Carpathian

Monday, 8:50am

An ear-splitting roar pierced the air. Over a dozen keepers had their wands in hand, pointed squarely at Norberta's moving chest. Her outstretched neck craned overhead while torrents of fire scorched the leaves of the nearby trees.

Draco caught a single glimpse of Hermione by his side, and one look at the worry that lined his features confirmed that bringing her along had been accidental. His face quickly reverted back to stoic.

"Get back," he ordered, knuckles blanch white as he gripped his wand. "Cast a Protection Charm around yourself and don't move."

The words were hardly past his lips before Draco sprinted to the scene and joined the keepers in trying to calm Norberta.

Hermione knew not to fight him this time. She did as Draco said and surrounded herself with a Protego Totalum.

Norberta's intermittent screeches were the only thing that paused her flames. It was a wonder and a terror to see Norberta in this state. Hermione was uncomfortably familiar with the dangers of the mighty, winged beasts. Dragons were untamable. Wild. Independent. When attacked, their resulting ire could rival the flames of hell.

Hermione's face was flush with the perimeter of the Protective Charm as she watched Draco and the other keepers' every move. Doru and Llewellyn were there, as was Charlie, and several others that Hermione assumed to be Norwegian Ridgeback specialised keepers. In the forefront was Draco, palms faced open and forward like Hermione had seen him do the previous morning.

"It's me, Norberta," Draco tried to placate her. "We aren't here to harm you."

Norberta released another thunderous cry and stood on her back legs so her gargantuan body cast a long, looming shadow over the keepers. Six different Stunning Charms shot through the sky and hit her hide simultaneously, but they bounced off her scales in a shower of fading red sparks. Her outrage heightened, and Norberta landed on the ground with a heavy force. It shook the ground like a small earthquake.

She opened her jaw, revealing a mouth full of fangs and the orange glow of a fireball forming in the back of her throat. Doru had just enough time to tell everyone to Apparate out of the way before Norberta scorched the ground in a ring of warning.

The flames torched a pile of leaves and erupted into a blazing spike, forcing Hermione to look away and shield her eyes. Yells erupted and echoed all around her. Commands. Shouts. Endless spells.

"Cast an Aguamenti!"

"Aim for her chest!"

"Stand back!"

Norberta raged on.

Nothing the keepers did helped.

Draco raced across to the other side where Charlie, Llewelyn, and two other keepers pointed their wands at the sensitive part of her underbelly.

"On my mark!" Llewelyn bellowed. "One, two—"

Hermione's attempted warning cry was lost in another deafening roar. Norberta whipped her tail in a swinging strike, barely missing one of the keepers as they all ran for safety.

The scene was chaos. Frantic. Urgent. If they didn't calm Norberta down soon, there was no predicting what damage the dragon may do next.

She wanted to help. Merlin, Godric, Circe, Morgana. She desperately wanted to help. But Hermione knew her limits, and this was one circumstance where all she could do was watch, no matter how much it distressed her.

Her eyes darted everywhere. From Draco to Charlie. To Markus and Aurel. To Doru, Llewellyn, and all the other keepers she didn't know by name. Each one trying to calm the beast. Each one an expert in their trade. Each one still unable to make it stop.