When Hermione opened her eyes, she found herself at the beginning of a path that led to a red tile-roofed adobe with turquoise accents. It looked like something that belonged on the coast of California, not in the Dragon Moor Mountains of Romania.
Charlie grabbed her hand and walked up, giving the weathered door a heavy knock.
It burst open almost immediately, and a silver-haired lady bounded out. "Charlie!" she screamed, embracing him, then pulling back to kiss his cheek. "Is this her? The one?" The woman grinned as Charlie nodded, clutching Hermione in a Molly-reminiscent hug. "Ohh, I'm so happy to meet you."
"Uh, you, too," Hermione coughed, and the woman released her hug. "Sorry about that. You're British; hugs aren't a thing for you, are they? Well, I'm from Cuba. It's a little different over there." She laughed as she explained it, and Hermione got the feeling she'd repeated that sentiment a lot on the reserve.
Hermione was just about to say she was fine, but the lady had already wrapped an arm around her shoulder and lead her inside. "Paulo," she called to a fellow in the kitchen. "La bruja que Charlie ama esta aqui."
The man levitated several pots of food into the dining room table and wiped his hands on his towel. "Ah, let me see." He walked over and tossed Hermione into his arms, as well, kissing her cheek. "Look at you," he said. "Charlie, you didn't say she was morena?"
"You didn't ask," Charlie said as Paulo gave him a hug.
"Everyone's out back." The lady said, pointing.
"What's your name, again?"
"Oh! Forgive me. I'm Anna Hernandez, that's my husband Paulo." She'd already guided Hermione to the back yard, which was filled with lanterns and fairy lights. Hermione gulped. And filled with people, at least twenty or so.
Anna had lifted her wand and performed a spell which heightened her voice. "Everyone, Charlie's here. With…" she paused.
"Hermione Granger," Hermione supplied, her voice getting sucked into the magic and ricocheting around the yard.
There was a bit of a gasp in the crowd, and someone near Anna's wand said, "The Hermione Granger?" which, too, was picked up into the sound-amplifying charm.
Hermione's cheeks burned as the party erupted, with about half the folks gathering around to throw her into a hug, or to thank her for saving their muggleborn lives, or to request an autograph, or to ask questions like, So what's Harry Potter really like?
After about ten minutes of this, Charlie came 'round to save her. "Alright," he said, taking her hand. "Let me have my witch for a few minutes, yeah?"
He pulled her inside and put his hands on her face. "Are you alright?"
She nodded, her breath going rather fast. "Yeah. I mean, I should be used to that by now, right?"
He furrowed his brow at the tremble of her hand. "Bloody hell, Hermione, I'm so sorry. I'd completely forgotten about that part of your life. I didn't even think to tell anyone beforehand."
Hermione was pleased that Charlie cared so little for her fame, which helped her to calm down some. "I'll be right back," he said, squeezing her hip and heading to the backyard.
Hermione wanted to follow, but it was just so beautifully quiet inside, she decided to walk around a bit first. The walls were filled with magical artworks. Gold and black and red ochre lines appeared on the canvases, transforming into different paintings of animals and symbols.
"Those are of the paintings that were discovered inside some caves in the mountains," Paulo said, approaching.
"Oh, wow," Hermione breathed. "They're so beautiful."
"And ancient. Made something like 17,000 years ago."
She could hardly wrap her mind around that, watching the colors and shades in one transform from reindeer to bison to pegasus.
"Hey, amor," Paulo said. "You want to help me with moving some of this food out there?"
"Sure," she said.
"You ever had a Cuban feast before?" he asked as they approached the dining room table.
Hermione wracked her brain. "No, none that I know of. But it smells incredible."
"That's pork," he said, pointing at the dishes. "Pollo, black beans, arroz, maduros, camarones enchilado." He gestured to the other end of the table. "Y maduros, tostones. We have to make both because those fucking dragon keepers can't decide which one they like best. And here we have grilled onions and peppers…" he listed several more sides. "Ready to move it out?" he finally said.
Hermione nodded as her stomach rumbled. She grabbed a wide, ceramic bowl filled with what looked like fried bananas (she couldn't keep up with the Spanish names of things, as gorgeous as they sounded), and picked up her wand with the other hand, levitating a line of food toward the back door.
After settling the dishes to a rustic buffet table, Anna announced that everyone could eat. Charlie put his hand on her back as he guided her to the buffet line, where she had some pleasant small-talk with a couple dragonologists named Jasper and Kiara. She noticed folks giving her sideways glances, as though they were afraid to look directly at her, and she wondered if Charlie had given them a stern talking-to about approaching her. How embarrassing—she'd have to ask him about it later.
