They materialized atop a jagged headland overlooking the English Channel. Harry groaned and patted himself down; Sirius had a point when he complained about being Side-Alonged. Besides the usual discomfort, there was the added helplessness of not having any control.
Gulping down the frigid salty air, he looked around. The shingle beach below was deserted, as was the pedestrian path behind. Snowflakes drifted from the slate sky and melted on contact with the ground.
"Point me." Sirius waited for his wand to point north, and facing the opposite direction, mounted his broomstick. "Ready?"
Peering at the steely waters, Harry straddled his Zibens. "The Frogs won't know what hit them."
"Rule Britannia!" Sirius cried, and blasted off in a spray of mud.
Harry spluttered and wiped his cheek. Sirius's retreating form was dissolving against the sky as though painted over with a brush. Kicking off hastily, he yelped when the brisk acceleration sent him sliding back along the broomstick until his legs wedged into the stirrups. They were attached unusually far in the back, and the overly long shaft before him looked ridiculous.
Sirius's back shimmered into view, and Harry tried to swerve aside—try being the keyword, because no matter how hard he pulled, the broom didn't turn more than a couple of degrees in as many seconds. Fortunately, it proved enough to avoid crashing before their journey had properly started, and soon they were flying side by side. Snowflakes hurtled at them from the front and spun off an invisible boundary around the brooms.
"It's like riding a missile!" Harry cried, then grimaced sheepishly; despite the tumultuous weather, there was no wind inside the protective bubble to yell against.
Sirius nudged his broom experimentally. "These handle like a boat, but they pack some power. Let's rise above the clouds and see what they can really do."
Harry looked up at the sky and followed Sirius's lead. The angle of their ascent steepened, but the Zibens continued to accelerate smoothly, making him feel like he was truly riding a rocket.
The surroundings grew hazier and hazier until he couldn't make out more than several yards ahead. He kept glancing at Sirius to adjust his course as the clouds around thinned and thickened again. Then glaring sunlight struck him, and he squeezed his eyes shut, seeing red through his eyelids.
He tugged the brim of his hat lower and squinted. The sky above was brilliant azure, and the peaks of the clouds below shone in the sun. His hands tightened on the handle as he considered just how high they must've risen, but the broomstick flew so steadily that his alarm passed. The air felt cooler, but nowhere near the biting cold it must've been at this altitude.
"Not something I'd like to try on my Firebolt," he admitted grudgingly.
Sirius rummaged one-handed in his pocket and produced the Globetrotter's Map. Getting his bearings, he leveled out the broom and nudged it to the right. "Blimey, look at us eat up the miles. At this rate, we'll get there in under half an hour."
Harry drank in the sight. With nothing but the sky above and the sea of clouds below, it was difficult to tell how fast they were going. There wasn't even any wind in his face like when piloting a real broomstick. "They're still ugly as sin."
"Ugly as sin, but fast." Sirius patted the handle of his Zibens. "Truth be told, I was planning on returning these—half a thousand Galleons doesn't grow on trees—but I just might keep them." He chuckled. "Won't have to break Padma's heart, either."
Harry grunted and fixed his gaze ahead. For a while, they flew accompanied only by the muted whistle of the wind.
"Did she say anything about me before we left?" Sirius asked casually.
"Okay, yeah, not cool," Harry said, facing him. "You need to stop dreaming about getting under her skirt."
"I would never!" Sirius grinned. "And even if I was, what's the problem? Don't tell me you're still entertaining those ridiculous fantasies—"
He jabbed a finger at him. "The problem is that you're twice her age. Literally!"
Sirius looked thoughtful for a moment. "So I am. Heh, still got it." At Harry's growl, he added, "Lighten up, it's all in good fun. Doesn't mean I'd seriously pursue her."
He glowered. "You're lucky she went along with it. I've seen her shut down a come-on so brutally the bloke ran off in tears."
"You have a lot to learn, godson. Tell me, what's my reputation? In terms of my relations to the fairer sex in particular?"
He threw up his hands, the broom cruising straight as an arrow. "You're an incorrigible womanizer who flirts with anything that has a pulse!"
"Exactly!" Sirius cried. "So why, pray tell, would she get angry if she knew what to expect? If anything, she might've felt there was something wrong with her if I didn't try to chat her up."
To his chagrin, Harry failed to find any flaws in that reasoning. "Just keep your paws off her," he grumbled. "If you're chasing younger skirts, how about I introduce you to someone? A waitress at the Three Broomsticks by the name of Millicent Bulstrode."
"The one who famously broke up a brawl without casting a single spell?" Sirius asked innocently.
He struggled not to grin. "The very same. You've met?"
Sirius buffed his nails on his robes. "Oh, I'd say we did a fair bit more than that."
"What?" Harry furrowed his brows as a horrible suspicion formed in his mind. "No. No fucking way. How... I mean, when..."
"A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell," Sirius said, grinning ear to ear.
"But she... she looks like she'd break you in half!"
Sirius laughed. "You didn't hear it from me, but Milly's a meek little kitty in the sheets."
"You... you horndog," he said, too stunned to come up with anything harsher.
Sirius smirked. "Guilty as charged."
