HARRY POTTER:
TALES OF THE GREAT DRAGON
BY: The Grim Overlord
A/N: A big thank you to those who have supported this story thus far, I truly appreciate it. Now, for the part that most will skip. I have several announcements to make. I know most don't like the incorporation of OC's into the story but Tobius and Elric will not be heavily involved in the story from this point onwards.
Using what little time I have left before my teacher starts forcing me to start doing my work in class and at home (don't these people understand the importance of writing? I thought they were supposed to teach you skills at high school, not discourage you from improving them). I've drawn numerous designs for Harry (both in and out of dragon form) thus far but I can't figure out how to make my scanner work XD.
Disclaimer: I, The Grim One, do not lay claim upon ye olde rights to Harry Potter. Nay, I am but a lowly high school student and cannot as of yet lay claim upon even the lowliest of property. I thank ye.
As Elric stepped into the clearing he was unpleasantly surprised by the sheer magnitude of damage caused by the baby dragon's attack. The ground was charred and a massive trail led from the clearing to the road that he could just barely make out from between the uprooted and destroyed trees. Smoke rose steadily from the ashes that lie on the ground and he could feel a searing heat rising from beneath his dragon-skin boots.
The charred looking body of Tobius lie broken in the middle of the wreckage with the metallic dragon 'Silvern' lying across from him, apparently drained of all energy. The others had just arrived after him, having heard the hideous shriek and witnessed the flash of energy that originated from the area. Paying little attention them, Elric moved over to where the pup lie and cast a powerful binding curse on the pup as an extra precaution in case he awoke (Tobius had had the special cuffs on his person when he had run off).
The pup was dangerous, that much had been proven. From his crazily advanced natural instincts, extreme speed, razor sharp claws and horns he would give nearly anybody a challenge. And when he got bigger he would become a legend in his own right.
But for now he would have to settle for being an ordinary dragon (as ordinary a dragon as a metallic, laser shooting dragon could be) amongst hundreds of others back in Romania.
6 months later
Life wasn't going well for Minister of Magic. After the ordeal with the baby dragon in the Little Whinging area he had drawn the anger of the ICW who had put enormous pressure on him to get rid of the disturbance before strange reports were filed to the muggle police. Though he had successfully captured the creature it had been at the cost of having dozens of the residents report hearing strange noises and seeing a flash of light. That though wasn't his only worry.
Other than the dragon fiasco a number of startling facts was being made known to the public, the first being that he had unfairly dismissed two members of the beast division as a way to 'balance expenses and income' while still buying thousands and galleons worth of frivolous items and charging it to the ministry. His office was littered with hundreds of trinkets, expensive furniture and even a pensieve. The worst offence by far though were the numerous charges against him, including but not limited to bribery, indecent exposure and assault.
All in all, it only through sheer dumb luck combined with his hard-headedness that Fudge still stayed in office (though rumour had it that he would be getting replaced by the younger yet more experienced Mrs Bones).
Putting a hand to his temple and letting out a deep sigh, the Minister reached into his mahogany drawer and pulled out a small chocolate imported from magical Sweden. A box of those delicious chocolates cost nearly as much as a small house and the minister had dozens simply strewn about his office. It was a good thing he was being sacked, otherwise the ministry might have gone bankrupt.
Nestled amongst a range of tall mountains was a beautiful green valley. It's lush grass, numerous caverns and gigantic size made it the perfect location for a dragon reserve. Having been made unplottable (that is to say completely invisible and untraceable by muggles). In this reserve, the oldest one in existence, there lived several wizards whose jobs it was to make sure the dragons did so in relative peace. Which wasn't true peace obviously, as these were quick-tempered, fire-breathing dragons and not some of those muggle 'hippies'. Dragons were known for being quite territorial, hence why the main requisite for a dragon reserve was being massive in size.
For nearly a thousand years, dragons had called this place their home. Over fifty species of all shapes and sizes currently resided there, including but not limited to the beautiful Antipodean Opeleye, powerful Hungarian Horntail, fast-growing Norwegian Ridgeback and freakish Six-Winged Crucifier.
But though the reserve had seen many species come and go since it was first opened, it had never before seen a dragon such as the strangely named 'Silvern'. Silver scales, long horns and green eyes set this dragon apart from the rest of his kind. He had arrived nearly five months earlier after being captured in the suburban London area.
The standard procedure when a new pup was brought in was to simply release it into the reserve where it would be adopted by any kind mother dragon of its own species. While dragons got a nasty bit of (deserved) press about their aggressive tendencies, not many knew just how caring they could be to a dragon that looked similar enough to itself. Most dragons would not hesitate to sacrifice their lives for one of their own even if they had never met before.
