The Dragon Keeper and the Secret Keeper

~CHAPTER THREE~

~Blood and Politics~

Christmas came and went. Charlie got the usual sweater from his mother, a book called Dragon Tales from Bill, and tickets to a Chudley Cannons game from Lizzie.

A week passed and Charlie returned to work as usual. One day he woke up to find himself hugging the pillow instead of Lizzie. He got up and went to the kitchen, and found her sitting with her coffee, looking somewhat dishevelled.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothin. Jus' a bad dream." She gave him a forced smile.

"Aw," he put his arms around her. "Alright now?"

"Yeah."

"I have to go do some morning chores. But I want to hear what you dreamt when I'm done."

She nodded and went back to her coffee.

Since he had been made a general supervisor, Charlie wasn't really in charge of any single group of dragons. He helped out with whatever was needed. This week one of the regular Longhorn keepers was taking a holiday, and so Charlie had been placed there.

Lizzie's job was different. She was something of a dragon midwife. She handled birthings and took care of the eggs and really small babies. How much work she had to do often depended on the season. Today she would probably have nothing to do but feed Esmeralda unless something unexpected happened. Charlie hoped she wouldn't have too much time to worry about whatever she had dreamed. He fed the Longhorns, and got one rather rambunctious male untangled from his rope. It was a slow, dreary morning. The snow that had fallen earlier that week was melting and leaving cold, muddy puddles everywhere, and the sky was threatening sleet now. Charlie hunched in his coat as he made his way back down the paths.

He decided to swing by the Welsh Greens on his way to the flat in case Lizzie was still in with Esmeralda. As he got near the pen, he noticed two things: the first was a dodgy, scruffy human figure sneaking into the pen, and the second was a large orangeish bird which was just swooping down as though to attack.

Charlie didn't wait to see what would happen. He began running toward the pen. Just before it landed, the bird began to stretch and change, and suddenly there was Lizzie, shoving Jack Pole to the ground, and punching him in the face with surprising strength for such a small girl.

"Lizzie!" Charlie shouted, reaching the pen and fumbling with the fence door. "What the -?"

Lizzie glared at Jack, who lay glaring back with an obviously broken nose. "Yeh slimy, good fer nothin, dung eatin..." She went on, and the language got worse.

Charlie got through the door and leaned over them. "What the hell is going on?" he demanded, looking from one to the other.

"I knew it. I knew somethin was wrong. Moment I saw 'er," Lizzie gestured toward Esmeralda. "Yeh've been doin somethin, Pole, and yeh're goin teh tell me what." Charlie knew how angry she was because her accent was thicker than he'd heard it in years.

Jack Pole just kept glaring, silent and unmoving.

"A baby dragon don' jus' not eat," Lizzie looked up at Charlie. Her jaw was jutted out and her hands, still in fists, were shaking slightly. "What was it, Pole? What did yeh do?"

A look of malice flashed across Jack's beady eyes, and Lizzie dug around in his coat pockets. She pulled out a corked vile of something brown and thick.

"What is it? Wha's it for?" Lizzie grabbed his collar threateningly.

Still Jack was silent and still.

Charlie gently pulled the vile from Lizzie's deathgrip. "Come on Liz. This needs to be taken to the Ministry office."

Lizzie glared at Jack for a few moments more, but finally let go of his collar and stood up, turning away from him in disgust.

Charlie placed the vile carefully in his own coat pocket, and reached down and pulled Jack up by the arm. He kept his grip on the arm and lead Jack out of the pen and down the path toward the building in which the Ministry office was located. Lizzie walked on his other side, arms crossed.

Charlie looked over at her and shook his head. She's an unregistered Animagus - what was she thinking showing herself like that! What if Jack had seen her?

They entered the building and climbed the stairs to the second floor, where Charlie approached the secretary's desk, still gripping the arm of the bloody-faced groundskeeper.

"We need to see Lovegood," Charlie insisted. The secretary nodded slowly, looking curiously at Jack. Charlie lead Jack past her and into an office, the door of which read Jane Lovegood, Dragon Research and Restraint Bureau Head.

