I'm really excited to present you with another chapter and though there isn't a lot of action in it, I think it's still an important one.
Thank you music anomaly, xXMizz Alec VolturiXx and avengeme for being loyal readers and the first people to review 'Unchosen'. May many more follow in you footsteps :)
As for the frequency of Cedric appearing in this chapter I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you and myself as well. Now that Cedric has graduated and Danny still has to go back to Hogwarts for two more years, we won't be seeing as much of him as we did in the first two parts of this story. But he's still a big part in Danny's like since they're dating and all so he will still be an active member in my story.
Harry and Danny are siblings and even though they have a pretty strange connection, inevitably that means they will fight like cats and dogs sometimes. But they are also one united front so every falling out that they've had so far and might still have in the future, will be easily (?) overcome.
Chapter 2
The four of us all did pretty well on our OWLs and Mrs Weasley was beaming with pride for three children who weren't even her own. But Granger and Harry seemed to find it almost normal that she takes up the role of surrogate-mother for everyone so I decided not to comment on it. I do know she's acting this way out of the bottom of her big heart.
I am too busy trying to stay out of her hug-loving arms that I don't see something fall out of Harry's envelope until he bends down to pick it up.
"What's that?" I point at the shiny badge in his hand.
He shows it to me and I read the bold letters printed on it that say 'Quidditch Captain'.
"You're the new Quidditch Captain for the Gryffindor Team?" I smirk.
"Apparently." He looks baffled at the thing that proclaimed him as the future hope for winning the Quidditch cup this year.
"It makes sense," Granger says. "You've been on the team the longest and with Angelina, Alicia, Fred and George all gone, there really weren't a lot of options."
Why did she just make it sound like he didn't earn it but was merely the only choice left?
"Well even so, congratulations, Harry," I smile at him. "You'll do great. And this ups my chances to get on the team as a chaser this year."
"You'll still have to try out," He smiles.
"I'm guessing my chances are still pretty good," I shrug. "As long as I don't hit a little kid in the face this year."
"I'm sorry, what?!" Granger shrieks at me and Harry looks at me strangely.
"Oh… You guys didn't know that?" I give them a dumb-struck look.
I really thought I had at least told Harry about that. Oh, wait. I didn't because the whole reason I punched the kid in the first place was all the nasty things he was saying about Harry. I didn't want my brother to know about that.
"Oh, Danny," Mrs Weasley calls for my attention. "Arthur has arranged for a portkey to take you to Romania tomorrow afternoon to go visit Charlie. He'll be the one to bring you back the next day as well. He just wrote that it's very warm there so you cannot forget to wear appropriate clothes and the right preparations as to not get a heat stroke.
I allow her to continue to fuss over me until lunch because I'm just too happy with the prospect of seeing the dragons any time soon. Sure, I've seen dragons before, during the Triwizard Tournament but I had been too busy back then worrying about Harry's safety to really appreciate it.
"Are you sure you want to be a dragon keeper?" Harry asks me during lunch.
"No," I shrug. "But it is one of my options and I'd like to see what I'd be getting myself into."
"Potions Master sounds safer," He mutters under his breath.
I'm glad to see Harry is worried about my safe-being. Even though it's in his character to worry about everyone, it always warms my heart whenever he expresses how much he doesn't want to see me get hurt.
"Safer? Yeah, nothing says safe environment like a potions lab with substances exploding in your face and producing lethal gasses, " I laugh. "I reckon I'm better off with the dragons."
It took an eternity for it to become tomorrow afternoon but eventually it did and I was presented with a dirty bandana that looked like it just had a mud bath.
"I don't see why portkeys always have to be things you really don't want to touch," I sigh before cautiously putting my hand on the rag.
The second I touch it, I feel the almost familiar pull behind my belly button. I still see Mr Weasley turning into a blur before my surroundings are certainly not The Burrow anymore. But I don't get the chance to really take it all in because I'm spinning like crazy and getting dizzy and I think I might throw up any second now. But just when I'm convinced I will, I feel myself get smacked on the hard ground that kind of knocks the breath out of me.
"You must be Danny."
