Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter Thorn Rose would already be included in the series...
Author's Note: Look! I updated! Now, the real question would be, how many people actually read this story? I dunno, cause they don't review! Just kidding. Hehe, anyways, I hope you enjoy it!
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Plan success—and Failure
Thorn decided to have Sparkie keep an eye on Hagrid's dragon, while she and Severus continued to watch Quirrell and Harry. Thorn decided that it was safer she watch the professor, seeing as she wasn't about to let her uncle get hurt by anything again. The absence of the little lizard, however, did not go unnoticed.
"Where is Sparkie, Thorn?" Maken asked one afternoon at lunch. It had been a week since the dragon had hatched and, according to Sparkie, the reptile was three times as large. "I haven't seen him in, God, it seems like ages."
Thorn glanced to Piper, who was glaring at her over her shoulder and shook her head. "He's just… tired more often. I guess its stress." And before Maken could ask what kind of stress a lizard could be under she stood and left the hall.
She began to walk to her next class, but as she reached the fourth floor she heard rushed voices outside the hospital wing. "What if she recognizes dragon bites, though, Harry?" She froze dead, mid step as she registered the voice as Ron Weasley's.
"Ron! It's too serious! I told you this morning that if it got any worse I'd drag you here if I had to! Its green, Ron! Green! That's not any better, now get in there!"
Then the door to the hospital wing closed and Thorn rolled her eyes. Sparkie… she thought, as agitated as an emotionless being could be, By any chance… did a young boy get bitten by Hagrid's dragon last night?
Huh? The lizard's bored voice replied. Oh, yeah, that red-haired kid…
Thorn sighed. Thanks for letting me know…
No problem, he replied, obviously having missed her sarcasm.
That night Thorn was sitting in her common room, reading one of her many books. She had discovered that it was a fairly good idea to sit in the common room when you wanted to know something, like what exactly Malfoy was planning on doing with his information about the dragon. Sparkie was back in Thorn's company, because, they discovered, the dragon could very well smell small reptiles, and while he had been attached to Hagrid's boot to keep eye on the little guy, he'd almost gotten his head bitten off.
It turned out that sitting in the common room that particular night was a good thing. The entrance to the room swung open and the blonde form of Draco Malfoy came in. He seemed happy about something, and he opened a book that he'd been carrying, revealing a folded piece of parchment.
Sparkie… The Slytherin hadn't even had to finish her though, for the lizard was gone in an instant, perched invisibly next to the note that the blonde sneak was reading. Thorn sat in silence, acting as if she hadn't noticed, nor cared, about what the first year was doing, while she let Sparkie's unfamiliar feelings slightly pass through her consciousness. She caught a hint of suspicion, and then surprise before Sparkie darted back to her.
He knows! the lizard exclaimed, and Thorn rolled her eyes, for she'd know that already. And that's not all! That Ron kid's brother is going to pick up Norbert! At a strange look from Thorn he clarified, and then continued. That's the dragon's name. Anyways, Saturday at midnight, at the tallest tower!
The impassive girl looked over her shoulder once again to the arrogant child in the corner, watching as he snickered nastily and refolded the piece of parchment. "Hello, Draco," she said nonchalantly. "What is it you've gotten there?"
He jumped when she spoke and quickly stuffed the paper into his robes pocket, being anything but inconspicuous. "I-I don't know what you're talking about!" He quickly replied as he stood and practically ran to his dormitory.
"Well…" Sparkie lowly hissed, "He's sounding a little… Quirrell-ish, don't yah think?"
Thorn gave an empty chuckle. "Oh yes, he's even hiding something. Or trying to." She smirked down to the lizard, who snickered. "Well… We'll make sure that Draco doesn't get away with anything. We'll be there, too."
Sparkie sighed. "Another out-late mission?"
Saturday night Thorn sat crouched down low, hidden beneath her invisibility cloak waiting in the hall that one had to pass through to get to the tallest tower. Sparkie was perched on a suit of armor down the hall, prepared to alert her if the blonde first-year was on his way. He would constantly complain, but Thorn didn't let him leave. You need to tell me of his coming so that I can make sure that he gets caught.
He sighed, but then was suddenly silent. He's coming, Thorn! He's coming! Get ready!
She didn't need to be told twice. She wrapped the invisibility cloak around herself tighter and moved toward the other wall, along the way bringing a very fine wire. Then she sat low on the opposite wall, holding it taunt. He wouldn't get far tonight.
