Author's Note: Hello everyone! I'm finally back and I'm sorry it took me so long to post this chapter but life got in the way. So now that my computer is finally fixed and all my AP tests are over I can finally focus on writing the stories. So this is the explanation chapter. Hope you enjoy and leave a review cause they make me happy. =)

Chapter 3

Hermione liked to think of herself as a positive person.

A half-full kind of girl, but sometimes circumstances sucked and turned her into a half

empty, life sucks kind of person.

So when she opened her door and her brain was finally able to process the fact that the person at the other end wasn't Joan but Charlie she had a half-empty kind of feeling.

She schooled her features to take on a blank expression when Charlie gave her that killer smile that show cased his adorable dimples and made her weak at the knees.

"Yeah, probably made the blond bimbo tremble, too" chided in her mind.

It was that thought that enforced her resolve and made her repeat his name, this time with an annoyed tone,

"Charlie!" "How can I help you?"

She was proud to note that her voice was steady and showed none of the love and bitterness that she felt for him.

Charlie took a proving look at her and noticed that she had lost weight since the last time he had truly seen her. He couldn't believe how much she had changed. He had forced himself not to look at her in hope that the void inside his soul would disappear. It hadn't.

He couldn't believe how a person could see someone everyday and still not really see them.

He cleared his throat while trying to unclench his sweaty hands.

"I just wanted to talk!" came the raspy response.

His eyes asked for a chance. Hermione begged Merlin for strength.

"Talk?" came the sarcastic reply.

"Talk about what?"

Charlie opened his mouth to reply, answer, explain but was cut off by Hermione's ranting as she turned her back to him and began to pace back and forth.

"Okay, Charles!" He winced at the name. No one called him Charles anyone, well except his mother when she was extremely angry at him. " Let's talk. Let's talk about my stupidity. Let's talk about how stupid Hermione was for sleeping with you, to let you act like nothing had occurred. To keep working with you even when her heart was breaking, to keep loving you while you took everything she had and throwing it away like it meant nothing! Let's talk about the way you fired Hermione, threw her away like a piece of garbage."

Angry tears had began to cascade down Hermione's porcelain skin and Charlie felt like the lowest human being for hurting her so much that she was crying and talking about herself in the third person, which she had only done when her parents had passed away.

"And what have you got to say for yourself. Have you come to put me down gently? Let me know that while I was a good lay once was enough for you…"

She was cut off when Charlie pulled her forcefully against him. Hermione couldn't help but remember the warmth of his embrace and the way his body awakened hers and she hated herself. She hated herself for being weak and stupid and completely pitiful. His voice was low and dangerously angry as he held her close, one arm at her back the other holding her head to the crook of his neck.

"Shut up!" he whispered. "Just shut up."

"I don't want to hear you say all those things that defiled all we shared."

A sarcastic snort escaped Hermione and she angrily pushed him away from him, "Yes, because you making out with your girlfriend defiles nothing of what 'we shared'!"

Charlie looked at her like she had lost her mind and was ready to be shipped to St. Mungo's Hospital.

"My girlfriend?" he seemed utterly and completely lost as if Hermione was speaking ancient Egyptian instead of English.

"I don't have a girlfriend!" came his confused reply.

Hermione folded her hands under her breasts and gave him a rueful look.

"Really, then who was that blonde woman you were kissing the morning after we slept together? Your grandmother!"

And it was then that Charlie had a moment of clarity where everything that had taken place during those miserable five years was explained and he began to laugh. And he laughed so hard that he tears fell from his eyes.

Hermione glared angrily at him. He was laughing like what she had said was the funniest thing she had ever spoken. The nerve of that man. She began to tap her foot on the floor becoming more and more exasperated as he showed no sight of stopping.

And so she did the only thing that a smart, modern, and very angry women would do. She kicked him in the shin. And she couldn't help but smirk when he stopped laughing.

"Shit, you like hell lion what did you do that for?"

Hermione glared at him, " Well I figured it was that or breaking a base over your head. And since I have no wish to get blood on my new carpet it was the only thing I could do to get you to shut up. And if your done laughing at my face kindly take your leave."

Charlie couldn't control the silly grin that appeared on his face and he picked Hermione up and began to twirl her around the room like a rag doll.

