Disclaimer: No, I still don't own anything.

Author's Note: I would just like to thank my friends for all their support and chattypandagurl for all her help.

Chapter Sixteen- Talking

Bill answered, "Yeah, that's what all the noise was. Fred and George covering for Charlie, and then Charlie got mad. Don't you remember what we were talking about when we heard the bang?"

"We were talking about—oh. Charlie, are you in the closet?" his wife inquired.

His only response was, "Maybe."

"Have you been there the entire time?"

"Maybe."

"Can you say something other than 'maybe'?"

"That depends. Are you going to hurt me if I say yes?"

"No. I'm not going to hurt you no matter what," Hermione answered.

Charlie stepped out of the closet and answered, "Yes, to all three. I was worried, but I didn't want to run and I really did not want to stay out there waiting with my mother."

"Should we start filling you in about Hermione then, brother?" Ginny asked, sitting down on the bed again.

"Actually, I think I know everything I need."

Hermione inquired curiously, "And what is that, if I may ask?"

Charlie made himself comfortable laying across the bed, separating Hermione from his siblings. "Let me think. Originally, in the beginning of first year you were a know-it-all little girl, though that changed after you made your first true friends, Ron and Harry, who rescued you from the troll that Quirrell let loose. When you believed Harry's broom was being jinxed at a match that same year, you lit Snape's cape on fire and broke Quirrell's eye contact, saving him. Then, when you went to go fetch the stone, you were the one that solved the potion logic puzzle. In second year, you fancied your teacher Mr. Lockhart, and caused Ron to burp slugs when he tried to protect your honor from Malfoy.

"Third year, you were given a time-turner, which helped you to access all of your classes, some of which were at the same time. During the school year, you were the only one to figure out that Remus was a werewolf, though you kept it to yourself. You helped Harry travel back in time to save Sirius and yourselves. Fourth year, you started dating Viktor Krum, which Ron hated. Malfoy hit you with a curse, which caused your teeth to grow and when you went to Madam Pomfrey, you allowed her to decrease your teeth, even more than she was supposed to. You were the one that Viktor Krum had to save from the bottom of the lake, and had earlier snuck into the companions' tent, causing Rita Skeeter to write a love story about you and Harry.

"Fifth year, you started the D.A. with Harry, wrote a contract that wrote something on some nark's head, and later went with him when he went to the Ministry of Magic. Then there was sixth year, in which Ron started dating Lavender Brown out of spite, which made you angry. You were also the one that kept telling Harry not to use that old book he found, and you helped fight when the Deatheaters attacked. Finally, seventh year, the school was smaller, though it was still open, beforehand, you had gone with Harry to Godric's Hollow, but after the attack there, he refused to let you go any further, saying that it was all up to him. He went into training with the Order, while you and Ron attended class. You and Ron dated briefly, though you both decided it was too weird. You were made Head Girl and graduated top of your class," he concluded.

"How the bloody hell do you know all that?" Bill demanded.

"Ron wrote me some letters, I read some newspapers, talked to Harry and the Order members, I remember I received a letter from Sirius at some time…"

"You received a letter from Sirius?" Hermione questioned.

"Yeah, I'm assuming he was bored since he wrote them to me. Actually, I got two. The first was all about Harry and his friends, and then the second was about pancakes."

"Do you still have those letters?"

"You want a letter on pancakes?"

"I don't, but I'm sure that Harry would like a letter from Sirius, even if it's on something as stupid as pancakes. Do you have it?"

Charlie nodded and got up. "Yeah, it's in my box." Reaching under the bed he pulled out the box with all the pictures and opened it up onto the bed. He shuffled through it for a moment before holding up two pieces of paper and exclaiming, "Found them."

Hermione took the letters and scanned through them briefly. "I can't believe it."

"What? What?" Ginny persisted.

"This really is a letter on pancakes. We went through all those measures to guard a man, who just broke through them to write letters on breakfast foods. Did you write anything back to him?"

"Yeah, I addressed them to Mum though, who gave them to him. He didn't sign the letters, only put a paw print. I wrote two as well, one was on you guys and then the other was about waffles."

