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He kissed from her lips over the chin down her throat.
She had one arm around his shoulders and one hand in his hair, enjoying his ministrations. Sighing she tilted her head so he had more space.
He hummed and she could feel him smiling with every other kiss.
Tap, tap.
Hermione looked up towards the window while he didn’t pause.
Tap, tap, it sounded again.
“Wait a moment”, she asked huskily before clearing her throat. Charlie looked up.
“What is it?” His eyes raked appreciatively over her body, before fixing on her bra. “It’s time to lose that, lovely”, his fingers caressed her neck towards her shoulders before hooking into her bra straps to slide them down.
She slapped his fingers away, giggling. “I said, wait a moment”, she tried to sound stern but failed, especially because she was blushing and half naked. “I think there is an owl at the window?”
“And it will still be there later.”
“But I can’t properly relax like that.” She huffed. “Please?”
He pushed himself back and strode towards the window walking a bit funnily.
“And loose that shirt of yours, will you?”
Laughing he threw it at her before letting the owl inside.
She drank in his sight. All those strong, toned muscles, the tattoos and even the scars. He looked delicious.
“Like what you see?”, he teased.
“Yep”, she observed closely how the muscles in his back and arms worked when closing the window. “Wouldn’t be here otherwise”, she cheekily gave back.
“Oh, poor me.” He turned and leaned against the sideboard with crossed arms. “Luckily I have the looks.” He winked and she smiled back, still not taking her eyes off him.
Hermione offered absentmindedly the owl her arm and not till the owl had picked at her that she released it from the letter.
“You can take a break here. Food and water”, he put two small bowls on the table before helping Hermione off it. “You can read it later”, then he dragged her to his bedroom and she followed him easily.
“So, who’s writing to you?”, Charlie asked as he put her tea cup in front of her. She thanked him with a smile and shrugged.
“I don’t expect anything.” She wasn’t ready yet for the atmosphere to dissipate so she ignored it for now. “How about round two?”, she tempted, her foot slowly playing with his ankle before roaming higher.
“Give a man a little time, will you. I’m not in my teens anymore.”
She pouted playfully. “I am sure I could convince you in no time at all.”
Shaking his head he smirked at her. “I created a monster.”
“Your own fault.”
“Guilty as charged”, he kissed her hand looking deep into her eyes.
Moments like this where when she imagined taking their relationship to the next step.
It was since about half a year that they were friends with benefits because she had found him attractive and had wanted to explore the bodily pleasures she had heard so much about. Like she had thought, he had been an amazing teacher, patient and thorough, so she was still more than happy with her decision to approach him.
Maybe she had become a little insatiable since then. But as long as they both had fun and were exclusive they would stay with this arrangement.
Their colleagues teased them about love bites and the occasional sappy look, but otherwise treated it as just another part of life on the reserve. Their only warning had been to keep any arguments out of the workplace.
In the beginning she had tried to be discreet, because she feared it could have repercussions if coworkers became intimate. But Charlie had never been shy about being close in public, so it had soon felt natural to steal small kisses when out. Especially if it was close to heading home. They often took each other home, only to end up staying the night after all. And while they still did things alone, Hermione was now often part of outings.
“What are you thinking about, lovely?”
She blushed slightly before internally shrugging. She loved him using endearments but it wasn’t like it had to mean anything special. Hermione often heard him use pet names for people. “You”, she answered unashamed. He raised one eyebrow. “Ready for round two?”
“I think I could use a shower”, he said with his deep voice that sounded a bit like purring.
“You’re on.”
As she lay with him in bed, satiated and exhausted she didn’t think again about that letter she had received earlier, instead she fell fast asleep.
Hermione relished in the full English breakfast Charlie had cooked.
While it had been too greasy for her in Hogwarts, she now needed that fuel to keep her going the full day of patients and dragons. She hadn’t thought running around would be this big a part of her job when she took it.
So she snatched another piece of toast from Charlie’s plate, as soon as he sat down, who only grinned and shook his head.
“Another helping of tea?” Hermione held the teapot poised after she had refilled her cup.
“Thanks, lovely.”
Charlie hummed slightly while they finished breakfast, neither feeling the need to fill the comfortable silence.
“Still ignoring it?”, Charlie asked while taking her empty plate to set it in the sink to soak.
“Very successfully.” Hermione elbowed the letter a little farther down the table.
