Jake, Charlie, and Jessica walked out of the cafeteria and towards the fields where Jamaya was kept. It was quite a walk; Jamaya was one of the more dangerous dragons they had on the reserve so she was kept quite out of reach. "Er, you might want to change," Charlie said looking down at Sloan's clothes. High heels were definitely not the best shoe choice for traipsing through the dragon fields. Sloan waved her wand and instantly her shoes became boots and her skirt turned to jeans. Even in casual clothes she managed to look a lot more put together than any of the other girls on the reserve.
"Almost there!" Jake called out to them from a couple feet ahead. They walked through a clearing and emerged in one of the more open fields. Several yards ahead, the huge bright red fireball was walking around. "She isn't kept in an enclosure?" Sloan asked raising an eyebrow.
"We have wards set up so she can't get past certain areas," Jake explained.
"She can't fly out over them either," Charlie added. Sloan still looked weary. Charlie imagined what she would write about the living quarters of the dragons. Dragons are kept in open spaces. They are not physically tied down and it looks as if they could escape easily. Passersby should beware.
"I've gotta feed her lunch," Jake sighed. "We could use your help Charlie." The team of interns working with Jake: Rex Keble and Mark Carmichael followed Jake into the clearing.
"C'mon," Charlie motioned for Sloan to follow him as Charlie made his way towards the dragon.
"We're going to get closer?" Sloan asked warily. When Charlie looked back at her he could have sworn he saw a flicker of fear in her eyes.
"Well yeah," he said, thinking it was quite obvious. She didn't look very comfortable with that idea. "Jake's gonna take her down first, get her chains on and then when she wakes up we have to feed her. It should only take about fifteen minutes." Sloan didn't look very assured but Charlie didn't really care—he had a job to do. "Stay here for a second," he said to her as he ran ahead to catch up with Jake.
Jake, Rex, Mark, and Charlie all aimed their spells at Jamaya who roared stubbornly before passing out. They had to act quickly because they only had five minutes before she woke up. Rex pulled over three magically enhanced chains from nearby. He gave one to Mark, Charlie, and Jake each. Mark attached his to one of Jamaya's front legs, Charlie attached his to one of her hind legs, and Jake hooked his to her neck. Rex attached the ends of all of them to a stone pole that was held in place by magic. They all quickly backed off. Charlie motioned for Sloan to join him. She didn't look very enthusiastic about it but she came over to stand by them.
Most of the people that worked for the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures had very strong feelings about the creatures. They either absolutely loved creatures and wanted to help keep them safe or they absolutely hated creatures and wanted to pass laws and restrictions to make sure the creatures didn't have a lot of freedom. Judging from the look on her face Sloan joined up with the Department because she hated magical creatures. That was going to make Charlie's job extremely difficult.
"She's probably going to be pissed when she wakes up," Jake sighed as he conjured the meat they were supposed to feed Jamaya.
"She hates people," Rex said darkly. He glared at the dragon.
"She's evil," Mark agreed with an enthusiastic nod of his head.
"She's not that bad," Charlie said in the dragon's defense. Mark raised an eyebrow at him and Jake laughed.
"Charlie just yesterday you were cursing her very existence," Jake pointed out. That was true. Yesterday, after one of his attempts to get through to Jamaya failed, Charlie had been convinced that Jamaya was just plain mean. But that was right after she burned him. Now seeing her again, looking so peaceful Charlie couldn't help but think that she was just misunderstood.
"I know but I think she might just be," he began.
"Misunderstood," Jake, Rex, and Mark all said together. Rex even rolled his eyes. Charlie was constantly insisting that they were all wrong about Jamaya.
"I bet he didn't tell you," Jake said to Sloan, "she's the one who burned him."
"And why his arm is blue," Mark added with a snort at Charlie's blue arm.
"Watch it Carmichael," Charlie growled at the intern. Sloan looked over at Charlie and his blue arm. Charlie just shrugged his shoulders.
"It happens. We get burned a lot," Rex said in Charlie's defense. Rex was probably just sucking up to him but Charlie appreciated it nonetheless. Approximately 10-15 interns come to the reserve every year and only 7 get to stay on. Charlie and the other tamers get to help pick who stays and who goes.
