The next morning she awoke at the crack of dawn. She'd had a nightmare about Hattie, the Romanian Longhorn. Hot, red flames spit at her, scarring her face. Then Percy laughed.

She sat down on the floor of her washroom and cried. She didn't know what else to do.

A week passed since she had last been to the dragon reservation, and she felt an itching to go and see the creatures. She was also feeling sort of lonely. Seeing as how her father was a writer, he spent most of his time alone, plus he wasn't exactly a friend. So she took Chanel and rode over the hill, this time heading for one of the designated entrances she saw. When she arrived at the gate, a wizard looked at her suspiciously.
"Top-Secret government project. No civilians allowed," he grunted.

Penelope looked down at her clothes. Of course! She looked like a regular Muggle!

"Excuse me, I'm a witch and I'd like…"

"Ah, well, sorry there miss, but you need to have a pass to get in. You can head to the main office if-" the wizard was cut off when a man ambled over and whacked the guy on his head.

"Albert! Honestly, talking to a lady disrespectfully! You should be ashamed!" he laughed.

"Hello there, Penny! Wonderin' when you'd come back around! Thought you'd left us forever. Hattie would want to say goodbye, of course," he grinned.

Stupid grin, she smiled to herself.

"Oh, sorry, Charlie. I didn't know you knew her. Sorry 'bout that."

"That's all I get from you, 'sorry Charlie'! In all honesty, when are you going to do your job right?"

"The minute you get out of what's left of my hair, that's when!" Albert snorted.

"Come on Penny, let's get Chanel girl here into our lovely slaughterhouse, er…I mean stable of course!"

"Very funny."

"So, where've you been? I mean, I haven't been wondering, but my mate Ewan has."

"Have not," grinned the Scot who popped out from behind Charlie.

Penelope gave a small yelp of surprise.

"Didn't mean to scare you, missy."

"Just looking at your face would do it for me," Charlie smirked at his friend.

Ewan grabbed his heart like he had been stabbed smack in the middle, "Ack, my friend, my pal… Oh, how my 'eart hurts! You bastard!"

Penelope giggled. Charlie and Ewan just seemed so fun. Real simple guys, for sure, but entertaining and friendly.

They unloaded Chanel in the stable and Charlie looked over towards Penelope with a smile.

"Ready for something new?"

"Um…sure?" she said nervously, then found her voice. "Yes, definitely."

"Alright, I'm going to take you around today! Ewan, I'm going to sign out for the day, ok?"
"Sign out? It's only twelve bloody thirty in the afternoon! A bit early, wouldn't ya say?"

"Is that how you treat your best mate? Cursing him?"

"I could curse ya a lot worse then that with bloody Muggle words, you know!"

Charlie ushered Penelope outside.

"Where've ya been? I'm telling you, Hattie's been asking for you like crazy. She loves to give people a good scare."

"Is it that rare?"

"Nah, not really. But, after all, this is the prime spot for dragons in the world. Usually only people who love dragons come here. It wouldn't be good if all the dragon experts in the world were afraid of them!"

He led her to the top of a small hill. Looking down she saw three beautiful scarlet dragons.

He whispered into Penny's ear, "It's very rare that dragons consent to sharing their space with any others, except a mate. But these three are unusual. They have plenty of land but oddly enough, they seem to enjoy each other's company. We stunned them early this morning – it took the whole Chinese Fireball team, plus Ewan and me. We have to stun 'em to study 'em."

"What do they like to eat? They're gorgeous…"

"They're pretty when they're asleep like this, but gorgeous when they're awake and almost about to eat ya. They love humans, but they'll settle for pigs."
She yelped, "Humans?"

"Did you pay attention at all in Care of Magical Creatures, Penny?" he grinned.

"I'll have you know I was at the top of my class!"
"How Ravenclaw of you. Most dragons love human flesh – I myself enjoy it too," he grinned at her, making her face turn crimson. "But we have special spells that make us more repellent to them, so usually we only get charred. See here?" he pointed to a goopy spot on his arm, "I was just singed a few days ago by the female, Liona. Females are the more aggressive race of dragon. Some people find that a bit odd, but I just think they hold a grudge longer, that's all. Em…what do you think?" he asked uneasily.

