Goldie
Iris returned and stored away the bags of rather frilly undergarments and sleepwear that she and Penny, mostly Penny, had found. In her own time she would eventually work her way into them, but for now, they would live nicely wrapped in her closet.
Iris dressed in her overall shorts, pulled on her tall socks, and slid on her pink wellies to finally make her way out to the field. She waved at her employees and then did her rounds to make sure that everything was going as smoothly as it could, and then mozied her way to her favorite greenhouse.
When she entered, it was mostly green, but she inspected and saw little buds of color ready to bloom on most of the plants. This was her project greenhouse, filled with all of her breeding project flowers. This is what made her happy, the wait and anticipation of the cross bred flowers.
When she was at her lowest, she found herself here. It was the first greenhouse that they built on the property after she bought it, and she had spent many days hidden away in here after Ben's passing, burying herself in work and in hope of what was to bloom. Her work was what kept her floating when she felt like she was drowning.
She was just about to start tagging some of the buds, so that that either she or one of her employees could come in and cover the buds to ensure there was no cross contamination when a blue light came flying in from above her head.
A non corperal patronus with Bill's voice hovered in front of her.
“Iris, please come to Shell Cottage, there's an emergency.” Iris apperated on the spot, and appeared just outside the cottage. Her feet quickly carried her up to the house, and opened the door. Multiple scenerio's ran through her mind, something could be wrong with Fleur, or the baby, or little Victoire.
“Bill! Fleur!” She yelled into the house. Bill appeared from around the corner, “what happened?”
“The information is kind of vague, but there is some sort of fire and Charlie is unaccounted for.” He told her bluntly. Iris's heart dropped, and apparently she must have stumbled because Bill grabbed her arms and helped to keep her upright. I can't do this again, her brain screamed, going first to the worst case scenario. Bill all but drug her to the fireplace, “Mum and Dad are already there.” He grabbed the floo powder and handed it over to Iris. She grabbed a handful and stepped into the fireplace.
“Romanian Dragon Sanctuary.” She spoke clearly, and she was enveloped in green flames. When she appeared in the office of the sanctuary, she was immediately gagged by thick, black, choking smoke. Crackling and popping was the only thing she could hear, roaring in her ears, with a very soft siren in the background. Bill appeared behind her, knocking into her before they made for the door in the smoke, their vision so poor that Iris simply closed her eyes and lead herself by feeling. When they finally found the door, they hoped that they would be able to finally breathe, but that was not the case. Bill conjured confringo, and the door blasted apart and off the hinges.
Sizzling, crackling, orange, heat, black, grey. Everything in her vision was on fire.
What had gone wrong, had gone wrong horrifically.
Bill grabbed her shoulder and they made their way away from the burning building. People were running and yelling, there was wizards and witches attempting to put the mass fires out with their wands, and honestly it did not seem like it was doing much to help.
Iris recognized one of the employees from their wedding and pulled from Bill's grasp, running over to him.
“Where's Charlie!” She screamed at him, grabbing his arm.
“I don't know, we lost him somewhere in the gulge!” He choked, gaging on the thick black smoke that appeared all around them. She was armed with a piece of information now, the gulge. Iris turned and shouted at Bill over the all the sounds,
“the gulge! They lost him in the gulge!” Then she, in front of everyone, transformed into her animagus form. To this day, Iris was still an unregistered animagus, and she had just let her secret out. The large, grey and white Harpy Eagle, took off into the sky. Bill, who felt he knew Iris best, was slack jaw when he saw her take flight not knowing in all their years as friends that she was an animagus, let alone one so breathtaking.
Iris did her best to not fly over the smoke, because she needed to be able to study the land, but she also couldn't fly to low or else the raging flames would lick at her feathers. The heat sometimes becoming unbearable, causing her to fly higher. Her stomach fell, the more she saw how enraged this fire was the more she worried about Charlie's chances of survival. She spotted the gugle and took a dive towards it, even in the flames and smoke it was a very distinct landmark, flying along the crevasse as her eagle eyes scanned the area for Charlie. In her mind, finding someone with red hair among all the dark muted colors should be easy.
