Charlie Weasley was as happy as he could possibly be the day that he noticed Opi had laid eggs since she was a recent transfer from her being found roaming Australia. They speculated she had been pushed out of her own territory before the Reserve rescued her. So Charlie's supervisor, Duncan decided to put extra food out so that the Antipodean OpalEye would be distracted as Charlie snuck to the nest so he could check the eggs since similarly to snakes, sometimes their eggs were infertile and laid simply because they felt comfortable.
So, when Charlie inspected the six eggs. Each one he would wave his wand in front of chanting "Lucerna lumen." where the egg would light up to show what was inside. Similar to the muggle candling technique. At the final egg, Charlie could not believe his eyes and nearly took it with him without realizing it. He set it back down before rushing out of the enclosure to find Duncan. When he got to him, Charlie was bent over to catch his breath.
"What's got you excited, mate?"
"Two.." Charlie began before taking a deep breath. "The one egg has two embryos." Charlie was grinning ear to ear as Duncan took a moment to process this before his own eyes widened and he grinned. "Has this ever happened here, Duncan?"
"I think once but the dragonlings didn't make it." Duncan spoke as Charlie ran a hair through his hair; knowing he'd have to cut it before he visited his family. "It's rare."
Charlie immediately felt a call to action as he started spewing out ideas to Duncan on what to do. Duncan laughed at his enthusiasm.
"Charlie that all sounds great. We'll need to get approved by the board and finances. How about you go talk to finances and at the board meeting tomorrow I'll talk with them more."
"Why do we need to go to finances separately?"
"Our finances guy helps a lot behind the scenes; giving him notice could be the sway in tomorrow's meeting." Charlie nodded.
"Okay I'll go at end of shift." Charlie spoke as he thought about the idea of adding six more dragons into the reserve. He finished the rest of his shift, enjoying the early shifts where he finished in early afternoon as he made his way to the small office building. It was a stone two-storey tall cabin sat beside the medical/break cabin. All the cabins had the same build and structure. The rest were for the experienced and long term employees instead of the common dormitory where newer recruits were. Charlie kept track of this, knowing that once another pair of tamers left, he would get his cabin.
Charlie pushed open the door to the Office, admiring the carved wooden sign next to the door as he wiped his boots off on the door mat. He walked in and looked around. Atanas, the office administrator, sat at her desk organizing some paperwork that was on the right side with a staircase near it. The left side was open with a small kitchen, washroom and meeting table that Charlie was familiar with since whenever in there, he sat there. Charlie could count the different reasons for being in there on one hand before now. His hiring paperwork, promotion to senior tamer from Duncan and Atanas, quarterly mandatory training assessments and organization of research notes from their day to day interactions with dragons.
"Good afternoon, Atanas." Charlie called out in Romanian with a smile, as she looked up at him.
"Hello Charlie. I see your accent is still terrible." she kidded with him in English, noting her own thick accent, as Charlie laughed.
"Slowly getting better." He spoke in English, before looking around. "I'm looking to talk with finances?"
He felt out of place since Atanas was in business casual, attire compared to Charlie's working clothes of jeans and a plaid shirt.
"Just up ze stairs." Atanas spoke. "He's English too." she added as Charlie started walking up the stairs, his boots thudding with each step. The door at the top was open as he stepped in. There was a little sitting area with soft chairs and a coffee table to the left of him. On the wall of that size was a small counter and cupboard with mugs hanging under the cupboard. To the right side, was bookcases and filing cabinets. At the very back and centre of the room, was a desk facing towards the door. A man was sitting there, writing.
The man was young, Charlie noticed which surprised him. He was a lithe body, with dark hair combed to the side with a singular curl falling over his forehead and pale skin. The man held up his hand in a "just a moment" mannerism as he continued his scribbles. "Feel free to sit down over there." he spoke pointing to the chairs.
Charlie walked over as he took a seat at the chair facing the desk. On the coffee table was some pens, and papers and a vase of flowers similar to the types Arthur would buy Molly on her anniversary. He waited a few moments before hearing.
"What may I help you with Mr. Weasley?"
"Call me Charlie." The young man asked as Charlie paused, surprised that the man knew him. Thankfully, there was a nameplate on the desk that Charlie spotted. Orion Lest. It was a name that reminded Charlie of someone from Hogwarts but it could just be from seeing it in the paperwork. Orion sat down across from him with a notepad and pen in hand.
"Alright, feel free to call me Orion. After all, we are coworkers. So what brings you here?"
"Well, we just discovered that one of the eggs we have for the Antipodean Opaleye has twins in it. I know we recently rescued her, but to have a successful twin birth would be bloody amazing. There's no documented cases of twin dragons being born as far as Duncan knew, especially in Reserves. He sent me to ask about potential room for more funding towards the treatment to ensure we are doing all we can. Duncan wants to talk with the board tomorrow about it."
Orion nodded along to the conversation while listening, Orion's hands were clasped together until Charlie finished his rant on how important the Antipodean Opaleye is and began detailing the dragon itself to Orion.
"Yes I know the species. Naturally from New Zealand but occasionally in Australia due to territory restrictions. Prefers valleys and considered one of the most beautiful of dragons due to their pearly scales, and pupiless eyes that are multicoloured and glittery. The eggs are pale grey and typically eat sheep." Orion stated factually off the top of his head.
