Chapter 5

Turning around from placing her dress in the closet, Hermione noticed flowers on her desk. They were a beautiful blue-purple and Hermione couldn't keep a smile off of her face. From what she had read, these flowers were incredibly rare in the wild. Picking up the note next to the vase the smile only grew.

I'm so sorry. Please let me explain?

Deciding that she was being silly and only causing Charlie to be pushed away, Hermione went down to the kitchen and began cooking a Forgive-Me-Dinner for him.

An hour later Charlie returned with a clothing bag from the exact same store she had visited earlier in the day. The house was filled with smells from the dinner Hermione cooked up and she met him by the door.

"Charlie,"

"No Hermione let me explain. I was being so stupid and I wasn't thinking. I know it's not exactly conventional dragging you out here to a completely different country as an excuse to spend time with you but it was just too perfect not to. I do like you and I wanted you to come out here to get to know me away from my family, but also because I knew that you would enjoy it."

"CHARLIE." He stopped rambling. "I should be the one apologizing. I've been acting so ridiculously childish that I'm surprised that you still want me here. Look, I've actually liked you for awhile and you're right coming here was the perfect excuse. A part of me was hoping that you would tell me the other night, and when you didn't I was just so confused." She seemed so nervous speaking to him about it. "I made you dinner as an apology."

Charlie was touched, the only woman other than his mother to make him dinner had been Lola and he was excited to try it.

Lasagna with garlic bread and side salad, Charlie pulled out a bottle of wine and poured two glasses.

"That was amazing Hermione," Laying back into the couch Charlie sighed with content. "Probably even better than mum's but don't tell her I said that."

Hermione sat next to him and proper her feet up on the coffee table. "So where does this leave us?"

"I was thinking, if you'd like to that is, if you would like to be my date to Rory's party?"

"I would really like that."

"But then I thought that we could go on a date after that, by ourselves. I'd like to take you to dinner."

Hermione couldn't help herself, she leaned into Charlie and kissed him just like he had the day before and was glad to see that she took him by surprise. He deepened the kiss and tangled his fingers into her curls.

"I don't want you to feel forced into doing anything." The whisper was almost nonexistent but Hermione still heard it.

"Charlie, you won't be taking advantage of me but you've got a point. Let's not sleep together before our first date." With a wink she drained her glass. "I should go to bed though, I'll see you in the morning."

Sharing a good night kiss the pair separated and Charlie returned to his spot on the couch wondering what he had gotten himself into.

Hermione spent that Friday with Sheila in the healers building.

"So did anything happen with Charlie?"

"We made up. Everything is good for now."

"What happened?"

"He put a bouquet of globe daisies in my room and when he got back that night actually explained, however undignified it was for both of us. So now we're on the same page and everything looks like it's going well, but it is only the beginning."

"You should know, Charlie hasn't ever dated anyone on the reserve. He's been on only a handful of dates that I know of since he got here but I'm not sure that anything really happened with any of them. I'm not trying to scare you." Hermione's face had fallen, apparently she looked absolutely terrified. "But he's always been kind of a bachelor, and the big brother of the group. It's actually really nice to see that he's willing to try being with someone."

The idea that Hermione was the girl that could end Charlie Weasley's bachelor ways made her blush. But she was happy to hear it.

She had gotten a letter from Ginny that morning asking for an update on things and giving a bit of advice. The letter basically said that Charlie was just like the rest of her brothers and would either need to be beat over the head with the information or would realize it himself and feel like a complete idiot. Didn't really help now that they had figured things out, but who knows.

For the rest of the day Hermione was pleased to actually be able to help someone who had gotten burned even if she wasn't happy that they had gotten hurt, she was happy to be learning what they did to heal on the reserve.

Making her way back to the house she was greeted by Charlie who kissed her softly as a hello.

"I hope that was okay to do." He added as an afterthought, apparently sometimes kissing hello right after you started dating freaked people out.

"It was. I enjoy it when you kiss me."

He had cooked dinner for them that night, nothing as fancy as he had the night before or what Hermione had made but it was still delicious and they both enjoyed it. Sitting together they chatted about their days and she was glad to hear that Charlie was going to take her to see a dragon the following week.