But since a dragon like Silvern had never been seen before, the dragon had been forced to go stay in a cage while they tried to think of a way to have him live longer than three days amongst the dragons who would be out to kill him. Unfortunately, after three months of no plans coming to light and the terrible racket made by Silvern they were forced to release him. As soon as the cage was opened and shackles removed (remotely of course, they weren't stupid enough to be in the vicinity of an underfed dragon, regardless of whether that dragon be a pup or not) the shiny dragon pup ran like his life depended on it. It wasn't even three hours before the pup had already gotten into trouble.
When the stick-wielders had taken levitated his cage and carried him outside, Silvern had felt a pronounced feeling of dread. He'd been quite sure that they were going to do something horrible to him. After all, these were the same people who had taken him from his home for no reason. So when his cage opened and the hard cuffs binding his legs were released he ran as fast as his legs could carry him.
Fifteen minutes later and panting from exhaustion, Silvern actually took the time to look at his surroundings and was pleasantly surprised. Lush grass covered most of the area and he was surrounded on all sides by tall mountains. Intricate pathways had been carved into the sides of the rock, leading up to the mouths of hundreds of caves. And finally, poking their heads outside of those caves simultaneously were countless dragons. Like himself, they had probably all been captured by the stick-wielders and brought to this place.
All at once, the assembly of dragons hastily rushed from their caves, some crawling and others spreading their wings and taking to the sky. Wondering what the reason for their haste was, Silvern sniffed the air and found the delicious smell of recently butchered meat calling to him. Having not been sufficiently fed while in confinement, he too ran among his brethren towards where the smell was coming from.
An unnaturally flat and dry patch of land greeted him, the area having been flattened by the numerous dragons that gathered there regularly. Massive piles of carcasses had been strewn about in a haphazard yet oddly arranged pattern. Soon though, he saw the reason for this. Instead of the rainbow of colours there had been when the dragons had first rushed towards their meal there were now innumerable groups of dragons gathered in small congregations all around the area. The groups were split into individual sub-species. There were Chinese fireballs, Hebridean blacks, Ukranian Ironbellies, Common Green's and at least fifty other different dragon species. The two largest groups though were by far the Hungarian Horntails and Common Welsh Green's, their combined total constituting nearly half of all the dragons present.
Knowing that he was silver skinned, Silvern tried to find a group of silver dragons like himself but was soon forced to acknowledge that there were none. Nearby, he noticed a delicious looking goat carcass lying forgotten near a group of particularly boisterous Hungarian Horntails (not that Silvern could name different dragon breeds). Being as quiet as he possibly could, he slowly neared the forgotten meat. Reaching it without any trouble, he tried dragging it discreetly away from the gathering but was stopped when he noticed a large shadow looming over him.
Looking up, he saw the gigantic body of a Hungarian horntail looming over him. Landing with a crash, the Hungarian glared menacingly at Silvern. The dragon was nearly twelve times the size of the young pup before him, numerous scars covering his thick skin. For dragon standards he was still quite young, being the human equivalent of a nineteen year old but despite that he was massive, easily standing head and shoulders over any of the other winged reptilians in the reserve.
"I am Vlad, third generation leader of the horntails, and you, freak, have tried stealing from me. Lay the meat down and leave, if you want to live." Said the dragon in a language unintelligible to Silvern's ears.
Deciding that it would be disrespectful for him not to respond, the silver pup barked out a string of meaningless growls. A loud booming sound emanated from the large Hungarian Horntail. Apparently, the sound was the dragon equivalent of laughter.
"You haven't even been taught the 'tongue' yet?! How can you even call yourself a dragon?" He said in his deep, booming voice "Wait, why am I even speaking to you? It's not like you can even understand. Hey- what are you doing?!"
By the middle of Vlad's monologue Silvern had already gotten bored. The pup was still quite young in dragon terms- roughly four or five years old and kids his age quickly became bored by anything. Forgetting about the crazy horntail he continued dragging away the goat carcass in an effort to satisfy his growing hunger. Of course, the leader of the reds found this to be quite disrespectful, and with a simple swipe of his collossal wing the youngster was swept head-over-heels. He tumbled back a good distance, his side throbbing in pain.
"Since you had the audacity to steal from me, I will make a lesson of you to those who do not recognize the might of the great Vlad!" announcing loud enough to make his voice heard over the hundreds of dragons who were still loudly chomping on their meals while referring to himself in third-person, Vlad stomped towards the downed youngster, the earth booming with every step the large dragon took.
Silvern righted himself on all fours only to be forced onto the ground again by a vicious slash cross his side. Vlad had particularly long and sharp claws-even for a dragon- and so his attack had cut deep into Silvern's flesh, carving out a thick set of jagged lines running horizontally across his back. Hot blood ran from the wound, managing to drop onto the ground. The pain being unbearable for a youngster such as himself, Silvern was caught in a state of shock and was unable to stand up and attack or run away. All he could do was lie down quietly on the ground and hope that Vlad grew tired of beating up on a youngster.
