Melanie glanced up when she sensed the presence of two others. Closer inspection revealed the presence to be the Carrow twins, Hestia and Flora.
"Do you need something?" asked Melanie.
Flora spoke first.
"We want to join your faction," said Flora.
"We noticed that you were subtly creating your own via Greengrass and want to become part of it."
Melanie calmly put her quill down.
"Why come to me?" she asked.
"The pure blood faction only sees us as brood mares, and the so-called light faction would judge us because of the actions of our cousins and their service to the Dark Lord," said Hestia.
"You, however, are a wild card that could offer us an out," said Flora.
"Serving an unknown Lady is preferable to being married off or being watched like a hawk for perceived infractions," said Hestia.
"There's also the fact that so far you've shown a certain sort of loyalty and care towards your vassals and potential allies."
Melanie had a calm expression.
"Are you really prepared to hand over your futures to a potential unknown?"
"Dumbledore might be powerful, but he's ancient and his hold isn't as strong as he might think. He can play a king all he likes, but he doesn't do it properly," complained Hestia.
"And while the Dark Lord promised many things, he never delivered on anything except violence and fear," said Flora.
"You however established dominance in a way that not even the old bloods could dispute, and even had Professor Snape acknowledge your claim as the top mage of Slytherin in a single move. You also dealt with those that would disagree with your rule in a way that made your stance clear and put a permanent end to known idiots who wouldn't hesitate to stab you in the back," said Hestia.
"In short, we'd rather throw our lot in with you," they finished together.
Melanie had a calm expression on her face.
"I accept. However I will need time to assess your abilities before I can give you any proper roles," she replied.
"Perfectly acceptable," said Hestia.
"We look forward to working with you, Lady Melanie," said Flora.
And with that, the two gave her a brief nod of respect before returning to what they were doing.
Melanie was sure her grandmother would be quite pleased. She hadn't expected finding potential members of her court to be so easy, but then again she knew all too well that the truly capable were always drawn to those of power. And her family had fully prepared her for such a scenario.
~~*~*~*~*
Melanie had to stare at the black egg Hagrid had in his hut. While he had initially been a little bit leery of her, after hearing rumors of what she had done in the Slytherin dorm, the two had become fast friends over their love of "misunderstood creatures". Seeing her happily coo over the thestral herd and hand over raw meat without a care of the mess had endeared her to him in short order. Even if Fang took a bit to get used to her presence, it soon realized she was a 'friendly' being who would happily sneak him treats.
"Hagrid...where exactly did you find a lesser dragon egg?" asked Melanie slowly.
She wasn't the only one to stare...Silver and Sebek never thought they'd get this close to a real dragon egg...at least not until Melanie became pregnant anyway.
"I won it at the pub! He seemed rather happy to be rid of it, matter of fact," said Hagrid.
"This one is close to hatching, which really makes me wonder how exactly it was removed from the mother without the man being roasted. Dragon mothers are very territorial, especially near hatching day," said Melanie.
"Been reading up on it myself! This here is a Norwegian Ridgeback!" said Hagrid proudly.
Melanie took a careful whiff of the egg.
"I think this is a female, but I can't be certain," said Melanie. "In any case, there's no way we can keep it here after it's hatched."
Hagrid looked utterly devastated at the thought.
"It can't be that bad."
Melanie gave him a flat, but empathetic look.
"Hagrid, you're not thinking of the big picture here. What do you think your Ministry will do if they find a half-feral dragon this close to their children? The pure bloods alone would raise a massive stink, even if you did get permission to keep it. Plus, do you really think this little one would be happy this close to humans? Dragons are natural predators, so what would happen to the creatures in the forest, or even Fang?"
Hagrid hung his head.
"I don't want to send them away so soon after hatching. And I don't want to explain to the sanctuaries that handle them where I got it."
Melanie looked at him aghast.
"What in the name of the Seven made you think I was going to suggest one of those dragon sanctuaries?" she replied. "I was going to suggest sending them to Briar Valley. We can take much better care of it there and we could send you progress reports along with actual photos of it growing up."
Hagrid blinked.
"Progress reports?" he said confused.
"The ruling royal family of Briar Valley is a line of dark fey," said Sebek proudly. "They are dragons who can take on human form. If anyone could care for this little one, it's them. At the very least they would never kill your friend here for parts like the wizards do."
"Plus they could easily arrange for you to visit your dragon whenever you wished with very little restrictions, so long as you don't try to reclaim it. Honestly, the hatchling would be much happier there than in a sanctuary," said Melanie.
"The real hassle would be explaining to father and the others why they need to make a trip to Hogsmeade long enough to relocate the hatchling..." said Silver.
Melanie wrote a short, concise letter to Lilia and her father regarding the dragon egg in Hagrid's possession. The egg was too close to hatching to relocate immediately, and would need to grow up a bit before they could safely send it off to the summer palace.
It was downright exciting to see a dragon egg hatch, even a lesser species like a Norwegian Ridgeback.
Hagrid had a misty-eyed expression on his face seeing the hatchling.
"Hello Norberta!" said Hagrid, after Melanie discreetly told him it was a female. The hatchling hiccuped a small burst of fire, singing his beard.
Silver snorted without thinking.
"What's so funny?" asked Melanie.
"Father once commented that Lord Malleus did the same thing to his hair when he first hatched. That's why his bangs are lopsided," said Silver.