“I’m impressed.”
Hermione rolled her eyes playfully. “Practice” was all she said before taking her bag from the counter.
“Ready to go?”
Charlie gave her a small kiss on her forehead before taking his leather jacket and closing the door.
“See you at lunch?”
“See you then”, Hermione nodded, stole another kiss and jogged to her own rooms for a book she needed today.
When she stepped back outside she was still fighting with her bag as the book didn’t want to fit into the pouch she wanted it to go.
A slight chuckle made her look up.
Charlie was leaning against the fence outside, arms crossed.
Hermione smiled. “I thought we’d meet for lunch.”
“I changed my mind.”
“So I see.”
He fell into step beside her.
They crossed paths with Heather who had night shift and was now heading home.
“Morning, sunshine.”
“It is nighttime for me”, she grumbled back only for Charlie to laugh.
“Oi, handsome” he called out to a colleague on the training paddock who just waved them away.
“No one has any manners”, Charlie grumbled and Hermione held back her smile. Charlie just wouldn’t accept that not everyone was full of energy right in the morning.
“What are you shouting about?”, the gruff voice of Charlie’s Mentor Jack sounded behind them. “If you have too much energy, go help Amy.”
“In a minute. Just escorting Hermione to the medical ward.”
The weathered man squinted at them, before focusing on Charlie.
“Have you asked yet?”
The change was immediate and Hermione watched in fascination as Charlie blushed.
Charlie’s answer was only a shrug.
“For Merlin’s sake, Charlie”, he sounded exasperated and Hermione really wanted to know what they were talking about. Especially as Charlie’s only rubbed his neck while staring to the side.
“Be on your way”, Jack waved at them impatiently and Hermione thought hearing him grumble something that sounded suspiciously like “and don’t come back until you grew some balls” but when she wanted to ask Charlie his face told her she wouldn’t get an answer. At least not now.
Filing it away for later she continued her way.
By the time they reached Hermione’s destination Charlie was back in his exuberant mood.
“Good to see you, sweetie”, he greeted Samantha, the oldest healer in the reserve.
Hermione rolled her eyes while Samantha gave the man an indulgent look. “Here”, she gave a salve to Charlie. “When you’re already here, you can take this to Lisbeth.”
“See you at lunch?”
“Count on it”, Charlie gave her a small peck before jogging away.
Hermione was rather exhausted when lunch rolled around. Somehow everyone had kept shooting her looks, so when she arrived at the canteen she wasn’t surprised to see Charlie looking rather tense. It seemed like he had been treated the same.
“I think I would prefer eating at home, lovely”, Charlie said as soon as she reached him.
“Sure”, Hermione smiled. While she liked the others well enough, she would always prefer private time with the redhead.
“Oh, Charlie, Hermione”, Hermione’s Mentor stopped them some steps up the way.
“Healer Madison”, she nodded. He looked grim, too.
“Miss Granger”, and it was never a good sign when he changed into the more formal address. Hermione immediately straightened further. “Do I need to find a replacement?”
“Replacement?”
“Yes, will you be staying in Romania or not?”
“She hasn’t read her letter yet”, Charlie chimed in before Hermione could feel panic about getting fired or whatever else her brain could cook up.
Madison looked at Charlie, back at Hermione and to Charlie again. “Oh.”
“Well, I’ll hear about it later, then.” With that Madison hurried away.
“What just happened?”
“Let’s get home”, Charlie said instead of explaining anything, but his whole body screamed discomfort.
As soon as the door closed behind them Charlie led her into the kitchen. He silently pulled the letter from beneath the fruit bowl and placed it in front of her.
“Go.”
Hermione looked up.
“Read it.” With that he busied himself making tea.
Hermione finally noticed the seal of the ministry.
“Oh.”
As she read it, hot anger bubbled in her body until she crumbled the letter.
“That bad?” A cup was placed in front of her.
“Nothing is okay!”, she exploded. Who did they think they were? What did they think they were doing?
Charlie carefully pried the paper from her hand.
“A marriage law!”, she raged. “I’m not even living in England anymore, so why the hell is it my problem?”
Hermione shot to her feet so abruptly her chair scraped across the floor, almost falling over, but she ignored it to immediately start pacing.
“Two years?” she snapped. “They think they can just decide that? They don’t get to dictate people’s lives!”
