TITLE: Fairy Tales and Dragon Scales

THANKS TO: misswarchan and danniperson FOR REVIEWING!

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CHAPTER FIVE

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Dear Severus,

I'll need to go to work again tomorrow, but I did find out that I have a lot of vacation days saved up from over the past few years and I can probably take a week or two off to help you with Draco's case. I can meet you in the office Sunday morning, if that's alright with Draco. I'll bring whatever I can that might be useful. Let me know when we have an official meeting time. Take care!

Sincerely,

Hermione

It was the evening after Severus had been coerced into looking at Draco and found the letter waiting for him when he got back home with Adele. He was a bit irritated that he had ended up giving in to their demands, but it was very strange and if this had been what was happening to Harry…if it could let them know anything about the young wizard…Severus was a little afraid that the results would come back and be less than gratifying. Damn Hermione for putting any hope into his heart that Harry could still be alive…that he could be out there and that Severus might get him back one day.

"Can I read Beedle Tales today, Father?" Adele asked quietly, breaking the silence they had carried since leaving Andromeda's house. He hadn't even said anything to anyone, only walking in and taking Adele and leaving to come home.

"Beatle tails?" Severus asked in confusion, being pulled from his thoughts.

"Yeah…You know…That Aunt Hermy did? With the…the hairy heart and the…three brothers and them?" Adele asked.

"We do not have that book," Severus replied and rolled his eyes in irritation.

"Oh," Adele said sadly. Andromeda had it and she had read one of the stories to her and Teddy today and now Adele wanted to read the rest. It was a very good book. Andromeda had told them how Hermione had translated it so that everyone could read it. Maybe Hermione would have a copy she could read, Adele thought to herself. She'd ask the next time she saw her godmother.

"Try reading this tonight," Severus said, walking over to the bookshelf and pulling out The Magician's Nephew. It was a bit above her current reading level, but she'd never get better if she wasn't challenged. Adele frowned at it but nodded and sat down on the couch and opened the book. "If you have trouble with it then reread Leah's Lost Leprechaun." It was a ridiculously easy, childish picture book that would hopefully encourage Adele to really put an effort into reading the other book. He hid a smirk at Adele's grimace at the mention of the children's book and made his way to the kitchen and fixed her a simple turkey sandwich with a glass of pumpkin juice and set them on the table for her. "This is your supper. Do not disturb me unless it is an emergency. I will be out in time to get you ready for bed."

"Yes, Father," Adele said quietly, holding the book closed in her lap. Severus didn't care enough to scold her about going to eat or opening the damned book. He had more important matters on his mind. He locked himself in his office and sat behind his desk, quickly writing two notes.

Mrs. Granger,

Draco agreed to keep his schedule open and is ready whenever we are. We will meet in my office Sunday at 8 A.M. sharp.

-Severus T. Snape

He rolled that parchment up and began writing on another.

Draco,

Granger is taking time off work for you. Meet us at my office at 8 A.M. Sunday morning.

- Severus T. Snape

He rolled this one up as well and gave them both to his owl and sent him along with instructions to bring them to Hermione and Draco. Once the owl was gone, Severus took out the medical books he had brought home with him. He had spoken with one of the most respected healers at St. Mungo's just today about the symptoms Draco and Harry had had without giving out names. The man hadn't heard of anything like it…Hermione and Draco had both also confessed to doing some research and coming up with nothing. Severus figured it wouldn't hurt to check over the books himself and had even brought home a few books on older diseases that were said to not exist anymore, just in case. He had many stacks of very thick books…He sensed a long night ahead of him, but he was eager to throw himself into his new project.

While Severus began his work, Hermione Granger was just stepping into the Burrow holding her son Isaac in her arms and was followed out of the fireplace shortly by her husband Ron who was holding Elijah. She hadn't been able to get done with Severus and Draco in time for dinner last night, but promised to bring her husband and sons by tonight. Already they could smell the delicious food being cooked by Molly in the kitchen.

"UNCLE CHARLIE!" Isaac immediately shrieked.

"UNCLE CHARLIE!" Elijah echoed.

Isaac wiggled around in her arms so Hermione put him down and smiled as he ran towards his uncle with his twin not far behind. Charlie grinned and stood up and grabbed the boys into his arms. "Ah there are my two favorite nephews!" he said with a grin.