Suddenly Jamaya began to stir and Charlie noticed Sloan tense up. As the dragon was stirring Jake tossed a huge chunk of whatever meat they'd procured at her. Jamaya sniffed the meat and growled angrily. She was never satisfied with what they brought her. She hated everything but usually wound up eating it anyway, only after severe tempter tantrums. Rex tossed a smaller chunk of something else towards Jamaya. It landed near her feat and the dragon was not pleased. Mark tossed the meat he'd brought to her as well. Jamaya sniffed it and displayed her disapproval. She let out a burst of flames towards them. Everyone took several steps back and Charlie instinctively threw out his arm in front of Sloan.
After Jake and his interns had thrown several pieces of meat her way Jamaya seemed to realize she wasn't getting anything else. The dragon eventually began to eat. She let them all know just how unhappy she was with the occasional snarl or flame.
"Is she always that moody?" Sloan asked. Her eyes were still warily trained on the fuming dragon.
"She's usually worse," Charlie sighed.
"You would think she'd be happy to be eating," Mark remarked whilst staring confusedly at Jamaya.
"She's never happy," Rex said shrugging his shoulders.
"One of these days we'll figure her out," Charlie declared confidently. He fully believed that once they figured out how she functioned they could get her to warm up to them. For now, they would just have to try their best to not get burned.
After Jamaya was finished eating she let out a fierce roar. She was not thrilled to still have the chains on her. Charlie motioned for Sloan to stand back as he went with Jake, Rex, and Mark to stun the dragon. The keepers stunned Jamaya and made quick work of removing her chains. "C'mon let's move back," Jake said to the others. Charlie motioned for Sloan to follow them as they backed away from the dragon. Within moments Jamaya was awake again and stretching her wings.
"Damn would you check out that wingspan," Mark said as they watched Jamaya.
"It's incredible," said Rex nodding in agreement. They watched the scarlet and gold colors dance across the dragon's back. In the fading sunlight Jamaya looked rather beautiful. Everyone thought so. Well everyone except for Sloan apparently. While the keepers were staring transfixed at the dragon she just kept glancing at her watch. Jake left some meat in the corner of her quarters, just in case Jamaya got hungry again, and the group headed back to the cafeteria for dinner.
"Something smells good," Mark declared as they made their way back. Charlie took a deep breath and inhaled the scent of their dinner. It did small rather appetizing. Sloan had already changed back into her business looking clothes and looked eager to get back inside.
Instead of sitting at the administrators' table Lea and Chase were sitting where Lea usually sat with Jake and Charlie. Jake said goodbye to his interns and then went to sit with Lea and Chase. Charlie paused briefly. He considered sitting with Eric and Colin so that Sloan could be with her brother where she would feel more comfortable. In the end he settled for taking the seat next to Jake. He didn't feel like dealing with Eric and Colin that evening.
Gradually the cafeteria began to fill and the kitchen staff announced that dinner was ready. The interns got to eat first. At the reserve, meals worked backwards. They worked from the bottom up, letting the interns eat first and the administrators last. The system was this way mostly because the interns got stuck with doing the awful tasks that no one felt like doing.
Eventually Lea led their table over to collect their food. It turned out that the meal that smelled so delicious before was quite the buffet. There was steak, mashed potatoes, pasta, fruit salad, plain salad, pie, cake, and the list went on and on. Charlie figured Schmidt had asked the cooks to make an extra nice meal for the reps' first night.
"This food is great," Chase remarked as they were settling down to eat.
"It's not always this nice," Lea was quick to point out. Jake shot her a look. "What?" she said, "I don't want them getting false hope here." Charlie was sure if Jake wasn't so in love with her he would have rolled his eyes at that. He could just picture what Sloan would write in her evaluation. Food is occasionally great but mostly sub-par.
"Good to know," Chase said in reply and went back to eating his dinner. There was a lull in the conversation after that. Charlie desperately wanted to say something, anything, to break up the awkward silence but he just couldn't.
"No one got burned today," Jake told Lea. It was his desperate attempt to create conversation.
"Not even Charlie?" Lea asked jokingly.
"Not even once," Charlie smiled. "And my arm is now a light blue rather than bright turquoise thank you very much."
"Saw my first dragon feeding," Chase remarked. He didn't look like he enjoyed it very much. "It was pretty gross."
"You get used to it," Jake added with a shrug. Sloan remained silent. Charlie really had his work cut out for him. It was going to be hard work to get Sloan to enjoy life on the reserve.
