Charlie proved very proficient when it came to Reductor Curses, as he used one every time they came across a doorway that the dragon was too big to fit through. Luckily, they were far enough underground that the structural integrity of the compound wasn't compromised.
When they finally reached the surface, the first thing the dragon did was take a deep breath and let out an ear-splitting roar. The three wizards immediately clapped their hands over their ears and crouched low.
When it was finished, the dragon promptly snapped its jaw shut and stared at them expectantly.
"It's got a very high-pitched voice for a dragon," Ron remarked. "I guess it's because it's so small."
The dragon hissed and narrowed its eyes at the redhead.
"He doesn't like it when you call him an 'it'," Charlie said, walking over to where they had stashed their brooms in a large bush. "And even though he's small - don't growl at me, you know you're a small dragon - even though he's small, he can still eat you."
The dragon shot Ron a look that Harry could only describe as smug. Charlie came back and handed the Aurors their brooms, and the three of them mounted and kicked off.
"Oi," Charlie called down to the dragon. "Just follow us back to the reserve."
"Charlie, it's a dragon," Ron said exasperatedly. "It can't understand you. Honestly, I'm surprised that it hasn't tried to eat any of us yet."
"Like I said, he's special," Charlie said. His brow furrowed when he looked down at the dragon, who was still sitting on the ground, staring up at the three wizards. The redhead flew lower. "What's wrong? We don't have all day, you know, so anytime you'd like to join us…"
The dragon crouched down and bared its back, and then it spread its wings. The right one snapped out fully - pale leathery skin stretched tight over thick bone and attached to powerful shoulders - but the left one was obviously broken. The tip of a bone poked through the tough hide and dried blood was caked all around it, and it couldn't even open fully.
Charlie winced and sucked in a sharp breath.
"That looks bad," he said sympathetically. The dragon folded up its wings again, wincing as it did so, and glared at Charlie, as if to say, No shit.
"Well, can you just… run behind us?" Charlie asked. The dragon glared for a moment longer, but eventually it nodded once. Harry and Ron gaped at it. I knew that dragon was smarter than all the others, Harry thought, but it's almost as if it's… human.
"Let's get going," Charlie called, breaking Harry out of his thoughts. He turned his broom and started zooming in the direction of the reserve compound, Harry and Ron following close behind. A quick look down revealed that the dragon was actually following them. It would stop every few moments and sniff around a tree or bush, but then it would run to catch up and trot behind them, a content look on its face.
It took them a few hours to get back to HQ, and by the time they landed outside the shed the dragon was dragging its feet and its head was down as it trudged up to them, sides heaving. Harry made a sympathetic face.
"It-" he started.
"He," Charlie absentmindedly corrected.
"He," Harry said, "looks terrible."
"Well, what did you expect?" asked Ron, of all people. "I mean, we just rescued it - him, sorry - from a dungeon where he was obviously tortured, or at least forced to fight other dragons and then not tended to. Would you be up for a million mile run after going through that for God knows how long?"
"Wow, Ron," Charlie said, tossing the brooms into the shed and slamming the door. "That was surprisingly insightful and empathetic."
Ron blushed. "Yes, well-"
The dragon made a low rumbling sound and looked sternly at Charlie. The redhead smiled grimly.
"Yeah, I didn't forget," he said. "Let's get you to the infirmary." As he and the dragon started trudging through the snow, he called back, "Feel free to use my office to call your boss. Vlad is always locked in his office at this time, and I don't want to bother him."
He and the dragon disappeared around the corner of the lobby and Harry and Ron went inside it, walking up to the receptionist's desk.
"Hi, Eve," Harry said, and Eve blushed.
"Hello, Auror Potter," she said, smiling shyly. "What can I help you with?"
"We're looking for Charlie Weasley's office," Ron told her.
"Oh, his office is actually one of the guest rooms," she said. "Go to the hall with the bedrooms in it, and the one you're looking for is all the way at the end of the hall on the left."
