"Charlie…"
The sight of him tangled up in her sheets and the memories of what they'd done the night before had her blushing before the day had even begun. There had been many times in her life when she'd wished that she didn't care so much about doing what was expected of her, but none more than right now. It would be brilliant to hole up in her flat pretending that the outside world didn't exist but they owed it to Molly and Arthur to explain what was going on, that, and they had to go back to work tomorrow.
"Charlie, wake up, I've got breakfast started and we're supposed to go see your parents."
"Fuck off, Mione… it's too goddamn early," muttered a vaguely Charlie shaped lump in her direction. She giggled softly to herself, convinced that hating mornings was a Weasley family trait – she couldn't count the number of times she heard Ginny, Ron, and the twins grumbling to themselves and glaring at anyone who looked in their direction during breakfast and morning classes. But that kind of attitude definitely needed to be rectified – leaning over Charlie on the bed she tugged on his shoulder to turn him towards her and gave him a soft kiss. He didn't respond until she increased the pressure and threaded a hand into his hair at which point, he quickly grabbed her arm and toppled her onto the bed next to him.
"Charlie!" she shrieked.
"I'd like a few more minutes with you, if you don't mind. I hadn't realized how much I'd missed close physical contact in the last couple of years and I'm revelling in it." He kissed her again, one hand reaching to hold the back of her neck and she moaned involuntary, pressing closer. Rolling them so that she was on top, his beard scratching her in a way she didn't think she'd like, she pressed herself close again, loving the way that his arms inevitably tightened around her. Charlie wasn't the most vocal of lovers but she had learned that he communicated his pleasure physically – tightening his arms around her, touching her face, sweeping his hands across her back and shoulders… she loved feeling him around her.
"If we don't stop moving soon, I'm not going to be leaving this bed for the foreseeable future. And as much fun as that thought is, we do have work tomorrow and parents to see. Come on, love."
She peered down at him for a moment before a wicked grin crossed her face, "we should take some time off in the foreseeable future so that nothing will be able to tamper with our morning routine." Getting out of bed for the second time she gave him a quick peck on the lips, "there are clean towels in the loo, go hop in the shower. I'll be in the kitchen finishing breakfast, though why I'm bothering is beyond me, your mum will likely try to feed us our weight as soon as we get there."
"Because you're lovely and considerate, thank you. See you in a bit, Hermione." As Charlie walked off towards the loo with a wink, she had to mentally count to ten so as not to go rushing after him and wasting even more time; she had never been a very vain person but she doubted anyone would consider Charlie unattractive. A new appreciation for beards, body hair, and tattoos had manifested, let's just say that.
She hoped he wasn't too fussy about food because toast, bacon, and scrambled eggs were currently all she had on offer, her weekly shopping trip being scheduled for tomorrow and all. Setting down a mug of earl grey on the counter for him and turning back to the pan of bacon she almost jumped out of her skin as Charlie came up behind her for a hug.
"Breakfast looks delicious, Mione, thank you," he murmured in her ear.
"Excelllent, I was worried you would think it were too simple," she said breathing a sigh of relief.
"Hermione, I think you'll quickly find that I'm a fairly simple man," Charlie said laughing. "Someone cooked breakfast for me, and of their own volition no less, the day's turned out superb already."
"Such an optimist, Charles, whatever will we do with you?"
"Personally, I'd vote for 'keep me,' but I might be biased," he responded, blushing. "I'm not sure if you noticed, but you just called me Charles. I don't think anyone's done that since the name was written down at the hospital."
"Oh, I'm really sorry, Charlie. I didn't mean to offend or anything, there's just something about full names that I like. And yours suits you more than anyone I've ever met, I can't exactly imagine calling Ginny Ginevra and getting away with it."
"No, I doubt you would. But you don't need to apologize, I liked it more than I expected to. Feel free to call me Charles if you like."
"Well then, Charles Weasley, let's get a move on. I'm sure your mum's mad enough at us already, time to go smooth the waters a bit." Gulping down the last bit of her tea and watching him do the same she walked over to grab her purse as Charlie reached over to intertwine their fingers and turned on the spot.
