A/N: Sorry this took longer than promised, I've just been really busy with school... there are probably only three more chapters or so left! please enjoy!
The next day as Charlie and Hermione were packing to head back to Romania, when Charlie suggested, completely out of the blue, that they go and visit her parents briefly before they go.
"Why do you want to go see my parents?" Hermione asked, having had a harder relationship with them after she retrieved them from Australia. They hadn't taken kindly to being manipulated by magic by their own daughter.
"Because Mi, you only see them like once a year for a day. You never even stay the night there and I'm sure they miss you. Plus I want to meet them," Charlie smiled. Charlie could see from Hermione's face that he was winning the inner battle she was having.
"Alright I guess we can go there, but you should know that they might not take too kindly to me introducing another wizard as my boyfriend," Hermione sighed, sad at the way her parents now treated her, they had let her stay there for a year after her and Ron broke up but it had been strained and awkward in the house which just gave her more reason to leave for Romania.
"That's okay," Charlie paused, "Have you told them what you do for a living?"
Hermione cringed a little, hating to lie, "I hate lying to them so I told them that I work with magical creatures, I just never gave them details on the extent or what kind of creature it was."
"Okay, so if they ask I can just say I'm an expert on Flobberworms or something," Charlie mused, making Hermione laugh.
She walked over to him and put her arms around him, "That sounds perfect, my boyfriend the worm expert."
He kissed her and just as it was starting to heat up, they were walked in on my Molly who cleared her throat and asked for a word with them both.
"Hey you two," Molly said as they broke apart.
"Hey Mum, what's up?"
"I know you two are heading back to Romania today so I just wanted to come in and say goodbye, and tell you how happy I am for the both of you. I thought I'd do it in private to spare you anymore teasing," she smiled.
They both gave her a hug and Hermione said that she was going to say goodbye to the rest, kissing him on the cheek and leaving Charlie to talk to his mum alone.
"You really love her don't you Charlie?" Molly smiled, happy that her second eldest son, the consummate bachelor had finally found love and with a girl she adored no less.
"Yeah, I never really knew anything could feel this amazing actually," Charlie said as he sat down on his bed, "I just convinced her to let us visit her parents today before we go."
Molly knew the answer but sat down next to him and couldn't help asking, "What for?"
Charlie knew his mom was playing him from the dopey grin on her face and replied, "Well if you promise not to tell anybody, because I might not do it for a while yet, I'm going to ask her to marry me."
Molly squealed and hugged her son.
"What are you waiting for?"
Charlie looked a bit uneasy, "Well I still need to buy a ring and stuff, I just don't know when the opportunity to talk to her dad first will come again and I know that I'm going to marry her so I figured I'd talk to him now so that I can ask anytime really. It'll probably be a few more months yet though, Hermione may have changed a lot in the past few years but she would probably still be a bit hesitant to get married to someone she's only been with for a couple months."
Molly nodded, and couldn't get the grin off her face. Charlie smiled too and told his mum, "You can't tell anyone about this mum, I really need to be able to do this my own way."
Agreeing, Molly gave him one last hug before they joined everyone else downstairs to say goodbye.
They apparated to an alley near Hermione's parents house in a muggle neighbourhood and walked down the street to her house holding hands. Along the way Hermione started to tense up a bit and Charlie could tell she was getting nervous.
"Don't worry baby, it'll be okay," Charlie smiled and kissed her cheek while rubbing her back softly, giving her confidence.
She felt a bit better but not totally reassured when they got to her house and saw her parent's cars in the driveway. He put his arm around her and they made their way to the front door. Hesitating for a few seconds, Hermione knocked and took a deep breath.
When the door opened it revealed Hermione's mum who looked a bit surprised to see her daughter on her doorstep with a man who had an arm wrapped around her waist.
After the initial shock wore off, she said, "Hermione!" in an unexpectedly excited voice.
"Hi Mum," Hermione broke free from Charlie and gave her mum a hug, then turned to Charlie, "Mum this is Charlie Weasley, my boyfriend."
Charlie stuck out his hand and smiled, "Hi Mrs. Granger, it's lovely to meet you."
She took his hand and invited them in, "if you two just go into the living room I'll find your father Mione."
