Chapter Four: The Nest
"So, when is your next card game?" Charlie asked his friend as he took his seat at the lunch table.
"In three nights' time," the dark-haired Bulgarian answered as he pulled the bun from his hamburger and grabbed the ketchup to his left without even needing to move his eyes. "Minister Dalca vill not have my Galleons for long."
"Be sure to mention Anya to them."
"I alvays speak of my Anya," he answered, closing up his meal with the desired amount of red sauce and bringing it near his lips. "It is almost unusual for them to hear so much of a voman vhen all they do is complain of their vives."
Silence fell between the two young men as they began to eat, their brains and mouths becoming occupied with the succulent patties of grilled beef layered with lettuce, tomato and bread sitting before them. With only a single bite from the burgers, juices began to slide down their chins and back onto their plates making the napkins on their trays a necessity.
"By Merlin," piped Colin Aiken from his seat down the bench from Charlie and Simeon. "It's a good thing yer girlfriends aren't here to see that."
"Leave 'em alone," Zuberi Roberts interjected, giving the Scot beside him a shove in the shoulder. "Just because Bonnie turned you down doesn't give you permission to be a Doxy to others."
"I'm just sayin'." The spectacled man shrugged his shoulders and slumped forward towards his own cheeseburger, not looking at the burly ebony-skinned dragon keeper beside him. "A lady likes it when 'er man has manners...and Bonnie doesn't know what she's missin' out on."
"Oh, she knows," added Valerie Walters as she picked the tomato from her own hamburger. "Word of advice, Colin: Don't date one researcher here and expect her not to share some details with the others."
Snickers began to ripple down the long table of dragon keepers as Colin cursed his past conquest beneath his breath. A piece of lettuce slipped from Charlie's mouth as he smiled delightedly while Simeon subtly shook in his skin from the sniggers. It only halted when the subject changed over to that of the day's work ahead of them.
"The Fireballs have been unusually restless lately," Constantine Baptiste reported as he read from the work schedule on his clipboard, "so we're to go investigate their habitat and see if there are any environmental factors that could be causing this: any invasive plants or creatures. Afterwards, we're to monitor the Short-Snouts so the researchers can do their observations."
Everyone grunted their approval for the work between chews, no one having complaint about the tasks ahead of them. At the very least they didn't have to collect the Common Welsh Green's dung as they had done last week.
"Fine then." Their leader stood from the table and started towards the mess hall's exit. "Let's head off and get this started with."
With wand in hand, Charlie vanished his tray of dirty dishes and unfinished morsels along with everyone and started for the door behind Valerie's trailing brown ponytail as he placed his magical stick into his back pocket. He had almost reached the exit door when a hand stopped him from proceeding any further.
"It is a Vednesday," Simeon stated simply, patting his friend's back before he disappeared around the corner following his colleagues.
With a sigh the redhead dragon keeper proceeded out the door, but turned the other corner away from the equipment room where every shift began. Instead he made his way in the direction of his standing appointment, scheduled for Wednesday in lieu of having to work. Considering he had missed the appointment for the past two Wednesdays, he thought it wise to be present this time around.
Bypassing all the staircases and rooms in the main building, Charlie headed out the doors that normally led him to his sleeping quarters. Beneath the ivy and rose covered pathway, he walked to the large gap in the trestle that came out into the courtyard bordered by dormitories. Stepping out into the summer sunlight, he took an immediate turn to his right off the concrete walkway and went across the grass. Slipping behind the girls' dorm he came to a densely wooded area, only broken by a small cottage sitting beneath the canopy of leaves.
Charlie went straight up to the forest dwelling and knocked gently on the painted red door. Light footsteps could be heard from within the home, quickly growing in volume as someone came near. With a click of the heavy metal lock, the door swung open on brass hinges to unveil the person he had come to see.
"Hello Charlie," the gentle and soothing voice of Nisha Wilde greeted him at the entrance to her home. "Please, come in."