Hermione sighed and rubbed her temple. "You wrote an Azkaban escapee a letter on waffles?"

"Yes, but I would like to remind you that he wrote he one on pancakes."

"Why am I always surrounded by idiots?"

"I resent that," Bill protested.

"All right, so why am I surrounded by idiots most of the time?"

"I don't know but I think we should go talk to the other idiots, namely, our family. They're probably all worried about you, Hermione," Bill replied.

"You guys go down first, I want to talk with Charlie for a moment."

The other two shrugged but left the young couple alone. Charlie then asked, "What did you want to talk about, love?"

"I want us to be friends, Charlie."

"What do you mean 'friends', Hermione? Don't you love me anymore? Is this about my ex-girlfriends, because I swear I am completely over them. And Mum is wrong, I would not just sleep with some woman."

"Charlie, it's not that. It's just I don't think you really love me."

"Of course I love you. What gave you the idea that I didn't?" Charlie interrogated.

"Charlie, I'm your younger brother's best mate, you kept hearing things about me for year, and being sent pictures. That may have developed some feelings of concern or well being, which might have been escalated with news of my need and your feelings of loneliness, but that doesn't mean that you really love me. Everything you know about me, you heard from someone else, not me. Then when we got married, you were probably just extremely happy to see that I was safe, and let your emotions get the better of you," Hermione explained.

"So you think it was a mistake?"

"No, I just feel like this is too much of a soap opera, and that from now on, we should try to slow things down. Get to know each other on a deeper level. Please, just don't be angry."

Charlie didn't say anything for a moment, and Hermione feared that he might not say anything at all, but finally, he stated, "I think…you're right. We did rush into this, after all, we got married right after you were attacked and both of our emotions were running a bit freely. What are you suggesting?"

"I am suggesting that we get to know each other more. Talk to each other and do more things together."

"All right. Do you still want to go to Romania next week then?"

Hermione nodded. "Yes, after all, you work there, that's where I'm going to start work, and we are going to live there."

"I'm guessing you want to go talk to my family now?"

"Charlie, are you really going to stay with me when I'm fat and irritable?"

"Yes, if nothing else, because you're my wife," Charlie replied with a slight laugh, kissing Hermione's temple.

Hermione smiled and jumped up, grabbing his hand. "Well, come on, love. We've got to go talk to your family."

"Can we not and say we did," Charlie suggested.

"Umm…no. Now come on, I'm not allowing you to leave this house until you make amends with your mother."

"Hermione, I'm older than you and stronger than you. I'm pretty sure that if I wanted to leave, you wouldn't be able to stop me."

Hermione started at him from the doorway, her hands on her hips. That look alone was enough to make Charlie get up, saying, "All right, all right, dear, I'm coming, no need to become a cobra."

Hermione just smiled and began to almost skip down the stairs, causing Charlie to mumble, "Bloody hormones, they're kicking in early."

"I heard that Charles Lawrence."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, sweet," Charlie commented innocently.

He couldn't help but let out a laugh though, when the girl screamed, "Hey, Stupid." And then, "He actually does answer to that."

Upon reaching the bottom step, Charlie discovered that the only thing that had changed in the time they had been gone was that Olette, Nancee, and Fleur had decided to join them. Fleur was now sharing a chair with Bill and staring at Hermione jealously, as she sat in the middle of the room, opening her presents from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley like a kid on Christmas day. Luna was just staring into space, Olette was sitting in Fred's lap, and Nancee was just glaring at George. His mother and father were sitting down, watching as Hermione lit up at having received a scrapbook for all the baby's pictures.

It was Ron that first noticed Charlie, asking him, "Finally decided to join us, Starry?"

Charlie smirked and leaned against the frame. "Yes, I did, Stupid. So tell me, what did I miss?"

"Basically, nothing. Mum tried to kill Hermione with a hug, and then Dad started talking to her stomach about rubber ducks, but that's about it," Ginny answered.

"Seems like everyone's trying to kill us today," Charlie commented.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Molly demanded.

