A/N: So, this is my first ever fanfic. I'm not sure how good it will be, but this story popped into my head and I couldn't get it out. There are such a limited number of Charlie/Hermione fics, and I decided i had to try and add some. They're my new guilty obsession. Anyway, read and review! Any comments about how to better my work, or anything you want to share would make my day!

Disclaimer: The characters you find here are all from the mastermind of JK Rowling. It's her universe and I'm just playing in it. I don't make any profit off anything that's written.

Love, Cordelia

Chapter 1

Hermione Granger is exhausted. She had spent the last six hours frantically gathering everything she would need for this last minute trip. Triple checking her list for anything she might have missed.

"Dragon hid gloves, advanced potions kit, muggle microscope, flame retardant clothes, spare vials, dragon hide boots, sweaters, jeans." She walked around her flat muttering. "Damn it all to hell!" She shouted suddenly. 'Where is my cauldron?!" Tearing through the flat and digging up her standard size two cooper cauldron. 'damn Kingsley' she murmured under her breath cursing the Minister for giving her such a short amount of time to prepare. She thought back to this morning and wondered how she had been roped into this again.

10 Hours earlier.

Hermione hummed a tune in her head carrying her coffee and muffin and checked the time, 7:45. She sighed, and tapped her foot while waiting for the lift in the atrium. She was preparing for a long day of paperwork ahead. Working in the Regulation and Control of Magic Creatures division for the Ministry was a lot more tedious than she had hoped. Still, at least she knew she was doing something good in the world. Even if filling out proposal after proposal bored her to tears some days, and made her want to pull her hair out in frustration. She stepped into the lift and hit the button for level four. Ignoring the spectral voice that announced each level and department. Never had she imagined herself longing for the days where her life was at risk. She knew she didn't want to be an auror with Harry and Ron, but sympathised with their need for adventure and action. The lift dinged and opened to her floor. Hurrying over to her office she nodded a polite hello to her receptionist.

"Good morning Nancy, how was your night out?" She questioned with a raised brow.

Nancy was a few years her junior, but a proficient employee. She was a pretty girl with short blonde hair, deep blue eyes and a round face. She looked like an overgrown cherub, but her personality was decidedly opposite. She lived by the motto "work hard, play harder" and Hermione couldn't help but adore her. She always looked forward to being regaled by the misadventures of Nancy on Monday mornings. Judging by the steaming cup of tea, empty vial of hangover potion, and slightly green complexion this would prove to be a good one. Nancy looked up at her and grimaced. She held up a finger and downed her tea in three large gulps. Hermione chuckled under her breath knowing the potion would have been mixed into her tea, as was her custom. Watching as the girls face slowly returned to normal colour and her eyes gained back their signature spark.

"Good morning Hermione!" Nancy chirped happily now that her hangover was officially a thing of the past. "My weekend was amazing, well, what I can remember of it anyway.." She trailed off. Hermione sat on the edge of Nancy's desk and smirked before taking a sip of her coffee.

"Well, don't hold out on me now!" she urged. "You know I live vicariously through you, now that my life's gotten so mundane"

"Okay, well it all started out on Friday night. Me and the girls decided to check out that new Club that opened up. A bit of dancing, a bit of drinking, you know, the usual." She started off, eyes twinkling in merriment and mischief.

Hermione nodded at her to continue.

"Well, halfway through the night Audrey runs up to me and tells me that she overheard this group talking about this new festival that was going on. She said she overheard them say it was in the middle of a forest in Grimsthorpe. She insisted we had to go!" Nancy was practically jumping in her seat at this point.

"Wait," Hermione interrupted her. "was this at a muggle club or wizarding?" She asked. Knowing she was hopelessly out of the loop for any exciting new venues in either world. After the war she had tried to go out and blow off some steam with Ginny, but the paparazzi had hounded her no matter where she went. She had gotten sick of it and now preferred to unwind with a drink at home when she needed one. 'Another reason my life is so dull' She thought sulkily.

"Muggle" Nancy replied unaware of her bosses internal brooding.

"But get this!" She continued waving her arms around wildly. "The reason Audrey overheard the conversation was because the festival was called 'Forbidden Forest'!"

"What?!" Hermione shouted, choking on her coffee and spilling some of it down her chest. "Fuck!" she cursed the hot liquid that was rapidly staining her new peach blouse. Nancy giggled and waved her wand, cleaning up the spot. It wasn't often she could shock her boss to such elicit language.

"Thanks" Hermione smiled to her gratefully.

"Well, that's the reaction I had too! We had to figure out if this was some elaborate prank or just some coincidence."

"Which one was it?" Hermione asked with trepidation. Her thoughts straying to darker possible motives than a prank.

"Oh, just a coincidence" Nancy waved her question away like an unimportant detail. Before she could continue on with her wild story about her weekend shenanigans the lift burst open and the minister himself rushed over looking harried.

