Poachers
Most of the Weasley family, and most of their friends, were shocked when Charlie went back to work the day after the wedding. Molly insisted that he should have atleast taken Thursday and Friday off just to spend it with Iris, the first few days being very important.
He had received the note from his Mum at work and decided at his lunch break that he would write her and simply explain that he and Iris saw no reason to stop life, they had been essentially living together since the law went into effect and no changes had really been made. That sounded good to him, no reason to just tell his Mum that they had not had sex, and there was no copulation anywhere on the horizon.
Charlie worked with a few Ironbellies, just babies, and rubbed his head. Eventually, there would have to be sex... They were expected to have a baby. His life had been so radically changed he honestly took a second to think if he had actually processed it. Four weeks ago, he was single, living on the reserve, not really a care in the world besides his family.
Then he had been forced into a corner, forced into a relationship, forced into a marriage, and forced into being a father fairly soon. He wasn't even sure he ever wanted to be a father, not because he didn't know how to be one, his dad was the best role model one could ask for. It was just... He knew once he had a child, and looked into that babies eyes... His priorities would change. He had watched how parenthood had changed Bill, hell holding Victiore for the first time moved Charlie, he could only imagine how it would have affected Bill.
In truth, he supposed he did want to be a father, he was just afraid of the shift that he knew would happen. Perhaps it was selfish, but he really wanted to just prioritize dragons, and what he was doing currently.
Then like a physical tap on the shoulder to pull him back, he realized his priorities had already shifted. He prioritized going home to Iris, spending time with her that he normally would have spent at the reserve or studying more about dragons.
His thoughts were cut short by one of his co-workers hollaring and an alarm bell going off overhead. Charlie jumped up and quickly put down the infant Ironbelly, and looked to see a few of his co-workers apperating away while others starting to put of protective wards.
“What's going on?” He hollered, running to help.
“Poachers! Down in the southwest quadrant of the reserve, by the Chinese Fireball nests!” Charlie's blood nearly boiled. In the recent months there were Poachers that were increasingly becoming much more daring, changing from attempting to steal eggs or baby dragons at night, to trying during broad daylight. They were also trying much more frequent and more aggressive.
Whoever they were planning on selling to must be willing to pay the absolute mother-load of they were willing to risk this much to get the eggs or hatchlings. When Charlie apperated to the sight, he saw a few of the reserve staff protecting the eggs while the mother Chinese fireball was going absolutely wild. Blasts were going off and the poachers had actually managed to make it onto the reserve and past the wards.
“Confrigo!” Charlie, his anger raging, blasted a poacher off his feet and back across ward lines. A few of the other Dragonologists were working to restore the powerful wards, others were still locked in battle, and a few others protected the babies alongside the mother Fireball.
One of the poachers hit one of the female Dragonologists and she was thrown back with a yell, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Goldie, the Chinese Fireball, lift her head from her eggs and look to one of her injured handlers.
In a moment she had moved and had actually nudged the Dragonologist with the tip of her nose, but the woman did not stir, and he watched something inside of Goldie switch from offense, to defense.
He knew what was coming even before she reared her head up and her chest glowed. Charlie felt his heart hit his feet and yelled at the top of his lungs-
“HIT THE DIRT!” He fell to the ground and threw up a ward over his head, and watched as the other Dragonologists hit the ground as well. Goldie then let burn her powerful fire, so hot it was red, and in seconds incinerated everything in sight that was close enough to harm her eggs.
That included a few of the poachers.
A silence fell across the land, Goldie turned her attention back to her eggs and the female Dragonologist who was finally coming to, nuzzling them gently before curling up with them, grabbing the back of the trainers uniform and pulling her into the nest with her eggs, knowing full well she had neutralized the threat. Charlie let out a long sigh and plopped his face into the ground. That was a close call. Goldie was one of the oldest Dragons on the reserve, the best mother, she had even taken in babies that weren't hers, and the best with the Dragonologists. They could approach her and pet her, love on her, and just in general she was an unusually affectionate dragon.
He had worked at the reserve for nearly a decade, and never saw her blow fire. To protect her eggs though, and apparently any of the Dragonologists she was bonded to, she would blow fire and incinerate what she felt was necessary.
