Imagine Dragons (Victoria)

Mary's wish to work with Victoria on the Dragon Project (she was working on a better name) came true. They agreed to meet up in Mary's own Common Room, so they wouldn't be disturbed by anyone. Zayne usually didn't mind when the Head Girl studied there and she didn't think Victoria would be a nuisance.

She got the books from the library, including the restricted section and brought them to the Head's common room. There were books there as well, two large bookshelves lining one of the walls, but there wasn't such a thing as too many books for research. The witch charmed up comfortable cushions for the floor, got the fire going and waited for Victoria. She told her the password beforehand, trusting her to keep it to herself.

Her tattoo was clearly visible, as she was wearing a t-shirt and the dragon's tail was moving. Mary had been working on making the whole tattoo move, like the wizarding pictures, but she only got the tail to move so far. It was exciting, though and she couldn't wait till the dragon could move along her arm.

As Victoria entered the room with a tray full of food, Mary's eyes lit up and she smiled gratefully to the other witch. In all her excitement about doing research, she completely forgot about snacks. "That's amazing, thanks V! Did you raid the kitchens?" The Head Girl chuckled when she saw exactly how many things there were on the tray.

That's why it was much better doing assignments with other people, they could both provide things they needed. Usually Mary didn't think of getting snacks and was starving by the end of her studying.

"You got a tattoo?"

Mary blinked, confused, as Victoria moved towards her and remembered that the younger witch hasn't seen her dragon yet. She was used to people knowing she had it, but she grinned at the other Wormwood. "Oh, yeah, at the end of my fifth year." she explained.

"It didn't move at first, but I really like the idea of moving tattoos. I've been working on it for a while, but I don't have much free time." she said happily and shrugged.

She then took her figurine out of her bag and the blue dragon yawned, before curling up. "I've got Swedish Short-Snout." Mary told Victoria while gently putting the dragon on the floor. "You've got Peruvian Vipertooth, right?"

Mary listened, intrigued, as Victoria explained her friendship with the house elves. She smiled warmly at the girl, immensely proud of her. "I'm really happy for you 'bout the operation, have I told you that yet? And proud, it's so amazing." Some people may have said it was a miracle, but Mary knew it was a product of hard work, all on the Healer's, Azalea's and Victoria's part. It really was amazing and wonderful and the Head Girl couldn't even find the words to express her happiness.

"You've remembered all the relevant Anti-Muggle spells? Don't want trouble with the Ministry!" Victoria intoned, being slightly serious. "Daddy won't be impressed if I don't warn you!"

The witch grinned and nodded. The last thing she wanted or needed was to get in trouble with the Ministry, considering the career choice she wanted to pursue. "Don't worry, it's all done properly. I'll lift the spells just to show Mom and Dad when I see them, but otherwise, Muggles only see a normal tattoo."

The corners of her lips twitched upwards as she remembered how her parents reacted to her getting a tattoo. Dad was impressed by the artwork and Mom was apprehensive, saying she didn't approve. Mary overheard her talking to Aunt Emma on the phone later in the day, confessing she actually loved the tattoo, but had to continue being authoritative. The witch never told her Mom she heard her say that, and rather apologized and told her she should have asked before getting it.

"And, I think we should cover both of them! What do you think?"

"Wouldn't settle for less." Mary grinned and grabbed the nearest book. She was secretly hoping the younger witch would want to do both dragons. It was more fun and in the Wormwood spirit. She settled comfortably on her pillow and started reading the book, taking notes every once in a while, when she found information she deemed important.

Mary didn't say anything in return, but just smiled at the younger girl. Of course, she gave Azalea lots of credit for Victoria's recovery, but she knew it wasn't exactly easy for Victoria. She didn't want to press the subject, though and was just silently proud of her.

"How are we going to present it?"

The Head Girl looked up from the book, slightly frowning. She honestly hasn't thought about the presentation itself, only the content. "I... do you have any ideas?" She thought about it for a few moments, lots of different ideas running through her head, until she settled on one of the more simple ones. "How 'bout we make a poster?"

