"The hell?" Harry muttered as he was looking around the corner. This was
impossible. How could there be a dragon in downtown London?
He slowly backed up, turned and ran. He could probably deal with a dragon on his own, in a worst case scenario, but there were wizards around, and close, so he would check with them. He ran as fast as he could back to Grimmauld place, hoping that someone was there.
He knocked on the door. "Sirius!" He yelled. "Open the door!" There was no answer. "Of course." He said. "you don't have to stay here. You will be at the celebrations." He sighed. "Well, here I go." He muttered. He knew it was not a good idea to do this out side, but he had to apparate there. Thirty seconds later, he was at the celebration.
"Sirius!" He called out to the man, sitting on the other side of the room, a butterbeer in hand. He looked up and waved lightly at Harry, "Sirius," Harry said, "there is a problem. A big problem."
Sirius looked up at him. "What's wrong?" He said, standing up.
Harry was out of breath. "A dragon. There is a dragon in the alley."
Sirius' eyes widened. "What? No, that's impossible."
Harry shook his head. "Just come on." Sirius followed him, but no without alerting Charlie, whom had come to the celebration, and having him come with them. (A/N: I think it was Charlie who did the stuff with the dragons...)
"So where is this dragon?" Charlie said, running behind Harry.
"The next block." He said, running as fast as he could. Sirius was a few steps behind them. Having been in hiding for such a long time, he was not the fittest of men.
Harry stopped in front of the alley. "in here, at the end." Charlie pulled out his wand and slowly snuck down the alley. His voice carried down the alley a moment later.
"Come on down!" He said. Harry quickly walked down.
"Where is it?' he said, seeing Charlie standing in the middle of the alley with his hands on his hips, looking confused.
He sighed. "I have no idea." He said. "It was definitely here, there is no doubt about it. you can see the destruction of the dumpsters, and there are charred pieces on the brick wall." He pointed, and Harry looked. "It took off facing east. See the claw marks in the ground? Those are from it's take off. They are facing east. I am assuming that it went in that direction."
Harry nodded. 'But didn't it really have to take off in that direction? I mean, it can't take off towards a brick wall, which means either east or west. Honestly, I don't think it was large enough for him to turn around, so I think he could have gone in any direction."
Charlie nodded. "I was just about to say that. Look," he said, facing Harry, "this is my jurisdiction. You go home, like you planned, I will call someone in and we will work this out." He put his hand on Harry's shoulder. "Thanks for calling me." He said.
Harry nodded. "No problem." He said.
"Come on, Harry. I'm going to come home as well." Sirius said.
Harry nodded. "I do need some sleep." He said. "Good night." He said to Charlie, and he and Sirius walked back to Grimmauld Place.
Harry was quiet the entire walk back. Sirius turned around as soon as they got inside. "All right, what is it?"
Harry looked up. "Pardon?"
Sirius raised his eyebrows. "You have been sullen the entire way back. What is wrong?"
Harry shrugged. "I'm not quite sure. It just doesn't seem right. I mean, when was the last time a dragon was loose in London?"
Sirius nodded. "I see what you mean. You know what, Harry, just leave it alone. I know it's hard for you to do, and I'm sorry to tell you this, but leave it alone! You are going to get in trouble if you pursue things like this."
Harry nodded.
"And don't try to do this behind my back. This is not like at Hogwarts. Dumbledore is not the Headmaster anymore, he cannot just veto anything you do." He said. "You could lose your position at the Ministry, and you could very, very easily not get into Auror school."
Harry nodded. "I know. I promise I will be good." He said.
Sirius smiled. "That's my boy." He said. "good night." Harry smiled and went upstairs.
He sighed when he got in his room. For the first time in his life, he was truly not going to do anything. He wanted to investigate, more than anything, but he knew that things would just get worse. He decided to write to Hermione and ask her to do some research for him.
Dear Hermione,
I saw a dragon in an alley today. Sirius won't let me investigate, because he says I can lose my job and my chance at Auror school. I don't want you to get yourself in trouble, I just need some information on dragons and why one would be near Grimmauld Place. And if they can be trained.
Thank you for all your help,
Harry
He tied the letter to Hedwig's leg and sent her off. "Have a good flight." He said.
