Dragon Defense

Alice couldn't help but giggle at the boy's reaction. She knew who he was exactly, Derry Flanagan. A sixth year Hufflepuff. He was in a few of her classes and sometimes she could see him in their common room. But she doubted he knew who she was at all. She chuckled at the way he just rushed off before even reading the instructions for the class. Through experience, Alice had learned this was often a very fatal mistake. So she just patiently proceeded to carefully read the assignment without even getting close to the dragons. She knew the dragons were harmless, but they could still get pretty dangerous if one doesn't know how to handle them well.

Just as Alice was done reading the pages of the book, she heard something fall on the table next to her. She couldn't help but flinch when she saw it was a dragon. But after carefully examining it, she actually found it rather adorable. Not scary at all as she thought.

Alice giggled loudly when Derry showed her his thumb that was not quite large in size. "I'm so sorry...It isn't funny at all. Let me just fix it for you really quickly" she said still giggling in between her words. She took out her want and pointed it at Derry's thumb. "Episkey!" That should heal the bite and stop it from swelling again.

Looking at the dragon, she thought of many ways she could handle him but one idea popped out the most. She did a simple transfiguration charm to transform the dragon's pointy teeth into soft, round, marshmallow like structures. Letting the dragon bite her finger and seeing that it has no effect on her what so ever, she concluded that her idea was a practical one. "See...he's harmless now"

Derry was slightly embarassed by how quickly the brunette was able to fix his thumb bite. "Epikly!! Of course!!" he said, slamming his palm on his forehead. "Jayzuz, that was a little too easy for you," he said, after seeing the brunette transfigure the dragon's teeth. "And thanks!" he said, smiling at her. "What's your name? You're in Hufflepuff, right? You read books!" Derry said, happy to have recognized the girl. He thought he remembered seeing her reading in the common room.

Derry then got up to bring the now harmless dragon back to the cage and attempt another one. This time, he picked out a silvery-grey one that looked just as feisty as the first. Bringing it back to his desk, he plopped back down on his chair, taking a deep breath. "This is going to go better, I know it," he said, smiling timidly at the brunette. A part of him hoped to prove to her - and maybe himself - that he wasn't stupid.

Just as he finished his sentence, the dragon breathed out fire, taking Derry by surprise. Since the creature was so small, the fire only scorched a lovely, round hole in his uniform, revealing his bare, hairless chest. Derry guffawed, impressed by the tiny thing. "Man, that was a good shot! I like you!" he said to the dragon, trying to control his fit of laughter. "Check this out!" he said, showing the brunette the hole in his uniform.

While the critter circled around angrily on the desk, Derry placed a spell on it, preventing his fire breathing. "There!" he said, satisfied. And, to top things off, he did another incantation to make the dragons claws and teeth marshmallow-like - like the brunette had done. "Brilliant!" he exclaimed, grinning happily.

Alice chuckled, at bit embarrassed from his remark. She wasn't quite sure if being know just for reading books was a good thing or not. Of course, reading was something she enjoyed dearly and did on a regular basis. But there was certainly more to her than just the typical book worm type. Or at least she thought so and hoped that other people did too. But then again, he had noticed her existance and that was something. "Yeah I'm Alice, Alice Longbottom. I think I saw you a few times in the common room" she said with a smile. That was a terrible lie. She had noticed him every time she went to the common room and in many of her classes as well. Not that she would admit that out loud to anyone

When they got another dragon, Alice decided to let Derry handle this one. But she soon noticed that he was rather clumsy, pretty much like herself. She took a few steps back for her own safety when suddenly the dragon started to breathe fire. Seeing that it left a large hole in Derry's uniform and uncovered part of his chest, her cheeks instantly turned red. Her gaze fell to the floor and she avoided looking at his chest directly as much as possible. It wasn't like Alice was used to seeing naked chests of random boys. And for her it make the whole situation very awkward. The whole thing got even worse as Derry insisted on showing her the hole in his uniform.

"Ummm....yeah. I see" she said with a small and shy smile, looking everywhere but his at chest. She then turned her attention to the dragon and the spells he had used to make him harmless. The spell to prevent the fire and to make his claws and teeth soft worked perfectly. Alice grinned happily and clapped her hands. "That was lovely! Well done. " she said with a big smile. Even when he was so clumsy, somehow Derry remained charming at all times. Which was not a skill a lot of people possessed. "How did you do that? The one with the fire? I've tried before to do it as described in the book but for some reason it just didn't work for me."

"Oh! Alice! Yeah, I think I knew that," he said, grinning broadly. "I forgot, but you made it on the Quidditch team this year, didn't you? I'm in it too. I'll be a beater, so we'll get to practice together soon." Derry was ecstatic to have met one of his Quidditch team members: he had always wanted to have a friend with whom he could talk Quidditch. And yes, he had already decided that Alice was his new friend.

"Funny, huh?" he said, still chuckling about his torched uniform. Derry noticed, without understanding, that Alice seemed to look away as he showed the hole. "It doesn't hurt, don't worry," he reassured her, assuming that was the reason Alice averted her eyes. It didn't occur to him that his bare chest would have an effect on Alice - or any other girl for that matter. And Derry being Derry, he would have no problem wearing that uniform for the rest of the day.

