The following day Elwin didn't leave Annick alone until she sat down and wrote everything she could remember from her vacation. He wanted every piece of information about the hybrids down on the parchment, the environment they lived in, what altitude it was, what their behaviour was, how they looked like. It was even worse because nobody came by to save her; they just made up more questions for her to answer.
If some of them didn't decide to show Annick where she lived at the moment, Elwin would probably hold her at that bloody table until midnight. Fortunately Charlie Weasley peered into the room just as she stopped writing. After a simple question if she were done because they were about to leave, she leapt to her feet. Elwin reached out for the parchment.
"So you continue later, Annick, right?" he asked.
She glared at him indignantly.
"Look, Elwin, I wrote enough to make half a book. How about leaving me alone? As if you didn't know hybrids have no special needs as far as their habitat is concerned. Everything you need is there," she pointed at the parchment in his hands. "If you think of some new question I'll answer it when I return, but don't expect me to do nothing but write and talk in between running after a couple of dragons that need taking care of. Just wait until I take you to that Antipodean hybrid."
Elwin's gaze moved dreamily to the picture on the wall.
"A three species hybrid… It'll be such an amazing look."
"Yeah," mumbled Annick, sneaking out of the room before Elwin returned from his dream world.
"You shouldn't have let him take a run. He's like my mother when she's preparing to scold us. You give her time and she won't stop 'till she makes herself hoarse," Charlie grinned.
Outside everyone was ready to go, just waiting for them and Simon, who ran off to get his camera. Apart from the outings where there was a possibility of a fight he carried it around everywhere with him.
"Where're we going?"
"Well, we'll show you the most interesting shops and houses along the way, but we're actually going to the lake. There's one just out of the reservation. Professors Snape and Sprout were there yesterday morning, collecting some plants and water insects. We usually go there when we've nothing else to do and we're too lazy to go track down some dragonet."
"Dragonet," mumbled Annick amusingly.
"Yes, last time we came across one that was just a meter long," said Matt calmly from before her. She looked at him questioningly.
"His mother almost killed us, but we were able to get a good close look. It was a just-hatched Romanian Longhorn. We were fortunate the mother didn't smell us before we saw it."
"Oh," she finally got his meaning. "Longhorn nestling could be rather pretty. I saw a week old Opaleye once," she shivered.
"Opaleyes' pretty."
"Not so the little ones. It seems the cubs have see-through scales until two or three weeks of age, then it turns into the typical pearly colour. It was horrible. You wouldn't want to see the dark shapes that are its intestines or bones. Gross."
Charlie grinned.
"When Elwin finds out, he'll probably send you to find such a cub and describe it in detail,"
"I'll have to kill him before he manages. I don't want to see something like that ever again. Even thestrals are beauties when compared to Opaleye cubs."
"When do you want to go see that Antipodean hybrid?" Alejandro joined the conversation from the front of the group.
"Not sure. As early as possible preferably, I want Elwin off my back. I thought I wouldn't have to write it all if it was a part of vacation. As if. I shouldn't have written anything. He's like a shark smelling the blood. I'll have to shock him good to make him lay off."
"Why do you hate people paying attention to you?" asked Matt casually.
"Attention's dangerous," Annick's eyes widened when she answered without a single thought.
"Paranoid much?" Charlie raised his eyebrows.
Annick was at a loss. She didn't know what to say to correct that. In the end, she just grinned.
"Yeah, maybe. Being close to dragons will teach you I reckon," she shrugged.
She didn't see Matt's guarded look when he heard the unintentional slip of tongue.
"Well it seems you're just another person hating the parchment work, aren't you? There's quite a bit of us here, it drives Elwin crazy," Charlie grinned again.
Annick snickered when she imagined Elwin trying to persuade the ten of them to write something down if they were opposed to it.
They walked down the main road in the settlement, around various shops and houses. The lake surface was barely visible a couple hundred meters ahead. Mostly they walked, looking forward to water, only glancing at the others when talking.
Annick could care less for the water surface, she watched the back-profile of Matt's face. He was walking before her. Charlie glanced at her.
"Poor old man, having to rely on written messages and our words. All twelve of us who met the graphorn the other day don't give a damn about parchment work at all. When we're on boring trips Elwin's about ready to eat all his nails and tear his hair out, we're unwilling to describe it even once. The graphorn outing made him happy, as we weren't against repeating ourselves."
Matt finally turned his head to look at Annick when she stared stubbornly at him for a couple of seconds. She wasn't in the settlement for long, but she was driving him insane already. Every little while he felt the blue-green eyes of the newest staff addition on him. Usually she grinned at him cheerfully when he returned her look. Apparently, she found his ability to be highly entertaining. Now, he just kept staring back at her with a frown, trying to make her look away first. She just grinned at him again.
