Disclaimer: Again, I only own Sparkie and Thorn, Maken, Cade, Celestial, and Taffy belong to friends or family of mine, and everyone else is JK Rowlings.
Author's Note: The tital of this chapter should give away somewhat of what's gonna happen, and yes, I tried to leave you in suspence at the end! Haha!
Chapter thirteen
Another one!
As soon as she touched the bottle she felt as if a hook had grabbed her right at her navel and pulled her backwards. Soon she felt her feet hit ground again and her kitchen swirled into view in front of her.
The loud pop of apparation echoed through the house as Severus appeared next to her. He walked back to his room and changed back into his wizarding clothes, unable to stand being in muggle wear.
The two of them lazed around for the rest of the day. Thorn made sure the creatures were okay, then she and Severus sat in their according arm chairs in the gloomy, but somehow comforting, front room and read.
About two weeks into their vacation, something to make it a bit more interesting occurred. Severus had been at the kitchen window early one morning, staring out at the barely visible red sky through the towering trees, when something fell into the earth not for from the house.
His dark eyes widened and his brow furrowed in wonder as he looked upon the site of the fallen matter. It was oval and of a dark color. "Thorn?" he asked his niece, whom was sitting at the kitchen table, reading the Daily Prophet.
She looked up from the front page, which read, Shipment of Dragon Eggs Flys from Britain to Romania. "Yes?" she answered, folding the paper up and joining him at the window just as Sparkie walked into the room, eyes half closed, wings dragging on the cold, stone floor.
Severus and Thorn both stared at the bolder-like thing laying in their yard, speechless. Both knew what it was, and both knew that it could be bad. Shadow, Thorn thought to the pegacorn, Stay away from the house for a while. I'll tell you when you can come back. Warn the others, and keep watch on your father, he'll disobey me.
She felt the pegacorn's words wander at the edge of her mind, Shall do.
What is it? Sparkie asked her, still halfway asleep as he tried to climb her leg. What's goin' on? I swear, he said with a grunt as he finally pulled himself onto her shoulder, I didn't do it this time.
No, you didn't, Thorn concluded, Look. She gestured out the window.
Sparkie's eyes widened and he was soon wide awake. "Holy Horntail!" he gasped as he perched himself higher to get a better look. "D'you know what that is!?"
She nodded, "Yes..." she muttered in her own language.
Severus looked down to her and said, "What do we do?"
Thorn shook her head, thinking of what could happen, then she looked up to Severus and said, "There's only one thing we can do."
Severus sighed, already knowing what she was going to say. "Thorn, we can't keep it."
"We have to, we can't give it back to them, the ministry," she said the last two words with scorn. "I can take it in, I can control it."
Severus looked back out the window, and, for a moment, Thorn thought that he was going to disagree, but then he turned to her, a smirk on his lips, and said, "You can try. Thank god the house is stone."
Thorn nodded, "Yeah, fireproof as it can get, but we can cast a charm over it to help out." Then she walked away from the window and began towards the door.
"Thorn," Severus called suddenly.
"Yes?" she said, turning to him.
"Watch yourself," he warned, his black eyes serious.
"Don't worry."
Thorn walked out into the small clearing that surrounded their home and made her way to the egg. Sparkie was sitting on her shoulder, fidgety as they neared the infant dragon.
"Thorn," he said suddenly, "What if you can't control it?"
"Way to be optimistic, Sparkie," Thorn said sarcastically as she kneeled down by the egg and the small crater that it had made. She touched the rough shell and sighed. "Good, it's alive."
"Good!?" Sparkie exclaimed, "Good!? You want it alive? If it had died we wouldn't have had to worry!"
"Yes, I do," Thorn stated, "I want to take the challenge."
"Just to prove you can?" Sparkie sighed.
"Yes," Thorn admitted. "I'm going to hatch it, and raise it."
"Another one!" Sparkie exclaimed as he leapt to the sky and flew circles around them in agitation. Then, as he landed, he said, "Why another one!?"
Thorn had gripped the egg within her arms. It was about the size of a quaffle, but much heavier. It also had a strange heat radiating from it. "Because, Sparkie," Thorn said as she stood and began to walk back to the house, "I can't stand to see an animal die if I could have helped it live."
Sparkie sighed, but didn't argue more. Severus opened the door for her, seeing as her arms were wrapped around the egg, and closed it after her. "What breed do you think it is?"
Thorn walked into the living room and sat in her armchair, while Severus sat in his next to her. "Oh, it was on the tip of my tongue!" She shook her head, "Sparkie, would you please get me my book, Dragons of the World?" Then she thought to Shadow, You may come nearer, now. Danger's gone, for the moment.
