I do not own nor possess any right over Harry Potter, all rights belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Chapter 7

Shimmer woke up as usual, stretched a bit and took off for his morning hunt, flying through a very grey sky that looked ready to make rain fall upon the castle. His wings quickly took him above the forest where he often found mouses and other little prey. He remained high, keeping the advantage of surprise and observing everything around with his excellent sight for half an hour before he spotted a prey of the best quality.

A hare, a fine meal indeed. Not that it was rare but catching one was always a bit tricky due to their speed on the ground. Of course he was faster but he couldn't manoeuvre as fast as them so a bit of stealth was always required when trying to catch one.

Settling on eating this prey, he positioned himself to be in the right direction, observed for a few more seconds and waiting for the right timing before diving at full speed with his wings closed. Shimmer was so fast that the hare didn't got more than a few seconds to raise its head before getting violently pushed on the ground, sharp claws keeping it stuck. Sticking like lightning, a large number of fangs ended it's life almost as fast as the attack happened and in less than a minute Shimmer had his meal. His sharp and powerful fangs made it a child's play to eat the hare and almost nothing remained in short time, a meal that he didn't had in quite a while and would let him satiated for two days.

Returning to the air with a powerful flap of his wings, Shimmer returned to the castle to see a little rain falling on the numerous roof tiles before sliding on the ground. It wasn't the best feeling to be wet but Shimmer didn't really mind as he didn't had the choice if he wanted to go back to his lair. Going faster, he reached the window of his lair quickly and shook himself a bit before resting on his hoard, the feeling and scent of gold instantly making him forget about the water outside and it didn't took long before he fell asleep.

He awoke only an hour latter from his digestive nap and looked outside to see that the grey clouds were still there but at least it had stopped raining. Satisfied so far with his morning, Shimmer reached the window and jumped to go see his favorite human friend and flew down around the tower to reach the room where she usually was.

But to his disappointment Hermione wasn't here today, he did knocked on the window a few times in an attempt to get her attention but it was all in vain as after ten minutes no one showed up. And that wouldn't do, how would he get his daily coins if Hermione wasn't even present to gave it to him?

'Hermione.' He thought briefly, thinking about how the use of name could make it easier for him to get coins. It was indeed easier if he could call the human so he gave it a try.

"Hermione!" He screeched loudly, looking through the window in another attempt to see her but that was for naught as no one replied.

A bit grumpy, he jumped in the air and flew toward the tower of the old man only to see that he was too absent. Even if Shimmer did like to stare at the gold displayed in the office, it wasn't very interesting if he couldn't access it. So it's an even grumpier dragon that left the headmaster's window to fly down toward the other building of the castle, reaching for a small hole in the wall that allowed him to enter the school unseen.

Looking around, he saw that the corridors were almost completely empty, quite a luck for him. Staying close to the high ceiling, he moved around and was as stunned as always when he passed near the many paintings hanging on the walls. Not only were there people and creatures moving inside them like if they weren't trapped but they also didn't smelled like living creatures, an anomaly that he couldn't understand.

"The little burner is back!" Screamed one lady in a painting on the opposite wall, quickly moving in other paintings as fear spread among the paintings, all afraid of the flames of the dragon.

"Fear not! This one is no match for me, Sir Gallen Strongfeet!" Said another painting, a man in armour rushing toward him with a sword in hand.

Shimmer watched with amusement the man come in the painting right beneath him and trying to force him to go away, even if he was just a painting. He understood perfectly well why they were afraid but he didn't felt threatened in any way, after all they were just moving colours to him.

"Shoo! Shoo! Go away!" Firmly said the probable knight.

Knowing that staying here would only be bad, he left and flew in another part of the castle where the paintings were not aware yet of his presence and just lazily moved around in the empty corridors. He did so until he heard a voice that he recognized beyond a large wooden door and stopped right above it to listen.

"It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long." Said the obvious voice of Hermione.

"You do it, then, if you're so clever," Another voice that he barely recognized said with a snarky tone.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Hermione said.