"So you understand how important this actually is then." Charlie spoke as Orion started jotting things down. He was getting excited because everything appeared to be looking up for this.
"I will definitely look into this since it does seem like something to invest in for the sake of research; however I cannot promise anything so you know Charlie. We do in our policies have the ability for extra funding for births but I'm not sure if it is already being used or if we have anything in place for cases like this since it seems like it may require additional funds beyond the normal scope of a dragonling due to the preparations and attendance of the egg."
Charlie felt annoyed by this response as he looked over to Orion, trying to figure out if Orion realized the importance of the situation. He couldn't help but let out an annoyed sigh. Orion seemed to expect this, which in hindsight was likely.
"Please realize as much I would like to actually just supply you with the funds for this, its not that simple." Orion spoke calmly. "I'll have to talk with the supervisors, the board, write a financial proposal to justify our spending, then do fundraising to ensure other programs don't suffer. This all must be reported to the government and translated." Orion added before he put his hand up to stop Charlie from interrupting him. "We can't just wave our wands and instantly have money. I will say I can try to give this a great priority though. When's the hatch expected to be?"
"About two months."
"Okay, I'll try to get the decision by early next week." Orion spoke in a sense of finality; before asking. "If needed, I may require your assistance for the fundraising?"
Charlie nodded as Orion stood up and escorted Charlie to the door. "In that case, have a good day Charlie and I hope to bring you good information soon."
Charlie left down the stairs while he was trying to not let the annoyance of this slight derailment ruin the rest of his day as he headed back towards his dorm. They were all in small rooms containing a bed, desk and dresser with a tiny room with a toilet, sink and mirror. There was a communal kitchen, recreation room and showers on each floor. It was a decent layout to hang with the other tamers after work and bond but Charlie could see the appeal of his own little cabin. Especially since the other tamers would come down like hawks when he cooked his mom's recipes and meant he could never have leftovers.
Charlie grabbed his mail on the way up to his dorm, pleased to have mail. He got inside to his room and shut the door, kicking off his boots, before tearing open the first one. It was from his mother. It was the usual recap of what was going on with his family. Ron had lost Scabbers apparently and Ginny was doing far better this school year. Percy was enjoying his last year of school as a Head Boy. Fred and George were up to trouble as usual with their pranks but Charlie enjoyed hearing about it since he knew his mother wanted to make sure the family were kept well into the loop. Dad was working on some new muggle thing that Molly had no clue about. She also added a recipe of pot pie for him with her loopy script.
Some of the other letters were from his friends and then one from Bill talking about how things were going in Egypt but did miss the giant family. Charlie could understand where Bill was coming from, but still preferred working with the dragons over anything else currently.
Charlie kept himself busy as he waited to hear back from Orion about anything. When Duncan talked to him about the board meeting, he made a face that worried Charlie since some of the members were hesitant about the risk versus the reward. Charlie was currently monitoring the mother dragon, that was nicknamed Opi by those who were the most gracious donators. As he hauled the sheep into the enclosure, he noticed someone well dressed looking in. Charlie realized it was Orion there wearing a button up shirt, cardigan and dress pants. Charlie rolled his eyes at this since the man stood out like a sore thumb here at least and Charlie supposed Orion came from his office.
Charlie finished hauling the sheep he was carrying in and where Opi would come to get it before he headed out of the enclosure. Double checking the wards were up before walking over to Orion, pulling out a cloth from his back pocket and wiping off his hands. "What can I do for you Orion?"
Orion smiled at Charlie as they shook hands. "Well, I have good news for you. We have a set amount of money already from the board and government for this. It took a bit of convincing but I was able to find some notes from another enclosure about their attempt to care for a twin egg. In the end it wasn't successful due to an accident where a different magical creature that they didn't realize was in the enclosure stole the egg to eat." Orion seemed to have something on his mind as Charlie waited for the other shoe to drop.
"But…?" Charlie asked, a bit hesitant, as Orion grinned to him.
"We're having an upcoming gala. It's an annual one for something I do not remember, and I truly think if you come with me to talk about Opi, we would be able to at least double the money currently available."
Charlie raised a brow. "How would I be of use?"
"Well one, you're the expert on these dragons from what I've heard around the enclosure. Two, it always helps to have dragon tamers all dressed up to really give our donators a face to the workers. Gives them all excitement to be around someone who lives 'adventurously'. Three, to be honest, a lot of our fundraisers are affluent families with quite bored housewives that would enjoy drooling over you since you are relatively handsome." Orion bluntly put as Charlie laughed.
"Okay, those are some good reasons." Charlie reasoned. 'When is it?"
"This Friday evening, and from what I've seen you work early that day and are off Saturday. I already have a portkey set up, and if needed, I can provide you with dress robes." Orion spoke as Charlie nodded.
"Sounds good. I can bring what I have to see if it works."
"Brilliant; meet me at my office for 6:30 pm Friday then. If you can, please make sure to shower after work. " Orion spoke as Charlie waited until Orion was far enough away for fist pumping. He was on top of the world since things were looking up for the twin egg and being called handsome helped his mood. Charlie continued doing his work to bring in a few more sheep before alerting Opi of her dinner with a small spell. He got out the enclosure as he watched her eat from the outside.
"Opi, I'm going to do everything I can to make sure your twins get here safely."