Harry Potter and the Hermetic Arts
Chapter 27: Harry's Run
"Can we talk to you after this?"
Harry looked up to see Fay and Neville standing at his shoulder, then back down at the pair of face-down cards he was peeking at, trying to determine if either could see what his hand was.
It was an eight of diamonds and a two of hearts; the dealer, a pretty older girl in a cardigan, burned a card face down, then dealt the flop, the ace and nine of diamonds and a six of spades.
With a look of disgust, Harry folded his hand and tossed the cards away from him, then stood up from his seat, scrutinizing the two. "Don't you two have something you should be playing?" he asked, scanning around the room for Hermione and the rest of the Dungeons & Dragons group but finding them missing.
"McCrae blew up a town and Hermione didn't have anything planned for that," Neville said.
"Sounds like something that would happen," Harry said, remembering all the times his players ruined all the adventure hooks he had come up with. "So, what's up?"
The two Gryffindors exchanged nervous looks. "Can we talk about this in private?" Fay asked.
Harry checked his watch; it was a little past seventeen-thirty, so there was just about an hour left of gaming club remaining for the day. "Will this take long?" he asked.
"Probably not," admitted Neville. "But it is urgent."
"I think the next room over is empty," Harry said, and the two shared another glance, then nodded in agreement before turning back towards him. "All right, let's go."
The three slipped out of the meeting unnoticed and quickly made their way to the next room; once inside, Harry turned to the Gryffindors, crossing his arms, expression expectant.
Neville looked a little nervous as Harry's eyes bore into him. Then, he threw up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "We didn't want to say anything, but since that time went to see Hagrid about Fluffy, Fay and I have been visiting him regularly and having tea and cake," he confessed; once the words had tumbled from his mouth, he looked both embarrassed and relieved.
"What's that got to do with me?" Harry asked.
"You said he stole from you, so we just thought you would hate him," said the chubby boy, suddenly looking very confused. "Don't you?"
"What do I care what you do with your free time?" Harry said, shrugging. "It's not my job to prevent you from making horrible decisions."
Neville let out a sigh of relief, then started to say something, but Fay interrupted, cutting him off. "He won a dragon egg in a card game and then hatched it in his hut," she said.
"Again, what's that got to do with me?" Harry asked, crossing his arms as he leaned his back against the door of the classroom.
"Hagrid's raising a fire-breathing dragon," Fay reiterated. "He lives in a wooden shack."
"Dragon breeding is illegal," Neville added. "You can't tame dragons; it's dangerous."
"And what exactly do you expect me to do about this?" asked The-Boy-Who-Lived.
"Well, you figured out how to deal with a troll," argued the girl.
"By murdering it to death," Harry countered. "Do you want me to murder the dragon?"
"What?! Of course not!" said Neville, nearly raising his voice in anger.
"Then I don't see what I can do for you," said the Hufflepuff with a shrug. "Why don't you talk to one of the professors?"
"We don't want Hagrid to get in trouble," said Neville, his tone pleading. "Can't you think of something? Please?"
"You might get what you're after, but if I do do this, you do realize you are going to owe me one, right?" Harry asked.
"Yes, of course," said Neville eagerly. "Have you thought of something?"
"I've had all of five minutes to think of something for this," the raven-haired boy said. "Who do you think I am, MacGuyver?"
"Who?" asked Neville.
"Never mind that," said The-Boy-Who-Lived. "Do you have any idea when the trog will be away from his humble abode?"
"Trog?" asked the girl, confused.
"You know who I mean," said Harry without actually clarifying.
"Why do you need to know?" Fay asked.
"You don't want to know the answer to that question," The-Boy-Who-Lived said, eyes narrowing into a dangerous glare. "Suffice to say, I'll figure out the dragon problem one way or another."
"No killing," warned the girl. "If we find out you killed him, we won't be your friends anymore."
"That's cute; you say that almost like you think it's a threat," Harry said with an ominous smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, his voice suddenly dropping low, and the Gryffindors shrunk in the face of unexpected amused malevolence. "This is how you threaten somebody: you tell anyone about this, and there won't be enough of you left to become ghosts."
