School: Hogwarts Year Two
Theme: Creature Related Injuries
Prompts: Charlie Weasley [character] (main), Getting into a fight [action], [Spell] Flipendo (knockback/trip up spell)

WC: 1833

Creatures used listed at the end of the fic

"Shhh, do you hear that?"

As one, the group froze. Sergehi's grip tightened on Charlie's, nails digging into his palm, as heads turned at a glacial speed. Empires rose and fell in the time it took to finally pinpoint the sound — the faint ringing of bells.

Charlie's heart pounded in his chest, adrenaline crackling through his veins.

The darkness created monsters out of trees, the full moon peeking out from behind the heavy clouds giving them just enough light to see by as they crept towards the bells. The leaves rustled as the biting wind rushed past them, stinging the exposed skin on Charlie's face, making his eyes water.

Miruna scrambled across the exposed roots, feet barely making a sound as she climbed up the hill, hands steady on the wet earth. Charlie and Sergehi watched her go, joined hands gently tapping against Charlie's thigh.

"I don't like this," Sergehi whispered into Charlie's ear.

He had been resistant to this rescue—or rather smuggling mission—from the start. That reluctance had only increased when Yeong-Suk broke her leg, reducing her to organiser rather than active participant, much to her annoyance. She would be waiting for them with a Portkey, sitting in the same curved fork of the tree Charlie lifted her into earlier.

Miruna's descent was far less graceful, reflexive grunts knocking out of her lungs as she slid down, staggering as she landed. She rubbed at her hip, mouthing silent curses, gesturing with her other hand for them to draw closer.

"Good news. It's an Iele, like we thought."

Charlie nodded. It had been a strange request delivered by a scrawled note pinned to the message board on the reserve. The handwriting had been unfamiliar, barely legible in places, but had claimed there was an injured Iele in the forest and collectors were hunting it.

Magical creature collectors made Charlie sick. A constant rotation of creatures, sick and starving, their growth stunted and old injuries left untreated until they healed incorrectly in a painful mesh of bone and muscle. At the end of each season, when the creatures had slipped out of fashion, they were abandoned, with no more care or consideration than would be given to broken glass. Governments didn't care, not enough, or it wouldn't be left to people like Charlie and his friends to save those creatures that slipped through the cracks.

Iele were the recent fixation for poachers, and it was happening in their own back gardens, so to speak. Rescuing them came with its own set of dangers. Similar to Veela, Iele would ensare any men watching them and entice them to their doom.

That was why it had to be Charlie scrambling up the incline, mud covering his hands and sweat stinging his eyes. Miruna was a lesbian, Sergehi was bisexual and Yeong-Suk, while straight, had a broken leg. So it fell to Charlie, with his proud labels of aromantic and asexual, to try and rescue the Iele as he was theoretically immune.

As he climbed, Charlie cursed the wizards of old and their lack of information about different sexualities. The rope around his waist seemingly snagged on every protruding root, a lifeline in case their theory was wrong. It seemed like such a fragile thing to lay his future on. Cautiously, he peered over the top of the hill.

The clearing was awash with moonlight, broken only by the creeping hands of branches stretching towards Charlie's quarry. The Iele lay in a crumpled heap on the ground, a shard of bone protruding from her leg. Even as Charlie watched, heart in his mouth, she began to move, pulling herself through the dirt, bells on her ankles chiming softly.

He didn't feel a pull towards her, though his cheeks did flare in embarrassment, heat travelling to his ears when he realised she was naked. Luckily they had brought a blanket, although its intended purpose had been to keep Miruna and Sergehi safe during transport.

"All good," he whispered down to Miruna and Sergehi, the latter almost vibrating out of his skin with nerves.

Charlie returned to watching the Iele and checked the woods surrounding them in preparation for his final dash. He checked the woods to his left, to his right, peering suspiciously at the darkened treeline on the other side of the clearing.

He didn't check above him.

Mud clung to his boots as he slipped down the embankment. The Iele twisted as much as she was able, teeth bared. It transformed her face from that of a beautiful woman to one of monstrous proportions.

"I'm here to rescue you. There's a sanctuary where you can be healed," Charlie told her, keeping his hands spread in front of him.

His Romanian was almost fluent after so long working on the reservation, but there was always still a chance…

After what felt like a lifetime, she nodded, lips squelching as she folded her teeth away. She was unnaturally light as Charlie picked her up, one leg hanging useless. He had to move quickly, didn't know when the poachers would arrive—

The faintest glint of metal caught his eye, body reacting before his mind had a chance to comprehend what he was seeing. The Iele screeched in his ear, her leg knocking against the earth as Charlie dropped to the ground.

It wasn't enough.

The air hissed as the Samca dived for them, whistling past just above Charlie's head. He had half a heartbeat of hope that she had missed before lines of fire erupted down his back.

Not bothering to muffle a scream, Charlie pushed himself to his feet, half blinded by pain. Had to get his wand, had to get away, couldn't Apparate, would tear the Iele apart.

