Chapter 9

Golden Scales.

In the morning, Ron, Harry and Hermione were woken up by the sound of professor McGonagall's booming voice over the school's speakers. "Everyone must stay in their house for the school is not safe! Breakfast will be brought to the common rooms and all classes are canceled. We will inform you when it's safe to resume classes again." Hermione woke up and ran down the stairs from her room to meet Harry and Ron in the common room.

"What happened?" Hermione asked.

"What do you mean what happened?" said Ron, "You didn't hear it last night?"

"Hear what? I wear earmuffs to help me sleep when Crookshanks makes noises." Hermione said.

"Ron and I heard a scream last night and we went to see what caused it and we found Luna. She was attacked last night." Said Harry.

"Luna? Luna Lovegood?" Hermione said with alarm.

"Yup, she had a huge scratch across her face. It was nasty." said Ron.

Hermione froze and just stared past Harry and Ron as they continued talking about the night. Her face wore an expression of fear.

With Harry waving a hand in front of Hermione's face he said, "Hermione? Are you okay?"

Hermione snapped out of her state of mind and replied, "Um... ya, I'm fine. Will you excuse me." With that Hermione dashed out of the common room.

As soon as she stepped out of the common room, Hermione dashed over to the girls toilets. Hermione slammed open the door and ran over to the sink to look in the mirror. As Hermione looked at her self in the reflection, Her usual brown eyes shifted from brown to a bright fiery orange color.

"I can't hide this from them. I need to tell Professor McGonagall about this, maybe she can help me." said Hermione. With that she took off towards the staff room.

A hour later, in the common room, Harry and Ron were playing wizard's chess and as usual Ron is winning.

"Checkmate, again." Ron says as he moved his queen piece to trap Harry's king piece.

"Come on, I got to win sometime..." Harry said as he slumped down in his chair.

"Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley."

The boys turned around to see who called their names. It was Professor McGonagall.

The Professor made a gesture to the boys to follow her. Harry and Ron came out of the common room to speak with the Professor.

"What did you call us for?" asked Harry.

Professor McGonagall sighed and said, "I think you should come with me." The green cloak Professor McGonagall wore swept the floor as she walked down to the dungeons of Hogwarts castle.

"Are we going to be locked in the dungeons?" asked Ron as he closed the dungeon door behind him.

Professor McGonagall stopped and turned around. "No, but someone you know will need to be down here for a while." The Professor continued down the corridor of cells. All of the cells they passed but one.

They stopped at a cell lit up by the slowly getting dark sky, through a small window barely big enough for a head to fit through. Sitting on the bench, clamped to the floor by her ankles and wrists by silver chains, was Luna Lovegood.

"Luna?!" both Harry and Ron said simultaneously.

Luna lifted her head and turned to look at the boys. Her face was still bleeding in some spots but it left a nasty mark on her face and wounded one of her eyes badly it was sealed shut.

"What happened? Why are you in here?" asked Harry.

Luna got up and walked over to the bars as far as the chains on her can let her. She pointed down the corridor and some noise could be heard not too far from where they were now. Luna said, "Same reason she is..."

Harry walked over to the noise in one of the cells farther down the corridor.

"Don't get too close to her!" Shouted Professor McGonagall.

Harry turned around and shouted back, "Too close to who?!"

A golden scaled talon slipped through the bars and grabbed the back of Harry's robe and pulled him into the bars and pulled him up off of the ground. A dragon's snout covered in golden scales peaked out of the bars right next to Harry's head and he could hear the growls and feel the warm breath of the beast on the side of his face. Harry also smelt smoke and something else that was familiar but he couldn't grasp what though. The jaw opened to reveal silver coated razor sharp teeth about three inches long, along with a long forked pink slimy tongue.

Suddenly the creature was blasted back by a spell sent from McGonagall's wand causing the creature to drop Harry. He landed hard on the concrete floor and he scrambled away from the cell as the creature came charging back to the bars to make another attempt to grab one of them. They all ducked as a blast of fire shot over their heads. Then the dragon of golden scales settled down to pacing the bars growling at them.

"What in the world is a dragon doing down here?!" Shouted Harry as Ron helped him get up.

"Before I answer that question, I think I need to explain first." Professor McGonagall said as she sent the dragon away from the bars again.

Ron and Harry exchanged a curious look. "Explain...what?"

"This dragon here is your friend, Hermione Granger." said McGonagall as she pulled out what looks like unicorn flesh.

"That's not her. Not at all, she wouldn't attack anyone." said Ron.

