"YOU'RE MAD!" Charlie shouted over the roars of the Peruvian Vipertooth, that was currently trying to barbecue them alive.
"I just want to get some of its venom!" Atria shouted back, ducking behind a tree.
"Ginny already wants to eat me alive because I let you out of the lab and now, not only do you want to see them in person, but you want to go up to one?" He hissed, throwing up a shield charm.
"Exactly!" Atria grinned and Charlie huffed.
"I don't let my experienced interns do that, much less a seventeen year old girl." Atria ducked and rolled to avoid the dragon's angry fire.
"Yea, but that's why you let me out of the lab. Because I'm so much better than your other interns." She said arrogantly and Charlie couldn't argue. So he had agreed to let her out into field, thinking she's stay behind the barriers and not actually have contact with the dragons.
But nooo, of course not. She didn't even last a day before she went out right into the thick of it. Amazingly, she had managed not to be killed. And so here they were, one month in and once again, Atria wanted to take it one step further.
"You're too smug for your own good." Charlie rubbed his temple.
"Look, we're trying to get the little girl back into her cage. I'll just get some venom while you're distracting it." Atria shrugged. No big deal. Charlie palmed his face and tried to stun the dragon.
"If you get bitten…"
"If I get bitten by a dragon, forget the venom, I'll be more worried about blood loss and losing a limb." Atria smirked and looked at the scaly beast that was sniffing them out. "Can you stun her?"
"Only if I had a giant wand." Charlie rolled his eyes. "Or ten other wands."
"Where are all your other workers?" Atria whispered.
"This was a distress call and you were the only one with me."
"Lucky me." And she actually said that without sarcasm.
"Alright, try to get under it while I stupefy it." Atria nodded and crouched low. "And try not to die." Charlie snapped quietly. Atria rolled her eyes, remembering that release form she had been forced to sign saying that the Ministry of Magic was in no way responsible for injury or death, and confirming she was of age. This was why.
Yet she could contain her excitement as she went round the dragon, hearing it's tail whip through some trees. Seconds later, two trees fell down and she had to hold in her gasp. Thank Merlin, it was summer and there wasn't snow on the ground, otherwise this would be really hard.
When she heard Charlie yell, "Stupefy!" She ran out from the tree and lept onto the dragon's tail.
"Oh shit!" She gasped when the Vipertooth started to swing its tail. She pushed down the puke threatening to come up and tried to wiggle her way up to its body. The Vipertooth got more frantic with its movements and she gripped the backbones and spikes hard so she wouldn't be thrown into a tree.
Charlie yelled some more charms, a for a second the dragon seemed stunned. She took the small opportunity to climb up to it's head. That seemed to wake the dragon up and it let out a breath of fire and Atria pulled her arm away from where she had been trying to stick the needle to extract its venom.
She let out a small cry and clutched her arm, where there were now excruciatingly painful burns. "Damnit." Her grip on the syringe tightened and she hoped it wouldn't break under the pressure. The dragon took a few deep breaths and Charlie stunned it again.
Atria jabbed the needle into the dragon's gums, right about a tooth and pulled the handle back, taking its venom. The dragon roared and clamped down. She yanked her hand back and fell to the ground in a loud thud.
Her entire body hurt, but she rolled over to avoid the Vipertooth eating her. A pain struck her arm and she glanced down. There was a small bite on her forearm, the one without the Dark Mark, surrounded by burned flesh.
When did that happen? She wondered. Just now or when the little angel tossed me off her head?
Either way it was bad.
"Atria!" Charlie skidded to her side and kneeled down next to her. "What happened?" He breathed heavily.
"Where's Marissa?" She choked, clutching her arm.
"Who?" Charlie grabbed her arm.
"The Vipertooth." She clarified.
"You mean the one who just burned and poisoned you?" Charlie pointed his wand at the wound.
"Yea. Think she'd make a good pet?" Atria joked and then hissed, trying to jerk her arm away.
"She flew away. Stay still." He gripped her arm tighter. "I thought I told you to be careful."
