Dragon Wings

Dragon Wings

Chapter Four - The Search for a Seeker

A friend to all is a friend to none.

-- Aristotle

20th November

Fridays started with History of Magic, which meant that the third-year Octopus students could sleep a bit longer, during class.

Professor Celeste Trigo, a tall witch with brown, shoulder-length hair, was waiting for them in the dungeon classroom. She was standing in front of her desk, and greeting the students while they entered the room and went to their own desks.

"Good morning, everyone," she said with a dull smile, closing the door after the last student.

"Today we are going to study the werewolves' habits and their relationship with the Mermish people, which is quite interesting," she began.

Twenty-eight sleepy eyes followed Captain Shark while thirteen noses insisted on laying down on the desks. She sat on her chair, behind her desk and the sound of the chair moving on the floor made them awake a little. This class was shared with the Crab House, and the most of the students were about to fall asleep. However, Justin was very awake, because it was his favorite class.

"A werewolf is, as everyone knows, a human who becomes a wolf when it is a full moon," continued Professor Trigo, "and what he - I mean it does, and how to deal with it, is not an issue for this class. You'll certainly learn about them in Defense Against the Dark Arts. What is important for our class is the way they act with the Mermish people," she said, opening her eyes wide in order to make them realize that it was an important subject and that they should pay attention. In spite of Richard's snoring noises on his right side, Justin did pay attention to the class, as it was his favorite subject.

"There is a ceremony that will always be remembered among some magical communities in the world. The werewolves made a pact with the Mermish people in 1853. This is a hidden fact in the History of Magic, because it's not common knowledge. Actually, it is a kind of dark magic, the ritual they have. It happens because, in 1853, as I've said, an underwater being found a man in the sea. He had been thrown off a ship, which went from Brazil to Portugal. It had been said that he was ill and the people that breathed the same air that he did would die in no more than a week. He was immediately thrown off the ship, and the Muggles didn't even care if it was true or not."

Justin wrote down the facts on his parchment and kicked Richard in order to wake him up, because he had fallen under Justin's parchment while sleeping. Professor Trigo was sitting on her chair, talking and looking at the ceiling, not caring if they were asleep or awake. They were the ones that would fail the exam, not her!

"He was found by an underwater being, who brought the man to his Mermish village and they took care of him for several days. In fact, he was almost dead because he had swallowed too much water. The Mermish people dealt with that, you know that they have such well-developed medicine, better than the Muggles - that's why the mediwizards wanted to have an understanding with them, and why they killed so many Mermish people in the twenties; but that's another story for another day," she paused for a moment and drank some water. Then, she continued, "the man recovered very well, in five days he was just fine. When they prepared to bring the man to the surface, it was a full moon," this was said with a terrific tone, as if it was the end of the world.

Justin gasped, as did a Crab girl on the other side of the room. Justin smiled briefly at the girl who understood what he meant with that smile: they were attentively listening to Captain Shark while all the rest of the students were sleeping.

"What happened? Yes, yes, that's where the root of the question is. The man would make the transformation. But somehow the water and the Mermish people's medicinal drugs made him to reverse what he would be, and he didn't turn into a werewolf. He waited some days at the bottom of the sea, and when he returned to land, he spread the news of what had happened to him: he had been healed from turning into the malign being he had been every month. Even on the next full moon, the transformation didn't happen; he was totally normal now."

She opened a book on her desk and paused for a few seconds.

"Many other men who were werewolves tried to do the same: they threw themselves into the ocean with the Mermish people, who brought them to their villages and tried to heal them: they would be glad to help end the existence of such evil beings. However, they didn't succeed. Never could they heal this malady again - although no one knows why - and there are still many werewolves in our community. However, the great majority of the werewolves have agreed that it had been a great event, and they were always thankful to the Mermish people."

Justin kicked Richard, who had fallen onto his parchment again. The boy opened his brown eyes and tried to catch up on the class.

"Every three years, during Yule, the werewolves sacrifice a woman, normally a girl," continued Professor Trigo, "and give her body to the sea, to feed the fish which will be the food of the Mermish people. It is a bloody event but it is very important for the community, especially here where we are, because the werewolves don't usually come to land bordered by sea, like islands or coastal villages. It rarely happens. Actually they have a method of choosing the woman they will sacrifice, but it isn't very clear so I should not talk about it."

