"It's a lovely flat you've got here, Hermione," Charlie told her after they'd landed in her living room and he'd had a bit of a look around. "I knew you were likely to have a lot of bookcases and the art on the walls fits into your space brilliantly but what I'm really interested in is the not insignificant collection of whisky you've got here. Who knew you had such a well stocked bar?"
Hermione grinned at him. "It's nice to share that interest with someone – most people don't look too far below the label of bookworm when they meet me and so don't know where my passions lie. One of those passions is whisky and tonight you are going to reap the benefits. Go ahead and take a look, I have bottles from all over the world, I'm going to go put my things away."
Leaving him by her bar, she walked to her bedroom quickly and took a few deep breaths once she closed the doors. Inviting him over had been one thing but having Charlie actually in her flat was quite another. How were you supposed to act around a close friend who you may or may not have crossed a line with by inviting them over? Best stick to conversation, she told herself, they were good at conversation.
"Alright Charlie, what will it be? Scotch, Irish whiskey, bourbon, rye whisky? Do you have any particular favourites?"
"You have so many choices it's a little hard to wrap my head around what I want," he told her distractedly. "My mates and I once went to Taiwan to investigate reports of a dragon egg that was found there – it was supposed to be shipped to our reserve once we located it and while we were there, we hit up Kavalan distillery on recommendation from one of the locals. Their whisky was unlike anything I had ever tried before and it sparked my interest, as it were. That being said, I'd like to try something new today. Perhaps a bottle of bourbon, I've not tried most of the ones you have here today."
"Brilliant! Let's go with one of my personal favourites, George T. Stagg. It's from one of the biggest distilleries in America and it has a flavour profile like nothing you've ever tasted. One dram or two to start?"
"Two, if you don't mind," he said leaning in to whisper "nothing fun ever happened with one dram."
Laughing she turned and headed to the couch to settle down. "Please, make yourself comfortable. And let me know if there's anything I can get you."
"I'm good, thanks Mione. So, what are some of your other passions? You've mentioned whisky, art, and books, of course, but I'm sure there are more."
There's a lot of things that hold my interest but not as many that I'm outright passionate about. Whisky is by far the biggest one but I also quite enjoy football and magical theory. Whenever I mention the last one people usually have a very vivid of Percy at Hogwarts and write me off completely but the theory of the magical world is fascinating! Just think of all the spells that could still be invented and the areas of magic uncovered if we understood more about how magic operated!"
"Hermione, only people who are quite young and immature make fun of someone for wanting to learn more about the world. What shocks me more is your passion for football – I've heard from so many people how uninterested in quidditch you are that I had written off from being interested in sports in general and I'm sorry for that," Charlie said, shame tinting his tone.
"Thanks for apologizing, Charlie. That's one of the most frustrating parts of being in the magical world, actually, the thought process that there's nothing else available once you step outside the commonly accepted activities. I didn't initially like quidditch because I'm terrified of heights but after everyone made such a fuss and was rather rude, I swore not to like it on principle. That resolve has mellowed in the years since I left school because I wanted to support Ginny and she's so bloody enthusiastic about the sport but I have always preferred football. My dad was a diehard Manchester City supporter so it's in my blood," she said with pride.
He looked at her with that deep stare again before shaking his head and saying, "Well, I'd love to go to a match with you sometime, if you don't mind dragging me along. I've only ever seen football on the telly, it must be a hell of an experience to go to a game, much like quidditch in that sense."
"Sure! I wouldn't mind at all. It would be so much fun to go to a game again, it's been too long."
"I can see what you meant about being typecast – if I were to base my knowledge of you only on what other people say, I'd have missed a significant part of your personality and that would have been a shame," Charlie said thoughtfully.
Laughing she replied, "You don't say, mr. dashing dragon keeper who could have been a quidditch star. I can't imagine running into that problem, at all."
"Don't remind me of that ridiculous moniker, it's gotten me into trouble on more than once occasion. I took a bloke home once and promptly had to kick him back out when I realized that he was more interested in spouting off bigoted bullshit about my feminine interests than getting on with the evening. Good riddance, but still."
She choked on the sip of whisky she had been taking. "Sorry, he did what?"
"Some of my passions besides dragon keeping include knitting, baking, and herbology. So, when we got back to mine and he saw the aprons, knitting supplies and the such he said some bullshit about how he didn't realize he was going home with a woman. Kicked his sorry ass to the curb, the bigot."
It was her to stare at him for a moment. "Merlin, the sheer stupidity of some people. For what it's worth, I'm sorry that you had to deal with that, it couldn't have been easy. His loss for not being around to experience all you have to offer. If you don't mind my asking, have you always known you were bisexual or was it a more recent discovery?"
