Dragon Man Part I - Disorder of a Weasley

Chapter 1

Charles Weasley is a popular guy. He's not bad looking, is laid back almost to a fault and fond of the odd fire whiskey at the end of a hard days work. He's a risk taker, of many sorts, although to him, he just does what he enjoys. Call him Charles though and the famous twinkling Weasley blue eyes and good humour will change pretty quick, he likes Charlie, or Weasley, and will let you know in no uncertain terms should you transgress from that.

His popularity extends to just about every area of his life. His family love him, like a brother and friend. His friends from Hogwarts admire his drive and ambition, and his Quiddditch talents, even as an adult. His team mates at the dragon reserve in Romania admire his guts and bravery, and enjoy his parties. Women admire his easy smile, laid back nature and muscular form.

Fellow members of the Order of the Phoenix like him, he brings almost a breath of fresh air into Grimmauld place (and the aroma of sweaty dragon as Ginny complains) when he drops in to give a report. He sits and drinks with his brother Bill, Sirius and Remus, discussing everything from the Quiddditch World cup to female conquests. They know he can, and will, fight with and for them. They also know that his 'job' for the Order isn't as benign as some would think. He spends his days wrangling with dragons and his evenings weighing up the witches and wizards around him to ascertain their allegiance.

Romania is a good hiding place for a dark wizard, and Charlie knows this. Many a death eater has come to the dragon reserve, looking for people to swell their ranks. Charlie is always on the look out, and careful who he approaches to recruit into the order.

Dragons are by and large untrainable and untameable. It doesn't stop Voldemorts minions trying though. A few have been killed in their bid to provide the dark lord with something that even Dumbledore would have issues containing – a dragon under the control of dark forces would be a disaster. It has never succeeded yet. The magical community have spent a few hundred years trying to work out exactly how a dragon can be trained to obey human commands, and the general opinion is that it can't. It's simply too dangerous. Their magic is complex and mind control draughts and spells usually render them unconscious or worse. Training with food works to an extent, but the furthest any researcher had got was teaching a dragon to come back to a certain place when called, to be fed. He didn't get much further, they are unpredictable creatures and he was burned where he stood by a Hungarian Horntail that considered his breakfast to be late.

So by and large, the magical community accepted that dragons are beautiful and wondrous creatures, but of little value in a practical way save for their hide and blood for clothes and healing. They need to be kept contained in places such as the Romanian reserve for muggle and wizard safety, and thus they need to be cared for. That's what Charlie does, he cares for the dragons, along with his team of handlers. The reserve is much like a muggle zoo, it runs tours and holidays to fund the care of the dragons, and they are used sometimes for events such as the tri wizard tournament.

The Romanian reserve also runs a breeding programme, and Charlie has become instrumental in this, caring for the cow dragons as if he personally were the father to their eggs, once the eggs were laid and hatched, he cares for the young dragons and their mothers until they are old enough to leave the cow and live in the group enclosures with other youngsters. He stays with his 'girls' as he puts it, but he does keep up with the progress of each egg he hatches.

So it's after a hard day of wearing his protective gear, in scorching temperatures, whilst watching over a courting pair of Common Welsh Greens, that Charlie heads off to the local wizard village for a few drinks and to see what and who he can find.

…...

And he finds nothing of interest, except that the landlord of the pub has set up an illegal betting ring on the outcome of winged horse races. As he offered better odds than the legitimate book makers, Charlie had had a punt, and was quite pleased with his pocket full of gold.

Finishing his flagon of house ale, Charlie had barely left the creaky old inn and making his rather unsteady way back to the reserve when a double crack, in stereo, had him diving for his wand automatically.

"Boss!" the owner of the voice was breathless and Charlie released his grip on the wand as he realised it was Vina, the second in command of his team accompanied by Phil 'Nelly' Nelson.

"'Sup Vee?" he asked calmly, she and Nelly were thick as thieves, and it wouldn't be the first time they'd sought him out to settle an argument between them out of hours. Despite protestations that 'He had bloody brothers at home he could referee' he didn't actually mind, he found it quite flattering that they saw him as a role model.

"Mate it's Tess" Nelly said, no trace of his usual bouncy humour or attitude.

"Tess?" Charlie's eyes narrowed. Tess was a Chinese Fireball cow dragon, she had arrived at the reserve at the same time as Charlie as a yearling, and if anyone could have a relationship of mutual respect and trust between Wizard and Dragon, Charlie had it with Tess. She was undoubtedly his favourite, and he certainly got closer with less injuries than anyone else ever had.

"Eggs stuck or something" Vina panted "She's in a bad way..."

