A/N: I wanted to make sure that I got this out here today, since it'll be my last update of the week. I've got a handful of personal things happening, so HOPEFULLY, I can spoil you all next week with 3-4 updates!

Other news, I published my first Dramione chapter today as well, so if you like something that's a bit darker go check it out.

Canismajorsicion, Casey being a bum made me chuckle. She's actually based off someone that I know in real life and worked with at one point in my life. She is fiercely loyal and petty as can be when crossed. Hopefully this chapter will help you see why she is the way she is. I have her whole backstory in my head, but I just don't see a place to put in the story without going way off track.

My rambling for the day, I'll tell you about the first time I read CoS… I was probably about 12, and once I got started reading, I just couldn't put it down. I was sitting up in my bed holding a flash light under the covers, because my mom kept threatening to return my book if I didn't go to sleep at a reasonable time.

So, I'm happily reading and I get to where Harry sees the basilisk. I'm terrified of snakes and decided in my exhausted state that I need to put the book down and go to sleep otherwise I'm going to have nightmares.

My nightstand was a small bookshelf, so I wouldn't have to get out of bed to put away whatever I was reading at the time. I bent down to put CoS on the bottom shelf, and what is laying curled up with my books? A baby garden snake.

Now, combine my lack of sleep, my fear of snakes, just reading about the basilisk, and then having a real-life snake in my beloved books, I jumped up in bed SCREAMING for help. It was around 3am and my parents were not very pleased with me.

I ended up sleeping in my brother's bedroom that was upstairs for two months and then when my parents finally convinced me that I could sleep in my room again, they had to do nightly searches of my room for another month to ensure that there weren't anymore snakes in my bedroom.

After three months, I finally accepted that the snake being in my room was just a freak accident. Then, my mom and I found another one laying in the middle of our living room!

And that brings us back to our regularly un-scheduled readings…

Week Five

Ginny,
I'm falling madly in love with your brother.

Ginny,
Your brother is the best shag I've ever had in my life.

Ginny,
Your brother is hotter than the fire the dragon's breath.

Ginny,
Everything is going great. I've learned so much and your brother is a perfect gentleman. Give Percy, Audrey, and Molly my love and congratulations on their newest addition. I'll write back when I have more to report.

All my love,
Hermione

Hermione was walking around her quarters trying to absorb the information that she had just been sent by Amos. She knew that her latest update hadn't reached him yet, but this was something frustrating and she just couldn't believe her foul luck.

Hermione,
I'll need you to work on a press release and outline to send back to me with your next update. We'll be publishing before you get back, however we need your input on this.

-Amos

Could he not do something without her. For crying out loud, he's the bloody head of the whole department, not just the beast division. Shouldn't he be capable of putting together things for a press release.

They already had full support from Kingsley Shacklebolt, who was the Minister himself. Not to mention the Wizengamot was already aware of the plans for the land in Scotland, as they were consulted for the legality of changing the laws and regulations to allow such a project.

All of that, she had done. Amos could do a ruddy press release and handle the public.

Regardless, she fell into the seat at her desk and began to draw up an outline for everything that Amos, Rolf, and the rest of the beast division that was involved in the project could easily do until she returned that last full week in September.

What she really needed was a face to boost the public confidence. She needed someone the people would feel confidence in. Someone who they could look at and say, yes, we trust this person to keep the dragons from running ramped into the country.

Discouraged, she dropped her head onto her desk. She looked over all the candidates that had applied and none of them fit what she was looking for. She could have the best press release, but if she didn't have someone who had the experience, public face, and charisma to pull this off. Well, then she would be dealing with protestors for the next few years while they proved themselves.

Everyone who was in the bloody pile of applicants all had less than five years' experience and that was not going to cut it. No way, no how.

"Mione?" Hermione's head shot up off her desk; her poster boy just walked into her sights. She knew that Amos had offered Charlie the position twice now. She now understood the desperation to have him join.

The Weasley family were now huge public figures, after the entire family had been apart of The Order. Not to mention Ron being part of the golden trio and Ginny becoming a professional quidditch player, every single one of the family members was recognizable. Including the fact that she had seen a few pictures that popped up of Charlie riding a dragon into the Battle of Hogwarts every year around the anniversary.

