Chapter 32: The Young Lady Dragged onto the Pirate Ship (Patreon)

"Who's out there?!"

Harry cried out, Ron snatched a rusty iron poker off the table, and Hagrid scrambled to throw his enormous beaverskin coat over the kettle in the hearth.

But Raven had already moved.

He didn't draw his wand. He crossed to the wooden door in two strides, yanked back the bolt, and shot a long arm out into the howling wind with perfect precision—

"Eek!"

With a short, delicate squeal, a slender figure wrapped in a thick black cloak was hauled neatly into the hut by her collar!

The door slammed shut behind her under Raven's hand, and the heavy wooden bar dropped into place.

Everyone in the room froze.

In the dim, flickering firelight, the girl he'd pulled inside flung back her hood, revealing a delicate face flushed from running.

A dazzling mane of platinum hair spilled loose in the heat, the pure silver teardrop pendant on her chest rising and falling with her quick breaths. It was Draconia Malfoy.

"Let go of me! Raven Capet!"

The young lady looked like a puffed-up little peacock. She slapped away the hand gripping her cloak, her grey-blue eyes blazing with shock and fury. But before she could say more, the scorching air and the doggy stink rolling off Fang hit her, and she doubled over coughing. "Cough, cough... What kind of hellhole is this?! It's like an oven in here, and it reeks!"

"Malfoy?!" The iron poker nearly slipped from Ron's hand onto his foot, and the color drained from his face. "Merlin help us... She saw it! She saw everything! She's definitely going to tell Snape!"

"Of course I'm going to report it!"

Draconia caught her breath, and her gaze slid past Raven's shoulder to the huge, strange egg in the middle of the fireplace, smoking black among the roaring coals. Her pupils contracted sharply, and she shrieked, "Have you all gone mad?! That's a dragon egg! Hatching dragons at home has been strictly forbidden since 1709! The Ministry of Magic will throw every one of you into Azkaban! I'm going to tell Professor McGonagall right now—"

She spun around and lunged for the door handle.

But a dry, long-fingered hand got there first, braced against the door and blocking her way.

Raven leaned down slightly, looking at the breathless girl from above, his expression calm as still water. "Tell Professor McGonagall what? That the Malfoy heiress spent a Saturday afternoon sneaking after a Slytherin boy through half the Forbidden Forest?"

Draconia went rigid.

A scalding flush raced from her ears all the way down her swan-like neck.

"I... I was not following you!" Like a cat with her tail stepped on, she jerked her chin high, her eyes darting wildly around the ceiling. "I was just... I was just out for a walk! I happened to see you creeping along behind three Gryffindors, and I suspected you were about to break school rules and ruin Slytherin's reputation!"

"Whether it was a walk or a tail, you're in this room now," Raven said unhurriedly, his voice low and clear. "If Hagrid is caught, he'll be thrown out of Hogwarts. Potter and the others will lose at least two hundred points. And I..."

He met her trembling eyes, one corner of his mouth curving faintly. "As an accomplice, I probably won't escape expulsion either. Miss Malfoy, do you really want to see me driven out of school?"

Draconia bit her lower lip.

The whole speech of lofty pure-blood rules she'd been about to deliver jammed in her throat, stopped dead by that offhand question.

Expelled?

Raven Capet, driven out of Hogwarts?

The thought of the dark-haired figure, so composed and elegant, no longer sitting across the long dungeon table. The thought of no one holding her hand to correct the angle of her cutting knife in Potions and Transfiguration next term... Her heart clenched as though an invisible hand had squeezed it, and a wave of indescribable panic and refusal swept through her.

"Don't... don't say it, Miss Malfoy!"

Hagrid dropped to his knees behind her with a thud, eyes red, tears running down into his beard, practically begging. "Please don't report me... It's only a baby, it's about to hatch, and if the Ministry of Magic takes it, they'll chop it up for potion ingredients!"

Hermione stepped forward too, her voice softer than anyone had ever heard it. "Malfoy, please. This really isn't a prank."

Draconia looked at the big man kneeling on the floor, then at Raven, standing before the door, his face calm but his gaze burning. She stamped her foot hard, her eyes turning red with fury. "You're all lunatics! Complete and utter lunatics! Why do I get dragged in every time you get into trouble?!"

She took a deep breath, rubbed her burning earlobe in irritation, turned her face away, and spoke very fast. "Even if I don't report you, this rotten little hut can't hide it. In a month at most it'll be half the size of this house, and then all of Hogwarts will smell roast dragon!"

"So we need to send it away," Ron offered quietly. "My brother Charlie studies dragons in Romania, so we could write to him... but he's too far away, and we've got no legal way to get it out of the castle safely."

"The dragon-keeping Weasley?"

Draconia scoffed, and a flash of Malfoy pride lit her eyes. "Half the funding for the Romanian dragon reserve comes from sponsorship by the pure-blood board of governors every year, and my father is an old acquaintance of the director there. If I send an urgent, confidential letter through the Malfoy family's private channels, Charlie Weasley's team can pose as a 'Magical Creatures academic exchange group' and send people with a fire-resistant container to meet us on top of the Astronomy Tower at midnight on Saturday!"

The hut fell silent.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione gaped at the pure-blood heiress who'd been screaming about telling on them a moment ago, utterly incredulous. "You... you'll help us?" Ron stammered.

"Shut up, Weasley! Who said I'm helping you?!"

Draconia shot him a vicious glare, turned her flaming face aside, and added through gritted teeth, "I just don't want a certain egomaniac dragging down Slytherin's points! And if I don't see him in class next term, I'll throw all three of you into the Black Lake to feed the giant squid!"

Raven watched her bristle with all that bluster and no bite, a gentle smile tugging at his lips, and stepped aside to clear the doorway. "Then welcome to our illegal transport plan, Draconia."

Crack...

Just then, a sharp crack rang out from the hearth where the iron kettle sat. The surface of the black, scalding egg split open along a hairline fissure.

With a faint scraping sound, a hatchling poked out of the shell, black and scruffy like a broken umbrella, with tiny spiked wings. Two fierce orange eyes glared out, and it spat a feeble puff of sparks.

And deep in Raven's mind, the System's notification chimed, steady and perfectly timed:

[Ding. Successfully reversed the 'Draco Tattling Betrayal Incident.']

[Causality Reversal Points +180.]

[Current remaining total Reversal Points: 1860.]