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.

Chapter 3: Trouble comes calling.

Part one.

Harry suddenly felt a sharp wave of sympathy and quite a bit of sorrow roll through him as he slowly looked back down at Temeraire when the elder flew over the other dragon and his visibly shaken Captain. It was plainly obvious Temeraire had no idea the true nature of the situation at hand, that both he and his Captain were going to be watched heavily, untrusted with anything but the simplest of tasks just because the Captain was an Englishman and a prisoner at that. Even if by some stroke of luck Captain Laurence chose to just accept his current lot in life, that he was now a member of the French Aviator's corps in service to the Emperor Napoleon, even then it would take a lot to prove he wasn't going to turn on them at any point. Trusting one's enemies wasn't smart especially when that enemy hadn't defected to your service, just been acquired by way of harnessing a dragon that was dead set on staying French, though how long that lasted was anyone's guess.

"I do not like the idea that Temeraire will be seen as a danger to our people over a choice in Captain" Harry announced to his own Captain after they were almost too far away to see either Temeraire or Captain Laurence. Gregory was tying the sail cloth to a bit of torn leather to use as a handle for waving the material about and looked grim when Harry glanced back at him when the man didn't immediately speak. The man pulled the knot tight and shook his head, huffing a soft word of complaint to the contraption when the cloth merely slipped loose and wouldn't stay put in the slick knot of leather.

"Nor do I, my dear. Nor do I. We cannot do much now as Temeraire is, quite unfortunately, taken with Captain Laurence. I am afraid that we, and they, must endure it all and keep a good nature about it." the man replied, finally tossing the leather off into the sea below with a grunt of irritation and decided to just wrap the end of the cloth around his hand a few times. He gave the ropes they were using as the harness around Harry's neck and body a good pull so as to test the slack, before slowly leaning around Harry's neck to see where the ships were now that they had been flying toward them at a relatively good speed for around ten minutes.

What had once been toy sized objects in the distance were now full sized ships bobbing on the deep blue seas. When they were tiny things far off from them, Gregory had said they were probably a scouting or patrol party, as he couldn't see any other reason at this point in time for that many ships to be so far out from land, or at least Gregory assumed land was far out just because they couldn't see anything even from this height. That many ships could also be a war party returning from a battle, though that could be a problem, as they may not have the supplies needed if they were repairing ships and feeding prisoners.

Now that they were right on them, however, Harry could see that the French ships were a fairly large group all clustered together, many of them had people on deck with not only their personal weapons now at the ready, but also the ships' guns, no doubt in response to seeing an unknown breed of dragon that could be hostile heading right for them. As it turned out the ships were a war party and it was full of battle worn frigates and one rather odd looking beast of a ship that pulled a large wooden raft that Gregory said was for dragons to rest on, and indeed there were two people and a couple of smaller dragons sitting at attention on the pad right now watching Harry fly over. Harry was sure he saw the glint of a spyglass or four from the ships and the dragon transport pad.

Gregory was standing at the base of Harry's neck still, arms wrapped around the rope he had tied there for that purpose, and leaned around to slide almost to Harry's chest. He thumped Harry's shoulder with a booted foot as a signal to circle the ships out of gun-range and with one hand still gripping the rope tightly, the other started waving the white sail cloth vigorously at the ships until quite a few white flags or cloths were waved back at the Aviator pair.

Harry had wasted no time in landing on the dragon transport as soon as the two men on board had flagged them down, right next to the two little blue and gray dragons that were more than a little nervous being so close to Harry's much larger frame. The dragon transport pad dipped to one end for a moment when Harry initially landed, standing on his hind legs and flaring his wings, before leveling out once the dragon put his forepaws down and tucked the large wings in close. Gregory slipped down Harry's chest to the waiting forearm, Harry using his wings to hold himself up, and cheerfully greeted the two men as if they were long lost family once his boots hit the wood. Harry turned his eyes from the scene and moved them to the nearest ship, where a whole group of French sailors were eying him with ill concealed awe.

"Hello! I am Julien!" he shouted loudly, causing the two little dragons to yelp and take flight in fear while the sailors just waved at him enthusiastically, some of them shouting "So good to see you!" and "Very nice colours!" Harry was greatly amused at the whole ordeal, these people had no idea what breed he was or what he could bring to the war, they were just happy to see him at all. 'Such strange people! I wonder if every nation that has dragons is like this or if it is just a French thing.' he mused, turning his head up to the sky to watch the two little dragons circle high above him.