"Oh, well done!" cried a cherry person, clapping. "Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!"

Curious, Shimmer remained above the door for a few more minutes before the classes apparently stopped and a flow of students entered the corridors. Climbing slightly higher to remain unseen, he stood there until the unmistakable hairs of Hermione appeared and he followed them, keeping his eyes on her before leaving his spot and passing well above the students, too taken in their own discussions to notice the golden dragon flying above them.

As Hermione entered a new room with several students, he took opportunity of a small gap in the door and entered in a flash before it closed and he quickly reached the ceiling to hide and wait. Observing the room, he was quite surprise to see a cat on the table and wondered if he could eat it and saw that the animal was looking straight at him.

Little did he know, Minerva McGonagall was trying to remain calm. Her students knew by now that she was the cat but by remaining in her animagus form she could hide her fears a bit as she was starring at the dragon who entered her class with her students. Thankfully the dragon didn't seem to be hostile but she wouldn't take any risk and attacking it was one of those risks. The first thing to do was to make sure that none would even notice him in the first place and hope for the best, she was good with spells and catching a dragon as small as this one wasn't outside her capabilities but doing so with a full class of first years was too dangerous. Transforming back to her human form, she made sure to keep her eyes on her students.

"Hello children, today we will continue to transfigure a match into a needle for those who didn't succeeded last time, that is everyone except Miss Granger for whom I have prepared something different." Started Professor McGonagall with a stern voice, making sure that no student would even dare to think looking around in this class.

The whole lot of students remained silent and they all drew their wands and notes as she gave each of them a match before addressing to Hermione, placing a little mouse locked in a glass box before her.

"Miss Granger, I want you to try the Mice to Snuffboxes spell. This spell is a bit trickier than the needle one as you will be changing a living creature into a box. The prettier the box the better, I'm sure you can do it but take your time reading these notes first." Advised Professor McGonagall to her favorite student.

"Yes mam."

The Deputy Headmistress turned around and gave a subtle look toward the dragon to see that he thankfully hadn't moved and seemed very captivated by the mouse. She hoped it wouldn't gave him any idea and made sure to keep an eye on him at all times.

Perched high near the ceiling, Shimmer was only looking at Hermione and the strange woman who somehow managed to appear as a cat before. Even five minutes after she did it he simply couldn't understand how it was possible and wondered if all the other animals were human disguised, it started to hurt his head just by thinking about it so he focused on Hermione and the little snack before her, wondering what she was waiting for to eat it. Since the mouse didn't changed into a human he supposed that not all animals were humans, a reassuring feeling as he didn't want to know if he ate one disguised as a hare.

But his eyes widened and he recoiled a bit when the mouse in front of Hermione transformed into a golden box in an instant, right after a flick of her wand.

Minerva couldn't help but let out a chuckle when she saw the face of the dragon at Hermione's success, attracting the attention of her students for a second before she managed to get back her straight face.

"Very good Miss Granger, five points for Gryffindor." She congratulated her student with a smile. "Now change it back and keep practicing if you please."

Shimmer watched with fascination for an hour, seeing the mouse being changed into a box before being returned to normal. He also gave a look at the other humans who were changing a stick into a thinner and silvery stick, even if he couldn't even understand why anyone would ever do anything like this.

Soon the class ended and he moved to leave when he saw the eyes of the professor on him, eyeing him with narrowed eyes that promised something. But what he could only wonder. So he simply left and remained in the corridor only to find out that Hermione had disappeared and he now had nothing left to do beside going back to his hoard.

Minerva got out of her class quickly after the dragon and saw him fly around the corridors for a bit before going inside a little hole that lead outside judging by the dragon flying by a window ten seconds later. Even if she didn't wanted to admit it, mainly to Dumbledore as he would not stop to annoy her afterward, the little dragon was indeed a cute little one. Plus, she never saw a dragon as calm and inquisitive as this one. He was still stealing coins though.

Back in his lair, Shimmer remained there for only a short time before feeling that it was time to meet with Hermione.