"Kingsley, what's wrong!" Hermione exclaimed jumping down from the desk quickly; momentarily forgetting to address him properly in her shock. She hadn't seen him like this since the first few years following the war. Back then it was the stress of rounding up rouge Death Eaters and trying to put their world back to rights. Her heart was already racing and her mind running though the possible reasons he would search her out with that look on his face.

"Hermione" He sighed running a hand down the back of his bald head. "Thank Gods you're here early this morning. Can we talk privately in your office? I have something of a pressing nature that I need to discuss with you. Immediately if you have the time?"

"Of course, Minister" She replied at once gesturing him toward the open door.

Turning to Nancy she said "Hold all memos and reschedule any meeting I had this morning." Nancy nodded with wide eyes. Seeing the look of terror on the poor girls face Hermione continued "and if anyone insists on seeing me, kindly tell them to 'fuck off'." She smirked. Nancy snorted indelicately and relaxed getting to work on what Hermione requested.

Swiftly entering her office and shutting the door Hermione squared her shoulder to prepare for whatever unfortunate news Kings had in store. He was pacing back and forth scowling and didn't seem to notice her enter. Walking up to him she lightly put her hand on his shoulder shocking him out of his stewing.

"Kings" She said gently. "Please tell me what's going on. I haven't seen you this worked up since the end of the war." He sighed.

"Please take a seat, Mione" he murmured quietly. Sitting himself in the chair across from her desk. "First, I'm sorry to frighten you. I know there must be a hundred horrible scenarios running through your mind right now. Let me assure you, no one is hurt, missing or dead."

She let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding, and felt her shoulders sag in relief.

"Thank Gods" She whispered collapsing into her chair. "Would you like some tea?" She offered quickly knowing that her coffee would only wind her up further and suddenly craving the comfort of a good cuppa.

Waving her wand the kettle on her desk started boiling rapidly and two cups, sugar and cream situated themselves in between the two on the cleared space of her desk. Nodding gratefully Kingsley made his cup and took a large sip, slurping loudly in his haste.

"Now, if everyone's safe, what could possibly have you so worked up?" Hermione questioned with her brows furrowed in concern.

The years of working with the order and subsequent years of work at the Ministry had created a friendly relationship between the two of mutual respect and camaraderie. She tried to address him formally when in the presence of others, but behind closed doors they settled in to a more relaxed atmosphere.

"No one is dead, but this is the largest problem I've had to face since locking up the last Death Eaters." Kingsley's deep voice rumbled unhappily.

Hermione drew a breath. This was bad. Kingsley wasn't one to overreact to minor problems. The only question that remained was how bad was it?

"We've managed to keep this relatively quiet somehow, but what I'm about to tell you must stay confidential." He continued. Hermione nodded having already assumed that much.

"We had reports start coming in a few weeks ago, about unexpected reactions from some of our top Potioneers, specifically while using Dragon blood or Dragon Dung. I'm sure you have already heard mention of this because it would have been to hard to keep quiet while also protecting the wizarding public."

Hermione was nodding along. She had heard about it. There was a warning and recall issued the previous week for all products containing dragon's blood that was made in the last two weeks. The announcement in the Daily Prophet had stated that the blood may have been contaminated by an outside source, and was therefore unsafe to use because of possible reactions. It had stated not to worry, and truthfully no one seemed to be. Most people didn't brew their own potions regularly and even less kept fresh stores of the blood. The most common potions that used it were tricky to make, but cheap to buy as they contained such small amounts of it. She however had brought her vial into the Ministry to be properly disposed of, and hadn't given it much thought since. It wasn't as if these things didn't happen during the distribution and sale occasionally. The dragon dung was slightly trickier with how common it was, but it was listed as a fellow precaution because they shared a main distributer. There was obviously more to the story here though if Kingsley was bringing it up

"You see, it isn't a problem with contamination during the processing, distribution, or sale. The problem lies with the dragons themselves. We had reports come in from the Dragon Reserves that a large number of them have come down with a previously unknown illness. They have been trying to keep any showing symptoms in quarantine, but more seem to be popping up. Since they have no knowledge of what it is they do not know how to treat it, and more worrying, how it's spreading. The problem we now face isn't just the declining dragon numbers. We are fearful of the possible effect on the wizarding public, but also the complete loss of all products obtained from dragons. That in turn could cause a plummet in our economy that still hasn't recovered fully from the war." He finished off his explanation with a sad voice and a fierce look in his eye.

This was bad bad. Complete economic breakdown, nationwide panic bad. Hermione took it all in. Her mind whirled with possible scenarios if this were to happen. None of them were good. They had tried to get ahead of the problem, but if this mystery illness wasn't identified and corrected in time.. She shuddered at the possibilities.

