Chapter Text
(Y/N) sucked in a breath as she passed through the towering iron gates and spun on her heel, taking in the rows of quaint cottages and breathtaking summer greenery. The Romanian Dragon Sanctuary was even more beautiful than the pictures she had seen.
After allowing herself a few moments of bewilderment, it didn’t take long for her to spot the sign beside the nearest cottage that read Felix Rosier, Head of the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary. Exhaling, she started toward the porch, determined not to let her nerves get the best of her.
“Come on in,” came a gruff, masculine voice on the other side of the door that her knuckles wrapped against.
She pushed the door open, and a slender pale man with a head of dark hair came into view. He was seated at a round table, scribbling furiously on the roll of parchment in front of him before glancing up. “You must be (Y/N),“ the man said, his brown eyes igniting with excitement as he stood up and made his way over to her. “Perfect timing. We’re so excited you came to work with us.”
She smiled, praying her hand wasn’t sweaty as he shook it. “It’s incredible to be here.”
“Glad to hear it. We’ve got your arrangements all finalized.” Felix grabbed one of the dozens of notes off of the table and skimmed it before setting it back down. “You’ll be in the house across from your mentor, Charlie Weasley.”
“Sounds great,” she said, elated to hear someone would be helping her for the first few weeks. She initially thought Felix might be the one to show her the ropes, but now she was relieved it was going to be someone else. Even though Felix was notably intelligent, he came off a little too intense for her liking. "Has he worked here long?”
“Not the longest of the team, but he still somehow manages to be the best worker we’ve got. Would have taken my spot years ago if we didn’t have a seniority policy.” Propping open the door with his boot, Felix pointed toward a cottage off in the distance with clusters of wildflowers and snapdragons surrounding the front porch. “He’s over there. You can go to his place whenever you get settled.”
She nodded and thanked Felix before heading to the house across from Charlie’s. It wasn’t necessarily the prettiest of the bunch, but that didn’t stop the excited jitters from dancing in her stomach. A rush of emotion flooded through her as she gave the door a push and stepped inside the home—her home. (Y/N) usually wasn’t an emotional person, but something about this moment felt important. She was really here. She was really doing this.
Striding over to the made bed, she set her bag on the floor and sat down on the mattress with a contented sigh. It felt right. She stayed there for a couple minutes, wanting to remember every detail about this day, before hurrying over to the cottage across the way. The only thing more exciting than unpacking or decorating her new place was diving into the work she would be doing.
She paused once she reached the well kept front porch, noticing that her mentor’s door was propped open and she didn’t see any movement inside through the screen door. Still, she decided to knock. “Hello?”
“Looking for Charlie, darlin’?” came a voice from behind. She spun to see a tan man with a chin of greying stubble holding what must be a dragon egg. “He’s up with Gertie, the Swedish Short-Snout.”
(Y/N) pursed her lips, wondering if it was okay to go looking for him. “Is it easy to get to from here? It’s my first day and I’m supposed to meet up with him.”
“Oh, a newbie, eh?” The man outstretched his hand, mindfully keeping a tight grip on the egg with his other. “I’m Hank.”
She smiled, shaking it. “Nice to meet you, I’m (Y/N).”
“Likewise.” He returned the grin and tipped the bill of his baseball cap towards her. “I’m headed up that way to give Scott this egg, so I can point you down the right path.”
“That would be great, thanks.” A rush of nervous excitement returned at the thought of meeting the Swedish Short-Snout. She fell into step alongside Hank as he led her up the hilly dirt path. “How long have you worked here?”
“Oh boy, let’s see—” He broke off, clearly counting the numbers in his head. “Seventeen—no, eighteen years.”
“Wow, that’s impressive.”
“How old are you?”
“Just turned twenty-seven,” she answered, feeling inadequate against the man’s many years of experience in the field.
Hank nodded, chuckling. “Yeah, I was just a little younger than you when I started. A reckless twenty-five year old who finally found his match. Nothing like fire-breathing, man-eating creatures to knock you off your high horse.”
She bit back a smile. “Do you have any advice for me?”
“You look like you have a good head on your shoulders. I’m sure you’ll do just fine.” He paused briefly before adding, “And no one could advise you better than Charlie. That kid is incredible. You know, he’s the same age as you. Turning twenty-seven at the end of the year.”
Her head snapped towards him, eyes growing wide. “What? But Felix said he’s the best here.”
Hank laughed again. “He is.”
The giddiness in her stomach twisted into a bitter bundle of nerves. “Oh, I just assumed that meant—”
“That he was an old bloke like me?”
She laughed in spite of herself because that's exactly what she meant. Hank’s lightheartedness helped lessen her worry momentarily, but she still felt intimidated. How could a twenty-six year old be better than someone who had been here for nearly twenty years? “How long has he been here for?”
“Eight years. Just celebrated his anniversary at a nearby pub a coupl'a weeks ago. He came right after he graduated Hogwarts, and I’ve never seen a more ambitious kid. Apparently he’s always been obsessed with dragons. He’s one of the lucky ones that knew their dream early on.”
(Y/N) nodded, not willing to admit it took her those eight years to get the courage to follow her dream.
