The Dragons Return

by viningc

Harry had a war with Earth but he had been given the gift of a lifetime, a place where his dragons and riders would be unconditionally safe. This story continues the trilogy by Bobmin356 and Alyx started at: /s/7591040/18/The-Queen-who-fell-to-Earth

5. Chapter 5: Dolphins!

Chapter 5: Dolphins!
North of Sakushima Weyr, March 10, 2016...
Fith and his flight of unbonded dragons were cruising at a thousand feet above the water, looking for likely fish to catch. This was their first fishing expedition on Pern and they weren't really sure what they would find.

"Did you hear something, Brith?" asked Fith.

"Just barely," replied Brith. "It sounded like a mouse at the other end of a long tunnel."

"Everyone keep listening for this sound," ordered Fith. "Let's try to hone in on wherever the sound is coming from."

"There it is again, louder this time," said Baroth. "This way!" Baroth quickly changed heading and the others followed. Even though Fith was nominally their leader, they were quite used to working as a team now and didn't worry all that much about which one of them gave orders as long as they could continue to work together.

Bonth and Baroth were flying higher and slightly behind the others, to act as lookouts. It was Bonth who noticed the anomaly in the water first.

"There!" exclaimed Bonth as he projected a memory of what he'd seen, a brief wake as if a small fish had just broken water and dove in again. They all jumped Between to get almost on top of where they expected the next appearance to be.

"HELP ME!" they all heard, just as a slim grey shape broke the surface. Fith swooped down, gently grasped the creature in his claws, and swiftly rose above the surface. Fortunately for him, his movements were swift, as a huge fish with a pair of grabbing claws on its front end suddenly swept through the space he had just recently occupied.

"I don't know what that thing is," growled Bonth, his eyes swirling a pale red, "but it needs to learn it shouldn't mess with dragons. Besides, it might taste good. Everyone, except Fith, capture whatever that creature is!"

Meanwhile, Fith was trying to calm the tiny creature he had caught in his claws. It seemed to be able to breathe OK but didn't like being out of the water.

"Calm down, little one," said Fith soothingly. "As soon as my friends have captured whatever was chasing you, I will place you back in the water. My name is Fith, what are you called?"

The young, apparent fish, looked cautiously at Fith from one of his eyes on the side of his head. He stopped squirming and said in easily understood English, "I'm Amadeus."

Fith was so startled, he almost dropped the young fish back into the water. He quickly called for The Weyrleader to come see what they'd found, apparently an intelligent fish! He looked up to see the rest of his flight just becoming airborne with a huge fish unsuccessfully wiggling in their claws as it tried to escape. It was easily 60 feet long, larger than any of the Earth humpback whales he'd seen. It would easily feed their Division of dragons.

"What was that thing chasing you?" wondered Fith, to himself.

"That was a Grabber," replied Amadeus, mentally. "They like to try to catch us and eat us if they can. I let it get a little too close and couldn't get away. My Pod should be here soon to help."

"Amazing," thought Fith, telepathic as well!

Fith was slowly lowering Amadeus back into the water when he was attacked by several, larger versions of Amadeus. He quickly pulled up and then tried again, as the strange fish warily watched him. Once he was just over the water, he opened his claws to release Amadeus from the cage they had formed. Then, he settled into the water himself to get a better look at these strange new creatures. They all were a dark bluish-grey on top with a lighter belly. There was a prominent blowhole on top that they appeared to breathe through.

Just then Chekiath arrived with the ready Wing from Spath's. Harry saw Fith in the water looking at his newfound friends.

"Cheki, land in the water near Fith, please," said Harry.

"Is it safe with all those dangerous-looking fish so near?" asked Chekiath, his eyes swirling yellow with black streaks out of concern for his rider.

"I'm sure it is," replied Harry. "I've seen pictures of these animals. They aren't fish, they are dolphins and are mammals, similar to humans."

As Cheki carefully lowered into the water, Fith looked over and said to Harry, "They talk!"

"Of course we talk," said one of the dolphins mentally to the gathered dragons and humans. "We were genetically modified centuries ago to help take care of humans, so we had to be able to communicate. You are the first humans to actually try to talk with us in a long, long time though."

Harry looked down at the sleek mammal who looked like she would be longer than he was tall and asked out loud, "Can you understand and return vocal speech as well?"

"Yes, but slow," she replied. "I am called Theresa and am Pod leader."

"Wonderful!" thought Harry back. "We have a new Weyr not far to the south of here. Would you like to meet some of the new humans who have just come to this planet? Perhaps we can renew the bond and help each other."

"That would be wonderful!" exclaimed Theresa. "We have been suffering from bloodfish for a long time since we cannot safely remove them. It would be a relief to have human hands to help again."

"Can you show us a bloodfish?" asked Harry.

She slowly turned so her right lower area was above water. There, tucked just under her lateral line, midway between her flipper and her tail, was a small fish that looked somewhat like a version of an Earth Remora. This one was armored with heavy plates though. Harry quickly slipped into the water and approached the dolphin who patiently waited for his approach. Harry took a knife from his pouch and carefully killed the attached fish and then pulled its long proboscis from the dolphin's side. A little red blood leaked from the wound for a short time but was quickly washed away.

He tossed it into the air at Chekiath, who snapped it out of the air.

"What do you think of that?" asked Harry.

"A little chewy," replied Cheki, "but not bad. It would take a lot of them to make a meal."

Theresa looked at Harry with obvious gratitude.

"Thank you … Harry?" said Theresa. "Could you help the rest of my pod?"

"Yes, Harry is my name," replied Harry. "Why don't we go to Sakushima Weyr first. It is hard to tread water while working on your side. It would be easier for us if we could stand on a solid bottom while working on your parasites."

"In that case," Theresa said, "let's get there as fast as we can swim!"

Harry climbed back onto Chekiath and they led the dolphins south as he sent a message ahead for a large group of riders to meet them.

Sakushima Weyr...
While en-route to the Weyr, Theresa had told Harry about the contract that the Pern humans had entered into with the genetically enhanced dolphins centuries ago. To Harry, it sounded like humans got the better part of the deal and he was going to do what he could to make sure that the dolphins got a better deal than they had in the past. When they reached Sakushima Weyr, there were hundreds of people on the beach waiting for their arrival. Harry had sent information ahead about the problem and how he had solved it. He wanted to recover a few of the bloodfish alive so they could try to develop some kind of lasting remedy for the dolphins.

As the dolphins arrived, the humans, armed with knives and buckets on small floating platforms, moved out into the water. Soon there was a patient line of the sea mammals waiting their turn to have their bloodfish removed. Some had many of them attached! Once any dolphin became bloodfish free, they moved out to deeper water and capered about and played with each other and with some of the dragons who joined them. Soon it became apparent, that once Theresa learned about the new humans, she had passed on the word to the rest of the dolphins. There were now hundreds of intelligent mammals near the shore waiting to be treated!

"Theresa, can you think of some way you can get in touch with us if you need our help?" asked Harry.

"There used to be a bell we could ring when we needed to talk to the old humans but that has been lost for some time," she replied.

