“Seriously misunderstood creatures dragons are” –Hagrid

Tears streamed down Dracos face. The thestrals around him took no notice of him now that he had no food left to give them. When he had first ran into them he was terrified of their boney exterior. It took him a while to realize that they were the same creatures that Hagrid had shown him in class just a few years ago. Only this time he could see them. When he had seen He-who-must-not-be-named kill the Hogwarts muggle studies teacher at the death eater meeting Draco had finally seen death and it wasn’t the last time he had seen Him kill.
The death of the teacher was not what was upsetting Draco though. It was more the oncoming death of himself and his family that had drove him into the forest. Voldemort had given him an ultimatum, kill Dumbldor or dracos family would be killed. How was he, and 17 year old boy, suppose to kill one of the most powerful wizards in the world? Even He-who-must-not-be-named-himself was scared of him, though no one would ever dare mention that to him. Draco could practically see the possibility of his families death coming closer with every passing day. His latest attempt on Dumbldors life almost killed his deliver, Katie. Draco hardly wanted to kill Dumbledor much less poor Katie who had nothing to do with it.
His previous attempt also almost killed an innocent but Draco hadn’t been sad because it was just that blood traitor Weasley. Draco knew Hermione liked Ron and with him out of the way he could have his shot with her though that was not his plan. Still there was a large part of him that didn’t want to kill anyone, even Weasley.
Draco had been in the forest for almost an hour lost in his thought when a large beast swooped down from the sky behind him. Draco leapt to his feet, wand at the ready with a strong killing curse on his tongue, terrified of the unidentified creature that had just appeared. The dragon roared out a sound that would strike fear into the heart of He-who-must-not-be-named himself. Draco had seen dragons before at the triwizard tournament but even at that safe distance he had been scared of the fire breathing monster. After the tournament, there had been talk that the dragons had escaped into the woods but until now Draco hadn’t believed them.
Heart was beating a thousand miles a minute, he swiftly backed up till he walked backwards straight into a tree, jumping as if the tree had grabbed him. When the dragon didn’t move towards him he stopped to look at it but still didn’t dare lower his wand. The animal was making the loud sounds which before he had interpreted as roars of delight from finding an easy meal. But now he realized they weren’t roars but cries of pain.
Though the ministry itself had classified dragons as XXXXX or most dangerous and known wizard killers Draco couldn’t help but feel sorry for the animal that seemed to be painfully injured. He started to walk towards the dragon, reaching out to help it then stopped himself. A true death eater looks down upon weakness, so going against his instincts he forced himself to be a true death eater and walk away.
He made it about three steps before the dragon cried out again and Draco had to turn back. Draco knew what it felt like to feel pain and have no one there to help you. At one point he had even broke down and went to moaning murtal for a shoulder to cry on. Of course Harry Potter had to ruin that for him like he did every thing else. He wasn’t about to turn his back on the helpless creature no matter what the death eaters said.
As Draco approached the dragon he let down his wand though never putting it fully away. He didn’t want to scare the creature but even injured the dragon could easily kill him with a few simple moves.
He thought back to Hagrids class. “Don’t turn your back on him, look him straight in the eyes, don’t back down, bow, let him come to you”. Sure those rules had been for a Hippogriff but since a dragon was probably just as proud as the Hippogriff the same rules probably applied. Hopefully.
Draco locked eyes with the dragon showing his most kind look he could think of though it felt foreign on his face from all the crying he had been doing. He bowed to the dragon with out taking his eyes off of it. The dragon looked confused but didn’t look threatening so Draco took that as a good sign and with a cautious hand reached out to touch the dragon as lightly as possible. The dragon’s eyes went wide and menacing but after a few long minutes of Draco’s hand inches away from her forehead, the dragon pressed her head into Draco’s sweaty palm. Draco let out a huge breath he didn’t even know he had been holding.
He slid his hand down the dragons back while the dragon watched him the curiosity. She had never met a kind human before and didn’t quite trust that there really was one. Draco found the injury on the dragons left hind leg where there were several cuts and scraps and a few arrows suck in it.
“Hunters I’m guessing” Draco said to the dragon not expecting a response. The dragon nodded like he understood what Draco had said.
“So you can understand me?” Draco asked not believing what he had seen. Again the dragon nodded while looking Draco straight in the face.
“Okay.” Draco said “I want to help you but I will need to go back to the castle to get some stuff okay. I need you to stay right here till I get back. Will you do that?” The dragon looked at Draco with curiosity not believing what the weird boy was saying. After studying Draco intensely for a few moments she nodded her head again figuring the boy would not come back or if he came back to kill her, she would just kill the boy.
Draco ran off following the path back to the castle. He couldn’t believe what he was about to do. He-who-must-not-be-named looked down on weakness using his full existence to eradicate it along with muggles, mudbloods, and just about any wizard that wasn’t 100% pure blood. If he ever found out about the dragon, Draco could and would be punished. But Draco couldn’t stay in the castle knowing that poor beautiful creature could die. All the fear he had once for it had been replaced with mercy and kindness when he heard the dragon cry out in pain. He told himself a powerful creature like that could be useful to He-who-must-not-be-named, but Draco knew it was just an excuse to himself to help the dragon.
When he got to the castle Draco didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t tell anybody because they could tell on him or want to go see the dragon himself, but Draco didn’t know the first thing about healing a dragon. He walked around for a while till he decided to take a bunch of towels, some meat, a bucket of hot water, and a bucket of whiskey to the dragon. He couldn’t really think of much else. He took the towels and the water from the bathroom and some fish, steak and chicken from the kitchen but had more trouble with the whiskey.
