Chapter 3: Sparks Fly
It was now the twenty first, it was three days before the first task and the day of the first Hogsmeade weekend. She was sitting at a table drinking a tankard of Butterbeer waiting for her brother. She was wearing her worn Hufflepuff scarf and her Pride of Portree tee. The bell on top of the door tinkled a few minutes later and she looked up to see Neville walking towards her.
"Neville, over here!" she shouted motioning him over.
The boy walked over to their private table.
"Sit down," she smiled.
Neville sat down across from his sister. A few minutes later, a tankard of Butterbeer was delivered to Neville.
"So, how's Hogwarts?"
Neville replied. "It's been rather intense since Harry was chosen for the Tournament. The Hufflepuffs have been rather cold to him. They even made badges to support Cedric Diggory."
"I can't blame them to be honest. Hufflepuff doesn't get a lot of credit, you Gryffindors get all the glory," she teased her brother.
"I suppose we do."
Michelle nodded. "So, how eventful have the last three years been at Hogwarts?"
Neville began recalling everything that has happened the last three years. She recalls her school years and hearing rumors about the Cursed Vaults. She didn't really believe them until her best friend Mary was a victim of the sleepwalking curse in their sixth year.
"So, do you like Quidditch?"
"I'm much too clumsy to play and I get anxious on a broom," Neville replied.
Michelle nodded. "I'm not agile on a broom either. I broke my wrist during my first flying lesson."
"You did?"
"I did."
Neville winced at the memory. "I broke my wrist in my first flying lesson too."
"Do you have a favorite subject?"
"I'm pretty good at Herbology. I'm horrible at Potions."
"I was horrible at Potions too since Snape scared me to death."
Neville raised an eyebrow. "Was he your boggart too?"
Michelle shook her head. "No, he wasn't. No Professor should be a student's boggart."
"Though when I get rid of it, I imagine it in our gran's clothes."
Michelle asked. "What's our gran like?"
"She's very strict. She compares me to my parents a lot," Neville sighed running a hand through his blond hair.
The duo said their goodbyes and Neville left. She walked back to her room.
—
Two days later, the school was abuzz with the news that the first task was dragons. Michelle hadn't seen a dragon since she was in school. She liked dragons and wanted to sketch one. She walked towards the Forbidden Forest where they were being kept. She found the quartet of dragons in a grove and started to sketch the one with blue scales.
A few minutes later, she heard a crunch of a branch and she looked up to see a muscled man with shaggy ginger hair, a short, scruffy beard and the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen.
"Who are you?" he asked suspiciously looking at her confused.
"Michelle Turner," she introduced herself with a smile.
He thought for a moment. "Turner, weren't you in my brother Bill's year and Head Girl?"
"I was."
He nodded before introducing himself. "I'm Charlie, by the way."
"Nice to meet you, Charlie."
"You too. What are you doing?"
"I'm sketching the blue dragon but she's being a tad difficult."
Charlie didn't respond; he just agily hopped over the fence between them and the dragons. He grabbed the one with silvery blue scales and turned it towards Michelle.
"This is Sparky," he introduced, stroking her snout lovingly.
She stifled a chuckle. "How creative, who named her a five-year-old?"
Sparky snorted some fire and Charlie said. "You offended her, Turner."
"Sorry, Sparky," she apologized sincerely.
"You should come closer, Turner," he suggested.
She tucked her sketchbook under her arm and her pencil behind her right ear where she sometimes kept her wand.
"Be careful, Turner," Charlie said, rushing over to help her climb over.
"I can handle it, Weasley," she assured him, trying to placate his Gryffindor chivalry.
He sighed and backed off. But low and behold, her right foot got stuck in the bottom rung of the fence and stumbled into Charlie.
"Whoa, steady there," he said, reaching out to steady her with his huge hand.
She smiled at him. She always happened to be clumsy when she was around a guy she might be interested in. This gave her the chance to get a closer look at his blue eyes. They were mostly blue but they had flecks of grey in and around the iris. They were incredibly beautiful.
"You dropped your pencil," Charlie said, picking up her pencil and holding it out to her.
"Thanks. You know what a pencil is?" she asked, taking it from him, then walking towards Sparky.
"I took Muggle Studies."
She nodded, sat down in front of Sparky and continued sketching her.
"So, you like to draw?" he said peeking over at the sketch.
She chuckled. "I'm an amateur artist. I mainly use it as a stress release from my job now. Though, I've been drawing since my last year at Hogwarts."
"Oh, what do you do?"
"I'm Ludo Bagman's assistant," she told him.
He nodded. She finished her sketch and leaned over to stroke the dragon's blue scales.
"You like dragons?" he asked.
"I'm fond of them but I could never work directly with them like you do," she said.
Charlie nodded. "I suppose working with them is dangerous but I live on the edge."
"Typical former Gryffindor," she teased standing up and straightening her pants.
"What house were you in again?"
"I was a Hufflepuff. Are you going to stay for the first task?" she asked, trying to hide the hope in her voice.
Charlie replied. "I was planning on it. I want to see them in action."
"I'll see you there then," she said.
Charlie nodded as she climbed over the fence again and waved goodbye to him. She walked back to her room.