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.

AN:

This chapter may have errors and IS A SHORT CHAPTER because (full story on my tumblr) the tablet I'm using for writing is malfunctioning now in such a way that makes writing near impossible. Nothing I do stops it, it just starts erasing anything in an editable text area as if I were holding down the backspace. This means I am not able to do much writing at all. I do now have an old (2006) laptop I got from a friend to write on but it runs REALLY HOT even idling on the desktop. So until I get a way to cool it that doesn't include pointing a noisy fan at it at full blast, (or acquire a different computer that doesn't have issues that prevent writing) my writing will be very sparse.

I'm using said hot-laptop right now to post this because the tablet is being ridiculously uncooperative again.

I will not promise a time when the next chapter is going up because I don't know when I will be able to finish it (its only got like 200 words done XD) so hopefully I'll either get a way to cool this laptop or have another one come my way that doesn't overheat or have other problems.

Chapter 6: Reflections...And onward HO! pt2

Last chapter: His body was still far longer than a flying breed of dragon had any right to be, and his wings were still disproportionately larger than his body, which made for an interesting sight, but otherwise he was maturing into a fearsome beast that many were too afraid to try and crew.

'Though, I wonder about that really.' Harry mused as he turned his head to look over his left shoulder to observe the people he had to call crew for at least another week. 'What if it isn't just how I look, but the feel of my magic as well? Can they sense it on some level and instinctively avoid getting near the thing that is causing the fear?' Harry smiled to himself at the memory of so many people from the coverts coming to beg Gregory a chance to be crew on his mighty beast, only to watch them shrink away like scared little mice once they got within a few yards of Harry as if they had walked into some invisible cloud of fear and misery.

His smile dimmed suddenly. Although it was somewhat amusing to watch the fleeing forms of each arrogant group of young fools that had come over with the obvious intent of being crew, it was also quite depressing and irritating because both Gregory and High Command were having a hell of a time getting a permanent crew on the black dragon. It was nearly impossible to find a group that wouldn't flip out every time they had to get close to Harry, and seeing as a dragon crew has to actually BE ON a dragon fairly often, it was therefore important that they be able to work near him.

So far, though, even the best of them have been running away after a short time in his presence, as if having seen a devilish fiend glaring at them through a hell-gate, bellowing a promise it would have their souls if they did not flee from its sight immediately.

That being said, Harry was big enough now to have a crew of at least twelve on him including his Captain, and still have a lot of room to spare for supplies. At the moment, he had only managed to get six people who were brave enough to stay near him for any length of time and Harry suspected it might be, in the case of three of the six, more a matter of pride than the crew actually getting over their fear of whatever thing is bothering them.

The black dragon had an interesting group serving on him right now; three gunmen he kept mussing the names of (due to having so many changing out in such a short time) who were nearing adulthood, and three young kids. A pair of thin boys called Louis and Hamnet (and yes Harry privately had a good long laugh over that) and a very short girl named Julia. The young ones were around the age of ten years and their youth showed in more than just the physical aspect, as it was quite difficult to keep them on task unless you stood right over them.

The gunmen were all very stiff and formal in attitude though still friendly when engaging in a conversation that was not in any way related to work of the dragon crew kind. They were polite with Harry, though it was plain to see they would rather spend as little time as possible around the strange aura this dragon put off. They were ONLY gunmen in that they had no other purpose on Harry's crew at the current time; shooting things that were threatening Harry or his flight was the extent of their duties. Harry knew gunmen on other dragons had more things to do than just firing a rifle at enemies, but it did not look as if his gunmen would be getting anything else to do anytime soon.

The kids on the other hand were always friendly and very chatty, seemingly unruffled by the aura of fear that others felt, and Harry wondered if it was because they were children and something in the very young made them immune to the effect, or if there was something else happening altogether.

The three runners had a multitude of chores to perform while on dragon back which included handling signals and helping to ferry supplies to the Captain and the gunners.

'Well, I hope I can keep at least some of my current crew. They seem to be fine with climbing all over me and not flinching away. It also does not seem to be an act with them.' He thought, happily eying his three young runners who were currently goofing off near his hind paws with some wet cloth and a bucket of dirty water.

They were supposed to be cleaning the leather and polishing the buckles on his new harness before it could be properly attached the dragon for the final fitting. But somehow during the last half hour the chore had dissolved into a wet cloth-flinging contest that tested the skill of throwing it the highest up Harry's back, and having it stick to the scales there the longest before it finally fell back to the ground.

Water had been carelessly flung all over the cobblestone resting area around the amused dragon and Harry was sure there was more water on the ground than on his own body, even though the object of the game was to get the cloth wet enough to stick to him. Somehow, none of the higher-ranking folk in the area had noticed this deviation from their orders, which was a good thing in Harry's mind, and unless someone decided to wander over and check on the playful bunch soon, the dragon was sure they would get to keep their little game going for a long while yet without punishment.