“Well, if you continue down that path and turn left at the fork, you should find him,” Hank said, pointing down the narrow path to their left. “Just promise me you won’t go right—that’s where our Hungarian Horntail lives.”
“Left,” she verified. “Got it. Thanks so much for the help.”
He tipped the bill of his cap again. “Anytime.”
She trotted down the pathway, feeling her heart leap as she veered to the left and heard a roar in the distance.
“Easy—easy there, girl.”
Pushing past the tall brush ahead, a deserted, mountainous landing came into view with magnificent snow-covered peaks in the distance. Perched upon one of the various boulders ahead was a stunning icy blue dragon flapping its wings. She looked excited. That’s when (Y/N) spotted someone’s profile to the right—a man with an unmissable head of red hair and a similar shade of stubble running along his jawline. Thick brown gloves covered his hands, and his wand was at the ready. It took a moment for her to notice the raw meat he was guiding through the air towards the beautiful beast. No wonder Gertie was excited.
She waited until the dragon had successfully clamped her impressive jaw around her lunch before cautiously moving toward Charlie. “Excuse me,” she said, careful not to be too loud to alarm Gertie.
Slightly startled, the man turned, and her stomach lurched. To make this panic inducing life change even worse, her mentor was attractive. Not the conventional, clean cut attractiveness, but rather the rugged handsome, not-afraid-to-get-his-hands-dirty type.
“Can I help you?” he whispered, brushing red strands away from his heavily freckled face as he eyed her quizzically.
“Are you Charlie?”
He nodded slowly before a switch seemingly flicked on inside his head. “Bloody hell. You’re (Y/N), aren’t you?"
She nodded in return, offering him a small smile. She didn’t know what else to say. She was usually full of words, especially around magical creatures, but suddenly her mind was completely blank. Luckily for her, Charlie seemed too preoccupied swearing under his breath and rubbing the back of his neck to notice.
"Sorry to have made you come up here. I just assumed you would spend the morning unpacking and meeting everybody.”
A flush swept down the back of her neck. Of course normal people would be more excited to meet their new coworkers first instead of the dragons. “I, uh, was a little too excited to wait.”
The corner of his lips quirked up briefly, reminding her of what Hank had said. Apparently he’s always been obsessed with dragons. Maybe he understood. “You didn’t find your way all by yourself, did you? I hope you didn’t get lost, Rosier would have my head.”
“Oh, no, Hank showed me the way."
Charlie let out a hollow laugh and shook his head, muttering something along the lines of, Should’ve known.
(Y/N) was going to ask what he meant by that, but he had already moved on to peeling off his gloves and offering them to her. That’s when she noticed that he hadn’t gone to shake her hand like Felix had.
"Would you want to feed the next one? Only have one more until later tonight."
(Y/N) attempted to contain her excitement as she eyed the brown material. She noticed Charlie’s calloused, scared hands and smiled to herself. She had similarly worn hands and two equally noticeable scars on her left arm. Life of Magizoologist. "Do you even know my qualifications yet? What if I’ve never fed a dragon before?”
“Well, you waited until I fed Gertie to approach me. You kept your voice level and avoided eye contact with her. And I know Felix was overly excited to hire you, which is extremely uncharacteristic of him.” He extended the gloves even closer. “So let’s see what you’ve got.”
She smiled and accepted the gloves. “Okay, where to then?”
After heaving the bag next to him onto his shoulder, Charlie lead her back down the trail and turned right by a staggeringly tall pine tree. “She’s just over here.”
The pair stopped a good fifty feet away from the impressive dragon ahead. “Wow, she’s beautiful.”
“Do you know what she is?”
She noted her brown scales and the black ridges lining her back. “A Norwegian Ridgeback.”
His eyebrows raised in surprise, causing a pleasant feeling to accumulate in the pit of her stomach. A lot of people confused Norwegian Ridgebacks with Hungarian Horntails, and if (Y/N) wasn’t mistaken, she had just impressed Charlie.
“What’s her name?” she asked while she pulled the gloves on and withdrew her wand.
“Norberta.”
She noticed the dragon in question not only ignored Charlie’s presence, but her body language was completely relaxed until her piercing gaze settled on (Y/N). “She likes you,” she commented as she pointed her wand toward the raw meat Charlie provided and used the levitation spell on it.
He shrugged. “I’ve known her since she was a baby."
"Still impressive. Especially since she’s female.” (Y/N) felt his gaze linger on her and the hairs on the back of her neck prickled. She forced her attention to stay focused on feeding Norberta though, determined to do a good job and not be distracted. She moved the food toward the dragon the same way Charlie had with Gertie but froze as Norberta stiffened. Averting eye contact, she bowed her head and lowered the food away from the creature. After waiting there several minutes, she caught sight of Norberta’s claws relaxing and her tail swaying once behind her, signaling it was okay to continue. Much to (Y/N)’s relief, Norberta lunged forward toward the meal as it was raised into the air the second time and devoured it in mere minutes. She lowered her wand, but her smile faltered as she turned back to see Charlie’s expression. “What?”
He blinked a few times. “You just—I mean, she usually only let’s the three of us who rescued her feed her. She tried to scorch the other two that have tried.”
