**Emily**

"Okay, let's head for Herbology now," Lily told me.

"Wait! We have to wait for Zoey!"

"What class is she coming from?"

"Uh…" I looked at the duplicated schedule she had given me. "Care of Magical Creatures. She should be here soon."

Lily scanned the grounds in front of us. She pointed at the stone stairs coming up from the Forbidden Forest. "There she is!"

And there Zoey was. She stormed up to us. "I hate Care of Magical Creatures," she exclaimed. I could tell today was a bad day- she was scorched. She had many burns with the appearance of being healed over many weeks.

"What happened?" Lily exclaimed.

"Dragons," Zoey muttered. "Professor Ruaxime let them loose and we had to capture them. Luckily she had me, who has spent years in training to be a Healer. Otherwise, we would all be a big pile of ashes."

"I'm so glad I dropped that class," I said. Both Lily and Zoey glared at me, for they both had to still take it. I gave them a wide smile.

As we were walking to Herbology, which was in Greenhouse Seven, Zoey kept giving Lily guidelines and tips on how to capture the dragon. She also shared her knowledge on healing, so Lily could help her class stay out of the Hospital wing.

Suddenly, I heard, "Hey! Lily!" I turned around and it was Mark Brown. Though he is only sixteen, he is a famous gymnast in the muggle world, which is pretty impressive. It would be even more impressive if I knew what a gymnast was. Lily is also world-famous gymnast, and I've asked her before what a gymnast is. She told me, but I can't remember what it is at this moment. Mark and Lily are both half-bloods, with one parent being a muggle and one being a wizard. They have the ability to live in both the muggle and the magic worlds, which explains why they are famous gymnasts and I don't have the slightest clue what a gymnast is.

"Oh, hey!" Lily replied.

"So, how was your summer?" Mark asked her.

"Oh, you know, pretty good! I just like totally mastered full twisting back flip off the high bar, the tkachever salto, and the triple twisting double back flip on the floor. How was your summer?" she replied, her eyes getting all excited like they did whenever she talked about gymnastics.

Zoey and I kind of backed away, letting them talk their gymnasticy talk. We decided to take a different route to Herbology, one that was right up against the Forbidden Forest.

"Ahhhhhhhh!" I heard a male voice scream. It was coming from the forest. I was just about to grab Zoey and drag her into the forest with me, when I saw a blast of light. It turns out it was a fire blast. Some of the trees caught on fire and quickly turned into a lively blaze.

"Aquamenti!" Zoey exclaimed, pointing her wand at the trees. A spout of water started extinguishing the fire.

"Ahhhhhhhh!" I heard the voice scream again. I heard trees falling and lots of terrifying roars. Then two boys, Jason and Caleb, ran onto our path. A blast of fire shot our way, then it parted to reveal a dragon with thick, copper scales and about sixty feet tall in size.

"Aquamenti!" Zoey said again, attempting to put out the wall of fire that was quickly advancing through the trees.

"Stupefy!" I shouted at the dragon. The spell bounced off its copper scales and hit Caleb. Oops. Zoey flipped out and went over to Caleb, trying to bring him around with one of her healing spells. That left the dragon to Jason and me.

"It's no use!" He told me, "Its scales are so reflective every spell you shoot at them will bounce off!"

"Yah, I figured that out, thanks," I told him.

"Hey, I wasn't done! The inside of its mouth doesn't have scales-" he started, but I interrupted.

"So that's its weak point! We should shoot a spell at its mouth and freeze it!"

"I think it heard us," Jason said slowly. The dragon clamped its jaws shut and looked like it wouldn't open them for many years to come.

"Okay. So you try and make it irritated and I will curse it," I told him, laying out a game plan.

"Okay. Stay safe, will you?"

"I'll try. Don't get burnt," I said, a weak attempt at sarcasm.

"I'll try," he replied, then started running circles around the dragon. "Hey stupid! Come get me! Get me now! Now! Come on! Don't I look tasty? I'm just a few feet away! Come on!" He was doing this strange little twirling dance that was so funny, it made me burst out laughing.

"Focus!" he yelled.

"I'm trying! It's a little hard when you're here though! You're very distracting!" He ran his fingers through his hair and shot me a white smile. "That's not what I meant!" I yelled.

We spent about thirty minutes darting and dancing around the dragon. We quickly learned that each scale was razor sharp, whenever you looked into its blaring red eyes that you would get this burning sensation, and the tip of the dragon's tail was tinged with poison.

Suddenly, I saw two blurs fly around the dragon's head. They started to encircle the head like a wreath. While the figures were circling, they were doing an elaborate, acrobatic performance. It consisted of flips, twists, and other complex motions I can't describe. They were darting all around the dragon, highly aggravating it, for every time it would try to get near them, they would dart away.

In a blink of an eye, the dragon snapped at one of the figures. The figure cried out in pain and sunk to the ground. It was Lily.

The dragon quickly snapped at the other figure, which was probably Mark, when Jason and I both cast the same spell at the same time: "Petrificus Tortalus." The dragon seemed to freeze from the inside.

Zoey, with a faint-looking Caleb rushed over to me. "I am so dropping Care of Magical Creatures. That little experience should cover me for the rest of the year." Then Mark, who was the other figure, dropped to the ground, then rushed to Lily's side.

Jason and I took the dragon back to Professor Ruaxime, from whose class the dragon had escaped. Zoey helped a weak but now conscious Caleb up to the Hospital Wing, as Mark carried an unconscious Lily also up to the Hospital Wing. After Jason and I had levitated the dragon back to Care of Magical Creatures, we started to return to Herbology, but the class had already ended.