Nymphadora Tonks stared across the compound and wondered once again, what was she doing here? Charlie Weasley had taken job in Romania working on a dragon reservation, and had invited her to work there for the summer. In the fall, she was to start Auror training, but she thought this might be a way to see some of the world before beginning the discipline and study needed to be an Auror. She was also hoping that it might help her clumsy nature. So far, it had only gotten her into trouble. Luckily, Charlie took a lot of amusement to seeing her work near the dragons, so he was usually there to help her out. It was nice having a friend from school around to save her.
The first lesson Tonks had learned was a hard one. She had been asked to help set up tents for the new dragon workers. No one had expected her to actually work with the dragons since she was only here for a few months. It took speed and skill to race around a raging dragon, and Tonks didn’t have either. Care of Magical Creatures had given her some of the basics in dragon care, but it was all learned from books. A real dragon took some getting used to.
Tonks had used her wand to support tent poles while two other summer workers had moved the ropes and stakes to keep them up. As they started tying the ropes to the last tent, a large shadow had blocked the sun. Looking up, Tonks saw a dark green shape circling above them. It wasn’t unusual to see dragons here, since there were many around. It was unusual to see them flying above one of the workers camps. There were supposed to be spells cast around them to keep the dragons away. Evidently, no one had gotten around to protecting this part of the camp, since it was still being set up. A flash of fear flew through her, but she stayed calm. There was little chance of the dragon actually coming any closer.
The two wizards helping her yelped, and let their wands fall. The cease of movement seemed to catch the dragon’s yellow eyes. It quit its circling and flew straight for them. Tonks stood for a second and watched this magnificent beast move its wings and took in the beauty of the swoop. Then she realized she was at the end of the dive. Waving her wand, she moved the tent pole she was still holding up in front of her and tried to block the other two wizards too. Both had dropped to the ground and covered their heads with their arms. This would do no good against an attacking dragon.
The dragon gave a roar and landed with a thud right on top of the tent. It then turned bright eyes to Tonks. The look on its face was one of curiosity and contentment, not of hunger. It lowered its head and poked a long horn through the tent canvas. As it raised its head, the sound of tearing canvas made Tonks flinch. She knew she would never be able to outrun a dragon, and her two companions were useless. With a look of concentration, she morphed her skin to match the background and lowered herself toward the ground. The tent pole she had raised to protect them, lowered to the ground slowly, and she crouched behind it. Just as she was about to call for help, a group of dragon workers came running up. Charlie was in the lead.
“Quickly, find where the workers are, and try to get them to safety. I’ll try to coax her back into the air and out of the area. She doesn’t seem hungry, so it should only take something more interesting to get her out of here,” called a middle aged man just behind Charlie.
Charlie seemed to spot her two cowering coworkers and raced over to them. “Tonks, where are you?”
Tonks looked away from where the lead dragon keeper had made an illusion of another dragon in the sky to where Charlie was helping the two men up. “Wotcher, Charlie, I’m right here. I don’t think those two are going to make it through the summer, unless they can take being near a dragon,” she answered with a smile.
“Looks like you kept your head. Sure you don’t want to rethink becoming an Auror and stay here with me? Cristian saw that Longhorn head towards the ground while showing us how to perform the protective spells. I’m sorry we didn’t have them all up yet.” Charlie walked over to her as three other dragon keepers coaxed the two men up from the ground and toward the older camp.
“I need to keep my head as an Auror too. I have learned to stand my ground, you’ve seen how well I run,” Tonks giggled.
Charlie laughed too. “That I have. You also have that amazing ability to blend in, but you forgot the brilliant orange robes you have on.”
Tonks kept laughing as she looked down at her robes. “Oops! Oh well. Help arrived in time. I would have just kept moving the tent poles around to keep her back. She wasn’t raging or I might have had more trouble.”
“I’m glad we were close enough to help. Another hour and we would have been moving towards the breeding grounds.” Charlie helped Tonks stand up from her crouch and they both watched the green dragon take off after the convincing illusion.
“I guess you can’t forget you live in the dragon’s land when you are here. If you do, you are likely to wind up in some uncomfortable positions,” Tonks smiled back at Charlie.
“Oh, I have a surprise for you,” Charlie grinned.
Tonks looked at Charlie inquisitively. “Really?”
Charlie took her hand and led her into the trees. “We have a guest visiting. I think you will love seeing him.”
Tonks didn’t respond as she concentrated on not falling at the pace Charlie was taking through the trees. Even using all her concentration, she would have fallen three times, but Charlie yanked her back to her feet before she truly fell. They entered a clearing and Tonks saw a very large tent erected in the center. As they rounded the corner, a large voice boomed out to them.
