Disclaimer: As I said before, not mine.

A/N: Wow! The response to the first chapter was great! I was going to wait to post this one but well, as I said before, you're spoiled. Ha. For some reason my added characters didn't save but I promise it's Dramione! Happy Fourth to my American friends and well, happy SweetLittleBullet updated twice in a row to everyone else! As usual, huge thanks to my Huffletwin, HufflepuffMommy for reading this and telling me it didn't suck. Don't know where I'd be without you. Can't wait for our Huffletrip. (that's a thing, I'm coining it!)

Two

Hermione woke the next morning and was pleasantly surprised to find that her head wasn't pounding nearly as bad as she had thought it would be. She wondered, as she stretched, if it had something to do with the potion that Malfoy had given her.

Her eyes widened as she sat bolt upright, pulling the sheet with her as she went as her eyes scanned the room.

She wasn't sure, she realized, what she expected- or wanted- to find but an empty flat surely wasn't it and the sinking feeling in her gut seemed to solidify the thought. She had barely had time to ponder it however before the owl had arrived at her window and she had hurriedly let the ragged looking thing in.

The note it bore was from her contact, requesting an immediate meeting, and Hermione answered back before she hurriedly dressed herself and left to finish her case. She was in such a hurry that she didn't notice the note on the side table, held in place by a glass of water and another small vial of Malfoy's potion. By the time she returned that evening, her feet aching from an impromptu chase through the streets of New York City and the prospect of returning to England looming over her, she did hardly more than collapse into bed and fall fast asleep.

When she woke next, the lights from the day dying outside of the windows, her eyes landed on the note, half crumpled beneath the glass of water. She pulled it from beneath its anchor, smoothing the creases on the parchment as she read the two words written there:

Never again

Her throat dried as she read the words again and again until finally she crumpled the paper for good inside her fist and tossed it across the room and directly into the fireplace.

The contact had given her the information she had needed, her lead proving to be a dead end, and so she packed up her bags to head back to England and back to her life there, leaving the night she spent with Draco Malfoy and the feelings that it had elicited behind her for good.

"Oh, I missed you!" Ginny cried as she rushed to hug her friend.

"I've only been gone for a week Gin," Hermione laughed, nearly toppling over at her friends exuberance before she pulled back to look at her, "Oh goodness Gin, you've popped!"

Ginny smiled as she reached down to place a hand on her- very- swollen abdomen, "I know and I'm so glad your case didn't last too long because I don't know how much longer I've got and also my husband is driving me to insanity."

Hermione quirked a brow as Harry appeared over the witches shoulder and Ginny finally moved away from the door and let her in before she waddled off toward the kitchen. "Driving her to insanity?"

"I told her to rest," Harry explained with a laugh before he opened his arms to her, "I missed you too. How was your trip?"

Hermione's stomach flopped but she smiled, "Good. I mean, not very forthcoming but good. How are things here?"

The pair had moved down the hall together to the kitchen and Hermione saw the look that Harry and Ginny shared at her question. "They're good," Harry said quickly.

Hermione narrowed her eyes at her friends but let it go as they started in on the latest news from the Weasley family. Hermione had been lucky, with her breakup from Ronald that the Weasley's had continued to welcome her- although Molly wasn't nearly as friendly. She was glad for the family she had gained- even if she and Ron didn't work out. So she listened with rapt attention as Ginny described the latest fiasco that Freddie, George and Angelina's son, had gotten into and the aftermath it had on the Burrow.

"Mum was about as red as her hair but once she started laughing and Ron-" Ginny trailed off then and cleared her throat, taking a drink of her water.

Hermione chewed the food in her mouth slowly, looking back and forth between Harry and Ginny before she finally wiped her mouth with her napkin and cleared her throat, "Okay, what's going on? What are you hiding?"

"Nothing-" Ginny started, too quickly.

"Gin-" Hermione said warningly.

"'Mione-" Harry started, setting his own fork down as Hermione turned to meet his emerald gaze. "We weren't trying to hide anything we just thought, we thought maybe you'd need more time to-"

"Harry Potter, Merlin help you if you don't just tell me-"

"Ron is engaged," Ginny nearly yelled before she covered her mouth," I'm sorry."

Hermione felt the air rush out of her lungs as Harry continued, "He's getting married and, well, she's pregnant."

She swallowed, looking away from her friends and back to her plate before she cleared her throat and picked up her fork, smiling as best she could, "Well, I'm very happy for him."

"Hermione-" Harry started but stopped quickly, the table shaking with what Hermione could only assume was a well-placed kick from Ginny.

"I am Harry," Hermione assured him, "Now, tell me do you have any names chosen yet?"

The rest of the meal passed pleasantly enough and it wasn't until Hermione reached her own flat, locking the door tightly behind her that she let herself shed a tear for the life she had always wanted that was now someone else's.

Hermione rubbed her temples as she listened to Gregor Dominivitch drone on and on. Of course she wanted to find the dragon eggs, of course she didn't want the muggle population to find out about the existence of dragons and definitely in not such a gruesome way as it was sure to be if the eggs weren't found but there was only so many times she could assure the man about that fact.