With a gracious bow, he came in over the threshold of the house, entering the modest dwelling that everyone at the reserve had affectionately named the Nest, primarily because of the thatched straw roof reminiscent of a bird's abode. Nisha walked ahead leading the way for the dragon keeper into the small sitting room at the front of the house.
"Two sugars for your tea?" she called out in a slightly elevated gentle voice as Charlie trailed behind in the short corridor, having taken a moment to remove his heavy work boots and leave them at the entrance.
"Yes, please," he replied just as he entered, though the answer seemed to be almost rhetorical as a large green mug of steaming Earl Gray was handed to him with two sugars already mixed in.
Before he could look up Nisha was already seating herself in the yellow armchair with her own cup of tea, blowing so gently on the steam that there was not a single ripple to be seen along the liquid's surface. Out of habit Charlie took a seat on the floral-printed sofa opposite from his hostess. The bright coral walls around him reflected the leaf-filtered sunlight streaming through the nearby bay window, casting the entire room with a comfortable aura that never failed to remind the young man of the Burrow.
"How are you, Charlie?" the woman asked as she took a small sip of her beverage, the many metal bangles on her wrist jingling as she raised her arm. "It seems we see less of each other now that you are working more often, though that is a good thing for you."
"I'm all right." His thumbs rubbed the rim of his mug, waiting for it to cool slightly before he took a drink. "Been busy with the summer shifts as well as work for the Order."
Nisha smiled politely. "All of your work is going well? Herb has mentioned that there has been much to do with the restlessness of the Chinese Fireballs and their nightly activities. It isn't too much for your crew to handle?"
"It has been a trial trying to find out the cause for all this, but it's nothing we're not prepared for."
"Your friends and you always like the challenges." The caramel-skinned woman brushed the thick stray hairs from her face as she spoke before turning to the next question for conversation in her head. "How is your family?"
It was a question that was always asked as part of colloquial routine, but only a few short months ago it was one that Charlie had a hard time answering with the few letters with little information from home and it usually resulted in a panic attack when someone would ask. Today, however, he had many things to speak of: his father had been promoted to a brand new department in the Ministry in response to the war efforts; Bill was engaged to marry his girlfriend of a year, Fleur Delacour, despite their mother's reservations; Fred and George were proving to be quite the entrepreneurs with the opening of a successful joke shop; Ron had earned seven O.W.L.'s and Ginny had written to him recently about her intention to try out for Gryffindor's Quidditch team. Only Percy had not been in contact with him, but from what he gathered in the rest of the family's letters his younger brother was at the least safe from harm with his job working under the new Minister for Magic, Rufus Scrimegeour.
"It sounds like everyone is very well," commented Nisha as she poured herself a new cup of tea. "You hear often from your family now."
Charlie nodded as he took a swig of tea from his mug, which significantly cooled following his lengthy report. "Yes. Now that everyone knows about You-Know-Who, their owls aren't being searched or censored so the letters have been more frequent for over a month now."
"I can see it brings you great comfort to hear from them. What do you tell them of your life here?"
The redheaded man sputtered in his drink as the question hung in the air. For a second he thought he was about to have another panic attack, but as he coughed as the tea found the correct bodily pipe to slide down his extremities calmed and he found the right words at the tip of his tongue.
"I tell them about my work mostly," he said honestly, recalling the last letter he had written to Bill. "And I mention Abby, of course. They're usually interested in how things are. I can't tell them about Order business in letters naturally, but they hear about it from Dumbledore I'm sure. It's mostly about them though."
"You haven't told them about your illness?"
He shook his head in response, putting the cup of tea down on the mahogany coffee table. "I didn't want to worry them when they have so much to worry over already. Besides, it's irrelevant now since I've gotten better and I'm getting back into work gradually."
Nisha gave a weak smile as she leaned back in her armchair. "Like you, I wonder about my family in England. I have not seen them since I married Herb."