"Nah, I've known since Hogwarts. Was with a bloke in fifth year but it ended rather poorly – when Tonks and I got together a few months later he called me out for being a poof and a liar in the middle of breakfast in the Great Hall. Before I could even say anything, Tonks gave him such an earful, I thought his head was going to blow off. Got a week's detention for it, but goddamn was it amazing to witness," he said chuckling. "Dumbledore even came by to tell her he was proud of her afterwards."
"Wow," she said laughing. "Tonks had mentioned before that you and she had seen a lot of each other at Hogwarts but I hadn't realized it was so explosive. Did you stay together long?"
"Up until graduation. We loved each other but our careers were going in such different directions that we agreed to break up so as to spare each other the heartbreak of growing further and further apart. That way we parted on nothing but good terms and fantastic memories. It wasn't a bad thought but we were young and dumb and didn't really realize that we could have a relationship while still being apart if we wanted one enough."
She thought about her memories of Tonks and realized that as much as she was hurting for Teddy and wished she could have known Tonks a little better, Charlie must feel absolutely gutted.
"You must really miss her," she said gently.
"So, so much," he replied getting choked up. "She was part of all of my memories of Hogwarts, a daily part of seven years of my life. No small part of me gets angry every time she's mentioned nowadays because no one, save Bill, thinks about how much she meant to me. It's a shame that Teddy won't grow up with a mum and that she and Remus didn't have much time but Merlin do I just want my friend back and be back in the middle of our happiest days."
"When Teddy gets older, you should tell him about her. Like you said, there's no better source than someone who grew up with her and loved her as you do. And I'm sure that he'll appreciate that more than the scores of wizards and witches and who will place the burden of her heroism on his shoulders."
He looked at her with a grateful smile, "I'll try to do that, thanks Granger. Come on, time to try another whisky. We've been sitting her without a dram for too long. What about a rye whisky next? I've not had one of those either."
"Sounds great, I think you'll really like Michters. It's less well known than the previous one but still quite lovely and smooth. Do you mind if I put on some music? I always think rooms are too empty without any music to fill the space."
"Not as long as you don't mind joining me in a dance," Charlie said extending a hand.
"Uh, no. No, I wouldn't mind that at all. I didn't know you danced, Charlie Weasley, but it's quite lovely that you do."
"Mum taught me the basics," he said as he pulled her into a simple box step and twirled her around, "my own interest took over after that. Besides, it doesn't hurt when trying to woo a beautiful woman."
He pulled her in a bit closer as they turned again and again and she couldn't help but swoon, just a little bit. She loved to dance and the fact that there was a very solid someone leading her around the room in time to the music didn't hurt matters one bit.
"I'm curious, Hermione. What's your least favourite part of the wizarding world? You have an innate ability to see things from different perspectives so I'm curious what one of the pitfalls of our society would be."
"That's an easy answer, I've been ranting about this for years. No one in the wizarding world uses pens, it's absolutely infuriating. What kind of writing implement is a quill? The ink never dries fast enough if you write quickly, inkwells constantly tip over, you can never write anything down in a hurry because it takes time to set up the whole system, ridiculous."
Charlie let out a fully belly laugh at her speech. "Fair enough, love. You know, you should take your concerns over to McGonagall. As the new headmistress she has final say over what goes onto the shopping lists for the start of every year – perhaps you can convince her to stop making quills and parchment a requirement and let, or insist, that pens and notebooks be part of the list as well."
"That's a really good idea, Charlie, thanks!"
He grinned at her still chuckling. "I'm full of nothing but good ideas."
"Is that so?" she asked skeptically. "What do you have in mind for how we continue the evening?"
"We should play truth or dare."
She stared at him in shock. "Charlie, you've got to be kidding me. That's mostly a muggle party trick, not a game to play between two adults trying to get to know each other better."
"I absolutely disagree. I have a funny feeling that the game will just devolve into us exchanging truths anyways but to make it more fun, we could include a caveat that one of us has to take a shot if we refuse to answer a truth or complete a dare. Up the stakes, as it were. Besides, I'm dying to see your more salacious side."
He was completely serious. And right. It probably was a great game for them to play. And this evening really needed a way to move forward and she certainly didn't have to courage to push it there on her own.
"Alright, let's do it. You go sit down, I'm going to grab some vodka so I don't have to waste good whisky on your ridiculous ideas."
"Sounds good to me, love. I'll be waiting right here." Heading to the freezer to fish out the vodka she poured herself a shot of liquid courage and took it early, needing it to face the absolute insanity of what they were about to start. Charlie wanted salacious, so she would give him salacious. All the signs pointed to him being interested and it had been a while for her, so why not? They could re-evaluate everything else afterwards.
Setting the bottle and two shot glasses down on the table, she asked, "truth or dare, Charlie?"
"Truth to start, I think," he replied shrugging.
