Tough As Dragon Skin

Natalie stared at Charlie in stunned disbelief. "You're a wizard."

He nodded and grinned. He couldn't help himself, she looked so danged cute staring at him like that, like she wasn't sure if he was dead serious or a candidate for St. Mungo's...not that she knew what St. Mungo's was anyway.

"And you work with these..." she held up the photographs, "...dragons."

"Yes," he confirmed with a nod.

"Right." She didn't seem completely convinced but there was an element of resignation in her tone nonetheless. "And my idiot fiance happened to take pictures of your dragon while you were moving her and her, um, eggs to a new dragon colony."

"Look, I know it seems hard to understand, not being someone who knew about dragons before all this," began Charlie but Nat interrupted him with a raised hand.

"I'm a paleontologist, Mr. Weasley, and as far as I'm concerned you have just handed me the keys to the kingdom. Do you have any idea what this means to the science of paleontology? Dragons have long been suspected of being dinosaurs that survived whatever cataclysm that destroyed the dinosaurs millions of years ago. Hell, the Loch Ness Monster is suspected of being a pleisaur. Just imagine what will happen when dragons are proved to exist and -"

"Wait a minute!" Charlie shouted over her in horror. "First of all, no one will know about this. That's why I'm here, to make sure that no one knows about this. Eight hundred years ago dragons were almost hunted to extinction. Only through some serious work have we managed to get decent populations back. The last thing we want are Muggle scientists crawling all over the place and bringing Muggle attention back to them."

Nat immediately became indignant. "We 'Muggles', as you call those of us who don't wave sticks around in the air and say made up words, have species restoration and protection programs too, you know."

"Yes, but can you guarantee they'll never be hunted, never be harmed?" Charlie challenged. "See the Bengal tiger if you want that answer." Nat's mouth opened then closed with a snap when she had no answer. "Look, they're a magical creature and, as such, fall under our jurisdiction. We can't have Muggles crawling all over the place because we can't protect you and us from these creatures. They're dangerous, Nat, and furthermore -"

"Nat? Then we have met before!" she cried, punching the air triumphantly.

"I erased your memory," he admitted. "Your's and Hill's."

"I would kill you for that, but I have to know how to do it first. Instead, we're going to make a little deal." Nat gave him an unholy grin. "You're going to help me finish packing up my office and putting everything in storage."

Charlie looked around, shrugged, and pulled his wand again. Nat took a step back, her blue eyes widening in alarm. "Waddiwasi!" he said and the papers and books immediately began packing themselves into the boxes. "It's also good for taking things out. I once watched a friend of mine pull a spit ball out of a blow gun that was aimed at him and instead it hit the guy trying to blow the wad at my friend." He shrugged as she gaped. "Now what?"

Nat looked around at her packed office. "We, uh, we, uh, we put the stuff in storage and then we..." She gulped loudly, trying to gather her thoughts. "Then you're going to show me dragons."

Charlie began to laugh. "No, really, what's next?"

She frowned at him. "I'm going with you to see dragons. I want to know everything: habitat, family relations, eating and dietary habits, grooming, territorial behavior, everything. Once I see this, and get to remember it with no memory spells to make me forget it, then you'll get your photographic evidence."

Charlie groaned. "I can't do that, Nat. I can't. They'll fire me, they'll kill me, and I won't go into the trouble my family will suffer through."

Nat frowned. "They'll blame your family for your deeds? What kind of organization is this Ministry of yours? I don't remember the British Government being this...archaic."

"Well, technically, it's not the British government as you know it," hedged Charlie.

Nat's eyes narrowed. "Meaning?"

"Wizards and witches have their own governments." Charlie heaved a big sigh. "It takes too long to explain and I pretty much slept my way through my History of Magic class at school so, we'll just skip over to the more -"

"There's a History of Magic class at your school?" asked Nat eagerly. "A magical school for magical people, you mean? Where? How fascinating! My brother will go nuts!"

"Hey!" Charlie had to yell again. "What part of "secret society" are you missing here?"

Nat frowned. "Oh, yes, I forgot about that. Damn it." Charlie gave a sigh of relief. "Okay, you show me the dragons ... is a month long enough? ... and I'll hand over the photographs." She beamed a bright smile at him when he gave a reluctant nod and flung herself at him for a big hug. "Charles Weasley, you are a breath of fresh air!"

Charlie wrapped his arms around her to support her as she hugged him tightly and a waft of her flowery perfume tickled his nose. He swallowed hard, feeling the attraction for her as never before. This was going to go so wrong so fast it was not even amusing. Merlin help him, though, he was going to agree. Anything to see her smile at him, anything to make her hug him again.

