"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid trilled at the tiny black lizard already glowing with a lambent internal flame. It had taken a few weeks for the dragon to hatch, and Hagrid had invited Harry, Dean, and Hermione to see the event. "Bless him! Look! He knows his mummy."
It was not particularly beautiful. If anything, it looked vicious and deadly, even newly born. Evidently Muspelheim didn't have the same evolutionary pressure as Earth to make babies cute so their parents would care for them.
Hermione pursed her lips and asked, "Hagrid… how fast do dragons grow, exactly?"
"Hard ter say," the big man shrugged. "I aim ter find out!"
"Time to beg Dumbledore for forgiveness?" Harry asked. "We don't want anyone to tell on you. Dean already spotted Malfoy trying to follow us down here and we had to take the long way around until he gave up. That kid is definitely going to tell on you if he gets the chance."
Hagrid was not very subtle, and most of the school had drawn the conclusion that something was up with him suddenly being absent from most meals and living in a blacked-out cottage that was constantly belching smoke. Most of the students assumed he was just fighting off a cold, but Malfoy, still set on making Harry his nemesis, had noted their visits.
"When he gets back," Hagrid agreed. "It's political season. The headmaster's also chief warlock o' the wizards' council and represents the wizards at the Vanir althing. I think he won't be back 'til around exams, this year."
"Rector McGonagall then?" Hermione tried.
"Er, maybe not," he hedged. "Minnie always gets real frazzled when she's acting headmistress. Becomes a right stickler, she does. You three should keep yer heads down 'round her. Liable ter be over-strict and then feel bad about it later."
"Just… be careful, I guess," Harry suggested, watching the tiny monster already belching flames that singed the thick wooden table.
As they walked back across the grounds, Hermione insisted, "Wooden. House."
Dean suggested, "Ron has that brother that works with dragons. Start a contingency plan?"
Harry sighed, "Once Ron knows, Seamus will know, then Lavender and Parvati will know, and then everyone will know."
"Fred and George?" Hermione suggested.
Both boys nodded. The twins were much better at keeping secrets.
They managed to catch the two alone later and explained the situation. "Oh, yeah, McGonagall will lose it if she finds out," the one on the left agreed.
"But thanks for the warning that Dumbledore's gone," the one on the right added.
"Only completely deniable pranks until he's back."
"Hagrid's right that she gets really stressed."
"But, yeah, we can get in touch with Charlie."
"We can't help convincing the big man to send the dragon away, though," they finished.
Harry agreed, "We're working on it. Thanks guys."
Little Norbert grew as quickly as Hermione had feared. Like many creatures born from eggs, dragons seemed to have an imperative to grow as quickly as possible into a size where they were no longer in danger from predators, and the predators on Muspelheim were probably colossal. Norbert was very soon going to exceed the brick playpen that Hagrid had created to take up one side of his house.
And Draco was becoming increasingly aware of all the trips they were making down to the hut.
"Just say the word and we can get Charlie Weasley out here to pack him up," Harry explained
Hagrid fended off the baby dragon who was already probably fifty pounds with a chuckle like it didn't have razor-sharp teeth a couple of inches long and its own hellish internal light glowing from between its coal-black scales. He looked wistfully at the tiny terror and sighed, "That might be fer the best, after all. He's growin' faster'n I expected. I'd need ter make an outside pen soon."
"We'll tell the twins to send the letter," Hermione agreed, before he could take it back.
It took a couple of days to get a response, setting up a time to meet them after dark in a clearing in the forest that Charlie knew about from his days at the school. "Glad they didn't want to try it on a tower. We'd never get Norbert through the school," Harry figured. When they'd checked in that afternoon, the dragon was bigger than Fang, who was the biggest dog any of the children had ever seen.
"Kind of wish you'd hung onto the invisibility cloak, though," Dean said, as they slipped out of the school after dinner. At least the twins had been willing to show them a secret passage out of the castle, but they weren't willing to risk the wrath of McGonagall for sneaking out themselves, which made the first-years a little anxious.