"Tell me something, anything." He said lying back on the couch stretching his legs out.

"Are we playing questions and lies again?" Charlie nodded. "My guilty pleasure is reading a sappy romance novel every once in a while. I read so many books trying to learn things that sometimes it's nice to just get drawn into a story with nothing but a plot."

"That's understandable, but how did you like the books on dragons you got?"

"I finished them the night before left. I loved them. They just made me all the more excited to be here and see it all with my own eyes."

"I love muggle books. I don't understand a lot of the references, but I love the way that muggles write especially about magic. It's comical sometimes what they think is magic and it's just so fun to read. But then there are the 'muggles' who write about magic like it's actually our world and it makes me wonder if they aren't hiding."

"I haven't dressed up since my fourth year." Biting her lip Hermione didn't know how he would react. "The Yule Ball was the last time I wore a dress, it was the last time I felt beautiful."

"You've always been beautiful." Making Hermione blush was Charlie's new favorite past time. It was so easy to do and it made her look so alluring. "People have different ideas of beauty, but I've always found you attractive. I go for the nerdy types of girls who don't try too hard with their appearance, and that's what I've always thought of you."

They spent the rest of the night getting to know each other more and more, asking deeper questions. Charlie learned about some of the things that happened for the year she was on the run, how she had infiltrated the ministry, rode a blind dragon out of Gringott's destroying the bank in the process, and being tortured. The last part was the most difficult for him to hear and noticing that Hermione wasn't looking at him for the duration of the story he realized that she was ashamed of what had happened. Bellatrix Lestrange had marked her for life as a mudblood, but it had come to mean more than that.

The stories only proved, in Charlie's mind that Hermione was one of the strongest people he knew.

"You should write a book." He concluded. "Think about it, it wouldn't even have to be about the money, but you could just write down what happened and get it all out there for everyone to see. Show the world that that you three did at seventeen saved them all and was extraordinary."

"I have thought about it before, I even wrote in a journal while we were roaming around the country. I'm just not sure Harry and Ron would like me putting them out there like that. It was a very difficult time in our lives, one that we are all hoping to forget about. And it was never about the fame or money; it was about doing what was right and putting a stop to the evil."

"And that's exactly why you should write it if the other two agree. You were all an inspiration to so many. Even the Order, while we were all sitting around twiddling our thumbs and waiting to hear news you three were out there destroying horcruxes. You were destroying the most evil wizard piece by piece by yourselves, and you did it all together and with very little information to go on." Hermione still seemed hesitant. "You don't have to write it if you don't want to, I just think that it would help empower young witches to stand up to what's wrong with the world and try to change it like you did."

"And the wizards?"

"Oh, we wizards have no clue about what's right and what's wrong." Adding a smirk Charlie was on the receiving end of a pillow.

"I'll think about it."

Saturday meant that while they still had to do some jobs around the reserve, everyone was buzzing about the party.

Hermione spent the day in the hatchery with Amy and got to witness another dragon actively hatching. When she arrived that morning she started to yell a hello but Amy quickly put her fingers to her lips and motioned for Hermione to come closer.

The egg was moving side to side, almost like the dragon was trying to roll its way out of the shell. Eventually it started hitting its head against the confines and found that the shell started cracking. Hermione wanted nothing more than to reach down and pick at the opening to help the baby, but she knew that it would only hinder the process. So she watched at it unsuccessfully tried to escape for close to thirty minutes. Finally, the tired dragon gave one that heave and broke the shell enough to wiggle out.

It was a tiny thing, a Romanian Longhorn was what Amy called it. Hermione knew that the longhorns were one of the smallest breeds of dragons but was amazed at its stoutness. The green scaled glittered with the light along with the golden horns.

Hermione had read that the longhorns were an endangered breed of dragon because their horns were a potion ingredient when powdered and the demand for it grew so much that the species was close to extinction. Most of the eggs in the hatchery were longhorns, save for one or two other breeds.

"There he is, our newest member." Brian had snuck up on them so silently it was as if he hadn't even walked. "Look at this handsome fellow." The incubator was still too hot to reach in and touch the dragon but Brian wiggled his fingers outside the glass playing with the newborn.

