Now that Harry is in an unknown village in which almost half the occupants is a dragon, he needs some answers, and quickly. He is also feeling, though a new sensation. b A sense of adventure that may or may not involve a homicidal French killing spree! /b Most likely not, though. But it will be good even without the burning French towns. I am sorry to all pro-French readers, I didn't mean it. Very interesting and thrilling chapter, though!
Harry just stared at the moldy old piece of wood. i Godric's Hollow! /i This was the place that Harry had lived in for the first year of his life. This was the place that Voldemort had killed his parents. He had many questions. i Bloody hell, shouldn't I? /i Harry surprised himself with that thought. He usually refrained from swearing, even inside his head. i How can I expect to keep the status quo, anyway? I have more mysteries in my life than anyone I have ever met and they keep surfacing one after the other. This is not much better than 12 Grimmauld Place. I have just as much to be sad about here as I do there. /i As Harry continued to gaze at the sign with glazed-over eyes, Charlie walked up to him.
"Harry! How are you?" said Charlie as he punched Harry on the shoulder. "Where's Ron and Ginny? Didn't Dumbledore send them too?" Harry looked behind him only to see the desolate town next to the field. His puzzled expression changed to amusement as he saw a slight movement behind a decrepit old oak tree a few yards to the left of where the two siblings were formerly cowering on the ground. Ron and Ginny were both trying to prevent the dragon from seeing them at all, though they occasionally sneaked a peak to see if the lofty beast was still there.
"Ya know," called Harry, "a twenty-foot piece of dry wood wouldn't be my first choice for use as a hiding spot from a fire-breathing animal, but I applaud your bravery." Both the Weasleys leaped out from behind the tree and both tried to mask their embarrassment, but identical red spots formed on their cheeks.
"Hey, Charlie. Where have you been? I haven't seen you in forever," said Ron as he approached them. He was dusting himself off, but his eyes never left Norbert, who was left out in the field fifty feet behind Charlie.
"Romania," prompted Charlie.
"Really? That's an odd place to be. What were you doing there?" Clearly he wasn't paying attention to the actual conversation.
"Same old Ron," said Charlie with a sigh. He gave Ginny a hug, said 'Hi' and continued with Harry. "Isn't this place great? I just got here last night. Dumbledore told me that this used to be one of only two all wizard towns in all of Britain. Now, Hogsmeade is the only one. Don't ask me what happened because Dumbledore told me nothing" he said in response to Harry opening his mouth. Charlie gave the deserted town a wide scan over Harry's head. There were about fifty buildings all arranged on only five roads all coming together in the center of the town to create somewhat of a five-pointed star. All of the buildings had rot on their shingles and mold on their windows, that is, if they even had windows. Many buildings just had wide gaping holes where windows should have been, while others were missing three of their walls so that it just looked like a wall in the middle of a pile of rubble. Only one house seemed to be untouched by the taint on this town. It was a small one-story house on the outer edges of one of the roads. It was a horrible shade of puke-green, opposed to the pleasantly looking kind of puke-green, which made it unbearably noticeable. "It's a shame, really. Hogsmeade is one of the greatest places in Britain. I wonder how another one of its kind became susceptible to such destruction." Harry vowed, then and there, to learn all the secrets of Godric's Hollow during his time here. However long that would be. "That one house out there," said Charlie, pointing to the greenish house, "Luke and I fixed up."
"Gross. Luke i would /i paint a house that color. Umm, who's Luke?" put in Ron.
"I'll get to that later. I promised Dumbledore I'd speak with Harry about something before I got into any particulars. Join me?" Harry nodded.
They began to walk back towards the village when an outlandish roar ripped through the air, which became several degrees warmer. Seconds later, Ron and Ginny were walking beside Charlie and Harry, considerably out of breath.
"Uhh, you don't mind if we come too? Do you, Harry?" asked Ron quivering slightly.
"Of course not," grinned Harry. "What is it, Charlie?"
"Are you sure you're fine having us here, Harry? We can let you alone. It's about … Sirius." Harry's grin faded. He thought for a few seconds.
