Back again. Sorry there was a bit of a delay with this update, I've been releasing my inner artist for the first time in about 9 months and spent most of the week drawing (I drew Tom Felton and Darren Criss, both can be seen on my twitter profile, or Instagram. Just leave me a note asking for the usernames if you're interested).
Enjoy.

Charlie had barely said a word. He was a strong man, but Gus' death ripped through the emotions he had been carefully weaving together since the war. Charlie had lost friends before, good men who had died doing what they loved. Working with dragons was dangerous and often deadly and Charlie had to selfishly count his lucky stars that he hadn't prematurely gone through the Veil.

Seeing the Shack again was hard, as he knew there was a sleeping mat and rucksack full of the things Gus had brought with him. Kurt silently and cautiously opened the door and swallowed back a sob.

"I can do it, if you want," Hermione said, not once taking her hand from Charlie's.

"No," Charlie said shakily. "I have to do it."

With that, Charlie started methodically packing away Gus' bedroll and rucksack. There wasn't a lot of clutter to tidy as they had only spent a night there. It was the small things that made Charlie's throat close: Gus' half-read book and his dirty cutlery that he had left out before they walked to the clearing. Hermione, Andrei and Caleb were quiet, and spoke quietly among themselves as they cleared their own things.

"He'll be ok, Hermione," Andrei quietly reassured the young woman who had been left feeling hollow. "He deals with death his way, and we deal with it our way. We get drunk and remember, Kurt and Seb find somewhere together where they can forget the pain in their own way and Boss sits and wallows in his grief."

"Andrei's right," Caleb reassured her with a casually placed hand on her shoulder. "Charlie's isn't exactly the best way to do things but there is no use in us saying anything. Just let him be."

This gave Hermione much food for thought. The silence that Gus' loud laugh should be filling was deafening and slowly starting to suffocate the camp. Taking advantage of the quiet, Hermione transfigured her water bottle into a tin bath and filled it with a wave of her wand so she could wash the dirt away and change her clothes. The water remained cold and refreshing, making Hermione know she was still alive while she thought. Her head was always full of something, but Hermione couldn't focus on anything. She tried reciting the twelve uses of dragon blood, her times tables, and even the alphabet but nothing worked. Something that should be second nature left her frustrated and uncomfortable.

As she sat in her corner of the Shack and dragged a comb through her unruly hair, hissing as it caught in the knots. After dressing quickly and deciding her empty head needed clearing nonetheless, Hermione walked. She strolled slowly through the trees, not going too far but still basking in the privacy she found.

Charlie was numb with grief, moving without thinking and not saying a word. Hermione said nothing when she reentered the Shack and found him angrily tearing at his hair, having just used the bath Hermione had left. Without a word, she took the comb from him, sat him on the edge of the bed and dutifully detangled his long mane. Careful, starting at the ends like her mother used to do to her, Hermione felt his muscles relax and his shoulders sag. Once his hair was back in it's usual scruffy ponytail, Hermione gently turned Charlie's shoulders and used her wand to cut the straggly beard from his chin. Not once did Charlie look at her, he just kept his eyes pointed down to his fingers where they twisted in his lap.

"Hey," Hermione whispered as she brushed her thumb along his now smooth jaw. On the outside, he was fresh and clean, but his eyes were a beacon of hurt and his body was becoming tense once more.

Before long, Charlie had taken himself outside to think. The night was warm and the sun was beginning its slow descent as day turned to night. Charlie walked for a while with no destination in mind, just reveling in the journey. Eventually finding a tree to climb, he scrambled into its low hanging boughs and sat.

"Andrei brought it with him. Maybe you could do with one," Hermione said as she spotted Charlie in a tree just in line with the camp. Charlie took the drink without question and stared at it, cradled judiciously in his hands. Hermione stood, just out of arms reach and Charlie brought his watery eyes to meet hers. She looked intently where he sat on his branch. The man was a shell of his former self, numb to the reality that was starting to set in.

