Chapter 8

The morning before the day of the first task Vanessa was summoned to the Headmaster's office. This rather surprised her as she assumed he would be far too busy dealing with the press to handle mundane school matters.

Draco went with her. Although he had not been summoned, no one forbade him either, so until they did he was sticking close by her. That damned Durmstrang git was somewhere nearby and Draco didn't trust him one bit.

When they entered Dumbledore's office both of Draco's parents were there. Also present were Charley Weasley, Professor Snape, Professor Moody and for some inexplicable reason Hagrid. Professor Moody sneered and Vanessa took a step forward. If one did not know better one might be tempted to think that she meant this as a threat. Since Draco absolutely knew better he was under no such delusion. He did not think it was a threat. He knew absolutely one hundred percent for certain it was a threat. He put a hand on her shoulder and she stepped back, but only grudgingly. Lucius merely raised an eyebrow but inwardly gloated.

Dumbledore cleared his throat for attention and all eyes turned to him.

"Miss Granger, I have invited the Malfoys to attend this meeting as your guardians…. "

"Begging your pardon Headmaster, they are my sponsors. My most gracious sponsors, but they have put themselves out far too much on my behalf already. Calling them my guardians does put an unfair amount of pressure to act in a capacity they have neither agreed upon in theory nor contractually" she stressed this last word very pointedly, "signed on for." She thought she saw a merry twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes. She was not the daughter of Charles Dagworth-Granger for nothing. She had cut her baby teeth on contract law. If he thought he was going to trap her with wordplay he was very much mistaken.

"My apologies Miss Granger, de facto guardians in this case as they are merely standing in for your guardian in this case."

After careful consideration she nodded her agreement to his terminology.

"Shouldn't we get on with the point, we haven't got all day to coddle the girl" growled Moody.

Lucius cleared his throat and stepped forward.

"No, I should think you had far much to do in studying the updated list of appropriate student professor relations that I am certain Headmaster Dumbledore has provided you with, Professor Moody."

Moody stepped towards Lucius as if to say something when a scroll was thrust into his chest.

"I took the liberty of procuring one Professor" said Vanessa with a mock bow "I am certain with your sudden arrival you had not found the time to study it for yourself." She stepped back and allowed Narcissa who had remained silent all of this time, to take her arm in a motherly fashion.

Moody glared at her "I could tell you things about your new friends that would knock the curl out of your hair missy."

"And I could tell you things about your new friends that would cause the rest of your hair to fall out" Vanessa said with a sweet smile and then made the oddest slurping gesture and sound with her tongue.

Moody's eyes went wide and then he glared at her and stalked from the room.

All eyes in the room turned to her as if waiting an explanation. They would wait until the Black Lake turned into pink cotton floss, she had no intentions of divulging the reasons for her strange behavior.

Dumbledore stared at her over his half moon spectacles.

"The reasons I have called you here Miss Granger" he began after some time "has to do with your familiar."

Vanessa's insides turned to ice "Draconis! Is he injured? Ill? Where is he?" She was sick to think she had been taunting Moody while Draconis needed her.

"No, no, nothing of the sort Vanessa" Charley said quickly. "Draconis is fine. At the moment. …"

"But…?"

"We have to use a very strong pheromone in this first trial. A mating pheromone to be exact. Draconis may be a pocket dragon but it will affect him just the same. He will become aggressive."

"Draconis would never injure me!" Vanessa immediately defended her familiar.

"You, no." stated Dumbledore. "Other students most assuredly. And even if he would not harm another student" he held up a hand to stave off her next argument that Draconis was no danger to humans "he would certainly go after the other male dragons. The danger is more likely going to be to Draconis himself. I am sorry Miss Granger but for his own safety we must insist that he be caged until the task is over and the dragons are safely out of the country. Even then we will have to remove every trace of the pheromone before we can be certain he is no longer a threat to himself or others."

"CAGED? As in a…a... cage?"

"It really is not that bad, Vanessa, I put my owls in cages all the time" Draco tried to sooth her.

"Those are BIRDS Draco! He is not a bird he is a DRAGON you can't just cage a dragon. They go mad." She looked pleadingly at Hagrid.

"She's right Perfesser; ye go lockin' 'im up an' 'ees going to be a problem fer sure. Mus' be summat else we kin do fer him"

"What if we took him back to the Manor?" Asked Narcissa "As long as Vanessa is permitted to visit frequently there should be no issue with their bond causing him harm by their separation."

Dumbledore considered this. "Very well, provided her father gives permission for Vanessa to stay at Malfoy Manor as needed I will agree to this solution."

Vanessa's father was contacted at once. The fire call was complicated across oceans but was finally managed with the help of the pukwudgies at Ilvermorny who had their own powerful magic. Vanessa was overjoyed to see him. He was overbearing at times, and could be terribly controlling but she knew he loved her. After her mother's death they were all they really had left. His mother, her most beloved grandmother and Narcissa's good friend was far too busy to be a real companion to either of them. She worried about him being lonely without her.

"Daddy!" She cried into the fire as soon as he had been summoned.

"Hello Princess, have you managed to turn the entire country on its ear and make them all over into proper Americans yet?"

"Yes Daddy, they are all ready to pack their bags and learn to play Quodpot and give up this Quidditch nonsense for good."

"That's my girl."

They had a good fifteen minute chat after which he spoke to the Malfoys alone while she and Draco waited in the hall.

"What was that with Moody" Draco asked her.

She smiled at him. "Please don't ask me to lie to you. I will tell you everything about him at the end of this school year, I promise. But not now. Not unless I kill him for coming close to you again."

That statement earned her a roll of the eyes and a reminder that he was actually a better duelist than she was, touching off an argument that ended with him dragging her towards the nearest broom closet to show his dominance in an entirely different type of dueling when his father came to fetch them.

"Draco Malfoy, stop dragging that young lady around and return with me at once. I must insist that you show some restraint in your base urges." The look this earned Lucius from Narcissa showed exactly what she thought of her husband giving anyone that sort of lecture. Lucius ignored her with an imperial tilt of his head.

It had been decided in her absence that in the off seasons Vanessa would stay with the Malfoys and her father would hear no more about it.

"Certain developments have been brought to my attention Vanessa and you will obey me in this. Now I expect your grades in the following subjects to be improved as well as the lessons my accountant has sent you to be completed in a more timely fashion."

The conversation afterwards ended in discussions about updates in schoolwork and DG Imports her father's, and one day her, company's current state of affairs. Even at her young age she was expected to have a basic knowledge of the company that was her legacy. Both of the older Malfoys were impressed with how much she was able to discuss about world market trends.

Draconis left with the Malfoys that very day with much weeping from both him and Vanessa.