I do not own nor possess any right over Harry Potter, all rights belongs to J.K. Rowling.
Chapter 19
It was two days later, with a happy Hagrid and a slightly bigger Norberta busy trying to flap her wings, that Shimmer finally heard a great news!
"Dragons don't collect coins, tis a myth." Nonchalantly said Hagrid. "You're the only one doing that."
"Norberta no coin?" He asked, flabbergasted.
"No. She might be curious about it, but she wouldn't try to collect coins."
...
If other dragons truly couldn't see the beauty of coins, gold and jewels, then Shimmer didn't want to be associated with them. Other dragons were truly dumb.
"Shimmer... not understand." Sighed Shimmer, not quite sure what to feel about all of this. At least he wouldn't have to share coins with Norberta.
"Don't think too much about it, you're- hey! Norberta. No, no, no." Started Hagrid until he saw Norberta using her claws to climb on a chair, spreading her wings and ready to jump.
"Is good." Said Shimmer, a bit satisfied to see Norberta do things on her own.
"She could hurt herself!" Countered Hagrid, stepping toward Norberta.
The hatchling jumped from her chair, wings opened wide, and barely got the time to fall down before Hagrid's large hands caught her. Sighing in relief, Hagrid brought her close to his chest where she started attacking his beard.
"Aouch! No, Norberta. Don't pull!" He said as he kept her in his hands, bringing her back down on the ground.
Shimmer watched it happen with a disappointed look. Why couldn't Hagrid and Hermione listen to him, he didn't know, but it was plainly obvious to him that Norberta was barely listening to Hagrid. Shimmer wasn't even sure if she knew her own name.
Stupid thing.
But, she was growing, quickly, just like Hagrid said, and with all the food being gifted to her Shimmer had doubts she would become a good huntress. Again, not his problem, but he didn't want to see her die so young.
So he got an idea. He watched for a few times Hagrid leave the hut or open his windows, careful of how he did it, and once he was sure of his plan, waited for Hagrid to leave. Which didn't take long, as Hagrid was the gamekeeper of the school and was understandably busy with many chores through the day.
And as soon as he left him and Norberta alone, Shimmer flew at one of the windows and unlatched it, leaving it open for him and Norberta. He tried to have her follow him by commands, growling and hissing, but he was starting to consider her really stupid since she didn't do anything except be wary of him. Exasperated, he caught her in his claws and, despite her thrashing around and even attempting to bite him, lifted her in the air and took her outside.
She wasn't big enough that he couldn't carry her, but she was already quite heavy and her frenetic attempts of getting away from him forced Shimmer to fly as fast as possible to the safe forest, not the dangerous one. As soon as he landed, feeling his wings being a bit sore, Norberta lunged at him.
He let out a small growl at her attack, having expected something like that, and quickly used his larger size and more developed body to force her to submit. They rolled around in the grass a bit, trying to bite and claw at each other's throat and head as they growled and hissed. But he was the older one, stronger and more experienced, and he managed to tackled her on her stomach, effectively rendering her incapable of sticking back.
As soon as she saw her defeat coming, Norberta let out panicked whimpers, accepting the victory of Shimmer. Taking a few seconds to catch his breath, he bit down again on her neck along with a warning growl to not start again, and he stood up to let her go.
He was already starting to regret getting involved.
They walked up for a little while, Norberta quite curious about this brand new world and stopping at nearly anything that caught her interest, much to Shimmer's exasperation. But he froze on the spot when he heard what he was looking for, Norberta imitating him instantly.
Crawling on the ground, he slowly made his way through the bushes as silently as possible, Norberta right on his tail, until a small opening in the foliage revealed his target. A small rabbit, young and inexperienced, just like Norberta. He waited for her to see it too, and then he let her go. He wouldn't show her how to hunt, she should already know, but he was willing to at least bring her to a prey that she should be able to catch without problem.
And Norberta required no prodding to act, silently and slowly walking around the bushes to get closer to the rabbit who was still unaware of the danger lurking around it. Shimmer had to concede it, Norberta was doing a good job at being stealthy.
