Who: Felix Weissman, Charlie Weasley, and Mircea What: Walking the grounds and finding things they wished they weren't. When: Sunday, March 31, 2019 Where: Brightstar Reserve, dragon enclosure Warnings: Tiny bit of language
Scouring the grounds had been even more difficult than Felix expected, simply because they were so bloody extensive. He was fairly certain he could have walked the entire length of England and back by now, and still nothing. He was starting to have a kernel of hope that maybe he'd dreamed up some crazy conspiracy where there was none. Was that some symptom of living in the middle of nowhere with a job consisting of fifty percent paperwork? Had he truly lost his mind now?
His Reserve map was covered in patches of swirling characters, indicating the areas he'd covered in such a way that a casual observer might think he was simply color coding it by plants. In a way, he was. There were only a few sections left before he'd turn everything over to his boss and be done with it, weird discrepancies or not. Today, dragons.
He'd been putting it off because, first, it was one of the larger enclosures, and second, because the possibility of running into Finn loomed in his mind. Not that he would mind seeing her, but he suspected she might—and he had far too much on his plate to worry about doing the professionalism dance around his ex. But today was the day. He trekked along the path designated for non-keepers, surveying for areas of interest—that was, anything that wasn't strictly snow-covered grass—at a distance. Technically, he was supposed to have an appointment, but since he didn't want anything on the books about these little trips, he'd wait to see if he could find someone willing to escort him. He'd been skirting the periphery for a good ten minutes before he saw someone who looked promising.
"Hello!" Felix called, raising a hand in greeting, mostly as another way to get the man's attention. He looked familiar in that I've seen you before sort of way, but Felix was pretty sure they hadn't been introduced. Then again, the last week was a bit of a blur. "Felix Weissman, herbology." He held out his hand as he approached. "You look like just the sort of bloke I was hoping to see."
Charlie was still figuring out who all the people on the preserve were so he was relieved to get another introduction. "Charlie Weasley, on exchange from Romania, and this is Mircea." He gestured briefly at the dog before taking Felix's hand in a friendly clasp. "What can we do for you?" he asked as if there were some way the dog could also help them. "Always glad to give a hand to our colleagues in Herbology."
Felix's eyes widened at the other's name. "Charlie Weasley," he repeated, rather stupidly. Felix had entered school only a few years after the war ended, and Hogwarts had been full of names that were practically folk tales even after those few short years. Charlie Weasley may not have been one of the main names, but it was certainly among them. "Pleased to meet you. And Mircea, of course."
He had to take a breath to collect himself from the surprise, but it occurred to him that this was a lucky meeting if ever there was one. If he couldn't trust a war hero, who could he trust? "I'm looking for two very specific plants. Avlax and Twisted Windroot." They were so seared in his mind by now that he didn't even have to consult the list he'd brought. "And, well, I need someone to make sure I don't get eaten while I look for them." He gave Charlie a somewhat crooked smile.
Charlie's face scrunched into confusion. "Nothing in the windroot family should be anywhere in this part of the preserve," he pointed out. "Avlax--I know the landscape and biome here are very different, but--what would Avlax be doing here? Is someone trying to sabotage the preserve?" He looked at Felix's notebook. "Sure, I'll take you round. If you've got samples in there we can ask Mircea to hunt for them. He's got a good nose and he can catch a lot we'll miss, unless you've already got something set up to dowse for them."
Felix laughed, even though it wasn't an entirely appropriate response. Relief had a way of doing that to a person who'd gotten in over his head. "So I hear. Creatures are not my forte, but I've had a couple of consultants on this one. As for the reason...." He spread his hands wide. "Welcome to my every waking moment."
He tapped the cover of his notebook rhythmically with two fingers, looking thoughtfully at the dog. "He can do that? Merlin, you might have just saved me another couple of days. The locator spells get too muddled up in the wards and Muggle redirection charms. I've been mostly stuck reviewing by eye. Well, that and it wouldn't surprise me if these are...well, hidden. Or camouflaged." He shuffled through a couple of pages and levitated out the two small specimens, which had been charmed to be portable without drying out or getting crushed. "Will these be enough? I can get a larger sample from the greenhouse, if needed. This is all I needed for the spells."
"Yeah, let me tell him what we're doing," Charlie said, and knelt beside the dog. He began speaking quickly in Romanian--Mircea's native language, even if it wasn't Charlie's--telling him they were going to hunt for plants. First he showed Mircea the Twisted Windroot and let him get a good snootful of the scent, until Mircea barked to show he knew what he was doing. Then he repeated the procedure with the Avlax before returning the samples to Felix. The whole business, including reinforcement with treats, took several minutes, but when they were done, Charlie pushed himself to his feet and told Felix, "Let's go. I've made some promises about what good boys get for dinner and he's anxious to show off now."
Mircea barked to agree with that suggestion.
"This might just make an animal lover out of me," Felix said, not entirely joking, as he watched the dog waiting for his next command, obviously eager with anticipation.
Charlie told Mircea to hunt for the scents they'd tested on--a skill he was confident in--and let the dog go, following closely as they got into the section of the preserve he worked in, and keeping a close eye on Felix to make sure he wasn't falling behind.
Felix followed as Mircea followed some invisible path into the grounds designated for the dragons, and it was fascinating enough that Felix forgot for at least thirty seconds that there were creatures around who were large enough to eat him in one bite...or at least snap him in half. As fascinating as the search was, he kept his eyes roving over any clusters of foliage they passed, both watching for the aforementioned plants and getting a general feel for what was planted there. It was, after all, his first time in this enclosure.
