Sirius was dog-tired and went to bed shortly after dinner, leaving it to Lucius to bring the others up to date on the outcome of their trip to Belgium. He had no idea what had woken him up. Often a small event would be enough to jolt him awake. A loose shutter banging methodically against the window frames in the wind, the slamming of a door on the ground floor, the sound of footsteps in the corridor. He reached out to Jessie. The other side of the bed was deserted. There was no light coming in from under the door to the bathroom. He was immediately wide awake and strained his ears, but there was no sound in the house. Sitting up, he listened. It was the middle of the night, and a faint, metallic squeaking sound was reaching his ears. He took a moment to recognise the sound. It was the garage door being opened. Sirius jumped out of bed and into his clothes. Then he ran out of the room and stormed down the flight of stairs to the terrace door. Without a sound, he crept to the far end and leaned over the railing. He was just in time to see Jessie pushing a motorbike onto the small forecourt in front of the greenhouse that Sirius had built for her next to the mews. As she mounted the bike, Sirius couldn't see what she was doing, but he had a hunch that it was an attempt to start the engine. His first impulse was to go up to her and ask her what on earth she was up to at this time of night. But then curiosity got the better of him. He summoned a broomstick and Harry's Invisibility Cloak, which he had not yet returned, and threw it over himself. In the meantime, Jessie had managed to get the motorbike started. Carefully, she accelerated and after a few yards, the motorbike slowly took off. Sirius had to stop himself from intervening several times as the vehicle swayed unsteadily. Carefully, Jessie flew a few laps around the lawn until she obviously felt confident enough to pull the motorbike up into the air.
Jessie did not drive around the house to the gate, but headed north, much to Sirius' surprise. Once she had passed the grove where Mercuria's tomb stood, she switched on the headlights. Sirius was following close behind, in sight, as they flew past the lake where Cygnus had landed with his swans. Jessie grew more confident as they glided over the fields that the Outer elves farmed. Sirius wondered where she was heading. In the bright light of the full moon to the west he could see the hills with the cave where the others had become Animaghi. To the east was the forest with the settlement of the Outer Elves. Heading there, Jessie kept flying north along the edge of the forest. When the trees reached the foot of the hills and formed a natural barrier, she turned and slowly flew back low above the ground. She finally touched down, stopped the engine, and got off the motorbike. She took something out of her backpack. Suddenly there was a flash of light and Sirius could see that Jessie had switched on a head lamp. Then she turned on a torch and cautiously walked into the forest. On a narrow path that led into the forest, Sirius hurried after her. He had never been here before. He had never taken the time to fully explore the vast grounds since he and his family had moved into his great-great-uncle's estate. Together with Cygnus, he had made a general survey of the place and had been amazed at the vastness of the property. But even then, they had ignored the forest. It was just a forest like so many others. What would be so special about it? All the more so, since Cygnus had shown no interest in it at all. And then Sirius had a lot of other things to worry about. Until now, he hadn't even known that there was a path into the forest other than the one near the settlement of the elves. He hurried to keep up with Jessie, who was slowly making her way deeper into the forest. What the hell was the point of all this? Just as Sirius was about to catch up with her and lead her out of the forest, she stopped. As Sirius sneaked closer, he could see that there was a narrow river running through the forest. In the light of Jessie's torch, Sirius could see wisps of fog rising from the black water. Where Jessie stood, a wooden footbridge led across. There, the forest seemed impenetrable, the undergrowth was high and dense, and the old oaks on that side were covered in moss and lichen. Sirius began to grow uneasy. He pulled his wand from his pocket and wrapped the Invisibility Cloak around himself more tightly. Jessie took a piece of paper out of the pocket of her coat, read it in the light of her head lamp and looked around. Then she chose the path which ran along the riverbank. Had Jessie crossed the footbridge and continued into the oak woods, Sirius would have been ready to end the adventure. He remembered that Dorkas, the outer elf, had once warned him that strange creatures lived in the depths of the forest. The elves had not dared to venture into that part of the forest. He could hear strange noises coming from the other side, and he had the feeling that hostile eyes were watching every move he made. Sirius swore under his breath. Why did everyone always start out for adventures at midnight? The world looked a lot friendlier in the light of day and dangers were much easier to spot. He snapped out of his thoughts and realised that Jessie was a long way ahead of him. He hurried to catch up with her again.
