The Midnight Watch

Charlie started unbuttoning his coat before Nadia was gone from sight. "Trade," he said.

"No one wears your girlfriend's clothes but you? How romantic."

"You're lucky I don't have time to jinx you," Charlie said. He put on the cloak and was pleasantly surprised: it fit perfectly. The tailor must have used a one-size spell.

The same was not true of his coat.

"My wrists are sticking out," Emil grumbled. "I look ridiculous."

"It isn't the first time. Use a Warming Charm and let's go." Charlie Apparated to the front of the Healer's cottage and dashed up the steps. He pounded on the door. "It's Charlie Weasley. Get dressed. There's a horntail in trouble!"

The Healer's wife answered the door. "Buna seara. Praslea will be out shortly."

Something about Iona Polizu made Charlie feel young and ill mannered. She was extremely tall for a woman, and wore her hair in a crown of braids. He said, "Thank you, ma'am. I apologise for disturbing your evening."

"It is quite all right, I assure you." She inclined her head graciously to acknowledge Emil, who seconded Charlie's apology.

She smiled and glanced over her shoulder. "Do you have everything you need, dear?"

"Da." Praslea, who towered over his wife, kissed her on the cheek and bent to squeeze through the doorway. The pockets of his greatcoat were so crammed with supplies he made clinking noises when he walked. "Tell me the symptoms on the way," he said in a deep, rumbling voice.

Charlie and Emil had to jog to keep up with Praslea's huge strides.

"The dragoness struggles to breathe," Charlie said. "It could be poison or Dark magic."

With jolting quickness, Praslea took Charlie by the shoulders and picked him up as though he weighed nothing. "Who told you these things?"

Charlie's feet dangled in the air. He felt like a kid snatched up by angry parent for using bad language. Where did you learn that word? Who taught it to you? He had never confessed to his mother that he overheard his father while playing in the workshop and didn't plan to confess now. "You're wasting time," he said.

Praslea looked him in the eye. "Was it Nadia Tedescu?"

"You know her?" Charlie asked. He stumbled when Praslea dropped him to the ground.

"For many years. I am part Zmeu," he said. "We live long lives." He resumed the trek to the broom shed at faster pace. The ground trembled.

"Is Zmeu Romanian for giant?" Charlie asked Emil. They ran to keep up.

"Ogre. Zmeu like to kidnap beautiful maidens."

Charlie snorted. "Is that how he met his wife?"

They were nearing the shed. Praslea chose the fastest racing brooms. When he handed one to Charlie, he said, "I met Iona at a village dance. Then I kidnapped her."

Charlie didn't have the nerve to ask if Praslea was joking. He cast a night vision charm and mounted his broomstick.

At racing speed, trees and rocks were a blur of black and grey. On the slope beneath the horntail caves, Charlie landed beside the others and used spells to mask scent and sound.

Praslea said, "No Disillusionment Charms. I need my assistants visible." He headed for the first cave.

Charlie and Emil rushed to follow.

The horntail dragoness lay on her side on the warming sand, too weak to do more than lift her head when they entered the lair. Charlie's stomach clenched. Horntails were vicious. She should have shrieked and breathed fire or lashed at them with her spiked tail. Instead, she struggled to breathe. The raspy wheeze made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. "What's wrong with her?"

"Obvious stridor, marked inspiratory effort, and minimal air movement at the mouth and nasal openings all point to foreign body aspiration or laryngeal paralysis. I must examine more closely." Praslea cast a spell.

The dragon's eyes closed.

"Keep an eye on our patient," he told Emil. "I have scars to prove dragons can be resistant to sedation."

Praslea took what looked like an empty jar out of a coat pocket and handed it to Charlie. "Check her gums--I need to know the colour--and then open this beneath the nasal passages."

"What is it?"

"Oxygen. It never harms a patient and may mean the difference between life and death."

Charlie approached the dragoness warily. Even unconscious, she looked fearsome. He leaned down to examine the gums. "Bluish," he said loudly. He raised the jar and opened the lid.

Whatever magic he released took effect. The dragoness inhaled deeply.

"Excellent," Praslea said behind him. "Continue to administer oxygen."

Charlie heard several clanking noises.

"Iona packed my bronchoscope in the wrong pocket," Praslea said as he stood next to Charlie. Over his shoulder, he called, "Come tickle the skin beneath her foreleg, Emil."

