CHAPTER TWENTY: Dragon Tales
It wasn't what she had expected at all.
For one thing, he went too far, too fast. Ellie didn't scare easily, and she was mature for her age, but there was still only so much she could handle, and having a fifth year boy stick his tongue down his throat within two seconds of kissing her felt… well… like too much.
"Sorry," he said when she pulled away. He looked guilty. "It was too fast, I know. I'm sorry."
"No—it wasn't that."
"No?"
"Well…" She bit her lip. "I mean, it was that. But not just that. Look, I know I said you could kiss me, but I was… I'm all mixed up, Ollie. I'm confused."
"You like me," he said with a small, hopeful smile. "That's why you're confused."
"I do," she admitted. "But I'm too young, and we both know it. And that's also why I'm confused."
He seemed to understand. "It won't always seem like such a big age difference, you know," he said. "In a few years…"
"In a few years, you'll be gone," she pointed out. But, seeing his hurt expression, she added quickly, "But… yeah. You might be right."
"So, then…" He stuck out an awkward hand toward her. "Until then… friends?"
She grinned back at him as she accepted his handshake. "Friends."
"It's your own fault, you know," said George shortly after the incident. She had come straight to their room, where she found them listening through the walls with various self-made eavesdropping gadgets. Lee was already asleep, and their other roommate, Kenneth, wasn't yet back.
"My fault, how?" she demanded, pouting. She had told him multiple times that she was too young for him, hadn't she?
"What my not-so-feminist twin means to say," Fred explained to her, "is that you may have given him some mixed signals by constantly flirting with him this year, then with going up to his room with him tonight and telling him to kiss you."
Ellie groaned. "I hardly constantly flirted with him."
"For the record," Fred added, "I disagree with my other half. No matter what you did or didn't do, the guy's a creep for going after a twelve-year-old girl."
That, of course, only made Ellie feel worse. "I hate being young," she grumbled. "Can we talk about something else?"
"Like?" prompted George.
"Like…" She considered her options, then grinned when she remembered a very key piece of intel she had to share with them. "Hagrid's got a baby dragon."
"What?" they demanded at the same time, jumping to their feet.
"I didn't see it myself," she admitted, "though I really want to. Harry and the trio told me."
"Blimey, El," said Fred, shaking his head. "That's amazing. I'd like to see it, too. Illegal as all hell, though. We told you our brother Charlie works with them?"
She nodded. "Reckon you and Ron should chat—maybe reach out to him for advice. I'm guessing Hagrid can't keep a fire-breathing dragon in a wooden hut for long."
It took a few days for the rumors about Ellie and Oliver to die down, especially after half of Gryffindor saw her going upstairs with him, but eventually they did. March was drawing to a close, and with it came everyone's constant attempts to convince Hagrid to get rid of the dragon.
Ellie went to see him, of course, with the twins. He was damn cute, and she fully understood Hagrid's reluctance to let him go. But he was also very dangerous, and only growing more so by the day.
The next week, the twins and Ron joined forces with the rest to come up with a letter to send to Charlie. He responded quickly, writing that he had some friends traveling through by broomstick, and that they could pick up Norbert if he could be brought to them in time. The date was set for three days' time, and Ron and Hermione got to work convincing Hagrid to let Norbert go while Ellie, Harry, and the twins focused on the upcoming, and final, Quidditch match.
She spent all her breaks between classes practicing both transforming and her shield magic with the twins.
"I think we should become Animagi for real," said Fred in the common room the night they were due to set out to meet Charlie's friends with Norbert. Harry, Ron, and Hermione hadn't come downstairs yet. "Think about how much easier it would make little missions like this."
"I don't know," said George, frowning. "It's not just 'against the rules;' it's highly illegal, not to mention extremely dangerous. And it'll take ages."
"I agree with George," said Ellie. "Not worth the risk. Besides, wouldn't it be sort of obvious if three random animals constantly wandered about the castle?"
Fred granted her a laugh at that, but he didn't look convinced. "I'm still going to do some research, at least. Think how much fun it would be."
