For the Quidditch League
Puddlemere United, CHASER 3: Brachiosaurus: Write about a character who's attempt to help ends negatively for the recipient/s.
Optional Prompts: 7. (dialogue) "Aww, does somebody need a hug?"; 13. (setting) the Forbidden Forest; 14. (character) Charlie Weasley
1286 words
Betaed by June and Dessie
Charlie was standing right outside of the Forbidden Forest, peering into the darkness of the trees. If he was correct, there would be a whole branch of Bowtruckles in the Forbidden Forest tonight. He had stumbled across the eggs a few weeks ago, and if his research was right, they had all hatched sometime this week.
"Wotcher."
Charlie spun around at the voice, his arms flailed as he almost lost his balance. Someone grabbed his arm to steady him, and he saw Tonks standing there as he straightened.
"Tonks," he hissed, giving her a glare, "be quiet."
He turned back around, glancing into the Forest once again. He didn't remember exactly where he had seen the eggs, but it was close to the front. He just hoped that they hadn't left the vicinity yet — he knew, from some of his research, that Bowtruckles migrated soon after their birth.
"What are you looking for?" Tonks asked, crouching near him and looking in the same direction as he was looking. He sent her another glare before turning back to the leafy entrance.
"There were some Bowtruckles eggs a few weeks ago," he explained, squinting to see better, "and they should be hatched by now."
"Exciting, this watching for magical creatures," Tonks replied, still squatting next to Charlie, "but let's go and play Exploding Snap or something."
Charlie glared at her for a third time, and she laughed at his angry expression.
"Aww, does somebody need a hug?" she asked, her eyes bright with humor.
"No," Charlie replied, rolling his eyes at her, "I need to find these Bowtruckles. This could be amazing."
Charlie had been friends with Tonks for as long as they had been going to Hogwarts – five years – and he had enjoyed her company, but sometimes she could be… eccentric. Charlie had read every book he could find in the library about Bowtruckles, and he knew that if they were startled, they would attack you with their tiny claws — or worse, they would run away. Charlie had never seen a baby Bowtruckle before, and this was his chance. He didn't want to have it messed up.
"Aren't they just twigs?" Tonks asked. Charlie whirled around to face her and saw that her eyes were still sparkling — so she knew that she was bugging him.
"Whatever," he said, trying to keep his temper down. Maybe she didn't understand that he didn't have time to joke around with her right now. Walking slowly, Charlie began to venture into the forest. He couldn't find them when he was just looking in. Maybe he would find them if he took a leap of faith and actually went in and searched for them.
He wouldn't actually jump, of course. That could scare them.
Judging by the footsteps behind him, Tonks had followed him.
"Just, be quiet," he whispered to her, his eyes scanning the forest floor.
"I can help you," Tonks told him, whispering besides him. He turned his head to face her, and it took his self-restraint and the thought of baby Bowtruckles to stop him from laughing at the idea of Tonks helping him.
Tonks was a klutz. Everybody knew that. If there was anybody who Charlie would had wanted to join him on this journey, maybe he would have picked William Jones, a boy in his Care for Magical Creatures class who always had a flair for dealing with some of the smaller animals. Or maybe Charlie's older brother Bill would have been good; he liked dealing with dangerous things and was studying to become a curse breaker in Egypt. He would know the importance of staying quiet and being careful.
Charlie wasn't sure if Tonks knew how important these were to him. Even if she did, he doubted her ability to not trip over one of the Bowtruckles and send them all running away.
Tonks was great at being a nice person.
She wasn't so great with being a quiet person.
Still, Charlie bit his tongue. If Tonks wanted to help, then so be it. He wouldn't actually ask her to do anything, for fear of her messing up, but she could tag along if she wanted to.
The pair walked on for another few minutes.
According to the book Charlie had read, the Bowtruckles were only slightly bigger than a human finger after hatching. They grew quickly, becoming almost full sized only two weeks after they were hatched.
After they had walked a decent distance into the Forest, Charlie flung out an arm in front of Tonks, stopping her stride.
"What?" she whispered, looking forward into the tree leaves.
"You're looking too far up," Charlie breathed, trying to keep his voice low. He pointed down, where dozens of tiny things were walking around. They were walking in lines, obviously trying to keep straight, but every once in a while, one of them would fall out of line and need to straighten themselves up.
"Wow," Tonks said, actually sounding awed. They marched in a colony, and Charlie saw them climb up the trees, meeting bigger Bowtruckles — they must have been the adult ones.
It was like they had formed their own little world there, in the Forbidden Forest.
It was their own little world.
"Don't you want one?" Tonks asked, still keeping her tone low as they watched the baby Bowtruckles stumble around.
Charlie managed to peel his eyes away from the Bowtruckles to face her.
"What do you mean?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Wouldn't it be cool to keep one? You could study it up close," she said, her eyes looking over at the babies crawling into the trees.
"Yeah, but—" Charlie was cut off by Tonks before he could even say his 'but.'
"I'll get you one, then," she said, grinning at him. He shook his head quickly.
"The adults are quite possessive of their young. That's not a good idea," he told her, trying to speak quickly but quietly.
So far, the Bowtruckles hadn't paid them any attention, and Charlie was fine with that. He had handled some in class one time and he knew how badly their fingers could hurt.
"It'll be fine," Tonks said, waving a hand. The twinkle was back in her eyes, and Charlie tried to grab her hand but missed as she tried to grab one off of the ground.
"Tonks, stop!" Charlie shouted, forgetting that the baby Bowtruckles despised loud noises.
There were around six Bowtruckles that jumped at Charlie, digging their fingers into his pant leg and breaking his flesh. Even at a young age, he knew, they had sharp claws. He also saw adult Bowtruckles jumping at Tonks, never mind that she had dropped the one Bowtruckle she had tried to take.
"Tonks," Charlie said, feeling blood trickle down his pant leg.
"I just thought that it'd be nice for you to study one up close," she said, trying to bat away the Bowtruckles swiping at her to no avail.
"They don't like that," he noted, trying to kick the baby Bowtruckles off of his leg. More just kept on jumping onto him, however, probably annoyed at his normal speaking voice.
"I can see that," Tonks said, now trying to retreat from them.
"We need to get out of here," he said, reaching for Tonks. She grabbed his hand, and he pulled her, trying to ignore the pain in his legs.
They stumbled away from the Bowtruckles, who seemed reluctant to follow them outside of their territory. Charlie had read that they were attached to their home land, unless it was time to migrate or there was food somewhere else.
So Charlie and Tonks ventured deeper into the forest…