"You stop! Come back down here you silly things, he will not hurt you!" one of the other Frenchmen on the dragon pad shouted up at the two circling dragons, shaking his head and frowning heavily at the display. "You know this breed, Gregory, these Pascals are too damn easy to startle." and Gregory smiled while turning back to Harry, stuffing the sail cloth flag up through one of the tighter ropes on the dragon's neck and tying it there. He half faced the two Captains as he finished and nodded "Yes, but they are very loyal beasts"

Harry blinked slowly at the words, tucking the tidbit of information away under the heading of 'Pascal's Blue', and took in the sight of the two smaller dragons as they hesitantly came in to land. At his size they were smaller but not tiny, being mid weights, these guys had some bulk to them, almost his size now but they were full grown, and could be a problem for a young heavyweight like Harry if they were on the other side and in numbers.

"Pray, do not fear me, I did not mean to scare you. What are your names?" Harry curled up a bit to appear less threatening to the two dragons, hoping they would be friendly once names were exchanged. The shifting in weight did cause the pad to lean dangerously to one end with three dragons of a good size all sharing the same space but the Captains didn't seem in the least bit bothered about it so Harry assumed it wouldn't sink.

"I am Tomas!" shouted the one who had landed close to Harry's tail and was watching him carefully as the second Blue came up behind him and greeted the first Blue with a playful chuff.

"And I am Philippe" the other said simply with feigned disinterest. Harry almost laughed at how obvious the pair were in their curiosity.

"We are twins!" they called out as one, coming a little closer to observe Harry's form with critical eyes. "What breed are you? I have never seen one like you before." Tomas inquired, eyes wide with awe now that Harry was calm and no longer loud and looming. Philippe actually reached out and touched the dangerous looking tri-spikes at the end of Harry's tail, picking the end up and looking it over with a contemplating frown. "What is this for?" he asked, running his hands over the odd adornment, which once had been razor sharp when Harry was little. Now it was more like sharpened flint, it could still cut you but you had to exert a bit more force if you were trying to cut dragon scales.

Harry eyed them both as he mentally went through what to tell them and what to leave out for safety reasons. If they learned it later than that was what happened, but Harry wasn't sure giving them everything right this minute was a good idea.

"Both of the eggs on the ship we were on were suppose to be a breed from China, but then I hatched and did not conform to the shape and colors they were told I should have." Harry held out a wing and pointed out a few glaring differences in what his wings should look like "They would look more like a fan and would also have some blue on them. They would also lack paws on the wrists, which means the wings would not be sturdy enough to walk on." he patted his right side now, directly under the wing, and ran his hand all along his body to the base of his tail to show off his night sky patterned scales "Also, I would not have these spots" he shrugged a bit.

"Our eggs looked the same but I do not know what I am. We, my brother Temeraire and I, were to be gifts for the Emperor himself! Well, no, that is not correct, only one of us would be his companion, the other I am not sure what was to be done with. My brother looks like the Chinese breed they were told about so I suppose I must take after a different parent or mayhaps I am a new breed altogether! That would be quite wonderful!." Harry gently pulled his tail away and raised the tip up so he could look it over himself.

"I do not know! I have not figured out its purpose yet. I had thought it was for jabbing but that is not so easy to do with the shape. It can cut but not very easily unless I use some speed and force. They do rattle nicely when I shake them though!" and here Harry vibrated his tail like a rattlesnake and the little spines or spikes -Harry hadn't decided on what they were yet- clattered together, sounding like wooden wind-chimes being toyed with by a very active child.

"Oh" Tomas breathed with a small smile on his lips, his brother nodded his head in silent agreement but also smiled at the sound. A scuff of boots nearby had Harry looking over Tomas and his brother's heads to see Gregory and the other two Captains, one of them was called Jean, if Harry overheard correctly, heading their way.

"Julien, I must go with these gentlemen to speak with some important people on the ship, pray behave yourself while I am gone" the Frenchman said gently, indicating with his head behind him to where a group of three men, who were obviously Navy, stood at the edge of the platform near a small boat that was to take them to whichever ship they were holding this talk on; they had apparently arrived while the dragons were engaged in their conversation.

