Chapter IV: Dragons And Racing
"We only have two classes, Ron," Harry said disappointed.
Without responding verbally, Ron pointed to the Dragons book on the counter and smiled.
"Yes, at least we have that class together. I wonder what Hermione is taking this year."
Just at that very moment, a frizzy haired Hermione jolted past them holding at least a dozen books that hid her mouth and her nose. She raced up the spiraling staircase to the girls' part of the Gryffindor Tower, not saying a word to Harry or Ron.
"What's her problem?" Ron asked, sluggishly falling into his seat.
"I hope she's not taking too much this year."
After Ron rolled his eyes, he threw a long piece of paper at Harry. "She's taking twelve courses with no time traveling. She has nine each weekday, each one-hour, and three on the weekend. She's ludicrous."
Harry nodded in agreement. "At least we have the Dragon course together. Our teacher… Mr. Charles Weasley."
They both smiled greatly at the thought. The next day they would be riding dragons in the air, soaring above Hogwarts as they performed tricks for each other. Somehow Harry knew he'd be a great dragon flyer. As they both fantasized about it, a gold, sparkling fairy flashed before them.
It was about three inches tall with pink wings and a golden-yellow body. It wore no clothes although its hair covered everything.
"Harrrrryy Potterrrrr," it said, having a hard time pronouncing the r's.
"What are you?"
It responded, "I am Mera, a messenger fairy. Someone would like to see you at the Quidditch fields now. Bring whatever broomstick you have. That is all."
The fairy then left the room in a blink causing a puff of pink clouds to float above Harry's head.
"I didn't know we had messenger fairies here," Ron said still staring at the clouds.
"Neither did I. But I guess I have to practice. And—" Harry paused and turned to Malicia, still fastened to his waist. He gulped loudly while he started to tremble down his body. How could he ride her? What if she cursed a spell like Hermione said? Or worse… But he did promise to fly with her, and so, Harry took the broomstick out of his belt bracket and sighed.
"Malicia, I am going to Quidditch practice. No funny stuff. You hear me?"
The broomstick didn't respond.
"I guess that's a yes then. I'll see you later, Ron. Oh, and do try to talk to Hermione."
"About what?" Ron asked.
"You know what."
***
"Harry!" A tall, bearded man shouted from the center of freshly cut Quidditch field.
"Oh, is that you, Hagrid?"
"Great gazooks, ya've grown since I've saw ya last week. At least t'ree centimeters I'd say," he chuckled. "Anyway, I see ya received me Mera."
As Harry nodded, a gold dust sprinkled onto his nose. Swiveling his neck to the left, he saw Mera who was neither he nor a she. The fairy glittered continuously and loved to flash before and about, twinkling its fingers and tapping its toes on Harry's shoulders.
Everything was quiet. Stadium seats were barren, and there were no banners hanging over banisters. Each blade of grass slightly bent over due to the gentle breeze, and the violet haze of an early sunset stretched across a starless sky.
"It's lovely to see you, Hagrid. I thought you forgot school started. Did you visit your little brother? Is that why you are late?"
"Too many quest'ons, Harry. One at a time."
Harry smiled slightly. "I assume you wanted me to practice because of some sort of event or game soon?"
The half giant's eyes glanced over to the side as his hand slowly reached upward to tug on his entangled rough of beard. He cleared his throat loudly and said,
"Actually, I want te show ya somet'ing."
"Then why do I need my broomstick?"
"Ya see, Harry, ya have te fly above de barrier over dere te see it. Go on, take a look."
Trusting Hagrid, Harry readied his broomstick, making sure she was not awake or grouchy. After some hesitation, he mounted onto Malicia and then over to the barrier not too far away. It was entwined in pea green vines that sprouted cherry blossoms and soft, flaxen daffodils.
As Harry pushed his feet off the ground, he began something underneath his hand. It was somewhat bumpy, but he could not think of what it could possibly be. Then, he heard the muffling of a voice. Quickly, Harry moved his hand toward himself to reveal the face of Malicia smiling at him.
"Fresh air, fresh air. Let us fly, let us fly!"
With incredible speeds, Malicia flew through the air, heading straight for the barrier.
"Up! Up!" Harry yelled, trying to control his broomstick.
After a few seconds, she obeyed, and they were curving over the structure. A downward spiral sent Harry in a daze until they were very close back to the ground. Struggling to hold his grip, Harry realized there was some small bulk in between two trees. Whatever it was sat on a stump and seemed to be moving. Motioning Malicia to go downward, they started to descend and finally reached the stump within a few feet.
"I'm getting off, Malicia, all right?" Harry said, but did not wait for her to respond. He dismounted as his broomstick continued to hover in the same spot. After checking on it a few times, he walked toward the stub and quickly knew what it was.
"Hello, little fellow."
A foot of green and purple iridescent scales glimmered back at him. Its tail curled up behind its back as it kneeled forward toward Harry. When it lifted its neck, a small, fist-sized head turned slightly, blinking its orange eyes and letting its tongue moved through the cracks of its lips.
"Are you a pet of Hagrid's, perhaps?" Harry questioned knowing fully well it would not respond to him.
Instead, the baby dragon extended two wings that were hidden inside its layered skin. The small, transparent white wings lifted its body a few inches, and then, it thumped its body back to the stump.
"That was a good try. Um, am I s'posed to, well, do anything with you? Hagrid didn't really explain very well."
