Chapter 57: In the Librarby

The library was remarkably busy for a Sunday afternoon, though it'd been nice and quiet when the three of them had claimed their table. Of course, Sans had his suspicions on just why that had changed.

Namely, the individual at the center of all the murmurs: the apparently Quidditch-famous student currently flipping through a magical creatures textbook.

"Dragons…" Viktor muttered, tapping thoughtfully at an image of a snarling lizard-like maw. He looked outwardly calm, but, from the slight wrinkle on his brow, Sans could tell the kid was rightfully nervous about the whole thing.

Though he paused in his furious note-scribbling, Cassius didn't bother to look up from the textbook when he remarked, "Even just getting past one is going to be difficult." He turned he page, checked a few paragraphs, then wrote something else down.

Sans had a book of his own open on the table, but instead of reading he was busily entertaining himself by balancing a quill on the tip of one finger—with the help of a copious (but carefully inconspicuous) amount of blue magic.

"Vhatever that vill mean," Viktor said. "A race? Or some kind of… of chase, to get avay from it?"

Mindful of the library-quiet, Sirius gave his answer with a hushed huff; he didn't remember the details, but he knew it involved stealing something.

"stealing something," said Sans, repeating the answer as if it was his own. "uh, presumably from the dragon."

They had gotten Viktor up to speed about a few things at breakfast—or before breakfast, rather, while there still weren't too many other students up and about. Sans might not enjoy waking up early, but he could, and it did have its advantages on occasion.

So they'd had time to tell him about the dragon, and to invite him to the upcoming meeting where they'd try to figure out how to deal with it.

"Oh, fabulous news," Cassius grumbled, half to himself. "It's not as though dragons are known for being violently territorial or possessive."

"Vhat? I thought…"

"I'm just being sarcastic, ignore me."

"Oh." Despite his stoic disposition, he looked a tad embarrassed: language barriers can make catching jokes a little tricky. "Ah, ven vill the others get here?"

"soon, probably."

Or rather, certainly; Sans had just checked where Harry and his pals were with one of his extra-sensory sweeps, and they were only a few halls away. But from the feel of it, they were too busy arguing amongst themselves to go very quickly.

Taking that as his cue to get ready to relocate, Cassius stacked up his collection of textbooks to take with them; not all of them had been useful, but one does not simply leave a mess in the library.

Viktor followed suit, gathering his own set of books before quietly asking, "See you soon, then?"

"in just a few minutes, yep." Letting his quill unbalance and fall gently to the table, Sans smiled. "you know the plan."

It wasn't a complicated plan, really, and they only needed it because of that silly Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry. Cassius, in particular, had insisted on it; being seen fraternizing with 'the enemy' could cause him a lot of social problems, and he already had enough of those. No doubt Harry would have been in full agreement.

The plan was, basically, to have Viktor and Cassius go find an appropriately hidden table somewhere in the bookshelves. Once Harry-and-friends arrived, Sans would lead them the rest of the way.

"You are sure vee von't be too hard to find?" asked Viktor, turning to his fellow champion as they walked away. "The point is to be hidden, after all."

"Trust me on this one," Cassius answered, his grin somewhere between annoyed and wryly amused. "It'll be fine."

Sans gave them a cheeky wave as they vanished behind a bookshelf, though they didn't vanish from his more magical senses. He kept track of their route through the library, so when Harry, Ron, and Hermione arrived a few minutes later, he knew just where to take them.

It should also be mentioned that Sans had to subtly mess with a few students that tried to follow—or, to be more accurate, stalk—Viktor when he left. Tripping them up was fairly effective, as was dropping books on them: just enough of a distraction that they lost sight of their target.

So perhaps this relocation scheme had benefits beyond the simple Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry nonsense. Honestly, being famous seems like way more trouble than it's worth.

Thank goodness he's just a nobody.

(Sans quietly chuckled to himself: nobody, skeleton. Classic.)

