There was a real celebration in the mess hall late that afternoon at Fortescue's Dragon Training Academy's chalet. Everyone had celebrated when the Fireball, Short-Snout, and Welsh Green had been selected among the dragons to become the first task of the Triwizard Tournament and now they were celebrating equally hard in honor of Charlie Weasley's Norwegian Ridgeback that had been chosen as the fourth for the unexpected fourth Champion's challenger. Florean joined the lads in celebrating, raising toasts and shouts of pride at the trainers whose dragons would be going to the fray. The other three, who were beaming and flushed with joy at being recognized a second time for their dragon's accomplishments, were having a grand time of it. Charlie Weasley, however, sat in the furthest corner of the hall he could squeak away to without being pulled back by Florean, and poured over a book that lay flat on the table in front of him.

Reginald Braves sauntered over - trainer of the Short-Snout that would be going, Reginald was having a great night of it himself and had been stopped several times to receive slaps on the back from his fellow trainers as he made his way over to Charlie's side. His shadow was cast over the table and the book Charlie was looking at when he sat on the table beside Charlie's book, holding two large steins of beer. The steins were shaped so that the handles were dragons coiled around mountain tops carved into the sides of the glass. Foam fuzzed over the top of the stein and splashed a bit as Reginald put one down on the table and pushed it toward Charlie. Charlie rushed to pluck his book up off the table before any of the spilled beer foam could touch the red cover or pages of the book.

"What's that you're readin' at a time like this?" asked Reginald, laughing merrily as he reached for the tome. 

"Nothing," Charlie answered, and he snatched at it to get it back but Reginald had already gained the grip on it and pulled it up to inspect it. He laughed and handed it back to Charlie, "I had that book when I was a lad, too," he announced. "What are you doing reading a children's book about dragons, Charlie?"

Charlie hadn't really been reading it, just running his fingers over the pictures and calming down. He shook his head, not wanting to explain it to Reginald.

Luckily, Reginald wasn't much interested beyond the initial question. His booming voice asked, "Ah - you must be very proud of Norberta, 'ey? Getting to fly her to Hogwarts and see her compete in the task! What an honor, isn't it? I've been training with Gretchen since we got word we'd be going. I've heard Kevin's been training Gwenold and Yuri's been working double with Xiang as well. You're welcome to come up to the fold with us and train with Norberta anytime. Haven't got a lot of time for it now, have you? They sure do know how to spring a surprise on a guy..."

Charlie replied, "I've already trained Norberta. She listens to me. I don't need to practice."

Reginald might've mocked this but he remembered how Norberta had slid into her cave at Charlie's command and he shook his head. A lot of the trainers at Fortescue's were jealous of Charlie's natural skill and connection with both of his dragons.

Indeed, when Zuzu the Horntail had been brought in, feral and angry, Charlie Weasley had been the only one that had been able to get anywhere near her, which was why Florean had given her to him. Indeed, Zuzu had been flown in after being rescued from the dragon trade and she had a swatch of her scales that had been torn off her hind leg that had been harvested as the traders had begun their work of shearing her when the rescue teams had arrived. She was especially sensitive by the time she arrived to Fortescue's and had been tied up out in the fold, tethered down. The tethering had only made her more ferocious - it was too much like the trader's bindings, Charlie realized, and he'd gone out in the middle of the night, wrapped in his leathers, and cut her free save for one lead that he had used to strap himself onto her back when she took flight. Charlie had talked to her as she flew over the Romanian mountains, angry and puffing in frustration, soothed her, until she'd finally calmed and allowed him to slip the guiding harness around her neck and lead her back home to the fold.

People at the Academy talked about Charlie and the Horntail's bonding every year when the new dragons and trainers came to the Academy. Reginald himself had been on the fold grounds when Charlie and Zuzu had landed after that flight. He had stared in awe as Charlie slid off the back, holding onto the lead, and Zuzu the Horntail had lowered her head and allowed him to stroke her snout.

Charlie had already had Norberta for some time by then, and it was unusual for a trainer to have two dragons, but Norberta had come to Charlie when she was a hatchling three years before when a mysterious stranger had sold an egg to Rubeus Hagrid, the grounds keeper at Hogwarts, and his brother, Ron, had written to Charlie needing somewhere for Norberta to go. Norberta had been whisked away from the top of Hogwarts towers by none other than Reginald himself in the dead of night.

"Do you reckon she'll remember Hogwarts?" Reginald asked.

Charlie answered, "Probably. Hagrid comes every summer to see her so she'll remember him at least." He ran his fingers around the edge of the red cover of the dragon book he now clutched to his chest. It didn't matter how old he got, how many sets of leathers he wore through training dragons in real life, that book would always bring him comfort. "Ridgebacks have an incredible memory, as do most dragons. There are trainers who have played memory games with their dragons and been bested and lost control over their dragons due to having lost games of that sort. There was once a dragon who bested her trainer over two hundred times at a matching card memory game and --"

"You going to drink your beer?" Reginald asked, pointing to the stein he'd brought over.

