Disclaimer:

I don't own anything to do with the Harry Potter universe, J. K Rowling has that honor. I also don't own anything to do with Temeraire, that wonderful Naomi Novik does. I'm just borrowing the verses for a bit.

As always, if something looks funny/out of place, please let me know!

My tumblr under the name of TheMadDalek has pictures I've made of Julien and of Temeraire. You might need to dig for Temeraire but Julien is pretty close to the top there.

Chapter 2: Headaches ahoy!

Part 2

Continuation of the previous chapter.

"I did not, attach myself that is. The rope caught on my boot, the tying to you was done by your captain. I believe you had another barrel of water there, it was lost before you left the ship." Captain Laurence hurriedly said through chattering teeth, wrapping his coat ever tighter around himself and tucking his legs in close in a futile attempt at keeping his body heat. The man was trying to find a good position to rest on Harry's back but was having a hell of a time in doing so.

Harry knew his wing design was an odd kind not seen on all that many dragons and that they would lead to strange sitting habits for his passengers until he grew to a massive size, that is assuming Gregory was correct in judging and Harry was of a heavyweight breed. But as it was right now, any rider would have to sit like they were either almost lying down on their stomach with legs pointed straight back or sit as Laurence was doing with folded legs, knees up. If they tried to sit as they would on a horse and they weren't sitting where Gregory was right at the base of Harry's neck with their legs hanging on either side of the neck, they would wind up with their knees at face level because their feet would be resting on Harry's back.

Though standing seemed, according to Gregory when Harry asked about crews, to be the default way of travel on most large dragons as you couldn't really get in a comfortable sitting position unless you folded your legs with the shape of most dragons; dangling legs just didn't work out well with the larger breeds.

'Pity my wings are so oddly shaped, though I bet I can soar far better and longer than most breeds' Harry mused while watching Captain Laurence wiggling into a better position to avoid the wings and fail to be intimidating while freezing to death. His orders to surrender quickly turned to pleas when Harry started moving again, away from the ships and possible death. The other Captain tapered off to silence as Gregory suddenly produced the pistol he still had on him and aimed it at the Englishman in order to make a point; Captain Laurence was their prisoner not the other way around.

The winds tossed them around on the vicious waves and Harry heard Gregory curse loudly as a rather large wave tried to tip Harry onto his back. Righting himself was difficult with the pistol out, but the man did managed it quite well. Even Captain Laurence hung on long enough for Harry to level out.

"You have an egg!" came the blurted statement from said prisoner when he had finally pulled himself back into position, his eyes having dropped from the pistol and noticed Gregory's other arm was preoccupied with keeping the egg from sliding too much now that it was being held by only one hand.

"Yes, and you will not get" Gregory responded threateningly in his fake broken English. "This egg and yourself, to the Emperor!"

Captain Laurence sputtered a bit in shock, shaking his head and looking wildly about as if for some sign of friendlies being nearby to help take the egg and dragonet into custody. But he only got another face full of water when Harry tilted himself to keep from being pulled under a group of nasty waves.

"Or, we could just go with the nice Englishman" Harry bit out sarcastically in French, irritation heavily tainting his tone as the sight of a purely empty sea loomed before them in all it's raging glory. The rain was coming down lighter now but the wind was picking up, moving faster and harder around them. What little Harry could see did not bode well for their little group, there was no land, no ships, no end to the mighty storm in sight, only the promise of a cold, dark death. If it were just Harry and his sibling, he could dump the water out of the barrel and put the egg and horse blanket in the barrel and while keeping it close to his body for warmth, just dive into the water to wait out the storm, coming up every so often to make sure the barrel wasn't leaking water in and the egg wasn't getting too cold.

But he had two riders now and no way to keep them from drowning if he went under accidentally, which was looking more and more likely with the way this storm was carrying on...unless, he found two of the bigger barrels! Yes! He could do that!

Mind made up, Harry started wheeling around quickly, though carefully, not stopping or explaining himself no matter how much his two riders complained or questioned him. Even in the poor weather it was easy to spot the wreckage strewn all about on the waves, but none of it was very big, what with them being so far out from the actual site of sinking. So he would need to go back, which he didn't want to do or else they could get caught!

He dithered on the spot for a moment, watching the rain fall in a sideways motion because of how hard the wind was blowing, before finally making the decision. Harry swiftly turned right around to head back to where he knew the Reliant was last, making sure not to throw anyone overboard with his quick movement. Gregory didn't complain about the direction change at first, too busy fussing at Captain Laurence, who was the only one of the two that seemed to notice they were going back, but soon the French Captain was in good form, shouting about going back into the jaws of the lion and all that rubbish.

