A/N: This scene would have appeared in Chips of Chocolate if I hadn't changed my mind about the way I wanted the story to run. It also has a tie in with my fic Playgrounds, Balls and Promises Kept for those of you familiar with my story list. While I am only just posting it here, it has made an appearance on the livejournal community Books & Freckles where I originally posted it... It didn't go very well there, mostly because they didn't really have a clue about the Animality Series. Anyway...

Seven year old Charlie Weasley yawned, stretching out as much as he could. He carefully rubbed the sleep from his eyes before rolling out of bed and hitting the floor with a soft thud. Stumbling blearily into the bathroom, he took care of business. After washing his hands, Charlie glanced into the mirror at his reflection.

"AHHHHHH!" Stumbling backwards, Charlie tripped over something and went sprawling on his back. He yelped in pain several times and curled up in a protective ball.

After a few minutes in which he realized that the creature in the mirror wasn't going to jump through and get him, Charlie opened his eyes. Opening his eyes revealed darkness, it took him a few moments to realize that he had his hands in front of his face and he moved them back only to open his eyes wide as he stared at his hands.

Expecting to see his normal pale, freckled skin and fingers, Charlie's eyes were met with hands that were blue! The skin was a rich blue. The color of blue that you found on the sky to the east just as the sun was starting to set on a clear day. Not only was his skin blue, but he had dark blue freckles! And his fingers... They were tipped in sharp claws!

Gasping, Charlie scrambled to his feet... Feet that he noticed didn't look like human feet! They were more like the kind of feet he remembered seeing on a dragon picture a few weeks ago. And blue! So much blue... He whirled in place, something smacking into the wall behind him and earning another soft yelp. He twisted to look behind him at his... Tail?

Finding the three feet long appendage that tapered to a point before flaring into a spade shape and was attached to the top of his butt only led Charlie to the discovery of the fact that he had wings! Willing the wings to move, Charlie couldn't help but grin when they complied. Turning once more, Charlie climbed easily onto the bathroom counter to stand in front of the large mirror.

Charlie finally remembered as he looked at himself. Yesterday. He had been playing in a room full of kids, one of which he recognized as his older brother Bill, when two men had entered. The men were twins with red hair claiming to be his baby brothers Fred and George. He was still doubtful of that, since Fred and George were still being potty trained as far as his memory told him.

In any event, Charlie had learned that apparently he had willingly taken a potion that turned him into a part-dragon before accidentally taking something that had turned him into a kid. While the men claiming to be his brothers had told him that he was supposed to be in his mid-twenties, Charlie just couldn't remember being anything more than seven.

As he remembered, Charlie inspected his reflection. He wasn't wearing a shirt, probably because of the wings, and the baggy shorts were adjusted to allow for his tail. Flexing, Charlie was impressed with the amount of muscles his little animalistic body possessed. He bared his teeth at his reflection, startling himself when he saw the sharp teeth in his tiny muzzle. He grinned and that looked even more frightening.

The strangest part, in his opinion, wasn't that he was blue. It wasn't that his eyes were red and seemed to burn with fire. It wasn't that he had small ridges along his spine or the wings. It wasn't that the older Fred and George said that his nickname was FireEye. It wasn't the horns on his head or the tail and claws... The strangest part, as far as Charlie was concerned, was that his once bright red Weasley hair was dark blue.

Ruffling the dark blue locks, Charlie grinned at his reflection again before hopping off the counter. Dashing out of the bathroom, he went to inspect the place that one of the other boys he had met yesterday, the one that said his name was Sirius Black, had said was the Black Family home.

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After a day of hard play, play in which little he and the other kids had gotten in big trouble, Charlie sneaked out of the bedroom he was sharing with Bill, the boy named Sirius Black, another boy claiming to have the same name as his father; Arthur Weasley, a boy called Severus Snape and another one that said his name was Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. Who would name their kid something like that, anyway? At any rate, Charlie slipped from the room he shared with the other boys.

While Charlie had slept a bit, Bill snored and it was hurting his sensitive ears. The house was eerily quiet as he literally glided down the stairs to avoid the creaky steps. Wandering around, Charlie eventually found himself outside the doors to the library. He grinned to himself, remembering the loud party that the kids had held within that room earlier in the day.

