Learning To Fly

Chapter 7: Landing

"Enter!"

Charlie pushed open the wooden door of Magda's office and walked in, Dragon at his heels. Magda was scribbling furiously on a sheet of parchment and didn't even look up as Charlie walked over to her desk and sat down opposite her.

"You wanted to see me?" he asked her.

"I did," Magda said, her attention still on her writing. "I want to talk to you about this dragon challenge in November."

"Right," Charlie nodded slowly. "Look, Magda, I know transporting the dragons over to Scotland will be difficult and time-consuming, and I know that we shouldn't be endorsing using them for entertainment, but I swear-"

"I want you to be in charge of it," Magda interrupted Charlie mid-sentence. He blinked.

"You want me to be in charge of the dragons for the Triwizard Tournament?"

"This is what I said, no?"

"Yeah. Yeah, that's what you said. And yeah, I'll do it. Thanks, Magda," said Charlie, and Magda dismissed his gratitude with a wave of her hand. Charlie exhaled. "I'm surprised you even agreed to it, to be honest."

"I am surprised, also. But your friend, the one who is helping to set up these challenges, she is very persuasive. And I think she cares about the dragons, also."

"She is, and she does."

"I liked her much more than I expected to."

Charlie laughed gently. He knew all about that.

"She's got a way of doing that," he said, and Magda's eyebrows shot upwards.

"You should say something to her, Charlie," she told him, her voice stern.

"I say lots of things to her."

"Ah ah. Don't pretend with me. I am not stupid, I know you know what I mean, yes?"

"Yes," Charlie sighed. There was no point in asking Magda how she knew. She just knew. But then, so had all the rest of his colleagues, before he had known, even. He just hoped that no one back at home knew as well. "The thing is, Magda, I don't want to say anything to her. I mean, she's with someone, and even if she wasn't, she doesn't feel the same way about me, so—"

"You do not know this," said Magda.

"I do," Charlie said, shortly. Magda raised her eyebrows again, and he shrugged. "Trust me, if she did, I'd know. We've been friends for so long, and she's practically made herself a part of my family. We've been through a lot together." He shook his head, and continued, "That's probably why she doesn't think of me like that. I don't know. Maybe if things were different she would feel the same way about me as I do about her. If we'd met at a different time or... I don't know."

"In another life, maybe."

"Maybe. But as it is, she sees me as a brother or a best friend. I'm not going to take either of those things away from her. I can't do that to her."

As he finished talking, Charlie jutted his chin and drew his shoulders back, his whole body tensing involuntarily. Magda looked at him, her face softer than he had ever seen it before.

"You are a good man, Charlie," she said, gently.

The door to Magda's office flew open, and Dragon the Crup began to bark loudly at the newcomer: Nikolai, one of the newest dragonologists on the reserve, only eighteen years old and barely six months out of school. Nikolai's cheeks were pink, and he was out of breath, panting as he spluttered out his sentence.

"I found... a nest. Ridgeback territory... Clutch... Hatching... Now. Mother isn't there... I didn't... know... what to do."

Charlie jumped to his feet. If the dam wasn't there, something might have happened to her. If the hatchlings were orphaned, they would need to be taken in and introduced to a different clutch as soon as possible. Even if they weren't, without their mother's flames to keep them warm, the hatchlings would soon die from hypothermia.