“Charlie!” Iris shouted, once she had turned back into herself, landing on the ground harder then she hoped. “CHARLIE!” She shouted, holding her wand to her throat to amplify her voice. There was a great shaking under her feet, and a tree fell to her left, sending ash and ember's into the air in a great cloud. Then the resounding howl of a dragon, Iris quickly cast the Disillusionment Charm on herself. One of the most beautiful Hebridean black dragon's marched past her, her grey underbelly nearly sparkled like metal and Iris found herself trying not to reach out and touch her. Then her jaw dropped when she saw five very healthy, beautifully steal in color, hatchlings following behind their mother. It almost looked like they had skips in their steps as they walked through the burning forest.
All the memories of helping Hagrid with Dragons, and the times she had went on jobs with Bill and Charlie flooded back, and she remembered just how much she admired Dragons in that moment. Her amazement would need to be put on the back burner.
“Iris...” She could barely hear the call of her own name over the sizzling of the fire raging around her after the dragons passed.
“Charlie!” She called, looking around her for him. There was a fallen tree, it's leaves and branches still burning, but its trunk was still mostly intact, obviously from the way the end had been uprooted and either pushed over or thrown by a dragon in its anger. It was then she saw movement. “Oh my goodness, Charlie!” She shouted, running over to him. She could barely make him out, his khaki uniform he wore was the same color as the leaf litter amongst the floor, and covered in soot and ash much like everything else. His long red hair was also almost black from falling ash, along with his face. She realized in that moment his facial hair, all his facial hair including his eyebrows, were all singed or burned off. Iris bent down and placed her hands on his head, wiping away some of the ash and char, but truthfully only succeeded in smearing it as more fell from the sky. He gave a heaving cough that just sounded raged, and she noticed how frail he seemed at that moment. He was extremely weak, burned all over, barely able to open his eyes, and could really only raise one of his arms enough to grasp Iris's arm. “Stay with me, ok?” She begged him.
“Iris... Goldie...” He pointed vaguely behind her and when Iris turned she found herself almost face to face with the largest, most beautiful Chinese Fireball dragon she had ever seen. Goldie, this was the dragon Charlie had been studying that showed incredible affection for her caregivers, surely she hadn't been the one to turn on him. “Iris...” Charlie called, and lifted his arm best she could, revealing a pipped golden dragon egg.
“Is this, one of hers?”
“I'm on... her nest...” He choke out. Goldie lurched forward, and Iris did her best not to flinch, because she did not want for Goldie to see her as a threat. A mushroom like plume of fire flared from her nose, and the golden frill around her neck and face flared, and Iris watched at her chest glowed from glowing fire.
Before Iris could even register what to do, Goldie blew fire over Iris and Charlie's heads, and Iris turned just enough to see her incinerate a couple people who had snuck up into the woods. Their protective wards were apparently no match for the aged dragon. Their chilling screams, the sounds of the fire whooshing from her throat, and the smell of charred flesh brought back many unpleasant memories.
Iris was suddenly harshly knocked to her hands and knees into the ground, by a large nose, and she momentarily froze, not knowing what was about to happen. The dragons massive head, and flaring nostrils nudged Iris closer to where Charlie was laying and Iris noticed in horror that Charlie's eyes had closed.
“Charlie?” She called, grabbing his arm, shaking lightly. Goldie, wound her body around Iris, Charlie, and her eggs that Charlie was laying on. Iris looked up, completely covered, safe and protected from any outside elements, she and Charlie being protected like they were her children. While she knew this was a once in a lifetime experience, Iris was able to crawl her way over and lay herself over Charlie, grasping him tightly, and apperated them away.
Near the entrance of the park, Iris and Charlie appeared. Iris felt what might actually be cool air come over them both before she lifted her head and saw Molly and Arthur running over to her and Charlie. Iris wrapped a hand around his fingers while Molly dropped to her knees and pressed a kiss into her son's hairline. Medical witches and Wizards were suddenly all around them, pulling the two women away from him so they could load him up and get him to the nearest hospital.
Iris watched as two of the Wizards worked on Charlie before she heard, “he has no chance here, we have to get him to the hospital.” And her stomach dropped. Before she could even ask where they were taking him, they had apperated, taking Charlie with them.