The wizard-turned-dragon was not one to rat the kids out to the bosses no matter how much work didn't get done and that fact was probably why they felt relatively safe fooling around in front of him.

Besides, they knew Harry actually enjoyed watching them play and would alert them if he saw anyone heading in their direction so they could quickly scramble to look suitably busy before anyone noticed something was off with the scene.

It was a nice and peaceful moment for the wizard-dragon, one of many these last few days, so it really should not have been such a surprise when the quiet was suddenly shattered by an angry screech from above. The loud noise had the children dropping the rags where they stood and put their combat situation training to the test by rushing to hide closer to the black dragon's forearms where he could better protect them from anything that manifested. Harry jerked his head up to see what horrible thing had occurred and a protective snarl curled on his lips as he hunched lower over the children. His bristles stood on end and his tail rattled dangerously in warning as his eyes sought out the fight that was surely about to commence.

However, the whole show turned out to be unnecessary, as the sight overhead was not an attacking enemy that had somehow snuck close enough to camp to scoop up Harry's crew.

Indeed, the black dragon-wizard had to bite back a laugh while relaxing his posture and allowing the children to peek out from under him in curiosity, while the rest of the people nearby came running to investigate the loud roaring and fussing above the resting dragon. Two squabbling Pascal Blues, Philippe and Tomas - affectionately known as The Trouble Brothers by many -, were currently causing a ruckus over some kind of mutilated medium sized animal, a large sheep or a small cow, and were playing an unwanted game of keep-away from a small group of French aligned Greylings who must have flown in recently.

The brothers were part of the group Harry was assigned to when a patrol had to go out locally for training and needed a couple of very fast flyers for relaying commands back and forth from the group to the covert. Harry remembered fondly the first time he met the two of them back on the dragon pads when he was still about their size; they were the first dragons he had really become acquainted with outside his brother, Temeraire. Now, however, he was a little older, and had grown much bigger; this meant the devils were now considered small compared to Harry's massive bulk, and took great pride in being able to outmaneuver the larger dragon during combat training sessions. They would become even tinier by the time Harry was finished growing though. If he kept this rate up, he would be able to carry a goodly number of the Pascal's Blues on his back along with his human crew in only a handful of months.

Even though they were twins, Philippe had two more grey stripes on his tail than Tomas did, and Tomas had a naturally occurring black toe on his left hind foot that was constantly mistaken as being a result of an injury or someone painting it. It was the only ways Harry could tell them apart and he enjoyed pointing these tiny differences out to others when they asked how he could get the names right all the time.

Currently, the two were using their small frames to avoid losing their meal to the invaders. They spent a lot of energy tossing the unidentified animal between them, just barely catching it every time it left one pair of hands, darting back and forth swiftly to keep the four Greylings from grabbing it and taking off with what the twins would then consider stolen goods.

Harry leaned back on his haunches to get a better view of the mini-battle that was playing out over the covert resting areas, which brought the hiding children into full view of any of the other dragon crew members standing about watching the fight as well.

The dragon kept his eyes on the furiously snapping jaws above him as he heard Hamnet down near his forepaws quickly whisper to his cohorts, that while everyone else was distracted with the food fight, their little group should sneak back over to the bucket. It would appear as if they were going back to cleaning the harness again now that the 'danger' was gone and no one would think anything else was amiss. Harry knew the truth of the matter as he watched out of the corner of his eye, the sneaky children slink away, was that the kids were going to cover up the obvious playground.

And indeed they did once they were sure no one was looking, by spilling the bucket of water out discreetly so it wiped away the messy evidence of their game, and looked instead as if they had just emptied the dirty water out after it was no longer doing the job. Julia then had to rush over and refill it with clean water so the three could jump back into cleaning again ahead of someone noticing the harness still had a large amount of dirt on it and shouldn't have very much left by now; they should be cleaning up the tools at this point not still working on the harness.

Harry's lips twitched in amusement at their little ploy, and returned his full attention back to the skies to ascertain how the Twins were fairing against the intruders, and found that sadly, the entertainment did not last much longer. Tomas unfortunately chose at this time to try to perform an elaborate dive and grab maneuver, probably to show off for those below, which fumbled horribly on the catch and allowed an eagle-eyed Greyling to seize the opportunity that finally presented itself after a long and tiring fight.

One beautiful twirl and snatch later and the food jerked away from Philippe's frantically grabbing hands, leaving the other dragon howling in disbelief at his failure to complete the catch. The group of Greylings cheered their success rather loudly once the meat was in hand; hooting and jeering as they swiftly flew off to enjoy the spoils of war elsewhere in the compound. The crestfallen brothers watched their meal fly away, observing the fancy moves of their victorious foes for a few moments longer before turning away from the sight and giving up on any thoughts of pursuit. They both dropped down to the cobblestones near Harry with a heavy sigh of annoyance, each kicking around the loose items strewn about the area with dragging feet and lashing tails.

