"You're not actually going to go in there, are you?" Elena asks, her voice wavering.

Isabelle's standing with her and Luca, the two of them still redoing their task with the Ukrainian Ironbelly. All three of them are staring at the Ridgeback enclosure, where a singular dragon is lazing around. He doesn't look ferocious at all, sleeping there soundly, but the three of them knows he is. Ridgebacks are one of the most deadly and dangerous dragons there are. Isabelle's just thankful she's heading into a male's enclosure, not a female, as they're much more aggressive.

She nods in reply to Elena. "I 'ave to."

"Why? Maybe we can help?" Luca presses, not keen on her going in there, either.

She can't tell them what she's doing or why she's going into the Ridgeback's enclosure, not allowed to give their new task away to either of them or get their help in any way. Her entire plan for completing this task has to be kept a secret from both of them so that they can come up with their own plan when they finally get told what their new task is.

"You know zee rules," Isabelle smiles. "You cannot 'elp. In fact, I do not even know if you are allowed to stay 'ere and watch."

"Oh, we're staying," Elena says firmly. "If Charlie's not gonna be here, then we certainly are."

"Why isn't he here?" Luca asks, frowning at the golden-haired girl.

Isabelle sighs. "'E does not know zat I am doing zis. I did not want 'im to be 'ere," she admits.

Elena shrugs. "Fair enough. He's a dickhead."

"Oi, 'e is not," Isabelle frowns.

"Yeah he is," Luca backs the dark-haired girl up. Isabelle just sighs, not arguing further.

"Well, eizer way, I 'ave to go in zere."

"But for what reason?" Elena presses this time.

"I cannot tell you, you know zis," Isabelle frowns at her best friend. "Well, wish me luck."

"Good luck," they both say at the same time.

Isabelle takes a deep breath in to steady herself, her hand drifting up to the place where she's pocketed the vial she'll use to collect the Ridgeback's venom. It's still their first day of getting their new task involving this dragon, and Isabelle's collected all the other ingredients for an Anti-venom potion aside from the venom itself. To her knowledge, Charlie's still in his hut writing down a detailed procedure for how to brew the potion.

Sure, she told him that they would collect the venom together the next day, but Isabelle has come to the conclusion that she's much more likely to succeed without injury if it's just her doing it. If Charlie comes along, all they'll do is fight about who's getting it and how they're going to get it, and end up getting bitten before they've even made the Anti-venom in the first place.

She steps into the Ridgeback's enclosure, and immediately, as though her singular step set off an alarm bell only the dragon can hear, the Ridgeback's eyes snap open. The French girl freezes in place, her heart pounding.

The dragon doesn't move.

She takes another step towards the creature. He still doesn't move, its dark eyes trained on her. He must have people enter his enclosure often; either that, or he doesn't feel under threat by her. At least not just yet. She's come to that conclusion throughout her time her at the Sanctuary: most often, dragons don't attack unless they feel threatened. Take Codrin for example: he was incredibly wary of them at first, but then eventually warmed up to her and Daniel. Because he'd never really had much human contact before then, he didn't attack, not feeling threatened, just cautious. When he saw they weren't a threat after all, he became almost dog-like.

The Norwegian Ridgeback still hasn't moved. Isabelle's now barely ten metres away from the massive beast. She's decided her best approach is a slow, calm and careful one. She hasn't thought ahead of that, however. She has no idea what she'll do once she actually makes it to the dragon, no idea how she'll gather up the venom. She'll just have to think something up on the spot, she supposes.

Isabelle thinks she stops breathing when she realises she's now only one step away from the beast. The dragon's eyes are still locked onto her, looking directly up into her face. He still hasn't moved. How has he not moved? Why has he not moved? What could he be—?

If it weren't for Elena's warning cry, Isabelle would be dead.

Elena's scream along with the tiniest flutter of movement out of the corner of her eye are the only things that warn her enough to react in time. Because of course the dragon has moved. Of course it was only pretending that it hadn't so that it would be able to get her. Clever thing.

While Isabelle was slowly moving towards him, the Ridgeback had lifted his tail up into the air, directly above Isabelle. She just manages to whirl out of the way as it comes crashing down to the ground. It would have crushed her flat if she had been one more step to the left.

Breathing heavily, fear threatens to engulf Isabelle's heart as the dragon finally rears up, letting out a roar of annoyance that his clever plan didn't work. Anticipating the jet of flame just before he shoots it at her, Isabelle raises her cloak around her, the material she crafted effortlessly preventing the scalding flames from touching her skin.

As soon as the jet of fire stops, Isabelle runs forward, towards the dragon, thinking that she's most likely to be able to get the venom if she's closer and the dragon tries to bite her. Which could go one of two ways: she gets bitten and then game over cause they don't have the Anti-venom already made, or she actually somehow, most likely by miracle, manages to successfully retrieve some venom, without getting hurt herself.

She inwardly winces. This is a terrible idea. Why is she even doing this again?

Too close for the dragon to be able to breathe more flames at her, and already having decided that flames aren't going to work on her, he lunges down, mouth open, teeth bared.

Isabelle has a moment of panic, not knowing what to do. The only thing she can think of is raising her cloak to protect her once more, squeezing her eyes shut as the weight of the dragon's jaws collide with her. She braces for impact, for his teeth to find their mark in her flesh, but nothing happens.

