Chapter six
The First Day
After an eventful evening of both tree blasting and nightmares in Cynder's case, the dragons were ready for anything the first day of their official jobs would bring. Professor McGonagall, the transfiguration teacher, had asked for the dragons to assist her in her class at 9am, so the two dragons made their way to the classroom and made it just in time for a whole group of third years to come flocking into the room. They were taken aback by the sight of the dragons standing on either side of McGonagall's desk, but no one mentioned anything.
"Ok class," the professor announced, "as a fun way to return to work from the holidays, I thought we could try the Draconifors Spell, in which we will be attempting to turn the pebbles I have laid out on your desk into dragons." Cynder exchanged a glance at Spyro, she was clearly concerned that the professor would also show the reverse of the spell but was quickly relieved of her worries when the professor said "the reason I have invited Spyro and Cynder to come to the class today is because your challenge is to make your pebble turn into one of them. Now, the spell and the wand movement are on page 27 of your textbooks.
The two dragons enjoyed pacing around the classroom, observing the students, and Spyro was surprised to find out that Cynder had gone and done a "Hermione" and memorised the spell book cover to cover, so she was even assisting those who struggled to get the spell right. By the end of the lesson, everyone in the class had successfully transfigured their pebble into a miniature duplicate of either Spyro or Cynder, and Professor McGonagall was very pleased, except one student stood out, a young girl with ginger hair and a kind, smiling face had somehow managed to transfigure her pebble into both dragons, including the cursed chain that joined them!
"Very impressive Ms Mander," McGonagall congratulated, "5 points for Hufflepuff" the remaining Hufflepuff's applauded the girl whose smile widened in pride. After the class had left, Spyro and Cynder were surprised to see that the girl had stayed behind and had now approached them,
"Thank you for the help, Cynder," she said with her smile never fading,
"you're welcome Elora," Cynder replied as the girl smiled again and left the classroom.
Cynder was feeling full of pride, she knew it shocked Spyro that she knew so much about the spell, and was happy to share her reason for being so interested with him,
"do you remember the Wyverns?" she asked him, "well, they were created using a similar spell, except by me and Malefor, we just kept them on standby for whenever he returned". The duo had been wandering about on the third floor when they ran into their trio of friends,
"Hey guys," Spyro greeted, "how's your day gone so far?"
"Well, let me thinkā¦" Ron stated, "Umbridge has given harry a detention for, quote unquote, "lying", and we won't be even learning how to defend ourselves from what's out there. I don't know, how do you think our day is going?"
"Ok, sorry I asked." Spyro recoiled, both he and Cynder had spent the night theorising on how bad the new professor would be, but a detention on the first day? Now that was harsh.
"Who have you got next?" Cynder asked, attempting to change the subject, and Hermione was the one to respond first as she had clearly memorised the timetable,
"we have Herbology with Professor Sprout next" she stated, "we have to go now or we'll be late, it is on the other end of the castle" the trio bid farewell to the dragons before hurrying down the corridor, their robes flapping about wildly.
It was later on in the evening, and the dragons once again found themselves patrolling the 3rd floor corridor. It had been a very successful day for them as they had been able to assist the incredibly short Professor Flitwick in the Charms class, Cynder had tricked Sparx into eating a Puking Pastille from one of Fred and George's Skiving Snackboxes, and they had Run into Elora again, who gave Cynder a new Choker which she had transfigured from a Bronze Knut, it was even embossed with the Hogwarts school Logo. Cynder should have known that it was too good to last. Her snout suddenly wrinkled up in disgust, a stench of burning blood had just filled her nostrils, and she could feel a violent slicing like a dagger going through her wings! she recognised this feeling, she had been trained to recognise what this feeling entailed,
"no" she muttered in disbelief, "it is impossible that someone here would have one, let alone use one"
"Cynder?" Spyro asked as his friend swayed from side to side before suddenly straightening rigidly, her breathing became fast and shaky, "Cynder, what's wrong?!" Spyro exclaimed, he knew what Cynder was like when she was scared, but this was something more, she was traumatised! She simply muttered the words,
"Black Quill" before rushing away, with Spyro close behind.
That evening, Cynder was curled up by the fire in Hagrid's Hut, constantly muttering to herself that it was impossible, until finally Spyro asked,
"Cynder, what is a Black Quill?" this caused Cynder to frown in hatred,
"it's a weapon of immense torture" she spat in disgust, "a cursed feather that carves whatever it is you write with it into the back of your hand, and at the same time uses the blood you should be losing as ink!"
