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 12

Harry stood at the punchbowl in the great hall looking for his friends. They each had come to the feast on their own to see if they could recognize the others in-costume. The raven-haired Gryffindor had dressed all in black with a swashbucklers cape, bolero and wore a sabre at his hip. He didn't know if his friends had ever even heard of Zorro but he thought the look was very cool.

Scouting the room packed with disguised students, he smiled as he spied a masked jester that seemed mostly concerned with stuffing his mouth as full of food as was humanly possible. Walking over and sitting down by the gluttonous clown he greeted him. 'Hi Ron." The redhead looked up, noticing the other boy for the first time.

"Oi Harry, how did you know it was me?" The boy's words were barely comprehensible around the food that filled his mouth. Shaking his head at the boy's question he continued to scan the hall looking for his other friends.

He was nudged out of his search by an elbow nudging him in the arm. Looking over to his friend he saw him pointing towards the doors to the hall. Standing in the entryway was a tall, regal figure in Green and silver. His face covered by a porcelain mask and topped by a golden serpent crown. "Give you three guesses who that is" Harry heard from beside him though he didn't need to, only one person would dress as the prince of Slytherin. Draco Malfoy sauntered up to the table and sat across from the boys giving off the airs of royalty.

A Deep guttural voice behind him snapped his head around, "Not bad huh?"

Snapping his head around he saw a vision from anybody's nightmare. Standing at least two meters tall and a good one hundred and fifty kilos, was a werewolf directly out of a muggle monster movie. Its hairy chest was bare, a torn pair of slacks barely held themselves on its hips and a cloak hung from its back. The three boys yelped and scrambled trying to bring their wands to bear against the monster when it began to shrink and lose the hair covering its body. After a few seconds the wolf-man had turned into a sixteen-year-old boy named Alec.

Draco dropped his head into his hand and groaned, "don't do that!"

The newly transformed boy just smiled and pulled the cloak tighter around his bare shoulders, "You guys look good, where's Hermione? I haven't seen her yet."

"Dunno," said Ron, "She hasn't come in yet." Harry asked the boy, "Has Professor Silverheart heard anything about Bethany yet?"

Alec shook his head sadly, "No, Jayxom has spent the last week trying to locate her by himself and linking up with us, its no good, we've taken turns different times of the day seeing if maybe she would just show up but nothing yet. Wherever they're keeping her she's completely blocked from us."

Draco stared into the other boys face for a few moments. "You care for her quite a lot, are you two...?"

Alec gave a half smile, "No, nothing like that. She's really not my type, more like a sister than anything else... Oh Look!" Happily finding a way to change the subject, "That must be Hermione."

The friends turned in the direction Alec was looking; they were expecting her to be dressed in a princess costume or perhaps as some scholarly figure. Standing in the entryway was a beautiful woman. Her long brown hair was tamed and flowed in waves over her bare shoulders and down her back, small shells and glitter decorating her tresses. Her dress was a silky green with a sheen that was reminiscent of scales and the dress itself seemed more painted on than worn.

Harry was speechless. Hermione was one of his best friends, she was smart, scarily so sometimes, a person he could confide in and depend on but this... The mermaid before him was nothing like the friend he knew and was giving him very uncomfortable feelings at that moment. Harry felt pressure under his chin as Alec, fairly bursting with pent-up laughter, closed his mouth for him. Snapping out of his daze he looked around at his friends.

His friends had fared no better dealing with the transformed Hermione. Draco sat frozen across from him while Ron, a mouthful of food, was gaping in awe. The entire hall had basically stopped to stare at the masked mermaid that drifted across the room to their table.

The girl joined her friends and looked at them uncertainly. "What is it? It's my costume; it's horrible isn't it? I knew I should have...."

Alec quickly moved and took her hand. "You look great, I think none of these guys have ever seen a ... Mermaid? Costume quite like yours before."

The girl's eyes lit with excitement. "Thanks, it's nothing really. Parvati helped me put everything together... Do you really like it?"

Harry tripped over his own tongue trying to give an intelligent answer that didn't embarrass him more. "It's very nice," he finally stammered out.

Draco, more collected by now, stood up and took Hermione's other hand, speaking to Harry while never taking his eyes from the girl he said, "Really Potter, You'd think no one had ever seen a beautiful woman before... May I have this dance Miss Granger?"

Ron's reaction to the Slytherin's request was nothing short of electric. Before Hermione could even respond to Draco, the redhead had leapt from his seat and pushed himself between the two. Giving the blond a hard look he said,

"Sorry Ferret, but the lady already promised the first dance to me." There was a shocked silence created by the boy's boldness that was only broken by a gasp of outrage from Hermione.

With a pleading look he lead her out onto the dance floor, speaking softly and urgently to her the whole time. As they watched the two Harry said quietly, "You think he's finally figured it out?" Draco, also watching the pair waltz across the floor replied,

"He bloody better have, they've been completely oblivious since what? Their fourth year? The only thing left would be to tie them up together in a cupboard overnight... Anyway, lets get some punch."

