Chapter 55 – Chilling with the Gang.

October 5th, 1997

At about two hundred yards from the north shore of Muck, Harry felt the 'tingle' of the containment shield. 'So that's how a moth feels when it hits a bug zapper,' mused Harry. He had definitely felt it but had to admit that no damage was done. As he approached, he decided to alter his course to prevent being mistaken as an overtly intruding dragon and tried to take a leisurely course along the shoreline while gaining altitude at a moderate pace. As he rose, he could see that most of the island was covered in a sparse woods with just a few clearings and one medium size lake. A large hill, possibly once a small mountain a very long time ago, stood near the end of an outcropping at the southernmost end of the island.

The island itself was fairly small; about two miles from east to west and not much more than a mile from north to south. Harry couldn't see how it would take Henry until noon to do anything. He pulled up a bit but still couldn't seem to find the other dragons. This confused him since the dragon handlers had mentioned that they had at least two groups. How do you hide groups of thirty foot long dragons on an island this small?

As he mused on this problem, Tom flew up and cruised by his head. "The closest group is on the north east end of the lake!" he shouted. "Head for them and we'll follow."

Harry turned to fly towards the small lake. It was only two or three hundred yards away. He saw no dragons. He could see some small birds or maybe large insects, maneuvering over the surface of the water but no real dragons. He remained confused and decided to land at the lake in order to get more information from one of the guardians of this strange place. After a few moments, he noticed something that made him forget completely about the dragons. He was flying fast over the island and his ground speed was evident when he looked down but the horizon was approaching much slower than would normally be expected. He should be able to overshoot the island in under a minute but he didn't seem to be making any headway, despite the fact that the ground beneath him was little more than a blur. He looked back at the north shore and saw that it was a mere fifty or so yards away. Harry suddenly realized that this island was enchanted to look very small so as to be of less interest to muggles but it was sufficiently large to support the needs of at least two groups of dragons. With this realization, he resumed his course towards the much larger than it appeared lake and picked up his speed to around a hundred miles per hour.

After about a half hour, he noticed that the birds at the north end of the lake were enlarging fairly quickly into the Hebridean Blacks that he was expecting. Harry slowed down before he overshot them and maintained what he hoped was a non-threatening posture as he closed in. While he was pondering the proper greeting for a dragon, one of the figures gliding over the lake gave a cry and began to fly towards him, followed closely by several others. They spread out and shifted to different positions within the group as they gathered into attack formation. Harry remembered from Hagrid's classes that dragons, while earning their aggressive reputation, seldom went looking for trouble against unknown foes. He knew, or at least hoped, that his superior size and lack of threatening characteristics would tend to have the other dragons more curious than combative.

This plan didn't seem to be gelling. The leader picked up speed and was matched by the rest. To an ordinary dragon, this might give cause for pause but Harry was no ordinary dragon. He was a dragon with six years quidditch experience. Playing chicken was part of the game. Harry was usually on the short end of the stick in the weight department but seldom broke off first. With a twenty ton weight advantage over these thirty foot runts, there was no way he'd let them push him around. Deciding to demand respect, Harry increased his speed and headed straight for the group. They didn't seem to have any inclination to change course, either, so Harry began to consider his next actions. He decided that just before impact, he would pull in his wings. Momentum would maintain his flight path and he didn't want to get too banged up. They were closing at a combined rate of over two hundred miles per hour. Harry considered that perhaps the best choice he could make at the moment was to let the other dragons win this round. A moment before he acted on this thought, and two moments before a collision, the other dragons veered off in all directions, allowing Harry to pass harmlessly through the empty space so recently occupied by them.

Sensing more excitement than anger from the other dragons, Harry decided to engage in a little male bonding. Flapping strenuously for thirty or forty seconds, he rose to an altitude of around five thousand feet. He did a barrel roll and noted that the other dragons were close behind him. He laughed a dragony laugh and dove towards the ground like a thirty ton rock. The others chased after, also emitting what he hoped were laughs. To the casual observer, of course, it sounded more like cries of fury before an epic battle. Harry had to squint to see at this speed but he was able to make out the surface of the lake enough to pull out of his dive with five feet to spare. Zooming across the lake, he kicked up a rooster tail from the suction of his passing. Looking back, he saw the other dragons were doing the same, but with less results due to their much smaller body size.

