This was not how he thought he would die. He had always loved dragons, despite everyone's warnings of how dangerous they were. He always saw them as the beautiful majestic creatures and yet here he was. An apprentice dragon tamer caught in the middle of the skirmish between two dragons, wandless and weaponless. If that didn't spell out inevitable death, he didn't know what did. Of course, it was just his luck that both were Hungarian Horntails, the most ferocious dragons known to wizardkind.

The way in which the two dragons were circling each other, terrified him to his very core. He ducked instinctively each time one of them let out a ferocious roar, although he knew it wouldn't do much good.

And then, it happened. One of the dragons saw him and blew a blazing plume of flames right at him. Charlie closed his eyes, anticipating the searing pain but it never came. All he felt was a sudden,powerful, push before everything went dark.

It was rather late when he woke again. He could see the stars through some kind of rocky opening and he realised there was a chill in the air. Someone had covered him with a raggedy looking blanket, which did little to keep out the cold. He was lying on the soft soil in a cave and a man was sitting hunched close to the fire burning a few meters away. As he struggled to sit up, groaning as he realised his head was still throbbing painfully, the man turned to look at him.

"Awake, I see. Charlie, isn't it?" The voice that called out was raspy and tired, but Charlie detected a hint of concern in it. He nodded in response, wincing slightly at the pain. In the dim, flickering light of the fire, he could barely make out the man's features. Long, dark, shabby hair and a face that looked a few years older than him, but at the same time looked extremely weary. He seemed oddly familiar, though Charlie couldn't quite place it.

"Who are you?" he asked, after debating it for a while. The man shrugged noncommittally, clearly unwilling to answer the question. Charlie considered pushing it, but eventually decided otherwise.

"How'd you beat the dragon?" Charlie enquired, wondering if he was annoying his companion by asking too many questions. The man, who Charlie had no doubt was a wizard, pointed at the wand lying near feet. Charlie recognised it as his own, that he had lost in the forest earlier.

"You're welcome," the man rasped, grinning. Charlie nodded gratefully, a smile forming on his face as well.

In a short while, they were sitting across each other from the fire, munching the fruits which were supposed to be their supper, given that Charlie's bag of supplies had been burnt to a crisp by the dragons.

As Charlie looked up at the man again, he wondered, for what must have been the hundredth time, who his mysterious savior was. Suddenly, the image of that same face, or rather, a younger version of it, came back to him. He'd seen it on the mantelpiece back home, a long time ago, when his mother kept a picture of the Order there. The half-eaten fruit fell from his trembling hands and rolled into the fire. Charlie's face had gone as white as a sheet and the man, no, Sirius Black, noticed it, realising his secrecy had all been in vain.

Charlie stared blankly into the flames for a long time after the supposed murderer had left into the cold night, wondering why he'd been saved by someone who seemed to need saving the most.


Notes: Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments) Assignment #9 and the 500 Different Pairings Challenge (HPFC).

Word Count: 625

Task: Divination: Pendulum: Write about someone in a life-threatening situation.

Optional Prompts: Secrecy (word)