At the end of the buffet table, Anna was using her wand to make dozens of mojitos at once. Hermione grabbed two before heading to the table Charlie'd picked out for them.
The first thing she did when she sat was down one of the drinks.
"Watch it, Granger. Or else I might have to carry you home." Charlie's eyes twinkled as he laughed.
"It's one drink," she responded, grabbing the next. Gods, these were delicious.
"There's a lot more rum in them than it seems. Give it a minute." He gently pried the second from her hands.
She felt a wave of irritation come over her. First, presumably talking to everyone about her, now this? She wondered if this was why Charlie didn't generally do long-term, from what she gathered from family gossip. Maybe his girls got sick of being treated like children.
She tried to shrug it off, focusing instead on the drum beat of the reggaeton song playing from some magical system all around them. "When's the dancing?" she asked.
He chuckled. "Oh, after a bit more alcohol."
Right, the alcohol she wasn't allowed to drink more of. She sighed and set to work on her food, wordlessly, which turned out, perhaps, to be most delicious she'd ever had in her life. This cheered her up immensely, and she wondered if her annoyance toward Charlie came from "hanger" more than anything else.
"Which do you prefer?" she asked Charlie, pointing to both sorts of plantains, remembering what Paolo had said.
"Maduros," Charlie responded. "The sweet ones."
Hermione laughed when she took a gander at his plate—the sliced, dark-fried "bananas" took over more than half of it in a great big pile. "Guess I should've just checked," she said, smiling.
"Here," Charlie said, handing her drink back. "I was afraid since we hadn't ate for a while, it'd go straight to your head."
"Thanks, Dad," Hermione responded, taking a sip.
Charlie laughed, but she could see some sort of worry at the corner of his eyes. Weird, she thought.
Paulo and Anna joined them after a few more minutes. "Hermione, how do you like it?" Anna asked, gesturing to the food and drink.
"Oh," Hermione said. "It's the best thing I've ever had. Ever. Right next to your Harvest lasagna."
"I almost forgot about that! You liked it? I need to get you the recipe, eh?"
"Please," Hermione said. She glanced around as folks began to partner up and dance in the little courtyard lined with little red lanterns. "So, this is what it's like to party at the Romanian reservation, huh?"
"It didn't always used to be like this," Anna said. "Remember, Charlie?"
"Used to be about a dozen bottles of firewhisky at the pub," Charlie responded, chuckling.
"What happened?" Hermione asked.
"Them," Anna said, gesturing to the dancers. "We started hosting internships from Latin America and the Caribbean. Those are Keepers-in-training from Argentina, Cuba, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela y… where's Carlos from, again? Chile? Chile. All of a sudden, Paulo and I weren't the only Latinos here." She laughed. "We started doing this, for them, but then the regulars," she gestured to Charlie, "decided it was a lot more fun."
"We kept crashing the parties," Charlie said, sipping his mojito. "Finally, Anna and Paulo got the hint and started inviting us outright."
"Oh, we invited you from the beginning," Paolo said. "Pero you were afraid of the dancing."
"Speaking of which," Anna said to Charlie. "Bailar con ella! Show her some moves."
Charlie grunted, pushing to his feet. He offered her his hand. "Care to dance?" he asked.
"If you'll teach me," Hermione said, smiling, taking his hand.
He swirled her to the courtyard, where an incredibly fast song was playing. "So this is merengue," Charlie said. "It's one of the easier ones." He put her arm on his shoulder and put his other on her waist. "The footwork, see, it's just a two-count. Mirror mine."
She looked down and lifted her feet along with his. She found it was rather easy, and she smiled up at him. After glancing at the other dancers, she said, "I feel like we're going a little slow."
"Just so I can show you. You ready to go to the beat?"
She nodded and he pulled her close, speeding up their steps. "Want me to turn you?"
He lifted his arm to let her spin and pulled her close again. She noticed his upper body scarcely moved at all. "You seem a little stiff," Hermione remarked.
Charlie threw his head back and laughed. "I'm terrible at this, Hermione. I was trying to fake it to impress you, but…"
"He can't move his hips," a trainee named Elena laughed beside them as she danced with Carlos. "Look at him. Even the dragons are smoother."
"Come on, Elena," Charlie said, his eyes twinkling. "You know I just broke my hip."
"Oh, I like that you blame it on the broken hip," Elena laughed. "Don't let him fool you, Hermione. His hips are like a green plantano. No give."
