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Dear Mr Skacamanda Skamander Scamander,
My name is Charlie Weasley and I am 6 years old. I am writing to yoou becos because my dad says that their there is a big dragon at gringottts that guards grown-up wizards money.
I think this is VERY UNFAIR to the dragon, and since you now know a LOT about animals, I wanted to ask if you could tell gringotts to let the dragon be free.
Yours sincerly Sincerely,
Charlie Weasley.
Newt smiled warmly as he observed the rather crude child’s drawing at the bottom of the letter. The drawing showed a small stick figure holding a rather disproportionally large key and waving it at a large cage labelled ‘gringotts’, while a miserable-looking dragon roared for help within a shakily drawn speech bubble.
Tina peaked over his shoulder at the letter and patted his arm. “You should answer that one. Looks like something you’d write at that age.”
Newt chuckled wryly. “Trust me, I wouldn’t. My spelling was much worse.”
Tina rolled her eyes and summoned a quill, ink and parchment; she made her way into the kitchen with one of their many Nifflers at her heels, leaving Newt to take a sip of his tea as he began penning a reply.
Dear Mr Weasley…
… Firstly, I would like to thank you for writing me on this issue. However, I regret to inform you that I have been attempting to get that poor dragon released into the wild for many years now with not much luck. There are unfortunately many powerful wizarding families who would rather their treasures be safe than the dragon be freed.
Though I must say I am pleased to see such passion for this dragon’s welfare at your young age. I too was fascinated with all matter of magical creatures from my youth, and I would love to keep conversing with you on this topic (if your parents or guardians would allow it).
Just know I will keep fighting the fight on this, and I wish you luck with your own enterprises.
Yours Sincerely,
Newton Artemis Fido “Newt” Scamander.
Charlie was extremely happy when a smart-looking eagle owl arrived with Newt Scamander’s surprisingly messy script on the envelope, oblivious to his mother’s shock while Bill (who had been the one to send the letter during a trip to Diagon Alley) snorted with laughter and his dad simply patted Molly’s shoulder looking mildly bewildered but extraordinarily proud.
From then on, Charlie dedicated his life to learning all he could about dragons. He often had to evade the wrath of his brother Percy for tying paper wings onto his rat Scabbers and then chasing the rat around the house, dutifully taking notes on “dragon behaviour”.
When he arrived at Hogwarts aged eleven, he made fast friends with the Gamekeeper, Hagrid, and the two would converse for hours about all manner of magical creatures, but mostly dragons. Hagrid was over the moon that someone was just as excited about dragons as he was and happily gave Charlie extra help outside of his Care of Magical Creatures lessons.
When Charlie moved to Romania to start his work with dragons, he still thought about the dragon within Gringotts and would on occasion write to Bill and ask after the poor creature.
Still no luck.
If Charlie could thank Merlin for one thing the Second Wizarding War had helped, it would be that the Gringotts dragon was, at long last, free and in the wild where it belonged. After wrangling every single detail that he could out of Ron, Harry and Hermione, he grabbed a quill and parchment and started writing to someone he hadn’t written to in many years.
Many years later, Charlie received an invitation to the wedding of one of Ron’s old school friends, Luna Lovegood. He certainly did not expect that he would also be attending the wedding of Newt Scamander’s grandson, Rolf, but there he was.
When he introduced himself with more nervousness than he’d felt in a long time, Newt simply smiled warmly and shook his hand with a firm grip, pulling up a chair for him with a flick of his wand.
It was one of the best days of Charlie’s life. Even if the realisation that Newt had kept his letter from when he was six years old caused his face to go as red as his hair. Newt found it quite charming apparently.
Years after that, Hermione Granger was named Minister for Magic.
Charlie was pleased that his sister-in-law had gotten the position and was one of her biggest supporters throughout the election process. One day, she called him to her office, and was taken aback when he found that Newt Scamander was already there, sipping tea and looking extremely merry, an almost childlike grin on his wizened face.
After the three of them exchanged pleasantries, Hermione clapped her hands briskly and summoned a quill, giving them both a wry grin.
“How would you both like to help me write the official documents for the eradication and illegality of dragon imprisonment?”
Newt and Charlie glanced at each other, the same sort of mischievous twinkle in their eyes, before nodding and summoning quills of their own.
“Where shall we start, Minister?”
The bill became signed into law within the year. The entire Scamander family, Charlie, Hermione and Hagrid all somehow managed to squeeze into their modest cottage and raised a glass in celebration, whilst Rolf and Luna’s twin boys Lorcan and Lysander happily chased their great-grandparent’s pet Kneazles around the house with hysterical giggles.
Charlie sat back and watched the scene with a content smile. Even with everything that had gone wrong in the world, he was grateful that there were still precious moments like this, that made it all worth it.
Finally, all was well.