"Okay, you win, dragons for photographs, but we do this my way." Nat nodded enthusiastically. "And call me Charlie."

She hugged him again with a squeal of delight. "Let's get this stuff moved," she told him happily, "and then I'll pack for Romania."

"What do you mean we're not going to Romania?"

Charlie sidled a gaze at her as he walked through the crowded London street. "Well, we will, eventually, but you aren't going without proper protection. My way or not at all, Nat, remember?"

Nat grumbled a bit, hoisting her heavy shoulder pack higher up on her back. After the third winding block, she whined, "Have you ever heard of the Underground?"

"I'm claustrophobic," he told her, stopping and staring around intently. No one was paying them the slightest bit of attention. "This way." He opened the door of a nameless business and held it for her as she stepped in. As her eyes grew accustomed to the dim light, she noticed that the formerly noisy place had grown a bit quieter.

"Charlie Weasley! Have a drink!" Nat gaped at the scruffy man behind the bar, who grinned at her, revealing a decided lack of dental hygeine. He was also dressed very similarly to the other people in the tavern. Nat was forcefully given to believe she might have stepped back in time, so closely did their clothing resemble clothing worn two or three hundred years ago.

"No thanks, Tom. Got business in Diagon Alley. You happen to know what the current exchange rate for Muggle money is?" Charlie was busy making his way across to the back of the tavern.

"High, as usual," replied the barkeep. "You know how them goblins are." The man stared in unabashed curiosity at Nat, who had decided that following Charlie might be the wiser course of action. No one was looking particularly friendly to her. "She a Muggle?"

Charlie didn't spare Nat a glance beyond making sure she was following him. "Yes, special project for the Ministry. Don't worry, she's good."

Tom the bartender grunted and gave her a polite nod when she offered a fleeting, wan smile. The rest of the tavern immediately lost interest in her and turned back to whatever they were doing. Nat continued to follow Charlie out the back way and into a small cramped space. He tapped a few times on the brick wall in front of them and Nat felt her jaw dropped.

The bricks were moving! Not only were they moving but they were opening into a street crowded with people and shops of the like she hadn't seen since she watched A Christmas Carol on television at Christmas. Deciding not to ponder on the bricks, which had formed a large doorway, Nat stepped through to the street, her mouth hanging open and her eyes wider than her mouth.

"This is Diagon Alley," Charlie was explaining, looking around him with an amused smile. He looked back at Nat and his smile dropped. She looked a bit too overawed. Not wanting to explain to anyone why he had a fainting Muggle on his hands, he grabbed her shoulders and spun her to face him. "Don't faint on me, please. Just think of it as -"

"Magical London," she whispered, closing her eyes as if to memorize what she'd seen. "I can't believe I'm seeing something like this. It's like out of Dickens or Grimm's Fairy Tales."

"It's not fantasy," he told her with a laugh. "It's all real and if you think this is fantastical, wait until you see Gringotts Bank."

Nat rushed over to a window and peered at the display. "That's beautiful!" she exclaimed, pointing at a shimmering blue dress robe.

"It's a dress robe, for special occasions," Charlie told her, grabbing her hand and pulling her away. "Very expensive and we're not here for dress robes."

"I know, I know," Nat said in a long suffering tone. "We covered this on the plane, remember?"

"I suffered the plane, you can suffer another lecture," he told her. He frowned at the memory of the long flight from America. Nat had balked at taking a port key. She had insisted on the airplane. He had resolved somewhere over the Atlantic when the airplane had encountered turbulance that he was never going to fly on anything but a broom again. "We're here for supplies for you and then dragons. After that pictures and we part company never to see each other again."

"Sans you waving your wand and making my memory disappear," Nat added, just in case he'd forgotten.

"Naturally." The idea of never seeing Nat again sobered Charlie up considerably but he cheered again when Nat exclaimed over every little thing in every shop window they passed on the way to Gringotts Bank. He tried to ignore the tingling feeling of his hand holding hers but after awhile resigned himself to the sensation. He'd heard his mother and father talk about being in love and he had a bad feeling he was coming down with a case of the "Natalies".

Pushing the thought from his mind, he hauled Nat up the crooked stairs and into the crooked white building that was Gringotts. Nat's attention was immediately diverted from the crowded thoroughfare to the bank as they stepped through the doors. Charlie strode down the huge aisle, looking for the goblin in charge of Muggle Money Exchange. He found the line and waited patiently while two men, one in a Muggle business suit and one wizard in pin striped robes, haggled with the goblin over the rates.

"Outrageous!" muttered the Muggle as they concluded their business and walked away from the window. "Yesterday it was three Sickles lower!"

