Charlie Weasley

It was only when the dark shadow drew close that Harry truly saw what it was.

A dragon—a real dragon, exactly like the ones in comic books.

Why was there a dragon here?!

Harry hurriedly tried to run, but the dragon had already reached him. It was too fast; in the blink of an eye, it was upon him. Before Harry could make it back to the castle, he saw the flying dragon extend its claws and seize him in one grab.

Enormous force tightened around his abdomen, and a dizzying sensation of being lifted into the air overwhelmed Harry. To his horror, he found that he could not even scream.

As he watched Moonlight Castle grow farther and farther away, despair rose in his heart. In the blink of an eye, the castle was no bigger than a fingernail in his eyes.

Just then, a tremendous shockwave hit. Harry heard a deafening sound like thunder, and the flying dragon suddenly veered sideways, spinning several times.

At the same time, the dragon loosened its claws, and Harry plummeted rapidly toward the ground.

Whoosh—

Mu En appeared and grabbed Harry by the collar, looking at the dragon in surprise.

He had not expected a dragon to appear so deep in this forest.

If Lucifer had not warned him in time, this brat might have been snatched away and swallowed whole.

Come to think of it...

Mu En lifted the collar he was holding again, only to suddenly feel it grow lighter. Looking down, he found that Harry had somehow slipped right out through the collar.

??

Why were his clothes so big?

Just as Mu En was about to dive down and catch him again, a dark shadow appeared and caught Harry in passing.

Seeing the dark shadow rush toward him, Harry instinctively grabbed hold of it, flipped himself over, and climbed on. Only after he recovered his senses did he realize that he was sitting on a flying broomstick.

What surprised him even more was that, although it was his first time riding a broomstick, it felt as natural as moving his own arm. Looking down at the forest below, he felt no fear at all.

To be honest, if not for what had happened today, Mu En would have forgotten that this fellow was a flying broomstick. Once he saw that Harry was unharmed, he turned back to the flying dragon.

The dragon opened its enormous jaws at Mu En and spewed roaring flames.

Mu En's pupils narrowed into vertical slits, but his expression did not change. Lightning flashed through his hand.

In an instant, a black bolt of lightning thicker than a man shot from his hand, scattering the flames. In the blink of an eye, it struck the flying dragon, tearing open its flesh and sending waves of black smoke rising from its body.

The lightning contained within it made the dragon convulse all over. It had no strength left to beat its wings and fell straight down.

Under Harry's astonished gaze, Mu En stretched out his right hand toward the dragon. A black bow appeared on the back of his hand, while his left hand made the motion of drawing a bowstring. An arrow with overwhelming visual force gradually took shape along his arm.

Just as the arrow was about to be released, a majestic voice like the ringing of a bell echoed through the forest.

"Please stop!!"

Harry saw a cloud of mist sweep across Mu En's face, and the cat face was instantly concealed.

Looking toward the source of the voice, he saw a figure riding a flying broomstick rush over.

"Please stop! Spare its life." A red-haired young man spoke anxiously.

The arrow in Mu En's hand gradually vanished. He looked at the newcomer and frowned slightly. "Who are you?"

The man flew closer, glanced at the dragon that had fallen into the forest, and hurriedly said, "Sir, could you allow me to check on that dragon first?"

Mu En observed him for a moment. His strength was ordinary, but the concern in his eyes for the injured dragon did not seem false. He nodded.

The man hurriedly flew down into the forest. Seeing the heavily wounded dragon lying on its side on the ground, barely clinging to life, he quickly drew his wand and cast healing spells on it. He then took out an unknown powder and applied it to its wounds.

Harry flew to Mu En's side, somewhat wary. "Uncle Mu En, who is that?"

Mu En shook his head. "No idea. Maybe he's the dragon's owner? If so, I'll have to extort a fortune from him."

After saying that, he patted Harry's forehead, covered his scar with his hair, and fixed it in place so the wind would not blow it aside. Then he landed on the ground, with Harry following close behind.

When he saw Mu En land, the man also grew nervous. He had not expected this person to be able to fly without a flying broomstick, much less injure a dragon so badly all by himself.

Seeing that he had given the dragon some basic treatment, Mu En asked, "Can we introduce ourselves now?"

The man nodded and said nervously, "Sir, thank you for holding back at the last moment. My name is Charlie Weasley. I'm an intern at the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary."

There were dragon sanctuaries too... Was everything this standardized?

"So this dragon is?"

"It's a newly discovered wild Norwegian Ridgeback Dragon. Honestly, I never expected wild dragons could still be found. The sanctuary believes it escaped from the hands of a dark wizard, so they urgently sent us to capture and recover it.

"After all, we don't want it harming too many Muggles."

