The name of this book is The Adventures of the Dragon Keeper. I started with one idea and it took on a mind of its own. I am so infatuated with Charlie Weasley that I knew I had to write his story.
The characters and the whole wizarding world is based on J.K. Rowling's wonderful Harry Potter series.
While the story was designed to be read by everyone, it does contain mature themes and language.
Chapter One—The Dragon Keeper
It had been three years since the defeat of Lord Voldemort by Harry Potter. While there were still dark wizards (as there had always been), the wizarding world flourished in the sense of optimism and freedom that had not been experienced during the reign of the Dark Lord. There were wizards who had never before lived without the underlying threat of Voldemort who had a difficult time believing that the reign of terror was finally over.
Charlie Weasley returned to his dormitory room at the dragon sanctuary very late after attending his brother Percy's wedding. He was happy for Percy, even after losing a bet with George that Percy would never get married. He did not mind losing the five galleons once he saw how happy his mum was. Percy had married, Audrey McMillan, a witch he met while working at the Ministry. She was shy and unpretentious and appeared to be extremely devoted to Percy. While his youngest brother Ron was convinced that she had to be under some sort of confunding spell, he acknowledged that she was a pretty sweet girl who would make "picky" Percy happy.
Charlie also was able to celebrate his niece, Victoire's first birthday a week before the wedding. Bill and Fleur, along with the rest of family doted on their beautiful baby daughter. She had her mother's eyes and her father's flaming red hair and ability to charm all those around her. She certainly had grand pop and grandma wrapped around her little finger.
The family had not completely recovered from Fred's death, but they were recovering.
The Ministry of Magic had paid homage to those who were killed fighting Voldemort and the Death Eaters. The gesture eased some of the pain. Charlie was worried if his brother, George, Fred's twin, would ever recover. But he dived into their joke shop business, Weasley Wizarding Wheezes, and was planning to open several shops in other wizarding communities, included America. His friendship with Angelina Johnson was blossoming, and Charlie saw signs of the old George finally returning.
Charlie was still feeling the effects of the fire whiskey party with his brothers and Harry Potter. They drank to the fallen witches and wizards, to the defeat of Voldemort and the death eaters, to Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter, the Minister of Magic, until they ran out of toasts, finally toasting, "To motherhood!!" "To gillyweed!" Clearly the night was filled with merriment.
It was very late when he returned to his room. Regretting the last twelve toasts, Charlie had to return to work the next day. Luckily, he was scheduled to patrol the out perimeter of the sanctuary for any evidence of damage; a pretty routine job where, hopefully, he would not come in contact with any dragons. Confronting dragons while hung over might spell disaster.
"How's the family?" asked Mark, his friend and co-worker, asked the next morning as they mounted their brooms.
"Good," he said. "I think mum's back to normal. She's started hounding me about my hair being too long again. It's no longer than Bill's, but she never says a word to him any more about his hair. It was good seeing the family."
"So, did Fleur introduce you to any of her Veela cousins?" Mark asked, smiling shrewdly. The Veela were very beautiful that were able to mesmerize and charm males.
Charlie flashed a brilliant smile. "Oh, yeah." He nodded, knowingly.
The morning was spent near the highest barrier. The outer perimeter of the sanctuary was charmed to hold up to dragon flames and repeated head-butting the invisible barrier. Occasionally, the barrier became weakened by the constant assault of a dragon determined in its pea-sized reptilian brain to escape.
None had escaped during Charlie's watch, but he had heard the tale of the great escape by two Hungarian horntails that caused the near annihilation of a small village. A very powerful memory charm was used to convince the muggles of the village that the devastation was due to an earthquake, causing an avalanche that wiped out half the town, and killed fourteen men and seventy cattle and goats. The muggles talked for years about the earth quake that had caused a natural gas explosion without remembering the terrible slaughter.
Needless to say, guarding the perimeter was a high priority and was one of Charlie's favorite assignments. He loved to fly and any time spent outside on his broomstick was pure pleasure. His second favorite assignment was that of wrangler. Wrangling was physically moving the dragons from one area to another. When a dragon (usually a juvenile male) traveled outside its territory, a wrangler had to capture and return them to their area. This happened more often than one would think. Although most dragons were not bothered by other species, they were extremely territorial, and would fight to maintain or overtake an area. Juvenile males were relatively easy to wrangle. Not so for adult females. Females were more vicious than males and one had to have all his senses about him when dealing with dragons, but especially with females.
The sanctuary was located in the Caspian Mountains in Romania. The facility was founded by Harvey Ridgebit, the famous dragonologist. Not only did the sanctuary rescue dragons, it was also responsible for keeping the only census of every dragon alive. Working at the sanctuary was considered a privilege and from the hundreds of witches and wizards who applied for internship, only five were chosen per year. The internship lasted for 15 years and only a small percentage of those interns were asked to remain at the sanctuary as fellows. Charlie had worked at the sanctuary for about ten years and was well on his way to becoming a fellow. Except for playing professional Quidditch, a popular wizard sport, Charlie could not imagine doing anything else but work with dragons. His whole being was revolved around dragons first and his family a close second.
The next two days were spent high in the clouds over the sanctuary. Mark, who was taller and lankier than the muscular Charlie, flew at a lower altitude for fear of being swept off his broom by the strong air currents. He was less comfortable flying than Charlie. The process involved dividing the perimeter in small patches, pointing their wands at the area and exclaiming, "Revelio! " which turned the area a deep magenta. Any weakness in the perimeter would turn from magenta to lime green. The process was tedious and after two days there they found no breaches in the barrier.
On the fourth day, however, they found evidence of a weakening in an area close to the highest mountain range. Charlie used a repairing charm to reinforce the area, and the two finally finished the whole perimeter by the fifth night.
They spent one more night in the mountains and waited for their replacements. Charlie wanted to check the area again that he had repaired to make sure he had not missed a miniscule tear. A very small tear was just as dangerous as a gaping hole and small tears were almost impossible to detect.
"Come on, Charlie," Mark groaned. "You got everything." Mark was anxious to return to his dormitory room and get some restful sleep. He complained about getting broom sores on his backside from spending so much time in the air.
"Just want to make sure, Mark. You got anything better to do?" Charlie noted.
"Yes, I have," he said. "I'm going to have a nice, long, hot bath. Then I'm going drink my weight in fire whiskey, and have my way with Esmeralda." Mark winked.
"Esmeralda is your girlfriend?" Charlie asked incredulously. "I thought you told me she was a hag." Charlie shook his head and laughed.
"Well, she's not a real hag. Besides, she thinks dragon wranglers are macho, and I heard from Rufullio that she's easy. So," he dragged out slowly. His voice trailed off.
"But you're not a wrangler, mate. You're a keeper."
"I know, but Esmeralda doesn't know. Technically, I am a wrangler. Or I could be," said Mark.
Charlie had more experience as a wrangler than Mark. He had been at the sanctuary for 10 years while Mark was going on his second year. The sanctuary directors paired the more experienced keepers with the rookies. Mark and Charlie had worked together since Mark had entered the internship program. They worked together well and Mark admired Charlie's talent with dragons. One day, he told Charlie more than once, I'm going to be as good as you.
They settled into their camp site and Charlie began cooking their supper. After supper, he was going to tackle the daily progress report that they had to turn in by owl the next day. Mark was dreadful at paperwork and always convinced Charlie to take care of it. He didn't mind. Finishing the week-long operation included the wrap-up paperwork. Charlie did not like leaving things unfinished. After he completed the final report, he summoned one of the sanctuary owls and sent off the report.