Disclaimer: Harry Potter and everything in the franchise is the property of J.K. Rowling, Dungeons & Dragons is a property of TSR. Rating is PG-13 for mild violence and swearing, may turn to R in later chapters.

Harry Potter & the Coming of the Dragon

Chapter Ch7- The Dementors Kiss

Harry found himself alone in a dark room. He was sitting in a plush high-backed chair facing a roaring fire the walls around were lined with dusty tomes and faded paintings. In his lap lay the head of a huge snake, its body ran down one leg and curled lazily about the chair. He was stroking the brow of the creature with his bony pale hand and paused when a hidden voice spoke. "My Lord, I have news."

A figure waited in the shadows. He had dropped to one knee upon entering his master's presence, struggling to control his trembling as he waited his lord's pleasure. A voice came from Harry's throat, not his own but a sound deep and horrid as the grave. "From Snape?"

"No my lord, the Gryffindor spy."

Lifting a goblet from a small table to his right, he stirred the dark liquid with a finger. Still looking into the fire, save his words not even acknowledging the presence of his servant. "Continue"

"An elf my lord."

His eyes flicked to the shadow cowering so near to him, "What of an elf?"

Stuttering with half concealed fear the shadow pressed on, "A high elf has come to Hogwarts along with some human children in his charge. He has taken the position as the new defence teacher and was noticed to take a particular interest in Mr. Potter."

Sitting the cup back on the table untasted and folded his hands before him in thought. "There must be a reason that he comes now. His ridiculous principles kept him from interfering the last time I came to power... what has changed?" Brooding into the fire for a short time he spoke, "Tell our spy to stay alert, any information concerning the elf must be brought to me immediately."

The shadowed figure began to stand and back away, "Hold." Standing for the first time and approaching the cowering minion he lazily stretched out his wand, "Crucio!" Falling to the floor the little man screamed in pain. "Ah, my little rodent. You who helped to bring me back into the world and returned my body to me. Remember this pain, for though you have served me well in the past and your rewards have been great, failure this close to my final victory will bring punishment that will make this seem a summer breeze." Cancelling the spell and returning to his chair he continued. "Have our pet Gryffindor keep a special eye on young Malfoy. I would be pleased to know his reaction on the latest news of his father."

Pettigrew crawled from the room as Harry's eyes were again drawn to the fire. He sat for several minutes feeling its heat and contemplating what he had learned that night. Picking up a small silver hand-mirror from the table beside him he turned it towards himself. The face of the mirror, rather than reflecting his image, was completely black, seeming to draw even the light of the room in upon itself. "Do it." He spoke the words and the blackness in the mirror seemed to stir and fade, in its place was a reflection. A gaunt, sallow face with glowing red eyes.

Harry lurched up in bed screaming. It had been more than a month since he had experienced a nightmare and the return of them was none too welcome. Whether it had been the occulomancy lessons given to him by Remus over the summer break or that Voldemort had gone into hiding he had felt some respite for a while. Now, it appeared they and the pain of in his forehead had returned with a vengeance.

He sat on the edge of his bed rubbing his scar as the door burst open. Ron, Hermione and half the Gryffindor house tried to crowd into the room at one time. "Harry, you ok?" The red head sat down at his side, looking at him with concern on his face. "You don't look well."

Harry tried to reassure his friend, "I'm fine, just tired."

"You've slept all day Harry, you missed all your classes and lunch. The dinner bell rang a few minutes ago I was coming up drag you to the great hall when you screamed."

Harry blinked, realizing that he had slept far longer than he had planned. Rubbing his eyes he grabbed his glasses off the bedside table and went to dinner with his friends, assuring them as they went that all was well. Eating better than he had in the last twenty-four hours, he thought back to his last vision with Voldemort.

Voldemort had said that there was someone in their house who was spying for him; also, he seemed very interested in the elf lords business here. Still, the man seemed puzzled by Jayxom's presence, which, Harry hoped, meant that he didn't know about the dragons. The boy racked his brain, trying to remember anything else from the dream that seemed important. Glancing across the hall he noticed Draco looking towards him with an odd, almost questioning look.