Charlie frowned. Didn't the Hogwarts coat of arms say something about never tickling a sleeping dragon?

The motto obviously didn't apply in Romania. Emil pulled a scale away from the massive body and tickled the hide without any consequence more dire than the smell of dragon breath when the horntail panted in her sleep.

"Yes, open," Praslea murmured. "A charm to dry saliva and prevent coughing and I will see what ails you, my beauty." He cast the spells and placed a curved, flexible tube inside the dragoness' mouth. Filaments inside the tube began to glow. Whirring softly, the narrow tube lengthened and snaked inside the airway. Praslea looked into the end like a telescope.

"Was it something she ate?" Emil asked.

"There are no foreign bodies," Praslea said, "but it is possible spell-induced aspiration caused the stenosis--constriction of the airway--that resulted in the loss of scales." He looked at Emil. "Take the bronchoscope." To Charlie he said, "Continue oxygenation."

"Yes, sir." Charlie watched in amazement as Praslea held the dragoness' mouth open with one hand and leaned in to cast Healing Charms. Muggles thought circus performers were brave for sticking their heads into the mouths of lions. They should get a look at dragon teeth. Of course, if they did, the Muggles would have the memory erased by Obliviators.

By the time Praslea finished spellcasting, the muscles in Charlie's arms burned from holding up the oxygen jar. "Is she better, sir?" he asked.

"Emil will tell us," Praslea answered.

"The inflammation is gone and the airway is no longer restricted." Emil extended the bronchoscope to Charlie. "Want to see?"

Praslea took the oxygen jar. "Go ahead."

Charlie looked into the tube and grinned. He was seeing inside a dragon! "Amazing."

"I will take that as a compliment," Praslea said. He had a turn viewing the airways through the bronchoscope and then used a spell to return the device to its original, compact form. "Come. We must report to Dimitrie."

The Head Keeper's cottage was lit up as though a party was going on--or a meeting.

Mrs. Maslahaun answered the door, grey and flinty-eyed. While Praslea's wife made Charlie feel like a grubby schoolboy, Dimitrie's wife made him feel like a garden slug: one she suspected was flesh eating. "At last you are here," she said harshly. "Now I may return to sleep without leaving my husband alone with that creature." She immediately trudged upstairs.

"Such charm," Emil whispered as he and Charlie followed Praslea down the short corridor from the entry to the lounge. "Why would her husband ever look at another witch?"

Charlie saw Nadia sitting in a chair on the opposite side of the dark-panelled room from Dimitrie and smiled. She had stopped by his house and borrowed a green jumper.

In the blink of an eye, she was out of the chair and standing at his side. "I could not fix the tee," she said, "I hope--"

"I don't mind," he said, trying not to grin like an idiot at the 'C' on her chest.

"Keeper Tedescu informed me of her suspicions, Healer Polizu," Dimitrie said. "Did your findings support them?"

The pompous tone struck Charlie as odd until he noticed the way Dimitrie's eyes darted up to the ceiling. Was he afraid his jealous wife was listening?

Praslea said heavily, "There was no visible cause for stenosis." He relayed his diagnosis and treatment.

Dimitrie's shoulders slumped. "It is hard to believe one of our own--" He turned to Nadia. "Perhaps your informant was mistaken. He is very young."

"Nicu Vasile is fifteen. Old enough to track a woman carrying a holdall through the woods to the research centre."

"What woman?" Charlie asked.

"He had never seen her before, but Nicu did not think she was a keeper," Nadia said. "She was blonde, pretty, and wore a blue velvet cloak."

Emil said, "That sounds like Jane Whatley."

"A couple of days ago I sat at the same table with her at breakfast," Charlie said. "She was acting weird--almost drugged."

Did you discover your destiny last night? I did. It was amazing.

He looked at Dimitrie. "Jane's your personal assistant. Has she said or done anything . . . ?"

"Nothing."

Nadia laid her hand on Charlie's arm. "We must talk to her, search her cottage."

"I am the Head Keeper," Dimitrie said stonily.

"Then you talk to Jane and we will follow to assist as you direct." Nadia's response was calm, but her fingernails dug into Charlie's sleeve.

"Ouch," he said beneath his breath.

