The Dragon Thieves//Charlie Weasley

Lia Everest only managed to move out of the way in time to prevent herself from being burned. She couldn’t say the same for her supplies.

“Fuck,” She cursed, glaring at the charred smoking ground where her bags had been. She fixed her glare on the French Jadewing-- affectionately named Helena. Dark green eyes fixated back, and Lia placed her hands on her hips, holding her ground as she had been taught. “Why would you do that?”

Steam poured from Helena’s nostrils. Her eyes flickered. Lia’s heart remained calm. She had known Helena for a long time, and no matter how much bluster the green dragon gave her, she would never purposely harm her. She snapped at her once, his teeth coming a hairsbreadth from her nose.

She continued to glare at her as she grumbled, flopping into an awkward seated position and holding up one of her front paws for her to view. Lia raised an eyebrow but approached. Gently, she tilted it upwards so it was in the sunlight. A tiny welt of blood was rising from a thorn piercing her glittering jade scales, wedged in the soft fleshy spot between two of her clawed toes.

Lia laughed but stroked the top of her paw. What a baby. She dug her fingers in and pulled the thorn out, discarding it on the ground. She plucked her wand from her pocket and muttered a quick healing charm. The wound quickly sealed itself up and the blood vanished.

“There,” She stepped back, kicking the thorn to the edge of the arena. She watched it vanish beneath some of the wood seating-- where no more dragons would step on it-- and turned back to Helena, the fierce dragon rendered practically useless by the sun. She stretched out, letting it scatter on her belly. There must’ve been no one else around that she could smell; she never showed her underside unless it was only Lia. With a sigh, she glanced back at the scorched earth. The black mark stood out against the pale brown dirt.

Lia made her way back over to Helena to start undoing the leather straps that bound the saddle to her back. As she clambered around, she scratched Helena absentmindedly. The mission had been a success-- even if she had lost the supplies; she’d have to put that in her writeup. French Jadewings were exceptional at tracking and stealth missions. The Ukrainian Ironbelly that they had been tracking through the Romanian forest had finally surfaced long enough for Lia to find it, give it a magical tag, and catalogue it. They had waited around long enough to make sure it was awake, before coming back to outpost.

The dragon outpost was a well-kept secret-- not even the ministry knew entirely what they did or where they were. They were small in numbers, but it was enough to keep the operation running. The other three riders were off on missions across Europe (their rider numbers had dwindled significantly after a rogue Horntail broke in during mating season). Most of the other staff-- not that there were many-- were dedicated to keeping an eye on the eggs and younger dragons. They were raised until they were old enough to live on their own and were released into the wild. There were also two or three higher-up wizards, but most of them were around Lia’s age; all it took was one misstep around the dragons and you’d be ash.

It was rare that any dragons stayed, and it was the only ones that were considered intelligent and had formed an attachment to a human. The last thing the outpost needed was a dragon staying that wasn’t safe.

Removing the saddle, Lia heaved it over her shoulder, heading towards the stables. She heard Helena huff and her loud steps as she followed her. She wasn’t entirely an adult yet-- her scales still held the gleaming shimmer that signified adolescence-- but she was larger than most females. Lia had been raising her since she was an egg and still marvelled at her sheer size.

She stacked the saddle in the stable and turned around to find that Jason-- one of the stablehands-- had appeared behind her. He had a crooked grin on his tanned face and an even more crooked nose from too many fistfights. Lia herself had broken it once.

“What?” She asked. Lia turned back to the saddle, wiping it down. “You are far too cheerful for anyone working here.”

Behind him and over the edge of the arena, she could make out the red roof of the compound that housed the offices, the barracks, and the mess hall. There wasn’t much else to the base. It was kept small to avoid alerting any ministry investigators to their true operation. She could see that some of the tiles had recently fallen off, most likely from a dragon landing up there.

Jason stepped forward from the doorway. “New recruits.”

Lia spun again, abandoning the cloth. She could feel a smile sprawling on her face. “New recruits?”

“New recruits.”