"That would be simple to set up here," replied Harry. "We would just have to get one cast from bronze and then hang it at the end of a pier with a long rope so you could easily reach it. Give us a few days and we should have something, even if it's temporary."

The Pern Dolphin Contract:
Dolphins must:
1 Answer the call of the sea-bell when it rings or ring the bell if they need help or have information to pass on.

2 Guard any intelligent species on or near the water, to the best of their abilities.

3 Assist in all sea rescues of intelligent species.

4 Inform humans or any other concerned intelligent species of oncoming sea hazards, including the presence of dangerous sea creatures.

5 Aid humans or any other concerned intelligent species with their abilities to detect earthquakes and track tsunami waves.

6 Upon request, spot schools of food fish and inform fishing boats where they are to be found.

In an honorary capacity, dolphins also escort the bodies of the human dead, buried at sea, to their final resting place.

Humans and other intelligent Species must:
1 Teach and talk to any dolphin.

2 Rescue any dolphin who is in distress.

3 Restore to the sea any dolphins that accidentally beach themselves.

4 Cure sickness and mend wounds.

5 Remove all bloodfish.

Excerpt from The Weyrs of Pern by Remus John Lupin, published 2050.

Sakushima Hold, Oct 12, 2016...
New Lord Holder Christopher Dalsgaard looked contentedly out of his office window. He could easily see not only the ocean beyond but the entrance to their covered dock with its new bronze bell hanging at its end. It seemed that friendly dolphins appeared daily to interact with the members of his Hold and help them find schools of edible fish. He wasn't much of a fisherman himself but did enjoy sailing for pleasure. His 30 foot Bermuda rigged Sloop was currently docked about midway along the pier, calling to him to go sailing!

"I can see you wanting to go sailing even from here!" exclaimed Frank Ludvigsen, his second-in-command, and friend since childhood.

"Ah, yes," replied Christopher "Who would have believed being 'Lord Holder' would entail so much work! Everyone wants something else, they want it immediately, and I seem to be the only one who can provide the appropriate answers."

"Hey, it's better than that company you retired from back on Earth," responded his friend. "At least here you actually get full credit for any ideas you come up with."

"True, but if my First Mate wasn't stuck in this job just as deeply as I was, I would abandon this office and go sailing anyway. Too bad you need to be here if I leave," groused Christopher.

"You could always take your wife," joked Frank.

"Right," said Christopher sadly. "Britta is too busy trying to discover new life forms in the ocean! It doesn't help that your wife keeps trying to drag us out to help."

"We could let Yasotaro run the office for a while. He could probably make everyone think we were still here," suggested Frank.

"Hmm, might be worth a try as long as we aren't gone too long," said Christopher thoughtfully. "I think it had better wait until we get a bit more settled first. There are just too many unexpected emergencies that keep coming up because we are so new as a settlement on a new planet. I'm sure we can easily get additional staff trained up soon enough to give us a chance to legally get away for a while. We might even take a larger crew and visit our friends to the north. I bet our wives would even jump at the chance to visit a Sea Hold that has been in operation for centuries."

Sakushima Weyr...
At the same time that the Lord Holder of Sakushima Hold was wishing he could go sailing, Isikara Yuko was looking out his window wishing he could go flying and for very similar reasons. Being Weyrleader on Pern was much harder on Pern than on Earth. It seemed like most of the natural inhabitants of this planet were trying to eat them!

A flight of his dragons had, just yesterday, rescued a wandering dolphin from a Cark. Fortunately, they were so aggressive they tended to be loners unless mating. The one Pern animal that didn't seem to want to eat them seemed to be overly curious and friendly with his dragons. A large group of Firelizards had been disturbed on the beach soon after they had started construction of the Weyr, and ever since they tried to escort the dragons whenever they were in the local area. They were quite colorful and friendly but could sometimes get in the way. He wondered idly if they could impress like the larger dragons could.

The dolphins were a lot of fun for the dragons and the dolphins couldn't seem to get enough of the dragons, especially once the dragons figured out how to remove bloodfish without harming their host. Harry had finally figured out a special sticking charm that would allow a magical person to attach a Protego Defens charm to a dolphin. Since then, the dolphins had been fearless in seeking out their former pests. It seemed that, as soon as the bloodfish attacked, it killed itself and they never learned from what happened to others.

Sakushima Hold, Jan 20, 2017...
Harry had come along with the Flight of unbonded dragons who were delivering the converted, all-steel Naval transport vessel to Sakushima Hold. Christopher and Britta Dalsgaard, Lord and Lady of Sakushima Hold, had not only convinced him it would be good to have a sturdy trade vessel that could withstand thread but had even paid for half of it with the understanding that they would be able to buy him out in the future.

The ship had all its fittings and engine stripped out. The replacement engine was a new maritime Hot Rock power plant and the fittings gave it the very latest in radar and sonar detection. It even had an enclosed, climate-controlled crow's nest that could be reached via a small tube rather than an exposed ladder.

As the Flight gently deposited the new vessel near the end of the pier, Harry had Chekiath land near where he saw Christopher and a group of others patiently waiting by the shore. As he slid off Cheki, he saw some of the dragons give rides to the ship to its new crew. Everything was operational and he didn't expect it to take too long before it was tied up to its new berth.

"Well, here it is, just as you specified," said Harry. "I was a little puzzled by the extra heavy-duty double hoist you wanted to be installed, though."

"Well, it's like this," began Christopher. "We have several fully qualified oceanographers in our group as well as sailors and merchants. We thought we could combine a bit for each of them with this ship. The hoists are more for future use than immediate because we thought we would have extremely heavy cargo. My wife wants to lead an expedition into the ocean depths and we will eventually be ordering a DSEV."

"DSEV?" asked Harry with a puzzled expression.

"Yes," jumped in Britta Dalsgaard. "A Deep Submergence Exploration Vehicle (DSEV) would be used to help explore Pern's ocean depths and perform rescue operations. The nominal crew would be two operators but it would be capable of holding 20 passengers comfortably or 40 crammed in like sardines. We expected that, after a rescue, we would surface and be picked up by dragons to be placed on a protected dry dock cradle near the Hold."

"Sounds dangerous," said Harry doubtfully.

"It can be if you don't know how to handle yourselves," said Britta. "When we first moved here, we had dreamed of being able to do such exploration but didn't think it would be possible. After we moved here and learned about magic, we were able to interest some wizards and witches in our dreams. Now, if something catastrophic happens where we wouldn't ordinarily be able to escape, we will have someone aboard who could port us to the Hold. We would then have to recover the DSEV somehow but no lives would be lost."

"Sounds like it could work," smiled Harry, carefully refraining from explaining about portkeys. "I hope you are able to follow your dreams. I would be interested in seeing it if you ever manage to get one here."

"We would love to show it to you," said Britta happily. "After all, you've shared your planet with us!"

"Well, it's not really 'my' planet, but I take your point," blushed Harry.

