A/N: Hello Everyone
Hope you enjoyed the fist chapter, here is the second one. Also a big thanks to KR1571AN who reviewed my chapter!
Please Read and Review!
Norberta
When Hermione opened her eyes again she gasped at what lay before her.
"Beautiful isn't it?" Charlie said, inhaling as much of the Romanian air as possible, almost as if he hadn't been able to breath properly since returning to England.
Everywhere Hermione looked she could see green; green hills, green grass, green trees. They were now standing at the edge of the largest valley Hermione had ever seen, oddly enough it was also in the shape of a circle. In the centre was a large building, which Hermione assumed was Vale Crater Medicale, most of the land was taken up to accommodate the dragons she noticed, but there was a good third or so that seemed dedicated to the witches and wizards that lived here as well. "It's gorgeous Charlie! It seems to go on forever! I see why you love it here so much," she said taking it all in.
"It's the largest dragon reserve in the world. The valley is an almost perfect circle which is pretty unusual in itself, the whole reserve is over seventy-five square kilometres."
"That much? How on earth do you get around?" Hermione said wide-eyed.
"We apparate." Charlie said shrugging his shoulders, there are also floos set up all over the place. You can go to VC by floo tomorrow. If you like, I'll even come with you, you know so I can introduce you to everyone."
"That would be brilliant! Do you know Madame Acros?" Hermione said enthusiastically, she hadn't heard anything about her new boss and was a bit nervous.
"You mean Vi?" He said chuckling. "It's weird hearing her referred to as Madame Acros all her patients know her as Vi, or Violeta, don't worry about her she's strict but fair. Always willing to take the time to explain things to her interns and answer questions. Plus if she knows that you're a friend of mine she's bound to like you!" Charlie said puffing out his chest. "So shall we?" He said offering his arm to her. Without another word, she gripped his arm tightly and closed her eyes.
When she opened them again she saw that they had apparated into the village portion of the valley, right in front of a small brown cottage with white trim, surrounded by a short wooden fence placed on at least an acre of green grass. "Well this is it." Charlie said, sounding a bit embarrassed, though Hermione couldn't see why, it was positively charming.
"It's lovely Charlie, but isn't it a little dangerous to make the homes on a dragon reserve out of wood?" Hermione asked biting her lip.
Charlie chuckled at that. "No we have everything under special enchantments not to catch fire." Opening the gate, Hermione walked down the slate path, noticing patches of moss growing in between the cracks, towards the house. When she walked in she immediately stumbled on a dragon-hide boot. "Err sorry I kind of left in a rush, I didn't really have time to clean up." He said running around the room collecting his dirty clothes and some rubbish that had been strewn around the place. "I know its kind of small and there is only one bedroom but I should be able to make up a nice bed in here for myself so it shouldn't be a problem."
"Oh no Charlie I couldn't. This is your house, I couldn't possibly take the bedroom. I'll sleep out here, really it makes more sense I'm much smaller and will be able to sleep on the cot quite comfortably." Hermione said insistently.
"Well hopefully it won't be an issue for much longer, I've put in a request for a two bedroom cottage. I'm not really sure how long it will take, you never know with those kinds of things." He said shrugging his shoulders, "You take the bed, if for no other reason than if my mum found out she would kill me." Charlie chuckled.
"Well when you say it like that..." Hermione trailed off as she went to explore the rest of the house. Walking a little further into the living room she saw that there was a fire with a beautiful white mantle. On either side of the hearth there were book shelves, Hermione was glad to see that there would be room for a good portion of the books she had brought with her. Reading some of the titles she realized that most of Charlie's books had something or other to do with dragons. Interspersed there were books on How to tame a Wild Dragon, Dragons of the North, An encyclopedia on Dragons -Now with eleven new breeds! and Life of Flames: The Chronicles of Famous Keeper, Zachary O'Conner. She laughed when she noticed dragon figurines walking up and down the shelves as if they were guarding their territory. For when she went to reach for a book the green dragon with spikes down its back shot fire out at her.
"Don't worry they warm up to you after awhile they just don't like strangers much." Charlie said reassuringly. "The green one, the Emerald Short Snout, is especially nasty."
