· 。ﾟ☆: *.☽
▎ COUNTING STARS  ▎
»»————-　act one. young, wild & free
SEVEN ━━ adventures in dragon taming

ᵒ .༄ ࿐ ࿔* ✨🌙💫

♯ ❝YOU BIRTHED A TRAITOR! ❞
⋆⋅ ━━━━ ‧ ༻✩༺ ‧ ━━━━ ⋅⋆

IT TOOK A LONG TIME TO GET TO ROMANIAN BECAUSE Lillith absolutely refused to go the Wizarding way—or apparating like she and Cardell actually called it. After a rather nauseating experience, Lilith swore up and down the hills she would never travel that way again.  Annabelle had to give it to her mother though, she bloody hated it as well. The feeling of getting squeezed through a tiny, tiny tube was less than pleasant.

So after the train—or well multiple trains, the group of four arrived in Romania when twilight just clouded the skies in beautiful pink hues. The train station was fairly empty, just a view stragglers left dwelling around aside from the people who also got of the train with them.

Pulling her coat closer to her body while Lily linked her arm through hers, the two teenagers surveyed their surroundings in child like wonder, both girls never having left the UK before. It was slightly colder than the brunette had expected but with her coat on she felt fairly comfortable in the night air.

"Where was Joshua supposed to meet us sweetheart?" Lilith questioned softly, her own arm linked through her husband's.

Cardell glanced at his watch, an old one where the leather band was faded and worn out—a gift he had once received from Lilith's parents.

It had been a tradition in their household, and seeing as Cardell's ties with his own family were severed quite clearly, they had brought them into theirs without a moments doubt, knowing how much he loved their little Lilith.

He had never taken it off without reasonable cause, which mainly consisted of showers and beach visits.

"He should be here in a moment or so." He declared surely, "though I do have to warn you, punctuality has never been a specialty of his."

The words has barely passed his lips when a faint pop resonated behind a wall and an unfamiliar man peeked around the corner.

He looked quite—roughish if she had to put it nicely. His brown coat was slightly burned at the bottom, and there was a very questionable reddish stain on his left arm that made her wonder who they had stumbled upon. There was also a large and ragged scar that started just next to corner of his mouth and trailed down all the way to his neck, disappearing underneath his emerald coloured sweater. 

But while Annabelle, Lilith and Lily looked worriedly at the stranger, Cardell's face had brighten like the sun. "Joshua!" Cardell's opened his arms and Joshua walked into his open arms without any reluctance.

"Look at you!" Joshua grinned from ear to ear as he observed Annabelle's father like a proud father would. "You've gotten more handsome than I remember."

"I can't sadly say the same about you." Cardell jested as the brown haired man scowled.

Joshua dragged a hand through his messy haired before straightening out his dirty jacket as if to clean up his appearance. "How dare you say that, I am far more handsome than I have ever been."

"That isn't saying much Josh."

Joshua just rolled his eyes before they flicker to the three woman behind Cardell and his scowl turned into a warm smile that even made his eyes glimmer with happiness. "This must be the family then." He pushed passed Cardell to great the newcomers.

"Joshua McAvoy." He introduced himself holding his hand out for Lilith who took it with a smile of her own, and only now did Annabelle take notice of the slight Scottish drawl.

"Lillith. It is nice to meet you Joshua, I have heard lots of things about you." She replied, voice soft and angelic.

"Which one of these rascals is yours then?" Joshua asked over his shoulder.

Annabelle squared her shoulders as she observed the burly man. "I am." She proudly answered, "I'm Annabelle."

Joshua laughed, clasping her hand in his own. "Oh I can see it now, it's those eyes."

Cardell grinned walking back to stand next to his wife again, a proud look on his face as he watched the interaction. "You don't even know half of it."

"And who are you?" Joshua spun around to face Lily, and asked. "You had another kid and didn't tell me." Joshua turned to look at her father disapprovingly.

Cardell placed a hand on his shoulder. "No. this is Lily she is a friend of Annabelle. They are in the same house."

"So you're Slytherin right." Joshua inquired seriously with a raised eyebrows while he puffed his chest out proudly.

"Uh—No I'm not in Slytherin." She smiled sheepishly rubbing her neck, stuttering slightly over her words, still quite intimidated by the man in front of her.

