Beauxbatons [Charlie Weasley]

Norbert

"You're not actually going to go in there, are you?" Elena asks, her voice wavering.

Isabelle's standing with her and Luca, the two of them still redoing their task with the Ukrainian Ironbelly. All three of them are staring at the Ridgeback enclosure, where a singular dragon is lazing around. He doesn't look ferocious at all, sleeping there soundly, but the three of them knows he is. Ridgebacks are one of the most deadly and dangerous dragons there are. Isabelle's just thankful she's heading into a male's enclosure, not a female, as they're much more aggressive.

She nods in reply to Elena. "I 'ave to."

"Why? Maybe we can help?" Luca presses, not keen on her going in there, either.

She can't tell them what she's doing or why she's going into the Ridgeback's enclosure, not allowed to give their new task away to either of them or get their help in any way. Her entire plan for completing this task has to be kept a secret from both of them so that they can come up with their own plan when they finally get told what their new task is.

"You know zee rules," Isabelle smiles. "You cannot 'elp. In fact, I do not even know if you are allowed to stay 'ere and watch."

"Oh, we're staying," Elena says firmly. "If Charlie's not gonna be here, then we certainly are."

"Why isn't he here?" Luca asks, frowning at the golden-haired girl.

Isabelle sighs. "'E does not know zat I am doing zis. I did not want 'im to be 'ere," she admits.

Elena shrugs. "Fair enough. He's a dickhead."

"Oi, 'e is not," Isabelle frowns.

"Yeah he is," Luca backs the dark-haired girl up. Isabelle just sighs, not arguing further.

"Well, eizer way, I 'ave to go in zere."

"But for what reason?" Elena presses this time.

"I cannot tell you, you know zis," Isabelle frowns at her best friend. "Well, wish me luck."

"Good luck," they both say at the same time.

Isabelle takes a deep breath in to steady herself, her hand drifting up to the place where she's pocketed the vial she'll use to collect the Ridgeback's venom. It's still their first day of getting their new task involving this dragon, and Isabelle's collected all the other ingredients for an Anti-venom potion aside from the venom itself. To her knowledge, Charlie's still in his hut writing down a detailed procedure for how to brew the potion.

Sure, she told him that they would collect the venom together the next day, but Isabelle has come to the conclusion that she's much more likely to succeed without injury if it's just her doing it. If Charlie comes along, all they'll do is fight about who's getting it and how they're going to get it, and end up getting bitten before they've even made the Anti-venom in the first place.

She steps into the Ridgeback's enclosure, and immediately, as though her singular step set off an alarm bell only the dragon can hear, the Ridgeback's eyes snap open. The French girl freezes in place, her heart pounding.

The dragon doesn't move.

She takes another step towards the creature. He still doesn't move, its dark eyes trained on her. He must have people enter his enclosure often; either that, or he doesn't feel under threat by her. At least not just yet. She's come to that conclusion throughout her time her at the Sanctuary: most often, dragons don't attack unless they feel threatened. Take Codrin for example: he was incredibly wary of them at first, but then eventually warmed up to her and Daniel. Because he'd never really had much human contact before then, he didn't attack, not feeling threatened, just cautious. When he saw they weren't a threat after all, he became almost dog-like.