Alchemy

Things we lost

Dan and Charlie sat on their beds in their room. Charlie's little dragon friends were playing around on his lap.

'We saw real ones today,' Charlie perked up, looking across at his fellow Hufflepuff.

Dan raised an eyebrow at Charlie. 'We? Real ones?'

'Kyle and I went to one of my friends and saw real dragons. One of them's gonna have babies soon.'

Charlie kept talking enthusiastically about dragons. Dan half listened as he texted Kyle.

'You didn't tell me you went with Charlie to see dragons dude'

'tbh i wasnt gonna tell you but i should have guessed charlie would'

'Dude cmon I said I'd help you'

Kyle didn't reply. He sat at a desk in the library, several books on dragons open in front of him. He was trying to figure out how to talk to Charlie without Dan being there, so that the two of them could get an egg.

And so there's someone to be a distraction, Kyle thought absentmindedly as he flicked through page upon page on dragon behaviour. Everyone (save for Dan) simply saw this as a new interest of Kyle's, albeit some did suspect an ulterior reasoning for this.

Kyle stayed in the library until it closed, his mind whirling with thoughts as he formed a plan.

- - - - -

Dan hated Defence Against The Dark Arts classes. Well, he hated the theory side. It bored him to no end. He didn't feel the need to learn about low level criminal wizards. When it was about more exciting things, it was the Battle of Hogwarts for the 100th time. Truth be told, all Dan really wanted to do in that class was to duel Will, since the Ravenclaws shared the class. Dan was scribbling in the corner of his paper as his teacher droned on.

'... and I have to remind you of the latest trend among dark wizards creating illegal markets to trick naïve wizards into getting contraband for them.'

This caught Dan's attention and he listened a bit closer, continuing to doodle to not alert Charlie that anything was wrong.

'... also remind you of a recent issue regarding the dangerous wizard, Laslo Panoflex, recently escaped from the authorities, who has been rumoured to be dealing in such illegal markets to gain many dangerous and illegal items...'

Dan froze. L.P.

'... and has been thought to be leaving a trail of injured or dead wizards, likely due to deals gone wrong.'

Dan didn't realise how much pressure he was putting on his quill; the tip snapped and ink blotted onto his paper, the sound snapping him out of his trance of realisation.

Charlie looked over at Dan and whispered, '... Dan? Are you ok?'

'I. Yeah.'

The class ended soon after for lunch and Dan practically ran out the room. Charlie rushed after him to try to make sure he was ok. Will looked after them from across the room and followed them as soon as he could

'Dan, slow down!' Charlie called after Dan, jogging, trying to keep his books from falling out of his arms.

Dan burst into the library, an exasperated Charlie tailing him, Will in turn tailing Charlie, and rushed to where Kyle was sat with Woody at the group's usual meeting spot.

Kyle stood up to hug Dan, but Dan grabbed Kyle by the collar and dragged him away from the table to a quiet corner at the back of the library.