Chapter ten

The article

The next day, the two dragons were enjoying a few fried salmons that Hagrid had got them, when Hermione burst into the hut! Followed closely by Ron and Harry!

"Ah, So you made up?" Spyro asked as they entered, but in response, Hermione waved a newspaper at them and shouted,

"That SNAKE!" She then started reading the front page, "ms Hermione Granger, well known for being girlfriend to Harry Potter, has been revealed to believe that being a muggle born means rules do not apply to her on the evening of the Yule Ball. As shown below, ms Granger has been harbouring two escaped dragons in Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry, and she openly announced to these beasts her major problems with her miserable life as if they were intelligent. She was to go as far as putting an enchantment on the two reptiles to give them human intelligence and even the ability to speak with English words. Through this interaction, it is clear that ms Granger and her family are keeping dragons at home to fill in their lonely lives. The most surprising development was the revelation that none other than Albus Dumbledore, current headmaster of Hogwarts, didn't just know about the dangerous beasts, but assisted her in concealing them from others. As this is a strict violation of the international statute of secrecy due to the fact of ms Granger's whole family being muggles, ms Granger has been elected to be expelled from Hogwarts. More on this story will follow due time!" As she finished, she threw the newspaper to the ground and slumped into a chair. Cynder took a look at the paper, and yes, on the front page was the article she had read, followed by a moving black and white picture of Hermione looking at two people, who were morphing into the forms of Spyro and herself!

"How did she do that!" The dragon exclaimed, half in shock and half in anger, she saw Hermione as the first female friend she had had in her life, and she wouldn't stand to hear her being treated like this!

"Bloody Hell!" Ron exclaimed as he looked at the article, "no wonder you didn't want to tell us," he then hung his head in shame, "it's all my fault. If I hadn't treated you the way I did, then you wouldn't have run away."

"Hermione," Hagrid told her as he rested a huge hand on her shoulder, "Dumbledore knows about Spyro and Cynder, and he knows the truth. So don't even think that you will be expelled."

"Hagrid's right," Harry told her, smiling at his friend, "and if you get expelled, then they will have to expel me!"

"Me too!" Ron agreed. Hagrid smiled,

"And I would quit me job!"

"And for what it's worth," Cynder cut in, a cheeky grin plastered on her face, "me and Spyro could pay that writer a "visit"." The whole hut burst into laughter at this, the idea of having two dragons knocking at the writers door and threatening them was too good!

After Hermione had calmed down from this article fiasco, Harry explained that the writer of the article, Rita Skeeter, had been writing false news concerning him and his friends since the tournament started.

"Well, she won't stand a chance against us," Cynder informed him, "as long as her spelling is as bad as her stories!" She then burst back into laughter at her own little joke. She suddenly stopped and looked urgently around the room, completely stiffened up.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, but at that moment, a pale, cruel face with slicked blonde hair appeared at the window and looked around the room. Hagrid stormed up to the window and threw it open,

"What do you want Mr Malfoy?" He demanded as the boy stepped away from the window,

"All I wanted to do was see if Granger was still here and not packing her bags," and before anyone could stop him, Ron rushed out of the hut and drew his wand!

"Leave her alone!" Ron demanded, anger etched onto his face, "you told Skeeter lies about Hermione, didn't you!" The boy seemed unfazed by the hostile sign, and it was clear why, as two muscly boys stepped out of the shadows and pointed their wands at Ron,

"I said nothing to her," Malfoy drawled as he calmly drew his wand and pointed it at Ron, "but that Mudblood deserves getting expelled anyway." And that did it, Cynder was holding Spyro back at this point, but as soon as Malfoy used the word "Mudblood" to describe Hermione, she lost it. During their time with Charlie, they were told that in the wizarding world, there were many phrases used to describe things, a Muggle was a human with no magic at all, a Pure Blood was a wizard or witch born to two magical parents, a Half Blood was a wizard or witch that was born with only one magical parent, and a muggle born was a wizard or witch with no magical parents at all, and then there was the term Mudblood which is a disgusting word used to describe a muggle born, it was the highest level of insult in the wizarding world! So as the word left Malfoy's lips, both dragons let out a roar of rage and charged out of the door and attacked relentlessly! Both Spyro and Cynder had enough control of themselves to not aim to injure them badly, and just aimed to terrify the cruel humans! Spyro stuck with freezing their feet whilst Cynder used both wind and fear, she would blow them all over the place before scaring them to death. And soon it was only the Malfoy boy left, the others had run away.