Suddenly, the ground beneath Harry's feet started to shake. He started to lose balance for a few seconds until he grabbed onto the tree next to him. The baby dragon did not seem concerned in the least as it glared at Harry.
"It was nice meeting you… I think I will be going back now. Should I bring you?" Harry asked to himself. "No, Hagrid would have told me to do that."
With that said, Harry grabbed Malicia, jumped onto the broomstick and pushed off the ground as he had done before. As he ascended higher into the air, a thick cloud of red and black smoke could be seen over the expansive green leaves of the forest.
"Malicia, do you see that?" Harry asked.
Two red eyes appeared, peering to the right as much as possible.
"Dragon smoke, Harry Potter. I have seen it before, sir. We shall see it closer, I presume, Harry."
Without waiting for a response, Malicia jolted forward, swishing past the dense trees and barely missing the prickly tops of them. Harry's legs lost all feeling as he tried to kick the side of his Firebolt.
Just when he was about to push down on Malicia, hopefully landing safely, they cleared the trees and found themselves hovering over a somewhat tiny open plain. Two huge creatures dwelled in the middle, one sleeping and the other eating.
"Incredible!" Harry shouted, watching the two adult dragons. "They must be the parents of the little fellow we just met. I wonder why they aren't with it right now."
Malicia was about to respond, but Harry heard another voice instead. A very unwelcome voice it was.
"What in the world are you doing over here, Potter?"
A Silverstar sparkled a few feet behind him. Draco Malfoy sat on top of it, dangling his feet and smiling at the sight of the dragons. He did not seem surprised or scared. Did he know about them? Harry hated it when others knew something he did not.
"Why do you care, Malfoy? What are you doing here?" Harry snapped back.
A chuckle rang through Harry's ears as Draco zoomed in closer. "Catching trespassers like you. This land belongs to the Slytherins, and if I'm not mistaken," he paused and lifted his large shiny badge, "I am the Head Boy."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Puh-leese, like I care. Now if you don't mind, I have to be leaving."
"So soon, Potter? Scared that I may beat you?" Draco asked, smiling non-stop.
"At what?"
"A race from here to over there," he said and pointed toward the two dragons. "My superb Silverstar against your foolish Firebolt. "
At first, Harry was thrilled to have a chance to wipe that smirk off of Malfoy's face. However, with his Driveller, it seemed rather risky. After a few minutes of thinking, Harry responded.
"You're on, on the count of three. One, two," Harry began, but Draco jolted forward at incredible speeds. Harry had never seen such swiftness with the exception of players in the Quidditch World Cup.
As Harry started to catch up to Draco, only a few feet away from his wavy Slytherin robe, he whispered down to his Firebolt.
"Malicia, don't do anything… dangerous. Okay?"
When it did not respond, Harry assumed it understood. Draco was now next to Harry, but he did not seem nervous at all.
"I suppose I should go a little faster, eh, Potter?" Draco said and pressed harder against his Silverstar.
Copper colored sparks flew from behind him, and Malfoy was off at least a hundred feet ahead of Potter. There was no way he could catch up with him now. In a matter of minutes, Draco would reach the end and have another victory to torture him with.
"What the…" Harry said as his Firebolt suddenly zoomed forward, faster than Draco's Silverstar. In literally one second, he had crossed the end of the field and had beaten Draco.
"You used magic, didn't you, Potter?" Draco yelled as he approached Harry.
"I swear I didn't," Harry said. Then, he looked down at his Firebolt, waiting for Malicia's face to appear.
"And I thought you didn't cheat, Potter. I guess you're not as good as you claim to be."
Draco then turned around and flew off in the other direction. How did he beat a Silverstar? Harry knew it had to be Malicia using a spell; it was the only explanation.
"Oh, I better get back to Hagrid. He'll be worried."
Leaning against Malicia, Harry flew across the dragon field once again, turning his head slightly to view both dragons asleep. As he approached the wall to the Quidditch field, he caught sight of Hagrid who waved to him with both hands.
"Hagrid!" Harry shouted as he landed, jumped off the broomstick and raced toward him.
"Ya saw 'em, didn't ya?"
Harry nodded. "What are they for? Don't tell me you've been keeping them hidden."
Hagrid shook his head. "Nah, they are for, er, Charlie. He brought 'em all da way from Greece ya know."
"Oh," Harry said as it started to make sense. "For his class… I have a question, Hagrid."
"Anything."
"Why was the baby dragon all alone?"
Hagrid's eyes widened. "Baby? It hatched!"
"Didn't you know?"
"Nah! It was just a widdy-biddy egg a day ago. I better go check 'em out. Ya go practice a while won't ya."
At first, he was hesitant, not knowing whether or not Malicia would behave.
"All right, Hagrid. I'll see you soon."
And so, Harry mounted his broomstick, kicked off and was in the air again.
"Malicia, wake up!"
No response.
"Malicia, this is your master."
Harry didn't like saying this at all. It made him feel like Malicia was a servant. However, her entire face did not appear, just her lips. They opened wide and responded.
"No."
Harry's forehead crinkled. "What do you mean, 'no'?"
Suddenly, the lips disappeared. The scenery around Harry turned into a silver blur as the wind pelted his face. They must have been going one hundred miles per hour. A sharp whistling pierced Harry's ears.
"STTOOOPPPP," Harry tried to say as the words echoed around him.
Everything halted at once, and Harry flew forward off his broomstick. His whole body flipped into the air and started hurdling downward into the thick brush of trees in the Forbidden Forest.