Smoke Me Out || Charlie Weasley

Chapter Two

 Riley, instead of watching Charlie, was taking in her surroundings with interest. 

The area was not heavily wooded, presumably as rogue shots of flame from dragons would cause major damage if any kindling was involved.

Nearly directly in front of the two was a small flowing creek. Behind it stood a strong building made of stone, which blended easily into the surroundings. A makeshift bridge of a fallen log lay before them, and as Riley moved to cross it, she watched as a kindly looking man with curly black hair and crinkly brown eyes emerged, waving enthusiastically at them.

"Charlie, Miss McAuley, please come on in!" Shouted the man.

Riley could see Charlie shaking his head, yet he still beckoned her inside, holding the door open for her to enter behind the man.

She had barely entered the building when the enthusiastic man started to speak.

"Well Miss McAuley, my name is Lloyd McGee, and I am the head of the dragon sanctuary here in northern Romania. To get straight to business, in the early hours of this morning you bought a young, injured Antipodean Opaleye dragon to the front door of Mr Weasley, one of our dragon keepers here at the sanctuary. Now, the first question we must ask, is how did you manage to find Mr Weasley's residence?"

Looking around, Riley noted that Shaun was sat up on a table in the corner, his eyes watching her intently.

"Well sir, once I found the injured dragon I,  unfortunately, ran into a rather nasty fire crab. It was easy to see track any recent spell usage, so I headed off. Found Charlie's cabin pretty shortly after that."

It appeared as if everyone in the room was waiting for something more. However, Riley was always mercilessly honest, truthful, and blunt. She never saw a reason for fluffing around, and always got straight to the point.

Although, it didn't always work out in her favour. In the case of her younger brother Russell, when Russell was eight, and Riley thirteen, much to the sibling's aunts displeasure, Riley told Russell rather tactlessly that his much-loved rabbit Nora was eaten by a fox.

Riley knew that she definitely did not deal well with crying from that ordeal, especially seeing as her youngest brother has always been the most sensitive of all Riley's siblings.

A tap on her right shoulder withdrew her from her thoughts.

"Sorry," she uttered, snapping back into the room she was in. She had a rather terrible tendency to drift into her own thoughts. "What did you say?"

"Is there anything else we can do for you Miss McAuley? I see no more information you could provide. You're most welcome to stay here."

Shaun and Charlie nodded eagerly, before catching themselves and blushing.

"Well, thank you very much for the offer. Especially you for the hospitality Charlie, but I really must be off."

The dark haired girl stood quickly, nodded at Lloyd, gave a small smile towards the other two, and left the room.

The air was cool, and just before she'd reached a flat and easy area to apparate from, a strong, calloused hand grabbed her wrist, pulling her back around to face him, her long curls flicking towards the man.

"Charlie?"

"You're so young Riley, what business could you possibly have to attend to?"

"Thank you for your concern Charlie, but I believe I am fully capable of handling myself. Just because I'm not made of muscle like yourself doesn't mean I'm incapable."

"No, that's not what I meant," he sighed.

"Then what exactly did you mean?" she queried, watching his behaviour through the expressions on his worried face.

"I'm worried that something will happen to you, that they'll find a way to get to you because you're so clever, I mean what if you are looking so hard at the obvious that you miss the rest?"

Riley scanned his face, her eyes wide, taking in everything she possibly could before looking down, and shaking her head.

"Maybe you're right Charlie, but statistically, you're probably not. I think you're looking so hard at the rest, that you're missing the obvious. You're forgetting that even though you're four years older, I'm the one trained as an Auror, I'm a trained behavioural specialist,  I know more offensive and defensive spells than anyone in the UK, I can read 20,000 words a minute, I've well past mastering both non-verbal and wandless magic, and Charlie, don't you dare underestimate me because I have had more than enough of that in my entire life. I may look weak, but I swear to Merlin I am not."

And with an angry flash of her eyes, she disapparated as Charlie stood in shock.