"Technically, you told me not to die." She tried to laugh but it ended up sounding pained and choked. He gave her a rye look. Black invaded the edges of her vision. "I think I'm going to pass out."
"We need to get you to a hospital." His voice sounded far away and her arm no longer hurt.
"It doesn't hurt." She whispered.
"Try to stay awake."
She fainted.
Rose was waiting outside Amanda's bedroom door, waiting anxiously to go in. She had woken up two weeks ago but wasn't strong enough to go home until two days ago. Yesterday, Mr. Malfoy finally gave her parents the okay to take her home.
Rose looked around and smiled when she saw a picture of Amanda, probably only eight or nine years old, flying around the garden. Rose pushed her hair behind her ear.
"You can go in now." Amanda's mum, Violent, said.
"Oh, thank you." Rose ducked into the room and found Amanda sitting on her bed.
"Rose, how're you?" Amanda got up and hugged her. Rose gingerly hugged her back. "Stop treating me like I'm going to break," Amanda admonished, "I'm just lucky this didn't happen during Quidditch season."
"Honestly, I think your life is more important than Quidditch." Rose chastised. "Scorpius couldn't have held that against you."
"Maybe not, but he wouldn't have been happy. Although, with Atria on our team, I'm not sure it matters." Amanda rolled her eyes and sat back down on her peach colored bed set. Rose took the time to inspect her room and noted that it was normal. There were pictures on the walls and a jacket draped over her desk chair.
"I owled Attie to tell her you were out of the Hospital." Rose told Amanda.
"Scorpius told me the same thing." Amanda gave Rose a knowing look. "When was the last time you spoke to him or saw him?"
"I owled him two weeks ago when you woke up." Rose said defensively.
"You haven't seen him?" Amanda's mouth opened widely.
"There hasn't been a lot of time."
"It's summer." Amanda laughed.
"And we both have internships…"
"At the Ministry. Don't you see him there?" Amanda pressed on.
Rose shook her head. "No, I'm in the Department of International Cooperation and he's with my dad in the Auror office."
"Yea, you're like a whole… five floors away from each other." Amanda said sarcastically. Rose didn't reply. "Where's Al been? I haven't seen him in a week."
"He's been busy working at the joke shop."
"And James?" Amanda asked quietly.
"He's been at Quidditch practice."
"I was surprised when he chose to be a reserve for the Harpies instead of being at starter for Puddlemere." Amanda bit her lip, thinking about how much fun he must be having.
Rose looked surprised. "So you have spoke with him?"
"He owls me practically every other day to see how I'm doing. But he hadn't been to visit in a little while." Amanda looked out the window sullenly. Rose's eyes widened with realization and she forced herself to swallow the questions popping up.
"He has a practice match coming up. Maybe we could go see." Rose suggested.
"I thought they had closed practices?"
"James could probably get us in." Rose said slowly. "If you wanted." She added with a casual shrug.
"You can owl him about it." Amanda said noncommittally.
"Yea and maybe he'll know what's going on with Atria." Rose muttered.
Amanda frowned. "What do you mean? You said you owled her?"
Rose sighed. "I owled her two days ago and I still haven't heard anything." Rose looked at her hands folded in her lap. She was worried but didn't want to show it.
"Romania is a long ways away." Amanda didn't look too concerned. "Besides, she can handle herself."
Rose wasn't listening though. "What were they thinking? She's a seventeen year old who hasn't even graduated from school. And they want her to fight dragons!" Rose huffed.
"She's not fighting dragons she's studying them. And not even in person. She was working in a lab with different ingredients to see how potions react when you add certain parts of a dragon to it." Amanda said, leaning back against her pillow.
Rose shot her a worried look. "Am I tiring you out? You should rest."
"Rose I'm fine. Thanks to Atria." Amanda assured her. "Let's write a letter to James." She suggested and Rose ducked her head to hide a smile. "Get a piece of parchment from my desk." She motioned to the stack of paper on her simple wooden desk. Rose got up and grabbed a piece of paper and … a pen, and returned to the bed.
"Wait, get a book to write on." Amanda said pointing to a large book on her shelf. Rose grabbed it and sat down cross legged.