"Really," said Charlie. "Finding that kind of Antipodean baby could be cool. We should look for some females or eggs."
Annick decided to break her staring contest with Matt in favour of glaring at Charlie. They were almost to the shore.
"Count me out."
"Aww, Annick, it couldn't have been that bad! A cub of one of the prettiest species. It wouldn't kill you once more, would it?"
"It would. You won't have me looking at something like that willingly. Any other kind of dragon or dragonet, but this."
"We should document it, though," remarked Simon, playing with his something on his camera.
His words earned him amused look from Matt.
"It's so obvious you're not from our field party, Simon. You're always about 'documenting' something, most of the time meaning to take a photo. What are you doing with all the pictures?"
"I keep the best. It's not like I'm running out of film or anything and this one's really good. If I move this lever and hold the trigger longer, the picture'll show everything that happened in that time."
"Hmm, is it something like the Muggle camera on parchment then?" asked Annick, glancing at the device.
"Exactly!" Simon was positively gleaming. "I bought it the minute it was released to the market. Normal pictures show just a moment in time, at the time of their shooting, sometimes interspersed with stronger feelings the objects feel. If the person runs but really wants to lie down, picture shows it running and lying in turns. That's quite a good function, too," he admitted thoughtfully. "But sometimes this function is just what the situation calls for."
"Does it have the original function too or is it just the magical counterpart of the Muggle thing?"
"No, the camera thing works just when the lever's here. If the lever's in its normal place, it works like any other magical camera," explained Simon happily.
"Oh. That's a brilliant thing then," Annick smiled a little.
She knew exactly what she'd do with a function like that. She chanced a quick glance at Matt, but averted her eyes quickly. She wanted him to remain nice and unsuspecting.
Arriving to the lake, everybody ran off in different directions, whether for work, play or rest. Matt walked over to the near lake curve, which was occupied by a colony of rainbow froglets.
Annick's eyes sparkled. That man could choose a perfect setting for her plan, that was for sure.
"Hey, Simon, how about testing your new function?" she asked Simon quietly. He was standing right next to her, looking around for possible shots.
"Great, what?" he turned to her immediately.
"I'll change into a dragon. Hold the trigger then and release it whenever you want. I'll be over there, near Matt," she tilted her head in his direction. Simon grinned.
"Cool! I'll see a hybrid! Everybody was completely crazy about you when they returned that day."
Annick ran quietly further from the lake so that she could close in on Matt without him noticing. She stopped about six meters away from him and looked over at Simon. He had the camera ready.
Matt was sitting on his heels at the shore and watched the froglets intently. He used to do so every time he was at the lake, their social behaviour was interesting to say the least. He stood up and moved a little bit further, in order to get a better look at a squad of violet tree-frogs. They seemed to be spying on the rainbow froglets.
Annick transformed and turned her head lazily toward Matt. She stared at him so often; he was bound to expect a human when he returned her look.
After five seconds of intent staring, Matt turned his head upwards to the sky, with an expression screaming: "Why me?"
Then he turned his head left, to Annick, with his now typical, long-suffering expression.
When he saw the huge dark-green dragon with golden horns staring straight at him, his eyes widened dramatically and he winced violently. He staggered, very nearly toppling into the water.
Annick's eyes glowed a bright blue out of sheer joy before returning to their satisfied green-blue. Pure blue colour meant something equal to laugh. She doubted anyone ever saw such a colour in the real Opaleye eyes.
Matt was still staring at her, although his surprise gave way to amused head-shaking. It didn't take long to realize he had fallen victim to another of her so called pranks.
On the edge of her sight, Annick noticed Simon lowering the camera. She changed back then and walked over to Matt.
"Hi, Matt! I thought I'd stop by for a minute."
"Of course. Simon's camera was just an accident, right?"
"Naturally," Annick nodded seriously, eyes dancing. "Although I'll make sure to ask for a copy of that picture. Who'd say he'd have the camera turned to the right place in the right time?"
"Such a good luck," Matt agreed dryly, looking at the violet tree-frogs again.
"D'you want to go for a swim?" asked Annick innocently, stepping closer to him.
Matt frowned at her in confusion.
"What?"
One look at her smile and eyes was all he needed to leap away from her, hands raised.
"Annick!" he cried out.
Annick started laughing.
"You're so funny!"
Matt tried frowning for a while, but then he just gave up and smiled at her.
"Yeah. You want to throw me into a lake full of frogs, yet I am funny."
"What?" came a cheerful voice from a spot next to them. "You wanted to throw Matt into the lake?"
