Dragon man
Chapter 2 – Wizard - interrupted.
"We're off to see the wizard……" a voice rang out across the reserve in the darkness, Nelly's by the pitch Charlie reckoned.
"The wonderful wizard with booze!" Callie's voice finished gleefully.
This was joined by high pitched giggling and whoops of laughter, Charlie could hear the other muffled voices from his team getting louder as the group approached.
"Ah, Nelly you're a knob!" He recognised that one, they were the slightly nasal tones of Ben Ainslie, an Australian 'surfer dude' as Charlie called him, he was tall, blonde muscled and tanned, yet he strongly resented that he matched any such stereotype. His nick name was predictably, Oz. Amongst the others he picked up the Irish twang of Finn Magee. The luck of the Irish indeed, in his early thirties, Finn was wonderful with the nervous dragons, never letting them take advantage, but treating them with understanding and compassion. His dark hair, laced with premature grey, and shocking blue eyes had women falling at his feet. Some would say he barely noticed, he did, he just chose to pursue those who caught his eye well away from the jeering of his team mates.
Charlie sat on the covered few square feet at the front of his cabin that passed for decking and swigged from an ice cold bottle of beer and watched as the group approached, he smiled to himself as Nelly flitted from one young woman to another, obviously spoilt for choice. The girls all giggled and batted their mascara'd eyelashes at him, and at Oz and Finn. Charlie stood as they approached, shaking hands with the men and kissing Callie and the girls on the cheek. There were four girls, apprentice healers and all far too naïve and young for Charlie. Callie raised her eyebrows at him as one girl coloured as Charlie spoke to her, the poor girl was obviously painfully shy and had an instant crush on Charlie. As she moved away Charlie smiled at Callie's expression.
"Must be the famous Weasley charm" he grinned at her look of disgust
"Oh come off it gaffer" she laughed "It's the fact that you are a) a legend on the reserve b) a well know tart who will sleep with it if it has a heartbeat c) have your own cabin and d) have muscles on top of muscles and those come to bed eyes!"
"Why thank you Callie, although I do have some standards, they are not high but they are there" he replied, enjoying the banter.
"Bloody right they ain't high" she snorted "I've seen some of your one night stands and I wouldn't feed 'em to Arcy"
"Some of yours aren't much better" he retorted "The American? In my bed?"
"A mistake and you know it" Callie looked at her boots with mock regret "I can't believe you banned me for that"
"I wouldn't have done if she had been half way decent and I could have joined in" Charlie laughed as Callie punched him on the arm.
"You are disgusting" she complained "We have had this conversation before Charlie-boy and although I can definitely see what other women see in you, it does nothing for me"
"Yeah, I know" he laughed "Just remember my offer though" he winked as Callie looked disgusted again.
"Sure" she rolled her eyes "If I ever want kids, it's a date. You, me and a turkey baster…."
"No, you know the deal; it has to be the real thing…." He left the statement open ended.
"You need to get laid boss" she said matter of factly "You're getting annoying again" and with that she joined the others in the room behind them.
Charlie watched as Nelly moved in on his prey, the lad had certainly learned a few things since he'd started at the reserve; although not all of them dragon related granted. The girl was falling for every trick in the book and Charlie chuckled as Nelly stroked the girls face, smiling into her eyes. Making his way to the kitchen, Charlie helped himself to another beer, clanking bottles with Finn.
"How are we?" Finn asked
"Fine" Charlie returned "And you?"
"Pissed and happy" he replied laughing when Charlie grimaced.
"You are hard enough to understand at the best of times Finn, never mind when you're pissed"
"To be sure…" Finn said before joining Charlie laughing, it was a team joke, to add 'To be sure' onto the end of anything Finn said, and he took it good naturedly. Unlike Oz, who got huffy whenever he was greeted with the Aussie greeting 'G'day mate, stick another shrimp on the barbie'.
Charlie and Finn stood back together, watching the party heat up. Others had joined and the rooms were getting stuffy and crowded. Oz was dancing with the shy girl, who by all accounts wasn't that shy if the lipstick on Oz's face was any indicator. Nelly was weaving his way towards them, grinning from ear to ear.
"Boss man!" he slurred "Finny!" he held his hand up for a high five from each.
"Having fun?" Finn asked
"I'm in love, that's what I am" Nelly grinned, trying to remove the lids from the two bottles he had acquired.
"Here" Charlie flicked his wand and the tops sprang off neatly.
"You're drunk, that's what you are" observed Finn.