And Harry wasn't sure if his idea would work or not so didn't supply him with a reason for going back; if there were no barrels then it was a busted plan and Harry would have to figure something else out. Maybe find something for the humans to float on or a big enough yet light enough bit of the ship for them to huddle under until the storm let up, like a torn bit of sail.

Which is what Harry came across first. It was just big enough for the humans only, not big enough for two humans and a dragon, but he grabbed it in a forepaw anyway when he floated over it. If he found another big enough for himself he would be set! A few more minutes of floating later and barrels came into view, but they were all smaller ones that would be impossible to stuff a living adult human into. You could put a cut up dead one in there but that wasn't Harry's intention.

There! Just ahead, a cluster of four large barrels all tied together were being kept afloat by a large piece of wood under them, probably the floor of the Fish. A man lay near them, which explained why they were there. Excitement buzzed through the dragonet as he approached, only to be snuffed out as it was made clear the poor French soul had bled out from a gut wound.

Harry heard both men on his back say a prayer in their native tongue for the dead sailor while Harry started untying the barrels with fumbling wingpaws, he only needed two. The water and wind were making it much more difficult than it should be to get the knots undone but they did come loose eventually. Once finished, he opened the barrels, dumped out the water and fish from them and then stared down into them to make sure water wasn't leaking in. It wasn't in either one, save for the waves tossing them about and getting water in through the top along with the rain. Harry then indicated that his companions should climb into one each after he rinsed the barrels out to get rid of the fish slime.

"Are you mad?" Captain Laurence said incredulously, eying the barrels with horror painting his features as Harry dumped out the rain and sea water that had just collected after he flipped them back over. "We will drown or suffocate in there!"

Harry scoffed and shook his head "no, I swim very fast under water, much faster than above, this is true. But I can not do this with riders and I have no way to keep you under water without you drowning, yes. So I will instead take the weight from me, you will both be in the barrels on either side of me, I will put the cloth-" and here he held up the sail cloth he had snagged earlier "-over the top to keep the waves from coming in too much. Then I will hold my wings over the the barrels and tuck you into my sides with them."

Here he demonstrated pulling the barrels up to near his armpits on the wing limbs. "This way you will not move over much on the water and I will be of lighter weight. We need to get you both out of the weather, and if you are in there, and against my body without water or wind on you, you will stay warm and will dry." Harry answered curtly, his dragon pride wounded.

Both men gaped a bit, still uncomprehending of the idea that a dragon could come up with such a complex plan right on the spot. Gregory snapped out of the daze first when Harry had to yet again dump out more water, laughing uproariously as he pushed Captain Laurence toward one of the barrels.

"In" he said simply, pointing the pistol at the other Captain in a warning when the man didn't immediately respond. "We will try it your way Julien, if nothing else we can use the barrels to keep you afloat at least." Gregory added while still ushering the other Captain toward the barrel. Captain Laurence was very hesitantly moving to the front of the dragonet, the only place to slide off into the barrels from without going into the water first. The man was almost crawling over Gregory's lap due to the lack of space on the young dragon right now.

Harry nodded and used his teeth to rip the sail cloth into a mostly even pair of makeshift lids while Captain Laurence, with narrowed eyes, sighed heavily and finally slipped into the indicated barrel, feet first, holding the wooden lid that Harry passed to him over his head and near the lip of the barrel to keep the water out until Harry could put the sail cloth over it. The cloth wasn't water proof, Harry knew, but it would keep the rain from getting in too quickly and the sea spray off of the humans when used in concert with Harry's wings.

"You do speak English! And very well it seems." Captain Laurence said with a frown, obviously not pleased in the least that they had pretended otherwise.

Gregory huffed a laugh and tucked the pistol back into its place, missing a few times with all the shivering he was doing, before sliding into the other barrel, both being held in place by Harry's hidden forepaws so that the wings could be used to shelter them from the rain; would be pretty ridiculous to get the humans in the barrels only to have them sitting in belly deep water. Right now if anyone saw the dragonet from the air, he would look quite akin to a sea bird laying on the surface of the water, wings out as they tried to find some fish below.

The egg was tucked more firmly into Gregory's arms as the man situated himself and Harry gave him one long, searching look, getting a tired yet trusting smile from the man in reply, before the dragon used one wingpaw to lay the cloth over the top of the barrel. The cloth was heavy enough to stay in place so long as the barrel didn't tip too much to allow it to slid off and Harry repeated the gesture with Captain Laurence with the other wingpaw, no matter how much the man protested.

