Playing With Fire (Charlie Weasley X Reader)

Chapter 17: Alcott

Chapter 17: Alcott

I bounced on my heels as I waited outside of Charlie's cabin, hearing a thump and a muffled laugh on the other side of the door in response to my knock.

The door flung open and Charlie's eyes opened wide when he saw me.

"Hey, baby," he greeted and propped his hand on the doorframe. "What're you doing here?"

"I just thought we might be able to hang out," I said. "Are you busy?"

"Charlie," came a yell from inside the house. "I found it!"

"Just a little," he responded to me before calling over his shoulder. "I'm coming." He turned back to me. "You can come in. I should be done in, like, fifteen minutes."

"I don't want to interrupt," I objected, but my curiosity was piqued.

"It's fine," he said. "Alcott won't mind."

"Alcott's here?" I asked.

"Come inside," he said. "It's freezing cold out here."

I stepped into his cabin and he pulled my coat off of me and hung it up beside the door before walking to the living room. Alcott was kneeling on the floor beside the coffee table, giggling like she was drunk.

"Charlie, I- oh, hey," she said when she saw me, her laugh cutting off in her throat. "I'm Alcott- Mia, actually."

"Y/N," I responded awkwardly.

"Let's finish this up," Charlie said and approached Alcott. "Y/N, you can do whatever until we're done."

"I can go if you guys are busy," I said and pointed toward the door.

"No," he insisted. "Alcott and I are just finishing this up."

"It'll only be a few minutes," she added, her dark eyes meeting mine. "You can help if you want."

"Oh, uh, I don't-"

"Yeah, that's a great idea," Charlie interjected and beckoned me over. "We'll show you how to do it."

What 'it' was was a diagram of what I assumed was a Hebridean Black.

"We have to figure out what's making her so aggressive by comparing her natural habitat to our imitated environment," Alcott explained as she pointed to a page in a book. "We use the diagram to understand the specific functions of each anatomical characteristic of the dragon. Like, for example, we know that the scales and the blood circulation are tailored to the climate in her natural habitat, so by determining what pieces of her physical makeup have been changed, we can better adjust her environment so that she'll be comfortable."

"But, as I've told you, she's not adjusting well," Charlie added, "and if we can raise enough concern for her well-being, we might be able to stipulate a relocation so that she can return to Scotland."

"You can't just change the environment?" I asked and looked over the diagram.

"We could," Alcott said and shrugged her shoulders, "but it won't be the same. Her instinctual intuition will kick in. Even if we could exactly replicate her natural environment, we could be shaving years off of her lifespan."

I grunted and sat down on the couch.

"What?" Charlie asked me and looked at me with raised eyebrows.

"Makes no sense to me," I admitted and curled up as I watched him sit beside me and lean forward to look at the diagram.

"Healing makes no sense to me," he responded and patted my leg before going off on a tangent about the dragon's claws. Alcott nodded and craned her neck over the diagram, intently taking notes on what could just as well have been Greek to me.