Dear James,
Amanda and I are thinking about…
"Wait, you can't just start of saying Amanda wants to go to your practice game. You have to do a little small talk first." Amanda hissed, as Rose wrote.
"Fine." Rose whipped out her wand and flicked it at the paper. The words disappeared.
Dear James,
I hope Quidditch practice is going well. I'm at Amanda's house right now - she just got out of St. Mungo's. We were thinking it would be nice to visit you some time. I know you're busy, so Amanda and I were thinking we could come to the practice game against the Finches. Is there a way you could get us in? We can floo to a place in Wales and get to the stadium on our own. We hope to see you soon!
Love,
Amanda and Rose
P.S. Have you heard from Atria in the last few days? I sent her a letter and haven't heard. I know I'm probably being silly, and I know she's busy, but she's usually pretty up on her letters. And she's been so worried about Amanda. Let me know! Miss you, Jamie.
"Was it necessary to write 'love Amanda and Rose'?" Amanda scrunched up her nose as she read the letter.
"That's how I always sign when I talk to family." Rose frowned and took the note back. "Is your owl here?" Rose asked.
"Yea. Barnaby!" Amanda called out. An owl flew up to the window, squawking and flapping, pecking at the window. "Hold your hippogriffs." Amanda mumbled as she went over to the window, rolling up the letter as she went. "Take this to James Potter." She put the note in the owl's claw. The owl flew away.
Later that night, after Rose was long gone, Amanda heard a tapping on her window. She put her book down and opened the window for her owl. She took the note and yawned as she went back over to her bed. She glanced at the clock on her wall over the door. Eleven thirty nine. Was it that late already? Rose had left after lunch and Amanda had been reading ever since.
She unrolled the note.
Dear Amanda,
I know this must be your owl since it's not Rose's and Rose has probably left by now. And I know you're at your house because obviously you shouldn't be traveling so soon. Although I hope you're feeling better. I was so worried when you wouldn't wake up… and I'm rambling.
Amanda grinned and bit her thumb nail.
Anyways, I would love to have you come to the game. You and Rose, that is. You both should come. The team manager says it's no problem as long as you don't take any photographs. Are you sure you're well enough to travel, though? You only just got out of the hospital and I don't want to stress you out. Tell Rose that I haven't heard from Attie in a week. She's probably alright through. You know how she is, nothing could hurt my girl!
Love,
James
P.S. Expect the tickets to come in a few days.
Her smile dimmed at the 'my girl' part. But that was just how James was with Atria. No matter how many girls he hooked up with, she was always his endgame. Amanda sighed tossing the letter on the floor and slumped into her bed. She put her book on the nightstand, no longer in the mood to read a romance. After flicking the lamp off, she tried to fall asleep, but what James said was bothering her.
He hadn't heard from Atria is a few days either. She got up and decided to write to Scorpius.
Scorpius,
Have you heard from Atria recently? Rose is worried and James said he hasn't spoken with her in a week. She didn't respond to Rose, but maybe she's just busy studying dragons and whatnot.
Amanda
Post Script, Check in with Al as well. I doubt he's heard from her, but you never know with Atria. She might have sent him hate mail or something.
Amanda grinned at that. Rose had filled her in on everything that had happened while she was in a coma. Apparently Al and Attie hadn't spoken to each other, no even snarky comments, before Atria had left for Romania. They just avoided eye contact and ignored each other.
She took the letter to the window and gave it to Barnaby. "Scorpius Malfoy." She whispered and smoothed the owl's feathers. Then it flew away and she tried to get some sleep.
Then next morning she woke up to a tapping on her window. Amanda groaned and rolled onto her stomach, burying her face in the pillow. The tapping just got louder and louder.
"Alright, Alright." She muttered and got a little light headed when she stood up quickly. She blinked at the sudden light that met her eyes when she went to the window. There was a letter there sealed with wax. She looked at the engraving in the wax, no doubt done by a ring. Stupid Scorpius Malfoy.
She glanced at the clock… eight o'clock in the morning during the bloody summer. Amanda glared at his expensive owl, who glared back, and then flew away.
