Our Little Secret (Ali)

[Deleted]

Adelina loved Ali and was always interested in what was going on in her older sister's life. However, that day the strange way Ali had been acting and the mysterious reason behind it was the last thing on her mind. Adelina's thoughts had been on Nevan. They had only been a couple for a short time and he was about to graduate. She would see him now and then of course, but the next year, her own Seventh Year, would be a painful one without him.

Adelina now sat on a bench in the Middle Courtyard. She had a few textbooks beside her as she was planning to study a bit more for exams, but now she found herself with the books closed and untouched beside her while she stared at the beautiful flowers nearby. Her mind couldn't stray for the one young man she cared dearly for. It was almost driving the usually clam and collective young lady mad.

ALIETTA MARIE KRUM

[ALIETTA MARIE KRUM]

Ali took the walk back to the castle from the spot where she always came back onto the lawns from the Forbidden Forest. Her jeans were covered in dirt and her shirt was slightly wet from Dragon drool. A few seconds ago she had a slightly burnt finger, but she had managed to heal herself on her way out of the forest. The young woman wouldn't believe that her time at Hogwarts was quickly coming to an end. She could still vaguely remember her first night. There was a lot of things about 4th year through 6th year that she couldn't remember due to her obsession with alcohol, but lately she had changed more than she realized. Though, she was still in touch with her old self.

Ali spotted her sister as she walked up to the castle and paused. As much as she loved her younger sister and wouldn't mind speaking to her again, she wasn't sure that she wanted her to see her all messy as she was. It would just raise questions that Ali's wasn't sure that she was ready to answer. Ali continued to walk quickly past, hoping not to be noticed.

[Deleted]

Adelina almost didn't notice Ali as she walked by. In fact, when she looked up to see the rugged looking girl, she didn't recognize her at first. It took a double take to do so. Adelina's eyes widened with worry and she made her way over, finally forgetting about Nevan for a moment. Adelina held family close, and when there was a family issue, even handsome boyfriends leaving the school took a second place spot.

"Ali?" she said. "Merlin, Ali, what happened to you? Are you alright?"

Ali looked and smelled like she had been through the ringer and back. Adelina couldn't even begin to imagine what had happened to her sister. Usually Ali looked like a million bucks, even in her Slytherin robes. Now, and despite loving her sister a great deal, Ali looked like significantly less than a million.

Adelina took out a handkerchief to try and help, but sighed when it proved futile.

ALIETTA MARIE KRUM

[ALIETTA MARIE KRUM]

Ali cringed when her sister called her name. She was feet from the doors. She was so close. But she sighed and turned on her heels to face her younger sister, who was walking towards her. This had happened before. What was it she told the guy who had stopped her and asked her why she was all dirty? She had been doing extra Care of Magical Creatures work? No. That would never pass. Ali was Outstanding in that class already with out even really trying. Her sister knew her talent for the class, she would never believe that Ali needed to do extra work in that one particular subject. No. That wasn't it. Herbology! That was it! "Uh. I was just doing some extra work in the Green Houses... It's what I get for not participating in class I guess." Ali said slowly and shrugged her muddy shoulders. She then decided to attempt to change the subject, "What are you doing out here?" She asked and held her right arm with her left hand, an awkward stance for the girl who lived with her hand on her hip.

[Deleted]

Adelina believed Ali to a point about Herbology. She knew her sister wasn't doing as well in there. But at the same time, something about the smell on her... well it didn't seem like the smell would picked up from working with plants and dirt. Add that to the way Ali had already been acting as of late. Something was one, and it was worrying Adelina to death... even more so than Nevan graduating and then not seeing one another. So when Ali asked what she was up to, Adelina practically ignored the question.

"Ali, look at me," she said, staring point blank at her sister. "I know something weird is going on with you. I'm your sister... I sense these things. I can only guess that you're not telling me because you're afraid I'll tell mum and dad or something else." Adelina then sighed and calmed, touching her sister's right arm. "Ali, you know how close you and I have always been at home. I know we've drifted a tad at school because of out Houses and everything, but... you know above anyone, if you have something you need to talk about and keep a secret, you can trust me."