Richard couldn't hear that, "You noticed?" he asked Justin. "She talks about it like it is a normal thing, to kill a girl and put her body in the sea. She speaks that way because it isn't her body that is thrown away to be eaten by the fish!" he commented, and put his head on his desk again.

"Here we shall not have problems with girls getting caught by werewolves. Don't panic," she said. "The werewolves don't like to come here, because near us, more specifically on Etamin Island, there is a colony of drag -" she paused for a second and looked at the class, and continued with her speech after making sure no one had noticed what she had said, "dwarves, yes, dwarves..."

"Richard," Justin whispered, kicking his colleague once again.

"What," the other demanded, looking at him.

"Did you hear that?" he asked. "She was going to say a colony of dragons but she quickly realized what she was about to say and said dwarves instead."

"Really?" he opened his eyes and paid attention to what she was saying. "Perhaps she will continue, pay attention to her mispronounced words, she might say something about the dragons again."

It was the first time that Richard was interested in Professor Trigo's class, but he was not lucky: she started talking about their homework and soon it was time for them to leave, which he and the rest of the class did with enthusiasm.

***

Sebastion entered the castle walking rapidly. He desperately wanted to find the peace of the building's stone walls - Herbology class made him almost crazy. The Salopian Yellow Orchids were so damned poisoning that a person was almost driven insane by smelling them. Professor Shayra Stormd'sky herself had felt dizzy when they started to pick them out of the hats. The Salopian Orchids were cultivated in a special climate, and the Azores islands were one of the few places where they grew. Actually, the Muggles had never seen any, because the yellow plants had to be treated weekly and they must be kept in red hats, a male and a female plant in each, during the first two months of growth. They were a strange being, and they loved red, although no one knew why. A Mermaid girl, Sebastion's colleague, who was wearing a red sweater behind her dark blue class clothes, was attacked by one of the Orchids that didn't reproduce that time. The weird plant found a way of wrapping her dark blue clothes and hugged her red sweater so tightly that it was a problem to remove it: when they tried to get it off, a poisoned gas was emitted from its leaves and their vision wasn't any good for a few seconds. They spent twenty minutes of the class trying to help the girl and finally a boy removed the baby Orchid from the girl by using a mask, and being sent to the Hospital Wing afterwards, in order to make sure that any poison hadn't been breathed in. Professor Stormd'sky quickly made them stop their tasks, saying that she would ask the sixth years to pick the yellow plants out of the hats in their next class, and explained how to do it rhetorically. "First you have to make sure that the male and the female Salopian Yellow Orchids are linked by their roots. If they are, then you can pick them out. It's easy; you'll make working pairings and then pull both plants out of the red hat at the same time, making sure the hat turns violet when you're done. The change of color means that a new plant is growing; you have to check it very quickly because the hat returns to the original red color a few seconds after you pull the adult Orchids out," she had said.

Then it had been paradise: the bell rang and Sebastion was finally able to come out and breathe some fresh air. The poison of the Orchids was quite strong, even when they were in the procreating stage.

Sebastion walked to the Great Hall, where he would meet the Mermaid Quidditch Team. When he arrived, the other players were all there: the chasers, Regina, Pedro and Daniel and the beaters, Mark and Mariana, the Captain of the team.

"I was starting to worry, I thought we had lost the keeper too," said Daniel when Sebastion was sitting at the Mermaid table, near them.

"You don't have to be scared, I won't leave," he said with a smile.

Actually that was why they were there that morning. Andrew Stormcloud had somehow run away with his Nimbus 1001 - Special Edition during the night of their Quidditch game, after the Whales had won. It had been twenty days ago, and none of the students knew anything about his whereabouts. They did know that Andrew's parents didn't seem worried, so they assumed that the ex-Seeker had gone home. It would be a good story: how he had crossed the ocean flying on a broom...

"Do you have any suggestions?" Mariana asked the others, who shook their heads no. "Then I'll announce that the position is open, I'll put some announcement parchments in our common room, if you don't mind."