She soon reached another bush and stopped there, having closed the distance between the rabbit and her at its maximum. From there, she would only have to be quick and efficient, go for the throat in a single rush and kill the rabbit before it even had a chance to flee. Easy and simple, so he wasn't worried.
Yet, Norberta still ended up disappointing him.
She rushed out of the bush with a quick jump of her legs, and spat a small stream of fire that completely missed the rabbit. Now quite aware of the threat, it wasted no time and with only a couple of very quick jumps and bursts, disappeared in the forest, leaving behind a Norberta blinded by her the fire before her. The fire didn't touch anything, so at least they wouldn't have to worry about that, but it blocked her view of the rabbit. And once she stopped, she was surprised to see her prey gone.
Norberta started to go after it, but it was already too late. Getting out of his hideout, he growled at her in frustration. How could she have thought that fire would be a good idea, he didn't know, but he was frustrated and disappointed. He walked up next to her and nipped her on the neck.
"Bad Norberta. No fire." He growled.
She cowed a bit, but it was very clear she failed to understand what he said.
He was quite angry at her for missing such an easy kill. Sure, it would have been easier in-
Shimmer nearly smacked his head in the ground as he realised that he forgot the most important aspect of hunting for a dragon: attacking from above. He knew that Norberta wasn't flying yet, but she had been trying for a few days now, stopped only by Hagrid. She was probably ready to learn. And once she would know how to fly, diving down on a rabbit would be as easy as taking a coin from a human baby.
Since Norberta was not as brilliant and great as him, incapable of talking, and apparently not experienced enough to hunt on her own, he had to growl at her for her to follow. Once she got it, he went to a relatively small tree and used his claws to quickly climb on its trunk, reaching the closest branch and sitting there. Norberta watched him go up and he nodded for her to do the same. She thankfully didn't need more commands and she got close to the base of the tree, looking at the trunk for a couple of seconds before jumping like he did.
It didn't went as well, but he couldn't expect a hatchling to succeed at everything, especially on her first attempt. She fell down after planting the claws of her back legs in the trunk, not using her fore-claws as well. She quickly collected herself and tried again, this time managing to actually climb the trunk only to fall down again at its middle.
Shimmer patiently watched her go, trying to remember if he was ever that bad at climbing trees, but his memories weren't very clear about this. He mainly did the same thing every day for nearly ten years after all.
But after a couple of minutes, Norberta finally managed to reached the branch he was resting on. She did looked a bit tired already, and he thought that perhaps Hagrid was trying to make her fat like he was, but he didn't gave it much attention. Norberta walked up next to him and, as soon as she was within reach, he pushed her off the branch.
She growled at his move but it quickly became a scream as she fell.
He watched, with no hate, no animosity, no curiosity, as she fell, expecting her to open her wings at any seconds she got closer to the ground. He was only doing what was right, helping her learning how to fly. After all, if she wasn't good enough to fly, then she wouldn't be a real dragon.
She was flailing around, not opening her wings as she was supposed to, and still letting out a shrill of fear as the distance between her and the hard dirt beneath shrank.
And yet, she ended up hitting the ground hard, her scream momentarily cut as her lungs were forced to exhale all the air the had, before she started to whimper and cry, not moving much.
Sighing at the poor instincts of the hatchling, yet sympathetic to her pain, Shimmer jumped from the branch and flew down to land right next to Norberta. It didn't took more than a glance at her left wing to see a most unnatural bent, along with a few drops of blood that made it very clear she was no longer capable to fly.
"Norberta bad. Fall. No fly." He said, disappointed in her flying capabilities. But he wasn't about to abandon her like he probably should, since having a broken wing was pretty much a death sentence. No, he would bring her back to Hagrid, since she was his. Or maybe Hermione knew better? She was better with dragons than Hagrid, that was for sure. In his opinion, that was.