"Don't tell me you've followed your old man into Ravenclaw." Joshua sighed, as if it was the worst thing in the world.

"Actually we're in Gryffindor." Annabelle stated pointing between herself and Lily with a sheepish smile on her face.

Joshua's eyes almost popped out of his head as he stared at his friend's daughter. "Gryffindor!" He yelled turning to Cardell. "You have birthed a traitor!"

Some of the other late passengers still wandering around the train station watched the exchange nervously, but Annabelle could luckily detect the joking undertone in Joshua's voice

"Great right?" Cardell coughed, while Lilith frowned.

"I think I did the birthing part," The muggle woman whispered, "unless Cardell has suddenly grown an uterus."

"How? Why?" He asked pointing to Annabelle.

"I don't know." Annabelle laughed, "You should asked the sorting hat, it after all does the sorting."

"Cheeky lass you are, eh?" Joshua grinned at her and Annabelle returned it with a large smile herself. "But I bet you little lion cubs still get absolutely demolished by Slytherin in Quidditch?"

Annabelle crossed her arms, feigning a look of offence by the mere suggestion, but instead Lily spoke up this time. "Actually, Hufflepuff won the Quidditch cup."

"Hufflepuff?" Joshua's brows knitted together in surprise,  "Who would have thought, Sprout must have been beside herself then."

"Professor Sprout was just happy you finally left Hogwarts—the amount of times you almost burned the Greenhouse down." Cardell jested, knocking his shoulder against the burly man's frame only to rub his own arm as a stinging sensation shot straight up through it.

"I have always been fond of fire—" Joshua grinned mischievously, "I remember McGonagall stating I had a particular proclivity for pyrotechnics."

"Made me pretty good with the aquamenti charm."

Annabelle watched awed as the two man joked around each other like brothers, and she wondered if her father ever actually had a bond like that with his biological family—or more specifically his brother.

"We probably should get going. Don't wanna miss the Portkey" Joshua announced after a quick glance at his pocket watch, "it's getting late and I have some great things planned for tomorrow morning."

The Rose family—including Lily nodded as the brown haired man let them away from the station before leading them towards a more secure location. He stopped in front of a old looking building, a sign, Annabelle was unable to read hanging above the door. As they entered the building, the brunette noted that it seemed to be a pub.

Joshua greeted the owner, in what Annabelle assumed was Romanian as the man tipped his head, grey eyes twinkling brightly as he bid everyone a goodnight in heavily accented English.

Opening the backdoor, Joshua gestured towards an old and tattered hat on the table, "Grab on everyone, don't want you all the stay behind."

Annabelle and Lily quickly did as told and grabbed onto the head, even Lilith reluctantly held on and before they knew it they were sucked into what felt like a tight tube.

Annabelle blinked, brown hair flailing around her face, "Time to let go!" Joshua shouted gleefully, as if he was truly enjoying the experience.

"Let go!" Lilith bellowed in surprise, eyes wide in fear as she whipped her head to the side to look at her husband. "Did he just say let go!?"

Cardell only laughed before letting go in sync with Joshua, the three remaining woman looked fearfully at one another before reluctantly letting go of the tattered hat and tumbling down the sky.

Annabelle coughed as she hit the ground with a loud thud, the air escaping her lungs for a second before she pushed herself up with her elbows, blowing the hair in front of her face away with an annoyed huff.

Lily looked to be in the same situation, hair looking like an abandoned Hippogriffs nest and mud smeared on her once clean clothes.

Lilith however was fuming as she pushed herself up and marched up to Cardell who fearfully stepped back while Joshua seemed to be having the time of his life. "You absolute wanker!" She shouted, as Joshua laughter rumbled over the otherwise silent clearing. "Are you dead from the neck up!"

"Merlin's tits!" Joshua grinned amused as he watched Lilith push Cardell around while the man tried to sooth his distressed wife, "She got some fire in her."

"Where did you think Annabelle got it from?" Cardell laughed after Lilith finally calmed down.

"She certainly seems like her mother's daughter." Joshua nodded before motioning for them to follow him, "Let's get you settled, don't want you all to wander 'ere after dark if we can avoid it."

"Uh..—"Lillith looked worriedly around, "Why's that."