Harry shook his head in disbelief and leaned over his broom to accelerate. The clouds were thinning out and exposing patches of a meandering coastline far below. He followed Sirius's cues in adjusting his course, looking more at the broom than its insufferably smug pilot.
The wind outside the protective bubble gradually loudened until it settled into a constant howl. Harry figured they were approaching the limits of what the Zibens was capable of. He relaxed in the stirrups and eyed the bleak brown fields below in an attempt to gauge how fast they were going. They must be well into France by now.
Sirius confirmed his suspicion not ten minutes later. "We're approaching Rennes. Should we do a flyover?"
"Can't hurt." Cedric was likely long gone, but they had to check.
They nudged their brooms down, not so much diving as looping in a protracted spiral, and descended toward the sprawling low-built city. Crowds marched through its winding streets, and multiple fires belched smoke into the sky.
Sirius whistled. "Cedric sure did a number on this place. Did all those Muggles see him, do you reckon?"
"That's a headache for the French Obliviators," Harry said. "We just have to find him and get out with no one any the wiser."
They flew toward the nearest plume of smoke and discovered a burning car parked by the curb. No claw marks gouged the pavement nor the nearby buildings, so they flew toward the next fire. It too turned out to be a torched car, as did the one after it.
"Does Cedric consider them competitors or something?" Harry mused.
"Whatever's the reason, it helps that he left a trail," Sirius said.
At the end of the trail of carnage, they came across a crowd of clamorous locals and struggled to understand their vociferations for several minutes to no avail. Rising higher, they saw no more fires ahead nor any damage to the city's rooftops.
"Blast it," Sirius said. "He must've left."
"Let me check with Brandon." Harry retrieved the enchanted mirror. "Brandon. Oi, come in." The mirror's surface stubbornly reflected his own weary countenance. He sighed. "Shadowlord."
A chubby physiognomy appeared in the murky glass. Harry glared at his chuckling godfather before returning his gaze to the mirror. "Hey. Any news on your end?"
"Not yet. You don't have to keep calling me, I'll contact you as soon as..." Brandon's eyes widened. "Are you flying? Where are you right now?"
"Just above Rennes." He flipped the mirror and swept it around, hearing Brandon exclaim his surprise, then brought it back to his face. "Cars are burning all over the place, so Ced—the dragon must've spent some time here, but we can't find any—"
"Burning cars, you say?" Brandon clicked and clacked in the background. His double chin quivered in laughter. "That's got nothing to do with your cryptid."
He frowned. "But there's all this commotion—"
"Yeah, the riots. Just the usual." Seeing Harry's confusion, Brandon snorted. "Have you been living under a rock? The French torch cars all the time."
Harry exchanged a perplexed look with Sirius. "And why do they do that?"
"Dunno," Brandon said, shrugging. "Must be angry about the rising price of the baguette or something."
He raked a hand through his hair. "Bloody Frogs. Right then, we need to know where to go from here. If there isn't anything on your boards, what about the Mug—er, mainstream media? Any major fires, explosions, unexplained destruction recently?"
Brandon faced away, his gaze darting side to side and his lips moving soundlessly. This went on for several minutes.
He rapped the mirror. "Find anything?"
Brandon spared him a glance. "If you wanted me to monitor the news, you should've said so from the beginning. Setting correct mission parameters is crucial, I thought secret agents knew that."
"My bad," he ground out. "So?"
"Let's see... I haven't the foggiest if this is related, but there's a large forest fire in northern Spain that's trending on social media." Brandon reclined in his chair and stretched. "Otherwise nothing big as far as I can see."
"A forest fire, huh. You don't think..." Glancing to Sirius, Harry found him already prodding the map with his wand. "Great work. Keep an eye on the news."
"I shall," Brandon said somberly. "Shadowlord out." For one moment, he almost looked dependable, but the impression was ruined by a muffled yell that drifted through as Harry was pocketing the mirror. "Mum! I'm hungry!"
Grinning wryly, Harry drifted closed to Sirius and leaned toward the map, which now showed northern Spain.
"That's a lot of ground to cover," Sirius said, scrolling through the forested areas with taps of his wand.
"I've been thinking," Harry said slowly. "Cedric's little more than a bundle of instincts now, right?"
Sirius nodded absently. "One of the downsides of our method."
The broomsticks bumped, and Harry grabbed onto Sirius's to keep them still. "So eat, sleep, and rut. The first two don't help us much, but if he's horny enough to screw a car, the thing he wants the most is—"
"A nice lady dragon to bone!" Sirius's wand hovered over the map. "Mark dragon reserves."
As though scribbled by an invisible quill, an outline appeared around a dot in the Cantabrian Mountains. Sirius zoomed in, and the dot resolved into a tiny ink dragon. Harry decided to stop making fun of him for his inability to deal with anything electronic; he had no idea the map even had such a function.
"The French don't breed dragons, so this is the only reserve for almost a thousand miles," Sirius said, scrolling the map around. "The forest fire, and now this..."
"He'll be there," Harry said with conviction.
They headed south, once again pushing the broomsticks to the limit. While a storm developing over what Sirius said was the Bay of Biscay forced them into a detour, it wasn't long before snowy mountain peaks loomed ahead, glimmering in the late afternoon sun.
Sirius consulted the map and nudged the handle down with one hand, aiming for a canyon between two peaks. They followed the canyon's twists and bends until it expanded into a vast bowl-shaped valley hemmed in on three sides by precipitous mountains.