"Okay," said Daniel, "that's fine. I wonder who we will find. The try-outs must be held quickly because we still have to train for our last game this semester, and we have less then a month. You must agree that a month is not enough to train a new player, especially a Seeker."

"It's true," Mariana stated, "I hope we get volunteers for the position tomorrow. I'll write on the posters that the deadline for those interested will be tomorrow right after breakfast. I'm going to make the parchments right now, and it is important that we meet again this afternoon."

"We'll be here before lunch time," Sebastion said, speaking for everyone.

"Then, you're dismissed," Mariana said in a joking tone. "See you."

***

The second class of the morning was Defense Against the Dark Arts, with Professor Josh Darkwater. While the Octopus boys were walking to the classroom on the sixth floor, Richard brought up the subject.

"We had a lot of work to do these last few weeks and weren't able to talk about when we would go to Etamin Island again," he whispered to his friends.

"I think this weekend would be fine; we can do the paper for Professor Slibel this Sunday, it doesn't take much time," said Aidan.

"What is it like there, Douglas?" Richard asked in an antagonizing tone. His friend had gone there on the Halloween night, bringing the Mermaid boy with him, which he totally disapproved of. "How much time does it take to get there?"

Douglas didn't care about Richard's tone. "About an hour, but we have to bring some warm clothes; it is very cold flying over the ocean."

"It is quick, then. We shall go tonight," Richard suggested.

"Tonight?" Justin asked. "Isn't it too dangerous? What if someone catches us running from the academy?"

"No one cared when Douglas went there," he replied, not mentioning Sebastion Kaufmann, the Mermaid boy.

"But it was Halloween night," Aidan said, "it was the feast and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named disappeared that night, too."

"Okay, but I think it's worth the risk. Are you coming?" Richard asked near the entrance of the classroom.

"I... okay, I'm going," Justin said.

Aidan also nodded his head yes, and Douglas didn't reply because Professor Darkwater approached and they entered the classroom.

***

Gilbert was in his office reading the Daily Prophet, the wizarding paper, trying to find some information about the Muggle mass murderer twenty days ago. Sirius Black had been sent to Azkaban, but Gilbert wasn't sure that he would be there for long. He would certainly try to escape and that was a problem for both the Muggle and wizarding communities. For the second week the Daily Prophet didn't mention anything about that case, which made Gilbert assume that there wasn't any relevant news about the assassin.

Meanwhile, Aline entered his office, some bandages on her face and her arms. She greeted him and he replied without taking his eyes off the paper.

"I'm tired," she said, sitting on a chair in front of his desk.

He looked at her when he was about to ask why but when he saw all those bandages covering her, he jumped from his chair and walked to her, "what happened, Aline? Why are you in this state?" he asked, a worried expression.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just some burns, nothing to worry about."

"How can you say that? You look like an Egyptian mummy with all those bandages," he said, letting a smile appear on his lips.

"Remember the Hungarian Horntail babies? The ones that were born right after the Quidditch game we went to watch at the academy."

Aline had told Gilbert the entire story more than five times but she still wasn't tired of repeating it. "Their mother didn't care about the eggs and we put them in the Hatchery. Then they were born and I am in charge of feeding them and keeping them healthy and safe, away from the big ones..."

Now she was talking about the reason why she was in this mess, "the news is that some of them started breathing fire and, and I thought it'd take them more time to do it, so I wasn't properly equipped. When I gave them their daily sheep, I got some burns in acknowledgements. I am so happy they are growing well!"

"Have you had lunch yet?"

"No, I haven't. You know, their yellow eyes are so sweet! They're born with all their scales which I admire! Their black look is so sweet!"

"Mm, Aline, would you have lunch with me, then?"

"Okay," she said. Gilbert helped her up and went out of his office, to the kitchens where he would look for something for her to eat. She followed him, continuing her speech about her little dragons, "you know, I think I'll free them in around two weeks. They'll be able to keep themselves safe, I'm sure, they're so strong! I think that the sooner I free them to join the big ones, the better. You know, they have to realize they are not alone here, and they have to learn how to live with the others..."

"I see. So, you think these bandages are worth liking them so much?" he asked, now looking back to the Daily Prophet, because he noticed that she wasn't worried by her state, so why should he be?

