She felt the heat of the sand beneath her feet even through the thick protective boots she was wearing. With the back of her gloved hand she wiped the sweat off her forehead and turned back to the inflamed teethridge of the stunned dragon she had been examining. Of all the months Lily Evans had been working here, today probably was the hottest of all days so far - and that was saying something at Gobi Desert Dragon Reservation.


When she had finished applying remedies to the dragon's mouth, she got up, patted the still unconscious beast on the snout, and walked away in the direction of a number of huts and tents in the distance. She could hardly believe that although the sun was setting, it was still burning so hotly, but she knew that this would change soon - nights in the desert were usually freezing.

Still walking, Lily pulled her gloves off, and was suddenly reminded of Herbology lessons at Hogwarts. She thought of her friends there, even of how she had been getting along with James Potter so much better lately - and of how she had ended up working in a dragon reservation.

This wasn't what people had expected of Lily Evans - this wasn't where she had seen herself end up only a year ago. Working with animals - practical work - this was where Mary had planned to go. But Mary had been killed, and Lily had been prepared to fight Voldemort because of Mary, once she got out of Hogwarts. Every bit of her had been entirely focused on that thought. And then, near the end of their seventh year, Voldemort had been defeated by Albus Dumbledore, and great though that undoubtedly was, it had left Lily with no plans for her future. Her best friend had been killed, her other best friend had gone to work for the Ministry right after graduation, and her parents had died over a year ago.

So Lily, left with no plan on where to go, decided to do something completely different. She had thought about working for the Ministry, but after she graduated from Hogwarts, her head was so full with different impressions, thoughts and general confusion that Lily decided to do something else until she knew what she actually wanted. So she'd work here for a year, and if she decided to stay longer, she was free to do so. Of course they didn't pay her much apart from food and lodging, but she had learned a lot of things in a very short time. The people were great, and just doing something felt immensely good.

Lily had arrived at the huts, and walked over to the one she had been assigned to, past a campfire, where several people were already sitting and cooking their dinner. Waving quickly at them, she got in the hut to quickly freshen up after a long work day. When she got out of it again, she decided that she should probably renew the charms she had put on the hut before it got dark. She had already cast several spells, when a boy slightly younger than Lily - she supposed that he had left Hogwarts after his O.W.L.s - came walking up to her.

"Don't you think you're being a bit paranoid, Lily?" he asked.

Lily, who had just finished her fire-repelling spell, turned to frown at him. �I�ve been working here for a bit longer than you have, Martin, and trust me - it just does not do to leave a dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him. Especially if you live near several dozens of them. But I�m not here to convince you. Maybe you�ll know better once your tent has caught fire in the middle of the night, or a Horntail hits it away with its tail.�

Lily walked away from Martin. She didn�t like him much, although she hardly knew him. He had only just started a week ago, and judging by the fact that he slept in a tent, he wouldn�t be staying for too long - only people who stayed for six months or longer got to sleep in huts.

Lily was sure she wasn�t being paranoid. Dragons, after all, were dangerous creatures; and apart from that, there had been something strange in the air, and in that case she didn�t want to risk her spells wearing off.

****

Lily was sitting on the back of a dragon, which was soaring through the air, miles over the treetops. Finally, the dragon landed on a tree, but just as she climbed on a branch, she realised it had turned into a woodpecker, which now started hammering holes in the tree just above Lily�s head.

�Stop it,� she muttered, because the sound was giving her a headache. �Stop it, please!� She tried to shoo the bird away, and suddenly jerked awake in her bed. It took her some moments to realise that someone was knocking on the door. The sun was just rising, and today, Lily wouldn�t start work before nine, so she definitely hadn�t overslept. Still yawning, she got up and, not bothering to change from her pyjamas first, crossed the room to open the door.

�Lily! Finally, I thought we�d have to break down your door before you woke up!�

�What�s the matter, Sam?� Lily muttered sleepily to the woman in front of her.