I'm a bit groggy from the portkey trip but I can still see the man standing over me with red hair. I groan when I try to get up because that smack really did a number on my bones. The man who I'm assuming is Charlie Weasley eventually pulls me to my feet all by himself. I'm not a heavy weight I'd like to think but him lifting me up like that still seemed a little too effortless for someone with a normal posture.
"Why would people ever voluntarily want to travel by portkey?" I moan while leaning onto Charlie a bit. "They're nuts."
"Well, it's the only way to get here. It's too far from England to apparate or use the floo network."
"Wait," I look up at him bewildered. "Does that mean we're going back with a portkey as well?"
"I'm afraid so." He nods.
"Oh man, I was really hoping I didn't have to use one again this year," I whine but then I compose myself when I realise this guy is actually going out of his way to help me. "I'm Danny."
He seems a bit confused with me going from moaning about how I hate portkeys to presenting myself to him with an absolutely blinding and slightly forced smile.
"I'm Charlie." He gives me a smile in return. "Though I'm sure you've figured that out."
"The red hair was kind of a give-away." I nod.
It is definitely true that I would have recognised this guy as a member of the Weasley family even if I didn't know it beforehand. I always pictured him as an older – and more handsome – version of the twins. I wasn't that far off. Though I could recognise their smiles in his and they had the same eyes, Charlie was indeed easier on the eyes. His larger built didn't do much harm either. He was slightly shorter as Fred and George as well but since they're really tall and lanky, I think Charlie probably has a more normal height. Because the guy lives in Romania, it's only natural that he has a darker skin tone and somehow that went really well with his red hair that was a few shades less bright than that of his siblings.
"So this is Romania?" I finally take in my new surroundings I didn't have the opportunity to appreciate when I was crashing into the ground with the speed of a Nimbus 2000.
For a girl who grew up in the always cold and grey Godric's Hollow, it was rather overwhelming to suddenly be surrounded by so much green even though Hogwarts definitely has very well preserved nature all around it as well. We were standing on top of a small hill but I could see big mountains far away. In fact I could see pretty far in the distance. There were no buildings, no concrete roads, just a little grind path that leads to some place that was probably equally impressive.
"It's beautiful."
"Yes, it is." Charlie looks at the view with an almost proud smile. "If you like this, you're really going to love the sanctuary."
"This isn't the reservation?" I frown.
"No, people can't apparate or use a portkey there. We're at the border of Boita."
"Boi-what?"
"It's the town next to the reservation. Don't expect too much from it. It's got a bakery, a bar and a hair dresser. That's it."
"Sounds impressive," I laugh. "Is it a wizarding town?"
"Of course it is." Charlie starts walking down the path and signals for me to follow him. "It would be really dangerous to have muggles so close to a Dragon Sanctuary. We don't want anyone to find out about them."
I walked on Charlie's side, enjoying the magnificent view and the warmth of the sun on my face. Though we had a pretty hot summer this year, that heath had been nothing compared to the temperature here. But I like to think that never being cold is something I can really get used to.
We made it to Boita pretty quickly. Like Charlie had told me the town wasn't very big and there couldn't be too many people living here. Yet the rustic look and homey feeling I got from the place told me this is an environment I would enjoy being in every single day.
We walked through the little village with my companion greeting the few people in the streets with words I didn't understand. Well, that made sense I guess. We're still in Romania and that means the people around here would speak Romanian.
"Is it a difficult language to learn?" I ask him once we've left the centre of the small town behind us.
"It's not easy," He says. "But when you're being surrounded by it the entire time it's easier to pick it up."
"They don't speak English around here?" I ask shocked.
I honestly hadn't thought about the possibility that I wouldn't understand anyone at the sanctuary.
"The villagers know a few sentences but don't expect too much from it. Plus they really appreciate it when you try to learn their language. But on the sanctuary there are a lot of different nationalities so the used language there is English."
Luckily.
"Are there people from every part of the world?" I ask him, excited at the prospect of meeting all kinds of people in this place.
"Most people on the reservation are from around these parts. Romanian, Croatian, Bulgaric though I'm definitely not the only Englishman. There are other dragon reservations but this one is the largest and if you really want to make a name for yourself as a dragonologist, this is the place to do it."
