Disclaimer: The HP universe belongs to J.K. Rowling

Thank you to my wonderful Beta Clover Bay!


Hermione woke up just a few hours later, she disentangled herself from Charlie and quietly got up. He was still asleep, so she wrote a quick note thanking him for letting her stay and that she had slept wonderfully. Then she left to go back to her hut, get dressed and start another day of work.

Some of the work she had to do that day didn't require her full concentration so she had time to let her thoughts wander. They wandered to Charlie. She wasn't sure what to make of what happened last night.

They've become rather close friends since she worked here, and she hugged Ron and Harry a lot too, on the run they even had shared a bed occasionally, purely platonic of course, maybe he considered her as something like a sister, after all she's spent a lot of time at his family's place (he, however hadn't been there most of the time), or did he even have romantic feelings for her.

She scoffed at herself at the last thought. Charlie Weasley would surely not feel anything remotely romantic for her, she couldn't be his type, she didn't really know what his type was, but it surely wasn't her.

Besides the Weasley brothers seemed to have a soft spot for stunningly beautiful women. She remembered how Ron had drooled (and still did) over Fleur who, what a coincidence, was married to his eldest brother. And also judging from Ron's conquests she had met, looks seemed to be more important to him than brains, George had started dating Angelina, even Percy's ex girlfriend Denise had been quite a looker, and from all the Weasley brothers she would have considered that she might have the best changes with him.

So Hermione didn't really think that Charlie was the exception who was into plain bookworms.

But he wasn't the type of guy she was into anyway. Now, that thought made her wonder what her type of guy actually was.

Well he would have to be intelligent, interested in many different things, preferably the same she liked, have a great sense of humour and an even greater sense of justice and - here she came to a halt, but surely that couldn't be all she was looking for in a guy - well he should be faithful and loyal and brave and stand up for what he believes in and caring and mature and…

At that point she wondered if she would ever find such a guy, or if it maybe would be wise to compromise - as if it is a conscious decision with whom you fall in love with, she suddenly heard the sarcastic voice of her father saying in her head.

Now her thoughts went back again to Charlie and started to compare him to her list of the perfect guy. Well he wasn't stupid, but he wasn't as studious as she was either, he was very much into the outdoors, which she enjoyed too, he did have a sense of humour even though it sometimes was a little too crude for her taste, they shared some interests at least, she didn't really know his view on houseelves but at least he wasn't prejudiced against Muggleborns, he was loyal and definitely brave, he was caring at least with his dragons and he could be mature if he wanted to.

But besides that he was easygoing and enjoyed having a lot of people around him, while she was a little stuck up and also found merits in solitude, he took setbacks rather easily and didn't worry much about anything, while she took every setback to heart and thought everything through and got really worked up over the silliest things and he seemed to live and breathe only for his dragons, while she still didn't like them much.

By the end of her shift she had reached the conclusion that she surely wasn't Charlie's type and he wasn't hers and things were perfectly fine the way they were between them, just being friends.

That evening they met again for dinner, Charlie had only an hour since he had the first shift again to look after the baby dragons. If it were up to Hermione things between them might have been rather awkward, but Charlie acted like always and just told her that she was welcome for last night which was his reply to her note, and that if she needed someone to talk he would listen, then he moved on to tell her about his day and ask her about hers.

It seemed as if nothing had changed. They spend the next few days doing the same things they had done before.

Then one night, it was just another night like the ones before nothing even remotely special about it, they sat together on their bench, talking, looking at the sky and just enjoying the clear night. It had gotten quite chilly already and Hermione shivered, Charlie then wrapped her in his coat and they continued sitting there side by side with Charlie resting his arm around Hermione's shoulder.

And while they were sitting there, looking at the sky and counting the shooting stars, Hermione inhaled Charlie's sent again and suddenly she realised that she had a huge crush on him.

It didn't matter that he didn't match the criteria on her perfect man list 100%, she didn't think about not being his type, all that mattered, all that she could think of was that she really cared about this man next to her, about how gorgeous he was and about how much she wanted to snog him senseless right there.

Hermione, however, was not the type of girl to take those kind of matters in her own hands, much less to seduce a guy. So her plan of action was to do nothing and wait what happens. If Charlie had feelings for her he should make the first move, she decided.

But Charlie didn't make a move. They still spend a lot of time together, either alone or with their co-workers. Charlie continued flirting with every female in the preserve, whether she was 19 or 90, and didn't treat Hermione any different from how he treated anyone else.

Hermione tried to learn as much as possible about Charlie and sometimes even dared to ask a little more personal questions, he didn't seem to mind.

She learned that he had wanted to become a dragon tamer since he'd been four years old and aunt Muriel had given him a book on dragons. His favourite game back then also had been dragon tamer, he and Bill were the dragon tamers while his Dad was the Dragon.

Apparently he had been very popular with the Ladies during his Hogwarts year (Hermione didn't doubt that), he had loved to help out Hagrid with taking care of any creature Hagrid had picked up and during his last two years at Hogwarts he was even alowed to accompany him into the forbidden forest.

He had discovered the kitchens during his second year and had been a frequent visitor since then. The houseelves pampered him with his favourite treats and if he hadn't played Quidditch he might have grown more horizontally than vertically. As a thank you he would collect wild berries for them, which apparently they loved.

Hermione fell a little harder for him after he confessed his soft spot for houseelves to her.

It wasn't easy for Hermione to not show her feelings for him and act as if they were just friends. She had to stop herself from staring at him for too long, from getting too close to him to smell his scent, from running her fingers through his hair and caressing his muscular arms.

At night she dreamt of him doing all kinds of inappropriate things to her and after she woke up she needed a cold shower first.

But as long as he didn't give her any indication that he liked her in more than just a friend-ly way she wouldn't say anything.

And since Hermione didn't do anything nothing happened.

One night she spend at the Pub with some female colleagues while Charlie had to work and they were busy discussing Deirdre's crush on a guy from the town.

They were analyzing everything he had ever said to her and the way he looked and behaved around her to try and find out where she stood with him.

Their results weren't conclusive and that's when Svetlana decided to share a piece of advice:

"Girl, you've got to tell him how you feel. If he likes you back then great if not you can move on and stop wasting your time."

Some of the girls, however, didn't share the sentiment, they said things like, no the guy should make the first move and the only thing she could do was maybe be a bit more forward when flirting with him, but not so much that he would think that she was desperate or easy.

Poor Deirdre was after that evening even more confused than before, but the discussion had also gotten Hermione thinking.

Maybe she should tell Charlie how she felt, after all she spend years pining after Ron just to find out in the end that it wasn't meant to be. What if another woman came along and snatched him away right under her nose, just because she never said or did anything?

That was one of those times that she wished for a female friend to talk to about these things. She didn't feel close enough to her colleagues to talk to them as openly as Deirdre had. She didn't want to talk to Ginny about her brother that way and she never really had a girl talk with her Mum, since she had spent most of the time since she was eleven away from her parents.

For a fleeting moment she wondered if she should get a book on that topic but then she scoffed at herself.

Maybe she should try to be a little bit more forward and flirty with him to see his reaction?