�Oh you�ve got to come and see this! Quick, get dressed, I�ll show you.�

Five minutes later, the two of them were walking over the sand, which was already steadily growing hotter, and after a short walk, they had reached a large tent. On entering, Lily saw the backs of several wizards, who stood crowded around a table, looking down on something. Only when Lily was about to make a remark on the heat in the tent did she realise where they were - the hatching tent. She had only been in here on her first day, when Sam had shown her around. Sometimes - especially with younger dragons - a dragon would lay eggs, but for various reasons ignore them and just fly away, not keeping them warm. Luckily, this didn�t happen very often, but when it happened, those eggs were brought to the hatching tent where the temperature was high enough for the dragons to hatch. And once the baby dragons had hatched, they would stay in a special enclosure, where they were protected until they were large enough to survive on their own.

Lily hadn�t even known that there currently was an egg in the tent, because she hadn�t been here in months, but why else would Sam have taken her here? They moved closer towards the table, and just as Sam breathed, �Wow, just in time...� next to Lily, she saw it. A large egg with cracks all over the surface was lying on the table, and just as Lily came to a halt in front of it, there was a sudden movement and a wet, black, shining something appeared. An extremely short time later, the egg had fallen to one side, and a tiny leathery ball, covered in some transparent slime, had toppled out of it. One of the other wizards - obviously knowing what he was doing - immediately took the baby dragon, cleaned it with a soft towel, and examined it for some moments to ensure it was healthy, before he replaced it on the desk.

�It�s a Norwegian Ridgeback,� Sam informed Lily. �We thought it would be nice if you could take care of it. I�ll help you, of course. It would be great for you, you know, to see how they grow.�

Lily stared at the baby dragon, as it sat on the desk, its tiny wings outstretched. She had never seen anything quite like it before. When she tentatively reached out to stroke it, the dragon made an odd croaky sound and looked at her.

�I think he likes you,� chuckled someone.

Lily had an oddly warm feeling in her stomach which had nothing to do with the rising sun. Maybe, just maybe, she would stay on after her year was over.

***

Lily exited the hatching tent some time after all of the others, who had seen young dragons before, and were not quite as fascinated by it anymore as Lily was. When she finally went outside, her surroundings were deserted, but for a tall, unshaven man in dirty clothes, who looked around in a puzzled way, apparently lost.

�Sorry, can I help you?� Lily approached him.

�That depends,� he replied in a gruff voice, �are you one of them dragon experts?�

�Well - yes, in a way,� Lily said hesitantly.

�Maybe you can help me then - in a way,� the man went on. �I�m working on the excavation site over there.� He pointed vaguely at some point to his right. �And we just found this thing here this morning, and don�t really know what to make of it. So my boss says I ought to go here and ask you lot, because there�s a dragon on it.�

�I didn�t know there was an archaeological excavation nearby,� admitted Lily.

�Well now you know,� the stranger said in a somewhat impatient tone.

After a few seconds uncomfortable silence, Lily took the stone the man was holding and examined the picture that was carefully painted on its flat surface. She had never seen a stranger depiction of a dragon. It more resembled a long, black snake on short legs, and, most strikingly of all, appeared to be having tea with an apparently Asian woman. Lily kept staring at this odd picture for some time, before the man gave a cough, and she realised that he was still waiting for her to answer him.

�No, I�m sorry, I don�t think I can help you there,� she finally said, �but I can take you to the others, maybe one of them can make sense of this.�

They took off to where the huts stood. Lily had no idea where the rest of her co-workers were, but they would surely find someone there.

When Lily and the man, who had meanwhile introduced himself as Henry Pole, arrived at the place where the bonfire had burnt the previous evening, Lily saw to her relief that Sam was standing there, conversing with two other dragon keepers.

�Sam!� Lily called out, and Sam turned around to see what Lily wanted. Lily quickly walked over to her and beckoned Henry to follow her.

�Sam, this is Henry,� she explained, �he�s one of the magi-archaeologists working near here.�

�Ah,� said Sam, �I thought I had seen people somewhere around. How can I help you then?�

Henry explained about the flag they had found, and Lily showed it to Sam. She inspected it for several minutes, then turned back to Henry with a sigh.