Harry dropped the tip of his tail in the water behind him, effectively drenching the lead dragons. He then pulled up into an inverted half loop and leisurely headed back towards the original gathering spot of the herd.

Now for the hard part. He wanted to be taken as a fun-loving, friendly stranger. By slowing down for his return flight, he was trying to indicate that he was both trusting enough to give them an opening for an attack and confident enough to be unconcerned if they tried. It was an added bonus that he would be in a better position to defend himself while in the air should things not work out as planned. With no hostile activities from the Blacks, so far, Harry went ahead and landed by the lake. The Blacks followed suit and in a matter of a few seconds, he was surrounded by eight, much smaller dragons.

Note: the subtitles are at the end of each sentence. If you want to experience things the same as Harry, ignore them.

"Guid morn," said a snow-headed dragon, to Harry's left. "Fa ur ye? (Good morning. / Who are you?)"

"Good morning," said Harry, catching the first part. "Um, fa what?"

"Whaur ur ye frae?" asked another, slightly smaller dragon that Harry guessed was a female. She had bright eyes and what could be construed, at least by another dragon, as a nice smile. (Where are you from?)

"That's whit eh'd loch tae ken, an aw, " said another male, heartily. "Ah dunnae kinn yer clan." He had a booming voice and seemed to be fairly friendly. (That's what I'd like to know, as well. / I don't know your clan.)"

I didn't bring a fray," said Harry, digging his hole a bit deeper. "I didn't catch the rest. Sorry." Harry thought that they sounded a lot like Hagrid and, to a lesser extent, McGonagall, but beyond the original 'Good morning' from the first dragon, he could make little sense of their words.

"He soonds loch he's frae London," said another female who had lighter skin than the others. "They hae 'at odd way ay talkin' doon thaur." (He sounds like he's from London. / They have that odd way of talking down there.)

Harry thought he picked up most of that and said, "I'm not from London, exactly, but I am English. Do any of you speak English?"

"He's 'spikin in Sassenach, alrecht. Ah suppose we'd better send fur Sionn," said a dark looking male, standing in the back of the group. (He's speaking in English, alright. I suppose we'd better send for Sionn.)

"Ah hink he said he wanted tae browse th' sooth meadaw fur sheep," suggested a tender voiced female with kind eyes. "I'll gang see if Ah can fin' heem." (I think he said he wanted to browse the south meadow for sheep. / I'll go see if I can find him.)

She took off towards the south. Harry had caught enough to guess that this Sionn that they were referring to must be able to speak, or at least understand, English. He hoped so, at least.

After the female left, there was an uncomfortable silence. Harry knew that it would be relatively fruitless to try to communicate without Sionn, who would hopefully be able to translate. The other Hebridean Blacks remained silent so as to not be rude to a guest who couldn't understand them. Of course the pause in the conversation allowed for other observations to be made. Before long, the white headed male made a discovery.

Sniffing, he looked around and said, "Thaur ur men nearby." The other dragons all started to look about, aggitated. (There are men nearby.)

"Ah reek them, tay," said a hitherto silent female with a fine-grained hide. "Some ur th' ones 'at hang aroond wi' us sometimes but thaur ur others 'at ur unknoon. There's also somethin' else wi' them 'at Ah dornt recognize." (I smell them, too. / Some are the ones that hang around with us sometimes but there are others that are unknown. There's also something else with them that I don't recognize.)

"Mebbe they're efter thes stranger," said the snow-headed male. "He micht just be haur fur protection." (Maybe they're after this stranger. / He might just be here for protection.)

"Ah doobt it," boomed one of the other males. "He looks loch he can tak' caur ay himself." (I doubt it. / He looks like he can take care of himself.)

"Weel, they seem tai be holdin' their distance," said the dark skinned male. "We'll bide fur Sionn an' 'en we'll fin' it everythin', Ah suppose." They all seemed to be in agreement and settled in to wait for the missing dragons. (Well, they seem to be holding their distance. / We'll wait for Sionn and then we'll find out everything, I suppose.)