Not caring much about her suffering, he picked her up in his claws again, ignoring the short, pained shrill and the bite that she tried to gave him, and took off toward Hogwarts. He had to stabilize himself several times, as Norberta never stopped thrashing and trying to bit him, but since she wasn't doing much damages he simply kept going until he reached Hagrid's hut.
He stopped before the window, hovering in front of it, and quickly concluded that Hagrid hadn't returned yet. Ir maybe he was searching for them somewhere else. It didn't matter much, and Shimmer simply went to Hogwarts to find Hermione. More than one head turned toward him as he flew in the corridors, the students used to see him, but far less accustomed to the angry dark green dragon in his claws, and gave him a wide berth as he went from the empty great hall to the Gryffindor tower before going back down.
It was just as he took a turn toward one of the classrooms, that he noticed Hermione and her friends walking away with their backs looking at him.
"Hermione!" He called.
She turned around, slightly surprised, but that soon changed to horror as she saw who he had between his claws.
"Shimmer?! What is Norberta doing here?!" She whispered harshly, not really doing a good job of hiding Norberta as many other Gryffindor students stared at the second dragon.
"Norberta not fly. Shimmer help. Norberta fly bad." He replied, dropping Norberta before them as she screamed again, curling up around herself.
"I- what?" Hermione stopped herself, looking for a few seconds at Norberta and noticing the blood and obviously broken wing. "What have you done Shimmer?"
"Shimmer help." He simply replied, not seeing the problem.
"If that's him helping, then I don't want to see him attacking." Commented Ron, giving Shimmer a slightly worried look.
"Oh Shimmer, what am I doing to do with you?" Lamented Hermione.
"Maybe we should bring Norberta to Madam Pomfrey? She really doesn't look good." Said Neville, more concerned for Norberta.
"But... what should we tell her? She'll know we hid the truth!" Started to panic Ron.
"Then we tell her the truth. That Norberta is Hagrid's dragon. I'm sure we won't get in trouble for bringing Hagrid's dragon to the infirmary." Suggested Hermione, ever the more thoughtful one.
"But she will ask why she never heard of Norberta before, and then she'll know that we lied to hide her!" Ron continued.
"That's not true. We never lied, since no one ever asked us about Norberta." Corrected Hermione.
"That's true." He conceded, slowly calming down.
"We should hurry up, I don't think Norberta likes being hurt." Said Neville.
"Oh! Right. Let's go. Neville, could you carry her?" Hermione said, turning toward the infirmary.
"W-what? No! She'll bite me!" He fearfully replied.
"Ron?"
"Nah, I have to agree with Neville, I'm not carrying to dangerous, injured dragon." He adamantly refused.
Sighing at their unwillingness, and herself not wanting to carry the clearly angry Norberta, Hermione turned to the only one who could do it. Even if it wasn't a great idea.
"Shimmer, can you take her please?" She asked her draconic friend.
"Yes." He instantly replied, picking up Norberta who instantly tried to bite him.
"See what I mean?" Added Ron.
"Yes, yes. Let's go."
The trip to the hospital wing was short, but punctuated by the many growls and pained whimpers of Norberta, clearly not being carried well by Shimmer who didn't really thought about it. But as soon as they came in the infirmary, they were met with a stern look from Madam Pomfrey who was busy taking a look at a bandaged arm of an older Ravenclaw student.
"Don't run in my infirmary! Why are you here?" She asked sternly, flicking her wand around the students arm that moved a little in reaction.
"Sorry to bother you Madam Pomfrey, but Hagrid's dragon is hurt. She broke her wing." Started Hermione with an apology.
That was enough to make the old woman blank for a second, but she recovered surprisingly quickly.
"Excuse-me, what did you say?"
"Shimmer, put Norberta here please." Instructed Hermione, putting a hand on a nearby bed. Shimmer obeyed and soon Norberta was freed from his grasp, once again busy trying to lick her wounded wing. "This is Hagrid's dragon Norberta. Her wing is broken and we wanted to know if you could help her."
The old healer gave Norberta a quite distrustful look, as well as a short one toward Shimmer, before focusing on the older student still standing before her.