“Charlie and Nymphadora, it is great seeing ya!” A shaggy head over a moleskin overcoat greeted them.
“Hagrid, it is so great to see you!” Tonks walked up and gave the great man a hug. “Please call me Tonks. You know how I hate my first name.”
Hagrid laughed, “Tonks it is then. Come inside and look at what the dragon keepers have let me hold onto for a few days. I’m hoping they’ll let me keep ‘im for longer, but. . .”
“There is no way you are going to be able to take him back with you to Hogwarts. Not only is it illegal, it is dangerous. The only reason you have him in the first place is he was abandoned because of a broken wing.” Charlie informed Tonks as they followed Hagrid into the tent.
“Isn’t ‘e beautiful?” Hagrid asked.
Tonks watched as Hagrid walked to a large table. On it was a sleeping baby dragon. It was a miniature version of the dragon that had landed in her work zone just a few minutes ago. “This one doesn’t have a horn.”
“They don’t grow until they are a few years old. This one is only a few days old,” Charlie explained.
Hagrid put a protective apron on over his coat. Then he moved around the table and stroked the dragon’s head. As he did so, the dragon woke up and hiccupped. Fire flew at Hagrid, making him jump in surprise.
“Feisty little fella, isn’t ‘e?” Hagrid asked.
“Yes he is, Hagrid,” Charlie said with a smile. “I’m sorry we can’t stay longer, but we are needed near the main camp. There are a few dragons needing some potions to calm their fighting nature, and we are needed to help.”
Hagrid was lost in his little dragon. “See ya later then. . .”
“Bye Hagrid. I’ll try to stop by later,” Tonks grinned. After they left the tent she turned to Charlie, “He’ll never change, will he?”
“I don’t think he will. At least he came here to play with dragons. He has always wanted a pet dragon. Can you imagine what that would do to his hut?” Charlie laughed.
“I don’t think I’d want to be around if that happened.” Tonks studied Charlie for a minute, “So what are we going to be doing with these dragons?”
Charlie glanced at her worried face. “I’m going to be helping sneak the potion into their drinking water. You will be observing. As a summer helper, you won’t get to learn how to do any of the dangerous work. We wouldn’t want you injured before joining the Aurors, now would we?”
Tonks grinned and tripped over a root. “If I can stop from actually injuring myself. . .”
Charlie laughed as he helped her back up. “You made it into the Auror training, so there must be some coordination in there somewhere.”
“I got lucky,” Tonks said.
Tonks joined a small crowd gathered at the edge of the main camp. Charlie ran off to join the workers that would be performing the work. After a moment, the workers moved off into the trees. The small crowd stayed quiet and followed at a large distance. One of the veteran workers escorted the watchers. He made them stop for a moment after they were in the trees. Tonks felt some protection spells and camouflage spells settle in around her as he waved his wand while murmuring under his breath.
Suddenly, a loud roar echoed in the direction they were heading. A large black dragon soared above them, with fire spewing in front of him. Some of the watchers ducked and others fell to the ground and laid flat. Tonks stood there with wonder across her face. She knew the dragon could hurt them, but she had faith in the protective spells the veteran had placed on them. She also knew that freaking out wouldn’t help anyone. It could possibly draw attention to them, and draw the dragon to them. Right now, he was just flying above their heads.
Tonks continued to watch in awe as the dragon flew past. He seemed focused on something she couldn’t see. There was no way to tell if this was one of the dragons the others had run off to calm down or not. It wasn’t really aggression to spew fire when flying. In fact, this one seemed rather calm. It was almost as if it were trying to show off or make an impression on some other dragon. Instead of following the now fearful crowd, Tonks morphed so she blended more with the environment and slipped her orange robes off to move around in the t-shirt and jeans she wore underneath. She didn’t normally wear such things under her robes, but thought robes might become messy around dragons.
She followed a path off to the side and headed in the direction she had seen the large black dragon fly. It wasn’t long before she heard the sound of water and found herself walking beside a stream. The stream made her change her direction, because she didn’t fancy falling into the water. Navigating the stones that lined the banks of the stream slowed her down dramatically. She really wanted to avoid spraining an ankle where there was no one around to help her. There were a few healing charms she knew, but none would strengthen a badly sprained ankle or heal a broken bone. Hopefully that was something she would learn from the Aurors.
After about thirty minutes she found herself looking out over a wide lake. There were large gray stones sticking out of the water in places. On the top of one of the stones sat a majestic dragon. Tonks couldn’t decide if her scales were navy or black. The reflection of the water off her back made it very difficult to decide. Overhead, the large dragon she had followed here was doing amazing acrobats through the air and spewing great waves of flame. It was obvious that he was trying to impress the dragon on the stone.
