Four Weddings and a Dragon - Charlie Weasley

Chapter 2

The next Weasley weddings were George's and Percy's. Hermione attended both of them as Ron's official girlfriend, leaning on his arm and beaming through the ceremonies, then following Molly's orders, managing the festivities during the receptions. Charlie was at each of the weddings, of course, but Hermione danced with no one but Ron, and not until the end of the night, when everyone else was gone, and she was exhausted, barefoot and hardly moving as Ron held her up and whispered promises into her work-frizzed hair.

Ginny and Harry's wedding was different.

Ginny had put off the engagement until she'd finished school, and the wedding until she'd played Quidditch with an elite team for a year. Even so, she presided over her wedding as a very young bride. Fleur and Bill were there with their war celebration baby. George and Percy were there with their pregnant wives. And Ron was there with Bill's sister-in-law, once the little girl from the lake, Gabrielle Delacour. She had come to stay at Shell Cottage to help with the baby. And Ron, exceptionally vulnerable as he had always been to the charms of Veela ancestry, had fallen for her. He seemed heartbroken about leaving Hermione for her, but he did it all the same.

Hermione sat at Harry and Ginny's traditional wedding at the Burrow with Hagrid and McGonagall and a squad of Aurors on Harry's side of the aisle, away from the Weasleys. As a sign of her resilience and fierce independence, she had come without a date, but she came to regret it. She should have brought the most obnoxious date she could think of.

She should have brought Krum. No, he was too polite.

What about one of those Slytherin gits from school? She could have rung up Gregory Goyle. He owed her a huge favour after that fiendfyre rescue. But he owed Ron too. It wouldn't have worked.

No, Draco -- she should have turned over whatever rock Draco Malfoy had been hiding under since he denounced blood purity at his trial, and put his fine new ideals to the test by bringing him here as a Mudblood's date. She could just see him, sneering at all of this, awful but fit and shining, dressed all in black, no doubt. Ron would have lost his mind. Next time, if he wasn't already married off to someone....

But there would be no next time. The next Weasley wedding would be Ron's, and she knew he would send her an invitation, and she would politely decline. It would be expected of her. She'd claim it was in the middle of a non-refundable trip she'd already had booked or something. Maybe she'd send a gift of a Muggle toaster for them.

Applause was jarring her out of these fantasies. While she hadn't been paying attention, Harry and Ginny had promised themselves to each other for life. Ron, the best man, was standing at Harry's elbow as he kissed Ron's sister, clapping as if he believed in such things.

With the ceremony over, Hermione rose from her borrowed folding chair, turned around and collapsed it flat for transport back wherever it came from. When she finished with her own, she moved on to the rest, working to clear the floor for dancing. She was on her sixth chair when a pair of rough, freckled hands closed over hers.

"Hermione, don't bother with that." It was Charlie Weasley, his face open and worried.

She snatched her hands away. "Why? Because I'm not family anymore?" Her voice was louder than she'd intended.

Charlie stepped closer, whispering. "Come, now. You don't want to make a show of yourself. Come with me and we'll get you something to drink."

She huffed. "And how did you get stuck with managing-the-ex duty, Charlie Weasley? Is it your secret official role in your sister's wedding party? Is it jotted on a list somewhere in your mother's wedding files? They figured they'd need to enlist a dragon tamer for it?"