At Hogwarts I always enjoyed Care of Magical Creatures, from my first experience in my third year I knew that I would do something with magical creatures, though I would never have guessed that I would've been offered such an amazing job as Dragon training. I've only just got settled in at my place and still have yet to actually experience what I will be doing for a job, but from what I've heard and seen it's going to be amazing. But honestly, who wouldn't want to work with Dragons? I mean they're Dragons.
My first actual day on the job is tomorrow and my nerves were going a kilometer a minute, I was afraid that I would forget everything I had learned during training. Hogwarts never taught in depth lessons on Dragons, they mainly focused on the more harmless creatures in the Wizarding World rather then giving us a variety so the only information I had on Dragons was from my training and the used book that Mum had gotten me as a gift to celebrate my being hired. It was a rather thoughtful gift, which involved many tears as Mum handed me the book the day before I left to come here, and was completely unexpected since she never really approved of my choice to go to Romania.
I got up out of the arm chair and walked into the kitchen, grabbed myself a glass of water and then headed to my bedroom. It was a short walk from the kitchen to the bedroom and I slipped my hand into my room and felt around on the wall near the door for the light switch, once I had that light on I turned back around and flicked my wand at the lights in the living room to shut them off. It took me a while to fall asleep, but as I laid there waiting for sleep to overcome me, I read the fourth chapter in So You Want to Know about Dragons, the book Mum had gotten for me, for a second time, and slowly drifted into sleep.
As the days turned into weeks, and the weeks into months, I began to miss the Weasley family household, or at least the hustle and bustle atmosphere of it. There was the daily coming and going of dad, the chores assigned by mum so we would all have something to do, and Percy bossing everyone around. Then there was Fred and George who always had something planned to cause a little mischief and a laugh, and Ron followed all of us guys around, and then there was little Ginny, the only girl in the bunch, usually helped mum with the cooking and in door cleaning. Oh, and Mum's cooking, did I miss that. My dinners usually consisted of sandwiches or soups, things that didn't take long to cook, because by the time I got back to my flat every night my energy was pretty drained from the Dragons.
Life as a Dragon trainer was pretty boring, I spent my days busy with the Dragons, which was exciting enough, but then I would spend my nights alone. I never knew how alone, alone felt. Growing up I never really knew what alone even was, there was always someone not too far away from you, even if you were doing separate things you were never really alone. Since coming to Romania I had made a few friends but most had plans at night with their families, or girlfriends. They would go out to dinners or night clubs almost every night. When I first started they would always ask me if I would want to join them but I would be too tired and drained from the long day to go out so I would just decline; now I was almost never asked to go out.
Mum was getting on my case, in her letters, asking me about girls. To her I should already have found someone that I want to spend the rest of my life with, I was sure she wasn't on Bill's case this much and he was even older then me! The other thing she liked to get on my case about was my hair, it infuriated her that I was growing my hair out, and she only knew this because she requested pictures of my times in Romania with every letter I sent. She would threaten that the next time I went home if I didn't have my haircut and a girlfriend she would take care of both for me. Her letters gave me a little chuckle at least and made my nights a little less lonely. I would sit in my blue arm chair and read through her usually two to three page letters, most of the time I would read through it twice, then I would walk over to the kitchen counter and wipe off a space there and pull out a few sheets of paper from the drawer and begin my response.
Today was my birthday; it was the first one I spent away from my family. I received many owls from old school friends and family wishing me well but it was probably the loneliest day of my life. I had nothing to look forward to after work but going back to an empty flat and make a turkey sandwich as my big birthday dinner. My co-workers didn't even acknowledge the day when I got to work this morning, they all just went about their business like there was nothing special about the day. To make things even worse I was almost burnt to a crisp by a particularly vicious Norwegian Ridgeback.
I was about to give up and call the day a completely horrible birthday when I heard a loud knock on the door. My head turned towards the door and looked at it confused, I wasn't expecting anybody. I waited until I heard another knock before I got up from my chair and walked over to the door, expecting it to be a wrong address, but when I opened my door I was surprised to see my co-workers. I stepped to the side and let them enter my flat, a little embarrassed at the scarce amount of furniture that I had, and that they were secondhand and tattered. The guys all clapped me on my back as the passed by into the room and the few girls placed a light kiss on my right cheek. Most of the girls that had come were already taken by some of the guys, though there were a few girls who were not currently attached to anyone; one blonde even hinted strongly that they were interested in me.
