Of Dogs and Dragons

"The Peterson's dog is missing." Emilia cornered Talia and announced as soon as Talia walked in for the start of her shift. Talia had not even had the chance to put her things down before she felt that first terrible feeling of the morning. Dread filled her body as she realized that there was probably another victim of an unknown threat. "And Bailey disappeared for awhile last night, but he returned later, unhurt. Tom said that Bailey's a little more solitary today. He seems afraid of something."

"That's odd." Talia tried to sort through her thoughts. She was not sure what it all meant.

"Do you think that he could have seen the attack?" Emilia then asked anxiously. "Maybe he saw Dexter being attacked and he ran away."

"I don't know," Talia answered awkwardly. "You're the dog expert." Talia did not mean to be rude, but she did not have the answer. She could not help Emilia in the way that she wanted. She wanted to able to answer her with full reassurance that she understood everything that was going on, but she could not. And she would not lie about that.

"Wait a second." Talia suddenly noticed a weird pattern in her friend's demeanor. "How long have you been working? I never saw you leave last night and you're here today before me."

"I left," Emilia quickly replied. "Baker said I can come and go as I please. I'm just trying to figure this all out."

"But you need to sleep," Talia replied, worry growing in her voice, "You're not going to figure anything out if you don't sleep." Talia knew that with a threat like this Emilia wasn't going to rest easy, but she needed to try. With no sleep she could become careless in other ways, even if she was only doing it to help.

"I told you I left," Emilia said, with added pressure in her tone. "It was later than you, but I left. Now how was your date last night?" Emilia hastily changed the subject of the conversation, as she did not feel like explaining herself any more than she had to a questioning Talia.

The confused blond noticed Emilia's trickery of subject changing, but she did not further question her. She was worried that Emilia was working for too many hours, but she would have to get some more evidence before fighting further. "It was okay," Talia finally answered. "He just seemed a bit odd."

"Odd?" Emilia questioned, wanting to know all of the details.

"Yeah," Talia answered. "Like he was hiding something. And he seemed to not be paying full attention to me. I highly doubt there's going to be a second date." Even though Talia did not think the date was terrible, she realized over the course of the night, that Charlie was not someone she wanted to fight for.

"I'm not too fond of him either." Emilia smiled sincerely. She seemed relieved that Charlie and Talia's relationship was not strong, even though she wanted her friend to be happy. "Did Charlie say anything about what he was doing to catch the creature?" Emilia then asked, relieved to be able to talk to Talia about details that she would never ask Charlie herself.

"No," Talia answered. She realized that during the awkward moments of silence, that would have been a good topic to bring up. She was curious about what he was doing.

"Well, maybe you can give him a call," Emilia suggestively said. "I want to know how the search is going."

"I never got his number." Talia suddenly realized. "And he never asked me for mine. That's odd."

"Well, maybe Baker will know." Emilia shrugged it off.

"I'll go ask her," Talia said. She picked up all of her belonging, and before heading to Baker, she locked mostly everything away, in the staff room.

Minutes later, she hesitantly approached her boss, trying to determine if she was busy or not. She seemed to be occupied with a pile of papers, but Talia decided to ask anyways. "Dr. Baker?"

Baker did not turn around right away. He face was studying some type of sheet, and Talia was not quite sure if Baker had heard her. She decided to wait about a minute, but before that minute ended, Baker turned around to see Talia facing her. "Yes, Talia?" she asked, somewhat looking down upon her. She was Talia's boss, but usually she did not talk that way for her, but Talia figured it was just because she was busy.

"I was just wondering if you have Charlie's number? Emilia and I want to know if he's done anything about our problem yet."

"Are you sure that's why?" Dr. Baker smiled, her face filled with a gesture that was opposite of that previous boss-like demand. "Or do you have another reason as well?"
Talia rolled her eyes. Dr. Baker was always implying things to find out more about her personal life. At first, it was kind of cute, but by now it had gotten a little bothersome. She wasn't the most professional of bosses, even if she could be at times. "No," Talia answered briefly, keeping with a serious expression.

"Okay," Dr. Baker answered. She hesitated for a moment, searching through some papers looking for a number from a certain red-headed man. "You know, I don't think I have his number. He just came by yesterday, saying that he was there to fix our problem. He didn't say much about himself."

"Well, do you know where he's staying at least?" Talia was curious, as she tried to build on her good relationship with her boss to find out more.

"No, I don't think so. Next time he comes in, we'll figure it out."

"Okay," Talia said. She then grabbed a chart and she went off to do some work. That was why she was there after all, even if she would have preferred to talk about Charlie all day. No, she did not like him!

After observing her first patient, a ferret who was having his initial exam, Talia's pager went off, calling her to the ER. She dashed off, afraid of what she was going to see. She knew how terrifying that room was as of lately.

Inside, Emilia was there, along with Dr. Baker. On the operating table was Buster, a Hound Mix, who had been attacked about a week ago. He had been weak, fighting for his life. Now, it seemed like he was ready to give up.

Talia rushed over to help, but by the time she came, it was too late. The poor dog was dead and she was standing over his body. She felt heavy emotion piling through her, but she held that in as she saw Emilia storm out of the room.

Talia quickly followed, worried about Emilia. Emilia eventually settled down in her office and Talia sat in the chair across from her.

There were tears in Emilia's eyes and her face was red with worry. As soon as she noticed Talia, she spoke. "I can't take this much longer," she said. "You know Buster has a sister, right?"

"Yes," Talia said, thinking of the Hound mix that typically came in with Buster. The two were inseparable. It was Buster's sister that saved him to that point as well. She barked until her owner noticed that Buster was outside of the door, injured.

"Sophie has been depressed since the attack," Emilia explained through backed up sobs. "She hasn't been happy at all. Her owner's words are so hard to hear."