Charlie shook his head.

Reginald put down his empty stein and plucked Charlie's up from the table top, taking a long swig of it. 

Suddenly the doors of the chalet burst open and Jovie, a trainer with a long black braid down her back, came running in, her fireproof leathers still steaming, her eyes wide, "Charlie! It's Norberta!"

Charlie sprang to his feet without hesitation. He shoved his book into his expanded satchel and rushed after Jovie, his books clunking as he ran down the cliff side ledge. He could see the flames jutting into the valley before he got even a quarter of the way there and he hurried to pass Jovie on the cliff, running as fast as he could. "Accio broomstick," he hissed between breaths - but knew he'd get there faster than the broom could get to him from his dormitory. He turned his feet and slid down an incline.

A blast of fire blew from the mouth of Norberta's cave, bright orange and glowing violently in the dark of the night. "Norberta!" he shouted into the cave as he pulled on his fireproof hood and raised his elbow to shield his face, heading into the cave, wand raised. He heard a whistling rush behind him in the cave and flicked his wrist, sending the tardy broomstick to the corner as he made his way across the cave to the ledge that overlooked Norberta's nest. She was coiled protectively around it - the egg, the top cracked open, and little spouts of smoke were rising up from inside. Charlie stared in awe for a moment, then hurried down the stairs, still shielding himself.

Norberta snapped at him but Charlie said, gently, "I'm not going to hurt you, Norberta..." He held his palms up for her to see. She let out a grumbling growl of a sound and Charlie stayed paused on the stairs. 

Out of the egg poked a small snout - curved and dark chocolate brown. Charlie watched in wide-eyed awe as a tiny dragon sneezed and the egg tipped over, the dragon spilling out onto the hay beside Norberta's flank. She turned her long neck and licked the tiny dragon - her tongue nearly as large as the itty bitty thing that lay beside her, covered in goop from the inside of the egg.

Charlie could remember when Norberta herself had been nearly that small and he marveled at the hatchling. "Congratulations, mama," he whispered to her, palms still up for her to see. 

Norberta's head turned slightly to look at him, beady-eyed, untrusting for the first time since she was as small as her baby was now.

"I won't hurt you - either of you," Charlie whispered, stepping down two of the steps on the stairs. When she didn't snap, he took another two. "I just need to see. Can I see?"

The dragon stayed tense, but she didn't growl or snap again, so Charlie carefully stepped down the rest of the way and approached the nest, his heart thumping as he got to the edge of it and looked over into the eyes of the puppy-sized dragon. "Wow," he whispered.

A boy. Norberta had had a boy in her egg. "Hello little one," Charlie said quietly. He pulled himself up and into the nest, pausing when Norberta made a small puff of steam, then stepped up to the tiny dragon, who was stretching and waving it's tail about. He held out his palm to it and the hatchling rushed over, egg shells still stuck on it's little feet, and rubbed his head against Charlie's palm. He was no bigger than a beagle or a cocker spaniel and Charlie couldn't believe that one day rather soon it would be as big - if not bigger than - Norberta herself. "Hullo," he said, "Welcome to the outside." 

Norberta looked up suddenly at the sound of voices outside the cave mouth and she blasted a rage of fire from her mouth toward the cave mouth so hot that Charlie had to duck away from the heat, covering his face with his arms once again. "Norberta! Don't do that, you might hurt someone!" he shouted, "They aren't taking your baby, either!"

Norberta settled, her nostrils still flared and smoking tendrils of grey, and Charlie called out, using magic to throw his voice out there, "Is everyone alright up there?"

"Bit singed," came Reginald's voice, "But alright."

"She's had her hatchling!" Charlie said.

"Bravo!" came Florean Fortescue's voice.

He sighed happily as he petted the baby dragon. Then, grinning, he said, "I'm going to name you Rubeus after your grand-papa." He looked up at Norberta. "Mummy Hagrid will be very proud to hear that you've made him a grand-papa you know. Don't you think Hagrid will be very pleased? We can tell him next month when --" but Charlie stopped, for even as he was petting the little dragon's head, he realized what this meant.

No longer a mother with an egg, Norberta would be disqualified from the tournament.

Which meant there was only one nesting mother left at Fortescue's.

Charlie felt his skin go cold at the realization and he swallowed back his nervousness.

Zuzu the Hungarian Horntail would have to be the fourth dragon to participate in the first task of the Triwizard Tournament.

Charlie Weasley was not one to curse usually but --

"Shit," he whispered, and he covered his mouth with his hand.