Based on characters created by J. K. Rowling
A/N: In my little world Charlie Weasley lives in America, plays professional Quidditch for the World Cup Champion Flying American Red Dragons, works off season at the only North American dragon preserve, fights dark wizards with his friends and is the co-author of the children's book, Dragons in America, with his friend Michael G. Hendershot.-- R.A.B
Charlie & the Magician
Travis Davis invited his good friend, Charlie Weasley to visit him in Austin, Texas for a weekend of hard partying. Charlie, who was always in the mood for a chance to party, quickly agreed and arranged to take the weekend off before anyone scheduled him to escort one of the new tour groups that the dragon preserve set up.
Travis was very good at finding the best places. He was muggle born and was comfortable in both worlds. Since Charlie was a very big celebrity in the wizard world because he played professional Quidditch, he preferred to party with his friend in muggle bars, unless, of course, he wanted to pick up women. He didn't have any prejudice against muggle women, he had a muggle girlfriend after all, but he preferred the company of his own kind.
Someone had recommended a hot new magic club near Austin and Travis thought this was the kind of place Charlie would enjoy. Charlie didn't feel he needed to be entertained, but Travis had gone to so much trouble to get tickets that he agreed.
They met up with Travis's sister, Amanda, and three of her friends, twins Keira and Katelyn Shaw, and Amanda's boyfriend, Cyrus Ballard. Amanda's friends had never been to a muggle magic club before, and like Charlie were amused by the dubious talent.
Normally, there were headliners at the Top Hat, but this evening was a special amateur night where anyone could get on stage and perform for the less than sober audience. The magicians for the most part weren't very good, but Charlie admitted he was having a good time. The assistants were what caught Charlie's eye. They were all very pretty in a carnie sort of way. Their job was to distract the audience; some were good, others were simply clueless. The twins were more interested in Charlie than the magic, but Charlie was fascinated by the sleight of hand. It looked like magic, but it wasn't real.
Travis leaned across the table and said to Charlie, "Hey, you're pretty good at magic, why don't you go up on stage and give them a real show."
Charlie laughed. "I'm not that drunk, but I heard you're good, too. Why don't you try it?"
Travis shook his head. "I don't think so. Too many Department of Magic spies here," he said winking at his sister, who worked as an Auror for the Department of Magic.
Most of the audience was encouraging, but some heckled the acts, calling out how the tricks worked. Some of the magicians took it in good fun, while others were clearly rattled. One had to have a very thick skin to perform in front of this crowd.
It was clear to Charlie that Amanda's boyfriend didn't get the act. He had a bored, haughty look on his face the whole evening. He was only there because Amanda asked him to. Charlie wasn't sure he liked him very much, but on the other hand, he was there, so he got points for being supportive. Cyrus worked for the Department of Magic, but not in the Auror Division. If Amanda told Charlie where he worked, he couldn't remember. He did notice that whenever Amanda leaned over to talk to Charlie, Cyrus stared at him. Maybe bringing the twins along had been Cyrus's idea, thought Charlie; something to keep him distracted.
There wasn't much opportunity to engage in conversation while the magicians were on stage. It would have been rude to try to talk over the cheesy music and the acts. The only thing Charlie and Travis were able to do effectively was drink. By the time the last acts were on stage, both were almost drunk enough to join the stage. While Amanda and the twins were amused at the prospect of showing the drunken audience some real magic, Cyrus was not. Charlie was almost ready to leap on stage just to piss the man off.
Charlie got his way, sort of. The last magician of the night, Azura,was a very pretty petite woman, with short, spiky blond hair who wore a shimmering red strapless cocktail dress. She was very curvy and had rather large breasts. The dress was very short and must be the distraction because she didn't have an assistant. She called for a volunteer to join her and Travis and Charlie beat it up on stage before she got the words out of her mouth. She gave them a dazzling smile and picked Charlie, sending Travis grumbling back to his seat. The audience roared with laughter. When Travis got back to his table, he gave the crowd an exaggerated bow and a royal wave, saluting Charlie. Grinning, Charlie saluted back.
"Say," she said very loudly to the audience while looking at Charlie, "You're real cute." The audience clapped and whistled appreciatively. He grinned. "What's your name?" She asked, again in her stage voice.
"Charlie. " He said, not as loud. Azura him and the audience another dazzling smile. "You ain't from around here, are you?" She said in a thick Southern accent. "Where're ya'll from?"
"Originally, England." Charlie said.
"What do you do here?" she asked, again loudly.
"I, uh, work on a ranch." He said, trying to be as honest as he could be.
"So you're a cowboy." She purred sexily. "We don't get too many cowboys in here." The audience laughed. "So, Cowboy Charlie, have you and I ever met before?"
"No, I would have remembered," he said in his most charming voice.
"Well, ain't you sweet." She said loudly. Then she bent slightly, showing the audience and Charlie a glimpse of her very ample breasts. In a very low voice, she said, dusting off an invisible spot on his coat. "Look cowboy, you fuck up my act and I'll turn you into a pile of cow shit, got that?" she was still grinning when she said it.
Un-intimidated, Charlie grinned back. "Don't worry about that. I'm not that drunk; just tell me what you want me to do."
