I promised, not so long ago, to be more regular and quicker with updating - so after the last two chapters, let's continue with the fourth year.

Careful, small injection of smut in this one. ENJOY!


"Dragons?" Hermes asked Harry again, just as he bent backwards to grab his bag, the black-haired boy nodded.

"Hagrid went to see them and allowed me to spy at them from under the Cloak…" The boy looked positively despaired. "I have no idea about dragons, I have no idea about fighting them either."

Hermes smiled as she pulled Harry aside into an alcove, the boy blushed and Hermes turned to smirk at him. "Don't worry, Harry, your virtue is save with me – it's Weasley you have to worry about. But hush now."

Silently Hermione called Peetey and asked the elf to hand her the book on dragons, Peetey was back with the book in an instant and smiled when Hermione sent her back to the kitchens, reminding her that later that day she'd probably meet with her friends in the room again and they probably would like something to eat, if she'd be so nice to think of it.

Harry stared at her open-mouthed when Peetey winked out again. "You have an elf?" he asked her. Hermione shook her head.

"Don't be silly, Harry, the elves work for Hogwarts. I have only the luck of Peetey being partial to me, which is why I have a little more leeway. Anyways, come on, we need to find out what dragons you've seen, then we can concentrate on how Boy Wonder defeats them." Winking Hermes exited the alcove with Harry just right behind her.


"Are you sure?" Hermes asked him again, Harry sighed aggravated – he knew he shouldn't feel annoyed at his friend, he was after all being the first to be really productive about all of this. The rest of the school either just ignored him in disdain or broke out into howling encouragement the moment he was in sight. But he had asked him for the third time now.

"I'm sorry, Harry," he said quickly, surprising the black-haired boy with the accuracy of how he read people at times, "it's just that… my wand has a dragon string core and it coincides with the dragon you described."

"So?" Harry cocked his head, he was not quite as sure, why someone as well versed with spells as Hermes would see that as a reason to ask a pretty obvious question three times in a row. Hermes turned the book around so that Harry was able to read it properly.

"Harry, Icelandic Firecrows are… possessive, which is why they have no doubt chosen this type of dragon for whatever inane task you must fulfill. Thing is, they sense each other and the presence of another Firecrow in a too close radius ensues in…"

"…Territorial Pissings." Harry finished for her, finally understanding his friend's dilemma – he leaned back. "So you think that the Firecrow will sense your wand, mistake you for a dragon and want to fight against you over the territory?"

Hermes nodded, slightly blushing as he lowered his head ever so slightly. For a short moment Harry had to admit, even though Ron had staked his claim, that Hermes looked pretty, very much so actually. He had fine traits, was a strong lad and lithe – he shook his head. "But there is a way to defeat this dragon as well, yes?" he asked instead.

After all, how big were the chances that he actually got the Icelandic Firecrow and would have Hermes fight his battle? And how big were the chances that the dragon really reacted as Hermes predicted it would – even though, a small part of his mind conceded, his predictions had always been correct until now, to the very point, each and every single time.

The bushy-haired boy opposite of him lit up. "'Course there are – that's why you are here after all. Let's work a few things out."


Hermione could not believe it – not one bit. Harry had pulled the Icelandic Firecrow – it was a massive animal, much like she had always imagined an Alp to look like, actually, with a long, convex skull that smoothly disappeared into a beak.

Three pairs of eyes allowed the dragon to see further than normal dragons would and made it all the more deadly, for its sight could not as easily be dissuaded as another dragon's. The giant wings could probably cover the whole stadium once stretched out – it was a gigantic exemplary after all, and Hermione wondered shortly just why they had chosen such an animal.

Then again, her prediction had been correct: the natural possessiveness of the dragon should have made it excruciatingly hard for Harry to get to the egg that meant safety – would it not have been for her in the stadium.

The short, but strong body of the Firecrow was smooth and then ended in a deadly, spiked tail – she supposed that if that beak was opened, she'd probably be met with rows of deadly sharp teeth… not to forget that dragons could actually breathe fire.