"Cake is good," Lea mused.
"Eh, I liked the one from two days ago better," Jake commented. Charlie wanted to contribute to the conversation but it was so forced and awkward that he just couldn't bring himself to say anything.
"The weird red one?" Lea asked with a laugh.
"Red velvet…and it was delicious," Jake declared.
Eventually dinner was over and the cafeteria began emptying out. Some people went back out to the fields to visit their favorite dragon. Some went into the office buildings to finish up paperwork. Most everybody else went back to Tent City.
"Is it true you guys sleep in tents?" Chase asked curiously.
"Yes and no," Lea responded with a smirk.
"What do you mean?" he wanted to know.
"You'll see," she replied smiling. The group walked towards the sleeping quarters and in the light of the sunset Tent City looked quite spectacular. Charlie glanced over at Chase and Sloan who were both staring at the tents with expressions of awe. Some people had gotten back to Tent City before them and were stretched out on the grass in the middle of the area. The sounds of laughter and talking drifted towards them. A few of the interns had started up a game of football. The summer night air was warm and an infectious glow seemed to be spreading throughout the atmosphere.
"Welcome to Tent City!" Jake declared.
"They still look like tents to me," Chase muttered after some moments and Lea rolled her eyes at him behind his back.
"We sleep in tent five," she said pointing to the keepers' tent.
"You guys are gonna stay with us," Charlie told them.
"Do you wanna see the inside?" Lea asked.
"Yes, alright," Sloan said, speaking for what to Charlie, seemed like the first time in ages. Lea led the group over to tent number five. Charlie held back the flap and allowed everyone to step through. He followed in after.
To say that the representatives were surprised would be an understatement. From the looks on their faces it seemed that they were expecting to be led into a log cabin or something. Chase was in complete disbelief. He kept looking around as if he were expecting the real living quarters to appear. Sloan just appeared to be in awe.
"So um, if you go down this hallway," Charlie said breaking the silence, "this is where we sleep." Sloan and Chase followed him. "Jake is down there," Charlie said pointing to Jake's door. "Lea on the far left. That's Eric in the middle…I think Rob's next to him," Charlie tried to remember where everyone had been assigned. "Chase you're over there and I'm right here," Charlie leaned back against the door to his room, "And Sloan you're next to mine over here." Chase poked his head inside the room he'd been assigned and Sloan did the same. Charlie and Lea looked at each other not quite sure what to do.
"I think that was the most I've said to either of them all day," Charlie said in a low voice to his friends. Jake laughed and Lea sighed.
"Wentworth is so lucky," she muttered so that Chase and Sloan wouldn't be able to hear. "He's got the friendly one. I saw them laughing together at dinner."
"At least Chase talks," Charlie sighed. "I can't get the girl to say a word!"
"I'd rather Chase keep his stupid mouth shut," Lea hissed. Her frown changed to a forced smile when she saw Chase coming back out of his room.
"I've got to admit. I'm rather pleasantly surprised," he told them. Lea bit her lip, fighting back a sarcastic retort. Sloan came out of her room and as usual didn't say a word. She just looked at Charlie, Jake, and Lea expectantly.
"Well um we usually just do whatever before we got to bed," Lea said rather awkwardly. "We have to wake up early, close to six to eat breakfast."
"Breakfast is 6:30 to 7:30," Jake chimed in.
"So don't stay up too late," Lea added.
"I'm going to go find my brother if that's alright," Sloan told them.
"Er, yeah, alright," Charlie muttered.
"I'll go with you," Chase said eagerly. Charlie could have sworn he saw Sloan roll her eyes.
"Fine Roland lets go," Sloan hissed at him. Charlie was starting to think it wasn't just him Sloan disliked; she seemed to dislike everyone. Charlie watched the two of them leave in search of Rob.
"That was uncomfortable," Jake commented.
"Tell me about it," Lea sighed as the three of them made their way back to the common room area. They took their favorite seats off in the corner of the room. "Chase pretends he's nice but I can tell it's just an act. Give it a week or two and he'll be the most annoying person on the reserve," Lea sighed as she collapsed into her chair.
"At least you can have a conversation with the guy. Sloan barely says a word to me," Charlie complained.
"You're not exactly a skilled conversationalist yourself," Leah pointed out. Charlie was about to protest when she provided a rather good imitation of his mumbling "Er, yeah, um".