"Muggles?" Mu En asked, puzzled.

Was there some precious herb garden nearby? Or perhaps some valuable local specialty in Northern Europe?

"Uh..." Charlie opened his mouth, then finally gathered his courage. "Muggles are what we call ordinary people who cannot use magic."

Mu En suddenly understood. "Oh, so you meant Muggles. Sorry, my hearing isn't very good."

"So there are more of your people nearby, right?" Mu En asked again.

Charlie nodded. "Yes, sir. May I call them over?"

Though it made him seem somewhat humble, Charlie had no choice but to be cautious. The strange man before him was simply too powerful. His mother had told him that when away from home, caution came first.

Although the Dark Lord's death had driven the Dark Wizards into hiding, that did not mean they had disappeared completely.

"Of course. No need to be nervous. I'm not a bad person." Mu En waved a hand somewhat dejectedly.

What a pity he could not extort him.

After receiving Mu En's approval, Charlie raised his wand. Red and blue sparks shot from its tip, then flew high into the sky and burst like fireworks.

"All right. My colleagues will come as soon as they see it." Charlie put away his wand.

Mu En nodded. But he had no intention of wasting the wait. It was not easy to encounter a wizard he could communicate with, so he needed to gather more information.

"Charlie, you look quite young. How did you start working already?"

Charlie had not expected the other man to suddenly strike up a conversation. He had actually wanted to inspect the Norwegian Ridgeback Dragon more closely. After all, chances to examine these violent giants so freely were rare.

But since Mu En had spoken, he had no choice but to answer.

Reluctantly pulling his gaze away from the dragon, he replied, "Yes, I'm still a student, actually. I'm about to enter seventh year. I'm doing a Holiday Internship. Dragons are my greatest passion."

"I see. There aren't many students like you who have a career plan. Back in my day... cough, cough. By the way, where do you study?"

"I study at Hogwarts." Charlie nodded, then looked at Harry standing beside Mu En and added,

"If you're from Northern Europe, your child should attend Durmstrang," Charlie said.

"No, he's from Britain. We're only... staying here temporarily," Mu En explained.

"Oh, then it's Hogwarts. Looks like we'll be schoolmates." Charlie smiled and took the initiative to shake Harry's hand.

Charlie was entering seventh year, in his teens, and still in school...

That meant Hogwarts' Enrollment Age should be somewhere between ten and twelve...

Mu En wrapped an arm around Harry and smiled. "Yes, this child is nearly old enough to enroll too. By the way, do you know where it's best to buy some school supplies for children? Somewhere wizards often go, perhaps...

"Sorry, I've lived in such a remote place for so long that I rarely go out."

Charlie waved his hand and smiled. "I understand. Wizards do tend to live far away from Muggles. It's inconvenient to be too close to them. My family does too.

"As for places we often go, it would be Diagon Alley. It's on London's Charing Cross Road. There's a place there called The Leaky Cauldron, which is also the entrance to Diagon Alley.

"It's easy to find. It's so old that it looks completely out of place beside the other shops. Of course, Muggles can't see it."

"I see. Thank you."

Having obtained the information he wanted, Mu En could no longer suppress his urge to go and take a look. After saying goodbye, he left with Harry.

Not long afterward, a group of Charlie's colleagues arrived at the scene. When they saw the severely injured Norwegian Ridgeback Dragon, they all sucked in sharp breaths.

"Charlie, what happened here?" one person asked in horror, circling Charlie as he checked whether he was hurt.

"I'm fine," Charlie said. Then he suddenly lowered his voice. "I met an incredibly powerful wizard. He defeated the dragon. If I'd arrived any later, it might have died."

"How is that possible? It's a dragon!!" The man looked utterly incredulous before asking, "Could he be one of those powerful Old Wizards who have secluded themselves from the world for a long time?"

For wizards, whose profession relied on knowledge and brains, aside from a small number of geniuses, they generally grew stronger with age. The man's reasoning was perfectly logical.

Charlie nodded gravely. "Yes, that's what I think too. He actually asked me where to go if he wanted to buy things, so clearly he hadn't been in contact with the outside world for many years.

"And I sensed magical fluctuations on his face. He probably did that to make himself look younger. Otherwise, he wouldn't have said his hearing was bad."

After all his deductions, Charlie became certain that Mu En was an old man living deep within the Scandinavian Mountains. That child was probably his grandson. Perhaps his son and daughter-in-law had met with misfortune during the Voldemort War.

In only a short while, Charlie had constructed the story of a lonely, powerful old wizard living in seclusion deep in the mountains while raising his grandson.

If Mu En had heard Charlie's words, he would definitely have beaten him black and blue before properly explaining that the magic on his face was not meant to make him look younger.

And he was not some old man raising his grandson.