The Return of Norbert
By: lucky-cyber-bunny
Chapter Three Romania and the Fab Five
The longest chapter yet. All I had to do was get my writing juices flowing! Trouble is just starting. Hope you enjoy... TTYL!!! - lucky-cyber-bunny (I'm so excited) Love one-another
"Find that dragon! I don't care what it takes! Round up the speaking dragons. Ask them where he may have gone. And where is Charlie!?!" Shouts rang out all around the central core of the Romanian Dragon Colony, H.F.R.E.D. It stood for Help For Real Endangered Dragons.
It was the morning after the escape of Norbert and the whole place was in an uproar - literally. The chief dragon herders were gathered by the master dragon tamer, Elena Veanu. She was screaming, half in English and half in Romanian. She was seething and cursing the devils of hell for putting such a massive burden upon her shoulders.
Her short stature put you into a false sense of security, but only for a few seconds. Her rock hard facial expressions let you either know exactly what she wanted, or hid what she was thinking, at her will. She had been born and raised by her witch mother and muggle father. Her mom was the one who discovered her magical talents when she had actually set a biscuit on fire in a rage from a tantrum.
But right now, she could have set her whole house on fire from the anger that was rapidly swelling in her body. If things didn't happen quickly, she was ready to, not only fire people, but set them on fire.
"Here I am." Charlie Weasley came rushing into the meeting building. "I'm sorry I'm late. I was helping round up the speakers." He had a fresh bandage on his left forearm. The bandage was glowing blue with recent magic.
"Finally! I cannot believe you took so long! You know what the ministry will do to me, to all of us if we do not relocate this; I find it hard for me to say it but, missing dragon! We will all be out of jobs, out of Romania and into the biggest mound of dragon dung you've ever seen!!!" Elena massaged her temple. "Now, Charlie, you were the one who brought it here, right?"
"Yes." Charlie responded
"And you know where it came from, right?"
"Yes."
"And you know that all speaking dragons were hand raised by a person, right?"
"Of course..." Charlie had no clue what she was getting at, but answered her questions honestly.
"And so that means that you know the person who hand raised it, right?"
"Yes."
"So obviously the dragon who escaped went right back to its owner, right?"
"Maybe." Charlie said slowly.
"No! That means that it did go back to its old owner. A hand raised dragon can always find its way home. Unless you know where it went!" Elena bore down on Charlie with the most ferocious look he had ever seen her give. He was scared now. He knew it was rumored that she could scare a dragon, but now he was starting to believe it.
"I have no clue where he could have gone. He could have gone to his owner, but he could have gone anywhere." Charlie said, backing away slightly.
"You have something to so with this. I just know it. If I find out you had anything to do with this escape. You'll be in Azkaban quicker than you can say 'Dracula'" Elena put her head to her hand again.
"Please, Elena, don't let this foul folly get in your way." Said Razran Zapada in native Romanian tongue. As Elena's assistant, he was a large manipulator. He could get her to change her mind easily, and was constantly moving things into his liking.
He was a foul thing with a short, sharp nose. His hair was thin and straight. Usually slicked back, it looked as if it could be wrung out and produces a glass of oil. He has a nasally voice and always looks down on everyone with his nose up high in the air. Everyone except Elena that is.
"Please. Do not stress yourself out. All we need to do is keep our ears open and wait for any news of a dragon sighting. Other than that, we can put our feet up, and relax." He said coaxingly.
"No. That's the exact reason why we can't. If he has evaded the muggles, then what else could he have done?" She stood up quickly "It is dangerous. I want all the record papers on the escape. I want all its known affiliates here now. I want all the best selling muggle papers from here to its owner's home. I want that dragon found. Losing a dragon will no bet put on my record?" She yelled at all of her herders, who scattered at her orders.
She sunk back into her chair. She was stressed out. Razran was about to say something, but she whipped up a hand to silence him. She didn't need him right now. She needed peace and quiet for a few seconds.
Sighing she took a cigarette out of the pack in her pocket. She used her stubby wand to light it and took a long drag. She let out her breath right before her body started begging her for air.
Muggles are alright. She thought to herself. At least until you hit their addictions and corruptions. She took another drag and snuffed the rest of it out.
As people rushed into her office, tossing down things on her desk before running out again, she heard the roar of dragons being forced to do something they didn't want to do.
"Sort out this mess." She snapped to Razran.
Outside, five dragons were straining on magical chains as they were tethered to the ground. They groaned and roared as they protested peacefully.
"These are the dragons seen most frequently with the run away, ma'am." One of the Romanian herders reported with a salute.
"Good. Leave them with me. I need to talk to them." She let the herder go and looked at each dragon separately. In front of her were a Hebridean Black male, twin female Hungarian Horntails, a large Ukrainian Iron belly male, and a small female Chinese Fireball. Tall as they were, Elena had no fear as she looked at them carefully, inspecting every scratch, gash, cut and chip on their bodies.
As she walked past them, the dragons straightened and looked away from her eyes. They knew that if they made eye contact, they would have to spill the beans on Norbert if asked.
