~The Big Five at Hogwarts~

Chapter 8

Elsa

        “The glacius charm makes it possible to shoot a blast of ice from the tip of the wand,” I whisper under my breath as my eyes wander across the pages of the book. I’m trying to stay quiet so as not to wake up the students in our dormitories. I hadn’t meant to stay up so late reading, but before I knew it, it was already 12:00 at night. It isn’t until I am closing the book and getting ready to go to sleep when the screeching roar reaches my ears.

            At first when I hear it, I think that I’m just sleep-deprived and imagining things. But once I peek out the arching window, I find that I am wrong. Because outside on the Quidditch pitch is some sort of brown winged creature with fire erupting from its jaws, lighting up the night. I have to squint to see what it is. There is a Hungarian Horntail on the Quidditch pitch.

            “I have to tell someone! I need a teacher,” I whisper-scream before jumping off of my chair frantically. However, upon another glance out the window I see that the dragon has cornered two people up against the goal post! There are two small figures, one redheaded and one blond being pushed farther and farther back. I realize that there is not enough time to go to Headmistress McGonagall’s office; those people do not have long. I race down the hundreds of stairs leading to the Entrance Hall and burst out the doors.

            But as I am running across the grass towards the reptilian monster cornering the students, I stop in my tracks. What am I doing? How could I go up against the deadliest dragon known to the Wizarding World? The dragon turns its scaly, spiny head towards me and glares at me with beady eyes. It spurts yet another great orange flame from its maw, inches from my nose. I can feel the tingling heat against my face and my heart seems like it will burst out of my chest. The girl, a curly-haired Gryffindor, sees this as a chance to sprint away from in front of the dragon and point her wand at its side flank. The blond Hufflepuff nimbly follows.

“Well, are you going to help?” Redhead asks, fear creeping into her voice, “on three: One…two…three!”

            “Glacius!” The first word that pops into my head bursts out of my mouth, making the ice explode from my white wand tip. I had never actually practiced this spell, but as I stated before, these types of spells come pretty naturally to me.

            “Aqua Eructo!” A jet of foaming water shoots out of Redhead’s own wand, which blasts into the dragon’s mouth, extinguishing its flame.

“Aguamenti!” Blondie shoots her own small wave of water onto the inferno already forming at the base of the goal post. Meanwhile, my blast coats the Horntail’s mouth and face in ice. But not for long. It quickly breaks through the thin layer and lets loose another defiant roar. The girls and I look at each other before turning around and running over to the side of the stands. Once we’re crouching next to the seats, I turn to the two girls.

“Are you guys okay?” I ask them. They are both breathing heavily, but they nod nonetheless.

“Is that…a Horntail!?” Blondie whispers. I nod and put my finger to my lips, signaling them to stay quiet. The dragon is searching the field wildly for us, making a circle around the field. Without warning, somebody else comes running out from behind the bleachers. His white hair practically shines in the moonlight, and I recognize him as Jack.

“Merida! Where are you?” he calls into the night. Redhead (apparently her name’s Merida) manages to pull him down next to us before he can say more, but the Horntail is already aware of our location.

“Great,” I growl, “anybody else want to join the party?”

“Oops. Sorry,” Jack bit his lip. The dragon school is now only a couple of yards away from our hiding spot. So at Merida’s signal, we all jump out from behind the seats, casting various ice and water spells and pointing them at the dragon. But it only slows the creature down. Jack and I both casting the glacius spell at the same time does freeze its wings together, though. That way it can’t fly away and destroy the castle. However, it keeps pushing us all closer and closer to the stands. I know that pretty soon it will overtake us. Then another flame spews from its mouth, coming in contact with the nearest object: Jack’s raised upper arm. He cries out in pain as he falls to the ground and tries to hide the agony he’s probably feeling. I rush over to him and try to cool the burn off with ice magic, but that only leaves the two other girls to deal with the dragon.

“We need someone more powerful to help, like a teacher!” Blondie cries above the roaring of water and flame.

“We won’t be able to call for help if we’re dead!” Jack yells back, clutching his blistering arm.

Suddenly, out of the sky comes another shape: a dark form with huge wings and two people riding on its back.

            “Not another dragon!” I groan.

            “It’s not just any dragon, it’s Toothless!” Blondie exclaims with a smile. I am not sure what she means. As far as I know, all dragons have teeth. The large (although smaller than the Horntail) dragon lands a few feet away and two teenagers hop off of it. One is a skinny brunette boy, and the other is a blond girl in Gryffindor robes. The girl urges the four of us to back away while the boy slowly but knowingly walks toward the dragon.

            “Is he crazy? What kind of person walks up to the most dangerous dragon known to wizards?!” I cry.

            “Well, that’s Hiccup for you. Don’t worry,” the girl tells me and she smiles a little. We watch as Hiccup stands in front of the dragon, which is rearing up and snarling threateningly. Still, he is not fazed. He simply whispers to it in a low voice and bows his head. Then, he holds his hand out inches from the monster’s snout and waits patiently. Finally, the dragon’s snorts and growls quiet down and it cautiously rests its nose in his hand. My eyes widen. All of us stand there staring while Hiccup and the Gryffindor girl caress the Hungarian Horntail’s snout.

            By the time the professors come to help, the dragon’s frozen wings have broken apart and it is nuzzling Hiccup. They all seem to be as astonished as us. And once Hiccup has tied it up in his corral and come back, the gathered teachers have told us to stay here while someone fetches the Headmistress. While they are doing that, Hufflepuff Blondie kneels down in front of Jack to inspect his burn.

            “Would you mind if I tried a healing spell on you?” she asks him, “that’s about the only kind I’m good at.” When Jack nods, she rests her chocolate-brown wand lightly on his arm. He winces at this, but he manages a smile. And then the girl unexpectedly starts to sing a little song.

            Flower, gleam and glow

            Let your power shine

            Make the clock reverse

            Bring back what once was mine,

            What once was mine.

When she finishes, she lifts the wand and reveals a clean arm, with no marks or burns showing at all.

Then she meekly ducks her head and scoots over to Merida. I have read about rare spells that need to be sung, but have never seen it done. I’ve been told that it requires a very powerful sorcerer. Surprisingly, none of the teenagers say anything about it. I attempt to break the awkward silence.

“So…you are able to tame dragons?” I ask Hiccup quietly. My question seems to shake him out of his thoughts. He looks up and says,

            “Oh, yeah. I learned…awhile ago.” The girl elbows him and addresses me.

            “Hiccup’s being modest. He was the first person on Berk to ride a dragon! Berk is where we live.” I can’t help but stare at the midnight black dragon sitting next to them, looking around curiously with big cat-like eyes. Half of his tail tip seems to be artificial, and his big ears swivel left and right, picking up the sounds around him.

            “Astrid,” she nods at me.

            “I’m Elsa,” I mutter.

            “Well,” Hufflepuff Blondie sighs, “I’m glad that’s over. Anyway, my name’s Rapunzel.”

            “You probably all know that I’m Jack,” he says, rubbing his now healed arm.

            “And I’m Merida!” The redhead says cheerfully. Before anyone can respond, Professor Flitwick comes running out of the castle, looking scared.

            “Headmistress McGonagall has disappeared! Headmistress McGonagall has disappeared!