Chapter 8: Mr. Weasley’s Dream
Kyle may not have been fooled by the adults' usual tall tales, but they had definitely done the trick for Ron and Ginny. Ron, in particular, had been listening intently, eager to gather some inside knowledge for when he started Hogwarts the following year. But as the conversation progressed, his face turned a sickly shade of pale.
Trolls, ghosts, and Hippogriffs were extreme, sure, but Ron figured he could manage to escape if things got really bad. The Hogwarts professors wouldn't let students face anything truly deadly... right? But a dragon? That was another matter entirely. Dragons were classified as XXXXX-level magical creatures, dangerous even to fully trained adult wizards. For an eleven-year-old, facing a dragon sounded like certain death. By the time the professors had cast their protection spells, Ron feared he'd already be a pile of ash from a single sneeze of dragon fire.
"Is this seriously what school is like?" Ron thought, his heart sinking. He felt an overwhelming urge to run away from home and never look back. Hogwarts sounded less like a place of learning and more like a death trap.
Ginny wasn't faring much better. Her usually vibrant red hair seemed to have lost its shine, and her face was pale as she stared down at her plate, visibly shaken.
Kyle, noticing her distress, leaned over with concern. "What's wrong, Ginny?" he asked softly. "Why aren't you eating? Are you feeling unwell?"
Ginny shook her head quickly, not wanting to admit her fear in front of her brothers. "No, I'm fine," she said, forcing a smile. "I'm just... full."
Given that she was only nine and had already eaten half a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, it wasn't entirely a lie—her appetite wasn't large to begin with. The sudden talk about dragons and sorting, however, had sapped the rest of her hunger.
"I see, that's a shame," Kyle replied, accepting her explanation without much thought. He calmly reached over and took the grilled fish from Ginny's plate, placing it onto his own. Grilled fish was one of Mrs. Weasley's specialties, and it was best eaten fresh. He'd been craving it for a while, so he wasn't about to let it go to waste.
Ginny didn't stop him, though she watched with a sad expression as Kyle devoured the fish she had been saving. The thought of having to face a dragon in two years had killed any remaining desire for food. In the end, she simply turned her head away, hoping to forget about it.