"So, the problem needs to be identified and the dragons need to be healed." She summarised. "What do you need from me?" she asked quickly already going into planning mode to attack the situation at hand. "Would you like me to set up a team to collect information? Or I can look through the achieves and see if there is anything mentioned in them about this happening in the past." She hummed in thought.

"Hermione," Kings interrupted her. "Due to the sensitive nature of this problem, I'm afraid we cannot allow too many hands in the pot, so to say. I need this handled, quickly, quietly and efficiently."

"I understand completely. If we can get a solution fast enough there will be no need for the general public to panic. I don't usually agree with hiding things from the populace, but mass hysteria won't help anyone, especially before it's reached that level of gravity." She agreed with him.

He looked up at her relieved. "I knew I came to the right person. I can always count on you during moments of crises. It's a great relief to me, having you work here." Hermione swelled at the praise. She knew Kingsley trusted and respected her, but hearing it was another thing entirely.

"Thank you," she smiled at him her cheeks flushing humbly. "but you still haven't asked me to do anything yet." She prodded.

"I want you to be in charge of the project. I have a portkey set to leave for the Dragon Reserve at 8PM tonight. I want you to go there, and try and diagnose the illness and find a way to cure it. Preferably before this all blows up in our faces." He smiled at her for the first time since entering her office.

"YOU WHAT?!" She shrieked before she could contain herself. He had to be joking. 'There's no way he actually asked that of me.' she thought.

Kingsley chuckled at her outburst. His chest rumbling with the deep sound. "I'm serious Hermione. You are the best person for the job. Not only are you incredibly gifted, highly intelligent, and remarkably logical. But, you have the astounding ability to see seemingly unrelated details and correctly link them together."

"You're barmy. You've finally lost it, gone round the bend, as nutty as Luna you are." She muttered shaking her head. 'He cannot mean this. There's no way. I am not nearly qualified enough to handle a problem of this magnitude. I haven't even managed to wash my laundry this week. I couldn't possibly take this on. The stress of the job has finally got to him. He'll start walking around in a bowler hat in no time' She berated the man silently in her head.

Kingsley just chuckled again, likely guessing what she was thinking.

"I promise I have not lost the plot as you seem to think I have. Let me explain. You received an O in your Potions, Arithmancy, Care Of Magical Creatures, and Herbology NEWT's, correct?" He questioned hypothetically already knowing the answer. "You work in this department and have amassed a large amount of information on many different Creatures. You also can handle the testing phase for identifying the possible causes, and keep organised notes if further questioning is needed by a specific expert. Not to mention all of the qualities I have already listed." He finished looking at her expectantly.

"But Kings, surely.." She protested

"Furthermore, I trust you." He cut her off before she could explain why he should choose someone else. "I know you will keep this quiet and will do you very best to identify the issue. You already helped save the Wizarding world once, what's a second time, huh?" He quipped.

"I can't believe I'm considering this.." She rubbed her eyes feeling the headache start. 'But wasn't I just complaining about my boring stuffy life?' she questioned herself. 'At least this will be something new, something exciting' She debated. 'And you'll get to see dragons!' She internally squealed at the thought. She had been in love with them for longer than anyone else knew. Since before Hogwarts. She had loved reading about them in her fantasy books as a child, but that was nothing compared to knowing they were real. Her shock first year at seeing Hagrid hatch Norberta, formally Norbert, was only replaced when she realised how bad of an idea it was to keep her locked up. She couldn't stand the thought of that baby dragon not living among it's own kind. She had been all to relieved when they had gotten her safely away, but sad to see her go. That moment however bittersweet stuck with her. She loved dragons, they were everything magic rolled into one beautiful creature. 'I have to go' She thought 'I'll never have a chance like this again.'

Kingsley just waited patiently like he knew it was only a matter of time.

"Okay, I'll do it." Hermione acquiesced.

That was 10 hours before, and she nodded to herself. 'Yes, that's why I'm doing this. The dragons. They need help, and it's not like I've ever been able to turn my back on innocent suffering creatures. That's why I joined this stupid department in the first place. Plus, I don't think I'll be bored. Dragons tend to keep you on your toes. Good thing I've stayed in shape.' She thought distractedly.

She had spent a half hour in her meeting with Kingsley, two more hours being briefed and given all necessary information. She squeezed a quick lunch in with Harry and Ron. She made sure to ask them to tell everyone, and that she had an hour to say goodbye at 7 tonight. Kingsley agreed to bring the portkey to The Burrow for her. After lunch she spent another few hours tying up loose ends. She sent along proposals to colleagues to finish and submit, filed paperwork and told Nancy to hold down the fort while she was gone, knowing that things would continue to run smoothly with her still at the helm.

Now, it was almost 7. She had spent six hours packing and checking everything she could need. Taking one last look around her flat, she grabbed the bottle of fire whiskey and put it into her bag. 'Just in case' She thought with a sly grin. 'One can never be to prepared.' Grabbing her bag she turned on the spot and apparated to the backyard of The Burrow.