She put her hands down hard on the table to take some deep breaths, but it didn’t really manage to calm her.
Angry she threw her arms in the air.
“I’ve built my life here! My work is here, my friends are here, my patients are here!”
Her hair started sparking and an angry tear rolled down her cheek, before she harshly brushed it away.
“How is this even legal?” She stared at Charlie as if he had an answer.
“This is plain coercion and shouldn’t be allowed in any world. And why the bloody hell am I on their list? I live here since three years! Three years, god dammit!” She whirled around to Charlie and saw him staring at her dazedly.
“You could always marry me.”
“Yes, I could”, she nodded decisively.
Charlie blinked.
“You just said yes”, he whispered in awe.
“You just proposed.”
For a heartbeat neither of them moved.
“I did.”
Charlie stared at her for another moment.
“Wait a second!” He jumped up, jammed his boots on and ran out of the door.
“What the bloody hell?”, she asked herself. With Charlie nowhere to be seen, she turned back to the letter. She’ll write a long and heavily worded answer. To Kingsley. He had to do something about this. With this decision she searched for paper and pen – since the start of their close friendship three years ago, she always had some muggle pens deposited at his cabin.
She was already seven pages into her rant to the Minister as the door swung open and Charlie was back.
“Can you come here for a second?”
She stood up and met him in the middle of the room. He looked windswept and a bit flushed, as if he had run the whole way.
“Hermione Jean Granger”, he got on his knee and opened a small velvet box. “Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
“Are you serious?”, she asked again and he seemed a bit uncertain with her reaction.
“Nothing is more important to me than you”, he vowed.
“Not even dragons?” She looked at him incredulously.
“Not even dragons”, he answered solemnly. Then he added quietly “I wanted to ask you for months.”
Hermione felt something inside her unclench. Jack’s words from that morning suddenly made sense.
“Yes.” She took the ring. It was an amazingly delicate dragon with rubies for eyes. “Yes, yes, yes”, she laughed before flinging her arms around his neck.
He took the ring back to put it on her finger and it resized immediately.
“But I still have to finish my letter.”
“Of course, love”, he followed her to the table to hook his chin on her head.
Hurrying she wrote every strong opinion down, then took it over to the owl and sent it off.
She turned in his arms and their lips found each other. “Let’s celebrate”, whispered she.
“How long have you planned to propose?”, Hermione leaned on his shoulder while staring at her ring. It glittered in the light and she loved it. The mini dragon was perfect. It was Charlie.
“Since New Year’s Eve, why?”
She whipped around. “That long?” He nodded smilingly.
“That was four months before we slept together.”
“Yep”, he smiled. “Two weeks after you patched me up.”
She rolled her eyes. Of course nearly dying was nothing more than you fixed me up in the aftermath.
“Is that your way of showing gratitude?”, she asked skeptical.
“Maybe.” He kissed her knuckle under the ring.
“Then you aren’t allowed to ever be treated by another healer”, she decreed. “So you better not be in any mortal peril as long as I am not nearby.”
“Understood.” He nodded seriously. “I think that deserves a reward?” He grinned cheekily before pulling her back onto him.
******
Hermione was nervous. She wanted everything to be perfect and even if Charlie said that it would be, as long as they were together, she still wanted every detail to go as planned.
“How about we elope?”, she asked.
“And have all your planning go to waste?” Charlie shook his head before kissing her. “You look perfect”, he looked her in the eyes. “It is already the best wedding it could be, however it’ll go.”
“Thank you, my dragon”, she whispered.
“Always, my love.” He softly pressed his lips to her forehead. “Then, shall we?”
She took his hand and together they walked down the aisle.
On either side sat their friends from school and the reserve, while the Weasley family filled the front rows. Everyone applauded and cheered while Molly wiped some tears away.
“I never thought the day would come my wild Charles would ever settle down. But you two”, she patted a tear away. “You are perfect for each other.”
Hermione was so glad the matriarch approved and she felt her smile nearly splitting her cheeks.
Then they were in front of the official who held a heartfelt speech. They said yes at the appropriate time, spoke their vows and then the officiant proclaimed: “You are now Mrs. Hermione Granger and Mr. Charles Granger. You can kiss the bride.”
A gasp.
“You didn’t tell your mum, did you?”, Hermione whispered while leaning towards her husband.
“Nope”, Charlie grinned sheepishly before capturing her lips in a kiss.
THE END