⤷ 14| ON DRAGON'S BACK

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CHAPTER FOURTEENon dragon's back

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CHAPTER FOURTEEN
on dragon's back

⋆. ────────── ꕥ ────────── .⋆

     WITH A ROAR THE DRAGON REARED: June dug in her knees, clutching as tightly as she could to the jagged scales as the wings opened, knocking the shrieking goblins aside like skittles, and it soared into the air. June, Harry, Ron and Hermione, flat on its back, scraped against the ceiling as it dived towards the passage opening, while the pursuing goblins hurled daggers that glanced off its flanks.

"We'll never get out, it's too big!" Hermione screamed, but the dragon opened its mouth and belched flame again, blasting the tunnel, whose floors and ceiling cracked and crumbled. By sheer force the dragon clawed and fought its way through.

June's eyes were shut tight against the heat and dust: deafened by the crashing of rock and the dragon's roars, she could only cling to its back, expecting to be shaken off at any moment; then she heard Hermione yelling, "Defodio!"

She was helping the dragon enlarge the passageway, carving out the ceiling as it struggled upward toward the fresher air, away from the shrieking and clanking goblins: June, Harry and Ron copied her, blasting the ceiling apart with more gouging spells. They passed the underground lake, and the great crawling, snarling beast seemed to sense freedom and space ahead of it, and behind them the passage was full of the dragon's thrashing, spiked tail, of great lumps of rock, gigantic fractured stalactites, and the clanking of the goblins seemed to be growing more muffled, while ahead, the dragon's fire kept their progress clear —

And then at last, by the combined force of their spells and the dragon's brute strength, they had blasted their way out of the passage into the marble hallway. Goblins and wizards shrieked and ran for cover, and finally the dragon had room to stretch its wings: turning its horned head toward the cool outside air it could smell beyond the entrance, it took off, and with June, Harry, Ron and Hermione still clinging to its back, it forced its way through the metal doors, leaving them buckled and hanging from their hinges, as it staggered into Diagon Alley and launched itself into the sky.

There was no means of steering; the dragon could not see where it was going, and June knew that if it turned sharply or rolled in midair they would find it impossible to cling onto its broad back. Nevertheless, as they climbed higher and higher, London unfurling below them like a gray-and-green map, June's overwhelming feeling was of gratitude for an escape that had seemed impossible.

Crouching low over the beast's neck, she cling tight to the metallic scales, and the cool breeze was soothing on her burned and blistered skin, the dragon's winds beating the air like the sails of a windmill.

After five minutes or so, June lost some of her immediate dread that the dragon was going to throw them off, for it seemed intent on nothing but getting as far away from its underground prison as possible; but the question of how and when they were to dismount remained rather frightening. She had no idea how long dragons could fly without landing, nor how this particular dragon, which could barely see, would locate a good place to put down.

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