Making his way through the air, he arrived to see the window opened this time for his greatest pleasure and landed right on the window sill. His arrival didn't went unnoticed as Hermione quickly made her presence know.

"Shimmer! How are you today?" She asked cheerily.

"Hermione." He replied with his slightly raspy voice, jumping on the ground with the help of his wing/arms to land.

"Right, we probably won't have a proper conversation before a while." Hermione said more for herself than him as he didn't understood the meaning of her statement.

"Hermione." He repeated as he got closer to the bed she was sat upon.

"Yes, yes. You want your coins but I want to try something new today." The bushy brown hair girl replied, taking a sickle in her hand.

Shimmer stopped right in front of her, waiting patiently even if the simple sight of the coin was enough to get his patience cut in half, and extended his head to catch the coin under the watchful eyes of Hermione.

"Go on." She encouraged him.

He took the coin as usual and started to turn when he was stopped.

"Shimmer."

Turning around, he saw that she had her hand opened in front of him but completely empty. Surprised and a bit confused, he looked at both her empty hand and her head, trying to understand what she wanted.

"Give me the coin back please." She asked, making a motion with her hand to go toward her.

'Why should I give you my coin?' He hissed angrily. If there was one thing he never did before was to give a coin, he always took them but never did he even thought about giving one. This was an absurd idea!

"Shimmer. Give me the coin please." She repeated with a strangely authoritarian voice, one that he would not have expected from her.

A bit confused, he looked at her eyes to see that Hermione was frowning at her and it made her look almost intimidating. He never considered the young human as a danger but right now he realized that she towered over him like any other human and that was one of the reasons he was wary of them. Still, he wouldn't give the coin back since it was his now and he had to bring it back to the hoard.

"Shimmer." She said again, her frown deepening even more.

Now he really felt like it would be a bad idea to disobey her. He briefly wondered if she would stop giving him coins if he didn't obeyed, which was troublesome. And more worrying, he also remembered seeing her change a mouse into a box not even twenty minutes ago and he feared that she might do the same to him if he made her angry.

Going against his most natural instincts, he slowly crossed the short distance between the two of them, pondering at each step if he was doing the right thing, and opened his mouth to place the coin in Hermione's hand. As soon as he did so, he watched with surprise as her frown vanished to be replaced with a wide smile and a little glint in her eyes.

"Very good Shimmer, I knew you could do it!" She cheered before giving him not one but two coins.

More than shocked, he moved to take the coins and after a quick nod of approval from Hermione grabbed them only to look at her, afraid that she would take his coins again.

"Don't worry Shimmer, these ones are yours now." She said with a smile.

He placed the coins on the ground near the window and returned next to her, placing his head on her lap as she let out a little coo of surprise.

"You're almost like my parent's cat you know?" Hermione said fondly, stroking his head for a few seconds before he started to purr slowly, remembering her even more of said cat.

They remained like that for a few minutes before footsteps and voice came from the other side of the closed door and Hermione quickly figured out that it would do her no good to be seen with Shimmer. Standing up and ignoring the small indignant cry from the little dragon, she took the coins on the ground and handed them to him as she pointed the window.

"You need to leave Shimmer, nobody can know that you're here!" She quickly whispered as Shimmer caught the coins.

A bit confused but understanding what she meant, he reached the window and jumped barely a second before Parvati entered while waving at another Gryffindor of second year.

"Hermione? What are you doing here? I swear you're deliberately trying to stay here as much as you can." Said Parvati not really surprised at this point.

"I just like to be here." Replied Hermione very naturally.

"With the window wide open? It's starting to get cold you know."

"I like to watch the sky."

"Sure." Concluded Parvati before sitting on her own bed.

Focusing on Shimmer, Hermione wondered what she would be teaching the dragon next time. Even if it might have not seem very important, she managed to force the dragon to willingly give back the coin and this meant that he could learn what was right and what was wrong. He would need to know that if she wanted to teach him how to speak, the bases of social and moral interactions would have to come later.