Harry's skin tingled from the magic saturating the air, and he had a hunch that if he showed the landscape through the mirror, Brandon would see nothing but impassable rock. In reality, there was a deciduous forest surrounding a deep blue lake, beside which stood a hamlet of squat stone houses. The light mist swathing the valley gave it an ethereal atmosphere. Mounds of snow lingered wherever there was shade, but unlike back home, one could tell that spring wasn't far off.
They descended in a lazy curve until the mountains blocked the sun, and Harry sighed in relief at no longer having to squint against the glare. He scanned the leafless treetops and the hamlet, but the only movement was the smoke going up from the chimneys of the houses.
"Where are all the dragons?"
"Some breeds hibernate," Sirius said. "Look, there's one!"
Harry followed his extended finger to the shoreline of the lake and glimpsed a silvery-blue head peeking out from leafless underbrush. It dipped into the water as the beastie drank deeply.
Sirius chuckled. "Just a baby now, but I wouldn't want to meet him when he's fully grown." He waved to Harry. "Let's get a better look at this place."
Starting from the lake, they flew in ever-widening circles over the forest. Only once did they spy another dragon: a much larger silvery-blue specimen that was tearing up some kind of a goat at the edge of the woods. Harry started squirming impatiently on the third loop.
"I'll go check out that mountain," he announced. "The hole over there looks deep enough to be a lair."
Sirius frowned. "Let's not get distracted. We'll get there in due course."
"Cedric's too large to be hiding under the trees," he said, swerving his broom. "More importantly, I have to take a leak, and I'd rather not do it in a forest teeming with dragons."
Sirius sighed and followed. "Don't forget, you'll lose the Disillusionment the moment you dismount."
"Hence the cave." Harry eyed the nearing crevice. Its lip was covered in snow, but the overhanging cliff protected the shadowy alcove beneath it from the elements.
Wrestling the broomstick into something resembling a dive, he extricated his legs from the stirrups and floated down until his feet sank into the snow. The gloom in the alcove proved no obstacle to his enchanted spectacles. Empty. Dismounting with a groan, he waited for Sirius to land so he could hand over his broomstick.
"Careful down there," Sirius said, raising his wand.
Harry waved him off. "There's nothing inside. I can see in the dark, remember?"
He descended cautiously. Just like the outer cliff face, the walls and the ceiling of the alcove were a dull grey, but the rock under his feet gleamed peculiarly and didn't provide much traction.
Finding a stable foothold, he unzipped his fly and exhaled in relief. They would find Cedric, no doubt about that. Perhaps he had crawled into a hole similar to this, or perhaps they had beaten him here and he would arrive any minute. Comforted by the thought, he started whistling.
The ground under his feet shifted, and he staggered, zipping up his trousers in a hurry. An earthquake? Widening his stance, he looked around, but everything was still again. Tittering nervously, he started for the slope. Earthquakes. You just didn't get those in a civilized country.
The moment he began climbing, the ground trembled again. Yelping, he skidded backward until he caught himself on the rock with his palms. It felt warm to the touch, and a terrifying suspicion that he was atop an active volcano crossed his mind.
"Harry!" Sirius yelled from above. "Get out before it wakes up!"
Employing his hands as much as his feet, he clambered up the slope. Sirius already sat astride his broom and was holding out the second one. Harry reached for it, but inches away, another tremor knocked him prone and sent him sliding back down.
He pushed himself up, rubbed his smarting nose, and froze. A dozen steps ahead, a rock ridge split open to reveal a Quaffle-sized eye. Its slit pupil flitted about before homing in on him.
"Dragon," he whispered.
"Just figured that out?" Sirius exclaimed, extending the broom by the tip. "Get on, quick!"
He leapt forward, grabbed onto the tail, and scrambled to mount as tons of scaly muscle rippled underneath him. A bass rumble resonated in his bones; the dragon was clearly not happy to wake up to a tiny bipedal relieving itself atop it.
Jamming one foot into the stirrup, Harry shot out of the alcove just as the dragon unfurled its wings with a deafening clap. Sirius shouted a warning, and glancing over his shoulder, Harry jinked aside from a dazzling torrent of flames.
The flames roared past, close enough to singe his face and leave red afterimages in his vision. His broomstick lurched and weaved side to side, and he saw the treetops approaching fast. He yanked the handle upward, but the broom only ascended several yards before careening down again.
He looked back. The dragon emerged from its lair, reared on its hind legs, and flapped its powerful wings, whipping up twisters of snow and dirt. Its malicious gaze locked onto Harry's broomstick; its tail was trailing black smoke.
"Crap!" He swiveled his head around. "Help! Help! My arse is on fire!"
Sirius's voice came from above. "Grab on!"
Tilting his head back, he saw Sirius bend at the waist and extend both hands. He reached up, but his broomstick dipped and skimmed the top of a tree. Tugging up the handle, he yanked his foot from the stirrup and planted it atop the shaft. "Get closer!"
Sirius steered his broom lower with one hand and stretched out the other. Trying not to look down, Harry rose into a wobbly crouch as though surfing on the broomstick and kicked off with all he had. His right hand clasped Sirius's broom, but his left slipped off; luckily, Sirius grabbed his wrist.