In the distance I can see a strange kind of shimmering in the air. Charlie doesn't seem to pay any attention to it so maybe that's a natural occurrence here? But when we approach it and I can see up close just how unnatural it seems, I have to ask him about it.
"It's a shielding charm. It keeps the muggles and unauthorised people out and the dragons in. We don't want them to go destroying the inhabited areas in their search for food or a nesting place."
"Then how are we supposed to get in?" I frown.
Clearly the guy knows his way in and out of the reservation but I'm just really confused right now on the how.
"The wands of everyone on the reservation are registered. The shield recognises it and allows us to simply walk through."
And to give me proof of what he is saying, he pulls out his wand and walks right through the shielding spell as if it's not even there.
"That's all really practical for you, but how the hell am I suppose to pass through it? I'm pretty sure mine won't be recognised by it."
I wave my own mahogany wand with a core of Veela hair. There's no way I'll just magically be allowed to pass.
"Here." He suddenly, without any warning, throw me his wand from the other side of the shield.
He's pretty damn lucky I somehow still managed to catch it. Certainly he didn't know about my chaser reflexes.
I follow him to the other side and just like it did with him, the shielding charm seems to disappear around me when I enter the reservation.
"Well," He takes his wand back from me. "We're officially on the sanctuary grounds now but the cabins are still a little walk from here."
"The cabins?" I ask him when he leads me further away from the shield.
"Yeah, almost all of the employees live on the domain and each one has his own cabin. And then there are also the facilities like the potion hut, the hatching centre, the Health Care Wing,-"
"The Health Care Wing?" I frown worriedly when I hear that.
"We work with dragons, Danny. There's a big risk involved. Everybody who works here eventually ends up at the Hospital Wing once. Actually, make that twice."
Of course I had known that certain injuries could happen when working with fire-breathing reptiles but when I saw the size of their Health Care Wing a few minutes later, I had a little case of cold feet. And I think I gulped too visibly because Charlie made a comment on it.
"You get attacked sometimes, it's happened to me more than once and sometimes the scars don't fully heal." He pulls up his sleeve to show me the burn mark on his upper arm. "This isn't really the kind of job for a pretty girl."
"Excuse me?" I respond appalled. "What's that supposed to mean?!"
"I didn't mean it in an offensive way. I'm just saying you should think twice before signing up for a job that will scar your beauty pageant face."
I guess in a messed up way he called me beautiful but I couldn't help but angry at him for suggesting I'm the kind of girl who would cry if she broke her nail on the first day. Besides it's not like I'm free of scars. I've had more than enough Quidditch Injuries over the years and I'm not afraid to get a lasting scar other than the ones I already have.
"Faces never stay beautiful forever and I am not scared to get a few injuries. If I was, I certainly wouldn't play Quidditch or even consider a career as a dragonologist," I huff angrily.
"I'm just saying." He raises his hands in defence.
"Well, your 'just saying' is offensive," I snap at the guy before entering the cabin in front of which he came to a halt.
The room I've just entered looks like a small living room so I'm guessing I've entered the place known as Charlie's home. It's furnished and all but somehow it feels as if he's barely put any personal feelings in it. Clearly, this place needs a woman's touch. I guess that solved the question whether or not he's dating anyone.
"I'm sorry I offended you." His voice comes from behind me once I've had the opportunity to inspect the rest of the cabin. It's not very big but it has all the basic necessities.
"It's okay," I sigh. "I just wish people would realise that I know the things I'm getting myself into. Better than they do."
"Are we still talking about the sanctuary?" He frowns.
I nod to him that I am but maybe I was also talking about something else.
"Well, you'll have the opportunity to prove just how though you are in a minute," He grins at me. "You can put your bag over there and follow me."
I quickly do as he says and follow him to a part of the sanctuary we hadn't passed before. When I ask him where we're going his grin just widens.
"Are you ready to see a dragon?"
Immediately my heart jumps into my throat. Even though it makes me kind of nervous – as it should since a dragon can peel the skin of my bones by merely breathing on me – I'm incredibly excited for it as well. So I eagerly follow him down the path where I'm hoping I'll finally get to see a live dragon again.
