Ria dragged Drae up to the seventh floor at a deep sprint. Drae was protesting, but Ria wanted to get where she was going. Once she got to the place she wanted to go she paced three times in front of the entrance. After the door appeared Ria dragged Drae in and sat down on a plush love seat. The room was large and looked a lot like the outdoors. Inside several snakes, about fifty, were coming to meet them.

"I thought I only had thirty-eight staying with me," Ria commented.

Drae looked at all the snakes, confused because she recognized the language, but couldn't understand them.

Ria hissed a greeting and knelt down to touch the snakes. One of which was a very large anaconda.

Ophelia - who had followed them into the room - looked around and felt outnumbered.

'Mistress, can you call the others?' She asked trying to keep the apprehension out of her voice.

Drae nodded still a little dazed from hearing Parseltongue.

The room shifted and several dragons flew in.

'Two speakers of different tongues,' Dawn noticed lazily.

Emerald, Sky, Vipera and Rozario - in their shrunken forms - found perches in the room.

"They're beautiful," Ria said as the snakes slithered around and over her legs after she sat down. A large Blue Krait, named Kimi, wrapped herself around Ria's torso to rest her head on Ria's and look at Drae. Her mate, Krem, did likewise. Ria didn't mind for the moment, she had missed them. They hadn't seen her for over two weeks and missed her as well.

'Mistress. You called?' Emerald asked, settling onto the back of the couch and curling her tail around Drae's shoulders.

"Ria, This is Emerald my cuelebre dragon, I found her injured as a hatchling." Drae motioned to the dark green female on the couch. "This is Vipera my Viper Ridgeback - I found her in a dragon hunters trap. She's half Norwegian Ridgeback, half Peruvian Vipertooth." She pointed to the female black dragon laying on the ground, not bothered by the snakes.

"Those two in the tree over there are Sky and Rozario. Sky is a wyvern and Rozario is a Zmaj. Both of them I found as eggs." Sky was a light blue and Rozario was an opalescent green.

Sky eyed all of the snakes. 'Mistress. May I enquire about all of the snakelings?'

Drae walked over and smoothed his flared hood scales. 'They are not a threat Sky. Calm yourself.'

Ria drew back and her forehead wrinkled as she heard the far gruffered Dragon tongue. Because her Uncle Charlie had taken her to see dragons when she was little she could understand them, but she still prefered the smoother tongue of the snakes.

'Why do snakes and dragons not get along?' Ria asked. Putting a ruffer emphasis on the 'do' showing that she had spoken to dragons before. Frequently enough to be able to put the accurate tone on the word. She wasn't aware that she did it. It really amused her snakes to no end.

The dragons all looked at each other and shrugged their wings. 'We don't really know. It's somewhat instinctual.' Emerald said.

'Except Vipera.' Rozario grumbled. 'She has always been comfortable around snakes of any kind. Especially the more venomous.'

'I see nothing wrong with being venomous.' Nammi sniffed reminding Ria of an offended pureblood. Ria stroked the small snake while restraining the laughter that threatened to escape.

'There is a venomous dragon that roosts in your tree, isn't there?' Ynun asked Ria. 'Strange one that one.' He added. 'Seems to think you're her hatchling or something.'

Drae smiled getting an idea of what was being said.

"They are teasing you aren't they?" She chuckled. "Either that or it's a comment about you maybe being a dragon's 'hatchling'?"

"Ynun just said that a venomous dragon roosts in my tree and thinks that I'm her hatchling." Ria translated. "He also thinks that she's strange. And he's also not teasing. He doesn't tease."

Drae nodded understanding. "Dragons have sometimes been known to take a shine to humans they believe need their guidance or help. Especially female dragons." She looked somewhat sheepish. "Also, I haven't been exposed to much Parseltongue, so it may take me a bit to get used to it."

"Don't worry about it," Ria said standing up with a Black Mamba in her arms. "Panon here translated very inaccurately for me until I learned to understand Dragons. He thought it was funny. And I couldn't understand why the dragons kept getting more and more upset with his translations. They're cool with it now though. And apparently I've gained an accent from them. The snakes think it's funny."

Vipera chuckled. 'Sound like the Mamba's sense of humor strikes again.' She said speaking for the first time. She nodded towards Ria. 'It is nice to finally meet one who speaks to snakes.' She continued stretching out on the ground.

'The pleasure is mine,' Ria responded. 'Do you know a Norwegian by the name of Wrath?'

Vipera thought for a moment. Then nodded. 'When Vandraedi found me in the trap in Romania, she took me to the dragon reserve to see if they could heal my injury.' here she lifted her left wing to show her tail which was scarred badly and half of her tail fin was missing, replaced with a magical fin. 'I heard the dragons talking about a Ridgeback named Wrath. They said she went crazy and attacked a bunch of the wizards.'

Ria tilted her head. 'She may be a little crazy, but I don't think that those wizards were innocent...' She said trailing off.

Vipera shrugged. 'At that point a red-head walked in and told Vandraedi that I would be better off going with her because I was injured and the other dragons would more than likely shun me. So I didn't hear anything else about Wrath.'

Ria nodded. 'I rather like her. She's like a crazy Aunt to me.'

'Like Bellatrix crazy,' One of the larger snakes asked a little alarmed.

'No one is Bellatrix crazy,' Another snake disagreed. 'Only Bellatrix is Bellatrix crazy.'

George looked at the calendar then swore violently. Leaping to his feet he ran out of the Burrow where he was visiting his family and fled to his house.

"Wonder what's got him up and running." Ginny asked.

"You never know." Her husband Dean said. "And I am not going to find out."

George sent his hastily written letter on the fastest owl he could find. Then he began to pray. Hard.