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"Shiny?"
Charlie turned his full attention to the little unicorn. It stood with its head raised, but even then it only came up to his neck. Fiona flew back and forth between them, and the unicorn's eyes followed her every move.
"It can see you."
Fiona nodded, then added, "I was watching it glow."
That was unexpected. Charlie filed the thought away.
Before he could say more, Fiona zipped over and landed right on the unicorn's forehead.
"Careful—" Charlie's hand shot up on instinct.
Unicorns were rare and powerful. That much he knew. The Ministry classified them as dangerous for a reason, and the old stories said every part of them was valuable. But Charlie had never understood exactly where that power came from or how it worked.
He really hoped that horn didn't shoot lasers.
He'd also heard unicorns hated males.
While he was still weighing the risks, the little unicorn dipped its head and deliberately nuzzled the hand he'd raised.
Charlie froze.
The touch was impossibly soft, like brushed silk. For a moment he couldn't pull away. His fingers moved on their own, stroking gently from the unicorn's forehead back through its silky mane.
After a few seconds the unicorn stepped back, shook its head, and trotted toward the side of Hagrid's hut. It lifted its nose toward the roof and let out a soft, questioning whinny.
"Charlie," Fiona called from her perch on the unicorn's head, pointing upward. "I think she's looking at the roof."
"I know. I already saw it." Charlie nodded.
He drew his wand with his left hand and pointed it at his own robes. "Wingardium Leviosa."
The spell lifted him as if he'd been tied to a dozen balloons. One light jump carried him three meters straight up. He caught the edge of the roof and pulled himself higher.
It didn't take long to find the automatic collector he'd left the night before. The vertical post was sturdy, and the storage compartment sat inside it. He lifted the collector, opened the plug at the bottom, and a glass vial slightly narrower than the post slid into his palm.
Inside was a clear, pure dew about two knuckles deep.
Roughly half an hour's worth of his own harvesting.
Not much, but more than enough. The collector could be mass-produced without much effort on his part.
Still…
Charlie dropped back to the ground and gave the vial a little toss in the unicorn's direction.
"This what you want?" he asked, smiling like a shady uncle offering candy.
The unicorn ignored the vial completely. It glanced at it once, then turned its head away and went back to staring at Hagrid's ceiling.
Charlie frowned.
That didn't make sense. There was nothing else on Hagrid's roof. And he was literally offering pure moon dew right in front of it. What could possibly be more interesting than that? The roof tiles?
He uncorked the vial.
The concentrated moon dew energy spilled out at once.
The unicorn whipped its head around so fast Fiona nearly tumbled off. It trotted straight to Charlie, eyes fixed greedily on the open vial.
That's more like it.
Charlie smiled. He pointed his wand at a nearby stone. "Vera Verto."
The stone sank in the middle and reshaped itself into a small porcelain bowl. He poured some of the dew into it and set the bowl at the unicorn's feet.
The little creature didn't hesitate. It lowered its head and drank greedily, tongue lapping until the bowl was dry. Then it lifted its head and stared at the vial in Charlie's hand with big, pleading eyes.
Charlie sighed. "Alright, alright."
He emptied the rest of the dew into the bowl.
"There. That's all of it. Nothing left."
While the unicorn happily finished every last drop, Charlie recapped the empty vial, floated back up to the roof, and retrieved the entire collector.
Fiona flew up from the unicorn's head as he landed. "You're taking it away?"
"Yeah. It's not finished yet." Charlie nodded.
If he was right, the collector created a pocket of unusually high moon-light concentration while it worked. That was probably what had drawn the unicorn in the first place. To the little creature, Hagrid's roof must have looked like a second moon last night.
That was a problem. It was too conspicuous.
Today it had only attracted a unicorn. Tomorrow it might pull in something far less friendly.
He explained his reasoning to Fiona, then turned to leave. A soft nudge against his back stopped him.
He looked over his shoulder. The unicorn had followed him, eyes wide and hopeful.
"There's nothing left, buddy. I gave you all of it."
He glanced around. The morning mist was already thinning. "You should get back into the forest before someone else sees you."
The unicorn wasn't stupid. It pressed its head affectionately against Charlie's side, then turned and trotted away, disappearing into the trees with a light, bouncing gait.
Charlie watched it go, then smiled at Fiona. "Cute little thing, isn't it?"
Fiona nodded enthusiastically.
A loud bang cut them off. Hagrid's door flew open and the half-giant stumbled out, still half-asleep. The moment he spotted Charlie he jerked backward.
"Merlin's pants!" Hagrid clutched his chest. "You scared the life out of me, Charlie."
"Sorry. You weren't up yet, so I climbed up and took the device down myself."
"Right. No harm done. I woke up a bit ago and heard noises from the roof. Figured it might be you."
"Probably me clomping around up there. Hope I didn't wake you."
"Nah, not at all." Hagrid grinned, then tilted his head. "What were you talking to yourself about out here just now?"
"Oh. I was talking about the unicorn. A little one wandered out earlier."
"What?" Hagrid took two long strides forward, dropped to one knee, and grabbed Charlie by both shoulders. "Are you alright? Did it hurt you?"
"Hurt me?" Charlie blinked, confused. "Hagrid, it was a unicorn. Why would it hurt me?"