"Depends on the female, I would bet. But why would a dragon hold a grudge?"

"Well…sometimes her mate leaves her…"
Penelope was beginning to catch on, "Ahh…well, I guess if the dragon still loved her mate then yes, I bet she would. But if she knew it was for the best, I think she'd be just fine and wouldn't hate the brother of her mate." She smiled at Charlie.

"Remember, I'm a Ravenclaw."

"Right, right…well, I just had to know, that's all. It's been bugging me, since you never came back. I thought that maybe the sight of red hair scared you off."

She shook her head, even though in a way he was more right then he'd ever know, "No, not at all. I was just…. busy."

Charlie didn't say anything and led her back into the main meeting area. Tons of people shouted hellos at him and he waved back. He sat her down on a bench and got two waters.

"You're quite popular," she said.

"Yeah…it's a bit odd. I'm not really very social. But people here love dragons just as much as I do so it makes everything a whole lot easier. I usually hate talking to people I don't know, it scares me a bit."

"You talk with me just fine… You get scared? Somehow I don't believe it."
"People scare me, no need to laugh now. But I like you and I can't stand talking to people I'm not quite partial to. I hate saying words that don't need to be said."

"Exactly. What I'm sick of is people talking just because they feel they have to. I don't think many people realize that a good conversation doesn't always need a lot of words."

He grinned at her, "So true," he nodded.

"Penny? Is it ok if I call you that?" he asked.

"Yes, of course."

"Penelope just seems so much more snobbish than you really are."

"You might just be the first person to have called me not snobbish."

"Well, I'd like to meet more snobs like you in that case," he smiled.

He was always smiling. It was almost permanent on his face. It never bothered her though. It just constantly made her want to smile right back at him.

"So, want to see any other dragons next? We only have the Chinese Fireballs, Hattie, and then one Swedish Short-Snout. The rest are flying free," he grinned, "but don't worry, we've got protective spells set up around the whole place. The five are just in for testing and studies, but the Short-Snout is in a bit of trouble. It makes great boots, and gloves, and other such… and they're quite often poached for it. After we study 'em, and they die, 'course we have to make products and such, but some manufacturers just outright try and kill them for it. On our own goddamn reservation! If they're flying free, then it's not as big a deal, I mean, to me, it still is. But they attacked the Short-Snout out in the mountains, maybe fifty miles away, wounded it pretty bad before we could move her out. Anyway, I just don't think you should see her. I don't think I should either, it makes me spitting mad. So, how about Hattie?" he laughed.

"Hmmm…well, this is just such a tough decision! Hmmm…how about not!" she laughed.

"Aw, come on. She's a real sweetie when she's been stunned. Of course, when she's not, she's a beast. I love it."

"Maybe some other time," Penny smiled faintly.

"So you'll come again then?"

"Of course! I can only stand Muggleness for a small period of time before I need some magic. I haven't even used my wand once since I've been here!"

"Wow, that's some self-restraint. I have to use my wand everyday," he grinned.

"So, when will you be back? I'd love to meet with ya again, it was a good thing I caught up with you today."

"Well, I could just send an owl or you could, whenever something interesting was going on? I've got my owl flying free, I'm sure she's quite bored."

"Sounds great. By the way, I live on the reservation, just so ya know."

"Ok, well, see ya – you - soon."

Penny walked off, got her horse, and rode back home to her dad and the Muggle world. When she got home, she decided to take the car out to Alexandria for the rest of the day. She spent the evening driving around and then stopped at a coffee shop and listened to a poem session spoken completely in Romanian. It fascinated her. She sat and listened, not to the words, but to the emotions she could hear in them. To the feelings. She'd been in Romania for a whole month now – it'd been three months since she and Percy had ended their "relationship." She didn't miss England like she thought she would. Everyone there was too witty and too snobbish and too fake, it seemed. Just like she had been…just like she was? She sat back and drank a sip of her coffee and put all thoughts out of her mind. All she could hear were the feelings.

