A/N: One more update to this, which is already half-written, and then an update for GuG.
Chapter 2: Ron
October 2007
"You should come back too, you know," Ron said, looking at his older brother over the food on the wooden table between them. "She was your teacher too."
"I know," Charlie replied. "And I probably will. It's just been a long time since I've been back there."
Ron snorted. "Same for me and you know that."
Charlie looked at him a little more closely than usual. "How long has it been for you?"
"Uh," Ron intoned. He shrugged. "Years. Seven or so. You know why, too, so don't start on all that old rubbish," Ron warned him. "We had that conversation once and I don't want to have it again."
Charlie held up his hands in mock surrender. "I wasn't going to say a word, Ron."
"Sure."
"Whatever, little brother," Charlie said, smiling. "So when do we leave for Britain?"
"Tomorrow morning? The services are on Wednesday, so we can leave Thursday to come back here," Ron answered.
"Quick trip."
"Why shouldn't it be?"
"You're being awfully defensive, Ron."
"And you're being awfully thick, Charlie," Ron answered, a little heatedly. "Mum and dad don't even live in Britain anymore, and the rest of our illustrious siblings are off doing their own thing… though I wouldn't be surprised to see some of them at Hogwarts on Wednesday," he trailed off, thoughtfully.
"Suppose so," Charlie responded. "But what about-"
Loud, piercing magical alarms suddenly blared across the compound where the handlers resided. Though this Romanian preserve was still largely for dragons, there were some other species that had been introduced into the environment since Ron had joined Charlie here back in 1999. Charlie and Ron immediately jumped up, forgetting about their food, and rushed outside to see many other handlers running in the direction of the closest paddocks.
"What's going on?" Ron yelled, looking at the nearest handler.
"James sent his Patronus," the other guy yelled back. "Something about Nellie and the youngest two."
Ron's heart skipped a beat as he processed that information. He immediately put his 6'5" frame to good use, upping his speed to a full sprint and outpacing the other handlers because his long legs covered much more ground.
He rounded the corner of another building and saw the Welsh Green paddock up ahead. Nellie, the fully grown female Welsh Green, was obviously very agitated. He could see three or four of her youngest progeny standing around her legs.
As he neared the paddock, he slowed his pace and took in the situation. Nellie, the female, was not letting any of the handlers into the paddock. She was baring her fangs and letting loose short, small bursts of flame to keep away the handlers. She was also standing over two of her children that had apparently been injured by a small rockslide. The Welsh paddock was right up against a rocky embankment, and it looked like something had caused a few large boulders to tumble down. The other children were milling around restlessly, making noises of distress.
"What's going on?" Ron bellowed, stopping just outside the paddock. His eyes narrowed as he looked at the two felled babies. One was not moving at all and the other was only barely twitching. He could see numerous physical injuries on both of them.
"Ron! Thank Merlin!" a handler said, turning to him. It was James, the person that had sent the Patronus. "Corky and Abby were injured by a rockslide," he said, pointing at Nellie and the two babies. "But Nellie won't let any of us in there to help. Hopefully you and Charlie can get in-we know Nellie trusts you two more than anyone else."
Charlie pulled up beside Ron at that moment. A glance between the brothers said all that needed to be said, so they grabbed the fence and heaved themselves over into the dragon paddock. Ron's huge, muscular frame hit the ground running, as did Charlie's much shorter, though slightly stockier body.
Nellie turned toward them and Ron saw her narrow her eyes at them, but she did not seem to be as hostile as she had been when the other handlers had tried to approach. She made a grunting noise in the back of her throat, shooing her other children away from Corky and Abby as Ron and Charlie neared. The two redheads slowed considerably as they came closer to the towering Welsh Green. It would not do to upset or startle a fully grown female dragon protecting her young.
Ron and Charlie held out their hands in front of their bodies, in a placating gesture. Nellie grunted again, sending streams of smokes out of her nostrils, but she did not make a move to stop their approach. Ron could see and hear that Corky was in pain, but, perhaps more disturbingly, Abby didn't look like she was moving at all.
"You're better with healing spells than I am," Charlie said, lowly. "See to Abby; I'll see what I can do for Corky."
Ron nodded and approached the two baby dragons. The boulders that had apparently rolled over them were off to the side. He looked up at the embankment warily, wondering if any more large rocks would come tumbling down, especially since their fully grown mother had just been stomping around. Out of the corner of his eye, Ron saw that Nellie had gone perfectly still and was watching them very carefully.