Just then the bell at the end of the pier started ringing frantically. Harry bolted for the end of the pier, closely followed by Christopher and the rest of the spectators. As they drew closer to the end of the pier, Harry could see several dolphins supporting a young male covered in bloodfish!

"Oregon was killing bloodfish when suddenly he wasn't protected anymore and they swarmed him," sent Theresa.

Harry watched as one of the Holders climbed down to the sunken platform to help the young dolphin.

He turned to Theresa and said, "I did tell you that you couldn't just continually attack. The charm needs to recharge or it will fail … as you've just seen."

Suddenly, they were all distracted by a loud, outraged yell from Nicholas Phillips, the English sailor who had tried to help Oregon.

"I tried to kill one of the bloodfish when suddenly my knife cut me instead!" exclaimed Nicholas.

Harry jumped down and quickly healed the sailor. Then he turned to Oregon and cast a spell to remove the charm so someone else could start removing bloodfish.

"Dragons, hear me!" Harry's eyes glazed over as he called to all dragons worldwide. Every telepathic being worldwide fell silent at Harry's call. "I have just discovered a danger with the Protego Defens charms we have been handing out. While they do protect against attack, unfortunately, they also protect against anyone trying to help. Please let all humans wearing the charms to be extra careful until I can develop a fix.

"In case of emergency, a magical being should be able to remove the charm if the charm wearer is incapacitated and cannot remove it themselves. Have the Senior Wizard or Witch from each Weyr or Hold contact me if they aren't sure how to remove the Charm."

He went on to explain what had happened and requested the duty courier to immediately take the information back to Earth. When Harry finished, he became aware of everyone around him, including the dolphins. They had all heard him through the dragons who were monitoring their charms. They were astonished at the raw power Harry exhibited when he contacted every dragon on the planet. Harry heard an echo of many hundreds of dragon voices acknowledging his orders.

Those who had never experienced The Weyrleader make an 'all dragon call' looked startled at the idea that Harry could talk to every dragon on the planet at one time. They knew about the ability but had never seen it in action before. They could clearly hear him in their minds. His voice seemed to ride on a wave of power and they could easily believe it would carry around the globe to every dragon on the planet. There was now no doubt in anyone's mind why he was The Weyrleader.

Spath's Weyr, RTL, Jan 28, 2017...
Harry had been working hard with Draco to improve his Protego Defens charm and they had finally come up with what they hoped would be the best and final spells. The existing spells just needed to be overlaid with additional spells that allowed medical personnel and others with the clear intent to help the charm wearer to be allowed safely past the protection. They also added a spell that allowed certain authorized medical personnel to actually remove the charm if necessary.

Draco had even come up with a spell that would give dolphins a small shock if the charm was at less than half power. It wasn't perfect but it at least let them know when they were close to being without protection.

"Thanks, Draco," said Harry with feeling. "I have never seen some of those spells. I guess you've really learned a lot about warding and defensive spells in your specialization."

"I have, Harry, but you picked them all up really quickly!" exclaimed Draco. "It seemed like it took me forever to really understand some of them and you just seemed to know them as soon as I showed them to you."

"Yeah," Harry said offhandedly. "I have always seemed to be able to pick up new spells quickly. I've relied on Hermione to teach me what I needed to know in the past. I just never needed anything at this depth before."

"I'll have to be careful then," grinned Draco. "You could make me redundant!"

"Not likely," groaned Harry. "Unless you want to take over my job," he added hopefully.

"Not bloody likely!" swore Draco. "My job is child's play compared to yours. I'm happy to help when I can, I wouldn't want to have your job … it takes a mage just to keep up!"

"Well, I'm also learning the fine art of delegation," responded Harry with an evil grin. "If my job is so hard, I'm going to leave it to you and the other magical people in the Weyr to make sure new charms go out to replace those out there now. Make sure you keep the old charms so they can be converted into the new ones. I'll take these four up to my family now."

"Sure thing, Harry," joked Draco. "We can handle it from here while you move on to another crisis."

Harry looked at him dolefully. There was more than a little truth in his joke. He wearily made his way up to his outer office to continue working on two very special projects.

Spath's Weyr, Level 20 Conference Room, May 10, 2017...
Harry was hosting a special convention that was dear to his heart. He had finally convinced enough of the northern leaders to back his Governmental Initiative. The leaders of the northern and the southern continents had been meeting here for the past month to hammer out how they would accept someone to have authority over them. Now, they were meeting here to ratify three new judges from each species. The Mer and Dolphins couldn't be in the room in person, but they were represented via direct, real-time video link. The rest of the world, as much as possible was also watching.

It bothered Harry that the half-giant species wasn't represented but Hagrid had told him that might be possible in the future. He and Maxime had happily settled down together on Pern. Maxime was teaching all the magical children, not just the humans, but the centaurs, house-elves, and goblins as well. Each had their own different type of magic and she was happily researching how she could best help each and every one. From what Harry could make out, all her students loved her dearly.

Another possible problem that bothered Harry was Bane. Centaurs were magical and Bane was a Lord Holder, so there was some question about where he would, or should, vote. Harry thought it would be best for him to vote as a Lord Holder and allow another centaur to take his place as a magical being. Since he was only acting as a moderator with Hermione taking minutes, however, he couldn't push his own agenda.

He had done his best to try to get the various factions to sit near each other simply for their benefit but there were some that were just contrary and chose to sit wherever they wanted. Ah, well, time to start.

"Lord and Lady Holders, Weyrleaders and Weyrwomen, Mastercraftsmen and women, magical and non-magical representatives, Mer, and Dolphins," began Harry. "Welcome to this first-ever meeting of all the World of Pern's leaders of all species. I cannot vote or even participate in your discussions. For that reason, I was chosen to be your moderator. My wife, Hermione, will be taking notes of everything said during this meeting and we are also taking videos from multiple angles that can be made available later. In other words, everyone in the future will be able to see exactly what happens and who takes what actions during such a historic event, so, please, try not to pick your noses!"

Harry paused at the loud chuckles spreading through his audience. Sirius had been right. Everyone appreciated a joke, especially if they thought it was pointed at someone else. He had a large contingent of magical people behind him, just waiting to give the magically binding Oath of Office. The Pern colonists didn't know it yet, but they were about to create their world's first incorruptible body of Government. He looked around, smiling, and continued.

"You have already chosen your proposed species new Judges, all that remains is for you to ratify their selection. Once that has been done, each new Judge will then be given a binding Oath of Office. A new Weyr and Hold have been approved at The Red Butte north of Keroon as the site of the Planetary Government. Once it has been completed, they will be ready to start hearing cases.

"Our first Judge Candidate is the Centaur Firenze and, to give him his Oath of Office, Lord Holder Bane."

As the two stepped up next to him, Harry watched the tally of votes from all those voting. As soon as the tally went over 50%, he nodded to Bane to proceed. As Bane performed the binding oath, Harry recalled the wording he had fought so hard to get them all to agree to.

