A/N: Baby, it's cold outside. Okay, but seriously, where I'm at it went from summer weather to fall overnight and now, I'm scrambling to get all the fall clothes pulled out and washed so I can keep kicking my kids outside without freezing them.
It's really very inconvenient of the weather.
So, today instead of running around like the wild creatures my boys are, my boys are tucked in watching 101 Dalmatians. I'm not going to protest though, because it's always been one of my favorites.
I've already decided that once my 17-month-old is about 7 or 8 years old that I will be adopting two dalmatians. Ambitious, yes. However, Every time I see a dalmatian in person there's always the awkward reaction of screaming, crying, and jumping for joy.
Growing up, we had multiple dalmatians. Growing up on a farm, we always had two or three dogs. At one point we had three dalmatians; Pongo, Casper, and Wendy.
Wendy was our last dalmatian though, then my parents got a golden retriever and sheep dogs.
Oh yeah, we have a story to read. I really enjoyed writing this chapter and how it turned out. I love the support! So, I thank you all.
The Grand Opening
The day had come, the second of March, it was the grand opening of their dragon sanctuary. Charlie had been busy training, recruiting, and preparing all the dragon keepers that they now had on staff. Rolf and teams from China, Sweden, and Romania had set all the wards they would need for each enclosure.
Now they just had to wait for their dragons to arrive.
The protestors hadn't given up though. The Daily Prophet had run article after article only speaking on how dangerous it was that there were going to be so many dragons in Scotland. It was as if people had forgotten that dragons also live in the wild, but we just weren't used to seeing them.
Hermione, Amos, and Rolf were gathered and awaiting Charlie's return with Antipodean Opaleye. This dragon had been rescued from an illegal breeding ring. Due to the Opaleye being one of the most beautiful dragons, they were very sought after as prized pets.
Her days of laying eggs for the highest bidder was finally over and she was going to get to enjoy a peaceful life.
On the horizon, Hermione could see the dark form of the group of Abraxans and the cage that hung below them. She could only make out their shape, not the color or that they even had any passengers riding on their back.
Hermione hadn't been the only person to notice them though, as soon as they'd appeared the protestors had grown louder and had started trying to break past the wards that the magical law enforcement officers had put up to keep them out.
"Hermione, hey." Harry had appeared at her side, but Hermione's eyes were trained on the form closing in on them.
"Yes, Harry? I'm slightly busy at the moment, so while I'm not trying to be rude, I can't engage in small talk." She stated without skipping a beat.
"Yes, well, just perhaps we should remove the gathering of the protestors. I know you said you wanted them to stay, but we are now risking having them here as they seem to be getting more violent." As if to prove his point, Hermione could smell the smoke as another spell was shot towards the wards in attempt to break them.
"No, Harry. They need to see her. Just keep them at bay, I promise I have a plan." Hermione turned to look at her friend.
Shaking his head, Harry said no more and turned back towards the yelling crowd.
She had seen the reports of the condition that this Opaleye was in, but there hadn't been any pictures included in the report. She was banking on this to be what she had imagined. It wasn't going to be pretty, but this dragon was going to showcase the importance of sanctuaries and why the wizarding world needed more of them.
The week before, her, Charlie, Rolf, and Amos had a meeting behind closed doors trying to come with a way to calm the protestors. And this was the shot they needed to make the people of this country understand.
"I think we need to ban the general public until we've been able to prove our abilities to keep the dragons contained and that it's not going to be a danger. It's been almost two months since the announcement and the public still hasn't softened their views on us taking in dragons in need." Rolf had explained.
"They need to see why we have to protect these dragons. They just see a beast; they don't see creatures in need." Charlie had countered.
"Yes, but how are they going to see what we need them to see? They will spin this story however they see fit. We're brining in a Fireball that doesn't have any outward signs of the abuse he's been given and only a temper. If they see him attacking, and he most likely will attack anyone on his transport, it's only going to fuel their fire." Rolf had argued as he tossed the file on the Fireball towards Charlie.
"Then we don't have the Fireball be the dragon they see. We need to be in control of the narrative." Charlie countered shifting through the reports of the other dragons we were going to be getting.
"What about our native dragons. They're almost ready for release into the wild and that's why they're coming to us in the first place." Amos had supplied. "They won't be terribly hard to handle and they are dragons that some of the protestors might have already seen first-hand."
"I don't know, that's not going to show them that we're needed. They'll just see these almost healthy dragons and be able to say 'look there's no reason for another sanctuary' and that's not what we want them thinking." Hermione had interjected. "No, we're needing to make a statement, like Charlie said. We need them to see the horrors. Oh, oh my."
Hermione had stopped on the written report of an Opaleye who had recently been rescued in Russia. Sliding the field towards Rolf, Hermione watched as the wizard read over it. His face fell as he read the physical description and the health report of the dragon.
