August – Charlie visits Hermione

The letters between Charlie and I were getting deep. It was one benefit to being apart. I'm not sure if I would have ever sat down and just talked to him this much had we been in a traditional relationship. Sure, we would have gone out and done things and made memories, but through our constant stream of letter writing, I was really getting to know Charlie deep down.

He wrote about all the little details of his day. The people he works with, those he likes, those he doesn't, his favorite dragons and the things they do, everything. We talk about the future a lot too. He always talks us and never just him. I appreciate that his plans have molded to include me. He's alluded that he isn't sure he will stay at the reserve much longer, but as far as I know, I'm not sure he has decided what life looks like after he retires.

It sounds so weird to say retire when he is so young, but many men are finished working with the dragons directly by about 35 or 40. There's more than one reason for that. Obviously it's dangerous and injuries are a big reason people cut out early. Also, it's a very physically intense job. The older you get, the more your reaction times slow and it becomes a bigger risk to be out there. Families are another big part. As Charlie has told me numerous times, working at the reserve is not ideal for finding a spouse. All of that together, it's not surprising that people often leave the profession in their mid to late thirties.

It's a bit reassuring to know that if Charlie leaves the reserve, it's not my doing. For now though, I'm glad he has worked so hard up to this point. He still has a lot of vacation to burn through. Enough that since there aren't any major holidays this month, we've both taken a week off of work.

I was looking forward to it. I hadn't ever taken this much time off of work myself. In fact, until this year and the time I took off a couple months ago, I hadn't taken as much as a sick day. Charlie was clearly having an effect on me.

I just had two hours left of this shift and then I was headed home to ready the house before his arrival tomorrow. I was practically skipping around the hospital in anticipation.

At least I was until my supervisor came running frantically down the hall.

"Ms. Granger, come with me immediately."

I was completely confused. "But I have a few more patients to see before I go."

She tugged on my arm. "It's an emergency. There's been an incident at the Romanian Dragon Reserve. Their current healer isn't adept enough to handle the severity of the injuries and they requested you specifically."

All of this was said in a rush as she dragged me down the hall towards the floo. "Here's the emergency supply bag. If you need anything else we will have someone on standby monitoring floo calls."

My heart raced into overdrive. Who was hurt? Was it Charlie? Was it one of his friends?"

There wasn't time to react or ask questions before a discarded crisp packet was thrust in my hand. I looked down at the item just as I began to be pulled in from my center. A second later my feet hit the ground. Someone was there to meet me.

"Healer Granger, I'm Solomon Smith, the operations manager here. Thank you for coming so quickly."

"Yes, of course." We were moving quickly towards a small building at the end of a little road. "I'm afraid I wasn't given much in the way of details though."

"There's not much time to explain. There was a new recruit in one of the pens that wasn't supposed to be. It happened to be a mothering horntail that doesn't take kindly to strangers. Charlie noticed him enter and rushed to get him out, but it was too late. The dragon was enraged and attacked them both. Charlie managed to get them out of the enclosure and ask for you before he collapsed."

I had to force back the tears that threatened as my throat tightened up. It wouldn't help Charlie if I lost it now.

"How bad is it."

"It's bad. Our in-house healer is trying her best, but this is beyond anything she has dealt with before."

Healers go through rigorous training. Knowing that this isn't something she has experience with was far from reassuring.

Finally, we made it to their on-site hospital. It wasn't very large, but it had room for several beds and a decent section set up of various supplies.

I went straight into lead healer mode. "Give me all the details."

The young witch looked at me with terrified eyes. She looked like she was about to lose it.

"Listen, I don't know you and I know this is a difficult case. But if you don't give me the details, these two may be facing life or death. I need to know what you've done."

Sniffling the healer tried to compose herself. "They were both hit while in the pen with a mothering horntail. The tamer in training, Alex, entered the pen to fix something that had broken. He didn't realize that this enclosure was off limits right now. Charlie saw him enter but it was too late to call out to him and he had to go in. The horntail went into defensive mode and began attacking. Charlie took the brunt of it. He was able to get them both out, but not before they were attacked. Both have burns and Charlie was hit with the tail twice."

My heart sunk. Burns were easy to treat. Depending on the damage from the tail though, there might not be much left to save.

Wand at the ready, I approached the closed off area with our patients. Alex didn't look very bad at all. He was clearly burned and bruised, but he was awake and talking.