The visual assessment of Abby was not good. One wing had been brutally crushed and her tail had a sharp, unnatural angle about halfway between its tip and Abby's body. Both of her front legs were bloody and mangled, and the right side of her head had been hit pretty hard too. He pointed his wand at her and cast the diagnostic spell; when her body glowed blue for a moment, he breathed a sigh of relief. It meant she was alive, at least.
Slowly, the blue near her right wing, in the middle of her tail, by her two forelegs, and on the right side of her head changed to a deep, angry red. This meant the bones in those areas were broken or crushed. Ron waited, looking for more colors, but none were forthcoming. A mixed blessing really: she only had broken bones and no severe internal injuries, but the severity of those fractures could mean she might never walk or fly again.
He kneeled down next to her limp form and set to work. Using a bone-mending charm that took a lot of magical power (and did not work on humans because it was all brute force, rather than finely tuned), he ran the tip of his wand back and forth over the affected areas, starting with her tail. In just two minutes, he was sweating profusely, even though it was quite cool here in the mountains of Romania; and after five minutes, his breathing was labored and he was seeing spots in front of his eyes.
Ron had healed her tail, her forelegs, and the side of her head-the bones at least, because the cuts and bruises were still there-so he still had her wing to do. This would be the most difficult and delicate task, and would likely require the most magical power, but he was well and truly knackered.
He closed his eyes and breathed deeply for a moment, trying to regain his composure and some of his strength. He had to do this for Abby since Nellie would not let anyone else except for Charlie in here. He supposed the handlers could have tried to stun Nellie, but that could have just made the situation much worse-not to mention the fact that it would probably ruin all the trust they had built with Nellie and her brood.
When he opened his eyes again he was startled enough to let out a strangled cry. Nellie had quietly approached and was now staring at Abby, just a few feet from where Ron knelt. Nellie's head was easily as big as Ron's entire body.
"Corky's alright for now," Charlie whispered, startling Ron again as he knelt on the other side of Abby. Ron laughed at himself, silently, and then nodded at Charlie.
"I just have Abby's wing left, as far as the broken bones go. She has some superficial things I haven't done anything with yet, but that's it other than the wing."
Nellie cocked her head to the side, listening to their conversation. For a moment, Ron was briefly reminded of Hermione. He shook his head against that odd comparison.
"I'll see to some of the cuts," Charlie replied. "You take care of her wing, little brother."
Breathing deeply once again, Ron reached toward what was left of his surface magic and began casting the bone-mending charm again. He had to trace the spider-like bones throughout the wing, which meant he had to sustain the charm for quite a while, but he persevered until it was finished.
He grayed out when he ended the charm, though; luckily, Charlie was suddenly there for him to lean on.
Distantly, he heard, "Charlie, catch!" and then he was being fed chocolate. It took a moment, but soon thereafter he had some of his energy back. He still felt extraordinarily tired, but it was a vast improvement over the half-conscious state of a minute ago.
He looked up and saw that Charlie was watching Nellie, who was watching them. Nellie carefully nudged Abby with the end of her snout, though Abby did not wake up. Nellie made a pathetic whining sound in the back of her throat that just about broke Ron's heart.
"We should probably wake her up now," Charlie suggested. Ron nodded tiredly against his brother. They both pointed their wands at the young Welsh Green and incanted, "Ennervate."
Their magic washed over Abby; several moments later, she jerked awake, crying out and spewing out some fire toward her mother, who deflected it with a powerful snort of smoky air. Abby cried out again; she tried to stand and was unsuccessfully the first two times, but eventually on the third she managed to gain her feet. Corky, freshly though not fully healed by Charlie, limped over to his sister and nudged her in the ribs. Ron and Charlie watched this little reunion with smiles on their faces.
Nellie shooed them away from the rock face, lest the same thing happen again, and the three of them watched the little ones amble away. Eventually, as Ron and Charlie stood there, Nellie turned to them.
She was stretched to her full height, so they had to crane their necks backward to see her head, but as they watched she lowered herself down to their level. Instinctually, Ron wanted to bolt-who wouldn't when a gigantic dragon was mere feet away from you-but he held his ground and so did Charlie. It was only very rarely that fully grown dragons let handlers get this close to them.
Slowly, ever so slowly, Nellie inched her snout closer and closer to them. Ron could feel the sulfurous heat emanating from her nostrils, but it was not hot enough to harm him or Charlie. Nellie stopped her forward movement about one foot in front of them; she was watching them with her large, unblinking lizard eyes. Ron glanced at Charlie, who glanced back, and they both shrugged. They were unsure what Nellie wanted.
