Fire-Branded Friendships
Lessie POV
There were no thoughts in my head, only the fervent need to pitch myself into the black unknown of the pit. Sebastian was yelling something in the background, but it was jumbled by the roaring of adrenaline in my veins. My feet were moving. What began as a slow pace picked up and soon, I was sprinting. Lungs filled with the burning sensation of over use. The scene playing over and over. Poppy on the platform, and then suddenly gone.
My hand reached into my pocket, grabbing my broom, and shouting the spell needed to enlarge it. The calluses on my hands clenched the broom handle as I zipped down. The air was thick and unwelcoming, filled with smokey residue and char as I descended. I could make out, just barely, a circular arena with a couple of archways. It has a semblance of familiarity, and I pushed back the thoughts of a different adventure I had gone on with Poppy last year. My eyes adjusted to the darkness between the sting of the polluted air. It was far more caustic than I remembered.
There in the far corner was a pile of jagged wood that had once been the platform. The planks stood up at odd angles. Sharp, splinted edges creating a barricade, but I couldn’t make out anything other than that. My need to locate my friend intensifies and I pulled my wand out.
“Revelio”
The room pulsed with a blue light only visible to my eyes and I tensed up at the sight before me. Under the pile was a human form, fainting breathing under the dome of a protection spell. I scanned the rest of the room before the light faded leaving me once again in the darkness. In the tunnel directly to my right were the outlines of not just one, but two adult dragons and what looked like three hatchlings no bigger than a border collie.
I wasn’t sure how Poppy would have known but from the brief glimpse I got one of the adults was injured. It was thrashing about as if in pain. I recast the spell once more, trying to gleam more knowledge before I turned back towards the pile of wood. I stared at it for a minute with my wand raised trying to remember the repair spell. There were fuzzy fingers caressing my mind, making it hard to think.
Why did I need to repair the wood?
My throat was dry and suddenly I felt like all the water in the world would not relieve the burning sensation. It was engraved in my throating coating it with a strange tingle, making it itch. My eyes had started to water as well, and everything felt off. My limbs became heavy, and I started to cough. It was hot, too hot. Trying to think, my brain became a hazy muddled mess. I blinked a couple times not being able to focus. My knees gave out and I sank to the ground.
Why was I down here? Was…. was I doing something?
I tried to stand up, but my legs were no longer cooperating. The ground seems nice and welcoming, as if it would make the perfect bed. Heck, this was the most comfortable spot I’d ever found.
I should lay down.
“Protego! Anapneo”
My eyes were closed but I could hear the slap of heavy feet running in my direction. The burning sensation in my throat started to recede and I slowly opened my eyes to see that I was in a protective sphere. The light cast from someone’s wand was outside of the bubble.
“You are the most infuriating witch I have ever met! You know that right?!”
Sebastian stepped through the barrier he had created and offered me his hand. I stared at it blankly, my mind must still be a bit hazy because he looked vastly different. It was as if someone had stretched out his features. His current disgruntled expression didn’t help with the exaggeration.
Is that a bubble on his head?
He let out a frustrated sigh and yanked me to my feet. Letting out a protesting groan I allowed him to position me in front of him. His wand hand came up and tapped me rather belligerently on the forehead. There was a swooshing sound and then POP!
“We will need to make sure we keep the bubble charm intact, or it won’t be the dragons that kill us.”
“Why can’t we just use protego” It was a serious question, at least to me. Sebastian looked less than amused. He was skittering towards erratic again.
“Are you daft? The noxious gas almost suffocated you and you’re asking why we need the bubbles?”
“Noxious gas?”
“Yes, the gas. The bloody gas, you almost suffocated on. You didn’t hear me screaming at you when you were running? Do both of you have a concussion?” He threw up his hands and began pacing. He was more than a little rattled. The wand in his hand illuminated more of the area and that’s when I saw Poppy standing not five paces behind him, dried blood caked over her right temple.
“Both of us? How…. When did you rescue her?!”
I didn’t wait for a response but pushed Sallow out of the way and embraced our Hufflepuff. She appeared to be all in one piece. Ending the hug, I looked at her up and down in the light from Sebastian’s wand. The injury to her head appeared to be healed.
“Are you okay?”
Poppy nodded sheepishly with a smile, the bubble on her head making it almost laughable.
“I am. However, this throws another wrench into our plans. If we don’t want to get burnt to a crisp, we need to somehow keep the dragons from expelling any type of spark.”
“Good thing ‘Strategy’ is my middle name!” Sebastian quipped still with the edge to his voice. “I may not have as much experience with dragons as you both do, but gas leaks I am familiar with. We can keep them from sparking by chaining their snouts shut.”
“Um, I don’t know if that’s the best plan. No offense. They do have a keen sense of smell at close range.” Poppy interjected.
“No, no your right.” He turned to me then, “Happen to have that nab sack on you? Can you just pop them in, and we’ll distract the mom?”
