Life Goes On.
Chapter Five.

Charlie finally came to a halt outside a large shed and Hermione was able to catch up with him, panting slightly from all the shouting.

"Charlie what are you doing?" She demanded, "I don't fly. Honestly I don't!"

"Hermione you're a witch of course you fly." He chuckled, grabbing two brooms out of the shed and handing one to her, "And besides, you want to see the dragons don't you?"

"Well yes, of course I do."

"Well then," He shrugged and mounted his broom, "You fly."

Kicking off he soared into the air leaving her on the ground gawping upwards, he zoomed around for a while, doing a few loop-de-loops, before coming to the conclusion that she wasn't going to join him. He landed once more beside her.

"Are you coming or not?"

"No."

"Why?"

"I don't like flying." She shrugged, "Never have, never will."

"Well of course you won't if you think like that." He shifted forward on his broom, "Get on behind me."

"What?" Hermione frowned.

"Well if you're not going to fly on your own I'll take you."

After a few moments of internal deliberation Hermione mounted the broom, clung on around Charlie's waist and they were off, up into the skies above. Hermione let out a little shriek and clung on even tighter; Charlie laughed at her actions and continued to fly.

They finally got to a huge forest and hovered above it.

"Well, what do you think?" Charlie asked, grinning like a proud parent.

"They're trees?" Hermione shrugged, unsure at just what he was going on about.

"Not the trees! Look what's in them!"

Hermione looked a little closer and sure enough after a few minutes a burst of flames came out of the tree tops.

"The dragons are in there!" She exclaimed, grinning broadly with excitement.

"Want to take a closer look?" Charlie asked, and before she had time to respond dipped the broom into a downward path.

Before she knew it Hermione was below the treetops, weaving in and out of branches.

"When you said closer I didn't think you meant this close!" Hermione groaned.

"Hermione I don't see why you're so bothered, you've ridden a dragon, that's closer than this is."

"That was different." Hermione grumbled and jumped as she heard something move behind her and spun her head around so quickly Charlie was surprised it didn't break clean off her body. "What was that?"

Before Charlie had chance to answer a great scaly beat emerged with a roar and a burst of fire from its pointy tooth filled mouth.

"Merlin, Charlie it's going to kill us!" She exclaimed.

"Hermione I've been working here for years, am I dead yet?" He chuckled, "Don't worry about it."

They rushed upwards a few feet to miss a burst of flames that would have otherwise left them a pile of smouldering ashes on the floor below them.

"Charlie Weasley!" She shrieked "Stop it!"

He laughed a little, and made a few circles around the dragon's head, its eyes following them round and round as they did. Charlie made the broom dip down and then back up, teasing the dragon. It was one of the older dragons, he'd reared it from a hatchling and although all dragons were dangerous, the ones in the enclosure had become used to human presence about them. However, Charlie realised suddenly, Hermione didn't know this, and to her this was just a very large, very real dragon issuing fire from the depths of its belly.

"Charlie please!" She cried, a new edge of desperation in her voice, "Please take me down."

Sensing her mounting fear, and remembering what he had been like when he had first been faced with a dragon he quickly pulled the broom up and took them above the treetops and back down on the ground outside of the enclosure.

"Hermione, I'm sorry, I should have thought, I wasn't thinking, I've been doing this for so long I've forgotten what it's like to be faced with a dragon for the first time." Charlie apologized, "The dragons are used to us, I should have said that, I'm sorry."

"It's ok." She said quietly, although looking a little pale.

Suddenly Charlie had an idea; glancing at his watch he decided that there would be just enough time, "Quick come with me!"

He grabbed her hand and yet again she found herself being dragged along.

"You're not going to try and kill me again are you?" She asked, jokingly, although she couldn't remove the traces of trepidation.

"Don't worry! Absolutely no death, I promise."

"And no flying?"

"Your feet will be firmly planted on the ground at all times."

After a few minutes of hastened walking they arrived at a building that was fairly large compared to the others Hermione had seen so far. She didn't have much time to consider the size of it however as Charlie was already pulling her inside. Once inside she saw that the far wall was completely covered in shelves and upon these shelves sat many, many eggs partially obscured by the wall of fire that was warming them.

"Dragon eggs!" Hermione exclaimed happily, "There's so many of them."

"And we're in luck, look over there." Charlie said, pointing in the direction of one of the eggs.

It was rocking and shaking and as they looked closely a small crack appeared across the top, Charlie donned a pair of thick gloves and walked over to it, the flames parted as he approached and he was able to pick it up and bring it to the table in the centre of the room.

"It's hatching" She exclaimed happily.

They both stood close to the table, watching with excitement as the top of the egg fell off and a pint sized dragon poked its head out of the hole.

"It's cute." Hermione said, unable to keep the shock from her tone, dragons fascinated her, but it had always been more of a morbid curiosity for something that could so easily tear you limb from limb.

It had large flappy ears and nostrils that would take several years to grow into; its long spindly neck didn't look like it could possibly support its head and the wings looked more suited to the size of a butterfly. Hermione could help but giggle as it gave a large sneeze and smoke bellowed from its nose.

"You laugh now, but give him a year or two and he'll be too big to fit inside this room." Charlie smiled giving him a loving pat on the head and quickly removing his hand as the baby snapped at his fingers.

"So what happens to it now?"

"It'll go to the baby pen to be reared until its big enough to go into the enclosure and fend for itself."

"Don't you look after them when they're big?"

"Well it's a bit hard to be loving and caring to a dragon." He chuckled, "We make sure they have food, we heal them if they're hurt or ill and we make sure that they don't escape into the muggle world."

"And how do you do that?"

"Watch."

A witch that Hermione hadn't noticed before crossed the room and held her wand up to one of the dragon's ears; a tag appeared, much like the ones that Hermione had seen around the ears of the cows in the farms she had visited as a child, although unlike the cows this tag disappeared after a few seconds.

"That tag matches with charms that are laid around the perimeter of enclosure. It acts like a big wall, they can't get past it."

They watched the witch at work for a few minutes longer before Charlie piped up, "Come on, we should leave her to work, I'll walk you back."

They headed back down the gravely path leading to the lodgings.

"Thank you for a nice day Charlie." Hermione smiled, sliding her arm through his so they were linked as they walked. She looked across to him, studying his features; it was clear he was a Weasley, but he was so unlike Ron, his face showed that he was older, more mature, that he had experienced life and had wisdom to share. She ached to reach up and delicately trace the faint scar that was upon his cheek, she imagined how his skin would feel cupped into the palm of her hand.

She caught herself before she continued down that line of thinking, a blush spreading across her cheek, and started to pay attention to what Charlie was saying to her.

"I'm sorry it started off so badly, with the dragon, I should have thought."

"No, don't apologise, I'm sorry for not trusting you. I know that you're not going to put me in any danger. I just over reacted."

"Well, I'm still sorry, how about I make it up to you?" Charlie asked with a flirtatious grin.

"Oh yeah? And how do you propose you'll do that?" Hermione asked, returning his smile.

"A drink? In my cabin?" He offered, adding, "I've got a lovely supply of fire whiskey. I could even make you dinner, seeing as we haven't got you any food in the cupboards yet."

What on earth would Ron think to me having dinner alone with his brother, Hermione wondered, but then stopped. Why did she care what Ron thought, here she was with a lovely guy, having fun, she wasn't going to let anything ruin it.

"I can't think of anything better." Hermione smiled and followed Charlie back to his cabin.


A/N: Thanks to everyone who's reveiwed. Please keep on reveiwing, let me know what you think!