With both barrels now full of human - in one case human and egg - Harry turned about and snagged a bit of rope from a nearby ship piece that had some dangling on it, whatever had been lashed to it having been lost to the sea some time ago. The rope was quickly tied to the barrels as they tried to run off, one end around each and then pulled tightly to keep the two together in a mockery of the tin-can phones Harry had seen children make on the telly back when he was a little boy living on Privet Drive. They floated quite nicely and would surely give Harry a fight once he got them under his wings. The dragonet gently put the rope over his head to rest at the base of his neck so that if the barrels started floating too far down his body the rope would catch on his shoulders and keep them close enough to catch again. Not that he planned on letting them drift now that he had them tied.

The corks that plugged up the wooden lids were removed and placed under the cloth into the barrels so that the lids could be threaded onto another bit of rope and also hung on Harry's neck. They might come in handy later for whatever reason and Harry wasn't too keen on just dumping potentially useful materials at this point.

Harry grabbed a couple of small, floating casks of water or wine, which ever the case may be, and tied them to his chest with another rope, adding them to the cask of water he had managed to smuggle off of their doomed ship.

The old wizard turned dragon let the two occupants of the barrels know he was tucking them under the wings now before he pushed them into place. At first, keeping them there was near impossible, as the barrels didn't have a very good shape for gripping with the wings. The rope was the only thing keeping them from just popping off to do their own thing on the punishing waves. Eventually Harry managed to get them in the spot near his neck with the other barrels so he could fold the wings in like a cape and clasp his wing-paws together, this way the barrels had no choice but to stay in his little water arena.

It was an awkward affair to tell the truth. Keeping the barrels from slipping out from under him wasn't the issue now, it was making sure he stayed on the path he selected to travel with the barrels pushing him in different directions with the help of the vicious winds of the storm. A couple of times a wave was particularly violent and popped one of the water barrels loose from the rope around his chest due to the awkward way that his wings kept the rope from being tied directly around the front, it was more around the neck and crossed over the chest. He wound up moving the supply barrels to his back with the help of the two Captains when the wind and rain let up enough for them to climb out.

This was helping tremendously in preventing the barrels from all knocking into each other and making scrambled eggs of the people inside and tossing the dragonet off course; even for his size Harry was a light dragon in terms of weight, though that would change as he grew and put on some muscle and extra fat where needed for a healthy dragon.

Pushing with all the strength he had left in him, the dragonet propelled himself swiftly over the water once the humans were back in the barrels proper. His tail, forepaws and legs worked overtime to get them away from the storm, which was slowly moving behind them now instead of almost chasing them. 'This is going to be a long and tiring trip' he mused, listening to the occasional shouted bickering between barrels the two Captains would engage in over whatever little thing popped into their heads at the time. It was hard to hear them very well over the storm, but sometimes Harry got a little chuckle out of something that was said.

Six hours and thirty-four hellish minutes after they had been stuffed in those "godforsaken barrels" the two Captains were allowed to take the cloth off and relocate to the soaked horse-blanket again, the barrels were left under the dragon with the wooden lids back on and corks in place to help reduce the strain of staying afloat down to a more manageable kind. The sun was out and very warm at the moment, waves still present but not at all as violent as before; the only sign of the storm they had been in earlier was a thick black line on the horizon behind them that lit up with tiny white flashes of lightning every few minutes.

Very early on during their stops to either empty their bladders, check the direction of the still raging storm, or get vague ideas of where land might be, Captain Laurence spotted another couple of smallish containers floating nearby that when checked, appeared to each be filled with assorted nuts and some kind of dried meat and both men exclaimed in delight at the find as it hadn't occurred to Harry just how he was going to feed these two; they couldn't eat raw fish and Harry had quite forgotten they couldn't just cook on the go. Maybe if he was a fire breather, in the future he could cook the food for whomever needed it, but if he wasn't then this issue would come up if the need to be out at sea without a ship ever happened again.

Both Captains had fallen into the kind of camaraderie one only gets when you brave death together, in this case a sea battle and one mighty storm, it rather reminded Harry of his friendships with Ron and Hermione after the troll. Though Harry was sure these two couldn't actually be called 'friends' at this time; more like they respected one another quite a bit more than before but haven't gotten out of the 'You're alright for an English/French man' stage yet. Harry hoped that even if they didn't get to the friends bit at any point in their lives, they would at least get to and stay at the 'Okay, I grudgingly like you, I guess I won't kill you' stage.