The Gryffindors swallowed in fear at The-Boy-Who-Lived as he stalked into their personal space to loom over them. Then, suddenly, his expression brightened into a wide smile. "See? Now that's how you threaten someone properly," he said brightly, almost as if what he had just done was meant to be a joke or a lesson of some kind.
Fay and Neville nodded stiffly, unsure how to respond otherwise. "We'll find out when," Neville croaked.
"You do that," said the Hufflepuff cheerfully, opening the door of the abandoned classroom. "Until then, I've got a game of Hold'em to get back to."
The friends watched as Harry departed, then shared a look.
"We did the right thing, right?" asked Neville.
"I hope so," Fay said. "I'm just glad he's on our side."
~ooOoo~
Legwork is always first.
With a bit of needling, he was able to discover the breed of the dragon, Norwegian Ridgeback, from the Gryffindors who had tasked him with the run; once he had that, he was back in the library, devouring just about everything he could find about the species. Unfortunately, details were fairly scarce; all he could really glean from his reading was they ate large mammals, including marine life, were less hostile than Hungarian Horntails, required a few months to develop their ability to breathe fire and had a venomous bite.
That last bit of information was alarming.
Planning came next. He needed a distraction, but he didn't have the time or the knowledge to make saltpeter, and he was certain that it was something Jason would never send him through the post, so a proper smoke bomb or flashbang was out of the question. Nonetheless, he could still make a flashbang fairly easily, albeit with danger to himself; he already had the materials, a knife and many cheap cigarette lighters, and he had once watched Jason make some for an improvised New Year's fireworks show with just those things. He also had some ping pong balls, which Jason had also used as part of the pyrotechnics show; when lit on fire, they produced a thick white smoke, which he could use for cover if absolutely necessary.
That meant nothing, though, if he couldn't get inside the hut; to scout the location, he started running outside in the morning even though the weather was cold and rainy, altering the course of his roadwork so that it went near the trog's hut and using small binoculars to look at the door, and lock in particular, from a distance. It was no surprise that was rusted metal on warped wood, but at least metal on wood was something he could handle with ease.
If there was anything his interactions with the magical world had taught him, it was that magicals liked to think themselves to be the pinnacle of wisdom and enlightenment, even though almost all of his interactions with them had proved otherwise. The books he had read described dragons as beasts, so that was going to be the last thing he believed was true about them; Dungeons & Dragons and Shadowrun had taught him many things, one of which was dragons were dangerously intelligent, and underestimating them always proved to be a health hazard.
First, though, he needed to get the lunk away from the dragon in his hut.
As it turned out, that was easier than he thought it would be; in the week after Fay and Neville asked Harry to solve the dragon problem, he noticed the lunk was ignoring his duties as a groundskeeper and it was starting to show. All it took was a strongly-worded letter, written anonymously and sent to the schools' Board of Governors, and the trog was soon once again out and about doing his duties, grumbling to himself and looking like he would prefer to be doing something else besides his job.
The first week the groundskeeper was back at work, Harry watched from the astronomy tower with his binoculars and timed the lunk on his watch between classes and independent study; once he was certain the groundskeeper would never leave his hut for more than ninety minutes at a time but still needed at least an hour to complete any set of tasks, Harry had his openings.
~ooOoo~
Tongues and invisibility were just obvious spells to cast before he embarked on the run; if the dragon had anything to say, he was going to want to understand it, and frankly, being seen breaking into the hut would be amateur hour. Even with that safeguard, though, he made himself the general description of Draco Malfoy with alter self; with his slicked-back peroxide blonde hair and fancy robes, Malfoy was one of the most easily recognizable students in the entire school, and that was exactly what Harry was counting on to keep himself distanced from the run.
It was the third Friday since he had been tasked with the job; with Hermione off revising on her own without him, Harry waited until after he saw the trog leave the shack to attend his duties before making his move, pulling out his earbuds and then making a beeline for the ramshackle hut under the cover of invisibility, his blood pounding in his ears in time to the beat of Ice Cube's "No Vaseline"; once there, he tried the door but found it locked and knocked it open before slipping inside.