Harry, of course, caught about half of this. He did gather that a dragon was on the way that should be able to communicate with him, so, not wishing to inadvertently put his claw in his mouth, he remained silent and just observed his surroundings. It would seem from the generally consistently charred nature of this part of the shore that it was a favorite haunt of the herd. He didn't see any bones or carcasses laying around, though, so he assumed that they ate somewhere else. He heard sheep mentioned so he guessed that Sionn was pursuing his lunch.

Within five minutes, Harry saw two dragons flying up from the south. Just as before, the distance didn't seem to be very great but they were also much smaller than he knew they must be. Leading the way was the female with the kind eyes. Following just behind her was a male who moved just a bit less fluidly than the other dragons. Perhaps he had been injured in the past or perhaps there was another reason. It wasn't Harry's highest priority to find out so he just waited with the rest of the herd.

The female landed first with the male touching down just to her left. Harry decided that, as the newcomer, it would be up to him to offer the first greeting. "Good morning," he said, trying to speak in as friendly a voice as possible. "My name is Harry Potter."

"Good morning, Harry Potter," said the dragon. "I am Sionn. Have you been introduced to everyone, yet?" He waited patiently for a response.

"No," replied Harry. "We seemed to have a language problem that I believe everyone hoped you would be able to help us with."

"That's understandable," said Sionn. "I am the only one old enough to remember the old lair. We all spoke English there. I had to learn Scottish when we came here. The others, of course, were born to it. Let me introduce you to everyone." He started with the female on his right. "This is Caoimhe," he said. "She is my mate."

They proceeded around the group. Harry learned that the male with the booming voice was Osgar. His mate was Sorcha, the female with the nice smile. Snow-headed Finnean was the mate of the light-skinned Ceana. Finally, Ciaran was identified as the mate of Eithne, who had the fine-grained hide.

"I'm pleased to meet all of you," said Harry to the group. He then decided on full disclosure to avoid having them feel misled when the truth came out. "I would like to let you know something about myself before we get to know each other a little better. I'm not really a dragon."

Sionn looked at Harry for a moment before saying, "You have a pretty good costume, then." He told the other dragons what Harry had said. The reactions varied from confusion to laughter. Harry felt that a demonstration would be necessary.

"Let me show you," he said. "I should probably check in with my friends, anyway. I'll be right back." With that, he flew the two hundred yards to where the other wizards sat waiting. Just before touching down, he changed back into a man.

The reaction of the dragons was immediate. With shrieks of rage, they all flew up and began to circle the group. The sounds and emotions behind them, although no longer intelligible to Harry, were unmistakable; they were infuriated.

"I didn't think they would take it this bad," said Harry in alarm. "They all seemed so nice."

"Nice?" exclaimed Charlie. "We've been planning how to best rescue you when they attacked. I'm surprised they haven't killed you already."

This confused Harry. He had been having quite a nice chat, as far as was possible with the language problems. He never felt threatened by the Blacks, at the very least. "Let me go back and talk to them some more," said Harry. "Just keep your distance and don't do anything rash."

"You're the one who's rash," said Tom. "I tell you, Harry; they were on the verge of ripping you apart."

It was as if they were observing two different events. Harry didn't know what to think but he didn't feel afraid of the dragons. "Just let me talk to them and everything will be fine." With that, he took a few running steps and leaped into the air, changing back into a dragon at the last moment.

The mood of the other dragons instantly changed from openly hostile to mild interest. Harry flew up to rejoin them.

"Eh'd ne'er hae believed it if Ah hadnae seen it wi' mah ain een," said Osgar. "Hoo did ye ever learn tae change intae a cheil?" (I'd never have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. / How did you ever learn to change into a man?)

"It main be some sort ay a trick," offered Ciaran before Harry could answer. "Wizards ur knoon fur their deception. He main be foolin' us intae seein' heem as a dragon, reit noo." (It must be some sort of a trick. / Wizards are known for their deception. He must be fooling us into seeing him as a dragon, right now.)

" 'at was nae trick when he flew by us," said Sorcha. "Ah coods feel th' pull ay his passin'." (That was no trick when he flew by us. / I could feel the pull of his passing.)

"Please, let me speak," pleaded Harry. He only caught about half of their words but he could sense they were reappraising their initial impressions of him. The others seemed no less disturbed than before but they seemed to calm down enough to allow him to explain himself. He flew back to the beach and landed, followed shortly by the others. When they had gathered around, Harry began.

