Snogging at the Burrow

Chapter 39

There it was. He had apparated on spot. He stood in the Alley, cobblestone underfoot. There was a great unnatural quake to the ground, a earsplitting noise of broken glass. It erupted through the ceiling with a sudden burst of explosion. He looked up at the bank, to see the massive creature towering on the structure. It flapped it's wings with such strength, and with a roar had shot into the air. He spotted her. The small figure gripping to the back.

Bloody Hell. Hermione Granger was escaping the most protected establishment know to Wizarding kind on a dragon. A bloody dragon!

She was alive.

If he wasn't afeared for their life, he would have been massively turned on. Charlie took a second to laugh at the scene. He would not dare make an attempt to prevent the dragon from getting away.

Guards had now entered the Alley, firing curse after curse into the sky. Anything that hit the hide of the creature, bounced off due to its shear size and thickness. He watched as it gained altitude, ascending the skies of London.

"Accio Broom." He chanced. A battered version flew through the Alley. He jumped on, now speeding a great deal away after the distant mass. He was growing higher, the dragon hidden by clouds. A broom would not reach the speed of a dragon. He noted they were flying north, then apparated to where his brother was living, leaving the spot he hovered in the sky.

"Bill!" He bellowed, staring at the shell cottage, the sea a faded blue upon the horizon.

He was greeted by the slim figure of his sister in law Fleur Delacour. "Charlie, iz somzing ze matter?" 

"They broke into Gringotts."

She bowed her head and he looked at her suspiciously. "We know. It was us who helped zem." 

"What?!" Charlie ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "Bill didn't inform me—"

"Precisely, because he did not wish for you to do anything rash." 

There was a loud crack, and a figure now stood on a stretch of sand.  "They made it!" He hollered.  Bill spotted his wife, pulling her into an embrace, and was smiling at his brother. 

"They are headed north." Charlie informed, deciding it was not the time to lecture his brother about withholding information. 

"Towards Hogwarts?" Fleur asked.

It hit Charlie. This was it.  After months of waiting in complete insanity and bleak torture.  "Bill, the order. I'll see who I can round up back east."

Bill nodded. He outstretched his hand, and Charlie took it, the pair hugging as though they were little again. "I'll see you there then?" 

Suddenly there was a faint voice on the wind. "Is it true?—"

Charlie separated from his brother to see the pale features of Luna Lovegood standing now in the entrance of the cottage, a pair of radishes hanging from her ears. 
"Is what true?" 

"—that you're in love with Hermione Granger?"  She asked nonplused.

He thought back to the sight of her on the Dragon, now realizing the scene had been the first time he saw her in ages.  The answer was immediate. "Yeah, I am." 

The girl seemed satisfied, and with a few more words of plan of action, he was gone.

He trudged up the grassy slope, sending a patronous to all he had talked to over the last few months in the area. He grabbed a sachel, and then was sprinting off towards the Dragon pen, adrenaline in his lungs.