Pride swelled inside her stomach before a thought struck her. “Wait a minute—you mean to tell me you were going to have me feed her even though you assumed she would try to burn me alive?”
A playful grin spread across the redhead’s face, lighting up his eyes and sending her heart pounding. Something inside told her those genuine smiles from him were rare.
Instead of answering, he nodded back toward the path. “Come on, everyone’s probably about to eat lunch.”
She wanted to yell for him to get back here but knew better with Norberta still nearby. Once (Y/N) caught up to him, she slowed her pace, catching sight of the dozen or so people conversing at the bottom of the hill.
“(Y/N)!” a familiar voiced bellowed, and she was relieved to find Hank waving her over. As she moved towards him, however, heads swiveled in her direction and a group to her left stopped her.
“So you’re the newbie,” a tall white woman said, stepping toward her with a vibrant smile. She had shoulder length blonde curls and high cheekbones. Even without a trace of makeup, she was beautiful. “I’m Sydney.”
“And I’m Dave,” greeted the equally tall man beside her with dark skin and striking doe brown eyes. “You’re from America, right? Did you go to Ilvermorny?
(Y/N) nodded, which prompted the woman to Sydney’s right to ask, "Did you like it there?”
“No way it’s better than Hogwarts,” Dave added.
“Come on guys, let the girl breathe,” Sydney teased, causing the ball of nerves in her chest to release a little. “Why don’t you come sit with us?”
(Y/N) glanced toward Hank, who was now seated across from Charlie at a nearby picnic table. She was surprised to find the redhead staring at her until she caught his gaze and he returned his attention to the plate in front of him. “Thanks, but I was going to sit with Hank and Charlie.”
She wasn’t sure if it was her own paranoia getting the best of her, but she could have sworn there was a shift of tension in the air.
Sydney studied her closely. “No problem. We can catch up later.”
Nodding, (Y/N) excused herself, making her way over to Hank and Charlie before anyone else could stop her. “Mind if I sit?”
Hank beamed up at her and patted the bench beside him. “Of course not, darlin’. Take a seat.”
She obliged and grabbed a banana from the assortment of food on the table. “So, who’s the group that just ambushed me?”
Hank’s cheerful demeanor turned into a scowl as his eyes settled on Sydney’s table. “That’s the research team. They don’t do much field work but instead observe dragons and write about them,” he explained, adding a dramatic emphasis to the word “observe” as if it equated to dragon dung. “They try to lure all the newbies to their side. Dave is okay, but that Sydney changed the second she was published.”
She frowned, a little disappointed to have her fairy-tale view of working at the Sanctuary tainted by reality. She was used to drama in the workplace, but it was always disheartening to find out situations weren’t as picture perfect as they appeared. “What do they have against you guys?”
“Not so much against us—just against Charlie boy here.” She heard Hank’s boot clank against Charlie’s beneath the table. “They were pretty peeved they couldn’t convince him to join their team because he’s got a lot of pull with Rosier.” Hank grinned and added, “And I think Sydney took it a little personally, if you know what I mean.”
(Y/N)’s brows knitted together before she noticed the red tint highlighting Charlie’s freckled cheeks as he continued eating. She tried but failed to stop the smile tugging at her lips. “Oh.”
Hank caught her peering over at Sydney’s surprisingly full table and raised an eyebrow at her. “If you’re at all interested in being a researcher, now’s your chance. She’s probably not too thrilled with you either at the moment, but there’s probably still time for damage control.”
“No thanks,” she said, trying her best to sound polite. “I was actually just wondering how they would manage to convince anyone to give up field work.”
To her surprise, Charlie smiled at this.
“Money,” the redhead answered, his brown eyes flicking up to meet hers. It was the first thing he had said since she sat down and (Y/N) felt oddly satisfied. She wanted him to talk to her and wasn’t quite sure why.
“Yeah, somehow they bring in the extra galleons while we do the dirty work and risk getting our limbs seared off,” Hank huffed before tipping the pint of Butterbeer to his lips.
“Well, I hope you guys don’t mind being stuck with me,” she said, piling food onto a plate, “because I’d never trade working with dragons for anything.”
Hank grinned at her. “Then you’ll fit in with us just fine. How’d it go up there earlier?”
She purposefully filled her mouth with food, hoping Charlie would say something. She didn’t want to brag or be modest. She honestly didn’t know how to answer.
Luckily, her hopes came true and Charlie said, “She fed Norberta.”
Hank looked like he was about to choke on the chicken he was eating and quickly reached for his Butterbeer, coughing to clear his throat. “What?” he boomed, loud enough for her face to turn pink. “Why on earth didn’t you two start with that!” Hank stretched forward and slapped two full Butterbeers onto the table, one for Charlie and one for (Y/N), before lifting his own into the air. “You’re one of us kid. Now I wouldn’t let you leave for their group even if you wanted to.”
Her cheeks hurt from how wide she was smiling and her chest flooded with warmth as she clinked her glass against Hank’s and Charlie’s. She wasn’t sure why, but (Y/N) had a sudden overwhelming feeling that she was right where she belonged.