She needed Charlie Weasley to move to Scotland and head her sanctuary.

"Mione, are you alright? You have that look in your eye." Charlie was looking at her skeptically and not making a move to enter her room.

"Charlie! No, come in come in. I was just going over the latest paperwork that Amos had sent over and was just thinking about coming to find you and talk to you about something." Hermione knew that they had plans to go and observe the dragon keepers in action today, Charlie in a purely supervisor position only per the healer's instructions.

With a questioning look, Charlie walked into the room and sat down in the small overstuff arm chair that was near the fireplace. Taking a deep breath, Hermione knew that she needed to get the seed planted now and find out for sure so she would know.

"I know that Amos has offered you to lead the Scotland sanctuary, twice now. Are you going to take it?" Might as well not beat around the bush and just get to the point. Charlie didn't like to play games, and frankly neither did she.

"Oh, well I'm not sure to be honest with you. I've looked over his latest proposal, but I haven't given much thought to it. I've lived in Romania about half my life, and my entire adult life as I moved here right out of Hogwarts. This is my home, and I'm not sure that I could just leave it." Charlie flushed red and looked down into his hands.

While she most certainly had feelings developing for the man, she didn't want to take him away from the place that he loved and lived. This wasn't about her though, this was about needing to have someone who could help promote the sanctuary.

"Yes, but would you consider if it wasn't a permanent move? Has Amos talked to you about that?" Hermione pressed. She hadn't spoken with Amos about the different options that he had sent Charlie, to be honest she had no information on what he had spoken with Charlie about.

"So, a temporary position? Just to get a new sanctuary up and running? No, the offers I got from Amos were all permanent positions with contracts that were two years to start." Charlie looked up from his hands to meet her eyes. No wonder that he had been so reluctant, Amos was wanting to ensure stability and that made sense, but he hadn't accounted for Charlie's love of his home.

"What if, I offered you to come and help for the first six months." Hermione thought that with Charlie she should be able to recruit a few more experienced keepers, and rounding out their squad. Charlie's seventeen years' experience was not something that she would be able to replace, however six months would get the going in the right direction.

"I would have to talk with Vlad and Ivo about it, but let me think on it before I give you an answer." The hesitancy that Hermione had seen in Charlie's face had evaporated and now he seemed that his interest had been peeked.

"You will have to be working directly with me, as I'm the head of the beast division." Hermione added with wink, hopeful that spending more time with her wouldn't be a bad thing in Charlie's mind. For her though, she did worry that if things with Charlie continued, she was going to lose herself in him. Not that it was a bad thing, but this thing with him couldn't last.

He'd just all but said that he didn't want to leave Romania for two years, and she couldn't exactly pick up her life and leave to go live in a little wizarding village outside the dragon rescue waiting every few weeks for Charlie to come spend some time with her.

No, she couldn't let herself get lost in those brown eyes anymore than she already was. When the time came, she was going to have to accept a clean cut from him and just enjoy the memories made.

"I'll let you know by the end of the week then. Well, are you ready to go see some dragons up close today?" Charlie stood up from the plush chair and stretched his arms above his head, causing his back to crack.

"Yup, let me grab my bag and my camera, I'll meet you outside." Hermione gathered up her things and made sure she put on her dragon hide boots and gloves for the protection that she assumed she was going to need.

The past few weeks, she had seen the dragons flying in the air and she had seen where a few of their caves were up on a cliff, but she had yet to get an up-close look here. Charlie had one more week of light duty, so this was what he decided was light.

As soon as she was settled behind Charlie and her arms wrapped around him, they were off in the sky heading towards the dragons. Hermione peaked under Charlie's arm as they got closer and was in awe of the sight.

There were multiple dens that she could see. They each held multiple of the same breed of dragons. She felt the shiver as they passed through the outer wards and soared towards the group of keepers that were gathered near the different entrances of the den.

When they landed, they spotted Casey and Anton talking together outside the Antipodean Opaleye den. There were ten other keepers hanging around, but she only recognized a few of them from the team that had been in the yellow uniforms.

"What's happening?" Charlie asked to Casey who was looking more annoyed than usual.

"We contacted the government in New Zealand and told them that we have three opaleyes that can be returned into the wild and they're asking us to keep them a bit longer. They want to send their own dragonologists to check on them, but aren't available to do the evaluation for another month.

