It was the day Ginny decided the plush toy dragon had lived long enough and it was time to put it in the trash.
Harry would have preferred for it to disappear during the night and for them to tell Albus a great story : Toothless, tired of living with humans had decided to go play with his own kind in the depths of Romania. Or rather Groenland. Anyway. But he felt it was too cruel to ask a six years old boy to say goodbye to his best friend this abruptly.

But Ginny said Albus was big enough to see the tattered cloth didn't look like a friend anymore and that it would be a good way of helping him grow up.
Except she had just picked that day to take James to the barber - while Mrs. Weasley was babysitting Lily - and now her son and husband were facing alone the destiny of the stuffed dragon.

Harry cleared his throat.
- "Do ... do you want to bury it or ... I don't know. Just putting it in the bin, it's a little sad."

Albus'emerald eyes looked up to his father after contemplated the ruined toy he held in his arms.
- "It's dark, in the ground", he said slowly.
Harry nodded thoughtfully. He looked through the window and his face suddenly lit up.
- "Come on, Al, I have an idea. We'll make a snow home for your dragon and leave it in it, what do you think?"
Albus nodded, looking a bit skeptical.

They dressed with gloves, hats, scarves and warm coats and pushed the door against which the snow had accumulated.
It was very cold and the sky was low and white above their heads. The plain was completely covered in snow and the only touches of color were the red roof of their house and the blue smoke from the quirky chimney of the Borrow.

Their footsteps crunched in the deep snow. Albus walked holding hands with his father, his cap pulled down over his eyes. Harry looked around, looking for a place that would soften the great separation.
- "Ha", he suddenly said, bending down to show his son the grove of trees hooded with white. "It's a great place here."
Albus rubbed his nose and sniffed, looking thoughtful. His breath condensed.
- "Um", he said at last.
Harry nodded with a smile.

- "What do we do? A snowman?"
- "A snow boat", corrected the boy. "Toothless and I, we love boats."
They built a ship worthy of one which, so long ago, had emerged from Hogwarts Lake. Harry cut fir branches to make the sails and Albus shaped the oars with application. Snow was falling again and delicate flakes settled on the pine needles and crystallized them.
Then the boy knelt in front of the plush toy.
- "Have fun, Toothless", he whispered.
He stroked the muzzle where there was more button to make the nose, the blind eyes, chewed ears and paws so worn that the padding is was completely gone.

Harry crouched down next to him and put his arm around his son.
- "Thank you for being there all these years, Toothless", he said very seriously.
The little black plush dragon did not move in front of them, its rough fur barely lifted by the rising wind on the plain.
Everything was so silent, so white under the dark sky.
Harry remembered a beach flooded with sun and an old friend to large jagged ears who had fallen asleep forever, and a cemetery covered with snow ashes in which opened a flower corolla.
Albus nodded, holding back his tears.
- "Goodbye, Toothless", he said hoarsely.

He stood up and ran away from the snow ship, stumbling in the deep snow.
Harry stood up too and thrust his hands into his pockets, contemplating the small figure with a red cap going away, trying not to cry.

Saying goodbye ... this is the hardest thing at any age ...
I'm proud of you, Al.

He caught up with the child in a few strides and held out his hand. Albus slid his glove in his and they went back home in silence.
In the grove of trees, under the long branches dressed in pearly snow, the little black plush dragon was slowly speckled with white.

oOoOoOo

Ginny said nothing, but she made pancakes for dinner and didn't scold when blueberry jam stained the Christmas tablecloth.
James made a show of his hair now cut very short and was very talkative as usual, but from her four years of age, Lily noticed the silence of her brother and planted a big kiss on Albus' cheek before going to bed first.
Harry wanted to pace in the corridor waiting for his son to be asleep, but he was summoned to the Ministry of Magic on urgent business and had to leave before bath time.

While Ginny chased after James from one room to another - he hated to wash like any other eight years old boy - Albus went down the stairs, tiptoeing.
He put on his boots and coat behind the cellar door, listening to the racket upstairs, then pulled his cap over his thick black curls and gently turned the latch of the door.
He held his breath, but no one could have heard the door creak with his brother's howls and the noise of overturned chairs.
In her moon-shaped bed, Lily happily clapped her hands, very much awake.
Albus closed the door behind him and breathed in deeply.
It was even colder than in the afternoon, but the fog had lifted and the stars twinkled, icy, in the inky night sky.
Albus took the direction of the grove of trees, putting his feet in his father's footprints.

