One Day They'll Know Your Name

Ferocious names

Over the next week, when they weren't in classes, Les Amis were in the library researching dragons. They had split up the research based on what they already knew about dragons, which was not very much, even though Ginny had always listened to Charlie whenever he talked about his job. Hermione was studying fireproofing spells, Neville and Ginny were studying male dragons, Ron and Luna were studying female dragons, and Draco and Harry were studying hatchlings.

Everything was going well, everyone finding important information, but Harry noticed that Draco seemed to be distracted.

He nudged the blonde and leaned against him. "Hey, you ok?"

Draco jerked in his seat and looked down at Harry. "Yeah, sorry, just lost in thought."

With that, he turned back to his research, but Harry frowned. Draco may say that everything was fine, but he could tell that something was wrong. Well, if he didn't want to talk about it there was nothing for it, so Harry turned back to his own research.

A moment later Ron spoke up from his spot. "We better hope that you don't get a nesting mother. This book has a whole chapter dedicated to how much more dangerous they are than any other dragon. Which, makes sense. I'm pretty sure Mum is about ten times more dangerous than Dad any day of the week, just in general, but if something were hurting us kids she'd be even worse."

Ginny nodded fervently. "In fact, we better hope that if anything you get a male dragon out of mating season. They're pretty lazy and ignore everything that isn't explicitly provoking them, according to this book."

Hermione leaned over towards Ron. "What about a mother who's eggs have hatched but the hatchlings have started to grow? How long is a mother a nesting mother?"

"Until the babies leave I expect," Ron says. "The book doesn't say exactly, although it does mention that even when mothers have been separated from their hatchlings shortly after birth they still recognize them later."

Hermione nodded and leaned back before putting her book on the table. "Makes sense. Now. There are a lot of fireproofing spells, but I'm not sure if they'll work against dragon fire. It's well known for being more powerful than other magically created fire, so we need to find some backup plan just in case, or just don't get hit."

Harry laughed nervously as Draco glared at him lightly. "I guess we should go for 'don't get hit' and find other fireproofing methods?"

Draco's glare lessened as he spoke up. "Another interesting thing is that dragons are born with as much fire as they're going to have, but hatchlings are less likely to be able to control it, so like baby snakes and their venom, dragonettes might kill you on accident while an adult dragon might just scorch you a little."

Harry nodded. "I remember reading that too. So hope for an adult male out of breeding season. Of course knowing my luck, that means we're getting a nesting mother with a just hatched dragonette, so prepare for the worst."

The rest of the group nodded grimly and turned back to their research, Harry moving to help Hermione find other ways to protect against the dragon fire.

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Harry stepped out of the Arithmancy classroom with Hermione and Draco and heard quiet talking from the hallway over. He motioned for his friends to be quiet and carefully snuck over to hear what was happening. It had sounded like one of the Headmasters from the other schools, and they would have no reason to be speaking so quietly in such an out of the way area, so Harry wanted to know what was going on.

He was glad he had come to listen, because he found Madame Maxime telling one of her male students about how fire was such a dangerous thing and how they should all be very careful about it and anything that might make it. The cheating was not surprising, and at least she wasn't being blatant or obvious about it. At most, Delacour would eventually think of dragons, but it would take a while for her to get to that point. Several other creatures and objects made fire, such as phoenixes. Of course not many fiery creatures were dangerous like dragons, but the things that had been created by wizards were often very dangerous.