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The next morning, I got up before Charlie could bang on my door. I'd brought an alarm clock with me from home, sometimes being a muggleborns had its advantages. I'd just finished French braiding my hair when I heard his fist connect with the oak. I charmed my baby hairs to stay in place before swinging my door open and surprising Charlie.
"I didn't expect you to be awake," he told me, watching as I put my wand in my boot and shut the door behind me. "What with you needing your beauty sleep and all that."
"If I got any more beautiful, it would be a safety hazard," I teased, brushing past him and out into the reserve. I turned around and saw him standing in the same place, a loss for words, "Did I strike Charlie Weasley speechless?"
"Piss off!" he grunted, stomping out to me. "You're shoveling shit again."
I just shrugged and asked, "Where? I finished all the baby enclosures."
I didn't trust his mischievous smile, it made me nervous. He didn't smile unless I was going to be in a bad situation. I feel like the only time he got pleasure was in MY displeasure. He was sadistic that way.
"You want to bond with the dragons, right? I'll give you time to try after you muck out the enclosures of the Fireball, Horntail, and Opaleye," he told me. When my sassy smile faltered, he ate it up. "Oh, not so spunky now, are we?"
I flipped him the bird and let him lead the way to the Hungarian Horntail's enclosure. It was empty and huge, I'd be here all day! There were big containers instead of wheelbarrows this time. While I was looking around in exasperation, I realized something. He'd never told me I couldn't use magic to muck the enclosures, I'd found a loophole!
Once he left me alone, smiling like the total asshole he was, I set my plan into action. Mature dragons had a certain place they used the bathroom and didn't go anywhere else. It took me a while to locate it in the vast enclosure, but it wasn't impossible. I floated one of the containers over when I did and started levitating the scat inside. The enclosure was scat free by lunchtime and I hadn't even broken a sweat. Ruby -1 Charlie -0.
"Ah, I see you've wised up," Huf exclaimed, meeting me outside to head to lunch together. He threw his arm over my shoulder and said, "Pretty and smart! What a combination!"
I rolled my eyes but let him keep his arm around me. We walked into the canteen together and I saw Wilt already sitting with a book in his hands. He was such a nerd, it was sweet. Sparky came out of nowhere and picked me up, tossing me over his shoulder as he walked the rest of the way over to our table.
"How was your morning?" Wilt asked when Sparky deposited me onto the bench beside him.
"346 finally remembered she has magic!" Delos said, stopping by our table. "Good on ya!"
Charlie sat down just as Delos left and the they exchanged a nod. Huf was snickering and I knew he was about to ask a question he thought was hilarious and I would think was annoying.
"Why didn't you just float the scat out yesterday instead of shoveling it?" he finally asked, his laughs coming out in peals.
I rolled my eyes and loaded my plate, waiting for them to stop laughing. "Charlie gave me a shovel, and I figured that meant I had to do it by hand. Then I realized he's a prat and found the loophole."
"I thought you'd know you could use magic seeing as you're a witch and everything," Charlie shrugged impishly from across the table. "You beat out 345 other wizards, remember?"
He was right and it was beyond frustrating so I didn't reply. I started shoveling down my shepherd's pie instead. I was a muggleborn, I forgot magic existed a lot of the time still. Conversation left me and focused on the eggs that still hadn't hatched. I peeked at the cover of Wilt's book and grinned.
"Catcher in the Rye is my mum's favorite book," I smiled, crossing one leg over the other and turning my body to face him as I ate. "Are your parents muggles, too?"
He marked his space in his book and replied, "Uhm, my parents don't have magic no. My mum's a teacher and my dad's a lineman. We call them no-majs though."
"And none of us knew what that meant," Sparky replied, drawing the two of us back into conversation. "We're all clueless purebloods."
I gasped sarcastically and slapped a hand over my heart. "No way! The three of you clueless? I'd have never known! Say it ain't so!"
"Weasley's right, you are a brat!" Huf said, but he was smiling regardless. "I take back calling you pretty!"
"You called her pretty?" Charlie asked suddenly, making us all flash our eyes over to him. "Not that it matters… I just missed it."
I saw the guys smirking at his slipup, but I was just confused. Why was he so on edge about Huf calling me pretty? Did he think it was going to distract me from my work? Huf wasn't my type, he was too wild even if he was cute.
"Right, I'm going to eat and act like that wasn't weird," I replied finally, going back to my pie and not looking at them.
Thankfully, I finished eating soon and left the tense air surrounding the table. I heard Wilt get up and follow me, tucking his book under his arm as he went with me to the Antipoedean Opaleye's enclosure.
"Don't you have a job to do?" I asked, starting my search for the scat area.
"I'm currently doing it," he answered. "I'm checking for weak spots within the enclosures."
I snorted and floated the container over to me when we found the spot. I started transferring the poop as Wilt cast a spell, watching it bounce around the enclosure. It didn't look like he was working, but he also didn't strike me as someone who messed around when it came to his job.
"I don't think I've ever seen Charlie act the way he's acting right now," he told me once the spell stopped bouncing and he'd sat down on a rock to watch me. "He must really be worried about training you."
"Delos said I'm his first trainee," I replied, focusing on transferring a particularly big pile. "Why would he be worried? I give him shit, but I think I'm doing a relatively good job. Transferring scat isn't particularly complicated."