"I will do my best to always remain impartial to any defendant, regardless of race, species, affiliation, or religion. I will interpret laws with a good dose of common sense in mind, as it relates to the case, the defendant, and the plaintiff. If a law doesn't make sense for the case being brought forth for judgment, I will so state, thereby throwing the case out of court. If a law doesn't make sense in one circumstance, that will not necessarily invalidate said law if different circumstances apply. I will uphold my honor and the honor of my planet by always doing what is right, lawful, and proper, to the best of my judgment, for so long as I serve."

Harry noticed that there were some gasps of surprise from the Pern members of the audience at the sudden glow that enveloped both participants. They had never seen a magically binding Oath given before but, by the time this was over, they would know what it meant. The Dolphin Judges were down at Sakushima Hold where they would be given their oath. The Mers had been transported inside Spath's Weyr and were currently waiting, in the central lake, for their oaths to be given. Harry had set aside temporary quarters for all of them until Red Butte Weyr could be completed and they could move into their permanent home and chambers. He was pleased that Lobsang had asked to be the Weyrleader there. Harry felt he had the proper humility and integrity to make things work there.

One of the things that they had hammered out amongst themselves was something Harry hadn't even thought about. Red Butte Weyr would have a Weyrleader but Red Butte Hold would only have a temporary Governor. All the delegates felt that a Lord Holder of Red Butte Hold would have too much power over the others.

He would be relieved when this was all over. It would lead to him giving up the burden of being a judge, jury, and executioner. Now he wouldn't have to be the judge anymore. All he had to do was get rid of the other two and he could have more time for other, more important things, like his family. He was almost finished with his special projects and was looking forward to working on them tonight.

Spath's Weyr, Harry's Quarters, May 16, 2017...
Today was their son's birthday and his magical coming of age. Both mothers and all three dragons were present for this special day in Daniel's life.

"Daniel James Potter, you are 11 years old today. Do you know what that means?" asked Harry.

"Yes, sir, I do. I am considered old enough to be able to control my own magic on Pern. It also means that I will be starting school in September," replied Daniel.

"Hermione, would you remove the limiting charm please?" asked Harry.

When she had done that, May picked up a long thin box and handed it to Daniel. Daniel looked at it warily, but accepted it and unwrapped it.

"It's a stick?" said Daniel puzzled.

"Not just a stick," explained Harry. "This is your first wand. I used a Boron laced Pern Oak for the wood and layered in stripes from the scales of Chekiath and Comaloth to create it. This will be the closest match for you until you impress your own dragon and use his scales to create your own wand."

Daniel's eyes widened with surprise and pleasure. He didn't really need a wand but knew that some wizards couldn't do magic without one. He would be interested to see how much more powerful his spells were with a wand when compared to the same spell without one.

"On Pern, you are now considered a Junior Wizard," said Harry. "You will use your time as a Junior Wizard to prove you are capable of and deserving of the honor of being allowed to practice magic. You must never use your powers to harm another unless your life or another's is in danger. If you do, your magic will be permanently suppressed. Do you understand this?"

"Yes, I do," responded Daniel a little shakily. He had finally grown out of the accidental magic phase and had been allowed to practice his spells with Harry and Hermione but no one had ever told him it could be taken away!

The three dragons touched their noses to their bonded partner's backs. The four humans joined hands, and Harry invoked the spell which joined them all together just a little closer. Now any of them would know if any of the rest needed help, particularly Daniel. His eyes got wider yet as he felt the magic and love course through him from the others.

"You will be going to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on Earth, however, and they do not consider you to be a full wizard until you graduate. They do not have the status of Junior Wizard. You should try to hide your wandless spellcasting ability while you are there, as it gives you a protective advantage if others don't know about it," explained Harry. "When I went there, it seemed like my life was constantly in danger and I always seemed to get injured. I don't think that will happen with you but forewarned is forearmed.

"If you are ever uncomfortable about anything, there are always dragons stationed around the school. Contact one and get their help if you need it or they can send word to us and we will be there as fast as we can. You probably won't need any help, but it's better to have it available and not need it than need it and not have it.

"We all love you and want you to always be healthy and happy."

Daniel smiled broadly as another wave of feelings surged through him. He was excited to finally become a Junior Wizard but this was even better. He would do everything in his power to make his family proud of him. He couldn't wait for his sister's birthday so she could become a part of this special joining of family.

Dragon Isle, Weyrleader's Office, June 2, 2017...
Ronan was putting in some time in Harry's Office. He had come to Earth with Harry and the rest of his staff so they could put his children in Hogwarts. Harry and his family were going to stay until after September when school started but the rest of the Staff were returning at the end of this month. Earth was OK now but, after living on Pern, he couldn't imagine a better place to live. He was doing what he normally did while on Earth, he was browsing the Internet to look for new, useful technologies.

Somehow, he started casually reading about Carbon Nanotubes. The more he read, the more excited he became. One material, in particular, looked like it could solve a lot of the problems they had been experiencing. Embedded into cloth, it had the ability to make extremely high-temperature resistant clothing, like flight suits. Those same flight suits could be made even stronger by adding extra layers which would make them impact resistant. They could even add a special layer that could be used to help power micro-electronics. They could also have a satellite phone and sensors with a heads-up display fed to a matching helmet, giving them such information as air and water temperature, wind velocity, and direction. When coupled with sensors embedded in the arm of the suit, it could give them a targeting reticle that would mean it would be almost impossible to miss ever again.

The outer layer of the suit could be made to be so non-reflective it would be effectively invisible at night and almost so during the day. An invisibility suit that would not even reflect infrared radiation, which is how muggles were able to "see" wizards under an invisibility cloak. He could even imagine a special 'stealth suit' for a dragon so it would be safe from infrared-seeking missiles.

He could just imagine a flight suit made of this new material. Even better, would be special suits for their Aurors, a group that didn't have direct access all the time to dragons to help them.

Spath's Weyr, Harry's Quarters, June 16, 2017...
Today was now their daughter's birthday and her magical coming of age. Both mothers, all three dragons, and her brother were present for this special day in Mary's life.

"Mary Rose Potter, you are 11 years old today. Do you know what that means?" asked Harry.

"Yes, sir, I do. I am considered old enough to be able to control my own magic on Pern. It also means that I will be starting school in September," replied Mary nervously.

"Hermione, would you remove the limiting charm please?" asked Harry.

When she had done that, May picked up a long thin box and handed it to Mary. Mary looked at it hesitantly, but accepted it and unwrapped it. She looked at her father quietly.

"This is your first wand," explained Harry. "I used a Boron laced Pern Oak for the wood and layered in stripes from the scales of Chekiath and Trath to create it. This will be the closest match for you until you impress your own dragon and use his scales to create your own wand."

Mary's eyes widened with pleasure. She had already learned about wands from her brother, now she had her own. Like her brother, she didn't really need a wand.

"On Pern, you are now considered a Junior Witch," said Harry. "You will use your time as a Junior Witch to prove you are capable of and deserving of the honor of being allowed to practice magic. You must never use your powers to harm another unless your life or another's is in danger. If you do, your magic will be permanently suppressed. Do you understand this?"

"Yes, I do," responded Mary. She had long ago grown out of the accidental magic phase and had been allowed to practice her spells with Harry and Hermione but no one had ever told her it could be taken away!

