The Red Dragon | Charlie Weasley

Chapter 7

With both her forearms wrapped in bandages and the instructions she has to have them treated by Phillip every evening with special burn ointment, Haela exits the medical tent around two hours later. Phillip had given her something against the pain since the blisters had burned like hell. She has calmed down again but her mind was still buzzing.

Aurora and Estel are waiting for her when Haela steps out of the tent. The two women jump up when they see her and when Estel sees the bandages, she mutters something in another language.

"I have no idea what that means, but it looks worse than it is," Haela jokes.

The black-haired witch shakes her head lightly, her long braids bouncing as she does so, and says: "You have been lucky to be able to cast such a strong shield, Haela. I've read stories of people who weren't so lucky."

Haela wants to laugh but the woman looks serious. Aurora places a hand on Estel's shoulder and looks at Haela: "She is right, you were lucky. But it is partly our fault too."

At Aurora's words, Estel's shoulders slump. The girl has lowered her head and stares at her feet. Haela wants to open her mouth to protest it was her own fault, but she doesn't get the chance as Aurora continues: "We, as Dragonologists, know the dragons well, but we – well, Charlie, mostly – have realised our visitors don't know what to do and, perhaps more importantly, what not to do around our dragons."

She smiles at Haela. "We have decided you, Kadrick, and Josué will get a crash course on the dragons we have at the sanctuary. Tomorrow morning, Estel will give the three of you a proper introduction to our dragons and we hope to avoid anyone else having to test how good their Protection charm is."

Dinner is a quiet affair. When the three women enter the tent, Kadrick jumps up to check on Haela's arms. Behind him, Haela sees Charlie wanting to do the same, but Kadrick has started rambling about how dangerous dragons are as they take a seat and makes Haela promise not to scare him like that again. They haven't found Suzy yet and Haela feels bad about scaring the dragon off. All Dragonologists are worried about the Muggle, but he hasn't been found either.

The following morning, Haela, Kadrick, and Josué are led to one of the tents at the edge of the camp. It turns out to be Isaac's office where Estel is already pacing back and forth in front of a blackboard.

After breakfast, Charlie and Isaac continued their search of Suzy while Phillip returned to the medical tent. Aurora had led the three to Isaac's office before wishing Estel good luck and stepping out again as she had to take care of the dragons. Estel gestures for the three of them to take a seat. They do and Estel takes a deep breath before placing a few photographs on the table. Haela reaches for them as the girl starts talking.

"The Andorran Dragon Sanctuary has seven dragon residents," Estel points at the photographs, "There used to be more, but we released a few last year, and last month, two of our Norwegian Ridgebacks got killed."

The girl's voice falters for a moment and she squeezes her eyes shut. Haela hands one of the pictures to Kadrick and studies the next one. The two dragons have brown scales and black ridges on their backs.

"We have Suzy, our baby Ukrainian Ironbelly which we rescued from an abusive home," Estel starts.

The rest of the morning, Estel tells them about the dragons. Haela learns Suzy is very fond of Isaac since he was the first person to show the dragon kindness after arriving here. They learn about the two Common Welsh Greens that are siblings and who like to come and go as they please. There are three Norwegian Ridgebacks left but they have hidden themselves into one of the caves located higher up the mountains. Charlie stops by every day to check up on them and feed them and Haela can't help but wonder how the man is doing now with his search. Last, but not least, is the Romanian Longhorn that was found abandoned by its family and that has been at the Sanctuary for years.