"As if we have the room to spare, I have a nesting mother in there with her hatchling ready to come any day now and this damn den is already one over because we just had an egg hatch two days ago." Casey threw her hands above her head and kicked the dirt.

"Do we have another den that we can move the two mothers and their young to?" Charlie looking between Anton and Casey.

"We could move the Hebridean Black and Common Welsh Greens together. Vey are a good mix for a short vime." Anton commented while he was looking at the parchment in his hand. "De Hebridean Black ave room for three more, but de Welsh Greens are smaller and we can add five for de Blacks two."

"Okay, we'll have to move them around just for a few months though. Just until we can get the opaleyes to New Zealand." With Charlie's final word on the matter, Casey and Anton nodded and ran off to go and talk with the other dragon keepers that were standing nearby.

"Weasley, we have a longhorn that just needs his final evaluation done before returning him to the Carpathian Mountains." A large man with a thick Australian accent came walking towards Charlie holding out a clipboard.

Charlie looked down at the notes and nodded, satisfied with what was there. "I can do the final evaluation on the longhorn; Williams do you feel confident checking in on the horntails?" Charlie looked into the younger man's eyes.

"Yes sir, I'll report back once I'm finished." The man named Williams summoned his broom and shot off into the sky, clearly heading towards another part of the reservation.

"Ready to see how we make sure they're ready to be released?" Charlie turned to Hermione with a shine in his eye.

"Absolutely." Hermione followed Charlie towards the enclosure that was furthest to the left.

"We usually don't release too many Longhorns back into the wild, they're endangered because of their horns. People found that they have properties to use in potions, so their numbers have fallen dangerously low. With their massive size though, they are hard to keep living on the reserve permanently, but we also don't want ones who should be in the wild to be kept in captivity." Charlie explained as they moved closer to the enclosure.

"This guy here that we're evaluating we're going to be leaving his tracking spells attached. His name is Lachlan, Williams actually found him when he was home visiting family a few months ago. He'd clearly been captured for his horns, but the wizard who had been holding him captive hadn't anticipated just how hard it is to remove the horns."

As they approached the ward, Hermione saw the dragon resting near the forest. His left horn had a piece missing from the base and Hermione's heart broke thinking of how painful that much have been.

Lachlan must have heard their approach, because he lifted his massive head and was squinting his eyes in their direction. She heard Charlie muttering spells that she didn't recognize and ribbons of green, blue, and red light shot out the tip of his wand towards the dragon.

Lachlan spread his great green wing and took to the sky, and began to fly away from the spells that Charlie had sent towards him.

"He's the largest longhorn I've ever seen in person. They're average size is around forty feet, but this guy here is forty-nine feet long." Charlie whispered towards her as he flicked his wand and the ribbons of light wrapped around the dragon's body.

"I'm checking first to see if he has his agility back to be able to avoid spells shot in his direction. Also, after living with wizards for months, we worry that they lose their natural instincts to avoid humans. We're also checking on his physical health to make sure that he's strong enough to take care of himself once he's on his own in the wild."

Hermione was amazed as she watched the large dragon spin upward and lock eyes with Charlie. He shot an enormous flame in Charlie's direction that was easily contained by the wards, but Hermione could still feel the scorching heat wafting towards her. She felt like she'd just opened a brick oven, looking down at her arms she could see the hairs on her arm burning away.

Charlie's eyes never left the dragon in front of them as he let out a roar of frustration that his flames hadn't engulphed the man. He spread his wings and shot towards the wards and opened his mouth wide and let out another burst of fire, making the wards shimmer from the heat. Hermione could feel her face growing warm and sweat beading at her brow.

The fierce dragon again saw that his flames had no effect on Charlie, and gave one final attempt by lowering his head and charging towards the wards. At the impact, Hermione felt herself lifted from the grown and thrown.

With wide eyes, Hermione blinked at the dragon who roaring with frustration at the wards and at Charlie who was still standing, but slowly backing away. When he reached his hand out to push Hermione back, was the first time he realized she was no longer standing beside him.

Charlie's head whipped around and found her covered in dirt sitting and looking dazed at him. Charlie turned, rushing to her side to inspect her.

"What hurts?" He demanded as his hands were cupping her face, forcing her to look into his eyes. "Did you hit your head?"