Harry had hardly entered the stadium – the dragon having shaken off the dizziness that was caused by the transport to the location, when she felt the eyes of the Firecrow on her. She knew that very moment that it had sensed and found her. Standing up, she tried to leave hectically, scrambled over yelling students in hopes of getting away before it was too late.

"SQUAWK!"

A single sound of the dragon and she froze almost instantly – she could see the exit of the tribunes just a few more steps… fifty maybe, it wouldn't even take her a minute to cover them and be in safety, cover them and save the audience. Wind blew into her face and wiped stray curls out of her face as she slowly turned around against all logic yelling at her, she instinctively rather faced a threat than having it in her back.

Six, yellow eyes were trained on her, the Firecrow positioned just opposite of her – locking gazes with the enemy, it opened its mouth; Hermione knew almost instantly what would happen.

"Duck!"

As the fireball hurled towards the tribunes, Hermione fixated the fireball and reminded herself of how to take out a fire – she took a deep breath and breathed the ball in. The fire burned a little in the back of her throat, like the first Firewhiskey she'd had, but other than that it was hardly different. The dragon glared at her; she was aware that other Firecrows were normally not really capable of doing that.

"Granger!"

She shot a desperate glance at the headmaster, whose eyes were wide in fear – apparently he had just now remembered who of his students possessed an ebony wand with a dragon string core.

"Mobilicorpus."

She saw Karkaroff's wand hardly move, but felt herself floating and being set down none too gently in the stadium – the reality of the situation settled in when she found herself without an advantage of height (or rather a balance of height), now shuffling at the feet of the gigantic dragon, which in turn got ready for another bout of fire.

Hermione acted, before it could meet her. Holding one hand to her stomach and her wand to her lips, she blew over the tip, releasing the fireball she had just swallowed. The dragon howled in agony as it paid with a sore eye for its slowness.

One more glance up to the stands now showed Snape yelling angrily at Karkaroff, while Dumbledore watched her with increasing worry. Harry was already out of the stadium and in safety – the audience watched with baited breath. The dragon used exactly that moment of observation to wield its deadly tail at her.

"Fuck!" she dove out of the way just in the last moment, right under the Firecrow's stomach.

It was said that the stomach was the most vulnerable part of a dragon, though she wasn't all that sure if that was really logical, seeing as dragons flew with their stomachs facing the ground. Naturally, she figured, they should be protected – nevertheless she conjured a storm of blue-bell-flames at the supposedly weak point of the dragon.

The effect was as desired: howling the dragon tried to trample her down, but soon needed to forgo that project in favour of saving itself from the severe burns. As it spread its wings, Hermione's fears from earlier were confirmed – the whole stadium was plunged into semi-darkness, when the dragon spread its wings and rose to the air; it was huge.

Hermione realized quickly, though, that that had been a rather stupid move. No question, she had harmed the dragon badly, but now it was at a serious advantage, being in the air and all, Hermione did not even have the possibility to hide behind a boulder anymore, from above the beast would see even the tiniest of her moves.

Wielding the fire around her and forming it into a whip to use it as a counter attack on the dragon itself, she thought hard on what she had read on dragons. Really, normally one did not go to provoke a dragon, and no one had been known to ever face an Icelandic Firecrow in a battle over the territory – any book-entries on them were solely based on observation. However, even those entries were short, for Icelandic Firecrows were known for their extremely advanced capacities in Occlumency.

Diving away from yet another attack, Hermione drew a deep breath as she considered this new possibility – her energy levels were far beyond that of the dragon, he could spit fire all day if he wanted to, she needed her powers to control the element though, and no matter how advanced she might be in comparison to her peers, she was no match for a dragon. If she tried to occlude the dragon, it would be worth a shot, one way or another, in the worst case she'd be fodder – but at least, she'd have tried.

Taking a last calming breath and shooting Snape, who was standing foremost on the tribunes fixating her with a steady gaze, a last look, she collected her powers and strode forward from her bolder. It was just what the dragon had waited for apparently and immediately it attacked her with an avalanche of fire, but instead of redirecting the fire, she simply breathed the fire in, hoping to be able to convert it to some form of power for herself – she was after all a fire-elementary, the element would need to have something in store for her as well.