The forest was getting thicker. The treetops were forming an impenetrable canopy, and the air underneath was becoming muggy and heavy. Even though autumn storms were just around the corner, Sirius felt hot and beads of sweat were running down his forehead. Jessie strode out determinedly as the path turned away from the river and slowly began to climb. At last, the trees were thinning out and Sirius could see the stars twinkling through their foliage. As Sirius stepped out of the forest, he stopped in his tracks, completely overwhelmed. The path ended on a plateau. And there, in the light of the full moon, he saw the most unusual plant he had ever seen in his life. From where he stood, it looked like a giant mushroom at first glance. As he approached, he saw that it was a tree. An umbrella-shaped crown of stiff, sword-shaped leaves sat on top of a thick, gnarled trunk that shimmered silvery in the moonlight. Jessie knelt in front of the tree. She scraped something out of the trunk with the tools she had taken from her backpack. Sirius had seen quite enough. He walked towards the tree, throwing off his invisibility cloak. When he was almost there, Jessie jumped up and turned. When she recognised him, she looked relieved. "Sirius. You really scared me". He helped her up. "What the hell are you doing here in the middle of the night? And why don't you let me know if you have any plans, instead of just sneaking out of the house like a thief?". She gave him a guilty look. "I wasn't sure if it was true or not". "If what was true?", he asked. "I read these books on plants in the library. And in one of them, I found a piece of parchment written by Uncle Phineas. He had made notes on the magical plants in his estate. When I read it, I just couldn't believe it. It was so incredible that I had to see it with my own eyes. Under normal circumstances I would have taken you with me. But then I didn't think of it, and you were in Belgium. I woke up this night and realised that the moon was full. I had completely forgotten about it. I didn't want to wake you up because you were so tired. So I took off. What the hell could have happened? I didn't want to go to the oak forest, after all. There is something strange going on there," she said and looked at him uneasily. Sirius was puzzled. He hadn't understood a single word of what she had just told him. Only that there was something about that tree. "What sort of a tree is that?". Jessie looked at him, confused. "You have no idea, do you? Well, it's a dragon blood tree. I always thought that dragon's blood was one of the most precious ingredients that you used in your potions". Sirius was taken aback by this. "Dragon blood tree? Dragon's blood comes from a plant?". Jessie chuckled. "Yes, absolutely. Or did you think that someone would take blood from a dragon? Well, with you wizards, I really wouldn't be surprised. But the way your uncle described it, the dragon's blood for your potions definitely comes from these trees. It's the resin. Look, I have already been harvesting some of it".
She shone the torchlight on the bottle she held. It contained a thick, dark red substance. Sirius held up his wand and whispered 'Lumos'. In the bright glow of its light, he now had a clear view of the tree. Jessie went on, "This tree is quite old. When your uncle bought the estate, it was already here. He could hardly believe his good fortune. But because it is so delicate, the previous owners kept it in an orangery. Its natural habitat is on some southern islands with warm climates. And it is, of course, extremely rare. But in days gone by, many rich non-magicians would grow exotic plants in their greenhouses. Your uncle brought the tree up here. He used a spell to protect it from the elements. That's why I didn't dare fly the motorcycle over here. I didn't want to damage the protection of the tree. Believe it or not, but this is probably the only specimen of a dragon blood tree in the whole of Europe. A true miracle". Jessie beamed at him with excitement. Sirius could hardly share her enthusiasm. "And why tonight?", he asked. "Because there's a full moon. Once every fifty years, the tree blooms. Phineas has been keeping an exact record of when it did so in the past. This year it happened again. From these blossoms, the fruits develop. Panicles with small red berries on them. Only during a blue moon in September, which is also a blood moon, do they unfold their magical powers". She giggled, "I had to look that one up. The blue moon is the second full moon of the same month. And a blood moon is a total eclipse of the moon. Because of the reddish hue the full moon takes when it is fully eclipsed, it is called a blood moon. In its light, the berries will be transformed. Wrote Uncle Phineas. As you can imagine, these conditions are very rare. I'm so glad you're here. I've been trying to figure out how to pick the berries. They are hanging up there in the treetops". She pointed to them. Sirius looked up and grinned at her. The panicles were more than 30 feet in the air. "And how were you going to get to them?". "I have no idea yet. But these berries are incredibly powerful, according to the potion books I've read. And extremely rare. And the potions that can be brewed with them are really quite extraordinary. Marius was completely beside himself when I told him about them".