She peeled open the letter.
Dear Amanda,
I'm doing fine thanks (sarcasm). I just owled Atria, so we'll see if she gets back to me soon. Albus hasn't heard from her either - he was here yesterday. I'm coming to see you today.
Scorpius
Amanda blinked. He was going to come here today? Did he even know where she lived? Usually they all hung out at Scorpius's house or the Potter's. It made her feel a bit self' conscious of where she lived. All her friends lived in manor's and were rich, and her house wasn't small, but it only had three bedrooms, not ten, and two bathrooms, not seven. And she only had one living room.
Amanda sighed. Too late now. She laid back down on her bed and yawned. She shut her eyes for a minute.
"Amanda, you're friend is here." Her mother called from the hallway. She sat up and snapped her eyes open. She looked frantically at the clock. Holy hippogriffs, she had slept for another two hours.
"I'll be right there." Amanda called and jumped out of bed, kicking the sheets that got dangled around her, to the floor. She threw open her closet door, grabbed a bra and the first shirt she could find, and threw on jean shorts.
"Don't rush yourself." Her mum hollered and Amanda rolled her eyes. She looked at the little scar on her arm. She couldn't remember how it happened or who did it to her. She only remembered waking up and being told she had missed the past two weeks of her life.
"I'm fine. Just send him up." Amanda yelled back, pulling the jean shorts up her thighs. A minute later, Scorpius knocked on the door. "Come in." She said, picking her sheets up off the floor. She had only been home one day and she had already wrecked the place.
The mop of blonde hair came in first and looked around. He stepped all the way in.
"I like your room." He smiled and sat in her desk.
"You smallest guest room is bigger." Amanda jumped on her bed.
"Should be so… active?" Scorpius gave her a worried look. Amanda sighed.
"Honestly, you and Rose are going to drive me up a wall."
"Yea, well I'm nothing like Rose." Scorpius crossed his arms.
Amand gave him a knowing look. "Yes, absolutely. Nothing at all like Rose." She said deadpanned.
"Albus is coming in a few minutes."
"What?" Amanda shrieked. "I didn't invite Albus!"
"No, I did. He wanted to see you." Scorpius shrugged, flicking an jewerly holder shaped like a tree. "And he said he hasn't heard from Atria. Not that he's written her."
"Great," She muttered.
He looked a little hurt. "What's so bad about having us here?"
"I'm sure it's not what you're used to." She picked up James's letter that she had thrown on the floor the night before.
"When I'm at Hogwarts I share a room with nine other boys who snore and fart in their sleep. Trust this is nicer than that." He chuckled and ran a hand through his hair.
"When did your hair get so long?"
"Yea, I need to get it cut." He rubbed a hand over the back, which he usually kept shorter. His bangs with now in his eyes instead of neatly trimmed above his eyebrows. "Mum's been fussing about it but I keep putting it off." He shrugged. Amanda looked at the ends of her hair that she hadn't cut in months. She had been going to get it cut at the beginning of summer but…
The strands now fell over her chest and it was too hot for that. This was when she envied Atria for being able to change her hair at any time.
"Rose and I are going to James's scrimmage on Monday." Amanda told Scorpius. "Against the Finches."
"That should be fun." Scorpius nodded and looked at his watch. "Where is Albus?" He mumbled.
A few minutes later an owl pecked at the window. She recognized Lily's owl - a gorgeous snow white bird, named Monosys. She went over to the window, took the paper, and the bird flew away.
"If I get any more letters, this place is going to turn into an owlery." Amanda frowned as she opened the note.
She read it aloud:
"Amanda,
Scorpius is probably there by now. Mum got a letter this morning from Uncle Charlie and apparently Atria had a little incident with a dragon. That's why she hasn't been responding to your letters. By the time you get this, Mum and I will probably be in Romania at the camp. I'll owl you again once I get there, but I'm not sure when that will be. Not sure how long we'll be here, but Mum's furious because Atria wasn't supposed to be in the field. A howler is preceding our arrival.
