LbN: For TellatrixForever. Happy Christmas, mate!


Teddy woke up and glanced at the clock on the wall. It was officially Christmas - a quarter past midnight - and Charlie was talking to someone. Teddy knew he had crashed his favorite uncle's solitary Christmas, but he wondered who else had. He peeked over the couch to see two cloaked figures passing presents to Charlie.

"Charlie?"

"Ted - sorry. I didn't mean to wake you. Er… This is Tobin, and this is Liam. They're colleagues of mine."

"Pleased to meet you," Teddy said groggily. He pulled on a jumper and walked to the door, stopping short when he saw what was just beyond the door. "Wow," he breathed.

"Oh boy," Charlie groaned.

"Didn't know you had company, Charlie," the one called Liam said. He was tall and wiry, and had a burn scar on his neck. He reached out to shake Teddy's hand when the boy made it to the door. "You must be the nephew with the motorbike."

"Teddy, yeah," Teddy said. "Is...is that…?"

"A Ukrainian Ironbelly," Tobin said. She flipped her silvery afro out of her eyes and jerked her head toward it. "Want to have a look?"

As Charlie groaned again, Teddy scrambled for his boots and coat. He didn't bother running to the bathroom to change - he simply pulled his jeans up over his pajama pants and ran out to see the dragon.

The three adults stood to the side of the dragon's cage. It was connected to what looked like an old Victorian coach. Teddy could see his breath in the air as he approached the cage, but he ignored the cold.

Charlie squeezed his shoulder and pulled him into a side-hug. "It's your age, Ted," he said. "He'll get a lot bigger."

"Looks plenty big to me," Teddy said. "Where's he going?"

"Liam and I are Dragonologists - assigned to the American Dragon Council. We're taking him to one of the reserves out in Colorado. Do you -"

"Tobin," Charlie whined.

"What?" Teddy asked.

"He's visiting - we have to be at my Mum's for Christmas brunch tomorrow," Charlie interjected.

Liam and Tobin were grinning now. Tobin punched him on the arm. "Don't be such a spoiled sport. We'll have you back in plenty of time."

"What do you say, Teddy?" Liam asked. "We have to stop at checkpoints, and we were going to see if Charlie wanted to go on a delivery. But there's plenty of room for both of you."

"We're going," Teddy said, grinning brightly at Charlie. "You've got to be up for it!"

Charlie smiled, and Teddy knew he had him. That smile meant Charlie was thinking back to his years at Hogwarts, going on mini adventures with Teddy's mum. He ruffled Teddy's turquoise hair. "Fine, but we're Apparating to brunch no matter what. Got your wand?"

"Got it."

"In we get, then," Tobin said.

They piled into the carriage and, with a lurch, took off into the air.


The carriage was more spacious on the inside than it looked. It worked a bit like the night bus, moving lightning fast through the sky. There was a small oven on the shelf in the back, connected to a set of pipes. The pipes, apparently, were near the sedated dragon's snout, and its snores powered the oven. Teddy was enjoying some fresh, dragon-baked cookies as Charlie, Liam, and Tobin recounted stories of past dragon drop-offs.

"The best one was that dragon at Hogwarts," Liam said.

"Er...maybe we save that story," Charlie said in a rush.

"Why? I know about the TriWizard dragons," Teddy said, grabbing his third cookie.

"No - we mean the one we took off the Astronomy Tower from Potter that night," Tobin clarified.

"WHAT?" Teddy yelped.

"Harry's going to kill me," Charlie grumbled.

"He's not," Teddy said. "What happened?"

"Norberta is our favorite dragon now on the reserve," Charlie said. "The first time I heard about her, her name was Norbert, and Ron was begging me to come take her off Hagrid's hands…."

"Let's just say," Liam said, "that this was a freelance job."

"Yeah?" Teddy laughed. "How many of those do you guys do?"

"Not a lot anymore. Something about getting singed in the dead of night, in the middle of a swamp, while wearing nothing but a reflective pair of boxers that takes all the fun out of thrill seeking."

"Oh this I've got to hear."

Somewhere between the end of the story, the eighth round of cookies, and clearing the English checkpoint, Teddy fell asleep. He missed the New York checkpoint entirely, but woke up over Chicago. The carriage jerked and lurched, jolting him from his sleep.

"Whassat?"

