Revelations
Charlie Weasley was cursing his luck. Oh, not with magic but with a good old-fashioned Weasley 'turn-the-air-blue' exposition. This was bad. He hadn't paid a lot of attention to who was in this renewed Triwizard Tournament because he was so busy, other than to say whoever was in such a damnfool idea deserved to get roasted. He had made his opinion about the competition known.
Then Fred and George had taken him to the side and told him that their adopted-sort-of little brother had been forced into it. That had prompted another expression of his opinion strong enough to make even the Twins' eyes cross. The whole thing was not sunshine and daisies at all, and Fred and George was sure of it when their brother's Weasley temper lit off.
Before he left Romania with the others, he spent time with the nesting mothers intended to make the trip and talked to them. They appreciated the soothing manner he had with them, even when one of them was not in the best of moods. Charlie knew they were smart – just about anyone who spent time with dragons knew that – but whether they understood what he was muttering about as he checked on this or that in preparation for transport was anyone's guess. He had his suspicions but no idea on how to confirm them.
The Horntail had been making him a bit uneasy with how she was sizing him up as he talked, but was placid enough for her species. The other dragons acted more tetchy than she was, but they were younger, too. It was possible that they didn't have quite the same maturity as she did, maybe. There was a speculation present in her eye that made him twitch a bit and wonder what she was up to. He thought she was looking at him the same way he looked at Jimmy Weeks every time the poor lad got cleaned out during weekly poker games. The thought of dragons playing poker unnerved him. He didn't want to think about what would happen to the reserve if one of them didn't pay their gambling debts.
Now that he was posted at the arena for the First Task, Charlie was turning the air blue to get the unease and fear out of his system before the last Champion – who he now knew was Harry – faced the last dragon, which he knew was the Horntail. He wasn't afraid for himself, but he was very afraid for Harry. Once that gate closed behind Harry, every entrance magically sealed up until one of three things happened: Harry got the egg, the dragon was killed or Harry was killed.
There was no way to get through the magical barriers. In Romania the specific runestones that governed them were known to be very strong because of the leyline that ran under the preserve, but here at Hogwarts with her triple-leyline placement, there was simply no way. The tricks that worked in Romania simply wouldn't work here.
Charlie hoped that he wasn't going to have to explain to his mother why one of his dragons killed Harry Potter.
He looked at the youngest Champion to see that he was muttering something to himself in the mausoleum-quality quiet that had descended. He couldn't hear what it was since Harry was too far away, but his heart sank when the Horntail cocked her head in the boy's direction. She was focused on him and seemed to be listening intently. She even looked surprised, and the sight of that emotion on a dragon's face would have been cherished if it weren't for who had been locked in with her.
Ludo Bagman had ceased his prattle and for that, Charlie was grateful. Excellent Quidditch player he might have been once, but right now he was a massive irritant. Whatever Bagman thought was 'keeping the audience's interest' was really 'want to claw one's ears off' and Charlie realized why no team really wanted him as a commentator.
Harry knelt behind the rock and put something down. Whatever it was couldn't be seen. Charlie hoped that whatever Harry had up his sleeves, he pulled it out soon. That Horntail wasn't really reacting to him, but seemed to be amusing herself by flaming the warded area of the stands to make them scream. The dragon handler knew that a bored Horntail was trouble in every sense of the word. As smart as they were it was something to be avoided as long as possible. Just like the dragon breed, in fact.
Harry stood up and took a breath. Thanks to the monitoring runes carved at regular intervals, everyone heard his first incantation clearly: "Accio Firebolt!"
This made everyone and the Horntail look at him. Charlie swore that he saw the large mother dragon raise an eyebrow. Dragons could be expressive in their facial movements but to this day, he'd never seen a dragon do that. Maybe there was more to dragons that even he thought. Charlie shuddered at the thought that dragons had been blowing off all the intelligence tests anyone had ever thought up all this time just to be contrary.
The broom came zooming into the stadium from the top, avoiding the warded gates. Harry heard the whistle of the air rushing through the bristles and crouched in reflex to jump on it. Charlie remembered that Harry was supposed to be the youngest Seeker at Hogwarts in a century, and while he himself was a Seeker he doubted he would have used a broom to outfly a dragon of any variety. Even with the dwarf ones, that wouldn't have occurred to him at all.
To the surprise of everyone, including Harry, the tail flicked out to nudge the broom to the side, far away from the young wizard. A thick part of that tail held the end to the ground, trapped under the weight. Harry froze along with everyone else when the dragon flopped her long body to the ground and looked at Harry. The draconic eyebrow lifted again as she inspected the young wizard.