"Inflation knows no rules with goblins, Marcus, you know that," responded the wizard with a toothy grin.

"Excuse me," Natalie said suddenly, halting their progress back toward the door. "Can you tell me what rate you received?"

"Five pounds, 50 pence equalling one Galleon," huffed Marcus indignantly. "Yesterday it was five pounds, 32 pence!"

"Thank you," Nat replied politely and then turned to Charlie. "What's wizard money equaled too?"

Charlie blinked at her. "Seventeen Sickles to the Galleon and 493 Knuts to the Sickle. Why?"

"And how often do you have American Muggles in here?" she asked.

"I would imagine American Muggles are pretty rare in here," Charlie replied, still confused.

She seemed to do some rapid calculations and then nodded to herself. She marched up to the goblin, who was eyeing her in distaste.

"May I help you?" it said in a sneering, gravelly tone.

"Yes, I need to exchange some Muggle money for wizard please? I'm sorry, I only have American dollars." Nat smiled graciously at the goblin, who blinked disconcertedly.

"One moment please." The goblin disappeared from the high perch behind the counter and Charlie and Nat heard him walking hurriedly off to the left. About three minutes later, two sets of feet could be heard approaching and the goblin's head popped back up over the counter with another one accompanying him.

"According to our paperwork, madam, the exchange rate a few years ago between the British pound and the American dollar was approximately one dollar and fifty-nine cents per one pound. Assuming that the American economy has not undergone a monumental economic boom or depression, it should only have risen a few," the goblin checked his sheet, "pennies. Therefore, the exchange rate would be -"

"You didn't hear about our rise in economy?" Nat looked at Charlie, shocked. Charlie, having no idea what she up to, merely stared back. "I'm surprised. You should keep a closer watch on the Muggle economy abroad. You remember the old saying that America's streets are paved with gold?" The goblins nodded uncertainly. "Well, let me tell you, Los Angeles is giving serious consideration to doing that to Rodeo Drive."

The goblins stared at her, nonplussed. "Rodeo Drive," the more senior of the two repeated dumbly. "I don't understand."

"We had a huge market boom," Natalie explained. "People are living better than we have ever before! That's why I've come over to Britain. I'm thinking about buying up some businesses, the British economy is ridiculously low in comparison." She gave them a winning smile.

"What is the exchange rate, if you please?" The senior goblin picked up a quill, dipped it in an inkwell and poised it over his sheet of parchment. He had a suspicious look on his face and Nat immediately realised that she'd better not inflate the American dollar too much. Not that she knew what too much was anyway.

Crossing her fingers behind her back, she said confidently, "Why, its almost two dollars and fifty cents to one British pound." The goblins blinked owlishly at her. She leaned forward conspiratorially, "You should see what we're doing to the Japanese yen. We're ahead of them for the first time in ages!"

The goblin's quill moved with rapid-fire scratchings. Nat tried to ignore the fact that the goblin wasn't holding the quill as it wrote.

"Hmmm." The goblins consulted each other in strange gibberish and after five minutes of arguing, pointing at parchment and waving their hands in the air they turned to her. "We can offer ten Galleons, 10 Sickles and 200 Knuts to the American Dollar."

Nat pretended to think about it. "Now this is using the same exchange rate you offered the gentlemen who just left, correct? I believe it was five pounds per one Galleon or something like that?"

The goblins considered her a long moment, both of their mouths compressed into identical thin lines. They nodded resolutely, as if expecting her to argue.

Nat considered again and then nodded. "Deal." Nat handed over her American dollars and received a huge bag in return.

As they walked out of Gringotts, Charlie began to laugh. "I thought you were this scatter-brained, absent-minded professor?"

Nat collapsed on the steps of the bank as soon they exited. Her face was pale and she was shaking. "I think I did that right. Math was never my strong suit and the economy was even worse. That's why I study dead animals. No economy." After a long pause while Charlie laughed at her, she asked, "What the heck were those things?"

"Goblins and if they find out you lied to them, there's going to be trouble."

"I didn't lie," Nat protested and then had the grace to look shame-faced. "Okay, well I did just a little but ... you aren't going to get into trouble if its ever found out, will you?

He frowned. "I doubt it, but you never know. My brother Bill works for Gringotts so he might get harassed a bit." Charlie noticed Nat's stricken expression. "Hey, don't worry, Bill can more than take care of himself."

Nat mumbled something.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."

"I said, I wonder what business I can buy with a few hundred dollars in magical funny money in Britain?"

Charlie hooted with laughter. "You're either too clever for your own good or one gutsy woman." He shook his head in wonder.

Natalie ignored him and turned her attention back to Diagon Alley. "Now, about that dress robe?"