Change Your Mind

By: pengz

Disclaimer: Song is owned by The Killers and the book & characters to J.K. Rowling.

Chapter Three

One of the most recognized faces of the wizarding world, besides the mugs of Harry Potter and sidekick Ron Weasley, was that of Hermione Granger's. She was one of the most celebrated heroes of the Final War and the youngest witch to ever hold a Ministry Department Head position. Much to her dismay, however, the gossip rags focused most of their articles on her attractive surface rather than her accomplishments. This coupled with her high celebri-witch status was nearly always the reason why wizards asked her to dinner; they wanted their fifteen minutes of fame with Hermione Granger.

Once the Marriage Law came about, she held another lofty pedestal that any other witch but herself would have loved to have occupied; Recipient of the Most Marriage Proposals. By the time she had apparated back into her hotel suite in Switzerland from the Burrow (she had popped in to rage about the unfairness of the new law to Ginny, Harry, and Ron), she had no less than one-hundred-and-forty-six proposals littering her coffee table. The flow of proclamations of love and gifts along with the proposals eventually came to a stop the day of the deadline and totaled at two-hundred-and-fifty-three proposals, ten sets of dress robes, jewelry, and enough sweets and flowers to last her a lifetime. Of course she sent them all back to their senders with letters of deepest sincerity for not accepting the proposals.

There was no one out there that she wanted (except for that American muggle actor, Brad Pitt, but that was a terribly long shot) and would rather the Ministry find her the man she would marry. She didn't have time for any of this rubbish or having children; she ran a whole department for Merlin's sake! Therefore Hermione resigned herself to trusting the Ministry's decision on who would best suit her and went about her life as though she was not about to embark on the whole new idea of marriage.

So on February 1st, Hermione expected two letters from the Ministry- a notification and the identity of the wizard she would be marrying. She did not, however, expect a third letter or Ginny and Luna.

"Why would we miss such and important day in your life, Hermione?" Ginny said to explain her and Luna's presence in the said witch's posh flat.

Luna nodded. "There's nothing more exhilarating than opening letters bearing your future. A bit like receiving your first Hogwarts letter, don't you think?"

Hermione grinned for the blonde's benefit, this was nothing akin to her first Hogwarts letter. She settled down into the comfortable love seat (a love seat that never had the opportunity to live up to it's name since it's owner was a workaholic prude) of her livingroom with the three letters in hand while the younger witches made themselves at home on either side of her. "Alright then, I'll open these, you'll commiserate with me for a minute or two, and get on with life. I've got a load of work at the Ministry today."

"It's Friday!" Ginny exclaimed.

"Exactly." Hermione said, closing the point swiftly. "I'll open this one first..." she picked up the letter she hadn't been expecting which, upon opening, was written under the personal letterhead of the Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"Dear Miss Hermione Granger,

There is nothing like impending marriage to shake up one's life. Knowing you as I do, I must ask that you take this day off and not return to work until Monday. Furthermore, I have reduced your responsibilities and dispersed it among capable members of your department so that you will be able to take every Friday off , in addition to weekends, to spend more time with your future spouse.

I have taken personal care to ensure a smooth transition into marital life, now it is your turn to do the same for yourself. Please do not insist on taking your work home with you or dispute the extra day off I have added to your schedule for I will take it as a personal offense; I may even consider firing you. Do enjoy the free time you now have and I will be glad to see you on Monday morning.

Sincerely,

Kingsley S."

"He knows you so well." Luna mused when Hermione finished the letter.

The eldest of the three gave and angry huff. "Who does he think he is, telling me I can't go to work on a Friday?"

"The Minister of Magic, your boss, in case you've forgotten." Ginny replied cheekily. "Go on, open the other letters!"

Hermione knew better than to not take Kingsley seriously and she loved her job so there was no way she'd argue her way out and extra day off. "No need to open the first one." She said, tossing the envelope stamped "1". "It's only the notice that I haven't accepted any of my two-hundred-and-fifty-three proposals." Taking the very last envelope in her hands, she suddenly felt the cool, confident exterior she had been carrying over the past five weeks slip. This was it.

Sliding a finger through the closing of the envelope, she opened it neatly and pulled out the contents. The photograph was out first followed by a small sheet of parchment. Within it's full-color frame was none other than Charlie Weasley. His cerulean eyes looked up at her cheerily, a roguish smile on his lips, his wavy flaming red hair casually pushed away from his freckled and tanned face.

Beside her Luna and Ginny gasped while she struggled to catch her breath. Quickly she pulled out his data sheet and read it aloud without taking in a drop of the information.

