RubeusHagrid34: Good to know you're happy about that fact.
Chapter Three: News
An influx of owls fluttered over the reserve in the following weeks, everyone keen on sending messages to family and friends to assure they were all safe as well as to get the international coverage on the matter. The countless news-article clippings coming in resulted in both a larger supply of owl treats and a massive bulletin board being mounted to the wall of the mess hall so all news could be posted for the benefit of everyone, though it was never the best of news being placed there.
It hadn't taken You-Know-Who long before terror began to seep into the known world and consume every inch of the corkboard. It had only been a matter of days before tales of suspicious disappearances, collapsing bridges, giant attacks, murders, and the like were hitting the presses like lightening bolts. Every day was some new story heating up discussion like an unstoppable storm, and it showed no signs of letting up.
"The Australian Ministry of Magic finally reported the promotion of Rufus Scrimgeour to Minister for Magic in England," Ryan Donaldson reported as he pinned up a small clipping from The Billywig Buzz. "Took those idiots in Canberra long enough. It's been a while since it actually happened."
"The Prophet's been reporting on him all week," pointed out Li Ming Lee, her finger following the words on another newsprint article. "Most recently, it's about his making the protection of Hogwarts students a top priority."
"Good thing too," Ardel Collins nodded along. "At least Oi know my brother will be in good hands. Mum was considerin' keepin' him at home this year what with all that's been happening, and he's about to sit his O.W.L.S."
Farther off from the information-hungry crowd around the bulletin board, Charlie and Bella were huddled in what had become their group's usual place near the window. The both of them read intently as they scanned over their mail of the day, eagerly hoping for something good happening at home while waiting for the two missing members of their foursome to arrive.
"Everything okay?" Charlie asked as Bella put down the letter she had been reading and brushed her long curls back past her ears.
"Yes," she nodded with a weak smile. "My cousin Alberto was in London for business, but he's back at home now, safe and sound. Thank Merlin for it. We've all been on pins and needles since he left." She sighed heavily in relief, placing her hands on her opposing upper arms as if to shield them from the cold despite the fact the Romanian summer raged intensely onward just a pane of glass away. "How is everything with your family?"
"So far, all right," replied Charlie, diving back into one of the many letters that were piled together, one written from each of his immediate family members minus the excommunicated Percy, who had always been too busy for trivial correspondence anyway. "At the least they're all sounding safe, and somewhere in there dad got promoted in all the chaos."
"Bella," the voice of Simeon entered the vicinity.
Before the Italian researcher could even get a look at her boyfriend, a pair of lips found hers in a brief peck as he pushed past her chair and took the one beside her. The material in his hand fell onto the table with a heavy splat as his thin fingers made quick work of the strings tied around it.
"What is that?" Bella asked, looking at the newsprint curiously.
"The Romanian Horn," Simeon answered without a single beat of hesitation, unrolling the local newspaper. "Everyone has been looking for vorldvide news. No one looks at this anymore."
"But this is in Romanian," observed Bella, looking at the foreign tongue plastered over every inch of the paper in his hand. "Don't they normally print an English edition that you and Charlie read?"
"They have disbanded the English, not enough readers," stated Simeon simply, opening up the pages and diving into the context. "And I can read Romanian."
"I didn't know that," his girlfriend exclaimed, slumping slightly in her chair on learning the new fact.
Her boyfriend had already become submersed by the words on the page before she could make any other comment. Both of the men at her table consumed words on paper as the final member their regular quartet slipped into her seat in silence, bearing four cups of coffee for the crew as well as the latest news straight from her ears to her lips.
"It seems that France has offered aid to the effort in the form of their top Aurors," she reported to the half-listening men and Bella as she added a pinch of sugar to her morning drink. "They're hoping that a bit of international blood may help in all this madness, at least in adding to the number of people tracking down some of those known Death Eaters."
"Anything helps," responded Charlie, not looking up from the letters he was reading. "What with the Dementors abandoning Azkaban, the government in Greece offered some Manticores as guards, though I doubt the Ministry in London will accept that sort of aid. Manticores can't be trained to act beneath wizards, but it's the thought that counts."
"In times like these, it is reassuring to know the wizardkind will help each other regardless of borders," Bella idealistically sighed, adding a light cream to her coffee. "There is hope in our generation of people."
"It's unfortunate that the same probably goes for You-Know-Who," pointed out her fellow female companion at the table. "It wouldn't shock me if he had support coming in from outside of England. He certainly did last time."
Bella's mouth shut in the instant, her face falling from hope as she concentrated on her rhythmic stirring. The tiny clinging of her spoon hitting the porcelain cup echoed over the quiet table, each ding hitting Abby's regret in saying what cynicism had already come out of her mouth.
"Well by Merlin," Charlie's soft sigh of an exclamation caught his friends' attention before Abby could open her mouth to apologize to her roommate. "That brother of mine."