"Thanks." Harry smiled at her and her blush deepened. Ron rolled his eyes.
"Come on," he said, grabbing Harry's sleeve and dragging him to the door that led to the dorms. They walked all the way down the hall and entered Charlie's office. It looked a lot like Vladimir's, they noticed. There was a desk sitting in the middle of the room, with bookshelves and a filing cabinet on either side. Behind the desk was a large fireplace, and a clear glass jar sat on the mantel.
The Aurors went to the fireplace, and Harry grabbed a handful of Floo powder. He used his wand to light a fire, then he tossed the powder into the flames and stuck his head in.
"Head Auror Hemlock's office!" he said (very, very clearly). In a moment, he was looking up at Hemlock's irritated face.
"Yes, what is it, Auror Potter?" he snapped.
"Um, we've had a breakthrough regarding the poachers," he said. "It's not actually a poaching operation, but a dragon fighting ring."
Hemlock's brow furrowed. "Dragon fighting?"
"Yes, sir. We've located their base of operations, and inside it were the missing dragons and a huge stone ring surrounded by bleachers. Charlie Weasley is positive that it's dragon fighting."
"This is more serious than we thought, then." Hemlock was silent for a moment, and Harry subtly shifted his weight so that he wasn't leaning completely on his knees. "Alright, Auror Potter. I'm sending a team out there as soon as I can scrounge up enough Aurors, but in the meantime I want you to investigate. Find out how many people are involved with the operation, and who they are. I want updates whenever you find anything, even if you don't think it's significant."
"Yes, sir," Harry said. He pulled his head out of the flames and sat back on his heels, shaking the ashes out of his hair. "Did you get all that?" he asked Ron. The redhead nodded.
"It might be a while until Hemlock is able to send in backup," he said. "Last I heard, most of the really good Aurors are undercover investigating a wizard accused of selling magic-infused drugs to Muggles."
Harry winced. "Sounds nasty." Standing up, he stretched his back and groaned. "Hey, let's go to the infirmary, see how that dragon is doing."
Ron gave him a funny look. "Why?"
Harry shrugged. "I don't know. We might find a clue or something." He blanched at Ron's skeptical look. "Alright, I just want to go see it. You saw it out in the forest, it's not a normal dragon."
Ron sighed. "Fine. But if it so much as puffs smoke in our direction I'm making you do all the paperwork for this case by yourself."
"Deal," Harry said, grinning. He crossed the small room and pulled open the door, and came face to face with a very frazzled looking Charlie.
"Oh, good," said the redhead. "I was just about to kick you out. I have things I need to do."
Ron scoffed, but didn't say anything as he passed by his brother. Harry smiled at Charlie before following his partner. Together they walked back to the main lobby and went straight for the row of fireplaces. They Flood to the infirmary.
The room they ended up in was huge. It looked a lot like the hospital wing from Hogwarts, actually. Rows of sterile white beds lined the walls, each one surrounded by sterile white curtains and next to a sterile white bedside table. All the beds were empty, but there was a small group of people in the center of the room, dressed in sterile white robes.
"It's very sterile," Harry remarked. "And white."
Ron snorted. A young Mediwitch noticed them and walked over, smiling pleasantly.
"Hello," she said. "May I help you?"
"Yeah, we're looking for a dragon that was brought here," Ron said. "It's smallish, white, has a really high voice."
The witch let out a small laugh, as if Ron had just told a particularly funny joke.
"The dragons are treated in the second building," she said. "If you'll follow me…"
The two Aurors walked behind the witch as she led them to the very back corner of the room. Nestled in the corner where two walls met was a plain wooden door. The witch turned the knob and stood to the side, holding the door open for them.
They thanked her as they passed through, and then the door closed and they were in another world. Unlike the hospital for humans, the dragon infirmary was not sterile and white. It was full of cells, much like the one Harry had discovered the strange dragon in, but unlike those, these cages were large and filled with straw and hay. Each cell had easy access to a large trough of water.