We had a grand time that night, full of laughter and fun. By the end of the night we had all had too much to drink, at least three rounds of Elfish Mead, and were a sight for sore eyes the next morning. Over the next few days I began to realize just how much I missed over the past few months, I had been holding myself back, afraid of letting new people grow close to me. Now whenever I was asked to join them for a night out I didn't hesitate to say yes.
I began dating Nicole, the blonde from my birthday party, on January 1st. I had gone out to a New Years party with everyone that had come over for my birthday and had been talking with Nicole when everyone began counting down.
"Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven…" Everyone around us shouted out.
It was her smile and laughter that really drew me in as she joined in on the countdown, when they reached two my mind was already made up that I would be kissing her at midnight. Looking down at her, I wrapped one arm around her waist and pulled her in close to me; she smiled wider, and leaned down towards her face.
"… One, Happy New Year," Rang out as I placed my lips lightly upon hers.
My flat was a complete disaster and I was expecting Nicole to get here any moment, which was why it was such a disaster, I had been throwing things every where trying to find the right outfit for the night. I was so nervous, this would be the first time I would have her over, just the two of us, and I was so sure that I would ruin everything. I don't know what it was about her that drew me in. She was about 5'6", blonde hair, blue eyes, and honestly there really wasn't anything about her that made her really stand out. Maybe it was her head strong, take no prisoners attitude that captured me, or maybe it was the gentle way she handled the Dragons, she was one of the few women who actually wanted to train Dragons. Whatever it was, I was completely wrapped around her little finger.
There was a soft knock at the door and I hurriedly finished picking up the remaining mess and threw it in the closet on my way to answer the door. She was standing there leaning against the doorway looking as beautiful as ever in a sky blue, spaghetti strap dress. I swallowed thickly and stepped aside to let her in. She confidently walked over to my couch and sat down, patting the seat next to her. Slowly I walked over to her, trying to portray the same amount of confidence that she had, though I was failing miserably at it.
I sat down next to her stiffly and stared straight ahead, not sure what to do. She gave a soft sigh next to me and placed her head on my shoulder, without thinking I placed my arm around her shoulders and lightly rubbed my hand up and down her arm. It felt so nice having her in my arms, and I would have liked to stay that way for a while longer but my arm was starting to fall asleep and I'm sure she was bored.
Gently, I lifted her head up from my shoulder so that she was facing me. I looked into her eyes for a moment before lowering my face towards her for a soft kiss. It was meant to be an innocent kiss, just something light and quick, but it was quickly made into one of passion, with more pressure and drawn out until we couldn't breath. Chaste kisses were placed on her cheek and neck as she caught her breath. Things were starting to get heavier so I thought we should lay down, rather then bringing her to my bed, too much work in my mind, I laid her down on the couch which was a little small for my full length to lay on but fit her rather well.
I placed my self on top of her and looked at her slightly pink tinged cheeks and the swollenness of her lips; I don't think I have seen a better sight. Nicole brought her hands up and placed them behind my head, pulled me down to her and kissed me with fierceness behind it. I brought my hands down to the bottom of her dressed and pulled it up over the top of her head. Just when I was about to reach down and pull my own shirt off, she moved her leg, which happened to brush against a ticklish spot on my side. I laughed and jumped at the contact which caused me to fall right off the couch. My cheeks flushed red with embarrassment as I looked up at her on the couch.
Looking over at my clock, Nicole got up from the couch and grabbed her dress pulling it back on. I was confused, what had I done wrong? Obviously falling off the couch didn't really go in my favor but it wasn't that bad. I stood up hoping that I could some how convince Nicole to stay here.
"I'm sorry Charlie, but I've got to go. We've got work in the morning and it's getting rather late." She said and placed a light kiss on my cheek and walked to the door.
Before she could make it out the door I caught up to her and placed my hand upon her arm. She looked over her shoulder at me and I shot her a sexy, confident smile hoping that would be enough to convince her but it wasn't. Nicole turned back towards the door and tried to take another step but I still held onto her hand.
"Stay." That was all I said and this time it was enough.
I got her to come back into the room and close the door that she held open. Lightly, I pulled on her arm and lead her towards my bedroom. If I was going to do this, I was going to do it right. Besides I didn't want to risk falling off of the couch again.