Isabelle opens her eyes, staring, wide-eyed, as the Ridgeback pulls and tugs at her cloak. His teeth are stuck in the extra-strong material, not able to pierce her skin or break free. Grinning at her miracle, Isabelle grabs the vial as the dragon tries to tug himself free, collecting up more than enough venom off his teeth.

With one final, massive tug, the dragon rips himself free of the cloak, leaving it shredded on one side. But Isabelle doesn't care. She pockets the vial and starts to walk backwards towards the exit of the enclosure, her eyes trained on the dragon in front of her.

He lets out an earth-shaking roar, completely and utterly annoyed that none of its plans have worked out in its favour. Right before Isabelle's free of the enclosure, he lets out one last jet of flame, the French girl easily avoiding it by raising the other side of her cloak around her.

She turns around as she steps out of the Ridgeback's enclosure, immediately getting engulfed in a tight hug by both Elena and Luca. Isabelle can't help but beam, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Don't ever do that again," Elena snaps as she releases Isabelle.

"Yeah, please don't," Luca adds with a grin. "I'd rather like to keep the circulation in my hand, thanks." He winks at Elena, who just glares at him.

Isabelle chuckles. Evidently, the dark-haired girl had been squeezing Luca's hand much too tightly throughout the whole ordeal.

"Very impressive, Isabelle," a voice says from behind them.

The French girl whips around to come face to face with Florin, who's smiling down at her, his eyes twinkling.

"Not many fully fledged Dragon Tamers can face a Ridgeback alone and make it out completely unscathed. You should be immensely proud of yourself," he compliments. Isabelle can't help but smile.

"What did you even do in there?" Luca asks as Florin heads off. "What was that meant to accomplish?"

"It accomplished everyzing I needed it to," is all Isabelle replies with, grinning. "Anyway, I should probably get back to Charlie. 'E 'as probably finished by now."

"Finished what?" Elena asks slyly.

"Finished what I told 'im to do," Isabelle replies, still grinning at their annoyed expressions at being unable to pry any information out of her.

She heads off back towards his hut, collecting all the other Anti-venom ingredients from the place she hid them as she goes, the vial of venom tucked safely away in her pocket.

She pushes the door open as she arrives, finding Charlie standing with his back to her, a letter in his hands. He hears her come in, but doesn't turn around.

"Got a letter from Ron," he says gruffly. "Apparently Hagrid's got a baby dragon. Norwegian Ridgeback, coincidentally. Wants to get rid of it, bring it here. I've talked to the Tamers, and they said they could— what happened to you?!"

He finally turns to face her, his eyes widening considerably at the state of her shredded cloak, messy hair, dirt-smeared clothes.

"I got zee venom," comes her simple reply, taking the vial out of her pocket and adding it to the pile of ingredients she's placed on the floor.

"You— WHAT!" Charlie roars.

"I got zee venom," Isabelle repeats herself, standing back up to face him. She frowns at his furious expression. "What?"

"We were meant to do that tomorrow! Together! You weren't meant to go and do it on your own! You could have been killed! Are you crazy?" he yells at her, his eyes still wide.

"Oui, I am probably crazy. And I know we were meant to do it togezer, but I zought all we would do is fight and end up getting 'urt worse, so I just did it myself," she explains.

Charlie blinks at her, mouth still slightly agape.

"You survived," he states blankly.

Isabelle nods slowly.

"Oui, it appears so," she smirks, half-amused by this whole exchange.

"Are you hurt?" he asks, appearing genuinely concerned. Isabelle frowns. He shouldn't be concerned.

"Non," she replies simply.

"But—" Charlie frowns at her in disbelief. "But most Dragon Tamers can't face a Ridgeback alone and—"

"Oui, I know," Isabelle cuts him off. "Florin told me. 'E was impressed. Now, what were you saying about zee Ridgeback at 'Ogwarts?"

Charlie stares at her for a moment longer, before he blinks and clears his throat.

"Right," he says, grabbing the letter back up off the flood from when he dropped it, glancing at Isabelle out of the corner of his eyes. "Well Hagrid obviously bit off more than he can chew with the whole having a dragon thing, so I've talked to some Tamers here at the Sanctuary and they've said they can fly out tonight and bring him back here. His name's Norbert, apparently. Hagrid's choice."

"Cute," Isabelle says, taking her half shredded cloak off and hanging it up before she sits down on the floor. "I am assuming you 'ave finished zee procedure?" she asks.

Charlie nods, absent-minded.

"What happened?" he asks quietly, his eyes flickering to her cloak.

"'E tried to bite me. Missed. Got 'is teeth stuck," Isabelle says easily, grabbing the piece of paper with the procedure scribbled on it up off the floor, her eyes scanning it. "Damnit," she groans. "I forgot zee Mandrake leaves."

And to her immense surprise, Charlie bursts out laughing, the familiar rumbling sound welcomed by her ears. She blinks, looking up at him, a wary smile on her face.

"What?" she asks.

"You just risked your life getting Ridgeback venom, and you're worried about forgetting Mandrake leaves," he snorts. "You stay there, I'll go get them."

He lets out another laugh as he exits the hut, and Isabelle can't help the broad smile that lights up her face.