"I don't want feel anymore," Charlie said grimly.

"I don't know what I can do to help you, Charlie," Hermione countered in a gentle whisper, not once taking her eyes from Charlie's. There was thick, palatable tension crackling between them, unspoken but very much accounted for.

"You do," Charlie accused as he swallowed back the whiskey His voice soft and without malice as he dropped lightly from the branch and stood face to face with the young woman. "You just don't want to say it."

Charlie's words moved Hermione against her will. She strode, purposefully, almost frantically to the man who had just dropped from the branch and let her glass fall to the ground. He stepped to meet her and their hands entwined in hair and their lips met with desperation and passion neither knew possible. This kiss was messy, with teeth clashing against each other but it didn't matter; the overwhelming need to feel something was too much for either of them to care.

Together, stood in a Romanian forest, Charlie and Hermione kissed their grief away with feverish moans of guilty pleasure and low, deep growls when lips became the victim of teeth pressing down in hunger.

"I need to forget," Charlie lamented with a groan as Hermione's teeth grazed hotly at the man's smooth, sharp jaw. "Just for tonight."

Hermione took this as her invitation, and carefully unbuttoned the fastenings of his soft cotton shirt. With languid and deliberate movements and without removing her mouth from Charlie's, the shirt gave way to hot skin; roughened by old scars and tight with unshed heartache. The smooth surface of Hermione's palms skimmed his solid chest slowly, moving without instruction to the unyielding tightness of his stomach, covered with a dusting of auburn hair.

"Just for tonight," Hermione slowly concurred between pressing warm, opened mouth kisses on Charlie's collar bone and shoulder. Hermione let her tongue reach new skin, discovering a newfound weakness for the taste of him.

The kisses continued, with a sharp nip of teeth that tore through Charlie like a shot; the feelings of sorrow and despair leaving with each hiss and moan he gave in response. Hands fumbled clumsily with belt buckles and soon Hermione was slowly caressing his rigid cock. She stroked harder, intent on making him overlook how he felt.

Charlie roughly reclaimed Hermione's mouth again as she brought him nearer to his temporary escape. His tongue met hers and slid to carefully swipe along her bottom lip.

Charlie was snared in prickly rush of desire, his need was overwhelming when he wrapped his strong arms around Hermione's small waist and pressed her back into the tree roughly. He held her there, hips against hips and chest against chest as he lapped at the supple whiteness of Hermione's smooth throat.

He fumbled the edge of her t-shirt, pulling it away from the waistband of her denim jeans. The scrape of his short nails on her stomach caused her breath to stop in her throat as Charlie's fingers slid the button free.

"I want you to feel something, Charlie," Hermione said softly in Charlie's ear as he lowered his fingers to wet them in her. His soft fingers moved within her with quick and rough motions and Hermione moaned loudly at Charlie's touch.

He slicked his fingers with her wetness, first one then a second. He plundered her tight hole as he kept his teeth at her collarbone, leaving light nips on her skin.

"In me, Charlie," Hermione encouraged. Charlie didn't need telling twice as he pulled his hand away and pushed her jeans down and she frantically kicked them away as Charlie dealt with his own jeans. He pushed them down to his knees quickly as he turned Hermione by her hips and she rested her forearms on the rough bark of the tree.

"Kiss me," Charlie demanded, turning Hermione's head towards him. She twisted back, deeply kissing him as he pulled her bare buttocks into his crotch. Their tongues met and she went deeply into Charlie's mouth, moaning as Charlie dragged the fingers of his right hand up the back of her thigh. Searching fingers slipped between her folds and Hermione broke the kiss. Charlie took his fingers from Hermione's body and stroked her bottom lip.

"Taste them," Charlie gently ordered. She flicked the finger with her tongue and tasted herself before sucking it fully into her mouth.

