Over the next week Charlie grew increasingly agitated. Everyone else was getting along so well with their reps. Eric and Robert were practically inseparable. Rob even seemed to be embracing the way of life on the reserve. Sometimes when Charlie saw Rob he thought the guy was just another keeper. Chase didn't like life on the reserve that much but he clearly liked Lea. It was obvious that he was very fond of her. Lea would have no trouble weaseling a good evaluation out of him. Charlie was the only one who couldn't get his rep to warm up to him. He was starting to think that maybe it was just impossible. Jessica Sloan just wasn't capable of warming up to anyone.
Charlie thought maybe he was part of the problem. He couldn't see Sloan as anyone except for an uptight, cold, and unpleasant person. He had this picture of her cemented in his mind. He couldn't see her as being anything else. But then one night, all that changed.
He was sitting in the common room with Jake and Lea before they headed off to bed. The three of them were just sitting around and talking about their days. Charlie had worked with a boring Swedish Shortsnout, Jake had been with Sabra all day, and Lea had struggled through life with Jamaya. The three friends were exchanging stories about their dragons when Sloan walked in. She had been in her room before and she'd come out to read a book but she'd spotted Rob and Chase so she settled down with them. Charlie couldn't help but stare at her.
She just looked so different. Maybe it was the fact that she was in her pajamas and not her usual get up. Sloan was just wearing an old t-shirt with sweatpants. But the biggest and most noticeable change was that she had let her hair down. Sloan had forgone her trademark tight bun and her hair cascaded down her back in loose waves. She looked remarkably different; like another person.
"Charlie what are you looking at?" Jake asked noticing Charlie's temporary trance.
"What, er nothing," he said hastily turning back to face his friends. But it was too late. They'd followed his gaze to where it had previously been focused.
"Why were you staring at Sloan?" asked Jake with a laugh.
"I don't know, I just thought she looked different," Charlie mumbled as he began to blush. Getting caught staring at Sloan was highly embarrassing.
"She does look different," Lea acknowledged fixing Charlie with an odd look.
"Yeah, more like a normal person," Jake added. Charlie shook his head, unable to stop his gaze from wondering over to her.
"Do you need to leave the room?" Jake joked. That only caused him to blush even deeper.
"No," he mumbled feeling his cheeks flame. Charlie forced himself to focus on his conversation with Lea and Jake but every so often he found himself glancing over at Sloan just to make sure he hadn't just imagined her looking so different. But there she was, relaxed, hair down, and laughing with her brother and Chase.
The next morning at breakfast Sloan reverted back to her usual attire but Charlie couldn't shake the image of her from last night out of his head. He observed her in what he thought was an inconspicuous way but when she and Chase got up to throw out their garbage Jake accosted him.
"Dude what is with all the staring?" Jake wanted to know.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Charlie denied it. Lea sighed and shook her head as if to say stupid boys.
"What?" Jake asked looking at her.
"Ugh! Isn't it obvious? Charlie thinks Sloan is attractive!" Lea laughed.
"What?" sputtered Charlie in shock. Lea was clearly imagining things.
"Charlie you've been staring at her non stop for the past twelve hours," Lea pointed out. Jake nodded his head in agreement.
"She's not bad looking," Jake observed. "Just not my type," he added with a hasty look over at Lea.
"I don't think she's attractive. There is nothing attractive about being uptight and tense," Charlie protested. He did not like the direction in which this conversation was headed. So what if he stared at her? That didn't mean he thought she was attractive.
"You definitely thought she was attractive last night," Jake insisted. Lea nodded her agreement.
"No she just looked different," Charlie said shaking his head.
"And what you really mean to say is that you were surprised by how attractive you found her," Lea argued. Both Jake and Lea were smirking at him. Charlie was growing infuriated with the pair of them.
"I'm not having this argument," Charlie muttered as Chase and Sloan came back. Charlie looked up at her. There was no way he was attracted to her. He couldn't deny that she was pretty but he didn't find her that attractive. Well, she was attractive when she wasn't being uptight but that was only about ten percent of the time. Charlie shook his head and sighed to himself. This was the last thing he needed to be thinking about. He should just forget that the conversation ever happened. He couldn't afford to have himself getting distracted when they were about to work with dragons.