He looked back only once, to contemplate the house with its warm golden windows, then snuggled his frozen nose in his scarf and started walking again.
Everything was silent, except for the muffled sound of his shoes in the snow.
Surely, there were no wolves, trolls or other monsters in ambush behind every white mound.
He heard an owl hooting and shuddered.
Who received mail at this hour?
Everything seemed so great about him.
Could anyone see him from the stars?
A red wool pompom in the white immensity of the plain ...
He pulled up his hood and tried to look as invisible as possible.

The grove of trees finally growed in the dark. The moon had risen and slid, pale and shiny in between the branches.
The silvery rays haloed the motionless snow vessel, almost swallowed up. Albus leaned over and touched the sails to break down the crystals.
He couldn't see the oars anymore. The prow stung in a mound of snow and ...
It was not the cold that suddenly froze him.
Toothless was gone.
He searched the snow, took off his gloves to feel the fur, threw aside the branches whose needles had fallen off, his teeth chattering, gasping more and more as he realized the plush toy wasn't here.
When he stopped searching, his fingers numb and his lips blue, the ship was completely destroyed and the snow ransacked around him.

- "Toothless."
His voice made a bubble noise in the silence of the night.
- "Toothless?"
He wiped the hot tears streaming down his face.
- "Toothless, are you there?"
He sniffed - a frightening sound in the frozen night around him.
- "Why are you gone?"
He closed his eyes, buried his face in his knees, holding his legs. He shivered, soaked and exhausted.

Please ...

A muffled noise.
A twig cracked, pine needles fell while something slipped under the lower branches of the tree.
Albus lifted his head and swallowed.
- "Who's there?" he asked in a quavering voice.
There was something in the shadows, lurking between two clumps of snow.
Something that was looking at him.
Two green eyes split by a golden diamond.
- "Who's there?" Albus repeated, his teeth chattering.

The moon slipped between the branches and drew two short rounded ears, a spine on which the wind brushed up the fur.
Four clumsy legs and two wings hanging in the snow like long black feathers, thick like velvet.
A square muzzle on which furrowed a bright as a button truffle and tiny teeth that looked like glass darts.

The child's eyes widened.
- "Who are you?" he whispered slowly.
The creature cocked its head, imitating him, and sat down heavily with a small sneeze.
Albus could not help smiling. He held out his hand.
- "Come on", he called. "Come, dragon."
The creature chewed, looking bored. Its tail shaped like an ace of spades stirred and swept the snow.

- "Come on!" Albus chuckled.
The little black ink animal sniffed and sneezed again.
- "You're cold", said the child who had forgotten he was shaking too.
He held out his arms and smiled again, enveloping the strange creature who came from nowhere with a loving gaze.
- "Come, silly."
The ears brushed back, then forward, the animal furrowed his long silver moon whiskers, then rose and approached cautiously, glancing aside.
Albus stood as motionless as his shivering body would allow. He had a thrill of joy when very soft pads stepped on his leg.
The muzzle of the little dragon touched his cheek, wet and warm.
He chuckled when the whiskers tickled his chin.
The creature was now on his knees and its weight was warm and light like of a cat.
- "See ... you're not afraid", murmured Albus who was getting sore jaws smiling.
A sneeze, then something nipped his cheek.
- "You hungry?"

A yawn. The little dragon sat up, putting his front paws on the shoulder of the boy who dared not take him in his arms. Its warm breath blew against Albus' ear.
- "Don't you eat my ear."
His fingers gently approached the black wings to which the moon gave satin sheen. He touched a feather then, as the animal did not move, stroked down the fluffy fur.
- "You're so soft..."
The dragon cooed and licked his face.
- "Hey, it's raspy", protested Albus giggling.
The animal snuggled against him and purred, pushing its head against the boy's jacket.
- "What do you want? You hungry?"
The tiny dragon streched its wings, and then folded them around its body, setteling on Albus' lap. His paws kneaded the jeans of the child and its throat was still emitting a muffled sound of contentment.
- "You want to sleep, then."
Albus looked around.

He wasn't afraid of the night anymore and his fingers no longer hurt him, even if he still felt a little cold in his boots and under his pants.
The little dragon was warm like a hot water bottle against him.
Albus smiled.
- "We stay here, then. Good night, Toothless."
He closed his eyes.

Snow was falling again, in white flakes on his long eyelashes. It was melting when it touched his cheeks and glistening on the black fur of the sleeping creature, leaving shiny drops like moonlight pearls.

Somewhere in the plain, torches were burning and people were called, but in the grove of trees, everything was quiet and peaceful.

Albus was dreaming in his sleep and he was smiling.

To be continued ...