Written for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments) Term 13

HSWW: Archaeology - Task #7 - Write about a treasure map (or supposed one)

Additional challenges listed below

Word Count – 2520

A.N.: My Fleur doesn't have an accent because I didn't want to force it. Accents are very personal. I didn't feel comfortable writing it and didn't want to risk offending anyone.

Charlie checked his watch for the third time in under five minutes. It was 9:30 in the morning. The sun was shining above his head and the beads of sweat trickling down his back were not helping his anxiety. Fleur was set to arrive at any minute now.

He absolutely adored his sister-in-law. From the very moment they met, she was nothing but sweet and kind to him. It didn't hurt that was quite funny too, but, if he was being honest, she won him over with the miniature Green Welsh that he gave him as a gift. Not because of the gift in itself, but because she had the tact to find out what he liked and find him something that she knew he would like. Charlie appreciated these little gestures more than he let on. And that's what made him so nervous. They had an amazing relationship, but they were always surrounded by other people when they met. His parents, Bill, Ginny, Ron, Harry. They were always around. Not this time, though. It would be just the two of them, and Charlie was afraid that he would say the wrong thing at the wrong time and she would realize that he was not that cool.

Charlie was snapped out of his thoughts by a hand on his shoulder.

"Hello, there," Fleur said, looking as beautiful as ever in her navy-blue robes. She leaned forward, giving him a kiss on each cheek. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long."

Charlie smiled. "No worries. I was just here melting in the sun for three hours," he teased.

"You what? Oh, I'm so sorry." Fleur's eyes went as big as golf balls.

"Hey, I'm kidding. I'm kidding." He held his hands up. "I just got here a few minutes ago. Don't worry."

Fleur took her hand to heart and let out a loud breath of relief. "Oh, I was ready to kill Bill for making me so late."

"But you know who's going to melt under the sun? You, lady. Dark blue robes are not a good fit for hot days."

"They're not dark blue. They're navy blue. There's a difference." Charlie looked at her puzzled. Fleur let out a loud laugh. "I'm just teasing you. I had forgotten about how hot it can get here."

Charlie steered her towards the big building in the center of the Dragon Research Center. It was a lot fresher inside than it was outside and Fleur immediately thanked him for the change.

"What brings you here, Fleur? In your letter you just said it was urgent, work-related and that you'd be arriving in two days."

"This," she said, taking a blank piece of parchment from her pocket and unfolding it on top of the table. "Bill found this in one of his excavations a while ago. Apparently, it's a map of this Sanctuary."

Charlie watched in amazement as the ink gradually appeared on the parchment. He didn't even blink until all the words and drawings were perfectly visible. The outline of the entire Sanctuary area, with all its buildings, areas and even the dragons in their pens. What really caught Charlie's eye, though, was the tiny red dot near the Norwegian Ridgeback's pen.

"Fleur, what am I looking at?"

"I told you. It's a map of the Sanctuary. Bill found it in one of his trips and forgot about it, until he saw it again last week."

Charlie raised an eyebrow at that, but quickly dropped it when he saw Fleur's perfectly manicured nail tapping the red dot. "We believe that whatever this map is pointing to might be here. This is the only coloured spot in the whole map."

"So you don't even know what it is?" Fleur gave him an angry look and Charlie felt really sorry for his brother whenever he had to deal with that. "Alright, alright. I'm sorry I asked. How about we go check it out?"

"Yes, please." And just like that, she was back at her cheery and poised self.

As they walked to where the Norwegian Ridgebacks were, Charlie felt stupid for ever being nervous. He and Fleur talked constantly, they adored each other. At first, Charlie feared they wouldn't have much in common. Fleur was the epitome of calm and collected, even coming across as cold sometimes. She was elegant and beautiful. She was extremely charming. Charlie was none of those things. But when they started talking, Charlie discovered just how similar they could be. Fleur, just like him, loved her family to pieces. She got extremely passionate and excited about her job and her country. Once, Charlie asked her a simple question about a French holiday and he got back 2 feet of parchment on the thing. But there was nothing she liked talking about more than her little sister, Gabrielle.