No one moved.
Charlie knew that this was a nesting mother Hungarian Horntail dragon and therefore the most vicious one known, but he couldn't shake the feeling she was looking at Harry like… well, like a mother who caught a child in the process of mischief. And any good mother was going to find out what was going on first. The dragon handler thought that the Horntail looked for all the world and every Galleon in his vault like Molly Weasley. Usually when a young Charlie had been caught doing something he either shouldn't have been doing or that Bill had put him up to before hiding. That set of memories reminded him that he still owed Bill for some of those things.
She puffed out a bit of smoke at Harry and he coughed a bit but refused to lose his footing. He stared at her in the most defiant posture anyone had ever had. Well, anyone Charlie had ever seen who was about to depart this life. He could hear screaming now from several in the stands.
What in the name of Merlin's droopy shriveled balls was Harry doing?
|:-:|
Harry was doing all he could not to faint in fear and shock. Never in his life had he expected to be less than ten feet away from a full-grown dragon that was currently just looking at him at eye level. She was examining him as though he was at a butcher's counter and she was determining if he was worth the posted price. Why that example came to him, he didn't know. It was a less-than-fun experience in any event. Exciting, yes, just in the wrong way.
Hermione had drilled him mercilessly in the Accio charm in the hopes that he could play to his strengths, as Professor Moody suggested to him. There wasn't a lot else that either of them could think of, either in her prodigious memory or his intuitive reactions. The easy way the dragon had corralled his broom and contained it – he hoped it wasn't broken from the weight on it – simply stunned him.
The golden eyes looked him up and down and he resolved to remain on his feet when he died. He could hear Hermione screaming in the stands over the sounds of everyone one else and was wondering what to do next when the Horntail decided for him.
She licked him.
Harry stumbled as the rough tongue scraped over his entire length, scrawny as it was compared to Cedric's height and managed to catch his glasses by reflex.
~~ You need some meat on your bones. Whoever's feeding you isn't doing it right. A growing boy like you needs to be fed. How else are you going to grow strong and tall? ~~
Harry's head jerked up and this time he did stumble and fell on his skinny rear. He pointed at her with his left hand. His right hand was still clenched around his wand.
~~ Did I just hear you speak to me? ~~
Even to Harry, the shock in his voice was evident. The Horntail puffed another bit of smoke at him.
~~ I did, and I'm no more surprised than you that we seem to understand each other. I did have a little bit of warning, however. ~~
Harry's mind restarted on the realization that he wasn't using English, but Parseltongue.
~~ Warning? I don't understand. ~~
The Horntail nodded off to the rock that Harry had just been behind.
~~ Before you stepped out from behind that rock, I heard you speaking to a snake that you'd carried in. I don't speak Snake, strictly, but there's enough similarities that a snake and a dragon can converse. Snakes are dull, though. Why are you here? I can tell you're much younger than the other three. Smaller than you should be, too. ~~
Harry gaped at her. He had carried the snake into the arena because it had stopped in front of him and they conversed for a moment. It had taken the snake a bit to convince Harry to carry it in near the dragon's nest and it took a mention that the heat from the nest was quite relaxing to a snake. The idea of dragons running snake spa centers had amused Harry for a moment and he decided that if he was going to die he might as well make at least one life easier if he could.
~~ I'm not here by my own choice. Someone with evil intent entered me who probably wants to kill me and I can't get out of it. It's an of-age Tournament because of the dangers involved and I'm not of-age. Hermione has been the only one to help me. No one else has found or can find a way for me to quit. They tell me it's a binding magical contract. I have to get a fake golden egg from your nest for the First Task. There are three Tasks I have to survive. ~~
The dragon jumped up, her tail releasing the broom. There was just enough time for Harry to see the gold in her irises shimmer and set aflame before she moved and he couldn't repress a shudder. The broom rose up and eased its way to the side of the arena by itself, but Harry didn't notice. He was too busy watching her rage with his mouth open and eyes wide. Even Gryffindor bravery – some said stupidity – couldn't make the case to him to get out of range right then. He wasn't sure there was a safe enough range to begin with.