Melanie let out a bit of a giggle at the mental image. The newly named Norberta caught her scent and froze a bit. Melanie looked the newly hatched dragonet in the eye and smiled.
"Night's blessing upon you," she said in ancient dragonic. Something in Norberta relaxed, and she let out a happy chirp. Some form of energy seemed to settle into the hatchling.
For the next month, Norberta grew quickly. Perhaps too quickly, considering Hagrid lived in a wooden hut. At least with Melanie around to translate, it took little time for her to understand that eating Fang was "not okay".
Finally, things came to a head. Regina dropped a scroll on Silver, with Lilia's handwriting.
"Father is waiting outside Hog's Head with Sir Baul," said Silver.
Sebek perked up at that.
"I know it will hurt, but the wizards would never let Norberta stay so close to a school with their heirs," said Melanie with sympathy. "Better to get this out of the way before anyone gets any more suspicious."
Melanie had already noticed several of her housemates giving Hagrid's hut a suspicious look.
Skipping dinner, the trio headed straight for Hagrid's hut.
Norberta was getting antsy...she knew something was up, and she was not happy.
"Wonder how Lord Malleus will react to having another hatchling around?" asked Silver.
Melanie smirked, because if nothing else Norberta would be given a real chance to grow and thrive, without having to compete with the other dragons.
Hearing the knock, Melanie paused for a moment to look out the window. She saw the familiar visage of Hagrid and let him in.
"Well isn't this cozy?" said Lilia with good cheer. Baul was under a cloak, mostly because of how tall he was. Lilia could be mistaken for a student from a distance at least.
Norberta hiccuped another bout of flame. Lilia let out a cheerful laugh.
"Such a healthy girl!" he said appreciatively. "If I may?"
Hagrid beamed at him, seeing how easily Lilia handled the dragonet.
"You've done an exceptional job raising her. She's clearly a healthy baby, and will grow quickly," said Lilia. "And the scale care is better than most could pull off for their first time."
Melanie could see Baul's estimation of Hagrid rise.
"She'll be well taken care of, won't she?" asked Hagrid, fussing over his baby.
"She'll have her own cave, and plenty of game to hunt," said Lilia.
"Melanie's grandmother was rather curious as to the capabilities of the lesser dragons in wizard care. She's taken a personal interest in Norberta," said Baul.
Which meant the dragonet would be in very good hands.
Lilia brought out a rather odd shaped bag, and with a bit of careful maneuvering, managed to put Norberta inside. Hagrid also included a stuffed bear he had bought her, which would likely end up ripped up before the trip was over.
He didn't bother to hide his disappointment that Norberta was being relocated, but knew full well he couldn't keep her. Forget the hazards of a growing dragonet in a wooden house...Melanie had wisely pointed out that the Ministry would throw one hell of a fit if they found out a half-grown dragon was within range of their precious children.
Hagrid could attempt to claim it was perfectly safe, but as Melanie wisely pointed out, dragons were considered a hot commodity item...even a baby one like Norberta.
Hiding her from the Ministry was one thing...Dumbledore might be able to smooth her presence over at the school as some sort of "hand's-on training" for the Dragon Handler career. His clout was potentially strong enough to pull that off. However the same couldn't be said of the students.
All it would take was one person with more greed than sense to cause untold headaches, forcing Hagrid to get rid of his dragon. Melanie had made a pointed list of all the things dragons were used for (which never failed to piss her off), and pointed out that while a fully grown dragon was hard to take down, a baby one was within the range of the upper years...especially if they ganged together against her. And there were enough greedy or desperate students that such a scenario was a real risk.
Better to relocate her someplace she'd be safe now than chance it.
Never mind the trouble it would cause the headmaster if Norberta had to defend herself against such malicious intent.
Hagrid had reluctantly agreed to her point, as he was all too aware of human nature. Didn't mean he had to like that fact though.
When Melanie and the others headed back to the castle, they found themselves facing down the battle-axe known as Minerva McGonagall. She was not pleased. And beside her was the pest known as Ron Weasley, who had already irritated the three of them within the first month.
Mostly because he treated Melanie like she was a disgusting person simply for being sorted into Slytherin, despite the fact they barely had any interaction with him personally.
Silver and Sebek disliked him because of his lack of personal hygiene and the way he spoke to them for being "friends with that slimy Snake". It had taken everything in Sebek's power not to punch that arrogant ass in the face the first time he addressed Melanie as such.
This...was not going to end well.
A short time later...
"Detention? We weren't even out after curfew!" said Sebek fuming.
"I agree," said Melanie scowling. "We also did not leave school grounds or bring the outsiders in personally."
"At least Ron got stuck in detention with us," said Silver. Though he was not pleased.
Melanie had heard rumors that Snape was exceptionally partial to Slytherins, but she wasn't going to use that to get out of a mere detention. By all accounts, most of the corporal punishments had been removed from active use over a century ago. Most of the upper classmen spoke of having to write lines for several hours, to cleaning areas of the castle that the house elves were instructed to leave be. At worst, they'd be stuck cleaning cauldrons with Snape.
So you could imagine their surprise when it came out that they'd have to go into the forest with Hagrid for the night. Which was utterly confusing, because the headmaster had made it clear the forest was off-limits to pretty much anyone under fifth year, and they would be going at night which made the risk factor even higher.
It could have been worse...they could have been stuck listening to Draco Malfoy whine about how unfair it all was, rather than the arrogant brat Ron.