"Do you have any body modifications like tattoos or piercings? I know it's not very common in wizarding culture but it is in the muggle world and since you're invested in both, I was curious to know the answer."
"Genuinely interesting question, Hermione, well done. I have a tattoo of a Hebridean black across my chest and torso, stretches from my clavicle down to my hip. It was the first dragon I'd ever worked with at the reserve in Romania and the experience was like a reaffirmation of my career choices so I went to a muggle tattoo studio and got it done. Painful as all fuck it was, took three sessions to finish." Here he grinned at her and tugging at the hem of his shirt said, "if you'd like to see it, all you have to do is ask."
She blushed immediately but continued looking him in the eyes. "Your turn, Weasley."
"Alright, alright. Truth or dare?"
"Dare," she said. After all, she wasn't a Gryffindor for nothing – playing truth or dare with a handsome Weasley in her flat was hardly the worst thing she'd had to do.
Her plan seemed to be working as he looked quite surprised before his expression melted into a grin. "I dare you to take off one piece of clothing. I know, I know, it's not a very original dare but I have a vested interest in the outcome so you'll have to forgive me."
She levelled him with a look before reaching behind her, unclasping her bra, and taking it out from under her shirt. Dangling it on one finger she looked Charlie in the eyes and smirked.
"Fuck, Granger. I'll admit, I didn't think you had it in you but I will not underestimate you again. Nice move."
"Truth or dare, Charlie."
"Truth."
Really. That was interesting, she had thought he'd immediately try to escalate the situation. "Alright, what's your favourite thing to do in bed?
"I think I'll need a shot to help with that one, pass over the bottle. My favourite thing is to go down on a woman, there's really nothing like it. Another one of those apparently too feminine things I've been ribbed for before, but I don't care. It's fucking magnificent. Truth or dare, Hermione?"
"Truth, I think."
"Was my brother good in bed?"
She flushed crimson. "Charlie, for fuck's sake! Isn't that question one of those sibling codes you're not supposed to ask?"
"Oh, absolutely, but I'll have you know that all the siblings wonder anyways. Humour me."
"He was rather more vanilla than I would have liked and we are never talking about this again. Truth or dare?"
"Truth."
"Have you ever used sex toys, by yourself or with someone? I'm curious to know if they're a part of wizarding society like they are in the muggle world."
"Not that I can remember, but I'd happily try some out. What are some of the types of toys?"
"There's everything under the sun, nowadays. Vibrating toys that stimulate every part of the body, things like rope or straps to hold someone down if you're into that, all sorts of masks and other instruments to deprive someone of their senses."
"Some of those can be achieved with magic if we tried hard enough, "Charlie said, looking intrigued, "but for those that can't be, I'd love to try them. Truth or dare, Mione?"
"Truth, again, if you don't mind."
"Would you be interested in seeing each other after tonight?"
"Yes, I would, Charlie. I think we work well together and it's quite plain to see that we wouldn't run out of conversation easily. That being said, there's still the matter of our jobs, the same problem that plagued you and Tonks. I could never insist on you leaving your life and work in Romania and I don't want to leave England, there's still so many things I'd like to do here. How would that work?"
He reached out to take her hand before answering. "I would never ask you to leave England, but I think we could make a relationship work – exchange letters during the week and see each other on every weekend or two for the time being. You could even teach me how to use a mobile so we could be in more constant contact. Would you be okay with that?"
She almost lit up at the suggestion. "Charlie, that's brilliant! Now I'm the one who forgot to think about muggle alternatives. I'd happily use some of the money I got from my parent's house to come see you. Besides, I've never been to Romania, it'd be so exciting to explore a different country."
"I do have some other news, if you could table your excitement for a moment. The Romanian reserve has recently reached full capacity and with so many dragon eggs and dragons to rehabilitate still coming in, the Romanian, Chinese, Hungarian, and British ministries have been working together to open a new sanctuary. There was a bidding process with a committee that went around to each proposed location to weigh the pros and cons of opening a sanctuary there. And the location in Scotland won the bid – there will be a new sanctuary here, in the UK. And they've asked me to work as head of the new reserve. It will take time to set up, but eventually, I'll be coming home."
She couldn't believe her ears. "How could you not mention something like that, you prat! I'm so, so excited for you, not just because you'll be closer to home. It must be an amazing opportunity and I know you'll be great! We'll have to go and tell your mum in the morning, you know she'll be absolutely thrilled."
"Yeah, it'll be the best bits of news I've given her in years," Charlie said rather bashfully. "We're together and I'm coming home in a few months. She won't stop crying for hours."
"I can't wait." The strength of her hug sent them both sprawling against the arm of the sofa – he was looking up at her with pupils blown wide, happiness written all over his face. "Kiss me, Charlie Weasley."