"Don't hold back," Hermione said as she released Charlie's finger from her lips. Charlie didn't. He leaned back, sliding into Hermione slowly and firmly. He moaned through his teeth at her tightness and gripped her hips with steadfast hands. Hermione's arms rested on the tree in front of her and she threw her head back as Charlie entered her. Charlie's chin dropped, and he gave a loud exhalation of breath as a reminder to live when Hermione urged him to moved. He did, breathing fast as she pressed back to meet his push forward; raising the tempo with each one.

There was a burn in Charlie's gut that he let build up. He gave up on trying to hold back needy and hopeless sobs, taking their place between hissed breath and deep grunts and moans. Hermione was letting him forget the grief he was feeling; that they were both feeling with this moment of escape. Hermione allowed her eyes to roll back as a fast, rough move from Charlie brought her closer to her orgasm. With her mouth hanging open with no sound coming from it now and Charlie leaned over to press hard kisses onto Hermione's back.

"So tight, Hermione," Charlie whispered as he drove into her. His orgasm hit, building within him as the physical release helped his emotional escape. In that moment he didn't have to think about Gus, about his team, about having to tell his or Gus' family the bad news. He was selfishly taking some time for himself, enjoying the feel of a soft body around his cock, tightening in pleasure as Hermione came when he exploded into her.

Hermione drew out real emotion from Charlie, a passion that couldn't be rivaled by anyone. She knew Charlie would grieve but she knew Gus had been right. Charlie needed her. She knew he needed to be away from everything for a little while.

Charlie pulled out of Hermione as they came down, his breathing ragged and his eyes were shut tight. Hermione was also breathing shallow breaths, and before Charlie could utter a word, she turned him, so he stood with his back against the tree and she kissed him hard.

She moved down his body once more, dropping to her knees where she took his still hard cock into her mouth. He was still coming down, and Hermione needed him to let loose completely. She sucked hard, tasting herself mingled with the saltiness of his body as she pinned his hips to the tree with her hands. Charlie's hands went to grip the bark above his head as his back arched as legs locked so he wouldn't fall.

He was frantic, his senses were overloaded with feeling and he bucked desperately into the mouth in front of him. He shuddered and tensed as Hermione made certain that every inhibition was lost, shooting his come into the back of Hermione's throat. She gagged as he pushed to the back of her throat as his seed dripped from her lips.

The feeling of two orgasms and the heaviness of the world on his shoulders made Charlie's legs give way and he slid down the tree and gathered Hermione in his arms. They lay together in the warm Romanian evening, saying everything and nothing with few words.

"Cold?" Charlie asked softly. They were mostly naked as they clung to each other as the stars grew brighter. Hermione nodded slightly as Charlie transfigured a blanket and some pillows. They resettled and Charlie continued. "Since I first saw you in the Ministry that day, you proved a lot of people wrong. With the amount of shit you've gone through and to still come out on top makes me want to stop and stare. I can't believe how you're still together, I would have broken years ago."

"Just because you're hurt, doesn't mean you're broken," Hermione replied modestly.

"You showed me you could do it that first say we practiced dueling, and even before that. You brought this forward," Charlie said, before his voice refused to work. Hermione knew he was thinking of Gus. "Gus saw something in you too, he told me you'd get the job done."

"He was a smart man," Hermione agreed softly. "I didn't know him like you did, but I know you cared a lot about him. He was your brother."

"He was," Charlie said with a smile as a tear fell down his cheek. "It'll take some time to sort everything out, but I'll do it for him. I promised him."

They settled into silence once more, resting against each other as they drifted in and out of a shallow slumber. One way or another, things would return to some sort of normality, and Charlie wanted to do it with this beautiful, smart, razor sharp woman at his side.

After a few hours of fitful sleep, Hermione woke to find Charlie distractedly stroking her hair as he watched her sleep. Caleb had recovered Kurt and Seb from their secluded clearing and were just about finished packing as Andrei came for them.