Harry's eyes widened as the dragon behind spread its jaws. "Up, up!"
Sirius obeyed not a second too soon. A torrent of flames roared underneath, swallowing Harry's drifting broomstick and setting the forest ablaze. Harry pulled his knees up to his chest until the flames dwindled leaving blackened stumps in their wake. Gasping with effort, he hooked one leg onto the shaft and hauled himself up.
Sirius stared back at him with wild eyes. "What were you thinking, taking a piss on a Ukrainian Ironbelly?"
"That's what it is?" he gasped, clutching Sirius's waist a little harder than was necessary. "Not my fault. The locals should think where they leave their animals."
"You'd expect to find dragons in a dragon reserve, no? It's called that for a reason!" Sirius kept glancing over his shoulder as they gained speed, but the dragon did not seem inclined to give chase.
"It's not like you realized it was there. The thing looks like it's made of rock."
A faraway roar made them look back. A dozen of bulky brown figures had appeared on the ground beneath the lair and were pelting the Ironbelly with crimson jets of light.
"Speak of the devil, we've alerted the handlers too." Sirius's back was stiff and his breathing heavy. "Bloody hell. If you hadn't made the jump..."
"All's well that ends well," he said, eyeing the smoldering trees behind. "Now we know to search the caves—and if we don't find Cedric, we can lay low in one and wait for him to come here."
"I could use a breather. Too bad we can't nip down to their village for a cuppa... or something stronger."
Harry patted his shoulder. "Relax. Had I been in real danger, Firo would've come and saved me. Probably."
Sirius laughed shakily. "After seeing her try to swallow a Sickle for an hour, I have some doubts." He drew a shuddering breath. "Right. We still have a stray Animagus to find."
Sirius flew over the mountain range surrounding the valley, leaving the dragon and the handlers pummeling it into submission behind. Cracks and crevices scarred the faces of the mountains, but few were large enough to accommodate Cedric's animal form. As Harry peered into a cranny after cranny, he began drumming his fingers against his thigh. They hadn't made a mistake coming here, surely?
Sirius, it seemed, was having similar doubts. "We just might have to suck it up and ask the handlers if they saw any new dragons. How's your Spanish?"
Harry pulled a face. "Let's keep looking."
The skies dimmed, and the mountains' shadow over the valley lengthened by the minute. Should night fall before they found Cedric, they would have to wait until morning to resume the search. Harry glanced back; they had so far covered two-thirds of the crescent-shaped mountain ridge.
He returned to watching the cliff to the left. They were flying above the slope and toward a saddle-shaped pass that connected the mountain below to its sibling. While harsh and craggy, the cliff didn't have any caves, and he was about to look away in disappointment when a glint of something metallic caught his eye.
"Wait." Holding on to Sirius, he leaned out to scrutinize a horizontal crevice perhaps a hundred yards up from the foot of the mountain. It was dark now, but he was certain the glint had come from there. "Get us over there."
"It's barely tall enough for me to squeeze through," Sirius muttered, but did as asked.
Their first impression had been deceptive: as the crevice curved off into the mountain's shadow, it widened enough for them to fly through. It was just as well since its jagged edge did not offer much in the way of footing.
Harry protected his head with his arms as Sirius maneuvered them through the toothy entrance and into the cavern. The remnants of daylight barely filtered in through the rocks jutting along the cave mouth. Sensing Sirius slow uncertainly, Harry lifted his wand.
"Lumos."
Sirius swore and brought the broom to a halt. Peeking around his back, Harry saw why: a great golden dragon lay at the cavern's bottom, taller than him even in its curled-up pose, its diamond-shaped scales gleaming in the wand light. Its head thankfully remained hidden under an enormous wing.
"That's him." Harry laughed incredulously and hopped off the broom. "Holy shit. We actually found him!"
"Blimey." Sirius stared before dismounting himself. "Was he always this big?"
"Think so." The dragon's scales were a richer gold than he recalled, but that was easily explained by the difference in lighting. "He kept growing until he broke through the ceiling."
"I'd call that unusual, but so's a magical form." Transferring the broomstick to his left hand, Sirius produced his wand. "Quiet now, it wouldn't do to spook him. Look for a chink in his armor—it's the only chance the reversal spell will take hold."
They looked the slumbering dragon over. Not an inch of its vulnerable underbelly was exposed, but catching Sirius's eye, Harry pointed out a spot under its wing where the scales thinned out somewhat.
"Together," Sirius mouthed. "One, two... three!"
Twin jets of light splashed against the dragon's hide just inches apart. Harry held his breath when a quiver went through the beast's massive flank, but that was it.
"Bloody spell resistance," Sirius whispered. "Again—wait, let's get closer."
They crept up so close Harry could feel the dragon's immense body heat. Sirius raised his left hand and began ticking off fingers. Once he formed a fist, they cast again.
The dragon twitched and rumbled, and a wisp of smoke escaped from under the wing draped over its head. Its clawed hind leg scratched the spot the spells had impacted.
"Shit, hit him with all you have!" Sirius cried, leading by example.
Erratic flashes lit the cavern. The dragon stirred, uncoiling its neck and covering its flank with a wing. Desperate, Harry began to vocalize his incantations, but his spells only glanced off the golden scales.