Laying the small stack of paper on the table he leaned back in his chair gently, a smile torn between serenity and amusement spreading over his face as the trio around him could only give him glances burning with their curiosity. In a fast exchange of looks, they silently nominated his girlfriend to speak.
"What's going on?"
"Oh, Bill's engaged," he responded with a grin, reversing his body's position by propping himself up on the elbows that rested on the wooden surface.
"Bill?" Abby's eyes widened. "Your older brother? Engaged?"
"He's been dating the Triwizard Champion from Beauxbatons, Fleur Delacour, for about a year now," he explained. "And they've been working together at Gringotts Bank for some time and now they're planning for their summer wedding next year."
"Well, there's something to lighten the spirits," Bella cheerfully joined in on the conversation, raising her coffee mug as if to toast the distant couple. "Congratulations to them both. That's exciting news. Your parents must be so proud."
Charlie paused, looking down at the letter penned by his brother's quill before turning back to the lady sitting across from him. "Not exactly."
Holding the piece of parchment out to Bella, she took it into her hands and read the paragraph that Charlie pointed out aloud for the rest to hear.
"Fleur is determined to have the wedding next summer, and her planning has begun already, much to mum's displeasure. I suppose mum was hoping we would wait to be man and wife a bit longer and extend our engagement. She thinks we're jumping in awfully quick, due to the current situation here. I think she forgets that she and dad eloped on a whim those many years ago. Her reasoning might be a bit deeper than just the speed of the engagement, not that her reasoning matters in my marriage. Fleur does come off a bit strong to some people. But anyway, I'm sure once everyone at home gets to know her a little better, they'll soon love the idea of her being Mrs William Weasley."
Bella stopped there. "Well, I'm sure your brother is right. Once they've spent some time with her, they'll absolutely adore her. I mean, clearly your brother does and that should be enough reason for all of them to love her. They'll approve the marriage eventually, don't you think so, Simeon?"
The Bulgarian didn't answer, continuing to read the Romanian newspaper as if his dark shaggy hair had blocked every word from entering his ears. For every word that he read on the page with his sole focus, Bella's eyebrows arched another millimetre into a burning scowl.
"Simeon, would you care to join the conversation before Bella slaps you?" Abby asked, gently nudging the dragon keeper's foot from beneath the table as she blew the steam from her coffee.
Putting the paper down on the table and leaning his forearms on top of it, the dark man looked in Charlie and Bella's direction with his bangs bordering his forehead so his nearly black eyes were visible. "It is your brother's decision. Family approval should not stop him from vhat he vants."
"But she is marrying into the entire family, not just your brother," Bella argued before Simeon's eyes could tilt towards the news again. "They need some kind of peace of the issue. And of course they'll learn to love her like a daughter anyway. It just takes time like any good thing."
She pursed her lips together and stared at Simeon, waiting for him to respond to her statement. Taking in a deep breath, the Bulgarian dragon keeper straightened up in his chair, his hands flat on the table.
"I stand by my opinion," he stated fast and plain, turning his head back towards the newspaper before Bella could try to argue him into taking her side.
"So is that meeting for the Order still on tonight?" Abby asked loudly over the table, diverting Bella's dangerous looking grimace.
"Oh, yes," replied Charlie, straightening up a little in his chair as he gathered up the parchment letters scattered in front of him and placed them in the envelope they had arrived in, "but there's not going to be very much to talk about. I haven't received any new instructions other than to continue spreading the word, even though most people around here have already heard it. The Order is pretty busy right now, what with the dismantling of the Headquarters and all. I don't expect they'll have anything new for us by tonight."
With a single nod Abby pressed her lips tight together, looking away from Charlie for a moment as if stirring a bit more sugar into her coffee had become an incredibly important task that life depended on.
"Are you all right?" the redhead questioned immediately, laying his hand upon Abby's wrist and feeling the shiver that invisibly ran through her nerves.
At his touch, her rhythmic stirring halted and the spoon clattered against the side of the mug. Her emerald eyes turned to him, looking straight into hazel ones she had grown accustomed to trusting.
"It's just frustrating," she said in a hushed indifferent tone. "We keep being told to do these things while the Order back home is facing You-Know-Who directly. Wizards are disappearing and dying for a cause that we're just as passionate about but seem completely unattached to."
The hand resting atop of Abby's wrist moved into her fingers, twisting about as if they were meant to be one hand. Pulling the entwined appendages closer towards him, Charlie put his other hand over them, giving her a squeeze and waiting for the mark of a possible smile to make its appearance on her lips.
"Remember," he reassured her calmly, "anything helps. It may not be obvious, but we're doing our part in this effort. Through the members here, we've extended support beyond the realm of Europe, to Asia and Australia and America. We're helping in the ways that we can and in the ways they need us to help."