Professor McGonagall sighed and threw the chunk of unicorn flesh in the cell. "This meat has a spell that shows true identity." said McGonagall.

The sounds of rustling wings and the scrape of talons against stone came from the cell. The long slender body of the dragon snaked it's way over to the chunk of meat. It lowered it's massive snout to the meat and sniffed not once but twice before scooping it up in it's jaws. It swallowed it whole.

A cloud of pale gold smoke appeared around the dragon as it growled. Through the smoke you could see the figure shifting into a smaller form. When the smoke cleared standing in the spot where the dragon once was, was Hermione.

"Ron! Harry! I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner!" she said as she ran up to the bars.

"Tell us what sooner?" asked Ron.

Hermione looked at Ron with those bright fiery orange eyes that seam to glow a bit. Hermione said," I'm a weredragon."

"So... you turn into a dragon every full moon like a werewolf?" asked Harry.

"No, Professor McGonagall will tell you what I am and what I will be." Hermione said as she walked over and sat down on the bench in the cell.

The boys shifted their attention to Professor McGonagall as she pulled out a book. It was the book of beasts. Professor McGonagall flipped through the pages and stopped at the page with a moonlight silver dragon on the page.

Professor McGonagall spoke, "She is a weredragon and currently there are only three weredragons in the world right now. The weredragon powers are created when a werewolf that is bitten by a dragon bites a human. The weredragon powers can be passed on when one has been affected by a scratch or a bite of an affected weredragon. There are many different colors of weredragons but the most common one is moonlight silver. The most rarest color of weredragon is gold. The gold weredragon has unknown powers and has a purpose for being a dragon. The powers of a weredragon unlocks when the light of a full moon touches them. If we don't find out what to cure this with, she will become a true dragon."

"If there is three weredragons out there then if Hermione is one then we just need to find two other weredragons." said Ron.

"No, you only need to find one." said Hermione.

"Why one?" asked Harry.

"I was the one who attacked Luna last night. I can't control it. When I am a dragon my body just does what ever it wants. And thanks to me Luna is now a weredragon too." Hermione said as she started to shudder.

Hermione yelped and she gripped her head as her skin began to shift from skin to scales as pure as gold. Her brown locks stiffened at the back of her head and turned into long straight pure white horns. Her nails turned into talons and a tail started to form. Her wings sprouted out of her back and spikes popped out along her spine and three small spikes above each orange eye like eyebrows.

Hermione stood up on four legs all equipped with five razor sharp claws, and she lashed her spiky tail back and forth as she growled deep in her throat. She lunged at the bars and smashed into the bars head first. Hermione backed up with a hiss.

"Why is she a dragon now? It's not night time yet." asked Ron as he stood out of reach of Hermione's claws as she tried to reach through the bars again.

Professor McGonagall sent Hermione away with a spell again and responded, "For the first few nights, they transform at night even if it's not a full moon. Then they transform randomly after their eyes change color. They often transform when they are angry."

When the boys looked back at Hermione they noticed that she wasn't chained up like Luna.

"How come Hermione isn't chained up and she is the weredragon but Luna is and she isn't a weredragon yet?" Ron questioned.

"She was too dangerous. As soon as we step inside that cell she would come charging at us." said McGonagall.

"Who's we?" asked Harry as a commotion came from down the corridor.

They saw the back of Hagrid as he pulled a rope. "Hey, there Harry, Ron. Wanna help me with this rope?"

Harry and Ron went behind Hagrid and pulled the rope. All three of them pulled with all of their strength but the rope wouldn't budge.

"Whoa, what are we pulling anyways?" asked Ron.

"Here let me try something." said Hagrid as he stepped aside to get around the rope.

Then the boys saw what they were pulling. It was a beautiful white unicorn with a glittering golden horn that almost looked like it was too big for it's head. It reared up as Hagrid grabbed the muzzle on it to drag it into a cell next to Hermione's cell. Once Hagrid got it in the cell he touched a spot on the unicorn's neck near the jaw line and the unicorn collapsed to the floor.

"What did you do to the unicorn?" asked Harry as Hagrid took off the muzzle and walked out of the cell.

"Don't worry I only touched his weak spot. He'll be up any moment now." Hagrid said as he closed the cell door.

The unicorn got up as the cell door's lock clicked. "Why did you bring that unicorn down here?" asked Harry.

"We are going to show you how dangerous she can be." said Hagrid as he pulled a rope that was hanging just above their heads.