“I do, but how do you propose we get them in with all the commotion going on?”
As if on que, another rumble ripped through the cavern causing more pebbles to shower down on us. The roar that followed sent a shiver down my spine, we needed to act fast.
“Can’t you just use your ancient magic or Accio them, something? Anything?” His needy desperation was rising, as the realization of our situation hit him.
“We both know Accio doesn’t work like that. We don’t have time for games this whole cave could come down at any second, by the sounds of it.” I took a steadying breath, as my mind raced back over my catalog of spells, useful and not useful, before landing on one. “However, it’s a good thing, we all learned ‘bewitched sleep’ just last week, or have you forgotten it already Sebastian Strategy Sallow?”
Sallow gave a huff, crossing his arms. “Hmm… I don’t know if I would remember since my lovely partner put a bit too much intention into it. Missed the whole bloody class.”
“You are an adapt learner though.” I tried to give him a wink to make the situation less grave. From his reaction, however, I probably looked ridiculous with my enlarged head.
“As much as I love the banter, we have pressing matters. There is an injured dragon. We need to move now before it can’t control its sparking ability.” Poppy grabbed both of our arms and turned us towards her. “Here is what we are going to do.” The calmest of our trio began to lay out a cohesive plan of attack. I relied the information I had gathered, and they nodded as we trudged forth.
As soon as we breached the entrance to the last cavern my throat tightened. My companions letting out audible gasps as well. Thrashing about weakly in distress was a species of dragon I had never seen before, at least not in person. One rumored to be near extinct, due to the reclusively. Even in agony, it was breath taking. The pearlescent scales shone even in the dim lighting as if they were harvested from the moon and brought down from the heavens. She was the most beautiful dragon I had ever seen, and mentally noted probably would ever see. As I sized up the creature in front of me, I noticed that the large flickering eyes had no pupil and were indeed true to the species name. They held the gleam of an opal, shifting color.
“Merlin’s beard, balls, and broom!” Poppy exhaled in awe. “It’s an Antipodean Opaleye!”
The amazement was short lived as a wet rattling sound started in the corner, to the right of the injured dragon. I looked further down the milky scales following the sound and was assaulted with the most abhorrent sight imaginable. There were large chucks, festering and blistered leading from the Opaleye’s rear leg descending to the tail. It was as if something had decided to make the poor creature into a snack.
Had that sight not been enough, my eyes continued to wander further down to the sound’s origin. Sharp red ridges protruded from the back of a smaller dragon. Its scales a deep contrast to the other adult. There was no shine, nor gloss to its scales just a tepid shade of burgundy. I couldn’t make out the face, but the tail was nearly as long as the body but long razor like spikes. Memories from my childhood rushed back… my carelessness, Uncle Barnabas laying on his back, his screams of agony, the ministry and finally St. Mungo’s.
Poppy grabbed my hand having seen my face shifting through a myriad of emotions. Silently saying that we needed to be careful. There were no expectations as to species when we came in but I was sick to my stomach thinking of how someone could possibly think of breeding such a docile dragon with one know for its savagery and human blood lust.
Sebastian slowly crouched, trying to walk up behind the smaller of the two dragons, whose noises had turned into wet crunching, like it was eating something. As part of the plan, I started looking around frantically for the hatchling, while Poppy went to example the Opaleye. It was uncharacteristic of them not to be so close to the drakaina.
The snap of something underfoot made us all stop, inhaling sharply. My eyes darted between my friends as the red dragon raised its head turning towards us. It raised its head slowly, shifting its body in the weak light. Its reptilian eyes blinked, and I could feel the bile rising in my throat. Clenched in its jaws were the mangled remains of one of the hatchlings. A small silvery creature, with a dull glassy stare. As it turned, I saw the corpses of the other two hatchlings, half chewed and disposed of on the ground.
Poppy let out a choked sob and I turned towards her, everything happening in a blur. Her wand was out, and spells came out quick as lightning aimed at the red dragon. There was a righteous fury in her eyes I had seen too often when dealing with poachers. The dragon did not take kindly to the interruption and dropped its meal. A
Sebastian ran dropping his disillusionment and made towards the girl, grabbing her hand, and pulling as they were both side swept with the powerful tail of the cannibal. They hit the wall, Sallow cushioning the fall. Poppy rolled off him as if unphased and continued to advance, no fear in her heart. While the two of them dealt blow after blow, never gaining much ground, I crawled over to the opaleye.
There wasn’t much I could do, some of the wounds were fresh, others looked weeks old. The fact that she had managed to survive and protect her hatchlings this long was a miracle in itself. The venom of a vipertooth was deadly, even to its own kind. Its eye blinked, the membrane occluding the gemstone of its eye. She let out a groan, laying perfectly still. With the hatchlings dead she had lost her will to live.
