MA: I don't own HP or CoR… if I did baaad things would happen

I think this came from the fact that I wanted to see an odd pairing in this crossover. I've seen so many Harry/Riddick I got kinda tired of it … hmmm… maybe I'll make a challenge…. Eh, we'll see.

Chapter One: Also Known as the Prologue-

Charlie Weasley's day started off normally; he woke up and dragged himself to his small kitchen. After downing two cups of blacker than black coffee he was awake enough to take a long shower, long mostly due to falling asleep under the spray until the water turned cold (being a wizard, lack of warm water normally wasn't an issue, but one of his coworkers charmed a timer into his shower after he had managed to fall asleep for four hours straight under the comforting spray). This time he managed to finish his shower without the timer going off and, feeling a bit more human, he managed to eat some toast for breakfast (due to his nonexistent tolerance to mornings he never really was a breakfast person, something that even his mother, the formidable Molly Weasley, had never managed to correct). After dressing in worn brown dragon-hide pants and a comfortable white tee, he grabbed his wand and well-loved brown dragon-hide jacket, put on his heavy duty dragon-hide boots and headed to work.

The Romanian Dragon Reserve where he worked was an immense stretch of land covering an entire mountain range surrounded by a large stone wall, easily three times as tall as an elephant. Due to the nature of the spells and wards surrounding it muggles often even forgot the wall was there, let alone the mountain range. Every once in a while a muggle living in a village in the foot hills would stop and look at the wall and mountains in surprise, before promptly forgetting about them again. Thankfully not many people lived in the few villages around the mountains. There was a purely magical village near what was considered the "main" entrance where those who worked at the reserve lived and where tourists stayed when visiting. Huge ornately carved gray-stone gates marked the main entrance to the reserve. They stood as tall as the walls and were twice as wide as they were tall. The carvings on the gates were dragons, all kinds of dragons; long snake-like dragons crawling up the posts and the just about every type imaginable twisting and arching around each other on the gates themselves leaving no space un-carved. All the dragons were shown in profile except a large growling lion-ish dragon head that sat dead center. "The Guardian", as they called it, was split in half by the gates opening, its eyes were two massive cut rubies. The mane was streaks of various shades of gold- from pale white, to deep burnished red- giving an unnerving impression of golden fire. His teeth were easily the size of a man and were silver, though the reflection from the mane often made the bared teeth seem soaked in blood. The overall effect was quite intimidating and made quite the attraction for visiting tourists.

Charlie apparated in a large open space near the gates, ropes marking the edges of the clearing- the designated apparation point for both the village and the reserve. A large building was next to the space with a sign designating it the main offices for the reserve. He wove around crowds of people heading to a small side door into the offices. He made it to his designated office and collapsed into one of the two rickety chairs next to a large, old, scarred and battered desk, piled high with books, scrolls of parchment, and pieces of equipment that may or may not have had something to do with handling dragons. The walls of the office were covered in pinned up maps, photos, drawings and random pieces of junk that looked more or less like bits of beads, bones, twigs, string- general odds and ends one might find laying about. Most of the junk on the walls was due to Charlie's shadow- though she termed herself an "investigative reporter" and supposedly she had come to the dragon reserve in search of fantastical beasts, but mostly she followed Charlie around. He would complain, he was a loner by preference- preferring his dragons to people- but she was entertaining without being annoying and she made herself useful, mainly by supplying him with food and deflecting annoying people in her usual strange way.

Charlie sighed, leaning his head back and closing his eyes cursing mornings everywhere to a painful death. A tap on his door and an absolutely heavenly aroma interrupted his irritated thoughts. He cracked his eyes open and managed to drudge up a smile.

"Luna-love if that coffee is for me I'm willing to do anything you want… up to and well past murder and mayhem." Luna Lovegood was Charlie's sister, Ginny's, age, almost nineteen and out of Hogwarts for two years now. She was tall, willowy, blonde and her silver-blue eyes always seemed slightly out of focus. According to his sister and her husband, Harry, as well as his youngest brother, Ron, and his wife, Hermione, Luna really hadn't changed much over the years. Other than her height, just a few inches shy of Charlie's own 6 feet, she still wore outlandish clothing- today was a neon green peasant top with a royal purple frilly knee-length skirt and a pair of paint splattered jeans underneath with tan hiking boots and a black leather zip-up vest completing the ensemble. A haphazardly beaded necklace wrapped around her neck several times and she had switched her normal radish earrings for vaguely flower shaped twists of silver wire with tiny strung crystals, a gift from her boyfriend, Neville Longbottom, for their first year anniversary. Her waist-length hair was in a messy French braid and her wand was tucked behind an ear. Charlie liked her. Not in a romantic sense, her going-on-two-year-boyfriend, despite being peaceful in nature, would kill him and Charlie being on the more gay side of asexual helped- but Luna inspired more sisterly affections from him than even his own sister did.

Luna giggled lightly and handed Charlie the triple espresso in her hand. Placing the box of pastries she had been holding in her other hand on the other chair, she pushed a few things over on the desk- causing an avalanche of dusty books and parchments off the opposite side, which both of them ignored- and plopped herself down on the corner she had just cleared.