�See, the problem about this is that with these paintings, we never know if it�s real or some Muggle art with their weird perception of dragons. I�ll need to know a lot more about this before I can say anything more definite - mind you, I won�t be able to at all, because so far, no one really knows whether any dragons ever looked like that. So, I�ll need to know in what kind of surroundings this was found, mainly whether it was a wizarding or a Muggle settlement. And it would help if you could tell me exactly how old this artifact is.�

�We only just found it this morning,� said Henry somewhat defiantly, �I can�t tell you all that right now!�

�I thought so,� replied Sam in a still friendly tone. �We�ll still be here tomorrow, and once you return with more information on this, I might be able to be of assistance. But now I� oh no!� Sam looked up at the sky and gasped.

Following her gaze, Lily saw two fully grown dragons, a white and a silver one, high above the ground, which of course wasn�t unusual, but those two seemed to be fighting each other.

"Lily, I need you to help me take care of this," Sam called, hurrying towards one of the enclosures. "If that Antipodean Opaleye seriously injures the Ukrainian Ironbelly--"

"That'd be awful, the fall could kill it!"

Sam came to a halt suddenly, and turned to face Lily. She raised her eyebrows, and there was a note of hysteria in her voice as she spoke.
"Well, yes, it could get hurt very badly, or even die. But do you have any idea how much an Ironbelly weighs? That one," she gestured up to the silver dragon, which was one of Gobi Desert Dragon Reservation's dragons, "that one has about five and a half tons! It would crush all the huts and the hatching tent and oh dear," she muttered, as she continued to walk, "I really don't know where that Antipodean Opaleye has come from now, they're supposed to live in New Zealand! No wonder the Ironbelly attacked..."

Lily now had to run to keep up with Sam's speed. She wondered what Sam could possibly intend to do to keep the dragons from fighting, without causing at least one of them to fall down.

"Everybody, mount your brooms," Sam called as she passed other workers.

Most people seemed to realise what was going on without an explanation. The next thing Lily knew, she was up in the air with about two dozen other people, forming something like a circle around the pearly white dragon.

"Sonorus," muttered Sam, and her voice was loud enough for everyone to hear when she continued, "Now, on the count of three! One, Two, Three--"

"Stupefy!" It sounded back from everyone, and over twenty red beams hit the dragon. It swayed on its spot in the air for a second, but it remained airborne. Moreover, when it realised what had just happened, it seemed to become angry, its attention now not on the Ironbelly anymore, but on the new attackers.

"That wasn't enough. Again, on three!" shouted Sam, narrowly dodging the fire the dragon had just breathed in her direction.

And again they shot their spells at the dragon, and this time Lily and others who hadn't been sure what to do the first time joined in. The moment the beams hit the dragon's hide, it stopped beating its wings, and started to fall rapidly.

"Quick, now!"

Lily heard Sam's call, but didn't know what to do. Others however seemed to know, as the dragon suddenly slowed down as some of them pointed their wands at it. The crash as it hit the ground was still enormous. All of the workers landed back on the ground again, and as Lily looked at the body of the dragon that glistened in the sun like a mound of snow oddly misplaced in the heat of the desert, Lily realised that she didn't feel this was right.

"Is it... I mean, have we--" Lily tried to ask Sam, but she couldn't get the words out.

"Look Lily," Sam replied, and obviously she had been expecting Lily to react like this, "I don't know if it's dead, we'll find that out now. And if it isn't, that's great, we can try to integrate it in our group of dragons, or send it to another reservation. But if it is dead, and the fall could have killed it if it's a weak dragon - Lily you have to understand. It is our task to protect all dragons, but in particular the dragons that are under our guard here, in this Reservation. That Opaleye - it intruded here, and if it had killed the Ironbelly, it might not have been the only one. The Opaleye might have attacked others, and we can't let things like that happen. This is just how it sometimes is. Sometimes you have to know your priorities. And sometimes this means that even a dragon has to meet its end."

As some of the specifically medically trained workers hurried over to the dragon, Lily looked at it once more. It lay there, its majestic white scales reflecting the sun. Minutes ago, it had beat its gigantic wings, breathed fire - and now it just lay there on the dusty ground, motionless, maybe dead.

Finally, Lily decided that she just couldn't look at it any longer. She went back to the hatching tent - it was time to put the Norwegian Ridgeback out of the tent and in its enclosure next to the tent. Not the Norwegian Ridgeback- her Norwegian Ridgeback. She was going to watch over that dragon and to protect it - even if that meant that other dragons had to die.