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

And another big thank you to my awesome beta Clover Bay!

This is the last chapter. A big thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, put me on story alert or on their favourite stories lists. I hope you enjoyed this :)


They were brought back to reality by the cheers around them. Those close to them cheered because they saw them kissing and the others celebrated the first moments of the new year.

Hermione smiled dazedly at Charlie and could only think of the one question that kept running through her mind:

"What took you so long to do that?"

Charlie chuckled and replied:

"Well at first I thought you were with Ron, then I wasn't sure whether I would be your type, but then just now, after several glasses of punch, I thought what the heck, I'm just gonna give it a try."

"I'm glad you did," Hermione giggled as she snuggled closer to him and pulled him down for another kiss.

XYX

Soon they had to go back to Romania. They stayed at their respective huts but spent many nights together in his or her room.

All the women told her with mock jealousy how lucky she was and Charlie considerably toned down his flirting with other women. He now used all his charm on Hermione, which turned her to mush (even later on in their relationship, whenever they had a fight Hermione wouldn't be able to stay angry at him for long when he gave her a flirty smile and started to caress her).

Hermione extended her contract of employment with the reserve until the end of July, so she would have a little over a month before university started. She was really looking forward to university now but thinking that she would have to leave Charlie made her heart grow heavy, so she tried not to think about that too much.

By the beginning of May her parents arrived for a visit. Hermione couldn't remember ever seeing her Dad so excited. When Charlie gave them the tour through the dragon preserve he kept asking one question after the other (so Charlie finally learned where she got that habit from).

Hermione showed them the preserve for plants where many plants had tentativley started to bloom already. That was a lot more to her mother's liking and her parents spend many hours walking around in the preserve or sitting in the grass snuggeling up to each other.

They didn't look like they've been together for more than twenty years but more like a young couple newly in love, but then again maybe not, they shared an intimacy and intitutive knowledge of what the other one was thinking and needing that comes with many years spent together.

She hoped Charlie and her would be like that too twenty years from now.

Charlie had instanty made a good impression on her parents. Her father was impressed with the reckless guy who handled those terrifying beasts, and her mother was taken in by his charm and easygoing nature.

Both were glad that their Hermione looked so healthy and happy.

Before they had to leave again they invited Charlie to come to Australia with Hermione the next time she visited them.

XYX

In no time her very last day of work at the preserve arrived and she had to bid farewell to everyone. Part of her was sad to leave that wonderful piece of earth and her new friends behind, part of her was excited to start a new chapter of her life (and to go back to studying).

Before she was to go back to England she and Charlie were going to spend a two weeks vacation in a charming old wizarding town in Sicily.

They spend their holiday exploring the island, cooling off in the sea if it got to hot, enjoying the wonderful food and making love.

All too soon the two weeks were over but luckily she wouldn't have to say goodbye to Charlie yet since he still had a few days off and would accompany her back to England.

When they arrived back at the Burrow, Molly had prepared a big feast and invited family and close friends. It was good to be see everyone again.

The next morning Charlie told her that he wanted to visit the twins for a bit and asked Hermione to come along. They flooed over and stepped into the twins messy living room.

"They must be downstairs in the shop," Charlie said with his eyes shining full of mischief.

Hermione secretly prayed that he hadn't teamed up with his brothers to pull a spectacular prank on her.

They went downstairs and said hello to Fred and George who were pretty busy since the shop was quite crowded with customers.

"Oh you know what, there's something I want to show you." With that Charlie pulled a wary Hermione behind him out of the shop.

They went down Diagon Alley and stopped in front of Flourish and Blott's where already an extravagant looking witch in a golden coat and with a black hat with blinking golden stars on her head was waiting.

Once they were near her, she said: "Good to see you Mr Weasley, are you ready for the tour of the flat?"

Then turning to Hermione she cried: "Oh, and that must be your lovely escort."

She shook Hermione's hand enthusiastically and after Charlie had introduced them to each other and the woman had insisted that Hermione called her Violet, they followed her through a little side entrance into the building of Flourish and Blott's.

Hermione was absolutely clueless as to why they were meeting a real estate agent and why they were going in there, but with her curiousity peaked she followed them inside.

While they were climbing the stairs, Violet told them that the house was owned by Mr Flourish and that Mr Flourish and Mr Blott respectivley lived in the flats on the first and second floor.

When they reached the top floor, Violet opened the door and they went inside. It was a small flat under the eaves with many nooks and crannies. There was a living room, a bed room and a small spare room that Hermione immediatley saw as her study. The kitchen and bathroom were tiny but the flat had a very homey feel to it that made Hermione feel comfortable right away. And the few was fantastic, she saw the whole Diagon Alley and even a small part of Muggle London.

After they had seen everything , they whisked Hermione away and a few blocks further down.

On the way she wondered, where Charlie was going with this. Did he want to get a flat for her? But she had planned to move in with Ron and Harry. Was he jealous, maybe he was against her moving in with them?

Soon they were in a small side street in front of a house that looked as if it has been renovated recently.

"Here we are," Violet said happily, "this house belongs to Mrs Allen, a lovely old lady. After her husband died and the children had all moved out, the house became to big for her alone, so she decided to have it remodeled into several flats."

Hermione followed her upstairs, still in wonder. This time they stopped on the first floor already. The second flat was slightly bigger and more modern. But Hermione missed that homey feeling she had in the other one.

After they had finished visiting the flat, they said goodbye and Charlie told Violet that he would come by her office the next day to tell her about their decision.

"What was…" Hermione started, but Charlie didn't let her finish. "I'm starving, let's go get something to eat."

They went to a small greek restaurant. After they had placed their order, Hermione couldn't wait any longer.

"Why were we looking at those flats? Do you want to rent a flat for me?"

"No, I don't want to rent the flat for you," Charlie looked at her with barely concealed amusement, "I'm renting the flat for us."

Hermione thought she hadn't heard right. "For us? But you'll be working in Romania."

"Not any longer. They are opening a new Dragon preserve in Wales by the end of this month and they asked me to work there as senior dragon tamer. So we could live here together and I floo to work and you to university everyday." By the end of his little speech Charlie had become a little uncertain, wondering if it had been such a good idea to surprise her with this, or if he should have asked her first whether she wanted to move in with him or not.

Hermione looked at him for a split second then what he said finally sank in and she ran around the table to hug and kiss him, not caring what the rest of the people in the restaurant would think of that spectacle.

The next day they went to Violet's office to tell her that they wanted the first apartment. Violet happily drew up the contract, handed them over the keys and said with a knowing smirk: "If you should ever need a bigger place, you'll know where to find me."

Charlie just smiled broadly at her, but Hermione blushed a bright red that rivaled her boyfriend's hair.

XYX

Only a few days later the flat was ready and they were able to move in. Their furniture were a combination of a few new things that they bought and a lot of older things that friends and family had donated to them

The happiness of the couple was only matched by that of Mrs Weasley who was beside herself that her little boy was finally back in the country and within coddle distance.

That night after they had made love for the first time in their new flat, Hermione snuggled closer to Charlie, listened to his even breathing and inhaled his wonderful scent and thought contentedly to herself, before she fell into a peaceful sleep:

Finally, even I got my happily ever after…