A Once in a Lifetime Opportunity [Charlie]

[Deleted]

July 1, 2025
charlie marie weekly

Today was the most epic day at the rehab center EVER. When Whiskey arrived at the center that morning and realized what was happening she immediately spoke to the vet, then sent a SOS text to Charlie Weekly. IT read something along the lines of "YOU HAVE TO COME TO THE CENTER NOW NO TIME TO EXPLAIN!" IT was cryptic, she knew, but she really couldn't explain! There was no time! And hopefully Charlie understood the urgency to the text, because it was in all caps. 


You see, one of the dragon eggs was HATCHING. Charlie Weekly loved reptiles, and technically dragons were reptiles, so she knew Charlie would want to be there. And the vet had agreed to let Whiskey invite the younger girl! 

Whiskey was practically jumping out of her skin. Running from the hatching area, to the center entrance, back to the hatching area, back to the entrance. It was a continual loop all morning long. Where was she?!

Whiskey was at the entrance currently. She'd pulled her phone out, and was typing a second frantic text, speaking aloud as she typed. Where are you?! You're going to miss it!" She'd just pressed send when the door opened.

[charlie marie weekly]

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No mom in London meant Charlie was allowed to break her ‘veganism’ once again, and this time with a slightly longer permanence. See, she normally ignored the lifestyle the second she was at school. The vegan options were usually terrible anyways at Ilvermorny, and Hogwarts was no better. But now…now she had total freedom for the whole summer, and at the very least, until Christmas break. It was a dream come true, and anything that her mom ordered for her online to eat was either given to one of her siblings or tossed in the trash if it wasn’t what she was feeling for the day. Sometimes the ingredients could be retrofitted for real meals, other times they couldn’t be. As long as she was on the side of the world though, she wasn’t going to be her mom’s mini-me health junkie.

So how did Charlie Weekly normally conduct breakfast every morning? Two eggs, poached, a slice of toast, and whatever fruit happened to be in the penthouse at the time. They went through so much food that it was usually a toss-up every meal time unless it was planned out in advance. And even then, she normally wrote her name down on whatever was hers and was not to be touched.

This morning, she was breaking into the second poached egg with her fork when her phone rattled with a buzz on the countertop. She wasn’t big on using ringtones, so instead she had customized vibrations for different family members and important people. The heartbeat vibration currently going off on her phone meant was specifically assigned to Whiskey Earp, her unrequited love. At least that’s what Charlie had always told herself. She had never actually conveyed those feelings to the other girl at all, instead deciding it would more interesting to endlessly torture herself by just being friends. Again, that was one-hundred percent Charlie making those decisions for herself. Whiskey was just her friend (unfortunately).

The second egg was practically forced down her throat as Charlie flew into motion. Whiskey wanted her to go to the research center for some reason! There wasn’t much more explanation than that, but she didn’t really need anything else either. Just being able to go to the center was cool enough, and basically aligned with a lot of the things Charlie wanted to do after graduating.

She probably would have been there sooner, but the sudden internal panic of whether or not this was a date or a work related thing really threw her for a loop. There wasn’t any indication it was the former, and yet her brain tried to convince her that it was, just in disguise. And then she had the issue of trying to figure out what was appropriate to wear to a research center. Was she going to be looking at animals like it was a zoo, or actually interacting with them? Eventually she settled on something practical, just in case they were going to be holding creatures. The kind of clothes that she didn’t care about if they suddenly caught fire because of a blast-ended skrewt.

With that out of the way, she utilized the family’s supply of Floo Powder and was in Hogsmeade in a matter of seconds. She didn’t even bother to check if she was covered in soot, her feet carrying her all the way to the research center. Her phone started buzzing again just as she pushed open the door, Whiskey standing directly inside in the front entrance. “H-Hey,” Charlie stumbled over her greeting as she stopped just on the other side of the door.

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[Deleted]

July 1, 2025
charlie marie weekly

The door opened and Whiskey almost jumped out of her skin, startled by the sudden appearance of the person that she'd been frantically texting. "Oh jeez!" You'd expect her to, you know, not be scared when the person she's expecting shows up. She'd been so focused on the fact that Charlie wasn't there though, that the thought Charlie was about to enter hadn't even crossed her mind.