Since the apparition point was a ways away from the front door of the Burrow, she spent the time having the same internal struggle as she did on the walk up the day before. "Hey, you do know that mum will be thrilled, right? There's nothing to worry about, Granger," Charlie said, squeezing her hand in solidarity. "Apart from her already planning our wedding, you should definitely be worried about that."
She laughed at his sudden change of tone. "No matter how many times I come here, I still get nervous. I'll walk up to the house and my stupid lizard brain will run a very unhelpful commentary for me about how I don't belong. And then I feel so guilty for thinking of things like that around you and the rest of the Weasleys and I feel even worse. It's a vicious cycle."
"Can I tell you a secret?" he asked quietly.
"Sure, Charlie, you can share however much you're comfortable with."
"I feel like that all the time – like I'm constantly straddling two lives, not really belonging in both. There's life in Romania and then there's family here. When I'm in Romania, no matter how much I'm enjoying what's going on, there's always a part of me that's feeling guilty about what's going on in England, wondering what I'm missing. And when I'm here it's a constant struggle not to sit around and think about all the things I left behind at the reserve. I never fully feel part of both worlds."
She stared at him open mouthed before eagerly replying. "And the guilt and shame just eat you alive because you worry that if the people around knew what you were thinking they'd be so disappointed in you."
"Yeah, exactly. And you can't bear to cause anyone anymore distress. So, you push the feeling down and convince yourself that one day you'll somehow conquer it and everything will be alright again. Charlie held her hand tighter as they turned towards the last stretch of the laneway before the door of the Burrow came into view. "Maybe what's actually going to help is having each other to confide in. It feels good to talk about things with you, I've not been this emotionally close to someone for a couple years and even then, it wasn't this complete a feeling. You understand the intricacies of life here that are hard to explain to someone who wasn't involved."
"I haven't dated much in the years since Ron and I parted because I've never been able to figure out how to convey the various ways in which I struggle to someone who wasn't a part of our lives here. My aversion to black hair, the scars on my arms, how fitfully I sleep sometimes, how much I hate mushrooms and the thought of camping. It didn't seem fair to date someone and just keep all of those parts of myself shut away – it wouldn't have been a real partnership and felt like I was using people for my own comfort. So, I stopped looking and focused on friends but you're right, it lightens the heart to talk about these things with you. I'm glad you took me up on my offer for a drink, Charlie," she said with a shy smile.
"As am I, love. Are you ready?"
"Not remotely, but go ahead and knock. Let's give your mum some news to be happy about."
Arthur opened the door and gave them a stern glare before calling for Molly to join them. "It's good to see you both, you almost gave Molly a heart attack last night, leaving so abruptly. I sense you had a good reason but still, please don't do that again. You know where our minds inevitably go when we don't hear from one of you."
"Charlie, Hermione, where have you been?! How could you just disappear without letting us know, I was worried sick all night!"
They both saw Arthur put a comforting hand on Molly's shoulder before speaking to her in a more calming tone. "Sweetheart, I think they're here to tell us something and I already told them to make sure they let us know where they are next time, so perhaps we could invite them in."
"Oh, very well then. Come through to the kitchen and I'll make some tea. I should say I'm really glad you came by this morning instead of leaving us worrying. But Arthur's right, you obviously came to tell us something so please go ahead."
"Thanks for the tea, mum. First, we wanted to apologize for skipping out last night. It wasn't our intention to make you worry but really, we should have acted more responsibly." Charlie looked over at her and reached for her hand before turning back to his parents with a smile. "We got a bit caught up in catching up and the night got away from us – what we came to tell you was that Hermione and I've agreed to try our hand at a relationship. We wanted you to be the first to know."
"Oh, my babies! I'm so happy for you, I'm sure your father is too. It's lovely to see all of our children find some happiness and we wish you all the best!" She and Charlie got up to accept tremulous hugs from the Weasley matriarch before looking to Arthur to gauge his reaction.
"I am similarly happy for you both. I think you'll do marvellously together and it's nice to see my favourite son nab such a brilliant partner for himself," Arthur said winking at the two of them.
"Favourite son, oh pish posh. Don't you listen to him dears, we love you all very much and Artie shouldn't go around stoking any sibling rivalries with that sort of talk."