Lia moved around to Jason. She was the only rider here right now, which meant she’d be showing them exactly what they did. She and the others liked to mess around whenever they got recruits, see who was scared-- if you were scared of the dragons and what was to come, you wouldn’t make it as a rider.

She patted Helena once on her broad nose-- Helena gently licked her hand in response. “Go get some rest. I’ll see you in a bit,”

“I don’t know about that,” Jason said. His smile was growing. “They are already here.”

If he was going to say more, Lia didn’t hear it. She broke into a run, racing across the arena to the compound.

~~~

A couple of hours later, Lia could feel the exhaustion setting in. Andrew Everglade-- the leader of the operation-- had the recruits in the mess hall, undergoing a series of physical and mental tests. Lia herself had undergone the same tests. She still had a long scar on her back from one of them.

She was sprawled over two waiting chairs in the hallway, her legs propped up over the arm of one of them. Lia spun her wand in one hand, her eyes watching the clouds through the open skylight. Beside her, a small enchanted watering can bounced from plant to plant. She had thought Jason meant they had already undergone their tests and were waiting for further information.

All she wanted was a shower and a long nap. Helena had already gone off to sleep, and Lia did not doubt that the dragon would be waking soon, ready to put on a show.

She rested her other hand on her stomach, slouching lower in the chair. How much longer was Andrew going to take?

As if thinking had summoned him, the doors to the mess hall flew open. Lia only had enough time to stand up and smooth her dark hair before Andrew and three recruits followed him out. She nodded her head to Andrew, glancing over the three new faces. Two boys and one girl, all around her age.

One boy, with dark skin and even darker eyes, looked as though he was going to piss himself. The fear in his eyes was enough to tell Lia that he wasn’t going to make it. The dragons wouldn’t trust him.

Lia raised an eyebrow at the girl. She had a massive grin on her face and a suspicious gleam in her eyes. There was a tear in her pant leg and she seemed to be bleeding, but she didn’t notice. Ballsy, she might make it if she didn’t make any stupid decisions.

The last boy, Lia already knew, and she had to fight to keep her impassive face-up. Charlie Weasley. A fellow Hogwarts student and the bane of her existence. The last she had heard from him, he had also been in Romania but was working for the ministry’s magical creature department. He had the same calm collected expression she had seen every time they faced off in Quidditch, the same expression while they were in Care of Magical Creatures.

He had grown too since she had last seen him-- three years since leaving Hogwarts-- and he had filled out. Grown those last couple of inches and filled them out. His red hair was fluffy and his face clean-shaven. If it weren’t for his temperament at Hogwarts, she almost would’ve mistaken him for friendly.

The last time she had seen him since leaving Hogwarts had been in the Quidditch changeroom, pressed up against him in one of the stalls. Occasionally, she could still feel the rough fabric of their robes against her skin.

What was he doing here?

“This is one of our riders, Lia Everest,” Andrew gestured towards her, and Lia was momentarily glad she was still wearing her dark green uniform-- it helped camouflage her against Lia’s scales, and acted as armour from the way Charlie’s eyes snapped to her face. He hadn’t been expecting her either then. If he thought anything of her name, he didn’t voice it. “She’ll be responsible for training you the proper way to act around dragons. No matter how much you think you know, it’s nothing compared to real experience. She is the expert, and you will obey her, or else your life is at risk.”

Andrew nodded to her and Lia gestured for them to follow her. Andrew vanished upstairs towards his office. There was the shuffling of feet as she led the way out of the compound and back to the dirt floor of the arena. The air was still and muggy-- a sign of the summer to come. Helena would begin shedding her scales soon.

She paused in the center and turned to face the recruits, her eyes bouncing between faces. “The first thing you need to know about dragons is to respect them and their space.”

“The second thing you need to know,” Lia smiled, letting the sun hit her face. “Is to never look them in the eyes, unless they trust you, or else you’ll end up dead.”

The middle boy shuffled and Lia frowned. He wouldn’t make it longer than a week. If Vester-- another rider-- got the chance to meet him, she’d bet him on it.

Lia turned, stuck two fingers in her mouth, and whistled twice. It took only a few seconds before the sound of wings flapping filled the air. She held a hand to her eyes to block out the sun as Helena descended.

She truly was a magnificent dragon. Lia marvelled at her as she thundered to the ground and roared. It was loud enough to cause more than a few faces to peer out of the office windows.

Helena huffed and a rush of steam washed over the recruits. Lia turned to face them. Sure enough, the middle recruit whimpered at the sight.

Helena walked forward and lowered her head until it was level with Lia’s shoulder. The three of them lowered their eyes, so as not to make eye contact. At least they could listen.

“As I’m sure Andrew shared with you,” Lia started, raising a hand up to scratch the underside of Helena’s chin. She let out a sound strangely similar to a cat’s purr, but more intimidating. “You will either be put on desk duty or hatchling duty. If you are lucky to find a dragon that trusts you enough, you may become a rider.”

The middle boy raised his hand and Lia gestured for him to speak as all eyes darted to him. “How do we leave?”

Lia grinned, baring her teeth. She knew it was a little dramatic, but it always helped get the point across to recruits. “You don’t. Not without a higher-up’s consent. When you came in, you signed a form. If you had read it carefully, you would’ve noticed that the only ways out are retirement, memory modification, or death.”

Lia scanned their faces, letting the words sink in. They landed on Charlie’s face, and she was somewhat surprised to find hard determination there.

