A/N, Hello and thank you for reading! Just a few things, this story has been sitting in the back of my head for a good year. Originally, I intended for it to be a Fremione, but it just didn't have the feeling and story line that I craved. Then I read a Charmione and thought, that's it. That's what this story was missing!

So, this story came to life and has essentially worked its own way from my fingertips and onto the page.

As far as an update schedule, I can't make any promises that I can keep. I have a small army of tiny humans that are of my own creation that I have to try and raise into kind humans.

I'm a sucker for a good romance and that's what this story will fully be. Romance, a little bit of drama, and a whole lot of sex.

My love language is words of affirmation, so leave a review!

If you like something darker, be on the lookout for my Dramione. That should be appearing soonish.

P/S, I apologize for the wonky formatting at my first go of posting an update. Hopefully I won't have anymore issues going forward.

With that being said, enjoy...

The First Morning After

Hermione rolled and felt a warm body pressed against her. It took a second for her to remember who was laying in her bed, but once she did her eyes popped open and in the morning daylight, she was looking down at a sleeping Charlie Weasley in her bed.

With a flick of her wand, Hermione checked the time and saw that it was still a little before seven.

Panic began to set in and she started trying to shake Charlie awake. When he waved her away with one of his arms, she noticed that the wrap had come loose. Charlie's arms were covered in some of the worst burns that she had ever seen in her life.

"Charlie, Merlin, your arms!" She began to dig in her bag to get her first aid kit out.

"It's nothin, just going to sleep a bit longer." Charlie pulled the blanket back up over his shoulders and rolled to his side.

"Charlie, you need those burns looked at." Hermione was insisting as she kept trying to wake him back up. "And if you aren't going to let me tend to them, then you need to at least get out of my tent before your mum finds us."

Charlie just waved his hand over his should, dismissing her.

With a huff, Hermione slipped into a pair of jeans that she'd found and stuck her head out of her tent to investigate who all was already awake this morning.

Percy, Bill, and George were all standing around a table set up outside drinking coffee. She couldn't make out what they were talking about, but could see some of their kids running around at full speed.

That seemed to be the only signs of life around here. She assumed Molly was in the kitchen making a breakfast big enough to feed and army and that Ron, Padma, Harry, and Ginny were probably all still asleep inside the house.

Ducking back inside her tent, Hermione decided that she wasn't ready to face the Weasley men and their children. She knew that she had love bites on her neck and wanted to make for certain that they were hidden so that she would not be questioned about them.

Looking down at Charlie's sleeping form, she sighed and rummaged through her first aid kit. She did happen to have some burn-healing paste in her bag, but she didn't have any essence of dittany.

She pulled Charlie's arm towards her and finished undoing he wrap that had been falling off. She lathered the orange paste onto his arms and began to rub it in. Once she was done, she wrapped it in a clean bandage to protect it from infection. When she reached for his second arm, she saw that he was watching her work.

"The paste won't work very well on these burns. They're from a Peruvian Vipertooth." She met Charlie's eyes and wasn't prepared for the intensity that was burning there. The look he had made her gulp, as she forced herself to remain in control and not climb into his and purr like a Kneazle.

"Well, they certainly aren't going to heal with nothing." Hermione had to break the eye contact and shaking her head clean of her desires. "That looks bad enough that it wouldn't hurt to go to St. Mungo's for treatment." She finished putting the paste onto his other arm and slowly began to work it in. After she was finished, she wrapped a clean bandage around it as well.

"Bill, have you seen Charlie? I can't find his tent out here. I know someone said that he showed up late, but I haven't seen him yet." Hermione could hear Molly Weasley's voice carry through the walls of her tent.

Shooting up in the bed, it seemed that Charlie was finally awake enough to realize why not sneaking out of Hermione's tent much earlier was a bad idea.

"Bloody hell, what time is it?" Charlie flicked his wand to show that it was nearing eight thirty. Hermione would be surprised if there was anyone still asleep at this time.

Hermione checked her reflection in the mirror and cursed herself for not having any bruise removal paste in her kit.

Luckily her wild hair had grown to a length that it could cover most of her neck. If no one was really paying too close of attention, they probably wouldn't notice the bruises scattered there.

Charlie pulled his long hair back into a ponytail and rolled his neck, releasing multiple cracks.

"If we try sneaking out of here, they'll notice. If we walk out together, we'll just tell them that I was applying burn-healing paste to your arms. And I mean, I was." Not waiting for a reply, Hermione stood up and with her chin raised, strolled out of the tent without a second look back at Charlie.

Everyone was gathered around the table eating breakfast, not even noticing Hermione walking towards them. She slid into her spot next to Ginny, who notably did not look fully awake and slightly irritated.