"Can you heal Alex?" I asked the healer whose name I still didn't have.

She nodded and I indicated for her to do so. Finally turning around, I was faced with the horrific sight of the man I loved lying in a mangled mess.

I so badly wanted to scream, but that wouldn't help me. Instead, I waved my wand over his body and began diagnosing all the various injuries. His burns were severe. It looked like he used his body as a shield for Alex. The skin on his back was falling off.

A quick muttered spell would be enough to stop the progression of the burning for now, but I would need a whole container of the fast-acting burn paste I had personally developed.

There would be time to do that later, right now, I needed to address the internal issues. Several ribs had broken and his left lung was punctured. Breathing was an obvious priority so I set to fix that first. The tail must have come down on his abdomen because it was covered in deep lacerations. Continued explorations found his spleen had been nearly severed in two. I thanked whoever was listening that magic existed because if it didn't, Charlie would be a goner for sure. As it was, we weren't out of the woods. After healing his lung, ribs and spleen, I began healing up the gashes that were pulsing with a constant flow of blood.

With some of the trauma healed, he began to stir. The cry of pain that he let out was excruciating to listen to.

"It's ok Char, I'm here. I'm going to make you feel better."

His eyes struggled to open before he let out another scream. "Mione. Help."

"I know love." I summoned two potions from my bag. "Here. Take these. Gulp them down, it will help with the pain."

He quickly swallowed the blood replenishing and pain potions.

"Does that help a little?" He nodded, but I could still tell he was barely hanging on. "I'm going to keep working Char. You hang in there. The most life-threatening injuries have been healed, but you were also hit on your legs. All your bones have been shattered. I'll work as quickly as I can."

There was still a long way to go, and he wasn't out of the woods just yet, but with the most serious injuries handled, I was breathing a little easier.

Turning my attention to his legs, I began muttering spell after spell. The loose piles of tattered flesh began to reform into their original shape. Bone healing is instant, but the pain is not. The next two days at the very least are going to be incredibly uncomfortable.

With the internal injuries and the broken bones healed, I turned my attention to his back. Burns are some of the worst injuries. We can stop the damage from spreading, but there isn't a spell for instant healing. The best I can do is my burn paste, but he wouldn't start to feel real relief for at least a day.

I began to gently rub the thick goo onto his tattered back. He hissed and I realized he was still awake.

"It's ok to go back to sleep, love. I know you're in a lot of pain."

"S'okay. I can take it."

His teeth were grinding as he pushed the words out.

I finished applying the paste and came around to his front. His hand found mine and squeezed it weakly. "Thanks for coming."

"I wouldn't hesitate to be there for you for a second Char." I could tell he was losing strength. "Do you want me to call your family?"

I was kind of surprised they hadn't been notified. Typically with injuries this severe they would have been called.

He shook his head weakly. "You're the only one I want by my side."

I bent down and kissed his cheek. "I'm glad I can be here for you. I don't want you to try and look tough though. Your body has been through a lot and you need rest. I promise I won't leave. I'll even summon all my paperwork over here so I don't have to get up."

He let out a heavy breath then winced at the pain. "Fine. I'll sleep. But don't go."

"I promise Char. I'm not going to let you out of my sight."

Some of the adrenaline was wearing off and I could feel myself begin to shake. I tried to steady myself as I watched the man I love slip into a pain filled sleep.

Just then a shuffling next to me caught my attention. It was the other healer. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."

"I'm Healer Lyrek. Thanks for coming. I'm sorry I lost it a bit. He looks much better already."

I nodded and kept my voice down so not to disturb him. "He's getting there. It's going to be rough through the night and I'll have to have another look in the morning when some of the swelling has gone down to make sure I didn't miss anything. For now, he's stable."

"Alex is pretty much ready to go. He had a few burns, but they were fairly minor. I asked him to stay for an hour to see how they are healing with the paste before I send him off."

"That fits with standard procedure."

The other healer shifted from foot to foot. "I was just wondering if there is anything else I can do. I feel awful I wasn't able to treat him myself."

"The injuries were quite extensive and not easy to diagnose and treat for someone new to the field. You did the right thing calling me."

She shook her head. "I was going to try my best. He kept asking for you and said he wanted only you. I mean, I'm glad you were here. You were much calmer than I was and worked a lot faster than I can, but he wanted you."