Everyone at the table laughed at that before Charlie turned to his mum and said, "mum, we'll all spare you by not mentioning who your favourite child is, eh? Wouldn't do to stoke any rivalries between myself and Bill."
"Charlie Weasley!" Molly blushed scarlet and wagged a finger at him for emphasis. "Neither one of you will remain favourite children for long with that kind of attitude. We should have picked new favourites out years ago."
Charlie turned to her and asked with a wink, "think I should take Bill on as favourite child?"
"Bill? With the lovely wife and your mum's first grandchild on the way? I think you'd lose that match faster than you can say his name," she replied giggling. "You should just give up now and save face."
"You're probably right, Granger, I think I'll stick with you." Sending a cheeky smile her way, he leaned over to kiss her softly on the cheek.
"Mum, Dad, there's something else I wanted to tell you about. I've actually got some really great news – there is going to be a new dragon sanctuary opening in Scotland in several months. And my name has been put forward as head of the reserve." Both she and Charlie grinned to each other as the sound of Molly's crying and excitement filled the room.
"Son, we're really happy that you're coming home, you've been so far away for too long. That being said, won't you miss your life there?"
"I don't think so, Dad. I think its time to start a new chapter of my life, there's not much room for me to grow on that reserve anymore and it'll be nice to have some new professional challenges. Besides, Hermione here's given me new incentives to be closer to home – I can't wait to grow together and spend more time with our various family members."
"In that case, welcome home. We know you'll likely want to keep this information to yourself for a bit so how about you both agree to come to the Burrow for a party at the end of the month to celebrate you coming home?"
She and Charlie looked at each other and quickly nodded. "Thanks Arthur, I think that will work really well for us. It's been lovely to see you so happy and we apologize again for making you worry last night."
"Don't worry too much about it, Hermione. I think you both have just made Molly's entire year, there's not much you can do to fall out of her good graces now," Arthur said chuckling and looking happily at his wife. "I do want to say that while I have every faith that you and Charlie will be happy together and fulfill my wife's dreams of planning another wedding, you will be part of our family no matter what happens. Please don't think that your acceptance here is conditional on being with one of our children. We love you like one of our own and hope to offer you the kind of home that you might need with your parents being far away."
She was up out of her chair and hugging Arthur before she could really register the movement. "Thank you so much, Arthur, I can't begin to tell you how much that means to me. I love it here and you have succeeded beyond your wildest imaginations in making this place feel welcoming to any that come through here. The Burrow and the friendship of everyone in your family has been instrumental in making me feel like I belong in the magical world," she told him through her tears, "and I can't wait to see what the future holds for all of us."
Looking over at his beaming son Arthur said, "how you've ever managed to find someone so lovely to be with I will never know but you're both welcome here anytime. Now go on, I'm sure you have other things to do with your day than sit with us. Enjoy yourselves and we'll see you soon!" As Charlie bounded upstairs to grab his rucksack for the trip home, she exchanged hugs with Molly and Arthur and promising not to be strangers, they took off towards the apparition point once again.
"Told you they'd love you, Hermione."
"Yes, well, it's nice to have it confirmed sometimes. What's up next for today, Charlie? I'm not sure what time your flight is and if you need to do anything specific before your flight. I was hoping to spend the day together but if you're leaving soon that's alright too."
"My flight's at seven, Mione, and I'd love to spend the day with you till then. I promised one of my mates that I'd stop by the shop to pick up some tricks for his kid so if you don't mind, I'd like to stop by there. And we said we would get mobiles so as to better keep in contact while we're apart, that would be nice to get done before I leave."
"Fair enough, let's go!"
As they walked down Diagon Alley towards the Weasley shop she squeezed Charlie's hand a bit, stuck in her own memories. "You know, I always feel guilty coming into the shop and I'm really glad I'm with you today. When were in school I wasn't really supportive of what they were doing and now that Fred is gone, I just hate that most of the memories he had of me were of my being swotty about their plans. The shop they came up with is mind blowing and my initial reaction eats at me sometimes, even though it's fairly small in the grand scheme of things."
