Chapter 4: ...Hermione?
Charlie couldn't believe it. Was Hermione going to be his new partner? She had run off a little over a year ago for some unexplained reason. He remembered his mother crying for days, believing that she had been kidnapped. It wasn't until his mother had went to see Dumbledore that she finally began to calm down.
He knew his little brother's best friend was pretty, after all, both he and Bill had always appreciated the beauty of women. However, her graduation was the first time he had noticed how she had grown from the mousy 14 year old into the gorgeous woman she is today.
Ever since that fateful day, Charlie couldn't help but admire Hermione's beauty whenever he saw her. He would often find himself staring at her across the kitchen table at The Burrow. On one occasion Remus had nudged him with his elbow to get his attention. The werewolf just chuckled to himself, mumbling something about being able to smell them, and how they should get a room.
He didn't dare approach her, even though her relationship with Ron had ended long ago. He had decided during the war that he wouldn't become attached to anyone. He had been afraid that he would be killed during the war and leave the other person with a broken heart and only distant memories for company. He knew in his mind that it was risky to fall in love at such a time, but that didn't seem to matter to his heart when he looked at Hermione.
"Merlin is that you Hermione?"
Rushing forward he enveloped her into a hug, crushing her against him. She was so stunned from the shock of seeing him that she didn't respond to the hug. Then in one fluid motion he pulled back and grabbed her shoulders.
"Where the hell have you been? Do you know how fucking scared mum was? She bloody well had a conniption fit! You just left, without a word! Harry and Ron searched for you for months, Dumbledore said you were fine but we were still worried sick. God you didn't even owl! I can't even begin to count how many we tried to send to you! DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW YOU MADE ME FEEL?" By the end of his ranting his voice had risen considerably, flushed he abruptly stopped yelling before he said something he wasn't ready to reveal.
"Hi", was all she could muster. She desperately wanted to tell him she was fine, that she felt terrible for causing grief amongst the Weasley clan, especially Molly. At the moment though breathing, let alone talking, had become increasingly difficult, especially since the object of all her sexual fantasies was standing before her.
Neither said anything for a moment, Hermione because her mind was in the gutter, and Charlie because he was still in shock. He was unable to comprehend the fact that the one woman he could never forget was standing before him.
Finally breaking the silence Hermione did the first thing that came to mind, she jumped towards him and wrapped her legs around his waist. She brought her arms up around his neck and buried her head into his shoulder, mumbling incoherently.
"What was that?"
"I said, I missed you. All of you guys, especially Harry. Though maybe not so much Ron," she said after leaning back to look at his face.
She slowly slid back down to the ground, innocently feeling his chest and stomach, and felt pleased when she heard him suck in a breath. She stepped back from him, wanting to put some space between them, as the hallway suddenly became very warm. She could feel her face getting flushed and knew she was going to need a very cold shower in the next 10 minutes.
"Ah yes, Ron. Did you know that just before you left he couldn't talk, in fact he couldn't talk for two months? Mum was constantly shoveling potions down his throat. Harry wouldn't say anything about why he was like that. Then he just woke up one morning and everything was back to normal."
Hermione couldn't help but smile, oh yes, she remembered. She had hoped the curse would have lasted a little longer, but no matter now. She was sure she had gotten her point across.
"You wouldn't have had anything to do with it, now would you?" Charlie said with a lopsided grin.
"Of course not, I would never point my wand at him with the intentions of doing him harm," Hermione replied with complete honesty.
Charlie snorted and rolled his eyes, "Who said you used your wand? Don't look at me like that, we all know what you and those two boys did whilst training for the war."
Hermione huffed and turned to look down the hall from where she came, "So are you going to show me around, or do you intend on standing here all night talking about Ron and his constantly growing list of inabilities?"
"I take it little Ronnikins isn't in you're 'good' books?"
Rolling her eyes, Hermione gave a great "Humph", that clearly indicated the end of that conversation.
Laughing at her apparent hostility towards his little brother, Charlie directed her back to the front room. Although one couldn't call it luxurious, you could at least call it practical. It made for a comfy living area, with a couch shoved up against the wall, a coffee table in front of the couch, and various objects arranged around the room on shelving, in fact it looked rather homey. After showing her where the kettle, mugs, and other cooking utensils could be found in the kitchen he directed her to a room further down the hall from his bedroom.
"This will be your room, I know it's not much, but I have stayed in a lot worse."
Opening the door he ushered her inside, the room consisted of a double bed that took up much of the available space. A desk to the left of the bed already held scrolls and quills. A small cupboard for her clothes was next to another door on the right side of the room. Stepping up the foot of the bed she turned to the door on the right and looked questioningly at Charlie.
"The door to your right is the bathroom, it opens up to my bedroom as well. There's plenty of hot water and towels, so no need to worry there. And if you need more blankets for tonight you'll find them in the hallway cupboard."
"Thanks, I'm dieing for a shower. Somehow Cleaning Charms never do feel quite the same as a decent shower or bath. I hated having to depend on them for such a long time," she said, smiling at him while once again her mind traveled into the gutters.
Charlie stood there mesmerized for a moment before he realized he was caught up in her dazzling smile yet again. He had never found another woman that smiled the same as Hermione. He'd been smiled at seductively, tenderly, humorously and even sympathetically by women. When Hermione smiled though, it was sweet and gentle, she looked at you like you were the only one in the room. Of course Charlie was the only one in the room at the present moment in time, but he didn't ponder too long on that point.
Turning around to shut the door he was stopped when she thanked him again.
"And Charlie?"
"Hmm?" he said urging her to continue.
"I'm glad you're going to be my partner and I'm sorry I worried you when I left. Do you forgive me?"
"I could never find myself unable to forgive you," he stated with heart felt truth.
Blushing under his intense gaze she turned to her bed and started unpacking her previously magically shrunken bags. After hearing the door close she let out a breath she wasn't aware she had been holding.
When all her clothes were unpacked and placed into the cupboard, she made her way to the bathroom for the cold shower she was in dire need of.
As Charlie made his way towards his room, he thought that a Silencing charm would most likely be needed for tonight. Turning the lights off, he burrowed under the covers, hoping to clear his mind of a certain temptress just feet way from him. He was having a difficult time doing this because he could hear the water running in the shower and could imagine her naked in the bathroom. Suddenly she shrieked as the water had apparently hit her. Groaning he turned on his stomach in an attempt to ignore his raging erection and block the mental images of Hermione standing in a cold shower with erect nipples out of his mind. It was then that he decided Silencing Charms were going to be a requirement in his bedroom from here on out.
A/N:
Thanks for reading, but an even BIGGER thanks to my new esteemed beta, Shawna (you rock). Thank you so much for putting up with my enormous amount of grammatical errors.
Chapter 5 is almost done, so I'll send it of to Shawna soon. Any update about this fic will be posted at my LJ so feel free to check it out. Please review, as I'm a rabid review munching addict, whatever that is (shrugs).
Until next time…