Dragonology 101

Chapter 4

Summary: "Blimey...this is you just liking something? I hate to imagine what you'd be like with something you actually love."

If Felix Rosier, age sixteen, strict Slytherin prefect and manically dedicated 6th year student, had been told that one year in the future he would be spending nearly a third of each week sneaking out of school to visit a dragon in the dead of night, he would have docked points from whatever student was making up such a slanderous lie. And yet now he can be found, by those who bother to look, kipping in the back of classes, shirking prefect duties as often as he can get away with it, and nicking dead animals from the Care of Magical Creatures paddock whenever Kettleburn is not around.

Felix has no idea where this rebellious streak originated. True, he has never been afraid to bend or even break the rules on occasion in order to keep Slytherin the top house. He's jinxed other students, dueled outside classes, and lied to professors, but he has always justified his actions as necessary for the greater good of his house. Reckless rule breaking that does not further Slytherin's reputation or chances of winning the house cup, Felix considers selfish, a betrayal of their fraternity. He has never even broken curfew before, or sneaked down to the kitchens to steal food, let alone thrown nearly half the school rules out the window just to feed a dragon with Jacob Windsong's little sister.

Maybe she's been a bad influence, Felix thinks to himself one Transfiguration lesson after failing to answer Professor McGonagall's question for the second time. A year ago, he would have been livid with himself, but vanishing cauldrons seems so trivial now next to the very real presence that is the growing dragon. Felix is changing, he knows, his iron-clad discipline creaking under the strain of his newly discovered passion, and nights when he's not escaping to the forest it takes all his efforts to keep his mind on his studies.

Yes, it would be easy to blame the 13 year old curse-breaker, who has never met a rule she doesn't think herself above, but Felix knows that's not entirely true. Her influence and the dragon may have set it free, but this desire to do something - dangerous, physical, and just for himself - has always been there. He's just kept it hidden for so long he's forgotten.

They are halfway through October, and whether Felix or Juniper is better with the dragon is hard to say. Most of their evenings in the forest find Juniper at the dragon's head, feeding it treats and keeping it calm, while Felix circles its body, inspecting it from every angle. It is Felix who determines the dragon's sex.

"Male." he announces on his first perambulation.

"Well then, good boy, Sparky!" Crows Juniper, stroking the back of the dragon's scaly head.

"It's still Sparky, then?" he asks bemusedly making his way steadily back around to her.

"Sure. Sparky can be a girl's or a boy's name."

"It isn't a name at all." Felix insists doggedly, but her only response is a merry laugh.

Felix also has better luck examining the dragon's (he refuses to think of it, him, as Sparky) injured wing. With Juniper holding its head and speaking softly, all while plying it with rabbits which it consumes in ever-increasing amounts, Felix manages to crouch down beside the dragon and inspect its injury.

A long gash has torn through the bottom panel of its left wing. Each side of the now parted wing has begun to heal up on its own; ugly, uneven scars forming on the torn edges. Felix is no expert, but as far as he can tell, through the absence of any pus or smell of rot, the wound is not infected. Still, the dragon seems to find the area tender, jerking involuntarily whenever Felix strokes his fingers feather-light across the developing scars, and it has still made no effort to fly away.