"Should I draw the dragons in the middle? Oh, oh! And you can make them move like you did your tattoo!"

Mary grinned at Victoria's enthusiasm and nodded along. It was so fun working with the younger witch, precisely because of her enthusiasm and excitement. Give her a normal, boring idea and she'll see it as an amazing project, probably full of unicorns and rainbows. Mary hoped the unicorns and rainbows were purely metaphorical and just in her head, as she didn't want to tell Victoria they can't include them in their presentation.

"Sounds good! It'll work better on normal paper than on skin, as well." she smiled. "I still have some of the developing solution up in my room..." The Head Girl jumped on her feet and ran up the stairs to her unusually messy room. She had asked the House Elves not to tidy up, because she was afraid she'd lose some of the more important notes that were scattered around the floor. She was planning on sorting everything out on the weekend and asking one of the Elves to help her.

She found the flask with the developing solution quickly and in a matter of minutes, she was back down in the common room. "Here we go."

"Do you want to do two posters, one for the Short-Snout and another for Vipertooth? Or just make one for both of them?"

The Head Girl smiled to herself and nodded in agreement. She sort of knew what the younger girl would answer before she even asked the question, but she wanted to make sure. She saw Victoria had already started on the dragon and she sat down next to her, admiring the drawing.

"Thank Merlin you can draw." she said, grinning. "I couldn't draw or paint anything if my life depended on it."

Mary then went back to her books and quickly listed through them, writing down the important things. Soon, she had all the important and fun facts written down on various pieces of parchment. Dragons were amazing creatures and in those minutes, Mary was seriously doubting her decision to become an Auror. Studying dragons would be so amazingly cool and fantastic. Perhaps she would take a break from being an Auror in one point in her life to go study dragons. Or, maybe, she'd be sent on a mission that included dragons. That way, she'd live her dream life and be an Auror and be around dragons. Yes, that'd be nice.

"Okay, here's the facts for Vipertooth," Mary said to Victoria and pointed to one pile of parchment. "and here for Short-Snout." she pointed to the other pile.

"Do you want to make them move whilst I start writing up the facts on the other one? And then we can swap?"

Mary nodded absent-mindedly as she admired the drawing. It was good, no matter what Victoria said about her drawing skills. Far better than anything Mary had ever drew and better than an average drawing. She looked up when she heard the scratching of a pen on the paper and mused.

"Do you want to use different colors or just pink?" She asked in a tone of voice that clearly told the younger witch that Mary would prefer it if they used more colors. She never quite understood why Victoria liked pink so much, but it never bothered her. However, she didn't want the posters to be all pink.

As the younger Wormwood worked on writing down various facts about the dragons, the Head Girl set to work on her part. She dabbed the drawing with a brush she tipped in her flask and made sure she got the whole dragon. Then, she went along the drawing with her wand, muttering the charm that was written on the bottle. It helped with making the pictures move.

Soon, the Vipertooth on the paper was stretching its wings and roaring silently. Mary smiled and then turned the poster around for Victoria to see.

"Thank you." Mary smiled sweetly at the compliment. "The drawings are incredibly good, though, so that's where most of the credit goes to."

She swapped the pieces of paper with Victoria and set to work once again. Once she was finished, she went over the facts that the other Wormwood put on the poster and copied them all on one piece of parchment. She'd have to memorize them, after all, for the presentation.

When she didn't hear the scratching of the pen anymore, she looked up at Victoria. "Finished?" she asked, leaning her head so she could read the facts on the poster. "I'm really glad we worked together on this. It'd take me ages to do it all alone."

Mary then waved her wand and watched as the books stacked up on several neat little piles and with another wave and a muttered spell, all the parchment they didn't need piled up neatly as well.

"Do you want me to walk you to our Common Room? I was going to return these books, but I could stop by there" The witch smiled as she stood up and gathered the library books in her arms.