"We're going to lose so many points," Hermione grimaced. Though both Harry and Dean had missed the adventure where she'd run into Garm, they were pleased that the bookish girl was willing to back them up instead of haranguing them about getting expelled. She'd really mellowed out a lot after they'd all nearly been killed by a troll.
What the boys didn't know was that it also had a lot to do with Pepper sharing some of the secrets for the way she managed Tony. If anyone had mastered the skill of reining in the excesses of a reckless genius, it was Pepper Potts. And Harry and Dean were kittens by comparison to the cat that Pepper had to herd every day.
The three had been preoccupied enough with getting out without their housemates or head of house noticing, that they hadn't put in their usual work making sure Malfoy wasn't able to follow them. The platinum-headed pureblood had covered his hair with a dark hood, and was doing a fair job of ghosting along behind them, certain that he was finally going to get Harry in so much trouble, and really make sure the boy knew who his nemesis was.
At Hagrid's hut, the big man had quenched his exterior lighting torches and was lurking on the far side of the building with Norbert and Fang, starting suspiciously when the three arrived. "Oh! It's just yeh lot. Let's get goin'. Remember ter stay close ter me an' don' wander off. More'n just unicorns in the forest."
Norbert was collared with a chain as a makeshift leash, and seemed somewhat sluggish in the chill evening but excited about finally getting to leave the house. His black scales would make him almost invisible in the dark, save for the reddish glow between them as he moved and the frequent gouts of flame he breathed in his excitement, often trying to flap his wings to lift off, but struggling with the chain.
"He's a handful, ain't he?" Hagrid said, sadly, as they'd walked a few minutes down a faint path, lit by the dragon's flame and the children's dimly glowing wands. Hagrid had his own lantern stowed on his belt, needing both hands to manage the excited dragon. Fang hung back at the end of the line, ears perked up in the realization that he might not be sharing his home with the terrifying housemate for much longer. "Shame I can't keep him. Think Charlie will let me come visit?"
"I'm sure he will," Harry assured the half-giant. "Didn't Ron's family just go visit him for Yule? Sounds like he's allowed to have guests."
"Surprised yeh lot didn't stay," Hagrid noted. "Dumbledore thought yeh might, easier'n flying all the way back ter yer homes."
"We stayed in London," Harry shrugged. "Hermione showed us around."
"Oh. Through the Market, then?" the big man agreed. "Guess it's safe enou' now. Been months since the robbery on yer birthday." The children just nodded, and didn't seem to bite on the clue, so he finally pointed out, "Good thing I got there before."
"Wait, did you rob Gringotts?" Harry asked, having already forgotten the conversation they'd had weeks earlier, since it had nothing to do with him. "Oh! No, you mean you took something out that the robber was hoping to steal?"
Hagrid just tapped the side of his nose, perhaps more forcefully than he had the last time, hoping they'd take a bite on the information and go investigating. "Can't say anymore 'bout that. Here we are!"
They'd climbed up into a clearing that seemed to be the top of a low but particularly rocky hill, explaining why the soil wasn't deep enough for trees to take root. Norbert saw sky, and redoubled his effort to fly away, forcing even the massive Hagrid to struggle to hang on.
"Maybe should've brought a cage," Hagrid mused, between exertions. "I guess Charlie's lot'll have ter stun the poor tyke. I prolly need yeh three ter flag down the flyers with yer wands and help get him loaded. I appreciate yer sneakin' out ter help me."
"It's no problem, Hagrid," Hermione insisted. "We're just happy he's going to a place that's big enough for him."
"Is there someone in the woods?" Dean asked, eyes adjusted to the dark and making out a pale face hiding behind a tree in the direction they'd come from.
"Eep!" Draco said, his spying detected. He thought briefly about confronting them all, but even in his self-importance realized that it could go very badly for him no matter who his father was. Best to flee with his knowledge and get Snape to catch them all in the act of being out of bounds and having an illegal animal. He turned to take off running.