"I'm a wizard who is also what we call an animagus," explained Harry. "It means that I am able to turn into an ani, I mean another type of creature besides a man." He had almost put his claw in it by calling them all animals. "I am involved in trying to overthrow an evil wizard called Lord Voldemort who, along with his followers, is trying to take over the magical world in Britain. My mentor, a great wizard named Albus Dumbledore, helped me to become a dragon. He thought, and I agree, that a dragon is by far the most powerful of all possible choices and this form should help me fight against Lord Voldemort and his minions."

Sionn explained all of this for his friends. He then automatically translated everything that Harry said into Scottish and everything anyone else said into English so we don't have to do that anymore.

"You say you are fighting another wizard?" asked Finnean. "Why would coming here help you with that? Do you expect us to help you?"

"Oh, no," said Harry. "The truth is that I'm new at being a dragon and my friends and I were wondering if I would be able to talk to other dragons. My school is only a hundred or so miles from here so we decided to drop in for a visit and see if we could have a chat."

"It took a bit, with Sionn's help, of course," said Sorcha, "but it seems that you have achieved that goal. Did you have further plans or will you leave us now that your little experiment is finished?" She graced him with another of her enchanting smiles but he sensed that she would be disappointed with him as a dragon if he just flew off.

"I ddin't make any other plans in particular," answered Harry, "but that was mostly because I didn't know what to expect. You all seem to be very nice, though, and I wouldn't mind visiting with you for a while, if you don't mind."

"If this is likely to be a long conversation," said Sionn, "I'd suggest we all return to the south meadow so we can snack a bit while we talk. I, for one, wouldn't say no to hearing your tale. We have little enough news, here, as you might expect."

"That would be fine with me," agreed Harry. "I'd better let my friends know what's going on. For some reason, they thought that you might be violent."

"It's them that are prone to violence," said Ceana. "I've tried to communicate with them once or twice and it was all 'Run for your lives!' or 'Aim for her eyes!' You'd have thought I was attacking them. They weren't very friendly at all." The other dragons agreed with this, emphatically.

"I don't understand it myself," said Harry. "The first time I changed back into a man, I also thought that you were about to attack. My friends even thought you were threatening me when I was a dragon." He though a moment and added, "I wish Hermione were here. She could figure this all out."

"Who is Hermione," asked Eithne. "Is she your mate?"

"Yes," said Harry. "We've been married for a couple of months, now."

"Why didn't you bring her with you?" asked Caoimhe.

"She was taking care of some other business with our prisoners," said Harry. "She can't turn into a dragon, anyway."

"We could still have talked a bit," offered Ceana. "With Sionn's help, of course."

"Actually," said Harry, "and I don't understand this part, but even though we can understand when a man talks to us and we are speaking in the same languages that humans use, all that I or any other human hears is roaring from dragons. I've never tried to talk to a man as a dragon myself, though, so I don't know if that holds true for me, as well."

"Why don't you try it now before you let them know where you will be going?" asked Osgar. "I think that we might have the solution to many questions when you return."

"I'll be right back," said Harry. He flew off and returned to his human friends, once again. This time, however, he just landed nearby. "Hello, Oliver. Hello, Charlie. Can you understa..." He broke off quickly as he observed them all backing away, shouting and drawing their wands. Returning to his normal form, he approached them on foot.

"What in the world are you doing?" he asked, indicating their wands, mostly still pointed towards him.

"That's what we'd like to be asking you," answered Lowell. "You came in nice enough but after you landed, you looked like you were going to go for the kill. We were just getting ready to defend ourselves." No one contradicted this account so Harry was forced, once again, into confusion.

"I was just checking to see if you could understand me when I was talking to you as a dragon," explained Harry. "Osgar thought that it might help explain things if I tried."

"Who's Osgar?" asked Tom.

"He's the big, friendly chap who has the good speaking voice," said Harry. At their continued silence, he added, "He's Sorcha's husband. She's the one with the sweet smile."

"Oh, that one," said Hunter, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah," said Harry, not noticing the sarcasm and believing that they had finally understood him. "Anyway, they've invited me to the south meadow for lunch and to chat a bit. It seemed rude to turn them down so I'll have to stay for a while, at least. If you lot have other things you need to be doing, feel free."

