House: Ravenclaw

Class: History of Magic

Category: Drabble

Prompts: [Dialogue] "It's just a little bit of rain. How bad could it get?" (Tense can change)

Word Count: 935

Title: Here There Be Dragons

"Oh, come on!" Neville sighed.

"It's just a little bit of rain. How bad could it get?" Luna egged him on, poking him ever-so-gently with the end of the long butterfly net she carried.

Neville frowned and pouted, but Luna giggled and her eyes sparkled at him so brightly that he couldn't help but laugh too.

"Fine." He got up off the log he'd been sitting on. "Fine, where are we going?"

"We're still heading to see the rumple-skinned piggledy back dragon," she declared brightly.

"Okay! That sounds great!" Neville lit up.

So on they hiked. They crested the trail head where it dropped into the valley, and could see the rocky expanse of the mountain above them. Neville swallowed thickly as they gazed up at the narrow, winding foot paths up the side of the rock walls. "Oh boy! You know how I feel about heights, Luna, "Novosad

"oh but love, this is the only way to find the rumble skinned pickle D fact dragon, " Luna reminded him.

"Fiiine, "Neville said, rolling his eyes just a bit. He did want to see it too!

"Oh where is your explorers spirit, Nevvie?"

She made such a cute face that Neville believed that he could make it up the mountain side; he could do it for her.

"I suppose I can do it with you, "he said, a small smile forming on his lips.

Y of course you can! "I am right here, after all, and I've got you. You know that I won't let anything hurt you, neither do you wind kittens nor the flaming mountain lions Wolves. You aren't alone, love. "

"Yes, yes I know. It's just… It's a really tall mountain, and I don't like climbing. Not like that. "

All right, well we shall do it together. "

…

It was quite a climb, but with Luna, Neville did not have to feel alone with his fear. Instead of taking many hours, as it might have when he was alone, they reach the top within 45 minutes. Whenever he caught a glimpse of the valley, and the world seem to do somersaults in his vision, he would look at Luna, who was waiting only a few feet above him. He reminded himself that she was OK, so he must be too, and use that as a boon to rise above his fear.

When they reach the top, they both collapsed onto the ledge, uncurled the last few feet of a rocky ground to the enchanted meadow, where they lay, resting in the lush grasses.

It took some time before Neville remembered why not come there.

"Hey, where is the dragons? "

Luna stood and hummed quietly to her self. "Oh, Their right over there. "Quotes

Neville set up and looked around. "What? Over where? I don't see any. "

"OK, I'll go get one. " When I said as she strode away across the meadow.

Where on earth was she going?

"Luna! I don't think that's a good idea, "he called, imagining her bringing back a full grown dragon. It could bloody well eat them if it wanted to!

Instead, however, she returned a few minutes later with a small reptile on her shoulder, which glittered blue and green in the sunlight.

"Nevvie, meet my new friend! This is Owen. Owen, this is Neville."

Neville tilted his head and confusion, "I'm not sure that's really dragon."

"Nonsense, of course he is! Muggles call much smaller things dragons, you know. These are descended from some of the last dragons in this region. Here, hold him!"

Just then the sky rumbled with thunder, and the tiny creature squealed and ran away.

"Owen, come back!"

"Luna, I think we need to get out of here. It's about to start pouring."

"I need to find Owen."

"OK, that's…that's fine. I'll try to get something set up so that we have shelter."

Luna nodded and took off after Owen, while Neville floundered about with his wand, attempting to make a shelter. It was too late; the rain began pouring down on them.

Neville shouted in frustration. "I told you it would rain!"

The rains intensified so that he could hardly see his hand in front of his face. Luna was nowhere to be found. He began to panic, until he managed to conjure an umbrella. Then he heard something–something down below the ground. He shouted again, this time in fear as the ground beneath him gave way, and he fell down into the earth.

But then he felt warm arms around him. Wand-light revealed Luna's smiling face pressed against him.

"Shh, love, it's alright. We're in the tunnels with Owen and his people, the dragons. They so kindly agreed to shelter us from the storm. Apparently, if I'm up to date on my dragonese, the storms here are much more severe than I'd thought. They can last up to 3 days, and it's dangerous to be out in them. Luckily, we're invited to stay long as we need to! They even said they'll share their food with us."

"Wh-what? How?"

"Darling, you know I speak with creatures, yes?"

"Well–yes–but–"

"They speak back you know."

Just then Neville became aware of the hundreds of sparkling blue and green creatures staring at him with little red eyes. He might be down here for days… He gulped nervously.

"Uhm, hi?"

The sound of a whispered "Hi, Nevvie," echoed off the tunnel walls in little hissing voices. It was all a bit too much for Neville; he fainted.

Luna smiled awkwardly. "Sorry, he just isn't used to actually speaking with creatures himself. He means no offense."