Hermione stepped back in fear of loosing an eyebrow, and decided it best to explore the rest of the house.
"Through that door is your bedroom, which has the bathroom attached to it," Charlie said pointing to the door on the left, "And to your right is the kitchen. I know its small but working with dragons kinda becomes your life and you don't really spend too much time here."
"Charlie really, it's lovely. Stop worrying so much."
"So I thought that after you put your things away I could give you the tour of the place and show you how to get around. And somewhere in between we can go to the Mess Hall for lunch, that's where all the dragon keepers have lunch. Its just easier than going home in the middle of the day, plus most of us don't have wives or girlfriends to make us lunch. And if we do they are usually dragon keeper's too." Charlie said chuckling, giving her a warm smile. "I also thought you could meet my friends at lunch, they'll all be there. How does that sound?"
Hermione couldn't get over how she had never noticed the second eldest Weasley before. When first meeting him the year of the Quidditch World Cup she just thought of him as Ron's older brother, who was known to excel at everything. She had admired him at the time after hearing that he had had the choice to play Quidditch professionally but had turned it down for a life of caring after dragons. Not many men she knew would do that, but never had she noticed how utterly attractive he was, nor how infectious his personality was. He had the same kind nature as his father, the brains like Percy, and the ability to make someone smile like Fred & George. Realizing that he was waiting for an answer she replied, "Sounds good to me!" She said, her voice a bit higher than she would have liked.
…...
After Hermione and Charlie finished reorganizing the cottage, they set out, now on their way to the main hub in the village. "This is where Luca and I usually have a pint after work," Charlie said pointing to a pub that had a sign hanging above the door in the shape of a dragon, in gold it read Horntail's Hideaway.
"Luca?" Hermione inquired.
"Oh yeah that's right I keep forgetting that you've never met Luca before, he came to the Burrow the Christmas that you guys were on the run. Luca is my best mate here at the reserve, hell he's my best mate anywhere really, besides Bill that is."
"Oh," Hermione said in understanding. "Did you meet Luca here on the reserve?" she asked interested.
"Yeah we started out here at the same time and were bunked up together in the training camps. You only get your own place if you get hired full time." Charlie said in way of explaining.
"When did you get hired full time?"
"Well technically you are working full time even as a trainee. The first year you are paired up with a Keeper, you stick by them at all times so there is always someone keepin' an eye on yeh'. Otherwise there would be a lot more accidents. Any ways they teach you everything they know about being a Keeper and after a year the Keeper then recommends you to the board to be hired full time or they recommend that you do another year of training. Luckily Luca and I were accepted and hired after only a year, we were the only ones that year to get hired, but that's not saying much I think the number of trainee's was a total of five." Charlie chortled. "Being a Dragon Keeper is not a very sought after job."
"I'd put up with a lot more than dragons to live here," Hermione said looking around the village, trying to absorb as much as possible.
"I'm glad you feel that way, you could be here for quite some time." At seeing Hermione's expression fall slightly he went on to say, "Don't worry Hermione, they won't find you here."
"I hope they do come here. That way I can end this and go back to my normal life." Charlie was about to reply when he was cut off by a thick Scottish accent.
"Oi! Charlie!" The tall, burley Scottish man yelled, walking over to them. "Who's the pretty little lass ye' got wit yeh'?" Hermione was instantly wary of this man, though if he was a friend of Charlie's he couldn't be that bad.
"Easy Cailean, this is my baby brother's friend Hermione. She's starting at VC tomorrow and I thought I'd give her a tour of the place."
"Yer brother's friend eh? Well pleased to meet yeh'!" It's not often that I get t' meet such a beautiful lass as y'rself." Cailean said, giving her a devilish wink as he kissed her hand. "So Hermione where are yeh stayin'?"
"I'm actually staying with Charlie." Hermione responded still a little stunned by Cailean's reaction to her. It wasn't often that men were coming up to her calling her beautiful.
"Are yeh' now," turning to Charlie, Cailean said, "Just yer' baby brother's friend eh? I've been to yer place Charlie. It's mighty tight in there for two friends to live in comfortably." Cailean said sceptically.
