Dragons at Hogwarts

Chapter 51

There was a bit of a kerfuffle (lovely word that) after I revealed that I was able to, you know, speak like a human and be understandable. 

After the muttering and shifting about died down, a woman in the front row with piercing ice-blue eyes asked me a question. 

"What is your account of the events on the 7th of September?"

I sat up straight, and tried to speak calmly and clearly and not curse their stupid beards on fire. "I was invited to take part in a demonstration about my species, and agreed, changing into my dragon form and flying into the class. I lay down on the grass, and allowed the rest of the class to examine me. Mal-Draco did not take part, but remained 5 or 6 paces from me, and said several derogatory comments about my race. Upon hearing these, I was angry at the insult and pinned him to the ground, but as Hermione has previously stated, I had no intention to harm him, just to show him that the Elder Dragon race is more than just, as he put it, 'docile as a cat'. I did not use my claws, or teeth, or fire to harm him in any way, and released him within a few minutes. He did not appear injured when I released him, but whined a lot anyway."

The woman nodded. "Have you ever deliberately harmed a human?"

I hesitated. "... Only in self defence, and before I went to Hogwarts."

The main wizard suddenly seemed very interested. "What are the details of this incident?"

"Before I came to Hogwarts, I lived on the streets of London. I was camping out on a roof one time, when- There was a guy. Kind of middle aged. Drunk. He saw my wings, thought I was some kind of demon, and came at me with a knife. He got me on the arm- " I pushed my sleeve back, revealing a thin white scar across my shoulder "- and I pushed him backwards. He landed hard on his arm, and I think it broke, but I flew off too quickly to tell."

The wizards were all staring at me. They had been before, but their stares had turned somehow sharp, and cutting. 

I pulled my sleeve down, and ducked my head slightly, brushing some strands of hair out of my face as my other arm wrapped itself around my body. I had been so scared. I was about... 10? 9? Young. With a bleeding arm and a hammering heart and nowhere to go.

Hermione was staring at me as well, her forehead creased in thought. 

"Have you got enough information to decide on a verdict?" I whispered, but the sound carried to the ears of the head wizard, and he replied with a curt affirmative. 

I glanced at the Malfoys, who looked smug. I glared. Draco (why does he have such a nice name?) gulped and looked away. Lucius met my stare with a cool, even one of his own. A shiver ran down my spine, but I held my gaze until he glanced disinterestedly away. 

I gave myself a mental high-five for winning the staring match. 

"Can we all leave then? I'm sure the council has better things to do with their valuable time." His voice was smooth, but with a hint of disdain. 

"... I suppose so. Our verdict will be announced at a later date, and you all will be informed by owl."

Lucius smiled at the judge, and strode out, his robe whirling dramatically. His son slouched behind him.

I let out a breath I didnt know I'd been holding, then frowned as I realized I was still in a cage. And my wrists and jaw ached. I scowled at the back of the last council member as they filed out, and the cage swung open at some signal. I hopped down, and was immediately scooped into a hug from Hagrid. 

"I'm sorry, are you alright? I didn' know tha' was gonna happen I swear." His hands fluttered over me, and I let him make sure I was, in fact, OK before stepping back and smiling at Hermione. 

"Lets go back to Hogwarts" She sighed, looking exhausted. 

I could emphasize with that sentiment. But as we walked (not in chains, yay) out of the courtroom, I remembered a question. 

"Hermione? How are you here?" I pleaded with my eyes for her to answer the mystery of her presence. 

She smiled. "Right. You told me to come, so I did."

That just made me even more confused. I hadn't asked anyone to come here with me. 

She outright laughed at my bemused expression, and dug around in the front of her robes, finding a golden chain and dangling something that looked like- Oh. 

"Is that..."

"Yes, it is! Isn't it cool. The ministry gave it to me so that I could attend all my classes. I'm attending so many there arn't enough hours in the day for them. You don't remember asking me to go to your trial because you havn't yet. When we get back you need to ask me to go, I'll be in the common room I think, and you need to give me these." She shoved the notes on cases I had made into my hands. I was still staring, gobsmacked, at the Time Turner Hermione had. "But lets get back first. I've been awake around 14 hours, I need some sleep." 

I bombarded her with questions as we walked back to the portkey that would take us to Hogwarts, but she just laughed tiredly and Hagrid was too busy getting the right key to notice my increasing jealousy of the shiny hourglass dangling around Hermiones neck.