"It's okay. What's happened?"
"Well … When Sirius, er … uhh…I mean, when Sirius…"
"Died," supplied Harry.
"Yes, that. He left a will. And in this will, he gave you pretty much everything he owned." Harry had completely forgotten about what would happen to Sirius' possessions. It didn't matter. He wouldn't accept them anyway. They would remind him too much of Sirius. Harry began to shake his head, but Charlie interrupted. "No, Harry. Before you tell me you don't want them, let me tell you that Sirius wanted you to have these things and so does Dumbledore. For starters, Sirius left you 12 Grimmauld Place."
"What? Harry, you own real estate! Well, actually, it's only real to about thirty people, but the point is you own a type of estate! Not too shabby," said Ron ecstatically.
i Great. I get to own the place that reminds me of nothing but Sirius. /i
"You also get a flying motorcycle that had been in Sirius' possession."
i Flying motorcycle? Didn't I have a dream about a flying motorcycle before I even knew I was a wizard? What was Sirius doing with a flying motorcycle anyway? He had Buckbeak to use to travel. Oh my God! Who will take care of Buckbeak now that Sirius is gone? /i
"And you get Buckbeak."
i Okay, I will. /i
"Now Harry. Sirius was the last of the Blacks and had complete control over the family's fortune."
"I don't want money."
"I know Harry, but if you don't take it, it goes to Lucius Malfoy. He is married to a cousin of Sirius'.
"Fine. How much?"
"Harry," chuckled Charlie, "they have over 60,000 galleons!"
"I don't want sixty-thou-, i Sixty Thousand galleons! /i What would I do with-- i Sixty thousand Galleons /i ??" Ron, for the first time, stopped worrying about the dragon. He whistled, and then stared at Harry with his mouth open. Ginny looked at down at her own shabby clothes and stole a quick glance at Harry. Her head drooped and she only half-masked her sullenness. Harry didn't take any of this in, though. He was too enthralled in his own thoughts. Harry stayed quiet for minutes, contemplating and considering.
"I'm sorry to interrupt your thoughts, Harry, but Sirius also had specific instructions in his will to give you this," said Charlie handing him a medium sized square package, wrapped in brown paper.
"Oh, no. I definitely don't want this. Please take it back. Please?" Harry knew what was in the package. This was too much. Way too much. i I have to get a hold on these stupid emotions. They do nothing but upset me. /i And again, Harry stuffed his feelings into a deep corner in his mind. This, he could tell, would become very common in Harry's future. Charlie took the package from Harry. Ron, who had seen through a small rip in the paper covering the object, spoke aloud.
"Is that a mirror?"
Ron, shut up," hissed Ginny, but that made it worse. The one thing worse than feeling emotions that he didn't like, was knowing that other people knew he was feeling them. That meant that they knew what's going through his mind and he hated that feeling. The problem was that there was no way to address the situation. To call attention to the fact that he didn't like Ginny talking about it, just elevated his feeling of embarrassment. So he changed the topic.
"So, who is Luke?"
"You don't need to worry about Luke. He was here a couple hours ago with Dumbledore and helped me set up here," explained Charlie. "If you guys want to see where you'll be staying for the next I don't know how long, it's this way."
Suddenly, a ball of flame shot past right above their heads, traveling toward the old forest. Ron and Ginny both again dove for the ground. Charlie whipped his head around to stare at Norbert.
"Norbert knows not to use Orb Flares, unless specifically directed to do so. I wonder what came over him. He must have seen a large bird flying over there. Some impulses are too strong to overcome, I guess." But that answer still didn't seem to ring true to Charlie. Charlie then started to walk again and he also began to rattle off some of his knowledge about dragons. "Norwegian Ridgeback Orb Flares can travel the farthest of any specie of dragon before burning out, you know."
Harry gave the old forest one last glance before turning to follow Charlie. Charlie continued to recite little-known facts as he led them to the edge of town and to the one house that still stood.