His assignment this time was a Norwegian Ridgeback he'd actually helped bring to the reserve. One of the teachers at Hogwarts, the former gamekeeper Rubeus Hagrid, had stumbled across a dragon egg. Hagrid had hatched the egg in his small hut on the school grounds. It's extremely illegal to be in possession of a dragon egg so Charlie's younger brother Ron had written to Charlie. Ron asked for Charlie's help it getting the dragon out of Hogwarts without anyone knowing Hagrid had ever been in possession of one. Lea and Jake had flown out to England on business and brought the dragon back to the reserve so that Hagrid wouldn't get in trouble. Hagrid, in a moment of sentimentality, had named the dragon Norbert. Charlie, Jake, and Lea were all rather fond of Norbert.
Although, now that he thought about it, Charlie wouldn't really need all of his concentration this morning. For the past week Norbert had been acting extremely calm. All of the keepers that worked with him made the same report. They all said he was acting remarkably calm, which was a stark contrast to his previous bout of viciousness. Colin Michaels had even gone as far as to suggest that Norbert might be sick.
When they got to Norbert's quarters Charlie tried to feed him breakfast but Norbert didn't feel like eating. He sniffed the meat for a long time before going back to sit down.
"What's wrong with him?" asked Rex, the intern assigned to Charlie for the day.
"Honestly, I don't really know. Norbert's never been like this. He usually eats too much if anything. And he's so calm. I don't really know," Charlie admitted. Sloan regarded all of this with a passive expression. Charlie half expected her to pull out the notepad and write about how incompetent the keepers were because they couldn't figure out what was wrong with their dragons. But she just watched Norbert with a curious expression.
Norbert wouldn't eat his lunch either. Charlie's stomach was growling and he knew he had to take Sloan back to the cafeteria but he didn't want to leave Norbert alone. Something could be really wrong and he didn't want Norbert to go unattended. Charlie saw Rex check his watch, which reminded Charlie of the time. It was already noon. He sighed and sat down on an overly large rock.
"Rex you can head back if you want. I just don't feel right leaving Norbert alone like this," Charlie said to the boy. Rex looked pointedly at Sloan.
"And er, Sloan you can go with him if you want to," Charlie added. Rex glared at Charlie over Sloan's shoulder. Apparently he didn't want to spend any more time with Sloan than he had to. Whether she noticed Rex's glaring, Sloan didn't let on. She just shrugged her shoulders and sat down next to Charlie on the boulder.
"It's all right. If you're going to stay I'll stay too," she said simply. Rex looked surprised but didn't say anything about it.
"I'll bring you both back some food," he told them as he left.
"You don't have to stay just because I am," Charlie told her.
"I know," Sloan said leaning back on her hands. She was watching Norbert and if Charlie didn't know how much she disliked dragons he would have thought she was concerned. For a while neither of them said anything; they just sat in silence. It wasn't totally uncomfortable yet Charlie was uneasy. He was internally debating whether or not he really thought Sloan was attractive. He had nothing else to do with his time.
"Hey Weasley?" Sloan said breaking Charlie from his thoughts.
"Yeah," he said in response.
"Norbert is acting a lot like Sabra was on the day she laid her eggs," Sloan observed. Charlie thought back to last week when he worked with Sabra. She had been in the process of laying her eggs so naturally she'd been calm and refused to eat anything. Norbert was acting a lot like Sabra now that he thought about it.
"You don't think," Charlie began hesitantly.
"That Norbert is actually a Norberta? Yeah, I do," Sloan answered.
"But that's just—Norbert's been here ever since Jake and Lea picked him up three years ago and he's never," Charlie broke off deep in thought. They didn't actually know a lot about Norbert's parentage. He was obviously a Norwegian Ridgeback but they didn't know much else. They didn't have the benefits of knowing what dragons spawned Norbert. The fact that Norbert was brought to the reserve at a young age and brought up in his early days but someone who wasn't a professional…Charlie's internal ponderings were interrupted by Sloan.