"Yes, and we must be off now as well. It was a pleasure to see you, Julien, mayhaps next time we will have more time to speak." one of the Captains said with a grin, reaching out to pat Harry on a forepaw before turning away to clamber onto Tomas' back. The other Captain made similar noises about meeting again from his place on Philippe. "Farewell Gregory, I will tell everyone back home to be ready to loose money, yes?" Tomas' Captain said through a laugh and then gently nudged with his hands at his dragon's head to get him to focus on taking off and not starting another conversation with Harry.

Gregory laughed and patted Philippe on the rump when the other dragon looked like he might try to do the talking in Tomas' place. "Yes, go and spread fear, my friend. Good travels, Jean, Adrien."

'Ah, so Jean is Tomas' Captain than.' Harry took note of that and kept the names and faces in mind just in case they had to work with the two Aviator pairs in the future.

"Oh, so soon? Yes, I hope we will meet again long enough to speak, I enjoyed my short time with Tomas and Philippe very much!" Harry responded cheerfully.

"Farewell Julien!" the twins shouted at him as they each took off, Tomas in the lead, and headed toward one of the ships nearby, probably to pick up whatever dragon crew was waiting there for them.

Harry laid back down completely, tucking his wings in and sighing softly at the sight of his Captain heading away across the small expanse of water between the dragon transport and the nearest ship. They didn't pull along side it to off load, however, but rather just stayed between it and the open sea once they passed the dragon transport. From the looks of it Gregory was heading to the lead ship at the front, where as the dragon transport was nearer the back with only one other ship behind it calling dibs on the very back of the fleet. Boredom kicked in after fifteen minutes of waiting. The sailors were all back to work and Harry didn't think it a good idea to disturb them just for some entertainment.

He looked out to sea in the direction they left Temeraire at, not raising his head, just sliding it along the wooden surface until his nose was facing the right way. Harry didn't like being so far away from his brother and was surprised that Gregory was willing to leave those two unsupervised for any length of time. Captain Laurence could escape with a prize dragon! Though Harry doubted the man would try, he would be hurting for food and water by tomorrow and poor Temeraire would definitely need water soon. Not to mention Temeraire himself wouldn't want to leave his brother. Harry was sure this wasn't normal behavior for a dragon, that Temeraire should be wanting to do whatever it is his Captain wanted for the most part, which means that if Captain Laurence wanted to go back to the English, Temeraire should at least have a moment of pause to think it over before deciding either way.

As it was the lad was at odds with Captain Laurence over their loyalties to either the French or the English, and Harry knew this was going to come back and bite all parties involved in the ass sooner rather than later. If Temeraire could be convinced to take a French Captain all of that pain could be avoided, but the other dragon was adamant that William Laurence was the one for him. Maybe that would change if he met another person who was an Aviator and got to know them well. Captain Laurence was an alright fellow, but Harry didn't think it was a good idea to keep him on Temeraire if they could put a Frenchman, preferably one of Gregory's friends, on him instead.

Only time could set things right in this case and Harry knew there was no way to rush the situation; either Temeraire came to his senses and realized Captain Laurence was never going to be a French Aviator, or he was going to be stubborn about the whole thing and wind up being a pirate or something just as equally outrageous.

Another deep sigh escaped the relaxing dragon, his eyes half lidded now with the kind of bone deep exhaustion one gets when they do far too much work on very little food or sleep. The warm sun was beating down on his mostly dark colored hide, causing the drowsiness to double dramatically. Harry yawned widely and rolled a bit onto his side to sun himself better, wiggling and shifting his right wing to be out from under his body while raising his left a little ways into the air in the fashion of most bird species when they are drying themselves off. He was just starting to doze off into what he was sure would be a very good nap when a spike of fear lanced through him for no apparent reason at all.

Snapping to attention he raised his body up a bit, still half lazing and tilted his head so that his mostly immobile ears could pick up anything around him other than the sounds of the sea and the ships with their crews. Something was amiss for sure but he couldn't put a finger on what exactly from this position. Sitting up quickly on his haunches, the dragonet stretched his neck out as far as it would go to look around in search of whatever could possibly be triggering that reaction in him. Since coming to this world Harry had learned that the natural 'gut feeling' he had as a wizard was more powerful here and that if he had a sense that something was wrong or just an unsettling vibe in the air, it was best he didn't ignore it or he might find himself in a bit of a pickle. The feeling came again and Harry realized with a jolt of his own anxiety that the feelings were not because of something threatening him but were instead coming from Temeraire, something was very wrong!