The two were spending a lot of the drying time trying to outdo the other in terms of war stories, scars, horrible family events they've either successfully - or more often unsuccessfully as in Captain Laurence's case - managed to dodge or navigate without too many bruised egos or social mishaps. Even with all the stories flying back and forth they never really said anything; everything was carefully edited just enough to keep the idea of the thing but not to give away anything important about themselves.

It was like watching two Purebloods from Slytherin House having a 'friendly debate', a few veiled insults, plenty of self congratulatory back patting, loads of 'my family' this or 'our holdings' that. It was enough to give Harry a major headache yet for some reason he just couldn't bring himself to step in unless it seemed blood would be spilt.

'Yes, it's going to be a long trip indeed' he thought with a sigh, setting his body to a good drifting pace by lazily swinging his tail and kicking every so often with his legs. This wouldn't cause him to become too tired to move if the need arose; they couldn't afford to sit still and rest entirely lest the enemy find them, but they couldn't just go on at full speed anymore either. All of the dragonet's muscles hurt in some fashion by now and he knew pushing himself would do more harm than good.

'Just a few more days and we can be aloft, much easier to spot land from above. We can do this, it'll be easy once we know where we are and direction we should be going. '

He really should know by now to never think such thoughts as it only seems to trigger the bad parts of the Potter Luck.

*Time skip four days*

Harry had grown again, and boy it was a huge difference from the first four days of growth he experienced after hatching. Now, although he didn't think he could fly very far with more than one person on him, he could certainly carry both humans on his back and their supply casks without much difficulty over water. The barrels with the food and drink were back under his body and the two empty barrels they used for sleeping in or hiding from weather, were once again tucked under the wings, ready to give the two men some respite from the blazing sun when they had finally had enough of it. As it was the two were intently staring down at the bit of the horse blanket between them that was occupied by the egg, watching for any sign of life. The little one had been making noise all morning only to fall eerily silent an hour ago, just before noon struck. Both men had grim looks on their faces and Harry dearly wanted to tell them the little one was just gearing up for the finale, but that would reveal the fact that Harry could sense his sibling in a way dragons here shouldn't. Gregory had been very informative about dragons and the Corps when Captain Laurence had started asking questions out of boredom yesterday.

Harry now knew more about how a dragon should be in this world, even siblings, than he had before. And as he sat there listening to the soft whispers of the two men, adding his own reassurances that things would be alright every so often, he kept to himself the fact that the dragon inside was reaching out to him in a way with its emotions. 'This mental thing I've got going on is either something the people of this world just don't know about or its something about me...maybe having had a bit of Riddle stuck to my soul all that time is doing me some good now'

A loud ruckus started up in the egg and Harry quickly looked over his back to see the two Captains sharing an excited glance with one another. The sight brought a smile to the dragonet's lips. Right now it didn't matter that they were two enemy soldiers in a quiet part of the war, right now they were only two humans filled with relief that a little dragon hadn't perished before entering the world and giving life a damn good shot. The top of the egg flaked off suddenly and a little black nose pressed to the new hole, a tongue flickered out like a snake to taste the air, then the nose popped back into the egg again. Harry got a wave of fear and distrust from the dragon in the egg, aimed at no one in particular, but at the world outside the egg as a whole.

The older dragonet sent a soft feeling of comfort and excitement to meet his sibling toward the little one, hoping that would help lure it out before the fear of hatching actually kicked in like when Harry came into the world. A negative squeak was the reply, much to the elder's amusement. It seemed his sibling was not easily fooled and would be doing this the hard way. More rattling and scraping inside the egg and another hole opened up, this time on the side facing Harry's head, and a tiny blue eye glared out at him, vertical pupil turning to an angry black viper slit as the dragon inside the egg tried to focus on Harry. Another rush of emotion from the hatching dragon, this one of happy delight at finally seeing the dragon outside the egg that the foreign voice and feelings belonged to.

Gregory was holding the egg in place now with both hands, as the tiny beast inside was rocking it too much to let it rest on its own, it would roll off into the sea if they didn't keep a good grip on it. Captain Laurence was breathing swiftly, eyes wide with excitement and a little bit of fear, but the man was also reaching out to the egg to hold it steady.

The eye pulled away quickly and the baby kicked out with all its might a few times until finally the egg split in two, forcing the men to pull their hands away, and there was a floppy little black dragon dramatically flailing around between Harry's two human companions like a freshly caught fish.