"I only do that when I'm nervous!" he pointed out.
"Which is about fifty percent of the time," Jake joked.
"She doesn't seem like a people person," Lea eventually agreed with Charlie.
"And she definitely hates dragons," Charlie added.
"She did not look too thrilled when she met Jamaya," Jake mused.
"No one is thrilled to meet an angry fireball," Lea laughed, "except maybe you Charlie." Jake and Lea laughed and Charlie just smiled. Moments later Eric and Colin came into the tent talking animatedly.
"Hey Weasley!" Eric called out when he spotted the trio in their usual spot. "How's your half of the Sloan siblings?" he asked walking over to them.
"Not so great," Charlie told him.
"Really?" Eric looked surprised. "Rob's great," he said smiling. "The guy is so easy to get along with."
"I think the exact opposite can be said for his sister," Jake laughed.
"Really?" Colin wondered. "Rob was talking about her and she seemed pretty cool."
"The girl never talks," Charlie told the other keepers.
"Yeah, well they've been through a lot. I'm not surprised," Eric said as Colin nodded his head in agreement.
"What do you mean?" Lea asked.
"Ah well I guess it makes sense she didn't tell you. But they've had a rough life," Colin sighed. Charlie could tell the two older keepers were enjoying having information that the other three didn't. It was pretty irritating.
"What happened to them?" Jake asked curiously.
"It's a long story Henderson," Eric shrugged his shoulders. Charlie got the feeling that it wasn't a happy story either.
"Maybe we'll tell you one day when you're older," Colin said with a laugh. Lea glared at him. She opened her mouth, about to tell them off but then Rob and Chase came in through the flap. Eric and Colin went over to talk to them and the four men were soon playing Exploding Snap on the opposite side of the room.
"I hate Michaels," Jake sighed.
"Me too," Lea agreed. "And in a week or two Chase Roland is going to turn into him. Just you wait."
"The last thing we need is two of him," Charlie muttered darkly.
"You're telling me," Lea frowned. "I wonder what happened to the Sloans that was so terrible."
"They were probably just making stuff up to annoy us," Jake said shaking his head. "It would be so typical Michaels to do that."
"I don't know about that," Charlie disagreed. "Eric was the one who brought it up. And he seemed pretty genuine. I think something terrible really did happen to them."
"They must have each handled the situation very differently," Lea added thoughtfully.
"And something had to happen to make her hate dragons," Charlie put in.
"If she hates them Rob probably hates them too," Jake concurred.
"But Rob seemed so nice," Lea protested. Charlie laughed.
"His personality doesn't have anything to do with how he feels about dragons," he pointed out. Charlie watched as Eric, Colin, Chase, and Rob went off down the hallway to their bedrooms.
"What time is it?" he asked Jake. Jake glanced down at his watch.
"Almost ten," came his reply.
"We should really start getting to bed then," Lea said getting up. Jake agreed. Charlie was about to head off to his room when he realized Sloan wasn't in the tent.
"Did either of you two see Sloan come back in here?" he asked his friends. They both shook their heads.
"Maybe she's outside," Jake suggested.
"Yeah, I should go check though," Charlie sighed. He stepped outside of the tent and headed towards the circle of grass in the middle. There was hardly anyone left outside. There were still balls of light floating outside each tent so that people could see if they had to go outside for some reason but other than that it was pitch black. Charlie scanned the circle before spotting a lone figure sitting down, looking up at the sky. It had to be her. Charlie walked over to the person and recognized Sloan's business looking shoes and jacket on the grass next to her. He figured he should probably say something but he had no idea what. Instead Charlie just took a deep breath and sat down next to her.
Sloan looked over at him, mildly surprised to see him beside her. The summer night air was warm and she'd rolled up the sleeves of her white oxford to reveal her pale slender arms. Her hair was still tied back in her tight bun but other than that she looked rather relaxed. Sloan had her legs stretched out in front of her and was leaning back on the palms of her hands.
"Nice night," he observed looking up at the sky. Charlie could see every star in the Romanian sky.
"I haven't seen the sky so open like this in about ten years," she sighed. Charlie was taken aback by the fact that she was speaking to him in such a manner.
"Why not?" he asked still not taking his eyes off of the sky.
"Paris is a bright busy city at night. You can't really see the stars, at least not like this," Sloan told him.
"You live in Paris?" Charlie wondered although the answer was pretty obvious. He just never imagined her as being French. She didn't even have an accent.