The first thing he felt was the temperature; even though it was cold and wet outside from the rain, Harry found himself immediately sweating into his clothes, which were already steaming from the heat, an unpleasant feeling given he was now wearing something both damp and warm.
§Another human child, here to gawk at and grope me,§ sighed a hissing voice from the side. §What does it matter, you won't understand me anyways.§
§You'd be surprised,§ answered the boy as he sized up the speaker, a brown-skinned reptilian creature the size of a large dog with a black ridge along its back. §You got a name?§
§The big meatbag calls me 'Norbert',§ answered the dragon in an almost scoffing tone.
§That's a stupid name for a dragon,§ said the Hufflepuff, and the dragon seemed to agree, blowing a puff of smoke from the nostrils. §Why don't you choose a name for yourself?§
§What would I know about names?§ the dragon snapped back, fangs bared. §I just know 'Norbert' does not sound elegant at all.§
§So, elegant name, then,§ postulate the boy, and the dragon's head bobbed up and down in what he could only guess was an imitation of the human nod. §Are you a boy or girl dragon?§
§Why don't you check?§ invited the dragon, then laughed, a melodic rumbling sound from the back of the throat, at the boy's gobsmacked expression. §I am a lady.§
Harry considered options for a long moment, digging through the numerous languages flowing through his mind courtesy of tongues before coming to a choice he liked. §How about 'Liv'?§ he suggested. §It comes from the Old Norse word 'hlif', for 'protection', and, since you're a Norwegian Ridgeback, is also Norwegian for 'life'. Meanwhile, English people who live in this country will just think it's short for 'Olivia', which traces its roots to the Norwegian name 'Olaf', meaning 'ancestor's descendant'.§
§Liv,§ the dragon repeated back, before saying several more times as though trying it out. §Leave... Leev? Liv!§
§How does it feel rolling off the tongue?§ Harry asked.
§I like the sound,§ admitted the dragon. §Tell me: why 'protection' and 'life'?§
§As you've probably already noticed, we humans are just weak and short-sighted meatbags,§ said the boy, having no idea of draconic psychology and hoping she had an ego he could stroke. §It would be nice if a powerful dragon like you would devote herself to protecting us mortal races from threats we're unaware or unprepared for.§
§And why 'ancestor's descendant'?§
§Dragons are a venerable folk who have a storied history beyond human memory, and I thought it should never be forgotten.§
The dragon considered the compliment-come-plea for a moment. §Very well, then,§ she said. §'Liv' shall be my name from this day forth. Now, human child, What is your name and why are you here?§
§Do you want the short version, or the long version?§ Harry asked.
§Do you have a medium version?§ asked the dragon, seemingly bantering.
§Well, I'm Harry Potter, and the medium answer is, magical humans are incredibly stupid and think they know everything, even when they're clearly messing around with forces they don't understand in the least,§ said The-Boy-Who-Lived, happy to humor the Norwegian Ridgeback. §In their infinite wisdom, magicals have decided raising and breeding dragons is illegal, which is really stupid because their reasoning for that is dragons can't be tamed, except dragons are sapient beings, so really what's happening is they just want to feel better about themselves by pretending they're smarter and more powerful than the big scary dragons by saying you're all big and scary because you're not smart and can't be reasoned with. Any attempts to "tame" you would really just be enslavement with another name.§
§I don't know what most of that means, Harry, § said Liv, looking Harry dead in the eyes. §But, I think I understand the gist of what you're saying: magical people are stupid.§
§Well, people in general, but magical ones in particular,§ the boy agreed.
§So, go on.§
§Well, stupid magical people say helping dragons grow up is wrong unless they get to decide how the dragon grows up,§ Harry said, deciding it was probably for the best to streamline the conversation into something more easily understood by somebody with limited life experience. §If they find out the big meatbag's been helping you, he'll get in trouble and you'll be put down.§
§Put down?§
§Killed. To death.§
§I don't want that to happen to me.§
§Neither do I. That's why the big meatbag never let you outside, and also why I'm here.§
§I want to go outside!§ said Liv in excitement, hopping up and down on her feet.
