InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Balls."

S. Kettleburn (jawsthatbite) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2011-06-07 17:53:00

Entry tags:

charlie weasley, merlin

WHO: Charlie Weasley and Merlin
WHAT: Dog walking and distracting conversations
WHERE: The Park
WHEN: This afternoon
RATING: Low to start with
STATUS: Incomplete

Charlie was strolling through the park, two huge dogs bounding along beside him. He'd lasted quite a while before he'd caved and started filling his flat with animals. Back at the Burrow he hadn't gone a day without dragging some animal into the kitchen and facing his Mother's wrath, and his place in Romania had only been spared the four-legged invasion because of the dragon preserve's presence. The German Shepherd and the Golden Labrador currently play-fighting on the grass hadn't quite managed to fill the dragon-shaped hole inside him, but they went a little way. Anyway, with everything that was going on he welcomed the distraction two dogs that mildly resembled small horses brought. Things were going mad, people were dying - thankfully nobody Charlie was close to but with the mood like it was that hardly seemed to matter - and it was so like it had been before that it put him on edge.

Lost in thought, the second-eldest Weasley glanced away for a moment, squinting against the sun as he peered across the grassy park. The animals took that way to bolt away, bounding joyfully over the grass without a care in the world.

"HEY!" Charlie scowled and sprinted after the two giant pets. A moment later he was grabbing them both by the scruff of the neck and dragging them away from where they were sniffing and pawing curiously at the whoever had the bad fortune to catch their attention. Charlie let out a breath through flared nostrils, shaking red hair from his eyes and giving the stranger an apologetic look. "Sorry." He winced, still gripping tight to the two animals, although they'd stilled enough to look up at him reproachfully. "They got away from me."

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Dragon Keeper meets a Dragon Lord. So exciting.

magicalsecrets
2011-06-08 03:05 am UTC (link)

Merlin sat in the grass, laughing, and petting the two massive dogs cheerfully until they were dragged off him. He grinned up at Charlie. "It's alright. They're good dog- Oh. Archimedes?"

He stopped midway through that thought, and looked around curiously. The small hooting under his backpack catching his attention, pulling out the startled owl from where it had hidden. Merlin quite liked animals, but his two pets were much smaller - a cat and the tiny owl Arthur had gotten him when he was young briefly - and very different from the animals he dealt with back home. However, the great dragon did not leave a great hole in his heart by any means with its absence here.

"I like your dogs. They just startled me and Archimedes." Merlin chuckled, letting the bird settle on his shoulder as he stood, and brushed himself off. "Do they have names?"

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jawsthatbite
2011-06-08 12:01 pm UTC (link)

Charlie sighed and squatted down, pulling a couple of leads from his back pocket and dragging a dog towards him to clip it onto its collar. He was just doing that, tilting his head away from the rough, warm tongue that was being pushed into his neck when the boy on the grass started looking around. Charlie's sunbeaten, freckled face broke into a wide grin as the stranger pulled out an owl. He hadn't thought anyone had owls here.

"Hey!" He straightened up as the boy did, leaning forward to brush his fingers over the top of the owl'd head. "My little brother used to have an owl a bit like this," he smiled, before the dogs gave a huge tug on their lead and Charlie had to tighten the broad muscles in his arm to keep them close.

"This one's Harvey," he told the dark haired boy, nodding towards the golden labrador. "And that's Faris." This time he gestured towards the larger German Shepherd. Finally Charlie grinned and held out his free hand, complete with calluses and burn marks, to the stranger. "I'm Charlie, while we're at names. Charlie Weasley."

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Re: .

magicalsecrets
2011-06-08 11:20 pm UTC (link)

"My friend got me this when he was changed into his young future self. Or something. He thought I should have an owl like in the Sword in the Stone." He smiled and let Charlie pet the little owl, before looking to each of the dogs in turn, then Charlie himself. Merlin brightened a little at the familiar name.