The wall that separated Hermione's cell and the Unicorn's cell opened up. The unicorn thinking it was the way out ran into the next cell. The cell wall closed locking the unicorn in with Hermione. Hermione sat quietly in the shadows and watched the unicorn look around at it's surroundings. The only thing visible of Hermione was her glowing orange eyes.

When the unicorn noticed the eyes it got into a pose which it can face against the predator. The dragon walked towards the unicorn a little bit to step into the light so the prey knows what it's going up against. Hermione pounced onto the unicorn and she went to bite it's neck but the unicorn swung it's horn and slashed a wound across Hermione's dragon face. She roared and lets go of the unicorn to hold her wound. The unicorn got up and attacked again running at Hermione with it's horn. The unicorn impaled her front right forearm. The dragon bellowed and smashed the unicorn into the cell wall with a swing of it's tail. Hermione launched herself at the unicorn and bit down on it's neck and snapped it, killing the unicorn.

Hermione started to tear off chunks of the unicorn's flesh and eat it.

"That's how dangerous she can be, so try to stay away from the cell when you come to visit." said Hagrid.

"We gave that unicorn's flesh a sleeping charm so when she is done eating it she will go to sleep and then we can chain her up, just for safety." said Professor McGonagall. Hermione heard what she said and she turned her head at the professor and growled. She flung the rest of the unicorn's carcass and she began to wobble as the charm began to take effect. "Oh well, at least she ate some." McGonagall said as Hermione started to lay down sleepily.

"She didn't eat enough to make her to be unconscious but she will be sleepy so she shouldn't attack us when we try to put the chains on her. Hopefully…" said Hagrid as he opened the cell door when Hermione placed her head on the ground and closed her eyes. Hagrid walked over and whacked Hermione's snout to see if she would react to it badly. Hermione only grunted but that was all she did so Hagrid called McGonagall and the boys in to help.

"Harry, Ron come. We might need your help pinning her down." said McGonagall as she stepped into the cell.

"She wouldn't hurt us. Right?" asked Ron as he stepped over Hermione's spiky tail.

"Harry, pay attention to her tail. If it moves, pin it down. Ron, watch her face. If it moves, pin her down." said Hagrid as he made his way over to where her claws were resting.

"Why do I get the most dangerous part of her?" Ron asked nervously as Hermione growled a bit, making Ron jump.

"Na, I got her claws so it makes us even." Said Hagrid. "McGonagall, you got the wings?" asked Hagrid.

"Yes." McGonagall said raising the wings a bit to show Hagrid she have them under control.

"Wait a second!" Ron shouts.

"What!? Something wrong?" Asks Harry.

"Yes! Her face doesn't have the scratch the unicorn gave her." Said Ron.

"Same here her arm is fine. But I'm sure the unicorn impaled it." Said Hagrid.

"She must have some self healing powers. Here, let me come see." McGonagall said as she let go of Hermione's wings.

Realizing that her wings were free, Hermione started to thrash around and flapped her wings.

"Pin her down!" Hagrid shouted as he ran to the corner of the cell where the silver cuffs were waiting.

Hagrid grabbed them and clamped them over each wrist and ankle. After dodging a close bite from Hermione, Hagrid makes it out of the cell. McGonagall was already out with Harry and Ron. They all stood there gathering their breaths again. McGonagall notices the sky getting quite dark though the small windows in each cell.

"It's getting awfully late, you boys should get back to your house. Do not tell anyone about Hermione or Luna; if anyone asks, just say you don't know what happened to them." said Professor McGonagall.

Ron and Harry agreed and started to head out of the dungeons. But before leaving, Ron noticed the Book of Beasts laying on the floor next to Hermione's cell.

Ron picked it up and said, "Professor, could I take this book to our room please?"

"Of course." said Professor McGonagall with a nod of her head.

"Thanks." said Ron as he hurried up to Harry, who was already up on main floor and was calling Ron to come.

That was Chapter 9! (yay!) soo sorry it took so long to do. I had a lot going on and the year 2020 didn't help me much so I appreciate the patience you gave me. I thought since it took me soo long to upload this chapter then I better give you a lot to read so you won't be too upset. This is one of the largest chapters of this book and I'm glad I probably won't be doing more this long. (this took me a whole day on and off typing) I will try to upload again soon. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New (less crazy, out of control, messy) Year! Remember this story will be complete one day and I hope you stick around till then. I also have been wanting to make another Fan fiction about Little Nightmares character Six. Let me know what you think of this idea in the reviews below and have a good day!