Their chosen table was tucked away deep among the shelves, stuck between books on Arithmancy and History: generally regarded as two of the most boring subjects, and as such it was the absolute least visited corner of the library.

"good choice," Sans remarked, rounding the corner. "nice von sway back here."

"I believe you mean 'feng shui'," Hermione corrected.

"eh, sure."

There were enough chairs for everyone—not counting dog-mode Sirius—which meant there were three along each long side of the table. Cassius and Viktor were sitting across from each other at one end, their stacks of books already opened and laid out between them.

Sirius huffed a greeting as he claimed the bit of rug that poked out past the end of the table. Harry sat next to Sans, who had chosen to sit by Cassius. On the other side of the table, Hermione ended up next to Viktor and Ron made sure he was as far from the Slytherin as he could get.

As Sans took his seat, he made sure to subtly rime the air with blue magic: ensuring that no sound would leave their little group to summon the ever-vigilant librarian. He figured it would be a necessary precaution.

"so..." he said, after everyone had found a place to sit, "any plans for dealing with tall dark and scaly?"

For a moment, nobody answered.

"Actually, many dragons are well-known for having rather bright colorations. Like the Antipodean Opaleye, from New Zealand, which has iridescent scales," Hermione remarked, breaking the silence. "Though I suppose the Hebridean Black has black scales—obviously, given the name—and the Hungarian Horntail does, too."

Honestly, based on her worried frown, the near-ranting fact-dump was probably just her anxious autopilot: it turns out her default setting is 'academic lecture'.

Pulling over one of the stacks of books, Ron rolled his eyes at her. "I don't think knowing what color they're gonna be really matters all that much."

"For the record," Harry spoke up, before his friends could start bickering, "I saw a red dragon, a green one, another that was sort of silvery-blue, and a black one."

That information set Hermione to furiously flipping through one of the textbooks to double check what she no doubt already knew. "The red one was probably a Chinese Fireball."

"And the blue, likely a Svedish Short-Snout," added Viktor, arms crossed.

Hermione nodded in agreement, reaching for another book. "Green and black… That's a bit trickier," she said. "There's a few breeds with those colors."

They spent a few minutes showing Harry magically animated pictures of various types of dragons, ruling out option after option, until they had a fair idea about the four they would be facing.

"that's not a great line up," Sans mused, reading a brief excerpt on the apparently quite violent Hungarian Horntail. Paused, and then corrected, "well, i guess it was never gonna be a good line-up. but still."

Cassius watched one of the snarling illustrations in his book snap its sharply drawn teeth at another dragon, the two Welsh Greens fighting over food.

"So, uhm…" Harry looked a little uneasy, or maybe guilty. "What about Fleur?"

"What about her?" the Slytherin parleyed, turning the page away from the animated carnage and scanning for anything that might be useful. "We've already talked about this; she's almost certainly been informed by Madame Maxime by this point."

"…I suppose."

With a sigh, Cassius pushed that book away and reaching for another. "If you're that concerned, you can go tell her later."

"don't worry, i already got that sorted out."

"You did? When?" With a slight smile he was trying to hide behind a suspicious look, Harry said, "Let me guess: the same way you told us to meet you all here?"

Sans grinned back. "maybe."

=X=X=X=

Fleur wasn't sure how the slip of parchment had gotten into the hood of her robe. She was quite certain that she would have noticed somebody doing such a thing, and yet here she was, staring confusedly down at the small note that had just fallen off her head and onto the frosty grass.

She picked it up, unfolding it with a quick flick of her wrist.

The first thing she noticed was how tidy the handwriting was, and she guessed it had been written by an enchanted quill. Secondly, it was a very brief note: a single sentence written in those rounded letters.

the first task is dragons.

Just one sentence.

Fleur checked the back of the parchment, but it was blank. The whole note was only that single short warning about the upcoming event. Simple.

Of course, she wasn't sure if she could trust it.

But if she did have to face a dragon in less than three days…

She was broken from her thoughts when she heard her name, and she glanced up from the foreboding note to see her headmaster waiting for her—stern expression touched with preoccupied concern.

