Chapter 2

Finally, the day was upon them and when the alarm went off Hermione simply rolled out of bed. She hadn't been able to sleep much from the excitement and instead rushed to take a shower and finish packing her things. She met the other three in the kitchen, Molly fixing a breakfast meant for much more than three people, and Arthur discussing something quietly with Charlie. When Hermione sat down the men separated their heads, silently ending the conversation with her appearance.

"Sleep well?" Arthur quipped getting her a cup of tea.

"Actually I didn't sleep at all. I'm a bit excited and nervous at the same time, doesn't do much to help calm down."

Breakfast was served and shortly after Molly Weasley began crying. She was sad that Charlie was leaving since he had just come home and she was worried about Hermione, the last "child" she had at home.

"It'll be ok Molly, now you can put your feet up and relax a bit. Maybe even take a vacation of your own!" Hermione tried to be helpful, she really did, but it didn't always turn out that way. Eventually Charlie pulled his blubbering mother out of her chair and held her for a few moments murmuring in her ear the whole time. It seemed to calm her down enough to speak properly.

"You'll owl every week?" Charlie nodded at his mother. "Take care of Hermione, don't get hurt, and eat at every meal or else you'll get peckish." Laughing Charlie wrapped his muscular arms around his mother again, all the while rolling his eyes for Hermione to see.

"I'll be fine mum, I won't get hurt I promise. And Hermione has survived much worse that anyone on the reserve has dealt with, I think she'll be just fine. Besides, if she gets hurt I'm sure everyone will be getting a portkey out to see me and beat me bloody."

With a huff and scoff at her son's words, however comforting, Molly Weasley was a nervous wreck. Gathering Hermione's things and saying good bye to Molly and Arthur, Charlie pulled a thread worn hat from his pocket and held it out for Hermione to grab onto. When she did, they gave one that wave and disappeared.

Romania was much more different that she thought it would be. She had expected it to be almost like a desert, with sand blowing in your eyes and the sun beating down on you mercilessly. And while she was correct about the sun, the ground was more of a packed dirt more than sand, it only blew up if someone kicked at it and it seemed that everyone had learned not to do that.

Depositing the portkey into the box of other seemingly discarded items, Charlie shared his winning smile in Hermione's direction.

"Are you ready to see the world I love so much?" Nodding eagerly the pair started walking in a direction that seemed to be deserted, but when they got closer Hermione could see buildings starting to appear. Small houses lined the road all of them light colors to help keep the insides cool, a larger building sat at the end.

"This is where we all live, there are more houses on the other side of the reserve but they are mainly for the people who work in the offices. These are the tamers houses, and this one," they had stopped at the house marked number five. "Is mine. I should say 'ours' since you'll be staying with me while you're here. You'll get your own room but we will have to share a bathroom."

Entering the house was a wonderful experience. The morning sun had already started to beat down on them and Hermione was sweating profusely. The sitting room had a large book shelf in one corner and a couch and chairs surrounding a simple coffee table. The kitchen was almost bare except for a few containers on the counter.

Up the few stairs were their bedrooms and bathroom. Hermione entered her room to deposit her belongings and found that she quite liked the look of it. The full size bed was pushed against the wall directly beneath the window, a dresser and desk lined the opposite wall, and a small closet took up the other. The bathroom wasn't much different than she expected, shower, toilet, sink, and already there were two toothbrushes in the holder.

"Charlie," She called curious to see his reaction. "Whose tooth brush is this?"

The redhead appeared in the doorway. "Must be yours, there was only one when I left." He shrugged it off, obviously not worried. "Let's go see what's going on in the office, shall we?"

They set off to the larger building at the end of the row of houses, and when Charlie stepped into the room people cheered.

"He's back!" A man about Charlie's age came forward and hugged him happily. "We missed you Charlie, but maybe you could introduce us?"

Sheepishly he turned and gestured for Hermione to come up to the group. "This is Hermione Granger. She's interested in healing and wanted to see what was going on with the reserve." Pointing to each person who had crowded around Charlie counted off their names. "This is Luke," The man who had hugged Charlie kissed her hand. "Amy, Rory, Malcom, Peter, Armand, Stu, and the head honcho himself Mr. Brian Wilks." The rest of the group shook her hand but Brian took a step forward and grasped onto her hand with both of his.

"It truly is an honor to have you here Miss Granger, when Charlie sent me an owl asking if you could come along with him I thought he was joking at first. But when he said he was serious we all got very excited. You are more than welcome to any facility and don't be shy asking any questions."

"How old are you Hermione?" Amy asked, she was tall, with olive skin and hair so dark brown it was almost black.

"I'm eighteen." Probably the youngest one on the reserve.

"Oh, John's eighteen too! You'll meet him at dinner I'm sure." Amy seemed very nice but suddenly Hermione was very insecure about how she looked.

"Has Charlie here given you the grand tour yet?"

Shaking her head Hermione laughed, "He wanted to stop by here first. We haven't really gotten too far."

Tsking at the red head Brian took her hand and placed it on his arm. "Well he can follow us if he likes, but I'll be the good host and show you around."

"Oh come off it, you know I was going to show her the rest of the place! I just wanted to introduce her first."

"I'm sure you did mate." Luke clapped him on the shoulder and followed Brian out of the building.

Sighing with defeat Charlie made his way to meet up with his boss and Hermione.

"This here is the Chinese Fireball enclosure. If you look closely near the tops of the trees you can see her circling."

Walking around and pointing out all of the enclosures made Hermione seem very excited. When they reached the last enclosure she was sad to see that, much like the others the dragons couldn't be spotted.

