Chapter 5
Coincidentally, Charlie led Nora to her room which was room number 4. He fished around his pants pockets for a moment before pulling around a tiny key. He turned towards Nora. "Don't lose this." She nodded in understanding. Charlie turned away before she moved her head so he didn't even see her nod. He unlocked the door and opened it.
"You won't have much time to settle in, but you can drop off your bag." Charlie explained, standing in the doorway of her dorm. It was just what Nora expected when she thought of the word dorm. She walked in and set her bag down in the doorway before turning back and walking out, taking time to lock the door. Charlie held the key up to her eye level. Nora took the key and put it in the pocket of her jacket, it seemed more secure than her jeans. The pockets of her jacket could be zipped shut. It seemed weird to Nora that they were focusing on keys instead of using their wands. In their profession, wands aren't completely necessary, but they were still used.
At least Charlie was giving her a tour, if that could count as a tour. Charlie only spoke when it was necessary. He pointed out facilities for the residents to use. There was a common area with a large kitchen and dining area. There were also couches with a bookshelf. Charlie cleared his throat and Nora stopped looking around to look at him. "It's not much, but not a lot of time gets spent in here, people are usually out together and working with the dragons. There are also small kitchenettes in all of the rooms." He explained. Nora nodded to herself and looked around the room again. She could appreciate that it was cleaned, even though she didn't see herself cooking in here. The other employees must have been pretty good about cleaning up after themselves.
"How many people live here?" Nora asked.
Charlie ran his finger through his hair and shook it out as he looked away from her gaze. "Uh, well I haven't really taken the time to figure that out." Charlie gave her a look that she thought resembled an apologetic look, but not quite. So Charlie wasn't just abrasive to Nora, he wasn't good at communicating with anyone. She wondered if he ever hung out with anyone. She couldn't picture Charlie to have a dorm here and be forced to socialize with the other residents. Then again, Nora couldn't picture herself doing that either. If Charlie did have a dorm, he kept that part of him silent. Zihan was the one to show Nora around the Chinese dragon sanctuary, he made sure she knew which dorm he lived in. Charlie was different, way different from Zihan. Zihan acted like a peacock, with his feathers fanned out to attract the attention of everyone. Nora was attracted to that, but it has been years, and she grew up.
Nora shifted her weight from one foot to the other and Charlie leaned against the wall that was behind him, crossing his legs at the ankles. The silence was almost comfortable, but after a while with Nora looking up at Charlie every so often and meeting his eyes nearly every single time and then looking away, it got awkward.
"What mountain range surrounds the sanctuary?" Nora asked, desperate to cover up the silence between the two.
Charlie looked out the window, from there he could see the snowcapped mountains. "The Carpathian Mountains." He spoke matter-of-factly.
The way Charlie wasn't the first one to talk reminded Nora of herself, they seemed so similar, but there was a piece of himself that he kept hidden from Nora and he fought to keep that part of himself hidden.
Charlie kept that piece of himself hidden very well. He sighed and pushed himself off the wall and started walking down the hallway that they came from. "Come, there are only so many more hours of daylight and such much more to see." He raised his fingers and beckoned her to follow him.
At the end of her tour, night had long since fallen. She didn't expect to have a full tour that night, she had been hoping Charlie would have shown her to her room and then just showed her where to go the next day. It was late, and Charlie expected her to be up early in the morning, Nora doubted she would be able to settle in before going to bed.
Nora shut the door to her room behind her and leaned against it. She was downright exhausted after being dragged all over the sanctuary. She would like to be introduced to the other dragon tamers, but maybe they were busy. They weren't at the moment; Nora could faintly hear the cacophony of voices on the other side of her door. Her room was fairly close to the common area. Part of her wanted to introduce herself, but a larger part of her wanted to go to bed.
Wiping a hand down her face, Nora let out a chuckle, before getting to her feet. Bracing a hand on a wall, she kicked off her shoes and grabbed her bag. Nora didn't have any food, but she did have some dry goods in her bag. Along one side of the hall was the bathroom, it was very small, but the size didn't matter especially if it was just her. Thankfully there was a tub, Nora mainly showered but taking a bath once in a while was nice. The hallway opened up into a kitchen, with a relatively big fridge for the small space. There was a cooktop with 2 burners. Plus, the sink. There wasn't much counter space, but Nora could just put a cutting board over her sink as a makeshift counter. There were drawers and a cupboard under the sink, over the sink and over the stove.
There was a doorway, which seemed to lead out to the bedroom living room area. There was a daybed which gave off the illusion of a couch with a rather large cushion to imitate a twin size bed. There was a small tv mounted to the wall and a desk under the tv. There was a closet, Nora pulled open the door and was pleased to see how big it was. She was used to the wardrobes back in her childhood home which would barely hold anything. She set her back on the desk and opened it. Nora pulled her wand out of the bag first and pointed inside the bag.