"Norbert was brought here?" Sloan asked. Charlie nodded. "So that means you guys didn't actually gender test?" Again Charlie nodded his head. "You just trusted the word of the previous owner?" Charlie sighed trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Sloan might have solved yet another problem on the reserve. "So he could actually be a she." Sloan looked extremely confident that she was right. As much as Charlie hated to admit it, she probably was right.
"Well, there's only one way to find out," Charlie said. "If he—she really is laying eggs we can't do the test right now but we can check at the end of the day and see if she's got eggs."
"So we stay here all day?" Sloan wondered.
"You don't have to but I think I will," Charlie told her with a shrug.
"Okay then I will too," Sloan concluded. Charlie reclined further on the rock and closed his eyes. He felt the warmth from the sun heating his face. It was extremely relaxing. He stayed like that for quite some time. When he opened his eyes again he saw Rex on his way back with two trays of food. Sloan and Charlie greeted him appreciatively. As they ate their sandwiches they explained the Norberta theory.
"So you think he's a girl?" Rex asked when Sloan was done explaining her theory.
"It makes sense," Sloan insisted.
"It does make a lot of sense," Rex said rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
"It would explain why he—she's been acting so calm," Charlie added. "I just can't believe we didn't realize it before."
"Well we had no reason to suspect that he wasn't a he," Rex laughed.
"A gender test would have told us that," Charlie sighed wishing they had thought to do one when Norbert—Norberta had first arrived.
"Yeah but why would we gender test if the previous owner says it's a male," Rex countered. "We probably wouldn't have found out if it wasn't for the eggs." Charlie groaned. All this talk was not helping with Sloan's impression of the reserve. She was probably gearing up to write all about how the keepers can't even tell the males apart from the females. At this rate she could probably shut down the reserve in a week.
"It's an honest mistake," Sloan said surprising Charlie. Rex nodded his head in agreement. They watched Norbert who didn't move from his—her position all day. The dragon was content to just sit all day. It was typical behavior for a dragon about to lay eggs. Charlie couldn't believe that Norbert might actually be Norberta. It was too much to handle. Between Sloan's transformation last night and now this he was actually going to lose his mind.
"Are you going to stay here all day?" Rex asked Charlie and Sloan.
"Until dusk," Sloan told him. Charlie knew he shouldn't be surprised yet he was slightly impressed to hear that Sloan knew the time of day dragons usually lay their eggs.
"You don't have to," Charlie said to the intern.
"I'll bring you back some dinner," Rex said as he left. Charlie could have sworn he saw Sloan roll her eyes at Rex's back.
"Some intern," she muttered. Charlie laughed lightly.
"He's not always this irritable," Charlie put in. Rex was prone to mood swings. Some days he was an excellent help on the reserve and others he was just an annoyance.
"He doesn't seem to want to help out much," Sloan observed. Charlie guessed that Rex's less than helpful attitude was due to Sloan's presence but he didn't want to tell her that so he just kept silent.
"So who was Norbert's previous owner?" Sloan asked. Charlie was surprised that she was taking such an interest.
"One of my teachers back at school. The gamekeeper stumbled upon an egg. I'm not quite sure how exactly he came across the egg. But once it hatched my little brother wrote me and asked to help get the dragon to the reserve," Charlie explained. He smiled a bit at the memory of Ron's letter. Sloan nodded; she was clearly deep in thought.
"You have a lot of little brothers," she commented. Charlie remembered Sloan staring at the picture or his family on his door. She had seemed fascinated with it at the moment. But maybe she was just in awe that such a huge family could exist.
"Yeah, four…an older brother too. And a little sister," Charlie said with a shrug.
"It must be nice," she added thoughtfully. Charlie remembered her saying that she'd grown up without a family. That must have been why she looked at his picture for so long. The only family Sloan knew was her twin brother Robert.
All around them night was beginning to fall. The sun was setting and a cool breeze perused the air. Charlie spotted a couple of fireflies dancing off in the distance and the crickets began their chirping. Suddenly a silhouette appeared on the horizon. It was Rex. Finally on his way back with some dinner.
"Sorry it took me so long," Rex mumbled as he got closer to them. Charlie didn't think Rex looked very sorry at all. Rex handed Charlie and Sloan each a plate of food. The two of them began to eat eagerly. When Charlie looked up form his plate the sun was about to settle down for the night. He saw Sloan watching it sink on the horizon while Rex stared off into space. Watching the sunset was rather peaceful.
