Chapter Ten
Once again, they don't belong to me.
It was an exhausted Severus Snape who followed Hagrid back to Hogwarts the next afternoon. He ignored questions from his coworkers and vanished into the dungeons, leaving Hagrid to give the disturbing findings.
"There were footprints and burn marks from a medium sized dragon. I'm thinking he was a Hebridean Black, though the footprints are the same as for the Swedish Short-Snout. The 'Snout has a really hot fire, though, so at that range it would've killed the poor bogy tree. He was definitely male. You could tell from the spurs on the hind feet that they use when they're mating. They 'ave to grip the females legs, y'see, 'cause they mate in the air, and, um..." Hagrid trailed to a stop when the glares of McGonagall and Trelawney registered, and lowered the hands he had been gesturing with.
"I think we understand, thank you." Dumbledore twinkled at him. "Did you find anything else?"
"Um, oh yeah, there were some human footprints too. It looked like mebbe someone was riding the dragon." Hagrid scowled at the thought. Dragon riding had been attempted centuries ago with mixed success, but was now illegal worldwide. Spells to control a dragon were rather unreliable in the long term due to a dragons innate wild magic. The last dragon this was attempted with had broken his magical bonds and gone on a killing spree in medieval Europe. (An ancestor of the Weasley family had tracked it down and been forced to kill it. Guess which twin was named after him?)
The teachers all looked thoughtful at this. Finally McGonagall spoke what most of them were thinking. "Voldemort must be gathering new forces and testing our defenses. It's the only logical explanation."
Bill frowned, thinking of what Charley had told him regarding dragons. "Perhaps he's moving faster then we thought. He can't expect to keep a dragon under control for very long."
"His attack won't be for another two weeks at least. Our spies have been very clear on that," Dumbledore said reassuringly. It was a pity Severus was no longer one of those spies, but Voldemort had learned too much from Petigrew and Crouch, not to mention his stint with Quirrel as a parasite. "He wants disrupt the NEWTs."
"Mm, well, it will be easy to break the riders control on the dragon, but an angry wild dragon will be almost as bad as an enemy controlled dragon," Said Bill thoughtfully. "We need to distract it from attacking Hogwarts at the same time."
"Yes, why don't you and Hagrid look into that? We will meet tomorrow evening and discuss what needs to be done." Dumbledore rose, signaling the meetings end.
Severus was his normal self the next day, scowling at his students to the usual degree. He had nothing to contribute to the meeting that evening, where Bill suggested a solution to the dragon problem, having conferred with Hagrid and a few pints of butterbeer the previous evening. The solution did not receive an enthusiastic reception, but no one had a better idea, so Dumbledore gave them permission to contact Charley and implement it.
Although Harry had recovered his spirits after a talk with Dumbledore, there had been several more fights among the students. The most serious had culminated in a duel outside, and ended when one of the students was levitated into the branches of the whoomping willow by the other. Pomfrey had spent several hours repairing the internal damage and brain hemorrhages and was hopeful that the student would come out of his coma in a week or so. After the dragon problem was settled, she released her pent up frustration about the situation with a rant about the near death of a student and why had the problem been ignored for weeks. It was therefore on everyone's mind as the meeting dissolved. Hagrid and Sprout were still discussing it as they left the room.
"It still seems like everyone's in a bit o' heat. It's that time o' year for lots o' critters," Hagrid asserted.
"But humans don't work that way, and we've examined enough people to know it's some external stimulus causing the effect."
"So it's more like the way the male animals act when the females 're in the mood. It don't make sense."
"It makes perfect sense if we could just find a cause! I keep looking for strange plants in bloom, because plenty of plants can influence human moods through pheromones. But I can't find any, and anyway, the effect seems worse indoors."
Sprout shook her head helplessly as she and Hagrid turned down a corridor which lead outside. Behind them, about to turn toward the dungeons, Snape paused and looked after them with a look of dawning horror on his face. Swallowing a sinking sensation, he turned instead back past the staff room toward the library. He desperately hoped he wouldn't find what he remembered reading many years ago.
Authors note. I'm sorry about rushing this, but I wanted to finally update the story. I will do my best to write more. Sorry about the cliffhanger. Well, actually I'm not, but I will try to update in a few days.