Charlie and Hermione took off their coats and put their rucksacks down then made their way to the living room. They sat down on the couch for a few seconds before her mum re-entered with her dad and they both stood up. Hermione gave her dad a hug which he returned and then introduced her dad to Charlie.
"Dad this is my boyfriend, Charlie Weasley," Hermione smiled as the two shook hands.
They all sat down and started discussing the happenings in their lives when her dad started questioning Charlie.
"So Charlie, what do you do for a living?"
"Well sir, I work with Hermione actually. We both work with magical creatures," Charlie answered.
Hermione admired the way that few things could break Charlie's calm. Some men would be nervous when talking to their girlfriend's parents but it always seemed like Charlie could talk to anyone easily.
"And how long have you been seeing my daughter?"
Hermione and Charlie looked at each other and smiled, and he answered, "Well I guess officially for about two or three months, but we've been friends for a long time and we've been really close friends for about eight months. Most people considered us a couple long before we did."
Hermione blushed a little; she wasn't used to being candid with her parents.
"So you're Ron's older brother then?" Hermione's mum asked.
"Yeah, I'm the second oldest in the family," Charlie paused for a second, "I'm 32."
Although she was a little nervous about her parents reaction to her dating a man that was almost eight years older than her, she didn't show it and they seemed to let it pass.
"Well how about some tea?" Her mum stood up, "Hermione dear why don't you help me in the kitchen and we can give these two men a few minutes to get to know each other."
Hermione gulped and agreed, then kissed Charlie on the cheek and as she followed her mum into the kitchen, she turned to Charlie knowing only he could see and gave him another smile with a wink.
In the kitchen, after she put the kettle on, her mum turned to her and asked, "So how serious is this Hermione? You haven't brought home any guys before, aside from Ron but that was different."
Hermione smiled a little, "This is very serious mum. I know it's a bit odd, but I never really loved Ron, not the way I should've, not the way I love Charlie."
Her mum smiled, "Yeah you two seem to be very confident in your relationship, that's a good thing. I don't think your father will even be able to break him."
Hermione laughed a little at her mum's comment and for the first time in a long time basked in the comfort of being in her childhood home. She turned to the counter and helped her mum put out some cookies. This wasn't near as bad as she had thought it was going to be.
"I'm sorry I don't visit more often mum, I'm really not in the area very often but George got married yesterday so Charlie and I came from Romania for it and this morning he suggested coming here to see you two since I never get to and he knows how I feel about it."
"It was his idea to come here?" Her mum asked with a curious look on her face, "that was nice of him."
"Yeah, he really knows me, and he knew that I wouldn't have asked him to meet you guys right away because of everything that happened before," Hermione replied, a little less confident than before.
Her mum sighed, "I wondered if our reaction to your decision to protect us the way you did was the reason we never see you anymore," she paused as tears came into her eyes, "Hermione honey we over reacted. We didn't see the entire scope of what it was that was going on in your world. We aren't mad anymore, but we are sad that we don't get to see our only daughter."
Hermione's eyes filled quickly with tears as she gave her mum a hug, "You have no idea how great it feels that you don't resent me anymore."
"Honey we could never resent you, we were just a little unnerved that's all," the kettle went off, interrupting their conversation, "now enough of this, it's time to put this behind us. Let's go see what those boys are up to."
Suddenly her mum had turned back into the loving mother that Hermione had known all those years growing up and Hermione smiled and agreed.
As they went back into the living room Charlie stood up right away breaking his conversation with her Dad when he saw the tears in her eyes.
He walked over to her and took her hand, "You okay Mi? You look upset."
Hermione chuckled, loving the attention he gave her, "Yes I'm fine, just a long overdue conversation." She met eyes with her mum and they moved back to the couch.
"So, what have you two been up to?" Her mum inquired.
Charlie went a little unnaturally quiet, eyes a bit wide, and thankfully Hermione's dad answered, "Oh we were just talking about his work."
Hermione choked a little on her tea and looked at Charlie who then added, "Yeah, flobberworms are a shockingly interesting creature."
Hermione smiled at him and took his hand. He winked and they continued their visit.
A few hours later they were invited to stay for dinner and accepted. They decided to go back to Romania after dinner, even though it would make considerably later there because of the time difference. Charlie wanted Hermione to be able to spend sometime with her parents so the sacrifice was not a hard one to make.