Oliver, oddly enough, had the least trouble with this situation. He knew Harry was a friendly sort and it seemed from his reports that the dragons liked him well enough. The others, however, had a different view of the possible consequences of a dragon inviting you to lunch.

"It just doesn't seem that it would be safe," said Charlie. "Dragons are unpredictable. Once in a while, one of ours will just come at us, roaring in rage, for no reason at all."

"Just like I did when I landed a minute ago?" asked Harry. He thought that he understood the problem.

"Yes," agreed Tom. "You looked fine for a bit and then you just went nutters."

"That's the same thing that Ceana said," said Harry. "She tried to be nice and say hello and was attacked. There must be some sort of a spell that makes dragons seem on the verge of tearing you apart when they talk." He thought about this some more and asked, "Jumper? Could you understand me when I spoke while still a dragon?"

"No, Harry Potter," replied Jumper. "Jumper is thinking that Dragon Harry Potter is being wanting to hurt the other wizards with Jumper and Sleepy. Jumper is being ready to stop Dragon Harry Potter when Dragon Harry Potter is being Harry Potter, again."

"I think that confirms it," said Harry. "There is definitely some sort of a spell at work here. The other dragons and I weren't doing anything threatening at all but it sure looked like it when seen by a non-dragon."

"Dragons have been attacking humans for hundreds of years," said Charlie. "How do you explain that?"

"If I had to guess," said Harry, "I'd probably say that the dragons just said something like 'Good morning' and the humans freaked out and attacked them. They would think that they were defending themselves, of course, but the dragons wouldn't know that. The dragons would then react to this and you would have your average battle. From what I can tell, if you don't try to kill them, dragons are basically nice, friendly creatures."

Naturally, the professional dragon handlers, whose numerous burns and scars told a very different tale than the one offered by Harry, had a little trouble accepting this reality. Oliver, oddly enough, had some more legitimate problems with Harry's plans.

"I should remind you, Harry," said Oliver, "that you have a few other appointments to keep, today. The Minister and his granddaughter, for one. I believe that you are also expected to help determine the next few steps when the other blokes like me are sorted out."

"And we also have to make an appearance at the Burrow," reminded Charlie. "We promised Mom to not be too late."

"I'm surprised you're so nonchalant about whether or not we stick around here," said Harry. "Now that you know these dragons are just folks, you'd think you'd like to get to know them a bit better."

"I might have to get a bit more proof of their intentions before I try to rub their tummies," said Charlie. "Besides, I'm taking a few weeks vacation so that I'll be around for Hagrid's blessed event."

"What do you mean?" asked Harry and Oliver, together.

"Didn't he tell you?" asked Charlie. "I suppose he didn't have the opportunity. Anyway, he showed me the egg you gave him and I told him that I think it'll hatch in a week or so. It seems to be about ready. As you can imagine, we normally don't get a front row seat since Mama usually is a bit overprotective."

"Hagrid has a dragon egg that's about to hatch?" asked Tom. All three of the resident dragon handlers were surprised by this.

"Sure," said Charlie. "Dragon Boy, here, gave it to him for his birthday."

"I didn't think that was legal in Britain," stated Lowell.

"I was able to secure him a license," explained Harry. "It's a little dragon, anyway."

"Just a ten footer," agreed Charlie. "Australian Reef Skimmer. If Hagrid can summon the discipline to follow some simple instructions, he'll have the only tame dragon in the British Isles. If he acts like he normally does, he'll have a bloody terror on his hands."

"I'd probably put my money on the 'bloody terror' side of that," said Oliver. The others grunted their agreement.

"I suppose I'd better let the gang know that I won't be staying for lunch, today," said Harry. "I would like to spend a bit of time with them before we leave, though. Maybe an hour or so, just to build up a relationship of some sort. With your permission, I'd also like to visit with them from time to time." He made this last request to Tom.

"Of course," replied Tom. "We might put off testing this new theory of yours until you get back."

"What theory?" asked Harry.

"The one where dragons aren't violent, just misunderstood," answered Tom. They all laughed at this.

