Here is the next part, sorry this one took a bit longer than normal!
Thank you to everyone who has this story on alerts/has reviewed/has favourite'd it, you all ROCK!
The following day, heeding Harry and Ron's warnings, Charlie woke the team early and started out trying to train them up a bit. They all stood in the sunbaked yard of the Burrow as Charlie explained.
"As you all know, Valdez is off the team," Charlie started off but paused so Kurt and Seb could agree with a sly "Thank fuck."
"Exactly. But as I've realized, he has connections and isn't one for getting his hands dirty so when we go over to Romania we need to keep our eyes open for anything that might be going on. He probably has people working under him who are more willing to draw wands so we need to make sure we can defend ourselves. Merlin alone knows what he might use against us, if push comes to shove."
Charlie took his time to look at the group. Gus, of course, knew this was coming but the others looked a bit surprised. They had known each other for years; they shouldn't need to have to practice fighting as a unit. Hermione could see right through Charlie's reasons for fighting. She was a target after she had stood up to him, and Charlie's mother had killed Bellatrix so they both had to watch their backs. Neither did Hermione know their fighting styles, or did they know hers.
"How do you all want to do this?" Charlie asked. He was uncertain of how he should lead: as a large group, or just duel and get used to it?
"How about two of us go at it, and the rest watch?" Gus suggested after no one spoke for a moment.
"Yeah, I prefer to watch a while when possible." Andrei agreed.
"Ok, Kurt and Gus," Charlie decided. "You two go. The objective is to disarm and then incapacitate the other as quickly as possible. Don't worry about broken bones, my mother can hear an arm snap at fifty paces and will be out here in half a second to patch you up."
The two men moved to stand opposite each other as the rest of the team stepped back to observe. Gus and Kurt bowed and their wands were moving at a pace so fast they were a blur.
Gus went straight into an attack, using his wand to jab a stinging hex at Kurt. He was quick however, he cried out "protego" quickly and deflected Gus' charms easily. Gus scowled and pressed back his attack while he strode towards Kurt, easily shattering his shield charm.
Kurt used the gap to his advantage, and threw an "impedimentia" at Gus who was thrown back fifteen feet where he rolled to a stop in the dirt. Just as Kurt readied himself for disarming his opponent, Gus silently cast a confundus charm on Kurt, who swayed mid step and gave Gus enough time to stand. The men were quick thinkers and were not distracted from the task in hand and were soon back to their scuffle. After a few more seconds and quick wand work, Gus had cast a levicorpus on Kurt, and ropes were quickly binding his arms and legs before he was dropped back to the ground with a thud.
The watching group gave a small round of applause to Gus who was now releasing Kurt from the ropes and pulling him off the ground.
"Nice work boys," Charlie commended them on their wand work. "Anyone else want a go before we split off and work separately?"
"Well, none of you have seen me duel," Hermione offered. She had forgone her usually smart clothes in favour of denim knee length shorts and a light t-shirt to combat the stifling warmth of summer. "I'm good to go if you are."
Charlie and Hermione looked at each other carefully. Charlie knew Gus and Kurt were still rubbing aches and pains where they had caught each other, and Caleb and Andrei learnt through observing.
"Seb? You want to go or watch?" Charlie asked.
"I'm good to watch," he said with a smile. "We all want to see if someone can beat you, Boss. Hell knows we struggle." At this Charlie narrowed his eyes to look at the man. After holding his hands up in surrender he and Hermione moved into an open space.
"Don't go easy on me," Hermione insisted. They didn't bow as Gus and Kurt had, and Charlie threw a curse at Hermione and the jet of pink light missed her by a hairs breadth. Before she could pull herself together, Charlie was at it again, tripping jinxes and bat bogey hexes flying in quick succession. A quick shield charm deflected the last two and gave Hermione to stand. The shield was strong enough to cause Charlie to stagger and Hermione turned her attention to the ground her opponent was standing on.
"EXPULSO!" Hermione said as she flicked her wand at a dead tree stump to Charlie's right. Shards of wood and bark flew at all angles and Charlie's focus on Hermione was gone for a second. In that second Hermione readied her next attack.
"GLISSEO!" she shouted at the baked earth at Charlie's feet. The ground became glass-smooth and as slippery as ice.
"EXPELLIARMUS!" was the next charm to be cast by Hermione, throwing Charlie back with brutal force as his wand flew to the side. The man slid back on the smoothed ground until he came to a stop thirty feet away.
Charlie raised his hand to wandlessly summon his wand back, but upon seeing his arm, Hermione pointed her wand at him once more.
"Langlock," she cried. Wandless magic was difficult to do silently, and sticking Charlie's tongue to the roof of his mouth was the only hope she had of keeping him without arms. Charlie was stunned and confused as he tried to speak but nothing worked. Hermione claimed her victory as she put Charlie into a full body bind and brought him back to the group with a quietly cast "mobilcorpus" before summoning his wand from where it lay in the dried grass.