The spines of the dragon's neck brushed the ceiling as it rose ponderously and blinked at its harassers. The reversal spells they immediately directed at its belly only made it shake its head and growl.
"Cedric!" Harry shouted. "I know you're in there! Get a grip on yourself!" He racked his brain for something that would get through to him. "Remember Cho? Think of how worried she must be!"
Cocking its head, the dragon scrutinized the wizards. Sirius ceased his spellcasting and appeared to be holding his breath.
The dragon puffed out a cloud of smoke, opened its fanged jaws, and roared.
Harry shielded his face with a sleeve from a spray of pungent saliva. Sirius had the presence of mind to send a reversal spell down its throat, but his cry of triumph was premature because the dragon merely snapped its jaws shut and swallowed. Its expression, if you could call it that, was almost surprised, which Harry took as a good sign.
"Cedric, we're friends!" He waved his arms over his head. "We want to help. You understand that, right?"
For a moment when the dragon was still, Harry dared to hope that Cedric's human mind was waking up—but then the beast pounced.
His wand whipped up. "Depulso!"
The Banishing Charm nailed the dragon in the jaw, propelling its head backward. It unfurled its wings and growled, shaking off the hit as if it were but a love tap.
Sirius backtracked. "Harry, listen, this isn't—"
"That's it," Harry snapped, meeting the dragon's enormous eyes. "That's bloody it, I'm waking you up one way or another. Legilimens!"
His awareness narrowed until all that remained were two malevolent yellowish orbs. His consciousness catapulted out of his body, and an amalgam of bewildering images and sensations assaulted him.
Cold. Time for slumber still. Stiff limbs and hunger deep in her belly. Two-legged meats tickling her with bright lights. Heat surging in her throat. The two-legged never burned... but these smelled different, and their lights were weak. She would hunt them!
Harry moaned as his consciousness snapped back into his skull like a rubber band. He swayed on his feet and might've collapsed were it not for Sirius supporting him.
A crazy giggle escaped his lips. "Not an Animagus."
"What are you doing?" Sirius yelled as he dragged him up the slope. "You don't Legilimize an animal, never mind a bloody dragon!"
He winced at the pain in his forehead. Even the scant light from outside was making his eyes water. "Had to know."
The dragon's massive footfalls sent tremors beneath their feet. Sirius's urging barely registered through Harry's pounding headache as he climbed perfunctorily toward the mouth of the cavern. Then there was a hiss of indrawn air, and Sirius tackled him to the ground.
Heat washed over them, and the world dissolved in glaring scarlet. The fall knocked the wind out of him, and the reflexive breath he took scorched his lungs. He pressed his face to the cool rock.
The incandescent flames dwindled as abruptly as they had come. Sucking in the stuffy air, he clambered onto the razor-thin ledge and turned to pull up Sirius. The rock was hot to the touch, and the paltry dusting of snow had evaporated without a trace. A dizzying drop loomed before them.
He stared at Sirius's empty hands. "The broom!"
Sirius swore and fumbled for his wand. Harry looked back into the cavern just in time to witness a flame spark between the dragon's jaws. Slinging his arm around Sirius's shoulders, he launched them off the ledge.
Wind whooshed in his ears. Sirius thrust out his wand and screamed an incantation. The unduly long broomstick cleared the cavern mouth before it erupted with scarlet flames that extended skyward for dozens of yards. Sirius reached for the plummeting broom, but the ground was coming up too fast.
"Firo!" Harry shouted, plucking the wand from Sirius's fingers. "Molliare! Arresto Mo—"
They smashed into the spongy ground, bounced off several feet, and fell to a bone-jarring stop, the wand in Harry's hand not skewering his neck by luck alone. He wheezed in a breath, pushed himself up, and rubbed his sore knee.
Sirius lay prone showing no signs of life, but when the falling broomstick conked his head, he sprang up. "Bloody hell!"
Harry snorted, then froze at the rattle of pebbles tumbling from above. The dragon had gripped the cavern's crumbling edge with its claws and stuck out its head.
"Hide," he hissed, crawling up to the cliff. Peering warily at the dragon above, he tried to make himself smaller. If only he hadn't lost his pointy hat during the fall; the grey would've helped him blend in.
Sirius scurried up to him and pressed his back against the cliff. Harry silently handed over the wand he had appropriated. Hardly breathing, they watched the dragon's forked tongue dart out several times as it tasted the air.
"Doesn't look like it wants to leave," Sirius whispered.
Harry nodded. "It felt grumpy about being woken up too early. With any luck, it'll just go back to sleep."
A fireball exploded before them, leaving behind a gold-and-scarlet phoenix. Firo sang happily and glided down to perch on Harry's knee. He gaped at her, then tilted his head back. The dragon bent its neck lower to survey the foot of the mountain.
He sent Firo a beseeching look. "Shh."
"Squawk?"
The dragon rumbled, and more pebbles rained down. Firo looked up and fluttered her wings, and he barely caught her before she could take off. Wincing as her wings slapped his face, he yanked open his robes and wrapped her, squirming and squawking, within the thick fabric. Only then did he dare to look up.
The dragon swung its head around and snorted out a plume of smoke, then slowly retracted into the cavern like a turtle into its shell.