"I'm sleeping on the couch, don't let that imagination start assuming things." Charlie said laughing it off. "I put in a request for a two bedder but who knows how long that'll take."
"Well Hermione if you get tired of 'dis fella yer always welcome ter stay with me." Cailean said wagging his eyebrows suggestively. Hermione giggled at the outrageousness of this man.
"I'll keep that in mind," Hermione said good naturedly.
"Well we better be off Cailean, I still have to show her the rest of the village before lunch," Charlie said coming up to stand beside Hermione.
"See yer at the mess hall then." Cailean said before taking Hermione's hand in his own and giving it a kiss. Hermione blushed when he looked up giving her a devilish wink. "Goodbye Miss Hermione."
"Bye Cailean," Charlie said in a warning tone.
"Bye Cailean," Hermione said cheerily. Turning to Charlie she said, "So what's next on the tour?"
"I thought that maybe I could show you the dragons that I'm in charge of. Do you mind being that close to dragons?" Charlie said hesitantly.
"I'd love to see the dragons!" Hermione said enthusiastically, eyes wide.
"Really? You're not afraid?" Charlie said bemused.
"Well if I was facing them alone I'd be utterly terrified, but you know what you're doing, I trust your judgement."
"Well okay then. Let's go!" And without another word from either of them Charlie took her hand and apparated them away.
When they landed Hermione looked around tentatively, trying to spot any sort of threat, but it seemed that Charlie had apparated them to an entirely dragon-free field. "This is the spot that I apparate to every morning. It's a sectioned off area that dragons can't come near. It's to make sure that there is a safe way for us to arrive, otherwise we could end up appearing right in front of their face and startling the poor creatures," Charlie said in explanation.
"That makes sense, I guess I hadn't thought about it," Hermione said.
"It will eventually become second nature to you. Thinking about how your every move could possibly affect the dragons." Charlie said.
"You sound like a parent." Hermione said giggling.
"I guess that's what I sort of am." Charlie said chuckling. "Come on lets go find you a dragon to pet," Charlie said mischievously.
"You're not serious!" Hermione squeaked.
"No but your expression was worth the lie, you look utterly terrified," Charlie said laughing.
As Hermione followed Charlie down a dirt path she began to wonder how tame these dragons were. Knowing that Charlie was probably well aware of their limits she wasn't too worried. "Charlie?" she said after about ten minutes of walking in silence, "How much further are we going to be walking?" she inquired, trying not to sound like a child.
"We're almost there look," Charlie said, pointing at a man in the distance, as they came to the summit of the small mountain they had been climbing. "That's Smith, another Keeper on the reserve, if he's here that means that Norberta isn't too far away. He's supposed to be monitoring her."
"Why does she need to be monitored?" Hermione asked concerned, she did after all have a history with this particular dragon.
"Nothing to be worried about, she's pregnant." Charlie said with glee as they started to walk towards the keeper named Smith. "It's not too common for dragon's to breed in captivity. We usually only have about three or four births a year which is not a lot considering we have over three hundred dragons on the reserve, two hundred and thirteen of them being female. So it's taken very seriously here."
"Why so few?" Hermione asked, brows furrowed.
"Well one reason is that it takes longer than nine months for a dragon to hatch."
"Really? I had no idea." Hermione said enthusiastically.
"Yup, for dragons its more like fourteen months."
"What's the other reason?" Hermione said eager to learn more.
"Dragon's mate for life see, and many of them have mates that are still in the wild, and then there are some where their mates have passed away. Once a dragon has chosen it's mate, that's it for them." Charlie said looking sad for a moment. "Luckily for Norberta she found her mate here on the reserve, and hopefully if we Keepers do our jobs right, they should have a very long and healthy life together," he said smiling now.
"We will have to owl Hagrid a picture of the happy family after the baby has hatched," Hermione said with a smile, thinking about the new family.
"That's a great idea I'm sure Hagrid will be thrilled, I have to admit I've been bad about sending Hagrid updates." Charlie said looking a tad guilty as they came in speaking distance of the Keeper named Smith. "Oi! Smith!" Charlie called out.
