Callidora ☆ Fred Weasley

[chapter 86]

A Welsh Green, Not a Lie This Time

Calli kept tugging on Fred's hand as they pushed through the trees, her boots crunching softly against twigs and frost.

"Fred, what is going on?" She whispered, half annoyed. "If this is another one of your ideas of illegal picnics-"

"Have a little patience." Fred shot back, glancing over his shoulder with a grin.

"That's never reassuring coming from you."

He ignored that entirely.

"I wrote to Charlie, yeah?" He said instead, voice lower now as they ducked under a low branch. "After our first date in the woods."

"That was not an actual date."

"After our second, illegal picnic then." He continued smoothly. 

Calli rolled her eyes, but there was a smile tugging at her lips.

They pushed past a final line of trees and Calli froze.

Huge shapes loomed in the clearing ahead. Massive. Moving.

Men, several of them, walked carefully around something far, far larger than themselves.

Something that shifted.

Something that breathed.

"Dragons!" Calli exclaimed, the word bursting out of her as she slapped the back of her hand against Fred's chest. 

She turned to him, eyes wide, face lighting up in pure, unfiltered awe.

"Dragons!" She repeated, as if saying it twice might make it more real.

Fred looked insufferably pleased with himself.

"Yeah." He said, trying and failing not to grin. "Figured you'd like it."

"Oi, you two!"

A voice cut through the clearing as someone stepped out from the trees.

Messy hair, sun-darkened skin, and so many freckles his whole face was covered in them.

"Charlie." Fred greeted, straightening slightly.

"Hey, lil bro." Charlie shot back with a teasing smile.

Then his gaze shifted.

"Calli."

"Hi, Charlie." She said automatically but she wasn't looking at him.

Not really.

Her eyes had already snapped back to the dragons, her entire body practically vibrating with excitement as she tried to take in everything at once.

Charlie huffed a quiet laugh.

"You can come closer." He said. "We just calmed them down."

Calli didn't need to be told twice.

She stepped forward like a child on Christmas morning, completely captivated.

Charlie followed, gesturing toward the nearest dragon.

"This here is a Common Welsh Green."

Fred leaned in, bumping her shoulder.

"See? There's a Welsh Green in the forest and you didn't know."

Calli didn't even react.

Didn't even hear him.

Her eyes darted from one dragon to another, drinking in every detail.