"My body just feels over heated, but besides that I feel fine." Hermione assured him as she tried to stand, but she cringed as she realized her hand had been impaled by a rock.

"Shit, I'm so sorry, I should have thought of casting a sticking charm on your feet." Charlie was muttering pulling the rock out of her hand and casting a quick charm to heal the palm of her hand.

"Charlie, I'm fine. Look, all better already." Hermione held her hand out to Charlie as he helped her up. "That was the most incredible experience I think I've ever had." Hermione's body was humming with excitement. She understood the draw to these creatures, the power and the grace this large animal carried himself with was incredible.

A wide grin spread across Charlie's face as she looked at him. He dipped his head down and claimed her lips with a passionate kiss. Wrapping his arms around Hermione's waist, he pulled him in close to her and held her tight.

"Damn you, woman. I'm in. I'll come to Scotland with you." Charlie muttered against her lips and she knew, he had fallen for her too.

Week Six

Ms. Granger,
After reviewing your reports, we have agreed that it would be in the best interests of the Wizarding World if we were to push up the opening.

We are now working towards a deadline of the first week of March 2009. That will be three full months earlier than originally planned.

I realize that we had agreed to giving you a week's time off upon return to England, however we will not be able to accommodate that any longer. Please continue to send your detailed reports each week and we look forward to your return on the twenty-second of September.

-Amos

Hermione glanced up from her desk and saw that it was already the seventh of August. Over a month had passed since she had first been thrust into this assignment and she couldn't believe how fast the time was going.

She had learned the basics on the office side of running a dragon sanctuary, she had her been able to recruit one of the most experienced dragon keepers to come back to Britain, and she had seen first hand the power of a dragon ready to be released back into the wild.

There was still a little more than five weeks left, but she felt like she had so much more she needed to learn. The pressure was on and she could feel it. Less than seven months until they opened up Scotland to accept dragons in need, it made her stomach drop at the thought of how much more needed done.

"Hermione, hey have you seen Charlie?" Casey was standing in her doorway looking a bit disheveled and exhausted.

"Not since lunch. He's in meeting with Vlad and Ivo going over everything that he's missed while injured. Then he was going to help with transferring the Opaleye mothers and their hatchlings to that new enclosure. He's not going to be back until at least dinner time." Hermione supplied, but felt that she needed to find out what was causing the witch's distress. "Could I possibly help you at all?"

"I'm not sure, but maybe? I need a partner to go into the field with me. Usually I go with Anton, but he got a nasty bite from Short-Snout yesterday and can't go. Charlie is usually my backup. There's no one else available to head out and do an egg retrieval and I can't go out without backup. It's a time sensitive matter, we get the tip and we have to be out within the hour to make sure we get the eggs." Casey drug her fingers through her blue hair and kicked the door frame, making the room shudder.

"Is it just going and picking up the egg?" Hermione asked, figuring that this was something that she was really needing to see also.

"Yeah, this one is really a sinch too. The egg has just been abandoned in a field. From the tip, it sounds as if the mother was captured as there's been no signs of any dragons near there. Honestly, not even sure if the egg is still viable. Still can't leave it laying in the middle of a field for anyone to come across though, ya know?" Casey was stretching her arms back behind her, and turning to walk out of the room.

"Well, I guess I could go? I mean, if it's a time sensitive matter and you can't wait for Charlie." Hermione offered before Casey was out of sight.

Sticking her head back in the room, Casey eyed her carefully. "Has Ivo approved on you going on egg retrievals?"

"I'm supposed to be shadowing all the different jobs around here. I haven't been out to retrieve an egg and like you said this one seems like the mother was captured and the egg has been abandoned."

"Yeah, okay. I can send a Patronus to Charlie and see if he responds though. But if he's moving the Opaleyes then he can't exactly drop what he's doing. Shit. Yeah, okay. If you don't mind coming.

"I uh, promise that I won't leave you behind like I did. Uh, when I took you to the owlery" Casey looked down at the floor and started kicking at dirt that wasn't there.

"Oh, uh, right. Yeah. I'd appreciate not being left in some field." Hermione stood and started to gather her things. As an afterthought, she jotted down a quick note to Charlie to let him know that she was out with Casey and they'd be back shortly.

