Marauder's Daughter (Eventual Tom Riddle X OC)

Chapter 44: Dragons

His friends find him not long after, and they take over making the plans from there. Hermione goes into research mode immediately for distracting and bright spells, and Ron launches into explanations about what he knows about dragons. Ron then looks skeptically at me before I leave.

"How did you know about the dragons, Charlie didn't write me at all." Ron asks with suspicion.

"I have my ways, Ronniekins." I pinch his cheeks obnoxiously. "Besides, you forget, I'm Charlie's favorite." I grin at him, which is true, he really did tell me and not the rest of his brothers about the dragons.

Alexei and I spent the whole Sunday together, alternating between doing our homework and snogging each other. It was a delightful way to spend the day, and we looked forward to more weekends together like that. He eventually got greeted by the twins, who were polite enough, right up until they pranked him and tried to give him one of the prototype canary creams. I intercepted them, and force fed them a Ton-Tongue Toffee so they had to run back to the dorms to take the antidote. They didn't try to prank him again after that, and Alexei found them very amusing, even if he didn't know all of what they were saying. 

I had been curious what Alexei does for classes while he's here, and was surprised that Karkaroff teaches them most of their stuff, but also that Snape teaches both of the visiting schools Potions lessons and Sprout teaches them all Herbology. They learn all the rest from their headmasters though.

Alchemy has been an interesting subject. The work was challenging and very precise in its timing. I wasn't quite as interested in it as I was in Runes, but it was fascinating to learn. I'll give Dumbledore all the props in the world for being very intelligent, and he is a good teacher, I hold nothing against him for that. I just don't like him when it's in regard to Harry.

"Good afternoon, Tom." I greet the boy after I haven't seen him in a few weeks.

"Good afternoon. You seem in good spirits today." Tom observes. I just came from an afternoon with Alexei, so I'm in a fairly good mood.

"To be fair, I've only been in a bad mood in here once." I point out to him, and he tilts his head in acceptance.

"True, so what brings you here today? Or I suppose more accurately, what brings me in here?" He asks me delicately.

"How would you fight a dragon?" I ask him curiously.

"I think I would need a little more context." He starts to say after looking at me in surprise. "Why am I fighting a dragon? Is the reward worth the effort?" He probes for further information.

"Alright, you're trying to get a prize that you will need for a future task, and the prize is located in the nest of eggs that the dragon is guarding. You are alone, with only your wand to help you, and you cannot kill the dragon or harm her eggs. How will you get that prize?" I restate the question, putting in extra rules so he can't just kill the dragon. He pauses and thinks about his answer for a moment.

"I would get the mother away from her eggs, for starters." He answers after a moment of thought. "And I would use ice and water to counter the fire. Freezing the dragon would be effective for both of these. Not internal freezing, but externally freezing her, so as to not kill it. A dragon is still a reptile, so they don't do well in cold temperatures. A strong enough blizzard or ice attack should be sufficient." He says, and I hum in surprise and agreement.

"That's a good plan." I admit to him. "Probably not one a standard wizard could pull off, not everyone is as powerful as you. An ice attacked strong enough to immobilize a fire breathing dragon would generally require magic beyond the capabilities of the average witch or wizard. But it's an interesting approach."