"Leave the murder for the ministry and mayhem to the twins, I'll just take your opinion on my lemon ginger squares." She stated with surprising clarity. Charlie had found that most of her spacey demeanor was merely a front to "discourage idiots" as she put it. That didn't mean she couldn't be cryptic, being a seer of sorts did that to a person, though Charlie felt Luna's brand of vague and mysterious was far more effective and entertaining than Trelawny's ever was.

Charlie chuckled and flipped open the box she had brought. In some weird fit of inspiration Luna had taken up baking and was getting pretty dang good, at least to Charlie's taste. He picked out a square and munched on it, washing it down with sips of coffee. Luna waited until he had finished his first and was reaching for a second before pressing.

"Well?" Charlie chuckled and took a large bit out the next one before speaking, his mouth full.

"Luna, they're wonderful, as usual." Crumbs sprayed everywhere, but neither really cared as Luna beamed and he chuckled, swallowing his mouthful.

Charlie knew his family would be shocked at just how close he had become to this strange girl. The only one in his family he ever opened up this much to was his older brother Bill. Since Bill had gotten married and was now expecting his second child, though, Charlie had been feeling an odd gap grow between them.

"So how was your vacation?" Luna questioned, as if reading his mind and referring to the past week. Charlie had managed to gain some time off and spent it at the burrow, catching up with his family, meeting his new nieces and nephews. His youngest siblings had wasted no time in reproducing. Ron and Hermione had a little girl- Rose- and Ginny and Harry had their own little one- James. Add to that the twins had brought home a girl and boyfriend each. Even Percy and his wife, Audrey, had shown up for a dinner or two while Charlie was home.

He sighed. It was almost like he couldn't relate to his own family anymore. He had always been a bit of the oddball of the family to begin with. He took after his mother's side of the family in looks- his hair more copper than the fiery red of his siblings. He never really took time to do anything with his hair either- unlike his brother Bill, who could spend an hour tending to his ponytail- Charlie kept his short more for practicality then style, it was shaggy, not quite straight (like his dad, Bill, the twins, Ron and Ginny's hair) and not quite curly (like his mum and Percy). His eyes were a blue-green rather than the varying shades of brown and the only ones in his family shorter than him were his mother and baby sister, something Bill and the twins never let him live down. His height had served him well in Quidditch, and didn't seem to matter so much in dealing with dragons, but being able to see over a crowd every once in a while would be nice. When he had visited his family this past week, it had been strange. The room he had shared with Bill was now his alone, Bill and Fleur taking the twins room since were staying overnight and the twins could just floo from their flat in Diagon Alley. He had been the only single person there, conversations with anyone- other than the twins- wound up centered on the children. Now Charlie liked kids, but he had nothing to relate to, like the other new parents seemed to. He wound up chatting with the twins most of the time while he was there.

"Uh oh. That's not a happy sigh." Luna stated. She patted Charlie's short, tousled copper hair. "Did the Bi'xi Bo'di's decide to nest in Molly's hair again?" Charlie eyed her curiously, but didn't question her. He leaned back, toying with the now empty coffee cup in his hands.

"It was just the usual, asking when I'd find a nice girl to settle down with… give her grand kids… you know…"

"I do." Charlie didn't ask how she knew. Knowing Luna, she just did. They sat in silence for a few moments.

"Did you know Ginny's cheating on Harry?" Luna selected a square for herself, leaning over precariously from the desk.

"Oh?" Charlie wasn't really surprised, he knew his sister. Once she had what she wanted she started after something, or in this case someone, else.

Luna nodded. "But, don't feel bad for Harry… he's seeing someone too." That got an eyebrow raise, Harry always seemed the type to be loyal until the end.

"Oh?" Luna smiled at his tone.

"Yup." She popped the "p". "Draco talked him into it."

"Draco... Malfoy?" Charlie chuckled "My little-bro-in-law is trying the other side of the fence?"

Luna nodded. "I think he was always oriented more in that direction, but didn't want to disappoint your family. They'll be getting a divorce after the third child… Ginny is going to walk in on them."

"And lemme guess, it'll be all Harry's fault."

"Actually not. Ginny'll come clean too and by then Molly will be more worried about the mess Ron and Hermione will have, Harry and Ginny's separation will almost not even be noticed." Charlie shook his head. Ron and Hermione seemed to be stuck in permanent honeymoon mode, he had been sure they'd be like his mum and dad.

"And mum wonders why I prefer my dragons. Human's are just so fickle… when a dragon finds their mate they stick with them until death." Charlie had often wished for a relationship like that… granted dragons had it a little easier than humans, there were less of them to choose from and even then they battled over their mate-to-be, had to prove themselves to be the best before even thinking of mating. He sighed before draining the rest of his coffee. Luna had a distant look on her face, like she was listening to something just barely within hearing.

