Harry Potter and The Jade Dragon

Chapter 11 ~ The Jousting Tournament

A few days after that eventful night, Harry noticed Shan looking rather upset.

"A wild Bronzeback has been found dead, some distance from the Caverns," she told him. "I went to have a look at it; it was the old male."

Harry was surprised.

"The second Bronzeback must have killed it," he said.

Shan looked even more upset.

"I don't think so," she said. "It wasn't physically wounded at all. It was just lying there, as if it had died in its sleep. Chen-Kang couldn't figure out what killed it."

"Old age," suggested Harry.

Shan looked distracted. She took a few seconds to register what Harry had said, then shook her head.

"Well, it was sick, anyway," Harry reminded her.

She looked rather impatient.

"No one just finds a dead dragon lying out in the open, Harry," she said. "Even if it's sick, or dying, it'll go to a place where no one can find it, and die there."

She gave a small sigh, then picked her bag up and went off, still looking upset.

Harry stood staring after her. Robert, who had been standing by listening, looked at him.

"She blames herself for the dragon's death," Robert explained, in his quiet voice. "She thinks that something or someone must have killed it, after it flew off, that night. She thinks that if she hadn't gone there that night, it wouldn't have come out of the cave, and would still be alive."

He looked after Shan, as if thinking about something, then went to catch up with her. Harry watched him leave, feeling rather surprised. So Robert knew about Shan's night-flying activities. It seemed that there wasn't anything that Shan didn't tell Robert.

However, that wasn't the end of the matter. A few days later, another dragon was found dead.

"It was a Fireball, this time," Shan told Harry. "A wild one. No wounds again. Chen-Kang is getting worried; he's getting sentries to keep watch over the tame dragons."

The news of the dead dragons had travelled around the school. Even Fatty and Pixie were looking concerned.

"Chen-Kang thinks someone killed those dragons," said Fatty. "There are no marks on them. It's possible that someone killed them using magic."

Ron didn't seem too concerned that dragons were dying.

"What's all the fuss about?" he said to Pixie.

Pixie, for once, didn't giggle.

"To the Chinese, dragons are sacred, Ron," she told him, rather impatiently. "It's a terrible crime to kill a dragon."

Early the next morning, another wild Fireball was found dead.

"That is not good," said Chee Chong, later that morning in the Green Dragon common room. He was busily cleaning Chester's little bamboo cage. "The Jousting Tournament is tomorrow. We hope that no one will harm our tame dragons before that."

Hermione was watching Chester, who was crawling up Chee Chong's back.

"I never knew crickets were popular pets, in China," she said.

Fatty was sitting nearby, rewriting an essay. He seemed to have caught some of Chee Chong's accident-prone-ness, because someone had obviously knocked a bottle of ink onto his original essay.