The three dragons touched their noses to their owners' backs. The five humans joined hands, and Harry invoked the spell which joined them all together just a little closer. Now any of them would know if any of the rest needed help, finally including Mary. Her eyes closed happily as he felt the magic and love course through her from the others.

"You will be going to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on Earth, however, and they do not consider you to be a full witch until you graduate. They do not have the status of Junior Witch. You should try to hide your wandless spellcasting ability while you are there, as it gives you a protective advantage if others don't know about it," explained Harry. "When I went there, it seemed like my life was constantly in danger and I always seemed to get injured. I don't think that will happen to either of you but forewarned is forearmed.

"If you are ever uncomfortable about anything, there are always dragons stationed around the school. Contact one and get their help if you need it or they can send word to us and we will be there as fast as we can. You probably won't need any help, but it's better to have it available and not need it than need it and not have it.

"We all love you and want you to always be healthy and happy."

Mary smiled serenely as another wave of love surged through her. This felt even better than becoming a Junior Witch. She would do everything in her power to make her family proud of her. She would do everything she could to make sure they were both safe while away from their parents.

London, Earth, Kings Cross Station, Platform 9 ¾, Sept 1, 2017...
Harry and all his family had arrived on the platform for the Hogwarts Express a little early. They had been shopping the day before in Hogsmeade to pick up everything their children would need their first year in school. The children weren't as amazed at their new surroundings as Harry had been, they had been using magic for some time and were just getting used to what was considered normal here on Earth.

Both Harry and Hermione were extremely proud of their children for the way they handled themselves. May, on the other hand, looked like she was about to twist her head off as she kept looking around so fast trying to catch sight of everything. It had been really funny to Harry and Hermione to see the look of shock on May's face when she saw the first child run full tilt towards the post leading to the platform. She had shuddered slightly and asked Harry to carry her through while she kept her eyes tightly closed until he told her they were on the platform.

As Harry handed Daniel his old cage with Hedwig in it, he reached in to quickly comfort his old friend. Hermione looked like she was doing her best not to cry as she cuddled a bit with her old Familiar before handing Crookshanks to Mary. Both Familiars were getting on in years but they were the only ones they trusted with their children. The two Familiars had agreed to help their children while they went to school and Harry had promised them both a quiet retirement wherever they wished to go. He had also placed a small, unobtrusive protection amulet around both their necks, explaining to them what they were capable of as he fastened the catches.

They had even been by Ollivander's shop to look at wands, but he agreed that the wands they had would be more than sufficient for now and they had the advantage of not having Ministry of Magic tracking charms on them. Harry had unobtrusively added his own charms for their own peace of mind rather than to keep track of "underage magic usage".

They walked up to one of the doors leading into one of the middle cars and everyone started hugging everyone else. As they finally broke off, Harry turned to look at their two young adults.

"You've got the Galleons for any special needs, right?" asked Harry.

"Yes, Dad," they both echoed as if from long practice.

"We will see you there but won't let on we know you if you want to stay incognito," offered Hermione. "I think I would have been terminally embarrassed if my parents had shown up for my first day at school!"

"Well, it's just convenient to take care of my business while we're here," said Harry, not at all sad that he would be seeing his children walk into Hogwarts. "Besides, May has never seen it. She should have an idea where Hermione and I spent our later school years."

"Hey, don't blame this on me!" exclaimed May. "I'm just happy to see what I have seen so far."

"Too bad you won't get a chance to see the castle from the lake after dark," interjected Hermione. "Perhaps we could loop around and fly in low so you can see it. It's really beautiful. The Thestral drawn carriages for the second year and on were just creepy."

The three adults stood on the platform and watched their children get comfortable in their chosen carriage as the train slowly filled up with a noisy gaggle of children. Harry kept looking for any of his old friends but didn't recognize anyone, which was probably a good thing.

Once the train left, they made their way back out to where their dragons were waiting for them to fly to Hogwarts.

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Scotland, Sept 1, 2017...
Hamanth had let Minerva know that one of her favorite students was on his way to visit soon with his wives. She had rushed down to the main entrance and was standing on the steps outside the doors, looking to the west, hoping to see them when they arrived.

Suddenly three huge dragons appeared, backdropped by the (no longer) Forbidden Forest. So much had changed since that fateful day when Harry had stepped out of that tent for the first trial of the Triwizard Tournament. She waved to them happily. Professor Flitwick came outside and moved up to stand next to her. He was no longer startled by dragons; he had even become quite close friends with some of the ones staying in their Hogwarts Weyr.

"I see we have guests," commented Professor Flitwick calmly. "Clarence told me someone important would be arriving soon, so I thought I would come out and be here to help you greet them."

"Thank you, Filius," responded Minerva. "Harry Potter and his wives have come to inspect our Weyr and dragons. He also wanted his muggle wife to see where he went to school."

Just then Charlie Weasley, Hogwarts Instructor in Magical History, Social Studies, and Magical Creature Healing for the past 11 years, joined them as the three dragons gently settled down on the wide lawn in front of the doors.

"Good morning, Headmistress, Professor, Charlie," said Harry politely after he had dismounted Chekiath. "I assume you are busy making preparations for tonight's sorting feast. We don't want to intrude, but thought this would be an excellent time for us to check in on our dragons since we were 'in the area' anyway."

"By 'in the area', I assume you actually mean, 'on the planet'," said Minerva, beaming. "It's not often we get such famous galactic travelers here. Don't you think you are going to get away with just a flying visit! You must stay at least through the Sorting Banquet. After all, I understand you may have more than a passing interest this year."

Harry grinned at Minerva and said, "Never could fool you, Minerva, though it wouldn't take a Divination to realize we would be coming here. I did want to get a chance to see that Weyr that Charlie told us about all those years ago and to meet the dragons that have been helping here.

"Perhaps Timath and his fellow guards can start us off by becoming visible and letting me know how they feel things have gone."

With that, 5 dragons shimmered into view in a semi-circle around the door, two Hungarian Horntails, two Welsh Greens, and a Peruvian Vipertooth. The three academics looked a bit startled.

"How did you know they were there?" asked Charlie, incredulously.

"I can not only talk to all dragons," explained Harry, "I can see all dragons as well, even when they are invisible to others."

"Welcome, Weyrleader, Consorts, and Dragons," said Timath calmly. "May you find peace and shelter under our wings."

"Thank you, Timath," said Harry. "We always have and always will trust you and all other dragons with our very lives."

"As we do ours with you, Weyrleader," said Timath, his eyes swirling bright blue.

"Have you had any problems while here, Timath?" asked Harry. "I wish to know that my family is well cared for in my absence. Please, if there is anything that can be done to make your stay here more comfortable or pleasant, I want to help make it so."

"We are most content, Weyrleader," replied Timath. "The Lady Harper and her assistant Shy Runner have made the most excellent food available for us. Since the Horse Men have moved out of the forest, we have even been able to enjoy ourselves hunting for our own food as well. The work is simple and easy, though at times it might be pleasant to have more to talk to."