"I do not see why they should be allowed to take our food and suffer no penalties for it!" An enraged Tomas huffed out sharply as he flopped down onto his belly next to Harry's forepaws and fixed him with a pleading stare. Those wide eyes might have worked if Harry were less wise to the other dragon's manipulative ways.

"Would you kindly go and tell them off? They do not listen to us, nor do they have any fear of us when they themselves are so many," he continued in false sorrow, using one clawed finger to scratch a small rock absentmindedly out of the cobblestone walkway he was resting on. Those eyes still watching the larger dragon but now doing so from under sad brows that were obviously phony.

His brother was mutely sitting nearby with his back to them and his head down in a tilted sulk, eyes surreptitiously watching Harry to see the other dragon's reaction to Tomas' sudden 'request'. Although Tomas was the best at getting others to do what he wanted, Philippe was no slouch in this department and often used his own brand of manipulation as backup for his brother's games; though he was quite a bit more subtle at it than the louder Tomas.

Harry's eyes twitched a bit with humor as he tried hard not to let on that he knew what their game was about, and could not be fooled for even a moment. "Oh, I do not at all think this would be wise. Gregory would be understandably upset with me should I go and harass our allies over some meat, even if they are an ill-bred bunch of conniving bullies that should have their heads stuck each in a barrel of rotted fish."

Julia snorted in laughter from somewhere near Harry's right elbow and he thought that the accompanying muffled giggles behind the worktable a couple yards away might be from Louis. With neither boy in sight, it was difficult to pin down which was doing what currently.

Philippe curled his lips in disgust at the 'incorrect answer' Harry had given, his hunched form no longer showing defeat but instead screaming insult, and promptly got to his feet in order to leave. He snapped his wings out in a superfluous bout of extreme drama as he went aloft, huffing and raging about the uselessness of lazy heavyweights. Tomas grumped after him with less flourish to his wings but still had the same air of disgusted irritation about him as his brother was displaying.

"Well, I think you are right not to bother with those Greylings," Hamnet suddenly said, his voice pitched low from where he was violently scrubbing with a rag, the final few inches of harness stretched out on the ground close to Harry's tail. "It would not have ended well for anyone, I think. Usually their kind are less combative," he added, snatching up a brush when the rag wasn't working and digging into a stubborn spot with the tip of it, "and the fact that these are not like the other Greylings may lead to trouble we do not want if you provoke them."

With those final words, Hamnet happily tossed the brush away from himself with a triumphant grin, the leftovers of the dirt quickly washing away from the leather when the water bucket emptied over it one last time.

Harry grunted his agreement, eying the harness carefully and giving the children the praise they earned, albeit an hour or so later than they should have if they had been doing it correctly from the start.

"Oh, that is very nice! I shall look quite handsome in that, more so than Temeraire with his fancy one I should think."

And Harry knew he only got away with saying that because his brother was nowhere nearby. If Temeraire had heard that blasphemy, everyone would be treated to at least a couple of hours of loud dragon tantrums. The younger was turning out to be quite the vain creature at times, though Harry had noticed he himself was prone to bouts of such, which he contributed to being a dragon as he had never been this bad in his previous life.

A rather miserable sigh drifted out of the large beast as the thought of what Gregory might be doing at this very moment crossed his mind somewhat unexpectedly. His dear friend had wandered off sometime earlier when Harry had been preoccupied with his ever-busy thoughts while watching the construction crews' work. And the dragon wasn't sure if the Captain was tied up with some important thing or another here on the grounds of the Covert, or if he had decided to take one of the many couriers that pass through here into town for a quick visit.

No matter the answer, Harry was missing Gregory a bit more than he felt he should be. True, the wizard had always missed his friends at some point whenever they separated for any true length of time. However, Gregory could not have been gone for more than a couple of hours and already the black dragon felt as if he had not seen his Captain in over a week. 'Damn dragon imprinting, I do hope that mellows out once I mature. I can't be crippled over a simple separation from my Captain, no matter what the people here believe is normal.'

Harry laid back down to try for a nap while he waited for either Gregory or Temeraire and William to show up, at least then he would have some kind of idea on what was happening outside the Covert right now.

End chapter six, pt 2.

AN: So that's chapter six all wrapped up. Expect to see at least one of the oneshots going up soon as well (not sure when soon is but soon), because I've pretty much finished proofreading a few of them. Just going to post the ones that are finished as is and not do much editing, just because I'm not sure when I will be able to have enough time to properly proofread them. Also I can't really use the hot laptop to write for more than a few minutes unless I have a fan blowing on it. And due to the fact that optimal writing time is during everyone else's sleep time in this house,(and I have an actual share-a-room roommate) a fan is LOUD AND UNWELCOME SON WHY YOU RUNNING THAT THING AT THIS TIME.

Please be patient with my life dramas. Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!