Adelina's eyes showed she meant it. If Ali couldn't trust Adelina, she couldn't trust anyone.

"Please, Ali. I love you dearly... and this is driving me simply mad with worry about you," she said.

ALIETTA MARIE KRUM

[ALIETTA MARIE KRUM]

Al knew that she could trust her sister. Adelina was one of the most trustworthy people that she knew. But she had it a bit wrong. Ali's fear wasn't just that she would tell mum or dad. Ali's fear is that somehow, it would get to someone important that she was illegally keeping a dragon on school grounds and then someone would show up, arrest her (or worse, snap her wand!) and then take away Cyrus, and her dragon meant everything to her. "Do you really want to know?" Ali asked, though she knew the answer was yes. So as soon as her sister insisted that yes, she really did want to know, Ali grabbed ahold of her hand and lead her quickly back the way that she had just come. There was no use just telling her when she could show her. Before they got far enough into the forest to even be out of the sunlight, Ali began to speak again as she lead the way: "You can't tell ANYONE what you're about to see. No one! Not mum or dad or any of your little friends!" She demanded. They began to get further into the forest, and soon, Ali was getting out her wand to break the enchantment she had placed around the baby beast to keep any students from stumbling upon him. Once the charms were lifted, Cyrus raised his head from his curled up sleeping position on a bed of moss that Ali had painstakingly arranged for him and looked up at the two girls. "This is Cyrus." Ali said and let go of her sisters hand, walking over to the dragon and kneeling down by his side. "He's mine." She added.

Cyrus looks a lot like this, but without the egg shell at this point! He's probably about the size of a full grown German Shepherd now.

[Deleted]

Adelina saw how important this secret was to Ali, almost to the point of letting Ali keep it. But Adelina was far too curious and concerned. She HAD to know.

"Yes, Ali, I do wish to know," she said. "And you have my solemn word as a lady that I will speak of this to no one." And Adelina meant it. She was not one to break promises idly, especially those asked of her by one as close to her as her sister.

Adelina followed her into the forest, show a bit of irritation at some of the bugs flying about. She never did like that about the approaching summer time. That irritation went away when she saw Ali's secret...

A dragon? Her sister owned a dragon!!! Adelina's jaw dropped at the sight of the creature. She had to admit he was adorable though.

"He's... he's really yours?" she said. "Ali... that's... I'm not sure what to say." She then decided to calm the tension a bit. She didn't want to make Ali feel awkward. "He is very cute though." She waved a little at the creature.

ALIETTA MARIE KRUM

[ALIETTA MARIE KRUM]

"Cute is one word to describe him." Ali said and stood back onto her feet. Cyrus stayed laying down. It was late for him and he couldn't be bothered to get up. Ali was beginning to worry that he was going to get shy to most living things because she had never let anything besides Chaunce around him. She hadn't even let him hunt for himself, really. She had gotten pretty good at taking down prey, not that she would ever admit it. "He's got his own attitude. He gets very upset when he's hungry. I can't count the number of burns that I've gotten during meals." She had gotten pretty good at healing spells as well. She had to be good at taking care of both the dragon and herself, Chaunce was rarely any help. "So now you see why I couldn't tell you before. He's pretty gentle now, but he's only about a year old. He's really growing a lot and I can't keep him hidden her forever. Especially since the Ministry would probably sentence me for Death if they knew what I was up to..." She added the last bit, though she really wasn't afraid of it. She only had to hide for a few more weeks.

[Deleted]

Adelina couldn't help but smile when she looked at Cyrus. He was adorable. She guessed a baby anything was adorable. She looked at Ali with concern though when she spoke of the burns. She wished she had some advice for that, but she had never dealt with a dragon.