The next few days lasted a very long time. He received his acceptance letter to the Ministry Auror school a few days after the election, and he could barely wait for it to start on September first. Ron sent him a letter saying he had gotten in on Probation. Ron had received a letter that said that fifty percent of the accepted students were on probation, meaning that if their marks were not good enough, they would be sent home. Harry was not on probation, which bothered Ron.
Harry spent most of his free time working with Cho at the Ministry. They were still getting to know each other again, and they had a lot to talk about all summer. Harry was glad they were talking again, but he was not sure. He could barely remember how many times they had broken up and how many times they had gotten back together again. They kept hurting each other, and then telling themselves that it was better soon after.
Harry knew that one day, they would hurt themselves too much to forgive.
He decided that the happiness he and Cho were enjoying was worth the pain later. He went into work on August 31 feeling incredibly excited.
Cho smiled when she saw him. "Harry, please stop bouncing. You are going to give me a headache."
He grinned. "I can't help it! I start tomorrow. I am almost as excited as I was when I started at Hogwarts. Maybe more, because last time, I was terrified as well."
Cho smiled. "Well, I don't think you have anything to worry about this time." She kissed him. "But that's not until tomorrow. We have work to do today."
He nodded. "All right, I'll be good." He sat down at his desk. It was true, he wanted to spend as much time working as he could. After he started school, he would have almost as much work, but a lot less of the time.
He looked at what he had to do. Review the applications for different positions, read over reports on heavy abuse of muggle equipment, things like that.
Harry finished everything by noon. He gave himself the afternoon off and went down to Diagon alley to buy supplies for school the next day. He ran into Ron, who had come by that morning, and insisted that he stay at Grimmauld Place for the night.
"Thanks, mate." Ron said as they walked up the stairs. "I was going to stay at the Leaky Cauldron, but it was going to cost me a fair amount of money." He said sheepishly. "And I haven't passed my apparition test yet."
Harry grinned. "It's no problem." He said. "Hey, guess what? I found an apartment. I'm moving out of Grimmauld Place."
Ron grinned. "That's great!" He said.
Harry nodded. "I know. I'm moving in a couple of weeks. It's about a block from the Ministry."
Ron clapped him on the back. "Congratulations." He said.
"Ron! Welcome!" Sirius said when he saw him. "What are you doing here?"
"Harry invited me for the night." He said.
Sirius smiled. "That's our Harry. Inviting people to houses that are not his own."
Ron looked uneasy, but Harry shook his head. "It's funny, because it is not actually his house." He said, Ron looking very confused. "When Sirius died the first time, I inherited the house. It's under my name."
Ron nodded. "Makes sense."
Harry grinned. "Come on, I want to show you my room. Sirius did this whole thing with games and all sorts of muggle stuff."
(A/N: I'm not really sure. Have I had Ron at Grimmauld Place recently? If I have, sorry about the last few lines.)
Harry barely slept that night. He and Ron spent hours playing games, and when Ron finally went to another bedroom and went to sleep, Harry couldn't do it himself. He was tired, of course, but his eyes just would not close.
Finally, after what felt like only a few minutes of sleep, Harry was woken by Ron shaking him. "Wake up." He said. "Harry, we've got to go."
Harry sat up quickly. "I'm good." He said.
Fifteen minutes later he was ready to go, and they went out the door. "This is going to be so cool!" Ron said.
Harry nodded. He kept walking, wondering what they were getting into. "Where do you think they will start?" He asked.
Ron shrugged. "Maybe at transformations, like the stuff that. I mean, think about Tonks. She said that she did wonderfully in Transformations, because she was a Metamorphmagus. Is it not supposed to be one of the hardest parts? And most important?" He said.
Harry nodded. "Supposedly there is also a lot of physical training. Just in case." He didn't mind physical training. He was a good fighter; he was fast, he had control, and he could take a beating.
Ron looked queasy. "What kind of physical training?" He asked.
Harry smiled. "Tonks said it's not too bad. Just some basic self defense and attack."
Before Ron could ask any more questions, they arrived at the Ministry. As much as Harry had assured Ron they would do fine, he really had no idea what to expect. If there was physical training, like he expected, he could deal with it; he could face pain. He'd done it many times before. He had broken a few limbs, been burned, been stabbed numerous times, and had fallen unconscious more times than he could possibly remember. He could handle pain.