"You're good to go, so get back in class. I have a lot to do." She ordered, and the Ravenclaw didn't stay a second longer, before she focused on Norberta. "I will need Professor Snape's help with this, healing dragons is far different from humans and magic is often inefficient on them. You, go get professor Snape, tell him that I want him here with a Wound-Cleaning potion, a potion of Dreamless Sleep, some Essence of Dittany and a Skelegrow potion." She said, pointing at Neville.
The poor boy quickly looked between his friends and the old matron, and with a small whimper, not wanting to get even close to the Potion teacher, turned toward the dungeons where he knew he would be hashed out for interrupting Professor Snape's class.
"Now, tell me what happened." Madam Pomfrey asked in a no-nonsense warning.
"Well, we don't really know, Shimmer brought her like that." Squirmed Hermione under the matron's gaze. "Shimmer, can you tell us what happened?"
"Shimmer take Norberta. Norberta not fly. Take Norberta fly. Norberta no fly. Fall." He tried to explain.
"What is this gibberish?" Asked Madam Pomfrey.
"I think, he went to teach her to fly? And then she fell? I'm not sure, he doesn't know that many words yet." Apologised Hermione.
"Hmph! Then she's probably lucky to be alive, she looks quite young. And you said she was Hagrid's?"
"Yes." Nodded Ron.
"Then maybe you should go find him. He knows more than me about magical creatures."
Not waiting to get another mission, Ron ran out of the infirmary in hopes to find Hagrid.
"Well, at least she isn't chocking or coughing, which is good." Noted Madam Pomfrey.
"She's just a few weeks old, mam."
"And you know this how?" Asked Madam Pomfrey with a raised eyebrow.
"...Hagrid invited us to see her hatch." Hermione shylily replied.
"I see." She said before sighing. "That man's carelessness will be the death of me. Please keep an eye on her, I have a message to send."
Hermione and Shimmer watched as Madam Pomfrey went into her office, followed by a small flash of green light.
Now alone, Hermione turned toward her friend, intending to know exactly what happened.
"Shimmer, you must tell me what happened." She sternly said.
"Norberta fly bad. Shimmer take Norberta, hunt, fly. Norberta bad hunt. Shimmer want Norberta fly. Shimmer help, take Norberta..." He struggled, trying to find a word for the branch he took her to, not knowing what it was called.
"Continue." Pressed Hermione.
"Shimmer take Norberta fly. Norberta not fly. Fall." He finished.
Despite his attempt to clarify things, it didn't help Hermione much to understand how Norberta got hurt. But it was clear that whatever happened, it was Shimmer's fault.
"Shimmer, me and Hagrid told you that you shouldn't try to help Norberta. What you did was bad. Very bad. Look how hurt she is now." She said, pointing at the injured hatchling.
"Norberta bad. Not fly. Shimmer help, Shimmer good." He tried.
"No Shimmer, not this time. You're a bad dragon." She sternly countered, not backing down.
"Shimmer not bad!" He nearly screeched. He hated being called bad.
"Yes! Yes you are! You injured Norberta! That's bad!" Hermione continued, shouting at him for the first time in a very, very long time.
He growled but didn't spoke again, glaring at the hatchling for a moment, not liking how her poor instincts and incapability to hunt and fly were making Hermione call him bad.
They were interrupted by a small 'woosh' sound coming from Madam Pomfrey's office, and then both her and Dumbledore came out, stopping a bit as they noticed the tension in the air.
"Is everything alright, miss Granger?" Asked Dumbledore.
"Shimmer got Norberta injured, and I was trying to explain how that made him a bad dragon.
"Shimmer not bad!" He screamed again.
"Yes you are!" She shouted back.
"Now, now, no need to shout. Miss Granger, if you could step outside for a moment, I would like to speak with our young friend." Dumbledore asked calmly.
With a small glare at Shimmer, Hermione gave a small bow to the headmaster and left the room, closing the door behind her.