"It's Draco!" Harry realized, as the boy's hood fell off as he turned to run. "I'll get him!" For as smart as he usually was, Harry was still 11. And a Gryffindor. He'd started running after his would-be rival before his brain realized that it was a bad idea to go rushing off into a dark, dangerous forest. Somewhere in his head, he realized that Draco was in danger for the same reason, and was just trying to stop him.
Harry was gone before Hagrid could grab him, but he yelled, "Yeh two, stay! I can't hang onter Norbert an' chase yeh! Fang, go wi' Harry!"
Norbert had, in fact, become agitated when there was suddenly yelling and running, trying to leap into the air and fly after the fleeing prey, and Dean and Hermione were having to use energy whips to try to help Hagrid restrain what was suddenly an extremely aggressive balloon.
Meanwhile, in the woods, Harry was yelling, "Draco! Stop!" while he barely made out the sounds of the boy crashing ahead, and the occasional glimpse of his lit wand, pale skin, and platinum hair between trees.
Draco tossed back, "You'd like that, wouldn't you Potter! I'm telling Snape! You're going to be expelled! And that oaf will be fired!"
"Are you even running back toward the school?" Harry argued, leaping over a fallen log that he definitely hadn't passed on the way in, his own wand in hand and kept dim so as to not ruin his night vision.
"Of course I am!" Draco insisted. He wasn't. He had almost instantly gotten off course and couldn't run in a straight line in the dense forest.
Harry was actually kind of impressed that it was taking so long to catch up to Draco. For all that the boy was rich, he didn't seem to be indolent, and had good enough reflexes that he hadn't tripped on any obstructions or gotten smacked in the face with a branch. Fang huffed behind them, the enormous dog not really prepared to chase two athletic pre-teens as far as they'd gone.
Finally, Draco's luck ran out and he tumbled down a gully with a cry of surprise. It had appeared so quickly in the uneven terrain of the forest. Harry managed to slow down and ease his own way into the small clearing that seemed to be part animal trail and part flood spillway, only low ground cover on the dirt, but soft enough that Draco hadn't been too injured as he rolled to a stop.
"Stay back, Potter!" the boy threatened, brandishing his wand as he managed to climb back to his feet.
Harry just rolled his eyes and showed he wasn't pointing his wand at Draco, just holding it up and leaving it lit enough to make things out in the long clearing. "We're going to need to follow Fang to get back to the school. Why were you even following us?"
"Dragons are illegal. And you're out of bounds!" Draco was glancing around, realizing that Harry was right, and that he had no idea where they were.
"Your word against all of ours on the dragon, since it won't be here by the time anyone can check. And you're also out of bounds." Harry said, moving further into the open space to try to see if he could figure out where they were, and to show the rich boy that he wasn't actually afraid of him.
"They'll believe me over all of you," Draco insisted.
Whether Harry could talk the boy out of that mistaken belief would never be answered, as just then there was a frantic sound of hoofbeats and Harry had to throw himself out of the way of a massive white blur, a fleeing unicorn that had suddenly charged around a bend in the gully and rushed past. It seemed to be shedding silvery blood from a wound in its flank, which glimmered under Harry's wandlight. "What the!?" he asked, trying to put together what had just happened as he rolled over and tried to get back to his feet.
A terrifying howl of some kind of pursuing predator dopplered toward them, along with the sound of claws tearing up turf at a sprint. Fang yelped in fear and took off. Draco, who'd been missed by the unicorn, ran after the dog…
…leaving Harry alone just as he realized he'd twisted his ankle in the fall.
Harry winced as he tried to put weight on his leg, scrabbling back to try to get to the treeline and letting the light from his wand fade, hoping whatever was coming would continue chasing the unicorn. Not that he felt good about such a majestic beast being hunted, but it could at least run at the moment. For a moment he thought he'd succeeded, as an immense beast rushed past him, following the unicorn's trail. In the moonlight, the shape he could make out seemed vaguely doglike, but also unsettlingly humanoid, with deep black skin rather than fur, visible against the rest of the forest in how it absorbed light, reflecting nothing, a moving silhouette. It was bigger than Fang, and possibly nearly as big as Hagrid. As the monster charged past in a huffing cascade of footfalls, Harry breathed a sigh of relief.