With a flick of her wand, the envelope with the note for Charlie shot off to slide under his door and land on his desk in his room. He wouldn't mind that she went to work with Casey while he was busy, besides, how often would a chance come up where there would be a non-dangerous egg retrieval?

Casey was waiting outside holding onto her broom, still not looking totally sure of this idea. "Are you sure Ivo cleared you to go on missions off the reservation?"

"Well, not in those exact words, but I'm here to learn about every aspect. Worse comes to worse, we'll just leave the egg and you can go back with Charlie." Hermione did the thing she swore she would never do, and climbed on the back of Casey's broom.

"That's true, but just so you know we might be walking into an anti-apparition zone, those are all over the country. So, I guess off we go." With that Casey kicked off from the ground and they zipped through the sky straight towards the wards.

Casey was flying cautiously than she had the day she had taken Hermione to the owlery. Hermione appreciated that Casey didn't ride like a lunatic all the time.

Once they landed, Casey shrunk down the broom and stuck it in her back pocket. She held her arm out and without another word, she felt the world twist and her feet left the reservation.

When the spinning stopped Hermione was standing on the outskirts of a forest and Casey was swearing next to her, enlarging the broom from her pocket.

"Anti-apparition zone. The field should be in the middle of the forest, so we'll have to be cautious." Casey climbed on her broom and held her hand out for Hermione. Hermione climbed aboard and they sped through the trees, staying low and out of sight.

It didn't take very long before an opening appeared in the thick trees and it was replaced with the view of overgrown grasses and wild flowers. Casey brought the broom to a slower speed as they surveyed the area.

"It shouldn't be hard to find here. Well depending on the dragon who built the nest. Just, being dragons, they tend to hide their nests so that other dragons won't see them when flying over, so we'll have to search on foot." Casey commented over her shoulder. They softly landed and Casey shrunk her broom back down to store in her pocket again.

"It's beautiful." Hermione breathed as she looked around the open area. The wild flowers brought so much color to the area. Blue, pink, yellow, purple, and reds speckled through the greenery as far as the eye could see.

"The guy that gave us the tip said that the nest was pretty easy to find if you are familiar with dragon's and their nesting habits. We'll want to stay close to each other, never know who else could have found out about this." Casey used her wand and was gently moving through the grass looking for anything out of the ordinary.

Hermione followed her example and started working on the opposite side of Casey. If she was going to be here as her second, she might as well help her.

"Things with you and Charlie must be going good. He told me he's going to be in Scotland starting in February." Casey commented as she sent another breeze through the grasses.

"I suppose, really I only asked him because my boss has asked him twice and I knew that Charlie would be a great asset to join us for the kick off." Hermione shot her own breeze and uncovered a giant rock, but Casey shook her head and they kept moving forward.

"He's the best, and I don't just say that because he's my best friend. He really truly is the best person I've ever met in my life." Casey, it seemed was wanting to open up to Hermione. Hermione couldn't help but prod a bit more to understand this witch better.

"How long, uh, have you known Charlie?"

"Fifteen years, you know how the recruitment works for the rescue don't you?"

"A bit, they only take on students every two years and not very many passes. The ones who do move on to either stay at this reserve or move to Sweden or China." Hermione thought back to the quick overview Charlie had given her on her first week on the reserve.

"Yeah, that's about it. I'm the only American whose application has been accepted in like twenty years or so. I think they felt bad for me because my family died and I had nowhere left to go.

"So, they approved me and I was in the recruitment class under Charlie. I didn't much Romanian at the time, and Charlie was the only other person who spoke English. I was angry as fuck when I first showed up and Charlie just, Charlied me.

"He knew that I cared about him, my older brother had died with my parents so I had a space that was needing filled, I guess. Well, we were out doing some practice wards and one of the other trainee's really screwed up and ended up dropping the wards around an enclosure of an Ironbelly.

"The dragon came charging right at me, swung one of its talons right at me. Charlie just appeared out of no where and shoved me out of the way. Gashed him, right across his arms. The healers were shocked that he didn't lose his arms.

"That was the first howler I ever heard someone laying in a hospital bed get, but then again his mom is terrifying. Man, I'd rather be dropped in a nest with a Vipertooth before having Molly Weasley come after me, that's for damn sure.