Silently, she took a seat just on top of the highest bolder she could find and waited for the constant attacks to die down – they did.

Hermione could hear the whole stadium holding their breaths and asking themselves just what the hell Hermes Granger, know-it-all Book-Shrimp was up to this time. She had meant to keep this secret, but if it meant her survival, she'd give it up – with some luck the majority of the school would not realize what was happening anyways.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, she was faced with six eyes, front on – the dragon's head hovered just above her, she was surprised to not smell fetid breath as she had imagined, but instead just a puff of warm air as the dragon snarled at her. She poked its mind.

The walls shattered almost immediately and she was flooded with anger and desire to prove one-self – she smiled softly, being closely acquainted to that particular feeling. Apparently the dragon was still young, which was probably the reason why it was so eager to defeat her.

No, she thought, this is my territory – I've been here longer than you've been.

An angry squawk reached her ears, but she shook her head, immediately dissuading the dragon from yet another attack. Picture by picture she sent it messages of how she defended 'her territory' from other influences already – from Trolls and Voldemort. She noticed only belatedly that the dragon had folded its wings and was now completely set on staring her down, confusion showing in its mind. Apparently it was not so sure what she meant with her pictures, or maybe it was not even aware that it was able to do Occlumency, it was likely that it had been raised in captivity.

Finally Hermione, blushing a tiny bit and sending a short prayer that no one would ever find out, showed the dragon a fake memory – perhaps, if it wasn't aware that it was a natural Occlumens it wouldn't be able to separate a true memory from a fake one.

The tall, dark-haired man kissed her with a fervor that she hadn't heretofore known existed – she hadn't even known that he had been aware who she really was. As he pressed her into the stone wall, she felt herself give in to his questing mouth.

It was surprisingly soft as his lips coaxed hers apart, a desperate sigh escaped her lips when finally his tongue found hers and they caressed each other with languid longing. Carefully, as if afraid to shock him away from her and the delicious feelings he was creating in her, she raised her hands to sift through his raven locks.

More confusion clouded her mind and she could tell that apparently the dragon was now at its wits end, nothing could compare to human affection after all in the dragon world. Angrily she resorted to a much more Gryffindor method.

He took her harshly from behind, bent over her, every inch of his front pressed to her back as he held her up by one hand wound around her torso and supported himself up by one hand pressed to the mattress. Her walls pulsed around him and he knew that she was close, biting her neck softly, earning a whimper from her and yet another fluttering of her walls. Speeding up, he held her close as she started to wail.

Now the dragon emitted a desperate squawk one last time, before it placed its hind down on the ground and broke the connection – apparently it had understood the message of the fake: this territory was already claimed for a future family, there was no use to try putting up residence here.

"You'll find yours in time."

And as she stood up and patted the dragon, it huffed softly, crying one single tear that slid directly into her palm and died there in the cracks of her open palm. The crowd dared not breathe a syllable. Hermione dared not look at the stands, where she knew Snape to be standing.


My version of an alp is not the same as Wikipedia's version of an alp, so just go with the flow and stimulate your imagination a little.

Thank you arabellagrace, chyaraskiss (you can't hurry the muse, but I'm pretty excited as well - I hope I'll be able to transform the idea into a proper story), bushyhaired-american-nerd (thank you, this is so much encouragement), TequilaNervous (Clover just fit... Lucky Charms have four leaves, so why not?), Mia Lenor (I have something special in store for Viktor, just you wait), Guest1 (there's more to come yet), douglas. bailey. 7946 (thank you for that compliment!), Guest2 (see what happens next!) and wingsrookie (thank you for leaving one even when you were on your 'way out'^^) for the lovely and encouraging reviews.

Furthermore, my thanks to gemini-rose16, nikyta, electronic blue bubbles, Jasie Song, blondier47, -Zabini, music of silence, Katarin Kishika and wingsrookie for the Story Alert.

Also I thank chyaraskiss, Mia Lenor, nikyta, electronic blue bubbles, Katarin Kishika, Auri on the rooftops and wingsrookie for the FavS and nikyta for the Favourite Author, as well as the Author Alert along with electronic blue bubbles.

Hoping that I mentioned everyone, PLEASE REVIEW!