CHAPTER 22: The Dragon's Surprise

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But Draco only felt a large, raspy dragon tongue licking the side of his face. Orion made a contented sound and snuggled against Draco's side, looking down at him adoringly. Second time's the charm, he thought, feeling more than a bit stunned.

"What the hell is this?" Charlie demanded.

Draco smirked. "I can't very well help it if I'm good at everything, Weasley."

"I knew it! "exclaimed Fred. "You did this through an evil spell from the accursed Dark Arts—oh, you know what? I don't even care. This means we can get out of here, right?"

"I sincerely hope so," said Draco. But when he tried to step away from the dragon, its nostrils flared ominously. When Charlie tried to approach Orion, the dragon bared all of its teeth again.

"Wonderful. This dragon's in love with Malfoy," said Fred through gritted teeth. "Now what?"

"I've seen this kind of thing before," said Charlie. "He's got to go with it back to its home. There's no other way."

Fred's face lit up. "So this means he has to leave? Wicked!"

Draco rapidly thought through all of his options and decided that nothing would impress Ginny more than leading a dragon away from the Burrow in order to save her brothers. "All right. I'll go," he said.

Charlie's face creased in confusion. "Malfoy, I can honestly say that I never thought you'd agree to any such thing."

"Yes, well; I'm full of surprises," said Draco, wondering if he should insist on a full and correct report being made to Ginny of how he had single-handedly saved them all.

"Well…" Fred exchanged a glance with Charlie. "All right, then. We'll go and find everyone else."

Draco lowered his voice. "You'll make sure that Ginny's all right?"

Fred nodded, but Charlie shot him a suspicious look. "Hey, what's this all about?"

"I'll explain later, bro," said Fred, with a remarkable amount of self-control, thought Draco.

"So, you'll just be off with the dragon then, Malfoy," Charlie said briskly.

"That's what I said." Draco could feel his store of patience with these most annoying Weasley brothers wearing thin.

"Er…" Fred traced a pattern with his foot on the stone floor and glanced at Charlie. "Wouldn't you say…"

Charlie sighed, with the air of a man making a great concession. "If we see you again, we won't try to feed you to rabid Nifflers."

That was as close to friendship as he was likely to get with them, Draco realized. He waved farewell and began to lead Orion away. The dragon bounded happily at his side, making contented noises and nuzzling his shoulder every so often with a loving look.

"Now if I can only find Ginny again," he mused aloud, "and make sure to tell her in great detail that I was the one responsible for saving the entire Weasley family from a savage, bloodthirsty dragon—Orion, will you stop licking my cheek in that slurpy way?—then all of my problems will be solved. For the moment, at least."

But as he was all too aware, that was a very big if. He had no real idea where Ginny might be. And as they disappeared into the mists, Draco realized that he still did not know where he and the dragon might be headed, either.

"I sincerely hope you know where you're going, Orion,' he sighed.

The dragon made an affirmative sort of noise and continued walking confidently into the mist. He certainly seemed to know exactly where they were headed, thought Draco.

Although in a way, that didn't allay his own unease at all. There was still the problem of exactly how they were going to get from a basement below the Burrow to Malfoy Manor. I should have known I couldn't get out of this so easily. We're going to have to tramp through the snow, and I'll freeze to death. Well… I suppose if Orion carries on with licking me every thirty seconds, I'll stay warm, at least. I must say, I'm glad that Father cast a breath-freshening charm on this dragon after the birthday incident. Lucius Malfoy did one thing right in his entire life, at least.

But after only a few more minutes of walking, the mist cleared entirely. They were standing in a roomy subsection of the Malfoy dungeons; Draco recognized it easily. He checked to make sure that the dragon had a good sleeping space and sufficient fresh water. Orion settled in and pressed a lever. A steel trough on one side instantly filled with fresh meat. Draco felt relieved on seeing that the animal's basic needs were being automatically taken care of. But when he tried to leave, Orion caught at his hand with one sheathed claw and gave him a pitiful look. Draco felt a wave of guilt wash over him, which was a most uncomfortable feeling.

"I'm terribly sorry you've been neglected, old boy," he said, patting the dragon's side. "I suppose I ought to have known that no-one would have been visiting you. I'll come down here more often, how about that? Perhaps Ginny would like to meet you… Charlie Weasley is her brother, you know, and he's quite the dragon tamer…"

Orion's face lit up, and he nodded. Draco felt even guiltier. He'd never understood that dragons were such sentient animals, and that they had genuine feelings. Of course, I was never taught any such thing. And my father has less than no interest in anyone's human feelings, so I'm quite sure he would have ignored the emotions of a dragon.

"I promise," Draco said very softly, and then he turned to go. Damn. Ginny's had an effect on me, without a doubt. I'm actually feeling all of these soft, fluffy, squashy emotions. If the Malfoy ancestors know anything about this, they're revolving in their graves like spitted chickens.

TBC…

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