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the-al-chemist · 2 years ago

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Artemis Hexley: The Wilderness Years

Chapter 4: The Dragonologist

A/N: Artemis turns to an old and trusted friend, and comes face to face with an intimidating creature in Romania. Warnings: passing references to NSFW themes, mentions of animal cruelty.

The following morning, Artemis made her way up the flights of stairs that led to her little bedroom in the attic, two cups of coffee - one sugared and one not - floating in front of her. She found Chester sitting upright in her bed, frowning at a large ginger cat sitting on top of the covers.

“He’s staring at me,” he said, staring back at the cat with a look of perturbation in his perpetually tired-looking eyes.

“You’re in his spot.” Artemis directed the non-sugared coffee through the air towards Chester with her wand. She picked up Fergus the cat and kissed the top of his head before placing him down onto the floor and telling him, “Go and see if Tonks is awake.”

With a doleful miaow and a look of betrayal, Fergus turned around and left the room with his tail pointed straight towards the ceiling. Artemis shook her head and sat down on the bed beside Chester.

“Sorry about him. He doesn’t like sharing.”

“Evidently,” muttered Chester. He took a sip of his coffee. “You said Tonks lives here too?”

“Yeah.”

“Anyone else?”

“Just us and Fergus,” Artemis said.

“Who?”

“The cat.”

Chester nodded his head and raised his eyebrows. “Impressive.”

“What is?”

“It’s a big house for only two of you. Without wanting to offend, how do you afford this place?”

“We don’t, I inherited the house in my dad’s will,” Artemis explained. Before Chester could ask any questions about her father, she continued, “Well, half-inherited. My brother owns the other half, but he’s not around.”

“Jacob? Where is he living these days?”

“America, I think.”

“You think?” Chester frowned. “What does he do?”

“I dunno.”

“Safe to assume that the two of you aren’t particularly close, then.”

“No.”

The silence that followed Artemis’ one word answer was tense, and she could tell that although Chester did not ask for her to explain further, he was hoping that she would do so. She did not. He sipped his coffee, not uttering a word until the cup was nearly empty.

“Well, you have a lovely home,” he said eventually, and Artemis shrugged. The house was dingy and held too many memories for her liking, but she didn’t want to discuss those with Chester, who had now finished his coffee. He smiled awkwardly at her. “I should probably go back to my horribly overpriced flat.”

On the landing downstairs, Tonks was just leaving her own room, her pink hair disheveled and mouth open in a wide yawn.

“Morning, Artemis,” she said.

“Morning, Tonks,” Artemis replied.

“Good morning, Tonks,” said Chester, and Tonks did a double-take. Artemis half-pushed him across the landing and down the stairs to the front door. He lingered on the front step. “Now, would it be terrible if I told you that I’d like to see you again soon?”

Artemis’ lips twitched. “Not terrible, no.”

“In which case, maybe next weekend you could take me to that record shop you mentioned in Camden Market.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“I’ll see you next week, then,” said Chester. He kissed her. “Goodbye.”

“Bye.”

Artemis waited until Chester had walked to the corner of the street and Disapparated away before she closed the door and turned to see Tonks’ heart-shaped face peering around the bannister at her from the top of the staircase, grinning like a Cheshire cat. Artemis rolled her eyes.

“Oh, shut up,” she said.

“I didn’t say anything!”

“You’re about to.”

“Yeah, I am,” Tonks flumped down to sit on the top step. “So… Good date?”

“It was fine,” said Artemis as she ascended the stairs.

“Just fine? Ouch. Poor Chester. At least tell me he told you what you needed to know for this wager you’ve got on with Bagman.”

Artemis nodded and stepped over Tonks to get onto the landing. As she walked up the second set of stairs to get back up to the attic, Tonks leant around the bannister and called after her:

“Oi! I want to hear more about your date. Come back and give me attention!”

“I can’t,” Artemis replied. “I’ve got to write to Charlie about something.”

The door to her bedroom was ajar, and Fergus had found his way back to his favourite spot on her bed. Artemis summoned a quill and notebook bound in wine-coloured leather and sat beside him, stroking Fergus’ fur with her free hand as she wrote on the book’s first empty page:

Hey. You free to talk?

After a few minutes, a new line of writing appeared below hers, as if written by an invisible hand.

Always, replied her correspondent. What’s up?

A smile crept across Artemis’ face at the sight of Charlie Weasley’s familiar handwriting, and she wrote back immediately.

Okay, so you know the top secret project I’m helping to organise at work?

The one you’ve told me everything about? The Triwizard Tournament?

Yeah, that one.

What about it?

How do you fancy working with me on one of the challenges? Artemis asked. After a moment’s pause, she added: It’ll be dragon-related.