So Ron did the unthinkable. He didn't know what prompted it, but he raised his hand and placed it against the warm scales in the middle of her snout. Charlie hissed in his breath at Ron's actions, but Nellie merely closed her eyes and leaned into Ron's touch just a little bit more. Ron's mind caught up with his foolish body just then, nearly making him hyperventilate, but Nellie had not reacted poorly to his rash action. He glanced at Charlie again and nodded his head. His older brother looked hesitant, but eventually he too had a hand placed against Nellie's snout.
The dragon opened her eyes and stared at the two of them. Ron thought he could see some measure of intelligence in that gaze.
"Nellie…" he started, though his voice faded away as he felt foolish for talking to her directly. However, she cocked her head again-the smooth scales slid against their hands-as if to urge him to continue.
"I'm not sure how much you understand," Ron started again, speaking slowly, "but you should keep your children away from that rock face until we can get a stasis ward in place over it." He pointed at the rocks with his free hand and shook his head.
Nellie blinked once and then backed away from their touch. She stared down at them from her full height for at least a minute after that, before blinking a final time and turning away. They watched as she called out to her children and herded them up against the far edge of the paddock. It seemed that she had understood after all.
---
Very tired yet happy brothers fell into adjacent cots later that night. The episode with Nellie, Corky, and Abby had been relived countless times as all the spectating handlers had congratulated them in near-awe. In the history of the preserve, it could be counted on one hand the number of handlers that a fully grown dragon had willingly let touch it.
There was a large degree of mutual trust between the humans and the dragons-and the other magical species that had moved into the preserve-but it was based on respect, not affection. The dragons appreciated the stable environment in which they could raise their young and the humans appreciated the uninterrupted observation they were allowed to conduct. Most dragon broods also allowed the humans to harvest dead dragons' parts, which was an added boon for the handlers and the preserve. In fact, the revenue from that kept the preserve open and the handlers paid.
What Nellie had allowed Ron and Charlie to do was nearly unprecedented, but it wasn't every day that two handlers were able to save two baby dragons from either death or devastating, crippling injuries. After all, a dragon that couldn't walk or fly was as good as dead, anyway.
"What a fuckin day," Charlie said.
"Agreed," Ron responded. "And tomorrow will be another long one."
"Too true. We're going to be stuck in Portkey customs all day."
"Yeah, not looking forward to that," Ron said.
"So the plan is still to come back Thursday, right?" Charlie asked. It was now Monday night; they would travel to Hogwarts the next day; and the services for Minerva were on Wednesday.
"I don't see why not."
Charlie nodded. Ron looked over at him from his prone position and saw that his brother was staring at the ceiling of the large cabin, where five handlers slept.
"Still no word from the others?" Ron wondered.
Charlie shook his head. "No, but there's hardly been enough time for a reply. I'm sure Ginny and Percy will be there at least."
"I think Bill will try to come as well, even if he has drag himself away from Fleur," Ron said, smiling, and thinking of his oldest brother.
Charlie laughed. "Maybe."
"But not George?"
"You know how he's been…"
"Yeah, he turned that joke shop into a powerhouse," Ron said, quietly. "They liked McGonagall a lot in school-respected her a lot-so I think he'll make the trip."
"Maybe," Charlie shrugged. "Maybe not. It's been hard to get a read on George since Fred…"
"I know," Ron replied. A silence, and then:
"Do you still think about him? Fred, that is."
They looked at each other. "Probably not as much as I should," Charlie answered. "But I'm not grieving anymore, so I don't know how much I could be thinking of him."
"Hmm, I suppose."
"What about mum and dad?" Charlie asked.
"Dunno," Ron intoned. "They've got their vineyards and orchards in Sicily now…"
"Yeah…I guess they'd had about enough of Britain," Charlie mused. "Though I have always wondered where they got the money to move and buy all that land."
"I have a few ideas about that," Ron muttered, though Charlie did not hear it. In truth, he was almost certain it was Harry's doing. But his parents were prosperous and happy now, so he could not complain. Arthur had backed away from his obsession with Muggle appliances and Molly had mellowed somewhat in the years after the war. Visiting his parents was now a pleasant experience, as opposed to the tension embedded in the family toward the end of the war. Perhaps it helped that they all saw each other only once a year, at best.
"Good job with Abby today, Ron," Charlie said, turning away from him and curling his arm around the pillow.
"And same with Corky," Ron said, staring up at the ceiling. Charlie's even breathing filled the silent, dark room after a few minutes.
Ron slipped into sleep sometime later, feeling the ghost of Nellie's warm scales on the palm of his hand.
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