(1) Lux Brumalis (R. Weasley)

Chapter Forty-Six

Pansy and Pixie meander their way down a corridor, their morning break is usually spent doing nothing of anything really. There isn't enough time to get into homework or Pixie's little project, so they mostly just wander around talking or gossiping, or finding a spot to themselves. Suddenly, Harry, Hermione, and Ron race towards her, Pixie gives them a weird look as Pansy looks behind them, seeing if they are actually racing towards something they can't see, but the corridor is empty asides from them. Pansy then lets out a breath.

"I'll see you later" She offers Pixie just before Hermione grabs Pixie's hand and pulls her along with them. Leaving Pansy where she stands. Pixie looks at her friend apologetically but Pansy waves it off. Pixie has two sets of friends, and she knows she has to share.

"Wait, what's happening?" Pixie asks, trying to keep up and get with the energy going on here. They appear less panicked than she first thought, no, this isn't fear, this is the opposite. They're excited. Well, Ron and Harry are, Hermione is a little more restrained about it.

"Hagrid's" Harry answers and that seems to give her everything she needs. There is only one thing that the boys would be this excited over. The egg. It has to be hatching.

"Oh!" She lets out, this time moving with them as they leave the main castle and head outside towards the Forbidden Forest and Hagrid's hut.

............

Hagrid is already there, waiting for them as they hurry down the path to his hut. He's as excited as the boys are. He ushers the four of them closer.

"It's nearly out." He admits as they all bundle into the hut.

.........

Inside, Pixie has to yank off her scarf as soon as the door closes, just because of the sheer heat again, though she swears it is actually hotter this time around. Ron lets out a pained surprised sound as he yanks at his tie. The egg lays on the table, deep cracks have formed in its shell and there is movement from inside, a clicking noise sounding through the cracks. The five of them huddle closer to watch, each holding their breath as they wait quietly. The cracks deepen, the shell shifting apart and a baby dragon suddenly flops through the pieces, scattering them, and lands on the table in front of them. Pixie cocks her head at the animal, creature, beast, it's not exactly what she was expecting. She's not really sure what she was expecting to be honest. She's never seen a dragon before, sure she's read about them and she grew up on movies like Pete's Dragon and Eragon and Sleeping Beauty, even How to Train Your Dragon came out two years ago and she remembers how cute those dragons are. This baby dragon looks nothing like any of them. She pulls a face and watches at the dragon sneezes, sending sparks from its nose.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid asks them.

"Oh, that's urm...one word for it" Pixie mumbles to herself as Hagrid reaches out a hand towards the dragon, to stroke its head, but it snaps at his fingers, showing some rather pointed and sharp teeth.

"Bless him, look, he knows his mummy!"

"Hagrid," Hermione starts. "How fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?" Hagrid looks at Hermione, ready to answer, when he suddenly pales. He moves to his feet and rushes towards the window.

"What's the matter?" Harry asks.

"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains" Hagrid answers. "It's a kid, he's runnin' back up ter the school." Harry rushes outside and he instantly knows who it was that was peering in, watching them. Draco Malfoy. Behind him, Pixie appears in the doorway, her eyes on Draco as he disappears from sight. This can't be a good sign. Nothing about Draco getting involved is a good sign.

"Want me to talk to him?" Pixie asks. "I can get to him in the common room" Harry shakes his head and turns to her.

"We're already going to be in enough trouble about this, you shouldn't get into more for starting a fight"

"I didn't say I was going to fight him" She argues and he gives her a look. "I mean it would be an option if he didn't listen, sure....but he's not as dumb as that hair makes him look, Harry" She points out. "He's smarmy and arrogant, but I can deal with him"

"Don't get in trouble for us though..." He adds. "Promise me" She rolls her eyes a little.

"Fine" She caves and looks at him, her hand snaking around her back, fingers crossing. "I promise" She smiles sweetly at him.

.....

Pixie will confront Draco. She had nothing else in mind when she told Harry that she'd talk to Draco, or promised him not to. She had her fingers crossed. She wasn't going to allow Draco to continue. To get in their way. To get them into trouble. She won't let him threaten her friends. She won't let him get them into trouble. He is sitting in the common room, just sitting there in an armchair by the fire, but she can feel his eyes on hers as she sits with Pansy finishing the last of their potions homework before they go to bed. Pixie lets out a breath as she wrinkles her nose. It makes it very difficult to concentrate on the properties of the Mistletoe berry with him staring over at them. Glaring at Pixie with barely contained glee. He's mocking her. And she is not going to take it. She closes her book.

"Don't start anything" Pansy warns giving her friend a look.

"I promise I won't punch him," Pixie tells her but Pansy can't really believe her, considering. The last time she and Draco came to blows, they actually came to blows, resulting in Pixie's broken nose. Pixie pushes herself to her feet and moves across the common room to the corner where Draco has been perched for the last hour and a half.

"I don't think you want to start with me right now. In fact, I think you are going to want to back off, Stark" Draco mumbles from behind the book he's using as an excuse and a cover. Pixie cocks her head and then snatches the book from him as she drops into the armchair across from him. His eyes glaring at her. "Don't try me" Draco warns her.

"Oh, I am going to" She answers. "You see...Snape is my uncle" She admits to him. He had already put two and two together when she made mention of her mother being Tatiana Snape. "And between you and me...if I were to, I don't know, go to him, in tears....and tell him that you were making it incredibly difficult for me...what do you think?" She asks. "Do you think that you'd be spared punishment? He would go easy on you because of your...Daddy?"

"Then I'll tell him about that oaf and his beast" Draco counters. "And that you've been helping him hide it"

"I'll deny it" She answers. "I'll smile sweetly and put on the tears, and it will work. It always works" She has experience in turning on the waterworks and the big doe eyes to get what she wants out of Tony, Happy, and Rhodey. Whether sweets, or a toy, or getting her way on movie nights. She is perfectly capable of using her wide-eyed innocent and sweet appearance to her benefit and she is not above using it to protect her friends. "So keep your mouth shut" She then leans closer to him. "Or we're going to have a real problem...and I promise you, that if you tell one soul about what you saw...I'll come down so hard on you that you'll be weeping for your mommy" She smiles sweetly and then stands, his eyes glaring at her as she walks away but there is much less glee in his eyes now. Her threat sinks in. Good.