Rose stood with Albus and Scorpius at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. They were in a group with over a hundred other students, all of whom were waiting for Giovanni to emerge. The buzz of conversation filled the cool November air.
"I'm telling you," said Rose with exasperation, "we won't be riding during the first lesson. It would be completely and utterly mad."
"And wicked cool," added Albus. "C'mon, Rose, you know you want to try it out."
Rose hated to admit it even to herself, but what Albus said was true. There was something about climbing onto such a magnificent creature and taking off into the sky—it intrigued her.
I really don't see your logic," said Scorpius thoughtfully. "I mean, you say you're terrified of flying—"
"I never said I was terrified," objected Rose. "I think Quidditch is a quite useless sport, to be honest."
"Useless?" said Scorpius loudly. A group of fifth years glanced his way then edged closer to the woods.
"She doesn't mean useless," said Albus nervously, looking between Rose and Scorpius. "Just...not her cup of tea."
"Actually, I did mean useless," said Rose with a glare, "so stop trying to put words in my mouth."
At that moment, the Riders began to emerge from the trees. Rose, her face hot with anger, walked away from Albus and Scorpius. She took a spot at the front of the crowd.
"Good afternoon!" said Giovanni, his voice carrying over all the students. "I am very pleased to see you all here. Are you prepared to ride a dragon?"
There was silence.
"I said, are you prepared to ride a dragon?"
A few half-hearted cries Rose out of the crowd.
"We have no room for slackers in the Riders!" Giovanni was now pacing in front of them. "I said, are you ready to ride a dragon?"
The students cheered their assent.
Giovanni stopped pacing as suddenly as he had begun.
"Then you are all prepared to die."
Rose had remained silent during the entire exchange. Her reward was a curt nod and brief eye contact from Giovanni. She silently rejoiced—she loved recognition for her actions.
"This is not a game," continued Giovanni as he resumed pacing. "This is not a foolish flying sport. You mount wrong? You die. You give the wrong command? You die. You lose concentration? You die. I expect to see half this number at our next lesson. Half. Thanks to our safety laws, it will not be because they are dead. May you all think on that for a time."
The students were still and silent as Giovanni returned to the line of Riders. The olive-skinned man stepped forward to address them next.
"I am glad to have such a raptly attentive audience," the man joked. "I am Rodolfo Miranzi, and it is my responsibility to help you learn the technical aspects of dragonic flight. We will start with anatomy. Now, who can tell me what anatomy is?"
Rose's hand shot in the air, but Rodolfo called on a boy sitting alone near the edge of the group.
"All of the physical aspects of a creature," said the boy, "like how the body all fits together."
"Good," said Rodolfo curtly, "and why is this an important place to start?"
Rose's hand was back in the air, and this time Rodolfo pointed to her.
"If you're riding a dragon, I imagine it's important to know exactly how its body works. You're sitting on a whole system of musculature and if you don't understand how it moves, you might fall off."
Rodolfo grinned. "Good," he said, "but it's simpler than that. It's important to understand the dragon's body for if you want to ride. But as Giovanni said, we're not going to let anyone come close to that until we know they have the proper discipline.
He grabbed a large book from his satchel and shook it, making an unpleasant face.
"You know what's tedious?" he asked. "Learning the names of all of these muscles. Learning the bones. How scales grow, when claws shed, how all of the species differ in their life cycles. The book work is tedious, and if you cannot fully apply yourself to this information, which you may not give two knuts about, then you lack the discipline needed to ride a dragon."
Though the speech was obviously supposed to inspire a certain level of resignation and dread, it made Rose's chest thump with excitement. It wasn't that she was eager to climb on top of a dragon, but this was basically an academic challenge, and there were few things as fun as rising to a challenge.
They worked until the bell rang for lunch. Rose reviewed her neat notes—they had started small, explaining how the different bones and muscles of a dragon's foot worked together when it was on land. She packed her bag, then looked around. Albus and Scorpius had already left, probably still upset about her earlier comments about Quidditch. Sighing, Rose headed up to the castle alone.
Albus was already seated when she entered the Great Hall. She considered sitting at a different spot at the table, but it was already mostly full with students who had skipped that day's lesson. Not looking directly at Albus, she took her usual spot across from him.
A few minutes into the meal, Albus cleared his throat.
"Rose," he said, "could you please pass me the salt?"
"Sure."
She handed it to him and met his gaze. He smiled tentatively, and after a brief hesitation, Rose smiled back.
Lessons with the Dragon Riders were only on weekends, so Rose spent most of her free time during the week working on assignments for her other classes. Albus and James were still kept busy with Quidditch practices. Cameron seemed to take their victory as a sign that they needed to keep working hard. After noticing that the boys were racing through dinner in order to get down to the Quidditch pitch, Rose began smuggling food out of the Great Hall to keep in the Gryffindor common room. When the boys came back, she'd have a snack ready, placed conveniently next to the chairs where they did their homework.
"Thank you, Rosie," said Albus weakly on Friday night. He grabbed one of the sandwiches Rose had brought back from dinner and began to devour it, looking at his textbooks as though he'd rather be fighting the Giant Squid than writing his Potions essay.
