The Eternal

chapter 3

Later that week, Dumbledore called the whole school to the Great Hall, to give a notice to all students and teachers at the school "What do you think this is about?" Ron asked the others. "Maybe Draco snitched on Alice after all," Hermione said. "I don't think so. Otherwise, it would only be us three going to see Dumbledore and not the whole school," Harry answered as they all sat down at their house table. "It doesn't seem like he snitched. He's not turning around to smirk at us or anything," Hermione said, looking towards the Slytherin house table. Ron and Harry both turned around and saw Draco faced away from them, looking down at his hands on the table. "Alice has to teach us her ways," Ron insisted. 

Then Dumbledore stepped up to his podium and the whole Hall went silent. "Thank you for coming on such short notice," Dumbledore started saying. "As you may have heard, Sirius Black has been sighted in Hogsmead. The Dementors are there to search the area and find him, so we should not have to worry on him coming here," he continued on. "But there is more that is going on in Hogwarts, so I have decided with the other teachers, that we should tell all students of my assumptions. Dark forces have been felt in this school at the day of your arrival and I expect extreme caution from all of you. If any student sees something that doesn't seem normal or that looks different or seems dark, or if you see someone, who looks suspicious, immediately report to your house teacher or our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Lupin. I hope none of you are holding anything away from us," he ended, looking towards the three Gryffindors.

"Why did he look at us again?" Ron asked confused as they walked back out of the Great Hall. "Because the last two years we have always gotten ourselves in some sort of trouble. And we have done it again, only this is way worse than the last two times," Hermione replied. "We will not report her though, right?" Ron asked again. "Of course not! She is our friend, why would we do that? And especially it could get Hagrid fired as well," Hermione whispered. "What did you actually tell Alice in the end because of Lupin?" Harry asked, changing the topic. "I told her, that we usually don't learn about immortals. People only find out about them by 'accident', like you just come across it in a book and don't read it intentionally. That's why it took me so long to find that book in the restricted section," Hermione started explaining. 

"Anyways, I told her it would be a very slim chance that Professor Lupin would know about immortals, even though he is a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. And- I almost told her about her being the Eternal," Hermione spilled. "What?" Harry said shocked. "We agreed not to tell her that!" he added angry. "That's why I said almost, you idiot. It almost slipped out, but I caught myself, so she doesn't know anything yet," Hermione said offended. "I was just saying," Harry replied. 

"When does she have to meet Lupin anyways?" Ron asked into the round. "Well, I told her it was up to her when to meet him. I was going to show her the way to his classroom and then I would leave her there. He wanted to talk to her alone I suppose so she just has to tell me when she wants to go there," Harry explained. "Should we see where she is anyways? We haven't seen her since yesterday for lunch," Hermione said. Everyone agreed and walked down to Hagrid's hut.

As they got there, they knocked on the door and Alice opened the door for them. "Since when do you open the doors?" Harry asked her. "Since I saw you coming down the hill," Alice said and stepped aside to let them in. As she closed the door, the three suddenly saw what was on her shoulders. "What is that, Alice?" Hermione asked and took a step back with the others. Alice turned confused towards them but then saw what they meant. "Oh, her? This is Malia. Hagrid picked her up about two days ago. She's a-, "Alice started explaining. "An albino Celestial Dragon," Ron finished her sentence. "My brother Charlie works with dragons in Romania, I know a lot about dragons because of him, but I have never seen a Celestial dragon in real life. They are very rare, especially the albinos and the babies like this one.