The men sagged with relief. Harry unwrapped Firo, who popped out with bedraggled feathers and cawed unhappily.
"Sorry, you were too loud..." He trailed off as he eyed a strip of a red pepper stuck to her beak. Peeling it off, he dangled it in the air. "Were you late because you were having a snack?"
Upon spying the morsel, Firo trilled and hopped up his chest. Harry yanked it away before she could seize it. "We could've died, you useless—ow!" He rubbed his sore finger and glared as Firo gobbled the pepper up.
"Oh, let her be. I'm sure she came as soon as she could." Sirius leaned over to stroke her under the beak. "Who's a good birdie?"
Harry scowled. "This wouldn't happen if you didn't spoil her silly while I'm trying to train her."
"You are!" Sirius said, paying him no heed. Firo cooed and relocated to his knee to enjoy the petting. "Don't mind your master's grumbling, he's just jealous you like me more."
He rolled his eyes. "Only because you bribe her with treats."
Bracing against the rock, he stood and stretched. The sky over the peak to the west was already purple; come sunset, the search for Cedric would become even more difficult.
Unearthing his wand, he summoned his hat, brushed it off, and donned it. It was just as he turned to consult with Sirius regarding their next move that a series of cracks resounded around them, making him flinch.
"Oh, what now!" he exclaimed, throwing up his arms.
Where before there was only stony ground, now stood six witches and wizards. Thick hide armor marred by scorches and nicks covered them head to toe save for their surly and tense faces. In retrospect, Harry's sudden motion probably hadn't helped soothe their nerves.
"¿Quién eres tú?" demanded a mustachioed wizard in the middle. "¿Por qué molestas a los dragones?"
"Uh..." Harry presented his empty palms and looked at his godfather for cues.
Sirius shooed Firo off and rose to his feet. "Do any of you fine folk speak English?"
"¿Cazadores furtivos del extranjero?" said a witch to the mustachioed man Harry assumed was the boss.
"Lo descubriremos," said the man. "¡Deja caer tus varitas y arrodíllate!"
Sirius spread his hands. "Er... no halberd spaniel?"
The man stepped closer and brandished a stumpy wand. "¡Varitas al suelo! ¡Esta es tu última advertencia!" At his sudden motion, a visor with black lenses swung over his face, and he irritably pushed it back up.
"Let me try." Harry took a deep breath. "Señor, we're searchino for our amigo. Por favor, no attackerino." He schooled his face into a smile; that sounded about right.
Several dragonologists exchanged befuddled glances. Their boss's bushy mustache quivered in a manner reminiscent of Uncle Vernon's. "¡Deja de burlarte de nosotros!" he bellowed, jabbing his wand.
Harry parried an unfamiliar hex, and without thinking, retaliated with a Stunning Charm. His eyes widened when it splashed against the thick armor to no effect.
The boss laughed and yelled to his subordinates, who took aim as one.
"Protego!" Sirius cried, defending them both.
Squinting against the flares of spell impacts, Harry stuffed his wand down his pocket; if he used spells powerful enough to penetrate the armor, he risked injuring the stupid sods. Instead, he unhooked the Warlock's Rod from his belt, and pressing the button on its butt, swept it in an arc.
The boss's luxurious mustache was shorn off, leaving him clutching at his mouth, while a witch at his side blinked and sputtered as her eyebrows and lashes fell down her face.
Harry whirled to Firo, who had stuck her head out from between Sirius's legs to watch the light show. "Get us out of here, girl!"
She hopped closer and cocked her head. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the wandtips of the Spaniards light up. Recalling how Fawkes had carried him and Dumbledore out of the Chamber of Secrets, he dived and grabbed onto her tail.
Firo screeched and rocketed skyward, and he barely managed to grab Sirius's forearm to yank him along. A wonderful lightness suffused his limbs, and even Sirius's weight felt like that of a human-shaped balloon.
Half a dozen hexes zoomed through the space they just vacated, but the onslaught petered out as the dragonologists gaped at Firo. "Un fénix," one exclaimed.
"Fuck you, putas!" Harry yelled. "Gibraltar is ours!"
Dangling from Harry's grip, Sirius summoned the broomstick and caught it awkwardly with his free arm. He kept his wand trained downward, but it proved unnecessary: the handlers did little but stare (or mourn their facial hair) as Firo rose higher and higher.
Sirius looked up. "Nice save!"
"All thanks to Firo," Harry said humbly.
"That's who I was talking to!"
Harry rolled his eyes. A gust of frigid wind buffeted them, and he tightened his hold on the warm feathers. Firo swiveled her head at him and squawked, still hauling them into the darkening sky.
"Sorry about this!" he yelled against the wind. "Find a nice place to set us down, will you?"
The beating of her wings slowed and their jerky flight evened out. They were almost level with the nearest mountain peak that glared red in the setting sun. Harry's breath was coming out in puffs, and his fingers were getting numb. He hoped Firo had understood him because he didn't fancy performing aerial acrobatics to mount the broomstick from their current position.
A blaring noise reached his ears on the wind, and he made out a V-shaped array of dots against the darkening sky. He wasn't the only one who did, because Firo swerved abruptly to intercept them.
"What are you doing?" he cried. "No. No, bad bird!"