"I know it's hard," Talia declared simply, letting Emilia tore through her feelings.

"And what if something happens to Taffy? Besides you, she's the only thing in my life that makes sense. And I've only had her for a little while."

"Charlie will figure it out before anything happens," Talia said, now sure of herself because she had to be for her friend. "Don't worry."

"But you said yourself that something's off about Charlie. I don't think he's going to do anything."

"I think there's something unusual about him, but I think he'll do his job," Talia demanded, even more sure of herself. "Now, Em, look at me." Emilia lifted her face up to look at Talia. "It will all work out. Don't worry."

Emilia's eyes perked up, resting on Talia's expressive eyes. "Thanks Talia," she said, feeling a little better.

Talia gave Emilia a hug, before leaving to do more work. Her words had comforted Emilia, but she was not sure if they comforted her. She had no clue if Charlie would do his job or not. That was just one of that things that she found odd about him.

---

The afternoon was foggy. There were dense groups of clouds making it difficult to see and the temperature was quite chilling. It could not be the Dementors. They had disappeared several months ago and the weather had been more static since then. This seemed to just be specialized in the one area of town. The area where few traveled and where innocent lives were lost. The area, where a creature so fierce lived, that he did not even know his own strength.

Charlie Weasley was one of the few that ventured into that forbidden forest. He was one of the few that knew the truth of its evils and wanted to explore the mystery deeper. Or at least he was the one assigned to find out the true explanation.

With each step, he walked delicately and peacefully. Now it was light outside. Now, even though the forest was filled with light, but foggy skies, Charlie had to be careful. Because for some reason, Charlie knew that the fog was the dragon's doing. And if the fog was the dragon's doing, then the dragon would be able to see him if he was not careful.

With a raised wand, Charlie walked slowly towards the path of the dragon. He put a Silencing Charm around himself, so that he did have one advantage. He would have loved to have borrowed the cloak that his brother, Ron, bragged so effortlessly about. The cloak that his brother's best friend, Harry Potter, owned, the cloak of infinite invisibility, the one that had saved them so many times on their adventures together. Yeah, that would have helped him sneak up on a dragon. But he did not have that cloak.

Charlie continued to walk, slowly with hesitancy, listening and looking for any sign of the dragon. After years of working with dragons, his auditory senses started to decline, listening to several piercing roars a week, and even having some unfortunate incidences where his ears caught on fire. Luckily, his vision was still accurate and he had developed some extraordinary sense of smell during his first year in training in Romania. He could now easily recite all of the ways that the scent of a Horntail was different from a Ridgeback.

When Charlie finally reached the bush that he hid behind the previous day, he felt more at ease. Now, he could do his job. He could study the day life of the dragon. That would help.

The first thing that Charlie noticed was the nails of the creature. They were extremely long, and the ends were even curling. It looked painful. Charlie knew it was not a natural thing. Cutting nails was something that he had experienced several times, especially during those first years at his job. Most dragons held in captivity did not have the necessary means to keep their nails trimmed, like those in the wild. This one must have been in so much pain and anguish that he could not keep his nails healthy. Or maybe he forgot how to do it. Trapped in a bank for so many years could make anyone forget the basic needs, human or not.

The ethics of keeping a dragon locked away for so many years was horrifying to Charlie. He wondered who approved it. And he wondered how any dragon keeper could willingly let the Ministry take one of their beloved dragons, to spend a life of seclusion and darkness.

It was not natural. Dragons needed to move, not to be chained down. They were social creatures as well. Keeping a dragon away from everything was torture. They needed friends just to learn how to interact with one another. This dragon was dangerous, purely because of the Ministry. Charlie was positive that if the dragon had not been locked up for so many years, he would not be so violent. He would not be killing the town's dogs.

People never thought of the dragons. In all of the fairy tales he heard, the dragon was the terrible beast. The ugly, fire-breathing creature from hell, who was the enemy. But that was because of people. Hydra would never have attacked Hercules so fiercely if Hercules did not attack first. Dragons don't want to get into trouble. They are like every other predator. They kill for food. They attack in danger. They act crazy, when put in terrible situations. Is that not any different from a human being? Harry Potter himself would kill in a threatening situation. Harry Potter killed the Darkest Wizard of all time in a threatening situation. How was a dragon any different?

Charlie then saw the milkily pink eyes of the dragon, staring right at him. He stayed perfectly still. There was a chance that the stare wasn't a threat. The dragon was still half-blind.

But then he felt the heat approach his face. He had felt it so many times before that it did not truly faze him. It just made him realize that the dragon could in fact see him.

And he got closer. He was standing right in front of Charlie's face and Charlie's blood was pumping quickly, as his heart raced. He was not in a good position. He could run, but it would not be fast enough. He could say an assortment of spells, but he was not ready to take the dragon down yet. That would involve more people. Loads more people.

Adrenaline rushed through his system, alerting him that the situation was dangerous. Still, he did not move. He was frozen in time, taking a glance at the dragon up close. He stared in wonder, his mouth wide open with surprise.

The dragon swooped his wing towards Charlie, pushing him out of the way, causing Charlie's mind to ease back into consciousness. That was usually a dragon's first offensive move - a way to weaken the enemy.

Charlie felt himself flying through the air, again another sensation that he had felt before, though only once - a rookie mistake. He then felt himself falling, along with being scorched with more fire directed towards his most vulnerable spot - his face. As he was falling towards the ground, he tried to think clearly, for there was only one way to get out of that situation, and even so it was a rare possibility.

But he had to try. He had to try because he had just found out the secret of the dragon at that very moment. Everything was so clear to him. Because he noticed that the dragon - he was not a he. And she was not just a she. She was protecting an egg that was clearly hers.