"Merlin's beard, Charlie, that's exactly why it could've hurt you—you're a boy. Unicorns hate males. Even Dumbledore's not safe around them. Couple years back a student got kicked so hard he nearly died. Their hooves are no joke."
"Looks like I got lucky, then. And I didn't realize you were so popular with unicorns, Hagrid."
Charlie shrugged his shoulders pointedly. "I'm fine, really. You can let go now."
Hagrid's hands were enormous. Charlie had no doubt the man could wrap one around his waist and lift him like a toy.
Once Hagrid was satisfied there were no injuries—not even a speck of dirt—he finally released Charlie and scratched the back of his neck, embarrassed.
"They're still gentle, really. We just roughhouse a bit."
Fiona's wings fluttered. She landed lightly on Charlie's shoulder and whispered near his ear, "I bet the unicorn kicked him too, but he's so big he didn't even notice and just thought it was playing."
Charlie gave a silent nod.
After saying goodbye to Hagrid, Charlie hurried back toward the castle with the collector in his arms.
The next stretch of days settled into a steady rhythm. Charlie was still busy, but the work felt organized now. Every task had a place and moved forward at its own pace.
Every morning he ate one of the strawberry candies and carefully noted how much moonlight remained. After brushing his teeth he woke Anthony and Hector—though more often than not they were the ones waking him. Then he returned to the dorm and drank a spoonful of spring thunder.
He still had no idea what spring thunder actually did besides making him ravenously hungry. Maybe the energy was just accumulating inside him. Still, he wasn't about to stop. If he kept taking it every day, something noticeable had to show up eventually.
After that came homework, the occasional review or preview session, weekend spell practice, and helping Professor Chambers when he had time. In the evenings, when he wasn't too tired, he worked on redesigning the automatic collector—shape, function, efficiency. Everything had to be better.
He'd gotten the idea from sunflowers. The collector's panel should track the moon the same way, always facing it no matter where it moved across the sky. The sunflower analogy only gave him the concept, though. The actual rune work was still giving him headaches.
Time slipped by like that until one morning Charlie was wolfing down breakfast in the Great Hall.
"Charlie."
He stuffed another pumpkin pasty into his mouth.
"Charlie!"
He took a quick drink of orange juice to wash it down.
"Charlie!!"
Only then did he look up and turn toward Harry sitting behind him. "What?"
"You're acting weird," Ron said, watching him devour food like he hadn't eaten in days. "Do you even have dinner the night before?"
Hermione leaned in, concerned. "What's going on with you lately? Are you skipping meals?"
"What?" Charlie looked at them, genuinely surprised. "Why would you think that? I'm just growing."
He patted his stomach contentedly.
If spring thunder had any real benefit, it was the hunger. Everything tasted incredible when you were starving. Lately he'd started looking forward to the first meal after taking it every day. Like magical digestive tablets. Made him ravenous.
Maybe he should turn spring thunder into a chocolate that helped with digestion and appetite. Could be useful for people with eating problems.
His thoughts started drifting.
"Charlie! Charlie, look at this." Harry cut him off and held up a small scrap of paper.
Scrawled across it in messy handwriting were the words: "Egg's almost hatching—bring Charlie."
Charlie smiled. "The handwriting's so… elegant. I'm guessing Hagrid wrote it."
Ron stared at him. "You knew? When did you find out? And you never told us?"
He meant the dragon egg.
Charlie gave him a teasing look. "If I were you, Ron, I wouldn't ask questions like that."
"Why not? It's a perfectly normal question."
"Because you kept it from me too." Charlie shook his head. "Do I really need to spell it out?"
They were all protecting the same secret for the same person. They just hadn't known the others were doing it.
Hermione looked guilty. "Sorry, Charlie. We didn't know Hagrid had also told—"
"It's fine. You don't have to explain." Charlie cut her off. This wasn't the place to talk about it.
Beside him, Anthony leaned in and whispered, "What are you guys talking about?"
"Hagrid's little secret," Charlie said quietly. "Still not something I can share yet."
"Oh. Alright then." Anthony and Hector nodded and dropped the subject. They were curious, but they weren't close enough to Hagrid for it to matter, and prying into other people's secrets wasn't polite anyway.
In Herbology afterward, Harry and Ron were completely useless. They kept whispering about how amazing it would be to see a dragon hatch with their own eyes. Hermione tried to focus on the lesson, but they were so distracting she eventually gave up and agreed they could all go to Hagrid's hut during the break to check on the egg.
"Charlie, you coming?" Harry asked.
"What? Me? I'm not in a rush." Charlie shook his head. He was holding a pair of small pruning shears, carefully trimming a moon-moth plant.
A dragon?
He was curious—he'd never seen one. But he wasn't desperate to witness the hatching right this second. Maybe it was because he'd already seen things even more magical, like Fiona.
He could always go at lunch. No hurry.
Still…
He watched the three of them leave the greenhouse, then set the shears down and stared at the door, lost in thought.
Outside, Harry, Ron, and Hermione hurried toward Hagrid's hut, too excited to notice the figure trailing behind them.
The next moment a hand landed on the follower's shoulder.
"Hey, Draco. Long time no see."
Malfoy spun around and found himself face-to-face with the one person he both hated and feared more than anyone.
That face was smiling at him like they were old friends who'd just bumped into each other for a casual chat.