120 Blind Dates... And Other Short Stories

My Friend, the Dragon

This was the point when she should have called her parents or Darla's parents. But then again, their parents had explicitly forbidden the girls to use magic outside the house, and they would definitely get into big trouble if their parents ever found out what had just happened here tonight.

Moreover, someone from the neighborhood who was not a witch or wizard could spot the dragon in Sally's garden and alarm authorities. Her father, who was in the Secret Magic Service, would then have to step in with his colleagues and erase everyone's memories. So they would get into trouble in that case as well.

Perhaps Miss Strangletoff knew what to do. Sally knew where she lived because Darla and her had thrown old eggs against her home on Halloween, and other students had wrapped the entire house in toilet paper. Naturally, Strangletoff had never discussed this in class, nor had she ever found out who had been behind this bad "joke." Sally had to admit that whereas it might have been fun to do this while they were at it, she was not proud of it. As a matter of fact, what they had done to Strangletoff's house that night had been very cruel and disrespectful. And right now, her best friend needed the teacher's help.

"Okay, Darla. I got this. We need to pay Miss Strangletoff a visit," she said, trying to reassure Darla that she knew what she was doing even though she wasn't. "Do you think you can fly there?"

Riding a dragon was something most kids at her school dreamt about since most of them had never even encountered a dragon. If the circumstances had been different, Sally would have enjoyed herself more. But since she felt responsible for the situation and needed to see to it that Darla got to Miss Strangletoff's house safely, she couldn't stop worrying.

Apart from that, Darla was not good at flying either. Of course, she had never been a dragon before, and one couldn't expect her to be perfect at flying at once. But she almost crashed into a tree with Sally sitting on her back during her first two attempts at flying, and Sally was almost thrown off her back when Darla took her first sharp turn to the right while in the air.

They landed in Miss Strangletoff's garden, or they rather crashed in her new swimming pool when Darla attempted to land.

Miss Strangletoff was outside at once and screaming at Sally even though she looked ridiculous in her pink nightgown, which looked like something Sally's grandmother would have refused to wear. "You freaking kids! What is wrong with you? Why can't you leave me alone!"

"Miss Strangletoff, we need your help!" Sally started.

"Who is we? You and your pet dragon?" Miss Strangletoff asked suspiciously. "May I remind you that you are actually supposed to wear masks if you leave the house... At least you are supposed to do that, Sally. I don't think they make them in a size that would fit a dragon."

"That's the problem. The dragon is Darla," Sally explained.

"I'm sorry?"

"We were practicing spells, and a spell went wrong. I was wondering whether you can help us!"

"Why are you practicing transformation spells at home? There is a 50% chance that they will go wrong even if you have done that as often as I have!"

"We didn't want to fail your class," Sally said matter-of-factly. "The spell she used was the one you use to melt ice, but I think she accidentally pointed her wand towards her foot."

"Of course, you can trust her to be stupid enough to do something like that!" Miss Strangletoff exclaimed, obviously not caring at all how mean she sounded.

Sally ignored the nasty remark. "Is there anything we can do to reverse the spell?"

"Short of praying for her soul, no, there isn't," Miss Strangletoff stated. "One of the basic things you should have learned in my class is that if you use a transformation spell to transform yourself, only you are the one who can change yourself back. That's why you usually add something like a time limit to a transformation spell, or you connect the spell to someone you trust and whose touch can change you back."

"Okay, sorry, we might not have paid attention to your teaching all the time," Sally admitted.

"I know. Nobody does," the teacher said with a sigh. "But on the bright side, you have a really nice pet here. Not many kids have a dragon at your age. I wanted a pet dragon when I was your age."   

Sally had an idea. "Perhaps we can teach her how to speak. Then she might be able to transform herself back."

"Have you ever met a talking dragon? Well, I haven't. Sorry," Miss Strangletoff said. 

Darla's parents were inconsolable when their daughter didn't return home. They were about to go to the police when Sally told them what had happened and showed them the dragon she had hidden on her grandparents' haunted property outside town. For the next couple of weeks, they tried every spell they knew, but their magic was not strong enough.

When school was about to start again, Darla's parents informed the headmaster that their daughter was a dragon now and would thus be unable to attend school. 

"Well, then we need to change her back! It's really simple!" Mr Wyse exclaimed. 

Darla's mother didn't know what to make of this at first. "But Miss Strangletoff said that's not possible!" 

"That old witch! She likes to mess with kids because they don't like her! Now, I need a few ingredients for the spell, but trust me that this is not the first time something like that has happened to a student at the School of Magic."