Don't Be Lonely

Chapter Four: Let Sleeping Dragons Lie

***Harry***

Clouds gathered to huddle above the towers of Hogwarts, hiding the moon and the stars from view. As though crying, rain drops fell from the clouds, splashing the soil and buildings below. Lounging on the sofas around the Gryffindor Common Room's fireplace, the Golden Trio were conversing about the latest event they had witnessed earlier that day.

"Blue, green, white...dragons..." Hermione murmured, deep in thought. Speaking up, she told them, "I can't remember where but I feel like I had read something about them before..."

"Dragons? What has dragons got to do with all that we just saw?" Ron asked, confused.

"You weren't paying attention, were you Ron? Not real dragons, they were titles or nicknames. Three of the men the Boggart transformed into, were called Blue Dragon, Green Dragon and White Dragon by Zeno. Didn't you hear him?"

"Oh..."

They fell silent, Hermione trying to remember where she heard or read something like it and Harry thinking about the yellow-haired stranger named Zeno. Harry shattered the silence first.

"I'm going to see if he's got the Mark, who's coming with me?"

"Harry, no! Didn't you see how upset he was? You can't go and do something so insensitive like that after someone has just confronted their worst fear!"

"Fine, if you won't go with me, Ron will. Ready?"

"Oh...uh...yeah, mate,"

The two boys left the Gryffindor common room under the cover of Harry's Invisibility Cloak. With careful footing, they silently sneaked to the staircase.

"So how are we going to find him?" Ron whispered. One of Harry's hands fished out a piece of parchment from his robes so that he could tap it with his wand.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," and with Harry's oath the Marauder's Map sprung to life as footprints, rooms and corridors filled the once plain parchment. Every time Harry had used the map this year, he had only searched for one person: Draco Malfoy. Now his eyes skimmed the names for someone new: Zeno. "Help me look for him, Ron," Under the wandlight, Ron's eyes focused on their target's name.

"There! Here he is, but his name...look," Ron pointed his finger at where the words hovered by a pair of footprints in one of the guest rooms.

Ouryuu Zeno

"You're right. What do you think Ouryuu is supposed to be? Is it his first name or something?" Harry said voicing his thoughts. Well the word was in front of Zeno, so perhaps it was.

"Dunno, but we should ask Hermione about it when we get back," Ron suggested, Harry nodded in agreement. Their journey there went smoothly and soon enough the two Gryffindor 6th years were standing before a portrait of an old village market place. "Just our luck, we don't know the password!"

"Well let's try and guess it. Hmmm...how about food?" Harry tried, as every other time he saw Zeno he was always eating.

"Who's there? That's the wrong password whoever it is," one of the painted shop keepers, the one closest, called out to what they thought was thin air.

"Apples?" Ron guessed.

"Kebabs?" Harry questioned.

"Toast?"

"Roast?"

"Lunch?"

"Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong! If you keep trying to guess it, I'll send a message to the Headmaster that someone is trying to break in!" The irritated shopkeeper warned. "I'll give you three more tries,"