I mean, I do like dragons, was Charlie’s response. Before she could write anything back, he had continued, Sometimes, I even like you.

Artemis rolled her eyes and replied: You’re so funny.

It has been said before. Alright, what do I need to do for this challenge?

So, I need you to help me get either one or three dragons sent over to Hogwarts from Romania. At least one of them has to be a Hungarian Horntail. The champions will have to get past them or steal some treasure from them or something, I dunno. We can figure that bit out later once we’ve sorted out getting them here.

Charlie took a bit longer than usual to reply. When he did, he did not seem optimistic.

I hate to be the one to break it to you, mate, but none of that is actually legal.

But it could be. I just need to claim that the dragons are going to be used for educational purposes and get it all overseen by a dragonologist, she explained. That’s you.

No, it’s not.

What? How come?

Because I’m not in charge of the reserve. If we want to get three dragons transported across the continent, we’ll have to get permission from my boss, and that will really be a challenge.

Why, is he strict?

She’s scarier than some of the dragons, wrote Charlie, and Artemis laughed, not entirely sure whether or not he was joking. Alright, how about we come up with a plan for this challenge that’s educational enough that Magda might agree to it, and then I’ll try and arrange a meeting for the two of you. What do you think?

It was more complicated and less definite than she had hoped, but it would have to do, so Artemis wrote back:

I think it’s brilliant.

A month later, Artemis took an international Portkey shaped like a ball of thick brown string to an open field dotted with wildflowers, where mountains lined the horizon and the smell of pine lingered in the air.

The Portkey dumped her unceremoniously onto the spring grass, where she landed on her rump and remained seated for a few moments to rub her still-spinning head. When she opened her eyes, she saw a calloused and freckled hand outstretched to her, and she took it without hesitation.

The hand belonged to a wizard her own age, one with bright red hair and good-natured, heavily freckled face. He was not tall, but he was broad-shouldered, and had enough muscles on his torso and arms to pull Artemis up onto her feet as if she weighed nothing at all.

“You always know how to make an entry,” he said, and dimples appeared in his cheeks. Artemis hit him gently with the back of her hand.

“Piss off, Charlie,” she told him, before wrapping her arms around him. She lifted her head from his chest to ask, “Did you miss me?”

“Not really. Did you miss me?”

“Never.”

Laughing, the two of them broke apart. Artemis dusted herself off and summoned her bag and the scroll of parchment on which she had written the plan Charlie and Badeea had helped her to come up with. Charlie looked at the scroll with curiosity.

“Is that it?” He held out his hand again. “May I?”

Artemis passed the scroll to him and watched as he unrolled it and scanned it with his brown eyes. She frowned.

“You think it’s good enough?”

“I think it’s as good as it can be,” replied Charlie. He rerolled the parchment and shrugged. “It’s just a case of whether Magda likes it.”

Magda, Charlie’s boss, had her office in a small A-framed building with a porch and tall roof. Outside the door, Charlie paused with his fist raised and ready to knock.

“You ready for this, Artie?”

“I’m always ready,” she replied, and to prove it, she pushed his fist away and knocked on the door herself. A woman’s voice called out from behind it.

“Enter!”

Charlie pushed the door open and gestured for Artemis to go in ahead of him. Seated at a desk in front of the window was a witch with dark-blonde hair and close-set, steel-grey eyes. She looked up and regarded Artemis haughtily over the top of her thick-rimmed glasses.

“You must be Charlie’s friend,” she said in a voice that was heavily accented and not particularly friendly.

“Artemis. Artemis Hexley. It’s good to meet you.”

Artemis approached Magda’s desk and held out her hand. Slowly, Magda’s eyes travelled down from her face to her outstretched palm and back again, before making a low humming noise and leaning back in her chair and without shaking Artemis’ hand. Perhaps people did not shake hands in Romania, Artemis reasoned, and she took her hand back.

“Magda, Artemis is here to talk to you about-”

“Ah ah,” Magda interrupted Charlie, her eyes still fixed on Artemis, who got the distinct impression that she was being sized up, either as prey or as predator. She was not certain which. “When someone is here to talk, I want to hear them talking, not you.” She raised her eyebrows. “You want to talk, you talk, yes?”

“Um, yes,” said Artemis. She fought the impulse to look to Charlie for support and instead raised her chin and stared back at Magda. “I’m part of a team working for the British Ministry of Magic to organise the Triwizard Tournament later this year. We are setting up challenges for the tournament, and I was hoping that you might lend us three of your dragons for one of them.”

Magda’s response was simple: “No.”

“That’s what Charlie said you’d say,” Artemis continued, not willing to give up just yet. “But, if you’ll just hear me out, I’ve got a really good idea for how we can get the dragons to Hogwarts safely, and how we can make the challenge really low risk for the dragons and use it to help educate-”

“I said no.”

