A/N: Recap (since it's been so freaking long since I've updated): Charlie's a lot happier in his marriage than Gretchen, who wants a little Weasley and we all know Charlie does not. It gets even worse when Charlie tells Gretchen that he's going away somewhere (still not sure where) to look for a new species of dragon and will probably miss Christmas and their first anniversary. That's the last straw and Gretchen decides she's had enough. Does Charlie do the right thing and abandon his dream of finding the new dragon in order to save their marriage? Uh, no. Now he and some old buddies from the North American Dragon Preserve are in the mountains, along with a group of muggle paleontologists who think they are looking for a new species of dinosaur. Now Charlie's about find something so awesome that will change his life forever. Thanks for hanging in there. Rita

Chapter 9

Dr. Preston was a tiny woman and she had to look up to look at Charlie and the others who towered over her. She seemed to always be in a good mood especially when she was dirty and digging for fossils.

Now she seemed to be reluctant to talk about what she was curious about. Charlie waited patiently.

"So, you gentlemen are from Mexico?" she asked.

"No," Charlie said. "I'm from England."

Her face reddened. "I mean," she said, "your group works for the Mexican government."

"No," Charlie said. "Ricardo and Wolfgang are from Mexico and Mike and the interns are from America."

"Oh. Isn't the Mexican Department of Antiquities funding your expedition?"

"No, it's private funding."

"Are you paleontologists? The reason I ask if that you don't seem to have a bit of interest in the dig site."

Charlie cocked his head to one side, waiting for her to continue.

"And what of Doctor Gomez? He's never around and when my assistant showed him a fossil he'd found yesterday, he didn't seem to know what it was."

"What's your point, Doctor Preston?" Charlie asked, folding his arms across his chest.

"My point, Mr. Weasley is I don't think you are scientists at all but I cannot fathom why you are here. Unless…"

"Unless?" Charlie said, grinning.

At that very moment Wolfgang appeared out of seemingly nowhere, startling Doctor Preston.

"Wolfgang," Charlie greeted him warmly. "Doctor Preston here doesn't believe we're paleontologists."

"Is that right?" Wolfgang asked looking at the young woman.

"And she was about to tell us what she thought we were."

"That'll be interesting," Wolfgang said. "So madam, who do you think we are?"

"Security forces," she blurted out. "I think there is something top secret around here that the government doesn't want us to find and you're here to make sure we don't get too close."

Wolfgang and Charlie exchanged looks. "Well," he said finally. "Sounds as good as anything else," he said and walked away.

"I'm right, aren't I? Doctor Gomez, please don't walk away from me. I must know what's going on." She started after him, but Charlie grabbed her arm.

"I don't think you want to bother him right now. He gets a little, um, grumpy," Charlie said pulling her back.

Wolfgang was about five steps away from her when he stopped. Without turning around, he called back at Charlie. "Why don't you go ahead and tell her who we are and what we're really doing here?"

"Seriously?" Charlie asked.

"Sure, why not? They aren't going to remember any of this anyway."

"That's true," Charlie agreed.

Boo shrugged and nodded. "Good point."

Dr. Preston looked at the men oddly, and then her eyes got big and she looked frightened. Tell her what? She wondered.

Charlie grinned, showing a lot of teeth. "Sheila," he said. "May I call you Sheila?" He took a step toward her and draped his muscular arm across her shoulder.

"I, uh," she stammered. "Yes, I suppose."

"Brilliant. I want to show you something," he said dragging her toward the edge of a cliff.

"What are you doing?"

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you. I promise."

Charlie held the struggling woman as he walked her to the place he had concealed the cave. The front part of the cave was typical of a cave, shallow and actually nothing spectacular. When he pulled her inside, he could barely stand up. It soon became apparent that there was more to the cave than the front of it. The back of the cave wall glowed with an eerie yellowish red, turning almost orange.

Sheila gasped. "What the hell is that?" she asked, walking toward the back of the cave.

"Merlin's beard," Charlie said pulling out his wand. He turned to the front on the cave and stuck his head out. "You have got to see this!" he yelled.

Suddenly the cave got very full. Mike and Boo pushed their way inside, shoving Dr. Preston out of the way.

"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" he asked.

Both men shook their heads. "I'll find Wolfgang," Boo said. "Don't do anything without me." He was so excited that he disapparated in front of Dr. Preston, whose back was push against a big rock.

"What is going on here?" she demanded.

Charlie and Mike were too busy talking to notice that Dr. Preston had moved to the back wall of the cave. She started to put her hand on the glowing rock, but Charlie threw a hex at her causing her to collapse on the floor.

"Don't touch that," he commanded.

Stunned, she let Charlie help her to her feet.

"What's going on here? What just happened?" she asked, shaking her head, trying to focus. "And why is it so hot in here?"

Mike and Charlie looked at each other. It was hot in there. They grinned at each other. "What do you think?" Mike asked him.

"A nesting room right behind that wall," Charlie answered.

"Yep," he agreed.

"A what?" Sheila asked.

Mike ignored her. "I've never seen one? Have you?"

"No," Charlie said. "Not in Romania. They don't group. The only place I've heard of that is in China."

"Yep. That's what I'm thinking, too."

"And what is a Chinese dragon doing in the mountains of where-ever-we-are America?"

"Excellent question, my friend."

"Excuse me," Sheila yelled. "Did you say dragon?"

Mike gave Charlie a look and he started to hex her again, but she ducked and the light from his wand bounced off the rock.

"Don't do that!" she said cowering slightly. "What are you doing?"

"Stay back," Mike said.

"Not bloody likely," she said. "I have to know what the hell is going on here."

"It's dangerous. Trust me."

"Not bloody likely," she repeated. "Are you guys wizards?"

"What?" Charlie asked. "No. What? No. Are we what?"

Sheila rolled her eyes. "I'm not stupid. Obviously you aren't normal humans. I knew something like this was going to happen. I thought you were CIA, but no, this is totally different. You have to be wizards or something. And you're not looking for dinosaurs; you think there's something else in there."

Mike looked at her calmly. "Dr. Preston, you need to settle down and relax. Do you want to be hexed again?" He pointed his wand at her.

She shook her head. "This is like a dream," she said.

"Exactly. It is a dream. You need to calm down and I promise everything is going to be just fine."

Her eyes were full of panic, but she nodded. "Okay. You won't hurt me?"

"No, but you have to do everything we tell you. Understand?"

She nodded again. "Not really," she said. "Understand, I mean."

Mike smiled. "I know."

Sheila felt herself go into a trance-like state, but there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. Why had the word wizard been her first thought to explain what was happening? She had no idea; maybe it was some fairy story she'd read when she was young about wizards and dragons. Dragons didn't exist.