rarepair_shorts | DRABBLE: The Burrow (Hermione/Charlie)

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Title: The Burrow
Pairing: Hermione/Charlie
Prompt: stranger in a strange land
Rating: G
Word Count: 426
Summary: Hermione’s first visit to the Burrow (not book compliant), the summer before her second year.
Author's Notes: This continues from the first one I posted a few days ago. I did decide, after much debating, to make this a series, although each prompt will be a snippet, with large gaps of time in between. Sort of little scenes over time :). It’s going to start off a bit slow, but it all needs to set before they get together. Hope you like!
Link to Prompt Table: The links will be in the order of the series (at least the ones that are already up).

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Hermione followed Ron into his house for the first time, already upset because a gnome had bit her. Ron had laughed his head off when she’d approached the gnome, thinking it was a statue, and it promptly swore and bit her toe. She didn’t know what else to expect in his ‘magical’ home.

“This is exciting! You can meet my sister, Ginny – this’ll be her first year at Hogwarts. MUM!” he roared, and Hermione clapped her hands over her ears. Hearing the sound of pots and pans, she crossed her arms. “She’s only in the kitchen, Ronald.”

“Oh really?” With a smirk he led her into the kitchen, surprising Hermione even more. First it’s floo travel, then gnomes, and then this?

Hermione blinked. The kitchen – though devoid of Mrs. Weasley – was doing a wonderful job of running itself smoothly. Pots scraped themselves, towels dried dishes, invisible hands chopped vegetables… she squeaked when a hand touched her shoulder.

“I take it you’ve never seen home magic before?

Suddenly she felt small and intimidated, because she really never had known anything like this to exist. And the chiming clock – which had nine hands instead of two, and pointed to various locations instead of numbers – only increased her anxious curiosity.

She turned around. “Ron, what is—” but her sentence died on her lips.

Before her stood a familiar face: the boy from the beach, the boy who’d both confirmed her hopes and erased her fears regarding her innate magical ability. Hermione stared at the much older Charlie, and reached up to immediately smoothen her hair.

“Charlie! You’re…” She peered at him closely, noticing the obvious family resemblance. He still towered over her frame, and his dark, ginger locks reached just below his ears and fell into his piercing green eyes. He had fewer freckles than Ron, but nevertheless looked very similar. “You’re Ron’s older brother?”

Charlie leaned against the doorframe. “Yeah. Well, one of them.”

An awkward pause ensued. “Where’s Ron?” Did he just ditch her?

“Upstairs, cleaning his room. Mum had a fit earlier, you see… I wouldn’t go up there if I were you.”

She nodded, not having a clue what to say.

Charlie smiled softly at her and ruffled her hair affectionately. “I never thought I’d see you again. Was I right? Isn’t magic amazing?”

She grinned shyly. “It’s even better than I imagined,” she admitted, feeling more at ease with his warmth.

“Oh?”

She followed him into the living room and sat on the couch opposite his. “Tell me everything.”

And everything, she did.