"Now, Shimmer, I've come to understand that you and... Norberta?" He stopped, looking at Madam Pomfrey for a second who nodded. "That you and Norberta had an accident."
Shimmer gave a small growl, tired of repeating himself, but still answered.
"Norberta not fly. Shimmer help Norberta, but Norberta not fly. Fall. Not okay."
"Yes, I can see that. Far from me to insult you, but what you did was bad, Shimmer." He continued with a slightly sterner tone.
"Shimmer not bad." Growled Shimmer again.
"I know. You're not a bad dragon, but what you did was bad. I don't know exactly how Norberta got injured, but I know that much."
Still growling, Shimmer tried to understand what was so bad about helping a hatchling try to fly. She got hurt in the end, sure, but that wasn't his fault. Norberta was the one dumb enough to not open her wings.
"How did you help Norberta fly?" Asked Dumbledore.
"Take Norberta..." He still didn't know the word. Looking around, he looked at the tree visible through the windows and flew right in front of them. "Here. Shimmer take Norberta here."
"In the forest? Would it be-" Started Dumbledore before stopping as the sound of rushing, very heavy steps, echoed from the corridors before the doors opened in a bang, Hagrid standing right there, the breath short and looking exhausted. A far more tired Ron arrived just a couple seconds later, stopping to put his hands on his legs as he tried to catch his breath.
"Norberta!" Shouted Hagrid, running to the dragon's side and, thankfully for the little dragon, stopped right before picking her up, shaky hands hovering over her as he tried to figure out what to do. "Look at your wing. Don't worry, mama's here for you." He cooed gently.
"I'm sorry for what happened, Hagrid." Sincerely said Dumbledore. "Could you tell us if you know what happened?"
"Ah'm sorry sir, I don't. I- I left her at home with Shimmer, thought she was safe there." The half-giant slowly replied, looking at the wing under the careful watch of Madam Pomfrey, ready to intervene at any second.
"She probably was. But I'm afraid our friend Shimmer tried to help her flying in the forest, and got hurt there. A fall if I understood correctly." Explained Dumbledore.
"Shimmer?" Said Hagrid as he turned toward the little golden dragon that was sitting on the bed next to Norberta's. "Why would you do this?"
"Shimmer want help Norberta fly." He explained, not seeing the danger that Hagrid could be for him should the giant want to take revenge for his little protege.
"I... Shimmer, I told you that I didn't wanted you to help. You shouldn't have done that." Hagrid replied, slightly angry at the dragon but more concerned for Norberta. Hagrid would never hurt Shimmer, but that didn't mean he couldn't be disappointed by him.
"Shimmer help! Shimmer good!" Angrily said Shimmer, having enough of this.
"No. Not this time. I don't want you to come next to my house again, not as long as you'll be a danger to Norberta."
"Come with me, Shimmer. This isn't the place to settle this." Said Dumbledore, waving to the door where a wheezing Ron and a slightly anxious Hermione were waiting. "Before I go, Hagrid, could you please tell me since when has Norberta been in your possession?"
"Barely a week sir. I'm sorry for not telling you, thought you'd want me to get rid of her." Mumbled the gentle giant.
"I know, my friend, I know. Don't worry, I won't do anything to get rid of Norberta now, but we will have to speak about her soon. I'm sure you'll understand why she can't stay in Hogwarts." Said Dumbledore, patting Hagrid's back.
"But sir, she's just a baby."
"I'm aware, and that's why I haven't called the dragon reserve yet. Don't worry, we'll talk about this later."
Standing up, Dumbledore walked to the door and was nearly bowled over by a rushing Professor Snape and a tired Neville both carrying a handful of potions in their arms.
"Headmaster. I've been told that we have another flying monstrosity." Snape blankly said. "An injured one."
"That we do, my boy. Hagrid's dragon is in dear need of your skills." Answered Dumbledore as he exited.
"Hagrid's- what am I not surprised." Muttered darkly Snape as he went in, followed by Neville who gave a glance at Ron and Hermione, silently begging for help but unable to leave without incurring the Potion teacher's wrath.