Like the room that held the dragons in the fighting ring, this room was very warm. There were only two dragons here currently, one of them being the white dragon that Harry, Ron, and Charlie had rescued. The Aurors made immediately for him, greeting the three cheerful dragonologists that they passed.
The dragon was asleep when they reached the cell, and Harry took a moment to study it. It's wing was tied to a splint, and rested against a pile of hay. Thick white bandages were wrapped around its middle, tail and two of its legs, a few red splotches visible among the white.
"Look, they left that metal band on his leg," Harry said, pointing to where the dragon's head rested on his front legs. Immediately the grey eyes opened, and Harry froze. But the dragon didn't do anything, just stared at them with slightly unfocused eyes, and Harry figured that they must have given him a painkilling potion.
"I thought Charlie said that thing was killing him," Ron said. "Why wouldn't they Healers remove it?"
"No clue," Harry said. "Maybe they don't know how."
Ron just made a noncommittal sound. After a few more moments of staring at the dragon, he cleared his throat.
"Right," he said. "As interesting as this is, I have other things to be doing. Coming?"
Harry shook his head. "In a bit." Ron shrugged and walked back to the door. Harry's attention returned to the dragon. "You must be in quite a bit of pain for them to have given you that much potion."
The dragon, who had been drunkenly biting at his own shadow, looked up. He made a small rumbling noise deep in his throat, and Harry laughed.
"I have to go, but I'll see if I can find anything on that bracelet of yours," he promised. He cautiously reached through the bars and, when the dragon didn't attack him, patted his muzzle. The dragon's eyes slipped shut halfway and he tilted his head, rumbling happily in what Harry decided was the dragon equivalent of purring.
Laughing, he left his hand there for a moment more before pulling it away and turning. He exited the dragon infirmary, then Flood back to lobby building. He found Ron sitting in an armchair by a fire, reading a newspaper, so he decided to head to the library and see what he could find on the runes etched onto the strange dragon's bracelet.
He first checked the R section, and pulled out all of the books he could find on translating runes. He flipped through the first one quickly, eyes scanning the pages for the symbols he had seen on the metal band.
The first three books offered no help, and by the time he closed the thick tome he was reading and reached for the fourth one, it was hours later and he was exhausted. Yet something wouldn't let him stop. He didn't know if it was the boredom or the fact that the longer the dragon went with that bracelet on, the more his health decayed, but Harry stretched in his chair, sighed, and started reading.
The fourth book was different from all the others. It wasn't a translating guide or a book detailing the meaning of all the runes. It held information on how different runes could affect different things.
The chapters were about the effects runes could have on wizards and witches, Conjured items, Muggles, and… Animagi.
Harry's eyes widened. Maybe the strange dragon was an Animagus. That would certainly explain how smart it was, and why it didn't try to attack any of the witches or wizards around the reserve.
Quickly, he flipped to the eighth chapter, Runes and the Effects They Have on Animagi. He skipped the introduction and went straight to the uses for runes on Animagi.
Runes affect Animagi differently than they do normal witches and wizards. While all non-Muggles are endowed with some degree of magic property, Animagi are beyond that. Their shifting abilities don't need conduits to be controlled, and as such, Animagi are considered by some to be above the average witch or wizard. When Animagi were first discovered hundreds of years ago, there was much fear from the Wizarding World over the extent of the shifting abilities and what Animagi would be able to do with their powers. It was because of this fear that the Ministry of Magic passed the Animagus Registration Act, the law that requires all Animagi to register themselves.