A hollow voice suddenly rang through his skull, "Do it." Feeling dread in his heart he quickly stood from the table and went to stand before the headmaster.

"Yes Harry," said Dumbledore, "what can I do for you?"

Leaning over the table and speaking in low tones to prevent being overheard Harry said, "Professor, something is going to happen at the prison... something involving Mr. Malfoy."

A look of concern crossed Dumbledore's face, "A vision Harry?"

The headmaster rose from the table with Harry's nod. Whispering a quick word to a few of the teachers including Professor Snape, they all went into a side room and had the boy repeat his entire vision to them. "Lord Silverheart if you would please contact minister Fudge, some of the order members and myself will port to headquarters and then to the prison. Harry, go back to the hall and try not to worry, we'll be back soon."

With those words the headmaster, professor McGonnagal and Snape vanished holding a lollypop from Dumbledore's robes. Jayxom, pulling a gem from his robe, spoke a quick message into it before changing it into a falcon and loosing it from a nearby window.

"Back to your house-mates now lad," the elf said with a smile, "you've done what you can and they'll be wondering where you've vanished to."

Harry went back to his friends in the great hall, seeing their searching looks he said, "I think its time I told you what was going on." Getting up they all walked towards the doors when Harry paused and turned towards the Slytherin table. Having no difficulty getting Draco's attention as he had been watching the entire turn of events with some interest, Harry waved subtly for the other boy to join them. To baffled and outraged looks from Slytherins and Gryffindors alike, Malfoy stood and followed Harry out of the hall.

It was a very odd group walking the corridors that evening. Ron and Hermione, their faces a cross between disbelief and revulsion, walked behind their friend and kept a close eye on the Blond Slytherin. Draco on the other hand seemed slightly confused by Harry's invitation but followed with his normal aristocratic grace. Last was Alec, he hadn't wanted to come but heard the boys unspoken request to help explain. Harry lead them to the room of requirement, paced in front of it a three times and opened the painting.

Inside they found a large common room, each wall hung with a different house colours. Above the fireplace was a picture of the four founders posing together. Each an embodiment of their house but with a feeling of genuine camaraderie on their faces. Before the fire were several comfortable chairs, a couch and a chessboard. Not speaking Harry took a seat in one of the chairs and waited for the others to do the same.

Ron and Hermione sat on a couch close to Harry obviously trying to show solidarity with their friend. Draco, unperturbed, took a chair facing them without a word. Alec, feeling like a fifth wheel, sat in yet another chair between the three and the Slytherin.

Ron spoke up first. "Oi Harry, why does the ferret have to be here?"

Rising to the bait the blond responded, "Most likely he wanted to have an intelligent conversation instead of your usual drivel weasel."

Ron shot out of his chair, fists clenched. "Why I ought to..."

"What?" Draco asked casually, "Make me eat slugs again? That worked so well last time."

"Just Shut it Malfoy," Hermione spoke up, "At least Ron and I are Harry's friends. You..."

"STOP!" Yelled Harry, seeing that they were headed for a major fight if it continued. "I didn't bring you all here for this, I have some things to tell you all and I need you to listen."

Harry looked them all over as silence reigned for a few moments. Seeing they had all relaxed back into their chairs he began. "First off, Malfoy and I are no-longer fighting. There's just too much going on to play that stupid game anymore. Ron..." Warning his friend as he tried to speak, "not until I've finished. There's some things I'm going to tell you that do not leave this room until the headmaster gives the word alright?" Giving a long look at Malfoy, Hermione answered, "You have our word Harry." Ignoring the two Gryffindors he looked to the boy and said as well, "You have my word."

Ignoring Ron's snort of disbelief he went on to explain the reason behind Silverhearts arrival and his interest in Voldemort and himself. The faces of the three all went through the same transformations, shock, disbelief, fear and anger.