"You only have 5 able-bodied dragons here, Timath," asked Harry. "I should have assigned at least an entire Flight. Would seven more dragons be enough or would you prefer to have an entire Wing? If you want, I can arrange for seven more permanently with another four Flights assigned on a rotating basis so you would have two Flights here at all times."

"A full-time Flight would be most helpful," said Timath gratefully. "If we had more, it might become harder to find sufficient food."

"Then I will assign seven more dragons here permanently, set up for four more rotating flights, and arrange to have a large herd of cattle and sheep delivered,' said Harry. "The main herd will be kept far from here so they can become self-replicating but I will ask … Shy Runner … to help keep track of the beasts and make sure there are more than enough kept in a nearby pen for your use."

"How did you get the name 'Shy Runner'," asked Harry curiously.

"When I first got here, I was very conscious of my background and almost embarrassed to talk with the dragons," explained Charlie, as he looked down in embarrassment. "I also took on too much responsibility when I first arrived. I wanted to show I could do the job and didn't want anyone to find any fault."

"He almost ran himself into exhaustion!" exclaimed Minerva, annoyedly. "I finally got him to calm down some and delegate some of his chores to the older students. By then, his dragon's name had been given, so it was too late," she added with a laugh.

"If you can get the cattle here, there is a semi-enclosed valley east of Hogwarts that should be ideal for keeping the majority of them safe," said Charlie helpfully. "I don't know who owns it, but I'm sure Hogwarts could rent it cheap enough."

"I will find out who owns it, if anyone," said Harry decisively, "and purchase it myself as a gift to the castle for taking care of so many for so long. I will also see to extending the castle's wards to include the valley."

Suddenly Clarence flew out the door and landed on Charlie's head.

"Thank you, Harry Potter," said Clarence. "I will do my best to continue to be worthy of such an illustrious alumnae."

Harry and Minerva laughed, being used to Clarence's antics. Charlie looked a bit alarmed at first until he realized what was going on and then simply looked resigned.

"Don't be so dismissive of yourself, Charlie Weasley," said Clarence. "You've more than made up for your initial misunderstanding and have gone a long way to enhance the Hogwarts reputation!"

With that, Clarence flew off again and Charlie just looked even more embarrassed.

"Perhaps if we could start the tour," suggested a slightly embarrassed Charlie, "we might finish in time for lunch."

"Good idea," agreed Minerva. "I need to get back inside and continue making preparations. If you are going to fly to the Weyr, I would be willing to bet that Professor Flitwick would enjoy the experience."

Professor Flitwick looked alarmed … and slightly hopeful at such an audacious suggestion.

"I can give young Charlie a ride," said Tolzuth, one of Hogwarts guard dragons.

"Fine," agreed Harry. "Professor, if you want to go along, please come over here and you will get the unique opportunity to ride on the largest dragon in two worlds!"

Flitwick walked forward hesitantly. Harry jumped up on Chekiath and then levitated the diminutive Professor up and in front of him. The remaining guards flew back to their stations and Harry's small group started to fly slowly to the east side of the castle where the new Weyr had been constructed above and into the cliff below the castle, south of the 1st year students' tunnel.

Harry had Chekiath make a slow circuit of the new Weyr. It wasn't all that big, looking barely big enough to hold 10 dragons, but he could see it was well constructed, using large stone blocks that matched the castle. One side slightly overhung the bare cliff and lake on the east side of the castle and the student entrance to the Weyr on its Westside had a large overhang to protect any visitors from the weather. Harry then had Cheki land near the Weyr on the large groomed lawn to the west.

As he approached, he could see that what had appeared to be barely big enough had been space enhanced on the inside so that each teaching dragon had a quite large apartment with a door that opened into the entrance. Around the side was a wide corridor that led to five more spacious apartments, relatively hidden from the public, for the guard dragons.

"This looks really good, Charlie," said Harry. "If we can make some dragon apartments for seven more dragons in the lake-side cliffs, the guard dragons should be very comfortable. I like the way the training dragons can close their doors if they want privacy as well."

"That's going to take quite a bit of work to excavate dragon apartments in the side of the cliffs," said Charlie worriedly.

"Not really," said Harry. The dragons can create the apartments. If you can just arrange to deliver the gravel for the bed lining and then, once they've heated it to the proper temperature, deliver the sand to cover the gravel, that would finish everything off quite easily. They can create a single opening and a branching corridor so you won't need multiple openings in the cliff."

"It could even be hidden behind a fidelius charm so it can't be seen," suggested Professor Flitwick. "That would give the dragons more privacy."

"Great idea," said Charlie. "We can handle all that easily. Thanks, Harry."

"No problem," said Harry. "Chekiath and Dronth are already searching for suitable candidates for the rest of the guards. They should be here by tonight and can commute between Dragon Isle and here until the apartments are finished."

Hogwarts, Main Banquet Hall, later that night...
Harry was quite pleased with how the day had gone. He had sent a message to Al Ford about arranging for the purchase of the neighboring Valley and the cattle. Draco had come in soon after to start creating the ward stones that would be placed once the title to the land had been confirmed, and he and Harry had finished setting them into place and activating them not long before the 1st years were due to arrive.

Both Harry and Hermione had enjoyed watching May see a part of their past for the first time. She had almost fainted when she had seen her first ghost! Now, the main doors were opening and the 1st year students were awkwardly trooping in, trying to keep quiet and act sophisticated yet unable to stop looking around, wide-eyed at everything they saw.

"Don't they all look so tiny from up here," said Hermione to him quietly. "I can still remember coming through those doors like it was just yesterday!"

"It was certainly a big change for me," said Harry softly. "I was literally in another world than the one I had been living in."

They looked over at May and Harry grinned when he caught her straining to see their children. None of them wanted to embarrass their youngsters but they also weren't about to say no when Minerva had insisted they join her at the head table. Just then Harry saw their two wandering in almost casually at the center of a group of happily smiling children.

It wasn't long after, that Daniel, and then Mary, spotted their parents at the head table. Harry sent them an unobtrusive wink that Daniel returned. Mary just smiled. They patiently watched as those students earlier in line were sorted into their houses. Finally, it was Daniel's turn.

"Gryffindor!" called Clarence. Privately, he sent to Harry, "It could be nothing else."

As Daniel got down from the stool and walked over to the Gryffindor table, Mary nervously took her place.

"Ravenclaw!" announced Clarence. Again, he sent to Harry, "It is exactly right, you will see."

Hermione looked about to say something but Harry calmed her down. May was just happy to see her children happy and amongst so many potential friends.

Mary made her way, uncertainly, over to the Ravenclaw table. She momentarily looked a little lost without her brother but soon settled into the lively conversations swirling around the table. Harry was relieved to see them both settled and apparently happy.

"Cheki," called Harry, privately. "Would you please send to Daniel and Mary that we all love them and are sure that Clarence knows their innermost feelings when he sorts them? They are in the best place for them right now and will prosper there over their coming years at Hogwarts."

He shared with the two girls what he had sent and they watched as their children received the message and smiled up at their parents with relieved looks on their faces. He glanced over at Minerva and saw the look of speculation on her face.