"Now, would you three please give me a moment?" Asked Dumbledore, addressing Ron, Hermione and Shimmer.
"Yes sir." Replied Hermione.
"Y-yes, sir." Let out Ron, finally managing to gather his breath.
"Dumb Door." Grumbled Shimmer.
"Moody I see." Noted the old headmaster with a small smile.
"He's being difficult." Sighed Hermione.
"I've noticed, Miss Granger. Would you perchance have an idea of what we should do concerning Shimmer's actions?"
"Me?" She asked a bit surprised.
"You are his friend and the one who understands him best, I believe that you should know best how to handle this." Kindly smiled Dumbledore.
"Well, um, Shimmer was wrong, and Norberta was hurt because of him, so... I really don't know how to punish him, sir. I don't want him to hate me." Pleaded Hermione, not wanting a repeat of what happened last Christmas, when she thought Shimmer left because of her.
"I understand Miss Granger. But, let me ask you this. Was he wrong?"
"I- yes, Norberta was hurt because of him." She frowned, not understanding how the headmaster couldn't see how what Shimmer did was wrong.
"Yes, that much is true. His actions resulted in the consequence of Norberta being hurt. Yet I don't believe he wanted to do wrong." He explained.
"How?"
"Shimmer, you wanted to help Norberta fly, right?" Asked Dumbledore.
"Yes. Norberta not fly, Shimmer help Norberta fly. Shimmer not bad dragon!" He added ferociously at the end.
"No, you are not. Miss Granger, would you blame someone for helping you standing up, only to fall and break your leg?"
"I- no, sir." She admitted, before quickly recomposing herself. "But we don't know what exactly happened. Shimmer isn't capable of explaining himself yet."
"That much is true. I'm afraid that we will probably not know before quite a long time, but this isn't really important. What I'm getting from this, Miss Granger, is that Shimmer wanted to help, which is a commendable trait that everyone should pursue, but his methods were most likely wrong, as it ended up with Norberta being injured." Explained Dumbledore, to which both Hermione and Ron nodded.
"I understand, sir." Said Hermione, seeing how things might have happened. "But, how can we make Shimmer understand that? He shouldn't be left unpunished or he will do it again."
"That is the tricky part. And Shimmer must indeed not repeat what he did." Agreed Dumbledore before turning toward Shimmer. "Would you like to try, Miss Granger?"
Looking at Shimmer, who was clearly angry as his tail was moving to and fro faster than usual, frowning and glaring at the three humans before him, ready to defend himself against being called a bad dragon.
"I'll try." Said Hermione. She didn't think it was her responsibility, as Shimmer was still a wild dragon despite being quite used to human contact, and she was rather motivated by a want to see him improve. To see her work on him paying up. "Shimmer, I'm sorry for calling you a bad dragon." She started.
That caught him a bit off-guard, as he understood most of what had been said but thought Hermione would still be angry with him.
"Shimmer not bad?" He asked to confirm.
"No, you're not bad."
"Good." He nodded, happy to see they had finally come to reason.
"But!" Hermione quickly added. "What you did, was wrong."
He frowned again, starring at her and trying to see what he did that was so wrong.
"Why?"
"You wanted to help Norberta, right?" She asked, even if the Headmaster asked him this very question barely a minute ago.
"Yes."
"That's good. But do you remember what me and Hagrid told you about helping Norberta?"
And now that she said it, he did recalled the many times where they told him that Hagrid would be the one deciding how to raise Norberta, with Shimmer even agreeing to let them do as they pleased. And he was fine with that, truly, but he thought that Norberta could use some help to get better at surviving on her own.
"Yes." He conceded, calming down some more.
"Listen, Shimmer. We're happy with you wanting to help Norberta grow up, but it's how you did it that is wrong. If you want to help Norberta the next time, I want you to tell me or Hagrid before, okay?"
Well that wasn't a big deal, if he just had to talk with them before. He could do that.
"Okay."
Sighing in relief, Hermione closed her eyes for a long second before turning toward the headmaster.