Even Ron, who seemed nervous about it, had great experience. He had broken a few limbs as well.
They stepped into the phone booth and stated their reason for access, and a moment later, the emerged in the great atrium.
"Ron!" Harry stood on his toes to look over the crowd and see who was calling them. It was Charlie. "Hey, Ron do you start today? Congratulations! Mum told me all about it. she was so proud." Ron blushed, and Charlie turned to Harry. "I checked out that dragon. Nothing. No trace of it landing anywhere in the city, no one saw it fly away, nothing. I can't understand it. If it weren't for the signs, I would have just said you were crazy."
Ron looked at Harry. "Dragon?" He said.
"I saw a dragon in an alley." He said.
Ron frowned. "I didn't know that."
"I forgot." Harry shrugged. It was true, he did forget. He didn't really know why he would forget something like that, but for some reason, he did.
Charlie grinned at Ron. "It's no big deal. We found the signs of it, but there was no dragon, so you didn't miss much." He clapped them both on the shoulder and rushed off. Harry watched him go. It was more than just not seeing it in the city. Charlie looked especially stressed, like it was really something more.
He shook his head to clear it as they reached the classroom. They sat down and did something neither of them had expected to do any more: they read their books.
Well, there it is. I'm really very sorry it took me so long to update. I've been very busy.
OH MY GOD, did anyone see that article on the third movie in the new YM? Daniel Radcliffe was on the first page of it, and he was SOOOO hot. I am, like, completely in love with him, and I sound like some twelve year old, but that is just fine by me, because he is HOT. I will seriously shut up now, I just had to make sure that people acknowledged that picture. The one in Vanity Fair last year was really, really good too.
Wow. Four reviews. I realize that the last chapter was short, but it was almost a month, damn it! Oh well. We reached 100.
Potter4Prez: No, he did not just stab him, I believe he beheaded him too...but I will have to check up on that.
Shannon K. M.: it will wrap up soon...it's getting old. Damn it, all my stories are wrapping up, I'm going to have nothing left to write!
Draggon Knight: probably not...but that is a good idea, I will have to think about it.
Indigal: well, here it is!
"When you're riding in a time machine way far into the future, don't stick your elbow out the window, or it'll turn into a fossil."
-unolimbo
He slowly backed up, turned and ran. He could probably deal with a dragon on his own, in a worst case scenario, but there were wizards around, and close, so he would check with them. He ran as fast as he could back to Grimmauld place, hoping that someone was there.
He knocked on the door. "Sirius!" He yelled. "Open the door!" There was no answer. "Of course." He said. "you don't have to stay here. You will be at the celebrations." He sighed. "Well, here I go." He muttered. He knew it was not a good idea to do this out side, but he had to apparate there. Thirty seconds later, he was at the celebration.
"Sirius!" He called out to the man, sitting on the other side of the room, a butterbeer in hand. He looked up and waved lightly at Harry, "Sirius," Harry said, "there is a problem. A big problem."
Sirius looked up at him. "What's wrong?" He said, standing up.
Harry was out of breath. "A dragon. There is a dragon in the alley."
Sirius' eyes widened. "What? No, that's impossible."
Harry shook his head. "Just come on." Sirius followed him, but no without alerting Charlie, whom had come to the celebration, and having him come with them. (A/N: I think it was Charlie who did the stuff with the dragons...)
"So where is this dragon?" Charlie said, running behind Harry.
"The next block." He said, running as fast as he could. Sirius was a few steps behind them. Having been in hiding for such a long time, he was not the fittest of men.
Harry stopped in front of the alley. "in here, at the end." Charlie pulled out his wand and slowly snuck down the alley. His voice carried down the alley a moment later.
"Come on down!" He said. Harry quickly walked down.
"Where is it?' he said, seeing Charlie standing in the middle of the alley with his hands on his hips, looking confused.
He sighed. "I have no idea." He said. "It was definitely here, there is no doubt about it. you can see the destruction of the dumpsters, and there are charred pieces on the brick wall." He pointed, and Harry looked. "It took off facing east. See the claw marks in the ground? Those are from it's take off. They are facing east. I am assuming that it went in that direction."
Harry nodded. 'But didn't it really have to take off in that direction? I mean, it can't take off towards a brick wall, which means either east or west. Honestly, I don't think it was large enough for him to turn around, so I think he could have gone in any direction."