"This is a dragon sanctuary, not a petting zoo." Joshua stated, far more serious now than before as he held his wand up, the Lumos charm illuminating their path, "The dragons wander about, especially at night, they normally don't come close to the cabins, but sometimes a new lot stumbles in here."

    Lillith visibly gulped as she stepped closer to Cardell. "R-right."

"That's wicked." Annabelle whispered next to Lily, "Maybe we'll see one."

"Here we go." Joshua stopped in front one of the wooden cabins at the edge of a small mountain. "Home sweet home."

"Wooden cabins don't seem like such a smart idea with fire breathing dragons." Lilith mumbled nervously.

"Don't worry, we have fire-repellent protection spells on em'." Joshua assured her. "We learned quickly after half of the cabins burned down when one of the Chinese Fireballs threw a hissy fit."

ᵒ .༄ ࿐ ࿔* ✨🌙💫

⋆⋅ ━━━━ ‧ ༻✩༺ ‧ ━━━━ ⋅⋆

THE NEXT MORNING, INSTEAD OF CHIRPING BIRDS, ANNABELLE AND LILY WERE AWAKENED BY THE SOUND OF THUNDEROUS ROARS ECHOING OUTSIDE, The sun was barely peaking over the enormous mountains, leaving their surrounding mostly dark for the time being.

Pushing herself out of bed, Lily following slowly after her, the two pyjama-clad teens wandered down the hallway before entering the cosy living room.

Cardell and Joshua were already dressed, sitting at the kitchen table, both man scoffing down some breakfast while Lilith sat next to her husband with a cup of tea in her hands.

"Morning girls." Cardell greeted the girl as he spotted them lingering in the doorframe.

"Morning dad." Annabelle smiled before pulling Lily along with her to sit sat the table, both girls already wearing excited grins.

"Eager to see some dragons, eh?" Joshua grinned as he observed the two girls smiling ear from ear, "We will be going after breakfast if that's good wi' ye all?"

Before they could say anything, knocking sounded and Joshua stood up, bringing his mug of coffee with him to the door.

Annabelle watched curiously as a peculiar looking man was revealed to be standing behind the door. His robes were bright and colourful, and if Annabelle was honest—a lot for her eyes so early in the morning. But the stranger seemed as chipper and bright as his clothes as he bounced on the balls of his heels like an eager puppy.

"Matty, wha' are ye doing here so early?" Joshua asked, a small smile displayed on his face as he leaned against the doorframe.

"I heard your friends were coming over from Daniel, so thought I go and see for myself if it was actually true—I distinctly remember saying you don't do friends the first day we met."

"You have been hiding me like some dirty little secret!" Cardell pushed himself up from his chair to march to the front door, sticking his hand out to Matty, a scandalised expression still on his face, "I'm Cardell, I've been friends with this guys since we were eleven."

"Nice to meet you Cardell, I'm Matthew, but please for Merlin's sake call me Matty."

"Right," Joshua cut in, placing himself between the two men, "Tea time is over, shouldn't ye be feeding the Norwegian Ridgebacks Matthew?"

Matty mumbled something under his breath before turning on his heels and disappearing down the same path he came from.

"Who was that fella?" Cardell laughed as he observed Joshua's flustered face.

"That's the dimwit Daniel assigned me to train."

"He seemed nice." Annabelle piped up from the kitchen table, happily munching on a piece of toast.

"He's a motormouth, kid can't stop talking, and don't even get me started on his clothes, kid doesn't blend in in the slightest, he's been almost burned to a crisp on numerous occasions." Joshua denied with a heavy sigh, "He's gonna be the dead of me one day I swear."

"You two girls should get dressed soon," Joshua noted as he returned to his chair, "I need to be out in the field in twenty minutes."

Annabelle and Lily nodded, quickly eating what was left of their breakfast before dashing away as quick as they had come.

Opening the door of the room they shared, Annabelle went straight to her suitcase while Lily went to brush her teeth in the bathroom down the hall.

Rummaging through her clothes, Annabelle got everything she needed just in time for Lily to return, still in the progress of brushing her fiery red hair. Taking her clothes with her, Annabelle went to the bathroom, making quick work of brushing her teeth and combing her unruly hair before getting dressed.