"Oh, hello" Harry breathed softly in French, watching in awe at the sight of his slime covered baby brother, for the little one was a he, slowly trying to stand up and take his first few steps on the horse blanket. The little dragon was pure black with only tiny hints of blue in places. His body type was close to Harry in appearance except his head was more triangular than Harry's and the body wasn't so long. He also had forelimbs that matched his hind limbs in size and lacked the wing paws that Harry possessed.

The little one tilted his head back over his shoulders to look upside down at Harry with bright blue eyes, as he was facing tail first toward Harry's front, and gave a little dragon equivalent of a grin as he wobbled in place.

"OH HELLO!" he chirped loudly, his tiny voice startled both humans into a laugh before their brains caught up with the fact that it had spoken in excellent English without any hint of a French accent. Harry didn't care what language his brother used or couldn't use, he could swear every other word and be mixing tongues left and right and Harry would love him just the same. A fierce protectiveness that borderlined on the possessive reared up in him and it seemed to echo back from the little black slime covered being before him.

"Hello, little brother, I am Julien. I am your big brother. Welcome to life outside the egg" Harry said in French, repeating it in English for Captain Laurence and the little one, just in case he for some reason didn't learn French in the egg. He slowly lowered his nose down to the youngling and was touched when the little guy clumsily flipped around, tiny claws catching in the blanket, to press his own nose to Harry's in a light bump, flicking his tongue out in a tiny wet kiss.

As he pulled away, the hatchling chirped back in perfect French "Who am I?" now appearing to have all the right inflections and no hint that it wasn't his native tongue, looking around at the two men and one large dragon with an expectant air, gently alternating between flaring and tucking his wings to make them dry. Gregory let out an explosive sigh at the question and eyed Captain Laurence in way as if to suggest the man were suddenly a venomous viper that might strike out at the hatchling if it got too close.

"We shall come up with one if you like? But I do not think it such a good idea, you see, as your Captain should be the one to christen you. It is a very important part of the bond. I am Gregory LaCroix, Julien's Captain." He answered carefully, taking a small bit of sail cloth they normally use to wash themselves, to gently clear away the slime on the new dragon's face.

Captain Laurence narrowed his eyes at the continued conversation in French before bringing up the obvious issue. "So, now that you have hatched a feral dragonet, what do you plan to do with it?"

Gregory frowned a bit and put the cloth down on the blanket, turning to face Captain Laurence only just and pursing his lips. "That is undecided at this moment, but I will come up with something soon"

Harry turned away from the two men as his little brother came and sat up on Harry's left shoulder, right forepaw planted on the base of Harry's neck for balance, hanging his tiny head down Harry's front to look at the water below. Harry could tell just by looking at him that his brother - not a twin obviously - would not be suited to life under water at all. He had no webbing between his slender toes, his hands and feet looked like proper hands and feet instead of half paw like Harry's, his delicate looking fan like wings were very different from Harry's own sturdy dinosaur like gliders and the lad didn't have a funky nose, so would probably drown if he took a breath under water. This confused Harry greatly because he had been sure he was this one's brother. But their designs told a different story.

'Well blood or not he's my little brother now and I'm not letting him go. We could still be related, maybe we each look more like one parent than the other? We have mostly the same coloring and shape is fairly close with only some differences. Mainly its our details that are different. Otherwise we could be of the same bloodline.' Harry thought with a soft smile as the tiny beast got his sea legs at last and started back to the two arguing Captains. He quickly snatched up a part of eggshell and after a quick glance back at Harry, he stuffed most of it in his little mouth and chewed. Harry smiled as the little one spat it back out with a look of hatred on his face. He glared down at the shell pieces and hissed in displeasure before jerking his head up to look at the humans.

"Who am I?" he butted in and asked again, this time in English as his eyes zeroed in on Captain Laurence. Harry felt his gut plummet at that, his brother had a very fixed look in his body language that spoke volumes to another dragon but would just seem like an attentive stance to any human; his little brother was choosing Will Laurence as his Captain.

"Well I...I do not have the faintest idea." Captain Laurence sputtered, looking over at a very sour Gregory and then to a carefully neutral Harry. "I am a Navy man, Captain of an excellent ship called the Reliant. I have never had to name a dragon before! Indeed, I would not know the first thing about how to care for one!"

The little dragon huffed in irritation at this - in his obvious opinion - thoroughly lacking answer and his head turned back to Harry. "Who am I?" he almost whispered in a sort of desperate voice. Harry's eyes turned sad and he opened his mouth to tell the dear thing he couldn't name him or his Captain wouldn't get the wonderful chance to do so, when Captain Laurence breathed out a soft "Temeraire". No one moved for a moment as the little one turned to look at Captain Laurence with a sharp eye. "What does it mean?"