"Well... it would be better to have no bandages," she grinned and her attention got caught by the paper in his hands. "What does it say in the Prophet?"

"Nothing of great importance. I was expecting some news about the murderer, Black, but it doesn't say anything about him."

"Oh, then he must be under arrest. What about your house? Have you done something against the assaults?"

"Haven't I told you? I found the books I thought were missing. It was a strange thing because I was almost sure that they had been taken away but now they're back in their places. And now the one I bought for my collection last month, How to Use Your Dragon's Teeth, is now missing... I don't understand!"

***

The hazel eyes moved rhythmically following the words in the book. He was surprised that there were so many uses for dragon teeth.

"Hector," the centaur called him from outside of their lair. The cavern was quite dirty because the centaur didn't care about what the boy brought there. She wouldn't sleep inside it anyway.

"Yes," he replied, standing up and closing the book quickly.

"Have you eaten today?"

"Actually... no," he said. "I was finishing reading this book and then I was thinking that I could try to get some fish."

The centaur turned to him, "you've been reading that for almost a week! Is it that thick?" she asked, but not waiting for the answer, "Where are the other books you had last week? I'd like to take a look at them; their descriptions of these islands might be useful."

Hector gasped. He had put the books about Etamin and Sitnalta islands back in the man's house. Elektra had advised him to keep their stuff. According to her, "what you take is yours," and he knew he shouldn't have put them back. However, when he decided to do it, he thought they wouldn't be needed because he knew what was written in them. He finally decided to reply, or Elektra would be angry.

"You'll have them tonight," he said.

"I will," she declared.

She turned and started running to the middle of the forest. It was hard, even for Hector, who had been there for such a long time, to keep in mind where their lair was; it was like a labyrinth.

Hector left the book in the dirty cavern and ran to the island's village, Nortrum. Hopefully he would get the books again before Elektra was back from her walk.

***

"Please," asked a first-year Mermaid boy, stretching his arm so that Sebastion could attend to him.

Sebastion looked either way to check if it was him who the boy was talking to. There was no one in the corridor except from them, so it must be him. "Yes?" he finally replied. "May I help you?"

"Yes, erm... I... I read a paper in the common room after the first class," the boy began. "It said that the Seeker position was open, and that we should contact a team player in order to apply for the tests."

Then Mariana wrote down all of our names, Sebastion thought to himself, I should've known she wouldn't deal with this on her own.

"Yes," he said to the little boy, noticing his fragile glasses almost falling from his tiny nose.

"I saw you playing against the Whales," he said, "I'd like to play like you!"

"Oh, thank you, but you're taking the tests for the Seeker position, not the Keeper. I am the Keeper, you know that, right?"

"Yes, of course I know," the boy said, "I mean, to fly like you all. So, can I try the tests tomorrow?"

"I think you can," Sebastion said, "what's your name?"

"My name? Marcos Valtour," he said stretching his hand toward Sebastion, which he shook vigorously while introducing himself.

"Nice to meet you, Marcos. I'll keep your name and write it on the applicants' paper. Keep checking the chart in our common room in order to know what you have to do, the schedule, and everything else. Okay?"

"Sure. Mm, Sebastion?" he asked when the Quidditch player prepared to go downstairs.

"Yes," he turned to Marcos.

"Can you take the name of my friend too? She told me she wanted to participate and try to fly, just for a little, but she is too ashamed to go talk to a player."

"Oh, of course. What is her name?"

"Palmyra Trump."

"Palmyra Trump," Sebastion repeated. "Okay, then check the charts, both of you."

"I won't forget. Thank you," said Marcos and turned to the other side of the corridor.

"You're welcome," Sebastion replied, seeing his brown head turning the corner of the corridor.

Sebastion walked downstairs to the Great Hall, where he would meet the other Quidditch players. If they were lucky, the tests for the Seeker positions wouldn't be that bad. At least there would be some students trying to do their best.

On the second floor he found Douglas, who he hadn't been talking to for some weeks. After their journey to Etamin Island, they had just talked twice, and only briefly.

"Hey," Douglas greeted, "I'm sorry we haven't talked in so long."

"No problem. What's up?"

"Actually," the Octopus boy said, "very good things. We're preparing to go to Etamin Island again!"

"Really? So, they have forgotten about Halloween?"