"Are you done yet Belle?" Lily knocked on the closed bathroom door, and a second later, Annabelle popped out again with a large smile on her face, both teens exchanging eager grins.

When they returned to the living room, Joshua was already lacing up his boots and the two girls were quick to follow after the man as they both grabbed their own shoes.

"Now girls, please be careful out there." Lilith warned them with a concerned expression on her face, "Don't get too close, and please listen to Joshua."

"They'll be in goo' hands." Joshua reassured the worrying mother as he pulled on his tattered coat.

Opening the door, Joshua motioned for the girls to go outside, and Annabelle immediately noted, that despite the fact it was July, the morning air was still very chilly.

Joshua clapped his hands together excitedly, "Well let's get started shall we, eh?"

The two girls nodded enthusiastically as they followed the brown haired man down the dirt path, further into the Romanian Sanctuary and the small and through narrow mountain trails which slowly became wider until they stood on top of one of the hills that gave them a marvellous view of the whole sanctuary.

Large fields spread out and disappeared into the horizon, where the sun was peeking through, painting the sky in beautiful orange and yellow hues that merged together and when they noticed a shadowy figure descend the girls breathed out in awe.

"It looks so pretty." Lily complimented with twinkling eyes as she observed the large fields in awe while one of the dragons landed on the ground.

"It does, doesn't it." Joshua grinned proudly before gesturing towards another trail that led downhill. "Now let's go see some dragons, eh?"

"Can't wait!" The girls mused in sync, grabbing onto one another's hands as they trailed behind Joshua.

"What kind of dragons do you have here?" Lily wondered as the neared the end of the trail.

Joshua looked like a kid in a candy store as he started to name the different breeds that resided in the sanctuary. "We got this Chinese Fireball—Billy." He looked over his shoulder as he talked, "Little rascal, he lost his left eye in a fight with an elder, but the idiot still thinks he got twenty-twenty vision. The amount of times he walked face first into a boulder or tree is almost embarrassing." He laughed loudly, almost as loudly as the roaring dragon from earlier this morning.

"We also got some Common Green welshes, Hungarian Horntails, Romanian Longhorns, Norwegian ridgebacks, and since recently this Ukrainian Ironbelly. She's an old lady, but definitely still one of the most dangerous dragons here. They are the largest breed that we know of."

"Whoa." Annabelle breathed out when she spotted a dragon near the edge of the trail, lazily laying on the grass with its eyes close.

"That's Tiki, she is a lazy fucker really." Joshua grinned as they passed the dragon who didn't even open one of his eyes as Joshua patted its back like it was a common house cat. "She's as mellow as they come, don' hurt a fly, but that's mostly because she's grown up here at the sanctuary. She was abandoned when she was a wee baby."

"That's sad." Lily frowned as she glanced over her shoulder.

"It happens sometimes, but we take care of em' to the best of our abilities."

"Are there many dragons here that grew up here?" Annabelle inquired as she jogged a bit ahead to walk next to Joshua, Lily following close behind.

"A couple of Romanian Longhorns have been here since they were younglings, but beside them and Tiki we only have drifters." Joshua explained, greeting a couple workers in Romanian when they passed them.

"What kind of dragon is that?" Lily pointed at something in the distance. 

"That is a Norwegian Ridgeback." He clarified . "His name is Ozzy." He told them. "Don't confuse them with the Hungarian Horntails though."

"He is beautiful." Annabelle said a big smile on her face.

"Well there is a lot to see ladies. Let's go." Joshua announced brightly

Walking around the sanctuary they saw a lot of dragons and Joshua had introduced them to some workers until they spotted a familiar, brightly clothed wizard in the distance. "Isn't that Matty?" Annabelle knitted her brows together as she noticed the man run around the field like a mad man.

"Oh bloody Hell." Joshua muttered when he spotted the wizard running around before breaking out in a run.

Annabelle and Lily exchanged wide eyed and worrisome glances before dashing after the dragon tamer.

"You bloody git, don't you ever learn?" They could hear Joshua scold Matthew who was patting down his robe sleeve, which had caught on fire—a Norwegian ridgeback was almost glowering at them from a short distance, snorting smoke from his nostrils.

"I just assumed he would be nice, I have been feeding him for months." Matty sighed loudly, a pout on his lips as he looked up at Joshua like a kicked puppy.