"I tell you," said Harry, "they're all quite nice." He had to smile while he said it but really; the dragons weren't half bad. Turning to Oliver and Charlie, he said, "Anyway, if you'd like, Jumper and Sleepy could take you to the Burrow and Hogwarts. I'll apparate to, let's see..." Harry had to think of his next destination. "I suppose that Hogwarts would be next so that I could check in with Hermione. She'd probably want to come with me to the Burrow, anyway."

"That sounds like a plan," said Charlie. Wood agreed and with short farewells to the resident dragon handlers, they popped off with the elves.

Harry also bid his leave and in a few moments, Tom, Lowell and Hunter watched as their charges, plus one, headed off over the hills towards the south.

Shortly after eleven o'clock, Hermione stood before the now less crowded group of prisoners in the Astrology classroom. The true believers, those that had freely joined Voldemort with no regrets were back in their cells. The two groups left were mainly composed of normal, everyday people who had the misfortune of being enchanted by Voldemort in order to fill his dwindling ranks. Now cured of that spell, they sat waiting to hear what would become of them. Their number was forty-three and they chatted among themselves, discussing what Hermione had said about the underlining reason behind any of their questionable recent activities. They had begun forming several impromptu group therapy clusters as they tried to come to grips with some of the things that they had done as Death Eaters.

The rest of the group sat to one side. They were the ones who had joined, or at least inquired into joining, the Death Eaters but had been pulled further into the darkness than they would have been comfortable with had the spell not been used. Jordy was in this group. There were only six others in this category so their fate would have to be determined as circumstances and opportunities arose. Hammer sat nearby, perhaps out of a general distrust of anyone who even considered voluntarily joining the Death Eaters.

"If I could have your attention for a moment," said Hermione. "I had hoped that Harry would have returned by now so that we could discuss your options but he is still away. From what I have heard, you could use more time, anyway, to reconcile yourselves to your recent behavior so it might be just as well. For the immediate future, it would be very unwise to return to your homes." There was a general murmur of disapproval to this statement. "The reasons that we need to take this step are to protect you from recapture and to protect ourselves from having our headquarters discovered if you were recaptured. We have set up several dormitories that are capable of housing up to ten people each. That would have been two per room but for the time being we don't need that much space so you will each have your own room in groups of five. These units will have a door so you will be able to walk around a bit. We also have an exercise area that will be open to you."

"It's still almost an hour until lunch," she continued, "so I would recommend that you mingle a bit and try to decide on your groups. After lunch, we will try to get everyone moved in and we can discuss your further options this afternoon; assuming, of course, that Harry has returned. This group," she said, indicating the somewhat repentant Death Eaters, "will not have to choose their flat-mates. They will also be in a dormitory but will not have a door at this time."

A middle-aged witch approached her almost immediately. "Miss," she said, "I need to go home and see after my mother. She lives with me and isn't really able to take care of herself."

"How long have you been away?" asked Hermione.

"Almost two weeks," said the witch, nervously. "She can't cook for herself or anything and I'm afraid it might already be too late. I have to go find out if she is well."

Hermione thought for a moment before saying, "I think that we can have an elf or two escort you to your home. I must insist that you return, at least for the time being. As you can see, there are more people involved that just you and you already know enough for our location to be discovered if Voldemort recaptured you."

"I understand, but I can't just leave her in our house, all alone," protested the portly woman. "She needs to have someone around."

"We have some flats here for families," replied Hermione. "It might be best to just bring her here and we can set you up in one of them." She had to look around for a moment to see which elf might be available. Deciding on one, she called, "Tripper. Could you come here for a moment?"

Tripper was only twelve feet away so he didn't bother apparating. "Yes, Mistress Hermione. What can Tripper be doing for Mistress Hermione?"

Hermione didn't immediately reply to Tripper. Instead, she asked the witch, "What is your name, please?"

"I'm Pat Rich," she replied.

"Tripper," said Hermione, "please take Miss Rich to her house. She and her mother will need to be relocated to one of our flats. Arrange for any clothes and other necessities to be moved as well." She then noticed something and decided to make an announcement to the room at large.

"If I could have your attention for just another minute," she shouted. The room quieted down to a murmur. "Thank you. I should point out that, now that you have all been cleared, we will begin to replace your left arms. We won't be able to put the original arms back since they have the dark mark but the replacement will look the same. It might take a day or so since I don't know if Harry can do that many all at once."

