The Dragon Whisperer

Hogwarts at night

Katerina's POV:

I crept away from the ship to the castle. Gazing at the looming structure ahead of me, I contemplated how to get in. There was a window open on what was maybe the fifth floor, a tiny gap. I gritted my teeth and took a run up towards the wall, leaping towards a jutted stone that I could use for a hand hold.

I grabbed my hand hold and pulled myself up. Luckily I was strong and light, and could easily support my own body weight with one arm. I hoisted my body onto ledge after ledge, ignoring the scratch appearing on my side when I scraped it on the wall. Before too long, I was holding onto the window frame.

The gap was just about big enough for me to wriggle through. I slid down, landing on my nose in a corridor. I jumped to my feet and listened for a moment. I didn't hear anyone.

I was on a high up floor, I estimated maybe the fifth, and I knew that the goblet was on the ground floor. That in mind, I decided to just go down every set of stairs I could find. I hit a dead end every now and then but before too long I was looking at the double doors to the great hall.

The doors were at least three times taller then me, and each door was as wide as me lying down. I tentatively pushed on one of the doors. It was heavy but I managed to get it open. It creaked a little and I almost jumped out of my skin. There was a yelp from inside the room.

I thought about running, but before I could get my legs to move, the man from earlier, the one with the wooden leg and strap-on eye was standing before me, as if he'd appeared out of nowhere.

"Durmstrang" he said gruffly. "I thought your lot were going in the morning."

"We are" I said nervously. "I just wanted to put my name in now"

"Karkaroff" he said, as if that explained everything. "Tell you what, girl. If you don't tell anyone you saw me, I won't tell him I saw you"

I gulped and nodded. This man was scary! He limped off and I approached the goblet.

It had an age line around it. Luckily, I'd turned 17 on the 23rd of September and would actually be allowed to cross it. I searched my pockets, finding a torn up bit of parchment and a stubby pencil.

"Katerina. Durmstrang" I wrote. I hoped the cup didn't want a surname: I didn't have one. However I was definitely the only Katerina at Durmstrang, so there wouldn't be any confusion. I dropped the note into the goblet and it was consumed by the fire.

I left the great hall and decided to find my way out. It was easy enough getting down, but I had a feeling it would be a lot harder to re-find my window. There must be a door I could open somewhere.

"Excuse me" said a voice behind me. "Are you looking for a way out?"

I span around and saw, standing just a few centimetres behind me, Albus Dumbledore. I gulped.

"Uhh, I was just-"

"Don't worry" said Dumbledore. "You're not in any trouble. I assume you went to put your name in the goblet?"

"Yes sir"

"And did you?" he asked softly.

"I did sir, just now"

"Ahh" said Dumbledore, a slight smile on his face. "And may I be so bold as to ask why? Correct me if I'm wrong but it's my belief that the Durmstrang students were all going tomorrow"

He studied my face and I felt like his eyes were burning a hole into my soul, like icy blue lasers. He was intimidating, but strangely soft at the same time. To be honest I was a little star struck; he'd been my idol since my first year at Durmstrang.

"Are you related to Sybil Trawlany?" he asked suddenly. I was a little surprised at his random question but I considered it.

"I have a cousin called Sybil." My mother and father always used to talk about Cousin Sybil. I'd never met her, but I knew she could tell the future, like Toma.

"I thought you might. The first door on the right is unlocked" said Dumbledore and walked away, leaving me dumbstruck.

I'd taken the door that Dumbledore suggested, and now I was standing outside, looking in the direction of the boat. I could see a massive forest to my left and it was getting cold. I began to walk towards the boat when I heard a voice in my head.

"It is her" said the voice, raspy and low. Then there were three more voices, each sounding slightly different but each in my head. The sensation was familiar somehow, almost like De Ja Vu.

"Is it really?" asked a screechy voice. "It is, she can hear us! She hears us now!"

Then I remembered where I knew this feeling from. The dragon! It's voice had sounded like that, and it'd been in my head. Could it be that there were dragons here? I turned to the forest and began to run.

"Yesssss" hissed one of the voices. "Come clossser! This way, this way"

I could see light now- an orange glow that flickered like fire. I could here other voices as well, not in my head like the dragons but out loud. They were coming from a clearing. As I got closer, I saw that the light was from glowing torches, the kind that were on fire.

"Charlie" said one of the out-loud-voices, a mans voice. "That Horntail's trying to get out of its cover again"

I peeped past and saw a large cage. In it was a dragon. She was massive and absolutely beautiful, with impressive red scales. She was rubbing her head against the post of her cage, obviously trying to get the iron collar that was around her neck off.

"Excuse- is that you?" said someone in front of me. I jumped and looked at the person. He was the guy from the first time I'd seen a dragon. The one who stopped the other men from killing me. Charlie.

"Charlie?" I asked in shock.

"It is you!" he gasped. "The girl from Durmstrang!"

"What are you doing here?" I breathed. My mind went back to what he'd said, how he'd see me again.

"Looking after the dragons for the first task" he said, then "Oh hell, I shouldn't have said that. Urm, can you-?"

"I won't tell anyone" I promised.

He smiled with relief. "Thanks. I would have hated to have to wipe your memory. By the way, I never got your name?" his voice trailed off.

"Katerina" I smiled and held out a hand for him to shake. "I guess we didn't get to introductions last time"

"Katerina" he mused. "So you like dragons?"

I considered for a moment. I'd always been fascinated with them I suppose. "Yeah" I said slowly. "I guess"

"Do you wanna feed this one" asked Charlie.

"Are you serious?" I squealed. "I'd love too!"

Charlie handed me a bucket which had some large hanks of meat in it. I didn't ask what they were, I very much suspected that I didn't want to know. I was let into the cage by Charlie, who was looking shiftily at the other workers. None of them were looking in our direction. We crept into the enclosure and Charlie shut it behind us.

Charlie approached the dragon cautiously, making comforting murmurs to calm it down. I heard its voice in my head sigh contently as he patted its shoulder. Then, we each took a piece of meat and tossed them to it. It caught the meat in its mouth and swallowed it whole.

"You'd better go" said Charlie suddenly, as we watched the dragon finish his supper. "Someone's gonna notice you're gone."

I nodded and hurried back to the ship. I climbed back through the window and collapsed into bed.