The two girls had quite a good time, just talking about anything and everything and enjoying the room service.
It was late in the night when Charlie finally came back, and he wasn't alone either. The girls had fallen asleep on one of the beds, and Victoria awoke when she heard strange sounds.
She flicked on the lamp to find Charlie with Felicity, he was pinning her against the wall, their clothes were messy and their hair tousled.
"Victoria!" Charlie exclaimed, and he quickly pulled away from Felicity. "I, um, I kinda forgot that you were here."
"Clearly." She remarked in a dry tone as Hermione started to stir. "Did you even think about maybe taking this back to Felicity's place so that you wouldn't traumatize your young sister?"
"I don't suppose that an apology would fix this?"
"You're just lucky that you're my favorite brother, you know that?"
"You would think that an adult would have more sense." Hermione said in an admonishing tone.
Felicity couldn't help but giggle. "You're getting lectured by a pair of eleven-year-old girls, this is gold."
"Fel, you're supposed to be helping me out here!" Charlie whined.
"Hey, us girls have to stick together, didn't you know that? Plus, from what you told me about her and your twin brothers, something tells me that I don't want to get on her bad side."
"I knew that I liked her." Victoria stated. "But seriously, the two of you go back to her place or something while I try to get that nasty image out of my head."
Victoria and Charlie left for Romania the next morning. He had returned to the hotel that morning looking like he was on cloud nine, and Victoria had teased him about it as they headed for the train station. Charlie had been planning on going via broomstick, until Victoria reminded him that she was technically too young to be flying, so instead, they opted for the train.
Hermione hadn't been able to stay, but Felicity accompanied them to the train station. "Make sure that you send me an owl when you get there, you two." She told them. "I want to make sure that you were able to get there safely."
"I'll make sure and write the letter," Victoria assured the older girl as she gave her a hug. "Because once Charlie sees those dragons of his, all other thoughts are going to go out the window."
"I wish that I could say she was wrong." Charlie said as he gave a sheepish laugh.
Felicity gave him a gentle kiss as she pushed some of his flaming hair out of his face. "I'll try and visit you when I can, okay? Are you sure that you want to try this long-distance thing?"
"I want to give it a try, darling."
"Okay then." She gave them another kiss before ushering them onto the train. "Have fun. Victoria, I'll be here when you get back to switch to the Hogwarts Express to go back to school."
"I think that I just gained another mother." Victoria laughed as she said down with Charlie, the train giving a little jerk as it started to chug down the tracks.
"You're going to love it in Romania." Charlie said. "The people that I work with are all great, and one of them has a kid about your age. Just…don't stare at him too much."
"What do you mean?"
"Anton…he's worked around dragons with his mother ever since he was a toddler, he's really got a knack with the creatures, but a couple of years ago, he got into a bad accident with one of the younger dragons…it left his face deformed, and he went blind in one eye."
"Oh my God…" Victoria gasped. "That's awful!"
"Needless to say, he's very self-conscious about it. His mum had to pull him out of school because they were all making fun of him. He's got a private tutor now. He's a good kid though, really quiet. I think that you two would get along great."
They arrived in Romania the next day, and from the station, they would be taking a carriage to the dragon reserve.
"Kelsey is going to be meeting us when we get there," Charlie told her. "She's kind of the lady in charge. She can seem a bit stern at times, but she's got the dragons best interests at heart, so just ignore her."
Kelsey turned out to be an older woman, perhaps the same age as Arthur and Molly, but at first glance, she didn't seem to be as stern as Charlie had made her out to be.
"Hello Victoria, it's a pleasure to meet you," Kelsey said as she shook the girl's hand. "Charlie has told us all a lot about you, and I know that you'll enjoy yourself while you're here. However, I do have a couple of rules that I expect you to follow."
"Of course."
"First and foremost, I don't want you by the dragons by yourself. I assume that Charlie told you about Anton?"
"Yes, it's a shame what happened to him."
"It is, and it's because he didn't have any adult supervision at the time, and I would rather that not happen to you, so only approach the dragons when you're with Charlie or one of the other trainers. One more thing, don't leave the reservation by yourself, there's all sorts of nasty creatures out there."
Victoria gulped nervously before nodding her head. "No leaving the reservation, got it."
"Come on, did you have to make it so morbid?" Charlie asked.
