Summary: Temeraire gives us a muggle's eye into the world of human/dragon coexistence, but about a wizard's view? Collects of side stories into a Harry Potter world with Temeraire styled dragons.
Ruby Red
...
It all begins when Charles Weasley, aka Charlie, gets a letter from his youngest brother.
During flight practice with a team of Romanians, no less.
One moment it seems as if a rather suicidal owl has just decided to join them. In the next moment, an equally foolish, one-ton, and fifteen-foot dragon appears in it's place.
Right in the middle of them.
As one, all the dragons lurched.
Someone breathes fire.
Charlie instinctively clung to the strap attached to Dumitru's harness, just as the dragon quickly broke from the fold. The roars of confusion were practically deafening.
The lead dragon—Eeylop—and her captain shouted for order.
Admits all the pandemonium, Charlie managed to make heads and tails of the bloody beast that starts it all. Grass green scales, brown underbelly and big bright yellow eyes. A pair of distinctive, ram like horns curled from the top of the skull to where its neck and head met. It was poorly sized and framed for the bre...
Charlie did a double take. He knew that dragon.
Pigwidgeon
What in Merlin's name—
The runty excuse for a welsh green manages to bank left. Thankfully turning away from them and the panicked longhorn formation fast enough to avoid collision. Instead, the unsteady beast moves far too fast for it's own bearings and tumbles perilously through the air and down. There wasn't time to cast a strong enough levitation charm, as the way ward dragon unceremoniously crashes hard into the damned earth head and horn first.
"Letter from Ron, for Charlie." The dazed dragon chittered out from below, just before fainting into a pained, limp heap in the dirt.
...
It took hours to get everything settled down.
Charlie had almost been too furious at his brother to hear him out. Poor Pig had sprained a wing. A few of the longhorns had to be grounded and treated for burns. He'd been left red-faced and embarrassed to make excuses about the ordeal to his superiors and had half a mind to write their mum to set his brother dead straight.
The nerve of him.
It had honestly been that bad.
But Charlie is also a big brother who worries about his family—especially when it came to his youngest siblings—and if Ron had sent that little runt this far things had to be important, right?
Upon scanning through Ron's chicken scratch on the parchment roll that'd been bundled in Pig's sack, he found he'd been correct to a degree.
Really, he thought Hagrid would know better that to get an unregistered egg in his possession, bet or no bet. The man had already gotten himself expelled decades ago for this kind of recklessness. He understood the mans passion, he truly did, but there times were even his common sense kicked in.
Especially since he worked around dragons for a living.
Still, he couldn't help but also feel it was right on for the man to take in the egg if that rotten "owner" in question was contemplating selling one of their fire-breathers to muggles. Highly illegal actions. The British Corps were still itching to add more fire-breathers to their lines. The ministry was working to prevent just that so long as it was a wizards dragon. It would be like the debacle with the Sharpspitters back in 1708 all over again.
What had the half-giant gotten himself into?
He'd have to pull a few favors to get this done all hushed up and all, but it was the least he could do. Hagrid had been the whole reason he'd gone off on his dream job on contest to his parents wishes. Charlie never wanted to see the day the elder man was forcibly sacked for having too kind a heart for everything with teeth and claws.
There were already many in the ministry who wouldn't give the man a chance simply due to his heritage.
He pulled out a quill from his desk.
Charlie would send word back by good and proper owl this time, not enjoying the idea of a repeat of this morning's spectacle.
...
They'd all made it to Hogwarts grounds by nightfall.
A team of swedish shortsnouts' had been promptly dispensed to further assist if the dragon in question was uncooperative.
To outsiders it was a questionable choice. Dragons were creatures that respected size and strength first and foremost.
While they were a smaller breed—even by wizard standards—they more than made up for their size with a combination speed, tenacity, and unique breed traits. The hooks on their wings allowed them to sneakily hang from cliffs and walls near vertically. Their dark silvery-blue scales kept them well hidden in the night from both human and dragon alike. Not to mention some of the hottest fire power to match.
All the same when out numbered and without experience, it wasn't as hard as one would think to convince one to bow to that as well.
They were usually used in tracking ferals and missions that need secrecy from muggles and their dragons alike. It was hard work keeping charms and illusions up too standards that kept an inherently magical creature like a dragon stumped.
Swedish shortsnouts were excellent beasts for the job.
A few dozen cast of lumos and everything was all set with some lighting to brighten the surroundings. All shortsnouts and their handlers leaped away into the darkness, taking up a hidden position out of sight range. Someone cast a flare to signal their arrival. Not a moment later large, stomping movement could be herd making it's way forward. Large glowing orbs could been seen.