"I can't take you into the part of the domain where most of the dragons are. They roam around freely and it would be too dangerous for someone like you with no experience in the field to go there. But I can take you to see Bertha."
I was about to ask him who Bertha is when I come face to face with her after following Charlie up the hill. She's female… I think. I wouldn't be too sure how to tell the gender underneath all those scales.
"Danny, this is Bertha." Charlie gestures to the huge dragon in front of me.
She's enormous. I try to recall if the dragons I had seen during the tournament had been this big but I had never been as close to one of them as I was to Bertha. Nor had they been as muscled as she was. The dragon , who is only a few feet away from me, is a giant green mountain of bulkiness. Holy crap! That thing can kill me in the blink of an eye.
"Don't worry," Charlie says to me. "There's another shield."
That's when I finally notice that the air separating her from me has the same strange shimmer as the entrance of the sanctuary did. Bertha was in a sort of cage that you could barely see without paying close attention to it.
"Why is she locked up?" I ask him without taking my eyes off the dragon. I don't want any sudden movements from her catching me off guard.
"We're examining her to see if she fits the breeding program. She's a Romanian Longhorn and their numbers have been dropping a lot because they're being killed for their horns which is used as a potion ingredient. So these past year we've been setting up a breeding program for Romanian Longhorns but since dragons can barely stand the sight of another dragon long enough to mate, it's not been evolving as rapidly as we'd like."
I look at the future mother in front of me and can't help but think it must be really amazing to work on a breeding program to up the numbers of a endangered species.
"We've actually just had a nest of Longhorns. I'll take you to see them tomorrow if you'd like," Charlie suggests.
"I would love that," I smile at him excitedly.
Charlie has a hard time dragging me away from Bertha. She's just so majestic and impressive, I could watch her all day. And a job where watching dragons the entire time is the main activity starts to sound really appealing to me right now.
It's early in the evening when we eventually make it back to his cabin. As a true gentleman he allows me to sleep in his bed for the night while he takes the couch. I tried to protest since I felt kind of bad for kicking him out of his own room but apparently Weasleys can be pretty stubborn.
Both of us would return to England, to the Burrow, tonight and I was sort of sad to be going. Charlie had introduced me to a few people who work on the reservation, including his boss. I was kind of glad to see that his boss was a woman since she was the first female person I met on this sanctuary, not counting Bertha. Clearly there was a shortage of finding women who wanted to work with dragons.
After seeing the Health Wing, the lab where they worked on potions for the dragons like for example a potion that would make them more fertile and the training building where the new employees had to follow a course during an entire year before they were actually allowed to go anywhere near a dragon, we paid a visit to the hatching centre.
Charlie had saved the best for last. I had been slowly falling in love with this place and his profession but being in the place where new life was born is what made me realise that the sanctuary and I were meant to be. A nest of Romanian Longhorns had hatched about three weeks ago which meant the hatching centre had its hands full with the newborn dragons trying to spread their wings. They were failing at it, obviously, since apparently dragons only start to really fly when they're about a year old.
I nearly squealed – yes, squealed and we all know I don't do that sort of thing – when Charlie presented me with a fire-proof suit that the dragonologists use in the hatching centre and told me I would be allowed to hold one of the baby Longhorns.
"Here you go." He gently passes me one of the dragons who was barely awake but seemed completely comfortable in my arms.
The little bundle of green scales with two little horns on the top of his head like a bull was adorable and breath-taking and I really didn't want to give him back.
"His name is Ramoth."
"Seriously?" I cock an eyebrow at Charlie. "Bertha, Ramoth, who picks these names?"
"You haven't even heard the worst ones," he laughs. "Mostly we all just throw a name in a bowl and the one that's pulled out is what it will be."
"How unfortunate you were," I coo at the little reptile in my arms.
I reluctantly hand Ramoth back to one of dragonologists in the hatching centre when Charlie tells me it will soon be time to return to England.
We walked back to the place Charlie and I had first met and where a portkey would be waiting for us once more. He had taken a large bag with him since he'll be staying at the Burrow for two weeks.
"So what did you think of the Sanctuary?" He asks me while we pass through the little village of Boita.
"Where do I sign up?" I sigh happily, thinking of the future I could have here as a dragon keeper.