"Beautiful isn't he Hermione?"

"Very." She agreed still in awe of what had happened. "It's amazing, the whole process."

"I knew that you would love this part of the reserve." And with a smile, he left.

Amy was making some notes on the dragon's demeanor and outward appearance, everything looked good apparently but Hermione was still just watching the dragon lay in the artificial dragonfire light installed in the top of the incubator.

"We'd better get ready to go. It's almost time for the party!"

They would take turns on party nights to run patrols and check on the babies, but dinner parties was one of the few times everyone was able to get together and enjoy themselves.

Hermione headed back to the house and met Charlie outside. They agreed that he would wait downstairs and would only see her when she was fully ready.

Running up the stairs and into the bathroom, Hermione began charming her hair. First she straightened it and then added the subtle curls down at the bottom giving them a bounce when she walked. Then she did her makeup, nothing too special but enough that people would notice she was wearing some. The black eye liner and mascara made her brown eyes pop as well as the silvery-grey of the eye shadow. Then, sneaking back into her room Hermione changed into the matching black panties and bustier. Spraying a small amount of perfume she then put on her dress and heels, and finally attaching the leg strap for her wand she was ready to go.

Charlie was understandably already in the sitting room when she descended the stairs. He wore grey pants and a black button down shirt that showed off his muscles. The look on his face when Hermione coughed to get his attention was almost like in one of her romance novels. His eyebrows rose and jaw dropped at the beauty before him, it was like he had never seen a woman in a dress before.

"You look absolutely stunning." He had made his way to the stairs holding out his hand to help her take the last few and to help him take in the sight of her. "You will put everyone else to shame."

"It's not too much?"

"No, it's perfect. Sheila was right it's a good thing you went shopping with them and not me." Shooting him a confused look Charlie smiled. "I would have made you buy it in every color."

Hand in hand they made their way to Rory's house and was welcomed by his fiancée Lisa who Hermione had not met yet. When then entered the sitting room the girls gasped at the sight of Hermione all dressed up and holding Charlie's hand. She even noticed a few of the guys she hadn't met yet checking her out.

"I have a feeling you're going to get jealous tonight."

It hadn't been lost on Charlie that everyone was looking at them. "I think you're right."

Some of the guys on the reserve were nothing more than animalistic and filled with testosterone. Charlie had always been able to shake them off because he had nothing to prove to them, but tonight that changed. Just like he said Hermione was the most gorgeous person in the room and he could tell that she would be hit on more than a few times.

"Give us a spin, let's see the whole package." Lola had wandered over with a glass of wine for Hermione. "You look stunning. Green really is your color, not so much Charlie's." The woman laughed and caught up for a bit while Charlie went to say hello to the rest of his friends.

"What do you think Char, good choice in clothes?"

"Remind me to thank you later Amy."

It didn't take long after Charlie walked away until someone came up and introduced themselves to Hermione. The dinner parties were really just an excuse to dress up and drink together, there wasn't an actual sit down dinner but many appetizers sitting on every surface of the house.

All of the girls went over and complimented the now blushing brunette how great she looked and some even asked if they could borrow the dress for different occasions. It wasn't until one particularly arrogant tamer wouldn't leave Hermione alone no matter how many times she shook her head no, did Charlie rescue her with another glass of wine.

"I count two minutes of time between me leaving and the first guy coming to chat you up, and ten guys in the last fifteen minutes. I'll bet that's more than you got hit on at the Yule Ball."

As she had been doing so often lately, Hermione blushed at Charlie's words. He placed a hand on the small of her back and led her to a group of people she hadn't met yet, Charlie introduced her and she found herself learning more about the reserve than she thought imaginable. Everyone had a different reason for coming there or why they did it, but the consensus was that everyone loved what they did.

Hermione found herself feeling happier with every person she talked to, imagining being able to talk about her job they way they did and realizing that there was a possibility of it happening.

Stealing a look at Charlie she noticed how soft his features were when he wasn't in work mode and how he had already rolled up the sleeves of his shirt showing off the hard muscles in his forearms. Hermione decided that she liked where she was and after not even a week of being there was thinking about making the move permanent.

A/N: I really hope everyone is enjoying this story so far!