"Do you think it'll make a difference?" Rolf asked looking up to make eye contact with Hermione and Charlie.
"I think it'll make all the difference." Hermione had responded.
They were now close enough that Hermione could make out Charlie's red hair on the lead Abraxan. The crate between the Abraxan was closed so that the Opaleye couldn't be seen. This was going to be a lifelong resident of the sanctuary; Hermione already knew that before she even laid eyes on the dragon.
The roars from the protestors grew louder now that the transport team was within ear shot.
Hermione felt her body tense as they landed, the crate with a light thump against the ground and then Abraxans light enough that there wasn't a sound.
Draco and Astoria Malfoy stepped forward and began to collect their Abraxans. The outrage from the protestors had grown even louder.
"DEATH EATERS ARE INVOLVED! THEY'RE GOING TO USE DRAGONS TO TAKE OVER OUR COUNTRY!" Hermione's neck tensed even more.
Once the Abraxan were cleared of the area, Charlie had stepped forward. The time had come, it was time for the English public to understand why the world needed dragon sanctuaries.
Charlie opened the door to the crate and slowly crept forward. He was flanked by the rest of the team, who had their wands all raised. They were all prepared to send stunners if things went wrong. Hermione knew they needed this dragon to not turn aggressive, but dragons were going to do as they wanted.
Charlie had disappeared into the crate, and Hermione felt her breath catch. She knew her fiancé was a capable wizard. She knew that her fiancé had all the experience necessary to keep himself safe while working with a dragon. Knowing all these facts, didn't stop Hermione from worrying for his safety.
It couldn't have been more than five minutes, but it felt like an eternity.
Hermione felt her feet propelling her forward. Charlie was in that crate and she needed to be with him.
She was like a magnet, unable to stop herself from moving forward. As she reached the transport team, standing within the group, no one noticed her as she moved even closer towards the crate.
It wasn't until she'd already passed the entire transport team before someone noticed her, but by then it was too late. Charlie had emerged and along with him was the Opaleye.
Hermione found herself face to face with the dragon that Charlie was coxing out of the crate. The scars on her face were deep, scales were missing in the odd places along her back, but she was still one of the most beautiful dragons Hermione had ever laid eyes on.
Charlie hadn't noticed Hermione's appearance next to him, until he saw from the corner of his eye her chestnut arm reaching out to sooth the dragon's ragged breaths.
"Hermione?" He questioned and had a warning in his voice, but didn't make a move to stop Hermione. Any sudden movements to stop her could frighten the dragon.
The only sound was the rustle of leaves from the trees, it seemed that everyone present was holding their breaths.
"Hello, beautiful girl. You're safe now. Your new life starts here, today." Hermione's voice was hardly above a whisper. Her hand brushed against the broken scales of the Opaleye's neck. Once Hermione's hand had reached the cool scales, the Opaleye tilted her head and let out of sigh with a puff of smoke.
Hermione's gentle strokes soothed the dragon, communicating to her all the words Hermione had murmured just moments before.
"You are safe here; you are loved here." Hermione continued to speak to the dragon as she stroked her neck.
The clicks of the cameras hadn't registered to either Hermione or the dragon as their moment of contentment continued. She hadn't noticed when Charlie had wrapped his arm around her round belly. It wouldn't be until the following day when the picture appeared on the front page of the Daily Prophet with the headline The Beauties That Must Be Saved.
That was when Hermione knew they'd made the right decision, and that was how they'd won over the hearts of England.
The Hebridean Black Egg
Thirty weeks pregnant today and Hermione was over it. She knew that she had another ten weeks until her due date, but Hermione was tired of pregnancy.
The swollen ankles, aching back, not being able to sit and breathe at the same time, and having a use the bathroom every few minutes. Hermione swore that she was already the same size that Ginny had been the day she had given birth to James.
Between her mother and Molly Weasley, Hermione was ready to pull her hair out in frustration. The women seemed to think that Hermione was unable to do anything other than just be pregnant. Apparently, they were both very annoyed with Hermione and Charlie for deciding that they would wait for the birth of their children to find out the sex of the babies.
Hermione's mother was ready to start shopping and not knowing the sex of her grandbabies was really putting a damper on it. Though, she had heard from her father that her mother had already bought cribs, car seats, a double pram, and other furniture.
Molly, on the other hand, had non stopped been asking her if she was wanting to give birth at The Burrow to avoid the press that would be hounding St. Mungo's when Hermione arrived in labor. Molly was positive that everything would be fine since she'd given birth to twins herself.
Molly was wanting to know what the names of the babies were going to be, so that she could start working on quilts for both of them. Hermione knew for a fact that Ginny and Harry hadn't let anyone know what they were naming James until after he was born, but Molly had guessed correctly so she hadn't been so insistent with them.