And then it slid to a stop and turned toward him.
As it began snuffling and oriented its face toward Harry, he could make out that it seemed to have only a single eye, vertically oriented, gleaming electric yellow in the darkness that was its skin, perched above a giant slavering maw of glistening metallic teeth. As the profile changed, he could barely make out that its back was lined with a series of small spines or ridges. And, as it fixed its gaze upon Harry, he felt something burn against his skin.
The pain was against the flesh of his leg. With a shocked cry, he fished his Starkphone out of his pocket and flung it to the ground in front of him, where it was suddenly sparking and emitting smoke.
Harry had received one of the first Starkphones when they'd rolled out a couple years earlier. Still in elementary school and trusted with the latest phone and internet browsing device, when most of his classmates didn't even have a clamshell phone, it had become a totem. Even after months at Hogwarts and having had to turn it off, it was still reassuring to feel its weight in his pocket.
And now it was hissing under the curious inspection of the shadowy beast, who began to creep forward. Clearly, its electric gaze was overcoming the normal resistance of Vanaheim to technology in some way. With a pleased growl, a long dark tongue darted from the beast's mouth to slurp up the phone, and Harry nearly sobbed at the sound of glass cracking as it effortlessly crunched up and swallowed his device. He still had games on there that he hadn't finished.
After its snack of the Starkphone, the monster glanced up at Harry, as if considering whether to make him a meal. The light from its one eye seemed more pronounced than before, but it glanced warily at the wand still clenched in his right hand. "You're not eating this," Harry decided, anger that the thing had eaten his phone overwhelming his fear. He began to fire bolts of energy from the wand, as he tried to balance on his unhurt ankle in case he needed to dodge out of the way.
The creature shrieked loudly and backed up as the motes of orange light struck it, for all that they seemed to instantly be absorbed into the velvet darkness.
"Yeah. Get back you phone-eating jerk!" Harry insisted, though he wasn't sure how long it would take before it realized that was the worst he could do. He let out the mightiest yell he could manage and raised an arm above his head, vaguely remembering advice on how to scare off predators.
It didn't seem to work, exactly, but they were locked in their standoff for what seemed like forever but which was realistically about a minute, before Harry heard the sound of hoofbeats coming their way, far more than just the one unicorn. Maybe it had gone and gotten its herd? Harry chanced a glance in the direction of the noise and spotted lights moving through the trees, then the sound of a hunting horn.
"Over here!" Harry yelled, as the creature decided it wanted none of this, turning and bounding back off into the forest. In moments, several figures came into view, and in the sudden brightness of their lanterns against the black, he had a momentary thought that they were centaurs, before realizing that they were just men mounted on horseback, riding so easily they seemed to be one with their mounts. "The shadowy thing went that way!" he announced, with all of a young boy's trust that this wasn't just a bigger problem he'd have to deal with.
Fortunately, his assumption proved correct, as one of the horsemen said, "You all continue. I'll stay with the boy!" Three of the men rode on, their horses threading their way gracefully even into the thicker part of the wood, as the man who'd spoken slowed his horse and turned to face Harry. In the light of the spell-lit lantern mounted around the horse's neck, Harry could make out that the rider had hair almost as blond as Draco's, for all that he otherwise was the very picture of a Mongolian horse archer, bow in one hand ready for the hunt. He chastised, "It is a dangerous place for young wizards here, where a shadow nix roams."
"Is that what that was?" Harry asked, wincing as he tried to put more weight on his twisted ankle, getting a little tired of balancing on his good leg. "It was chasing a unicorn, I think, and then it ate my phone." He took a beat and then explained, "I didn't mean to be out here. Believe it or not, I was trying to save another student from getting lost out here." Draco would definitely have been eaten by the shadow nix.
