Charlie Weasley knew it was going to be a rough day before he opened his eyes. His body felt tired and there was a nagging twinge in his right side, and he felt vaguely nauseous.
He rolled over and groaned as his stomach flipped and he swallowed the rising bile in his throat.
How much did I drink last night? He thought reaching over and feeling in his bedside drawer for a hangover potion or stomach soothing potion.
He downed the potion in one gulp and after it took effect, he hauled himself out of bed and climbed in the shower. The hot water did little to ease the tension in his muscles, but it did help wake him up. Throwing on his work cloths he walked towards the mess hall just as the sun started appearing over the mountains that surrounded the Reserve.
Charlie groaned slightly as he pulled the door to the mess hall open his right side was still painful and his stomach was feeling unsettled again.
Grabbing a tray of toast, eggs, and coffee he sat down with his fellow dragon tamers and a handful of researches.
"Not hungry this morning mate?" a wizard with an Australian accent asked as Charlie set his plate down on the table.
"I ate before I came over." Charlie said of course Wes would notice that his plate had less than half of what it normally did on it. "How late were we out last night?"
"Uh, mate we didn't go out last night." Wes said spooning sugar into his coffee. "You crashed during Dom's meeting; Hermione had to haul your sorry butt to your bed."
Charlie looked across the table at the curly haired witch sitting there. Hermione Granger had joined the research team at the reserve 2 years ago after a failed attempt at a relationship with his younger brother. She had wanted to get out of Britain and the Reserve had an opening for a researcher, so she had jumped at the opportunity.
"Sorry 'bout that Hermione." Charlie said taking a slow drink of his coffee.
"Not a problem Charlie," Hermione said smiling. "Fortunately, I'm a deft hand at Levitating Charms."
Charlie picked at his eggs, he could feel the coffee he drank sloshing uncomfortably in his belly and adding eggs to the mix didn't sound appealing at all.
The other people at the table slowly dispersed and started at their daily tasks until only Charlie and Hermione were left sitting here. Hermione was pouring over a notebook filled with her neat handwriting; Charlie was trying to decide what would be the best way to stand up without aggravating his side.
"Are you ok?" Hermione asked looking over at the red head. His eyes were creased with pain at the edges and his fists were clenched. "I've never seen you crash like that last night."
"I'm fine, must have pulled something in my side yesterday when I was moving Jerri." Charlie said looking at her.
"I've got a pain potion in here if you want it." Hermione said grabbing her beaded handbag that she carried everywhere with her.
"I took some," Charlie said cautiously standing up and grabbing his plate. "Just taking a while for it to kick in. Thanks though Hermione, I'm fine thought."
Hermione raised her eyebrows watching the stubborn man walk away from the table. Noting how he kept his left arm truck around his middle was hunched slightly to the right. She made a note in her book to check in on him later.
Charlie was glad of two things today.
He was working alone today inventorying the discarded scales he had gathered over the last week.
He wasn't working with dragon dung today.
The pain in his side had not gotten better and the rolling nausea was getting worse. He hadn't felt this bad since the morning after Bills stag night.
A particularly violent stab from his side sent him doubling over; wrapping both his muscular arms around his middle and laying his forehead down on the table in front of him. He thought back to yesterday; he had helped move a young dragon to another pen and she had tossed her head and jerked the chain Charlie was holding. He had felt something pull in his side then, but it shouldn't be bothering him this much now. And this pain felt more localized like something inside of him was hurt not just the muscles.
Charlie finally felt like he could uncurl from his current position. He shivered and cast a warming charm trying to get warm. He should have taken that as a sign something was wrong with him; he was hardly ever cold. He shivered and casts another stronger charm.
Hermione smiled at the dragon she was observing. The creature had just hatched a few hours ago. Her current research was on the effect of temperature on newly hatched dragons. She watched the small—by dragon standards—baby curl up in under the warming light and fall asleep.
