasn't exactly surprised. He began to wonder how long he and Hermione could realistically leave it before they had to start worrying about that kind of thing. If he knew Hermione at all she would want it over and done with soon and, if he was going to have children, he actually wanted to be a part of their lives. If he and Hermione split up she would move back to England as soon as possible and she'd never leave a child behind. His head span as he thought and he brought himself back to the present, making a mental note to talk to Hermione about it sometime soon.

He realised too late that Harry had gone and Hermione was now looking at him, concern etched into her face. "Are you alright?" she asked

He nodded, distractedly "I'm fine. Just thinking..."

She smiled slightly "Am I allowed to know?"

He frowned and she clambered back onto the sofa next to him "just wondering how long we can leave it until we have to start worrying about things like that"

Her smile slipped a notch and he immediately wished he hadn't said anything she thought for a moment and then said "why don't we see how the first year goes? We've got four more if we need them so there's no rush. It's been so nice getting to know you these past few weeks, it's been like meeting Harry and Ron all over again and I don't want anything to jeopardise that. We should just take things a day at a time and see how we're doing next summer."

He nodded, feeling reassured "alright" then he grinned "this is role reversal isn't it? Aren't you normally the one who has to have a plan?"

She shrugged and then grinned cheekily as she rested her feet on his lap "something on this scale is too big to try and plan, there's nothing we can do except to go with the flow"

So that's what they did and it actually seemed to work. They settled into a routine, reaching some kind of unspoken agreement that they should spend as much time together as possible to make things less awkward for them when it came to the time for worrying about babies.

They took it in turns to make the tea and when Hermione went out with her friends from the hospital, Charlie went out with his friends from the reserve and somehow the two groups always ended up merging. None of the healers complained about this.

Neither of them felt awkward anymore when they woke to find Hermione's face buried in Charlie's chest or his arm slung across her waist. Sometimes it was so cold that it was the only way to keep warm.

Christmas came round so quickly it made Hermione's head spin and she was forced to scour the shops at the last minute for all the presents she hadn't yet found. Charlie came home on the 20th of December to find her in the bedroom, trunk open, presents all over the bed. Her face was flushed as she tried to find a way to make all the presents fit into the trunk with a fortnight's worth of clothes.

"Do you want me to bring some with me on Christmas Eve?" he asked, shrugging his coat off and laying it on the chair by the fireplace.

She looked relieved "could you?" she asked "it would make everything so much easier"

He nodded and moved the presents on the bed a little in order to sit down and watch her pack. He knew her well enough by now to know that any attempt to assist her would be refused. She wedged as much as she reasonably could into the trunk before sitting on it to force it shut.

"What time will you get there?" she asked, brushing a stray curl out of her eyes

"I'll come as soon as I've finished my shift, I'm finishing early because it's Christmas so I should be there for 5"

She nodded as she put on her coat and scarf and placed her newspaper portkey on top of her trunk.

"Alright" she smiled, wrenching her gloves on and glancing quickly at her watch "my portkey is in just over a minute so I'll have to hurry" she gave him a quick hug and an absentminded kiss on the cheek "I've done a quick clean and washed the bedding so that shouldn't need to be done for a while and I made a lasagne. It's in the kitchen for you to reheat if you want it." She stepped back and checked her watch. 20 seconds. "You're sure you'll be ok here by yourself?"

"I'll be fine, owl me when you get there"

She grabbed the portkey with one hand and her trunk with the other "take care"

There was a whoosh and she was gone. Charlie sat back on the bed, realising that the room seemed somehow colder, darker and smaller than it had been a few seconds ago.

A/N: ok, I know I said I'd update quickly but I've tried to be as fast as possible. I'm experiencing problems at the moment due to the fact that I've lost the plot (literally, I wrote out a plan for this story which I appear to have misplaced) so there may be a few issues until I find it. Thankfully I'm afew chapters ahead of what I've already published so it should be ok but if I can't find it again I may need your help, just giving you some advanced warning!

Also, I went to see the last Harry Potter today, if you haven't already seen it book tickets *right now* it was amazing and has given me an idea for a Hermione/George story that I will be starting the second I'm done with this one. Please review and tell me what you think, feedback is so useful to me, especially now :)