She raised her eyebrow. "You don't have to do anything but stand right where you are and keep looking gorgeous, stud. I'll do the rest."
Azura picked up a bundle of colored handkerchiefs, held them taunt and they were transformed into a pink princess wand with a bangled star on its tip. The crowd clapped appreciatively. Charlie was a little disconcerted by having a wand pulled on him and he instinctively went for his wand in his jacket pocket.
"Keep still," she hissed under her breath.
"I'm not used to having a wand pulled on me," he said, "without the ability to defend myself." The audience laughed.
Azura looked at him for a moment, and waved the wand around innocently. "Abracadabra," she said loudly, but under her breath, she said, "Imperio!" Charlie felt the Imperius Curse immediately and began to resist. He had the strongest urge to flap his arms and cluck like a chicken. He had been trained to resist the curse, but this was very difficult, because he was almost caught off guard. He struggled to remain standing where he was, but the pain in his head was intensifying.
"No," he said, finally throwing off the curse. He stepped back and drew in large gulps of air. "You can't." He doubled over, trying to catch his breath, and as he stepped back, he drew his wand, keeping it next to his body.
Azura looked at him strangely. This wasn't going according to plan. Unless…
"Shit!" she whispered. "You're a wizard. Sorry about the Imperius Curse. Nothing personal. It doesn't hurt muggles. I wasn't expecting to see any wizards here tonight."
"No kidding. I'm not the only one here. My friends are here as well." He said cautiously,
still holding on to his wand
"Shit!" she repeated. "Look, please don't give me away, okay? I was going to turn you into a longhorn. I'll turn you right back, I promise."
"Fuck no." he said.
The audience was beginning to get restless. So far, they'd only seen one lame handkerchief-into-a-wand trick. No one seemed to notice that Charlie had resisted the Imperius Curse.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Azura said louder this time and the table next to Charlie began floating in the air. The crowd applauded. She pointed her wand at the three enormous balls to the rear of the stage. With a flick of her wand, the balls started rolling toward the front of the stage; the biggest ball stopped next to them, the 2nd biggest hopped on top and the third ball jumped on top of the middle ball. It was beginning to look like a bizarre snowman. She levitated a top hat expertly on top of the smallest ball, completing the picture. The crowd went crazy, applauding and stomping their feet. The two larger balls began to spin in opposite directions. The head of the snowman had magically grown two coal eyes, a carrot for a nose, and a silly smile made out of red gemstones resembling large rubies.
So far, Charlie the assistant wasn't doing anything except holding his hand inside his jacket. The crowd was beginning to wonder why he was on stage in the first place. The two of them seemed to be having a conversation on their own. Travis and Amanda watched Charlie, but from that distance and lighting, it just looked like he was flirting with her and she was responding. For some reason they didn't get the attempt at the Imperius Curse, and in his current state of inebriation, Travis didn't think the magic was real. The twins were clueless and Cyrus looked like he had a poker shoved up his ass.
Finally, after having exhausted the props on stage, Charlie watched as she finished up her magic show. He let her place two bowling balls in his palms and watched as they levitated and spun and flew around like juggling balls. When she produced the third bowling ball, it looked like he was juggling.
"Ooh, you're so strong," she flirted as the balls flew effortlessly. "I didn't know you could juggle."
"I can do lots of things," he flirted back. "One handed." He put his left arm down and the balls continued to be tossed into the air.
"Don't be a show-off," she grinned.
The audience ate it up. They were amazed. Even the hecklers were applauding.
"Okay," Charlie said. "I'll let you turn me into a longhorn if you'll go out with me."
She laughed. "Sure I won't turn you into a turkey?"
He hesitated. "Go out with me and then I'll let you turn me into anything you want. You owe me for not letting your secret out."
She thought about it for a moment as she finished by producing a large cowboy hat from thin air and placing it on his head. "There. Now you look right at home." Red, white, and blue sparks flew out of her wand and she bowed toward the audience. Charlie removed his hat and bowed with her. Azura held his hand above his head and pointed appreciatively at him. "Let's give my assistant a big round of applause."
The crowd went crazy. Everyone was on his feet, yelling "Encore!" She and Charlie bowed again.
"Always leave them begging for more," she said as she kissed Charlie as the curtain swung together. The lights went out, Charlie reached for her for another kiss, but she was gone. Disapparated with a loud crack.
He hurried back to his table. Travis was drunkenly on his feet, still clapping loudly. Amanda was looking at Charlie strangely.
"Something you want to tell me, Weasley?" she asked. "A little more to the act than smoke and mirrors, wouldn't you say?"
Charlie shrugged. "She was very talented, but it must have looked differently from the stage."
"It looked real to me," Amanda said, crossing her arms across her chest.
"Really?" Charlie avoided her eyes. "Hmm."
"Did you manage to help her out because she was so pretty?" Amanda asked crossly.
So, that's what she thought. Amanda thought Charlie was doing the magic tricks. Let her think that. He shrugged and grinned.
Charlie understood why Azura had disapparated so quickly after the show. She had performed, or at least attempted to perform one of the three unforgiveable curses. Muggle brains are more malleable than wizards, so it would have been easy to bend their will without hurting them. He didn't think she meant any harm, but it was still illegal. He certainly wasn't going to turn her in. He wanted to find her. After all, she owed him a date.