Dragon's Blood

Christmas came and went. The Weasleys had a big celebration for Bill's seventeenth birthday which had come at the end of November. Amidst the noise and chaos of the Burrow, Percy faded into the background as usual. After spending a week trying to stay out of the way of the twins with their pranks, both magical and non-magical, Percy was glad to escape to spend New Year with Oliver. The Wood home was peaceful and quiet, compared to that of the Weasleys.

Returning to Hogwarts in January, Percy and the other first-years were learning far more practical magic than they had in the autumn. In Charms they'd mastered colour-changing charms and had moved on to making objects fly. In Transfiguration, they'd gone from changing matches into needles to changing knives into forks to changing saucers into teacups. In Defence, having spent the first term concentrating on defensive theory and the definition of dark magic, they were now working on disarming spells. Steven, Thomas, Oliver and Percy were all doing reasonably well in all their classes, except for History of Magic, which only Percy excelled in, and Potions, which both Percy and Steven still dreaded.

In February, Slytherin beat Ravenclaw by fifty points in their second quidditch match. Slytherin were now in second place outright behind Gryffindor. Two weeks later Gryffindor faced Hufflepuff on a wet and windy day. Percy and his friends shivered in the stands as they waited for the match to start

"Does Quidditch ever get rained off", asked Steven, as the rain grew heavier.

"Of course not." Oliver said, impatiently. "It's not a cricket match"

["Lining up for Gryffindor – Chasers, Jeremy Hardcastle, Catriona Ferguson, back after her recent illness and Amanda Tippett; Beaters, Dominic and Damien Ridley; Keeper, Adam Lovelace and Seeker, Charlie Weasley. Lining up for Hufflepuff – Chasers, Sophie Macmillan, Jude Cooper, Piers Frobisher; Beaters, William Connors and Jack Harper; Keeper, Michael Frobisher and Seeker, Dora Tonks"]

Cheers went up, Madam Hooch blew her whistle and the match began. Scoring was slow due to the weather, and after two hours, Gryffindor was up 60-30.

["…Macmillan attempts to score for Hufflepuff but misses. Amanda Tippett has the quaffle but gets hit by a bludger from Connors. She's almost knocked off her broom. Ferguson has the quaffle and she dodges a bludger and …she scores 70-40. That's Ferguson's sixth goal, the rain doesn't seem to be affecting her at all. And it looks like Weasley and Tonks have both spotted the snitch, but it's hard to tell in this weather … and Weasley has the snitch – Gryffindor win 220-30"]

"Thank goodness for that. I'm freezing." Steven pulled his cloak tighter around him as they started back to the castle.

Charlie came over to join them. "That was close. Dora almost beat me. Just think Hufflepuff could've been leading the cup!"

"That doesn't bear thinking about," added Charlie's best friend, Jeremy Hardcastle. "How would we ever hold our heads up again."

"Hey, I heard that", laughed Dora. "In any you only won 'cause your arms are longer than mine.

The rest of the Gryffindor team arrived as Dora re-joined the Hufflepuffs. Oliver went to congratulate Catriona Ferguson, a tall, thin, pale-skinned fifth year.

"That was some performance," he said with a grin. "Play like that against Slytherin and we're sure to win the cup"

Catriona looked nervous and turned her head away.

"I wouldn't count on her playing a match in late April, if I were you". Oliver and Percy turned to see who had spoken. It was a second-year boy, who bore a slight resemblance to Catriona.

"Shut up, Malcolm", snapped Catriona.

A few days later in Potions, Amyas Goyle managed to blow up his cauldron, while trying to mix a growing potion. Percy ended up being drenched in the potion and grew twenty feet in an instant. Professor Snape promptly deducted five points from Percy for not getting out of the way in time, before sending him to the hospital wing. When he arrived, he found Professor Havelock and Professor Kettleburn, who taught Care of Magical Creatures talking to Madam Pomfrey.

"The transformation is almost complete," reported Madam Pomfrey. "Do you have it".

"Dragon's blood is hard to come by." said Professor Kettleburn. "How much would you need?"

"That depends on …" Professor Havelock stopped speaking as he noticed Percy. "What happened to you?" he asked.

"G-g-g-growing p-potion," stammered Percy.

"I'll say!" Madam Pomfrey huffed. She took a vial of a pink potion and a small cup from her cupboard. "Drink this one cup at a time. Wait after each cup and see much you've shrunk. You don't want another overdose.

It took three hours for Percy to return to his normal size. During this time, he mused over what he'd heard. Returning to the common room, Percy read "Magical Draughts and Potions" from start to finish but couldn't find what he was looking for. He'd have to check the library, unfortunately that would have to wait until morning.

Percy went to the library at the first opportunity.

"Excuse m-m-me", he said to Madam Pince. "D-d-o you h-have any b-b-books on d-d-d-dragon's b-b-blood?"

"Second shelf, third stack to the right; "12 Magical Uses of Dragon's Blood" by Albus Dumbledore"

"Th-thank you"

Percy checked out the book before rushing to Charms. The lesson was spent making egg cups dance. Steven broke his when it danced off the desk. Mary-Anne pointed her wand at the broken pieces.

"Reparo", she said. The broken pieces mended themselves.

"Well done, Miss Fraser," said Professor Flitwick. "Twenty points to Gryffindor."

Straight after dinner, Percy went to his dormitory to read "12 Magical Uses of Dragon's Blood". The subject was fascinating, dragon's blood, it seemed, had many varied uses from healing magic to defence. Most interesting, however, was chapter 8.

"Dragon's Blood is one of the primary ingredients in a potion to enable a vampire to walk in sunlight"