As they approached the derelict little village, the front of the house that Charlie and this Luke had renovated became in view of Harry's eyes. The color this close was just as bad as from afar, possibly worse. The area in front of the house looked as if the former residents of the house had a garden, but now all it contained were vines and weeds, and a little dirt, of course. When they stepped to the front door, Charlie reached for the handle, but the door opened first.
"Hey, Charlie. I was just going to see if you were done." Harry's eyes bulged. "Oh! Hi Harry." Inside the house was Dumbledore. Actually, now that Harry looked closer, it was a much less wise looking Dumbledore. Possibly, Dumbledore on a heavy dose of cold medication.
"Aberforth's the name, and Aberforth's the game. I haven't yet invented the rules for that game, but you can be sure they will be extremely entertaining." Harry's puzzled look must have been very apparent, for Aberforth moved his extended hand from Harry to Ron, whose expression of disgust was quite worse than Harry's. Finally, Aberforth went to shake the hand of Ginny, who took it, smiled and said her greetings.
"I'm doing just fine. Thank you, Ginny, is it?" She nodded. Aberforth began to turn back to Ron, but saw his face and immediately turned to Harry. "Ah, Mr. Planter. I've heard much about you from my brother, Albus. He's the head of a very prestigious institution near where you go to school, you know."
"It's Potter, sir. Harry Potter," replied Harry as he replaced the look of puzzlement on his face with one of sheer and utter befuddlement.
"Oh, there's no need for sir, Harry. The Overlord will be just fine for me, thank you. Charlie, what are the ingredients for the Flame Resistance Potion again? I just can't seem to remember them."
"You wrote them on the back of your hand. You've asked me the same question at least three times, Aberforth," sighed Charlie.
"Did I? Oh, well. I'll be in the fifth basement if you need me. Salutations."
"Goodbye, Aberforth," said Charlie as he winked toward Ginny. He continued when he could here the pounding of his feet on the stairs no longer. "Aberforth has never been the brighter of the two Dumbledore's. But I will tell you this: no man has ever been more loyal to the Order than Aberforth. Nothing will escape the lips of Aberforth if Dumbledore says it is confidential to the Order. Ron and Harry, you will be staying in the second basement, while Ginny, you will be staying in the first basement, all alone unless Hermione joins us. So, you can go check out your rooms."
"Are we not going to talk about the forty foot dragon outside, then?" asked Ron.
"Bloody hell, I forgot," said Charlie, rebuking himself.
"You i forgot /i about the forty-foot dragon you were just riding in the sky?" exploded Ron. "Are you kidding me?"
"Ron, did you forget to take your Stop-being-a-prat Potion today?" asked Ginny scathingly.
"I seem to recall a certain someone cowering next to me a couple of minutes ago," snarled Ron. Ginny stared at Ron most evilly, but Ron took that as a sign of victory and turned to Charlie. "Just what exactly will we be doing here for the next nobody seems to know how many days?"
Charlie seemed to understand why Ron was so stressed because he just took the berating as if Ron was asking him with utmost politeness and civility. "When you finish putting your things away, I will take you back to the dragon and explain your tasks." Harry had a very unpleasant flashback upon hearing the words dragon and task in the same sentence.
"Um," began Ron delicately, "are you sure we have to go back to the dragon right after unpacking?"
"After unpacking?" said Harry, feeling the recklessness come upon him once again. "No no no, Ron. Now! i Relashio /i !" The belongings of Harry, Ron and Ginny flew to the door where Aberforth had exited and flew to the rooms of their owners, unseen by the four on the first level of the house. "Let's go!"
"Grand," gulped Ron.
"Right, come on, Ron," said Ginny determinedly. Charlie opened the front door and began the march back out to the field. hr The four young Dragon Trainers were silhouetted against the sun as a lone onlooker watched them from the old forest. A confident young adult seemed to be leading three teenagers to the field that held that mythical beast, the tallest struggling to get free from the grip of another boy. A nasty smirk crossed his lips fleetingly, before his face returned to the dark depths of his hood.