"Oui, Madame Maxime," Fleur called back, quickly tucking the note away as she hurried to the carriages.

=X=X=X=

Harry looked a little mollified by that, some of his concern replaced by amusement.

"Stay focused, everyone," said Hermione, choosing to approach the problem as she might a particularly troublesome essay. "We need to get started."

"Get started? Sure." Harry sighed, good mood largely evaporated. "Where?"

Resting his chin on a short stack of books, Ron shrugged. "First off," he asked, "what are everyone's strengths?"

"I don't think I have any. At least… none good enough for a dragon."

"Come off it, Harry." Ron scoffed, matter-of-fact. "You're brilliant at flying. Could you do something with that?"

For a moment, Harry perked up—plainly he had not considered that as a possibility. But then he frowned and slumped back down. "I don't think they'd let me take my broom with me. And besides, uh…" He shot a glance at Viktor.

The older boy might not be great at catching some of the subtler parts of english wordplay or sarcasm, but he could guess what that look was trying to say. "I had not even considered flying," he admitted. "And it vas your friend's idea, I vood not vant to steal from you."

"this is a cooperative planning session," Sans pointed out. "stealing ideas is kinda the whole point."

Hermione looked a tad skeptical, though not about the whole brainstorming-thievery aspect. "Would that even work? Out-flying a dragon?"

That got a slightly-unsure-but-mostly-confident woof from Sirius.

"the dragons'll probably be chained down—safety first, yaknow."

Cassius snorted, thoroughly unconvinced.

"It's better than anything else I have," said Harry with a dejected shrug. "And it won't even work since I still won't have my broom."

Tail wagging in an encouraging manner, Sirius padded over to his godson and sat up on his hindquarters to be able to look him eye-to-eye. It was a little silly—which, seeing Harry's small smile, was probably the point.

"you are a wizard, harry."

"What?"

Somewhat bemused, Hermione shook her head. "You might not be able to bring your broom, Harry, but you will have your wand!"

Sirius barked in agreement.

Both boys seemed a bit confused, and Ron muttered, "Uhm, we know…?"

Then it clicked: "My wand!" Harry slapped a hand to his face, knocking his glasses a bit off-kilter. "I can just bring my broom to me! …Which means I need to learn how to do a Summoning Charm properly by Tuesday. Hermione—"

"Of course I'll help, Harry."

"that's one down, then." Sans grinned. "two to go."

"I know a spell that should vork," Viktor offered. After a brief look around, he reached for one of the heavier leather-bound books near the middle of the long table.

"Oh, here, let me just…" Hermione gave it a push in his direction—more of a shove, really, given its weight.

"Thank you," Viktor said, "Uhm, Hermy-own…y?"

"It's Hermione. Her-my-oh-nee."

He looked a little embarrassed, but still made the attempt. "Hermy-nee?"

She shrugged, apparently not too bothered if he couldn't quite get her name right. "So what spell would work on a dragon?" she asked. "Their hide is largely resistant to spells, after all."

"It hits the eyes," Viktor answered, flipping through the big book before turning it around and pointing to a specific line. "Here."

"The Conjunctivitis Curse…" She quickly read through the description. "Clever. If the dragon is blinded, it won't know where to attack."

Sirius looked as smug as a dog could possibly look, and made a small bark-ish noise in the back of his throat—that spell would have been his choice as well, apparently.

"Won't that, uh, really piss 'em off though?" Ron asked. "Blind or not, it's still a bloody dragon. What if it still steps on you, just on accident?"

"I vill be careful." Viktor nodded, adding, "and fast."

"that makes two," said Sans. "what about you, cass?"

With a frown, the Slytherin just shrugged. "For some reason, I doubt reciting the names of stars and their positions in the sky will be any help," he grumbled. "I'm alright at Defense and Charms, but nothing stellar."

"heh, stellar."

