Freckles
Iris was practically running down the hallway, she was almost beside herself with excitement to tell him about her discovery when her ears perked at a conversation happening between three female healers.
“Did you see his arms? I mean take away the burn, that will heal, his arms are the same size as my head.”
“I know, I'm not usually into freckles but I could get into them for him.” It dawned on Iris they were speaking of Charlie, so she slowed her pace to a light walk, and listened a little more.
“Oh yeah, I wondered myself just how far those freckles roam.” One chuckled.
“You're not the only one, I've never met a dragonologist before, that has to be why he's so physically fit, that has to be a incredibly physically demanding job.”
“If I was dating him that wouldn't be the only physically demanding job he had.” The all laughed loudly at the comment, and while she and Charlie still weren't on the best of terms, they were getting better and that was her husband they were speaking of.
“Do you make it a common occurrence to speak about patients like that?” Iris asked them as she walked by, “or am I just the lucky one who overheard you talking about my husband?”
“Oh, I'm so sorry!” One yelled, turning red. The other two just stuttered as Iris looked at them as stoic as she could. Until she cracked a smile.
“It's ok, he's hot. I get it.” Iris gave the girls a wink, letting them know that they were not in trouble, as she made her way to his room. Molly was puttering about, and Charlie was sitting up and Iris just blurted. “She's a legilimens!” Both Molly and Charlie looked up at her and she was beaming from ear to ear.
“Who?” Molly asked first.
“Goldie!” Iris watched as the news struck Charlie, his pupils grew, his eyebrows rose, his entire body posture changed.
“What!” He almost yelled. “Tell me everything, how did you-”
“She did it first!” Iris explained, sitting on the end of the bed, crossing her legs in a cross, looking straight at him. She plopped his bag on the bed and pulled out his notebook and summoned her pen from the side table, enchanting it to write, “I assume you want to take notes?”
“Of course!”
“So, the poachers came back-”
“Bastards-”
“Charles Weasley!” Molly tutted but both Iris and Charlie were to enamored with each other to be bothered.
“They were going after Goldie, she had just returned to the nest area, she had four hatchlings by the way.”
“Four? All of them hatched? That incredible, she's nearly two hundred years old and her fertility os staying consistent. Any runt?”
“Not that I could tell, if there's a weight difference it's maybe ten or twenty pounds, it's not noticeable.” Iris shook her head. “I made a quick reference, of scale patterns on their heads for you.” She dug in the bag and handed over the sad little notes she had jotted down.
“That's perfect Iris,” he told her, grabbing for the notes, but his hand was still tight from the burns, making it hard. “Tell me more about her legilimancy.”
“Ok, well, she spoke to me through my mind, and she called me little white because of my fur.” Iris laughed.
“Little white?” He chuckled.
“Mhm, but you're name is better.”
“She has a name for me?” He asked.
“Lionheart.” Iris smiled, “you're her favorite. Not just current handler, but her favorite ever.” She told him. “Then on that back page, I wrote down some names. She already named her children.”
“She named them? Iris this is huge for the dragon community as a whole! It begs the question if all dragons do that.”
“And if they become legilemens with age?”
“You could be onto something, there's a article I read about Hebrian Blacks, they're one of the longest lived species out there.”
“When you get better we could go out there, it's not far from home!” Iris said excitedly. She genuinely was happy for Charlie, this could be a huge break through and for him to be the one to first be able to write about it and document it would cement his name into history books. When it came to dragon's, Charlie was no doubt the best of the best in Iris's mind, and he always had been.
“Iris, can you teach it to me?” Charlie asked.
“What?”
“Legilimency. If even only Goldie can do it, I need to know it.” He almost begged her.
“One step at a time, ok?” She told him, “it's a tough process, but I'm more then willing to help you.” Iris assured him. He looked a little put off that she didn't want to help him right that moment but he nodded. There was a knock on the door before it opened, Charlie's doctor and the translator came in.
“Good afternoon, Weasley family.” She greeted, she still walked on eggshells around Iris. “We have talked to a few of the Healers at St. Mungos, specifically a Miss Lobosca as requested, they have prepared a room for Mr. Weasley and once we finish his paperwork he will be able to transfer closer to home.”
“That's wonderful!” Molly gushed. Charlie seemed to let out a sigh of relief and Iris nodded happily.
“Chiara is one of the best Healer's Charlie-”
“Iris, you don't have to talk me into going to St. Mungos.” He assured her. Charlie then noticed Iris's head droop and her eyes got progressively more glassy. “Hey now, I wasn't trying to make you feel bad.” Charlie reached hand out and placed it over one of hers, and felt a sigh of relief when she didn't snatch it away like she had been burned herself.
“You didn't, I don't know why I'm crying.” She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.
“You're tired love, we all are, this had been a hard experience.” Molly assured her. Iris nodded and patted Charlie's leg gently.
“Well, we should probably pack your things.” Iris stood up from where she was sitting.
“Dear, have you eaten yet?” Molly asked her, “I could run to the dining hall and grab you something?” Iris realized she had not in fact eaten, and her stomach was growling roughly.
“A sandwich would be wonderful.”
“And a soda?” Charlie asked.
“I'll ask your nurse.” She tutted before she left the room. Iris stood up and was beginning to go through his things, and then chuckled to herself.
“What?” Charlie asked, his voice still muffled from the tubes up his nose.
“You know,” she drawled. “You have the female healers in quite a tizzy.” She picked up his charred bag of clothing and then plopped it back on the ground to discard when Charlie wasn't looking.
“What do you mean?” He asked, watching her pick up the hairbrush. “Could you... Brush my hair?” He asked quietly. Iris looked at him and gave him a sweet smile and nodded. His hair was a wreck, charred, burnt, and jagged on the ends. Iris's heart mourned because Charlie had beautiful hair, and it was going to be short again.
“As I was saying,” Iris smiled, “the nurses are in a tizzy. They are all out there wondering exactly how far your freckles reach.”
“They're wondering how far my freckles reach?” He asked, wondering what exactly that meant.
“Yeah, like how far they go.” Iris chuckled, brushing his red hair to the top of his head to tie it into a ponytail and get it off his face and neck. She could tell he wasn't really following what she was saying. “You know, like, below the belt.”
Charlie made a face and it made Iris laugh.
“Women talk about that with each other?” He asked, horrified.
“What do you think we talk about at tea? The weather?”
“God you talk about... Sex?”
“And the people we have it with.” She watched the tips of Charlie's ears go red at the information. “I can guess.”
“Guess what?”
“How far they go.”
“IRIS!”
“I seen you with your shirt off plenty of times when we were in school, especially during quidditch. It's not like your freckles just stop of your belt line.” She inspected the ponytail she had gathered his hair into and decided it wasn't perfect but it would work to get him home.
“Plenty of times? You make it sound like I just walked around shirtless all the time.” He almost pouted.
“I mean, we were prefects, and you loved your relaxing baths.” Iris reminded him.
“It was hard when you were putting frog spawn soap in them all the time.”
“It was one time!” Iris shrieked with a smile on her face. “Besides's it was just to get on Peeve's good side.” She stood up from the hospital bed and went to pack up some of his things into the bag. “The most you were half naked was Quidditch practice. You never wanted to wear clothing-”
“You make it sound like I'm a nudist!”
“Just pointing it out.” Iris smiled, packing some more of the random things around his room.