"And now, she's even thinking about coming here to England to work." Fleur finished narrating her sister's year as they approached the intended place.

"Hi, Norberta." Charlie greeted the big dragon right in front of them. "You haven't seen any treasure laying around here, have you?"

"So that's Norberta? The one Ron handed to you during his first year at Hogwarts?"

"The very same. We grew very attached to each other, so she didn't want to leave. We just allowed her to stay with us, like our mascot."

"How are we going to find anything here, Charlie?"

"Accio?"

"It would work if we knew what we were looking for."

Charlie grunted. There had to be a way. He was not going to dig through his dragon's whole pen. "Can I see this map again?"

Fleur handed him the map, and while Charlie looked, she set to looking around for something that could help them. Her eyes landed on a peculiarly shaped rock on the far right of Norberta's home space. She knew she had already seen this before.

"Hey, Charlie. Can I see the map again?" Without a word, he handed it to her. "I knew it!"

"Huh?" he asked. Fleur pointed him to the direction of the real rock, then directed his eyes to the one drawn on the map. "It's exactly the same."

She nodded. "It has to be it, right?"

Charlie, without a moment of hesitation, opened the gate to Norberta's pen and walked in. It took him a few steps to realize that he wasn't being followed by his sister-in-law. "Is everything okay?"

"I don't have the fondest memories of dragons," she said nervously. "What if she doesn't like me?"

"Don't worry. She never attacks people for no reason."

Fleur nodded a bit shakily, but moved inside anyway taking small and tentative steps. Charlie took her hand in his and waited until she took a deep breath to steady herself. Together, they moved around the dragon and towards the big rock. Norberta didn't pay them any mind, choosing to keep all her focus on her egg.

"Now what?" asked Fleur.

"Now we dig."

"We'll dig around this whole rock?"

"No. Do you see how it's basically shaped like an arrow?" Charlie pointed to what looked like the tip of it. Fleur nodded. "That's where we dig."

"Do you know any digging spells?"

"No. Do you?"

Fleur grunted. "No. Please tell me we're not going to have to do that with actual shovels."

"I can't, little sister. Because we are." Charlie took his wand out and waved it. "On the bright side: this is something I can use Accio for."

"Fantastic," Fleur said with no enthusiasm.

They had been digging for what felt like an eternity when Charlie's shovel hit something. He turned to Fleur immediately to call her, but she had heard it too. Her forehead glistened and her cheeks and nose were tinted pink. Her hair was starting to stick out on the sides, but she didn't look ragged. She looked alive. Charlie could only wish he looked as good as she did at the moment, but he knew better. He was sure his face was the exact same shade of his hair.

"You know," she said, leaning down against her shovel as he reached down to catch what he now could see to be a wooden box. "You were right before. Dark coloured robes were a bad choice."

Charlie brushed the dirt from the box with his hands, but wasn't able to get much of it out.

"Oh, give me that." Fleur cleaned it with the sleeves of her robes. One thing Charlie had to admit, the girl was not afraid to get dirty. She took out her wand and performed some spells. "It looks pretty normal to me. No Dark Magic of any kind around it."

Charlie turned the box in his hands, inspecting every corner of it, before he finally opened it. Inside there was nothing but another piece of parchment folded in half, just like the one Fleur had shown him when she got there. He unfolded it and the drawings started to appear. It was the same map as before, with the difference that now the red dot was halfway across the sanctuary.

"I did think this was a bit too easy to be true," Fleur said with a sigh. "Let's get moving."

Charlie laughed at the way she perked up immediately after saying those last few words and off they went, to find the next red dot.

oOoOoOo

Six hours, a lunch break, several water breaks, and five more identical boxes with maps inside later, Charlie and Fleur had walked the entirety of the Sanctuary and they were tired. Tired and cranky.

"Whoever did this is probably having a big laugh at us all the way from hell." Charlie said as they walked to the last location, the central building.

"Charlie! Don't say that," Fleur reprimanded. "Why do you think they're in hell? Why do you think they're dead?"