The dots resolved into grey geese, their wings beating rhythmically and their orange bills parting occasionally in a raucous honk. Firo cawed several times as she neared them, sounding more and more like a goose with each attempt.
Despite himself, Harry laughed. "She's trying to make some friends! Better prepare the broom!"
"Hold on!" Sirius struggled to maneuver his feet into the stirrups as Firo swung them around.
At first, the geese seemed content to ignore their strange company, but as Firo brought them ever closer, they began craning their necks and voicing their alarm. All at once, the wedge broke up, and with shrill honks and hisses, they swooped at the intruders.
"Hurry!" Harry tucked his neck into his shoulders and squeezed his eyes shut against the battering wings and snapping bills. One pinched his shin so hard it made him whimper. He kicked blindly, and his heel connected with what he hoped was one of those feathery buggers.
Sirius yowled. "Watch it!"
Firo zigzagged violently. Harry was getting dizzy, but he kept his eyes shut lest he lose them to an angry goose. At last, Sirius cried triumphantly, and Harry was wrenched in opposite directions.
His eyes flew open. The exhausted fingers of his left hand were about to slip off the furiously flapping Firo's tail. On the opposite side, Sirius sat astride the broom, the arm Harry had a death grip on bent awkwardly behind his back.
"Let her go!" Sirius yanked the broom closer to take some pressure off their overstretched arms.
Harry couldn't have held on much longer even if he wanted to. He unclenched Firo's tail; she shot off with a squawk, while he and Sirius plunged as their bodies regained their weight. The difference was, Sirius leveled out shortly whereas Harry continued falling.
"Shit!" Sirius winced and lurched sideways as Harry's weight tore at his arm.
"I got this," Harry gasped. Kicking up his legs, he hooked his ankle onto the broomstick and clambered on. The protective bubble muted the racket of the birds, and the frigid wind no longer lashed his face.
Sirius glanced over his shoulder. "Blimey, those buggers are almost worse than a dragon. You alright?"
"Peachy." He blew on his hands for warmth. "Bloody birdbrain. Sometimes I find it hard to believe she and Fawkes are of the same species."
"Give her a few decades," Sirius said, turning away. "What's she doing now?"
Firo honked loudly as she flitted around the scattered geese, shepherding them into a group. Any goose foolish enough to raise its bill against her was met with a swift and merciless response. Cowed, the geese gradually formed up into a wedge and set off northwest. Among their grey plumages, gold-and-scarlet feathers glittered in the last rays of the day.
"I reckon she'll need a few centuries," Harry murmured. When the honking faded in the distance, a buzzing noise intruded on his awareness. He strained his ears.
Sirius turned the broom and peered at the mountains below. "Night's approaching fast. We might as well camp out somewhere until morning."
"Shh. Do you hear that?"
Sirius glanced at him. "Hear what?"
"It's like a voice..." Slapping his forehead, he unbuttoned the top of his robes and stuck his hand into his inner pocket. "Brandon!"
Brandon's oily physiognomy appeared ghastly under the bluish light from the computer screen. "Harry. Harry—finally! Man, what gives? I've been calling you for half an hour."
He opened and closed his mouth several times. "Got into a fight with some hostiles." He frowned. "It's sort of your fault. Spain? Bad intel, mate."
Brandon folded his arms. "Hey, you're the one who told me to report fires. If you don't need my help anymore, just say it."
"No, no, sorry." He sighed. "I'm just tired."
Brandon glanced away and snorted. "It's barely seven. You are a normie."
He scowled at the mirror. "Do you have anything for us or not?"
"Trust me, you're going to love this." Brandon clacked on the keyboard. "Some campers uploaded a photo of a dragon drinking from a pond. It's a bit dark, but the thing looks just like the one from the video." He eyed Harry uncertainly. "Was it, you know, for real? Screwing a van and all?"
"It was," he said, waving him on. "More importantly, where was the photo taken?"
"The uploader never said, but..." Brandon took a slurp from a can and burped. "I dug around and it turns out he didn't clear the EXIF data, can you believe that? It had the GPS coordinates down to the second."
"Brandon—"
A pudgy finger appeared in the mirror. "Shadowlord."
He sucked in air through his teeth. "Shadowlord. Where?"
Brandon's gaze flicked to the side. "Some backwoods place in Croatia called Plitvička. Looks like a bunch of lakes and a big-ass forest, nothing interesting."
"Croatia." Harry furrowed his brows. "Where the hell is that?"
"Well, it's near Slovenia and Hungary and—"
"It's fine," he said, raising a palm. "How are you holding up? Can you keep searching for a while longer?"
"I won't lie, it's a struggle—but I've trained myself for this." Brandon picked up the can again and drained it. "If need be, I'll sacrifice sleep until I track that cryptid down."
"Good man. Call me if you find anything else." He pocketed the mirror, cutting off Brandon's 'Shadowlord out'.
Sirius turned at the waist. "I didn't understand a thing about what he did, but it sounded impressive." The map splayed atop his palm was already centered on the aforementioned backwoods.
"Told you he was good." Harry contemplated the map. "Can you zoom out and mark the spot he was seen at in France?"
Sirius tapped the map with his wand.
