Harry Potter and the Dragon

XX

Flying Into Position

This silence is driving me mad," said Lupin all of a sudden. "It feels so out of place..."

All the other objects were thankful that the candlestick had disturbed the prevailing emptiness; a frightful, disgusting calm annoyingly stressed by Snape's dull ticking.

"Mr. Lupin, do you think it will be safe to go out now?" asked Mrs. Weasley, the hope in her voice unable to hide her anxiety.

"I don't think it advisable." It was the clock who answered. "We just know he's momentarily done. There are still some erect walls out there. He may want to finish his job, and what's more, we don't know if he will ever be in need of us again. You shouldn't risk be reminded that you're no longer useful. It might be painful."

"I never meant to go out and talk to Master! I'm talking about Ron!" The teapot spilled a couple of water drops from her eyes.

"My dear Mrs. Weasley, I've been thinking for a while about your predicament, and let me tell you that it's highly probable that your son may have run away with Harry. If you remember well, every time he escaped he did it in your son's company. I reckon he's far away now, and far safer than us I might add..."

"I hope you're right. This is all so terrible... We've been left by ourselves, we've lost our home, there's no place we can go... And I can cope with all that. But I won't be able to recover from the loss of my son... " Mrs. Weasley started crying.

"Hey, Mom!" exclaimed the 'F' cup. "George and I will go out to look for Ronnie! We're sick of the cupboard, and -"

"Don't even think about that!" the teapot shrieked.

"Listen, please, I think someone's got to go out. A whole day has already passed, and we can't spend the rest of our lives here, even if we have ahead of us something I doubt it could be called a life..." Lupin paused. ""I'll be out to inspect. I think I may have a chance of staying alive after an eventual encounter with Master."

"If you have a chance of surviving his fury, I most certainly do," the clock struck at once. "I'll be out with you, Lupin."

Cautiously, Lupin and Snape left the cupboard they had been hiding in all along. They knew their Master much too well to even think of deserting him completely. After a tantrum, he was always helpless and dispirited. However, this devastation could hardly be called a tantrum. He had never gone so far so as to destroy the whole manor. Never, not even when he was first transformed and had a new set of powers to test.

Both faithful servants walked among the scattered debris, trying to see something beyond the dense cloud of dust that made the air unbreathable. For their acute knowledge of the manor's dimensions they could make it to the hall, now a pile of junk, and started climbing the precarious stairs to the upper stories. Here and there, blackened sections still smoldered in silence, and the smoke added a major contribution to the surrounding pollution.

Suddenly, a lean shadow appeared in the fog, addressing both objects in a businesslike tone. "Hello, I thought everybody had left," said a little telescope ornate with an eccentric design.

"What are you doing here, you silly girl?!" said Snape, emphatically. "Don't you know it's dangerous to be roaming around?"

"I'm not roaming around," replied the telescope. "I'm on my way to the dungeons."

"To the dungeons?! Are you nuts?!" retorted Snape.

"I think somebody's got to go and take care of that wilting rose," she answered calmly. "I thought I was alone. That's why I fancied myself responsible for that."

"There's no point now," said Lupin, sadly. "There's no further use for that rose. All hopes have vanished..."

"I don't agree. Nothing's lost while the rose is still alive. I'll go there, to protect it from anything or anyone that could accelerate its dying process."

"Do as you like, you loony lass," snapped the clock dismissively. "I won't feel guilty if I found you later compressed into a monocle."

Snape set on walking, but Lupin stayed a little behind. "I won't do anything to destroy your admirable faith, girl, but I must, for your own sake, admonish you to be extremely cautious. It's the dungeons where you're going..."

"I know, Mr. Lupin. But you have to know that Master can hardly be there when he's been locked for some time in the boy's room -"

"Really?" Lupin asked, opening his tired eyes.

"Are you positive?" Snape retraced his steps.

"Yes, I'm sure I heard him moaning inside. He's been quiet for a while, though. Maybe he fell asleep..."

"Well, it's good to know his whereabouts. We'll be able to move around the manor more confidently."

After this, Lupin and Snape left the telescope. They were hardly a couple of fractured doors away when they heard her voice again.

"What is that?"

They turned around. Through the smoke, they glimpsed the telescope's wider end resting on the windowsill, completely focused on something outdoors. After casting each other a dubious glance, the clock and the candlestick rejoined her. She was staring at a strange object that was definitely flying closer to the manor each moment.

