"There's nothing like it," Charlie said with a fond chuckle. "Part of why I love working at the Reserve. You need a broom to fly from one end to the other, and to keep up with the dragons. Got to be careful, though. Fly too fast and they might chase you. But if you don't fly fast enough, then they will catch you."
"Yikes, sounds hazardous," Harry winced, earning a laugh from all three handlers.
"You don't know the half of it!" one of Charlie's coworkers cackled, a bit hysterically in Harry's opinion.
They landed shortly after, and quickly made their way inside the small dwelling at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
"He was going to try raising a fire-breathing dragon in here?!" the hysterical member of Charlie's team exclaimed in disbelief.
"He claims he had it fire-proofed," Harry said lamely.
"Dragon fire can easily bypass most fire-proofing charms," Charlie said with a frown. "Unless you're using specialized anti-dragon wards then a dragon would torch this place the first time it sneezed. And then there's the size factor."
"They grow fast. Handheld one day, and a month later they're the size of a dog," the third member of the team noted.
"I'm so glad he decided to hand the dragon over before it got out of hand," Charlie sighed, running a hand over his face.
"He didn't want to at first, but when Susan and Hermione laid out all the rules he'd broken and the penalties for them, he relented," Harry said. "Although I think Ron and Neville also helped make up his mind, as they explained why Norbert would do better in the reserve with his own kind."
"Norbert? What kind of name is that?" one of the dragon handlers muttered. After that, they entered the small dwelling, and Hagrid's face fell when he looked up to greet the newcomers.
"Oh. Yer here," he said with a sad grumble.
"Sorry, Hagrid, but this is just how it works out," Charlie said apologetically.
"Just be glad our boss wants this dealt with nice and quietly, otherwise it could have caused a real stink and you'd be getting arrested. Fined at the very least," Team Member Two said grumpily.
"There's that, yes," Charlie confirmed.
"Okay, so, it looks healthy, that's good," Team Member Three said as he examined the hatchling. "Very nice scale color… wings appear to be intact… and it's a female! Incredible!"
"Norbert's a girl?" Hagrid uttered at the same time Hermione asked, "Why is that so important that the egg hatched a female?"
"Female Norwegian Ridgebacks are rare because of a number of factors, one of which being aggressive nest mates. Other females often find younger ones to be a threat as well, and so it's not uncommon for a female from a different nest to try and smash an egg if it will hatch into a female. I've got to say, that poacher might just have saved this little lady here when he stole her away. Now that she's hatched, we can make sure she makes it to adulthood," Team Member Three explained.
"Let's see… the carrying case we brought with us won't work, so let's see what we have around here. Mr. Hagrid, do you have any cages?" Team Member Two inquired.
"Oh, sure, sure, I've got something over here you can use." As the Groundskeeper looked around for something to put the hatchling in, Hermione continued to ask questions.
"Are there many dragon reserves? What sorts of dragons are there? Is it dangerous?" the bushy-haired girl jabbered.
"There are about a dozen reserves worldwide. One of the oldest and largest reserves in the world is the Romanian Reserve. Only one bigger is in Greenland, and the only one older is in China," Charlie said proudly. "But we have the most diversity over in Romania. We take care of all the dragon species native to the European mainland, like Ukrainian Ironbellies, Hungarian Horntails, Black Forest Dunklezhan, Swedish Shortsnout, and of course Norwegian Ridgebacks."
"Oh! Then, does that mean Greenland has all the ones for places like Iceland and England?" Harry asked.
"Correct! The Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks were all relocated centuries ago to the Greenland Preserve alongside the Icelandic Diver and the Arctic Frostfiend," Charlie confirmed. "There are sites across the world that protect the other species of dragons, of course. But few have as many different species as the Romanian Reserve."
"Little ones all strapped in and ready to go, Weasley!" one of the dragon handlers called out as the door to a fireproofed carrying cage was closed, sealing in young Norbert.
"Anyways, we're really glad you found out what was going on, and informed us as soon as you did," Charlie Weasley said as he and his companions bundled up Norbert into her carrying case. "We'd been looking for the lost egg for weeks."
"Seriously?" Ron asked, surprised, and his older brother fondly tussled his hair, much to Ron's annoyance.
"Yeah. Someone broke into the reserve and stole a nesting Norwegian Ridgeback's egg. Badly wounded the mother in the process. First time in over forty years someone managed to actually steal an egg, too, so the other keepers and me were scrambling madly looking for it on the black market. Never would have thought it'd turn up in Hagrid's hands."
"Are dragon eggs that rare?" Harry asked in surprise.
"There aren't a lot of dragons left in the first place," Charlie said sadly. "And the reserves are some of the most heavily warded areas in the world. Can't have random dragons flying around, spooking the muggles, can we? Especially not with all their aeroplanes."
"That makes sense," Harry admitted with a nod.
"Now, you better hurry on back to the dorms. Don't want to get caught, do you?" Charlie teased as they walked out of the hut, Hargid staring forlornly after Norbert.
"Eh, it's fine. Malfoy and Filch are on the other side of the castle right now," Ron scoffed. "We can sneak past them no problem!"
"That so?" Charlie asked, eyebrow raised.
"Yeah, Draco challenged me to a duel back in February, but he didn't plan on attending, just was using the opportunity to sick Filch on me for being out past curfew," Harry explained. "However, we needed an excuse to help with smuggling Norbert away and for getting back into the dorms later, so I challenged Draco myself this time. Knowing how he thinks, he'll try and get me in trouble again. Our 'duel' is nothing more than an excellent distraction."
"For a Slytherin, he's not very, well, subtle, or all that imaginative," Hermione admitted. "You'd think the 'House of the Ambitious' would breed more cunning individuals."
"Clever!" Charlie smirked, then gave his brother one last hair-tussle before mounting his broom and flying off with his fellow dragon keepers.
"Come on, let's go," Harry said. They bid farewell to Hagrid, and then put the cloak back on.
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