Hermione had just left her latest appointment at St. Mungo's by herself, Charlie had been whisked away to China to help retrieve a female Fireball that they thought might help Forrest, their current Fireball, adjust to life outside a fighting ring. She'd been able to use the employee floo since the paparazzi had swarmed the building again.
She wasn't sure if they just sat around outside St. Mungo's waiting for her to come for an appointment, or if somehow, they were getting the dates and times of her appointments. Either way, Hermione had incinerated more than her fair share of cameras recently.
She shuttered at the thought of how they would be once the babies were born. They were still trying to get a picture of James, but Ginny had thus far done a good job of keeping him tucked away in a carrier anytime she went into public.
Hermione stepped out of the floo into her office that was at the sanctuary. Originally, the plan had been that only Rolf and the rest of the ministry workers would still work from London and not on sight. It had quickly become clear that it would be more productive if both Rolf and Hermione were working directly in Scotland.
Charlie also had a desk, but he hardly used it for more than taking a nap once in a while.
Rolf was in charge of the dragon keepers and the healers on staff, while the rest of the operations fell to Hermione to keep track of. Hermione managed to sit down at her desk before an owl came flying towards her with a scroll attached to its leg.
Letting her head fall forward, Hermione took the scroll in her hand and opened it. There was a sighting of a Hebridean Black egg in Wicklow Mountains, that was just south of Dublin. Jumping from her desk, Hermione moved as quickly as she could to Rolf's office to let him know they were needing two dragon keepers to go and retrieve the egg.
When she entered the room, however, Rolf was nowhere to be seen. Moving back down the hall she looked in the employee lounge and found it empty as well. Hermione continued to search the building and found no one.
Hermione shuffled as quickly as she could outside to check the training grounds, and again found no one. After doing one last sweep, Hermione determined that she might be totally alone at the sanctuary aside from the two dragon keepers who were stationed to watch the enclosures.
Going back to her office, Hermione floo called Amos in his office to see if he had any information about where Rolf and the rest of the staff had gone.
"Amos, Amos, are you in?" She called out.
"Hermione? What's going on? Is everything alright?" Amos had just came running into the office carrying a cup of coffee.
"I have a dragon egg that needs to be retrieved and no one is here. Do you know where Rolf is?"
"Rolf and the rest of the keepers had to go to Sweden. There were two Ironbellies that needed picked up by this evening and they won't be back until tomorrow afternoon. Could you send the two who are watching the enclosures?" Amos asked, hopeful that he had come up with a solution.
"Amos, we cannot leave the sanctuary unguarded. It's fine, I'll go get the egg. I know the area; I've been camping in the area that the egg is supposed to be at." Hermione snapped at Amos, irritated that he would be so careless with the sanctuary.
"Okay, that will work. Just send me the coordinates so I know where you will be. If you have any issues send a Patronus and I'll have an Auror come find you." Amos said, disconnecting the call before Hermione could suggest sending an Auror with her.
Well, shit. Okay, glancing at her watch Hermione figured that she could go and get back before tonight when Charlie was due to return. She knew that if he was here, he wouldn't let her leave the office at all, much less alone, but right now she needed to get going.
Hermione ran out to let the keepers know where she was going and that she'd be back soon. She twisted on the spot and apparated away to Wicklow Mountains.
With a soft thump, Hermione landed in a patch of soft grass and began looking around while she whispered a few spells to check to see if anyone was lurking nearby or if there were any anti apparition wards, or wards in general, in place.
Once Hermione felt confident that there were none, she began to quickly walk towards the mountain that the scroll had described. Hermione, Harry, and Ron had spent a few nights camping here during the war, and Hermione was certain that she knew the area that had been described.
It took about an hour, but when Hermione cast the egg tracking spell she'd learned from Casey, she finally had a green wisp erupt from the tip of her wand that pointed her in the general direction of the egg.
Hermione continued off towards where she was being pointed, taking another hour to get to that particular mountain side. This was the tricky part. She was looking and egg that was gray with what looked like moss growing on it, on the side of a mountain, that was cast in shadows. Basically she was looking for an egg that looked like a rock.
While the spell that Casey had taught her would show her the general area of an egg, it couldn't show her it's exact location. Checking one last time to make sure that there was no one lurking nearby, Hermione felt confident enough to begin her search of the area.
Sending blast of air through the tall grass that covered the mountain and checking behind rocks and under different cliffs, it was taking Hermione a lot longer than she had anticipated. She hadn't noticed that the sun was setting until it was already dusk.
When she tripped over a hard rock, Hermione cursed as she landed on her hands and knees, scuffing them up breaking open the skin and getting dirt and rocks embedded in the sensitive skin. Turning her head so that she could kick it.
