Life Goes On.
Chapter Eleven.
Dear Ginny,
I'm sure you've heard by now from Ron and Mum about Hermione and me, I'm hoping that you're reacting in a much more positive way and if you have your doubts all I can say is that I've never felt the way I do about her with anyone else ever before and I really think that this might be It!
...and I think that I've gone and completely screwed it up. I'm sure she's told you what happened.
But she's only been gone a day and it's killing me. I never wanted her to leave like that, it's ruined everything.
Please Ginny, just tell me what I need to do, how can I fix this?
Charlie
It had taken him a long time to swallow his pride and pull out a quill to write to his little sister, but Charlie knew he would never be able to solve this problem on his own, and so, as much as he hated to, he spilled his feelings to his little sister hoping that she would be the one who could take them all away.
He walked down to the mail room and selected the fastest owl that he could find; this needed to be in his sister's hand by that evening and the reply in his own hand as quickly as physically possible.
-- / --
Hermione had returned to Grimmauld Place and collapsed down upon her bed, instantly falling asleep. When she had woken in the morning it had taken her several seconds to work out where she was, it had been just shy of two months since she had slept in the bed she was in and she couldn't help but feel her heart sink a little when she realised that she was home. But she swallowed her feelings, he lied to you, he hurt you, and he was breaking the law, she told herself firmly and tried to focus on that instead.
No matter how much she told herself to though, every now and then her head betrayed her and he'd remember his arms around her, his lips upon hers, sitting up talking with him about anything and everything.
An owl tapping at her window roused her from her thoughts; she let it in and retrieved the note attached to its leg.
Hermione,
I know you're home today, and lucky for you this week is half term so you can get yourself over to the Burrow and fill me in on all the juicy gossip that mum's been ranting about.
Ginny
p.s the gits out all day so don't worry about that.
Sighing Hermione knew that she would get no peace until she went to the Burrow and the red-head had squeezed every last piece of gossip out of her, there was no fighting it. She got up, showered, dressed and half an hour later she was stepping out of the fireplace into the kitchen of the Weasley's house.
Thankfully it was Ginny in the kitchen and not Mrs Weasley as Hermione had feared, after their last eventful meeting she was unsure just how the older witch would greet her.
"Hermione" Ginny grinned, "So glad you could make it and I didn't have to come over and drag you here by the ponytail."
Hermione laughed and sat down opposite her friend, "It's good to see you Gin, I've missed you all being away."
"Oh we all know you were too busy snuggling up to Charlie to miss us that much." Ginny teased, expecting Hermione to laugh, blush, and quickly change the subject. What she did not expect was to see her friends face fall the way that it did.
"Hey," Ginny reached out and placed a hand on her friends arm, ""What's the matter?"
And the whole story came tumbling out, the drunken kiss which started it all, the good times that they had spent together, the hospital visit that had almost ended things, and then the horrible secret that had shocked her so much.
"And then I left," Hermione concluded, "I had to, I was, I am, so angry with him."
"But you still love him." It wasn't a question; Ginny could see it in her friend's eyes.
"That doesn't matter anymore. Even if it hadn't happen I still had to leave, we'd still be living so far apart, it just wouldn't have been practical."
"Trust you to think of practicality with something like this. Do you think Harry and I have a practical relationship? I'm at Hogwarts for most of the time and he's here waiting for me."
"But in three months you finish at Hogwarts and then you can come and be together every day and have a real life. It's not the same. And I'm not going to ask Charlie to leave Romania and come over here, for a start off he wouldn't even if I did
ask, he loves those dragons far too much, and I couldn't do that to him, it wouldn't be fair."
"So what are you going to do then?"
Hermione was silent for a long time, considering her options; she sighed, and rested her head in her folded arms upon the table. "Nothing, I guess."
"Shame. Because mum would adore you if you managed to bring Charlie home. She hates that he's so far away."
Her and me both, Hermione thought as she got up, "I should get going. I need to check over this report one last time before I hand it in on Monday."
She hugged her friend quickly and left, just in time to miss Charlie's owl arrive at the window. Ginny scanned through it quickly and couldn't help but to laugh. She was the school girl, she was the one supposed to be owling her friends concerned over matters of the heart, not the other way around.
Sensing the urgency of the matter Ginny sat down and penned a note to send straight back with the same owl.
Charlie,
Why, you bloody idiot, are you telling this to me?
Speak to Hermione and sort all of this out!
The letter arrived back to Charlie the next morning; he knew his little sister was right, as hard as it was to admit it. It was Saturday, he didn't have work and he knew that Hermione wouldn't either, he could get a portkey to London and speak to her, now she would be calmer he could explain things, try to convince her not to tell the ministry so that he could keep his job.
He quickly made his way to the front desk, it took him just an hour to be given the permission to leave and as the clock struck noon he felt the odd tug at his navel and he was off. He arrived in the square just outside Grimmauld Place and after a moment's hesitation he marched up and knocked on the front door.
Hermione was in the kitchen, cooking herself lunch when she hear the door, wiping her hands on the tea towel draped over a chair she tucked her hair behind her ears and went to see who was there. Of all the people she thought it may be Charlie had never entered into her head.
She looked down at what she was wearing and wished that he could have given her a little bit of warning, she could have at least had time to put on something clean instead of a t-shirt that she had been sleeping in and jeans now covered in flour from the bread that she had been baking the muggle way.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, her shock making the question blunter than she had intended.
"I came to talk to you, can I come in? It's kind of cold out here."
She moved aside and let him in, they both made their way into the kitchen where she made them a drink.
"The way you left," Charlie began, "I don't blame you, I shouldn't have kept it from you, but you can understand why can't you?"
Hermione shrugged, and then nodded.
"But it was still wrong, and I'm sorry. But please Hermione; please don't make me lose my job over this. This job is all I have ever wanted; I don't know what I would do if I had it taken away from me now. I'll do things by the rules, we'll get the eggs we can't deal with sent out to other enclosures so no more spells. It's over now so you don't really need to report it do you?"
All hopes of possible reconciliation vanished from Hermione's hopeful mind. He wasn't here for her; all he was concerned for was his job. She held back the tears in her eyes long enough to say "I really thought you had more class than this Charlie" before she dissaperated from the room.
Leaving a very confused Charlie behind her. He'd told her that he was going to fix things, he'd changed the thing that had caused her to get angry and he'd even apologised, so shouldn't she be happy?
Sighing, he concluded that he would never understand women he got up to leave.
Hermione didn't return home until that evening and was glad to find that the house was empty. She climbed into bed, scolding herself for ever believing that the reason that he had come back could have been her. When he'd begun to apologise, with the way he had looked at her she had dared to hope that he actually cared for her.
Monday morning came and Hermione dragged herself into work, ready to hand in her report. She had considered writing down what she had found out all of Sunday but she had fallen asleep at her desk, still undecided. If she wanted to she could still tell her boss verbally and write the paper work on it at a later date.
It wasn't until the last possible second that Hermione made her mind up, she had been welcomed back, the report had been handed in, her new assignment collected and she was just leaving her boss's office before she decided what it was she needed to do.
Turning back around to face him she said quietly "Actually sir there was something else, can I just have a quick word?"