Charlie nodded. "I was just about to say that. Look," he said, facing Harry, "this is my jurisdiction. You go home, like you planned, I will call someone in and we will work this out." He put his hand on Harry's shoulder. "Thanks for calling me." He said.
Harry nodded. "No problem." He said.
"Come on, Harry. I'm going to come home as well." Sirius said.
Harry nodded. "I do need some sleep." He said. "Good night." He said to Charlie, and he and Sirius walked back to Grimmauld Place.
Harry was quiet the entire walk back. Sirius turned around as soon as they got inside. "All right, what is it?"
Harry looked up. "Pardon?"
Sirius raised his eyebrows. "You have been sullen the entire way back. What is wrong?"
Harry shrugged. "I'm not quite sure. It just doesn't seem right. I mean, when was the last time a dragon was loose in London?"
Sirius nodded. "I see what you mean. You know what, Harry, just leave it alone. I know it's hard for you to do, and I'm sorry to tell you this, but leave it alone! You are going to get in trouble if you pursue things like this."
Harry nodded.
"And don't try to do this behind my back. This is not like at Hogwarts. Dumbledore is not the Headmaster anymore, he cannot just veto anything you do." He said. "You could lose your position at the Ministry, and you could very, very easily not get into Auror school."
Harry nodded. "I know. I promise I will be good." He said.
Sirius smiled. "That's my boy." He said. "good night." Harry smiled and went upstairs.
He sighed when he got in his room. For the first time in his life, he was truly not going to do anything. He wanted to investigate, more than anything, but he knew that things would just get worse. He decided to write to Hermione and ask her to do some research for him.
Dear Hermione,
I saw a dragon in an alley today. Sirius won't let me investigate, because he says I can lose my job and my chance at Auror school. I don't want you to get yourself in trouble, I just need some information on dragons and why one would be near Grimmauld Place. And if they can be trained.
Thank you for all your help,
Harry
He tied the letter to Hedwig's leg and sent her off. "Have a good flight." He said.
The next few days lasted a very long time. He received his acceptance letter to the Ministry Auror school a few days after the election, and he could barely wait for it to start on September first. Ron sent him a letter saying he had gotten in on Probation. Ron had received a letter that said that fifty percent of the accepted students were on probation, meaning that if their marks were not good enough, they would be sent home. Harry was not on probation, which bothered Ron.
Harry spent most of his free time working with Cho at the Ministry. They were still getting to know each other again, and they had a lot to talk about all summer. Harry was glad they were talking again, but he was not sure. He could barely remember how many times they had broken up and how many times they had gotten back together again. They kept hurting each other, and then telling themselves that it was better soon after.
Harry knew that one day, they would hurt themselves too much to forgive.
He decided that the happiness he and Cho were enjoying was worth the pain later. He went into work on August 31 feeling incredibly excited.
Cho smiled when she saw him. "Harry, please stop bouncing. You are going to give me a headache."
He grinned. "I can't help it! I start tomorrow. I am almost as excited as I was when I started at Hogwarts. Maybe more, because last time, I was terrified as well."
Cho smiled. "Well, I don't think you have anything to worry about this time." She kissed him. "But that's not until tomorrow. We have work to do today."
He nodded. "All right, I'll be good." He sat down at his desk. It was true, he wanted to spend as much time working as he could. After he started school, he would have almost as much work, but a lot less of the time.
He looked at what he had to do. Review the applications for different positions, read over reports on heavy abuse of muggle equipment, things like that.
Harry finished everything by noon. He gave himself the afternoon off and went down to Diagon alley to buy supplies for school the next day. He ran into Ron, who had come by that morning, and insisted that he stay at Grimmauld Place for the night.
"Thanks, mate." Ron said as they walked up the stairs. "I was going to stay at the Leaky Cauldron, but it was going to cost me a fair amount of money." He said sheepishly. "And I haven't passed my apparition test yet."
Harry grinned. "It's no problem." He said. "Hey, guess what? I found an apartment. I'm moving out of Grimmauld Place."
Ron grinned. "That's great!" He said.
Harry nodded. "I know. I'm moving in a couple of weeks. It's about a block from the Ministry."
Ron clapped him on the back. "Congratulations." He said.
"Ron! Welcome!" Sirius said when he saw him. "What are you doing here?"