"You could probably thank Goose for stepping on you like that," Carlos said. "Probably the first time either one of your hips did a sway."
Hermione laughed as Charlie playfully narrowed his eyes. "I think you're doing great," she said, smoothing her hand on his arm.
Charlie laughed. "You don't have to be so nice, Hermione. We all have our weaknesses," he said loudly in Carlos' direction, who gave him the finger, laughing.
The music changed abruptly, to something slower and sultry. "Ah, salsa," Charlie said. "If you thought I was stiff with merengue…" he trailed off, signaling to Paulo. "A little help here, mate?"
Paulo walked over and swept Hermione away from Charlie. "Oh!" she said as he spun her around.
"Just don't let her fall in love with you," Charlie said.
Paolo laughed. "Ah, Charlie, por favor," he said. "La mujer te ama."
Charlie backed away to the sidelines, his cheeks pink with a very pleased smile on his face. Hermione was in the middle of thinking she'd have to ask him what Paolo said when Paolo spun her around again.
"You're a natural, mamita," Paolo said.
Hermione didn't feel she was as much as a natural as Paolo, fantastic dancer that he was, did almost all the work for her. He led her all around the floor and she couldn't help but smile, thinking that dancing salsa—and not embarrassing herself— was perhaps the last thing she thought she'd be doing on this holiday. She yelped when he put his hand on her waist, dropping her backwards for a dip.
"Warn me next time," she laughed, hitting his shoulder.
"Okay. One more coming up here. The song is ending." At the final drum beats, Paolo gave her a long, low dip, one in which she had to hang on to his neck.
"Perfect!" Paolo declared when he pulled her up again. She was startled at how close she was to him, figuring this was probably the reason there were so many romance films featuring Latin dancers. "You need to teach that man of yours how to move," Paolo told her when Charlie walked up, putting his hands between them.
"Alright, alright," Charlie said. "Enough with the sexy Dominican accent, Paolo."
Hermione and Paolo laughed. "Un momento," Paolo said as Charlie made to lead Hermione back to their table. "Don't know if anyone's told you yet, but we changed Rama's schedule."
"How come?" Charlie asked.
"She's doing really good, Charlie, don't fret. She ate a little too much a couple days back. Upset her stomach. We decided to wait to collect until today, give her a break."
Charlie frowned. "That means…"
"Yes."
"You're leaving now?" Charlie asked.
"In about fifteen. You coming?" Paolo nodded at Hermione, but the gesture was meant for Charlie. Hmm, she wondered. What are these two up to?
She needn't wonder long. Charlie turned to her. "Hermione. Care to meet a dragon tonight?"
Hermione blinked. "Yes! Of course!"
Charlie and Paolo grinned. "Come on," Charlie said. "Let's get our coats."
So, the overwhelming response was that Charlie definitely couldn't dance. I've had some experience with trying to teach muscular fellows how to dance, and since most of them lead their body movements with their shoulders, the most difficult part is getting them to loosen up at the hips. So I applied this to Charlie, though emnelly13 did say that Charlie would teach Hermione a thing or two- I thought footwork would be best for her lesson!
I almost never see Latinx characters in HP FF, so when they started coming in, I totally went with it. This party is based on the dances I used to go to as a teen. Paulo's moves are based on a chap named Manuel who was the BEST salsa dancer I'd ever partnered with.
So, my updates are going to slow down just a touch with my fics on here. I've been aiming for once a week, but it may be every 1.5 or 2 in the coming weeks. I've got an original manuscript to finish by the end of next month, and I keep writing FF a way of avoiding all the difficult parts of that project, but I need to dedicate more time to it! I know I keep saying it, but we are nearing the end! It will be very sweet and satisfying, I hope.
And yes, we're finally going to meet a dragon! I've been imagining this next scene for ages, so I hope it turns out alright!
Thanks to everyone who's hung in there, and I thank you in advance for your patience.
Your comments regarding the jewelry were hilarious! You guys crack me up. Yes, Charlie's so obvious, isn't he? He's a Gryffindor; what can I say.
Oh, and there isn't going to be an intervention or anything re: Hermione and the drinks. I'm not going to let things get too heavy.
Curious: ¿Tengo yo algunos lectores Latinos?
One last bit: I've started a new fic called "The Lemon Tree." I'm sure you can guess as to its content. Pop on over and read a hot (if I do say so myself) pairing of Theo and Hermione. Let me know if you have any pairing requests over there.
You guys are awesome! Thank you for reading!