"I know where we can find some for you to see up close." The three made their way to the largest building yet and walked inside. There were rows and rows of incubator like rooms filled with dragon eggs.

"Oh." Hermione breathed obviously shocked. "How many eggs are there?"

"Right now we have about forty seven, but it's the beginning of mating season for the dragons so that number is expected to triple in the next two months. As you can see, we have a few baby dragons who have just recently hatched over here." Leading the young witch over to a high walled room Hermione was glad to see a few baby dragons sleeping on top of each other. The floor to their enclosure was dropped down a bit so they couldn't just jump over the wall and escape. Being so young they weren't dangerous yet, but they also couldn't control their fire so sneezing could set someone close into flames.

Girls could never resist the babies, and Charlie smiled knowing how enchanted she was just watching them sleep.

"How about some dinner? Lola is cooking up a big meal tonight and insisted that you two come over. Demanded is really more the word for it, but she's my wife so I have to be nice."

"Hermione, what do you think?"

"It sounds lovely, but it's really up to you Charlie."

"Alright then, let's go."

They were led to a house nearest to the enclosures where Brian entered and was met with the wonderful smells of his wife's cooking.

"You'll never guess who I found wandering around the reserve being a terrible host." He called, kicking off his dirty boots.

"Oh, Charlie how wonderful to see you again." Lola Wilks gave him a welcoming hug and to anyone who didn't know Molly Weasley, would have thought it was motherly. "And you must be Hermione, it's a pleasure to meet you. Come in, please. Dinner's almost ready."

Sitting at the table and being served glasses of red wine, Brian started trying to learn more about Hermione.

"So what is it you hope to learn here Hermione?"

"Well, when we got here I was thinking I would take a look at being a healer, it's something I do well at and love it."

"But now?"

A blush crept up into her cheeks. "After seeing those baby dragons, I think I'd like to learn a bit more about how they're hatched and cared for before they grow."

Charlie laughed. "The baby dragons really know how to snare a woman." Hermione would have been hurt if she didn't know that Charlie was joking, so she laughed with him.

"Well I was reading some of those books I picked up last week and I've found that dragons are really, very interesting. I'd really love to see what it is you do while I'm here Charlie. It's not just the baby ones, I want to see what it's like working with a grown dragon as well."

"And you've signed my death warrant right there woman, mum and George and Bill will all kill me if they ever found out that I'd taken you to see a matured dragon."

"It's either you take me and supervise to make sure I'm safe, or I go on my own. The choice is yours."

Brian and Lola laughed heartily at that. "Finally, someone who can go toe to toe with Charlie Weasley, keep this one around Brian, I think she might help deflate some of his ego."

"Yeah, yeah laugh it up you two. But you just wait until Lawrence is old enough and the first time he asks to be taken out to see that Russian Silver he loves so much you won't be laughing then."

The threat was empty, they all knew it but the Wilks backed off anyhow choosing instead to serve dinner.

"This is a lovely wine by the way, what kind is it?"

"It's a local red elf wine, one of my favorites." Lola produced the bottle to show Hermione. "I'll take you into town sometime we can pick you up a bottle or two for while you're here."

The rest of the night went well, eating and drinking and catching up on everything that had happened since Charlie left.

"We were all scared to death when you left in such a hurry," Brian confided. "We knew there was a war, but we're all so far removed that it didn't seem like it could affect us. And then you left to go help your family and it all seemed too real."

"Of course, you both did wonders in helping and now everything is starting to rebuild and go back to the way it should be."

The Wilks really did care for those on the reserve and Hermione could see that even though she had only been there for an afternoon that they cared about her as well. It wasn't as if no one knew who she was, they all had heard of her, but hearing of her and meeting her were two separate things all together. Suddenly, there was a war hero sitting in their living room listening to how they fared during the attacks.

"It wasn't just Britain, at times the deatheaters thought it would be a good idea to let some of the dragons loose to wreak whatever havoc it was they wanted. Still thought it was a good plan after three were fried up by Henry."

"Henry?" Looking to Charlie for an answer Hermione furrowed her brow.

"That's what we called the male horntail here. You remember the one from the Triwizard Tournament? It's the same one."

"But that's the one Harry was up against! He'll be amazed to hear that."

Going on and on, the conversation kept coming and the wine kept flowing. After the third bottle emptied and glasses drained Charlie stood. "We should probably get going, I have to get reacquainted with waking up at dawn and Hermione here is just drunk."

"Am not." She mumbled looking up defiantly at the redhead.

"Oh yes you are, let's get you in bed."

Saying good night and thank you Charlie noticed that Hermione was swaying a bit too much so he placed his hands behind her knees and shoulders and hoisted her up into his arms. He was much steadier and wasn't as drunk as she was.

Taking her shoes off and tucking her into bed, Charlie looked down at the already sleeping figure. A halo of curls on her pillow surrounded the relaxed and happy face of Hermione Granger. Smiling, he turned out the light and went to his own room.

Dear mum,

We've made it to Romania just fine. Hermione got to see some of the dragons at a distance and even got to see some of the baby dragons here. I think she's in love with them and wants to play as much as possible (which I would never allow her because it's too dangerous!) but I think she's very excited about starting to see everything in motion tomorrow.

She will write you soon to let you know how she feels of the place I'm sure, but for now it's late here and I need to be getting some rest.

I'll write again soon.

Love,

Charlie

Finally pulling off his shirt and shorts Charlie curled up into his own bed happy to be back where his heart belonged and happy to have someone to share it with.