"And I'm gonna get laid" Nelly chortled "Unlike you two old saddo's, skulking in the kitchen, lads, seriously, there's some hot witches out there and you two aren't even trying"
"We don't need to try" Charlie said "It comes naturally to us"
"Yeah" sneered Nelly "That's why you haven't been shagged for 6 months"
"Hey, he might not have done, but I'm quite satisfied thanks" protested Finn.
"Course you are Finn" Nelly attempted to wink at him.
"I have my secrets, speaking of which, one's coming off duty about now so I'll bid you goodnight gentlemen"
Charlie laughed at Nelly's expression "See ya Finn, have a good one"
"Come on Finn, who is she?" Nelly demanded.
"That's be telling" Finn laughed as he disappeared out the back door and into the darkness.
"Bet he's going home for a hot date with his right hand" Nelly snorted.
An hour or so later and the party was in full swing, healers, trainers and other staff had joined and Charlie was sitting out on the deck, pretty well drunk and enjoying the sight of others enjoying themselves. He spoke to everyone and got involved, but the best part for Charlie was watching his guests have fun, he liked to people watch. He started as he heard footsteps beside him and turned to see dark blue robes billowing around calf length flat boots, women's boots. In his inebriated state he connected the blue robes with those of the matron of the hospital.
"Ah, matron" he said, wondering why his head wouldn't obey the order to lift and look her in the eye.
"The infamous Charlie Weasley I presume" came the rather stern reply.
Charlie frowned, the voice was different, lighter and not so whiney, and the matron appeared to have lost rather a lot of weight from her ankles and calves suddenly. His head finally lifted and he looked into the face peering down at him.
"Why matron" he smiled "I must have had a lot to drink because you look ten years younger and quite a lot thinner too"
"Thank you for the compliment Mr Weasley" she said, eyebrows drawn up in a way that could only be sarcastic "However I am not matron, I am assistant matron and I am here to ensure that the trainee healers are all tucked up in bed ready for their shift tomorrow. Some beds in the dorm are empty and I have been pointed in your direction to discover the whereabouts of the ones who are missing"
Charlie held a hand up "Whoa" he said, his voice as unsteady as his hand "Can you stop looking at me like that"
The eyebrows got higher "Like what?"
"Like I am the big baddy and you are the hero" he smiled cheekily.
"I am merely enquiring the whereabouts of my charges" she replied shortly "It is neither my care nor my concern what your part in their disappearance is, suffice to say that in the absence of matron, I am in charge of the reserve hospital and I have patients that will need treatment tomorrow and healers with hangovers do not learn well nor deliver effective treatments"
"Too…..many….big….words" Charlie grinned again "You are far too pretty to be a hideous matron"
"Again, an unbidden compliment, and quite unnecessary" The voice appeared to be losing patience "Are there any healers or trainees here that should be safely in their dorms?"
"Probably a few left, but if I were you I'd check the handlers dorms too, because a few of them may be receiving er, shall we say, private healing?"
"Thank you" she snapped "I'm much obliged" she added, sounding anything but.
"You are welcome" he responded "Beer?" he offered an un opened bottle that lay beside his chair.
"No" she said "Thank you, may I?" she indicated to the open door from where the sights and sounds of the party were erupting.
"Knock yourself out" he frowned a moment, reached out and grabbed her wrist "Although you may want a drink before you venture in there, it's not pretty"
Charlie dropped her wrist as if it were on fire as she looked firstly at the hand encircling her wrist and then coolly met his eyes.
"I assure you Mr Weasley, I have been a healer for many years and I have seen my fair share of body parts and drunken binges, I doubt it will shock me"
He held her gaze, smirking slightly at her before standing unsteadily and moving towards the door, he flicked his wand at the stereo in the corner, firstly knocking the speakers off the wall and then managing to turn the music off. Amid the groans and shouts of protest he held up his hand.
"Sorry guys, but the fun police are here and we are to all pack up and go to bed" he looked sideways at the woman standing next to him "This lovely lady is the assistant matron and she's come to take all you lovely healers off to your own beds instead of the ones you were planning on sleeping in" he winked at the woman before continuing "Now seeing as she's a little easier on the eye than the real matron, shall we do what she says?"
"Oh ma'am!" came the reply from the now not so shy girl, who had managed to disengage herself from Oz "You said we could come until midnight, and it's only quarter to!"
"You can't do much in fifteen minutes, can you Hayley?" she replied, regretting it immediately as she felt Charlie get closer.
"Wanna bet?" he whispered.
"Well, that says more about you than it does me" she smiled back before continuing "Come on ladies, I shall wait for you outside, you have five minutes to say your goodbyes" she then looked rather pointedly at Charlie "Which apparently is ample time" and turned on her heel and headed back on to the decking.
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