"Let's get back to the Burrow, we'll need to be in London in a few days and it won't do us any good to stay out here," Andrei said softly. With that, Hermione and Charlie dressed and met the others outside the Shack. Andrei led the apperation back to the reserve and ushered his companions into a quiet room to wait for their Portkey to activate.

The people on the reserve respected them, and had respected Gus so Charlie and the other men accepted their condolences with quiet thanks and a brotherly hug. They were a family out there and they had lost one of their own. Hermione stood back, allowing them to speak with friends and was heartbroken when she saw the Portkey begin to glow. All seven of them were sure to be called to the Ministry and be put in front of the Wizengamot to provide evidence against the poachers.

The familiar pull of the Portkey and the resulting spin wasn't a welcome arrival after the team's few days away. Their calm was shattered as they were roughly dumped in the back garden of the Burrow. Molly, Ron and Harry all jumped as they felt the wards shift and rushed into the garden to meet them. Harry and Ron gathered Hermione in a blinding hug, both pressing kisses to her cheek and forehead.

"It's so good to have you back," Harry gushed as Hermione tried to break free from his strong embrace.

"We've been worried sick, are you in one piece?" Ron added. Any indication that he was against Hermione leaving evaporated when he saw her. She looked tired, but with no burns or broken bones to worry about.

His mother automatically enveloped Charlie, and he held onto her tightly. They stood together in the yard, both relieved that Charlie was back home, and both with tears wetting their cheeks.

"Did you do what you had to do?" she asked carefully. Charlie nodded mutely while Molly looked around and greeted the others. The confusion was setting in for Molly, Harry and Ron as they noticed they were missing a friendly face.

"Where's Gus, sweetheart?" Molly asked tenderly.

"Didn't make it," Charlie replied thickly as he regretfully filled in the gaps. Molly, Harry and Ron were stunned to silence at the admission. Andrei led most of the team inside, as Charlie allowed the tears to breech his eyes properly in the company of his family. He held onto his mother; her unrelenting maternal understanding soothed Charlie until there were no tears left to cry and his sobs became dry.

Hermione was gently crying along with Charlie, with Ron's protective arms folded around her and Harry whispered soothing words of comfort

EPILOGUE

One year on, and the midsummer day on which Gus had passed was a bitter sweet one for Charlie and the team of researchers.

They of course carried on with their lives, working relentlessly to put right all that had been wrong in the countryside of Romania. Hermione was one of them now, and after much persuading from Charlie, Andrei had taken the role of second in command; not that anything was different with the way they all worked. Gus was irreplaceable but they managed as well as they could.

As Charlie led the way to the Ministry the previous year, the day after they got home, the wheel was set in motion. He had called for the Wizengamot to be called to order, and the prosecution of Marco Valdez started. The team willingly gave evidence against him, through use of Veritaserum and a Pensive so their solid case went through easily in a matter of weeks. The Aurors that had escorted Valdez back from Romania had gathered lists of customers and people in his employ who were also to be trialed at a later date.

Throughout the entire trial, Valdez only spoke to confirm his name and his permission for Veritaserum to be used. His glazed eyes looked at nothing as he confessed in detail the extent of his crimes. The madness within him that had been so prominent in the clearing in Romania was gone, apparently extinguished when his spree of animal cruelty and illegal trade had ended.

Despite having a strong case, Hermione was nervous about the outcome. After the War, any time spent in the lower levels on the Ministry held rough memories for her and the past didn't help.

Charlie stood resolute as the speaker for the team. He was unyielding and dignified as he was called to the center of the room to say his piece. With clear words he told the Wizengamot everything they needed to hear and had the last word before Valdez was swept away to Azkaban, his sentence stated that he was to die in prison.

"I told you I'm a fucking Weasley," he said as he looked down at Valdez as he was frog-marched towards the exit. Valdez turned to look at Charlie with narrow eyes but was pushed along by the Aurors so any retort died on his lips. Everyone knew that if one went through that particular exit, they would never come back and Charlie wouldn't allow Valdez to pass him without hearing it.

