"Boss," a hesistant voice spoke. "Uh, the cursebreakers really need that tiara thing back."
A deep sigh was what was given in response. Along with a hand being drawn down a face before a single word was spoken.
"I know. I know. I'm trying to plan a method of extraction."
"I still can't believe that we can't get past nifflers. Freaking nifflers."
"You do know you're not at school anymore, and you can swear freely, right? No one cares."
"Freaking seemed more effective somehow. And nifflers are freaky little creatures. Which, can I remind you, we can't get past!"
"They're crafty little buggers, aren't they?"
The tone was almost admiring, even fond.
"If you'd just let me blast it out of the way..."
Charlie Weasley waved his hands frantically at his subordinate and shook his head.
"No. No. No. No. That could hurt him."
"I'd use a banishing charm, boss, not an actual blasting one."
He didn't want to deal with the cleanup of nuffler guts of all things. No, thank you.
"No," Charlie shook his head again. "There has to be a less harmful way."
Albert Skeeter, newly minted Dragon Handler at the Romanian Reserve, just sighed and tried not to roll his eyes. Yes, Charlie Weasley may be an easy-going boss, but that didn't mean he could roll his eyes at him. Even if he was the world's biggest animal lover. Most people either loved to be partnered with their boss for the opportunity to show off or suck up or they hated it because they were terrified of making a mistake. Albert, on the other hand, did not like being partnered with his boss because it wasn't just dragons the man loved, it was all animals. Which really slowed some things down. Like this particular task. Not that it was an easy task, but Charlie Weasley made it ten times harder than it needed to be. Albert decided to try and speed the process along.
"You know we have our actual jobs to get back to, right?"
Yes, it was a rather impertinent question, but really, Charlie did need reminding of this every now and then, he'd found. Just like the other Dragon Handlers under the man had warned him so he thought he was okay with being a little impertinent.
"But we're technically responsible for this tiara thing," Charlie protested. "We need to be careful with it. As well as the niffler. Both. We need to be careful with both."
This time, Albert didn't bother stopping himself from rolling his eyes.
"It's not our fault a dragon took a fancy to it."
"I'm just impressed that the niffler managed to steal it from the dragon in the first place," Charlie said with an impressed look on his face.
And, despite himself, Albert couldn't help but agree.
"I was sure that we were going to have to sweep up charred remains."
If there had been any remains at all. It had been really cool to see a niffler in action. Who would have thought that they would ignore every prey instinct they had to get something shiny? Definitely not him.
"Brilliant creatures, aren't they?"
Again, he rolled his eyes at his allegedly responsible boss and then looked across the meadow. The niffler was currently wrapped protectively around the very shiny headgear that was causing all of their problems. Albert was pretty sure it looked pleased with itself, too. Could nifflers have a smug look about them? Because this one definitely did.
"Do you even have a plan?"
Because Albert definitely didn't have one. And surely it wasn't his responsibility anyway? Charlie was his boss. This sort of thing fell squarely onto his lap. Especially if he wanted the niffler protected as well.
"We could negotiate with it?"
Albert blinked at his boss. Did he just hear that right? Surely there was no way that he had heard thay right. He was going to have to get his ears checked out. But Charlie looked deadly serious.
"Negotiate? With a niffler?"
He definitely didn't hear that right because there was no way that anyone in their right mind would ever suggest such a thing. Then again, this qas Charlie Weasley...
"They're intelligent enough," Charlie said defensively but then added a bit more unsurely. "We could probably persuade him away with a hoard of leprechaun gold or something..."
"First, he? And second, do we even have leprechaun gold?"
Did people just have leprechaun gold hanging around? Surely that was impossible? It was meant to vanish after a few hours, right?
"Well, no... but we could -"
With an exasperated sigh, Albert couldn't help but tune Charlie out as the older man launched into some sort of half thought out, harebrained scheme for getting the tiara thing back. Instead, he eyed up the niffler. Charlie probably was right about negotiating with the damned creature. If they had something bigger and sparklier it may just get distracted enough to make a grab for the tiara. Though, Albert wouldn't exactly call it negotiating, more like tricking. But they didn't have anything bigger or sparklier than a tiara. Would a watch be enough to do a simple run and grab? Maybe if they chucked it in the opposite direction? Now he was the one someone up with the harebrained schemes.
Charlie smiled hopefully as Alberrt sighed his acquesience for whatever he had come up with. It wasn't as if he could disobey orders from his boss anyway.
"So," Charlie continued as if Albert had been listening to him the whole time. "I know where we can find a leprechaun so when we get some of his gold we can..."
Oh no. Why hadn't he been paying more attention? Albert shook his head.
"Nope."
Looking confused, Charlie said, "But you thought it was a good idea!"
Had he? Had he nodded along at some point to show his acceptance? Well, he was putting a stop to that now.
"Yes. Just don't involve me."
"But you look less threatening! And I think the niffler's suspicious of me ever since I tried to tease it with that knife..."
"Yes, but last week, a dragon almost set my hair on fire when you thought we could reason with it about moving enclosures! Excuse me if I don't want to be attacked by another animal anytime soon!"
Especially if it invovled reasoning with it. He didn't care what Weasley said, you couldn't reason with wild animals!
"They are highly intelligent creatures and -"
But Albert wasn't having it. He shook his head. "Uh, uh. No way." He even folded his arms for emphasis. "It's your turn to negotiate."