Friday Addams stood in a humungous clearing in the middle of the woods, before many people dressed similar to her. Friday wore long navy blue jeans, a plain white t-shirt with short black robes over them, and burly looking brown dragon hide boots. She held a wand tightly, gazing up at 4 large dragons. Mark Grobbal stood next to her, gazing up at the dragons, holding the longest leash any of the people standing there had ever seen, which was tied tightly around the Horntail's neck comfortably.
"Has he been eating lately, Mark?" Friday asked, gazing up at him, clutching her brown clipboard as she carefully scribbled notes about the Horntail's condition. Mark answered that the Horntail, called 'Zi', was not eating any solids and they had had to blend every large chunk of food that the Horntail wanted or it would starve itself. Friday nodded, knowing that she would have to take care of Zi more carefully from that moment on. "-Get the giant syringe and fill it with melted gillyweed and melted muggle eyeballs. Wait, do we still have those ingredients?" Friday asked.
Mark nodded. "We just got a fresh shipment yesterday, we ordered two days before. They come quickly recently since we told them about poor Zi over here, and how she's very essential to protecting the secret of the wizarding world." Mark said eagerly. Friday gave him a reproving look. "I know, I know, don't say it so loud: muggles may be roaming, but it's the dead of night: give me a break, what kind of muggle randomly walks around at this late hour, and in this hidden forest? Not only that; but I thought you enchanted the area?"
"I did enchant the area, and I'm not worried about muggles overhearing; I'm worried about You-Know-Who or one of his supporters hearing. They can be anywhere. If they knew that, they could gain control of the wizarding world; quite easily, in fact. That's why we've been having tighter job interviews for watching over all the dragons; because one of them could easily be a Death Eater." Friday said, shivering at the thought. Mark nodded, and apologized.
"I still don't understand why, or how Zi could possibly protect the secret of the wizarding world." Mark said, shrugging. "All I know is that's what Dumbledore said the last time we spoke to him, and,"
"Don't mention Dumbledore!" Friday whispered harshly. "-You know that if a Death Eater were to walk by and heard Dumbledore's name, they'd immediately want to head into this area, and even all these dragons can't protect us from them," Friday shivered. "Well, anyway, get that syringe for me, Mark."
Mark turned to a man with long, graying hair. "Mortimer?" Mark asked the man. The man looked up and nodded. "-Could you get the syringe, put in-oh, I forgot," Mark said, as Mortimer started making sign language signs that he couldn't understand Mark's language. Friday watched as Mark started speaking in what Friday supposed was Elvish. Finally, Mortimer nodded and ran off, and out of the large woods and headed off to the nearest building to the dragon's clearing where they had all kinds of medications and dragon foods.
Friday watched Mortimer run off, and then turned back to the large group. "Right then," she said, "Charlie?" Asked Friday. She turned behind her, spotting her boyfriend who was about 3 years older than her. Charlie Weasley stood, with short, flaming red hair and tiny freckles on his cheeks, and a huge grin on his face.
"Yes, darling?" Asked the now 26-year-old, Charlie Weasley, scooting up to stand next to Friday as he gazed into the sky at the dragon. Friday shrugged and asked Charlie how his Chinese Fireball that he was watching over was doing. Charlie shrugged. "-It's well, it's quite interesting really, he keeps on coughing up tiny blue silk blankets," He said. "I don't think any of us are feeding that kind of thing to her, and there are no real side-effects mentioned on all of the different medications we're giving Ole' Beauty." Charlie said, admiring his Chinese Fireball.
"Give her a syringe, put in phoenix feathers and scale of beetle, grind it down and add animaux liver," Friday commanded her boyfriend, "-oh, and do try and get home early, so we can contact Dumbledore and tell him all of the strange dragon behavior. If Zi loses Ole' Beauty as a friend, she may get upset and starve herself once more, and we need to keep Zi alive at all costs. All of the dragons should be kept alive, but you know she's the most important," Friday said, gesturing up at Zi.
