Hogwarts Year One
Dragons and the Forest
A spell thrown at his back had made Harry nervous, and upset, so he wasn't paying much attention in class and was caught off guard when asked a question about flubberworms. When he didn't answer the question Hermione did and Harry lost a point for his house, most unusual for Harry to lose points. It was after class that Harry told Hermione and Neville about what had happened.
Hermione stopped the trio and wanted to look at where the spell had hit. She was surprised to find that Harry was wearing dragon hide armor and none of her detection spells were able to identify the spell that hit Harry. About that time Harry felt a spell and threw up his shield around all three of them. A red beam bounced off the shield, just missing Neville thanks to the shield.
Now Hermione was upset, her hair started blowing and Harry could feel the magic building in her - this wasn't good for someone. Neville noticed the increase in magic too and he wasn't used to this, it took a lot of magic for someone else to feel it and Hermione was putting off magic like he couldn't believe. Harry was trying to calm Hermione down, get her to control her magic and pull it back in.
"Mione, that is too much power. You need to bleed some of it off if you can't pull it back. But be careful your wand may not handle that much all at once", Harry was saying. Neville knew both of his friends were strong but this was scaring him.
Hermione pulled a small piece of wood from her robes and it became a full staff almost immediately. Then she seemed to focus on a large rock and it exploded, but the power she was generating dissipated quickly. Neville noticed that Harry seemed to be more relaxed now, but he was still looking around for more spells coming their way. Harry turned to Neville and said, "Neville, that was a Reducto at full power. Now you see what our Hermione can do if someone pisses her off really bad".
"And you don't want to be on the receiving end if that had been Harry; he is nearly four times as strong as me", Hermione added as she once again closed Neville's mouth and put her staff away.
There were several students standing there in shock at what they had just seen, Hermione Granger had just made a rock explode and no wand was seen, just the "walking stick" she sometimes had. Harry mentioned that this was almost the exact same place he had been attacked before class. Susan Bones was on her way to class, Creatures, and had seen what happened. "Nice staff Hermione, wish I had the power to use one", was Susan's comment as she walked up to Hermione.
"I saw the spell that was aimed at you three, it came from the forest. Very nice shield work whoever cast it.", Susan whispered to Harry and company.
Harry and Hermione both looked at Susan and nodded as one of the professors walked up and asked what happened. Susan jumped right in there and said that someone had sent a spell at Harry, Hermione, and Neville but the shield deflected it and the rock took the spell instead. Susan went on to say that the spell came from the forest. The professor examined the rock, and all the wands of the three. The rock had been hit with a Reducto and none of the wands had fired that curse, in fact she couldn't find where the shield had been cast either.
Later that night as the threesome were talking in the common room Harry said that while his armor might have protected him the impact would have hurt. Now he wanted Neville and Hermione to wear the same armor, but they didn't have any and no way to get some quickly - never mind the cost of such armor. Harry said he had a solution and would talk about it the next time the three met at night. Until that time they should stick together for protection.
Their conversation was interrupted by Percy Weasley, who told them McGonagall wanted all three of them in her office right now and he was to escort them there. Ron tried to follow them but Percy sent him back saying it wasn't any of his business. Once at McGonagall's office Percy was thanked and dismissed.
"Now, what happened this afternoon? I've been informed that someone tried to attack you three and that attack resulted in a rock being destroyed by a deflected spell, which I don't believe since that rock was behind you", McGonagall started.
The three just looked at their feet, Harry was talking to Hogwarts and asking that the door be re-enforced to prevent entry or over-hearing. Harry explained what had happened to him on the way to class and afterwards, the spells aimed at him. He then added that he had felt the second spell and put up a shield without thinking. He thought that the stress had overloaded Hermione and she had to bleed off some of the power quickly. McGonagall agreed that stress could cause a power build-up and that power could be hazardous to a person.
Hermione admitted to using the Reducto to bleed power, but McGonagall asked why it didn't show up in her wand. Hermione pulled her staff out and said because she use it instead of her wand since a staff could handle more power than a wand. McGonagall looked at the two boys, then Harry produced his staff and Neville just shook his head "no". McGonagall asked where they had gotten their staves, but Harry said they weren't allowed to say anything about that subject.
The kids were escorted back to their dorm by McGonagall and told to be careful. After everyone had gone to bed, Harry called Reggie and asked if he could arrange for armor for Hermione and Neville similar to his. Reggie said he would get it taken care of but it would take a few days as dragon hide was hard to sew - even for an elf. Then Reggie had a question; why was Draco Malfoy polishing suits of armor every night? Harry told him about what happened on the train and Reggie said Draco deserved more punishment than that.
