Most of the kids in my classes were absent today; some sick, some faking sick. The middle of March is the time where most kids fall ill with the stomach flu, the regular flu, crazy allergies, or some other bug that keeps them out of class. I decided to let the kids have a study/work/free day so the others don’t fall behind. The kids who are faking probably kicked themselves when they heard.

I sat at my desk grading papers while my Fifth Years talked, worked on homework, or sat and stared into space. My assignments and tests weren’t hard so when I graded a test that was horrible I mentally shot that kid in the foot. Today I only mentally shot three kids, but even then the scores weren’t that bad.

As I neared the end of my pile the classroom became extremely quiet. I lifted my head to see everyone staring outside the windows. All of their eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their heads.

“What are you guys looking at?” I asked getting up from my chair.

No one answered me. A small girl, named Valerie, pointed outside. I walked over to the window to see a full grown Antipodean Opaleye dragon just sitting in an empty space trying to chew a tree.

“Oh shit.” I said heading out the door. “Stay put all of you!”

As I headed outside other teachers were already trying to figure out how to take care of this. No one wanted to go near it; not even Thomson who I thought would have loved to defeat a dragon.

“It doesn’t eat humans.” I said walking past them.

As I got closer I noticed the dragon wasn’t trying to chew a tree, but get to the treat that Hagrid had. He must have seen the creature and led him to the tree to keep him away from the students.

“Alright there Hagrid?” I yelled.

“Yeah. This beast wouldn’t hurt a fly!” Hagrid said giving him another treat; looked like the treats were sheep or something.

“How did he get here?” I asked ogling at the dragons pearly pupil-less eyes.

“Dunno? Probably got tired or lost his way.” Hagrid was now petting his head. “You should get Charlie up here! He’d love to see this beauty!”

Charlie definitely would love to see this bad boy! Thinking about how his face would light up put a smile on mine.

“Oh my goodness!” Shrilled a voice from behind. I looked back to see McGonagall with his eyes wide open. “How did this get here?” She was definitely panicking.

“We don’t know. He just kind of showed up, but don’t worry since he’s fed he won’t hurt anyone.” I said looking up at the beautiful creature.

“I-I’ll go get Charlie Weasley.” And with that she disappeared into the castle.

I sat on the grass and looked up at the dragon. Hagrid stayed up in the tree to keep him distracted.

“What’ll we name him?” Hagrid asked. He named every living thing he came across.

As I was lower to the ground I noticed ‘he’ was a she.

“I think we could named HER Pearl.” I smiled up at him and he noticed what I meant.

Charlie finally arrived about ten minutes after we discovered Pearl was a girl. He brought along five other guys to help transfer Pearl back to where she needed to be. As a tall blonde man touched Pearl’s left wing she let out a horrible screech. Charlie went to check out what the problem could be.

“Well, she has a nice new hole in her wing that must be painful.” Charlie got close but not too close. “We’ll have to keep her at the institute until it’s healed.”

Charlie and the rest of the guys got her into a large crate and she seemed to relax. Charlie looked so tough and macho when he was working. I probably looked like a love sick school girl while I watched him. Before he left he walked over to me and kissed my cheek.

“I’ll see you at home.” He kiss my cheek again then left.

“I’ve never seen you blush this much, Ms. Jennings.” McGonagall was looking at me over her half mooned glasses. “I sense everything is well with Mr. Weasley.”

“Yeah.” I blushed even harder. “Everything’s been great between us.” I look at her knowing my face was bright red. “Um.. I better get back to my class.”

My class was still staring outside the windows to see if anything else interesting would happen. When I got to the front of the class my students were giving me funny looks; some were of interest, others were of jealousy.

“Is that your boyfriend?” Asked Valerie.

“Yes. That’s Charlie Weasley. He works with dragons in Romania.” I said without thinking. “Well I think we’ve had enough excitement for today, class dismissed.”

The rest of the day was filled with talk about the dragon and the “Oh so cute dragon trainers!” I laughed a little whenever someone mentioned how cute Charlie was or how sexy his butt looked in his jeans. I’ve never been the jealous type, especially when they’re my students.

Before I went home I ran into Neville. He looked so different from when we were in school together. He was much taller and slimmer. He had more confidence and you could see it by just the way her walked.

“How are you feeling?” He asked with his shy smile.

“Better.” I sighed. “A lot better.”

It’s true I was feeling so much better. The dreams had stopped for now, and the thought that I was going to see my father in a few short weeks somehow distracted me from them.

“That’s great. You were really spaced out for a while.” We walked together to the room. “You know if you need anything you can always come to me, right?”

“Thanks Neville.” I smiled at him. He’s such a sweetheart and any girl that ends up with him is going to be one lucky girl.

At home Charlie was waiting for me with dinner ready. It was Chinese takeout, but the thought was still there. We had a good dinner together. We laughed and talked about random things. At one point the conversation got on who would win in an arm wrestling match. We both came to the conclusion that I would win ‘cause somehow I’d cheat.

After dinner we were laying in bed cuddling. We weren’t saying anything, but it wasn’t an awkward silence. We never had awkward silences, but I could tell he wanted to say something, and I think I knew what it was about.

“Just say it.” I giggled and rolled my eyes.

“Wasn’t she gorgeous!” Yup, I knew it. “Her eyes were the lightest pink, and her skin! Oh man! Her skin was just pearly white!”

I’d never seen him this excited about a dragon before. Charlie talked about Pearl until I fell asleep. This kid and his dragons!