CHAPTER 20 : Never Tickle a Wide-Awake Dragon

Thanks to all readers, reviewers, and kudo-ers!

And proving that miracles do happen, the next chapter of D/G Holiday is HERE! The pic for today is from an old exchange, but it does show Draco and Ginny with a dragon. It's on the FB page.

"All right," said Fred after a brief pause. "Let's get on with it. What do we need to do?"

"I need a few strands of your hair," said Draco.

Looking rather sullen, Fred pulled a folding knife from his pocket and cut off a curl. Draco wondered if it would be a good idea to ask if Fred made a regular practice of carrying knives, or if he'd retrieved one from the shed after finding out that he himself would be at Yule dinner. Most likely not.

He pulled out his wand and circled it round the hair he held in his palm.

"Gennem denne bånd af blod," he murmured, slowly pulling the wand upwards. He could feel the hair quivering, the power unfurling, but it was doing so much more slowly than he would have liked.

It didn't help that Fred Weasley was glaring daggers at him while the process was going on, either.

"I knew this wasn't going to work," said Fred over his shoulder. "I knew it. What a way to go—eaten by a dragon. I suppose at least I wouldn't need to hear George saying I told you so forever… wait, what if he gets attacked by the dragon too? I'd have to hear his smug voice through all eternity!"

At that moment, the air at the edge of the misty cloud surrounding them began to shimmer.

"The dragon's on its way to get us. Right, I should've known that an evil spell from the Dark Arts was guaranteed to fail," Fred said in a rather self-satisfied way. "If only I'd come up with a Dragon Repellent formula… wonder if that would sell well at the joke shop…"

Charlie Weasley materialized several yards away, looking confused. His head whipped from side to side until he caught sight of his brother.

"Oy, Fred! What's the Runcible spell doing now?" He peered into the mist, towards the indistinct shape of the dragon. "A Danish Switchback? Where did that come from?"

"I'll explain it later," said Fred. "But right now would be a great time to cast some sort of spell on it, don't you think?"

"You've always been the clever one," said Charlie dryly, pulling out his wand. "Cessabit!"

The dragon gave an earthshaking roar. Charlie's ginger eyebrows shot up.

"That one always works," he muttered. "Wonder what's wrong here… All right… Tranquillam!"

The entire floor shook as the shape of the dragon moved, seeming to jump up and down.

For the first time, Charlie actually looked nervous. "Maneat en loco," he said in what was undoubtedly meant to be a soothing voice.

Draco wondered if he'd ever regain the hearing in his left ear after the roar following that particular spell. Of course, I wondered the same thing after that night with Ginny that began in the shower… and my hearing did come back… oh, this is not a good time to be remembering any of the naughty things I've done with the Weasleys' sister…

Charlie turned to his brother. "Damn it, Fred, this isn't working," he admitted with a sigh.

"What do you mean, it isn't working? You're supposed to be the dragon taming expert!" exclaimed Fred.

"Yeah, well, this is a very unusual sort of dragon. I've almost never dealt with a Danish Switchback before. This is one of those times when nothing standard seems to work," said Charlie. "I wish Bill were here. He might be able to do something…"

Oh, gods, thought Draco. Bill Weasley was the one member of that family whom he really dreaded ever meeting again. Perhaps it was selfish and cowardly, but he had been very relieved when Ginny had told him that her oldest brother would definitely not be at Yule dinner. He could never forget that Fenrir Greyback had scarred this Weasley beyond repair, and that at least some of the blame had to be laid at his own door. If he had not been enough of a fool to believe Bellatrix when she told him that the werewolf definitely would not be at Hogwarts on that night, then the attack on Bill Weasley would never have happened.

"But he isn't," Charlie went on. "And he's not going to be. So we're on our own, and we really ought to be able to come up with something between us."

"But what's going on here, Charlie?" Fred demanded. "Why aren't any of the spells working? You can tell me that much, right?"

"Some dragons are bound to a specific family or place," said Charlie, testing the air with his wand. "They won't respond to any spell or charm unless it's cast by one of the family, or the owner of the location. It's rare, but far from unheard of. The Danish Switchbacks are all like that, which is why I've almost never had anything to do with them before. As best as I can figure, that's what's going on here."

"Can't we just hex it?" Fred was already drawing his wand, but Charlie laid a hand on his wrist.

"Slow down, little bro. You'd only make it worse." Charlie squinted through the mist. "I can almost see it. Looks like one of those that's bound to a very old family. They have a certain shape… "

"What happens if nobody from the family is around?" Fred looked a little green.

Charlie shrugged. "We go down fighting, that's what. Unless you've got someone like that on hand?"

"Desperate times call for desperate measures." Fred sighed. "Oy, Malfoy! Might be a good time to come out and make yourself known."

Draco realized that Charlie still hadn't actually seen him, and he stepped out of the patch of mist where he had been standing. When he saw Charlie's eyes narrow, he wondered if there ever would be a good time to meet this particular Weasley.

"What the hell is Malfoy doing here?" demanded Charlie.

"Ah…" Fred didn't seem inclined to give him any help, so Draco plunged ahead. "I'm here for Yule dinner. Or at least, we thought that Yule dinner was going to take place, but it hasn't quite worked out that way. Still, that's why I was invited. You see…er…"

At the sounds of his voice, the dragon gave a much lower murmur and almost seemed to poke its head out of the mists, but not quite. Why does that seem familiar? wondered Draco. It's probably an illusion brought on by the terror of impending doom, but I could swear I've heard that exact sound before.

TBC…

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