Snogging at the Burrow

Chapter 20

He walked down to the main atrium.  The building was empty, excluding the receptionist at the security desk. He gave the wizard a polite nod, and then continued towards the hallway, his boots clicking on the polished floor. 

He stood there, his gaze on the numerous fireplaces. Only one grate was open, and he waited expectantly.  As if on Que, He saw the gangly figure of his youngest brother appear, then a girl with blonde curls holding to the arm of a handsome young man.  A pair of twins,in the middle a beauty only barely the same measure of his extraordinary fiancé. The next, the figure of his little sister, that he swallowed realizing wasn't quite so little, and the familiar face behind a pair of round spectacles that rest on the bridge of his nose. 

Looking around at the crowd he figured there must be more, surely this wasn't everyone. Right, his kid brother was yet again absent. "Where is Charlie?"

Everyone looked to the fireplace shrugging.  "Right well the lot of you can head up to where everyone is." Bill said, turning with the sound of footsteps.

"I'll take them." Percy said.  He looked to his siblings. "Right, follow me." He asserted as though they were merely First years he was escorting to the common rooms. Once a prefect always a prefect.

There was a crack, and Bill smiled to see his brother standing just by the fireplace, along with a particular witch.  Bill raised an eyebrow in suspicion meeting his gaze. "And why did you not go through the floo?"

"Ah, we thought apparition is the better method, isn't that right Hermione?" Charlie said with a smirk, looking down at the witch.

"Precisely." Hermione said with the same stupid smirk.

Bill looked between them. "Right, I'll find out what happened later."

Once his back was turned, Hermione leaned inwardly towards Charlie. "He won't find out, Will he?" She whispered in amusement, watching as Bill walked after the rest of the group.

"No, it will be kept our secret." He answered back.  Hermione unlaced her fingers from his. He snapped his gaze away from his eldest brother and towards her. "Hey where are you going."

She turned on her heel to face him whilst slowly backing away. "I know my way around this place Mr. Weasley."

"Is that so?"

"I did happen to break into this ministry a year ago, so yes. Coming?" She called, and he smirked catching up to her.

He followed her into one of the lifts. The gates closed, and the two stood next to one another casually, but both kept stealing glances of the other from the corner of their eye. 

"Wow, is the sexual tension right now very evident, or is it just me?" He asked flirtatiously, still starring ahead at the gate as the lift started to drop, hands in his pockets. 

Hermione smiled to herself. "I have no idea what you are talking about." She joked.

"Oh really?" He spoke. His voice was extra....she couldn't place it, but it radiated through her as normal. A sensation she was starting to find quite appealing.

"Stop flirting with me Charlie." She said.

"I'm doing no such thing." He defended, but loved the obvious way her voice indicated she wished him to actually never stop.

"You're breathing aren't you?"

"Are you implying you are so attracted to me that being alive is flirting with you."

She sighed, not answering his question. Instead she simply said "we're here.", just as the lift doors sprung open.

She stepped off, starting to navigate through the various corridors.