"Well, let me get you back to your school, then. It isn't safe for you to wander, particularly with a hurt leg. I'm Glenelg, of the guard of Ronan," he introduced himself while reaching a hand down to lift Harry up.
Accepting the lift, Harry found himself pulled up in front of the man to straddle the horse, "Harry Potts. Do you know Hagrid. He'll be out here looking for me."
"Yes, we know the gamekeeper well. Harry Potter, you say?" Glenelg misheard, urging the horse with his knees to start moving. "That explains it. I have a bit of the Sight, you see, and that was what had us searching this part of the forest tonight. I am not surprised to find someone so touched by the Norns at the end of our search."
"So that thing was hunting me?" Harry asked.
"Perhaps. Perhaps not. You say it ate something of yours? A piece of Midgardian technology?"
Harry glanced back and asked, "How'd you… oh, right, famous. Yeah, it's a… communication device. I probably shouldn't have been carrying it. It didn't work here."
"It may have sensed such a thing from some distance but is not, I think, why it was in the forest." Glenelg began to explain, "The shadow nixes are not originally from Vanaheim, we think. More likely, they were dropped here from some alien world where their endless thirst to consume electrical technology would be a greater detriment. They can eat normal meat, but seem to crave matter that houses lightning. They seek it out from miles away."
"So I shouldn't bring any of that to the school, even if it doesn't work?"
"It would be wise not to, but this beast we have been tracking for many months, since it began to prey on the animals of the forest. Something else drew it here. Perhaps a falling star."
"You mean a spaceship," Harry said, quicker on the uptake than the hunter probably expected.
"Indeed. Sometimes, those from alien worlds come to Vanaheim to work mischief. Many crash here in their starcraft, as soon as they enter the boundaries where their technologies fail. But some know this in advance, and design their crafts to land safely even after their science fails. Interlopers entering our world not by the passages we can monitor."
Harry nodded along, summing up, "You think someone landed in the forest from space, and the nix just followed the ship here to eat it. But there haven't been any aliens wandering around, right?"
"The trouble with aliens, young Harry Potter," Glenelg intoned, "is that few in the cosmos look truly that different from our own forms. Many from beyond the stars could pass as locals with a disguise." He sighed and admitted, "But hunting spies from space is not our remit. Ours is but to slay beasts that threaten the lives under our protection. Ah, I think I see Hagrid's great height up ahead."
Sure enough, they trotted up to Hagrid, Dean, and Hermione, free of Norbert and looking upset. "Harry!" Hermione nearly shrieked in excitement as she realized that he was being returned.
"Yeh alrigh', Harry?" Hagrid asked.
"Just a twisted ankle," Harry told them.
"He nearly wasn't, Hagrid," Glenelg insisted. "Be more careful with your charges in this forest. Well, this is where I leave you." He helped Harry down to the ground.
Balancing gingerly, Harry discovered that the pain in his ankle had receded a bit. "Thank you, sir," he nodded.
Turning to leave, the horseman said, "Good luck, Harry Potter. I hope I am wrong, but it is my sense that you are all wrapped up in the skeins of the Norns. You have not heard the last of falling stars." With that, he rode off into the darkness.
"Where's Draco?" Dean asked, moving to help Harry, letting him get an arm over his shoulders. With that assistance, Harry found he could walk without too much difficulty.
"Ran off as soon as the shadow nix showed up. Hopefully he followed Fang back to school."
"Oh, yeh saw a shadow nix?" Hagrid asked as they trudged back along a much more familiar-looking path through the dark forest. "I'd like ter have one o' them."
Draco had made it back safely. As they exited the forest they spotted Fang wagging his tail happy they'd returned from where he was hiding on Hagrid's porch, and Draco's own pale head rushing across the grounds to the castle. If he went immediately to Snape, the chemistry professor didn't do anything about it, and the next time they saw Draco in class the haughty boy was trying hard to pretend that nothing had ever happened.
But rumor was that he'd gotten detention cleaning cauldrons for doing something.