"Name: Charles Weasley

Date of Birth: December 12th, 1972

Parentage: Pure-blood

Education: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Years 1-7.

Occupation: Senior Dragon Keeper at the Carpathian Mountains Dragon Reserve, Romania

Charlie Weasley? Thrill-seeking, dragon-keeping, firewhiskey-sloshing Charlie? Couldn't the Ministry find some else? Someone less likely to die from his hazardous occupation? Someone more serious? Hermione didn't voice her inner-questions partially in respect of Ginny and partially because she couldn't find her voice.

"You're going to be my sister!" Ginny squealed suddenly, pulling a still stunned Hermione into a hug. "We're all going to be sisters!" She added, pulling Luna in as well.

Hermione summoned up a pleasantly surprised face to replace the dumbfounded one that felt as though they were chiseled into her features. "Yes, sisters..."

"I think you should tell Molly." Luna suggested after their bout of hugging and congratulations. "She'll be so thrilled to know you'll be a Weasley as well."

"And you've got to see Charlie about this. He's probably forgotten today's the day of the arrangement letters or can't move because he's enchanted by your picture!" Ginny said in a rush.

Hermione nodded numbly. "Yes, I'll do that. I just need a moment to myself." Then she saw a look with the intention of prying cross Ginny's features and was thankful Luna spotted it too.

"To collect your thoughts? After that, you'd need to. And," Luna paused glancing down at her watch, "Ginny and I have to go to work now. We'll check up on you later. And don't worry we won't tell anyone yet."

Without another word, Luna helpfully dragged Ginny out of Hermione's flat, leaving the witch alone. It was nearly a whole minute before Hermione made any move to leave the love seat. She slowly made her way back to her bedroom with Charlie's picture in hand. Kneeling before her bedside table she looked into a simply framed muggle picture of her parents taken a few days before she modified their memories; it was nearly five years old.

"Mum, Dad, this is the man I'm going to marry." Hermione whispered, setting Charlie's picture to face her parents'. "His name is Charlie Weasley and he's a Dragon Keeper in Romania."

For Charlie, the reality of marrying Hermione Granger finally began sinking in when the said witch pulled out a wedding planner. But of course he had no idea what it was until she explained it.

"It's a wedding planner, it helps organize all the details of a wedding." Hermione said, seeing Charlie's confused expression at the simple white notebook. "I bought one at a muggle stationary store before coming here."

"Here" was the Leaky Cauldron where Hermione had requested, via owl, to meet Charlie for lunch after receiving their letters.

"Aren't they supposed to have, erm, ruffles and lace?" Charlie asked. He had seen Fleur, and Penelope with these things; they were usually decorated frilly material on the outside and were even more discerning on the inside. "The ones Fleur and Penelope had for their weddings had loads of ruffles and lace on theirs."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you but I'm nothing like Fleur or Penelope." She replied with a bite in her tone.

"Er, no, I didn't mean it like that. It's just I thought that all of them came like that." Charlie said embarrassedly.

"I ripped the decor off." Hermione said, showing him the parts of the notebook that once had delicate material sewn into it. "I'm not one for frilly, girly things."

"So I take it you won't be wearing a gown for the wedding?"

"I think a simple white dress will do."

Charlie's eyebrows jumped to his hairline. Didn't women dream of their perfect wedding day with a huge contraption they call a gown and all the flowers in the world? The way she was acting so indifferently about the first, and perhaps, only wedding she would ever have made Charlie wonder privately if Hermione was a man in a past life.

"Er, right. Listen, if you just want me to nod and agree with you on everything, just tell me and I'll do it." Charlie said, hoping it would keep him in a safe zone. He was terribly wrong.

"Charlie, a marriage is about teamwork. It's about working as a single unit- one person should not hold all the decision making nor the responsibility." With the look on her face was most harsh and again, Charlie knew he bollocksed up another topic.

He was about to apologize again when she held up her hand, the other pinching the upper part of her nose, her eyes closed. "Let's just plan this wedding, alright? We've still got to drop by the Burrow later on and tell you parents the news, assuming Ginny hasn't already told them."

"Ginny knows?"

Hermione cracked open an eye before sighing. "Yes, she dropped by my flat this morning before practice. She was with me when I opened my letter."

Charlie's mouth fell into a thoughtful 'o' shape before he spoke again, trying to choose his words as carefully as he could. "Look, I can see just thinking about planning our wedding is stressing you out, why don't we just relax for a few days before we hit the books on this?"

She gave him a look so reminiscent of Professor McGonagall any and all thought of Hermione being a sexy intellectual was instantly zapped from Charlie's mind.

"Procrastinating will not help matters at this point." She said sharply.