§If you just go outside, you'd be seen, and then they'd come to put you down.§
§What are we going to do?§
§Well, you are a fire-breathing dragon, and this is a wooden house.§
The dragon took a deep breath and exhaled powerfully as if to demonstrate a point, but only managed to blow a small cloud of smoke out of her mouth. §See? No fire.§
§I see. No fire,§ Harry repeated back, nodding. §Well, I'll just have to make a fire, then.§
§Even if we get outside, where would I even go? Surely they would try to find me?§
§Well, there is the Forbidden Forest. Right now, all you are is a rumor, but if you make it into the Forest, an argument could be made that there's nobody helping you grow up, you just showed up out of nowhere and took up residence in the Forest. It'd be pretty much impossible to prove without eye witness accounts, and none of the witnesses I know of want to see you dead.§
§But what would I eat? Where would I sleep?§
§There're rabbits and deer in the forest, though you'll have to hunt them yourself. As for where you'd sleep, I could help you build a shelter.§
§But I don't want to,§ whined Liv. §Here, I'm cozy and I have plenty to eat.§
§And in danger of being discovered and then put to death.§
§I don't want to die.§
§Nobody does.§
§All right, I'll go with you, but only because I don't want to die.§
§Clever girl. I'm going to start a fire.§
Harry formed the bodhyagri mudra with his hands then inhaled deeply before exhaling and incanting "creo ignam", the image of a jet of fire spraying forth from his fingertips in his mind. Quickly, he overlapped his thumps and fanned his fingers out, just in time for fire to shoot out of them and at the wall, setting the wood alight.
§What did you just do?§ asked the dragon, staring at the boy. §I saw a glow enter you, flow all through your body, and then exit your hands as fire!§
§Astral perception, huh?§ Harry remarked, remembering it as something paracritters were capable of doing. §I channeled Astral power through my body, gave it form and purpose, then released it. That's how I use magic.§
§Magic? Astral power?§
§I'd probably be easier for me to show you than explain it. May I touch you?§
§Only this once,§ Liv said, bobbing her head up and down.
With permission received, Harry lightly placed a hand on the dragon's forehead and focused, drawing Astral power into his body, letting it run through his nerves before passing it through into the reptilian creature. As he did so, he saw Liv's eyes go wide, almost as if in awe.
§So that's Astral Power,§ said the dragon in hushed tones. §I think I've got this.§
Inhaling deeply for a long moment through her mouth, Liv suddenly belched fire, sending Harry diving to the floor, out of the way. Turning, the dragon continued to spray fire everywhere, and the rest of the house quickly went alight.
§This was a bad idea,§ remarked the boy, realizing he was now trapped in a blazing inferno with a dragon that could probably survive it, even if he couldn't. §Well, no time like the present.§
Reaching to his waist, he dipped his hands into one of the belt pouches and quickly pulled out a test tube; a quick glance ascertained it contained a pinch of dust and a sliver of stone, and he pulled the cap and dumped its contents into one hand, dropping vial and cap into a pocket before clasping both hands together, fingers interlaced. Quickly extended both index fingers and pointed with them pressed together at his target, one of the side walls, and the one hopefully closest to the treeline of the Forbidden Forest.
Kali mudra. Dust and lodestone. A mental image of molecules coming apart.
"Perdo herbam!"
A thin ray of bright green energy sprang out of his fingertips, striking the wall he was pointing at; it glowed white for a moment, then suddenly a ten-foot square section vanished into thin air, leaving behind only a pile of dust. Seeing the treeline in the distance, Harry reached into his ever-present haversack, which he had chosen to conceal under his robe, and pulled forth a handful of table tennis balls, lighting them with a match before side-arming them out the gaping hole where there was once wall was one after another, filling the distance between the hut and the treeline with thick white smoke.
§We should go,§ said the boy to the dragon, who bobbed her head in agreement; hastily, they made good their escape from the hut into the Forbidden Forest under the cover of the smoke, and though it was clear from the outside the hut was unlikely to burn down in the falling rain, Harry did not want to risk staying at the scene of his crime longer than he had to.
