The Fifth Champion

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Charissa had lain by the lake for hours. Her arm was throbbing and the book she had meant to read lay untouched in the grass next to her. The gently lull of the small waves of the lake had sang her to sleep, and Charissa had only woken up just in time to watch the sunset.

"It's very beautiful isn't it?" A light voice said from behind her. Charissa nodded in reply. A girl with long blonde hair, not quite as long as Charissa's, sat down next to her, tucking in her legs.

"Do you come here often?" Charissa asked.

"Oh, yes. It's a good place to be alone with your thoughts." The girl said. Her voice was light and dreamy.

"Just because you're different doesn't make you odd." The girl said. "They just don't understand."

"In more ways than one." Charissa laughed. The girl nodded, smiling. "You're Luna Lovegood, aren't you?"

Luna nodded again. "We're not so different, if you think about it." She said.

"What'd you mean?" Charissa asked.

"Well, we're just both different kinds of different." Luna smiled.

"What do they think of me now?" Charissa she'd miserably.

"Oh, I don't know." Luna said. "I guess my head was full of Wrackspurts. You shouldn't listen to them. They'll tell you to be something you're not."

"I grew up being someone I'm not." Charissa said, but Luna was already gone.

Charissa laid down and opened her book, getting ten pages in before Cedric was behind her. "You understood it, didn't you?" Charissa said, startling Cedric, who hadn't realized she knew he was there. "The Dragonsong?"

Cedric nodded.

"How much do you know already?" Charissa asked.

"Not much besides that Dragonsong is supposed to be extinct." Cedric said, sitting down next to Charissa.

Charissa nodded. "It's a very rare ability these days, Dragonsong. Probably limited to just us." She said, her eyes pointing towards the stars.

"I learned to sing before I could speak. The Dragonsong, it came more naturally than English. My mum, she didn't realize what it was at first, the language is so ancient. It wasn't until I was five that she figured out it was Dragonsong." Charissa said.

"Tell me." Cedric said. They'd known each other for two years and never once had Charissa spoken of growing up to anyone. "Tell me how she figured it out."

Charissa bit her tongue. Talking about the past wasn't one of her favorite activities. She took a deep breath and began the story.

"When I was younger, I liked to play outside. I spent almost my whole life out there, as much as my mother hated it. She always wanted me inside, I still don't understand why. Anyway, there was a little creek running through a garden, with a small bench right alongside the water. I would sit there and sing for what seemed like hours. The prettiest flowers would grow at my feet, and the bluest birds would come and sing with me. I could hold a conversation with them much better than I could a human.

"The spot was hidden by a hedge, so my mother never noticed. I knew she didn't like the singing, so a bird named Dahlia would always watch for her coming. This one day, I ignored Dahlia and kept singing, even after the birds flew away. My mother asked where I learned the song, it was a new one. 'I didn't,' I said, 'It came to me.' I didn't understood why, but immediately she became worried and banned me from singing, and began to accompany me outside. I was five.

"When I was eight, I began to wonder why it was such a terrible thing to sing, so I began reading my father's old books on Dark Arts that were hidden around the Manor to keep Draco and I from reading them. I came across a book on dragons. It spoke of an ancient legend from a time when dragons ruled over nature, of a human who, as punishment for a crime, was forced to have the child of the last dying dragon.

"When the child was first born, it began to sing in the language of dragons, Dragonsong. All of nature bowed to it, the legend said, as Dragons were the rulers. The child went on to pass the Dragonsong to its children. But as the years past, the trait became more and more rare, and as such, more and more feared. They were hunted down and killed to extinction, blamed for the death of a great species. Of course, magic brought the dragons back, but it would not bring back the Dragonsong, and the language was lost."

"If the language was lost, how is it you can speak it and I can understand it?" Cedric asked.

"I don't understand how I can; the Malfoys have never had any contact with Dragons as far back as is traceable. As for you, people have tried for years to bring back Dragonsong. Perhaps someone in your family tried?" Charissa suggested. Cedric nodded, and Charissa continued the story.

"I kept reading the books, and discovered there was a name for people like me, back in the ancient times. 'βασίλισσα των δράκων, vasílissa ton drákon.' It means 'Queen of Dragons,' roughly translated from Greek. It's such a beautiful name, Vasílissa." Charissa smiled blankly, her gaze off in the distance. "Of course, my father found out I was reading the books and destroyed all of them with the mention of Dragonsong. He didn't realize I had already memorized them. I never read more into it than that. It was no use, I couldn't sing again."

"So, today..." Cedric said.

Charissa nodded. "It was the first time I've sang since I was five."

"It was beautiful." Cedric said. "I just wish I could speak it as well."

"Maybe you can, you've just never tried." Charissa sang. Cedric laughed.

"Come on." He said, standing up. "It's probably time to head inside."

"I think I'll stay out here tonight, Ced." Charissa said, smiling up at the stars. She drifted off to sleep before Cedric could answer.