Cassius looked a little like he was considering smacking him—or maybe smacking himself, in reprimand for the accidental pun.

Somewhat awkwardly—plainly finding it very odd to be reassuring a Slytherin, of all people—Harry said, "I'm sure we'll come up with something…"

But even after searching through several more textbooks, they still hadn't come up with anything concrete. There were a few references that had promise, of course, but nothing that seemed a great fit for the scenario at hand.

"You could try distracting it?"

"With what, a swarm of butterflies?" groaned Cassius. "Or would a set of tap dancing pineapples serve better?"

Ron scowled at him. "He's just trying to help!"

With a heavy sigh, Cassius shut his eyes and set his head in his hands. "I know," he said, sounding completely exhausted. "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that, Potter. I apologize."

Though the Slytherin couldn't see it, Ron seemed shocked by that response—he glanced over to his friend, baffled, and Harry just shrugged back.

"This will take too long," Cassius muttered, half to himself. He sat up again, looking over their small group. "Viktor, Potter—" he paused and shook his head, "Harry. You both could probably use this time to better effect, practicing your spells."

"I—" Harry hesitated, guiltily, and turned his wand between his fingers. True enough, he desperately needed time to get that spell down.

While he had been doing some practice while they worked through the stack of books, it had only made him more nervous. He'd only been able to convince the quill to scooch energetically across the table. It had gotten airborne a few times, which is good, but it tended to droop and not even reach him whenever it did, which is certainly not good.

Finally, he asked, "Are you sure that's alright?"

Cassius just nodded. "I appreciate the concern," he said, "but I won't begrudge you taking advantage of practice time."

"If you're sure, Warr—" Harry paused, and finished, "Cassius. If you need anything…"

"We'll figure something out."

Sans just smiled, pleased, and waved goodbye when the three fourth years finally left to find somewhere to practice. No doubt the chairs in the empty classroom were going to be rearranged once more.

"You should go practice as well, Viktor."

With a stubborn expression, the Durmstrang student shook his head. "I haff cast my spell before." He pulled over another book. "I vill be alright vithout one afternoon."

"Then… thank you."

They spent a few more hours looking through textbooks and tossing around ideas, some of which were actually kind of possible—maybe, if considered with a healthy dose of optimism. Eventually, flipping through a book about dragon territories and suitable environments, Cassius paused.

"…I may have an idea."

"oh?"

"It's not a very good one."

"Vhat is it?"

"Something that requires some more consideration," Cassius replied, closing that book with a weighty sense of finality.

"yeah?" Sans quirked a brow. "so, what—you're not gonna tell us?"

Sirius, in protest, stepped on the kid's feet.

"Knock that off." Tidying up the scramble of notes that had accumulated, Cassius shook his head. "I will tell you, after I look into a few more things."

The dog-wizard snorted: a clear 'you better', even to those who couldn't speak canine.

"well, something's better than nothing."

"Maybe." Cassius took a steadying breath. "Although, given the fact that my 'something' is barely more that a 'nothing'… well. I still feel thoroughly unprepared."

Author's Note:

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Undertale.

When one expects to face a dragon, it is best to have at least a vague idea of a plan.

Still alive!
I've been working my new job—an online math teacher, by the way—for the past few weeks now. It can be tiring sometimes, and nerve wracking (especially if nobody on the call is interacting at all, so you're essentially talking to yourself), but it's also fun and honestly very fulfilling.
Plus, it's good to actually have a daily schedule again!

I won't have another chapter ready for the first of next month, unfortunately. And, seeing as it will be April 1st, I just want to emphasize that point: I wish this was a prank-scheme to surprise you guys, but alas that is not the case.
Anyway, thank you for all of the reviews, follows, and favorites! The next chapter for this story will be in May, and with any luck I'll be able to post a chapter for my other story next month. Hopefully.
(I really want to, but I keep second guessing the events. Urg.)

And next time?—dragons.

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Stay safe out there, and I'll see ya on the flipside, everyone!