"Seriously?" He looks at me with expecting eyes.
"Definitely!" I exclaim. "I can't imagine doing anything else."
Though I had promised my parents I would also continue to explore the option of becoming a potions master, I now found little use in that now that I knew so certain what I wanted to become.
"I'm glad it left such a good impression on you," He smiles."I was afraid the whole thing would scare you off, not excite you to this extent."
"Are you kidding me? How could it not?" I wave my arms around frantically as if that somehow makes a point. "This place is amazing! It is wonderful! And there is nothing better in the world than being around those dragons. It's better than pranking. It's better than Quidditch. It's better than sex-!"
I close my mouth shut once I've realised I was just about to, and had actually started to discuss my sex life with Ron Weasley's 25-year old brother who I've barely know for 24 hours. I can't help but blush at the mortifying situation and I can see Charlie becoming incredibly awkward next to me as well.
"Any chance you can just forget that last part?" I say.
"Trying to." He looks straight ahead with an incredibly uncomfortable expression on his face.
"So," I attempt to switch topics and change the tense atmosphere. "Is it doable to work here in Romania but live in England? And basically go back and forth every day?"
"No," He says in a tone that suggests I'm an idiot for even thinking so. "Why do you think everyone lives on the reservation? Using a portkey to travel such distances is exhausting. Not just for you but it takes up a lot of magic. Magic that the sanctuary should use for more important things."
"Are you saying that if I would want to work here, I would have to move here?" I frown worriedly.
"Yes," He nods. "I thought you knew that."
For a total of one hour I had been convinced that I found the one thing I wanted to commit myself to in the future professionally. What a blissful hour. For a whole sixty minutes I wasn't worrying that I was the only student in my year without an actually plan for the next forty years of my life. But now Charlie shattered that idea by telling me that if I wanted this life, I would have to leave behind the one I have in England. Leave behind my family and all the people I care about. I don't think I want to do that. Not even for something that's better than Quidditch.
Great, I'm right back where I was at the beginning of the summer. Maybe I shouldn't rule out Potions Master just yet.
This new piece of information had ruined the high spirits I had been in before and using a portkey to get back to the Burrow wasn't exactly the best way to make me happy again.
When Charlie and I finally touched British bottom – me by smacking once again and him by merely floating down elegantly – we were greeted with most of the Weasley family. They all engulfed Charlie in hugs and asked him how he was doing which I guess makes sense since they hardly ever get to see him during the year. Didn't he have a hard time leaving his family when he moved to Romania? I get that most families aren't as close as mine and some wouldn't mind moving to a different country. But the Weasleys are a perfect example of a tight-knitted family. So I don't get how he can't understand that leaving England would be too much to ask of me.
"How was it?" Harry asks me when I move up the stairs to get changed since it's a lot colder in England than it was in Romania.
"Okay," I shrug.
If he had asked me that a few minutes ago I would have overwhelmed him with enthusiastic stories about everything I had seen there but now I was just completely bummed out because one little detail stood in my way of a future as a dragonologist.
Over the course of the next few days I have decided that once we get back to Hogwarts, I will have to ask Snape about how to start with a career as Potions Master. He might not want to help me with that but that just makes it even more fun to bother him with it.
During the time I was in Romania Dumbledore apparently came to the Burrow to borrow Harry for a few hours. He told me Dumbledore had wanted him to help convince a previous professor of Hogwarts to teach there once more. His name is Slughorn and I believe I've heard the name before though I can't remember where. But since Harry told me he used to teach our parents and collected promising students as though they were rare Chocolate Frog Cards, I'm guessing I must have heard our mother talk about him in the past. Even if that Slughorn guy turns out to be an ass-hole, he'll probably follow in his predecessors footsteps and only teach Defence Against the Dark Arts for one year.
Before we would be going to Hogwarts and Harry and I would spend one last day at home, The Weasleys and the both of us were making one last trip to Diagon Alley. I hadn't been there all summer though I've read about lots of shops closing and some owners mysteriously disappearing these last few months. I was still excited to see The Weasley's shop though. I've only heard great things about Weasley's Wizard Wheezes but I would still very much like to see it with my own two eyes.