Mircea barked repeatedly to signal he'd found something, and Charlie got out his phone thingummy. There was a camera, and it would be useful for recording data. How he wished he'd had this thing when they were dealing with poachers not long after he'd started.
"Does that mean...?" Felix started, trailing off before he could even get out the whole question, because his gaze had fixed on a cluster of Giant Broadleaf that struck him as distinctly odd. It wasn't harmful to any creatures, as far as he knew, but the way it was planted was all wrong. He was shocked that it was still alive at all, but he supposed some judicious growth charms could have sustained it through both the winter and how tightly packed the things were.
He waited until Charlie had the dog handled, then approached the cluster and knelt, not even caring that the knees of his trousers got damp. He pulled his wand and carefully uprooted the two nearest Broadleaf plants, charming them for transport to the greenhouses. A few more large leaves pulled back by hand...and there it was: one single Twisted Windroot plant, viney branches entwined with the plants around it. It looked distinctly chewed on.
"Well, shite."
"Yeah, let me get some photos of that before we remove it. I want to prove what we've got here because whoever's doing this is going down." He knelt by the plant, absently stroking Mircea with his free hand, and snapped several photos of the Twisted Windroot. "I reckon you've got something to put this away in?"
Felix pulled a small capsule from his pocket and flipped it open, where it expanded in his palm. Once Charlie was finished, he began the tedious process of unwinding the offshoots of the Windroot from the rest to make sure he got every bit of it. As its name suggested, the roots were the worst, and he had to tear up strips in an area at last six feet square before he was confident he'd gotten all of it. It all hovered in the air, and he twirled his wand and watched as it matched his movements, winding around itself until it was one small-ish cluster of leafy greens. It went into the capsule, which then shrunk back down to pocket size.
"And here I thought Brightstar was maybe one of the sane places in the world...." He stood and put the capsule away, then pulled his map from his notebook, carefully marking the location. He'd send some interns back to pull up the Broadleaf and replant it properly, but he'd accomplished the most important part. "On to the next, then?" He looked at the dog.
"Let's do it," Charlie agreed, and they headed off through the preserve.
After a bit, while Mircea was sniffing around and looking for the next root, Charlie added, "The day I got here, there was a Healer, one of the veterinary Healers--a Brightstar, so one of the family--giving Miyagi a dressing down about some reports that had been let to slide. Is this hunt we're on related to that as well?"
"Mmhmm, Kent Brightstar," Felix supplied, watching the dog on his quest with increased vigilance this time around. "I imagine it probably was, though not precisely directly."
He hadn't intended to come out here and spill the whole story to anyone, but that war-hero awe was too much to ignore, even in the face of a regular sort of bloke like Charlie. And bloody hell if Felix wasn't tired of all of the cloak and dagger. It was far more exhausting than any of his own issues had ever been, and that was saying something. "We were going along on separate paths for a bit. Healer Brightstar with a sick creature and me with a mess of paperwork to unwind. I've only just been here a month. Not even quite a month. I started noticing odd things, but it wasn't until his creature died from ingesting something it shouldn't have that I started making connections."
He started to elaborate, but Mircea starting signaling like he had before, and not soon after they were faced by yet another camouflaged plant that had no business being where it was. This time, it was mixed in with a patch of benign grasses, because the Avlax itself had a grassy sort of appearance. He followed a similar procedure to before, with pictures and containing it, then marking it on his map. When he was done, he practically sagged with relief.
Charlie was looking increasingly angry; Mircea kept going back to him to get his attention, which Charlie finally settled by putting a hand in Mircea's hair. "I'm going to have to have a word with some people," was all he had to say about that. If Charlie hadn't been who it was, it might have sounded like a threat. As it was, it sounded like a promise. "This can't be allowed to stand. This is--this is murder. Both of the creatures and--it's destabilising institutions. We know where that goes." His mouth set in a grim line.
Felix held up a hand, though the gesture was half-hearted. He was so, so tired of all of this, but he certainly couldn't walk away now. Not when his theories had just proved to be true. "If you could hold off, I would appreciate it. I've made the Head of HR aware of the situation, along with a handful of others, but the truth is I'm not sure yet who's behind this...but it's very likely those people have the power to sweep this under the rug if they get their hands around it before I can present my case to the Board."
And with that single, horrifying thought, he sank to the ground next to the little pulled-up patch of plants and leaned his elbows on bent knees. "Merlin. I'm going to have to make a case to the Board." He chuckled humorlessly. "I just wanted to grow plants."
"Who'd'ye think might be behind all this?" Because it sounded to Charlie like Felix might have an idea even if he wasn't sure.
Felix looked up at him and hesitated. These were serious allegations, and he didn't want to say anything he couldn't take back later. "My predecessor knew what was going on. There's no way he couldn't have. Whether he was behind it or not...." He raised his hands in a helpless gesture. "There are a handful of other names on the forms I've identified, but whether they knew what was going on or were just following orders, who knows? But I have a feeling it goes higher than that. Which is why I'm being rather careful. I'd be rather easy to fire as the new bloke in the picture."
Charlie didn't like being a "war hero": he'd done nothing, really, other than show up when asked. His brothers were the heroes in his family, and Ginny, and everyone else who'd actually been involved, not to mention Harry. But here, his name carried some weight. "I won't do anything until we've got more proof," Charlie agreed. "But whoever did this, and we're going to find out, is going to answer for it. And we're going to find out why."