Unfortunately, it appeared that Vlad was in a very good state of health and for two hours straight he was ferociously beaten by the aggressive Horntail who made sure to only give enough damage to the boy to make him whine out in pain, not kill him on impact.
"Hmm. That should be good enough. Though I suppose that the brat will die from blood loss soon enough. Though, I have to say that he survived pretty long for someone his age." Said Vlad to the few dragons still gathered around him.
It appeared as though they were his closest underlings, and as they walked off Silvern heard them grunting at their leader in an approving tone. Vlad's arrogant face was the last thing the young dragon saw before blacking out.
Something wet brushed across Silvern's face, and trying to remain in the warm embrace of sleep for as long as possible he rolled over to the side, only to immediately shoot awake when the throbbing pain from his earlier beating shot through him once more. Now that he had awoken he was aware of some new changes. His body was so hot that his metallic skin that usually shone with a silver brilliance was now a bright red, he was extremely dizzy and his head seemed to throb along with the bruise on his side. But the most important change would be the young dragoness facing him.
Unlike the other dragons who all seemed to be one uniform colour, she had a strange but beautiful mix of black and green scales. Her wingspan was much greater than his own, though she appeared to be roughly his own size, indicating that she was probably a few years older than him (since female dragons were smaller in size than males- in general, of course). Her eyes shone a dull red and the spikes on her thin tail were beginning to thicken, indicating that she was about to enter her so-called adolescent years, the time during which all dragons grew rapidly in size and eventually became fully-fledged adults.
Some might have wondered how you could differentiate between a male and female dragon, but it was actually quite simple once you actually saw them. Males had broader forelegs/ arms (depending on whether it be a bipedal dragon or not), wider chests, larger builds, longer snouts, rugged features as well as horns- which females don't have. Also, the males have sex organs attached to their bodies.
Of course, Silvern didn't yet have much interaction with other dragons so he wouldn't have been able to know that. He didn't even pay much attention to the female dragon, choosing instead to sat down quietly and allow his injuries to heal faster. The young dragoness, who'd kept quiet when he had awoken began conversing with him in a string of growls and other noises that held no meaning for him. With his head throbbing, he roared loudly as a warning for her to quiet down. The green-and-black dragon leapt back in fright, distancing herself from the angry Silver dragon.
For what seemed like hours the two youngsters stayed that way, with Silvern sitting on the hard, trampled ground surrounded by a puddle of his own blood, his eyed scrunched up so he could bear the intense pain, while the 'girl' watched him intensely from a safe distance away. With his enhanced senses he had noticed the annoying dragon watching him, and deciding to be a bit more hospitable he carefully walked towards her.
Her eyes filled with fright, she stepped backwards and not wanting her to run off Silvern let out a peaceful growl to show her that he meant no harm. Encouraged by his improved demeanour, she too walked towards Silvern. As they stood near each other she reached out her neck and licked at his face once more. Allowing her to finish whatever it is she was doing, he noticed that the older dragon was licking him clean of the dried blood that covered his scales. The feeling of her grooming him was actually quite pleasant. Anytime her tongue brushed over a sore muscle or cut a soothing feeling washed over it and miraculously it was healed.
When she was finished, his whole body felt refreshed. As though he hadn't even been beaten down by a completely insane red-skinned dragon. 'Why didn't she just heal me earlier?!' thought Silvern in annoyance. Of course, that was before he remembered that she had been licking him before he'd scared her. The young dragoness suddenly righted herself up, looking quite tired despite having only been licking him.
"So, who are you? Where's your family?" asked the dragoness in a language that sounded like gibberish to Silvern, who hadn't learned the language yet.
Apparently, his look of confusion had somehow given away the fact that he didn't know her language, and she seemed to nod in understanding. With surprising skill she used her tail to make a 'come hither' movement and walked off, only pausing to beckon him towards her once more.
'I can't do that with my tail…' thought Silvern enviously. Sure enough, most dragons didn't have the ability to do intricate movements with their tails and most could only swing it around wildly.
Since he didn't have anywhere to go, Silvern followed her closely. They began walking in the same direction that he had come from earlier and he had first thought that she was taking him to one of the numerous caves that littered the mountainside but she had walked past them without a glance. He was starting to wonder where it was exactly she was taking him. The valley was massive and surrounded on all sides by four large mountains, and it was on the side facing the valley that the dragon caves were built and as far as he knew all the dragons living in this reserve lived one of them- but apparently the dragon he was following didn't. They had long since walked beyond the valley, through a gap between two of the larger mountains.