The next day Harry received a note from Hagrid asking the three to come by his hut that evening for tea. When the three got to Hagrid's hut they found it was much hotter inside than usual. Hagrid was sweating up a storm but kept checking a large pot over the fire. They tried to enjoy their tea but it was too hot in there. Finally Hagrid picked something out of the pot and brought it to the table, it was an egg - a dragon egg! Harry had been studying about dragons and thought he recognized the species as Norwegian Ridgeback, a very rare breed.
"Hagrid where did you get that? It must have cost a fortune. Didn't you know it is illegal to try and raise a dragon?", was Hermione's comment.
"I won 'er in a game last night at the pub", Hagrid replied.
About that time the egg started cracking, everyone watched in amazement as the egg hatched and out came a small dragon, wet and weak, with black scales and a small ridge on its back. Hagrid started to pick it up but Harry stopped him saying its bite was poisonous even at this young age. Hagrid got a pair of gloves on and picked the little dragon up.
"I've read all about dragons in the school library and that is a Norwegian Ridgeback if I ever saw one in a picture. These books told all about raising dragons, they have to have special food and all", Hagrid said as he got some type of fluid and offered it to the hatchling dragon. Once finished with the "meal" the dragon belched and set Hagrid's beard on fire. Harry reacted and sent the fire towards the fireplace before it could harm Hagrid, or anyone else.
"Hagrid you can't keep her, and it is a female, you live in a wooden house and it breathes fire - those two don't mix well. I've also been studying dragons and know of a place where this one would fit in, I think. But if not then we can find somewhere for her. If you get caught with the dragon you could end up in prison and she could be killed. You must trust me on this and let me help both of you", Harry said pleadingly.
Hagrid just nodded and Harry called Reggie. As soon as Reggie appeared he saw the hatchling and commented it was dangerous. Harry told him he needed one of the elves from the dragon preserve right now. Reggie popped out and just seconds later returned with an elf Harry recognized. The second elf took one look at the hatchling and told Harry that they had a female that had lost her eggs and was upset, maybe this one would calm her down. Hagrid wasn't sure he wanted to let the dragon leave but finally handed it to the elf who popped away quickly. Harry promised he would keep Hagrid up to date on the hatchling.
Harry, Hermione, and Neville had lost track of time and as such were out after curfew. They were caught just as they got close to the front door by Filch and taken to McGonagall. McGonagall wasn't happy with them and said they would have a two night detention, and since Draco was the one to report them and he was out past curfew he would serve it also. The four students were sent to bed and told they would be notified when to serve their detention and with who.
Harry, Hermione, and Neville had no more gotten into the Gryffindor chambers when Reggie popped in to say that the young dragon was accepted by the female and both seemed happy together. Now Harry had more explaining to do, like how he had access to dragons and elves who knew about dragons. Needless to say the three didn't get much training in that night.
The next day Ron made his way to Dumbledore's office to report what he had seen the night before. he had seen the three go behind a tapestry in the common room and they were back when he awoke that morning. Ron also reported about the detention they had received and why. Later that day while everyone was at the Quidditch game Dumbledore entered the Gryffindor dorm and looked behind every tapestry but found no door. He next checked with the painting that served as the doorway to the dorm and was informed that nobody left the dorm after midnight. The last one to enter or leave was that Percy Weasley on prefect rounds. That was strange as a scan of Ron's mind had shown that he was telling the truth. Dumbledore had checked all of his instruments and nothing unusual had occurred the previous night except the wards had shown another change.
It was two weeks later when the threesome and Draco had to serve their detention. They were met by Filch who took them to Hagrid. Hagrid informed them they were to accompany him into the forest as several unicorns had been found dead and he was to investigate the cause. Draco protested that it wasn't safe for students to go into the forest, besides it was forbidden by Dumbledore. Hagrid said he permission to take them in the forest and it was safe as long as they were with him. This was undermined by the fact Hagrid was carrying a large crossbow and appeared nervous.
Once inside the forest Hagrid pointed out a pool of unicorn blood and said it showed that there was an injured unicorn nearby and they needed to find it, so they would split up into two groups and search. Harry was paired with Draco, who said he wanted Fang to go with him too even when Hagrid said Fang was a coward. Harry and Draco were told to give a shout if they found the unicorn or got into trouble, but to stay on the trails.
The two boys had been separated for about ten minutes when they came up on a unicorn lying on the ground with something bent over it, and that something appeared to be feeding on the unicorn's blood. The shape noticed them and started towards them. Draco panicked and fell down but got up quickly and ran screaming. Harry tripped and fell but he kept his eyes on the shape coming towards him. Harry stood, brought his staff out, and faced the oncoming shape. When it got closer Harry surrounded it with a very strong shield bubble and held it in place, captured. Harry could feel nothing but pure evil coming from the, whatever it was.
