Summary: Charlie hadn't wanted anything. He never considered there would be something more - more than family, than school, that Britain and the life of a Weasley within it boundaries.

That was until the dragons.

Rating: T

Tags: Charlie Weasley, Dragons, Growing Up, Inspiration, Soul-Seeking

~Written for the House Competition: Round 2~

House: Ravenclaw

Category: Drabble

Prompt: Dragons

Word Count: 900 exactly (again)

Chapter 1: Inspired

Inspiration could arise from the most unexpected of situations, at the most unexpected of times.

"A light-bulb moment," Arthur Weasley would say as he proudly hefted aloft that very Muggle invention in reverential fingers. Where he'd even acquired it, none of the Weasley's quite knew; he often returned home with strange artefacts.

'Gifts' Arthur called them. Gifts, his wife would say, that were more for himself than their extensive family. "You could bring home something useful for a change, Arthur."

"Useful? Molly, dear, what's not useful about this?" Arthur would reply as he clutched fistfuls of Muggle gadgets to his chest with protective indignation; calculators, clusters of cassette tapes, something Arthur had enthusiastically called a 'slushie maker'.

"Slushies, Arthur?" Molly would scold. "Why would we possibly need that?"

Arthur never had much of a reply, but he wasn't deterred. He never stopped bringing home the Muggle artefacts that his children had accepted for the redundancies they were.

It was upon one such haul that Charlie Weasley found his inspiration.

"I'm home!" his dad called as soon as he stepped through the doorway.

Movement roiled through the house, for every child knew what his entrance meant. Dad was home. Home after a long, long day at work, and he was late. They all knew what that meant.

"Presents!" Fred and George hissed in synchrony, scrambling towards the front door. "Dad's stupid presents!"

From the kitchen, Percy sighed and dutifully made his way into the living room. Ron toddled after Charlie's mum as she followed in Percy's wake, Ginny propped on her hip and pouting sleepily. Charlie and Bill rose from the dining table and followed a step behind.

Arthur Weasley was a sight of enthusiasm and smiles, red cheeks and hat crooked atop his head. In a flutter of robes, he swept through the living room with outcried welcome.

"Boys, I hope you haven't been naughty today," he said to the twins, and they giggled in a delighted guilt. Arthur hugged them nonetheless, then reached a hand to pat at Ron's short tuft of hair. "Ron, did you sleep in for Mum this morning? And Percy, I hope you helped with dinner tonight as you promised."

"I'm always the one who helps," Percy grumbled.

Arthur beamed. "Good boy," he said. Then he turned to Bill and Charlie. Not a word but a smile was spared because they were the oldest and didn't need more. As big kids, hugs weren't necessary, even if Charlie still liked them.

Such was always the way; Arthur would return home, would greet his family, would offer a word, a smile, a hug. And then he would bequeath his gifts. Predictably, after a kiss spared to Molly and Ginny both, he upturned his pockets.

The wonders of the Muggle world spilled forth.

The twins were on the pile in an instant. Ron, never to be outdone, toddled into the mess after them. Percy sighed his typical sigh before squatting on his haunches and beginning to sift through the pilfered goods.

For no other reason that to maintain that satisfied smile upon his dad's face, Charlie dropped to his knees beside Bill and began his own rifling. Screws and wires, gadgets and toys of variable shapes, sizes, and questionable anatomy; Charlie didn't really want any of it, but he looked nonetheless. Wondrous but… redundant.

There was a Walkman – Charlie knew his dad liked them. More cassettes. Something else that looked like a grey brick with numbers upon its front. "He finally got a phone," Bill whispered as he bent and awkwardly hefted the brick.

A pop-up Muggle book.

Something that looked like a hose.

A pair of knitting needles that clearly didn't knit themselves as Charlie's mum's did.

And beneath a thin sheet of plastic…

"How did they get in there?" Arthur exclaimed, gesturing to where Charlie peered. "You can throw them out, Charlie. They're not very interesting. There's dozens of the little toys at work; it's a new trend, I think, though Merlin only knows why."

Charlie didn't think they 'weren't interesting'. He thought they were by far the most interesting things in the pile. He stared, enraptured, at what appeared to be a pair of dragons – tiny, animated, with triangular heads and glowing eyes – rolling over one another in a tussle. Jaws snapped, frills flared, wings flapping as they roiled in endless struggle.

They definitely weren't Muggle. Barely as large as Charlie's hand, he'd never seen an actual, proportionate dragon model before. Only pictures, and those pictures… they were nothing on the real thing.

These models might have been real dragons themselves.

Charlie scooped them gently and they barely seemed to notice in the throughs of their battle. Just as Charlie barely noticed when his dad repeated, "Just throw them out, Charlie. They're probably defective anyway if they won't stop fighting, the silly things."

Charlie had never felt less like throwing something out in his life.

"That's cool," Bill said nonchalantly as he studied an unremarkable paperweight.

Charlie nodded. The dragons were cool. Really, really cool.

Muggles were interesting, Charlie had been taught. They were wondrously intelligent for non-magical beings. Charlie could nearly understand where his dad's fascination came from.

But dragons…

Cradling the pair of wrestling models in his hands, Charlie found himself smiling. In his opinion, some things were way, way better.

At nine years old, Charlie was inspired before he even knew it.

A/N: This is so hard to keep the word count minimal!
Anyway - there will be a second chapter up in a few days as a continuation. A little longer, a little deeper. Please let me know what you think and maybe what you'd like to see. Thanks for reading!