"Usually, maps are found after people die. That's just the way I've seen happening. And I think they're in hell because I'm pissed, tired, thirsty and I probably have a sunburn."

Fleur let out a small laugh. "Oh, come on. I have a feeling this is the last one."

Fleur had recovered the spring to her step as they approached the central building. If it was the prospect of the cooler air inside the building, of more water or more food, Charlie didn't know, but she certainly looked reinvigorated.

He rubbed his eyes and inspected the map better. So far, the red dot had pointed to the area and the drawing had directed them to the specific locations, like a rock, a tree or a pond. The only drawing in that map was that of a lynx. Charlie vaguely remembered seeing that before, but he didn't know where.

Charlie and Fleur moved around the whole perimeter of the building trying to find anything that resembled a Lynx, but couldn't. Fleur eventually gave up and collapsed against the stone wall of the building. She slid all the way to the floor and rested her head against the wall.

"Defeated by a wild cat," she said. "I can't believe we went through all of this just to be defeated by an oversized cat."

Charlie moved to sit by her side and started picking at the grass trying to find the right thing to say. It had been fun doing all that with her. He had been nervous to be alone with her, but it had been fun. They had talked, laughed, joked around and grown even closer in six hours than he ever thought possible and Charlie was very grateful for that. He didn't feel defeated at all.

Charlie was ready to tell her that, when his eyes caught the carving in one of the stones in the wall. It was right by her right hand, between them, at the bottom of the wall.

"Fleur," he called. "I think I found your oversized cat."

She whipped her head at once and took her wand out. "Do you think it's in there?"

Charlie tapped it with his wand and the stone moved by itself, leaving a rather big hole on the building's wall. He didn't think twice before shoving his hand in there and pulling out the first hard thing he could feel.

For the first time that day, it was not a wooden box. Charlie stared in disbelief at the porcelain piggy bank in his hands. "Hm, Fleur. I think a child did this. And I don't think we're going to find much of a treasure in here."

"Oh, go on. Just break it already. I want to see what it is," she demanded.

Charlie snorted and shook his head. He threw it on the floor and it turned into a thousand little pieces. Inside the porcelain piggy bank was a piece of parchment, much like the ones where the maps were drawn in. "Not another one," he complained as he bent down to pick it up. Charlie opened it and his hands started shaking immediately.

Mr. Bill Weasley and Mrs. Fleur Weasley cordially ask Mr. Charlie Weasley to bless our baby girl with the honour of having him as her Godfather.

Charlie looked up at a beaming Fleur, who didn't look like she had gone through one of the most tiring scavenger hunts he had ever been a part of. "Surprise!"

"Wait! So, you are…"

"We are."

"And you want me to…" Charlie had never considered himself to be the most eloquent person in the world, but not being able to finish a sentence was borderline ridiculous.

"We do."

Charlie paused for a moment. "So, Bill didn't find this map?"

Fleur's melodic laugh rang in his ears. "Do you really think Bill would forget about a treasure map and wouldn't come along to an adventure like this?"

"I did think it was a bit weird, but who am I to question you, really?"

"Speaking of question, I'm still waiting on the answer to ours." Fleur landed one hand on her hips and one on her still-flat stomach.

Charlie's smile grew as big as it could get. He picked his sister-in-law up in his arms and spun her in the air. "Of course, I will!"

When he finally put her down, with his arms around her shoulders, there was still one thing bugging him. "How did you and Bill pull all of this off? How did you know so much about the sanctuary? How did you hide all of this?" He motioned to the pieces of parchment on Fleur's hands.

She shrugged. "Carlos helped."

Charlie smiled. Of course, Carlos did. His dragonologist colleague had seen Bill a couple of times before and he knew they still wrote to each other on a regular basis. Carlos would have had access to all the spots and no one would ever suspect anything.

As Charlie held Fleur, all he could think of was how many stuffed dragons were acceptable for a new-born's nursery and just how wrong he had been to think that there would not be much of a treasure inside that piggy bank.