In other good news, in the middle of Pasture-Month (Harry wondered where they got those names), which worked out to nearly the beginning of May on Earth, Harry got a letter from his aunt.
"He's okay!" Harry told his friends across the breakfast table as he read the letter. "Tony. They rescued him. Well, he escaped where he was being held and then they found him in the desert. Oh." He glanced to Parvati, "You were right. He decided to stop making weapons, after almost getting blown up by one of the bombs he made. Sounds like the company doesn't know what they're going to do instead yet, but Aunt Pepper's happy he's safe. Huh. He has an electromagnet on his chest now to keep bomb shrapnel from getting into his heart."
"I'm glad!" Hermione said. "And I'm sure they'll be fine. Stark Industries has so much more cool technology besides just weapons. After all think about your phone…" she trailed off, realizing it was still a sore subject.
Ron butted in, "I still can't believe you went into the forest to fight shadow nixes and didn't take us!" The story had come out eventually.
"Dude, quiet," Dean cautioned the excitable Weasley. "He didn't go to fight it. And we didn't tell you because we didn't want the whole school to know. Learn to keep your mouth shut and you can go on the next one."
"I'll hold you to that, mate," Ron said, blithely ignoring the tense atmosphere.
"Maybe we could just finish out the year without having another brush with death," Hermione insisted. Everyone regarded her for a moment, then looked back to their breakfast plates without agreeing. They knew what Gryffindor was about.
A few days later, Harry headed down after dinner to talk to Professor Trelawney and tell her that the absolute point in time had resolved itself. The divination teacher made a few vague pronouncements, predicted Harry's death again, and generally seemed to be quite happy that he'd kept her in the loop. Bemused and heading back out of the dungeons, he once again heard the sound of violin music emanating from the unused classroom. Without a whole parade of first-years with him this time, he was able to get close to the door without the music stopping, and then carefully push the door open to peer in.
As soon as he spotted his defense teacher in the room, Mistress Morgan had stowed the violin and had a knife in hand, ready to throw at his head. Harry widened his eyes and said, carefully, "Sorry. I just wanted to see who was practicing. You're getting better?"
The green-skinned hag gave him a strange look, a number of emotions flitting across her face. "Harry Potter. Alone in the dungeons. You could die down here and nobody would ever find you."
It was not the strangest thing the fatalistic warrior woman had said to him in classes, Harry just shrugged and said, "There are a lot of places I could die and nobody would find me. This would be at least the fourth time. Second time in the last month. I think Professor Trelawney is betting on it."
She tilted her head, considered for another long moment, and then stowed the dagger.
Taking that as invitation to enter, Harry pushed the door the rest of the way and asked, "What are you playing?"
"Old Asgardian hymn, the Peace of Winter. I'm still learning it," the hag admitted.
"Sounds like a lullaby," Harry said. "My aunt wasn't much of a singer, but she had some on CDs—technological recordings—that she'd play."
Oddly maudlin, Morgan admitted, "My mother would sing to me, before she died."
She looked like the moment was about to end, but Harry pressed, interested in knowing someone else who was orphaned, "So where are you going to go after the school ends. You only teach for one year, right?"
"The headmaster swore me to it, in fact," she frowned. "I'm stuck here until the last day of classes. After that, I might… travel."
"No family?" he asked.
"My father… well, adoptive," she admitted, strangely disarmed by the child seeming to honestly want to know more about her than anyone ever asked. "And a sister. Also adopted."
"I wish I had a brother or sister," Harry nodded. "It's just me and my aunt, after my parents were killed. But I guess you know all about that. Everyone seems to."
"I do," she said, some harsh thought passing before her eyes that she brutally squelched down. "Go on, now. I'll find a different place to practice from now on."
"Okay, well, you're getting better. Keep at it," he encouraged her, leaving. He was kind of sad that she'd be replaced as a teacher the next year, since she seemed the most relatable of all the adults in the castle other than maybe Hagrid, for all that she was too fast with a knife.