Harry scrabbled to his feet and half spread his wings out in preparation of flight, head darting a look back at the French ships in the dim hope that Gregory was on his way back already, some small bit of him was balking at the idea that he should go without his Captain and so he waited. But he couldn't see his Captain anywhere nor anyone who looked like they might know anything about where Gregory was. All the sailors were still working away with not a clue as to the dilemma that Harry was now facing; Temeraire could be in real trouble and Harry was just sitting here! Some dragon instinct was making him hesitant to leave his Captain here for any length of time without himself being nearby, it was already a bit of a pull on this instinct to have Gregory on a ship Harry couldn't see, but to actually leave? That might be too much at this point.

They were very bonded and although Harry cared deeply for Gregory, this feeling that he couldn't do without him was troubling and Harry didn't like it at all.

More fear rolled through him, greater than before and a weak sense of despair filtered through in the form of almost words but not really, more like impressions but the idea, however, was broadcast quite clearly; help me please!

Harry chuffed loudly and tossed his head about in a very equine manner and let out a sharp cry almost like a peacock's before starting to violently pace back and forth on the transport pad, looking like a very large and reptilian version of an agitated tiger in a cage. The sailors on the ships nearest to the dragon transport, including the dragon transport ship itself, suddenly dropped everything they were doing to come to the rails and point at the now clearly distressed dragon on the pad. Many were gossiping back and forth and a few even ran up and down the ship, shouting something that might have been "Where is his Captain?".

Harry was now kicking around and throwing himself from one end of the pad to the other, short jumps followed by a quick turn around that mimicked a bull trying to buck off a rider. His eyes were wild and kept seeking out the people at the rails in search of Gregory, twice he thought he saw him only to realize it was just a sailor with similar features.

"My Captain! I need my Captain, something is wrong! I must go! Pray, where is my Captain? Gregory! GREGORY!" Harry shouted in panic as another wave of true fear washed over him, temporarily blinding him to his own surroundings and overriding his senses, he could almost feel himself stumble and fall half into the water before he got the vague impression of fear filled yelling in his ears and the strong smell of blood and sweat. That was it! Enough of waiting here and listening to some strange feeling that he shouldn't go anywhere without his Captain, his brother was in trouble and Harry had promised he would always be there for him... and he would dammit!

The large black and gray dragon snarled at an invisible foe as he finally came back to himself, hauling his back end out of the water and onto the pad. He then reared up on his hind legs, snapping his wings out to their full size with a loud crack like splintering wood and with a powerful kick of his coiled legs, the dragon sent himself airborne with only a slight effort due to him being tired from previous exertions. The panicked voices below faded away as he circled around tightly, going higher and higher with each revolution; he needed to get some altitude and see if he could spot his brother and whatever was causing his distress, it wouldn't do to just go flailing in like a lunatic and get caught unawares in the middle of whatever event was occurring.

End part one.

AN: So there's the first bit of Chapter three. This one might be three parts long but I'm hoping I can cover the important bits in only two. But we shall see. I'm trying to keep the chapters short enough to write in my spare time and be able to proof read quickly, while still getting some good content down. Lengths will not be fixed at a certain number, mainly that I can't say it'll be three thousand words or five thousand, but I won't be doing large chapters like nine or twelve thousand until I have a PC. Also, my word program doesn't tell me how many words I have so that also causes the fluctuations in chapter size. The last two parts (Chapter two) and most of the first part (this one) are only so big because they were already written, I just needed to tidy them up and check to make sure stuff I added or removed from the first chapter was either acknowledged or scrapped. Once I'm done cleaning up the second part of this chapter I'll know if there will be a part three or not.

Chapter four isn't even started yet so I don't have anything waiting to go over, it'll be all from scratch there. I am reading the old version over again to see what bits I want to add to this one and which bits to retcon so if you see something familiar that's why. I pulled Tomas and Philippe from chapter five of the old story (I think it was chapter five) where they were Female Harry's wing mates and one of them was knocked into the sea and drowned. They will have a bigger part in this story but I'm not sure just how big. If you recognized them from the other version, you win a virtual cookie.