Fantastic Beasts: Alone

5 - Time

"Well, I'm sorry, genius. I tried my best." The Gryffindor student said angrily.

"I'm sorry!" I said. I didn't want to appear conceited or rude. I don't think he was too happy, but I couldn't go back on what I'd said now. I remained fairly quiet for the rest of the lesson, only answering questions when Professor Kettleburn asked me specifically.

The next couple of months went by fairly quickly. Lessons came and passed, all of which Edwin, Ellen and I were striving at, thanks to us practicing outside of lessons (we also had Henry, Edwin's older brother, to thank for that!) Ellen's younger sister, Isla, visited the school after apparently leaving at the end of last year, and we had a nice few days together. Nothing too significant happened, until we got to the end of the first term, just before Christmas break...

I was staying at Hogwarts, as I still didn't get anywhere in terms of seeing Newt. That upset me a lot, but there wasn't anything I could do about it, as I didn't want to go behind Professor Dumbledore's back, and I definitely didn't want to spring the news on Newt so suddenly. Anyway, I was staying over the Christmas break, and it just so happened that Edwin was staying too. Thankfully, Evelyn wasn't staying, but Ellen had to return to her family to go to Germany on holiday, so she wouldn't be staying with us.

I was sat in the Great Hall, 2 days before Christmas, when Edwin came up to me and held out his hand.

"I want to take you somewhere quickly." He said, smiling. I looked at him, confused, but smiling.

"Where?" I asked, intrigued.

"You'll find out in a minute or two, now, won't you, Lia?" He said, chuckling. I took his hand and stood up, laughing softly.

Edwin held on to my hand as he led me over to the Creatures Reserve, where he pulled out his wand.

"Lumos." He whispered as he approached one of the areas of the Forest. I silently followed, confused.

My confusion was replaced by amazement as I saw a baby Chinese Fireball stood in the middle of the area, walking around in circles. I turned to Edwin.

"How long has she been there?" I whispered.

"No longer than a day." Edwin replied. "She's hurt, though. Right-"

"Right wing. Yes..." I said, before I slowly and silently approached it, lowering my head and holding out my hand. The baby dragon noticed me and cried out. I immediately stopped and let her come to me, which she cautiously did. I stroked her and slowly, but surely, gained her trust. I played with her for half an hour or so, checking her movement and making sure nothing else was hurt. When I was convinced that the only problem was her right wing, I held out my hand again and she let me stroke her, rubbing against me at times. After a brief inspection, I realised the issue.

"It's broken. Look, you can see the slight bend. She'll need to stay in the reserve for a couple of days, just so I can make sure nothing else is wrong. But that break is an easy fix. I'll have to do it later, though. Otherwise I might lose her trust."

I stood up and walked back to where Edwin was stood. He nodded and we quietly left the baby dragon.

"What if she escapes?" Edwin asked.

I sighed. "Well, we'll have to cross that bridge when we get to it. We can't tie her up, we have to let her roam around. If we did tie her up, she'd just escape anyway, and it would mean she wouldn't trust either of us at all. We just have to hope she doesn't wander."

We got back to the castle, where we were alone. We passed a corridor on the seventh floor, where I noticed something strange.