At the colony, dragons could chose to listen to herders, or ignore them and be forcefully told what to do. Those who decided to fight were usually left alone. Speakers were known to listen and understand human speech, as well as dragon talk, so they were expected to listen. They usually did, but if they didn't hear a herder, whether they chose to or actually didn't hear them, they didn't have to do what they were told. The sign of understanding a herder was eye contact. That's why Norbert's friends had to avoid Elena's piercing eyes.
"I want all of your names. I know you can hear me. Give me your names." Elena asked the dragons. She was being nice, trying to gain their trust. She knew that if she wanted the run a way's location, she would have to get on the good side of the dragons who knew where it might be.
Slowly, after glances to each other and un-noticed nods, they each stated their names.
"Noddy." The Hebridean Black said curtly. He was long for his bread, but the usual black color. He was the one who was known all over the world in muggle fairy tales of knights and dragons stealing maidens. Back when they lived all over Europe, Hebridean Blacks would capture maidens, but, far from the knowledge of the knights, the maidens were usually witches who asked to be taken away form civilization. But that was before they were slain to near extinction. Although his numbers were dwindling, the endangered population was slowly creeping back up. His long neck, wide wings, and long jaw made him look timid compared to his fellows.
"Mishka."
"Natisha." The twin Hungarian Horntails were connected with the special twin bond, and were quite in tune with each other. Lizard like faces made you wonder where evolution had made common anoles so small compared to these two ferocious animals. Golden spikes on their tails, and sharp teeth, along with very feisty nature made them quite dangerous. But currently, they were leaning each other for support. They were scared of Elena. Both being only a few days old when brought to the colony, the switch Elena had used on them when they ran amuck in the registration office still left memories of her terrible wrath.
"Lead." A low, hateful grunt was the smug reply from the large Iron-Belly. He was, by far, the biggest of the bunch. Large, round, and heavily scaled, he look like he was total defense but when he opened his mouth, shark-like jaws, and four, foot long claws on each hand made American football teams envy his genes to have strength in offence and defense. His granite gray scales gleamed metallically in the sun as he tested his ties.
"Kiko." The smallest of the bunch, and Norbert's favorite, she was the Chinese Fireball and the prettiest one of the bunch. Red color set her apart from the rest of the black group. Her scales were dusted in a fine mist of gold that sparkled in the sun. Her facial spikes were gold as well. Sharp angled wings looked like the wings of many kites fussed together. Although fragile looking, Kiko had the strongest wings of them all and was the best flyer in endurance, agility, and manipulability.
"As you all know, your friend has ran away. We need to know where he is. He could get lost, hurt, or killed. Even worse, he might be seen by the muggles." Elena said in the calmest and nicest voice she could utter from her throat.
"Fat chance." Lead laughed softly.
"Why is that?" Elena asked slowly.
Lead tugged on his chains. "Take these off us and I'll tell you. We are not your pets. We are not your guards. You should be the ones chained up. You steal our territory and then expect us to listen to you on this small portion of land. You have put up magical shields so we can not even fly high. I hate you!" The thing that made Lead the maddest was to be tied up. He had once been a wild dragon, but a dragon trader had snatched him form his mother when he was young and was caught. He was then put here. He didn't loath humans, but he did have angry feelings towards all of them. All but Norbert's mommy.
"Fine." Elena went around herself and unhooked each chain. When she was done, she created a chair and sat down. "So, tell me why it's a 'fat chance' that I won't find your friend, Lead."
"No." Mishka hissed. "Don't tell her."
"We'll swipe you upside your head." Natasha finished.
"I have to tell her, I made a deal" Lead said, getting comfortable in the dirt. He put his head in his hands and looked Elena in the eyes. "He has protection."
"What sort of protection?" Elena said, copping Lead's actions.
The large dragon rolled over on his back and broke eye contact. "Why should I tell you?" He was toying with her, and loved every minute.
"Because I want to know." Elena was trying to keep face, but Lead annoyed her, he always had.
"So?" This time it was Noddy's turn to speak.
"So I could help find him if I knew what was protecting him." Elena said.
Kiko looked around quickly; she saw that more of her friends were creeping around the building to listen. She felt stronger when she saw familiar faces smiling toothy smiles of encouragement. "And why do you want to find him so badly again?"
After a long day of playing dumb, asking too many questions, and simply being silent, Elena had finally cracked and the dragons laughed as she tried to stun them Quickly they flew off, creating a dust cloud and blinding Elena's sight long enough to get away.
Elena wiped the dust from her eyes and stormed into her office.
Razran had sorted the papers into a few neat piles and had been anxiously waiting here return. "I sorted-"
Elena slammed her fists on the desk, causing all the papers to fly onto the floor. "Prostu drawlui" she cursed. "How did I not see that coming?"
Razran, who was hurt both by Elena's carelessness, and her burst of profanity, was silent. He knew that when Elena was mad, the only thing you could do was stay away.
She carried on "Those dragons are hiding something. Something besides the location of their bloody companion. I have to figure it out. I-"
It was Elena's turn to be cut off. Bianca Paduche, one of the higher ranked herders, had just burst into the room. She was breathless and ragged. "Th-the ministry. They're here. Unexpected check-up. Fudge here. He knows. So sorry. I was stuck. Would've gotten here sooner."
The little color in Elena's face had drained. If Fudge knew, she was a dead girl walking. "PROSTU DRAWLUI!!!"