"Accio bedding."
Folded sheets, a blanket, her pillows and pillowcases flew out towards her. Nora dropped her wand to try and catch the bedding before it fell to the floor. She wasn't worried about her wand, she was more worried about her bedding touching the floor that she had no idea the last time it was washed.
Nora tried her best not to think about that, because if she dwelled on it too much, she wouldn't get any sleep. She would be cleaning all night until she was satisfied every surface was clean enough to unpack.
Once her bed was made, Nora pulled off her jeans, so she was in her t-shirt and panties. That was good enough for her to sleep in, especially since she didn't feel like hunting for pajamas and stayed up later. Instead of collapsing in her bed, Nora walked over to the entryway to the room where the light switch was. When the light was off the room was only illuminated by the one large window in the room. The light of the moon gave the room a silver light. The window was a frosted privacy window and Nora wasn't sure the direction her window faced, but she was sure she was going to have to get curtains. Charlie did, kind of, show her the direction of the town.
It was very small, mainly visited by the dragon tamers, but there were some local witches and wizards who called that place home. There were a couple dragon tamers who had their own homes there instead of living in the dorms. Those who lived in the dorms didn't have to pay nearly as much as having a house in town. Even there the benefits of living in the town made the price difference worth it. Nora was just starting out here, she knew it would be a long time before she considered living outside the dorms.
Nora laid down on the bed, which was surprisingly comfortable. She wondered momentarily if they replaced the beds after someone moved out. Even though it was smaller than she used to. The beds at the Chinese sanctuary were full sized. However, in the Norwegian sanctuary, there were shared dorms. Nora lived with all of the women who worked in the sanctuary. Even though a lot of the women put up partitions and curtains around their bunks for some sort of privacy. There was only much privacy in a shared room with multiple bunk beds.
It took a moment for Nora to fall completely asleep, her mind kept racing. A first night in a new space was always exciting for her and her mind wouldn't turn off. When she did finally fall asleep, it was like she was asleep for a few seconds. Nora was startled awake by someone pounding on her door. Nora stood up and yanked on the jeans she was wearing yesterday that still laid in a heap on the floor. The pounding on the door was deafening in her tiny dorm room that left Nora to yank a brush through her hair.
"Hold on!" Nora cried as she put some toothpaste on her toothbrush. She hastily brushed her teeth, while trying to tie her hair up in a ponytail. The pounding on the door didn't let up.
When Nora was ready, she took a deep breath, before opening the door to Charlie who had his hand up in mid knock.
"It's about time you answered," Charlie said as he disappeared down the hallway. Nora took that as a sign to follow him, so she pulled her door shut, locking it before she shut it completely. By that time, she had to run to catch up with Charlie, who had already left down a hallway in the building that Nora was unfamiliar with.
She sighed inaudibly; it was going to be one of those days.
"We need you to fill out paperwork," Charlie explained as he stared ahead. "Get you set up with pay, your room will be taken out automatically."
Nora nodded to herself; she was very familiar with this process of work. Usually, the first day was filled with paperwork. It was always a few days before she started actually working with dragons.
"Since the person who takes care of the paperwork left, I will be filing these." he turned towards Nora. "Must be like you."
Nora couldn't tell if Charlie was making a joke or trying to insult her.
"You don't look very well put together," Charlie commented as he sat behind a desk, motioning for Nora to sit in a chair in front of it.
"You didn't exactly tell me what time we were starting and woke me up, barely giving me time to get ready." Nora responded, running her fingers through her hair. She felt self-conscious. Yes, Nora had been wearing the same clothes she had been wearing the night before. But pretty much all blue jeans were the same, and if she remembered correctly, she had been wearing a jacket the day before. If they were going outside, she was debating on asking Charlie if she could grab her jacket. Charlie had his back to her as he checked a filing cabinet for the correct paperwork. Something told her she wouldn't be going outside that day.
Nora bounced her knee as she waited for Charlie to find the correct paperwork. His hair was pulled back in a bun and she noticed a hoop in his left ear that hugged his ear lobe. Golden freckles spattered his neck and disappeared behind his black burlap looking jacket., which was stretched tightly around his back. But it didn't look uncomfortable. It just looked like something he wore all the time.
Nora realized she was staring because he turned around with the correct documents and slammed them on the table to bring her attention back. She jumped at the slapping sound it made. She looked at the papers on the table and then her gaze moved up to Charlie's face.
"Distracted, aren't we?" Charlie smirked at her. It was like he knew where her mind was, and he enjoyed the power he had over her. Nora did not like anyone, especially males having power over her, in any aspect. She clicked her tongue in agitation as Charlie grabbed her a pen.