"What?"

"Halloween," Sebastion said, "the night when we went there. Your friends almost killed you when they found out we gone there without them... did they forget that?"

"Ah, yes... I haven't told them why I went with you, but you have to agree it was more important to go without losing any time than tell them to come and miss everything..."

"Yes, when we went we didn't know that we wouldn't find anything we were expecting," said Sebastion.

"Indeed. As we don't have many things to do this weekend and there are no Quidditch game or trainings we want to watch, so we decided to go, and I'm inviting you to come, too."

"Me? Douglas, are you insane?" he grinned. "What about your friends?"

"My friends will go with me to Etamin Island. And you are my friend, so you're coming with us."

"I don't know. Halloween night won't repeat itself, and we don't have anything to there now. And I don't want to complicate your life; I know the way your friends are."

"Sebastion, I don't care about them, they can't do anything to prevent you coming with us. You have your own broom, you don't need theirs! And I know that this isn't going to be like Halloween night, but we're going to explore the place anyway, and discover new things... have you seen a live dragon?"

"Actually, no."

"Then," Douglas continued, "this can be your chance, our chance to see one... or many, you never know! C'mon!"

"Okay, when are we going?"

"After dinner," Douglas replied, happy for successfully convincing Sebastion.

"After dinner? Tonight? Are you crazy? I am not prepared for this tonight."

"I'm not prepared for it either, but, hey, the only thing we need is a broom."

"Yes," he paused for a second, "in fact a broom is the only thing we need. You win," he said.

"Then, see you after dinner time."

"But isn't it too dangerous for us to go so early?" Sebastion asked.

"Alright, we won't go right after dinner. See you in the Dungeons at eleven o'clock."

"Okay, see you," he said, continuing his journey to the Great Hall.

***

"So, have some students talked to you?" Mariana asked sitting in her place at the Mermaid Table.

"Yes, a fourth year talked to me," Daniel said. "I think he sees himself as the best, he talked to me in such an arrogant way!"

"There was a second year girl who came to me, too," Mark added.

"Okay, write their names on this," Mariana gave her a piece of yellowed parchment in order not to forget anyone. Where's Sebastion?"

Regina had noticed that he wasn't there yet, so she had been looking at door of the Great Hall so that she could see him arriving, but he still hadn't appeared.

"He'll be here in a few, I'm sure," she said to Mariana.

"Well, then I shall explain you how the choosing process will go," the Quidditch Captain said.

"Mariana," Regina interrupted, "can't you wait five minutes for Sebastion? I'm sure he'd like to know about this, too."

Mariana looked at her oddly, rolled her eyes and grinned. She knew what her friend's problem was. "Okay, then," she agreed.

Regina smiled and when she turned to the door again, Sebastion was already near the table.

"I'm sorry for being late," he said, sitting on a chair near the others. Mariana looked at Regina and laughed briefly at her, although none of the others noticed. Regina's face was redder than a tomato.

"A first year boy approached me upstairs; he and his friend want to apply for the tests; that's why I am late," he said. Half-lying was no big deal, was it?

"Then it's worth it," Mariana declared trying not to look to Regina, or she would turn green this time. "Add their names to the paper, please."

Sebastion did it quickly, and then Mariana started explaining to the rest of the team how the selection would be made.

Basically, they would use an enchanted Snitch that appeared in the players' line of sight more often than normal in the course of a few minutes.

"We'll have them play in pairs, and the one that catches it more quickly in two turns will enter the next phase - if each of them catches it once, then there will be a third trial, of course. We are not expecting too many people to apply; actually, everyone knows that our House is the one with the fewest students... it should be over before lunch - the first phase I mean. After lunch, we'll talk with them for some time, about what made them apply for the position, explain some things about Quidditch especially to the first years and tell them some curious facts about Seekers, the Snitch, historical games, and so on. I hope Mark has done his research on these things," she looked at the sixth year Beater and he nodded his head yes.

Then they would continue playing, after everyone had digested their food. The selection would be done by the end of the afternoon, so, according to Mariana, "you should think about what you have to do this weekend so that you complete everything on time. Professor Pitinus would kill me if you didn't accomplish your assignments... By the way, she'll be there, too, supervising our selection; and she might be able to give or take points from our score, so beware."