The sun was already beginning to dip beneath the mountains, bathing the valley in a beautiful orange and red light. When they had finally gotten through the pass the silver dragon saw the most beautiful sight he had ever seen in his life. A vast body of water surrounded the mountain range, shimmering with a golden light. The land where he stood was flat and dry, but that ended abruptly leaving a forest of trees to stand before it. The forest ended at the water's edge with a wide trail cut through its centre.
For some reason, Silvern felt oddly happy and a smile graced his scaly features. Lost in the wondrous features before him, Silvern just stood there dumbstruck. An annoyed growl brought him back to the task at hand where he saw his female companion standing before a suspicious looking bush.
'What now?'
As if to answer his unspoken question, she parted the bush to reveal the mouth of a wide tunnel. Disappearing down it, she left Silvern where he had been standing. Not content to stand outside after the long trip to get here he followed her down the tunnel. At first it looked pretty normal for a tunnel. The walls and floor were slightly wet and muddy and smelt of mould. But soon that began to change. The muddy floor became one of a shiny molten yellow-ish metal. The walls appeared to be caked clay and jewels were embedded in them. Silvern was drawn to all the shiny things and wanted to stop and stare, but figured that he had gawked enough for one day.
They arrived at a massive spherical room, decorated in the same way that the passageway had been. Several passages were connected to the circular room and he vaguely heard noises coming down from the one nearest the left. The black and green dragoness didn't go down that one, choosing to go down the passage in the middle.
He hesitantly followed her, feeling a great source of energy coming from further down the passage. Unlike the other room and passage that had been bathed in light coming from a special sort of candle dragons utilised, there was no light and the darkness increased his unease (a hole was dug along the sides of the wall and was then filled with fats and other various oils and materials gathered from animal carcasses and from plants. This fat was then lit on fire whenever light was needed, the thick fat allowing the 'candle' to burn better than wood would and the mixture of plants let the flame burn longer).
The large source of energy he had sensed was now getting larger and larger, until he came face to face with a gargantuan dragon, easily twice the size Vlad had been. While most dragons had really good night-vision Silvern didn't and could just barely make out the creatures shape. His companion stepped towards this large creature (who she was obviously familiar with) and began talking to him rapidly in the language he couldn't understand.
The conversation was quite heated and carried on for several minutes. Suddenly they both stopped and the large dragon righted itself up on its hind legs, its head barely scraping the sixteen metre high roof. A mushroom shaped ball of fire blew out from his nostrils, allowing Silvern to see his face. It had a snub-snouted face with protuberant blue eyes. Golden spikes fringed its face and it was a sickly white colour.
So, youngster. Where do you hail from
-The Book Of Dragons-
By Edward Longbeard,
Dragonologist of the Vikings
This book is a comprehensive guide of all the dragons ever encountered by myself while working aboard the ship of the great Viking ruler, Eric the red. Dragons being a race of powerful winged reptilians who possess a great 'core' of magic. They have long been hunted by us Vikings and it is my wish that with this book we may become more efficient in our trade (despite everyone saying that they have no need for it).
COMMON SPECIES
The Prickly-Tailed Red
Common Name: Prickly Pear
Region(s) Found: Greenland, Some Parts Of Northern Europe
Length: 55cm-75cm
Height: 30cm-40cm
Weight: 35kg
Description: An extremely small dragon (relatively), they are deep red in colour and completely covered in short, prickly spikes. They are shaped like fat pears (hence the strange nickname) and have short and stubby legs. Some find them quite cute and keep them as pets- but be warned! Despite their cute appearance they actually have fearsome fire-breathing abilities. They have four legs.
Best Way Of Handling: Simply club them over the head while they are asleep (Prickly Pears are known for sleeping deeply). If that is impossible, dodge their flames (despite the intense power of their flames, they have a long 'reload' time) and cast any powerful spell (though anything more powerful than a weak reducto spell would be overdoing it).
A/N: You guys may have noticed the whole 'dragon encyclopaedia' thing I have going on, and I might also add that the story of the Vikings will also be part of this story's plot going forwards. I will still also be giving an overview of spells/abilities shown in each chapter. I would consider adding an omake, but that's something normally done in manga fanfics so I decided against it. Anyway, I'll try to
I'm extremely sorry for the late update, but my computer crashed and I was forced to type this on my school PC (not to mention do it over). Regardless, that is no excuse and I hope that you can take solace in the fact that the next chapter is already half-way done. Also, I apologize for my shitty writing ability. As soon as I improve enough I will either rewrite or edit this entire story, so for the meanwhile could you please inform me of any errors or the like so that I can rectify them immediately. Thanks for your support.
-THE GRIM OVERLORD-