The Forest is dark at night.
Not that it's scary.
But it is dark.
Hermione whispers a spell, and a blob of green fire floats out of her wand, illuminating the trees around us, but seemingly casting the far-away trunks into deeper blackness.
A rustle, a flash of movement behind us.
I whirl, my wings stretching the smart(ish) clothes I had worn for the trial, already ripped and torn from my rough treatment. Hermione's firelight reflects on a pair of eyes - a wolf? a lion? and a low growl creeps as the eyes slowly come nearer. I growl back, narrowing my eyes and baring my teeth, and the animal moves on.
"We have to get out of here." Hermione sounds nervous.
"Tell me something I don't know. We haven't found a clearing big enough for both of us, and it's getting darker by the minute." I reach back, and carefully rip wing holes in the back of my shirt, but letting my wings rest against my back for the moment.
I look around for more beasts, but the Forest is silent. Too silent. In the day it's filled with birdsong; at night with the screeches of hunting owls, but in the twilight period between the two, it is silent as the grave.
The hairs on the back of my neck prick up, and I twist, hissing, to find- Nothing.
"Jane?"
"We have to get out of here. I'm getting a bad feeling about..." My voice trailed away, and the looming silence seems to lend weight to the air, a sense of loatheful malevolence seeping from the twisted branches that caged us. The colour seemed to drain out of the Forest, not that there was much to start with, as the last light of the sun skittered away, casing us further into the darkness. The green flames Hermione held guttered, as if something was blowing on them, them died, snuffed out into nothingness. Nothing seemed to matter anymore. I felt as if there was no hope, no hope of ever leaving, and all I was so tired, and all I wanted was to close my eyes and sleep, and never wake, and dream of shadows forever and ever and ever and ever and-
Wait.
I recognize this slow crawl of nothingness.
It happened before, the feeling of utter despair, it happened... on the train! With the
Dementor.
Bleep.
My eyes snapped open, but the world seemed to be spinning and swooping around me and the air was like treacle, thick and heavy, and I couldn't raise my arm towards where Hermione stood in a trance, her wand by her side, and my other hand brushed my wand and tried to grasp it, my mind racing to remember what Lupin said about Dementors, the spell- Expectum Paltorum?
No, Expecto Patronum!
Expecto Patronum, and my hand had a feather-light grasp on the handle of my wand, but my mouth couldn't move, couldn't form the shapes I needed to make, and there were three of them swooping around the clearing, and I tried my hardest and thought- and there was a FLASH of light and a burst of SOUND, a roar, and I could move and breathe and think and I stumbled to Hermione as white fire burned away the darkness and tore through the shadows, shaking her till her eyes snapped open as well and then I looked up at the sky that I could barely see through the crooked fingers of the trees, and spread my wings, grabbed her round the waist and pushed against the stagnant air of the forest, lifting off and carrying her, with the branches raking against us, trying to pull us back down, until I shook them off and flew up, high above the chaos of the battle raging below, to glide above the treetops in the last rays of the sun.
I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding.
It was peaceful in the air. Hermione was wriggling a bit in my arms, so I spread my wings wider, catching a hot air current and rising to almost touch the clouds.
Before dropping her.
Hey, she was heavy, alright?
I twisted into a dive, summoning my armour as I did, and fell faster than her, shifting fluidly into my dragon form when I was underneath her, and spreading my (larger) wings to slow down, so that she landed on my back.
Wasn't sure that would work.
Glad it did.
She's breathing heavily, so I just glide, beating my wings slowly to keep us airborne, and fly in a long curve towards the castle, craning my neck to look over my shoulder at her. Her face is pinched, and slightly green. I don't think a corkscrew is a good idea at the moment. I hover beside our dorm window, and reach back to grab the scruff of her robes between my teeth, setting her gently on the windowsill before changing back and landing beside her, still in armour.
She looks at me for a moment, before yawning very widely and dragging herself onto her bed, where she collapses and sleeps.
I stretch out my arms and wings, then do the same on my own bed, banishing my armour with a thought.
It's been a long day.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N
Haven't done one of these in a while.
Hello, readers! Thanks to all the old ones who have stuck with this story from the start, and all the new ones reading it for the first time.
Normally this would be the part where I tell you guys a target for the next chapter, or ask on bended knee for comments.
However. This A/N is SERIOUS (dum dum DUUUUUMMMM). It has been brought to my attention (thanks to all the people who messaged me about it) that there is another story on Wattpad that has copied my ideas. It is called The Last Elder Dragon, by juliet515123, and, without my permission, the writer has copied my character, and several scenes from this book. It shows up in the Recommended section (-->) for this book if you want to take a look. I have reported it, and am awaiting a response.
Again, thanks for putting up with my lack of updates, and wildly fluctuating writing style.
Ajkal2. (the whole g-ster thing was a phase I cringe to think of)
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Dragons at Hogwarts
FanfictionThe Elder Dragons are an old race, as old as the magic that permeates this world. They are the oldest of races and in the times of fire and lava at the formation of this world, they were there, and they developed hard scales, harder than diamond, an...