But not everyone was satisfied with this. An unknown group of witches and wizards with very advanced knowledge of ancient runes banded together and created a series of runes that, when in physics contact with an Animagus, will trap them in either their human or Animagus form, depending on what form they are in when exposed to the runes. For decades witches, wizards, and many animals were all found with runes either etched directly into them or onto a something such as clothing or jewelry that they were wearing. The Department of Mysteries was able to investigate and discovered the anti-Animagus cult, and forced them into disclosing the spell that would reverse the effects of the runes. The incantation, when performed correctly, will return an Animagus back to their human form or simply nullify the effects of the runes.
Below that was a spell and a diagram showing how to do the wand movements. Harry allowed himself a brief celebration in the form of a very loud whoop, and then he made a copy of the page and stuffed it into his pocket. He left the books on the table and left the library.
Ron was sitting on his bed when Harry entered their room, and he looked up with an annoyed look on his face.
"Where have you been?" he demanded. "I've been looking for you for hours."
Harry gave him a sheepish look. "Sorry. I've been in the library doing research." Ron looked at him skeptically. "No, really! I was looking up those runes we saw on the dragon's bracelet."
"You're starting to become obsessed with that dragon," Ron remarked.
"I am not!" Harry protested. "I was just bored and I needed something to do, so I figured I might as well see if I could help save the stupid thing's life."
"Right. Did you find anything, then?"
Harry pulled out the piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Ron. The redhead's eyebrows shot up when he finished reading it.
"I can't believe they actually found a way to repress the Animagus transformation. Why don't more people know about this?"
Harry shrugged. "I guess because it was so dangerous to Animagi. And then when people finally learned to not be afraid of them, the Ministry saw no reason to make this public."
Ron hummed. "Well, this spell looks complicated. You'd better get practicing." He laughed at Harry's sour look. "Hey, you wanted to help, remember?"
"Yeah, I know." Harry pulled out his wand. "Let's get to it, then."
… oO()Oo …
It took him about twenty minutes to properly learn the spell. When Ron finally deemed it adequate enough to not accidentally set anything on fire, the brunette headed back to the infirmary. There were two Healers standing outside the dragon's cage when Harry entered, and they looked up when he approached.
"Hello, Auror Potter," one of them said.
"Hi," Harry replied. "What are you doing, if I may ask?"
"Just a standard checkup," the other Healer said. "You know, making sure that the potions we gave him aren't causing any negative reactions, checking on the wounds, that sort of thing."
"Have you made any progress on that band on his leg?" They furrowed their brows.
"We haven't had the time to look up the runes," the witch said, "but we will eventually."
"Oh, no need," Harry said. "I already looked them up. I found a spell that should return him to his human state."
Both Healers gaped at him.
"You know he's…?"
"An Animagus, yeah. It wasn't that hard to figure out, actually. What I'm having trouble with, though, is why there's an unregistered Animagus - a dragon Animagus, no less - getting involved with an illegal dragon fighting operation."
The witch gave him a wide-eyed look. She waved her wand and muttered a quiet of spell, and then the thin piece of wood in her hands glowed green for a second. Harry narrowed his eyes, but didn't pay it much mind.
"Move aside, please," he ordered. The Healers didn't move, and Harry pointed his wand at them. "Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. Move. Now."
With one last reluctant glance at each other, they both stepped aside and Harry walked forward until he was right in front of the cage. The dragon looked much more alert, and seemed to have been listening in on their conversation.
He raised his crest and growled when Harry made to unlock the cell door.
"Oh, shut up, you," he snapped. "I know your secret, and you're not getting out of this."
He unlocked the door and it swung open. Raising his wand, he began the movements and said the incantation that would supposedly return the dragon to his human form. As soon as he finished, there was a loud click and the metal band around the dragon's leg fell onto the stone floor.
Immediately, shudders wracked the Animagus' frame. The door to the infirmary burst open with a loud bang.
"Harry, don't!" Charlie called, but it was too late. With one last shiver, the dragon began shrinking. In only a few seconds there was a very thin, dirty, and unconscious Draco Malfoy collapsing into Harry's arms.
After four chapters, I finally introduce the second half of the main pairing of this story.
What did you guys think?