Harry sent red sparks into the air to mark his location so Hagrid could find him quickly. All was well until something knocked Harry down and broke his concentration and releasing his prisoner. It turned out to be a centaur that had knocked him down. A few seconds later Hagrid was heard coming through the forest quickly. Hagrid greeted the centaur and called him Firenze. After Hagrid heard what had happened he said it was probably a waste of time to continue looking as whatever it was doing the killing was long gone by now.
Hagrid, Harry, and Firenze headed back to the others where they found Draco bound and a zipper on his mouth. Hagrid looked at Hermione and all she said was "He wouldn't shut-up and kept trying hex the centaurs". Harry later found out all Hermione did was the zipper, Neville had bound Draco after he had almost hit Neville with a spell. Hagrid asked Harry if it would be too much trouble to just levitate Malfoy back to the school, Harry said no and so Draco floated back to school bound and gagged all the way to his dorm. At the Slytherin dorm the door just opened when Harry approached, accompanied by McGonagall, to return Draco.
Things settled down pretty much, Hermione and Neville now wore their armor like Harry did - under their clothes. It turned out the dragon hide armor even deflected minor hexes like the tripping charm. The two Weasley twins had learned several new tricks from Harry, and Hermione, and now were trying to think of stuff on their own. Dumbledore was still confused, he had managed to put tracking charms on Harry and Neville but they never seemed to stay (that was because the threesome were always checking for them and removing them) and if they did report anything it turned out to be someone else.
Harry finally got tired of Ron following him everywhere and confronted him about it. Ron admitted he had been asked by Dumbledore to keep tabs on Harry and Neville, someone else was tracking Hermione (at least that was Ron's thoughts). Harry finally made Ron a deal, if Ron would put forth the effort to study then Harry would help him understand some of the things that Ron had no clue about. Ron asked why not just give him the answers, that would be even easier.
Susan Bones became more of a friend to Harry, Hermione, and Neville; the four of them could be seen together in the library and during free periods. Susan's performance improved in class and McGonagall and Flitwick didn't fail to notice that anyone who befriended the threesome showed improved grades, except for Ron Weasley and any Slytherin. It appeared that Draco had not learned his lesson about following the rules, he had more detentions from Flitwick and McGonagall than anyone else - Quirrell even gave Draco a few detentions.
Severus Snape was at a loss as to what to do with Draco. He was also lost as to how to take a much improved Neville Longbottom in potions. Potter and Granger always produced near perfect potions and now Longbottom was doing it also. What Snape didn't know was Harry had finally gotten his potions lab setup and the three were working almost nightly on their classes, whether it be potion, charms, transfigurations, or DADA. One of the things that Neville wasn't included in was that Harry and Hermione had started back to practicing their elemental magic.
Elemental magic was more than calling an elemental, it included working with the elements of fire, water, air, and earth. Harry had almost complete control of fire; but was still trying to control air, like changing the temperature or altering the content as far as the amount of oxygen in the air inside a confined space. One of Harry's experiments resulted in his dorm room being filled with Helium which caused all five boys to talk real funny. Hermione was close to having control of air like Harry did fire, in fact it was Hermione who corrected the Helium problem. Harry was better with earth than Hermione and they were about equal when working with water.
Neville had asked Prof. Sprout if he could work in the greenhouses when he had spare time and his request was quickly granted since he was the top student in school in that subject, including the upper classmen. Neville had even been assigned a small portion of one of the greenhouses as his own, and when Prof. Sprout walked in one time she was amazed at the plants he had cohabitating the section. Plants that required similar environments were grouped and they were larger than she had ever seen. Some of the plants were needed for potions and those were growing better than she could grow them.
Neville had even been able to crossbreed plants that were considered incompatible and produce new hybrids that he asked her to publish in the journals. If there was a plant that was having problems all Spout had to do was give it to Neville and it flourished or improved. The only complaint was from Snape, some of the potion ingredients were too strong, after Neville finished with them, for his classes to use.
During one of their study nights Neville asked a question that neither Harry nor Hermione could answer, "I understand the basic four elemental - Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. But where does lightening come in? It isn't an elemental but the result of a difference in the charge in the air. I wonder what someone could do if they controlled that type of energy". The three decided to ask their favorite instructors, McGonagall and Flitwick. Harry even sent off a letter to Alana at Peaks with the question. All three had the same answer - "I don't know".
A/N: Okay folks it is getting close to time to deal with Quirrell/Voldemort and I haven't had enough feedback to decide what to do about it. Also, the Earth elemental still needs a name and Rocky seems the most likely so far. If some of you brainier people have an answer for Neville's question I would love to hear it and maybe work it into the story at a future point - the kids would have to study first. On a different note I'm still looking for a Beta for this story, any offers? I only foresee one or two chapters (maybe three at most) until the end of first year and start of summer vacation.
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