“But-”

“My dragons, they are not racing Hippogriffs. They are wild beasts,” said Magda. “Do you know how many dragons have been killed in last hundred years for hides or blood?”

Artemis shook her head. “No.”

“Do you know how many suffered and died young in days when witches and wizards attempted to keep dragons as pets?”

“No.”

“Do you know how many eggs will be sold illegally this year? How many more dragons will continue to suffer and die as result of being kept in captivity? No? No,” Magda exhaled loudly through her nose. “I know that you do not know. If you did know, you would respect my dragons and my work. You would not come here and ask me to borrow dragons for you to fight in your English sport.”

“It’s not just a sport, though,” Artemis tried to explain. “Yes, the challenge involves dragons, but that’s because the challenges are meant to be really difficult. You see, the dragon will have a fake nest with treasure in it, and the contestants have to take the treasure from the nest by getting past the dragon. They aren’t supposed to fight them at all, just get past them. If they cause any lasting damage to the dragons or the eggs, they will get points taken away. If they provoke the dragon, they will get injured and lose points. The whole point is that the tournament is better for everyone than it used to be, and that includes the dragons.”

“I still do not see that this is educational. What are you teaching with this?”

“So, the three biggest Wizarding schools in Europe will be at the tournament, and they will all watch how difficult it is for the champions to get past the dragons. They’ll see how dangerous and powerful the dragons are. How they should be respected, like you say,” said Artemis. Magda narrowed her eyes. “And then, after, the professional dragonologists will take over and make sure the dragons get put back properly. The students will see that, too, and they’ll see how it should be done, and how skilled the people who do it properly are. They’ll respect your work too, see?”

“I see,” Magda said slowly. “But I still do not like it. I do not know if I like you, either. I do not know you.” She sighed. “Who is in charge of Tournament?”

“Mr Crouch and Mr Bagman.”

“Ludo Bagman?” Artemis nodded and Magda made a noise of contempt. “I know this Ludo Bagman. You cannot trust Ludo Bagman.”

“No, I know,” Artemis admitted. “But you can trust me.”

Magda pursed her lips and once more stared sceptically at Artemis, who held her gaze unwaveringly. Eventually, Magda broke eye contact to look across the room at Charlie.

“Did you help her with this plan?” she asked him.

“I did, yeah.”

“And do you trust her?”

“I do, yeah,” said Charlie. He half-smiled at Artemis. “More than anyone.”

The warmth that would have spread through Artemis’ chest at Charlie’s words was stopped short by Magda’s blank stare. Artemis took a deep breath.

“Look,” she said, “I know you don’t know me, or trust me, and that you think that I’m all talk and that I don’t really respect or care about what you do here, but I do. I couldn’t have been friends with Charlie for so long without respecting and caring about all of this. And I might not know those facts and figures you asked me about, but I do know that dragons get treated badly by wizards. I was one of the people who helped Charlie rescue that little Ridgeback who couldn’t even fly because he’d been kept in a little hut and fed nothing but chicken. Remember him? And I even quit my last job at Gringotts because of how cruel they were to a dragon. They had him chained up in the basement, and beat him, and I did try to save him, but I got caught. It’s true. Ask Charlie, he can tell because he helped, didn’t you?”

Artemis turned and looked at Charlie, whose face had turned bright pink and was grimacing, a look of alarm in his eyes.

“I mean, he gave me advice about stuff. He wasn’t actually there, and he definitely didn’t do anything illegal,” she lied quickly. In the corner of her eye, she saw Charlie press one of his hands to his face.

Magda raised an eyebrow and gave Artemis a look that made it clear that she was not entirely convinced. She looked across at Charlie and back at Artemis, before speaking in a language that Artemis didn’t understand.

“Stii sa vorbesti romaneste?”

Bewildered, Artemis shook her head. “I’m sorry, I don’t speak Romanian.”

Magda nodded slowly. “Charlie?”

“Yes, Magda?” Charlie said, peering at her nervously from between two fingers of the hand still resting on his face.

“Dacă nu îi spui acestei fete că o iubești, te voi concedia.”

Artemis did not understand a word of what Magda said, but clearly Charlie had, and whatever it was, it was unexpected. He blinked rapidly, his arm dropped to his side, and his mouth opened and shut like a fish, no sound coming out.

“Ea are un iubit, Magda,” he said eventually, after clearing his throat twice.

“Asa si? Scapa de el.”

Charlie let out a shocked sounding laugh and shook his head. Artemis frowned, unsure of what he was finding so surprisingly funny. Before she could ask, however, Magda had turned her attention back to her.

“You are very interesting person, Artemis Hexley,” she said. “I still do not know if I can trust you, but you are interesting.”