"Harry?" asked a nearby wizard. "Harry Potter? I heard that it was Madam Pomfrey that did that."

"Me, too," agreed several others. The murmurs increased.

Hermione said, "We used the story that it was Madam Pomfrey in order to limit the amount of time Harry would have to spend replacing limbs. She can't do it. Harry can, though, and he will take care of all of you as fast as he can. Please do not spread this around since it is supposed to be a secret."

Hermione noticed as Minerva and Rufus entered the room so she walked towards the front desk to join them and to chat a moment with Luna and Dougal. She noticed immediately that Minerva had her arm through the Minister's.

"Did you two find the time to finish your inspection of our flats?" she asked, suggestively.

"Yes," said Minerva, "and they were very nice, indeed. We've already flooed the head of the protective custody program and she is going to try to have everyone ready to move in sometime tomorrow."

"That's fine," said Hermione. Turning to Rufus, she said, "I've just sent one of our cleared prisoners home to get her aged mother. I don't know how many others will need to be accommodated so if you could let me know how many of the flats you will need as soon as possible, we can start to make plans for the future."

"I can tell you that, right now," aid Rufus. "I just spoke to Miss Geneva and asked her that very question. I misspoke earlier when I guessed that there were six or seven families. The truth is we have eleven currently in our care."

"And mine makes twelve," commented Hermione. "Only two spares. Wood could move into a dorm if necessary, I suppose. Still, we probably should look into expanding our facilities."

"Depending on the number of people in each family," said Minerva, "it might be possible to double up compatible families. Some of those flats were pretty large."

"I agree," said Rufus. "That four bedroom monster could take quite a few."

"Harry could add some space to some of the smaller ones, as well," offered Hermione. "We did that to most of our cells."

"How did you do that?" asked Rufus.

"We found an abandoned coal mine earlier this summer and Harry uses the space to make up for the space he adds," explained Hermione.

"I know how it's done," said an exasperated Scrimgeour. "I wanted to know how Harry does it. I used to have a tent maker in my area when I was working the streets. They used a team of four wizards over two or three days to make one magical tent. That's why they cost so much."

"Well," began Hermione, "I've never tried it myself but Harry just transfigures the cells to the real size he wants and then he waves his wand a bit while he walks around on the inside until it's the distorted size we need. He doesn't seem to have any trouble with it." She looked a bit confused by Scrimgeour's incredulity.

"Try it yourself sometime and you'll understand," said Rufus, laughing. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, all things concidered."

"That's true," agreed Hermione. "I'm starting to take his abilities for granted so it just seems normal to me, now. All I know is that Grampa told him how to do it and he didn't have any trouble at all. It was just like the limbs."

"I guessed on the limbs," said Scrimgeour. "If he wasn't dead, I'd believe that I knew who 'Grampa' was, too."

"You probably do," agreed Hermione. "We have a portrait of him that helps out with information or advice from time to time."

"I see," said Rufus. "I was just chatting a bit with his portrait in Minerva's office, myself. It's odd, isn't it? We seem to get along a lot better now that one of us is dead."

"Not as odd as how well you, Harry and Minerva are getting along," commented Hermione. "Especially the two of you," she added with a smirk.

Minerva seemed to beome suddenly aware of how obvious she was by hanging onto the Minister's arm and tried to modify her position. Rufus, however, wasn't bothered at all and adjusted his arm to take her hand as well as arm.

Hermione decided to let the Headmistress off the hook and turned her attention to Luna and Dougal.

"Were you confident on all of your reads, Luna?" asked Hermione.

"With the exception of the seven people you already know about," said Luna, indicating Jordy's group, "I'd have to say I'm as confident as could be expected. I don't really feel comfortable doing this, you know." She looked it, too.

"I know that," said Hermione. "I do appreciate that you are still willing to help us. If it makes you feel better, all of these people," she held up her hands to indicate everyone around them, "will have much better conditions while they are here. You really are making their lives a lot better."

"I'm glad about that," agreed Luna. "Will you be needing me any more, today?"

"I don't believe so," answered Hermione. "Perhaps Harry might have some questions for you. He isn't here right now, so I suppose not."

Luna and Dougal left the room. Rufus then quietly asked Hermione, "Wasn't Harry supposed to be back by now? He left over two hours ago."