Satisfied that the dragon would be asleep for a while Hermione stood and stretched. She decided to go check on Charlie. The normally cheery Weasley had been unusually quite at breakfast. The night before at the usual staff meeting Charlie had fallen asleep not five minutes into the meeting in an armchair. None of the other tamers had been able to wake him; granted none of them tried very hard Charlie had just gotten back from a weeklong solo mission collecting dragon scales from the wild dragons on the reserve then as soon as he returned they called him over to help transfer a dragon to another pen. Still she had never seen him that exhausted. That coupled with the fact that he hadn't eaten any breakfast had her worried.
She headed to the small shed where she knew Charlie was inventorying the scales.
She knocked on the door and when no one answered she pulled open the wooden door and walked in. The first thing that his her was the heat. Charlie always poked fun at her for casing too many warming charms; she was always cold. But this was oppressive; she unbuttoned the vest she had over her long sleeve shirt and walked over to the table where she could see Charlie hunched over.
"Charlie," She said as she walked over to the table that had scales scattered all over it. Charlie was sitting in a chair half hunched over his right arm was sitting on the table holding him up; his fist was clenched and the knuckles white. His left arm was wrapped around his middle protectively covering his right side. His eyes were squeezed shut and she could see the muscles in his jaw clenched and the tension in his neck.
Charlie slowly opened one eye and saw Hermione looking at him worriedly. He tried to answer but all the came out was a low growl.
Hermione reached out and put a hand on his cheek and gasped. "Charlie, your burning up."
"Could have fooled me." He said through clenched teeth. "I'm freezing."
"Alright mister, back to your cabin." Hermione said pulling her hand away and putting her hand on her hips.
"Don't wanna move." Charlie said closing his eyes again; the nausea he had been fighting all morning was hitting fever pitch.
Hermione saw Charlie start swallowing rapidity. She grabbed a cup filled with pens; dumping them on the floor she transfigured the small cup into a larger can and shoved it under his mouth just in time to catch the vomit that came out of his mouth.
She rubbed his back as he continued to heave the contents of his stomach into the bin.
"Sorry," he whispered when the heaving subsided.
"Oh, Charlie," she said running a hand through his sweat damp hair. "Come on, I know it will suck but you'll be more comfortable in your bed."
Charlie groaned and knowing she was right tried to stand up.
"Hang on let me help." Hermione said quickly vanishing the mess in the bin and setting it on the table. She put one arm around him and helped him stand. Charlie whimpered as he tried to stand up straight. Hermione stopped she had never heard Charlie whimper like that; he must be really hurting.
"Think you're up for Apparation?" She asked feeling him shiver against her side. On a normal day Apparation made Charlie sick.
"No more than usual." He said through clenched teeth; he grabbed the bin on the table and nodded to Hermione signaling he was ready to go.
As soon as the squeezing sensation stopped, and her feet hit the solid ground Hermione sat down; pulling Charlie with her. They had done this enough that even as sick as he was Charlie reacted on instinct and sat down with her squeezing his eyes shut and clenching his jaw against the bile rising up his throat again.
"I'll be right back." Hermione said pulling herself away from Charlie's side and up off the floor. Charlie gave a thumbs up before heaving into the bin he brought with them.
Hermione walked over to the chest of drawers and took out a pair of sweatpants and a long-sleeved tee-shirt. She cast a warming charm on the cloths before she took them over to where Charlie was still sitting on the floor next to his bed.
"Think your done for a minute?" Hermione ask softly watching Charlie take slow shallow breaths.
"I think so." He said slowly looking up at her. "Merlin my side is killing me."
"Let's get you into some comfier cloths and I'll see what I can do." Hermione said starting to pull his boots off.
Charlie groaned as he curled up in his bed. His side was killing him, his stomach was threatening to find something else for him to throw up, he was freezing, and the muscles in his neck and shoulders were so tight from being hunched over.
He felt the bed dip behind him. Then one of Hermione's hands was on his shoulder the other was rubbing his neck, trying to get the muscles there to relax.