"Harry invited me for the night." He said.
Sirius smiled. "That's our Harry. Inviting people to houses that are not his own."
Ron looked uneasy, but Harry shook his head. "It's funny, because it is not actually his house." He said, Ron looking very confused. "When Sirius died the first time, I inherited the house. It's under my name."
Ron nodded. "Makes sense."
Harry grinned. "Come on, I want to show you my room. Sirius did this whole thing with games and all sorts of muggle stuff."
(A/N: I'm not really sure. Have I had Ron at Grimmauld Place recently? If I have, sorry about the last few lines.)
Harry barely slept that night. He and Ron spent hours playing games, and when Ron finally went to another bedroom and went to sleep, Harry couldn't do it himself. He was tired, of course, but his eyes just would not close.
Finally, after what felt like only a few minutes of sleep, Harry was woken by Ron shaking him. "Wake up." He said. "Harry, we've got to go."
Harry sat up quickly. "I'm good." He said.
Fifteen minutes later he was ready to go, and they went out the door. "This is going to be so cool!" Ron said.
Harry nodded. He kept walking, wondering what they were getting into. "Where do you think they will start?" He asked.
Ron shrugged. "Maybe at transformations, like the stuff that. I mean, think about Tonks. She said that she did wonderfully in Transformations, because she was a Metamorphmagus. Is it not supposed to be one of the hardest parts? And most important?" He said.
Harry nodded. "Supposedly there is also a lot of physical training. Just in case." He didn't mind physical training. He was a good fighter; he was fast, he had control, and he could take a beating.
Ron looked queasy. "What kind of physical training?" He asked.
Harry smiled. "Tonks said it's not too bad. Just some basic self defense and attack."
Before Ron could ask any more questions, they arrived at the Ministry. As much as Harry had assured Ron they would do fine, he really had no idea what to expect. If there was physical training, like he expected, he could deal with it; he could face pain. He'd done it many times before. He had broken a few limbs, been burned, been stabbed numerous times, and had fallen unconscious more times than he could possibly remember. He could handle pain.
Even Ron, who seemed nervous about it, had great experience. He had broken a few limbs as well.
They stepped into the phone booth and stated their reason for access, and a moment later, the emerged in the great atrium.
"Ron!" Harry stood on his toes to look over the crowd and see who was calling them. It was Charlie. "Hey, Ron do you start today? Congratulations! Mum told me all about it. she was so proud." Ron blushed, and Charlie turned to Harry. "I checked out that dragon. Nothing. No trace of it landing anywhere in the city, no one saw it fly away, nothing. I can't understand it. If it weren't for the signs, I would have just said you were crazy."
Ron looked at Harry. "Dragon?" He said.
"I saw a dragon in an alley." He said.
Ron frowned. "I didn't know that."
"I forgot." Harry shrugged. It was true, he did forget. He didn't really know why he would forget something like that, but for some reason, he did.
Charlie grinned at Ron. "It's no big deal. We found the signs of it, but there was no dragon, so you didn't miss much." He clapped them both on the shoulder and rushed off. Harry watched him go. It was more than just not seeing it in the city. Charlie looked especially stressed, like it was really something more.
He shook his head to clear it as they reached the classroom. They sat down and did something neither of them had expected to do any more: they read their books.
Well, there it is. I'm really very sorry it took me so long to update. I've been very busy.
OH MY GOD, did anyone see that article on the third movie in the new YM? Daniel Radcliffe was on the first page of it, and he was SOOOO hot. I am, like, completely in love with him, and I sound like some twelve year old, but that is just fine by me, because he is HOT. I will seriously shut up now, I just had to make sure that people acknowledged that picture. The one in Vanity Fair last year was really, really good too.
Wow. Four reviews. I realize that the last chapter was short, but it was almost a month, damn it! Oh well. We reached 100.
Potter4Prez: No, he did not just stab him, I believe he beheaded him too...but I will have to check up on that.
Shannon K. M.: it will wrap up soon...it's getting old. Damn it, all my stories are wrapping up, I'm going to have nothing left to write!
Draggon Knight: probably not...but that is a good idea, I will have to think about it.
Indigal: well, here it is!
"When you're riding in a time machine way far into the future, don't stick your elbow out the window, or it'll turn into a fossil."
-unolimbo