"Sir," she said once again as the man started in on another tangent, "I can assure you my contact was clear in that the next possible destination would be in Romania and I have it on good authority that-"

"Who's authority?" the man asked gruffly.

She opened her mouth to reply just as another voice sounded at the doorway, "Mine." Charlie Weasley said with a smile and a wink in her direction as he leaned in the doorway to her office.

Gregor muttered something nearly unintelligible before he finally sighed, "Right well you'll see to this immediately Ms. Granger?"

Hermione nodded solemnly, biting the inside of her cheek as Charlie Weasley mimicked the man from behind him.

Once Gregor was sufficiently placated he left, nodding at Charlie on his way out the door and Hermione laughed as she leaned back in her chair, "What are you doing here?"

Charlie laughed and stepped in, motioning at her door, "D'you mind?" she shook her head and he closed it behind him, "Thought I'd check in on you this morning, we missed you at dinner yesterday."

Hermione sighed, of course she had missed dinner at the Burrow after the news that Harry and Ginny had dropped on her.

"In any case, I saw this file pass my desk and wanted to see what you had so far."

Hermione smiled, glad for the subject change as she stood up to find the case file, "It seems there has been an illegal dragon egg trading ring smuggling them in and out of Europe as well as North America. MACUSA was sure it was had something to do with their ban on dragon fighting but the contact assured me that the rings they do have don't want anything to do with the smuggled eggs."

"And you believe that?" Charlie asked.

"Actually yes," Hermione supplied easily. "The contact provided me with several examples and also set up a meeting with a very dreadful goblin named-"

"Gnarlack?"

Hermione grimaced, "yes."

Charlie laughed at her reaction, "I can't very well say I blame you on that one but you're right the evidence doesn't add up. Add to that, the reason I actually wanted to take a look at what you had, we've had several missing eggs reported in our sanctuaries in Romania and Serbia."

"You think they're connected?" Hermione asked seriously.

Charlie shrugged, "I don't know, but now is as good a time as any to see. I'll send these over to my head of office and see what we can do but for now I'll say it's safe to assume you won't have to deal with this much longer."

Hermione smirked, "Such a shame that, I was really looking forward to having my eyebrows singed off again."

The man beside her threw his head back, his earring dangling in the light, and laughed. Hermione smiled and pulled the rest of the files and stacked them neatly on the edge of her desk for the man. He nodded as he ran a finger over the top of the stack once she had finished before he turned to her, "Now that I've successfully lightened your caseload, how about we go grab something for lunch?"

Hermione hesitated, biting her lip as she stared at Charlie's hopeful face before finally; she nodded, "Okay."

"Yeah?" Charlie asked, surprised.

Hermione nodded, "Yeah."

They found themselves in a little bistro not far from the ministry and Hermione couldn't remember a time she had laughed so hard in her life as Charlie regaled her with stories from his days in the dragon sanctuary as well as doing spot on impersonations of people in the ministry that both of them worked with regularly.

The next day when Charlie showed up to ask her to lunch, Hermione didn't hesitate as she grabbed her bag and followed his long footsteps. They ended up at a pizzeria then, opting for individual pies topped with the topping they could never get when they shared with someone else. Hermione entertained him with tales of Hogwarts days and they compared prefects stories.

It continued on like that as they took turns picking restaurants around London and they talked while they ate. Hermione realized it was easy to talk to Charlie and he put her at ease. She began to look forward to their lunches and aside from a few times when one of them had to cancel due to work obligations, they were the highlights of her days.

It had been nearly two months since she had gotten back from New York and aside from her weekly dinners with Harry and Ginny and her lunches with Charlie she hadn't had much interaction with the Weasley family but when the invitation arrived to Roxanne's birthday party, she knew she couldn't escape it much longer.

"Just come with me," Charlie suggested as she lamented the fact over their gyros, "Are you going to eat that?"

Hermione shook her head, pushing the tray towards the man in front of her, "I love Roxie and I want to be there but-"

"But Ronald is a prat and you don't want to see him yet?" Charlie supplied as he took a large bite of her leftovers.

She shrugged, picking apart a paper napkin on the table before her.

"Look, even mum misses you, she's been asking round about you and you know once she gets something in her mind… Merlin help us all," Charlie shuddered, "Anyway, just come to the party and stay for a bit then beg off if it gets to be too much for you. At least if nothing else you'll get them off your back for a little while longer."

Hermione nodded but didn't look up from where she was destroying the napkin as she asked, "Charlie, can I ask… does he- I mean, his drinking, is it-"

She nearly jumped as Charlie's hand slid over hers, stilling her fingers destruction and she looked up to meet his soft blue eyes , "It's better. Not great, but better. I think- I think he realized that he made a mistake-" Hermione scoffed, "No, I'm serious, losing you was a mistake Hermione. I think he realized that but he is doing better."

"And this girl?"

Charlie grinned, "Well she's not you."

Hermione felt the blush rise up into her cheeks as she gently slid her hands out from under his and wiped the napkin dust off of the table before her, studiously ignoring the man before her until he had finished his plate- and hers- and they walked back to the ministry with the promise to try Japanese the next day.

A/N: Awww, Charlie. I promise he's there for a reason you all.