The story of Nisha and Herb was one Charlie had heard several times in both short and long versions since he'd begun working at the reserve five years ago. They had fallen in love over years of friendship, but when Herb had asked Nisha to marry and join him in Romania she had refused. For years her parents had discouraged their adult Squib daughter to form any attachment to the wild American man who chased dragons in his dreams and she convinced herself they knew best until the moment she found herself dreadfully unhappy without him. Then she'd done something unforgiveable and eloped across the continent with the man she loved, never hearing from her family again.
"My sister was expecting twins when I left. She'd been trying to have children for so many years. And Ajay was rising in the ranks of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. My parents were aging, but working hard in their shop and looking forward to grandchildren. I think of what they all might be like now and hope that they are happy in their lives, and then I wonder if they ever think of me."
She stopped in the middle of her thoughts, bringing a hand to her lips as though barring the rest of the words that sat on her tongue. Over years Charlie had learned that Mrs Wilde was someone who rarely spoke in public, talked little in private and conversed candidly only when there was something to be gleaned from it, so it was worth listening to. In habit he leaned forward, waiting for her to feel comfortable enough to continue on with her anecdote.
"None of them really knew me well, of course." She took a sip of tea before placing her empty cup across from Charlie's on the wooden surface in front of her. The clatter of the porcelain against the saucer gave away the twitch in her fingers. "I was the Squib, shamed, raised away from their happy life, only to return when my siblings were grown and the time to be children together was gone. I can't say I ever knew my family well, but they are nonetheless my family and I like to think they think of me as often as I think of them. I envy the closeness of your family, and I know they must wonder of you."
A sigh crossed Charlie's lips as he buried his eyes in his calloused hands, cradling his forehead there for the moment. "It isn't the time to tell, not yet anyway. There are so many other things to occupy them. The last thing they need to worry about is me."
The image of his mother came into his head, though different from what he would normally see at the thought of her. The look in her usually warm brown eyes embraced around her rosy complexion was gone and in its place was a frantic glassy gaze against a ghostly pale skin. Whenever the smallest thing upset Mrs. Weasley, that look dominated her entire body. It was a look that Charlie and his siblings tried at all costs to avoid giving to their mother and that very gaze would glue itself to her face if she knew about her second child's ailments. He couldn't let her know.
"How are things with Abby?"
Nisha's question got Charlie to pull his head out of his hands and look at the calm woman across from him, who had since poured herself yet another cup of tea. The shudder in her hands had disappeared, the graceful movements barely making a sound as she brought the delicate piece of china close to her.
"Better," was the single word he chose to respond with, though he quickly decided that it was an insufficient description. "Great. Things are great."
"Great," Nisha repeated with a coy smile over the rim of porcelain. "It is lovely to see the two of you flourishing despite the circumstances."
Charlie offered a thin smile in return. "Things could have been very different for us in the same circumstances; that much I know. But...she..."
His hostess nodded, recalling the many conversations Charlie and her had already engaged in regarding the topic of Abigail Ridges. He didn't have to complete his thought, Nisha could finish it herself.
Tea lasted for another few cups of the hot beverage, conversation turning into other lighter topics as they pressed onward and continued to spin into a natural flow. It was nearly an hour later that Charlie noticed the movement of shadows on the living room floor and excused himself in favour of a quiet afternoon nap, to which Nisha was more than happy to end their session for.
"I hope to you see you again, Charlie," she bid with a bow of her head at the open door, "though the less I see of you, the happier I am for you. So perhaps I hope to see you again not because you are away from the job you love."
"Thank you, Nisha." Charlie leaned in and gave his hostess a peck upon her cheek before exiting the Nest and trotting back towards the paved path that would take him back to his room where his cleared mind could enjoy a good rest.
A/N: I think I originally intended this chapter as a set up to the rest of the missing timeline that took place over Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but I wound up leaving it out because I trusted people would fill in the gaps without me having to write it all out. However, this still stood to be important as it reveals what Charlie has been through and the fact that he is on the road to recovery, not just physically but mentally too. Nisha seemed like a natural choice as stand-in for therapist, one who speaks little and doesn't judge.
I've implied a lot of things, but some of it re-emerges later.