"Well one translation is 'Bold', I suppose it really depends, you see, on how you use it." Gregory answered, watching Captain Laurence carefully now.

"I was only thinking, this one ship called the Temeraire, it was quite a magnificent ship indeed. And you are magnificent yourself, if quite a bit smaller than the original Temeraire...does that name suit you?" Captain Laurence looked quite embarrassed and not at all sure if he should have suggested the name of a ship for a such a fine beast as this dragon appeared to be. But the little dragon just perked up and chirped like a bird a few times.

"Temeraire. I am Temeraire, little brother to Julien." he then turned again and stretched his little neck out as far as it would go toward Harry, who lowered his head so that his nose touched Temeraire's gently once more. "Hello big brother, I am Temeraire!" Temeraire crowed happily.

Harry smiled and caught an amused smirk from Gregory. "Hello Temeraire" he whispered, his breath ghosted over the still wet hatchling, making it shiver a bit. Gregory then groaned loudly and started cursing about the fact that now Temeraire was an English dragon. Captain Laurence looked like he was torn between being ecstatically smug that he had managed to steal a dragon of note from the French and horrified that now his Navy days were over...And both he and Temeraire were now French prisoners.

"No, Julien is a French dragon, Captain Gregory is a French Captain. I am a French dragon, therefore Captain Laurence is a French Captain." Temeraire said, his face wrinkling in confusion, darting his eyes between the two humans and his big brother. Gregory laughed a bit and patted Temeraire on his still sticky back. "It does not work that way, little one. Captain Laurence is a French prisoner but an English Captain. Dragons earn their affiliation by being captured or hatched to someone and they then become of whatever side the Captain is" he said gently, wiping his hand on the blanket under them, but Temeraire was having none of it, shaking his head wildly like a dog with fleas in his ears.

"No, no, but he was a Captain of an English ship. He was not an English Aviator. I am a French dragon, he cannot be Captain of a ship too, can he? If he cannot, then he is not an English Captain anymore, he is a French Aviator because he is my Captain, and I am not an English dragon." and Harry had to hand it to the kid, he was dead set on being a French dragon, and his argument made sense in that wonderful way that a child's mind operates.

"Well, no he cannot have a Captaincy of both a dragon and ship. And as you have chosen him, although, pray I do advise you to reconsider, he is now an Aviator by law." Gregory added as Temeraire waddled over to Captain Laurence and plopped himself down on the man's lap as best an almost three foot long, without counting his neck and tail, dragon hatchling could. "I am hungry" Temeraire said, looking up at his Captain with big eyes.

"Feed him fish" Harry laughed, plucking a couple of the fish he had caught earlier that morning out of the small cargo net they had salvaged yesterday evening off a floating island of seaweed, and tossing said fish to a disbelieving Captain Laurence. The net was torn in places and was obviously not from one of the ships they had been near during the storm, it was much older looking and now hung low on Harry's neck base where Gregory sat only two days before, but the extra growing Harry had done had given them a lot more room to move about. If he grew anymore quickly before they got anywhere with materials to work with, Gregory would have to cut the already painfully tight harness loose so it wouldn't damage the dragonet anymore than it already had. The horse blanket saddle would go too, as it was attached to the harness, though the blankets themselves might still be used if rope was tied to them instead. The leather was certainly not going to be usable soon as any slack the crew who made it had given the adjustable parts, was fast running out.

Temeraire didn't even wait for his Captain to offer the fish. As soon as the fish landed in the man's arms, Temeraire leaned up and snatched them both up in his mouth and started trying to swallow both whole at once. He managed it only just without choking and then stared expectantly at the net where many other fish of various sizes and breeds lay baking in the sun. Harry rolled his eyes in fondness at the smaller dragon's antics and then motioned with his head "Have at them then, you savage". Temeraire dove at the net with gusto and Captain Laurence put his head in his hands and uttered a quiet "How has it come to this, I ask?" it was obvious that the man was not happy to be an Aviator of any sort, and certainly not looking forward to being a French one, especially not under duress.