"You should sleep in tomorrow," said Rose, "you look like death. You can't keep this pace up."
"But the dragons," whined Albus half-heartedly.
"If you sleep in, you can be rested for all the homework you need to catch up on before Monday," said Rose, giving his textbooks a pointed look.
Albus couldn't argue with that. He managed to get through half of his Charms' chapters before heading to bed, followed directly by James, who hadn't even started his work.
Rose had expected Scorpius to join her for the next day's lesson, but when she saw him stagger into the Great Hall that morning, she could tell it wasn't going to happen.
"Lisatt has us flying dawn and dusk. I'm practically nocturnal at this point," said Scorpius wearily. "We were up nearly all night. Special Friday night practice." He punctuated the statement with a moan.
Rose ended up making the walk down to the edge of the Forbidden Forest alone. She arrived early; there was only a handful of other students.
Witherwings sat tethered to Hagrid's hut. Rose had only seen the Hippogriff on a few occasions growing up. Hagrid used to bring him around to the family's parties, but when Lily had turned seven, she had begun violently sparking and spooked Witherwings. The adults had decided that while the children couldn't control their magic properly, Witherwings should stay behind when Hagrid visited.
Rose approached the Hippogriff slowly and bowed low. After a moment, Witherwings returned the gesture. Rose closed the distance between her and Witherwings, who allowed her to pet him. She stretched the feathers under the Hippogriff's neck. They were warm and soft to the touch.
She didn't notice someone coming up behind her until Witherwings' eyes locked on something over her shoulder. She turned quickly and saw Schunverri a few feet away.
"He'll attack if you don't bow," she warned the burly man as Witherwings began to paw at the ground anxiously. "He's kind, but terribly formal."
The large man bowed deeply, swinging his cloak out with one arm. After a long moment of consideration, Witherwings returned the bow.
"Thank you for the warning," said Schunverri as he began to stroke Witherwings' back. "We have encountered many a prideful beauts along our travels, but never before a Hippogriff. What is this beauty's name?"
"Witherwings," supplied Rose. "He belongs to—well, he's taken care of by Hagrid. He doesn't really belong to anyone, I suppose."
Schunverri nodded thoughtfully. "Good man, that Hagrid is," he said. "Very interested in the dragons. Relatively knowledgeable, too. Good man."
Another Rider came up next to Schunverri. It was Marco Falicci, the one with the limp. He did not bow to Witherwings. He simply lay a hand on Schunverri's shoulder, then walked away.
"Time to start the lesson," said Schunverri. He patted Witherwing's neck, then returned to the others. Rose bowed her head to the Hippogriff, then rushed to take her seat.
The lesson was, once again, taught by Rodolfo. They began by reviewing the previous week's lesson, then delved into their Monster Book of Monsters, Edition Three.
"I know they're a bit tricky to manage," said Rodolfo as one of the books flew away, "Still, they're one of the better sources for beginners."
Silently, Rose argued that there had to be a book containing equally good information in a slightly more manageable format. She had been reading through the books Madame Abott had given her. Some of them were old fashioned—how to slay a dragon, guide to eating dragon meat—but most were quite helpful.
Giovanni arrived as Rodolfo was ending the lesson. "Small group," he said approvingly. "You'll get more accomplished this way."
"I think we scared the rest away," said Rodolfo with a grin.
"Time for lunch," said Schunverri as he stretched his thick arms over his head. At that moment, the bell rang, echoing down from the castle.
"Class dismissed, I suppose," said Rodolfo. "Go, eat."
Rose pulled a length of string from her bag. She knew that she had to tie down the book's wings or it would fly straight into the forest. After three attempts, she managed to subdue the book, tie down its wings, and shove it into her bag. Most of the others had already dispersed, and she headed up towards the castle alone.
"Rose!"
She turned to see James waving at her, his body halfway out of a low window.
"James, what-"
"You've gotta see this, c'mere!"
There was a door next to the window, which James was gesturing to wildly. Rose eyed it cautiously. Had there really always been a door there? And for that matter, a window? But the architecture of Hogwarts was hardly fixed. Things changed all the time. Shrugging mentally (and trying to quiet the voice in her head insisting that James was going to get her in trouble) Rose stepped through the door.
The room before her was long and almost oppressively warm compared to outside. Part of Rose's mind noticed James pulling himself back inside and closing the window behind him, but the rest of it was focused on the small army of house elves filling the room. They balanced trays full of food, pitchers of pumpkin juice and water, stacks of napkins, crates of plates and bowls. They were busy filling a long table that spanned the length of the room- a table that looked exactly like the one she should be sitting at in the Great Hall.
"Look at all of this!" James cried. "Did you know this was down here?"
"I assumed there was a kitchen, yes," said Rose absently, watching the house elves work. "James, how did you find it?"
"Oh, I just used the map," he said casually.
With a loud pop that echoed throughout the room, the contents of the center table vanished. Rose knew what that meant; in the Great Hall, the tables had just filled with food and drink for the students and professors to enjoy for lunch.