"No, Minerva," Harry told her. "Neither of us had anything to do with the sorting. It was all purely Clarence. I have a feeling that, once they get well entrenched, you will see at least two houses running neck-and-neck for the honor of the top house.

"Have you ever had a tie between two or more houses before?" grinned Harry.

"No, I don't recall that ever happening. It will be interesting," she replied. "You probably don't realize but Clarence can detect nascent qualities in a student and place them in the House that will challenge them the most and put their character to the test."

As they had been quietly talking, the last of the new students had been sorted. As the last student made her way to her new house, Minerva stood and waited patiently for the hall to quiet.

"Students, new and old, welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," she began. "You will find your time here both challenging and rewarding. Those of you new to the wizarding world will be learning many new and wonderful things but I must ask you to help your less fortunate magical brothers and sisters. They will have to start learning about our non-magical world, and it may not be easy for some, but it is necessary.

"I would like to request that all students stay away from the forest to the north and west of the school. We used to call it The Forbidden Forest due to several quite nasty monsters lurking there. Most have been recently removed but there are still a few Trolls roaming around. We would really prefer not to tell your parents why they won't be seeing you anymore.

"For more than a decade, we have been home to a Weyr of dragons who call Hogwarts their home. In due course, all students are introduced to them. They are really quite pleasant people and it would do you well to get to know them. They and their kind have opened up many new opportunities to the world; new means of transportation, a new source of power, and, not least, a change in the world's national power structure when they all but destroyed one of the then existing superpowers in less than a day. They did this because they were continually attacked, not because they wanted to. Dragons make a powerful friend but a terrible enemy.

"Now that I have said far too much, let the feast begin!"

With that, the headmistress waved her wand at the room and all the tables started filling with an enormous amount of the most wonderful food imaginable.

As Minerva sat down, she turned to Harry, Hermione, and May and said, "I hope you have enjoyed your visit today. Do you have any idea when Luna will be visiting?"

"Probably sometime around the Halloween celebration," said Harry. "We have decided to do something a little different starting this year. If a student is chosen to stand for impression, we want to try for the November time frame. This will allow the magical students to learn about their dragons and tend to them until they are at least old enough to fly on their own. Then they will be urged to return to Hogwarts a term later to finish their education. Their dragons will come with them and remain in the area, hidden to all but their riders.

"I didn't realize it at the time, but it hurt many of my magical riders to have their education cut short. I want them to finish what they started here and then go on to University if they want. Better at a younger age than at an older."

"I approve," said Minerva. "If you would, let me know if there is any way we can prepare potential riders for the coming break in their education and, also, if there is anything we can teach them that will help after they impress."

"I've been hearing good things about Charlie's Care of Magical Creatures course. That might be something that could be added after they come back. I'm sure Hermione will be pleased to share our own 'Official Handbook of Dragon Care' and our 'Weyrhealers Guidebook'," said Harry. He looked over at her and noticed the slight blush as she remembered how she had officiously named his and Hagrid's early notes.

"That would probably be most helpful," replied Minerva. "I'll let Charlie know after the feast."

Harry looked down at the Banquet Hall and smiled faintly to himself. Some of his memories of Hogwarts were actually quite pleasant and he had never imagined that he would see the welcoming feast from the head table. The world was definitely changing.

Dragon Isle, The Weyrleader's Office, Sept 5, 2017...
Ronan had been right, just do an Internet search on "buying surplus naval vessels" and all sorts of fascinating possibilities opened up. In fact, there was an old World War II Aircraft Carrier hull that was being bid on for salvage. It had its engines and armament removed, but they didn't need that anyway. If he could make the winning bid, he could have the dragons pick it up and deliver it to Ronan at the RTL facilities on Pern where they could refit it to their own specifications.

Harry slowly made his way through the registration procedure for the website and entered his initial bid.

Spath's Weyr, RTL Dry Dock, inside Spath's Mountain, Nov 7, 2017...
"We found him when we were stripping out old compartments below the hanger deck to make additional cargo holds," explained Ronan.

"Any idea who he might have been?" asked Harry.

"He had no identification on him but he did have a high-powered 50-caliber sniper rifle with several hundred rounds of ammunition and enough explosives to cause serious damage to any of our new Holds," explained Ronan. "He could have totally destroyed any of the old Pern Holds or Weyrs if he'd had a chance but wouldn't have been able to do much damage to Spath's Weyr, we're just too big.

"I've sent a picture of him back to Earth to see if any of our contacts can find out at least who he was, if not whom he was working for. I'm not holding my breath while I wait though. It could take a long time and we may never know for sure."

"What happened to him, why did he die?" asked Harry. "Not that I'm complaining, just curious. We've never had any problems with any of our riders, have we?"

"He was drugged to be in a deep sleep when you had the hull picked up," explained Ronan. "Someone knew just enough about dragons to know that he would have been detected if he had been awake. What they didn't realize is that we take any incoming cargo, including this hull, Between, and put it into a high Pern orbit to ensure that any hitch-hiking life doesn't make it alive to reach Pern. We don't want to import any new parasites or other life that may affect Pern adversely. He was dressed warmly, but not warm enough to help, especially since, in his dormant state, he wouldn't have been able to do anything to keep warm. And dressing warmly didn't help with the lack of air."

"Well," said Harry ironically, "I guess your procedure worked. A potentially adverse life form was kept off Pern. Please let me know if you find out anything from your inquiries.

"Now, how is the refitting going?"

"We opened up all the decks above where the 1000 MW Hot Rock power generator will be installed, so we can have a straight shot with the cranes when we drop it in. It will supply electrical energy to turbines which we will use for propulsion as well as powering all the ship's systems. All openings will then have watertight doors added to maintain the hull's integrity and still allow us access again, if necessary. The entire surface of the ship was replaced, where necessary, with all metal parts. For some reason, the flight deck was mostly a thick layer of wood!

"The spaces around the hanger deck were converted to varying sized apartments with all the comforts of home, except a steady floor. Almost all the compartments below the hangar deck were stripped out and replaced with much larger water-tight compartments suitable for cargo. None of the living areas on the ship was converted to dragon apartments because the movement disturbs them too much for them to want to sleep there. Several of the new, large cargo compartments near the stern have been pre-allocated to disaster relief cargo. We hope we never need it, but, if we do, we will be ready.

"We have done our best to automate its operation as much as possible, meaning that any other Earth ship of comparable size would probably need three or four times the number of crew we have. Of course, we will also have dragons to help with the heavy lifting when it comes to cargo. We do have heavy-duty cranes to move cargo below decks and to bring it up to the hanger deck for distribution, and two of the hanger deck cranes are capable of offloading cargo out of either side through the hanger bay doors where the old aircraft elevators are.

"Just as an exercise, we made sure the elevators will still work, but, right now, we plan on always leaving them at the flight deck level. We purchased several landing craft and similar smaller boats which we will carry on the hanger deck at the stern of the boat. That way, if we cannot get close to shore, our crew can still go back and forth and transport cargo if there are no dragons to help.