I nodded once, then looked at the clock. My shift was over fifteen minutes ago. It's hard to believe I had only been here two hours.

"There is something you can do to help. Can you please contact St. Mungos? Tell them the patient is stable and, while I am officially on vacation, I will be staying with him as he recovers."

She looked at me questioningly.

"It's none of your concern at this time, but being I was pulled off my shift to act in an official capacity, they need a status update."

Reluctantly, she did as she was asked and I turned to the stack of parchment in front of me.

Solomon had found me half asleep in the chair by Charlie's bed several hours later.

"Do you plan to stay here all night?"

I nodded and he eyed me with curiosity. "You must be that Hermione Granger."

He said it as if my name was common. There are any number of reasons why this man may know who I am. "Is that supposed to mean something?"

He pulled up a chair next to me. "I've known Charlie almost two decades. Never has he taken up interest in someone. I was beginning to think he was the type of person who really did make the reserve his family. There are a few of us. We start out as tamers or trainers and instead of retiring, go into management and operations. But he came back after his first holiday this year and something was different. It took a while for me to get it out of him, but he finally told me he had fallen in love. It was a little hard for me to accept because I know that means I'll lose him some day, but I've seen how happy you make him. Charlie is one of the rare ones and he deserves that."

Solomon held out his hand for me to shake. "Thanks for being there for him today."

I took his offered hand, at a loss for what to say. "There's nowhere else I'd rather be."

We talked for a few more minutes, then he left while I checked on Charlie's vitals and applied another layer of burn paste to his back. The healing was already significant, but there was a still a chance for infection.

Just as I was finishing, Solomon returned with a box of food. I accepted it gratefully before he took his leave again. There was plenty in there for both Charlie and me so I ate my fill and set the rest aside for when he woke up.

I set an alarm on my wand to go off in another three hours before pulling one of the other beds up close to Charlie. If he needed me, I'd be there.

The next several days were tough. Charlie was back on his feet the day after the accident, but everything was incredibly slow. I allowed him to be discharged, but only because I'd be staying with him to administer any additional treatment and to keep an eye on him. His back ended up healing nicely. As the swelling went down from the initial injuries, there were a few others that needed to be taken care of, but they were minor in the grand scheme of things.

All in all, he was going to make a complete recovery. I shudder to think what would have happened had I got there even five minutes later. He was struggling to breathe and losing so much blood that it could very well have been fatal.

Because I was already given special permission to be on site for Charlie's injuries, Solomon gave me clearance to stay for the week.

It was interesting seeing this side of Charlie's life. He had described his little cottage to me several times, but it was still different seeing it in person. The reserve itself was gorgeous. Lots of rolling mountains and forest areas. Being Charlie was still sore from all the healing, we didn't explore much, but we still enjoyed the view from the large windows on the back of his home.

There were significantly less options to keep our minds occupied without movies to distract us, but I found that to be nice. Charlie and I spent the entire week together. I took care of him, made most of the meals (he helped the second half of my stay), played card games and took turns reading to each other.

On my last day I deemed him healed enough to take me on a full tour. I saw first-hand how much he enjoys working with the amazing creatures and I'm glad his injuries didn't deter his passion.

"Despite the circumstances, I'm really glad I got to see you here. I know I can't take you away from this and it's made me more determined to be understanding of our long distance."

Charlie threaded his hand through mine. "I'm glad it's put your mind at ease a little bit. I still don't like the distance, but it sounds like Solomon is happy to continue granting me at least 3 consecutive days off each month to allow me to visit you whether I have holiday or not. Though, to be fair, I still have a lot of days to use."

"Wow! That's great news!" I mean, I would love it was more than that, but at least I knew I would get to see him at minimum three days a month.

"It's something at least. I'd prefer waking up to your beautiful face and seductive smile every morning."

He leaned down and kissed me, earning wolf whistles from a few passersby.

I realized with a pang of longing that I wanted that too. I never imagined myself falling for someone so completely as I had with Charlie.

When it was time for me to go, it was even more difficult than usual. I was still dealing with nightmares of seeing Charlies body ripped apart on the table. I didn't tell him that of course. He was facing enough trauma without adding in mine.

Still, we managed to say goodbye knowing Charlie would be staying with me next month for my birthday. Normally not a day I look forward to, I promptly made a countdown to his arrival as soon as I got home.