"You should probably get outta here." He whispered as another jolt of pain shot through his abdomen; he drew his knees closer to his chest. "Don't want you to get sick."
"I've cast an air purification charm," She said as she rubbed a hand up and down his spine. "Can you tell me where it hurts?"
Hermione had her suspicions about what was wrong with Charlie but needed to get a good look at his torso to be sure.
Charlie groaned he pulled himself over to the edge of the bed and dry heaved into the wastebasket Hermione had put there. There was nothing left in his stomach and the contraction of his muscles sent waves of agony through his side.
When he finished, he slowly rolled on to his back and looked over at Hermione. He pulled up his shirt and taking her hand gently placed it on the right side of his belly button. "Right there."
Hermione frowned. She could feel tremors running through the muscles under her fingers. His skin was hot to the touch too. She pulled her hand away from his side and put it on his forehead.
"I'm going to get something for your fever then I'm going to send a message to Dom, and we'll get you taken care of." Hermione said softly as she got out of his bed.
Charlie moaned softly and closed his eyes as she left his side. He wasn't ashamed to admit he'd grown rather fond of Hermione in the time that she had been at the Reserve.
"I'll be right back." She said gently pressing her lips to the top of his head. "Just try and rest."
Hermione slipped out Charlie's room and walked into the living room. She pulled out her wand and cast a Patronus sending a message to their boss Dom telling him Charlie was sick and she was going to take the rest of the day off to take care of him. Next, she went and found a fever reducing potion in Charlies bathroom then went back in to check on him.
She walked in and saw Charlie curled up in a tight ball, knees drawn up to his chest and arms wrapped around his knees. Sweat was shining on his pale face and his hair was damp and stuck to his scalp. Her heart broke for him; she hated seeing people in pain. It was one of the hardest things about working at the Reserve; accidents happened frequently and there was always someone going into the healing tent. This was worse though; potions weren't helping Charlie and she had never seen him so weak and sad before.
"Here," She said quietly as she walked over to him. "I've got some fever reducing potion for you."
"Not gonna keep it down." Charlie whispered hoarsely with his eyes still scrunched shut.
"Ok," Hermione said knowing the stubborn Weasley wasn't going to drink the potion. "Charlie, I need you to listen closely."
He opened his eyes slightly when he felt Hermione put a hand on his bicep and start rubbing it.
"I think you have appendicitis," she looked at him. "It means your appendix—that's an organ in your abdomen—is infected and needs to come out; I've never heard of witches or wizards getting it but I'm guessing all humans have an appendix. I'm going to have to take you to a Muggle hospital in the city though ok?"
"Why not the healer's tent?" Charlie asked shutting his eyes again; although she could have said she was going to have a dragon take care of him and he would have been fine with it if it made the pain go away.
"I've never seen a healer perform an operation on anyone before." Hermione said moving to sit next to his balled-up form. "I want to take you somewhere where I know the doctors will know what they are doing. We can speed up your healing when we get back here after ok."
Charlie weakly gave her a thumbs up he didn't care anymore he just wanted to stop hurting.
"But listen Muggles doctors do things differently than Healers." She knew Charlie had his share of scars from the dragons, but she knew this would be different. "You have to promise not to fight what the doctors and nurses will do."
Charlie held up his pinky finger and she wrapped her pinky around his; Hermione smiled.
"They don't have magic and will put needles in your arms probably." She continued to explain. "That will help with the pain. And they'll put you to sleep while they take your appendix out you won't feel or remember anything."
"Sounds good." Charlie groaned as another stab of pain went though his side. "Can we go now please?"
"I'm going to Apparate us to the city then I'll get you to the hospital." Hermione grabbed her beaded bad and the trash can from the floor next to the bed. She looked around and found Charlies wand and slid it in her bag; after a second of thought she grabbed his slippers and put them on his feet.
Giving him one last look over she grabbed hold of his hand and squeezing it once Apparated them to the city near the Reserve.