"Charlie! What on earth -?" A very businesslike woman with short mousy hair stood from behind the desk.

"Sorry to barge in, Jane. Caught him red-handed." Charlie pulled the vile out and handed it over the desk to her.

"What happened?" Jane asked, looking at the vile. "What is this? And why is he bleeding?"

"We're not sure what it is, but it looks like he's been using it on the Welsh Green orphan. And he's bleeding because, well, you know Lizzie's temper."

Jane hung her head and pushed a hand through her hair. "Oh, Lizzie."

Lizzie shifted in the doorway. "Sorry Jane. He put me out is all." She didn't sound very sorry.

Jane shook her head. "Well, what do you have to say Mr. Pole?"

Jack looked blankly down at the floor.

Jane sighed. "I suppose that means we'll have to use the Veritaserum then." She pulled out her wand and pointed to Jack's wrists, where vines grew and bound his hands together. Then she flicked her wand to turn him around to face the door. Lizzie and Charlie stepped out of the way as Jane steered the unstruggling Jack out of the room. Jane beckoned a couple of guards down the hall, and they came and took Jack away.

"They'll take him to the dungeon until we get the paperwork through for using Veritaserum" Jane told Lizzie and Charlie, leading them back into her office. "Is there anything else I should know?"

Charlie closed the door quietly before telling her his concern. "He may have seen Lizzie...changing."

"You transfigured out in the open Lizzie?" Jane was wide-eyed.

"He didn' see me, I'm sure of it. Besides, it was the only way teh keep an eye on the twerp. I caught him didn' I?"

Jane sighed. "Let's just hope he didn't see. Be more careful next time."

Lizzie made a face.

"Well, I'll send for you two after we've used the truth potion. But now I have work to do."

She shooed them out. They left the building without talking, but when they were outside Lizzie muttered, "good-fer-nothin slimy dung shovellin git."

Charlie fought back a smile and reminded himself to be annoyed at her recklessness. "Lizzie, you need to be more careful."

She ignored him. "We haven' eaten. Are yeh hungry?"

They walked up to their flat, both lost in thought.

"You still have to tell me about that dream," Charlie said as she opened the door.

"Alrigh'." They settled down quietly in the kitchen, and when their lunch was ready and served up for them she began.

"You know somethin odd? I think it was someone else's dream."

"What?" Charlie scrunched his eyebrows.

"I mean, I felt like I was watchin someone else dreamin it. I don' know how teh explain it. Anyway, the dream itself I'd seen before. Back at Hogwarts. Remember, that Halloween?"

"You mean you saw the Potters again?" Charlie raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah..." she swallowed. "I wonder... I wonder if it was the boy dreamin' it."

"You mean Harry?"

She nodded. "Who else'd be dreamin' that?"

Charlie thought quietly for a minute. "Mum says that Ron's friends with him. He's a first year now you know."

"Yeah."

"How much do you think he knows? And when should he be told the rest?"

"I don't know. I'm still waiting for the latest news from Dumbledore."

Just as she said this an owl flew in and dropped a letter in the basket on the table. It had the Hogwarts seal on it.

"Bet that's from him now," Charlie said through a bite of his sandwich.

Lizzie picked it up. It was addressed to her. She pulled it open, and sure enough, there was Dumbledore's signature at the bottom. She read the rest aloud.

Dear Miss Adelwood,

I apologize for the lateness of this letter. I have been rather busy recently.

I am quite proud to say that your sister is doing splendidly in her studies. In fact, I am running out of things to teach her. She is past the N.E.W.T. levels. I only wish she were allowed to actually take the examinations. Because there is little more she can learn here at Hogwarts, and she is clearly ready to go out into the wider world, I will let her leave with you week after next. Miss Lovegood has been kind enough to offer her a position there in Romania, as I am sure you have been told already.