Charlie was instantly sober "What? No, she's too early to lay..." he faltered.

"I know" Nelly said quietly "She started padding about and looking like she might a couple of hours ago, and then she sat, and tried and tried, nothing. I think it's stuck because she's in agony Charlie...but she won't give up"

Without an answer there was another loud crack and Charlie disapparated from where he was, he was beside the dragons cage a split second later. Two further cracks announced Vina and Nelly's arrival again beside him.

But the cage was empty.

"Where is she?" Charlie demanded.

Vina looked confused "She was here..." she looked around as if the dragon may be hiding behind one of the rocks in the enclosure. Highly unlikely seeing as she was at least 20 feet taller than any of them and she couldn't get out of the cage without assistance. She was in a nesting cage, with charms and wards that meant she could be seen and watched around the clock while making her think she had privacy and safety to lay, guard and then hatch her new egg. She was no where to be seen.

"Sam was here" Nelly said in a rush "He was trying to calm her with a soother and get a look but it wasn't working, I think he lost his eyebrows again"

Charlie snorted. Sam was the unofficial animal healer, and greatly respected on the reserve. His eyebrows were the stuff of legend. Although covered in scars and marks around his tattoo's, Sam had not sustained a dragon borne injury in living memory. Only his eyebrows ever suffered. Charlie was convinced the man was flame proof.

"The draconem hopitalis" Charlie muttered, striding towards a medieval looking building that was the back drop to the nesting enclosures.

Nelly frowned at Vina, who shook her head. The Dragon Hospital or draconem hopitalis as it was officially known, was usually a one way street for a dragon.

…...

Ruby d'Eath- Hanson took a deep breath and hovered her wand against the dragon's bulging belly, muttering a spell under her releasing breath she slowly drew the wand down. A slit appeared in the dragons scales, revealing solid red muscle and tissue underneath. Taking her wand back to the top of the incision, she repeated the process again, muttering a slightly different incantation this time, not needing such a strong spell now she was through the outer hide.

"Much prefer dragons with red blood" she said to Sam through her face mask "The Welsh green's blood is a bugger to get off if you get it on you"

Sam, also gowned and masked nodded sagely as he mopped up the red blood oozing from the wound carefully to allow her to see.

"Stings n'all" the old wizard answered.

Now through the layers of sinew and muscle Ruby plunged her hands into the dragon, looking at the two keepers at the dragons head for any sign that her sedation spell was wearing off. No one liked to be caught out when a dragon woke up, but having one wake up when you were up to your elbows in it's innards wasn't something anyone wanted to deal with or something you'd be likely to be around to tell your grand children.

One of the keepers nodded and she continued for a moment, deep in concentration. The concentration was snapped when the heavy doors to the high ceiling room they were in were thrust open.

Charlie stopped and gaped for a moment. Operations on dragons were somewhat rare to say the least, and in his years as a keeper, he'd not known of one single operation here at the reserve. Stuck eggs were either magically removed, or sometimes manually pulled from the dragon. Sometimes nothing helped and the dragon simply died.

"What the fu...?" Charlie's good manners, especially around women, kicked in despite the stress of the situation when he saw that the green robed person up to their elbows in his favourite dragon was a woman "Fudge is going on?" he demanded.

Ruby merely looked at him and then continued feeling around inside the dragon. Sam answered.

"Tried everything" he told Charlie "Nothing helped, she was on her last legs Mrs Hanson here happened to be visiting..."

"And she decided to have a bash!?" Charlie finished incredulously. Sam had said the woman's name like it should mean something to him, and deep down, Hanson rang a bell. But he had neither the effort nor inclination to think about it further right now.

"Only option Weasley" said another gowned figure that Charlie hadn't noticed, it was he realised recognising the voice, the chief wizard and keeper of the reserve, Duke Helborne.

Charlie snorted "I could have pulled the egg" he glowered "Operations are too risky, she'll die"

"She was going to die anyway" Helborne snapped back "This is her last shot" he was well aware of Charlie's reservations regarding the procedure, and he knew how het up he could get over his precious dragons...

"Bollocks" Charlie snarled back, manners forgotten.

"Out!" Helborne said "Mrs Hanson needs to concentrate!"

Charlie allowed himself to be pulled reluctantly from the room into the dank corridor outside by Nelly and Vina. The door had no windows, and seconds after they left he heard the tell tale hiss of an exclusion charm being put on the doors. They were standard at the reserve, they allowed the passage of certain people to some areas and restricted others. Charlie had no doubt that for once, he was one of the restricted. He settled for pacing up and down outside, stopping to glare at the door every third or fourth pass.

"Bloody quacks being let loose on my dragon" he muttered.