It wasn't that hard to spot the Twins' shop once we got to Diagon Alley. Where all the shops were dark and closed, their store stood out like an orange beacon of laughter and luminescence. Because the rest of the wizarding shopping street was so deserted, all the people seemed to be drawn to the building on a corner where a lot was going on.
Once I stepped through the door and found myself in the middle of what I can only describe as a carnival, I had a sort of déjà-vu feeling from when the twins would stand on top a table in the common room to promote their new and improved Skiving Snackboxes. Of course improved usually still meant you would continue to throw up until twelve hours after taking a Puking Pastille. Speaking of the twins standing on top of a table, they seemed to have turned it into a habit. Fred and George were standing on a platform in the middle of their over-crowded store in which it apparently isn't considered strange to have fireworks trying to hit you in the face. And they were, as only they can, sprouting so much nonsense about their products it actually makes sense.
Everywhere I looked, I saw one amazing invention after another and I couldn't help myself but to think of all the mischief I could pull off in Hogwarts this year with an Anti Gravity Hat – 'Ruin a gentleman's day by making his hat fly away!' – or a Nose Biting Teacup. I didn't know what to spend my money on first and was slightly afraid I'd use up all of my savings if I was allowed in the store for too long.
"This is brilliant," I grin up at the both of them once they notice me hanging around the Portable Swamps.
"Thanks!" They say in unison. "Feel free to buy anything you like and continue to cause some uproar at Hogwarts now that we're no longer there to do it for you. May we suggest some Self-propelling Custard Pies?"
"How much for these?" Harry points to something that is labelled 'Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder'.
"Harry," George slaps my brother's shoulder in a friendly gesture. "You help yourself to anything you want, all right? No charge."
What?! When I asked them if I could get a discount for the Fanged Frisbees they told me to pay up the full sum.
"I can't do that!" Harry says though I would totally take that deal if I were in his shoes.
"You don't pay here," Fred agrees with his brother. "You gave us our start-up loan, we haven't forgotten. Take whatever you like, and just remember to tell people where you got it, if they ask."
"What?!" I turn to my own twin. "Is that what you did with the money you won in the Triwizard Tournament? When Cedric told me the amount you had each been given I had expected a really expensive birthday present and not the hand-eating wallet I got. But this surely explains why I haven't benefited from your wealth. You gave it all away!"
Harry just smiles at me with a dumb expression on his face and shrugs his shoulders. I will admit, investing in a store like this is brilliant especially since he doesn't get charged for anything he wished to purchase here.
Eventually I stacked my arms full with an Anti Gravity Hat to bug the hell out of Snape and all the other professors this year, creepy crawlies to scare some of my house mates whenever they need a good scare, three pairs of Extendable Ears because they will come in really handy, a handful of Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder because it can never hurt to blind one's enemies and a Nose Biting Teacup because why the hell not?
"Put it on Harry's tab," I say to Fred while dumping all of it on the counter.
"That's not how it works," He grins while presenting me with a bill I really am not planning on paying. "Not every Potter get to shop freely."
"The money he gave you for all of this," I gesture to the entire building with wide hand movements. "was supposed to go to all of my birthday, Christmas and because-I-deserve-them-presents. So if I have to suffer through abysmal gifts for the next ten years, I'm entitled to a special treatment as well. So I'll be having the Harry Potter discount."
"Very well," He snickers and hands me the bag of goods while my eyes travel to the jars with green pills on the counter.
"Why are you worrying about You-Know-Who? You should be worrying about U-No-Poo," I read out loud with a questioning gaze towards the redhead before me. "The constipation that's gripping the nation? How do you guys come up with stuff like that?"
"It's a gift," He smiles. "Now if you need a refill of your stock, just send us an owl and we'll make sure it's delivered to you disguised as pumpkin pasties or something. Just don't eat the pasties."
"I'll certainly make use of that. After all I've got quite a lot of students and professors to terrorize all by myself this year," I wink at him before following my brother and his friends towards the exit.
"Hey, Danny?" Fred calls me back before I make it out the door.
"Yeah?" I turn around.
"Give them hell," He smirks.
"Oh," I give him a mischievous look every Marauder would have been proud of. "I will."