As for your other connection here at Hogwarts, it is not yet the time for all to be revealed on that matter. Things will fall into place soon enough. You will know when it happens.

Please keep your eyes open, and ask Mr. Weasley to do the same. I shall see you soon.

"How come I didn' know about this job Jane offered 'er?" Lizzie looked offended.

"Maybe she wanted it to be a surprise. Or maybe she's thinking of turning it down."

Lizzie frowned and rubbed her forehead with her fingers. "Oh, I'm gettin a 'orrible 'eadache."

* * *

The week after next, Lizzie apparated to Hogsmeade. Charlie had to work and couldn't go, but Hagrid was meeting Lizzie and bringing her up to Hogwarts. He wondered what made Dumbledore suddenly decide that Clara didn't need protecting anymore. Surely nothing had changed - what she was being protected from was still around. Perhaps he thought she was old enough to take care of herself now.

A muggle at the reservation... that would be interesting. What kind of job would Jane have offered her? Surely someone who couldn't use spells wouldn't be able to handle dragons. But Charlie couldn't see Clara as a Dung Shoveller either.

It was strange not having Lizzie around. Charlie spent the two days she was gone doing as much work as possible, so he wouldn't have to listen to the eerie silence in the flat. Out on the grounds it was cold and wet, and the time dragged until finally he had to go to the station to pick the girls up.

He hadn't been in a muggle train station since his Hogwarts days. He waited at the appropriate platform - an ordinary platform, not one which was reached by passing through a wall. Finally Lizzie hopped happily off the train, followed by a taller, slightly less wild-looking girl with the same strawberry blonde hair and flushed cheeks. Lizzie leapt at him and he hugged her, her feet dangling. "Alright... I missed you too... it was only two days Lizzie..." but he held onto her like it had been longer.

Finally he put her down. "Hello Clara. You certainly have grown up since I saw you last." He gave her a warm smile.

The flush in the younger girl's cheeks spread. "You're just as I remember, Charlie." She smiled.

They got their things - Lizzie had taken a bag, and Clara had a special trunk which looked normal on the outside, but inside of which there was room for everything she owned.

"So Clara, I'd like to know more about what they've been teaching you," Charlie asked as they tried to find a muggle cab. "Which lessons did they let you take?"

"Well, obviously not charms er transfiguration. But I know all the critters an' plants an' all that, an' I know some potions. Then there's astronomy, and Arithmancy, and Dumbledore's been teachin me Mermish an' music himself."

"I always wondered what the old fellow did all the time," Charlie shook his head.

"Dumbledore is a great man," Clara beamed.

"That he is," Charlie nodded. "Though you know what they say, there's a fine line between genius and madness."

Lizzie chuckled. "What Charlie's tryin teh say Clara is, we always thought he was off his rocker."

Clara tried unsuccessfully to hold back a smile.

"What are you planning to do now?" Charlie asked. "Jane wouldn't tell us anything about this job she offered you. I don't see how a muggle can work with dragons."

"I'm not workin with dragons." Clara said smugly. "Do yeh know anything about M.R.A.'s?"

Charlie looked to Lizzie, who was also smiling smugly. "No... what's that?"

"Muggle Rights Activists. Jane's one of the leaders on the wizarding end."

"Muggle Activism?" Charlie had never heard the term.

"Yeah. There's a few muggles, ones who know all 'bout the wizarding world like me - mothers, sisters, friends of witches and wizards - and we're trying teh fight this whole Muggle Oppression Movement."

"Muggle Opp-?" Charlie shook his head, confused.

"The Ministry!" She looked exasperated. "Their main goal is teh keep muggles in the dark! Keep us away from magic! Them an' their pureblood supporters." Clara looked like steam might start coming from her ears.

"Whoa there, Clara," Lizzie chuckled.

"I thought you were bad Liz," Charlie raised an eyebrow uncertainly.

"It's the truth. You just wait an' see. One day, it'll be wizards against muggles, purebloods against muggle-borns. It's happened before, and no one's done anything. I learned all about it from Professor Binns."