"They're your only nephews," Ron remarked.

"That's why they're my favorite," Charlie said.

"Feels nice being ignored by my own nephews," said Ginny Weasley from the sofa. Hermione felt guilty because she hadn't noticed the presence of Ginny and her fiancé Neville Longbottom, either.

"Say hi to Aunt Ginny," Hermione told the boys.

"Hi Aunt Ginny!" the boys exclaimed, waving to her as Charlie put them back on the ground. They weren't as excited as they had been to see Charlie, though. Ginny sighed dramatically and Charlie just laughed.

"Well they see you all the time, Gin," Ron said. "Charlie's never around. Plus he plays with dragons."

"DRAGONS!" the boys yelled in union.

"I want to see a dragon, Uncle Charlie!" Isaac exclaimed.

"Me first!" Elijah argued.

Charlie laughed and sat on the couch with the boys and a stack of pictures he had taken in Romania. He described each of the dragons as he showed them. Norberta the Norwegian Ridgeback…Petra, a Peruvian Vipertooth…Eugen a Romanian Longhorn…and many, many others. He recounted a few of his latest tales involving the dragons, and while Ron sat with Hermione, Ginny, and Neville, he looked longingly to his brother and sons, looking more interested in their stories than anything the other adults were talking about. Hermione couldn't help but smile fondly at him from time to time as she caught up with Ginny and Neville. Ginny talked about how awful training was this season, as she was a Chaser for the Holyhead Harpies and Neville told of how he wasn't too happy with the Auror department and said it just wasn't for him. Mostly, though, they talked about the upcoming wedding…Neville groaning about how much his grandmother was bothering him about it and both agreed that Augusta Longbottom and Molly Weasley were taking over and it was driving them insane.

"I swear Mum and Augusta are at war over whose wedding dress I'm doing to wear," Ginny said, rolling her eyes. "They both seem to ignore the fact that I already bought my own gown."

"I remember that argument," Hermione said with a sigh. Her own mother and Molly had both wanted Hermione to wear their gowns, but Hermione ended up making a loud comment about eloping to Ron one day while Jean Granger and Molly argued and that had managed to get them to shut up about it…Mainly got them fussing at Hermione and Ron about how they couldn't elope, but at least it had ended the gown war.

"So what are you doing here, Uncle Charlie?" Hermione heard Isaac ask.

"Yeah, Charlie, why are you here?" Ginny asked teasingly. "We thought we were finally rid of you!"

"Ha ha ha," Charlie said sarcastically, grinning as he rolled his eyes. "You don't read the Prophet?"

Hermione was confused. Ginny also didn't seem to know what was going on.

"Ginny's coach has been riding them hard the past few weeks," Neville explained. "I don't think she's had time to read that between work and planning the wedding."

"Hermione's been working on some top secret project," Ron said.

Ginny laughed. "Boys, I think Hermione and I can speak for ourselves." Hermione laughed, too, and nodded her head.

"I usually read the Prophet but I guess I haven't in the past few days," Hermione explained. "Why, what happened?"

"A couple of dragons are loose around the area," Charlie explained. "Two of the newer guys weren't careful enough and a Vipertooth and a Longhorn escaped and somehow made it to England. The Longhorn attacked in Mould-on-the-Wold a few days ago, which is where we caught up with it. He was seen by a few Muggles so the Ministry's been around…We managed to get the Longhorn back, but the Vipertooth is a bit harder to catch since they're so fast. We've managed to keep it from leaving the country, but it's going to be work getting it back to Romania. The Ministry's trying to decide if they should execute it or not to save the trouble, but my supervisors have been appealing to them to give us more time to get her back to the reservation," Charlie explained. "But that's just what was in the papers."

"There's more?" Ron asked, eyes wide.