After her momentary scare though, she recovered and pocketed her phone. She flashed a huge smile at the younger girl. "Hey! Glad you could make it! Come on, you've got to see this!" She hadn't actually said was "this" is yet, but she was motioning towards a door that led to the back, and then led the way, holding the door open for the younger girl. "We've got a dragon egg! They confiscated it from a smuggler. We were going to send it to a reserve and see if we could get dragon mom to accept it, but it's hatching now!" There it was, finally the explanation of why she'd so desperately texted Charlie. Charlie loved reptiles. Sure, dragons were "magical reptiles" but they were still reptiles. Plus, who didn't want to see the once in a lifetime opportunity of a dragon egg hatching?!

[charlie marie weekly]

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Charlie immediately realized that she probably looked like a crazy person bursting through the doors of the center, covered in soot whilst wearing designer sunglasses. Thankfully they were last year’s line, and she was due for the current season’s any day now. A little soot and aggressive door opening wasn’t going to make her look any less normal though, regardless of what year her sunglasses were made. The fact that she felt like she could be perceived as disheveled in front of Whiskey made her face turn a few shades of pink, which she immediately told herself she would play off as a sunburn if it persisted. Being in London literally didn’t help with curing her pastiness like LA did.

Whiskey repeated what her text from earlier said, still being vague about what she had to show the Weekly girl. Charlie simply nodded her head and followed the redhead, stepping through a door that apparently led deeper into the center. At that point, Whiskey revealed what the big deal was with getting here so fast: there was a dragon egg hatching! Her mouth fell open just as she got through the door, “You’re kidding, right? This can’t be real…” But she was sure her disbelief was going to go away the second she saw it. A dragon! She had never seen one in person, but had read almost every book she could get her hands on about them. The fact that it was an egg too? Charlie would have been grateful just to see the egg on its own, regardless of whether or not the baby was hatching. Witnessing an event like this was just…amazing!

Still in shock that she was about to see a real, live dragon, Charlie didn’t move from her spot at the start of the hallway. All she could do was stare at Whiskey, waiting for confirmation that it wasn’t all a joke of some sort.

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[Deleted]

July 1, 2025
charlie marie weekly

Whiskey actually didn’t notice the sooty appearance of Charlie. Soot or not, Charlie was still super cute no matter what she wore. Not that Whiskey would ever admit that! Though she had heard that Charlie’s family was super crazy rich or something, so maybe Charlie cared... Ah well, Whiskey wasn’t really into designer stuff. If it looked nice, it looked nice. And Charlie always looked nice. Charlie was quick to follow, walking through the door she help open. Thankfully, not commenting on how scatter brained Whiskey was. It was still pretty early. She’d also had a cup of coffee, which she rarely EVER drank, so she was having a bit of a caffeine rush.

Then, Charlie registered what Whiskey was saying. Charlie froze like a bag of bricks, rooted to the ground and accusing Whiskey of joking. Would I joke about something this big at this hour?” Whiskey puffed her cheeks out like an angry chipmunk, though it didn’t really have the “fake angry” affect she wanted and instead just made her look like she’d stuffed too much food in her mouth. She let out the breath she was holding to puff out her cheeks after a moment, and grabbed for Charlie’s hand. They had to move! ”Come on! We don’t want to miss it! If I’m going to watch a dragon hatch, I only want to watch it with you!” If Charlie was willing, she was fully intent on pulling the blonde down the hall towards the observation room, where they could watch the egg hatch from a one way mirror (so as not to affect any imprinting, of course.).

[charlie marie weekly]

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“I-I don’t know…” Charlie stuttered out, suddenly unsure if she had said the wrong thing. It certainly seemed like the sort of thing that one of her siblings would try to do to her, just to ruffle her feathers a bit. She had definitely babbled on a bit too much about Whiskey at dinner once or twice, and there was no way that her siblings didn’t put two and two together. Either that or they thought she was an alcoholic that liked to ramble about her musings on how great the drink was. Personally, she enjoyed both of them.