"History of Magic too?"

"History is the most fundamental subject anyone learns. If people knew history better, they'd know not teh let it repeat itself. Don' yeh know tha's what You-Know-Who was all about? Hating Muggles?"

He didn't know what to say to this.

"An' Grindelwald - he was the most prejudiced of 'em all. He turned the muggles all 'gainst each other. Don' suppose yeh heard of World War Two?" Her accent was getting thicker.

Charlie thought a joke might calm her down. "Is that the one with the Americans and George Washington?"

"No! It's the one where the Germans put all the Jews in camps, where they starved an' rotted, thousands upon thousands. Prejudice. Tha's what I'm talkin 'bout here. Regular people turnin' on one another, cause they're told the others're wicked er wrong... er lesser."

Lizzie took a calming tone. "Clara, that's -"

"It's true Lizzie, yeh know it. Yeh should know it better'n me." She glared meaningfully.

"Clara. Yeh can't blame the entire ministry fer our parents."

"I don' blame 'em, I just think they coulda done more teh stop it." But Lizzie had hit some kind of nerve. Clara sighed. "It's somethin that needs teh be fought for. An' there aren' a whole lotta people who can fight fer it."

They finally climbed in a cab, and the ride was a quiet one. They got out at a short walk from the reservation's hidden gates. Dragging Clara's trunk, Charlie led the girls down the path and finally they were on reservation grounds.

It was time for Charlie's evening chores. He handed Clara the handle of her trunk, told them he'd be up later, and started off toward the Longhorn pens.

What Clara had said stayed with him all afternoon. He actually could see where she was right. Politics in the Ministry, why should that be such a surprise? When had there ever been a governing body without politics as well? And it was clear as day when you were looking for it - the Muggle Supporters, like Charlie's father, and the pureblood supporters, like all the most powerful men, including Cornelius Fudge the Minister of Magic. Yes, it seemed that there was no way of getting promoted without kissing the feet of the richer pureblood families.

It was actually rather odd for Charlie to think about this. He himself was in fact a pureblood. But the Weasleys were hardly rich or powerful. This was probably because of his father's aforementioned love of Muggles. Arthur Weasley had not been promoted in his entire twenty-eight years with the Ministry. Charlie had been hesitant to work for the ministry himself, but he loved dragons, and here in Romania he felt far removed from what went on in Britain. And Lizzie was here. And Jane.

Charlie finished his chores, lost in thought. He returned to the flat to find Jane sitting in the living room with Lizzie and Clara, looking rather solemn.

"Hey Charlie. Have a seat. I have something to tell you about."

He sat down next to Lizzie.

"We've used the Veritaserum on Jack Pole. That vile that you had? It wasn't a potion. It was dragon blood."

"What?" Charlie looked at Lizzie, and saw the anger flash in her eyes.

"If you'd checked in his other pocket, you'd have found another vile, an empty one. He was going in that pen to collect blood."

"For what?"

"He only said it was for his 'master'. We couldn't get anything else out of him. I don't know what it is, but there's some strong magic binding him to this 'master' of his if Veritaserum can't get it out of him."

Charlie nodded.

"The potion wore off while we were still trying to ask him about this master, so we want to use it again. But that takes more paperwork, so..."

"It'll be a while." Charlie shook his head. "I don't like this. Who would need dragon blood?"

Lizzie's hands were balled up in fists. She looked like she would be sick. "Poor lil' Esmeralda. She was too weak teh eat."

Clara was sitting across the room looking confused. "So, what, someone's been going around taking dragon blood, and no one noticed? For how long?"

"Don't know," Jane shook her head.

"I noticed." Lizzie sighed.

There was quiet for a minute or so.

"Well, there's nothing to be done now. We don't know what's going on yet," Charlie said. "Jane, why don't you stay and have dinner with us? I want to hear more about Muggle Activism."

They sat down to talk about politics in the wizarding world, and except for the occasional muttering from Lizzie, Jack Pole and the dragon blood were tucked away in the backs of their minds.