It would be dinner time soon, so they stayed there until the room was full of students. Sebastion saw the first year boy, Marcos Valtour, coming to their table sometime later. He smiled at him as if saying that he had done his job: Marcos wouldn't miss anything.

Regina was sitting besides Sebastion, and she seemed nervous, although he didn't know why.

"Having some problems?" he asked, trying to make her speak.

"N-no, not many, just... normal problems," she said with her fork in her hand, playing with it in a distressing way, although the food hadn't been served yet.

"You seem nervous tonight," he commented. It was really strange the way she was acting. Regina, although older than Sebastion, didn't look like she was a sixth year. She didn't have that superiority look that some older girls had; she seemed to like to chat with Sebastion. Actually, she was one of the few people that talked to him normally, about normal things. He knew her since the beginning of the year, when he had joined the team. He had seen her before, yes, but hadn't talked to her lately. She was really understanding in some situations, although Sebastion hadn't told her about most of his torments: being rejected and not having many friends.

"Do I?" she asked. He looked back at her.

"I think you do."

"It may be because I have to do a paper for Mr. Heathcote," she suggested. Half-lying was not too bad.

"It might be," he didn't disagree. "I didn't see you last training. Did you have more homework to do? You've missed some practices, haven't you?"

"I know, but I couldn't help it. Actually it wasn't homework but-"

The food appeared on the tables and Mariana asked Regina something so she wasn't able to finish her sentence.

Sebastion ate his soup and chose to eat beef steak with potatoes as the main dish. He ate more quickly than normal, and finished sooner than everyone else at their table. He prepared to leave; he had to go to the dormitory get his broom and dress in warmer clothes. When he stood up, Regina pushed him down.

"You ate so quickly today, do you have anything to do?"

"N-no. I just... was hungry."

"What are you going to do tonight?" she asked. "It's Friday."

"I know. Well, nothing special..." he lied.

"Then, shall we chat later? I'd like to tell you some things," she said. Mariana noticed what they were talking about and was glad that her friend would follow her advice.

"I... I can't; tonight I can't because I have to do homework. You know, with this Quidditch selection I might not be able to do everything Sunday. Shall we talk tomorrow?"

"Oh. Okay, we'll talk tomorrow," she replied, with a sad expression. He didn't look back, went straight to the dormitories and then to the grounds, where he'd meet Douglas and the other Octopus boys.

***

It was almost eleven when the Octopus boys appeared on the grounds near the Quidditch Pitch. Sebastion was almost frozen.

Douglas and his friends were talking about what they'd see at Etamin Island when Richard noticed a person near one of the Quidditch hoops.

"Hey, there's someone over there," he whispered to his colleagues, so that they wouldn't get caught. Justin and Aidan looked directly at the place in order to discover who the person was.

Douglas wasn't surprised, "I know. It's Sebastion."

Richard immediately went out of his mind. "What!?" he almost screamed. "The Mermaid boy?"

"Why do you keep calling him that? I've told you that he isn't a bad guy!" he protested. "At least call him Kaufmann."

Richard was too angry to worry about how he'd call the boy, but didn't say anything because they were near Sebastion.

"Hey," Douglas greeted.

Sebastion mumbled something; he didn't know what the others thought about him, but certainly it was not good.

"Let's go?" Douglas asked. "We should not lose any time."

Sebastion nodded and they rode on their brooms, preparing for their journey.

He let them fly alone for some seconds before he followed them.

The five boys were above the sea in only a few seconds. It was hard to fly without guidance; the only thing they had in front of them was the blackened water, and some clearer sky mush far away. A light was from the island, served as their unique map that night.

Sebastion followed them, keeping some distance.

Their journey was progressing well, despite the frozen air, until Sebastion heard a splash. He kept flying but checked the sea to try to determine what had made that sound. He noticed the water becoming turbulent. He looked at it more carefully and after some seconds of hesitance, he screamed for help.

The boys in the front weren't too far; they heard the scream and turned back, trying to find the owner's voice.

When they arrived near Sebastion he was already flying to the water, like a seagull looking for fish.

They followed him some meters down and were surprised to see Richard moving desperately in the water, trying not to sink.