Nora reached out her hand to take it from him and he ignored her outstretched hand and placed it next to the small stack of papers. She pressed her tongue to the roof of her mouth and started filling out the paperwork. Instead of waiting for her to finish, Charlie stood up from the desk and left the room. He didn't say a word, he just left Nora hanging. She jumped in her seat when he slammed the door behind him.
She glared at the door, knowing full well that Charlie couldn't see her and then turned back towards the paper. The paperwork was pretty basic, it wasn't Nora's first time filling out paperwork like that. Part of the reason she was able to get into the Hebrides Dragon Sanctuary, because of her experience around Dragons.
A lot of the paperwork was also asking her past experiences, why she left. Basic things that were usually on new hire paperwork. Payroll, where her Citizenship was, where she went to school, classes she studied, letters of recommendations from professors. Thankfully, the extra
Care of Magical Creatures proved to be useful and then the talks about dragons with Hagrid, earned her the letter of recommendation. Even if he wasn't a full-time professor, he was still a part of Hogwarts staff.
As Nora read the instructions on the next form of the paperwork, she spun the quill between her fingers. It was a habit Nora had formed when she was younger, all through school and even at home. The way to keep her focused was to keep her hands busy, even though the Professors found it distracting, but it was the only thing that kept her focused.
"What are you doing?" the sudden voice of Charlie's made her drop her quill. She looked over her shoulder to see him standing in the doorway. Charlie had one of his eyebrows raised and he was watching her in an amused look.
She picked up the quill and gave the paperwork another looks to be sure that nothing was missed. "It's a habit I guess." She set the paperwork and the quill down and met his eyes over her shoulder again. "I'm finished."
Without a word, Charlie walked around to the other side of the desk. He didn't take the time to sit down, he just sat at the desk. The fingertips of one hand were poised on the desk while he leafed through the paperwork with the other hand. Charlie seemed to have freckles all over, evening mattering the backs of his hands, even to his fingers. Her line of sight darted to the small stack of papers before he could notice that she was staring again.
The hand that was on the desk pointed a finger somewhere at the bottom of the last page. "You forgot a signature here." he said and flipped the paper her way. She picked up the quill again and signed her name.
Charlie took the paper and placed it at the bottom of the stack, he grabbed a paperclip and bound the papers together and put them in a large filing cabinet. "Welcome to the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary."
Charlie was so abrasive that the nice welcoming made her confused. Nora never expected him to say such a nice comment, in fact she didn't think it was possible for something nice to come out of his mouth.
Nora was out until late. She spent the day getting shown where their supplies were, such as leather mitts, feed, milk substitute, and other various things needed to care for dragons of all age ranges. When they came across a dragon that was living there, Charlie would quiz her on the type of dragon it was as if she wouldn't know and then give her the name of the dragon. Charlie used a different voice when he talked to the dragons. The look of fondness on his face when handling them reminded Nora of herself. She didn't think she would ever see that in anyone. Yes, she met some excellent dragon tamers, but none that were like herself. Charlie regarded the dragon like a friend or a loved one and then regarded other people as if they were dragons.
Other dragon tamers were the complete opposite, they were cautious around the dragons because they understood that they were dangerous creatures. Which was fine because when working with giant creatures, it's always best that they are respected.
After Charlie took her out and showed her more about the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary, Nora went to the general store to get some dry goods and some perishables. She could keep the dry goods in her room and a little bit of perishables in that fridge. Nora had a few pots and pans; they were still in her bag because she didn't really have time to unpack yet.
By the time she got back to the dorm building, it was dark and there were people out in the common area, they were all hanging out and laughing. Nora could even smell the food that they were making. As she got closer to her door, she juggled the bags in her hands until she had a free hand and fished for the key in her jeans pocket.
"Hey, are you Nora?" A guy called from the kitchen. She glanced up at him but continued to try to unlock the door. The man stood up from the stool he was sitting on and walked her way. Of course, a time where she was forced to interact was when her door and key were being stubborn.
As he approached her, her door finally was unlocked. Although at that point, it would have been rude to shut the door in his face.
"My name is Nico," he said, one of his hands casually in the pocket of his jeans and his other hand scratching his well-kept beard. Nora's eyes darted to the still loud room behind Nico and then to her door and back at him. "Why don't you meet everyone?"
Nora had her arm curled around two paper grocery bags and her other hand on the door. The noise in the common area made her nervous. Meeting new people wasn't her strongest attribute, especially after Zihan cheated on her. People had a habit of doing that.
Then again, she wanted to meet others, the only other person she knew was Charlie. But Nora didn't see herself trying to hang out with him for some sort of human interaction. If she did go to him for someone to hang out with, he would probably shut the door in her face.
After a moment, Nora sighed. "Alright, but can I put my groceries away and maybe take a shower?"