Cradle Snatchers

Ronnie was doing exactly as he was told.

He made himself as tiny as he could and held his breath as he curled up inside the smelly bag Stebson had carried the dragon food in. The bag was empty now but was still wet and smelly on the inside. He could feel the ground shaking and more big booming explosions.

He let out a tiny squeak and wished that Charlie would come back soon. A baby dragon let out a squawking kind of roar and Ronnie felt something moving down his back. Oh no, there was a spider in the feed bag with him. He wriggled out and kicked the smelly sacking away, stamping both feet on top of it to squash the spider inside, and heard footsteps running towards him.

"I thought I told you to hide!" Charlie said, sounding breathless and annoyed.

"I did, but there was a spider," Ronnie pointed at the sack.

Charlie grabbed his extended arm and dragged him up to his feet.

"I meant what I said Ron, no matter what – even if there are spiders, you be brave and quiet and stay hidden until I say otherwise, alright?"

Ron nodded, sadly. Charlie looked him up and down with a frown.

"What the hell is this stuff all over you?"

"Slimy stuff from the feed bag," Ron pointed to the grubby sack on the ground.

Charlie dragged Ronnie over to a wobbly work bench and ordered him to crawl underneath it and stay down. Ronnie did as he was told, watching as Charlie ran to the abandoned sack on the ground and snatched it up. He hurried back to the pen of newly hatched dragons and waved his wand over them, sending them to sleep, before leaning over and picking them up one by one to place gently inside the sack.

There was a louder explosion and the ground shook so hard Charlie fell over. Ronnie was about to call out and ask if he was all right when Chrissie ran inside and bent double, clutching her side.

"You all right?" Charlie asked her.

"Got...stitch!" she panted before glancing around. "Where's your brother?"

"Hiding," Charlie said, before calling over his shoulder, "You stay still as a statue Ronnie, not a peep remember?"

Ronnie clamped both his hands over his mouth. Chrissie grabbed a metal bucket and cast an enlargement charm on it. She scooped up some hot coals from the fire before levitating the eggs inside one by one.

"We lost the camp, good job we were all down at the nursery, who knows what would have happened if they'd attacked while the little one was exploring," Chrissie shouted over the din.

Charlie glanced over in Ronnie's direction before chewing on his bottom lip and sighing deeply.

"Ronnie, you do what Chrissie tells you until I get back." He turned to the stunned looking witch, red hot bucket of dragon eggs in her gloved hands, "I'm going to help the others salvage as much as we can and get them back to the nursery without giving up its position."

"Weasley, wait!" Chrissie called out after him as Charlie ran out of sight. "I'm a dragon specialist, not a baby sitter!"


Charlie's feet pounded up the slight slope towards the burning tents and he saw half a dozen figures in tatty robes, scorched and patched with leather, duelling with McVitie and Stebson. Olaf was on the ground clutching his face with both hands and being protected by a faltering shield.

Charlie reinforced the shield before joining the fight against the saboteurs.

"Weasley!" McVitie roared furiously. "Get back to that boy now!"

"Chrissie's with him," Charlie yelled back, "and I'm doing a better job of protecting him out here than hiding down there."

A jet of fire cut through the air between them and burnt the arm Charlie raised before him defensively. He could smell burning hair and then heard the sudden hiss of steam as water was sent at him by Stebson's wand, evaporating as it doused the flames.

McVitie's robes were on fire and Olaf was trying to heal himself blindly on the ground. It was just Charlie and Stebson against the poachers. Jets of red and orange light cut through the smoke and flames at them and they dived to the ground, rolling away and firing spells back. Charlie couldn't see their attackers so he aimed for the place he'd seen the spells originate.

There were three cracks and then another explosion of fire shook the ground and knocked them all off their feet. If Charlie hadn't fallen he would have been struck in the chest by the blood red lightning bolt that darted toward him.

"They've separated!" McVitie yelled over the roar of the fireball that blackened the grass and ignited the surrounding trees.

"Get Olaf back to the nursery and I'll hold the scum off with McVitie and then help him back. We need the cover of the nursery's wards."

Charlie nodded, eager to get back to Ronnie now he knew the gang of poachers had split up, and hauled Olaf up by the arm. He dragged the wounded wizard along with him as he hurried back down the slope and into the shadows.

"Olaf, get us through the wards, can you do that?" Charlie grunted as he heaved the staggering Norwegian along with him.

"Am I facing the right way?" The man asked as he blinked his slowly healing eyes and raised his wand before him.

"Yeah, go for it!" Charlie yelled over yet another fireball explosion, followed by more cracks of Disapparition.

Or was that Apparition?