Soon she saw the blonde form of Draco Malfoy climbing the stairs. He was surprisingly quiet as he wandered the halls. Or, at least, he was until his ankle made contact with the wire and he fell, cursing loudly. Who ever said that muggle tactics weren't useful?
Thorn smirked in the closest thing to pleasure that she could and, with a wave of her wand, made the wire disappear. Just in time, too, because then Minerva McGonagall came speeding up the hall, dressed in her nightgown and a hair net. Thorn sensed Sparkie flying behind the professor and land on her shoulder.
"Mr. Malfoy!" she scolded harshly and Sparkie tried the hardest that he could not to laugh. "Get up off the ground, you! Right now!" She grabbed onto his ear and pulled him up hardly, making him yelp.
"But Professor! Please! I—"
"I will hear no excuses, young man!" she cut him off as she pulled him near the stairs. Thorn nodded and followed behind them. Sparkie was invisible, on her invisible shoulder, keeping his senses open, trying to catch any notion of where Potter was with the dragon.
Suddenly his entire form went rigid, and Thorn knew that he'd found them. Up against that far wall… he muttered in her mind as Minerva exclaimed, "Detention! And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you—"
I smell the dragon… And some of its food… "You don't understand, Professor," Malfoy was trying to explain. "Harry Potter's coming—he's got a dragon!"
"What utter rubbish!" They're invisible… "How dare you tell such lies! Come on—I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!"
Thorn gave a short nod as she stopped, beginning to sense the presence of them. There were… two? Maybe, and the dragon of course. She shook her head, and began down the staircases again, where she could still hear angry voices ahead.
She made it to her dormitory in thirty minutes, having to go to the deepest dungeon from the tallest tower. Sparkie was absolutely giddy about Malfoy's detention, and that Severus would be informed of his misbehavior. It was a good night…
Until the next morning. The Slytherin made her way up to the Great Hall, Sparkie perched on her shoulder, unable to wait for his morning dose of bacon. However, as they passed the hour glasses, all thoughts of the juicy strips (or most) flew from his mind with a gasp. "Woah…"
Thorn, her attention caught by the suddenness of how his was grasped, stopped and looked up to the glasses as well. Her emotionless eyes looked over the rubies in Gryffindor's glass. They were down one hundred and fifty points. This could only mean one thing. "The idiots got caught…" Sparkie sighed, but had to agree.
The following week seemed hectic for the Gryffindors, mainly Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and the dumpy child, Neville Longbottom. It seemed that the three of them had been caught in the act as well, however the reason that Longbottom had been out was beyond her, at least until she spoke to Severus that Friday.
"The three of them were caught out-and-about Saturday night," the Potions Master said idly as he graded reports from the fourth-year Ravenclaws. "Along with Draco Malfoy. I cannot believe that insolent boy, falling for that incredulous story created by Potter…"
Thorn shook her head. "Potter spoke truth, Severus. He, indeed, had a dragon." This caught her uncle's attention, and his black eyes turned to gaze up to her, "It was Hagrid's. Apparently he was ridding the thing, sending it to Romania."
Severus shook his head. "Hagrid had a dragon? That man will do anything for any dangerous creature. I am amazed that he hasn't yet discovered yours."
His niece gave an empty smirk. "Indeed. It seems that I have kept Fang well hidden. I just wonder when their detentions will be, and where, at that matter." She then looked to Sparkie, who nodded, and said, "Well, I am due in the forest, to look after Shooter. He's healed well, and I have to take his bandage off." She stood and lightly kissed him on the cheek before she turned and left.
He sighed and ran his hand through his midnight black veil. "Thorn… You have become your mother. All you need is her emotion."
Thorn walked into the hippogriff pen not long later, Sparkie flying around in the warm air happily, spreading his wings in the sun, leaving a Sparkie-shaped shadow parallel to him on the green grass. As he gallivanted about the sky his impassive friend tended to the unicorn in the stables.
"You've healed well," she said as she began to unwrap the bandages. He neighed in delight and threw back his head. "Steady," Thorn said as she held his snout down, "Let me finish." Soon she saw the black spot of one of her Covers under the binding. Carefully she peeled that away as well and the gash that had once been a horrid wound was no more than a mere cut, a small sliver of silvery blood dried within the skin, helping it heal.
With a bland smirk the Slytherin stepped away, "Go on and run. You no longer have the constricting wraps on you." She had hardly finished her sentence and Shooter was over the fence and out into the forest, neighing happily as he sped off. Then a soft weight on her shoulder announced the arrival of Sparkie.
"He's happy," he stated, and Thorn nodded.
"He's lucky to be alive."