"I was under the same impression," answered Hermione. "Perhaps it was farther to Muck than we thought or he was delayed in other ways. If he isn't back by lunchtime, I'll send an elf to check on him."

"I hope he get's back soon," said Rufus. "Greta is looking forward to another ride." He looked at McGonagall with an expression that Hermione thought seemed to indicate that he was looking forward to a romantic ride through the hills of Scotland with Minerva, as well.

"Let me guess," said Ciaran, "you've never eaten a sheep before, have you?" He had a half amused, half disgusted look on his face as he watched Harry dealing with his first, disasterous attempt to each a whole sheep.

Harry spat out a few more clumps of wool and hide before managing to retort, "What was your first clue?" He then reached up with a foreclaw and attempted to pick his teeth. After visiting for about an hour, the other dragons became a bit peckish and started to have lunch. Not wishing to eat in front of a guest, they encouraged him to join them. Pulling the wings off a fly would have seemed downright compassionate compared to what he had done to that poor sheep. Perhaps if he had had the other dragon's years of practice, he wouldn't have made such a mess of it.

Sorcha had pity on him and said, "Just exhale with a wide-area flame and you'll clear up the mess in your mouth." Harry complied and, after indicating his thanks, she continued. "The trick is to pick up your sheep gently without biting into it. Then you take a deep breath and blow at a high heat for about ten seconds. This will burn off the wool and most of the hide. It'll still be fairly juicy with just a bit of crunch from the bones. Scrumptious."

"Thanks, Sorcha," said Harry. "I feel sort of guilty about that sheep."

"Don't worry," she replied, "we have plenty. Now, just pick out a fat one and do like I said."

Harry would have just as soon not inflicted himself on another sheep but he didn't want to offend this group so he looked down on the flock. Maybe he could find one that was picking on the others. Looking around, he didn't see any signs of a troublemaker. There were no black sheep in this flock. They were all as peaceful as, well, sheep. Sighing to himself, Harry did as he was told and picked out a fat one. Picking it up gently, he did his best to ignore the bleating and just hoped that it would be over quicker for this sheep than the last one. That goal, at least, was achieved since the struggling stopped in less than a second from the beginning of his exhale. He counted to ten and then took a bite.

From his reaction to his first successfully eaten sheep, the herd of Blacks discovered an important distinction between Harry and themselves. To the Hebridean Blacks, two normal sheep would be a feast. Harry, on the other hand, was over twice their height and correspondingly much greater in girth and stomach capacity. Within twenty minutes, Harry had consumed six more sheep.

"These are simply delicious," raved Harry as he looked around for his next snack.

"Perhaps you should hold off for a while," suggested Caoimhe. "You won't be able to get back into the air."

Harry was about to share his newfound information regarding dragon flight when an unexpected visitor arrived.

"Harry Potter!" shouted the flame-haired woman when she located him. "What, exactly, is taking you so long? According to Charlie, you should have picked up Hermione and been at the Burrow an hour ago."

"Bloody hell," muttered Harry. "I forgot all about that. Sorry, Mrs. Weasley."

"None of your back talk," answered Molly. Although the dragon speech enchantment was as effective for her as anyone, she had raised six sons, including Fred and George. She had become very confident in her ability to impose her will by the inflection of her voice. Looking at the other dragons with a disapproving glare, she said, "You can talk to your new friends later. Bill said he needs to talk to you, as well, but he has to leave before supper so get a move on." She put her wand to her necklace and, after a muttered word, she was gone.

"Who was that?" asked several voices at once.

"She's like my mother," answered Harry. "I was supposed to pick up my wife and go to her house for lunch. I'd better be off."

"You let a human woman boss you around like that?" asked Finnean. He was smirking a bit, as were most of the other males.

"Several of them, in fact," replied Harry. "I'd better go. I'll come back soon, though. I want my wife to meet you all."

"That would be nice," said Sionn. "I'd like to hear more of your tale."

"Fair enough," said Harry. "I'll bring dessert next time." With a final wave he was off, wondering just how many tons of treacle tart he would need when he returned.

Author's Note: Sorry it's taking so long between chapters. Still on seven day work weeks. Also had a bit of writer's block but it seems to have cleared up. Hopefully, I'll have the next chapter up quicker.

Dad