Sirius closed his eyes for a moment, deciding once again to pay more attention to what was going on around him in the future. He knew that Jessie was reading books about magical plants in the library. And that was how it should be. After all, it was her job to grow them in her greenhouse and she would have to learn how to take care of them. She already had some successes to report. However, it had never been planned that she should also study books about potions. But that had probably been the inevitable consequence, since she had certainly wanted to know what the effects of the individual plants were. He smiled. "Ok, now what?". "I need some more dragon blood. Which you can get all year round. The really rare and precious stuff is the tears". "The tears?". "Yes, these berries are called Dragon's Tears when they are picked during a blood moon. Didn't you know that? I thought you were really into potions?". Sirius thought he had misheard. Like most people, of course, he had heard stories about the wondrous powers of Dragon's Tears, rumoured to allow the brewing of incomparable potions. Exactly what these tears were used for, he could not remember. In fact, he had never even heard of anyone who was in possession of this ingredient. "How much more time do you need?", he asked. Jessie looked up. "Nearly finished. Then we need to hurry up. Have a look. The eclipse of the moon is already under way. It won't be much longer now until the blood moon will appear in the sky. Then we have about half an hour to collect our tears".
Sirius looked up at the sky and summoned his broomstick, which came flying through the woods towards him a moment later. He mounted. "Are you ready?". Jessie straightened up, tucked the two bottles of dragon blood she had collected into her backpack, put on a pair of gloves, and took a small basket. With a nod to Sirius, she mounted in front of him. Carefully, Sirius brought the broomstick up to the top of the tree and slowly glided along its edge. The moon now was standing blood red in the sky. Tiny reddish lights started flickering all over the foliage. Jessie shone the headlamp down on them. As she shouted "stop", in the faint glow Sirius saw a small panicle with six or seven glittering deep red berries hidden among the leaves. Manoeuvring the broomstick over the spot, he first tried summoning them with his wand. But the berries did not respond to his magic. There was nothing else he could do than to grab Jessie firmly by the waist so she could bend over and pick the panicles by hand. Harvesting was difficult and Sirius had to stabilise the broomstick with just one hand as it tipped heavily sideways under Jessie's weight as she bent down to pick. Besides, many of the berries were out of reach from above, being well protected by the sword-shaped, spiky leaves of the tree. Jessie had to stoop very low to collect even those that were easily accessible. Gently she tucked them into her basket. Meticulously they scanned the canopy. As soon as they spotted a few berries that seemed easy to collect, Sirius would direct the broomstick to the spot and Jessie would pick them off.
Harvesting was exhausting and time-consuming, and they hadn't even searched half the canopy before Jessie said, "Enough. We should stop". Sirius looked at her in complete disbelief. "What for? Even from here I can see some more berries up there". He pointed to a spot where something dark red was flashing in his wand's light. "And we haven't even had a look at the bottom of the crown yet". Jessie covered the berries in her basket with a cloth and shook her head. "It's too late. There is no time for that left right now. In a minute or two the sun will be up, and the blood moon will be setting. According to Uncle Phineas' records, it'll be over then. We won't be able to pick any more berries and will need to wait another fifty years for the tree to start blooming again". "Why? This is a one-in-a-million chance. The berries are there right now. We can go and pick them". The first rays of sunlight broke over the horizon at that very moment. As they struck the tree, the berries lit up. Dark red sparks shot out of the foliage like stars until the whole treetop seemed to be on fire. By the time the first starfires flared up, Sirius had pulled his broomstick away from the treetops. They hugged each other tightly and looked on from a distance, fascinated and incredulous, until the fireworks began to fade. Sirius paused for a moment and then swept the broom over the top of the tree. Tiny wisps of smoke rose from between the leaves where the berries had been. "Well, now we know why we had to pick them in the middle of the night. Looks like we really must wait another fifty years. It's time for home". They fetched Jessie's backpack and the Invisibility Cloak from the ground. Then Sirius steered the broomstick through the forest and landed it next to his motorbike, which Jessie had left on the side of the path. They got on the bike and flew back to the house.
Once there, Sirius immediately took Jessie downstairs to his potion cellar. He locked the door behind them, took the basket away from her and put it on the table in front of him. Jessie asked, "What now?". Sirius shook his head. "Frankly, I don't know. Sure, I've heard about Dragon's Tears. All wizards probably have. But I am sure most people think they are just myths. Like I did before last night. They are so rare, that I doubt anyone has actually seen one. To think that a Dragon would cry seems rather absurd, don't you think? That it might be a plant did never occur to me. And I didn't know either that Dragon's Blood is not dried blood but a resin". He hesitated briefly. "Those who know about it and harvest the resin probably know about the berries as well. But a night like this is very rare. This tree only flowers once every fifty years. Furthermore, you must be extremely fortunate to meet all the requirements then. For it is only every fifth or sixth full moon that is a blood moon. And finally, it must not be cloudy, because the moonlight must fall on the berries. You have seen this yourself. To cut a long story short, I'll have to look in the library for some scripts on how to treat the tears. However, I assume they must not be exposed to daylight. Probably not any light. We should not run any risks". They peered into the basket as he lifted a corner of the cloth. The tears had ceased to glow and now looked nothing more than ordinary dark red berries.