*Time skip two weeks later*

"I do not see why we cannot go up there with them, it is not as exciting down here." Temeraire pouted from his position on the gently rolling waves. His head was pointing skyward where a large black and gray dragon shaped blob could be seen soaring high above them. William Laurence sighed for what felt like the seventeenth time in as many minutes and gave his thoroughly irritating at times dragon a pat on the neck "Believe me, my dear, if it were at all possible for you to take us aloft and we would not loose our supplies to the waves, I would much prefer being up there to being down here. At least then we would have more of a breeze. Only a few more days, I think, and then we too can take to the air. You should be, by then, big enough to carry a few of the barrels for a long while before tiring."

Temeraire had grown rather quickly in the two weeks since his hatching and the once thin beast was bulking up fairly well. His once short limbs were getting longer while the body filled out to a wider frame, marking him as either a medium or heavy weight breed. Five fingered feet and hands became much more dexterous and his fan like wings were getting to be truly impressive. He even had small fins on his head! Like tiny elephant ears he could move about to tell his mood with. All the blues and grays that could be found on him were now much more vibrant against his otherwise pure black base color. And although Temeraire did not seem to be growing in the same places as Julien, he was still a big dragon at this stage, around twenty-two feet in length if one avoided adding his neck and tail to the count, which both William and LaCroix were sure added at least ten more feet to his overall size.

Having gotten a bit of size meant he could now wear Julien's old harness, modified for his shape as best they could on the fly, of course, and even had a sail cloth seat for William to sit on when the man was not paddling along side the young dragon. How long he was able to fit in the old harness without too much discomfort, though, was a huge question, already the dragon was gaining mass faster than his elder brother, most of it in the chest and wings, and the harness was not built for him specifically; flying with it would not be recommended at all with more than just a single occupant.

That did not mean, however, that the elder had not grown any or was not an impressive beast himself. No, Julien was a rather large dragon now, gaining most of his size in length and height. The tail and neck made up most of the growth, but the body was still far longer than he was when Temeraire hatched. Now he had to be, without the tail and neck, at least thirty feet long, though he could be more. Add the tail and neck and there was no telling how long he was without measuring him. His wings though had to be near fifty feet across, perhaps longer! The dragon was nearly all wing once you got him to spread them out and Captain LaCroix was sure that the wings would still be a lot larger than the dragon even when he grew to his full size. The wings were good for more than flight though. William had seen the brute cut through the water with them as if it was air and the mere sight of it was a sobering thing for the Englishman; the French had a fine war machine here in Julien, who was turning out to be a heavyweight breed from his continued growth, what kind of beast of war would poor Temeraire turn out to be? A water spitter? A fire breather? Whatever he was he was now in French hands no matter where William's heart truly lay.

It was hot out on the sea today and very little wind made for a very uncomfortable time for the two men on dragon back. So, when the day got hot, most or all of the clothes came off and were neatly folded and placed on the seat of which ever dragon was nearest. In this case it was Temeraire who was holding the clothes that belonged to William, who was floating on his back alongside Temeraire, as LaCroix did not need to strip down much these days now that Julien was big enough to fly. The man spent a lot of his time in the air, cooling down and watching for any sign of life aside from themselves in the hopes of having some sort of rescue. Both Captains would trade off on who would go up and who would remain in the water with the supplies, as neither dragon had a harness that could carry anything that couldn't cling to it.

It had been a true fight to get LaCroix to let William and Temeraire go up in the first place; the man was fearful, and rightly so, that William would try to escape as soon as Temeraire was able to fly long distances. But the Frenchman was eventually convinced by Temeraire himself, who was not going to let his big brother out of his sight, not even if William ask him to flee would he do so. The poor thing was quite attached, though William had hope that once Temeraire was older, he would not cling to the other dragon so much. It was interesting to see just how close Temeraire and even William himself, had gotten emotionally to both Julien and his Captain. William kept telling himself they would be gone at the first true chance they got, his dragon would surely listen if William's life was on the line? But each time they had even a whisper of a chance, William would hesitate to give the order and they would wind up back in the water alongside the other dragon, stuck under guard and unable to escape. Though escape to where was also a huge factor in the Englishman's reluctance to leave their little group.

William was pulled from his thoughts as Temeraire suddenly made a noise of awe when Julien turned sharply, sending Captain LaCroix into a mad scramble just to stay on the ropes they were using as a harness. 'So much time in the air, it is relaxing, he tells me, though I cannot see how being so high up could possibly be relaxing, as even when Temeraire is flying low I have difficulties. Perhaps being a Navy man for so long has made the sea so much a part of me that I shall never truly understand.' the man mused, watching the long dragon dance above them like a ribbon in the wind, tail lashing against invisible foes as he moved in an almost serpentine way when he tucked his wings in.

