Chapter nine

Dance in The Season of Frost

Spyro and Cynder were visited by Dumbledore the next week, during which Hagrid was busy teaching a class about Care of Magical Creatures, and he clearly didn't mind about Harry and his friends finding them, on the contrary, he seemed glad that it had happened!

"I should have known that Mr Potter would come here at one point," he told them, although Cynder had reason to believe that the man did know that Harry and his friends would be coming, "I guess you are ok with them keeping your secrets?"

"If you put it like that" Cynder told him, she felt a bit on edge today, last night she had another dream of Malefor, it was bugging her that he seemed to be alive. "Why are you here Dumbledore?" The man sat down at one of Hagrid's chairs and smiled,

"Always getting right to the point Cynder," he smiled as the two dragons sat on the floor, "soon, we are having a ball in the main hall, a party that is part of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, and I wanted to check if you wanted to participate," The dragons burst into laughter on hearing this,

"Wow!" Spyro exclaimed, "how can we? Or is it traditional to have two talking dragons at the party?" And somehow, Dumbledore still smiled at this,

"To answer that, no it isn't traditional, but who said that you would look like dragons?" This ceased the laughter in an instant,

"Do you mean that you can make us look like humans?" Cynder asked, and the wizard nodded, his smile seemingly getting bigger,

"And only you two would see through it," he added, "and if it is any consolation, Ignitus told me you would enjoy it there," this definitely got Spyro's attention, Cynder was still a bit sceptical about this, but she could tell that she needed to relax every now and then, so she nodded her head,

"If Spyro wants to go, I'll go," causing Spyro to smile happily,

"Then I guess that we will give this ball a try," he told Dumbledore, "when is it?"

"at the start of December," the wizard told them, "and don't worry, no one will tell that you are dragons," he then stood up, bowed to them, and exited the hut.

The next few weeks went by in a blur, but soon the fabled day arrived. Dumbledore had told the dragons to meet him at the front of the school, and as they arrived, they saw the wizard looked very formal tonight,

"New robes?" Spyro asked him, resulting in a chuckle from Dumbledore,

"They come out for special occasions," he told them, he then drew out his wand and muttered an unheard incantation. As the man waved his wand, both dragons felt something like cold water flow over them, but it soon passed. As Dumbledore pocketed his wand, he pointed at the fountain near them and told them to have a look, and as the dragon's did, they recoiled in shock! Instead of their reflections there were two teenage humans! Spyro saw that the one where he was had pale skin, short blond hair with golden highlights, and was wearing a purple robe and some form of bow around his neck that were both the same colour as his scales! Cynder's reflection had tan skin, long black hair with silver highlights, a dark indigo robe, and her jewellery as well. But as far as the dragons were concerned, they looked just the same,

"Just try to not let anyone step on your tails," Dumbledore told them as he lead them inside through some grand looking doors.

As they entered the main hall, Cynder couldn't help but feel as though this was a bad idea. They were both unknown by these people, and it was odd to have so many eyes on them,

"Go and have fun," Dumbledore whispered to them before heading off to some other teachers. Cynder gulped as she edged forwards, with Spyro right next to her, she could see that everyone else was sitting down at round tables, so as they passed a table with two chairs left, the two dragons jumped onto the chairs and watched the main dance floor. It had eight people on it, all dancing in pairs, but two of these people surprised Cynder most of all! One was Harry! He was dancing with a young girl around his age, and he clearly looked uncomfortable about it! And the other was Hermione, who was dancing with a muscly boy!

Harry had seen the two strange people enter the room with Dumbledore, but he couldn't tell who they were, he was trying to remember the dance steps that professor McGonagle had taught them, and was glad when the dance was over! He and Parvati headed back over to Ron and Padma, whose table was right next to the newcomers table, and Harry noticed that the witch had very familiar spiked jewellery around her wrists, ankles and neck, could it be?

"Oh, hello," Parvati called to them, "I noticed you come in whilst we were dancing, I'm Parvati Patil," she held out her hand to the girl, who looked at the hand with a look that showed the girl was on edge, but a nod from her friend made her relax slightly, before smiling and saying in a very familiar voice,

"Cynder," she shook hands with Parvati, "it is nice to meet you," at that moment, some calming music started playing around the hall, and Harry saw many people walk on stage with their dates, and starting to dance with them.

"Shall we?" Parvati asked him, but Harry was done dancing that night, but it seemed that Cynder and her friend, who must be Spyro, wanted to try it. They made their way to the dance floor, before starting a rather wobbly waltz, but Harry guessed that that was because of them using human legs.

In actual fact, it wasn't because of human legs, it was because both dragons hadn't danced once in their lives! So they didn't do a dragon traditional dance perfectly, but it was better than Harry, who had gotten into a small argument with Parvati, who eventually stormed out of the hall, followed by the girl next to Ron. As the two finished their dance and they headed back to the table, they saw something horrible! Ron and Harry were arguing with Hermione! Very loudly too! There were things about the competition, things about the boy she had danced with, and a load of other things! This argument ended up with Hermione running out of the room in tears! And with one look, Spyro and Cynder knew what to do, they chased after her.

Both dragons were impressed by the staircases, the way they moved about on their own was no problem to them, even though to any onlookers it would seem as if the two were flying without wings. They soon found Hermione running into a room behind a living picture of a fat lady. Spyro called out,

"Hermione!" He tried to open the portrait door, but it wouldn't budge, and as Cynder tried to shadow travel underneath it, she just got bounced right back! As this happened, the fat lady spoke to them,

"No password, no entry,"

"What password?" Cynder asked in surprise, none of them had been expecting this, "Hermione! It's just me and Spyro, please let us in!" And with those words, the portrait was swung open to reveal a very upset Hermione Granger, her eyes were red and tears had soaked her face. As the two dragons stepped in, she smiled sadly at them,

"I guess *sniff* that someone cast a disguise charm over you two?" She sniffed as she sat down in a comfy looking chair by a roaring fire,

"Dumbledore," Spyro told her, "but why did you run away from the party like that?" And at that, Hermione explained in a burst of emotion how Harry and Ron has accused her of "working with the enemy" and how Ron didn't care that the competition was supposed to bring people together, and how she actually wanted Ron to ask her out instead of the boy she had been with, called Victor Krumm, but he had only asked her as a last resort. Both dragons listened to her as she pored out her feelings, and as she finished, she started calming down enough for her to say,

"Thank you" She told them, "I just can't talk to anyone else about that,"

"You can talk to us about anything," Cynder told her, patting her hand with her paw, "and if you want, I could give them a bit of a fright as payback," Hermione chuckled at this, but shook her head,

"No, they don't deserve that," she pulled out her wand and swayed it at the fire, causing the flames to take shapes of different animals, even a dragon. And as the dragon's were goggling at Hermione's magic, they heard the sound of a clock striking twelve, and with each strike, Hermione noticed something happen to the dragon's disguises, "you're starting to look like dragons again!"

"Oh by the ancestors!" Cynder exclaimed, "how are we meant to get out without being noticed?!" Hermione smiled at this and rushed over to a window,

"Alohomora" She said as she pointed her wand at the window, resulting in it swinging open, allowing the two dragons to slip through it and into the night sky,

"Try to make up with Harry and Ron, will you Hermione?" Spyro called to her before flying back towards Hagrid's hut. Cynder could have sworn that as she was leaving she saw a ladybird in Hermione's hair, but thought nothing of it, even though the insect reeked of magic.