~~ WHO ENTERED THIS UNDERFED CHILD INTO A DANGEROUS EVENT LIKE THIS! WHEN I FIND OUT, THEY WILL WISH FOR COOL SKIN AND HAIR BECAUSE I WILL BURN IT OFF! WHO TREATS A CHILD LIKE THIS? MAGICAL CONTRACT?! FAKE EGGS?! CHILDREN IN DELIBERATE DANGER?! WHO?! ~~
There was more. A lot more, and Harry was impressed at the range of the dragon's vocabulary. In the distance, he could hear other dragons being startled from whatever they had been doing but not what they had to say. If dragon senses were sensitive enough to hear that from a distance, then he was impressed. Granted, the dragon he was trapped in here with was quite loud.
In fact, she was deafening.
The audience stiffened. Of course, they couldn't understand what had set her off and for all they knew one of the deadliest beasts ever was going to destroy one Harry Potter, and no one could say a thing.
She raged about the things that she sensed about Harry for what felt like an hour to him and he listened to her. How she knew that he'd suffered at the Dursleys and all the broken bones, he didn't know. It must have been something dragons could do or maybe it was something to do with the magic inherent in dragons. Whatever it was, it was scary to know that a dragon could literally sniff it out.
Harry finally debated moving, but there was a fascination that held him there watching the fury of the dragon and the way the light played on her scales. She was stomping all over the arena as the thick chain on her leg allowed and blowing flame and smoke everywhere but Harry who still had to crouch down to find fresher air. The air got thick with smoke since she was so upset and it took a moment to dissipate. The aggrieved flapping of her wings created some airflow and that helped. The dragon was hard to see but easy to hear and everyone heard when she stopped moving to shoot a jet of flame at the sky.
There were finally screams when several of the audience thought that Harry had been squished like a grape underfoot, but when the smoke cleared they saw the dragon. Harry was where she had left him, still staring. He saw her look at the restraining chain with distinct irritation an instant before she yanked the retaining ring holding the other end out of the ground.
Harry couldn't really find himself troubled to worry about the other screams he heard except Hermione's, thanks to the build-up of stresses. He took off toward the sound of her voice.
Now free, the Horntail sniffed mightily for a scent. The chain threw off her balance in flight due to its length, so she dragged it with her along in a shuffling walk with a few choice epithets that a corner of Harry's mind stored away for later use. When he got up this morning, he never expected that he would receive a master class in cursing from a dragon, of all things. That didn't stop him from memorizing them, just in case.
The Horntail stopped and stuck her nose just shy of the edge of the magical wards and close to the stands. She inhaled a great lungful of air and sat back with a curious expression. In front of her sat Hermione, who looked back at her with a scared expression. There was still a gleam in the girl's eyes that took in information at her usual speed, regardless.
~~ Come here, gyerek. I want to ask you something. I'm not mad at you at all. ~~
The dragon's voice was gentle as she looked over her shoulder at the other inhabitant of the arena. Harry found himself walking over and oddly, not worried that a multiple-ton fire-breathing reptile-like creature was asking for him. It was just one more odd thing he'd seen in the Magical world and like everything else, he went with the flow. He figured he might as well since it had worked as well as anything else so far.
When he got there, she lifted a huge talon and scored a mark on the wards' barrier field. Everyone stared. Up until that point, they thought things like this was impossible. Her magic concentrated within the point of her talon and interacted with the field to fizz, leaving a flaming circle around Hermione like a loop drawn on parchment. Others scooted away from her on the benches, but she didn't notice.
~~ Is this your 'Hermione,' gyerek? Her scent was on you. ~~
~~ She's Hermione, yes, but I don't know if I can say 'mine.' ~~
The dragon rolled her eyes and literally facepalmed. She looked at Hermione, who looked back in utter confusion. Harry thought to himself that it was a rare sight to see but kept that to himself. The crowd gasped again as the dragon scooped Harry up on her wide snout and lifted him to eye-level with the girl.
~~ Tell her what I asked you, exactly and what you said to me. And don't slip from there and poke me in the eye. I hate that. It makes me want to sneeze. ~~
After the crowd got over the shock of seeing Harry Potter sitting on a huge dragon's snout as easily as sitting on a bench in the Great Hall for breakfast, they relaxed a bit. Not much and much more than Harry was, himself. Harry was surely having issues, but doing his very best to go with the flow as best as he could. Hermione was out of her seat, having seen that Harry was talking with the dragon and they seemed to be… okay? He still looked a bit gobsmacked at the position he'd found himself in, but so was everyone else. He stood up to talk to her, trusting in the balance he honed in Quidditch to keep himself upright.
"Hermione?"
"Harry? What… what's going on?" Her voice sounded weak even to her.
"Dragons can understand Parseltongue, apparently. She heard me talking to a snake that convinced me to bring it along for the heat and wanted to know what was going on before roasting me. So I told her."