"Thank you!" Derry was delighted by the compliment and - considering his blinding smile - it really showed. He used to struggle tremendously at school. Derry improved remarkably since his first years at Hogwarts, but he still occasionally tried to prove himself - and everyone around him - that he wasn't stupid.

"Oh um...well, when you did this spell... (Derry uttered the incantation for softening the teeth)..you can add (other incantation for softening the claws), right after." Then, in order to demonstrate, he said the entire incantation for Alice.

...Dragons, a new friend, and the most brilliant hole in his uniform ever! Getting up and stretching, Derry yawned before returning to take another dragon because, hey, this was way too much fun. Taking the time to glance at all the dragons left in the cage, he smiled in wonder, deciding that they were all equally beautiful. "Aha! I choose you!" he shouted a moment after, picking up a black dragon with an arrow-shaped tail.

"Yeah, I'm a chaser. I remember seeing your name on the list. Well we won't need to wait for too long, because the season will start soon. I'm very excited as most people are I think. Not a lot of things can beat Quidditch in my head. And hopefully the Hufflepuff team can do really well this year" she said with a grin. She enjoyed the game with passion and was always a great fan. For the first time however she actually got to be a part of the game and that was very exciting. Her only hope was not to fall on her face during a game.

Alice reverted her eyes as Derry mentioned his uniform whole again. "Perhaps you should change your shirt then, before your next class I mean" she suggested with a soft smile. She wasn't exactly sure if she could be completely normal and comfortable around him if he was flashing his chest around the classroom. Let alone if he continued to walk around like this all over Hogwarts.

Listening closely to his instructions, she tried to remember the spells and the incantations. Derry went to get another dragon while she thought of another idea for making it harmless. "You know this is our third dragon. Which means we already did two, that's quite an accomplishment. I think we make a good team" said Alice with a grin before turning to the third dragon.

The dragon ended up biting her before she could cast any spell on it. She pulled her hand out and squirmed. "Ouch!" she said out loud, examining her scar on her hand from the bite. This one was certainly much more frisky and dangerous than the last two.

Asuna yanked her hand back from the dragon. “Feisty one, aren’t you?” It gave a low growl. Her eyes widened as she saw the dragon puff up as if it were preparing to breathe fire. “Oh no,” she said. “This is not good. Not good at all.”

Her mind flew through her options until she arrived at a simple protection charm. She flicked her wand up casting a quick “Protego” while ducking to the ground in case her shield failed. The small flame flared against the shield that had formed in front of her before dissipating in a puff.

She sighed in relief as raised herself to a normal position. That was close. She was so grateful right now for her quick reflexes.

An idea sparked in her in her mind. She took hold of it as she pointed her wand at the dragon. Using the spell that came to mind, she said a quick spell that transfigured the mini dragon’s scales into a softer texture, more like the look of a snake’s then a dragon. Then, with a last flick of her wand and a spoken word, she made the dragon’s teeth softer. It glared at her as it felt itself change under her spells.

“There we go. Not so dangerous now are you? You’ve only got your fire to defend yourself.”

Derry's face lit up as Alice talked about Quidditch with as much passion as he. "Yaaa! High Five!" he shouted happily, raising his hand for her to slap. "So glad to meet someone who loves Quidditch as much as me!" Derry said, smiling joyfully at Alice.

"You think I should change my shirt?" Derry asked, glancing down at the circle of nude chest. He was kind of proud of this little mishap and would have loved to parade around with it all day for fun. But, he guessed Alice was right and decided to follow her suggestion. "Yeah.. I guess you're right. But I'm gonna keep this shirt. This is now my lucky dragon shirt," he said, both fists at his sides and a huge grin on his face.

Derry felt really overjoyed when Alice said they made a good team. He didn't have many friends and he particularly liked this girl. From their short time together in class, it kind of seem like she felt the same and he was incredibly glad about it. "Yeah, we definitely make a good team," Derry answered enthusiastically.

When the dragon bit her, Derry couldn't help but grin at the chance to rescue Alice. "Aha, Derry to the rescue!" he said, pointing his wand at Alice's injured finger. "Episkey!" he said and smiled in pride as he saw her hand return to normal. "Go ahead, give it a shot," he said, encouraging her to try the spell she had asked about.

Alice giggled and gave Derry a high five. She wasn't really used to doing those but it seemed fun to try. "I'm happy we will be on the team together" she said with a grin. Now at least she knew someone from the Hufflepuff team. And Derry seemed like he would be a great team member, surely not letting practices become boring at least. But then again Alice could probably help him with that, with her clumsiness and her high probability of falling on her face.

She almost flinched when Derry tried to heal her bite mark, as she had to admit she was a bit nervous of everything that could go wrong. But before she knew it, he had already healed her bite mark completely. "Thank you. That was really nice of you" she said with a soft and a bit shy smile.

Her eyes then concentrated on the little dragon that was jumping around the table. She wasn't just going to let him get away with biting her like that. Remembering the spell Derry had showed her, Alice waved her wand a few times and hoped it worked as well for her as it did for Derry. Soon enough, she saw the dragon's claws shrinking and his teeth becoming soft. The spell had worked perfectly. "That's just brilliant!" she said with a grin, praising Derry's transfiguration skills. "Well I think we did pretty well on this don't you? The professor should be quite pleased"