"Mhm," Charlie said. "When we were trying to get Petra to come with us, we found she had made friends with another dragon, a Hebridean Black. This was in a forest around Godric's Hollow. But the Black isn't ours and we think someone's been keeping it illegally. The area it was hanging around had a small cabin and it seems a wizard or witch lives there, though we can't tell who it is…No one's been there when we go to check, though we know they've been back because of things having moved around during each visit. We're trying to get people to stay stationed around the area to talk to whoever it is whenever they show up. The Black actually seems pretty tame, considering, and the fact that we haven't heard much about there being a dragon in the area. No one in Godric's Hollow remembers seeing it before. He's pretty nice, but when we try to get him to come with us…well, none of our tactics have worked so far. We're thinking it probably doesn't want to leave his owner."

"Bloody hell," Ron said, looking amazed.

"Ronald!" Hermione scolded, looking pointedly at the twins.

"Oops," Ron said unapologetically.

"That must be pretty awful," Hermione said, focusing on the subject at hand. "Was anyone hurt?"

"Petra severely injured two witches and Eugen injured three wizards and killed a Muggle, though that was an accident, I think. He got a bit defensive when we tried to capture him and he went a bit wild," Charlie explained with a frown. "They've been on the reservation longer than most so they're well behaved than most dragons of their kinds, but as you can tell…just them being around is dangerous, whether they're trying to hurt people or not. I can only hope the Ministry lets us do what we can instead of just trying to execute them on the spot. I hear Shackelbolt's been arguing with the Romanian Minister for days over the incident…I don't blame him, this is a pretty big thing to go down."

"Yeah," Hermione said frowning. "I do work in the Department for the Regulation and Control for Magical Creatures, so I'll see if there's anything I can do to help…I'm taking a vacation for the next week or so, but I can drop by every other day and see what can be done and see if I can convince them to give your team more time."

"That would be great, Hermione," Charlie said gratefully. "I almost forgot you were a Ministry witch. Knew there was some good having you in the family."

"Thanks," she laughed at his teasing.

"Whoa, wait…You're taking a vacation?" Ron asked, confused. "When did that happen?"

"I requested time off today…It's a paid vacation, don't worry," Hermione assured him. "And don't give me that look, Ronald, I'm hardly going to have leisure time."

"Don't tell me," sighed Ron, "that you're taking a break from work to do more work."

Hermione flushed. "This is very important, Ron!"

"So you say," Ron muttered. "I don't even get to know about it."

"Because it's none of your business!" Hermione hissed angrily. Ron could be such a child sometimes! Hermione didn't like not being able to tell him things, but Draco was very serious about her telling no one. And even if she trusted Ron not to tell the Prophet, that didn't make it right for her to tell him just because he wouldn't tell. It would be very wrong of her to do.

"Ron, stop being a prat," Ginny cut in before Ron could say anything else.

"Just let Hermione do what she will, Ron," Charlie added. "If you fight her on this, you'll be in deep shite, you know."

"Charlie!" Hermione hissed, eying the twins.

Isaac giggled. "Uncle Charlie said shite!"

"Isaac Alvin, don't you dare say that again!" Hermione snapped.

"Sorry," Charlie said sheepishly.

"Isaac said shite, Mummy!" Elijah laughed.

"Elijah Arthur! Ugh! Say it again and you won't get dessert and you'll be going to bed early," Hermione warned.

"Charles Septimus Weasley! Do not teach my grandsons such foul language," Molly fussed as she walked into the living room. "Hello, dears. Dinner will be ready soon and Arthur's on his way." She smiled and leaned down to open her arms as Isaac and Elijah jumped off of the couch and ran to give their grandmother a hug. "Ron, why on earth do you look so moody?"

"Because his wife's a real woman who won't bow down to him and give him everything he wants," Ginny said.

"I did not say that!" Ron argued, glaring at his younger sister.

"You two are not children anymore. There is no need to argue that way," Molly said sternly. Ron and Ginny glared at each other in a childish manner and Charlie snorted.

Hermione just sighed. She could handle Ron being stubborn and moody about things…He was so immature sometimes but she loved him. It was just moments like these she could send a good hex in his direction. It made Hermione not want to be here anymore and instead get back to work on her notes and trying to figure out more about Draco's condition. It would be rude to leave, though, so Hermione focused instead on discussing more about dragons and other news with Charlie and Molly while they waited on Arthur to get home while Ron and Ginny glared at each other and muttered to each other now and then until Molly glared at them to be quiet.

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A/N: More about Draco's issues in the next chapter! Please review!