"He cant do that mate!" said Ron, "Locking you away like that its worse than killing you."

Harry shook his head, "We don't even know if it is me Ron, it could be Voldemort or anybody."

Alec spoke up for the first time since they had entered the room. "We do know that one of the dragons is here in England, it's a wizard and somehow connected to Harry."

"How do you know all this Alec? When I talked to Silverheart he only said that it could possibly be Voldemort or myself."

The American grimaced, "I had to do some digging. I don't know how your professors do it here but Jayxom is on a terminal 'need to know' mode for prophesies. I found a passage of it in some of his notes. He doesn't want us to know it but then he probably shouldn't have taught me to read elvish." Pulling out a slip of paper he passed it around to them.

From Merlin's Cradle

A dragon born

Under emerald gaze

Bring the storm

"I don't pretend to understand it all but I figure that the it means a dragon will be or already has been born here in England and you'll be there when it wakes up Harry."

They all sat there looking uncomfortably at each other, Hermione, looking concernedly at her friend, quickly pointed out, "I see why you're worried Harry but it can't be you, I mean you'd know it wouldn't you?"

He shook his head, "The professor said that he would know if the dragon was already awake inside the person, if it wasn't nobody, not even the avatar knows who they are."

Alec spoke up again, "I don't think that's quite right."

They all turned towards the boy again. "What do you mean?"

"At home we looked up stuff on Bahamut and Tiamat after Jayxom told us about it," Alec explained, "These guys have avatars sleeping on every world and they wake up when they're needed, like what's going on here. For the most part the sleeping avatar won't know they are different unless something big happens like they almost die. Sometimes they partly wake up and the person gets flashes of all the lives that the avatar lived before that. Like you can suddenly speak a lot of languages and know stuff you never learned."

Harry asked, "How did you find this all out?"

"Some of them wrote about it, you should see the library Jayxom has back home, Hermione, you'd love It." the boy shook his head, "anyway that's what I know."

Draco looked at Harry, "So what, exactly, does all this have to do with me?"

Explaining about the dream he'd had that day the raven-haired Gryffindor told Draco of Voldemort's words concerning his father. The blond Slytherin tensed in his chair. "Why didn't you tell me this before Potter?"

"Draco, there's nothing we can do till the headmaster gets back, we can't apparate from here and even if you could what would you do? Nobody knows what's happening at the prison right now anyway." Malfoy started to speak again and then closed his mouth having nothing more that he could say. Harry was right, as much as it galled him, he would have to wait to hear of his fathers fate.

Unexpectedly the door of the room opened and Dumbledore stepped into the room. "Mr. Malfoy, if you would, please follow me to the infirmary."

Glancing at Draco, Harry saw the boys face go even paler than was normal. Standing, the Slytherin stepped through the door and was quickly followed by his former enemy.

Harry was stopped at the doors to the infirmary by Dumbledore himself. Inside he could hear the low tones of Madame Pomfrey and Draco, whose voice had taken on an almost frantic edge. Turning to the headmaster he asked what had happened at Azkaban. With a sad face the headmaster answered.

"We used a port-key to travel to Order headquarters where we picked up Alastor and young miss Tonks. We apparated to the prison and were escorted to Lucius cell. We were, I fear, too late. A dementor had entered and was in the process of administering the kiss when we banished it.

Looking towards the doors he started to ask but was interrupted. "We interrupted the creature before it could finish. Lucius' soul still rests at least partially in his body but he has been damaged in such a way that I do not know if it can be repaired. He may never awaken." Moving past the headmaster and slipping in the door he padded past the empty beds in the ward to a partially curtained off cubicle.

Lucius Malfoy was one of the men he held partially responsible for the death of Sirius, a man who had cause pain and suffering to many and had worked long to bring back Lord Voldemort. Staring into that cubicle Harry saw neither. He witnessed a father being grieved over by his devoted son.

R&R