Her sudden attempt at mimicking a mannequin came to an end when Whiskey grabbed her hand and start leading her down the hallway towards another room, which was labeled as the observation room. She let her feet fall in line with Whiskey’s, trailing behind at first but eventually catching up to her. Was this okay? The combination of dragon egg hatching and hand holding had her completely confused on what to be more excited about, though she was sure Whiskey just wanted her to get a move on so they wouldn’t miss the hatch. She even said so herself. If they missed it, what would have been the point in showing up in the first place?

Charlie looked back and forth between the door to the observation room and Whiskey, before using her free hand to open it and step inside. There was a large glass pane on one wall, which she assumed was the reason it was named that way. On the other side? A fairly large egg, something she recognized from the books she had read, but never realized would be that big in person. Tightening her grip on Whiskey’s hand (because she desperately didn’t want to let go at this point), Charlie started to move towards the glass window so that she could get a better look at the egg on the other side.

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[Deleted]

July 1, 2025
charlie marie weekly

Thankfully, Charlie didn't resist Whiskey's hand hold and almost dragging down the hall. After only a moment Charlie's feet were moving and she was keeping up, rather then letting herself be forcibly dragged. As they moved Whiskey couldn't help but notice how warm Charlie's hand was, and how well it fit in her own. It was natural, comfortable. Thankfully Whiskey being a little ahead of the other girl hid her slightly pink cheeks. By the time they reached the room in question the faint blush had disappeared. Charlie was the one to open the door, and they entered, still hand in hand. The observation room would give them the perfect view of the egg. The glass was even reinforced so that if anything did fly at it, it would withstand the hit. And fire would melt it. Not that baby dragons had much fire power. Still, safety first! IT was also tinted, so that the dragon wouldn't imprint on one of them.

Whiskey let out a sigh of relief as they arrived and the egg was still (mostly) intact. There were a great many cracks, and the egg was shaking. But overall, they'd arrived just in time. Charlie tightened her grip on WHiskey's hand, and Whiskey tightened her hand back. It had to be the excitement, surely, but Whiskey would enjoy it while it lasted. It wasn't every day she got to hold Charlie Weekly's hand! "See? Isn't it gorgeous?" She breathed. Whiskey loved all animals. And watching a dragon egg hatch was something few ever did.

[charlie marie weekly]

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The dragon egg shone brilliantly from behind the viewing window, and for a moment, Charlie was upset that the shell had to be tarnished by the cracks in it. None of the books she had read about dragons could have described what it was like to see one hatch in person and whatever she had imagined it to look like wasn’t even close to the real thing either. She figured it was more like a bird egg, but this thing was radiating with in a more violent way. It almost made sense because it was a baby dragon inside and that was bound to include a lot of fire, smoke, and breaking. All in the most beautiful way, of course.

She had forgotten about the death grip she had on Whiskey’s hand, her attention completely stolen by the egg, only realizing it again when the other girl stated that the egg was gorgeous. Charlie instinctively looked at her and mumbled some sort of nonsensical agreement, afraid that if she opened her mouth too much, a confession would find its way out in the middle of it. Being bombarded with a dragon egg and holding hands with Whiskey was already enough mind-numbing stimulation for the day.

“What breed is it?” she finally said after a few moments of silence, still unable to tear her gaze away from Whiskey. She figured it was going to stay this way until the dragon actually managed to break out of the egg. Watching it break out was cool and all…but Whiskey! If this had been anyone else or at any other point in time, it would have been a no-brainer. “How much longer, do you think?” Charlie followed up with, leaning in closer to both the viewing window and Whiskey, as she finally broke her stare for just a moment.

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[Deleted]

July 1, 2025
charlie marie weekly

Charlie had, pun intended, gone into a shell-shocked silence. She didn't speak until Whiskey spoke, and even then it was barely an answer. Whiskey smiled at the other girl at the mumbled agreement. A moment later, and Charlie managed to get out a sentence, asking about the breed. Whiskey looked back at the egg, raking her brain for the answer. "I think it's a Swedish Short-Snout. Looks most like one of their eggs, but I'd never seen one in person before." She'd seen pictures, of course. But sometimes pictures didn't do the real thing justice. Book learning and hands on was very different, so maybe she was wrong on the breed?