"Oh! I think I knew your brother, one of them...Ron? He was my room mate a while back. For a little bit." Merlin had been here long enough that he had gone through several different roommates. Regulus had stuck around the longest, which was nice. He liked having people close by. Especially someone who would be just as willing to accept video games and m&ms as dinner on a bad day.

"I'm Merlin." He shook Charlie's hand, looking to the burn marks curiously. "How did you get burnt?"

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Re: .

jawsthatbite
2011-06-08 11:36 pm UTC (link)

"Sword in the what?" Charlie frowned, already completely lost. You'd have thought having Arthur Weasley as a Father would have made him slightly less rubbish when it came to muggle things - you could get lost in his shed. But quite frankly, Charlie was convinced that his Dad made up almost everything he ever told him about muggles, and so tended to drift off whenever the topic came up.

"Ron was your roommate?" Charlie gave a teasing wince. "Sorry about that. Snores like a Longhorn with a cold, that one." He grinned. He loved his brother, of course he did, but Ron could be bloody ridiculous at times. Although he was the only one who would sit down for a decent game of chess with him. None of the others really had a head for it. "Yeah, he's my youngest brother. I'm the second oldest. When... you know... we're all the right age." He shrugged carelessly, then the grin quickly fell and his gaze snapped up.

"Mer - No! You're not. You're... Really?!" He couldn't help but stare. Merlin. He didn't look like Merlin. He was younger than him and all... skinny and clean shaven and had a tiny owl on his shoulder. "Bloody hell," he managed. He'd known people from all over were here but that was... Wow.

Charlie managed to catch himself, realising his jaw was hanging open a little stupidly, probably doing a rather good impression of a goldfish. He snapped it closed quickly, scrambling to catch back up with the conversation. "Oh... I - er..." He glanced down to his scarred, freckled hand, trying to get back on track. "Oh. I work with dragons. In Romania. Back home, I mean."

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magicalsecrets
2011-06-09 12:24 am UTC (link)

"It's a book, and a film. About Arthur and I. All wrong, of course, but I like them." He understood the confusion. It was only because he'd been here for so long that he was adjusted to most of the things that would have been unfamiliar to him normally. He also knew that the world that Charlie came from was just as unfamiliar with a lot of the technology and things here as well even though he was from around the same time as this place pretended to be.

He chuckled a little at the apology and shrugged a little. "Never bothered me." Granted, they weren't roommates too long. Still, Merlin was never bothered by the noise. As for the reaction to his name that followed, he wasn't exactly surprised. It happened a lot. He just smiled and nodded, waiting for the shock to pass. Merlin was surprised there was no comment on his age or lack of a beard to go along with it. Not to say Charlie wasn't thinking it. "Really. A bunch of us from Camelot are here. All younger then you'd expect."

"Dragons?" Merlin brightened slightly, happy to change the subject, and curious since dragons were all but extinct back home. Working with dragons seemed interesting too. He couldn't imagine Charlie meant anything like the way he worked with Kilgharrah. Of course, he couldn't imagine what other dragons must be like - god forbid they were all so cryptic in the way they spoke. "What do you do? What sort of work?"

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jawsthatbite
2011-06-09 01:19 am UTC (link)

"Ygraine!" Something seemed to click in Charlie's mind. "Ygraine Pendragon! She works at the stables with me. And her husband runs them."

He'd known the name sounded familiar, but for some reason he'd never made the connection. He only knew the basics when it came to Camelot and Merlin and all that stuff - he hadn't exactly been paying sharp attention as Binns rattled on. And Arthur was here too... How had he missed that? Charlie supposed it hadn't been hard, really. He tended to pay more attention to the animals of the city than the people running around its streets. Animals were easier to get on with, in his opinion. Given a choice, he knew which he'd pick.

He couldn't help but grin broadly at Merlin's interest. Charlie could talk about his work until the cows (Or dragons.) came home. "Training and handling, mostly," he admitted. "But I do a bit in the breeding fields and in transporting them about places. Sometimes people want to rent them to guard things or whatever." He paused, tilting his head a little. "Don't you have them back home?"