"Would Miss care for a drink?" asked a small voice. Rose jumped, haven't having noticed the house elf approach her.
"Oh!" she cried. "No thank you, I'm fine."
"Is Miss sure?" asked the house elf. "Twinkle was sure that all friends of Mister Potter were quite hungry, Miss."
Rose glared at James, who shrugged.
"Alright, so I've stopped in a few times this week," he admitted. "No harm in that."
"Twinkle will bring Mister Potter some sticky buns," said the house elf firmly, adjusting the shawl that covered park of her hot pink dress. "Twinkle will bring Miss a sandwich, perhaps?"
"Alright," said Rose, not wanting to offend the house elves. As Twinkle tottered away, Rose looked around and saw that all of the tiny workers were clad in mismatching clothes.
"They look like little Muggles," said James quietly, seeing what Rose was staring at. Rose didn't want to take the time and explain the difference between how Muggles dressed and how their grandparents dressed when trying to pass as Muggles. Instead, she went to the window and looked out at the grounds.
"How did you know I was out there?" asked Rose.
James looked at her like she was particularly slow. "The map," he said again. "Really, Rose, it's the best."
Rose was going to think of a witty retort, but a loud roar made her bang her elbow against the wall. James cussed, and somewhere across the room, a tray of glasses was dropped and shattered.
"James," said Rose tersely, "what was that?"
She didn't look away from the window, afraid that she already knew the answer. A moment later, a large blue dragon appeared from out of the forest. A smaller figure trailed it on a broomstick. The dragon let out another deafening roar. With how loud the noise was from behind a stone wall, Rose couldn't imagine how blaring it must have been outdoors.
Moments later, another dragon rose out of the trees. Rose could see another figure atop its back. From the thick braid whipping around in the air, she could tell it was Maria. Both the green dragon and its rider headed over the castle, where Rose had lost sight of the others.
"Bloody hell," said James softly from behind Rose.
She couldn't move and had to make a conscious effort to continue breathing. Long moments passed with James shifting restlessly behind her. Finally, a flash of green and blue dropped down from directly overhead, slamming into the ground. Rose let out a muffled scream.
Schunverri appeared beside the dragons, conjuring a series of ropes that formed a harness around the blue one. The dragon shifted its weight but did not fight. Maria shouted something to Schunverri, then took back to the sky with her dragon. Giovanni circled above the blue dragon, keeping his broom a good distance away from the creature.
Schunverri completed his harness and tossed the rope in the air. Giovanni swooped down to catch it, then called to the dragon below him. It stood, shook out its tail, and then slowly began walking towards the woods, looking very much like a lazy dog on a leash.
Rose and James watched in silence until the Riders had disappeared back into the forest. Only when she could no longer see the gleaming blue scales of the dragon did Rose turn and face her cousin.
"That was wild," said James, his eyes wide. "Woah."
"Did you see how they were able to just lead it back into the forest?" said Rose, aware that her voice was squeaking. "You can't- you shouldn't- dragons don't just do that!"
"I guess that's why the Ministry is alright having them here," said James. "Looks like they're pretty tame."
Rose wanted to argue that it hadn't seemed particularly tame when it had shot into the sky, but Professor McGonagall's voice suddenly filled the room.
"Attention all students!"
It sounded like she was only a few feet away from them. James' eyes widened further.
"Please remain seated. Your house head must make sure all students are accounted for. Thank you for your cooperation."
Rose waited, but that was the end of the message. She looked at James, who appeared to be as worried as she.
"We're dead," groaned James. "Dead!"
"Not necessarily," said Rose, doing her best to remain calm.
"Oh yeah, because we're definitely supposed to be in the kitchens right now, not the Great Hall with everyone else."
Rose was trying to focus on the fact that they were about to be marked as missing from lunch, but she kept getting distracted by another thought.
"Why do they need to know who's not there?" she asked. "Do they think someone was out with the dragons still?"
James shrugged. "Beats me," he said, "but we've been here the whole time. Twinkle can vouch for us. Did you know there were still house elves here?"
"Yes," said Rose hurriedly, "Mum told me when I was getting ready to come last year. Professor McGongall tried to find other workers, but it turns out that the house elves were the best solution. So now they have their own specially-designed living quarters, and some are getting paid. Some still refuse money, so their wages are donated to different magical creature funds."
"That's smart," said James.
"That's Mum," replied Rose. "James, let's focus. We should just go upstairs and explain that we were... I don't know, we went upstairs to drop off our books or something."
James was preoccupied with a large parchment he had just unfolded.
"James!"
"It's the map," he said, "it'll help. We can make sure we don't run into anyone on our way."
There they were—Rosaline Weasley and James Potter, two dots alone in the kitchen. Rose set aside the realization that the house-elves did not show up on the map. Instead, she concentrated on another figure.
"James," she said slowly, "James, put that away."
"But—"
"Now!" she insisted. But before James was able to stow away the map, the main door swung open.
"I knew I could find you here."
It was Professor Evariste.