"Well, I have some lotion if you get burned. It's usually for sunburns, but it should work for that too," she said.

When Ali spoke of the consequences of her getting caught with the dragon, Adelina knew she absolutely HAD to keep the secret. She wanted nothing to happen to Ali. It would kill her to know something terrible happened to Ali, especially if it was because of her. Without thinking, she embraced her sister, holding her close.

"Ali," she said. "You have nothing to worry about from me. I won't tell a soul. I won't have anything happen to you or to Cyrus. Just please be careful with him."

ALIETTA MARIE KRUM

[ALIETTA MARIE KRUM]

When Adelina offered Ali her lotion for her burns, Ali couldn’t help a laugh from escaping her lips. “Sorry, but I don’t think lotion would help a dragon burn very much.” She explained to her. She didn’t blame Lina or anything, and it was sweet for her to offer. There was really no way that she could know any different. It wasn’t like Care of Magical Creatures class went very much into detail on how to handle Dragon burns. It wasn’t as if many students would be dealing with dragon burns, there were only a few that Ali knew who were brave enough to take on a career as a dragon trainer. “I appreciate that you won’t tell anyone, but Lina, I don’t need to be careful. Cyrus knows better than to bite the hand that feeds him.” She patted the creatures head. “It’s the people who wander into the forest that need to be careful. Which is why I can’t let anyone else know. Once I graduate, I’ll take him away from the school and then the world can see that Dragons can be kept as pets.”

[Deleted]

Adelina sighed about the lotion not helping. She didn't like the idea of her sister getting those burns. She wished she knew of a good potion or spell to help. And really she should have as smart as she was. She would have to look up one later in her Potions textbook.

Dragons as pets? It sounded so crazy, but she knew Ali wasn't crazy. The girl was a bit wild, but was perfectly sane. She had to support Ali now in her dream. She didn't know of who else might, so she needed to be by her sister's side in all this.

"I think if anyone could convince the world of that, you could, Ali," she said. "You have a Slytherin's ambition." She meant that as a compliment of course. Adelina never had an issue with anyone because they were Slytherin. There were some in Slytherin who had rubbed her the wrong way, but that had nothing to do with their House.

Adelina decided to get a tad closer to Cyrus. She figured if she was going to support Ali, she needed to at least try and befriend the dragon.

"Hello Cyrus," she said softly and sweetly. "I'm Adelina, Ali's sister."

ALIETTA MARIE KRUM

[ALIETTA MARIE KRUM]

The truth of the matter was, Ali didn’t care about the burns. She didn’t mind the pain. A little pain for long term gain. Pain was something that Ali had actually came to appreciate. She knew that with pain, came the very real fact that progress was occurring. Nothing in life was going to be easy, and she had chosen to take a very hard life path. She wasn’t taking a job, something that her father would be very happy to hear, but she wasn’t on the fast track to a beautiful. Traditional wedding and a handful of proper little Veela babies either. She had been searching for a place on the weekends. She would always to go Hogsmead and apperate to the site of whatever house she was going to check out this week. She would be living alone with Cyrus, and she wanted somewhere far away from everything else. Somewhere with trees and brush and maybe even a pond. But she knew she would need clear sky. Cyrus needed to fly more than 10 feet off the ground.

Cyrus cared very little when Adelina approached. It was past the time that Ali usually left him for the night and he was nestled in his bed. For a dragon, Cyrus didn’t seem to care about many things. The baby simply looked up blinked a few times and then laid his head back down on the mossy ground. “It’s getting past curfew.” Ali noted. “We should get going.”

((Done for Ali - since she's an adult now.))

[Deleted]

(Closing for Adelina so I can get a post counted for her, )

Adelina still smiled at the creature even if he seemed to care little. He was probably tired. Adelina kind of felt like an auntie though, and chuckled to herself at the thought.

"Alright," she said when Ali said it was almost past curfew. "Good night, Cyrus." Adelina blew him a kiss and followed Ali out.

(End)