With Valdez now gone, the Chief Spokesperson of the Wizengamot stood to deliver the outcome of the proposal to outlaw illegal dragon products; the reason this had all started so many years ago.

"Final outcome for mister Charles Weasley, along with misters Andrei Valdir, Caleb Kazak, Kurt Botella, Sebastian Dowdall and Miss Hermione Granger. Laws regarding acquiring and using dragon products in potion making, clothing, divination, cooking, ritual charm work, sporting use and decoration must be checked and licensed by reputable sources and by trained proprietors. Ministry checks will regularly inspect premises holding dragon products for more than six months and confiscate those seemed dangerous or unstable for public use.

"In addition to this, the Wizengamot recognize the work of mister Augustus Dale Rochester and The Rochester Foundation will be set up to fund the rehabilitation of dragons that have been damaged under the orders of a mister Marco Valdez and his associates. This will only be set up under the conditions listed in the final decree, to be presented as you leave the courtroom. Session concluded."

The silence in the court was thick; the words of the spokesperson were like custard as they ran down the walls around the room. Hermione was hugged tightly by Kurt and Seb, not hearing their cries of "We did it!" as the Wealseys and Harry ran down from the stands.

"Congratulations everyone," Arthur called over the rabble of noise and smiles. Harry was enveloping Caleb and Ron was cheering with the twins as they patted Andrei and Seb on the back. Hermione allowed herself to be pulled into the maelstrom of noise and happiness of her family, joining in with the laughing and crying. The joyful tears only present to cover the shock of the Wizengamot granting them more than they had ever expected.

"I'm proud of you, Charlie," Molly told Charlie as she hugged him tightly. "Now if only you'd cut that ponytail off you'd be perfect for our Hermione."

Charlie laughed, fully and openly with his mother before pressing a kiss to her forehead. They'd barely been back long enough for any other Weasley to see it, but Molly just knew. Mothers always do.

The change in the law, and the unexpected charity set up in his best friend and brother's name was more than Charlie had ever expected at the age of fifteen, and he could look at what he had and put his demons to bed. Charlie had done something good.

Charlie, still with a wry smile on his face, gathered Hermione in his arms and kissed her, carefully and tenderly. His pick-and-mix family all saw, mostly smiling and laughing as Bill roughly patted Charlie on the back and Fred and George were shocked they didn't get a kiss for themselves. Ron wasn't smiling as much as the rest, but Hermione's happiness was important to him even if he couldn't ensure it himself.

"Charlie?" Ron asked quietly as he let Hermione go. "Can I have a word?"

"I should probably explain," Charlie agreed and they stepped out of earshot of the rest of the family. "Listen, I didn't plan for this to happen. After Gus was killed, I just-"

"I know," Ron carefully agreed. "I know you make her happy, in a way I never could. I'm sorry, for being a prick."

Ron held his hand for Charlie to shake, but Charlie gathered his youngest brother in a tight hug, holding him close.

"When did you get so grown up?" Charlie asked quietly. Ron's arms held on just as tight.

"Hermione made me see sense, you'll be an adult too given enough time," Ron smiled.

"No chance, Little Brother," Charlie released Ron and ruffled his hair like he used to do when they were children, which quickly spiraled into harmless play fighting. They were laughing together as brothers should.

Fin.
Sorry if this seems a little rushed, but I didn't really have plans to extend it much further. I know I can always add to it at a later date if the need arises.
Thank you all for your reviews, and to those who have reviewed on every chapter. Your support is so appreciated, and if I could give you all home made cookies, I would.
For the next thing I write (I don't know when that will be, hopefully not too long!) will be smutty enough to make your eyes water. This was meant to be more sexual than it was, but sometimes things plan out differently than they actually turn out.
Thank you again. X