Abby nodded, giving Charlie the weak smile that he desired to see on her face. Bringing her closer to him, he kissed the backside of her hand and instantly sensed the shiver in her skin fade away.
"Shame ve can extend support from different continents," Simeon proclaimed at random, not looking up from his reading material, "but ve have not gotten support from the country ve are in."
"What?" Charlie looked at his roommate in puzzlement before turning back to Abby whose hands had chilled again.
"I have been reading this paper for some time," his best friend replied turning to the last page, "and they have made few reports about the situation. They mention it in their international section, but there is little. And by looks, they are not offering to help the effort in any vay."
As the words came across the table, the two sitting across from Simeon could not say anything in response. Looking at the messenger of the news there was nothing to be said, their silent gazes speaking for them.
"Are you sure about that Simeon?" Bella questioned, shaking her head in refusal to believe her boyfriend's words. "Perhaps they have, but they have not publicised the information."
"It would be made public," Charlie replied blankly, his hands still tightly tangled with Abby's. "One way or another, it would be known by every wizard in the country. No one would turn down good publicity."
"Maybe you missed a day of news, Simeon?" the researcher suggested again.
"No," the dragon keeper shook his head, his shaggy bangs moving to cover one of his eyes before he brushed it to the side of his face. "I have read every day, even kept the copies."
"I think we know what we'll have to do then," Charlie sighed, breaking his hold on Abby to rise from his chair, downing the rest of his hot coffee in one long gulp and starting to march out of the mess hall.
"And what would that be?" Abby called after him, rising from her seat and readying to chase him down the hall if he didn't answer.
He turned around a few feet from the table, looking into the determined green stare of Abby Ridges and mirroring her seriousness.
"Something more direct."
It wasn't until later in the evening that Simeon had managed to catch up to Charlie during their night watch shift, finding the redheaded dragon keeper yawning tiredly at his watch post. Leaning against the wall, it looked as through the young freckled man may have been sleeping right there and then had it not been that his best friend laid a hand on his shoulder and shook him into alertness.
"You cancelled the meeting for the Order tonight," said Simeon, handing his roommate his own cup of steaming hot chocolate. "There should be no excuse for you to be sleeping at vork."
"I had other things to keep me occupied today," Charlie replied, gratefully taking a sip of the hot drink.
"And I take that those things were not on the reserve," the subtle inquisitive side of his friend emerged. "No one could find you until now. Abby was worried for you."
There was a pause between the two dragon keepers; one waiting for a response while the other contemplated whether or not to tell as he poured the rest of the hot chocolate down his throat. As the liquid emptied from the cup and into the pit of Charlie's empty stomach, Simeon knew it was only a matter of time before his friend would have to tell him everything.
"I was in Bucharest," he finally answered the question that had slithered under Simeon's actual words.
"Vhat vere you doing there?" inquired the Bulgarian, dropping the subtly as he snatched his empty cup away from Charlie.
"Visiting the Ministry of Magic there," his fellow keeper replied instantly. "I was hoping to get an audience with someone, but…"
"The higher Ministry staff is on their annual holiday in the Ukraine," Simeon finished off the sentence to Charlie's astonishment. "I read about it in the newspaper."
"Would have been nice to know that earlier today," Charlie sighed, folding his arms over his chest. "Well, that's how my day was wasted. That, and the fact it took them nearly an hour to find a worker on-duty there who knew some English to translate for me. They only told me to return when all the officials returned from their vacations."
Charlie let out a long exhale, leaning his head back against the wall and watching the dark empty skies for any restless dragons that decided to grace the keepers with their presence. Bracing himself for the exhausting hours ahead, he once again felt Simeon's cool hand on his shoulder.
"Go to bed, Charlie," his best friend said, pushing his friend towards the stairs that would lead him back to the main building. "You have had a long day. I vill stand the post for both of us."
"Oh, it's okay," Charlie fought back, though unsuccessfully as he was too tired to even resist his roommate leading him away from their watch. "It's only a few hours. And it's not fair to you to do both our jobs at once."
"You are of no help to me tired," argued Simeon. "I vill not tell anyone. Just get some sleep. You vill need it to devise a plan for the next time the Order goes vith you to Bucharest."
With that said Simeon turned around and headed back to their section on the observation wall, buttoning his own long black coat as he went. Before Charlie could even look back from the top of the stairs where he'd been left, his best friend had blended in with the colour of night and disappeared from his field of view.
Knowing there was no use trying to fight his roommate and his own urges Charlie slinked down the stairs, towards his waiting bed and a long night's sleep.
A/N: So lots going on here, but not much to really note on. There's a lot of information directly from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince's first few chapters in terms of what's going on in England and such. Other than that I can't think of anything I should be noting.
In the next chapter, we're heading for Bucharest!
Hope you're liking this.