Chapter 8: A new way of Learning

Quick note, if anyone was wondering, the species of the dragon is of my own creation. I am not too familiar with the creatures of the HP world, but I figured something like the dragon I've come up with could exist there.

Having not been given much option, Hagrid escorts Hiccup, Astrid and Fishlegs down the stone steps that lead to Hagrid's hut as well as the Forbidden Forest where, apparently, Hagrid had been keeping the dragon that invaded Hogwarts the previous day.

Once the four of them get to the forest's entrance, Hagrid says to the kids, "This is as far as I can take you. Just follow that path there. I wouldn't stay in there longer than half an hour, though."

Hiccup nods. "Thanks, Hagrid." He says before the three of them enter the dark forest.

Once the three of them were gone, Hagrid lets out a deep sigh and says to himself, "It's always kids that get to me. Why is it always kids? I can speak ta any professor and keep secrets around them."

It was already the late afternoon by the time they began walking to the forest, so it was already starting to get dark, but that's when Hiccup, Astrid and Fishlegs pulled out their wands and said the incantation, "Lumos." Causing the tip of their wands to glow.

The further they went, the darker they went, and they could also hear a high pitched howling of sorts that sounded like it was nearby. After a few minutes of hearing this howling, Hiccup looks to Fishlegs and says, "Will you cut that out?"

Fishlegs, who was making the howling noise, stops and replies, "Sorry." He huffs. "Why am I doing this? I should've just stayed at the castle."

Astrid glances back and asks, "Could you really have kept us coming here a secret if you did stay?"

Fishlegs looks down to the ground. "…No."

Suddenly, Hiccup holds out his arm, making Fishlegs look up to see some sort of cage that was at least 5 times their size. Hiccup takes a big gulp of air before cautiously stepping forward and shinning the light of his wand into the cage.

Then, from the shadows, a pair of bright yellow eyes appear, followed by a deep growling, causing Fishlegs to nearly pass out from fear. Hiccup takes a few more steps forward, now being about 5 feet from the cage's door, and stood there as the eyes move forward and the black, muzzled head of the dragon could be seen with the light of Hiccup's wand, looking anything but happy to see them there.

Hiccup stared down at the dragon and couldn't help but feel that exact same sense of familiarity that he felt the previous day when the dragon was right above him. After a moment, however, Hiccup snaps out of this daze and takes another step forward before the dragon growls loud, causing Hiccup to step back.

Fishlegs comments, "Yep, I was right, we're dead."

Astrid nudges Hiccup. "Come on, let's get out of here before anyone realizes where we are."

Hiccup was about to agree and leave, but then he noticed something. The dragon's left pupil seemed to be fixed on something that Hiccup was holding, his wand. Hiccup holds the wand up, making the dragon growl even deeper, he takes it away and the dragon seems calmer.

That's when Hiccup realizes the real reason why the dragon is mad. "…My wand." He comments.

Astrid asks, "Huh?"

Hiccup replies, "My wand has a dragon heartstring core, it probably senses that and isn't all that happy about it." Hiccup tests that theory by first dropping his wand on the ground. The dragon sees this and backs away from the cage door a little.

Hiccup looks back to Astrid and asks, "What's your wand's core?"

Astrid replies, "Owl feather."

Hiccup nods. "Come here." Astrid steps up to where she's next to Hiccup and shines the light of her wand into the cage, something that the dragon doesn't even seem to mind.

The dragon then sees that these humans aren't trying to hurt it, so it moves back, but squints once it puts its left leg down. "Look!" Hiccup says. "Did you see that?"

Fishlegs comments with his hands over his eyes. "Kinda hard for me to see anything at the moment."

Hiccup looks back and says, "Fishlegs, just look."

Fishlegs opens his eyes and looks back to see the dragon was keeping its left leg high in the air, as if trying not to put pressure on the leg. Fishlegs gasps. "It's hurt."

Astrid comments, "Must have taken a hard fall the other day."

Hiccup nods before stating, "Well…we can't just leave it like this. Astrid, you know any healing spells?"

Astrid replies, "For people, but I'm not sure if they'll work on dragons."

Hiccup replies, "Well, it might be worth a shot."

Astrid nods and comments, "Well, first I'll need to get close to it. Not sure how we can manage that."

Hiccup thinks about this for a moment before looking back to Fishlegs and saying, "You have any snacks on you?"

Fishlegs blinks and replies, "Uh, yeah, just some chips and rabbit jerky and, uh…"

Astrid asks, "Wait, where did you get rabbit jerky?"

Fishlegs replies, "My town has a specialty shop that sells pretty much any kind of jerky you can think of."

Hiccup holds his hand back and says, "It will have to do." Fishlegs quickly gets the idea and hands Hiccup the strips of dried rabbit before Hiccup tosses them into the cage. The dragon gets down and sniffs the meat before gobbling them up in one sweep.

Hiccup nods to that. "Alright, let's see if that did the trick." He holds his hand out to grab the lock to the cage, but the dragon flares its teeth and growls even louder, making Hiccup jerk his hand back. Hiccup nods. "Well, at least we have a start. Come on, let's go." He says as he picks his wand up and turns around.

Astrid asks, "Wait, we're just going to leave it here?"

Hiccup replies, "Obviously it just doesn't trust us yet, and clearly trust with that dragon is going to take some time to build. The best thing to do now is to let it be." Astrid and Fishlegs look back to the dragon inside as it lies down on its right side, keeping a look of alert on. The two of them could see there wasn't much else they could do, so they turn around and head back to Hogwarts.