Olaf shouted the spell and flicked his wand at the wards.

"Permeo!"

Just as the spell hit the invisible wards and made the image of the entrance to the nursery waver as if an intense heat was distorting the straight lines, three figures ran from under cover ahead of them and through the temporary opening.

"No!" Charlie yelled, almost dropping Olaf.

"What? Did I miss?" Olaf asked in a panic.

"Weasley," McVitie was bellowing as footsteps thundered from behind them, "hurry before they put their own wards up!"

Charlie dropped Olaf and sprinted for the opening, shoulder first, grimacing with hope to get through and fear for Ronnie if he couldn't. He fell through and Stebson flung himself after but bounced back from the invisible shield and slammed onto his back on the ground.

Charlie was on his own. He drew his wand and ran through to the nursery to help Chrissie protect Ronnie and the young hatchlings. What he saw turned his stomach.

Chrissie was standing over little Ronnie, who lay still on the floor at her feet, and holding the red hot metal bucket of dragon eggs with one gloved hand while the other pointed her wand at his chest. The three poachers also had their wands drawn and were gathering up the bag of sedated hatchlings while pointing wands at Charlie, too.

"What...Chrissie what are you doing?"

"Getting a good price," the witch said, coolly. "I've nurtured this lot so they would survive the trip and I planned the ambush to the last detail but shit, Weasley," she shook her head and smiled before lowering her wand down to Ronnie on the ground, "I never factored for a little kid as well."

"Don't," Charlie said, still holding his wand out and pointing it right at her, "you got your eggs and the young, you'll get your bloody money, there's no reason to hurt him."

Chrissie smirked and rolled Ronnie over with her foot. Charlie could see that he was unconscious and seemingly unhurt.

"Terrible really, isn't it, Weasley?" Chrissie said nonchalantly as two of the poachers skulked behind her with their ill gotten gains. "One of these eggs is worth more than he is."

Charlie gripped his wand so tightly he felt the wood giving a little in his clenched fist.

"He...is worth...all of it!" he snarled through gritted teeth.

Chrissie smiled and nodded to the third of her poacher cohorts as they moved towards Ronnie.

"He is a sweetheart, I'll give you that, Weasley. Remember this; you left him with somebody you knew less than a day. This is no place for little kids. Trevor," Chrissie glanced to the poacher looming over Ronnie's sleeping form, "bring him."

"What d'we need a bloody kid for?" Trevor grumbled as he stooped over and scooped little Ronnie up from the ground and threw him over his shoulder where he hung like a rag doll, arms swinging.

"Insurance," Chrissie said with a shrug before staring fiercely at Charlie, "you're going to let us leave and you won't follow us."

"I'm not letting any of you go anywhere with my little brother," Charlie took a step forward and aimed his wand between Chrissie's eyes, "you can go, all of you and your eggs and baby dragons can piss off and I won't chase after you, but you leave Ronnie here with me."

Chrissie's face twisted angrily and she pointed her wand at Ronnie's sleeping face.

"Drop the wand otherwise I'll wake him up so he can feel my boys hurting him."

Charlie dropped his wand arm to his side and his voice caught at the back of his throat.

"He isn't worth anything to you! Our family don't have any money to pay a ransom if that's what you're thinking. My brother and my dad are gonna come out here and we're gonna find you and if he's so much as crying we're gonna fucking kill you!"

Chrissie set the bucket of scalding hot eggs down and pulled the protective glove off with her teeth. She reached for Ronnie's body and cradled him to her, wand still pointing at him threateningly, while forcing the glove into Trevor's hand.

"You take the eggs, I'll deal with the kid, he knows me."

Charlie made a move towards her but she shook her head warningly.

"I'll leave him somewhere for you to find him when we're far enough away. He'll be fine as long as we are, understand?"

"I give you my word, I won't follow you," Charlie said shakily, "give him to me now."

The wards were broken and McVitie's shouts grew louder. Chrissie flicked her wand and thick black smoke filled the nursery. Charlie leaped into the smoke and flailed his arms in the space he'd last seen his brother but he didn't feel anything.

"Ronnie!" he bellowed before choking on the heavy smoke.

"Weasley, what's going on?" McVitie was calling out, "Where are you?"

"Where's the boy?" Stebson demanded gruffly before the smoke dispersed and Charlie's watering eyes, stinging and red from the harsh black cloud, focused on his confused and worried colleagues.

"Chrissie," Charlie coughed, "it was an inside job. She got everything, she took everything."

"She took the eggs and the hatchlings? All of them?" Stebson frowned as he glanced around the empty smoke filled nursery.

"She took Ron!"