"So how long does this egg laying thing take?" Rex asked loudly, completely shattering the peace. Sloan threw a dark look at him.
"It varies. An hour minimum," Charlie informed the intern. Rex groaned.
"What is your problem?" Sloan asked him suddenly. "Are you too tired to do your job? Do you even want to be here on the reserve? What is so terrible that you can't even sit with a dragon laying her eggs?" Rex looked rather taken aback. Charlie didn't know where her little outburst had come from. He was just as shocked as Rex.
"I—there—nothing," Rex mumbled. He couldn't seem to formulate a response. Sloan looked at him expectantly. Rex cast a helpless glance at Charlie but Charlie wanted to hear what the guy would say.
"Well?" Charlie asked. "We're waiting." Rex was at a complete loss. He mumbled something about being tired from working overtime last night. Sloan rolled her eyes at him but she let it go. Charlie just shook his head.
"Get your shit together Rex," Charlie said to him authoritatively. Rex didn't say much more after that.
Twilight had settled in before the dragon started showing any signs of discomfort. Norbert or Norberta began to make sounds of discontent. Charlie recognized them as some form of labor pains. He couldn't believe Norbert was actually a girl—laying eggs and everything. Hagrid was going to freak out, Charlie thought.
"It's starting," Charlie told the other two. Slowly the three began to move closer to where Norberta was laying down. She didn't look very happy. But then again no dragon was particularly thrilled to squeeze eggs out of themselves.
"She doesn't look like she's enjoying it very much," Sloan observed.
After about fifteen minutes the first egg appeared. It was rather large and jet-black. Charlie had seen a lot of dragon eggs in his lifetime but he was still fascinated by them. It was hard to imagine that there was a tiny dragon living inside of them. Sloan and Rex were both equally intrigued. Both of their gazes were locked on the egg in Norberta's nest.
"So he's definitely a she," Rex observed. Charlie nodded. Sloan had a somewhat triumphant grin on her face. She was after all, the one who had figured out that Norberta was laying eggs. If Charlie didn't know any better he would have attributed her vast knowledge of dragons to a hobby. However Sloan despised the creatures, she was just very smart. Charlie was rather envious. He knew that many keepers would pay to have a mind like Sloan's.
The egg laying was rather quick by egg laying standards. After an hour and a half the entire process was over. Norberta was now sitting in her nest in a protective position. She wasn't going to let anyone get near those eggs. Charlie fed her some meat, which she accepted eagerly after a day of not eating. After that he, Sloan, and Rex made their way back to the tents.
Rex parted from the pair of them all too eagerly. Charlie watched as the guy practically sprinted to the interns' tent. At least Rex got some really useful first hand experience out of today. Not many interns got to witness an egg laying in their first months. It was a rather invaluable experience.
"That was pretty incredible," Sloan said to Charlie when they were heading back to their tent. It was pitch black out and the only light came from the random bursts the reserve liked to keep alight.
"It never gets old," Charlie assured her.
"Those eggs were huge," she recalled.
"Believe it or not, I've seen bigger," he told her. Horntails had massive eggs.
"That's ridiculous," Sloan said shaking her head. Charlie laughed at her disbelief. Eventually they got to the tent and went their separate ways. They'd gotten along quite nicely during the day but Charlie feared that Sloan would revert back to her usual cold shoulder method the next morning.
Because they'd had such a late night Schmidt gave them an easy assignment for the next day. Charlie's only job was to monitor and observe Norberta and the new eggs. He was grateful because both he and Sloan were exhausted from having stayed up so late the previous night.
"I can't believe Norbert is a Norberta!" Jake exclaimed the next morning at breakfast. Charlie was writing a quick letter to tell Hagrid about his former pet and Jake was reading over his shoulder.
"Norbert's a girl?" Lea asked in surprise.
"Laid eggs just last night," Charlie told them both. He laughed at the incredulous expressions on their faces. He could only imagine what Hagird's reaction would be like. Shock and awe would definitely be involved.
"After all this time and we never knew," Jake sighed shaking his head. He still seemed to find it humorous.