Whiskey's gaze kept bouncing between Charlie's and the dragon egg. Charlie kept looking at her, so she felt a need to keep meeting her gaze, but she was also very conflicted because... well a dragon was hatching! Eventually though, Charlie moved, a little closer to her and the window, and looked to the egg. "Dunno. The vet said sometimes it's really quick once they start cracking like this, but sometimes it takes them a while." The egg shook violently, one of the cracks widening and splintering out. The egg didn't shatter, but it must be close, very close. A few more shakes likes that and they'd probably have a baby dragon....

[charlie marie weekly]

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A Swedish Short-Snout! Charlie knew what those looked like, she had read about them in quite a few different books. What had always stuck out to them was that they were blueish in color, though the egg was far from looking anything like an adult Short-Snout. When she first saw the egg, she figured it would be something more local, like a Common Welsh Green or Hebridean Black. There had been a point where, prior to arriving in England for school, she had hyped herself up to the point where she expected to see dragons flying around all over the place. Obviously that hadn’t happened in the last year, fortunately having missed the ones that attacked Hogsmeade during Christmas break. That had all changed now, and the first ever dragon she would see was about to be born right in front of her.

It was hard to imagine that Whiskey hadn’t seen a Short-Snout, considering her job. But maybe that was the difference in a vet and a dragonologist. The specialties were drastic enough that a normal vet wouldn’t really go around telling a dragonologist how to work with dragons. “You’re so cool,” she breathed out, immediately realizing what she had said. “I mean, your job is super cool. Like, being able to watch dragon eggs hatch? So cool.” Charlie could feel her face start to burn in embarrassment, so she turned away from Whiskey, training her gaze back onto the egg once again. God she was so lame.

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[Deleted]

July 1, 2025
charlie marie weekly

The egg kept shaking, more and more frequently now. Little shakes, then a more violent one that would crack the shell. Whiskey knew they couldn't intervene though, instead they had to let the baby dragon work out how to free itself from the egg. It was important that animals born in eggs break out of their own shells. It happened all the time back on the homestead. Her parents had taught her stuff like that growing up. But still... She wished she could help the creature.

Charlie's words shocked Whiskey, and she looked bewildered back at the younger girl, then Charlie corrected herself. Oh, right. Yeah. That's what she meant. Whiskey had just misheard her.... "Right?! It's really cool. The vet doesn't let me do too much right now. I work with babies mostly. But a dragon is a once in a life time thing!" Who knew when she'd get to see something like this again? "I'm pretty cool too. Cause, ya know. I got the vet to let you watch too." She added quietly. If there was anyone that would want to see this more than Whiskey, it was Charlie.

The egg gave another violent shake and then shattered. Pieces flew everywhere but the glass protected them from the shell. And thus the newest baby dragon entered the world.

[charlie marie weekly]

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Yup. She had definitely ruined any slim chance she may have had with Whiskey. Even if that wasn’t true, her brain had already told her it was. She was stupid for letting her mouth talk without actually thinking about what she was saying. Back tracking the way she did would only make it look worse too. And the look on Whiskey’s face! She was such an idiot…

Whiskey was either playing it off like she hadn’t heard the part, or actually hadn’t, because she went on to explain that the vet she worked for didn’t really allow her to do much of anything, aside from dealing with newborns. That made sense, in a way. Everyone had to start somewhere. And then Charlie heard it. She was trying to focus on the egg cracking, since it looked like the dragon was about to burst through the shell. Whiskey had added, though quietly, that she was cool too, for being able to arrange this whole thing in the first place. Charlie felt her face burn again, because she knew that meant the other girl had heard her after all.

But there wasn’t enough time to feel embarrassed over what may or may not have been heard. Despite being behind the viewing window, hearing the dragon egg shell finally break apart as the baby gave one final push, had Charlie completely fixated on it. Getting hung up on her feelings felt obsolete as the reptilian snout tasted air for the first time. She couldn’t even find the words to describe it in the moment, opting to squeeze Whiskey’s hand gently as she leaned in as close to the window as possible.

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