“Thanks. So-”

Magda held up one hand and Artemis fell silent.

“But,” continued Magda, “I do trust Charlie. I trust his judgement. And for some reason - I do not know why - he trusts you.” She gave Charlie a brief but pointed look, before nodding her head at Artemis. “I will authorise this.”

“You will?”

“This is what I just said, no?”

“No. I mean yes,” Artemis said breathlessly, still scarcely able to believe her luck. “Thank you, Magda. You won’t regret this.”

“No, I won’t. You will make sure of this,” Magda said sternly. “Now go. I am busy.”

She flicked her hand in dismissal, and Artemis left the office, Charlie following behind her. Once they were outside, she grinned and raised both fists into the air, silently cheering.

“Told you I was ready,” she laughed, linking her arm with one of Charlie’s.

“I never said that you weren’t,” he replied. “Thanks for almost getting me fired, by the way.”

“What? Oh, no. I definitely pulled that back.”

“Yeah, sure…”

“I did!” Artemis tilted her head to one side. “What did Magda say that was so funny?”

“Hm? What? When?”

“Back then, she said something in Romanian that made you laugh.”

“Oh, that. That was just a joke.”

“What about?”

“Dragons,” Charlie said quickly. Artemis narrowed her eyes at him and he shrugged. “It’s a Romanian joke, it doesn’t really translate into English. Are you excited for the World Cup?”

It felt like he was trying to change the subject, but Artemis knew by now that if Charlie didn’t want to talk about something, he simply would not talk about it. Besides, she was excited for the World Cup.

“Definitely. I still have spare tickets, if you want one,” she told him. Charlie shrugged.

“Yeah, maybe. Depends if dad gets any in Ludo’s raffle thing. He’s put in two Galleons to try and get them for all of us and I’ll feel guilty going with you for free if he doesn’t manage it. It’s not like he could really afford to bet the two Galleons, after all.”

Artemis felt a little guilty herself. She knew as well as anyone how poor the Weasleys were.

They walked a longer route back to the field where Artemis’ Portkey had arrived from England, and where she would be soon taking another back again. The trail took them up the side of one of the smaller mountains, through the trees and past a trickling stream. As they came out to the clear air, Charlie shushed her and pointed skywards.

“Look,” he whispered. Far in the distance the shadow of a dragon could be seen where the mountaintops met the bright blue sky. Artemis’ mouth dropped open slightly. Even from so far away, the dragon was magnificent.

“What kind is that?”

“A Fireball. It’s red, see?”

They watched the red dragon fly away until it disappeared behind the mountain. Artemis took a deep breath, savouring how clean the air was compared to London.

“I wish I could stay longer,” she said quietly. “I like it here.”

“So do I.”

“Yeah, I can see that. This place, it’s all wild and beautiful. Rugged, sort of. It suits you.”

Charlie blushed and looked at the floor, his lips twitching slightly. “Alright, steady on.”

“That’s not…”Artemis rolled her eyes. “I just mean that you belong here, that’s all.”

“Right. Thank you,” said Charlie. “Seriously though, you’re always welcome. If you ever just need to get away for a bit or anything, my sofa is always free.”

“Thanks.”

“I mean it.”

“I know you do,” said Artemis. Charlie nodded at her and looked out at the view of the mountains again, chuckling to himself. “What?”

“Nothing, it’s just that the main point I’m going to take from this conversation is that you think I’m rugged.”

“Well, someone’s got to.”

The two of them looked at each other and laughed out loud, the sound drowning out the far-off dragonsong that drifted ever so quietly on the wind.

Artemis returned from Romania two hours later and went straight to Ludo Bagman’s office, her plans for the first Triwizard Challenge in hand. She placed them on his desk and looked him in the eye.

“I’ve got you your dragons,” she told him, and his face split into a wise, boyish grin as he banged one palm onto the surface of a desk.

“What a girl!”

“So, we had a bet.”

“Ah, yes. We did, didn’t we? Two Galleons, was it?” Ludo bit his lip and looked around the room. “Now, about that…”

“Keep your Galleons,” said Artemis. “I want something else instead.”

“What’s that?”

“I want you to swap my tickets for the World Cup Final with Arthur Weasley’s.”

Bagman blinked. “Really? You have ten seats in the top box and Arthur only has a name in the prize draw.”

“I know, and I don’t care. Give my ten tickets to him, and whatever tickets he wins to me. Deal?”

“Well, if you’re sure…”

“I’m positive, Ludo. Just don’t tell him about this, okay?”

“Of course not. It’ll be our little secret.”

#artemis hexley #the wilderness years #hpff #harry potter fanfiction #hphm fic #hogwarts mystery #charlie weasley #nymphadora tonks #chester davies

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