"Norbert's a girl," Lea repeated thoughtfully.
"Norbert's a girl," Charlie affirmed. He scribbled a closing to the letter and went to hunt down Lea's owl. After sending Hagrid's letter Charlie went back to the cafeteria and found Sloan. The two of them slowly made their way to Norberta's quarters.
"How often do your dragons lay eggs?" Sloan asked Charlie during their walk. Charlie was surprised that she was talking to him. Sloan usually applied an evasion technique where he was concerned.
"It's pretty rare. I mean obviously mating season is in the summer but we try to keep the dragons separate then. You could imagine how crowded this reserve would get it all of the dragons were mating," Charlie explained. Sloan nodded her head thoughtfully.
When they got to Norbert—Norberta's quarters she was sleeping while happily guarding her new eggs. Schmidt had agreed to the name change from Norbert to Norberta. He'd also issued some gender testing to be done on the dragons that they weren't one hundred percent sure of. Once they observed that everything was fine with Norberta Charlie left her some food and they headed back to the cafeteria for lunch.
They were earlier than everyone else because they'd received such an easy assignment. There was still an hour before lunch officially started. That made Charlie nervous. How was he going to entertain Sloan for an hour?
"Have you talked to Dr. Bartlett lately?" Sloan asked him as they passed the office buildings.
"Not since we saw him last," Charlie said shaking his head.
"He works in here?" Sloan asked, motioning to the building coming up on their left. Charlie nodded his head. "Would he be in there now?"
"Er, most likely. Do you want to stop in and see?" Charlie offered. He wasn't sure why she wanted to talk to Doc so bad but he wasn't about to argue. It would give them something to do. Personally, Charlie would have been fine with just taking a nap but he didn't think Sloan would approve of sleeping on the job.
"Sure," she replied happily. She even led the way into the building. Sure enough Dr. Bartlett and his team was in the lab conducting some experiment. Christopher looked up when they walked in. Charlie half expected him to shoot them a glare and demand they get out. One time Jake and Charlie had walked in during the researchers' work and were ushered out by an irritated Chris. Chris was about to say something but then he noticed Sloan with Charlie and his entire countenance changed. Charlie couldn't believe that she had made such an impression on Chris.
"Jessica come here and take a look at this!" Dr. Bartlett said when he looked up and saw Sloan. She went over eagerly and examined whatever was under the microscope. Charlie was in shock. Half the time he couldn't stand Sloan and these people seemed to love her. He guessed she'd made quite the impression when she helped them out with their lab work the other day.
"That's very interesting," Sloan muttered while still getting a closer look.
"What do you think?" Chris asked her. She began to give him her opinion using a lot of scientific words that Charlie didn't quite understand. Noticing a chair off in the corner Charlie sat down, leaned his head up against the wall, closed his eyes, and drifted off to sleep. Sloan would be fine with Bartlett and the other researchers.
"Time for lunch Weasley," Sloan said giving him a slight nudge. Charlie woke with a start. Apparently he'd been more tired than he thought. He didn't like the way she was smirking at him either. She was probably thinking about her next report. Keepers are lazy and often fall asleep when they're not given a specific task. Charlie shuddered at the thought.
Lunch was surprisingly painless. Charlie, Jake, and Lea were all able to talk about their day without rude interruption from Chase or Sloan. The two of them were immersed in their own conversation. After the meal was over Charlie and Sloan headed back off to see Norberta.
Charlie was pleased to see that the dragon had eaten the lunch they'd left her. She was wide-awake when they returned. Norberta had fixed her wary gaze on the pair of them. Charlie noticed how Sloan hung back hesitantly. She didn't like dealing with awake dragons very much.
There wasn't much to do so they went back to the main camp early. Apparently they weren't the only ones who had an easy day. Lea, Jake, and Chase were sitting outside the keeper tent just talking. Well, more like Jake and Lea were talking while Chase sat off to the side glowering. Charlie and Sloan joined them and Sloan went over to talk to Chase who looked pretty irritated. Charlie joined his two friends who were talking happily.
"Let's do something," Lea said after about ten minutes. "It's so nice out and I'm bored." She sighed.