The Two Gryffindors spent the entire feast together either dancing or talking, finally nearing the end of the night as the last dance was coming to an end Harry had to stifle a cheer as he saw them come together and their lips met. Smiling he turned to his blond friend who returned a relieved smile, "About bloody time."

The feast was over and the five friends had met by the picture leading to the room of requirement. Alec had told them they'd need a room something like their common room but with a separate couch for each of the friends. Harry paced before the painting to prepare the room and they entered. Inside, just as he had requested was a cosy room with merry fire burning in the fireplace. Each of the four walls was decorated in the colours of the four Hogwarts houses and four couches rested in a circle around the room.

Alec had each of them pick a couch and pulled out some crystal pendants for them to wear. "Alright, what's going to happen is you'll go on what is essentially a dream-quest. When you lay down you will dream of being your animagus and at some point in the dream you'll look into something reflective, a mirror or a pond and see your form. At that point you'll wake up...you'll still have to learn how to become your animal but now you're linked with it."

Curious, Hermione asked, "How long will it take?"

"If you're ready you'll find your animagus form rather quickly." Replied Alec; "Then again you may not recognize it right away. Just let the dream take you where it will." With that he had them all lie down and relax, their pendants started to glow and they were soon all asleep.

Hermione found herself floating in a light grey mist. She was warm, relaxed and had no concern for where the ground might be below her. Slowly the haze cleared away and she found herself quite high above the countryside with Hogwarts off in the distance. Her vision was incredible, even from this distance she could see a field mouse running across a small clearing in the forbidden forest. Feeling strong and free she dived toward the small creature, scaring the life out of the poor thing before setting her sights on the castle and landing on the windowsill to her dorm. Flitting over to the dressing table she looked into the mirror and saw a grey owl, the feathers on its head sticking out almost like horns. She was an eagle owl.

Ron was running, his legs pumping strongly across the field. The girl had gone missing several hours ago and her parents were frantic. He had caught her scent a short time ago along with the odour of spiders (urgh.... He hated spiders!) Seeing movement at the edge of a dense wood he re-doubled his speed to catch his prey. He came upon them just inside the wood. Three spiders moving swiftly through the underbrush, the middle one carrying a child-sized bundle wrapped in spider silk. Fearing the worst the boy put on another burst of speed catching the trailing spider in moments. Not pausing to consider his actions he sank his teeth into the back of the spiders head with crushing force. The monster skittered to a halt and fell. Turning to the remaining creatures he saw that they had dropped the bundle and were coming at him together. He jumped, landing on one spider and driving it into the ground. He leapt to the next one and bit through one leg before the eight-legged menace could react, the fight from that moment was frenzied. In the end a bloodied Ron Weasley staggered from the woods supporting the half-conscious girl as she recovered from the spiders poison. They came upon a pool where she splashed water on herself trying to wake up. Sitting beside her as she did he looked down into the water. Looking back at him was a huge reddish-brown dog with a black muzzle; Ron was a Mastiff.

The dark was nearly impenetrable, Harry slunk from shadow to shadow not making a noise. His pursuers had been after him for hours and he was no closer to shaking them. Swiftly he darted from house to house, always staying in the darkness. Leaping onto a windowsill he saw the faint reflection of a black cat staring back at him through the glass. He turned his head, looking for the men that had been following him all night. Out of the shadows the two men came, dressed in black with their hoods covering their features, the men moved forward with wands extended. The boy suddenly felt a swelling inside of him and turned back to the window the cat in the reflection was growing larger and more muscular. Within moments the little black cat was replaced with a panther, turning to his prey he leapt...

Draco was hunting. The sun was brilliant as he soared above the clouds preparing to search for his next meal. The sun felt warm upon his skin and he stretched his leathery wings in enjoyment. Spiralling down below the cloud cover he spotted the herd several miles away grazing in an open field. Riding the winds until the right moment he folded his wings and began the steep dive that would catch them unawares. He was truly alive, the wind was whistling past him and he was coming so fast that they had barely felt his presence before he opened his wings to soar along the field and snatch two of them from the herd. Roaring in triumph he landed a short distance away and swallowed the two pachyderms whole. It was a light meal, he thought as he admired his scaly reflection in a nearby pool, but two elephants are better than none...

The four came awake as one; all of them seemed to be talking at once. "I'm a big bloody dog, a Mastiff I think, Harry you should have seen me I was wicked!" Ron was beside himself with excitement, "What was yours Harry?"

The boy shook his head, "I'm not sure Ron, I saw two animals, a black cat and a Panther."

Alec spoke up, "It's both, most likely. You can become both." Harry smiled and turned to Hermione, "And what about you Mione?"

The girl smiled and shrugged, I became an Eagle Owl, I almost expected it." They all turned at last to Draco, he alone of them didn't seem happy about the experience.

Stepping forward Harry asked, "What's the matter Draco? What did you see?"

Looking up suddenly as if out of a dream the blond boy blinked and said, "Nothing... I didn't see anything." Without another word he bolted from the room.

Harry too a couple steps after him and turned to his friends, "You lot head back to the common room, I'll be back later." With that he left the room in search of his friend.

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