~~~

Lia laid her chin on her arms, watching the small muggle bird trinket dip down to drink water and bob back up again. She had bought it on a whim, on a brief venture into a muggle city. Lia wasn’t sure what it was about the little bird that kept bobbing up and down to drink that she had liked so much-- maybe because the green colour faintly reminded her of Helena-- but she kept it at the edge of her too full desk.

She ran her fingers over one of Helena’s shed scales, the smooth material hard beneath her fingers, and sighed, tossing her wand down and picking up the eagle feather quill. Night had fallen and she was still working. She needed to finish her report on the Ukrainian Ironbelly. If Lia waited until tomorrow, she might get sent on another mission and would likely forget everything by the time she returned.

Dipping her quill into an ink well, she leaned over into a drawer to rummage for a fresh roll of parchment. How she wished she could just have a simple spell to write everything down and go to sleep, shower be damned.

Lia ran a hand over her face as she pulled out some parchment and began to unroll it. She plopped Helena’s scale on the top and rolled it the rest of the way down, only to stop as a small sheet of parchment-- tucked neatly inside the roll-- fell out.

She paused and her quill dripped ink onto the black sheet. Cursing, she grabbed her wand and flicked it at the parchment, clearing it, before picking up the small sheet.

Her eyebrows rose upwards. It was covered in a series of what seemed to be ancient runes, and unfortunately, Lia never took it. She frowned, tapping her wand against it. The writing flickered momentarily and she shuddered as a heavy chill washed over her.

She held it up to the flickering candlelight-- the sun had long since vanished-- and narrowed her eyes. Nothing appeared, and the runes seemed to waver in and out. Whatever it was, she wasn’t supposed to have this.

She scanned over it again, her eyes pausing on the word at the top of the parchment. She had seen it before, printed at the top of the nursery. If those runes were reliable, it meant dragon. She ran a hand through her hair, pushing it back. What did this mean?

This was the most secure operation in the wizarding world. Nobody who left remembered anything of working here, and those who stayed were sworn to secrecy at risk of being thrown in Azkaban. Papers like this didn’t just wind up on her desk.

Maybe she should take it to Andrew, and see what he said? But then again, she didn’t want to get in trouble if she stumbled upon something she wasn’t supposed to. She would throw it out.

Lia stood, groaning at her stiff legs, and walked towards the small fire, crouching. She held the paper out and then paused. Maybe she should keep it. Anything that was written entirely in ancient runes and had dragon on it had to be important.

She would keep it, Lia resolved, tucking the paper back into her drawer and locking it with her wand.

As Lia settled in her chair to finally begin her report, she still couldn’t help the chill that washed over her skin.