Chapter 6

The week following the dinner party showed Hermione being much more active in the reserve, she was invited to help prepare for a new dragon arriving, was able to watch another dragon hatch, and helped when someone got more than burned.

It was like the party helped her shed the shyness and was able to actually start doing something.

She was also able to go on a few dates with Charlie. He took her to a beautiful dinner, and dancing, and on a beautiful picnic as the sunset. But tonight he was adamant would be their best date ever.

Things had been going very well between them, there was no awkwardness from being in the same house and they were able to talk about their worries with dating each other, they were very open with their thoughts and feelings which only helped. Hermione had always been rather closed off especially with the male population, but it felt unnatural not to speak to Charlie.

Finally their shifts ended and they met back at the house, the look on Charlie's face was almost comical with how wide his grin was.

"I hope you're ready for our amazing date tonight. I think that this is the one to tip the scales in my favor and keep you here for a while longer."

"Oh really? Well then I expect nothing less than the absolute best tonight." She joked, but really all she needed was Charlie's strong arms wrapped around her tightly and his lips on hers to be happy.

"Come on, it's time to go."

"But we just got back, can't we change first?"

"This is the absolutely perfect time I promise you won't regret it."

Grabbing her hand in his Charlie led them out towards the Antipodian Opaleye enclosure. The dragons were a pearly color which grabbed the light just right, especially the reds and oranges or sunset. Hermione tensed a bit as Charlie went to the broom shed and pulled out a single broom.

"I should tell you that I'm slightly terrified of flying."

"And I should tell you that I'm an amazing flier and that you are safe with me."

"If not, you owe me back massages for a week."

Charlie grinned readily agreeing, if something happened that meant she would stay for an extra week getting those massages and if this worked she would irrevocably fall in love with the reserve and stay on her own. Straddling the broom and motioning for the small brunette to do that same, Charlie wrapped his arms around her holding onto the broom handle and kicking off lightly and slowly.

"Hold on but don't try to steer, then we might crash or something." Placing her hands on the broom he noticed her how tight she was holding. "Ready?" With a nod Charlie started flying a big faster out towards the middle of the enclosure.

Finally getting out there Hermione gasped. It was the middle of the month, a time when all Opaleyes did a sort of dance. Almost as soon as Hermione remembered what was happening a couple of the beautiful dragons emerged from the trees flying together, a moment after they appeared another made its way out above the trees near Charlie and Hermione. They had stopped flying and Charlie held a protective hand around Hermione keeping their bodies close.

The dragon closest by spotted them but was not threatened, instead it decided to put on a show and fly a bit further out and then breathing a flume of brilliant red fire. The other dragons much farther out responded by breathing their own flames into the air making the orange sky darker.

Hermione had never seen anything more beautiful than this. She had told Charlie that she wanted to see a dragon up close and just a moment before she had been almost close enough to touch it, and they were all flying around in intricate patterns throughout the sky of their enclosure.

"What do you think?" The whisper was almost inaudible but also very intimate.

"I think you'll never be able to top this date."

Charlie chuckled and they continued watching for almost an hour more until their stomach's rumbled.

"Want to go home and eat?"

"No, but I suppose we should."

Turning the broom the pair noticed almost everyone from the reserve also watching the Opaleyes but much farther back giving them the intimacy for thinking they were alone. Charlie sped their broom out of the enclosure and placed it back in the shed, then took Hermione's hand.

"So now that you've seen a dragon up close, what do you think?"

They walked slowly together hand in hand. "Simply amazing. Absolutely nothing like what you see when you're on their backs." Charlie stopped in his tracks and at a loss for words just looked at her confused. "I'm pretty sure I mentioned that I broke out of Gringott's on the back of a dragon before Charlie, and if not you certainly read about it in the Daily Prophet."

"I'm just really jealous of you right now, I keep forgetting that you've lived the one thing I want to do before I die."

"It might be the last thing you do before you die, we were lucky that the dragon was blind."

They reached the house and began heating left overs from the refrigerator.

"So what's something else you've done that I don't know about?"