"Was that before or after she tore around the arena?"
"Um… before."
Hermione looked at the yellow eyes, just behind Harry. She saw smoke billow out of the nostrils and heard the dragon's hissing speech. It sounded impatient, somehow.
~~ Tell her about this Task foolishness later. Remember what I asked you about her. ~~
"What was that, Harry? She sounded impatient."
Some of the crowd had eased closer to her to hear, too. They saw him blush, too.
"Er… ummmm…"
"Harry?"
The Horntail twitched her head. Harry found that it was harder to stand on a dragon's snout that moved unexpectedly than it was to ride his broom. He looked back at her eyes.
"Okay! Okay! I'll tell her! Quit twitching!"
"Tell me what, Harry?"
Harry looked at her. Her face was worried for him, he could see that. She stood there, on the other side of the barrier, waiting for him. The dragon eased him closer and she took another step without thinking.
"Er, she said your scent was on me – maybe when she licked me she found it – and asked me if you were 'my Hermione.'"
Despite herself, Hermione smiled at that. The others around them suddenly realized there was something else to this Task and listened as hard as they could. Some looked inches from falling off their seats.
"And what did you tell her, Harry?"
He gulped, trying to figure out exactly why he was not as scared of a nesting mother Horntail dragon as he was admitting what he said to Hermione.
"I, er, I said that yes, that's Hermione, but I don't know if I can say 'mine.' And I really don't know."
Inside, Hermione was skipping around but outwardly she was calm. She traded glances with the dragon, who seemed to be encouraging her to ask. She got the impression of her own mother and that confused her. Hermione put that to the side for now and applied her attention to the question she really wanted to know the answer to.
"Do you want to be able to say 'mine,' Harry?"
Harry gulped. She was looking at him with her brown eyes as big as he'd ever seen them before as she asked.
~~ Oh, get on with it. Faint heart ne'er won fair lady. ~~
Hermione looked at the dragon again and saw that she was rolling her eyes again.
"What did she say this time?"
Harry chuckled. If it were anyone else sitting on this dragon having a conversation and he was in the stands watching, he'd be making 'helpful' comments.
"She wants me to get on with it and said 'faint heart ne'er won fair lady.' I think she's a romantic."
"Maybe so. Are you going to answer the question, or blame the dragon for distracting you? And when did dragons read Thomas Lodge?"
Another puff of smoke and the dragon's mouth curved up in an unmistakable grin. There was a chorus of thumps and thuds as people around Hermione fell down in fear.
~~ I like her, young one. Direct and to the point. You might be surprised what we can read. Get off the fence and say something! I'm not going to stand here all day, you know. ~~
"I, um…" He looked again at Hermione. She was ignoring the scene, standing as tall as she could and looking straight at him. His decision crystallized, from years of being around Hermione and all the things they had gotten into and out of. He stood straight on the Horntail's snout and his shoulders came back. "Yes."
"Yes?" Her eyebrow raised and Harry was fairly sure that the dragon's eyebrow had raised too. The way the skin rippled under his feet made him think that was the case.
"Yes. Yes, Hermione. I want to be able to say you're mine. Will you be mine, and I yours from this time forth?"
A moment's hush fell among the group as they looked at Hermione, awaiting her answer. It seemed that the judges wondered what she was going to say as well, if the small smile on Madame Maxime's face had anything to do with it. A blinding smile beaming from her face answered him.
"Yes, Harry, I will from now unto eternity, but you do have to get out of there first."
~~ I'll see what I can do. You and your mate and I have things to discuss after this. ~~
Everyone in the stands except Hermione got the uncomfortable feeling that the dragon was laughing at them. For his part, Harry looked down so quickly that he almost fell off. He looked back up in time to see Hermione open her mouth.
"I'll tell you later, Hermione," he interjected, not wanting the people around them to have gossip material. She nodded after a moment.
"Okay. What now?"
Harry didn't know but the dragon answered that for him.
~~ Move carefully to my neck and hold on, gyerek. ~~
He waved to Hermione and did just that. He had a much better appreciation of the spikes on a Hungarian Horntail since he was much, much closer to them. Some were longer than he was tall, and he didn't want to think about them much. Harry concentrated on holding on as the dragon paced the length of the arena back to her nest. When she got to the nest, the dragon gently plucked Harry off her neck with her finger joint and forestay tip and set him down. The feeling of the Horntail's spar mainsail – the outermost section of her wing – made Harry think that it was immensely tough and strong, yet also gave him the impression that it was warm and comforting. It felt like a soothing blanket, somehow.