At his side, the dogs were becoming restless, and Charlie sighed before ducking down to let them off their leads once again, glancing over his shoulder to watch as they pelted off over the grass.

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magicalsecrets
2011-06-09 01:44 am UTC (link)

"Yes. The king and queen." It was still kind of entertaining, thinking of the royals running and working at a stable - something that used to be part of his job as a servant.

"Training - Breeding? And they let you? I think Kilgharrah likes me, but I can't imagine him letting someone direct his breeding even if there were others...Are you a dragon lord then?" Merlin asked excitedly. If the dragons were anything like the one he had back home, he imagined it would take a dragon lord to survive telling a dragon to breed. "Just one. He's the last. Uther had the others killed."

Merlin grinned at the dogs as they took off. He made one of the branches from a tree snap off and fly over their heads - a game of magic fetch to keep them entertained.

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jawsthatbite
2011-06-09 12:29 pm UTC (link)

"I... what?" Charlie looked confused, pulling his gaze back from watching the dogs bounding over the park. What did he mean, they let him? "They just... they're animals. They don't really argue back. It's like breeding... dogs. You know... If dogs were as big as houses and breathed fire and flew and were a million times cooler and whatever."

He was suddenly intrigued. What were dragons like where Merlin came from if he thought he needed permission from the dragons themselves? It almost sounded like they were conscious, attentive beings. Was that even possible? And there was only one! The idea of that killed Charlie a little bit. Suddenly, he felt a little uneasy of his boss at the stables.

Turning, he laughed as a branch snapped off a tree and went spinning off in mid-air, the pets tearing after it overexcitedly. He was watching Merlin do magic. This was mental. Brilliant, but mental.

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magicalsecrets
2011-06-09 02:14 pm UTC (link)

"Oh. Kilgharrah argues back with me, and talks in riddles half the time." He supposed it was probably best Charlie's dragons weren't like his. He imagined more then one dragon flying off spouting cryptic prophecies to all the people it met - It almost made him wonder if that's what happened with Uther. The idea of the king meeting a dragon who told him what a tyrant he'd become, probably laughing all the while, getting Uther angry enough to want to hunt them all down - it was almost a funny thought.

"But no - he's not anything like a big dog, that's for sure." Merlin smiled and shrugged, laughing a little as the dogs caught the branch briefly before he sent it flying again in another direction. "I guess he's sort of my friend. A giant, annoying fire-breathing friend who sometimes gives terrible advice."

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jawsthatbite
2011-06-09 08:47 pm UTC (link)

Charlie’s eyebrows had vanished up towards his hairline as Merlin spoke. If it wasn’t mad enough that he was having a casual conversation with Merlin, he was telling him he was mates with a talking dragon with questionable agony aunt skills. Although Charlie suspected that if anyone could say that it’d be Merlin. He was Merlin, after all. And he really needed to let that go before he turned into some kind of star-struck, pathetic idiot. Charlie shoved his hands into his pockets, glancing back from where he’d been watching the dogs.

“It’d probably make my job a hell of a lot easier if you could have a normal chat with the dragons,” he commented. “Apart from roaring and biting.” Then his brow crumpled as he corrected himself, “Although I’ve never been a fan of riddles, so maybe not.” He offered a small smile, pushing crimson hair from his eyes. It really needed a cut – if he carried on without bothering he’d end up with looking like Bill, and he really didn’t have the whole tall-with-an-earring thing going on to pull that off.

“And what’s a Dragon Lord?”

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magicalsecrets
2011-06-10 01:25 am UTC (link)

"Not really. If they had the attitude of Kilgharrah you wouldn't have much of a job at all." He answered once Charlie shook himself out of his shock and awe. Smiling all the while. It was interesting to find someone who liked dragons, who had experience with them.

"Someone who can talk to and command dragons." That was all Merlin knew about it, so it was the only explanation he had to offer. His father had died before he had the chance to really tell him anything more then that. If the dragon knew anything more then that he didn't share it with him.

"If I tell Kilgharrah to do something he has to obey." Merlin added with a little shrug. It wasn't something he did often.

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