"Jesus, Girl," Gus praised, wide eyed and slack jawed. "There's no way I'm getting in your bad books."
Hermione didn't take the compliment but ended the spells on Charlie. He was bruised and his head was bleeding from his ungracious slide across the ground. He spat out the dust in his mouth and looked up at Hermione, whose proffered arm he took to stand.
"Are you ok?" she asked, eyeing his head wound.
"Nothing I can't handle," he said simply. "I'm sorry I doubted you."
Hermione knew that this was a test. She had been complacent for so long and Charlie needed to know if she could truly hold her own if things did turn nasty with Valdez and his minions. Hermione put everything she had into that small duel and she had come out on top. Charlie had understood that going easy on her wasn't an option. He knew she was quick, but how quick had been a shock once she had her shield charm in place.
"It's fine. You had to know," she replied with sincerity. "Let me guess, Ron and Harry turned into protective older brothers?"
"Of course they did," Charlie added flippantly with a small smile. He would have done the same thing if they were taking her to the other side of Europe. "Ron said you'd kick my arse and I should have believed the sod."
For the rest of the day, the team used the Burrow's yard as their battleground, everyone dueling each other. Kurt and Seb were battling Andrei and Caleb in the open space where they had started and they were quickly becoming used to each other's attack and defense patterns. It was clear who worked well together as pairs so they agreed that these teams would be kept.
Hermione had just been dueling with Gus, but had been thrown to the ground by a strong leg-locking jinx and Charlie had agreed to battle the victor. She stood leaning against the tree as she watched the two men go at it.
Gus and Charlie were in a vicious in battle. At some point during the day, they had removed their shirts to try and keep heat stroke at bay. Despite this, sweat was pouring down their backs as they flailed their wands. Hermione tried to keep her focus on the spells cast and defensive patters but having two red-blooded men in front of her didn't make it easy.
Anyone could see these men were attractive in their own way. Charlie was tall, with tanned skin that hid twisting muscles when he moved. His arms were thick and steady and his face determined when he looked down the length of his wand at Gus. Covered in dried blood and scratches across his stomach that he seemed to not notice, Hermione saw him pant deeply as Gus taunted him. Hermione was drawn to the way he moved, how feline he was when he placed his feet as he stepped around the dark skinned man.
Gus wasn't tall like Charlie, but he was as wide in the shoulders. His ebony skin was sheened in sweat and dirt from when Hermione had tripped him earlier. His hips weren't as narrow as Charlie's, but the tortured muscles there were almost impossible to believe. He was as rough and ready as a person got, and his scrappy fighting style was unique in the group.
He had taken a leaf from Hermione's book, and used distractions to keep Charlie from advancing his attack. Using the branches of the willow tree, Gus had Charlie off the ground and tied in its branches within seconds.
"Fuck yeah!" Gus called in triumph as Charlie accepted his defeat from in the tree. He ended his spells and allowed Charlie to drop to the ground. The fifteen feet took the wind from Charlie's lungs but Gus was too smug to notice. He could count on the fingers of one hand how many times he had bested Charlie in a duel.
Gus hauled Charlie from the ground and they moved to the shade of the tree where Hermione had been watching.
"Keep that on record Hermione," Gus said with a smile as he threw an arm around her and pulled her close. "I beat the great Charlie Weasley!"
"For the fourth time ever," Charlie, said as he shoved at Gus' shoulder. "How many times have I beaten you again?"
"Fuck you, I'm going to enjoy this," Gus said into Charlie's smirking face. They all shared a laugh before being joined by the others.
"I don't know about you," Kurt started while dragging his arm across his forehead. "But I need a shit and a shower. We done for today Charlie?"
They had been outside since just after breakfast and it was now well on the way to being dinnertime. They were all worn out, sweating and hungry.
"Thanks for that splendid mental image Kurt, but yes. We're done for now," Charlie said to the group. "We have a fortnight before we need to go, so we'll duel and plan on alternate days. Tomorrow we sort out any equipment we're taking and record it. You can all sod off for a bit if you want, I'll change the wards so you can apperate straight back in."
Caleb and Andrei laughed as Seb and Kurt raced towards the wonky old house to beat each other to the shower, while Gus, Charlie and Hermione stayed out a little longer to repair any damage they caused to the grounds. After a few minutes, Gus left the two old friends together and went after Kurt and Seb in their race to the bathroom.
In two weeks time, they would be in Romania, with or without Valdez trailing them every step of the way and Hermione was determined to be ready.
"Lets go again," she insisted. Charlie looked at her calmly before he attacked with a body bind curse.
For now…
I totally didn't use this as an excuse to have a shirtless Charlie and Gus duelling each other. Well, maybe I did a bit!
Please leave a comment with your views and thanks again for reading. You are awesome.