"What?" asked Jerry. "What do you want to tell me?"
Ella swallowed, but didn't say anything.
"Come on!" said Jerry.
"Well..." Ella glanced around the table. Some students were staring at her. "Not here," she said.
"Okay." Jerry got up from the table. Ella did the same. She walked ahead of Jerry and they walked out of the great hall.
"Let's actually go into the Gryffindor common room," said Ella. When they got there, Jerry collapsed onto on of the sofas. "Ah... I'm tired!"
"Well, what I was going to say, was that I... I..." she stopped.
"What?" Jerry asked, curious to see what she was going to say.
Ella started again. "Well... you see...I'm taking care of a... a dragon."
Jerry jumped up from the sofa and said, "So are we!"
"No... I mean, I saw you go into the forbidden forest yesterday, and I knew what you had been talking about to Alex. You were talking about the whelp, of course."
"Yeah, we were," said Jerry. "So you were the one who had put that blanket on the welp."
"Yeah," said Ella. "But Alex might tell that we are taking care of it."
"Nah, he would definitely not tell," said Jerry. "He likes the dragon."
"Oh, right," said Ella. Her face brightened. "Well, that's good."
"Yeah," said Jerry. "So that's why you were so panicky yesterday - you thought that Alex would tell about the dragon. Oh, I mean, Flame."
"What?" said Ella. "Oh, did you name him that?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I didn't name him, so I guess that's alright if you name him that," said Ella.
"Anyway, how did you find him?"
"Oh, he was just alone in the forbidden forest. I don't know how he got there, exactly."
Then suddenly the portrait opened. In came a girl.
"Oh, hi Anna!" said Ella. "Jerry, this is Anna - Anna, this is Jerry."
"Uh, nice to meet you," said Jerry.
"You too," said Anna. She smiled at Jerry.
"Well, I think I'm going to go to bed - quidditch made me tired," said Ella.
"I'll go too," said Jerry quickly. Then he ran up to the boy's dormitory.
Ella grinned. "Wanna come to our dormitory?" she asked Anna.
"Yeah," said Anna. "Anyway, I heard you talking to Jerry about something."
"Oh, that was nothing," said Ella quickly and she changed the subject.
But Anna said, "What were you talking about? I heard something about a dragon."
"Oh no! You must have misheard us. We weren't talking about a dragon!" said Ella. Even though Anna was her friend, she didn't want everyone knowing about Flame. Anna might tell her friend about him.
"Oh," said Anna, though she was still suspicious.
"Well, I'm going to go to bed now," said Ella. "Good night."
"Good night," said Anna.

Early in the morning, Jerry and Ella went down to the forbidden forest. It would be better to go down in the morning, because there wouldn't be many teachers about. This is what Ella had said.
"I hope Flame's okay," said Jerry. "It did rain hard and I could hear thunder."
"He'll be fine," said Ella. "The forest is so thick that rain can hardly get in."
"Yeah. You're right," said Jerry.
They walked deeper into the forest, when Ella said, "I know where Flame is in here. I think in the very heart of the forest.
Jerry nodded.
For a while they walked, when they heard some hoof beats.
"Oh no - oh no... it's centaurs!" said Ella anxiously.
Jerry pulled her by the arm and pushed her behind a tree. He hid behind another.
Ella looked apprehensively at him. "What if they find Flame?" she whispered.
"Well, let's just hope they won't - or haven't," said Jerry.
The hoof beats sounded nearer. Ella bit her lip anxiously.
Then centaurs ran into sight. They looked around the forest and then one said, "There, Bane."
A black centaur turned quickly and he saw... Ella.
"Oh no!" Jerry said under his breath. "This is so not good..."
Ella came nervously out of behind the tree. "Uh... h - h - hello..."
"What are students doing in here?" growled Bane. He moved closer to Ella, glaring ferociously at her.
"No... we were just..." she glanced at where Jerry was hiding. He wanted to come out, but he knew that Bane would get even more angry if there was another human in the forest.
"Well... we were just..." Ella paused, but then went on. "We were just collecting some stuff for Professor Von Graft!"
Bane stamped his hoof. "Get them.." he hesitated. Jerry stepped out of his hiding place.
Bane said angrily, "Another one?"
"Just let us go," said Jerry boldly. "Please."
Bane hesitated then shouted, "This once I will let you go!" then he galloped off, with the other centaurs following behind him.
"Okay, let's go!" said Jerry. "Come on, Ella!"
"But Flame!" said Ella. "They haven't found him yet, I think, but they will soon enough."
"Well, we can't see him today!" said Jerry. "Come on!"
"But he'll be hungry!" protested Ella.
Jerry ignored her, but instead grabbed her arm and pulled her back towards out of the forest.
Ella was still very worried about Flame when they came out of the forbidden forest.
Jerry was about to say something, then stopped abruptly. There, standing in front of Jerry and Ella, with a grumpy expression on his face, stood Alex.
"Oh, hi Alex," said Jerry.
"Hi," he said. "You went in there without me?"
"Well, you're lucky you didn't come with us, cause guess what happened?"
"You met some centaurs."
"Perfectly right! And you do not like centaurs."
"Yeah. But did you get a chance to see Flame?"
"Uh, disappointingly... no," Jerry replied.
Alex glared at the forest. "Oh... that's just great. Just great."
"Yeah, I know," said Jerry. Then the three of them started back up to Hogwarts, grumbling loudly.