Chapter 1
It was a beautiful morning in Romania, Hermione Granger noticed as she stepped out of her tent. She stretched her back hearing all the pops and cracks along with the roar of a dragon.
Everyone thought after school that she would become an auror with Harry and Ron, which would have been nice had she wanted to do it. After dealing with dark wizards throughout her adolescence Hermione decided that dealing with the safety of animals was what she really wanted to do with the rest of her life, not the safety of other human beings.
After school she chopped all her hair off, magically straightened it every day so she could manage it, and started going out in the sun more. Along with her new 'image' name a new nickname.
"Morning Mia." A tall red-head girl waved while walking past.
"Good morning Kiera." Hermione responded with a wave. She looked at her watch noticing there was time for a quick shower before breakfast.
Summoning her shower bag and a towel, Hermione made her way to the stalls. On the very end there was an empty one and she made way for it only to be blocked by a tan red-headed man.
"Oh, morning Char." She said smiling at him with a hand on her hip.
Charlie Weasley smiled and messed up her hair. "Sorry Mia, were you going to use this stall?" He asked. "I thought so," He said when she nodded. "I'll just wait for one to open up." He took a seat under a nearby tree.
Mia entered the stall and showered quickly, drying her hair with her wand and wrapping a towel around herself, she exited noticing that a stall still hadn't opened for Charlie.
He looked up as Mia walked out and she motioned toward the shower and without a word walked away. Taking all her stuff back to her tent she threw the shower bag and towel in the corner after drying herself off and picking out a fitted white tee shirt and jeans. Picking up her wand and straightening her hair, Mia pulled on her boots and walked out of her tent towards the mess hall.
"Mia, come sit with us!" she heard from the left. Making her way over she sat between two of her friends Matt and Julia.
"Hey guys," she said serving herself some eggs and toast. "so what dragons are you guys working on today?"
"I'm working in the hatchery today, I think that grey widowmaker egg is about to hatch." Julia said pulling back her long silky blond hair into a pony tail. Julia was born in Sweden and spent the first few years on the reservation using sun block charms to keep her pale skin from burning.
"I think Charlie asked me to help him with the ridgebacks for the day since Craig got the flu." Matt answered.
Mia's head shot up. "Char asked you to help out too?" Matt nodded.
"Apparently one of the males has been causing a lot of trouble with the others." Matt's family lived in Romania not too far from the reserve so he got to see them for dinners every week. He had jet black hair and a deep tan making his white teeth seem even brighter.
"Well that dragon wants to become the alpha male, kinda like me!" came a voice from behind Mia and Julia. Turning around they saw another trainer named Jake.
Jake was born and raised in Cambridge, England and had finished Hogwarts in Mia's second year. He had been the most popular in his year and thought that carried out into his carrer.
"Well that's too bad for this poor guy because the true alpha male keeps beating him down." Charlie said calmly as he sat down next to Matt with a slight grin. Running a hand over his hair to artfully mess it up in a way that all the girls on the reserve loved, Charlie continued. "So sorry Jake but it looks like the only way you'll get to be an alpha male is in your dreams."
Jake scowled as he turned and walked out of the mess tent, the four started laughing. "That was brilliant Char." Julia said spearing her potatoes with a fork.
"I try." He said picking up a piece of toast. "If you two are ready," he said to Mia and Matt "we should probably get going to get these ridgebacks under control. They're making the neighboring pens go chaotic as well."
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Charlie Weasley was woken up by the roar of a nearby dragon pen at the crack of dawn. Smiling sleepily to himself he turned to lay on his back the necklace his father had given him as a boy repositioning to his shoulder with the movement. That necklace was practically the reason he had become a dragon trainer in the first place. It was a baby dragon claw on a silver chain, and he still remembered the day his father had brought him to the shed and placed it around his neck for the first time.
Sitting up and yawning he threw the covers off of his body. With a slight shiver he placed his feet on the cool carpeting of the tent, even though Romania was a relatively warm place it cooled down at night. He pulled out a plain cotton tee-shirt and a pair of thick pants from his dresser then sat in his desk chair pulling the shirt over his head.
There were only a few things on the desk and Charlie liked it that way. A picture of his family (Hermione and Harry included) taken after the defeat of Voldemort, a picture of the quidditch team his seventh year at Hogwarts, a few pictures of dragons he had helped raise and train, a pile of papers for people to train, and a manila folder with his assignment for the day. Looking at the quidditch picture he noticed Dumbledore enter and stop just behind the team, the man's watery blue eyes moved to seem like he was staring at the picture of his family (which had just shown the twins wrap their arms around Hermione and mess up her hair) and with a smile he strolled out of the frame again.
Well that was weird. Charlie thought rubbing his eyes. Moving the direction of his brain to work, he opened the manila folder. A picture of a Norwegian Ridgeback spitting fire scared him for a split second before realizing the picture couldn't hurt him. Chuckling he read through his instructions and who was his team for the day, noticing that everyone on his team had been with the reserve for three years or more since the ridgebacks were harder to handle than other species especially when fighting for their territory.
The sun started shining through the gap in the tent flaps and Charlie stood and grabbed his shower stuff pulling his pants on before exiting. The showers weren't far from his tent but in the time it took Charlie to walk there all the stalls were filled except one. That is, until Hermione walked up and caught his eye. Charlie quickly walked up and blocked her way into the stall.
"Oh, morning Char." She said smiling at him.
Charlie smiled at her, "Sorry Mia, were you going to use this stall?" he messed up her hair in a playful manner. "I thought so," He said when she nodded. "I'll just wait for one to open up." He took a seat under a nearby tree.
Sitting down Charlie thought about earlier when Dumbledore had looked at young Hermione in the picture. Impossible. He thought, It couldn't have been her he wanted me to see, Ginny had also just jumped on Bill's back and I'm pretty sure Harry and Ron had been making faces behind Percy.
After thinking for awhile Hermione finally left the shower stall, her short hair curling with the humidity of the morning she waved and walked off toward her tent. Jumping at the opportunity Charlie got in the shower and scrubbed his freckled skin clean, he only took a few moments before drying himself off and redressing before walking back to his tent and disposing of the towel.
Taking the walk to the mess tent slow, Charlie shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his work pants and took a look around at the landscape. Romania had tons of mountainous regions and the reservation was in the middle of a lesser known one. The sun was peeking out from behind one of the taller mountains and the man sighed. This is why he had chosen to be here, it was beautiful.
Speaking of beautiful. He thought to himself thinking back to the pictures on his desk. NO! I can't think of her like that, she's my co-worker and more importantly my little brothers best friend! Not even realizing he had walked right to the front of the mess tent, Char shook the thoughts out of his head and walked in with the resolution that today he wouldn't let Dumbledore influence his decisions from beyond the grave.
Because Dumbledore never got what he wanted anyway.
AN: So, how was it? I honestly completely forgot about this story since I had gone away to college but looking through my computer I found it and decided to work on it. Now, it's time to pick up my other stories!