The Samca growled, a disjointed clicking thing, and Charlie couldn't help but look.

It was half hunched over, a mess of angles and shadows in the fading moonlight. It's mouth, crooked and stretched beyond human imaginary, twisted into something that resembled a grin. Fire burned deep in its throat, green and poisonous behind it's yellowing teeth.

The Iele whimpered in his arms, trying to curl further into his chest. Her shaking only increased as the Samca took another sloping step forward, gleaming metal nails stained red with Charlie's blood reaching out for them.

"Flippendo!"

With an explosion that threatened to send Charlie tumbling back to the ground, the purple light shot past him and exploded against the chest of the Samca sending it flying back.

"Run Charlie!"

His legs felt like lead. Despite the warm blood he knew would be pouring down his back, he felt cold. Shock, some distant part of his mind supplied, a true killer.

"Flippendo!" Sergehi shouted again, aiming at the rapidly advancing Samca even as he stretched down to pull Charlie up the last few feet.

"Here," Miruna grunted, hastily shoving a blanket over the Iele, ignoring the creature's disgruntled snarls as she tucked her in. "Sergehi, will you use something with a bit more oomph please!"

"They are endangered!" Sergehi yelled back, arm looping around Charlie's waist to steady him as they began the descent down the hill, half sliding half stumbling.

There was no time for caution now, only speed. The moon slipped back behind the clouds, plunging the woods into ever present darkness. Charlie could hear the Samca behind them, the crack of branches beneath their feet as they ran, it's strange clicking growl following them like a bloodhound.

His heartbeat was loud in his ears, breath tight in his chest, as he ran. They were half blind in this inky darkness, relying on Miruna to lead them. The runes tattooed onto her eyelids, normally a barely visible copper sheen on her dark skin, flared into life and illuminated the woods for her, but only for her.

Charlie could hear Sergehi cursing, the words bitten off between desperate gasps for air, occasionally lost to the wind as he glanced behind them. This, at least, was familiar to Charlie. Despite all their planning on these rescues, or heists, something would inevitably go wrong and they would wind up running away. It had never been this bad before.

Grey dots danced in front of Charlie's eyes. The pain was constant now, flaring up to new peaks as he ran but never fully descending. He didn't have air left in his lungs to scream.

"Charlie!"

Mud coated the inside of his mouth, and Charlie gagged, spitting out as much as he could of the foul earth. The Iele hissed beneath the blanket, one hand beating against his chest in silent reproach.

Blearily, thoughts of Ginny flashed through Charlie's mind. He could almost feel the sunlight on his skin as he lay in the grass and watched her zoom past on a broomstick through barely open eyes. She was small enough then that it had been easy to pick her up and run back to the house when she fell, tears streaming down her pollen covered cheeks as she cradled her wrist.

"Come on, on your feet. Sergehi I swear if I die because you won't use anything stronger than a Flippendo—" Miruna punctuated her sentence with her own spell, blue light shifting to purple as she fired her spell at the Samca, "— I will haunt you for all eternity and drink all your wine."

"You are welcome to it," Sergehi shot back, grunting as he pulled Charlie to his feet. Charlie swayed, half stumbling forward one step and then the other.

"He's on his feet, let's move," Sergehi yelled, tugging Charlie forward relentlessly, forcing him to run once more.

He couldn't run any further. Everything screamed at him to stop, and yet, even as he watched, his feet continued to move. Nearly there, had to hope they were nearly there.

"What's happened?"

Yeong-Suk. Charlie raised his head just in time to see her face pale, wide eyes grow increasingly wider at the sight of them. Gracefully she swung herself down, steadying herself on the tree, cast raised behind her.

"A Samca. Miruna! Hurry up!"

Miruna yelled back something in rapid fire Romanian that Charlie couldn't catch, a strange ringing in his ears blocking out everything else. Sergehi wrapped one hand around Charlie's belt loops, holding him upright as he looped his fingers through Yeong-Suk's.

The Portkey around her neck began to glow even as Charlie's vision darkened. Flippendo lit up the clearing in a flare of purple and Miruna crashed into them, the sickening pull of the Portkey twisting Charlie's stomach before he felt the impact of the earth once again.

They fell to the ground as they landed, Sergehi cushioning Charlie's fall, arms wrapping around him protectively.

"Healer time for you Charlie. Again," Yeong-Suk said, managing to keep a straight face for a second before she dissolved into helpless giggles.

That was the tipping point and Charlie found himself laughing, icy cold still coursing through his veins, but he was alive. They'd succeeded once again and that was all that mattered.

##**##

Iele: Romanian folklore, similar to dryads or nymphs. Said to have great seductive power over men. Normally they appear naked with long hair and bells on their ankles.

Samca: Romanian folklore. Takes the form of an old woman but with metal claws or hands, and a tongue of fire. Sickens women and children.