"Should we give him a punishment, sir? I don't know what punishment would work on him."
"We must, else he'll do it again. But I don't think making him copy a few hundred lines would work with him. In addition, his mind is slightly different than ours, and require a slightly different approach." Said Dumbledore.
"Well...besides not giving him any coins for a while, I don't really see what to do." She suggested.
"A simple idea, but one that I believe will be most effective. Shimmer, since your actions got Norberta injured, I forbid anyone to give you any coins until the next week." Announced Dumbledore.
Shimmer may not know the word 'forbid', but he understood that something was wrong. Very, very wrong, since it was about his coins.
"Not understand. Forbid?" He asked.
"It means no coins for you. Until the next week." Explained Hermione.
"What?!" He screeched, his head snapping back in shock.
"Keep it quiet!" Shouted back Snape's voice from the infirmary, which still had its doors opened.
"It is as I said, Shimmer. No coins for you until next week." Repeated Dumbledore.
"What? What? Week?"
"It means four days without coins, Shimmer." Simplified Hermione.
"One... Two... Three... Four... Four!" He shouted, outraged as soon as he understood how long it would be.
"Yes. And it will happen every time you do something bad or wrong." Added Hermione, wanting to really make sure he understood the threat.
"Shimmer sorry!" He whined, not ready to spend so long without getting a single coin.
"No means no Shimmer. No coins until next week." Adamantly refused Hermione.
Shimmer was starting to understand the danger he was in, and how he was powerless in that matter. He could still go try to find coins laying on the ground, but those were rare. Hermione was by far the biggest source of coins he had, with her giving him a coin on average twice or thrice a week. And he only got one coin this week, meaning that he would miss out two coins. Not much, but it still mattered a lot to him.
Defeated, lowered his head, understanding that he wouldn't get coins.
"Now that this matter is settled, I will have a lot to talk about with our gamekeeper. Please go back to your class." Waved them Dumbledore as he went back to the infirmary.
"We're late for charms!" Suddenly realised Hermione, having forgotten about their lessons in the rush to bring Norberta to the healing wing.
"Oh boy." Sighed Ron, knowing what was about to happen as Hermione grabbed him by the sleeve.
"We're so late!" She said, starting to pull Ron with her.
Shimmer was left alone, the infirmary behind him where he could hear the humans talking, and a few whimpers of Norberta here and there, and the fading footsteps of Ron and Hermione in front of him. He didn't wanted to be surrounded by humans right now.
Taking flight, he went to the nearest open window and went back to his tower, saddened over the thought of at least two precious coins lost.
He was still blaming Norberta for all of this. He was the one who knew best how to train another dragon, since he was one himself. How could the humans not see that, he didn't know, but he wouldn't interfere anymore with Norberta's training, seeing where it got him today. She should have known how to open her wings!
AN:
Hi! Valexto at the Keyboard!
That chapter... that chapter was a pain to write.
Sorry for taking so long, not only am I back to full time work, I spent a really, really long time to decide how to decide Norberta's fate.
To me, it's only logical to have her being revealed to the headmaster and the rest of the school as it would have become impossible to hide her forever since she would have become huge very quickly. Next chapter, you'll see what will happen to Norberta.
I had many ideas and several suggestions of yours to think about, all were interesting but some simply didn't fit in the story or couldn't be worked in the way this story is going. Some of your ideas could work as Omakes or one-shots, but I don't plan to do any of this now.
As for Shimmer, well, he is a dragon. Don't expect him to completely understand human concepts and views of the world. I like him this way, slightly confused about the why of human things and simply being of a slightly grey side of morality. He's not really moral, just thinking about survival of the fittest, and thus clashes with Hermione's views of having him being a proper, well mannered dragon. It doesn't mean he can't learn, but no one should expect him to simply accept everything she says as truth. He's also quite prideful, as you've probably noticed, and doesn't take well a certain duo of words.
Well I'm off to bed. I made some notes for the next chapters, so I should be able to work something faster than for this chapter.
See you soon!
