Marauder's Daughter (Eventual Tom Riddle X OC)

Chapter 44: Dragons

Alexei from that day on became a permanent fixture at the Gryffindor table. It was the only time we really had together, since we both had lessons all day and I had training in the evenings with Harry, or demanding odd timings with my Alchemy or Potions classes. 

Thankfully, Harry already got the summoning charm down before the weekend, so I felt confident and comfortable telling him about the dragons. Charlie already wrote he was going to be here with them in two weeks anyway, so I'm only a little ahead of schedule. I made plans to see him once he got them all set up, since he invited all the Weasley's down to greet him.

"Good to see your skills haven't gotten rusty without my constant training." I say happily to Cedric after we spent about three hours training on Saturday morning. We did a combination of physical training and dueling, both of us landing spells against each other and either sending the other flying or in his case, making me collapse in a fit of giggles when he used a tickling charm on me.

"Had to be ready for our rematches, you know." Cedric grins at me, and I turn my expression serious.

"Cedric. I know what the first task will be." I inform him seriously as we are just sitting together against the stone wall of the room we are in. "You will have to get past a dragon. A nesting dragon, specifically, and you will have to steal something from amongst their eggs." I tell him plainly. No point in being vague, any bit of extra information helps.

"Dragons?" He blanches out, turning pale at the thought. "Like, full size, real dragons?"

"Yeah, fire breathing and all." I smirk at him. "You gonna be ok?"

"Yeah... maybe not after the dragon, but yeah." He chuckles out nervously. "Why tell me?" He turns a confused expression towards me. "What about Harry?"

I punch his arm fairly hard and he grabs in in pain. "You git." I say with a laugh. "You really think I would let either of you go out there blind? Nah, I'm telling him later today. You're one of my best friends, and are incredibly important to me, Ced. I want you to do well, but I also just want you to survive." I say genuinely to him.

"Thank you." He replies sincerely, then stands up and offers me a hand to join him. "You really are the best, Abby." He smiles and thanks me again before returning to his dorms, and I head off back to mine. 

I shower before I find Harry doing homework in the common room. I drag him away to his dorm, which is thankfully empty right now. Ron and Hermione were both getting books from the library, so I'm sure he'll tell them once they get back.

"Ready to know what the first task is?" I ask him, and he snaps his head to me and nods. "Dragons. You'll need to steal something from them." I explain fully about the task from there while he asks me plenty of questions.

"How am I going to get past a bloody dragon?! I couldn't even get near Norbert, and he was only a baby!" He exclaims in defeat.

"You're going to fly past it, that's how." I smirk mischievously at him as he looks at me in confusion, then the lightbulb goes off in his brain.

"That's why you had me learn summoning! You wanted me to learn to summon my Nimbus!" He says in understanding. "Won't Krum do that though?"

"Possibly, but I doubt it. He seems more a fight-the-dragon-head-on kind of guy. I'm a prank pulling mischievous shit, so I'm going to make sure you win in the most flashy and safest way possible." I grin at him, and he grins in response. "So, we're going to work on long distance summoning's, and some evasive maneuvers. Also might have you work on bright distraction types of spells, like a flash bang or something that can disorient the dragon. You don't want her to accidentally crush her eggs though, so don't blind her, just do something that can draw her attention." I warn him.