"See, Friday, that's the thing. I don't understand how a dragon could possibly hold the secret of the wizarding world. Also, I have always been the one who says; what's the harm in telling muggles about us? We'll simply tell them that we were the ones blessed with magic, they weren't, so they shouldn't ask us for things," Charlie said.
"I'll explain to you when you return home how the dragon holds the secret, and it's very silly, your idea. If we told muggles and then refused to do all the work for them, they'd get mad and say that it was unfair that we lived with magic, easier lives, and they had to do things the hard way. Then they'd probably riot around, just as bad as You-Know-Who, and all the wizards would die out," Friday whispered quietly to Charlie. "And that is worth having to keep a secret, no matter how much time or work or effort to put in, it takes."
"I understand that." Charlie said, nodding and running off to go get a syringe in the same place that Mortimer had just returned from. He ran up to Friday and handed her the syringe, asking (in Elvish, so Mark had had to translate) if she'd like to do the honors. Friday shrugged, grabbed the syringe and numbed Zi's big toe quickly, so Friday could inject the melted muggle eyeballs and melted gillyweed. Zi let out a soft roar of pain, but only for a second.
"I know, girl, I know," Friday said in a comforting voice. "Go off to sleep now, baby," She said, as Zi closed one of her eyes sleepily. Friday continued to rub Zi's big toe as the dragon slowly drifted off to a deep slumber. Friday nodded once at Zi and said to the others standing behind, "That'll do. So, who's going to watch her while she sleeps?" A couple of select dragon trainers raised their hands, meaning that they were available all night and didn't need the sleep, apparently. "-Jolly good. You know the routine: if she wakes up, comfort her, pet her, feed her anything she wants, and contact me by owl. Send the noisiest owl possible, I'll be sleeping after 2 long nights of no sleep, guaranteed," Friday admitted, heading off to her small house.
Friday entered and waited for about an hour before Charlie came home and explained to Friday that he had had a hard time getting Ole' Beauty to fall asleep. "I'm telling you, the first couple of syringes didn't affect her one bit, I had to give her so many shots and finally she just fell down, almost looking like she had died. We checked her out, she had a huge pulse, and so we gave her a relaxing syringe, and now she's sound asleep, happy and healthy – for now." Charlie said, throwing off his leather jacket.
Friday sat comfortably on the couch, next to Charlie. "I know, it's hard work, but once we find a new way to keep the secret, or a new location, I can't tell, we will be safe with the secret of the wizarding world. For now, we have a huge job on our shoulders; our very own world's fate rests in our hands; it's our responsibility now."
"Well, now can you explain to me the importance of Zi? How can she possibly hold the secret of our world?" Charlie asked, looking confused. "-Pfft, it's funny – I thought I knew everything about dragons, after studying so much about them, but here comes my girlfriend who can beat me in dragon knowledge, and that's just insane," Charlie said, grinning. Friday rolled her eyes and began with a story of how Zi protected the secret of the wizarding world.
"Well, we all know it was Merlin and the original Ministry of Magic Officials who knew that they had to keep magic away from muggles; so they would think it did not exist, or that it simply was a fairytale. Merlin knew that he had to use magical ways to prevent muggles from seeing magical objects. So, he ordered that schools look like abandoned buildings, useless & rusty; he made Quidditch Cup Games that were enchanted that if a muggle came anywhere near: they'd remember an important appointment they have and leave the premises immediately. But all was not well: there were still ways that muggles could easily find out about magic: Death Eaters. Death Eaters could torture muggles, and witnesses could manage to escape, and tell the world what he saw. Some could deem him insane, but some could believe him; the other witnesses, even." Friday said.
"-But, usually when they see Death Eaters – they freeze in their spots because of fear! We catch them every time and modify their memories all the time! I can't imagine muggles just walking off, running off even; and not being seen on our radar," Charlie said, trailing off.