"For the past seven years," she said not bothering to look away from the sky either.
"Where did you live before that?" he asked finally looking over at her.
"Everywhere," she said. Sloan smiled at him for a second and then looked back over at the stars. "I went to Beauxbatons for school though, so Rob and I figured we'd stay in the country."
"But you didn't grow up in France?" Charlie wondered. Sloan shook her head.
"We had to learn to speak French when we were about fifteen. It took us awhile to figure it out. I'm still not the best…but we're both relatively fluent." Something in that story didn't add up. Charlie thought about it. Sloan said they went to school in Beauxbatons, which is in France…so they should have had to learn to speak French when they were eleven. Charlie's confusion was evident on his face and Sloan noticed it.
"So you learned French when you were fifteen…then where did you go to school before you were fifteen?" Charlie asked curiously.
"We didn't," Sloan simply shrugged.
"Did your parents teach you magic at home or something?" Charlie felt a bit nosy but he really wanted to know the story.
"No we taught ourselves. Our parents died when we were young," Sloan told him in a soft voice.
"Oh I'm sorry," Charlie instantly felt guilty for making her tell him that. He'd been too nosy. And now he felt a little awkward. Sloan shrugged the apology off.
"Everyone says that when I say our parents died," she said with a feeble laugh. "You don't have to say you're sorry. It's not like you killed them." Charlie got the feeling Sloan didn't like sympathy anymore than Lea did.
"Yeah, but it still sucks," Charlie sighed. He sensed that there was more to her story but he didn't want to ask any more questions and she didn't seem to want to tell him. They sat in silence just staring up at the sky. It wasn't an awkward silence but it wasn't a friendly one either.
Charlie then realized he was analyzing the silence and knew he was overtired. He didn't know what time it was but it had to be at least past ten. With one last look up at the sky Charlie got to his feet.
"It's getting late," he said to Sloan when she looked over at him. "I think I'm going to call it a night. You coming in?" Charlie half expected her to say no and sit outside a little while longer.
"Yeah," she said gathering her shoes and jacket. Charlie, in a moment of gallantry, extended his arm down to help pull her to her feet. Again, part of Charlie expected her to not take his hand and get up herself. But she placed her significantly smaller hand in his and Charlie pulled her to her feet.
They walked back over to tent five in silence, once again. But Charlie didn't find this silence uncomfortable at all. Maybe the reason Sloan didn't talk to him a lot throughout the day wasn't because she didn't like him but simply because she liked the quiet. At any rate, he felt less dislike for her after their short but honest discussion. Charlie held back the flap as she climbed through. Sloan mumbled a quiet thanks as he came in behind her.
The common area was completely empty now with everyone else having gone off to bed. They walked down the hallway where the bedrooms were located. From the outside of the door you could usually tell who slept inside. On Colin's door there was nothing but his name printed in dull gray letters. Eric had a poster of his favorite Quidditch team, The Tornadoes, and a small picture of him with his parents. Jake's door had his name and a picture of Charlie, Lea, and himself. Charlie smiled every time he saw it. Lea kept her door clean. Her name was printed in neat cursive and she had painted in blue instead of the usual white.
"You remember which is yours?" he asked Sloan who was just sort of looking at his door. She hastily averted her eyes and nodded.
"Goodnight," she said and without waiting for a reply disappeared into her room. Charlie glanced at his door before opening it to see what she'd been looking at so intently.
Besides his name the only thing on Charlie's door was a picture of his family. It was taken over the winter holidays back when Charlie and Bill were both still in school. His mum and dad stood in the back, arms around each other. Fred and George were fighting about something. Percy was yelling at the pair of them. Ron and Ginny were eating cake and Charlie was sitting in the middle with Bill; the two of them just laughing. He wondered why Sloan was staring at the picture but didn't think much of it. Maybe she'd never seen so many red headed people in one room. Charlie just shook his head and went into his own room. As soon as he was changed into his nightclothes he collapsed onto his bed. He was asleep moments after his head hit the pillow.
Author's Note: Thanks for reading my story please leave a review!
yellow 14: i'm glad you like the dragon-ish beauty. there is more to come :)
Miriflowers: i'm so happy you like the plot! im really proud of this story because it was one of my most original ideas. since it was set on the reserve and not at hogwarts there was a lot i had to create.