The boy and the dragon ran headlong in the woodland, going for several minutes until they could no longer see where grassland met forest before finally coming to a stop. Despite his daily roadwork, Harry was out of breath, but that was to be expected for going at a dead sprint for as long as he and Liv had.
The dragon, of course, was no worse for wear.
§Are you hurt?§ she asked, looking closely at the panting boy.
§I'm fine, just a little tired,§ he answered, before looking around and realizing he had no idea where in the Forbidden Forest he was. §Well, shit, I'm lost.§
§I can take you back, if you'd like,§ Liv offered. §It's the least I could do after you saved my life.§
§I'm good,§ said Harry, closing his eyes as he dismissed the effect of alter self.
Before the dragon's very eyes, the boy's straight blonde locks melted into unruly black ones and he lost a few inches in height, all while his robe lost its fancy-looking decorations.
§Harry? Is that you?§ asked the dragon. §What happened to you?§
§This is what I actually look like,§ said the boy, peeling off his robe and then pulling off his shirt. §I didn't want to be seen helping you, lest they try to get me in trouble, so I decided to look like somebody else.§
§I thought my eyes were tricking me because your meat changed right in front of me, but your aura remained the same,§ she said, leaning in and nuzzling the boy's skin, inhaling deeply. §You still smell the same.§
Harry nodded, though he wasn't paying particular attention; he needed to cast two spells in rapid succession, both with the same Form and Technique but with vastly different gestural components and visualizations.
Garuda mudra. Wings sprouting from his shoulder blades. "Muto corporem."
Tattva mudra. His body disappearing from view. "Muto corporem."
And just like that, he had grown wings and then turned invisible.
With three quick beats of his newly-formed wings, Harry took off from the ground, flying upwards until he broke tree cover; looking around, he sighted the direction of Hogwarts Castle before descending back to ground.
The dragon was gone; in her place was a naked girl with long, tousled hair the color of mud, olive skin, striking eyes the color of golden amber and a single strip of jet black skin as wide as her fingertip running down the length of her spine.
"Liv?" Harry asked, surprised at the sudden disappearance of the dragon and the appearance of a female human who looked to be about his own age. §Liv?§
The girl blinked and opened her mouth, but no sound came forth; instantly, her eyes widened and she looked stricken with panic, breathing suddenly becoming quick and shallow.
§Don't be scared, just watch me,§ Harry quickly said, looking dead into the girl's eyes with as reassuring a look as he could manage.
Right hand at chest level, palm facing outwards, thumb and forefinger touching in a circle, left hand down by his side, palm forward and a circle also made with thumb and index finger: the vitarka mudra. Every single word in existence pouring into his mind. "Muto corporem."
That was tongues.
The girl's brow furrowed for a moment as she seemed to concentrate. Then, her mouth opened, and words came out of her mouth.
"Harry? Is that you?" she asked, before frowning again. "My voice sounds weird."
"Liv?" he asked, and the girl nodded. "That's because you're speaking English and not Draconic, or whatever the language spoken by dragons is called," Harry explained. "How are you able to do this?"
The dragon-girl scratched her cheek as she looked thoughtful. "I can't explain it," she said with a shrug after a long moment. "I could always see your aura, but after you let me feel how Astral power felt, I just knew how to make it do what I wanted it to do as long as I saw you do it first."
"That makes sense, I suppose," said Harry. In Dungeons & Dragons, dragons had an innate understanding of magic and could cast their spells with mere thoughts, so it stood to reason it was a possibility real dragons could do the same.
§I'm hungry,§ blurted Liv, suddenly switching to the language of dragons. §I'm hungry!§
Harry sighed. §Better start learning how to hunt,§ he said. He had still yet to catch anything, but now was as good of a time as any to try. And maybe even succeed for the first time.
~ooOoo~
He couldn't catch anything.