And so began their nightly ritual of telling interesting things about each other. By the end of the night Hermione had decided to say what she had been holding in all night.

"I would like to stay for a little while longer. A few months to start with."

Whooping from his spot on the couch Charlie celebrated. "Where do you think you'll want to be?"

"I was thinking the hatchery, I'm still learning but I would at least like to start there and see what else I can pick up."

"Well why don't you talk to Brian tomorrow and see if he's ok with you staying a little more permanently. You're already working your way up from apprentice from what I've heard I can't imagine it would take much longer before they let you be on your own working on things."

Agreeing to do just that, Hermione jumped onto Charlie to shower him in kisses. "I'm just so excited! Would you be alright with me staying longer?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"I just didn't know that since we're kind of dating a little more steadily if you would want me to actually live in your house with you. Some people would find that weird."

"It's not weird, it's convenient." Charlie returned his lips to the perfect mouth of Hermione Granger and began to snog her senseless. It wasn't as if they hadn't kissed many times since the dinner party, but out of respect he hadn't pressured her to take it any farther. He wasn't sure if Hermione was still a virgin or not and didn't want it to seem like he had only brought her here for sex.

Eventually coming up for air Hermione's eyes were on fire. "Maybe we take this up to your bedroom?"

"Are you sure? I don't want you to feel like you have to do this."

"Charlie, I'm not unpracticed. I want to do this with you do before you ruin the mood let's take our clothes off!" They hadn't even left the living room before Charlie threw his shirt off, his hard chest rippling. Hermione could barely take her eyes off it until he picked her up and wrapped her legs around his waist.

Charlie trailed his lips along Hermione's jawline and down her neck. It was difficult to kiss her and maneuver them upstairs but somehow he did it. They resumed undressing each other until falling into bed together.

The morning sun fell on Hermione's face causing her to stir. Remembering that she wasn't alone she decisively curled herself against the strong chest next to her until he also started to wake up.

"Good morning." Placing a kiss on her forehead Charlie smiled at the thought of waking up with Hermione. "Would you like breakfast?"

"Mhm, but I also want to get ready to talk to Brian. Would you mind if I jumped in the shower?"

"Not at all, but I would like to brush my teeth."

"Well you could always join me." With a wink Hermione jumped out of bed, still naked from the night before and ran to the bathroom.

By the time Charlie arrived into the bathroom, the mirror was already foggy from the warm water Hermione was letting cascade around her. Charlie could only stand and watch the shadow of her washing the wonderful brown curls, it was like there was nothing that could make him move and instead he could only watch. It was a very intimate moment and he was amazed at how beautiful it was even through a shower curtain.

"Are you getting in here Charlie?"

"Just gonna brush my teeth first." Snapping out of his revere Charlie did as promised and brushed his teeth before jumping in the shower just in time to soap up Hermione.

Together they ate a full English breakfast of eggs, toast, sausage, bacon, beans, and both white and black pudding. Both left the house holding their stomachs full of the food they both missed terribly.

"I feel like your mother just fed me." Hermione groaned trying not to seem like she was waddling. "I can't believe you cooked such a big breakfast."

"I might have overdone the portions. I'm not usually used to cooking for someone else." Charlie was lucky if he even cooked himself a real dinner sometimes, he just dealt with sandwiches and dinners left from Lola. "Alright I'll let you get with Brian and I'll stop by later to see what he says. Have a great day." With a kiss Charlie was off to check the board for his assignment for the day while Hermione went to knock on Brian's office door.

"Hermione what a pleasure. Lola thinks you are an absolute delight, she wanted me to ask the next time I saw you if you would be interested in stopping over sometime and catching up."

"I would love to. Let her know I am available any night." Hermione seated herself across the desk. "I actually wanted to talk to you about that. I was wondering if I would able to stay for a few months longer. I am very interested in the work done here and I would like to continue apprenticing in the hatchery, but only if it is fine with you."

