Black and Potter | H. Potter

30 ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆ used up socks.

Alarmed as she was by Sirius's warnings about Karkaroff, Hermione still thought that the dragons were the more pressing problem.

"Let's just try and keep you alive until Tuesday evening," she said desperately, "and then we can worry about Karkaroff."

"Not the easiest task," said Ara, clicking her tongue. "Death follows him everywhere."

"Can you be serious, please?" said Hermione sternly.

"You see I can't do that because I'm actually–"

"Please not another one of those jokes again!"

They walked three times around the lake, trying all the way to think of a simple spell that would subdue a dragon. Nothing whatsoever occurred to them, so they retired to the library instead. Here, they pulled down every book they could find on dragons, and the three of them set to work searching through the large pile.

" 'Talon-clipping by charms . . . treating scale-rot . . .' This is no good, this is for nutters like Hagrid who want to keep them healthy. . . ."

" 'Dragons are extremely difficult to slay, owing to the ancient magic that imbues their thick hides, which none but the most powerful spells can penetrate . . .' But Dad said a simple one would do it. . . ."

"Let's try some simple spell books, then," said Harry, throwing aside Men Who Love Dragons Too Much.

He returned to the table with a pile of spell books, set them down, and began to flick through each in turn, Hermione whispering nonstop at his elbow as Ara tried her hardest to stay awake, blinking sleepily at the pages of the book she was holding.

"Well, there are Switching Spells . . . but what's the point of Switching it? Unless you swapped its fangs for wine-gums or something that would make it less dangerous. . . . The trouble is, like that book said, not much is going to get through a dragon's hide. . . . I'd say Transfigure it, but something that big, you really haven't got a hope, I doubt even Professor McGonagall . . . unless you're supposed to put the spell on yourself? Maybe to give yourself extra powers? But they're not simple spells, I mean, we haven't done any of those in class, I only know about them because I've been doing O.W.L. practice papers. . . ."

"Hermione," Harry said, through gritted teeth, "will you be quiet for a bit, please? I'm trying to concentrate."

His eyes snapped to the side when he heard even breathing, seeing that Ara had fallen asleep with her head on top of an open book. She looked to be already deeply gone but that serenity of slumber was broken when Hermione noticed her figure as well, she slammed her book on the table, making Ara shoot right awake.

"Damn," Ara rubbed her eyelids as she sat up, her voice hoarse. "Can't even let me sleep."

"You're supposed to be helping!" hissed Hermione.

"Oh—right," Ara cleared her throat as she picked up the book and tried to read it again.

Ara would be lying if she said she didn't feel bad for falling asleep in the middle of such important research, but she was honest when she said she hadn't even noticed. The book pages had just seemed so welcoming and comfortable that she couldn't resist resting her head for a bit, not expecting her eyes to close. She hadn't been getting enough sleep these days, her skull always seemed to start aching even more at nighttime, preventing her from sleeping.

"Ara?"

Ara hummed in response and turned to Harry, who was looking at her with an expression of uncertainty, she didn't realise that she had zoned out and had been staring blankly at the book in front of her.