But she didn't get the chance to warn him further before Harry, Ron, and Hermione came over to them.
"As a reminder," Harry said as he gestured beneath his regular cloak to his invisbility one, "we can't all fit under here."
"It's cool," Fred assured him. "You three take the cloak. El will transform, and Georgie and I have our own means of defense."
"Right," said Harry, nodding. "We'll make for Hagrid's hut, then up to the Astronomy Tower from there with Norbert."
"Out the window, though," said Hermione, gesturing to the window at the end of the common room. "We learned our lesson about the Fat Lady before."
They all nodded and, confirming that no one else was in the common room with them, climbed up and out the common room window and down the side of the Tower. Once they hit land, Ellie transformed and Harry, Ron, and Hermione pulled on the cloak. Ellie hung back with the twins, who were using the map as their own means of invisibility.
"Coast is clear, Fido," George whispered to Ellie, who nipped playfully at his fingers before prancing ahead.
It didn't take them long to reach Hagrid's. He was full of tears and begged them not to take Norbert, but ultimately agreed. Norbert was caged, thankfully, and not making too much noise. Fred and George reluctantly agreed to take the dragon cage since it wasn't an easy fit with all three of the others plus a cage under the cloak.
About halfway to the Astronomy Tower, Fred stiffened to point out something on the map. "Looks like McGonagall and… Malfoy," he read, raising his eyebrows. He glanced at Ellie and said, "We'd better all hide—she knows your dog form, El."
Ellie, Fred, and George took refuge in a shadowy corner of the hall while Harry, Ron, and Hermione presumably flattened themselves against a wall.
Sure enough, Malfoy and McGonagall passed a few minutes later, McGonagall grumbling about students being out after hours and detentions while Malfoy tried to claim he had been following Harry Potter.
Once McGonagall and Malfoy were gone, they made it to the Astronomy Tower safely, and only had to wait a few minutes before Charlie's friends showed up on their broomsticks, directly on schedule. They had designed a rather impressive contraption between their brooms to carry Norbert's crate.
"I actually hate to say goodbye to the little fella," said George with a surprising amount of emotion in his voice. "Starting to understand the appeal of Char's job."
"Me, too," said Fred, leaning down toward the dragon's crate as they hoisted it onto the broomsticks. But one long breath of fire from the dragon was enough for him to straighten and say, "On the other hand, perhaps a job that wouldn't fry off the first few layers of my skin would be better."
Ellie rolled her eyes at Fred as they waved goodbye to Norbert and Charlie's friends. George pulled back out the map and immediately stiffened.
"It's Filch," he said. "Looks like he's coming straight at us. D'you reckon Malfoy tipped him off? How would he even know where we're going?"
"Read our mail, I'd wager," muttered Harry through clenched teeth. He started to reach for the invisibility cloak, but he was too late. Realizing the door was about to open, he stuffed it safely into a nook in the wall and accepted his fate.
Ellie was still in her human form from the Norbert send-off; she didn't want to risk McGonagall or Dumbledore's trust by revealing that she was using her dog form to her advantage.
"My, my," said Filch when he saw them. "Eight students out of bed tonight, eight detentions…"
"Eight?" asked Ellie, trying to do the math in our head. "But who…?"
"Harry!" exclaimed a voice from behind them as Neville Longbottom appeared, being dragged along by a very pinch-nosed McGonagall. "I tried to warn you—heard that Malfoy had intercepted your letter and—"
"Shut up!" they all barked at Neville before he said something he shouldn't.
"You should all be ashamed of yourselves," McGonagall said, shaking her head. "Fifty points from Gryffindor—and you're lucky it's not fifty each. And as Mr. Filch has said, we will see the lot of you this Saturday in detention."
Well, Ellie was probably right to end things with Oliver before they got going... or do you disagree? Something tells me it wasn't her last chance with him... We'll see what changes Ellie brings to the famous Forbidden Forest scene in the next chapter, so make sure not to miss it, and please review to show your support!