"Neither does planning our nuptials like it's next week." Charlie didn't feel like backing down on this subject, damn his stubborn Weasley attitude.

"Alright, instead of planning our wedding, what do propose we do?" Hermione leaned back in her seat, eyeing him coolly.

"Let's go on a date."

Now it was Hermione's turn to have her eyebrows jump in surprise. "A date?" She said blankly.

"You know, those things that usually happen repeatedly before people get married?" Charlie said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"I know what a date is!" Hermione replied heatedly.

"What do you say then, love?" Charlie urged not knowing where his boldness to term her as such came from.

"We're on terms of endearment now, are we?" Hermione said keenly.

He smiled cheekily, making a soft blush appear about her face. "Why not? Or are 'sugarplum' or 'darling' more your cup of tea?"

"You can call me whatever you like, just don't do it in public." Hermione said in a most uninviting tone.

Charlie rolled his eyes. "You take the fun out of everything." He threw down some gold for lunch, slipped out of his seat, and offered a hand to Hermione. "C'mon, sugarplum," he said loudly, "let's spread the news."

"I said, not in public." Hermione gave an indignant huff, ignored Charlie's hand, and stalked out of the Leaky Cauldron with Charlie at her heels, grinning.

"Darling don't make a scene!"

Once Charlie caught up with Hermione at the brick wall entrance of Diagon Alley she whipped around to face him. Their height difference, as he stood at a bulky six-foot even and she a petite five-foot-five, was defined now as she had to tilt her head considerably to look at him.

"You listen here. I don't want to marry you, I'm only going along with this law to save my job." Hermione hissed virulently, her eyes blazing in indignance of her current situation.

To hear that from any girl was a blow to a man's ego therefore Charlie felt justified in his next words.

"Glad we're being honest then. You think I want to marry someone as stuffy as you? I think not." he whispered in equal measure. When Hermione merely pursed her lips and said nothing more Charlie continued. "We both have no choice. I know that. So why don't you just get off your high thestral and realize I'm trying to get along with you despite our new arrangements."

He had never been one to take people down a peg or two then again Charlie had always been too nice a bloke for anyone to force him into such action. Hermione stood there, arms crossed defiantly across her chest, considering him. The only person to have ever put her in her place like this was Ron back in their Hogwarts days (perhaps it ran in their genetics). Since then, no one really talked back to her, nor had she ever been rude to a person being so obviously civil. There was only one thing to do.

Katyes: I tend to surprise people a little bit. I've always wanted to paint my own Marriage Law portrait so I thought, why not complicate things after the wedding? His questions came as a rush to me when I wrote it, it wasn't in any of the drafts but all of a sudden I had this stream of conciousness and it just had to be there.

Winters'Darkened'Reflection: Thanks, glad you loved it!

mysticpammy: No, thank you for taking the time out to read!

lemonicelolly: This chapter was fun to write, so thanks! Hermione is a second character in this story so we'll see most things from Charlie's point-of-view with shots from her.

EyeofDlarme: Thanks for reading!

ginsensu: I think they look great together too, thank you for R&R-ing!

evilTC: I won't leave you hanging, promise! Thanks for reading.

FredWeasleyLover1126: Thanks, will do!

another stars hollow freak: It was hard to think of anything funny enough, I'm glad you liked it.

Toxxic-Hugs: His dirty thoughts were amazing to write. My lewd mind played a huge role in it. Hahahaha, thanks for reading.

Redmaui: Love this pairing very much myself, thank you for R&R-ing.

xxXC8Xxx: It's my joy to bring you entertainment. And we do need more Charlie/Hermione fics!

monnbeam: Thanks, hope you liked this chapter!

Right or Ryn: Another surprised reader, yay! Hermione is a total prude in this fic. It will play well into the whole thing, but I don't want to give too much away. Actually he was referring to the act the would be involved in having a child- he's thinking she's such a prude she won't even want to remember having sex with him. I'll got edit that to have it make more sense. Charlie's questions are to show how little he knows Hermione which, again, will play well into the fic. This is pretty much from Charlie's end with a few shots from Hermione to keep her alive and fighting throughout. You're hella insightful - I thought I was reading an essay based on deciphering a poem! Thanks for taking time out to read this fic, you're awesome, you and your Brit-speak.

I don't have much confidence in this chapter, but hey, every story has one of those 'ick'-filler chaps before it gets down to the nitty-gritty. So thanks to everyone who R&R-ed. I was so excited you guys liked how I have been protraying Charlie. Whew!

You are all so amazing, hugs and kisses to everyone!

xxx
pengz 080907//1159a PAC.