"Bollocks - not again," Liam said. He took out his wand and climbed out of the window onto this side rails.

"What's going on?" Teddy asked Charlie.

"Sedation wore off," Charlie explained, following Liam out of the carriage.

Teddy stuck his head out of the window, watching how Charlie shimmied along the rails. He waited until Charlie was preoccupied with trying to subdue the dragon, before following. He moved cautiously along the railings, slipping twice, but managing to make it to the the small platform.

"TED ARE YOU MENTAL?" Charlie shouted above the wind.

"What's up?" Ted yelled.

All three hit the deck as the carriage and cage lurched again. The dragon gave a loud roar, shaking the entire structure.

"He's fully awake - we can't stun him even with Teddy here."

"We've got to administer the potion!"

"At thirty thousand feet?"

"How can I help?" Teddy yelled.

The carriage lurched again, and the dragon roared. A fox-shaped Patronus floated down and yelled, "It's getting warm in here!" in Tobin's voice.

"Cookies sound good in theory…." Liam grumbled.

Teddy glanced around the cage, and hopped down. "Throw it to me!"

"Ted!"

"Throw it!"

Liam levitated the potion down to him. And that was the point when Teddy noticed his boots beginning to melt. He jumped over the dragon's tail. The creature was chained down, but it was making such a fuss that the entire carriage was still rocking.

"What now?" Teddy yelled.

"In his ears!" both men called.

"His mom's looking down on this and screaming! She's going to strike me down if he gets fried," Charlie yelled to Liam. "I'm going down there with him."

"Look at that! He's a natural!"

"He's going to school for advanced charms! He's staying away from Dragons, Aurors, and Quidditch!"

Teddy could hear all of this, as they were shouting over the wind, but he wasn't actually paying attention. The Ukrainian Ironbelly looked like it had large ears, but that was actually just the scale pattern. In reality, the ears were just foot-sized holes in the dragon's head. Dangerously close to it's mouth. It was chained down, but if it decided to self-destruct, they were all toast. Literally.

Charlie jumped down into the cage. "I'll give you a leg up."

For the first time since he was probably about eight years old, Teddy let him pick him up and put him on his shoulders. He dumped the potion in the dragon's ear, and the cage stopped rocking.

"Hot, hot, hot, hot, hothothothothothothot…." Teddy scrambled back from the dragon's head, knocking both himself and Charlie down in the process.

Charlie helped him up. "Are you sure you're not a Gryffindor? Because that was so brave...and so stupid."

Teddy grinned at him. "Think I've got a career as a Dragonologist?"

"No. Hell no. Let's get back up there."

When they reached the carriage, it was freezing inside. Tobin had activated the emergency cooling charm.

"Thanks, lads," she said. "Hope you don't mind getting ready for Colorado a little early.


Colorado's mountains were snowy and beautiful. The reserve was a hidden valley, with only two other dragons there. They'd deposited the sleeping dragon into its new home, and then headed into the warmth of the small tavern situated in one of the caves.

Dragonologists as a whole, were a rowdy bunch, and they were ready and willing to induct Teddy into the fire-taming brotherhood. They pressed a mug of beer into his hands, and Charlie pretended not to see. He didn't, however, pretend not to see the pyramid of shots that got passed around. He just wasn't quick enough to stop the three Teddy took.

"If I didn't know better," he said, leaning closer to Teddy. "I'd say you'd done a few shots before."

"I'm choosing to not incrim - hic - incriminate myself."

Charlie gently took Teddy's arm and glanced at his watch. It was four in the morning back in England. "Let's get you up to bed. You lot don't mind if we crash for a few hours?"

"Not at all," Jimmy, the team lead said. "And if your homeboy there remembers all this when he wakes up, tell him to give us a call if he wants a job."

He hoisted Teddy up by the arm and carried him off to bed. The hotel was attached to the tavern, connected by a series of narrow stairs. As he dropped Teddy into his bed, he couldn't help smiling. All in all, it had been a great Christmas Eve and/or morning. "You've got a few hours to sleep, mate. And please don't tell Grandma Weasley or your Gran that I got you drunk."

"This was awesome," Teddy whispered. "Best Christmas ever."

Charlie threw himself into the other bed, and tapped his watch with his wand. "Yeah - but maybe next year we stay in and play Gobstones."