When she got back home, it was pretty late, around 12:30 P.M. The poetry had then converged into music and she had sat talking, as best she could, with a young man in Romanian. Her one downfall had always been languages, but her dad was really helping her with it. She parked the car and walked into the house and went straight to the kitchen, needing a snack.

She turned on the light and saw a note tapped on the refrigerator door. It read:

Pen – I went to bed, just wanted to say hi. An owl came for you; here's the note. Don't worry, I didn't read it – I learned from that a long time ago!

Love – Dad

Penny laughed aloud. She remembered what her dad was talking about vividly. When she had been eight, her parents hadn't known if she would have any magic in her yet – she hadn't really done anything yet, late development. One day, an owl had arrived for her from her friend Kathy, in it she had talked about the boys they liked in their primary school. Her dad had read it and when Penelope had found it, she became so angry that she made her dad's nose grow ten inches long (plus a very hairy mole attached to the end)! Her mother had cried with joy because her daughter wasn't a Muggle and her dad was in literal shock. His wife did crazy things all the time, but his own daughter? Who was practically the splitting image of him! It had shocked him, for sure, because he had thought she didn't have any magic. But they always laughed about it now.

She opened the note and realized she didn't recognize the handwriting, but she began reading anyway.

Hey Penny! Hope your dad's fine with getting owls. I know you said you liked all the peace and quiet and so do I, so I thought that maybe I could show you a fun, peaceful, but interesting time. Maybe just around the village outside the reservation? It's pretty nice, and I thought that maybe you'd like to hang out or something. But if you can't, that's great too. So, if you feel like it, just owl me back and we can do it tomorrow night? I don't have a night shift then. If you can, I'll pick you up at 6-ish, all right?

Charlie

Penelope twitched her nose as she thought. I do need to go out and start to get my life back on track. To experience new things was exactly why I came to Romania. She quickly ran upstairs to grab a quill.

Charlie – I'd love to join you tomorrow. Thanks very much for the invitation.

She sent it off with her own owl, Titania, and lay down to fall asleep. She was tired, but she felt a stirring. She got up and walked outside into the cool September breeze. Then she Apparated to the top of the hill and slowly began to climb down, taking out her wand and quickly lighting a fire to see by. She walked down until she crept behind the boulder she had hid behind on her first visit. Luckily no dragons were flying about, so she stuck her head out for a look. Maybe a hundred yards away was a beast like no other she had ever seen. It was black and looked like a giant lizard towering in the air. About ten men were holding it down with chains as it spewed fire. She could feel the heat of it, and slowly bent back behind the boulder to catch her breath. It was so far away…and those men were right up there. She heard them yelling and had to look over. She had to see if Charlie was there. Slowly she lifted her head to try and make out the men working on the monster. All the men were slowly walking away from the animal, but then it suddenly woke up and breathed fire on what seemed like the backs of the men. She gasped, but none were hurt. They must've put up a protective force. She felt as though her heart were beating outside of her body. That had been the most terrifying thing she had ever seen. Even more frightening than seeing the basilisk in her fifth year. She held her breath and looked over the rock. The men were walking closer to her, and talking.

"That was fierce stuff, man. Crazy brute, thought it was going to spike me behind in the beginning! Good work out there, all."

She heard a very familiar Scottish voice answer, "Yeah, that was wild. But I'm dead tired!"

"Hey, Charlie, you working tomorrow night?"

"Nah, taking the night off."
"Lady friend," Ewan's voice filled the quiet night.

"Hope it's not like tha last one, there," laughed the other man.

"Honestly, when is a man's business his own, really?"

"Yes, don't tease my poor mate there. He's rather pathetic."

"How pathetic was I yesterday when I caught the Snitch before you and we won? Hm?"

"Alrighty, Charlie boy. 'Course you're better than me. But then again you are much shorter and rather unattractive, so I guess it evens out, eh?"

Charlie laughed and the voices faded away.

Penny yawned and Apparated straight into bed.