"Let me go you beasts!" He demanded whilst shaking his frozen feet, "my father will hear about this!" He then pointed his wand at Cynder and shouted a word that Cynder remembered too well! "CRUCIO!" But before the curse could hit, a wall of earth rose around the dragon, protecting her from the curse! She saw out of the a slight gap in her defences that Spyro had summoned the earth wall, but his scales were starting to turn black!

"Oh no!" She exclaimed as she prepared for what was about to happen. But the disaster was averted before it started, Hagrid shouted in a voice that even frightened Cynder slightly,

"ENOUGH!" It wasn't often that Hagrid lost his temper, so seeing this was unusual and terrifying, "ten points from Slytherin for calling someone that name! And another twenty points from Slytherin for attempting to curse someone with the Crutiatus Curse!"

"You can't do that!" Malfoy argued, fixing the giant of a man with a stern glare,

"Oh yes I can mr Malfoy! I am a teacher as you very well know!" He then looked at Spyro, who had turned back to his normal purple colour and nodded, and as the dragon walked over to the pale boy, Cynder wished she could capture the look on the human's face. He seemed to believe that Spyro would kill him! But all Spyro did was breath a small bit of fire to melt the ice from around his feet, "now, go back to your dormitory," Hagrid told him with a glare that would be suicide to ague with.

"My father will hear about this," Malfoy repeated himself as he ran up towards the school.

After everyone had calmed down, they all sat down in Hagrid's Hut and listened as Spyro explained, rather guiltily, about his dark alter ego, Dark Spyro, and about how he came out when Spyro has strong negative emotions. After the confession, everyone agreed with Spyro that it was best that he kept his temper, to at least ensure the safety of others.

"I just hope that this blows over," Hermione told them, "now Draco Malfoy knows you both are at Hogwarts,"

"Don't you worry about him," Cynder told her, "if he thinks that Hagrid being angry is bad, he will meet something far worse if he thinks that we can be caught!" Spyro nodded in agreement, he knew that Cynder meant every word.

"I just remembered!" He exclaimed, "how are you getting on with that egg, Harry?" Harry sadly shook his head,

"No luck, I can't understand the clue,"

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, "you need to answer that clue in less than two weeks!"

"I know, I know." Harry told her, sounding rather worried, if he didn't answer the clue, then he wouldn't be able to proceed to the next part of the Tournament.

"I know you can do it," Cynder encouraged him, but at that point, a knock came at the door. As the dragons hid, Hagrid opened the door to reveal a tall boy with light brown hair, he had a trustworthy face that smiled as he saw Harry.

"Hi Hagrid, Harry, Ron, Hermione," He said as he stepped inside,

"Oh, hi Cedric," Harry said in astonishment, Cynder then recognised this boy, he was one of the competitors in the Tournament!

"I just wanted to thank you for the heads up about the dragons," Cedric told him, "and I would like to help you in anyway I can, so I thought that if you need help with the egg, you could always have a bath in the Prefects Bathroom and mull things over in the hot water." He then winked as he left. Once it was clear that he was gone, Spyro and Cynder came back out.

"That was an odd way of helping!" Ron exclaimed, but Cynder chuckled uncontrollably as he said this, before looking him in the eyes and saying,

"It's obvious what it is Harry has to do!" She laughed, "he has to…" but at that moment, a bell rang from somewhere, jump starting the three children!

"We have to go now!" Harry told them, half in a panic, "we have Potions next! We can't risk being late!" And before Cynder could finish her sentence, all three had rushed out of the hut and back towards the castle!

"Well that happened!" She blurted out in shock, "all he has to do is open the egg underwater!"