Nadia heard. In one of her faster-than-the-eye movements, she whispered in his ear and then moved away. It happened so quickly, Charlie's brain took a few seconds to register what she'd said.

Did I hurt you? Later I will kiss it better.

"Da, I will do the talking," Dimitrie said.

In the entry, Mrs. Maslahaun appeared out of thin air to yank the cloak out of her husband's hand. "You promised never to go into the night with that creature! You promised!" Her black eyes gleamed with fury. "Al dracului sa fii, Dimitrie, cu coasta ta!" She threw down the cloak. "Leave if you have no honour. Kkmash pe mormantul tau sa aiba ma-ta in ce infige lumarea!" She spat on the floor and Disapparated.

Dimitrie broke the awkward silence. "Healer Polizu, you will question Miss Whatley and report to me in the morning." He nodded stiffly and Disapparated.

The four left the house and walked to Jane's cottage.

"Olga never changes," Praslea said.

Charlie looked at Nadia.

Her mouth turned down at the corners. "For thirty years, she has accused me of trying to ensnare her husband. It has never been true."

"Of course not," Charlie said. "Don't listen to her--whatever the old hag said was lies."

Nadia smiled faintly. "She said, 'To hell with you, Dimitrie,' and 'I will defecate on your grave so your mother has something to stick in the candle'."

"You mean somewhere to stick--" Charlie inwardly groaned. He was acting like Percy again, correcting her English. "Interesting saying," he mumbled.

Nadia slipped her hand into Charlie's. "I have heard much worse."

"I'm sorry." It wasn't the right moment for a hug or any other gesture of comfort. They were almost to the cottage. But when they were alone . . . .

Emil said, "Ahem. It would be better if Nadia was not seen."

"Da," Praslea said. "Use a Disillusionment Charm."

Nadia said, "I will become a kitty for Charlie to tuck into his pocket if he is agreeable."

"I'm very agreeable," Charlie said, returning her smile.

She winked and transformed into a black cat.

"You have a girlfriend and a pet," Emil said after Charlie placed his "kitty" into an inner cloak pocket. "And I thought you were lonely."

Charlie heard a soft purr and grinned from ear to ear.

"Have your wands ready," Praslea said. "Jane may not be agreeable to questioning. Zmeu, being magical creatures, are naturally resistant to spells, so I will lead the way."

Praslea's shoulders were so wide, Charlie could only hear the door open and Alice, Jane's housemate, say, "I've been so worried! Have you seen Jane? Is she all right?"

"I came to speak with her," Praslea said.

"But you can't," Alice said. "Jane went for a walk and never came back. She's been gone for ages!" She sounded on the verge of hysteria.

"We will find her." Praslea's experience as a dual trained Healer gave him a confident, reassuring manner his human patients responded to more favourably than the dragons under his care.

Alice calmed down, let them in, and showed them Jane's room. "She hasn't taken anything--clothes, money. I looked."

"Why?" Charlie asked. "Did you think she might run off with someone--a new boyfriend?" He had a suspicion he hoped wouldn't be confirmed.

"Yes." Alice's round face blushed pink. "Jane was always writing in her diary, so that was the first thing I checked, but she didn't write his name, or say where he lived . . . ."

Cat paws kneaded Charlie's side. He said, "We need to look through it for clues."

Alice went to the bed and pulled a diary bound in floral fabric from beneath a pillow. A pink Quick Quotes Quill acted as a bookmark. She gave the diary to Praslea.

"Many descriptions of pleasure, no descriptions of her lover other than burning eyes," Praslea said after skimming through the pages.

I see a heart . . . Pleasures to come.

Charlie remembered the dreamy expression on Jane's face and something else: the way Nadia's eyes glowed red in the darkness.

Cat claws pricked his skin. He wasn't the only one who suspected Marko. "If it wouldn't be too much of a bother," Charlie said to Alice, "I'd appreciate a cup of tea. It's cold out."

"Oh. Yes. I'll make a pot at once."

"I will help you," Praslea said. He gave Charlie a "find something" look and steered Alice into the corridor.

Nadia wriggled out of the cloak pocket and landed on all fours. She transformed back into a woman and said, "If Jane is Marko's thrall she is in great danger. We must find her quickly!"

"Who's Marko?" Emil asked. "And what is a thrall? A slave?"