"Ever since then though, he's been my best friend. You know, when I saw how easily you hurt him it was scary. I've never seen someone have that effect on him and for the guy that jumped in front of an Ironbelly for me, I'll do anything to protect him." Casey stopped walking and looked at Hermione.

"I'd never purposefully hurt him." Hermione confessed. She knew it was true too. Not just because of the relationship and the bond that she shared with his family, but because Charlie was everything good and she'd never want to see that sparkle go dull.

Casey didn't respond to her, but that was okay. It seemed that the two witches had a better understanding of each other now. Even though she hadn't anticipated learning so much about Casey and Charlie, Hermione was happy to understanding their friendship better.

Hermione and Casey worked in silence as night began to draw near. The field was much larger than they'd realized and it was starting to get to the point that they weren't going to be able to see clearly in an hour tops.

Hermione was about to suggest going back when Casey held up her hand, motioning for Hermione to stop. Without making a sound Casey crouched lower and slowly began to make her way into what just looked like to Hermione an overgrown patch of weeds.

Upon closer inspection though, she could see where there was mud overturned and it looked like a burrow had been made into the ground. Almost like a rabbit's nest that she'd found in her backyard when she was a child. If it hadn't been pointed out to her, Hermione would never have spotted it.

Casey slowly approached the nest and moved aside some of the greenery, twigs, and flowers that covered the entrance. Hermione held her breath as Casey slid her whole body inside, completely lost to the outside world.

Hermione heard Casey's voice call from inside the nest, so she approached so is that she could hear what Casey was saying better.

"Sorry, I missed that."

"It's a longhorn's egg, but this isn't a dragon's nest. This egg is being hidden here. It's still warm though, so we'll need to hurry. Can you take the egg?"

Casey's hands appeared reaching out holding a dark green egg with grey streaks on it. It was a bit bigger than Hermione's forearms, so she did struggle with holding onto it.

"Why would someone hide an egg all the way out here?" Hermione wondered out loud as she nestled the egg to her chest. She swore that she could feel something rolling around inside the egg.

"Longhorns are endangered. Even if you don't chop off their horns, they're still a rare and valuable dragon to have. A status symbol for some wealthy wizarding families." Casey shrugged as an explanation. "We need to get going though, we don't know when someone would be planning on coming to collect the egg and it's already dark."

She was right, the sun had fully set by now and they were putting themselves at a higher risk the longer they stayed here. Casey had an incubator that she set the egg in, casting a feather light charm, she attached the contraption to the underside of her broom.

Hermione scrambled on behind Casey and they shot off towards the forest. "We'll still want to keep low. If anyone sees us before we can apparate back they might attack to try and get the egg back."

Hermione pulled her wand out and started to scan the trees for any potential threats lurking in the shadows. It was terrifying, flying through a forest that they couldn't see well in and knowing that someone was probably out there waiting to come back to get the egg they now had attached to their broom.

Hermione didn't even have a chance to look up when she felt the fang pierce through her shoulder. She left out an ear-splitting scream as the vampire sunk its fang into her. She kicked her leg as hard as she could and the vampire flew off her, but in doing so it ripped through her shoulder causing even more damage.

"Fuck!" She heard Casey yell as she began to swerve on her broom. Pure adrenaline was all that kept Hermione from passing out from the pain. She shot spells off at any movement she got a glimpse of. Casey continued to rocket towards the edge of the forest, where they'd be able to apparate back to the rescue.

Casey cried out and Hermione saw another vampire had latched onto her arm, trying to make her lose grip on her broom. Hermione shot off a spell, forcing off the vampire. As soon as she was free, Casey's hand grasped onto her broomstick again.

Hermione gripped onto Casey's waist even tighter, though her injured arm protested. She felt a pain shoot through her calf as someone was trying to attack the incubator and the egg that laid directly below her on the broom. Hermione shot a spell at the vampire that had punctured her leg, sending it flying to the ground.

Casey leaned down lower on the broom flying at should have been an alarming speed, but Hermione couldn't bring herself to let her fear of flying creep in. They landed outside the anti-apparition point and Hermione felt Casey spin on the spot bring her along for the ride.

As soon as they landed Hermione collapsed. The last thing she saw before she blacked out was red hair standing over her.