The Dragon Reserve had a small storage garage in the city. Occasionally someone from the Reserve had to go into the city to interact with the Muggle government to keep the ruse of an animal sanctuary going. Having people appear out of thin air in a Muggle government building was never a good thing so the Reserve had a car parked in the garage and that's what was used for meetings in the city.
As soon as Hermione and Charlie landed in the garage Charlie's legs gave out and he collapsed on the floor.
Hermione let go of him just in time before he took her down with him.
She looked at him and felt her heart breaking again. His bulky frame was scrunched into a tight ball again and he was whimpering as tears leaked from his eyes.
"Come on Charlie," She said kneeling next to him. "We're almost there."
"It hurts so bad." He whispered as he tried to climb to his feet. "Please, Hermione make it stop."
Hermione nodded she opened the door of the car and levitated him into the back seat where he curled up again.
Hermione didn't drive very often; in fact, she could count one both hands the number of times she had driven since the summer she turned 16 and her parents had her get her license. Driving through the streets of Brasov with Charlie in the back seat trying to not to groan when ever she hit a bump was enough to make her never want to drive again.
Finally, she made it to the hospital and ran into the emergency entrance. The limited Romanian she knew was not enough to get her exact point across, but it was enough to have an orderly come out to the car and get Charlie inside.
Charlie sat hunched over in the wheelchair the orderly had put him in groaning as Hermione tried in her limited Romanian to explain what was wrong. Charlie reached out and grabbed her hand squeezing it as another wave of pain washed over him causing more tears to fall from his eyes.
Whispering in Romanian Charlie tried to explain what was hurting but soon he started heaving all over his lap; the only thing left in his stomach was bile by that point. Had he not been hurting so much he would have been embarrassed. The shouted for a gurney and before he knew it Charlie was being lifted onto the bed. He refused to let go of Hermione's hand.
"It's ok Charlie, they're going to make you feel better." Hermione said standing by his head as the nurses tried to push the bed back behind the doors.
"Promise?" Charlie asked looking at her.
"Promise." She said linking his pinky with hers again; she bent over and kissed his hot sweaty forehead. "I'll be right here waiting."
They took him back.
"Ma'am." A nurse with a heavy Romanian accent said walking over to Hermione. "I have papers for you. Please follow me to waiting room."
Hermione nodded and followed her. Over the next two hours Hermione filled out the forms the nurse brought to the best of her ability. She snuck off to a bathroom to send a message to the Reserve letting them know about Charlie.
Hermione was starting to get worried and was debating about sending the Weasley's a message when the same nurse came into the waiting room with a doctor in surgical scrubs following her.
"You brought in the man with red hair, yes?" The nurse asked.
"I did, his name is Charlie." Hermione said.
The nurse said something in Romanian to the doctor; who nodded and began speaking quickly.
"The doctor says he was very very sick, the organ had begun to split and spread infection. Your boyfriend is lucky. He is in recovery now; I can take you to him."
Hermione nodded; not bothering to correct them about Charlie not being her boyfriend. She followed the nurse back to the recovery area and saw Charlie laying in a bed with an IV attached to one arm a canula was running to his face bringing air into his nose. He still looked pale and sick but at least there wasn't creases of pain around his face. She walked over and held his hand rubbing her thumb gently over his knuckles.
Charlie felt himself waking up; his eyes didn't want to open though. There was something on his face making his nose cold and dry. He felt something on one of his fingers and there was an uncomfortable thing in the back of his right arm. He felt something soft and warm holding onto his left hand.
"Charlie?" He heard a woman's voice said softly. "Hey, are you awake? How are you?"
Charlie tried to answer but it felt like his mouth was full of saw dust, cotton, and like he had been breathing dragon smoke all day.
"Here," the voice said again he felt something bump lower lip he slowly opened his mouth and felt something cold being placed his mouth. He rolled the ice chip over his tongue and when it had melted, he tried to speak again.
