Dragons
Charles Weasley
I can never understand why people hate dragons so much. They say it's because of their danger, and their potential to harm. But really, we all have the potential to harm, the one's we trust even more so than the others. By trusting someone, we give them the value of our very life, and more. And dragons are only dangerous to those that don't understand them, or don't know enough about them. When you know how to protect yourself from the teeth and the claws, you're fine. Because anyone who knows anything about them can be safe from the fire.
Dragons are beautiful creatures, if you actually watch them. It's not really easy to say why, but true beauty is always like that. They have a certain scaly smoothness, and a very strong pride. When they fly, they have a graceful power. There's a lot that goes on under those thick skins that we never see.
They say dragons are creatures of darkness. Flying about the countryside, living alone, attacking their own kind, killing for food, not caring if Muggles see them, stealing gold, abducting innocent girls. Take away those last two, they aren't really true, just Muggle myths perpetuated. Well, lock all the dragon keepers in Azkaban if that's going to be the common definition of supremely evil. And then see how you get along.
But they aren't really dark. For as anyone knows, the defining point of a dragon is the creation of fire. And fire, in the primal sense, is light in the darkness. Especially in the wizard sense, as we don't use electricity. And, paraphrasing, nothing evil may bear good fruits. Nothing dark can bear the fruits of light. Following their own logic, a dragon, because it can create light, can not be a creature of darkness.
But I suspect that those aren't the real reasons most humans are afraid of dragons. I suspect the renowned Muggle writer, John Tolkien best summarized their feelings, "Dragons seem to comprise human malice and bestiality together, a sort of malicious wisdom and shrewdness. Terrifying creatures." And so you see, they are afraid of dragons because of how much they are like people, the most dangerous of people, in their ability to think. But they have no way to protect themselves from the people, so they go after the dragons, the innocent, so they can convince their own minds that they are fighting the evil they fear.
I love dragons. They have a rawness hidden by humans, and a lack of disguise of their dangerous qualities. A dragon can not hide the fact that it can fly, that it can hurt, that it has massive brute strength, that it would like to eat you for lunch. What it does hide is the fact that they are loyal parents, their fire can be useful, and they are made of some of the most pure magic of any creature. Without them for our potions, protections, wands, our society would crumble.