"Don't worry, Mum, it's got nothing to do with you. My wonderful father-in-law just decided that it would be fun to hold a gun to my head."

"I wonder why."

"Are you all right?" Nancee asked, temporarily forgetting about George.

"Yeah, we manage to pull the old distraction trick."

"Who knocked him out though?" Bill asked, he being fully trained in the old technique.

"Cooper. I had to practically beg Hermione to let him come along, but I believe it was worth it."

"Practically?" his wife scoffed. "You were begging."

"All right, so I have no shame."

"That's for sure," Ginny commented, causing Bill and Hermione to laugh.

"What are you talking about?" Fred asked.

"While Charlie—" Ginny started though she was cut off by Charlie's hand.

"Please, save me a little bit of dignity," Charlie cried.

"I thought you just said that you have no shame?" Bill inquired.

Charlie replied, "I have no shame when it comes to begging my wife, but I do when it comes to public nudity."

"Public nudity? Charles Lawrence, what did you do?" Molly asked.

"It wasn't me," Charlie protested. "Bill's the one that wouldn't mend my pants. I guess he didn't realize that even though we were close, we weren't the same person."

Olette shook her head. "Do I even want to know?"

"It's nothing really, just that when Charlie was dancing his pants fell down," Bill replied.

Everyone laughed, and Charlie released his hold on his younger sister. "Thank you, brother dear. How about I tell them when you got caught in a trap and ended up hanging upside down from the Great Hall's ceiling?"

"You wouldn't dare," Bill warned.

"Charlie, I think before you humiliate your brother, there's something else you have to do," Hermione suggested.

He looked at her, almost challenging, she just raised an eyebrow in response. Charlie just sighed and moved to stand in front of his mother. "Mum, I would like to apologize, I shouldn't have yelled at you earlier. I was just upset about Hermione. We've discussed it, and decided that we did rush into this. So now we're going to try and take things slower," Charlie apologized, all the while, looking down at his feet. It was amusing to see the strong and tough Charles Lawrence Weasley acting like such a small child in front of his mother.

Everyone looked at Molly, waiting for her reaction. She looked at her son coldly for a moment before smiling and wrapping him in a tight embrace. "I'm glad to see that you've come to your senses, Charlie. You're usually so smart, I was just doing what I thought best, and I'm sorry if it ever seemed like I was pushing you away in favor of your brother."

"Aww…that's so cute," Olette commented when the pair had separated. "Tell me, do you have any names picked out for the twins?"

Charlie shook his head. "No, we just found out about them today. Haven't even thought about names for them."

"Really? I already have names picked out for my children," Nancee stated, causing George nearly choke on his drink. Nancee hit him on the back a few times while saying, "But I don't think they're going to be any use for a while yet, seeing as someone seems to have a little fear of marriage."

To Charlie, George mouthed, I'm your brother, save me now before she kills me.

Charlie just shook his head and asked his wife, "Well, do you have any names picked out already or should I go buy a baby book?"

Hermione looked at the blue baby suit in her hands, and said, "I do have a boy's name picked out."

"Really?" Charlie asked, clearly surprised. He hadn't pegged Hermione as the type that spent her free time dreaming up plans for her future. "What is it?"

"Aric Hayes."

"I like it, I get to name the girl then."

"You have a name?" Hermione questioned.

"No, but I'll tell you when I come up with one. Besides, if she's anything like my younger brothers, no one is going to care what her first name is."

"Charlie, don't mock your brothers," Molly advised.

"And what, did you mean by that, o'-brother-of-mine?" Fred inquired.

"Just that you guys are a bit strange," Charlie answered nonchalantly.

"That so?" George asked. He flicked his wand at Charlie, and then added, "Now, who's the strange one?"

Charlie looked down to see that he now had a tiger's tale and legs like a horse. "Ha ha, very funny, Georgie. Change me back, you little wanker."

"I happen to think that it's an improvement," Fred laughed.

"Don't even get me started with you," Charlie growled.

"We love you too, Charlie," the twins replied simultaneously.