I didn't have time to send a letter to anyone else, so if you could inform everyone else that would be great. Dad's probably going to wonder where Mum I went. Lily was out so I just borrowed her owl, because Lakness is out delivering other letters. It's about 9:00 now.
Albus"
"What?" Scorpius looked like he had been struck with a stick. "What kind of accident?"
"He didn't say." Amanda looked over the not again. "Bloody hell. Alright you write a note to Rose and I'll write a note to James-"
"Someone should write to Mr. Potter." Scorpius said.
"Yea, right. Okay, I'll do that, you owl Rose and then I'll owl James." She wrote a quick letter to Mr. Potter.
Atria had a accident, so your wife and Al are in Romania. They'll owl when they can.
Sincerely,
Amanda Smith and Scorpius Malfoy
Dear James,
Atria had an accident, I don't have the details, but Al and your Mum are in Romania right now. Al sent an owl, he was supposed to come over today, but for obvious reasons he couldn't. Anyways, if you don't want us to come to your game I'll understand. Let me know if you go to Romania.
Amanda
She ditched the 'love' part at the end of the note. It wasn't like he needed it anyways.
"Give me yours. I'll have Barnaby send them all." Amanda said to Scorpius and she gave all three letters to her owl, who gave her a dirty look. "I know, sorry. Harry Potter, James Potter, and Rose Weasley." The flew away with a dramatic flapping, as the though letters were too heavy.
"What now?" Scorpius asked.
"What do you mean?"
Scorpius shrugged. "I feel crappy just sitting here and waiting."
"Yea, well I think my mum would draw the line at me flying off to Romania. She's already freaking out about me going to James's game." Amanda mumbled. Honestly, she had spent four weeks in the hospital, two of which were spent regaining her strength. She felt fine and no one seemed to understand that.
"Of course, you can't go, but maybe Rose and I could." Scorpius bit his lip.
"You have your internships. That's probably why Al went in the first place. I doubt he would have gone, if he thought one of us could have gone instead." Amanda said and she felt crappy. Atria had saved her life and now when she was in the same position, Amanda couldn't do squat. "I want to know exactly what happened." Amanda snapped and Scorpius jerked his head back, surprised at her hostility.
"Albus will owl us." He assured her.
"Great. Albus is our only hope." She said deadpanned.
"WHAT HAPPENED?!" His mother shouted at his uncle. Albus looked at Uncle Charlie struggle for words and shook his head. He looked at Atria lying on the hospital bed, her arm wrapped in gauze and a nurse fussing over her.
She was still in her work cloths which consisted of a leather jacket and leather pants. Her other arm was wrapped in more leather, probably for fire protection. She was working with dragons after all. In fact her outfit might have been made out of a dragon's hide.
"It's complicated. It's involved and complex…" Uncle Charlie rabbled.
"Charlie." His mum cut him off harshly.
Charlie hung his head. "She wanted to get some of Marissa's venom." He mumbled and Al shook his head.
"Marissa?"
"The Vipertooth dragon." His uncles lips barely moved. "That's what Attie named her."
His mum scoffed. "Was this before or after she got poisoned and most of her skin burned off?"
"After."
The temperature in the room dropped from the look his mum shot Charlie.
"Will she be okay?" Al interrupted. Atria didn't look half as bad as Amanda had when she was lying in St. Mungo's.
"Oh, yes. The burns were easy to fix. We had to dig up to antivenom and mix it with some other stuff to heal the bite though." Charlie said, sounding rather upbeat.
"Why was she out in the field in the first place?" Ginny hissed.
Charlie stutter, "Well, she wanted to work in the field so we told her she had to pass the test. We didn't think she would-"
"You should never have underestimated her." Albus shook his head. Even he knew better than that. If Atria wanted something, she got it.
"Yes, well, she's a seventeen year old and if she has the skill why shouldn't she work in the field?" Charlie argued.
"Exactly!" His mum shouted. "She's only seventeen, not even out of Hogwarts-"
Charlie cut her off, "And she has more skill than all of our interns combined." Albus rolled his eyes. His mum had heard this all before, as had he, Atria was just so far advanced. He studied her form, unconscious on the little cot.
