Passing before two Hufflepuffs, she heard the third-years discuss about the next Quidditch match who was about to take place next week: Slytherin versus Hufflepuff. With Slytherin having narrowly defeated Ravenclaw 210 to 190 on the fourth week of March, this match was not the most discussed or debated but students were beginning to bet and predict strategies and scores all the same. To the member of Slytherin House's shame, however, there was really little chance for Slytherin right now to win the Quidditch Cup this year. Right now, Ravenclaw was first with 480 points, Gryffindor was second with 320 points, Slytherin was third with 280 points and Hufflepuff came last with 140 points. Therefore, unless Slytherin crushed largely Hufflepuff and the Ravenclaw-Gryffindor match ended more or less in a draw, the Slytherins would not raise the Cup for the fifth consecutive year. A fact the Golden trio led by Neville Longbottom and supported by the rest of Gryffindor House were simply delighted to repeat whenever a Slytherin was present in proximity.
Continuing her walk in the direction of the Astronomy tower, she began to sweat. Groaning, she realised she would have to use the shower again today. The Ravenclaw common room in the tower was too far away from the other towers by conventional means; much like the rest of the classes except Charms, walking took really too much time in Hogwarts. Watching around her, she still found curious the sudden warmth. The corridor she was now walking on had no window on the southern side to let enter the sun at this hour.
"CATCH HIM!"
Alexandra sighed. Of course, even on Sunday morning, there was going to be an ambush waiting between the Snakes and the Lions. Getting her wand out of her pocket, she tried to see where the improvise duellists were. A few seconds passed. Nothing materialised. Alexandra frowned. And then another shout:
"NO! DON'T LET HIM ESCAPE BY THE STAIRS!"
RRROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRR!
The roar of a beast shook the corridor. Passing an embranchment from a corridor leading to the second floor, Alexandra looked around and then paled when she saw the source of the noise arriving in front of her in mid-air.
Two skinny brown wings. Large nostrils. Elongated claws. Orange eyes. Large, sharp fangs. Black ridges on the back. And of course, a maw where flames were coming out. A description all her sources of lecture, whether magical or non-magical agreed on. Dragon. Suddenly, the temperature anomaly in the corridor made a lot more sense.
Rolling against the wall on her left, Alexandra narrowly avoided the big ball of flames the dragon had just sent in her direction.
"On Halloween a troll. In the Forbidden Corridor a Cerberus. And now a dragon! Hogwarts is really becoming a menagerie of dangerous creatures!" Alexandra groaned.
The dragon was not discouraged by his failure to burn her on its first try, forcing her to dodge again the flames a second time. And a third. Determined to not end as a smoking corpse, she threw a first spell at the fire-breathing lizard coming to her mind.
"FLIPENDO!"
Only to be shocked as nothing happened. The brown skin of the dragon just absorbed the ray of magic like she had just sent a ray of sun at her target, a feat not even the mountain troll had been able of. Alexandra was forced to jump and dodge again the new ball of flames coming in her direction. Avoiding the attacks, she tried to think of the best means to get rid of this flying monstrosity but she couldn't think of anything. Throwing an overpowered Lumos didn't make him blind. The rest of her spells, curses, hexes and jinxes repertory proved utterly useless. Just as the dragon prepared another attack, sounds of people running came to her ears. Relieved, she breathed loudly. Like the eagles at the Battle of Five Armies, help was on the way. Now, she had only to hold for a bit longer.
"NORBERT IS HERE!" Shouted Neville Longbottom, running out from an adjacent corridor and throwing new spells at the dragon, which completely missed or revealed to be as useless as Alexandra efforts. "I FOUND HIM!"
On the instant, Alexandra's mind nearly shut down and she had a strong compulsion to take her head in her hands and sob at the unfairness of the world. The Boy-Who-Lived knew the name of the dragon. Longbottom shouted at the dragon. Longbottom was without doubt the person which had introduced the dragon in the castle. For a moment, she was awed by the arrogance of the Boy-Who-Lived, who had evidently an ego so large inviting a young dragon inside the castle was a natural thing. But only for a moment. The brown dragon threw a ball of fire at him again, forcing Neville to duck.
"Longbottom! What are his weaknesses?" The Potter Heiress shouted to the Gryffindor, hoping against all odds the boy had a spell to control the flying lizard.
"How I am supposed to know?" Replied in an angry tone Neville Longbottom. "I'm not a dragon specialist!"
"Just the one who brought it there I bet." The green-eyed Ravenclaw grumbled in an angry snarl. Formidable. She was caught in a corridor with Longbottom and a dragon, and her wand was next to useless. Much like with the troll. What sort of bad luck and angry deities made her ago against creatures which could stop the effects of her magic?
"NORBERT STOP IT!" Vociferated Longbottom as one fireball missed him by an inch and his counterattack of three spells finished in the wall. One more second, and the Boy-Who-Lived would have been roasted. Screaming and shouting at the dragon did not seem the way to deal with it.
"Now I know how Bilbo felt facing Smaug... "The raven-haired girl said throwing another Flipendo at the dragon to distract him. It was not an apt comparison, Alexandra had to admit: Smaug was a full grown dragon bigger than a gold mountain and able to devastate entire armies. This Norbert hadn't managed to kill Alexandra despite several attempts. For now.
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