"The whole reserve was nervous for you to come in because you're a girl," he answered. Then he held up his hand and said, "Before you start ranting about how sexist that is, I already know and I said you'd probably be awesome. We've had negative experiences with girls from town coming in and screwing a lot of the guys. A lot of concentration is necessary for training dragons, and the concentration isn't on the dragons when pretty girls are around."
"So you think I'm pretty, too?" I asked playfully, sticking my tongue out at him after I was finished cleaning the enclosure.
I watched him roll his eyes at me without blushing, making me knit my brows together. Wilt was easy to embarrass, something was off. He noticed my iffy look, but he didn't say anything and I didn't press the subject. Instead, we parted ways with him heading to check the other enclosures and me going to finish cleaning.
Charlie came and found me right after I finished the Fireball's enclosure. I did a cleansing charm on myself and tucked my wand into my boot. I was bouncing in excitement and saw him roll his eyes in response.
"You can roll your eyes all you want, but you made a promise!" I teased. "You said I could try bonding with the dragons if I finished my cleaning the enclosures, and I did."
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, I did say that, didn't I?"
"And you can't take it back!" I agreed, crossing my arms over my chest in satisfaction. "Let's go!"
"We're going to try with baby dragons first," he told me, leading the way to the enclosure I'd cleaned yesterday. "They still breathe fire and it burns the same, but it's less aggressive. It also gives me time to check on the eggs."
When were inside, I walked slowly toward the babies and dropped to my knees gently a couple meters from them. With them all watching me, I lowered my head and scarcely breathed as I waited for them to take the next step. I heard the pitter patter of their feet against the hard earth, but I didn't look up. Instead, I slowly extended my hand and kept my head bowed.
The roughness of scales brushed against my fingertips and made me look up slowly. A baby Opaleye was standing apart from her friends, choosing to trust me while the others remained skittish. Still stroking her nose gently, I sat down flat and watched with baited breath and she walked over to crawl onto my lap. She sniffed around my neck and my hair, smelling the dragon dung and thinking I was safe. I was completely awestruck at her instantaneous trust, I never expected it to happen so quickly.
"Hi, pretty girl," I said quietly, stroking just behind her tiny horns. "You're very brave, I'm so impressed."
"I'll be damned," Charlie said from behind me, making me grin but not look away from the baby in my lap. "She doesn't let anyone touch her. Pearl's finicky."
"You just have to be gentle and slow," I said in an even voice as I continued stroking her scales.
Trying to keep as much attention on her as possible, I looked over at the other dragons. They'd moved closer to me but were regarding Charlie's presence now. It was like he knew and slowly backed out of the place, shutting the door behind him.
"He's gone, sweet babies, it's just me and I want to play," I told them in a sweet voice. "It's okay, you can keep your distance."
The little girl on my lap didn't like not having all my attention and blew enough fire to sting but not hurt me. I tutted her and looked back down, frowning at her playfully.
"You don't like sharing my attention, Pearl?" I asked, running my fingers along the scales of her neck and chest. "You're a greedy little girl."
Her growl sounded like a laugh and a purr at the same time, making me smile at the cuteness. I'd always had a fondness for Opaleyes, I thought they were so beautiful. Pearl was no exception with her pearlescent skin and lavender eyes -she was gorgeous.
When my fingers skirted around her wing joint, she surprised me and extended them so I could continue my exploration. She trusted me completely already, it was unheard of to bond with a dragon this quickly… it was unheard of to bond with a dragon in general. This was brilliant, and I would never take advantage of this moment in my life.
My legs were extended out in front of me and I felt tugging on my boot strings. When I looked up, I saw a couple of the babies played with the buckles. They were nipping and breathing fire on the leather, but the boots were fireproof so nothing ignited -my legs just warmed a little.
My stomach started growling an hour or so into playing with them and knew it was time to say goodbye. Disappointment gathered in my stomach at the thought of leaving them, I would stay here forever if I could.
"Pretty girl, I have to go," I said soothingly, moving slow and putting her back on the ground. "I promise I'll be back, and we'll play some more. Maybe even with the others next time."
She blew smoke through her nose as she threw what I would call a dragon tantrum. I stroked the top of her head between her horns and she stopped, but I knew she was still upset. I held up my hand for her to wait and pulled out a couple firestones from my pocket. I tossed it in the air and she flew up to catch it, swallowing the stone hole. I gave one to the others before leaving the enclosure.
Charlie was standing at the observation window with Sparky and Huf. I bowed to them dramatically when I saw their matching looks of surprise. So, I wasn't the only one partially in shock.
"Tell me again how bonding isn't a thing," I announced, jumping onto Huf's back and demanding, "To the canteen!"
"We bow in the presence of your greatness, oh Dragon Queen!" Sparky shouted once we were outside.
"As long as you know your place," I teased, making him bump into me and Huf hard enough to make him stumble.
Charlie was mysteriously quiet so I looked over to tease him, but his look killed whatever I was going to say. His eyes were stormy gray as he watched me, his lips tilted up in a barely there smile and he looked like he was a million miles away. When he realized I was watching, the tips of his ears burned red and he turned his head to face front quickly… but I'd seen the look and couldn't imagine I'd ever stop seeing it.
What in Merlin's saggy Y-fronts did that mean?
The plot is starting to roll now! I hope you're ready.
