Life Goes On.
Chapter Six.

Hermione, being Hermione got started on the large amount of work she had the very next day and for a week she was seen to only go through papers documenting medical examinations, sat in on some of the dragon's check-ups to make sure the workers were meeting all regulations, and explored the enclosure thoroughly, this time broomless and with full protective enchantments around her. She had also begun to fill in the individual evaluations for each of the fifteen workers at the ranch.

By the end of her first week she had completed the work that would take most other people three, but then again this wasn't surprising, Hermione had always had a knack for keeping on top of work, a skill that had baffled Harry and Ron to no end while they were at Hogwarts.

Throughout the week Charlie saw Hermione going about her tasks, clipboard in one hand, and quill in the other making constant notes on all that the workers were doing. It made him smile to see her like that, so eager to learn and observe and completely oblivious to the fact that by doing so she was making everyone else so nervous. Jenkins, a second year trainee had dropped the dragon's egg he was examining three times that morning when Hermione had been there.

"Do you realise," He had muttered to Charlie in an undertone as Hermione had left, "If she gives us a bad report that we could lose our jobs?"

This had of course occurred to Charlie and he had so far done his best to ensure that they were working even better than they did normally, no slip ups, no tasks left or put off, this was Charlie's life, all he had ever wanted was to work with dragons and now he was doing it he didn't want anything or anyone to take that away from him. He'd just have to make sure that she didn't uncover the ranch's little secret, he knew for sure that if she did it would be his head that would roll. But there was only a month and half left before she was leaving, it wasn't like anything big was going to happen in that time, he reassured himself, not completely convinced but it wasn't like he could do anything about it anyway.

With the distraction of trying to keep anybody from getting fired Charlie almost forgot that it was his own birthday, it was Hermione knocking on his door at eight in the morning brandishing a birthday cake in front of her that reminded him.

"Harry Birthday!" She chirped as she entered into the kitchen to set the cake down onto a work surface.

Bleary eyed Charlie simply stared at her, two minutes earlier he had been in bed, now here he was listening to the unnaturally cheerful woman in his kitchen, although she had brought food, which was always a redeeming factor in his book.

It was cold, he thought to himself as Hermione busied herself in the task of finding a knife with which to cut the cake, glancing down at himself he did a double take, he was still in nothing but his boxers, grabbing a tea towel that had been draped across the chair by the door he covered up his chest and backed out of the room as quickly as possible, his cheeks flushing as red as his hair.

He returned a few minutes later to find Hermione seated on the sofa, legs curled up underneath her, tucking in to her own slice of cake, his own slice was on the table beside a small pile of presents.

"Birthday cake for breakfast," Hermione grinned, "It really is the way to go."

"Yeah, the way to go towards a heart attack." Charlie joked, but none the less picked up his own piece and began to eat it.

"At least we'll die happy." She took another bite and then pointed her fork towards the gifts, "Open them I wanna see what you've got."

He grabbed the first of the presents; it was off George, a huge supply of skivers snack box refills with a note attached saying: For when you get sick of the bloody dragons have a day off on me!

"These may come in handy one day," Charlie chuckled, "You're not going to put that down on your report are you?"

"Don't worry that'll stay between you and me."

He continued with the rest of his presents; a book on the Chudley Cannons from Ron, a new cloak off Bill and Fleur, a quill set off Percy and Penelope, "That's good, now you can write more letters to your mum" Hermione chipped in, and finally a large gift package of Zonko's sweets off Ginny and Harry.

"And this is from me." Hermione said, pulling a small package out from her pocket, "Sorry it's not much."

He opened it and found inside a tiny little replica of a dragon, much like the ones that had been chosen by the competitors in the Triwizard Tournament in Hermione's fourth year.

"I found out your favourite dragon from George and learnt the charm, what out for the teeth, they may be small but they're sharp." Hermione joked holding out her left hand where Charlie could see tiny little puncher marks across her index finger.

"Hermione, this is amazing thank you so much." He leant over and gave her a hug, much to the miniature dragon's displeasure; it spread its wings wide and did a few laps of the room before coming to land on the edge of Charlie's plate, picking at his slice of cake.

"And tonight I'll take you out for a drink or twelve, but for now I have to get to work." Hermione grinned as she got up, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek, "Happy birthday."

And then she was gone, leaving Charlie in an ever so slightly bemused state. He touched his fingers to his cheek; it seemed to be burning hot where her lips had been mere seconds before.

Work passed quickly for them both, Charlie spending the day with the baby dragons, making sure that they were eating right and that their scales were firming up like the adult dragons scales. Hermione was already halfway through the individual evaluations and was very proud at the rate with which she was progressing, at this rate, she thought happily to herself, it would all be finished in a month and then she'd be able to return home. Although she couldn't quite decide what would be so good about that, it wasn't like she had too much to return to.

Finishing filing the report she looked at her watch, two-thirty; she may as well call it a day, she decided, after all she had worked all morning, done lots of work, may as well use the afternoon to relax, she concluded.

And to make sure you look good for Charlie, her brain added much to her own shock. She didn't care what Charlie thought, he was just her ex-boyfriend's older brother. A friend. A very attractive friend granted, one that made her smile, one that she liked being around, but there was nothing more to it was there?

She continued to reason it out with herself as she began to run a bath, she been planning on washing her hair that day anyway she managed to convince herself.


A/N: Sory this ones so short, my hamsters just got really ill so I've spent the week trying to get it to eat and drink seeing as it hasn't got the strength to do so on its own, it looks like my efforts will be for nothing anyway, I don't think it's going to get better.
Anyway, because of this I haven't really been in the right mood to write but I thought I'd put this up so you don't all give up on me.
Please give me some reviews.
I'll get the next chapter up as soon as I can.