Sparkie nodded and flew into her room; Severus looked to the egg then to his niece's face. Worry was shrouding him. It was dangerous to own a dragon. Never before had one been trained. He sighed, "Thorn, I want you to be very careful with this dragon. You know how dangerous they can be."
She nodded, "I know, but I'm sure that I can do this." She looked up to Severus, whom was watching her with concern. "I know I can."
Severus nodded. "Alright. We'll see, won't we?"
Just then Sparkie came back, dragging the book, which was wrapped in his tail. "Here," he grunted as he set the book at Thorn's feet.
She picked it up and opened it. Flipping through the pictures of the dragon eggs, she soon came to one that mimicked hers exactly. "Hebridean Black Dragon," she concluded. Then she flipped to the page that it directed and read aloud. "Britain's other native dragon is more aggressive then its Welsh counterpart," She heard Severus shift at that, "It requires a territory of as much as a hundred square miles per dragon. Up to thirty feet in length, the Hebridean Black is rough-scaled, with brilliant purple eyes and a line of shallow but razor-sharp ridges along its back. Its tail is tipped by an arrow-shaped spike and it has bat like wings. The Hebridean black feeds mostly on deer, thought it has been known to carry off large dogs and even cattle. The wizard clan MacFusty, who have swelled in the Hebrides for centuries, have traditionally taken responsibility for the management of their native dragons."
Thorn looked to the picture of the dragon in the book. It was large, and black scaled. Its purple eyes shown as it breathed a steady stream of fire towards a small town below, where the people were running and screaming to get away.
"Thorn!" Sparkie exclaimed, "It's going to grow to a cold-blooded killer!"
"Sparkie," she stated in his tongue, not wanting to cause Severus more pain at her self opinion, "Some of us know the feeling of being cold-blooded killers."
Sparkie sighed, but said nothing. He hated being the one who made her say such comments.
The next day Thorn had put the egg into a fire that would only go out when magically done so and was sitting at her desk, writing up as much about Hebridean Blacks that she could find in books. Suddenly a letter was dropped on top of her parchment and Midnight flew to her perch.
"Sparkie's taught you well," Thorn commented as she picked up her letter and looked upon Maken's neat scrawl. Sparkie and Midnight had become friends, finally, and Sparkie had been teaching the owl the gift of silent flight.
Thorn opened the envelope and took Maken's letter from within, and read it quietly to herself.
Thorn,
Hey! How're things at the Snape-Rose household? As interesting as things are here? Well, if so, then I feel rather sorry for you! Cade is planning on coming up later this week, he couldn't come earlier, said he was busy helping his new neighbors move in. They have a daughter. Ha, he's got some good teasing coming his way! I dunno if you'd care to join me but Sparkie -- Wait, no, I'm not even going to offer Sparkie help me with something. Anyway, I was wondering if you could come up as well. I dunno when and I actually don't think it matters. My parents won't care.
Miss you,
Maken
Thorn folded the letter and put it into her desk drawer with all his other letters. She would've put Cade's and Celestial's there as well, had they sent her any. She took a fresh piece of parchment and began to respond.
Maken,
Things at the "Snape-Rose household" just got a bit more interesting. I'll explain later, but you can be sure that this time it won't be a secret, just wait until I have the time to get over there. Cade has a new neighbor? Wonderful, she's a muggle, right? I'm sure that Sparkie would join you in the harassment if you were anyone else. I'm still not sure, but I think he's afraid of you taking his place. Rather foolish of him. I'll be up there as soon as things get even more interesting here, which is bound to happen soon.
Sincerly,
Thorn Rose
Thorn sealed the letter and whistled to call Hecate to her. Hecate, the owl that had delivered Severus's last letter to Severa. Hecate, who had seen too much. She gave the letter to the grey and black owl and she flew into the twilight.
Three days later, just as the sun was rising, about half an hour before Thorn would wake, a loud crack echoed through her room. She jumped out of her sleep, on her feet in seconds, her wand held out, ready to face anything.
But her room was perfectly still, nothing out of the ordinary. Her school books piled on her desk, Sparkie tumbling around in his sleep, the egg basking in the fire's heat. Thorn froze. The egg.
She tentivly walked to the flames and kneeled next to the egg. A deep line had appeared in the surface. A small smirk crossed over Thorn's face and she woke Sparkie up by mind wise yelling. Dear lord, why must you get up this early?
Sparkie, she reasoned, That's like asking, "Why must Maken get up so late."
The lizard pondered that, then though, Why does he?
Thorn rolled her eyes slightly, then got on to tell him what she had meant to in the first place, It's hatching.