Tonks watched in amazement as the female dragon raised her head and watched with an air of disregard. The large dragon in the air didn’t seem to realize he had already lost the attention of the female. The dragon on the rocks looked away and seemed to study its reflection in the water.
Feeling bad for the large dragon, Tonks turned to head back to where she was supposed to be. She had a feeling that the large dragon was younger then he seemed.
An ear splitting roar brought her attention back to the lake. A scarred battle beaten dragon was raging towards the dragon she had followed. The female dragon was all attention now. A wince flashed across Tonks’ face as the scarred dragon crashed into the young one. It was very obvious now how inexperienced he really was. He now looked less graceful and fierce next to the dragon attacking him. Tonks was surprised when it was the older dragon that dropped away from the younger one. Her dragon, for that was how Tonks was starting to think of the younger one, might be less graceful but he had the strength and determination of youth. It was obvious that he wasn’t going to leave without putting up a worthy fight.
The female dragon on the rocks was now standing and seemed to be deciding who she wanted to win. The fight the younger was giving had earned her regard where the showing off he had been doing earlier had not. The scarred dragon had turned and seemed to be trying a different approach. He seemed to drop from above, forcing the younger one toward the ground. The other dragon responded by breathing fire up at his wings and swinging his head around and chomped down on the leg that was clawing at his wings. Both fell down into the water.
Fear for her dragon raced through Tonks, and she ran back toward the shore. The female dragon seemed to be wondering who would come out on top of this fight too. She was leaning towards where the other two had plunged into the water.
The young dragon came out of the water first. This really surprised Tonks since he had been underneath the other one. The water didn’t seem to slow him down; it was only moments until he was back into the air. The battle scarred dragon was up shortly after him, but seemed to be struggling to stay in the air. Fire was flashing from both their mouths. The older one had a little advantage by being lower. His flames were hitting the younger one on his more venerable underside. Her dragon didn’t take this for long. He flew lower and headed towards the shore. It was obvious that he was trying to force the other one to fight him on land. Under normal circumstances this probably wouldn’t have worked, but because he was injured the scarred dragon had to go where he was being pushed.
Touching the ground, the scarred dragon roared and Tonks had to cover her ears. She watched entranced as the younger dragon landed. The scarred dragon towered over the younger dragon, but his injured leg kept him from moving around. There also seemed to be some injury to one of his wings. The younger dragon ducked down and breathed fired under the larger one’s wings. Roaring in pain, the scarred dragon tried to lunge at the smaller one, but ended up falling when his weight landed on his injured leg. Taking advantage of his youth and speed, the young black dragon lunged and gripped the other dragon by the throat.
It was over before Tonks even could comprehend what happened. She stared in horror as her dragon started feasting on the dead dragon. A small roar came from the rock in front of her, and the younger dragon looked up with his mouth full. The female dragon seemed to be trying to attract him now.
Shouts came from the trees and dragon keepers raced onto the small beach. It only took a few well cast spells to convince the black dragon that he was better off meeting up with his new mate then staying on the shore for a snack.
Launching himself into the air, the young black dragon was soon joined by the female dragon and they disappeared over the lake and toward the slowly setting sun.
Tonks walked slowly toward the large dead dragon. Charlie ran out from the dragon keepers and met her at the edge of the water. “What happened? We were trying to find some of the aggressive dragons when we heard the fighting.”
Tonks studied the dead dragon lying with his head almost amputated before answering. “This dragon tried to keep the other dragon from a female. I guess he was not up to protecting his territory and paid for his over confidence. I think there was some luck that went to the other dragon, but in the end he got the girl.”
Charlie and Tonks turned to where the dragon keepers were throwing snow from their wands into the air over the dead dragon. “What are they doing?” Tonks asked.
“They are paying tribute to a great beast. JRR Tolkien once said So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their ending. We use snow to counter the fire in the dragon when they die. Something needs done because some of them burn from the inside out after they are dead. It keeps the fire from destroying the trees.” Charlie looked down at Tonks as he talked.
They turned when they heard an exclamation. The dead dragon had started to smoke, and flames leaped to the sky.
“It seems suitable to me,” Tonks said with a smile.
Charlie and Tonks stood and watched the burning dragon as the sun set in bright reds into the lake. Tonks felt a presence behind her and turned to find Hagrid walking up behind them.
"Kinda sad, but 'eutiful at the same time, huh?" Hagrid asked.
Tonks just smiled up at her friend and turned back to the sunset and burning dragon. Hagrid walked up and put one large hand on her shoulder, and another on Charlie's. They stood like that until all the red disappeared from the sky and the fire burned to ash.