"Mum won't let me have coffee. Says it's bad for the baby. Too much caffeine or some rubbish like that. Mione, can I go to Azkaban if my hormones are responsible for my actions." Ginny was lifting a piece of bacon towards her mouth when Molly appeared snatching it out of her hand.

"Ginevra, why don't you have some fruit instead. Bacon has too much fat and grease for a growing baby." Molly softly smiled while handing a bowl of grapes and orange slices to Ginny.

"THAT'S IT!" Ginny slammed her hands onto the table and stood up. After stumbling getting out of her chair, she forcefully announced "We're leaving." A still half-asleep Harry was oblivious to his wife next to him, until Ginny grabbed Harry by the back of his shirt and dragged him out of his chair and towards the house.

"You would think she was the first and only person to ever have been pregnant. Everything is always so dramatic with Ginevra." Molly was shaking her head and everyone was too distracted by Ginny's departure to notice when Charlie slipped into his seat between Bill and Arthur.

"Charlie! There you are, sleeping by the pond again? Never mind, when are you going back to Romania?" Hermione was pushing the eggs around her plate. Did they really not get caught sleeping in her tent? She couldn't believe her luck.

She didn't dare a glance towards Charlie, or was even remotely listening to what he and his mother were talking about. Hermione glanced around the table and saw that aside from Harry and Ginny, the only other people missing were Ron and Padma.

After breakfast, she would go back to her flat and clean out her home office. It was overrun with forms and plans that she was still needing to shift through for the Scotland project. If she was going to go in on Monday and really dive in, she would do best to at least have the office space to be able to give it her undivided attention.

"Hermione?" Arthur's voice drew Hermione out of her thoughts. She looked up to the patriarch of the family. His hair was thinning and totally white, no longer that Weasley red. His green eyes twinkled, as if he knew a secret that was very amusing.

"Sorry?" Hermione had not heard a word that anyone had said and was completely clueless to the subject of the conversation.

"Amos mentioned the other day that he was going to be sending an ambassador to Romania. He said that they've getting ready to leave, but he wouldn't tell me who. I was wondering if it was you since you are now head of the beast division." Next to him, Hermione could see Charlie's eyebrows raise in surprise.

"Oh, no. I'm much too busy with another project that Amos has tasked me with to be able to leave the country for twelve weeks. Rolf is being sent, he has good relationships in Romania already and he was the ideal choice. He'll be leaving tomorrow morning and won't be back until late September. Luna is due with their second child sometime the start of October, so he's a bit nervous about leaving her."

"Well, I'm sure Rolf will do an excellent job. Charlie, do you know Rolf Scamander by chance?" Arthur turned away from her and to his son. Hermione gave up on the eggs on her plate, and just stuck to the coffee she was drinking.

As soon as she was done, she began helping Molly with clearing the table while everyone else supervised their children zooming around the yard on toy brooms. When they were just about done, Hermione saw bandaged arms wrap around Molly's waist.

"I've got to be off, mum." Charlie gave Molly a kiss on the top of her head.

"But you've only just got here! Surely they don't need you back so soon!" Molly protested as she turned to face her second eldest child.

"I know mum, but I told you that we just got handed a lot of dragons. Well beyond our compacity and we need all hands-on for it." Charlie bent down to give his mother a tight hug of apology. "I know I usually can stay at least for a short while, but I just can't this time."

Hermione finished putting the dishes away with a flick of her wand and excused herself to give the mother and son some privacy. "See you later, Mione." Charlie called after her. She glanced over her shoulder and saw him wink over the top of his mother's head.

A shiver was sent straight up her spine. With a wave, Hermione felt a little disappointed that it was Rolf who was going to get to spend twelve weeks in Romania and not herself.

To Romania

Hermione was sitting at her office writing up the proposal for the land that they were going to need to obtain for the dragon sanctuary. There was an old wizarding family who had just died out and left all their land to the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. They had been using their land as a private rehabilitation for Abraxan.

With no one to care for them, the majority of the Abraxans had been relocated between Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, and even some to Ilvermorny. The rest had been given to Draco and Astoria Malfoy, who had in recent years been doing a lot of humanitarian work.

Hermione was estimating with the current amount of land, that they would be able to house in the range of fifteen to twenty dragons depending on the species of dragon. Things were going smoothly, and that worried Hermione. Something was bound to go wrong.

She hoped that Rolf's stay in Romania would yield some results in recruitment for experienced dragon keepers. She was looking at who had offered to join thus far, and the applicants were much too green. She needed keepers who knew what they were doing and had hands on experience with some of the more dangerous dragons.

Checking the time on her watch, she noted that Rolf's portkey should be leaving in about an hour. They were wanting him to arrive in Romania at noon, so he was leaving London at ten.