“Shh, I am so sorry.” I murmured over and over. Shakily I placed my hand on her side trying to mentally apologize for the tragedy the creature had had to endure. The drakaina closed her eyes letting out a final push of smoke. I had no time to mourn the loss of such a beautiful creature as a guttural cry and a loud snap echoed through the cavern followed by Sallow’s outraged bellow.
I whipped around to the sight of Poppy’s twisted form of the ground. Her head in a pool of blood and her left leg at an odd angle, sizzling sounds coming off it. She has been bitten. She was going to die. I rushed to her side pulling my wand, I knew the spell…. but it was hard and required concentration, I had failed last time.
“Extractum Venenum!”
In my mind I mapped out her body, every muscle, every sinew going layer by layer in her anatomy until I was following the course of her veins. The venom had not reached her heart, I could do this. I pushed deep into my mind putting up blocks to stop and absorb the poison. The tip of my wand began to give off a faint purple light as the poison was gently pulled from the Sweeting girl’s body. The grip on my wand started to shake, my body beginning to faulter.
NO! NO! NO! NO!
I grit my teeth, tapping into the reservoir that I used only for the most dire of circumstances. The tingling of the ancient magic begins to surge through me, and my hands steadied. I dove back into my mind, back into her blood and started the process again. Dragging the poison away and out. The air was crackling static and as I pulled the last of the venom from the wound a sharp acrid scent filled the air. The beginnings of dragon fire igniting in the craw.
“Proteeeeeegoooo!” I threw the shield up around us a second too late. It was as if someone had poured molten lava down my back. Every part of me screamed out for relief, yet none could be found. I could hear the crackling and sizzling of the leather on my back breaking and molding into the warped tissue of my skin. I fell forward, landing half way on top of the Hufflepuff. The protection of our shield wavered as tears streamed down my face, agony in every gasp I took. I would die here. Forcing myself to my hands and knees I attempted to focus my eyes, everything was blurry from pain.
You can not die here! You must get Poppy out!
The shield fell, as the last of the flames in the cavern died, and I vaguely registered that through my pain Sebastian was throwing curse after curse at the dragon with little to no effect.
“Avada Kadavra! Crucio! Avada Kadavra!”
He was covered in dirt, sweat, and blood. Holding his wand hand, aloft in a wild manner, it sliced through the air. His eyes glowed green, devoid of any emotion except malice. I tried to call out as I shakily attempted to stand using the wall as support. Through the excruciating pain I attempted to channel my magic.
“S-Sebastian!”
The air was knocked out of my lungs as the powerful tail of the Peruvian vipertooth collided with my chest. The force tossing me into the jagged stone walls. The pain radiated up throughout my spine sending shock waves to every nerve ending as I coughed, bile and blood spewing from my cracked lips. The fresh burn ignited every pain receptor. There was no time to recover as it rounded letting out a bellow, and its former battle with the Slytherin. It flew towards me at an alarming speed. There was nothing I could do. As if realizing its impending doom my eyes closed, body bracing for the carnage to ensue.
“Arresto Momentum! Glacius!”
Nothing happened. I opened my eyes and was met with the icy stare of a frozen dragon. I could tell the spell wasn’t going to hold long. Using every ounce of strength I possessed, my hand quickly reached for the nab sack in my pocket. I fumbled as I heard the ice starting to crack. The fear caused my adrenaline to spike, I pulled it free, opening it, and the creature was pulled in just as the last of the ice melted. Sebastian stood panting, hand on his knees, brows knit over his eyes as they roamed my face.
I sat as still as I could, too exhausted from the constant pain to move. I would have to, I knew. We would have to carry Poppy out, she still had not woken up. I looked at her prone form and felt the tears fall down my face. Guilt coming in waves. The whole situation had been a mess from start to finish.
I shouldn’t have let her come.
Sebastian was over by the opaleye using his spell work to detach claws one by one. The popping sound grounded me a bit more and I struggled to stand once again under the radiating pain of my burn. I wasn’t sure how long I would be able to endure it.
“It’s time to go.” Sallow approached with a bag, a prominent red stain forming on the bottom. “I’ll grab Poppy, just hold on to me. I can apparate us as far as Hogsmeade. We’ll have to walk from there.”
I nodded weakly, as he grabbed our friend, laying her unconscious form over his shoulder like a sack of flour. He reached his hand out grabbing and interlacing his fingers with mine, pulling me into his chest. The static was back and then a loud crack.
We stood in the ruins just outside of the town, the castle in view. If I could just get to the castle, I knew I would be fine. We stepped out onto the road. Every breath causing the fire to ignite. My organs twisting themselves as if in the throws of the cruciatus curse. I wasn't going to be able to bear this. I could feel my body revolting with every step. My eyes wandered up to the moon high in sky. It was beautiful, just like the poor drakaina.
“Lessie?”
Sebastian’s voice was laced with concern, an urgent tone. I must have stopped walking. Everything hurt, and it was hard to breathe. I was so, so very tired. It was the last thing I heard as the roar of the wind swept me off into the comforting arms of darkness.