Chapter 4 - Fire Hazard

The headmaster's office had not changed at all it seemed, except for the addition of pictures of the most recent headmasters. Harry, Ron, Charlie, Kevin, and Headmistress McGonagall had just arrived here after leaving the Great Hall. Minerva stepped behind her desk and faced the four of them without sitting down. She flicked her wand and a folder flew into her hands. She opened it, and examined it for a moment before speaking.

"'Transformed into a hybrid of human and dragon'. How is this possible? Some form of dark magic?" She did not look up from the file.

"It's what the American Ministry believes." Charlie said.

"Don't Muggles perform similar operations? Switching out organs I mean" Kevin said. Charlie shook his head.

"What you're talking about would leave scars on his skin and he has none"

"You've checked have you?"Ron asked

"He had an examination at St. Mungo's that I took apart in since I was the only one there who knew anything about dragon anatomy" Charlie explained.

"How many people know about him?" Harry asked.

"Soon the whole county will." Kevin said," The Ministry has tried to keep the story from getting out but now that he's here there are no guarantees"

"He'll make headlines for sure" Ron said.

"We'll be doing our best here to keep him safe" Minerva said and looked toward Charlie, "A room has been prepared for you in the teacher's quarters"

"What about us?" Harry asked.

"Well what about you, Mr. Potter?" Minerva answered.

"We were assigned to protect the boy"

"We were actually assigned to get him here and await further orders – which I suspect will arrive by owl at some point" Kevin explained.

"I suggest you all go rest in Hogesmeade tonight" Minerva told them.

"We'll be back tomorrow then" Harry said. They all said their goodbyes and the men made their way out of the office. Harry glanced up at his son's namesakes before leaving.

Albus was sitting in the Great Hall by himself with a book and scroll in front of him. Glancing between the two he would sometimes scratch something down in ink. Classes were over for the day and Albus was one of the few in the Great Hall. Aggravated he closed the book shut and buried his face in his palms.

"What's the matter?" Albus heard a voice and lifted his head. Rose was now sitting across from him. He waved without speaking and re-opened his book.

"Is that for Potions? I don't think it's fair that Professor Dalren, would make you write a scroll on Boil-Cure Potion just for not getting it your first day of class"

"Everyone else didn't mess it up as bad as I did" Albus admitted never looking up at Rose.

"Well if you need some help, just ask" Rose said, "Where's Alex?"

Albus looked up at her, "He told me he had to talk with Uncle Charlie, but that was nearly an hour ago."

"Have you seen our dads around? I heard some older kids talking about Aurors around the school today."

"No I haven't seen them" Albus turned his attention back to his books, "Where did you go after classes anyway?"

"Library, wanted to look up something"

Albus looked at her in shock "I don't think I'll ever understand how you find reading fun"

"Apparently my mum was the same way" Rose said with a small smirk, "What do you think of our professors anyway?"

"Well I don't like Dalren very much" Albus admitted.

Rose laughed, "Well of course but what about Professor Odette? I like her, she's really nice." Albus agreed. Their Transfiguration professor was an Animagus who turned from a swan into her actual form in the beginning of class.

"Oh and what about Professor Sulo? It was brilliant when he set himself on fire" Albus laughed remembering the class' (and his own) shock and awe.

"Oh look there's Alex" Rose said gesturing towards the front of the Great Hall. She waved him over to them. He sat next to Albus with a miserable and tired look on his face.

"Are you alright?" Rose asked.

"Yeah," Alex nodded and rubbed his eye, "Just hungry. When do we get fed?"

"Shouldn't be too long now" Albus told him.

"What were you doing with Uncle Charlie?" Rose blurted.

"Oh…just dragon stuff…" Alex seemed uncomfortable.

"So those are dragon scales? From what I've researched they seem to be from a Chinese Fireball"

"Rose!" Albus said with a stern tone.

"Oh! I'm sorry" Rose said, "I just got curious is all"

"It's ok…" Alex said, avoiding looking at Rose, "They are from a Chinese Fireball"

"Umm…how did you get them?"

"Rose!" Albus said again.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to" Rose said sounding innocent. Alex hesitated and both Albus and Rose waited expectantly.

"Charlie said I shouldn't tell anyone"

"That's probably for the best" Albus said glaring at Rose, as if to say 'Drop it already'.

"I have to go check if there's an owl for me. See you guys at dinner" Alex waved and left in quite a rush.

"I can't help it. I just have to know how that happened to him" Rose said.

"It's not really any of our business Rose" Albus told her.

"Alright, alright…"

They heard yelling coming from outside the Great Hall. It sounded like a child, so it wasn't a professor yelling at a student. It also sounded violent.

"You don't think…?" Rose looked at Albus who was thinking the same thing. They both went to go check out the noise. Outside was a crowd of students, all turned to watch the center of the screaming.

"I said leave me alone!"

"Come on, I just asked you a question"

"Yeah, it's a real simple question"

"Shut up!"

Albus weaved his way through the crowd to get to the front. Oddly enough his suspicions were correct. Two older boys from Slytherin were pacing around a red scaled boy from Gryffindor. Alex stood with his head hung; his fists were clenched and he was visible shaking. The Slytherin boys were obviously older, just based on their size, and were intimidating to look at.

"Why don't you do something about it, dragon boy?"

"Careful Sam, maybe he can breath fire" The taller one with short blond hair laughed. Alex stopped shaking and seemed to calm down. Albus stood still, not knowing what to do.

"So is that it? You want to see some fire?" Alex asked, his voice sounded dark and filled with anger, "Fine!" Alex inhaled quickly then suddenly before Albus could blink the taller Slytherin boy was covered in flames. Everyone around started to scream and run away. Albus still stood there, in utter shock of what he'd just seen. Suddenly someone grabbed him and started to pull him away. He turned and saw Rose, her red hair in disarray across her face and – were those tears? As Albus was guided by Rose he turned back to see Alex still standing next to a rolling pack of flaming robes. He thought he saw tears on his face too, although his expression was entirely different from Rose's. Before he was dragged out of sight Albus saw some professors come and extinguish the flames; one of them grabbed Alex and pulled him away.

A/N: Edited and cleaned 26/10/2011. Details on my profile.