Charlie dropped his cup in shock when Luna suddenly jumped off the desk. Grabbing his arm she pulled him out of the office toward the employee entrance to the reserve. "Come on, follow me, it's time for work." Charlie just grinned and let the odd blonde drag him along, ignoring the bemused and curious glances from his coworkers.

The employee's entrance was actually more fun to traverse than the main gate- which got old after seeing it all the time after a while- at least it was, in Charlie's opinion. The employees entrance was a staircase that went underground, then an extremely long tunnel, roughly hewn into the rocky terrain with roots of trees and plants, as well as rocks sticking out, all threatening to trip a person up or knock against the heads of the unwary, it climbed up the mountain a good way before ending at a wooden- rather rickety looking- circular staircase that opened out at the base of one of the many huge trees in the reserve. The long walk of the tunnel was one of the reasons most of the Dragon handlers were so fit- there was no apparition into the reserve for safety reasons- Charlie himself had lost several pounds just from the walk alone when he had first arrived and he had already been quite active before becoming a handler- what with quidditch and running after all his siblings. Surprisingly… or unsurprisingly depending on who you were… Luna had no problems with the long walks. The opening from the base of the tree opened up in a large rocky clearing. There were charms that discouraged the dragons and some of the more violent creatures living in the reserve from entering the area.

Luna pulled him from the clearing and went on one of the lesser used paths that wound up the side of either a very steep hill, or a not-so-steep cliff. At the top the path ran around trees and eventually stopped at the edge of a cliff. A small stream created a waterfall that dropped roughly thirty feet before ending in a small pool. The pool attracted some of the lesser dragons- small snake-like wyrms, a few of the rare feathered winged dragons and of course the typical fire lizards (which looked a lot like a very small Welsh Green, but in a wider variety of colors). Though most of the smaller dragons were often the more poisonous, they were also often the more friendly of the dragon families and as Charlie and Luna sat on a couple of the larger rocks laying around at the top of the cliff several of the braver dragons came to investigate. Luna, sitting cross-legged held out a hand that was mostly ignored, Charlie sitting with his legs stretched out, batting a curious Fire Lizard away from his hair, before the little one thought it would make a good nest- the little lizards seemed to love trying to nest in his hair, he had no idea why, but Luna thought it was hilarious. The dragons quickly got bored with them and started mock battles in the air, entertaining the two humans. As Charlie chuckled at one brave little opal colored Wyrms who kept dive bombing a larger gold feathered serpent, Luna asked him a question.

"How do feel about pack predators?" Charlie leaned back on his hands to better follow the mock battle above them.

"What do you mean?"

"Well… specifically wolves?" Charlie looked at her out of the corner of his eye, she was having what looked to be a staring contest with a little red and blue feathered dragon, with four vibrant green eyes.

"Well… I'm not sure… I admire the loyalty they show pack members. The cunning they show when hunting, the ability to bring down game much larger then themselves. They aren't quite as impressive as dragons, but then what is?" He shrugged. Luna smiled, the little dragon blinking a set of eyes, the contest didn't end so Charlie wondered if Luna was trying to get it to blink all four eyes at once.

"I'm afraid I haven't been able to find any dragons in human guise, would a wolf be disappointing?"

"I suppose not. Do you mean a werewolf?" Charlie had met Remus Lupin before he'd died, a nice man, but Charlie could tell he kept the wolf caged- wolfsbane may have kept him docile, but it killed the wolf and thus part of the man's soul. Charlie had always wondered what would've happened had he embraced his condition instead.

"No. This one does not change skin. The wolf's far away. It'd take an adventure to reach him." Luna leaned forward until her nose touched the dragon's. "Change will happen. Time will pass. Suns will shine on an endless desert. Darkening skies will wake the guardian- but death will come in its confusion. Light will reveal the bones, and after an ageless time the wolves will come with the sheep." It was said in an almost sing-song tone, one Charlie associated with Luna's sight. When it was over the silence was deafening, even the little dragons had stopped their play and were hovering around silently. Luna and the dragon turned heads simultaneously and looked at Charlie, Luna's eyes shimmering silver, the dragons glowing green. Charlie couldn't look away, he could feel power surrounding them and wondered what was happening.

"Would you like to go on an adventure Charlie?" Luna was still speaking with a sing-song lilt in her voice.

"Wha…"

And the world went black.

When Charlie woke it was hot, too hot, and he was in a lot of pain. Not sharp pain, just an all over dull ache, something he could work through if he had to, but would rather sleep through if possible. In fact sleep seemed like a wonderful idea.

As he drifted out of consciousness again he thought he heard the murmuring of voices coming toward him, but was too far gone to care.

END OF CHAPTER ONE: ALSO KNOWN AS THE PROLOGUE

MA: I love Luna, her style especially :P. Poor Charlie getting thrown through time and space. REVIEWS MAKE THE CREATIVE PROCESS GO FASTER!

BTW- I'm screwing with timelines, relationships and anything else I find that I wanna… you can complain all you want, but it won't change anything.

ALSO- I refuse to acknowledge a particular death in the HP world, in my mind it never happened- it was a bad dream- and so, although the HP universe has been relatively untouched by my artistic license, there is an extra person.