"Well what do you wanna do?" Jake asked looking around as if an idea of what to do would appear out of thin air. As they were discussing this, Eric, Colin, and Rob appeared, also having come back slightly early.
"We could pay Quidditch," Charlie suggested once it seemed that there were enough people to start a limited game.
"So you can kick our asses again?" Jake asked laughing. Charlie shrugged grinning. It wasn't his fault he'd been good at Quidditch in school. He'd always known he was good. He even got an offer to play for the England international team after he'd graduated but Charlie's true passion was dragons, not catching snitches.
"Weasley can't be that good," Chase said shaking his head.
"You'd be surprised," Lea put in.
"Let's see then," Chase said getting up. There was a competitive gleam in his eyes. It was a challenge.
"Alright then," Charlie said. Lea went into the main tent and grabbed some spare brooms. Jake got their own out of their tent.
"Me, Charlie, Sloan, and," Jake paused as he tried to divide the group evenly, "Michaels," he finally said.
"Sounds good," Lea said going over to join Chase, Rob, and Eric.
"The usual rules?" Eric asked. Jake and Charlie nodded their heads.
"What are the usual rules?" Rob wanted to know.
"One keeper, two chasers, one seeker—no bludgers," Charlie explained. They all mounted their brooms. Colin and Eric flew to their respective spots as the designated keepers whenever the reserve played a pick up game of Quidditch. Lea, Rob, Sloan, and Jake all took the role of Chaser and Charlie and Chase were the seekers.
"Everyone ready?" Jake asked. There was a collective murmur of agreement. Jake flew down to the ground released the quaffle and the snitch. Charlie immediately began to focus on the tiny golden ball but as usual it vanished from sight as soon as the game began.
While scanning the fields for a sign of the small glittering ball Charlie observed the game. He was mildly impressed with Sloan's skills on a broom. He never would have pegged her for the Quidditch type but she seemed to be doing just fine. Sloan and Jake were clearly dominating over Rob and Lea. Eventually Charlie caught sight of the snitch and made a quick, easy capture. He was pretty sure Chase never even spotted the ball. Chase claimed the sun was in his eyes.
"Haha did you see the look on that guy's face when you caught it?" Jake asked Charlie triumphantly. Jake was grinning ear to ear at having beaten Chase.
"He couldn't believe it," Lea agreed running up to them. She was in a good mood despite having lost the game. She wasn't exactly a Quidditch fanatic.
"Did you see Sloan out there?" Jake asked the two of them. "I never would have guessed she could play."
"Me either," Lea replied laughing. Charlie nodded his head in agreement.
"That was fun. Charlie, Quidditch was a good suggestion," Sloan said to him when she joined the three friends. Lea and Jake exchanged incredulous looks. Charlie was just as shocked as his friends. He couldn't believe that she'd used his first name. It was like an unspoken rule that they referred to each other by their last names. Jake, the most friendly, recovered the quickest.
"Yeah but your friend doesn't seem to agree," he said motioning to Chase who was trailing behind the group with a scowl on his face.
"Chase is a sore loser," Sloan said dismissively.
"Are you two good friends?" Lea inquired. Sloan paused thoughtfully.
"No not really. Just colleagues. Rob doesn't like him very much but we tolerate him when we have to. It's kind of like babysitting sometimes," she added in a joking manner. Lea laughed appreciatively.
"He doesn't seem very thrilled with being here on the reserve," Jake added.
"None of us were at first," Sloan admitted.
"And now?" Charlie asked, speaking up for the first time.
"It's growing on me," She said with a smile in his direction. Charlie couldn't help grinning back. She looked pretty when she smiled like that, Charlie thought. Maybe he'd have to start calling her Jessica.
Author's Note: This chapter sort of serves as a turning point in Charlie's relationship with Sloan. He realizes there's a lot more to her than an uptight Ministry Rep and she realizes he's not just a dumb dragon keeper. Also I just wanted to say that this story was inspired by a picture I saw on deviantart . com. It's called Charlie 100: Relax by The-Starhorse. You should look it up. It's an excellent picture. Please leave a review :)
yellow 14: thanks for saying that about the characters. this is the first story that i've made a conscious effort to really show a development in the characters.