"Could it be?" asked Lupin, his eyes lighting. "Could it be that the boy's back?"

"If he's back, he'll turn around and leave as soon as he spots the wreckage," remarked Snape bitterly.

"It's not him. It's five or six people... I don't know... Is that human? Well, if it is, it's six people, all of them unknown to me..."

"It can't be worse news," said Lupin shrewdly. "Let them come. We'll see who these people are and what they want."

"I'm afraid the place's a little bit untidy," hissed Snape. "I hope they don't mind..."

***

"Are you sure this is the place?" asked Gilderoy, repulsed.

"Can you see any other manor around?" replied Igor crossly.

"But... but that's not a manor! Maybe it used to be, but now it's just a smoking heap of rubble!" Gilderoy's eyes, eager to reflect dazzling, solid gold, were forced to accept smoky, ethereal silver.

"Probably the Potter boy set fire to it before leaving..." concluded Dolores.

Nobody answered. They were dizzy enough from the boat's rocking and wanted to land as soon as possible. The prospect of a manor on fire was certainly not good.

"After all the fun we've planned we get nothing," murmured Cornelius. "I shouldn't have come. I was about to quit, I hate getting up early with a hangover..."

"What do we do, then?" asked Zacharias, bundling his cloak firmly since it was hellishly cold.

"Let's vote. Who wants to raid a manor that's on fire?" Peter addressed the others.

Nobody raised their arm, or made a sound. Not even a cough was heard, even though Zacharias and Cornelius had complained all along that they had caught a cold for being bathed by the morning dew.

"No one's willing to help me get rid of a beast that could endanger our village?" asked Gilderoy, astonished.

No one was willing to answer either. They all concealed their expressions as much as they could, despite the wind blowing hair away from people's faces.

"All right, then. I'll do it myself. Please, Igor, let's land so I can leave this ship, full of cowards, and find the glory I'll have the pleasure of not sharing..." said Gilderoy sulkily.

"No way, Gild! I won't let you do this! There's nothing here to plunder! Everything's been destroyed! You can get hurt!" berated Zacharias hysterically.

"Shut up, you unmanly deserter! I don't need your silly advice! I'm the only one who's brave enough to face that beast, and the only deserver of the immense wealth I'll get as the price for my heroism!"

With an uncharacteristic quickness, Igor made the boat land near the manor's entrance. Gilderoy reluctantly left the ship, aware that nobody was reconsidering their decision. He took his time checking the weapons and supplies they had taken to the raid, speaking his mind non-stop; he called everybody names and insulted their parentage. As soon as the heavily loaded blond was ready to enter the place the boat took off again, its seedpod shape only altered by the blond head of anxious young Zacharias.

Gilderoy sat near the entrance and started crying. With eyes blurred from tears, he caught sight of the shrinking ship and sighed, depressed. Back in the boat, Zacharias had refocused his attention on the current plan of having a barbeque in Cornelius' backyard since the weather was so nice. After some time flying, the five-person party was so deeply concentrated in that easier and more agreeable mission that they didn't notice a party of four that was lurking behind a tall treetop.

"It seems they're going back! They'll find out you've escaped!" Hermione hissed in Harry's ear.

"Yeah... I shouldn't have forced Hagrid to stay. I didn't think they'd chicken out and go back so soon..."

"They're almost out of sight. Wait... Gilderoy's not in the boat!" exclaimed the girl.

"You're right!" Harry squinted. He turned to look at the girl. "Let's go. We have to find out what the fuck is that asshole doing."

As it was safe to continue flying, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who were riding Buckbeak, left the protection of the treetops and darted as straight as they could towards the manor. Harry had tied a saddlebag to the hippogriff that contained, besides Hermione's book of spells, the washed golden robes, the mirror, and hanging from a stripe, the broomstick the dragon had given to Harry when they'd last seen each other. Harry knew it wasn't proper to give a present back, but he needed more than one excuse to speak to the dragon again. That was the reason why they were using Buckbeak, for if the dragon accepted the broomstick, they had a means to go back to Hogsmeade without having to cross the centaur-laden forest. And, Harry thought intimately, if the dragon accepted him back, Hermione would be able to go back on her own.

Nagging the hippogriff to fly faster, Harry crowned the posibilities with an insane, single thought: I don't want to think of what Gilderoy could say to the dragon if they meet...That would certainly fuck things up.