"As someone who grew up with the twins, I can tell you that not all of their jokes were nice and well received," Charlie said squeezing her shoulder, "sometimes they could be devilish and not particularly repentant about what they did. Yes, the end result is amazing, but there's nothing wrong with questioning some of their methods. I don't think you would have been intentionally cruel while you were with them at school – what's more important is that you're looking back on your behaviour and trying to make up for any wrongs that you can identify. That tells me that you care for them and more specifically, for others. And that's a fantastic quality in a person, in my opinion."
"How is it that you always know what to say to cheer a girl up, Mr. Weasley?"
"Let's just say I'm particularly invested," he replied laughing. "Come on, the sooner we get in, the sooner we can get through the ribbing we're bound to receive from George." The shop was near full to bursting as they walked in, both kids and adults huddled around all the displays and a queue forming to checkout their purchases. The pygmy puff cage was completely empty, various tufts of purple and pink fur astray, as was the shelf selling food for the little devils.
"What did your mate want for his kid?"
"Said his kid asked for some skiving snackboxes," Charlie replied with a grin, "one of his dormmates at Hogwarts told him about them and now he wants to try one out. Boy, is he in for one nasty surprise when he figures out what they actually are. There's a bet going around those of us at the reserve from England on how many letters from McGonagall he's going to get."
"I would bet quite a few, along with the parents of whichever students he decides to share the sweets with. How many of you are there from England at the reserve?"
"About six, but apart from myself and one guy who's a few years older than you, everyone else is in their 30's or 40's. I got my fair share of ribbing from them when I first joined up because of my age but they let up when I managed to wrangle an ironbelly everyone else had struggled with. Now I'm just part of the group."
"Sounds like a pretty tight knit place, it must be daunting to consider starting over at a new reserve, especially as the boss," she wondered.
"You'd think so but I've always been of the mind that comfort breeds complacency – as much as I love the people I work with, if I didn't take an opportunity like the one presented to me because I would miss them, I'd question if I were on the right career path. Not all of us have had good experiences at other reserves and I want to try my hardest to be a good leader for other keepers at the new one."
"I, for one, think you're going to be brilliant at it," she said, turning to kiss him lightly on the lips. As he pulled her to his side and wrapped an arm around her waist, she heard someone clearing their throat behind them.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here? My brother with the exemplary Miss Granger? What'd you do to convince her to spend time with you, eh Charlie?"
"Fuck if I know, I'm just basking in it until she comes to her senses," he responded, shooting a wink in her direction.
"I figured he lived the furthest away so I'd have a plausible excuse to get away from all you degenerates, actually," she answered laughing.
"That is a fair answer. Come along to the back you two, Ange and I want to show you our newest trick." Following George to the back of the shop, she had to keep a strong grip on Charlie's arm so as not to lose him in the madness. "Sorry for the mess back here, it's been absolute chaos all day. Where are the blasted things anyways?" George turned away to shout for Angie into the flat above the shop. "Ronnie and I were getting pissed a few months ago and he told me this fascinating story from your sixth year…"
"Hello, everyone," Angelina called as she skidded to a stop at the bottom of the stairs. "It's lovely to see you both, welcome to our version of madness."
"Ange, where are the new tricks we were going to show Hermione?"
"In the lab, I'll be right back!"
"Right, so Ron and I were getting pissed and he mentioned that in sixth year after a Quidditch victory, you made yellow canaries fly into his face and attack him after he ran off with Lavender. Which, between you and I, was fucking brilliant and well deserved. But it got us thinking about a new sweet we could develop… ah, here we go, thanks Angie! Now, I know you're opposed to us using anyone for testing so I'll be testing it on myself. Ready?" As she and Charlie nodded in agreement, Angelina took hold of a glass of water and dumped a packet of yellow powder into it and giving it a swirl with her wand. George downed it straight away and before their eyes turned into a bright yellow canary – another glass of water and a blue packet this time turned him back into George in an instant. "So, what do you guys think," he asked, grinning at them both.
Both she and Charlie just stared at him dumbfounded. "That was… absolutely brilliant. I can't even imagine how you did that but that fact that you thought of it because of something I did is overwhelming to say the least."