    "It's a dragon Matthew, not a kneazle." Joshua pinched the bride of his nose, "They aren't classified as XXXXX beasts for shits and giggles. They can kill you."

"But you are always petting that Common Green Welsh—Tiki!" He snapped his fingers like he had some sort of eureka comeback moment.

Joshua just shook his head, "First of all, Green Welshes are far more mellow than Ridgebacks, secondly Tiki has been here since he was a wee babe, and I have been her primary caretaker, she has grown up with me, unlike the other dragons who only pass through here."

"Look, " Matthew sighed in defeat, "I'm sorry—It won't happen again." He promised.

Joshua looked ready to commit murder, Annabelle noticed but as Matthew looked up at him with a defeated expression, his own glare softened until he just sighed, " Just watch out alright, if you die it will reflect bad on me."

Despite the harsh words, the way he spoke them were actually quite kind Annabelle noted.

"Now let's go feed them before they decide to barbeque us instead, eh?" Joshua suggested and Matthew nodded eagerly, rushing around the brown haired male to retrieve a bucket standing next to a small group of boulders. 

"Do you want to watch?" Joshua turned to ask the two teens patiently standing on the side.

The girl nodded eagerly as they watched Matthew return with the bucket, which had a dozen or so dead rats inside—which smelled absolutely disgusting.

Before Matty could take a step closer to the small herd of Ridgebacks, Joshua snatched the bucket from his hands and instead cautiously approached the dragons himself, wand in one hand and the bucket in the other.

The dragon lifted his head up to watch him with narrowed eyes—probably still suspicious after the whole debacle with Matthew. Joshua picked up a rat and threw it at the dragon who breathed out a burst of flames before catching it between his teeth.

"Wicked." The girls breathed out in sync as they watched Joshua repeat the action for the other dragons.

After feeding the Norwegian Ridgeback, and Joshua repeating the safety precautions to Matthew, they left again to see the rest of the sanctuary before returning back to the cabin just in time for lunch.

"How did it go?" Lillith asked her daughter when the trio walked back inside, Joshua immediately shrugged of his coat and throwing his boars to the side.

"It was great. We fed a dragon." She grinned jokingly, exchanging amusing glances with Lily.

He mother went pale.  "Y-you fed a d-dragon?" She stammered.

"No mom. I was joking we watched one get fed. Didn't we Lily." Annabelle thought not to mention the incident with Matthew if she didn't want to be locked inside for the remainder of their trip.

Lily nodded a grin on her face. "It was amazing." She nodded.

"Well girls lunch is ready." Her father said motioning them in the dining room.

After dinner Lillith and Lily were tasked to try- keyword try to explain muggle objects and their use to Joshua, who had grown up in a pureblood family and she laughed seeing her mother and friend become irritated by the man's endless and quite silly questions.

Grinning she sat down at the sofa in front of the flickering flames after a quite filling lunch. She stared at them until she heard a ticking sound come from the window. She stood up and pushed the curtains to the side to see an unfamiliar owl.

She opened the window ready to call to her Joshua, expecting the post to be for him when the owl dropped the letter in her hands.

Confused she looked down at the letter to see her name written on it. She didn't recognize the handwriting.

She opened the letter.

Hello Anna.

How is your summer so far? Mine is okay but I can't wait to go back to Hogwarts and see you. Did you know that each freckle stands for a soul you've stolen. Do you have something to confess? Have a nice summer and greetings from James for Lily too.

See you soon!

Sirius.

Cardell watched his daughter read the letter that just came in with an irritated look on her face.

She mumbled something under her breath.

"Everything alright dear?" He asked. "Who is it from?"

"It's from Sirius." She groaned, dropping the letter back on the table.

"A boy!" He shouted, hands dragging over his face.

"Yes a boy, dad." She mumbled.

"Why is he writing you, who is he-" She stopped her dad from asking more questions.

"Easy dad. He is a boy from my house. He and his friend James love to annoy me and Lily." She clarified.

"Do I need to hex him?" Her father asked seriously.

"No thanks dad I can handle him, I have done it since first year." She assured him.

"You know what you've promised me." He narrowed his eyes. "No boys until your thirty."

"Don't worry dad." She laughed.

"Okay. But I am watching you." He stated pointing two fingers at her.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