The Dragon Thieves//Charlie Weasley

11 ~ Siblings

"Are you sure about this?" Lia asked, glancing over her shoulder. They were supposed to be wrangling down the dragons for the Triwizard Tournament. They had carted the Hungarian Horntail all the way from Romania, but the rest of the dragons had been hunted down by the ministry and left for them to deal with. Lia could still hear the roars rattling in her ears. Helena hadn't been happy about being left behind, but at least she was safe.

Charlie's hand brushed over her bicep. Lia's skin tingled underneath her long-sleeved shirt. "It'll be fine. I've known Aurella for years, she's smart and trustworthy. She can do this and be discrete."

They stopped near the edge of the crowd, against one of the tall towers that made up the arena. There was a bottleneck of students heading into the arena, ready to start watching the first event. 

Lia watched Charlie scan the crowd. His eyebrows were furrowed and he had his bottom lip between his teeth as he focused, looking for their target.

"There she is," Charlie murmured, before shouting. "Aurella!"

Lia watched as a girl turned her head towards them. She was small, wearing a long dark cloak over a blue knit sweater and jeans. Long shimmery hair of warm brown was tucked away, and as she turned, Lia noticed that her hand was intertwined with another student. The boy she was holding hands with had the same red hair and freckles as Charlie, though Charlie was shorter and stalkier.

"One of your brothers I presume?" Lia knew there were tons of Weasley boys, but had never met all of them before. 

Charlie's eyes were wide, a grin spreading across his face as he eyed the couple's hands as they approached. "Yeah, that's George, one of the twins."

The two weaved through the crowd of students until they were within earshot.

"Well," Charlie chuckled. "That is certainly a development."

Lia watched the girl's face flush pink. She'd question Charlie later about his meaning. She stepped aside as George hugged Charlie, greeting him warmly. Her heart twinged as she watched the two of them. Hannah would be here somewhere. Lia missed her younger sister at times. 

"What's going on?" Aurella asked. Her voice was tinged by a French accent. She tugged her hand out of George's and dragged them down the sweater-- embroidered with a yellow 'G'-- and tucked them into her pockets.

"Aurella," Charlie spoke. "This is...."

Charlie trailed off, and Lia met his gaze. He blinked once at her and Lia felt her heart stutter once in appreciation. He was giving her the opportunity to choose her name and hide her birth name away. She had never liked him more. 

"Lia Everest. I work with Charlie in Romania. I hear you are an expert at runic translation."

Aurella gave her a sheepish smile. "I try my best. I'm not an expert."

"She's great at it," George interjected. Lia raised an eyebrow. Teenage lovebirds. 

Aurella glanced between them. "What do you need?"

Charlie's gaze bounced between the two of them. "This is a top-secret document that we aren't supposed to have,"

Lia hissed and slapped Charlie's arm. "You can't tell them that."

"It's fine we can trust them." Charlie swatted her off. "We need these translated. They are likely very important to the safety of a lot of magical creatures and we need to know what is happening,"

Lia watched Aurella take the papers from him and thumb through it. She clenched her jaw. Everything that could save all the dragons was likely wrapped up in that stack of documents. She stiffened, clenching her hands into fists to resist the temptation to snatch it back. She stiffened more as Charlie's hand brushed against the back of her knuckles, a sign to calm down.