The first thing he noticed was that her hair was black, her natural color, and that was more of a shock than anything. She didn't look like herself. Her cheeks were high and hollow, but not from lack of food, and her nose was aristocratic. She looked more like Scorpius than she usually did, with her angular face, that was paler than normal.
He touched the braid that fell over her shoulder. Her hair was longer than he remembered, or maybe that was just the change in color, and he couldn't get over how black it was. Albus wondered what color her eyes were. She normally had them be blue or if she was angry, black, but he wasn't sure what color they actually were.
"I know she's gifted, but she's too young to die." His mum whispered.
"She's also too stubborn. She rode a dragon-"
"What?" His mum screeched and Uncle Charlie looked like he regretted letting that detail slip.
"It was not my idea." He held up his hands. "She really wanted some of it's venom."
"When will she wake up?" Albus asked.
"The healers say any time now. She's been out for about thirty-six hours. They say her body's just recovering now."
"She's lucky she didn't lose a limb." Ginny muttered and then leaned over the bed kissing Atria's forehead. "Albus, darling, I have to go check us into the hotel or whatever it is, can you stay here? You should probably write to your father."
"Yea, I wrote a quick note to Amanda cause I was supposed to go over today and asked her to send out letters as well." Albus told his mum as he pulled over a chair.
"Oh, good. Just… let everyone know where we are." Ginny shouldered her purse, shot her brother one last glare, and then left the sick room. Albus slumped down into the chair and folded his arms.
"She rode a dragon?"
Charlie nodded. "Like one of those muggles riding a bull." Albus laughed at the image.
Then he sobered. "She's really going to be okay?"
"Yea, I mean, no more dragon riding, but in a few days she'll be as good as new." Charlie said, but he didn't look entirely convinced. "Still, probably should keep her in the office for a couple of weeks, until things settle down."
Albus gasped and jumped up. "You're not letting her in the field again!" Charlie sighed and shook his head.
"Why does nobody understand that this is who she is? She's of age and no offence to my sister, but your mother is not her mother. Atria is not part of your family and therefore you really can't tell her what to do." Charlie sounded more convinced of this than he was of anything else. "She knew what she was getting into and she wanted it. Not everyone is meant to have a quill and parchment job. Some of us like life on the edge."
Albus growled, "There's a difference between living life on the edge and riding a dragon!"
Charlie chuckled. "Why don't you tell that to your father? Because when he was Atria's age he was doing things much worse than studying dragons." He shook his head and Albus didn't know what to say for a few moments.
"That was a different time." Al argued.
"Was it? Look at what's happened in the last few years. Death Eater, the hunting of muggles and muggleborns, some crazy person wanting to rule the world."
"My father fought with a purpose, not just to be reckless."
"Do you know how poisonous a Vipertooth can be? Atria got lucky, but she also got us a sample of one of the most dangerous substances in the world. We can study this and maybe find a cure better than what we have." Uncle Charlie shook his head. "Just because what we're doing isn't splashed on the front page, doesn't mean it's not important."
"You're okay with her risking her life?" Albus snapped, turning away from his uncle to look down on Atria.
"No. What she did was reckless? But that's not the job, that's Atria. Even if she were working in some Ministry office pushing paper, she would find danger. I've seen her fly, she takes risks that no other Quidditch player would. And that's why she's so good." Charlie took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"So what do I do?" Albus sounded defeated.
"What do you mean? There's nothing you can do, except support her, and make her understand that you want to her to be happy, but also safe." That sounded suspiciously life dating advice and Albus started to shake his head.
"We're not-"
"And yet here you are. Instead of James or another one of her friends. I know about how you've felt in the past, but clearly something's changed." Uncle Charlie held up his hands as if he expected to be hexed.
Albus sat back down and rubbed his sweaty palms on his pants. "I don't know what changed."
"Me neither. But something did and you better get on board with it before you do something stupid."
Hi again! I know these chapters are being posted close togeher but I already have them all written. So I hope you enjoy the lastest chapter. - Alex