"But the point is; some have gotten past and we know that: we've visited muggle insane institutions, and we've talked to people who saw 'flashing green light' and all of a sudden, their buddy was dead or something," Friday said, sighing. "They're being told it's all in their head and that they're insane, and that has driven them insane; they're all giggling and rolling around on the padded floors all day while we visit them, until we ask them to answer our questions about a hundred times, then they're normal and answer politely until it comes to the green light, they scream that at the top of their lungs." Friday said.
"Okay, okay, I get it. So, lets get to the part where the dragon actually becomes important," Charlie said impatiently. "I can't see why they'd make a dragon protect the secret, and how? Is there some kind of little message in a bottle at the bottom of the dragon's stomach?" Charlie asked mockingly. But to Charlie's great surprise, Friday nodded.
"Many years later, after Merlin – erm, passed away," Friday said, pausing to let a tear drip down her face, but then she continued briskly; "-A Ministry Official that worked in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office, by the name of Daniel Clomons, who was very fond of dragons, insisted that the misuse of muggle artifacts was becoming a common practice; and the risk for muggles finding out about us was all too high, so he knew what to do. He went to his pet Horntail, Zi, and cast the Infedelus Charm. Unfortunately, for a dragon to be a secret keeper, there are special conditions. You must keep the dragon alive because if it dies, Death Eaters or muggles can cut open it's stomach and see a tiny message in a bottle, and once they read it: they can share to the world the secret if they wish. Dragons are affected differently, this means, because if the secret keeper were to die for the secret, it would never be revealed; and there would be a new secret keeper needed." Friday finished. Charlie looked astounded.
"So, you're saying that right now in the bottom of Zi's stomach there's a-a-message in a bottle? That sounds insane, if you ask me. Friday; did you break out of St. Mungo's?" Charlie joked. He received a playful punch in the stomach and a giggle from Friday.
"I'm not goofing. If we were to (god forbid) go insane and cut Zi open right now, we'd see a message in a bottle," Friday explained. "With it, we could do very dangerous things. We'd have to watch who we tell, but if we knew the specific words on the parchment inside the bottle, the magic inside us might cause us to lose control and blurt out the secret." Friday said, "-and then it would be entirely our fault. Not only that, but if Zi gets sick and dies: she is completely vulnerable to Death Eaters and muggles, even if we bury her or banish her forever from the earth: there are ways in which Death Eaters can make her body return," Friday explained.
"-But why would Death Eaters want to let their own secret out? They're wizards too, so why would they ever share the secret? They even hate muggles: they wouldn't want the muggles to know all about magic and to request all these things?" asked Charlie. Friday groaned and rolled her eyes.
"I would have thought that obvious, Charlie," Friday said simply. "-The Death Eaters are aware that if our secret were revealed, muggles would want us to use our magic to help them, 24/7. And the Death Eaters are also aware that some wizards would refuse to use their magic. And the Death Eaters know that that would cause a muggle riot against some wizards. And the Death Eaters know that they could just lie and say that they have no magic; and use magic to make the muggles believe them. Therefore, the Death Eaters would all survive, pretending to be 'muggles' for as long as possible, and then when the time became right, they would simply kill out many muggles, the remaining muggle-borns and half-bloods, and make the wizarding world, as they say, 'finally pure'." Friday said, shuddering.
"That's disgusting." Charlie said angrily. "And now I understand." He said. "It's just that- no matter how many times I see attacks on muggles or muggle-borns, or half-bloods by Death Eaters, I just can't ever get it through my head that they are this awful. That they would go through any means to make the wizarding world 'pure'. And that they will stop at nothing, if it means giving up their dream of making the wizarding world for purebloods only. It's just – disgusting. Disgusting." Charlie said, distantly walking off for bed. Friday nodded, but wasn't really listening. She was thinking about her tortured parents, right before her eyes: because they were muggles. And Friday remembered running from the four Death Eaters for forever, until she ran into Dumbledore, who rescued her. And Friday knew that she would be forever grateful.