Clearly, something had happened, because Ron had said the dragon was at the very least contained to an area.
Charlie swore.
Everyone tensed.
"Now non' of that, s'h's fine. Just a lil nervous, is all."
Hagrid's voice was easy distinguish as he trodden from the edges of the shadows. The half-giant held a beefy hand in a stiff wave, while his other griped a thick rope that was tied loosely around a large dark-skinned beast neck. The dragon's head was surprisingly neck and neck with the mans own cranium. A good 10 feet tall at least.
"Din't think yer'd get here so' fast."
The half-giant turned, and rubbed his hand along the dragon snout.
"There yer' are Norbert. Mummy's gonna mis' yer, but they'll take good care of yer." Hagrid sounded quite strangled and near sobbing, as he slackened the lead and allowed the dragon to step further into sight.
Norbert, Charlie noted, was at least somewhat agreeable if he was letting himself get handled like that. This was good.
Better than expected, even.
He'd come here expecting to have to, at worst, stun the poor beast, with the way Ron had gone off about the dragon being a "Bloody right terror" to deal with. His peers could see it too. Most had forgone their positions and were calmly off to coax the beast towards the prospects of re-homing to the Romanian sanctuary.
Ridgeback venom was in popular demand, and a new addition to the place was more than welcome. The dragon would be paid well with food, housing, gold, and various jewels. All the works most ferals would asked for.
Charlie let them do their work from a distance. Hanging back to take note of what features he could and assess the over physical health. Nice structure, working air sacks, good scale and wing membrane coloration, and large black-brown fused spikes that split in twain across the beast's back.
Norbert was quite the handsome norwegian ridgback. Hagrid, at the very least, did a good job keeping him fit to form.
Still, he was quite a ways bigger than the estimated size of a two week old male. Not enough to attempt successful confrontation with even one of the Swedish beasts mind you, but size able enough that the flight harness they'd brought on hand was a tad too small a fit. someone would have to go fetch it and cast a spell to enlarge it properly.
Charlie frowned slightly and assessed the dragons features once again. The shape of the wing and short curve of the horns was a bit off for a ma-
Ah, damn his brothers sketchy letters, clearly Norbert was actually a—
"Hello"
—Norbertia.
The voice was soft sweet, and above all else, feminine in disposition. She greeted all the men around herself curiously just before her large orange eyes landed straight onto Charlie watching her.
The dragon paused. She seemed mesmerized for a minute or two just before speaking.
The next few moments shocked Charlie near to death.
"Oh, will you be my Wizard-captain?" It sounded more like a demand than anything else.
Not a moment after she quickly scrambled over, untangling herself from the midst of startled men and a maneuvered around a runny-noised, tear-eyed Hagrid. She was blindingly unperturbed even as the six blue dragons snap warily into view at her rushed attention.
He was almost certain of a possible altercation up until she'd had the sense to halt just a yard or so from himself and the other dragons relaxed.
"You're like the other one. Only, they wouldn't let me have him." Could a dragon acutally pout when they lacked the muscle structure to do so? "Oh, I do quite not mind it anymore if I get to have you. That red is simply brilliant."
Charlie, feeling bemused, slowly reached up and tugged at a lock of his hair. It was, after all, the only reddish thing on his person.
He hadn't anticipated the danger of the beast taking a particular liking towards himself imminent if it already wasn't the case.
Getting scorched? Yup.
Envenomated? Sure, always a possibility with venomous breeds liked ridgebacks. Especially females, whom tended to have a shorter temper. They could spit it like cobras.
But imprinted on? Not on Merlins name.
Now, what was the easiest least painful method to turn down a dragon?
"But that blue robe clashes awfully with your hair, I think gold would flatter you much better." She preening at him.
Why was he starting to feel like he wouldn't like the answer to that last question?
Turns out, she was a "bloody right terror" after all.
...
Really, honestly, he was trying his best here.
He'd indulged her with the harness. It'd been the only peaceful way to to successfully get here here, but enough was enough. He'd thought he'd been firm enough that this was all a one time thing. Dragonologist studied dragons yes, but most didn't harness one.
"I'm sorry, you are rather lovely, but I can't captain you."
She stared him down sideways, appraising Charlie with one great big orange eye while simultaneously cleaning blood from her talons with a rasping forked tongue. He'd gotten a feeding pen servant to go get her half a cow to settle her into a more placating mood.
The cow hadn't helped.
Upon arrival, Norbertia had point blank refused to let him go if she wasn't assured that she could "Keep him." His colleagues—bastard, all of them—were of no help to him.