Stopping herself, Hermione realized she hadn't tripped over a rock at all. It was a large egg.
"Well, shit. How am I supposed to hold this egg and apparate at the same time?" Hermione groaned out loud looking at the size of the egg. It was probably the same size of the Longhorn egg, and that had been a struggle for Hermione to handle without being thirty weeks pregnant.
Conjuring a sling to wrap the egg in, so that she could hoist it over her back, Hermione rolled the egg into the middle of the long material. Strengthening the cloth and then levitating the ends so that she could easily grab them, Hermione squatted down and stood back up, with the egg safely on her back.
Holding out her wand, Hermione turned on the spot and landed outside the offices at the sanctuary. Squatting down, Hermione set the egg back on the ground, but winced in pain shooting through her knees where she had injured herself when she'd tripped over the egg.
"Where, the fuck, were you." Hermione heard the voice behind her, not even realizing that she'd just landed in front of a very angry red headed man. "I swear to Merlin, Hermione, if that's a Hebridean Black egg that you just set on the ground. Please, tell me that you didn't go on an egg retrieval alone."
Hermione slowly turned to meet her maker. He was furious.
His face was as red as his hair. Eyes were blazing with anger and concern at the same time. As soon as she'd fully turned around, he was on her, grabbing her hands and looking at her palms.
"I'm fine Charlie, really, I'm fine. There was no one else here and you and your team weren't meant to be back until late tonight and Rolf had to take everyone else to Sweden until tomorrow. I called Amos, he knew where I was and it was a low risk." Hermione didn't try to pull her hands away from Charlie as he used his wand to extract all the rubble from the soft skin.
"Amos knew, he knew, that my thirty-week pregnant fiancée, was off looking for a bloody dragon egg, alone." His eyes flashed up to meet hers before looking back at her hands and continuing to remove the rest of the dirt before healing them.
"From the looks of your hands and your knees, you aren't fine. I'd almost even wager that you tripped at one point, but I'm trying really hard to not yell at you, because I know you wouldn't be so reckless." Charlie was slowly breathing in and out of his nose.
"I didn't fall onto my belly at all. If I had, I would have gone straight to St. Mungo's." Hermione tried to reassure him, as he was bent over working on getting all the dirt and rock out of her knees.
"You've got to be fucking with me. This is some sort of joke, right Hermione? You can't just go off like this. Not to mention, I will be having a talk with Amos about the risks of sending anyone, but especially a pregnant woman, to go and retrieve an egg." Charlie's voice was shaking as he attempted to control his tone.
Hermione went to open her mouth to scold Charlie for thinking that she couldn't do something just because she was a woman, but decided against it. For now, at least, it might be better to not push his buttons any further than they already had been.
After he finished healing her knees, Charlie stood up and looked down at her, then pinched the bridge of his nose. "Hermione, I understand that you are a strong, independent, and stubborn woman. It's part of the reason why I'm in love with you. I also know that you're intelligent and brave, but for the love of Merlin, stay out of the field while you're pregnant with my children. Once you're no longer pregnant, I will happily go anywhere with you to retrieve every egg that pops up if that is what you want. Just please, while you are still pregnant do not go out in the field. Too many things could happen to you or the babies, and when you go alone, no one would be there to help you."
Hermione had to break eye contact with him, he didn't even look angry anymore, but he looked disappointed. This was so much worse than if he were yelling and screaming. If he was angry then he could get it out of his system by yelling. This, however, this really put into perspective that she had miscalculated the risks of going out alone.
"I'm sorry, Charlie. I just didn't want to lose an egg and just knew I knew the area and just went for it." Hermione had hung her head so that she was looking down at her feet.
She heard a heavy sigh fall from his lips, and felt his warm fingers under her chin as he lifted it to make eye contact with her. "Just promise me, next time you'll wait for someone else to go. I'm serious, Hermione, I can't let anything happen to you or our babies."
Nodding her head, Hermione wrapped her arms around Charlie's waist and began to sob, with her chest heaving.
Charlie settled his arms around her, running soothing circle on her spine. Making calming sounds, Charlie let Hermione grip his shirt and tears staining the material. They stood in their embrace until Hermione's breatheing had started to even out.
"So, you got the female Fireball?" Hermione asked looking up into Charlie's face.
"Oh yeah, Forrest is already really taken by her. We're going to have to come up with a name for her though. She had a name in Mandarin, but none of us can pronounce it correctly. So, we're working on coming up with an English name."
With a smirk, Hermione suggested "Why don't we call her Jenny?"
"Jenny? Hm, yeah, actually I think that'll be perfect." Charlie said looking down at her. "Forrest and Jenny, perfect. How did you come up with it?"
"Oh honey, I have the perfect movie for us to watch this weekend." Hermione said, smiling up at the man she loved.