~~ I'm going to keep an eye on you, young one. I can see very well that you have not been taken care of, and the young female you apparently finally got a clue about has been doing her best to do that for you. You owe her a lot of thanks. ~~
Harry wondered if the dragon knew about the last few years or something. The look in her eye told him he was being whatever dragons called simpletons even though he knew he hadn't expressed that thought out loud. He wondered why he wasn't gibbering in fear from being this close to a dragon since walking into the arena and decided to think about that later as she was speaking again.
~~ I've raised young ones for the last five and a half of your centuries. I know when foolheaded drakons can't get out of their own way. You aren't any different. Plus, you're scrawny. I don't like that. ~~
He wasn't too sure how to take that and it was worse that the nesting mother was looking more and more like she was trying not to laugh at him. She was occupied looking at her nest and dug out the golden egg. She inspected it critically and sighed again. Steam billowed out of her nostrils this time.
~~ Goblin work? Merpeople? I may have to talk to them about this. I am not impressed. ~~
She kicked the egg out of the nest near the center of the arena, and the crowd outside gasped. It landed with a hollow thump. Harry had watched it arc over his head and thought that if dragons played football, they would make great strikers or wingers. She looked at him.
~~ Don't be an idiot with your female, young one. Remember that treating her like a lady is important, do things with her even if you don't like them, and don't forget that she is the most important thing to you. She comes first. ~~
Harry looked at the dragon, who winked at him.
~~ What? Five and a half centuries. I said I liked her. Now get out there and claim the egg. And come back tomorrow. Have that big hairy one I saw bring you. ~~
~~ Thank you. I will. ~~
Harry held his hand out, and the dragon nuzzled his palm.
~~ Lady dragon, what do I call you? ~~
She looked at him.
~~ My Name is Tessaies, meaning 'Giver of Life' in the main Dragon tongue. ~~
He sketched a bow toward her, and she dipped in return. They ignored the sounds of gasps in the crowd.
~~ I'm pleased to meet you, Tessaies. Far better now than earlier today. My name is Harry Potter. ~~
He didn't know how to do the capitalized word he clearly heard from her or what it meant or even it if was a dragon's version of a proper name, but did his best.
~~ I'm pleased to meet you, too, Harry. You are the latest in a long line of younglings in need that I've seen to – and not all have been dragons. Now, get out there. I have plans to make, and need to figure out how to get this blasted irritating chain off. Again. ~~
~~ Um, thank you. ~~
Added to the list of things he didn't know how to have any kind of opinion about today was the fact that he didn't know what 'plans to make' involved a dragon, and that worried him.
~~ And do something about that hair! ~~
She planted her hard nose in his back and gave him a few gentle shoves out to the center. He wondered what everyone in the stands thought about the sight of Harry Potter being pushed out toward a golden egg by a dragon's snout like an unruly child. Not to mention the spectacle of a huge dragon's claw smoothing down his hair as best as possible and then being licked with a rough tongue before said dragon headed back to the nest. After a moment more, he thought it was much better than being barbecued into charcoal. He'd take it, even if he was somewhat covered by warm dragon saliva.
Harry picked up the egg and heard the barriers fall. He waved at the nest.
~~ I'll see you later, Tessaies! ~~
~~ Later, Harry. Go take a shower. Your mate will appreciate it and so will everyone else. Smelly child. ~~
The crowd wondered why he walked toward the exit tunnel laughing a bit hysterically, after the faint hissing came from the depths of the nest along with a few streams of smoke. Ludo Bagman was stunned to silence. To be fair, so was everyone else. The whole thing had been heard, thanks to the monitoring runes. No one in the audience spoke Parseltongue, so everyone was left just as mystified as the announcer.
|:-:|
Whatever curses Charlie Weasley had yet to voice had long been cut off. The wink the Horntail threw at him along with a few puffs of smoke was very distinct as she rattled the loosened chain at him. The sight of an unchained dragon laughing at him as she strolled away made Charlie want to drink the strongest Firewhiskey he could find, even as the chain thumped to the ground a few feet away. The dragonologist wondered what he was going to end up having to deal with tomorrow if stuff like this kept up. Having a female laugh at him, even if it was a dragon, did things to his self-confidence.
The next thought was whether there was enough Firewhiskey in Hogsmeade for him and his fellow dragon handlers tomorrow anyway. Something was off and if that dragon's behavior meant anything, he was sure she was going to be the reason why. It wouldn't be the first time with her. She was always taking in strays, and every time she did it confused the hell out of him.