Once again, they don't belong to me.
It was an exhausted Severus Snape who followed Hagrid back to Hogwarts the next afternoon. He ignored questions from his coworkers and vanished into the dungeons, leaving Hagrid to give the disturbing findings.
"There were footprints and burn marks from a medium sized dragon. I'm thinking he was a Hebridean Black, though the footprints are the same as for the Swedish Short-Snout. The 'Snout has a really hot fire, though, so at that range it would've killed the poor bogy tree. He was definitely male. You could tell from the spurs on the hind feet that they use when they're mating. They 'ave to grip the females legs, y'see, 'cause they mate in the air, and, um..." Hagrid trailed to a stop when the glares of McGonagall and Trelawney registered, and lowered the hands he had been gesturing with.
"I think we understand, thank you." Dumbledore twinkled at him. "Did you find anything else?"
"Um, oh yeah, there were some human footprints too. It looked like mebbe someone was riding the dragon." Hagrid scowled at the thought. Dragon riding had been attempted centuries ago with mixed success, but was now illegal worldwide. Spells to control a dragon were rather unreliable in the long term due to a dragons innate wild magic. The last dragon this was attempted with had broken his magical bonds and gone on a killing spree in medieval Europe. (An ancestor of the Weasley family had tracked it down and been forced to kill it. Guess which twin was named after him?)
The teachers all looked thoughtful at this. Finally McGonagall spoke what most of them were thinking. "Voldemort must be gathering new forces and testing our defenses. It's the only logical explanation."
Bill frowned, thinking of what Charley had told him regarding dragons. "Perhaps he's moving faster then we thought. He can't expect to keep a dragon under control for very long."
"His attack won't be for another two weeks at least. Our spies have been very clear on that," Dumbledore said reassuringly. It was a pity Severus was no longer one of those spies, but Voldemort had learned too much from Petigrew and Crouch, not to mention his stint with Quirrel as a parasite. "He wants disrupt the NEWTs."
"Mm, well, it will be easy to break the riders control on the dragon, but an angry wild dragon will be almost as bad as an enemy controlled dragon," Said Bill thoughtfully. "We need to distract it from attacking Hogwarts at the same time."
"Yes, why don't you and Hagrid look into that? We will meet tomorrow evening and discuss what needs to be done." Dumbledore rose, signaling the meetings end.
Severus was his normal self the next day, scowling at his students to the usual degree. He had nothing to contribute to the meeting that evening, where Bill suggested a solution to the dragon problem, having conferred with Hagrid and a few pints of butterbeer the previous evening. The solution did not receive an enthusiastic reception, but no one had a better idea, so Dumbledore gave them permission to contact Charley and implement it.
Although Harry had recovered his spirits after a talk with Dumbledore, there had been several more fights among the students. The most serious had culminated in a duel outside, and ended when one of the students was levitated into the branches of the whoomping willow by the other. Pomfrey had spent several hours repairing the internal damage and brain hemorrhages and was hopeful that the student would come out of his coma in a week or so. After the dragon problem was settled, she released her pent up frustration about the situation with a rant about the near death of a student and why had the problem been ignored for weeks. It was therefore on everyone's mind as the meeting dissolved. Hagrid and Sprout were still discussing it as they left the room.
"It still seems like everyone's in a bit o' heat. It's that time o' year for lots o' critters," Hagrid asserted.
"But humans don't work that way, and we've examined enough people to know it's some external stimulus causing the effect."
"So it's more like the way the male animals act when the females 're in the mood. It don't make sense."
"It makes perfect sense if we could just find a cause! I keep looking for strange plants in bloom, because plenty of plants can influence human moods through pheromones. But I can't find any, and anyway, the effect seems worse indoors."
Sprout shook her head helplessly as she and Hagrid turned down a corridor which lead outside. Behind them, about to turn toward the dungeons, Snape paused and looked after them with a look of dawning horror on his face. Swallowing a sinking sensation, he turned instead back past the staff room toward the library. He desperately hoped he wouldn't find what he remembered reading many years ago.
Authors note. I'm sorry about rushing this, but I wanted to finally update the story. I will do my best to write more. Sorry about the cliffhanger. Well, actually I'm not, but I will try to update in a few days.