Slowly opening the library doors, Charlie slipped inside and looked around. The adults George had called earlier had done a good job of wand cleaning the mess they had made and the portrait of Sirius' mother was sleeping behind her curtains.

Charlie was about to leave when a soft sound from one of the chairs caught his attention. Turning, he saw one of the girls about his own age sitting on a chair. She had a large book spread out on her lap and was carefully flipping the pages. He recognized her as one of his fellow Henchmen and smiled.

During their game earlier that day, the game that had gotten them in trouble, Queen Minnie, aka Minerva McGonagall, had named Charlie one of her Henchmen. The Queen's other Henchman was a little bear of a boy named Neville Longbottom. The two Henchmen shared their duties when two Henchwomen, Hermione Granger and Nymphadora Tonks. Fred and George, at least the men that claimed to be the twins, had said their names were Rumble, Wildcat and Shift. The girl sitting on the chair was Wildcat.

It was easy to see how she had gotten the nickname. Like Charlie, the seven year old Hermione Granger had a part-animal form. She had been a normal girl when he first saw it, but had learned earlier that she could turn into some kind of cat. She was taller and more muscular in her cat form with a long furry tail. She had tawny golden peach style fuzz on her body and her eyes were a sparkling amber. Rounded feline ears could barely be seen from the very wild, creamy brown curls.

As Charlie watched, she carefully turned another page so as not to tear it with her claws. He grinned and cleared his throat before walking over. "Hey Wildcat."

Hermione jumped a bit, startled. After a moment she returned the grin. "Couldn't sleep either, FireEye?"

Charlie shook his head, wandering closer to her chair. "Nah, my brother Bill snores too much."

"Same here. Only it was Queen Minnie snoring."

Both snickered at the thought of their 'Queen' snoring loud enough to wake people.

Finding a book on dragons that Hermione had earlier discarded, Charlie seated himself on the floor in front of her chair and started looking at the pictures. "I'm going to work with dragons when I grow up." He confided after a moment or two.

Chewing on her lip in thought, Hermione nodded. "I didn't know dragons were real until I saw these books." After another silence she made a confession. "I've always wanted a dragon."

Since the accident turning them into children had messed with their memories, Hermione didn't know she was a witch. At least she didn't know until she had woken up to find herself with nineteen other kids, some of which obviously weren't human, and a scary man the twins had called 'Meanie Moody.' She still hadn't believed until one of the twins had made a ginger-furred kitten float. But it wasn't until she had gotten mad and turned into a half-cat creature herself that she truly believed.

"I could be your dragon."

Startled from her train of thought, Hermione blinked down at Charlie. Her eyes were wide in disbelief. "What?"

Charlie's freckled blue cheeks turning a bit purple as he blushed. "Well, just... You know. Until you can get a real dragon." His entire face was turning purple by now.

Hermione carefully took in Charlie's appearance. He did seem to be a dragon. Carefully, she reached out to brush her fuzzy fingers along the curve of one of his wings. Her amber eyes flickered to a deep chocolate brown for a moment as she had a vague memory of a red-head promising her a dragon flash through her brain. "Really?"

"Sure." Charlie nodded. "Might be fun to pretend to be a pet dragon for a while." He gave her a cheesy grin.

Smiling brightly, Hermione barely had time to put her book aside before she pounced the dragon-boy into a big hug. "Thanks FireEye! This will be so much fun!"

Right about then, the sound of a throat clearing drew their attention. Turning, the two part animals saw one of the twins standing in the doorway. There was a strange look of pain, mostly in his eyes, that confused them before it was gone.

"Shouldn't you two be in bed?" The twin, neither of the two could tell which it was, frowned as they put their books away. "You'll be lucky if you don't get into more trouble for this..."

The twin escorted them to their rooms, the strange pain flashing through his eyes once more when Hermione waved goodnight to Charlie. "Night-night, my dragon!"

"G'night, Wildcat!"

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Later, in the room he currently shared with just his twin, Fred told George what he had seen. George's expression matched the one on his twin's face.

"Hopefully that won't change things between us when they're back to normal..."

Settling down for some much needed rest, the twins couldn't help but feel a sense of loss at the missing third in their large bed...