Shadow and Flame

The Dragon's Mouth

Boots crunched against the autumn terrain. His hand went to a trail perhaps only he could find. Slight markings on trees, tips of claws burying into the earth. It was almost as if he could sense it.

A dragon was near.

Coming up on a line of caves, he had to imagine she could be in any one of them.

His own shadow seemed to urge him in the opposite direction, back to the castle. A beastly sigh echoed across the far side.

He was close.

Entering the lip of the cave, Charlie attempted to bring to remembrance all he had learned. But this was no ordinary dragon he'd come to face.

He'd found her. And it'd been all too easy.

She curled herself up cozily, giving every indication that she was asleep. The human emotion, Charlie thought, would make for unpredictability.

Under the light of his wand, he moved in to have a closer look at her scales. They shimmered like the ocean, the color of her wide eyes.

White streaked along her back in foamy wave. He'd never seen such a color or pattern in a dragon before.

She's beautiful.

He stepped again, unchecked. A twig cracked underneath him. Eyes snapped, awake.

A flash of fear appeared to come between them. She recovered first, warning with a smoky grimace.

Backing out of the cave with wand at the ready, Charlie watched as she crawled out. Stretching to her full size, she flexed her wings and growled.

"I know who you are! And I am not afraid!" He pounded his chest. "Reveal yourself!"

A misdirected blaze shot beside him. He rolled, exclaiming the same word used to reveal her once before.

She hit the ground, gasping and hiding herself from him.

Peeling off his jacket, he covered her up and she winced away. Charlie crouched down, watching.

She revealed her dirt streaked face through matted curls, panting.

"It's a hard thing. Being human." He whispered.

She stared at him for the longest time. Wild and untamed, that moment came back. When she ran into him, eyeing his papers. He remembered looking at her. The thought that came to him.

She's the most beautiful girl I've ever seen.

Perhaps the only girl pretty enough to distract him from his calling. And here she was before him once more. A terrified woman.

Yet somehow, the beauty lingered, underneath a tortured silence.

"I'm Charlie." He waded closer, and she flinched. "And you're Eden. Eden Carrow."

She shook at the sound of her name. He wondered how long it had been since she heard it. "Eden, you've been gone a very long time."

Tears began to drop from her eyes, and suddenly her eyes were all he could see. Or rather, the color of scales that matched so perfectly.

"I've come to take you home." Words meant only to comfort sent her in a fit. She trembled, and he reached for her.

"Don't come near me." She shrieked, voice hoarse. "I'll only hurt you."

"No, you won't." He attempted again, but she grimaced.

"Kill me if you have to. But please don't send me to Azcaban. Don't send me to where they are!"

"Wes has been dead awhile, Eden. No one will use you."

She chocked out a laugh. "Don't you see? He put the idea in their heads. Use the imperious curse on a dragon. It's brilliant." She entered into a coughing fit.

"Does anyone else know of your animagus form?" Another pained look.

"No. He's dead too."

"Rafe?"

She curled back into a ball, sobbing.

"Come now, Eden. I'm taking you home."

"No don't you see! I do not have a home! It all ends in fire. There isn't a place in the world for the likes of me!"

She collapsed.

Charlie tucked his wand back into its holster, taking care in picking her up. She weighed hardly anything at all.