Beauxbatons [Charlie Weasley]

Flying

"'Ere you are," Isabelle says softly, feeding Codrin a couple of dead rabbits out of a sack her and Daniel brought up.

The Common Welsh Green takes them gently out of her grasp, munching on them while carefully trying not to bite her hand. Daniel stands beside the dragon, gently cleaning a cut on its neck with a wet rag.

Isabelle and Daniel discovered the dragon's wound within a week of taking care of him, when they would bring picnics up to Codrin's clearing and eat them there with him, bringing along a rabbit or deer's carcass with them and setting it down several metres away from them for him to eat. He did, after a while, and that's when Isabelle noticed his gash.

It's been two weeks since then, and once Codrin learned that they only wanted to help him, he trusted them enough to hand feed him while getting his wound cleaned. Isabelle and Daniel have taken turns each day, one being the feeder, the other being the cleaner, then swapping.

Codrin's wound has become so much better over the past week or so, having been properly cleaned out of all infection. The dragon will let them touch him now, and they've done it many times, just to keep him used to them, running their hands over his scales, his wings, along his tail. They did this at first to check for other wounds, and then just to keep him used to their touch.

"Do you zink 'e will let us fly on 'im yet?" Isabelle asks softly as she takes another dead rabbit out of the sack.

"He might," the blond, curly-haired boy replies thoughtfully. "He's more than comfortable enough with us now and it's only been three weeks. I mean, we have another week to ride him, but if we can do it now, the sooner the better, you know."

"I agree," Isabelle says, both of them using their soft, gentle voices around Codrin, not wanting to scare him with any harsh or loud tones. That's probably another thing that has helped them gain his trust so quickly.

"Zee only zing I am worried about is frightening 'im. If we upset Codrin now, zen 'oo knows when 'e will learn to trust us again. We might fail zee task because of it," Isabelle continues on.

Daniel goes quiet, thinking.

"That's a good point," he mumbles. "But, then again, if we wait until later to try it and he freaks out then, then we'll have even less time to try to regain his trust. I say we give it a shot now."

"Alright," Isabelle agrees, letting the now-empty sack fall to the ground. She walks around Codrin until she's standing at the base of his wing, putting her hands on his side and on his wing, letting him know where she is.

Codrin doesn't react, evidently completely comfortable with her being there, and Daniel keeps gently cleaning the dragon's wound to keep him still. Taking a steadying breath, Isabelle steps up onto the joint of the wing and the body, putting her full weight on it as she holds onto Codrin's side. Again, the dragon doesn't react, and Isabelle glances down at Daniel, who nods in reassurance, before she slowly uses Codrin's scales to pull herself up onto his back.

When he doesn't move, aside from letting out a big puff of air, as though sighing, Isabelle shuffles forwards on her butt, until she's situated herself at his neck, holding onto the horns on his head to keep her in place. She exhales in relief, stroking Codrin's head and neck.

"You are doing such a good job," she whispers in his ear, reaching down to pat the top of his snout. Codrin seems to look up at her with lazy eyes, as if bored of this recent development.

Before she knows it, Daniel's climbed up as well, sitting behind Isabelle. She turns around and catches his eye, letting out a thrilled laugh. Even though they're not in the air yet, they're still sitting on Codrin, an actual dragon — they're sitting on an actual dragon!