He had to wait till Hagrid left his cabin and stole a few large bottles from the oaf’s cellar, which had been stupidly easy to break into. He ran back into the forest hoping that the dragon was still there. To his relief she was. The dragon eyed what the supplies he had brought and when she was certain that the boy hadn’t come to kill her she let Draco touch her again. Draco poured the whiskey into the second bucket and positioned it at the Dragons mouth hoping that both the dragon trusted him enough to drink it and two that the whiskey would help nub the pain. If it didn’t Draco again would be dead.
After the dragon had again eyed the whiskey and deemed it safe she drank a few gulpes which seemed to calm her down some. Draco got the towels wet with the water but unfortunately had gone slightly cold until draco said “Incendio” creating a burst of flames on a couple sticks and warming up the water. The magic was easy but Draco didn’t want to risk using it too much. He didn’t want to attract the other creatures of the forest that wouldn’t be as hurt or trusting.
Though he was not particularly good at healing, Draco had a talent for charms, which he would never tell anyone. He wanted people to think he was best at the Dark arts, but because of that stupid Harry Potter he never would be. He started to put one of the wet warmed towels on her wounds and the dragon let him but looked very concerned with the situation. She still did not fully trust the blond boy but from what she had seen he was trying to help. It wasn’t until Draco started to touch the arrows lodged in her leg that she sent out a warning growl at the boy.
“You can’t get better with these arrows in your leg. Drink some more whiskey and suck it up. I will work as fast as I can.” Draco noticed that the Dragons whiskey was getting low so he muttered and easy refilling charm and the bucket filled back up.
Draco looked back at the dragon with fear.
“I’m going to have to use some magic on you to fix you. I’ve used them on humans before and I’m 90% sure they will work on dragons but I’m going to need you to trust me. Do you trust me” The dragon had never trusted a human before. She still wanted to fry the boy and have a delicious snack. “Please trust me. I will not hurt you”. The dragon looked straight into the boy’s eye searching for any ounce in him that had different intentions. She was well aware that many parts of a dragon were extremely valuable to the wizard people but for some unknown reason she decided to trust the boy.
“Do you trust me?” Draco said several minutes later. The dragon nodded a yes.
“Okay. Locomotor Mortis”. Since spells don’t work as well on dragons the spell did not completely lock the dragons leg but it did nub it slightly, enough with the whiskey so make the dragon feel minimum pain. Draco held his breath and put his hand around the first arrow. He looked at the dragon and it nodded. He gently tried to pull it out. It came out but he could tell it hurt the dragon even with the whiskey and the spell. The dragon grew very angry and looked like it was about to rip Draco;s face off till it realized what it was doing. The dragon knew he was trying to help and though it went strongly against her nature had come to trust him, though she still kept a suspicious watch on him. Draco carefully took out one more of the 8 arrows still left in the her injured leg. “My name is Draco by the way. It means dragon in Latin” Draco thought to himself “I’m making small talk with a dragon. Never thought I would do that” and while the dragon was distracted he took out another arrow. “You know I am quite scared of you. I just about wet myself when you swooped in behind me” He took out another arrow. The dragon whinced at the pain from the last arrow that had gone in particularly deep. “You know what my schools mottos is?” Not waiting for a response but instead removing another arrow, this one not nearly as deep as the last “its Draco dormiens numquam titllandus. That’s Latin for never tickle a sleeping dragon” Again the dragon whinced from the removal of another arrow. “I always thought that was so stupid considering none of use would never even get near a dragon much less have the courage to tickle one” The dragon snapped his teeth to show that the arrow Draco had just removed hurt him very much. The dragon took several more gulps of the whiskey and Draco had to hurry to say another refilling charm before the dragon emptied it. Draco removed the last two arrows. “What kind of dragon are you anyways? Do you know?” the dragons nodded
“Are you a common welsh green?” the dragon shook his head
“Let me think. Are you are Norwegian Ridgeback?” the dragon nodded
“Are you a boy?” the dragon shook its head
“So you’re a girl?” The dragon nodded.
“Okay I will need to do a couple more spells on you then that’s all I can do for you today. Okay?” the dragon nodded but almost looked sad. The dragon was starting to like Dracos company.
Draco said “Scourgify” Several times to try and clean the wound. It took many times but on the 7th time the spell seemed to work fully and clean out the wounds on her leg. He also said “Episkey” many times to heal some of the injuries but it only works on minor injuries for a wizard at best. For the dragon it only sealed up some of the scrapes and cuts but helped stop some of the bleeding. The dragon was left with 9 large wounds from the arrows and Draco didn’t know many better healing charms.
Draco dug deep in his memories for another charm that would help but “Ferula” was the only thing that came to mind. A large dragon sized bandage and a splint appeared around her leg to help it heal but it didn’t do much for the dragon that couldn’t stop fidgeting.
“I’m sorry but that’s the best I can do. For noq” Finished Draco gave her the meat he had taken from the kitchen “The sun is nearly down and if I’m out past curfew I could be in big trouble especially here. But if you want I will be back tomorrow. Do you want me to come back?” The dragon nodded
“Okay see you tomorrow. I promise… Lumos” Dracos wand lit up and he ran away towards the castle. The dragon watched him go. She had never trusted a human but she was happy to think that Draco would be coming back tomorrow.
As Draco made his way to the castle he was very happy. Finally he had some one who he could talk to with out being worried of being turned in. He had always thought dragons were scary and mean. Just like people made assumptions about Draco he had made assumptions about the dragon. He promised himself he never betray her because for the first time in his life, Draco had found someone who truly understood him.