"Da, through forbidden magic," Nadia said. She faced Charlie. "I will go to Alexandru."

"Not without me," he said. "Praslea and Emil will help too."

"Zmeu and strigoi are ancient enemies." Nadia shook her head. "Praslea cannot come."

"I'll still go," Emil said pointedly. "If someone will tell me where we're going."

"Bucharest," Charlie answered.

"I know the city," Emil said. "Name a place and I will meet you there. I can Apparate long distances."

"Are you willing to be bound to your word that you will never reveal the location of Alexandru's home to anyone?" Her eyes were on Charlie as she asked, "Will you give a Wizard's Handshake?"

"Yes," Charlie said.

Emil said, "I will too."

Pain stabbed through Charlie's hand during the handshake. He bit back a curse.

When it was his turn, Emil yelled something in Romanian.

Praslea burst into the room. "What is wrong?"

"Wizard's Handshake," Emil said, rubbing his palm with a thumb.

Nadia said, "We must go to Bucharest--to strigoi. I will send my Patronus when we find her."

Praslea didn't ask why he was expected to stay behind. He said, "May it be soon."

Since Charlie had never had the time or interest in learning how to Apparate over great distances, Nadia used Side-Along Apparation to transport them to the home of her strigoi "father."

It was a mansion. Charlie's eyes went to Nadia. "Do you have one of these?"

"Nu. My home is near the reservation, and much simpler." She smiled. "If you would like to come over some night . . . ."

Charlie's pulse sped up. "I accept your invitation."

"I would like to see your home as well," Emil said. He pointed to the house. "Impressive architecture. What is this Alexandru's last name?"

"Brancoven."

Emil's eyebrows rose. "Old money."

The front door opened. A bald man who looked more like a bodyguard than a servant said, "The master bids you and your friends welcome, Miss Nadia." He spoke in English. Was it because security wards allowed him to overhear their conversation?

She said, "Good evening, Jakab."

Jakab led them through the mirrored entry to a posh version of a lounge.

A blond man stood beside the fireplace. He matched the room, tailored and elegant. In the blink of an eye, he was at Nadia's side. He took her hand and brought it to his lips. "Introduce me to your friends, my sweet."

She moved closer to Charlie and slipped her hand through his arm. "Alexandru Brancoven, allow me to present my friends and fellow dragon keepers, Charlie Weasley and Emil Morgenstern." Nadia dropped her formal tone. "You can trust them--they gave a Wizard's Handshake in order to accompany me. We need your help to find a woman who has gone missing from the centre," she said urgently. "There is reason to believe she stole dragon scales for Marko and is in great danger."

"I can do nothing." Alexandru sounded regretful, yet firm--oddly parental for a man who appeared as young as his "child" did. He said, "Marko is under Catrinca's protection and I will not be named a member of the Council until the next Gathering."

"But he has made Jane his thrall." Nadia's voice rose, reminding Charlie of Ginny's rare disagreements with their father. "Marko will kill her to hide his crimes!"

"Bring me the girl and I will take her to Luchian. Until then, you are on your own."

"No she isn't," Charlie said. "She has me."

Emil cleared his throat.

Charlie smiled. "She has us."

-

A/N: Who expects the story to end with a bang instead of a whimper? Yes, yes, you're very smart. :D

The name Praslea comes from a Romanian fairytale, Praslea the Brave and the Golden Apples. In the tale, a young man rescues an (unnamed) princess kidnapped by ogres (Zmeu) and in the end lives happily ever after. With my fondness for intelligent ogres and fractured fairytales, I say the princess fell for one of her captors--who then used magic to keep his future in-laws from reacting like Princess Fiona's parents in Shrek2. The name Ioana I used because Ioana Sturdza is one of the authors of Fairy Tales and Legends from Romania . . . and yeah, if you put an 'F' at the beginning . . .

I googled a lot of random veterinary and human respiratory distress info to find what I needed for the dragon scene--and to think I used to pretend I was a vet and my stuffed animals were patients. Ignorance was bliss, lol. The Romanian curses I found scrolling through a forum. Some were...ahem...highly creative.

The Jane quotes...and foreshadowing...were in ch 7. For anyone needing a reminder (Been awhile since ch 4's Gathering), Luchian is the head elder of the Council.