"Granger, you need to go pack your bag." Amos Diggory, the head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, also known as her boss, came running into her office.

"Sir?" Hermione looked over the man, he was red in the face and breathing heavy.

"Something happened with Scamander's wife and he's unable to go to Romania. You're the only other person who knows the details and would be able to step in for him. So, off you go. You leave at precisely ten." Without waiting for a response, Amos strolled out of her office at a swifter pace than she thought a man his age could move.

Hermione leaped from out behind her desk and rushed into Amos's office to use the floo that was in every department head's office. She threw a handful of floo powder into the fireplace, and was dove into the green flames. Landing in her flat, Hermione gave a flick of her wand to summon her beaded handbag with the undetectable extension charm.

She began to fill her bag as quickly as possible, sending objects flying across her flat towards her. She had been helping Amos and Rolf plan this trip for a solid month and understood that no one else would be able to get caught up to speed fast enough to replace Rolf.

She did not have the right gear to be able to go and live on a dragon sanctuary for twelve weeks, so she set her belongs to continue packing as she threw another handful of floo powder into her fireplace and headed towards Diagon Alley.

She first stopped by Gingotts and made a sizable withdrawal from her vault. That took a lot more time than she would have wanted, but ever since she'd broken into the bank with Harry and Ron ten years prior, the goblins were always suspicious of her and moved slow to process any transactions for her.

Her time was almost up, so she full out ran to make her purchase of dragon hide clothing. Gloves, boots, and a jacket – costing a good amount, but they were going to be needed.

Hermione rushed back to the Leaky Cauldron, and waved at Tom as she threw herself in the floo tumbling out at her flat. The last few items were drifting into her bag as she landed on her feet. She threw everything she had in her arms into her bag and closed it.

Not able to do a once over of her flat, Hermione took a handful of floo powder and just threw herself back through her floo and emerged into the office of Amos Diggory, where he was sitting at his desk writing on parchment. He hardly looked up to acknowledge her as he finished what he was writing.

"I need you to give this to Charlie Weasley. He declined my original offer at heading the Scotland sanctuary, but I'm hopeful that he might reconsider. The reserves in China and Sweden have both had keepers that are interested in joining us, but none have the same level of experience that Charlie does." Amon folded up the parchment, thrusting it quickly into an envelope and handed it to Hermione. She stored it away in her bag for safe keeping.

She hadn't even thought about seeing Charlie and living near him for twelve weeks. Shaking her head, Hermione knew that this was a professional trip and that she was going to keep it that way. Just because she had slept with Charlie, not even two days ago, did not mean that she was going to be distracted by him.

"Okay, here is your portkey. You'll be meeting Vlad and Ivo Ridgebit when you land. Oh," handing her another envelope, "this is for them, explaining on who you are and apologizing for Rolf not being able to appear. Good luck."

Hermione looked down in her hand and saw a small brass figure of a Common Welsh Green, as she took one last look at her boss, she felt like a hook was somewhere behind her navel and she was pulled out of the office of Amos Diggory.

Hermione staggered as she felt herself drop onto soft green grass. Her head was still spinning and she could feel the wave of nausea that she always got when using a portkey.

"Dis is Rolf Scamander?" She could hear a deep gravelly voice whispering.

"Ivo, tis, tis. No need to be rude to our guest." Another male voice answered the first. Taking a deep breath to attempt to steady herself she looked up to the men that were speaking in front of her.

They were both massive men. They stood more than a foot taller than her, the one on the left was balding with black hair and a thick black beard. The other had long black hair hanging around his shoulders with an equally large black beard. They both had green eyes and a pale skin tone.

She looked around at her surroundings and saw that there was a thick fog hanging around where she had landed, making it difficult to see the landscape ahead of her. Clearing her throat, she stood up and held out her hand to the balding man.

"Hello, my name is Hermione Granger. Unfortunately, a personal emergency arose at the last moment and I had to come in Rolf Scamander's place." The man's features softened as he accepted her hand. Before she forgot, she reached into her bag and pulled out the parchment Amos had given her explaining the situation.

With an arched brow, the balding man accepted the scroll. Without a word he skimmed the parchment, then handed it off to the other man, who also quickly looked over it.

"Dis is my brother Ivo, and I am Vlad. We are glad you are here Hermy-own-ninny." Hermione hid a smile as she recognized the way Vlad pronounced her name the same as the way Viktor Krum did.

"You can call me Mione, if that's easier for you." She offered in an attempt to make it easier for the men.

"Mi-ninny then." Vlad smiled with a nod, "well right dis way. We will show you da quarters dat you vill be living in vile here."

Hermione tossed the little brass dragon into her bag and followed behind Vlad and Ivo. She had to run to keep up behind them, and anytime she took her eyes off the ground in front of her, she found herself tripping in holes and over tuffs of grass.