"That's halfway across the continent," Harry murmured. What drove Cedric to fly so far? He laid his wand atop the map so that it connected the locations of the sightings in France and Croatia. Its tip extended further over Bosnia, Serbia, and Bulgaria, just skimming the bottom border of... "Romania. Isn't that the place with—"
"The largest dragon reservation in the world!" Sirius rapped the map, and a large tract of land incorporating forests, mountains, and rivers was outlined, not very far north from a place inexplicably named Cărpeniș.
"That's quite a ways to go. I hope they treat Cedric nicely if he ends up there."
"They say the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary takes in strays from all around the world. As long as no ICW prick barges in demanding his hide, it should be the safest place for him to be." Sirius rolled up the map. "Strap in. By my estimation, we should get there shortly past midnight—British time, that is."
Harry slung his arm around Sirius's waist as they pivoted, leaving the fading glow of the sunset behind. "I thought we'd be flying all night, single broomstick and all."
"Let's find out, shall we?"
They picked up speed, and the dark mountains and valleys below were shortly replaced by myriads of city lights twinkling in the wintery evening. These grew dimmer as they gained altitude, whereas the stars above them shone brighter.
Harry heard a distant roar and scanned the navy-blue sky until he spied the strobing red lights of a plane behind and above. It drew steadily closer until he could make out the tiny round windows along its chunky fuselage.
He tapped Sirius on the shoulder and pointed up. Sirius snorted and leaned forward. The broomstick accelerated until it began vibrating, and the roaring contraption fell behind.
Harry made a rude gesture at the plane. "Ha! Eat our dust!"
Sirius chuckled. "The broom's hardly any slower with two people aboard. Shouldn't take us more than four hours unless we have to fly upwind."
Harry hummed thoughtfully as he recalled the countries on the way. "Best not cross over Slovakia. I am, after all, a wanted man there." He wasn't able to keep the pride out of his voice.
"You mean their Aurors would like to ask you some polite questions," Sirius said in an exasperated tone. "I doubt they'd so much as detain you, and even if they did, our Ministry would raise a stink and you'd be out in an hour."
"Bah, I'm not placing myself into the hands of third-world law enforcement if I can help it."
"Third-world?"
"A Muggle term. It basically means 'not British'," Harry said knowingly.
"Huh." Sirius was silent for a time. "It wouldn't be much of a lark if we became wanted men back home, though. I keep thinking... Breeding a dragon only incurs a fine, but we might not get off that easy for resisting Hitwizards."
He sobered a little. "Su will come through for us, she always does. If worst comes to worst, we can hole up at my place. It's not on the Floo registry yet, so the Ministry won't know to look for us there." It might be a little cramped, what with the scaffolding and the Eastern European builders he hired bustling about, but it would do in a pinch.
"I still think you're barmy to want to live in a water tower," Sirius said, shaking his head.
"I keep telling you, that's just what the Muggles will see! It's a proper wizard's tower. Any self-respecting sorcerer ought to live in one if you ask me."
"Are you sure you're not compensating for something?" Sirius laughed when Harry walloped him in the back. "Hey, if you want to live atop a giant phallus, I'm not going to judge."
"Have you been talking to Tony? You guys are such pricks about this." He sighed. "At least Su seems to like the idea."
"Speaking of, I haven't seen her around. She get tired of you yet?"
"No," he said indignantly. "She's been neck-deep in some freaky research."
"So how are things between you two?"
"Eh, you know. Not bad."
"Just not bad? Come on, give me more than that."
"Well... this might sound a little sappy, but..." Harry gathered his thoughts. "You ever lock eyes with a woman and realize that nothing else in the universe matters but her? That she shines brighter than any star in the sky, that for her you'd take on the world? That nothing would make you happier than to stay at her side until you grow old together?"
Sirius contorted around to goggle at him. "No?"
He shrugged nonchalantly. "Yeah, me neither."
Sirius let out an explosive breath. "Phew, don't scare me! I thought I lost you like I'd lost James. He spoke that way about Lily before getting married."
"It's not like that," he said, chuckling. "Though I do like her a lot. She's so... chill, you know? Any other girl I'd hesitate to show my room to, but I don't need to pretend to be someone else with Su. She understands, and if not, she doesn't judge."
"Uh oh," Sirius muttered.
"What?"
"Baring your soul to a woman is asking for trouble. One day, when you least expect it, she'll fly off the handle about some trifle and use everything she learned as ammunition against you. Trust me, I've been there."
Harry frowned. "Su's not like your veela cheerleader! I'm telling you, she's cool."
Sirius shrugged without facing him. "I don't want you to get your heart crushed, is all."
"Your concern is touching," he said acidly, "but I'll be fine."
"Just don't get too invested," Sirius said, and went quiet.
Harry glared at his back until he was overtaken by a yawn. While he wasn't all that sleepy, not being in control of the broom didn't leave him with much to do. Sighing, he cast his gaze about.
It was well and truly dark now, and the sky was spangled with more stars than he ever saw in the smoggy London sky. Down below, clusters of light interspersed the dark landscape up to the horizon, the streets of the nearby settlements flowing like rivers of light.
An impressive sight, but he would have traded it for a warm cup of tea.
He yawned again. Having attained its top speed, the broom sailed smoothly onward, and the wind outside settled into a droning buzz. He wriggled backward to rest against the luggage baskets and closed his eyes.
