Adventures in Curse Breaking: Dragon Treasure

Shadowing

"You sure you don't want to come with me?" Sarah asked Rowan.

 They were up in the Gryffindor girls' dormitory, enjoying a break after a particularly difficult potions lesson. Barnaby's wound cleaning potion had been so bad, when he spilled some on his arm it ate through his sleeve and parts of his skin before Snape intervened. 

"No, thanks," said Rowan. She gathered up some extra books and stowed them in her bag. "You know I'm always up for a study session, but I'd prefer not breaking the rules if I don't have to. I think I'll just go find Barnaby and try to help with that essay Snape set him on how to fix his potion."

"Suit yourself," said Sarah. "Tell him I said hi."

Sarah paused buttoning her cloak when Rowan softly spoke again. "He misses you as much as I do, you know."

Sarah sighed. "I'm sorry," she said. "I know I haven't been around much. I've just...been busy."

"I know you're busy, which is why I still don't understand your insistence to go off to Romania to provoke dragons."

"It's a bit of fun," said Sarah. "Charlie's been down ever since last year, and that's on me. I never should have taken him to the buried vault. But going to Romania will make him happy, so I'm going to do whatever I can to get him there. The others, too."

Sarah started for the door, but she paused at Rowan's voice. 

"Sarah? Do you think you maybe you're doing this so you don't have to think about your brother?"

Sarah sighed again, deeply. One of the only things she didn't like about Rowan was that she was always right. She turned around to meet her eyes.

"Maybe," she admitted. "Partly. I can't think about Jacob when I've got another curse to break and my friends to look after. Facing down dragons is a good way to draw your focus from anything else."

Rowan nodded. "I know what happened was harder on you than you've let on. If this is what you need to do to feel better, then I support you. But, don't forget, I'm right here when you need to talk."

"Thank you," said Sarah, smiling. "We will talk. I promise. As soon as I finish helping Bill, we'll spend the whole weekend together."

"I'll hold you to that," said Rowan. "Good luck."

Sarah met Charlie in the common room and the two made their way to the Hog's Head Inn in the same manner they had before. They found Bill seated in one of the less sticky tables. After buying drinks, they sat and studied for over an hour. 

"I've got to admit," said Bill, "you two know a lot more about dragons than I do. Magical Creatures has never been my area of expertise."

"I did think it was odd for Griphook to give a Curse Breaker a mission that had nothing to do with breaking a curse," said Sarah. 

"Goblin's are less interested in curse breaking and more interested in treasure. That's really my job. Usually, I've got to break a curse to get the treasure, but it makes no difference to them if I'm breaking curses or fighting dragons, as long as I bring in gold."

"Do you think you're ready to fight a dragon?" asked Charlie. 

"I'm not sure," said Bill. "Honestly, now that I know just how dangerous dragons are, I'm a bit nervous to do this alone."

Charlie and Sarah exchanged a glance. "Then, why don't you let us come with you? Griphook said he didn't mind," said Charlie. 

"Because, suppose you got hurt. I couldn't live with myself if something had happened to either of you. Mind you, I wouldn't have to; Mum would kill me."

"You know we can take care of ourselves," said Sarah. "We all managed to get out of the buried vault alive."

"Barely," said Bill. "And I know how traumatizing that was. Don't deny it," he added sternly to Charlie, who had opened his mouth to speak. "It was hard on me, too. I don't want to put you through anything like that again."

"But, we did get out, and we're moving on because we have each other," said Sarah. "You need our help now, Bill. We might be underage, but you know we're probably the two most qualified people you know to help with this mission."

Bill didn't say anything. He just stared into his mug, thinking. 

"It'll be like old times," said Sarah. "We had each other's backs in the cursed vaults. We trusted each other."

"Come on, Bill," said Charlie.

Bill let out a heavy breath. "Oh, alright."

"Yes!" shouted Charlie. 

Sarah's heart leapt. 

"But this trip might take days. How are you supposed to be out of school that long without someone noticing?" asked Bill. 

"You could get Dumbledore's permission," offered Sarah. 

"To leave school and hang around with dragons?" asked Charlie. "Even I know that's a tough sell." 

"Please, this is Dumbledore we're talking about," said Sarah. "He lets a dragon and a chimera live on school grounds. Bill, you just go up to Dumbledore and ask him to arrange a...little field trip for your DADA tutoring class."

"Not bad," said Charlie. 

"It's horrible," said Bill. "Even if Dumbledore went for it, then that would be like twenty students I'm responsible for!"

"And not all of them are as dragon savvy as we are," Charlie remarked. He chuckled. "Could you imagine what Andre would do if he ever saw one?"

"Not a field trip for for all the DADA students," said Sarah. "More like job shadowing for the people you feel have 'the best potential to be superb Curse Breakers one day.'"

"Ahhh," said Charlie. "Job shadowing. Brilliant!"

Bill sighed up at the ceiling. "I seriously regret telling you that."