While looking at her feet, Hermione saw a massive shadow fall over her. She stopped walking and felt her jaw dropped as she looked up into the sky.

Above her a massive green belly, and incredibly large wings were soaring up higher. She couldn't pull her eyes off the dragon as it flew towards a rocky cliff that she could now start to make out. As it landed outside a cave, the dragon turned as if it were looking for something and she could see the shine of it's two long glittering golden horns. It ducked its head and entered the cave and out of sight.

"First time seeing a dragon?" Vlad asked looking at Hermione's reaction to the Romanian Longhorn.

"Er, no. I knew the Norwegian Ridgeback, Norberta, and saw her hatch in 92'. Then, I was at Hogwarts during the Triwizard Tournament in '95 and saw the four there, and I rode on the back of a blind Ukrainian Ironbelly in '98. Nothing since then though." Hermione turned back to the brothers and a wide smile broke out across Vlad's face.

"You're the witch that's fiends with Charlie's brother!" Vlad let out a booming laugh at the realization that he had heard of her. Hermione felt the heat running up her neck, she had never thought that Charlie would talk about her to the owners of the world's largest dragon sanctuary.

"I see vhy he likes this one." Ivo finally spoke with a chuckle.

"Vell, you'll be happy with the accommodations that we have in place then. Charlie was injured last veek and can only do supervising roles. He'll be the one that is working with you, until he's healed." Vlad seemed pleased with how perfectly this was working out. Hermione's stomach felt like it had dropped.

She didn't know how to be alone around Charlie without being intoxicated and shagged. This was great, it was going to be great. Well, it wasn't, but she wasn't going to let this get in the way.

She had a lot to learn about dragon sanctuaries, recruitment, training, and everything else that she could learn. Plus, she was needing to negotiate the relationship between the two sanctuaries.

Thinking of all that was going to be happening in these next twelve weeks, Hermione was really starting to feel the weight of this entire trip.

Hermione followed Vlad and Ivo to a large gravel courtyard with large stone buildings. As they had entered the courtyard, Hermione felt the familiar chill that came from magical wards that one would put around a property when they were trying to keep things out.

"The barrier keeps the dragons from accidentally setting the courtyard and living quarters on fire. They can still physically get through if they vant as these wards aren't strong enough to keep living beings from entering, but if they happen to breath a little fire flying over then it von't penetrate." Ivo gestured towards the sky making Hermione gulp.

She'd known living on a dragon sanctuary was going to be terrifying, but this was a bit more than she had bargained for. This is why Rolf had been chosen to be the ambassador assigned to this. He had spent some time living at the Swedish Dragon Reservation, and felt comfortable living where dragons lived.

Hermione, not so much.

She was prepared for the work aspect of what being in Romania detailed, the actual living here had her slightly terrified. If she was going to make this have to muster up all the Gryffindor courage she had.

"Dis is the building you'll be in. It's de women's quarters and der is only one female dragon keeper currently vorking here. Over der is de men's quarters, der are two building because we do employee a large number of people here. Charlie might be in der right now, if you wanted to go say hello. His name is listed outside his room.

"You can have your pick of vhatever room you are vanting, except for the occupied room. After you get settled you can either say hello to Charlie or relax and ve can come find you later." Vlad gave a smile, and with that he and Ivo summoned brooms into their hands and took off without another word.

Hermione walked up towards the building she would be staying in. She opened it and saw that there was a name plate on the room to the far right, so she took the room to the far left of the entrance.

She opened the door and saw that it looked vaguely similar to her first loft. The bedroom and sitting room were all in one, with a small kitchen to the side, and one door leading to a bathroom. As long as a dragon didn't come crashing through her roof, she would be perfectly comfortable here.

Setting her beaded bag on the night table, Hermione dug through until she'd found the parchment that Amos had given her for Charlie. If he was available right now, she might as well make sure that he got his message sooner rather than later once they were busy working. No reason to waste anymore time. She could unpack and settle in tonight. Right now, she had business that needed attending.

Straightening her shoulders, she walked out the door and over to the one of the other buildings that Vlad had pointed out to her. She walked into the first building and saw that the door in the center was open. She could see Charlie's back facing her as he was hunched over a desk, taking a deep breath she stepped into the doorway of his private quarters. The grey shirt was pulled tight over the rippling muscles of his back, and Hermione could feel her fingers itching to dig her nails into those shoulders.

Ignoring the tingling sensation, she felt growing in her abdomen, she raised her hand and knocked on the door frame. Charlie slowly sat up and turned to look over his shoulder. His jaw dropped slightly and his eyes grew big at the sight of her.

"Hello, Charlie. Fancy seeing you here."