Life Goes On.
Chapter Eight.

It had been a month since Hermione had arrived in Charlie's life and two weeks since they had started a relationship and already his feelings were rapidly growing. Here was a girl who was intelligent, but not arrogant, pretty in the girl next door kind of way Charlie had always liked, with an amazing sense of humour, sparkling personality and who liked him back. The only flaw was that she had liked his little brother first.

That and the fact that she would be leaving in just four weeks.

But when she was lay in his arms in his bed sleeping peacefully, he found it hard to care about all of that. For now he was happy and he was going to cling onto that fact for as long as he could. He'd think about that when he had to.

Her eyelids fluttered open and for several seconds she glanced around, taking in her surroundings before her line of vision came to rest on Charlie. She smiled.

"Good morning."

She stretched her hands high above her head and pointed her toes, waking up her muscles from their slumber.

"Good morning." He grinned back at her, planting a kiss on the tip of her nose, "What would you like to do today?"

"Well mister, I have work to do." She told him as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed and sat up. "And so do you." She added.

He gave an over exaggerated sigh that made her giggle before she became serious, "Really Charlie, I could get into trouble with work for being in a relationship with you so if they prove that it's effecting your work."

She was up pulling a set of robes over her head as he got out of bed and wrapped him arms around her waist pulling her into him.

"I'm sorry, I know, I'll work. Extra hard." He promised.

And he did, all day he immersed himself in the work that had once been his main priority, now however his main concern was the end of the day when he could get back to have Hermione in his arms once more.

However, having his thoughts so centred on her stopped him concentrating on his task of checking the teeth of one of the new babies in the enclosure. For this reason he didn't notice that his stupefy spell had worn off, his fist warning was the searing pain as the teeth ripped through his left wrist and the burst of flame that followed.

He cried out in pain, alerting the witch who had busied herself at the sink cleaning instruments, her wand was at hand and she manages to quickly subdue the animal, however it was too late to save Charlie's hand, bone was visible through the ripped skin and blisters were already starting to form.

"Merlin!" The witch exclaimed, "We need to get you to Mungo's!"

He was rushed to the hospital and seen quickly, his blood loss had been immense and the doctor who saw him predicted that he would have to stay in for a couple of days before everything could be regrown and healed.

Hermione had just one more worker's evaluation left to do, the one she had been putting off, Charlie. What if he was terrible and she had to give him a bad evaluation? She couldn't do that. Or what If he was wonderful and she gave him a dazzling one? People would think the only reason she did that was because she was sleeping with him, and that would lose both her and him the respect they worked hard to gain. Either way she couldn't win.

But she had to do it; it was part of her job and the quicker she got it done the quicker she'd be able to finish the rest of her work. She still had to compile medical data on every dragon currently in the enclosure and go over some of the handling methods with the staff who had not come up to scratch when she had observed them. Those two tasks alone would take two weeks at least. That would leave her two weeks to write up her full final report and then the rest she would hopefully spend with Charlie.

The quicker she got all her tasks done the more time she would have with him, which was what she wanted most of all.

"Hey Stacey!" Hermione called, catching up with a young witch, "Do you know where I can find Charlie?"

"Oh," She looked worried, "Haven't you heard? He's had an incident with a dragon and had to be taken to St. Mungo's this morning."

"Is he ok?" Hermione asked, panicked.

"I think he's been taken in for the next few days."

"Ok." Hermione tried to stay calm, "Thanks Stacey, I'll see you around."

Hermione walked as quickly as she could to the main reception hut and signed herself out on the register. She then jumped into one of the large stone fireplaces and went straight to St. Mungo's Hospital.

"Can I help you miss?" The receptionist at the desk asked as Hermione approached it.

"I'm looking for Charlie Weasley; he was brought in this morning with Dragon bites."

"Ah yes," The witch nodded as she brought up the relevant documents. "He's up on floor six. But I'm afraid that only family are allowed to go up to see him right now."

Thinking quickly Hermione pulled out her wand and silently transformed the bracelet around her wrist to a ring that she slipped onto the ring finger of her left hand.

"I'm his fiancé." She announced and held up her left hand, showing the ring.

"Oh congratulations." The receptionist smiled, "The lifts are over there on the right, he's in room 612."

"Thank you for your help." Hermione gave a quick grin before rushing to the lift that was just about to close.

Thankfully, a kindly old witch held the door for her and she was able to get inside in time.

As soon as the doors opened on the sixth floor she practically sprinted to the room that Charlie was in.

He was sat up in his bed, hand heavily bandaged up and a tube running into the vein of the other arm.

"Charlie!" She exclaimed rushing to his side. "Oh Merlin are you ok?"

"I'll survive." He smiled.

Hermione surveyed him, he looked a little pale, but he did seem to be telling to truth and it was likely that he would survive. This calmed her slightly.

"What has the doctor said to you?"

"The bandages are on to stop the bleeding, then they're regrowing the skin tonight and tomorrow they'll regrow the muscle and the tendons although that will probably take around a day to do."

"So you'll be in a couple of nights then?" Hermione asked as she pulled up a chair and took his non-damaged hand in hers.

"Looks that way." He sighed.

"Can I stay with you?" She asked she hated the thought of him being alone in a hospital room over night, and hated even more having to sleep alone once more; she had become so used to having Charlie's warm body next to hers at night.

"That would be nice." Charlie smiled, "I'll ask the nurse to set up a cot for you in here. I'm surprised you were allowed in, so they may not let you."

"Oh I think they will." Hermione grinned, showing him the 'engagement ring', "They think I'm your fiancé."

Mrs Weasley had also been informed about her son's trip to the hospital and she and Ron, who had been in the house with her at the time had rushed over to St Mungo's as soon as they owl had arrived.

"My Son. Charlie Weasley, he's been brought in!" She exclaimed as she arrived at the desk.

The same receptionist who had dealt with Hermione smiled up at her, "Yes of course Mrs Weasley, he's on floor six, room 612." She informed them, checking the records once more, "I believe that his fiancé is up with him at the moment."

"Fiancé?!" Both Mrs Weasley and Ron exclaimed at the same time.

They rushed as quickly as they could to Charlie's room, bursting in without warning, in time to see Hermione display the ring and the pair smiling to each other.

"Charlie Weasley!" Mrs Weasley barked.

"Hermione?" Ron exclaimed at the same moment.

Hermione and Charlie sprung apart, although they knew it wouldn't help. They were busted.