Mother Dragon

She walked toward the dragon anxiously, praying it would work, praying she wouldn't be harmed. She had considerable faith in her own abilities, of course, but this time her life depended on it. And the baby's, she added, with a look down at the baby sling around her body. All that was visible of her child was a tuft of reddish hair at her breastbone.

But she had been fine while she was pregnant, since apparently the breeding dragon mothers preferred the company of a breeding human woman to any of the men here. Including this one's father, she thought, grinning at the memory of his indignation. Norberta had always liked him quite a lot, and to be suddenly cut off…

He'd made use of her specially charmed clothing a lot during the first few weeks after Norberta had laid her eggs. Most people called it fireproof, which wasn't strictly true, since it wouldn't survive any fire that actually touched it. The simple trick (which no one had discovered so far) was not making the material fireproof, but rather giving it a sort of shield to redirect fire before it came too close. The other dragonkeepers found themselves unable to duplicate the effect, and eventually one of them approached her for help.

She had let him sweat (literally) for a few days before she told him to give her his clothes and a bit of money. Three days later everyone on the reserve had heard. The younger dragonkeepers came to her first, and the older ones followed not much later. A month later people began to come to her from other dragon preserves to 'fireproof' their clothing, and after two years she was known and sought for throughout Europe.

She'd met Harry Potter around that time and had liked him immediately. He was three years younger than she, and at the time of their meeting eagerly awaiting the birth of his first child. When his wife heard him begin to discuss names she punched his arm lightly and said such things had time. She was due in more than seven months, why the rush?

Inevitably she met The Weasleys eventually, being friends with Harry Potter made this absolutely inescapable but she found she didn't mind much, especially once Charlie mentioned what he did for a living.

They had spent much time discussing work, which made the rest of the family back off pretty quickly once they got around to the subject of breeding dragons. Harry, in fact, was the one who stayed the longest, wearing an expression of vaguely horrified fascination as she and Charlie discussed the finer details of the process.

They'd first kissed about half a second before Ginny announced that the baby was coming now. She'd had the pleasure of seeing the normally calm and unflappable Harry dissolve into absolute panic.

She'd been there for the birth of James as well as Albus a year later, and she'd held Ginny's hand during Lily's birth five months ago. She'd been repaid in kind only four weeks ago.

Norberta sniffed at the air and breathed out a puff of smoke and then the great body relaxed.

She spent some time introducing her baby to the mother dragon and then checked on the newly hatched dragonets. As far as she could tell there were two females and one male as well as a pair the moved too fast for her to clearly identify, chasing one another around in circles.

"Such beauties you have." She told Norberta, and imagined the puff of smoke she breathed was in agreement. "Five healthy babies, you lucky girl."

As she left she wondered if she could manage the same feat.