"She needs to know what's out there." Kelsey told him. "It's not going to be on me when she gets mauled by a werewolf."
"She's….something." Victoria said as she walked away with Charlie.
"You'll get used to her," Charlie told her. "We'll drop our luggage off at my place and then I'll introduce you to the others."
There were four other people who worked at the reservation, three girls and another man. The girls, Carmen, Penelope, and Zara, were ecstatic to meet Victoria.
"It's about time that we got to meet one of Charlie's siblings," Zara said. Zara had coal black hair, and stormy grey eyes. Her skin had an olive tone to it, she looked almost like one of the Greek goddesses from Greek mythology.
"We were beginning to think that Charlie had been lying about his enormous familia," Carmen added. She was of Latina descent, and something told Victoria that she also had the fiery temper that was associated with Latina women.
"Have you introduced her to Anton yet?" Penelope asked as she looked at Charlie. She had blonde hair, with blue eyes that matched the sky on a clear day.
"Not yet, I was going to after I introduced her to you guys."
"He's with Octavian, Henri won't take his antibiotics, so Anton is trying to help him."
"Who's Heni?" Victoria asked.
"One of the dragons that we have here on the reservation. We rescued him maybe about three weeks ago from an illegal fighting ring."
Victoria looked up at her older brother. "Can we go and see him?"
"Sure." Charlie chuckled. "See you guys later."
Octavian was about forty years old. He was bald, and had a long scar going across his left cheek. He had auburn eyes that looked at Victoria warmly. "So you're the Tori that Charlie always talks about." He said, his Romanian accent coming through with his words. "You're quite popular around the reservation, we've been trying to get him to bring you here for years."
"It's nice to meet you." Victoria said before her gaze wandered to the boy that was behind Octavian. "You're Anton, right? It's nice to meet you."
"You too." Anton mumbled.
"There's no need to be shy." Charlie said to the boy. "Tori's bark is worse than her bite, I promise-ow!" He rubbed his arm where Victoria had hit him. "Okay, maybe reverse it."
A small smile appeared on Anton's face. "You have no idea how many times I've wanted to do that to him."
"Anton, you have my permission to do that to him whenever you feel like it." Victoria said, a grin forming on her face as Anton got more friendly with her. "Now, where's this dragon that Penelope was telling us about?"
"Over here." Anton led her over to the dragon, which was about ten feet in length. Its scales were almost translucent, and Victoria stared at the dragon in awe.
Henri eyed her warily.
"Be careful." Charlie said as Victoria slowly approached the creature. "Tori, he's been snappy, I don't think this is a good idea…" His voice trailed away as he watched Victoria kneel down beside the dragon, who growled for a moment, smoke flaring from its nostrils.
"Ssh, it's alright." Victoria said in a calm tone as she placed her hand on the dragon's head. "I'm not going to hurt you, I promise."
Henri made a noise that almost sounded like a kitten mewling.
"Poor thing," Victoria murmured. "How have you guys been trying to give him the antibiotics?"
"Um, in food." Octavian said, trying to get over his shock of the dragon warming up to Victoria so fast. "How did you do that? It took days for Henri to warm up to me."
Victoria shrugged her shoulders in response.
"Tori has always had a way with animals." Charlie said. "I've always said that she's going to go into Magizoology."
"Where's his food at?" Victoria asked, and Anton handed her a bowl. Their fingers brushed, and Victoria fought back a blush before setting the bowl in front of Henri, who sniffed it warily.
"Here." Victoria scooped some of the wet food into her hand, and Heni licked at it before he turned his attention to the bowl and ate hungrily.
"I think that we just found Henri's caretaker." Octavian said with a laugh. "Your brother was right, you definitely have a knack with this kind of thing."
Henri licked the bowl clean before he dragged his tongue along Victoria's face, causing the girl to giggle.
"He's like a damn lapdog." Charlie said incredulously. "Are you sure that they aren't teaching hypnotizm at Hogwarts now?"
"Pretty sure." Victoria said, kissing Henri on the head before standing up. His scales felt warm on her lips, but not hot enough to burn her.
"I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving." Charlie announced. "What do you say that we go and see what Dinah's made for dinner?"
"I think that's the best idea you've had all day." Victoria said with a slight smirk.
"You're hilarious." Charlie grabbed her, ruffling her hair up. "Come on, kiddo."