William than glanced over at the forlorn look his dragon was sporting.

It was his default look as of late, ever since his older brother had taken to wing for the first time, leaving the barrels behind in the water below to be guarded; the provisions tied to the two barrels that the men used as hideouts at times. One hideout had William in it that day Julien took to the skies, the other had Temeraire, who had gaped in awe as the larger dragon drifted on the air and preformed a beautiful ballet just moments after getting aloft. The little dragon kept raising up in the barrel, wings spreading out and closing in a way that suggested he would be up there in a flash if not for the stern order from Julien to stay put before he had taken off.

Now Temeraire could only fit his head into one of the big barrels, having outgrown the hideouts too fast for William's comfort yet at the same time it gave the Englishman some hope that he too would soon be away from these horrid conditions. Sleeping in a barrel was not ideal for a properly rested body and soul. Eating nuts, dried meat, and whatever fish they could stomach raw was wreaking their bellies and often times left them feeling sick most days. They had run out of water yesterday and were now on the last two barrels of wine; if they didn't find land soon they would be in trouble, Temeraire was not able to drink wine or the sea water and would need water possibly tomorrow. If Temeraire could get in the air too, abandoning the supplies, they could all head out in a direction that might lead them to land of some sort. As it was, because they needed to keep what little supplies they had left with them, they were at the mercy of the winds and waves and could only hope they took the group to where they needed to be quickly enough for them to survive.

The dragons were indeed big enough to split the barrels between them, letting them both carry some in their hands and feet, but the extra weight would be murder on Temeraire at this time, perhaps also on Julien, as neither dragon had been eating all that well and were rather a bit more on the wrong side of worn from all the swimming they have had to do. Julien maybe an aquatic sort, but even he could not live in the water all the time. Temeraire certainly was not made for water at all, and the time he had spent in it was doing a lot of damage to his skin and nature.

"Oh look! They are coming down fast!" Temeraire shouted excitedly, swiftly raising one of his hands from the water and pointing eagerly up at the diving pair. Julien was rushing toward them now, body and tail undulating in the wind, wings flaring at the last minute with a boom of air, casting a rather gloriously large shadow over William and his dragon before the bigger beast landed with a mighty splash. William crawled up onto Temeraire's back and started putting his clothes back on, chancing a look while gathering the nearest piece of attire, he addressed Captain LaCroix. "That was a quite the entrance. I say, what brought it on?"

The French Captain had a bright grin on his face and he patted an equally happy Julien on the shoulder. "French ships not far from here, I can flag them down by using some of that torn sail cloth, then we wait until they arrive. They will have food and water enough for us at least. The dragons are well off on their own hunting I think. Except Temeraire, he will need fresh water."

Dread flooded William suddenly as Temeraire happily babbled to his elder sibling about the coming rescue. The blessed beast had no idea what would happen to William once they were on those ships, at best he would be treated like a honored foe, watched at every moment and given no chance at true freedom. At worse, he would be treated as a dog that they would put down as soon as a proper Frenchman was on Temeraire. William watched as the other Captain took the largest bit of sail cloth he could find and urged Julien back into the air, the two calling out in French to each other in order to coordinate how they would approach the ships as friendlies.

Temeraire turned around and his smile started to slip once he noticed William's face. "What is the matter? We are being rescued, is that not grand?" he asked, his childlike way of thinking made William hurt just a little inside; he had no idea how to explain the coming situation to Temeraire, who was still so sure that William was now French no matter what the man told him.

AN:

Okay so that's the second and last part of chapter 2 ended. Did you like the Captain Laurence POV at the end there? Would you like more parts like that where I have bits with Temeraire or Captain Laurence? Harry's POV would of course be the one I do almost all the time as it is his story, mostly, but would you like me to switch it up like I did at that last bit sometime?

No idea when chapter 3 will be up as although I do have most of it written, I do have to go over it a bit and pull things out or put things in as I have changed chapter 2 a lot since I wrote 3 out in full.

Casting/Voice casting for the story. These are the faces/voices I see or hear when writing the characters, of course no one is stopping you from having your own casting as you read them XD. Just change the color of the hair and or eyes, or add/remove facial hair, if any, of the actors for the humans to fit the characters. Add accents to all relevant voices to fit the characters too. Temeraire mostly sounds English, but when he speaks French he sounds proper French. Julien and Gregory have a French accent while Laurence is obviously English.

Temeraire: Martin Freeman

Julien: Sir Derek Jacobi

Gregory LaCroix: Nigel Bennett

William Laurence: Timothy Dalton