"Charlie! Where'ya been?" Smith inquired. Like Charlie, Smith had red hair, although it was starting to fade into the background giving way to some grey, Hermione guessed him to be in his mid forties. He was also much taller than the second eldest Weasley, and had blue eyes. It seemed so far, at least to Hermione, that one of the requirements to be a dragon keeper was that you had to be at least mildly attractive if not drop dead gorgeous.
"Family emergency." Charlie said in way of explaining. "Where's Luca? I haven't seen him all day, and I've looked in all the usual spots."
"He didn't tell you?" Smith said looking surprised. "He was assigned to go pick up a wild Chinese Fireball just north of Lanzhou. He should be gone for at least two weeks."
"Two weeks? For a fireball?"
"Apparently he did some damage in a few local villages, there isn't anyone else to clean up after it so they have to." Smith said shrugging his shoulders. "So who's you're friend?" he said nodding in Hermione's direction.
"Oh sorry! I forgot you two don't know each other." Charlie said upset at himself for being so daft. "Smith this is my brother Ron's friend Hermione, she will be starting at VC tomorrow and I'm just showing her around. Hermione this is Smith he is the best keeper I know." Hermione's eyebrows rose, obviously impressed with the declaration.
"Nah, not the best." Smith said embarrassed. "Maybe better than most, but not the best."
"You know it's true, you taught me after all. And I think I turned out pretty well." Charlie said puffing out his chest.
"Well that is true." Smith admitted with a chuckle. "Will I see you later at the Horntail?"
Charlie looked over at Hermione for a moment before answering. "Not sure I'll be able to make it tonight, but maybe later this week."
"Suit yourself." Smith said shrugging his shoulders.
Their conversation was cut short when they heard a rustling from the bushes nearby. Charlie and Smith both had their eyes fixed on the area. All three were now quietly waiting for the appearance of Norberta. Slowly the Norwegian Ridgeback began to make her way into the clearing near a large cauldron that Hermione hadn't noticed before.
"Still feeding her brandy mixed with chicken's blood?" Charlie asked.
"Yup. Soon we'll have to change to cow's blood, but not for another week or so, the fetus is too young." Smith replied.
"Why will you be changing to cow's blood?" Hermione asked curiously looking up at Charlie.
It was Smith however who replied, "As Charlie said already, it takes fourteen months for a baby dragon to be born. The female dragon is known to keep the egg inside until as late as the eleventh month. The last three months that the egg is inside the female dragon are by far the most important for a dragon fetus. They start growing rapidly and therefore need more nutrients, and cow's blood is a good source of everything it needs."
"Fascinating." Hermione said eyes wide watching Norberta drink up the vile concoction.
"Isn't it?" Charlie said with same look in his eyes. It was funny how none of it ever seemed to get old to him, no matter how many times he came upon a dragon, he was amazed at the magesticness of them.
After another half hour the silence was broken by Hermione's stomach growling. Hermione's face blushed crimson when she realized Charlie and Smith had been able to hear it as well.
"Blimey Hermione! If you were that hungry why didn't you say something?" Charlie said chuckling.
"I hadn't noticed, I was too caught up watching Norberta I guess."
"Let's go get you something to eat." Charlie said starting to head towards the Mess Hall.
"There's no need to do that. I don't mind waiting a little bit." Hermione said.
"Nonsense! Besides everyone will be there already." Charlie said brushing it off.
"Yeah and maybe Charlie can introduce you to some of the nurse's, he certainly knows enough of 'em!" Smith teased.
"Oi! I don't know that many nurse's." Charlie said shoving Smith as they walked up the path towards the mess hall.
"You know enough." Smith said with an evil smirk.
"Do the nurse's eat there as well?" Hermione asked brightening up. It would be lovely to meet some of her co-workers the day before, especially if she had Charlie with her to help break the ice.
"Yup, but most of them are usually too busy to talk," Charlie said mater-of-factly.
"Oh." Hermione said a bit crest fallen.
"Relax Hermione you'll meet everyone tomorrow, trust me, most of them are really nice." Charlie said in an attempt to comfort her.
"It's the mostly part that concerns me." Hermione muttered under her breath, following the two unusually chatty men towards the Mess Hall.