Hermione couldn't have been more surprised. Either Charlie was bi-polar or in need of head scan.

Charlie put her down and stared directly into her eyes.

"Is that why you were mad? Because you saw me kissing that women! Is that it?"

Hermione narrowed her eyes, "What do you mean is that it? Your acting like I saw you holding hands with your grandmother not making out with your girlfriend the day after we slept together!"

Charlie smiled once again and said in a soothing voice, "Okay, I need you to listen to me. No, don't interrupt until I'm done telling you my side of the story. I want you to listen first and then talk all you want."

He took a deep breath and settled into Hermione's sofa.

"Okay, so the first thing I want you to know is that I wasn't making out with my "girlfriend" but that she kissed me." Hermione opened her mouth to interrupt but a glare from Charlie shut her up. "Now I know that to you it doesn't matter who was kissing who but in this occasion it makes all the difference. I woke up in your arms with a smile on my face and feeling like everything in my life was completely. But there was one problem. I was still suppose to be dating a girl back in Romania even though I hadn't seen her in over five months. So I forced myself to get up and uncurl myself from your body and I went home. My plan was to go home, change, and then send a letter to the girl telling her that our relationship was over. But imagine my surprise when I walk home and there she is, waiting for me to get home. Apparently, she wanted to surprise me for Christmas. And let me tell you I was surprised. But I told her we needed to talk and I explained how I was in love with this smart, wonderful, and beautiful person and that it just wasn't fair for her or for me to continue a relationship when I didn't love her. You have to understand I felt horrible because she broke down and cried and was screaming at me for breaking her heart and I was freaking out. I had no idea how to react to a hysterical female and all I could think was that I wished you were there because you were smart and would probably know what to do and the next thing I know she's hanging on to my shirt and sucking my face off. And she kept saying that we could work it out but all I could think about was you and the night we spent together and how I wanted to spend the rest of my nights with you. And I told her to leave. I mean don't get me wrong I felt like an asshole but I didn't know what else to do and it felt wrong being alone with her when all I could think about was you!"

His eyes had a far away look and Hermione couldn't look away from him because things made sense. She tried to talk but Charlie placed a finger to her lips.

"I'm not done yet. Please just let me finish. So there I was feeling like an asshole for breaking her heart and I remembered that I hadn't even left you a note to explain why I was gone. I rushed to your house but you were gone. The next few days were hell because I couldn't find you anywhere and no one would tell me where you were. And so the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months and I figured that you didn't want to see me and that that Christmas night had not meant to you what it had meant to me and you were trying to put me down gently. And so when I saw you again and you did your best to pretend nothing happened I followed your lead because I would rather have you as a friend than not have you at all. And so for five years I endured. I worked with you when all I wanted to do was kiss you, I treated you as an acquaintance when all I wanted to do was make you my everything. I forced myself to look at you like a sister when all I wanted was to push you against the nearest wall and make you understand that what we had that night was heaven. And finally I cracked. It was a week ago when I saw you laughing with Ron like I couldn't that I snapped. I wanted you like nothing I had ever wanted. I gave up dragons to stay close to you but working together wasn't enough. And to keep from embarrassing myself and begging you to date me at least out of pity."

And then he looks at her and she's smiling and then their both laughing because it's funny even though its not and then the laughter turns into tears and then their both sobbing and kissing and its been five years. Five stupid years wasted over a simple misunderstanding. And so what that wizards live more than a hundred years to them every second was like an eternity.

And the next thing they know Charlie is cupping her breast and Hermione's legs are wrapped around his hips and she's against a wall and their both moaning because they've missed it and when skin touches skin those five years disappear and all they can think about is the right now.

And so they end up in her room in her bed coming together once again.

The cat glares angry at the closed door.

His kingdom had been captured by another red head. And he knew that his days of sleeping at his mistresses bed were over.

He turned and jumped onto the couch where some clothing laid. He settled into his resting place and didn't even get up when the girl they called Joan pocked her head in . He stared at her through narrowed eyes as she did a happy dance when she heard the moaning and quickly rushed out closing the door on her way out.

After all if anyone asked the cat he would say that all humans were odd.

Author's Note: So what do you think. It's kind of rushed but I hope you enjoyed it and please review. I might do an epilogue I'm not really sure. You guys let me know.