2 more days pass and Astrid and Fishlegs find Hiccup in the great hall along with some books he had borrowed from the library. They sit opposite of Hiccup where Astrid comments. "Well, this looks extensive."

Hiccup gives a tired nod. "Understatement of the day."

Astrid then asks, "When did you last sleep?" She sniffs him. "…or bathe?"

Hiccup gives himself a sniff. "I'd say at least 2 days." Before rubbing his eyes.

Fishlegs then asks, "What even is all of this?" before he starts looking through one of the books

Hiccup sighs. "Well, I want to know as much about Dusk Stalkers as I can. Only thing is that most of these books just tell me how dangerous and deadly they are, yet nothing about caring for them or helping them."

Astrid shrugs. "Not surprised. Ask anyone and they can tell you that dragons are simply no good. Why do you even need to know this stuff?"

Hiccup sighs again. "Alright, here's the bottom line, Cinder clearly needs our help, so we are going to do what we can to help him."

Astrid and Fishlegs exchange glances before Fishlegs asks, "Uh…Cinder? Who's Cinder?"

Hiccup shrugs. "What? I had to call him something."

Fishlegs pauses for a moment before replying, "Uh…her."

Hiccup raises a brow to that. "…Her?"

Fishlegs nods. "Look, I just got to a section about gender differences." He holds the book up to show Hiccup. "Male Dusk Stalkers will have two large horns on top of their head, the size of which shows signs of fertility. Females do not have these horns."

Astrid adds, "Huh? I certainly haven't seen any horns on that dragon."

Hiccup blinks to this new information. "So…It's a girl? Ok, then it's Cindra. In any case, we need to figure out how to help Cindra out. Fishlegs, you remember how Astrid and I helped you when you were feeling like a fish out of water, even though you aren't in our house."

Fishlegs nods. "I do."

Hiccup nods back, "Exactly. Cindra might not be our species, but from what I saw yesterday, she is also an intelligent being with thoughts and emotions, and we need to do what we can to help her."

Astrid and Fishlegs could see that there's no chance of stopping Hiccup from doing this, so they exchange glances before Astrid replies, "Alright, then we'll help you."

So, the three of them look through the books and write down as much useful information as they can find.

The next day, after all classes were finished, the trio made their way outside where Hagrid, who was informed of this and agreed to help them out during the restrictions, was waiting for them and escorted them to the entrance to the Forbidden Forest where the dragon, now named Cindra, was waiting for them.

Once the three of them got to the cage, Cindra hops her way to the cage door and perks her head up and moves in towards them, recognizing all 3 of them right away. It was a bit earlier in the day, so the sun's light was still shining down on Cindra's black scales, making her much more visible.

Like before, Hiccup put his wand down and that seemed to soothe her enough to where she backed away from the cage's door.

After taking a deep breath, Hiccup has Astrid give him a bucket filled with fresh fish that they got from Hagrid, which they read that many dragons like to eat, reaches into the bucket and pulls out one of the fish to offer to Cindra.

Cindra leans in and gives the fish a good sniff to make sure it was fine to eat. Once that was out of the way, she extends her red tongue and pulls the fish in, gobbling it up in one go. Now a bit more satisfied, Cindra motions to the lock of the cage door, signaling that they can now enter.

After a nod, Hiccup looks back to Fishlegs who pulls out his wand and utters the incantation, "Alohamora." While turning his wand counter-clockwise and flicking, causing the lock to open up.

Astrid comments, "You're getting really good with that spell, Fishlegs."

Fishlegs nods. "Thanks, I've been practicing."

With the cage unlocked, Hiccup opens the door up and holds out another fish that Cindra eats with no issue. Once eaten, Cindra sits down on her good leg and her pupils widen as she starts to ask for more. Hiccup nods to that and proceeds to set the whole bucket down and Cindra quickly, looking like she hadn't seen food in a month.

Hiccup nods and looks back to Astrid before saying, "I think if there's any time to try it, it's now."

Astrid nods before walking closer and moving behind Cindra, keeping close watch of her front leg/wing which were currently kept to her side, but still. Once Astrid was close enough to the left hind leg, she pulls out her wand and takes a deep breath. "Alright, now or never…Brackium Emendo."

Astrid's wand glows blue for a moment and, in an instant, Cindra suddenly felt whatever pain she was experiencing fade away. She looks back and sees Astrid with her lit wand and begins to put the pieces together.

Once Astrid's wand stopped glowing, she pulls it away once she saw that Cindra was, in fact, looking at her. Cindra gives a slight growl before putting her foot down and finding that that didn't hurt at all.

Cindra puts some weight on that leg and finds that it was true, the leg didn't hurt one bit, giving her a very surprised look. Cindra then looks to Hiccup with puppy-dog eyes as he says, "We are here to help you, we promise."

Not sure what else to do, Hiccup holds his hand out and closes his eyes, waiting for whatever was about to happen to happen. Astrid and Fishlegs stand by and watch this very bold move on Hiccup's part.

Cindra looks up and down Hiccup and could see that he really was genuinely trying to help him so, as a way to show her trust, Cindra leans her head in, closes her eyes and rests her nose on Hiccup's hand.

Once Hiccup felt that cold, wet, scaly nose on his hand, he opens his own eyes and smiles wide while Astrid and Fishlegs stand there in shock. It was in that very moment that Hiccup knew, this, right here, was his calling as a wizard.