Said it was a "lost cause" to dissuade her now.
"But, I like you." She said fondly. "They said I could captain anyone of my choice from Romanian if I came here. Why can't it be you?"
Charlie silently cursed whoever sold her that rotten sod. One of the trained men here captaining her would be all well and good, but he himself was out of the question. Charlie most certainly wasn't a standing member of the Romanian Wizarding Ariel Corps, after all.
Besides, he loved his job to bits, but a dragonologist simply wasn't paid that well. He barely understood how his ole mum and dad manage to keep both Pig and Errol well fed on their rather meager spending budget. A dragon of her breeding would be twice or tipple their weight and in need of double the meat pound for pound. She would be much better of at the reserve.
His next excuses was sort of true in a sense.
"Uh, oh but I have a dragon already, Pigwidgeon." He explained away, "I can't very well put him out for you now can I?"
Norbertia wasn't buying any of it though.
She narrowed her eyes, claws suddenly digging against the ground.
Charlie grew relieved that the little welsh green was still resting in the far, far side stables. He didn't even want to fathom how'd she'd handle knowing about Errol. Welsh greens were a clannish breeds and communed well together within their family unit.
Compared to many other dragons?
They didn't share, ever.
Her long prehensile-like tail curled around them and herded Charlie just a step or two close enough for her then step possessively over him.
This wasn't suppose to be escalating.
"No," She insisted "he's not yours. I asked before with the other, and he said he's not a wizard's dragon. Said he likes you all well enough, but can't choose one." Norbertia's large head bobbed up and down in matter of fact manner. "And I quite liked your gift, was tasty." She pointed a claw down towards the carcass she'd been gorging on moments before.
"Now hang on, I'm sure we can find you someone more agreeable than little old me." Charlie tried to reason again, weakly. "And I can't afford to keep you. In a week or two's time you'll need more than I can provide, you know?"
All he got in return was a furious hiss and a tail wrapped tightly around his pants and boots beneath his robes.
It was much in likeness to a chain.
Sometimes it just didn't take all that much to catch a dragon's eye.
And as it turns out,
Norbertia really, really liked redheads.
"Charlies, I'd much rather you stay here till we can come to an agreement. I'm sure well make it work somehow."
The bloody beast was impossible.
N/A: I update whenever my muse hits me and not a minute sooner.
If anyone's curious enough to take a peek at how I picture Harry Potter dragons I have a sketch of all the breeds mentioned from the chapter here:
treac letarts. de viantart art/Harry-Potter-Dragon-sketches-680200943
Just remove the spaces.
I think wizard dragon breeds maxing out at six tons to be good.
This actually works really well for how I want to weave dragons in wizard society. They don't need to be gigantic, especially for living among a hidden society. Though, it was kinda weird for me to try and relate size and weight comparisons between the dragons of these two series.
Take for instance, the Iron Belly and Longwing. Both are the same length from head to tail, yet the Iron Belly would barely make it to lightweight:Combat size. The Longwing is typically heavier than a Yellow Reaper that averages at 14 or so tons.
But then again, Longwing have massive wingspans (120+ft) compared to body length (60ft) and that has got to add a lot of extra weight. Like an extra 2-3 tons or so per wing. Plus, I'd say Temeraire dragons are all around, much more bulky as they're breeds of warfare.
Wizards would find dragons more useful for gaining potion items:Blood, scales, claws, venom, and horns. (All that can be obtained without killing of course) I have to think about a replacement for "Dragon heartstrings," etc.
All wizard dragons from cannon
Swedish Shortsnout
Lightweight: Courier
22ft
2 tons
Romanian Longhorn
Lightweight: Courier
40ft
3-4 tons
Ukrainian Iron-Belly
Lightweight:Light Combat
60ft
6 tons
Norwegian Ridgeback
Lightweight: Courier
35ft
3-4 tons
Common welsh Green
Lightweight: Courier
18ft
2 tons
Hungarian Horntail
Lightweight:Courier
50ft
3-5 tons
Peruvian Vipertooth
Lightweight: Courier
15ft
1 ton or less
Hebridean Black
Lightweight: Courier
30ft
3-5 tons
Antipodean Opaleye
Lightweight: Courier
40ft
4-5 tons
Chinese Fireball/Lion Dragon (Shi-lung)
Lightweight: Courier
25ft
2-4 tons
Catalonian Fireball
Lightweight: Courier
30ft
3-4 tons
Portuguese Longsnout
Lightweight: Courier
30ft
3-4 tons