It didn't matter though; the dragon was a fast learner, and after learning the principles of stalking prey by observing Harry as he hunted a rabbit, she had it down pat. When the spear he threw missed and the rabbit bolted, Liv took off after it like a shot; by the time Harry caught up, she was back in her dragon form, vigorously tearing into the carcass and devouring it faster than a speed eater at a contest. As he watched, she stalked, killed and ate two more before finally being satisfied with her meals.
Next was building a shelter; Harry had barely managed to raise an iron wall out of the dirt before Liv began raising three more and then plopping a roof down on top of it all, thereby creating her own fortified home in the middle of the Forbidden Forest.
Liv was very much a magical prodigy, and seeing her effortlessly duplicate the magic he needed to spend so much time and effort researching, developing and experimenting with to master made Harry envious. However, all he had to do was remember she was a dragon, a creature of great intelligence and powerful innate magic, and he felt less bad about it.
Unfortunately, Liv was still all of three weeks old, so despite her intelligence, she still lacked emotional maturity, and when it came time for Harry to depart the forest and return to the castle for the evening, she made him promise to visit every day.
He might have solved Hagrid's dragon problem, but now he had a dragon problem of his own.
Author's Notes: It's the return of Shadowrunner Harry, along with a look at how a team would prepare for a run. As you can probably tell by now, Harry is very process-driven; in the legwork phase alone, he does research, reconnaissance, uses his contacts and performs social engineering, then uses magic just before the run to establish cover, prepare for non-hostile contact and improve his chances of a successful infiltration. This isn't your mother's Harry Potter, that's for sure.
Frankly, it's always weirded me out that dragons in the Harry Potter series were treated as simple beasts; maybe it's because my background is in Dungeons & Dragons and Shadowrun, where dragons are hyper-intelligent manipulators of events with indeterminably long lives. Whatever the case, I made the decision to go with the "well, of course wizards don't think dragons are intelligent, they don't speak draconic" as an explanation as to why dragons are treated as beasts; as to why Liv is able to use magic, it's because all dragons, like any other paracritters, have the Astral Perception and can see Astral power as it is being manipulated, but they don't understand how to manipulate Astral power themselves, and only after Harry lets her feel what it's like does she understand it, though, being a genius, she pretty much figures out how to use it to replicate things she sees Harry do immediately, so her first incident of fire breathing is less biological and more magical.
As for why Harry treats Liv the way he does, it's a sense of terror at a creature that could one day take over the world from his understanding of dragons combined with a healthy respect of her as a sapient individual; by believing her more powerful than he could ever hope to be, Harry can only do so much to her, so he feels his best option is to guide her into becoming a version of Arleesh, an idealistic greater dragon who uses her powers to protect humanity from magical threats they simply aren't prepared for.
I'm happy to nerd out on names a bit more; as for why Harry knows all this, I took a bit of a liberty with tongues, which allows its target to speak and understand all languages, to include understanding language sources.
Writing Liv is hard; I have to mix childlike innocence with a more mature ability to the world because of her hyper-intelligence, and frankly, I'm not hyper-intelligent, so writing somebody smarter than me is really difficult.
Add arson to Harry's criminal record. Then again, if you don't get caught, it's not a crime.
Liv getting a human form is important to her future in the story; as for why she can become human by copying alter self, it's because the 2nd edition version of the spell specifies "human, humanoid or any other generally man-shaped bipedal creature". Of course, having never seen a naked person, she looks much more like a Barbie doll than a real person, so it's kind of weird (at least for now).
I like Liv being an absolute prodigy; I feel it contrasts greatly with Harry, who has to scratch and claw for every inch he gets, and I think it's important to establish that this version of Harry isn't so much a genius like Liv but an exceptionally hard worker who is willing to put in as much work as he has to just to get to where he is now, and having a prodigy overshadow him affects his psychology. The only real downside to Liv's magic is she needs to see somebody else using it first, but that shouldn't be a problem for a dragon living in the magical world.
I will be moving cross-country in the coming week, so the next update may be delayed (though I hope it won't be).
Read, review, PM... like somebody rewatching a movie, you know how it goes.
Credit to Shinshikaizer for the original story pitch and goalie12345 for copy-editing. Furthermore, my thanks to Romantically Distant for additional editing and proofing.