"Of course it is! You've done an outstanding job in the hatchery so far and I can only imagine what you can do with a full apprenticeship. Besides, everyone really likes you here. I hope I'm not going too far by saying that you've also done wonders with Charlie. His old fire is back, we were all worried that with the war and his brother's death that he wouldn't be the same. I'm glad to see we were wrong. Welcome aboard Miss Granger."

Taking the outstretched hand Hermione couldn't contain her smile. "Thank you so much Brian, it means so much to me."

Practically skipping to the hatchery she met up with a man named Josh who had been working in the hatchery for quite a long time. He was happy to hear of her new apprenticeship and pulled out a packet for her. While the packet had most of the same information she had already learned it was good to have it written down for her to come back to. It also had a list of all the dragons they had encountered within the hatchery, what the eggs looked like, what temperature to set the incubators at, and the characteristics of the babies. Some had differing diets for the first few months or had to be separated for fear of injury to or from the others (most of the time that was just for the horntail but there were exceptions), and some even had instructions on how to handle the babies.

It was all so exciting that Hermione wanted to get started right away and after working with Josh for a few hours she almost missed Charlie walking in the door.

"How'd it go?"

"You're speaking with the new hatchery apprentice!"

Throwing his arms around her waist and spinning Charlie was grinning madly for Hermione. "We need to celebrate tonight. We'll go for a round of drinks, wear something pretty."

"I'll see you later." And with a kiss he left.

As promised, after both were done with their duties for the day Hermione and Charlie set out towards Kyle's bar. Hermione had worn another shirt with a few buttons up top but had already unbuttoned the top two. The shorts she was wearing were a little shorter than what she had worn after first arriving. And her hair was tumbling down to her shoulders in soft ringlets.

Charlie happily announced their celebration and Kyle sent them shots on the house with the pints they had ordered.

"You're not going to get me drunk enough to stumble again are you?"

"Of course not, I just wanted to take you out and celebrate your achievement. You've done brilliantly Hermione! Everyone is really excited to have you stay longer." The excitement was mostly Charlie's but as it turned out he was so happy that it was infectious and everyone else couldn't help but be happy for him.

"I just can't wait to actually get started. Up until today it's really only been watching but Josh was showing me all the different things that they do to help the babies and it was just amazing!"

Charlie listened as she went on about everything she had learned that day. He was sure it was a lot of interesting things, but he was really only paying attention to the way her lips moved. They were plump and perfect to kiss, and hid a brilliant smile. He had already learned a lot of what went on in the hatchery from his years on the reserve so he knew exactly what Hermione was talking about and from the words rushing out of her mouth he decided that she had a new found passion in dragons.

They talked about the reserve for the rest of the night, finishing only a couple of drinks before heading back. As it was common to see anymore, the pair walked with their fingers laced together sneaking glances at the other when they were sure they weren't looking.

After getting back to the house Hermione decided she would send a letter updating Mrs. Weasley on her decision, the woman had asked for detailed descriptions of what she and Charlie were doing and it seemed like she was happy to hear about how much Hermione enjoyed it there.

Mrs. Weasley,

I have some amazing news. I was offered to stay here on the reserve for a few more months with a permanent position available if I finish an apprenticeship adequately. I am beyond excited for the opportunity, but I hope you don't feel like I am abandoning you.

I miss you all every day, I even have a picture of us all framed in my room. You give me a happy smile every morning and it helps me remember how lucky I am to have you all in my life. Thank you for every opportunity you have given me and thank you for being such an amazing family to me.

Although I can't promise for Charlie (though I will try my hardest) I promise for me that I will come back and visit you all very soon.

All my love,

Hermione

Sealing the letter and leaving it on her desk Hermione curled up in bed with a smile on her face. She had been given the opportunity of a lifetime and while it wasn't something that she could have seen herself doing even six months ago it all felt so natural. And thinking of Charlie just in the next room, being this close to him and remembering that night her had given her just twenty-four hours before Hermione decided that she likes this adventure more than any other she'd had ever liked in her life.

A/N: While this is the end of this story, I'm happy to say that soon I will be working on a sequel. I fell in love with this storyline and I hope all my readers did too. So be on the lookout for the next story of Charlie and Hermione!