Chapter seven
The Thestrals and Luna
The next day, Cynder was still depressed and nothing Spyro did would cheer her up. Spyro knew that she was feeling sorry for the poor soul who had been on the receiving end of the Black Quill, he was too. It was lucky that they weren't asked to help any of the classes that day, because Cynder hadn't moved from her seat in Hagrid's Hut since she had woken up. Sparx was worried too, he was used to having Cynder be cheeky, but never did he ever expect to see her in such a state that she would just stare out of the window with a permanent empathic look on her face.
It was just as Spyro and Sparx thought nothing could cheer Cynder up when they saw the blond girl. She had waist-length, straggly, dirty blonde hair, protuberant silvery eyes, which seemed to be dreamily distracted, and faint eyebrows. She also had an aura of "distinct dottiness" about her, and seemed to have her wand behind her left ear as well as a blue satchel over her shoulder. She was wearing a Ravenclaw uniform, minus the robes and, oddly, shoes. She smiled cheerfully at them as she passed Hagrid's Hut before skipping into the Forbidden Forest! Cynder was up and out the window in a flash, with Spyro and Sparx close behind, they all knew the forest was full of dangerous creatures, and that girl seemed to be completely unaware of this!
The dragons followed the girl through the forest as she meandered between the thick trees, before she stopped in a clearing where the dragons saw, to their surprise, big, bony, horse-shaped figures with faces that bared a slight resemblance to dragons with white, glittering eyes that lacked both expression and pupils. Cynder gasped at this sight,
"Thestrals" she murmured in disbelief, "I've never seen one in real life before" Sparx looked around the clearing and then looked back at Cynder with a puzzled look on his face,
"are you seeing things or something?" he asked, "there's nothing here other than that girl, right Spyro?" but Spyro shook his head,
"no Sparx," he whispered, "there are creatures here, why can't you see them?"
"they can only be seen by those who have witnessed the death of someone close to them" the girl spoke up, revealing that she was aware of their presence the whole time, she gave up trying to entice a baby Thestral over to her and walked over to the dragons, "my name is Luna, nice to properly meet you" she greeted, "most people think I'm mad, but I'm just different to them" she then smiled, "hello Harry Potter" she greeted causing both dragons to turn around to see none other than Harry Potter himself walking up to them, and of all the top conversation starters in the world, he decided to go with,
"your feet, aren't they cold?"
"a bit," Luna confessed, "unfortunately, all my shoes have mysteriously disappeared." She then added, "I suspect Nargles are behind it" Spyro looked at Cynder for elaboration, but she just gave him a puzzled look that clearly told him she had no idea what the girl was on about.
"Wait," Spyro pointed out, "if you can see them too, Luna, then you must have witnessed the death of someone close to you too?"
"My mum," Luna confessed as the group wandered around the clearing, "she was quite an extraordinary witch, but she did like to experiment and one day, one of her spells went badly wrong. I was nine", this made Cynder's heart skip a beat, she knew that she herself had caused a lot of pain to people of all ages, so hearing this, she once again felt sorry for all those people who were victims of her reign as the Terror of the Skies.
"I'm sorry" Harry said kindly,
"Yes, it was rather horrible," Luna agreed as another Thestral calf trotted up to them, "I do feel very sad about it sometimes, but I've got dad."
"I think I know who me and Spyro lost in order for us to see them with Sparx being unable to see them," Cynder announced, remembering the fateful day when the elder dragon, Ignitus, had sacrificed himself to get them both across a belt of fire,
"Me too," Spyro agreed, whilst nuzzling his friend, hoping to make her feel better.
As the group of friends walked out of the forest, Cynder caught a whiff of something that confused her, Dark Magic.
"Freeze!" she shouted, making everyone stop moving whilst she curiously sniffed around before the smell lead her right to Harry's left hand, to be specific, the back of his left hand, where there was a plain and clear scar that showed the words, "I must not tell lies"
"Cynder, what's wrong?" Harry asked as she let out a deep and low growl,
"Who. Did. That?!" she demanded whilst nudging his hand, but Harry refused to tell, stating that it was his battle and no one else's, but Cynder was having none of it, she vowed she would find out who did it, one way or another.