carry out their plan, despite a minor hiccup along the way. So far, things hadn’t gone too badly for them. Draco, however, had a different problem. His head was spinning and he felt unwell. On top of that, there was a constant ringing in his ears, which was leaving him feeling somewhat dazed.
‘What are our casualties?’ Cedric’s voice seemed to come from far away and be muffled by something.
Someone replied, but the dragon couldn’t make it out, as he was focused on the pounding in his skull. He clutched his head and closed his eyes. He tried to stay on his feet.
‘Are you all right?’ Warren’s voice was like a pin being driven into his brain.
‘No, I feel sick…’ Draco muttered, managing only that much for fear of the mounting nausea. He didn’t understand what was happening to him. He’d never experienced anything like this before, and he could have written a book about exhaustion and losing strength due to injuries. A rather thick one, unfortunately.
‘Perhaps you’d better sit down.’
The dragon felt a small hand rest on his shoulder and gently nudge him in a certain direction. In his current state, the reptile had no intention of resisting and simply allowed himself to be led to one side. Following the goblin’s advice, he slid down the wall and sat down in the shade. He soon regretted it, however, as the change in position triggered a new, very unpleasant symptom: the world began to spin around him like a kaleidoscope, and the mounting commotion all around him felt like torture.
‘I’ll go and look for Noah; don’t move from here.’ Draco couldn’t tell whether the voice belonged to Warren or someone else. He couldn’t manage to reply either, though it seemed he had mumbled something.
Left in peace, he drew his legs up and rested his head on his knees. In the past, he’d often tried to recover in exactly this position. Out of habit, he almost felt like transforming to see if he’d feel better in his dragon form. However, despite the jumble of