“Did you see that?” One of the other Dragonologists said, looking at Goldie, “she just.... Boom, incinerated them.”
“I saw it,” Charlie affirmed standing up. “She needs her nest moved, I know this is where she likes to nest, but...” He shook his head.
“Didn't she use to nest up near the mountains?”
“Yeah, but the Hebrian Blacks moved in over there, they like the wind.” Charlie told him, putting his hands on his hips to watch Dragonologist Lin attempt to escape the nest and Goldie, only to be pulled back in by Goldie. “This is really interesting behavior.”
“What? Her treating Lin like one of her little babies?”
“Yeah, I've never even heard of anything like this before.” He told her, Lin's high pitch laughter floating over the wind as she tried again, and failed, to escape from Goldie's large nest.
“Haven't you been jotting down stuff in that notebook? Write this down.”
“I'll do just that, and I'll interview Lin if we ever get her back.” Charlie laughed. He knew though deep down that the poachers would be back, and more then likely even more aggressive then before. That would only mean that the Reserve would need to be prepared. He had been in war before, and he felt like this would be war again, just different.
The rest of the day was spent walking the grounds boarders and enforcing the protective charms even harder then before with a dozen of the other fellow Dragonologists. They also started to try and find a suitable spot to move Goldie and her eggs, it was tricky because the eggs were due to hatch within the next few weeks.
By the time it came for him to clock out, Lin had finally escaped from Goldie and was more then willing to sit down and answer the questions that Charlie had thought of. He jotted them down in a notebook that was well worn and filled almost to the brim with notes he had taken about Dragon behavior. The interview and behavior he had witnessed from Goldie took up three more pages, and he counted, only seeing he had about twenty pages left before he was out of room.
He let out a sigh and headed to the front office to floo home. The only thing on his mind at the moment was eating dinner and going to bed.
“Iris?” He called, feeling drained. “You in here- woah.” He stopped dead in his tracks. The kicthen was completely full of boxes and packages almost stacked to the ceiling.
“I'm here.” She called, and popped up behind a stack.
“Are these coming, or going?”
“Going.” She assured him. These are from the seed sale I had... Oh, that was before uh, everything.”
“Just so long as I didn't miss anything.” He still studied the stacks up and down.
“The Muggle postman will be here in the morning to pick them all up.” Iris told him. “Are you alright? You look like you've been ridden hard and put away wet.”
“I feel like it.” He told her honestly. “I'm feeling like just eating dinner and going to bed.” Charlie reiterated to her.
“That bad of a day?”
“Yeah.” He nodded.
“Do you... Want to talk about it?” Iris asked. Charlie wanted to talk, watching incinerations was always hard, he had only ever seen it one time before, today he had watched four men just reduced to ash within seconds.
“Not really,” he admitted. “I did notice some interesting behavior though from one of our Chinese Fireballs, it's a happier topic, would you be interested in that?” He asked her. Iris put down the papers she was working with and gestured to the couch.
“Tell me what you found,” she said, sitting down and making herself comfortable. Hopwaffle came pitter pattering in, and Charlie smiled tiredly.
He opened his notebook and sat down, then began to read what they had witnessed and the interview with Dragonologist Lin. Iris listened happily and noticed that his voice became increasingly more slow... Then lower... Until he wasn't speaking at all. She looked over and saw him completely passed out. Whatever he had done had drained him, not just physically, but mentally as well. If he didn't want to talk, Iris wouldn't push him, but she was happy he was able to relax enough to go to sleep quickly.
She stood, grabbed a blanket and threw it over him, then removed his large, bulky, heavy boots. They were covered and caked in mud and ash, and Iris casted scurgify to rid the boots of the filth. She then turned her attention to the well worn journal on his chest. She gently picked it up, intending to just close it and place it next to him when she noticed it was nearly filled to the brim with notes he had written. Iris read some of the notes, impressed with his meticulous note taking, and found herself reading about the dragons he had studied. While he slept soundly, Iris found herself reading the majority of the notes, and didn't look up until her eyes burned and the clock said 2:12 am.