Hi guys!

I finally got over the writers block somewhat and as a result I decided to reward you with another chapter! I hope you enjoy it. Let me know.

Love Princess Leasha.

Chapter 28

Charlie's POV

Six months after the battle at Hogwarts there was still no word of Alexis. Fred was adamant that he had seen her that night and that she had saved him but no one else saw her. I was owling the twins every fortnight, asking for news but there never any news of her. The news I got was usually of how great everyone's lives were. That George and Katie had moved in together, and Fred and Ang may as well have. Ron and Hermione were happy, as were Ginny and Harry. Mum was ecstatic that Percy was a part of the family again, and that he had a fiancé. Everyone was happy except me.

I was burying myself in my work as much as I could and when I wasn't working I was usually drinking. I had taken to sitting at the shabby, run down bar most nights drinking fire whiskey. The bar tender didn't ask what I wanted anymore; he usually had one poured before I even sat down. I was approached by girls occasionally but I had no interest in them and didn't even bother to let them down nicely. After a few hours at the bar I would stagger back down the road to the reserve and pass out on my bed.

"Charlie. Oi! Charlie!" Vali called to me one morning, pulling me from my daydream.

Vali Zalkos was my work partner and resided in the room beside me. The Romanian was short and stocky with long dark hair and dark, tanned skin and spoke with a heavy Romanian accent (go figure).

"Vali, hi. Sorry, I was daydreaming."

"What are you daydreaming about Charlie? Is it the girl?"

"What girl?"

"Desi? Alexis," he corrected.

"Yeah."

We started heading towards the hatchling building as he continued interrogating me. He had been away, working at the reserve in Zimbabwe for the past year and had no idea on what had happened with Alexis

"De ce ce s-a intimplat? Am crezut ca merge bine in aceste zile?" Vali asked, speaking in rapid Romanian, as he often did when he got carried away.

"Vali, Vali stop. English please. I can't translate very well, especially when you talk so fast."

"Sorry Charlie. What I asked was 'why, what happened?' and 'I thought things were going well these days?'

"Basically she overhead me say that she is immature, childish and needs constant supervision and then she decided to prove that she wasn't childish and immature by changing. I got angry at her, she called me horrible things and I retaliated, calling her a horrible, nasty spiteful bitch and she slapped me. She left, I followed her and then I eventually got her to speak to me and she told me that I had hurt her and then she said 'Charlie Weasley, I love you. I have loved you for years and you just confuse me'."

"Ce? Ea a precizat ca te-ai iubit? Dupa tot acest timp s-a iubit ca esti bine si nici n-ai spus nimic pentru ea. Ti-ar fi spus ceva in seara de dans," Vali said quickly before looking at me sheepishly and translating his rant to English. "What? She said she loved you? After all this time she's loved you as well and you never said anything to her. You should have said something the night of that dance."

"Well I know that now, I didn't have a clue that she had any feelings for me and she is just so young."

"Isn't she only five years younger than you?"

"Yeah she is."

"So she's twenty?" he asked, "That's not really that young now. I mean apparently females mature earlier than us so you should be at the same maturity levels and what not and all that really matters anyway is that you love each other."

"It's too late now," I sighed, "she's gone."

"Ce?"

"I didn't respond when she told me, I was just so shocked and she obviously took that the wrong way and she left. That was over a year ago now. Haven't seen or heard from her since."

"De ce ati lasat sa plece ei Charlie? Tu nu au voie sa lase fata de visele tale lasa!"

"I didn't let her leave!" I responded after I deciphered the general gist of his question.

"Du-te si vezi ei."

"I can't just go and see her. I don't know where she is living now. She disappeared."

"Charlie prietenul meu, you need to find this girl, Desi. Alexis. And tell her how you feel. Tell her that it is all a big misunderstanding and that you love her."

"I want to Vali but as I said, I don't know where she is. And she said that I probably wouldn't see her again, so even if I did manage to find her she would probably leave as soon as she saw me."

Vali shook his head as we started preparing food for the baby dragons. I fed the horntails while Vali fed the Chinese Fireballs across the hall. All of the hatchlings made me think of Alexis, especially the Horntails. They reminded me of her tattoo, the horntail on her neck that would blink its blue eyes, stretch out its wings and breathe fire. Sometimes it would curl itself up and go to sleep, other times it would be flying. Whenever I thought of the tattoo on her neck I thought of how much I would like to kiss the soft skin there. Whenever I thought of kissing her neck I thought of her in general. Talking to her, flying with her, holding her when she cried, the way she bit her lip when she was thinking, the look she got when she was about to do something mischievous.

I sighed and headed out of the hatchling enclosure, locking the door behind me.

"Care se incadreaza in dragoste este mai simplu lucru esti vreodata o sa fac. E cel mai interesant lucru. E cea mai puternica lucru. Si uneori il doare cel mai tare ca dracu', " Vali said as we headed towards the juvenile dragons. (Falling in love is the easiest thing you're ever going to do. It's the most exciting thing. It's the most powerful thing. And sometimes it hurts like hell.)

"Dar dragostea este lucrul cel mai mare valoare pentru rani," I finished for him. (But love is the thing most worth hurting for.)

So, what did you think?