"No, I just wanted to help him out a bit. He's been watching those frogs so intently, I thought he wanted to get to know them better. You know, to have a closer look," she explained innocently, examining her nails leisurely.
Charlie laughed and Matt sighed. "You two and your antics. You'll drive me crazy someday."
"I've no idea what you are talking about," Annick strode away to a couple of trees, whose branches reached a way out over the lake surface.
They stayed at the lake for a few hours. Everybody finished whatever work they might have there and gravitated to one side of the lake, where they settled down to talk before heading back home. Annick was currently outstretched comfortably on a lower branch of a tree close to Matt and Simon. She would most likely stay there, were she not grabbed by hand and pulled down off the tree suddenly.
"Hey!" she squealed in alarm.
The others turned around just in time to see her hit the ground with a muffled thump.
"Why Annick, I thought only rotten pears fall from the trees," carped at her Charlie, standing above her with a satisfied grin on his face.
Annick looked up him.
"I wouldn't go for a repeat performance if I were you, Charlie. I am the shocker here," she frowned, her expression one of faked hurt.
"You'll get over it eventually," he waved at her and moved over to join Matt on the ground.
Scrambling to her feet quickly, Annick transformed for the second time that day. She crept up on Charlie, recalled a couple of anger-inducing memories and growled darkly.
Charlie whipped around when he heard the growling. His eyes fell on huge jaws full of sharp fangs and the red eyes boring into him. The monster let out an ear-splitting, weirdly melodious screech.
He recoiled in terror, shrieked a very high-pitched, girlish squeal and attempted turning and running at the same time. His legs messed up and he fell over a mere metre away from those fangs.
When he looked up at the beast again, it was sitting on its rear paws, having somehow turned its fore-paw so that it looked like she was examining her claws casually, just like Annick did earlier that day. She glanced at him quickly. He stared at her, stunned.
"Annick?" he ventured weakly. "Don't do this to me."
Dragon's eyes swirled green-blue and she stood up. She joined the group of dragon-tamers, choosing a place right next to Matt, still in her dragon form. She settled down and set to stare at Matt. Apparently that was something she ought to do, seeing as everybody else was staring at her. Even Charlie joined the club now.
"Annick, stop it," Matt growled at her when his feeling became too disconcerting.
She reminded herself of her family and the last moments before she left home. She never did it happily, but it wasn't like they could see the emotion doing wonders to her typically cheerful face. Her dragon eyes changed to bleary grey with almost no movement. She lowered her eyes to the ground and opened her mouth for a weak and unhappy whimper.
"Well, no one would mistake you for a dragon now, Annick," remarked one of the tamers sitting opposite them with a grin.
The others were enjoying the fun. A depressed-puppy acting dragon was not a common sight.
Annick glanced at Matt. Ha was still frowning, though his eyebrows were twitching slightly. He looked slightly uncomfortable, as if he realized she had to make herself feel the emotions she wanted her eyes to display. She lowered her head and whimpered again, more pitifully than before. The next whimper sounded more like a tortured wail than whimper and Matt winced.
"All right, all right, stare however long you want!" he blurted quickly.
The dragon turned her head with bright blue-green eyes to him and licked him happily. A dragon tongue is rather big; it went from his chin to his forehead in one sweep.
"Annick!" Matt wailed desperately and started wiping himself off with disgust.
Everybody else was laughing their head off.
Annick just looked at him with amusement. Slowly, a shade of violet sneaked into her blue-green eyes.
When Matt noticed that, he frowned in confusion. Violet was a completely foreign colour when dealing with Antipodean Opaleyes. Grey was foreign too, but it must have meant unhappiness. He had no idea what violet meant.
"Erm, Annick? How are you feeling? Your eyes are almost violet."
The dragon blinked and her eyes resumed their green colour, which was a relatively calm and positive state of mind. Simon raised his camera.
"It won't bother you if I document you a little, will it Annick?"
The dragoness leapt to her feet, backing from the group until she had enough space for herself. Then she turned in a way that made her spine ridge clearly visible to Simon, bend her tail forwards so they could see the horns and spread her wings just enough to show off their batty appearance. She raised her head conceitedly and looked down her nose at Simon. Charlie beamed at her cheerfully.
Karl took one look at her, and then he turned to Matt.
"It won't be Charlie who'll drive you crazy in the end. You'll have your hands full with this one," he remarked dryly, jutting his chin towards the dragon.
Matt just sighed.
"Do a red look Annick, I'll take a detail of your face," Simon called over happily, clicking away on his camera.
AN: Edited chapter. I have no idea if there is a term for young dragon, if it is a dragonet of dragonling or something different, so I went with the first. Hopefully it's passable.