"Aww, Granger, you'll make me tear up here soon. The effect only lasts for about half an hour, we didn't want to cause anyone to miss classes even if they weren't given the antidote and thought too long in the form would give people the wrong idea. We're thinking about starting to sell it in time for the school rush as it should make meals in the great hall much more interesting."
"Brilliant," she replied, Charlie nodding beside her. "Is the powder flavourless so that you could slip it into pretty much anything that will disguise the colour?"
"It is," said Angelina, "we tried to make the powders colourless as well so that you could even mix it with water but that caused way too many complications over which was the trick and which the antidote. That would definitely cause it to get banned, even faster than normal."
"No kidding," breathed Charlie, "are you developing powders that turn into different animals as well?"
"We want to," answered George enthusiastically, "but this one took so many months to develop that we would never finish another in time for school. We figure that the process is very specific to each animal you choose so we're hoping to have four different ones by August next year representing the four houses. That way, they can be used as symbols for quidditch and such."
"You are so in the right business, George Weasley. I'm so proud of you!" She reached forward to engulf him into a hug which he enthusiastically returned.
"And I want to say that whatever ribbing you may endure, I think both Ange and I are really happy for you and Charlie. We can see that even though this is still really new, you both care for each other quite a bit and will take care of each other."
"Thanks, George, I think we could be really happy." Smiling a tremulous smile in Charlie's direction she took his hand in hers and shuffled over to his side.
"Alright you lovebirds, out of my shop. Ange and I have to go help out front – promise you'll stay in touch?"
"Of course, George," they both chorused.
"Should we go grab a bite and hop into muggle London for a mobile?" Charlie asked.
"And after that, back to my flat, to teach you how to use the damn thing," she responded airily.
"Lead the way, my good lady."
Landing in her flat a few hours later, she was immediately swept up into Charlie's arms – "I've had to spend the whole day telling myself that it was uncouth to snog you in public, you'll have to forgive me for accosting you as soon as we've landed."
"Charlie, I've been thinking about the same thing all day. Kiss away." They spent a good half an hour swaying in her living room, arms wrapped around each other, kisses getting progressively deeper before Charlie broke away looking completely dishevelled and pinked lips.
"I need to get going soon and you're still supposed to teach me how to use the mobile, Hermione, I don't want to miss out on that."
She was still trying to clear her head from the sheer pleasure of kissing him, her body practically humming in his arms. "Right… We should do that. We should separate and do that. I'll make tea."
"I know that mobiles work by having a phone number attached to them but I'm afraid that that's the extent of my knowledge. How do we do that thing the salesperson mentioned, texting?"
"Here, hand me your phone, I'll show you. Your phone has a phone number and so does mine, right? You can store my phone number into your phone's memory under my name. And this symbol here that looks like a letter? That's the symbol for texting. So when you press it, this screen here shows up asking who you want to send your message to – you can enter my name and it will send the message to my phone number. You can type whatever you want into the body of the message, we got you a phone with a full keyboard so that will be easier, there's even buttons for punctuations. Obviously you can't type letters this way but it's convenient for sending short messages. You can also send pictures, to do that you just click on the icon that looks like a quintessential camera lens and point your phone at what you want to capture, then press the centre button to take the picture.
"And no one but you can receive these messages?"
"Not unless you type in another number at the top to share it with," she responded.
"Brilliant, thanks Hermione!"
"No problem, Charlie," she answered with a smile. "Are you just apparating to the airport from here?"
"Yes, there's actually an apparition point not far from the main terminal that makes getting there quite easy. I have to say, for the first time in a long time, I don't really want to leave. We're just starting this and it would be so nice to stay holed up in the flat with you and keeping getting to know each other."
"I was just thinking that this morning, actually. But we both know that we'd be miserable if we lost our jobs over something that silly. I think our plan to see each other over weekends is solid and until we see each other again, we have mobiles and letters to keep in touch. I'll be going to bed tonight with memories of our time spent together, that's enough to warm my heart."
"I'll be doing nothing but thinking of our time together. Just know, if I get burnt to a crisp before a fortnight is up because I'm distracted, it'll be entirely your fault."
"Go on with you, I'll see you soon," she said, hugging him close and kissing him a few more times.
"Bye Mione," Charlie said with a wave, smiling at her before he turned on the spot and was gone.