"Herm..." he said breathily trying to open his eyes.
"Hi there" She said softly when he opened his eyes. "You scared me pretty good there dragon boy."
"S'ry." He said closing his eyes again. "Sleepy."
"You just rest you'll be better soon." Hermione said smiling as fell asleep again. She brought his hand to her mouth and kissed his knuckles; she thought he saw him smile when she did it.
The next time Charlie woke up it was considerably easier. He looked around the room he was in. There was a needle in the back of his arm that had a clear tube running from it. The tube was attached to a bag of clear fluid. He tried to twist to see what was behind him but stopped when he felt a sharp sting on his right side.
"I'd lay still if I was you." A woman in scrubs was standing next to him.
"Where is my friend?" He asked in Romanian.
"Oh good you speak our language." The nurse said smiling. "Your girlfriend doesn't. she stepped out for a moment she needed a coffee."
Charlie nodded not bothering to say that Hermione was not his girlfriend.
"Are you in any pain?" The nurse asked.
"No, not right now." Charlie said remembering back to the morning, when he was doubled over the table at the Reserve.
"Alright, I will be right back." The nurse said walking out.
Charlie closed his eyes; he had just about drifted to sleep again when the door opened.
"Charlie," Hermione breathed out when she saw he was awake.
"Hi," Charlie said weakly.
"How are you?" She asked setting a cup of coffee down and grabbing his hand.
"Better, not great but better." He smiled rubbing his thumb across her hand. "Thank you."
"I didn't do anything." Hermione said blushing.
"Yes, you did, you came and found me," Charlie said he was getting tired again. "And got me here and knew what was wrong."
"Ok I guess you're right." Hermione said watching Charlie try and stay away. "Get some rest. I'll be here when you wake up."
Charlie smiled and shut his eyes.
The next time he woke up Charlie felt like he was waking up from the best sleep he'd had in a while. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around the room. The annoying tube thing was still in his arm, and it felt like something itchy was pulling at the skin on his torso.
Hermione was asleep in a chair next to his bed. Her hair was piled in a mess on top of her head and the sun was hitting her face just right, she looked beautiful. Charlie sighed and Hermione opened her eyes.
"You're awake!" She said unfolding herself from the chair. "How are you?"
"I'm fine," Charlie said his voice sounded rough to his ears; he reached out to take her hand. "How are you? That can't be comfortable sleeping in that chair."
"I've slept in worse places." She said holding his hand.
"Oh good, Mr. Weasley your awake!" A nurse said walking into the room and seeing him holding Hermione's hand. "I just got done talking to the doctors, as long as you keep progressing like this and your girlfriend is willing to watch you when you go home you should be out of here by tomorrow morning."
"Oh," Hermione said. "We aren't together."
"My apologies." The nurse said blushing slightly. "I assumed since you came with him and are holding his hand you were a couple. Regardless you will need someone living with you for a time while your recover."
"We'll figure it out." Hermione said as the nurse left.
Charlie looked over at her. "We could do it you know."
"Do what?" Hermione asked looking at him and rising an eyebrow.
"Get together." Charlie said simply.
Hermione looked at him in shock.
"Everyone at the Reserve thinks we should be together." Charlie said softly. "Wes and Toby have a bet going. What do you say, will you be my girlfriend?"
"Do they have you on pain medication?" Hermione asked looking at the bag of stuff hanging above his bed.
"I've wanted to ask you for a while." Charlie said blushing. "I guess it just took an emergency for me to get my shit together."
Hermione laughed. "If I had known that I would dropped a baby dragon with hiccups on your lap, would have been easier to heal burns than go through surgery."
"If it's ok with you I would very much like to kiss you now." Charlie said looking Hermione in the eye.
"I think that would be ok." Hermione said leaning over and pushing her lips on his.
Today may have started out rough for Charlie but at the end it turned out pretty good. Well besides the missing organ he now didn't have. But he gladly traded the appendix for having Hermione as his girlfriend.