"We beefed up the keel and sealed all the compartments nearest the outer hull to help maintain watertight integrity in case the outer hull is breached, though I haven't seen anything on Pern yet that would be able to come even close. We are just over-engineering everything to be safe. We have much more space than we need, may as well use it for something useful. The doors leading into the compartments were dogged down tight and then spot welded. If necessary, the welds can be broken so we can re-enter the compartments for repair work but I would prefer to do that back here in the dry dock if it's ever required.

"Since there will be nothing that should come anywhere near being able to harm our new ship, I didn't feel there was much of a reason to have much armament, but we did add some small, enclosed, 50-caliber machine gun housings fore and aft of the elevator openings on both sides in case we encounter anything dangerous we haven't seen before.

"We have added a water level docking bay on the stern that can be used to dock our boats or allow access to our Dolphin friends in case of need. There are armored doors that can close it off and seal it if we want to pump it dry and the hanger bay cranes will allow us to bring any of our boats up to the hangar bay for storage.

"That's the major components of the refitting we've planned. I'm sure other things will come up before we're through, though."

"Well done, Ronan," said Harry with a grin. "It looks like you've taken to ship design almost as much as you did to model airplanes!"

"Ah, but this is a lot bigger and so much easier to work with," replied Ronan with a grin.

"Yes, but it's still just a big toy to you, isn't it!" grinned Harry.

Spath's Weyr, Hatching Grounds, Feb 15, 2018...
"Tha's th' second hatchin' in a row wif only 40 eggs," said Hagrid worriedly. "Yuh haven' askt 'em tuh limit their eggs 'ave yuh, 'arry?"

"No, Hagrid," replied Harry. "We have more than enough dragons to fight thread. It's almost as if they have decided on their own to limit how many new dragons there are. We are getting close to what I felt the maximum should be for Pern. We now have 6,280 out of my proposed 7,200 maximum."

They both shook their heads. No harm was being done by the slow-down except for the disappointed potential riders. They would all stand again next time in any case.

Spath's Weyr, The Weyrleader's Inner Office, Mar 10, 2018...
"Have time for the Courier, Harry?" asked Jeofrey.

"Sure, send him on in," said Harry, leaning back to stretch his aching back.

"'HIM', Harry!" exclaimed Janay. "That's all the thanks I get for helping you all those years ago!"

"Janay!" said Harry with real pleasure. "It's been way too long! Almost 8 years, isn't it? How are you and your new family getting on?"

"Sometime around the beginning of July 2010, if I remember right," said Janay. "We are doing quite well. Our youngest is 5 now and a real terror. Fortunately, neither of us is magical, so we don't have to worry about that little problem. We decided to stop at three."

"That's great," smiled Harry. "I guess you are today's courier."

"That's right, Harry," said Janay. "When I heard there was a volunteer needed for courier duty, I decided I wanted to come to visit you and see how everything was going here. The latest in the magical world is that Dumbledore's Plan is moving along just fine. A Chizpurfle infestation was discovered to be the cause of a recent London power outage."

"Sounds about right," said Harry. "I really miss him sometimes but the pain seems to lessen as the years go by. I try to remember as much of the good that he did as possible."

"Yes," agreed Janay. "He was a great man, but not as great as you will be remembered."

"Oh," said Janay, almost as an afterthought. "I was able to see the last Quidditch match at Hogwarts."

"Really!" exclaimed Harry. "Was it the one where Gryffindor played Ravenclaw? I really wanted to go to that one. I was really disappointed when Weyrleader's duties kept me away. Who won? Tell me all about it, please!"

"Well, let's think. I'm not sure I can remember much," Janay teased. "Oh, yes, it wasn't a very exciting match ..."

"Don't even try," growled Harry good-naturedly. "I want all the details!"

"I can do better than that," said Janay gleefully. "I arranged to have videos taken and I'm SO glad I did!"

"Why, what happened?" asked Harry, intrigued.

"The game was a tie the entire way through. First one side would score and then the other. It was almost as if it were a dance that was choreographed. Then, before one side or the other could score the winning point, the Golden Snitch was spotted by both Seekers."

Harry just sat listening intently.

"Well, I think you might know the Seekers," said Janay. "Anyway, they both raced for it. It was as if the whole world stopped just to watch them. They both grabbed at the same time and …"

"AND WHAT!" shouted Harry, excitedly. "Please, don't leave out any details!"

Chekiath looked up at his rider, amused that something so simple could get his rider so excited. He knew that Janay was purposely holding something back until the last minute as a surprise for Harry. He wondered what it might be.

"Oh, nothing much, they both caught it at the same time, that's all," said Janay, smugly.

"What!" exclaimed Harry. "How is that possible? Who were these wonder Seekers?"

"Daniel and Mary Potter," said Janay with a final grin at the numbed look of surprise on Harry's face.

Spath's Weyr, Conference Room...
Harry, Hermione, and May had already seen the video through once in private. Then word got out, probably shamelessly dropped by Janay, that Harry had a DVD of the last Hogwarts Quidditch Match and all the magical riders wanted to see it. Lee Jordan had set up the video display system in the conference room so that everyone could watch and hear what had been recorded.

There wasn't a single sound in the entire, huge Conference Room, the game was that fascinating. Even the non-magical riders who had shown up to watch the match were entranced by the rapid-fire give and take of the unfamiliar game. Near the end, when both Seekers grabbed the Golden Snitch at the same time was the first time any sound had escaped from anyone. Suddenly, there was a loud roar from the lips of every magical rider there as the impossible happened.

Harry paused the video and patiently explained about the game of Quidditch, with a little help from all the other magical riders. By the time the explanation was over, even the non-magical riders knew how impossible it would be for two Seekers to grab the Golden Snitch at the same time. After everyone calmed down enough, Harry restarted the DVD so he could watch his favorite part.

As the video restarted, they saw the spectators in the stands erupt in euphoria at having been witness to such a historic game. The vast majority of them mobbed the field to celebrate with the players. It was almost as an afterthought that, in one corner of the screen, Harry could see the two separate teams combined as one carrying both Seekers off the field in triumph. The best part was that the players were so intermingled that there were team members from both teams carrying both Seekers. When he had first seen it, he had instantly understood what had happened.

Of course the game looked choreographed, it was, but by no one other than his two children. He would let it be their little secret, at least for now. He could see their influence bringing the students of Hogwarts even closer together than ever before. He was so very proud of Daniel and Mary he felt about ready to burst.

Spath's Weyr, Conference Room, May 12, 2018...
It had taken Harry almost a year to convince the northerners of his plan, but now they were again in the Spath's Weyr Conference Room to discuss setting up a Legislative group. The Judicial Group had a rocky start but it didn't take much time before everyone could see the benefit of a separate group who were unfailingly honest to meet out justice impartially. There had been a few cases that had many people unsure just who was guilty and who the victim was but, once the veritaserum testimony was heard in court, no one doubted anymore.

What had ultimately clinched the idea had been the judgment the court unanimously handed down. In the past, the only recourse for such an offense would have been to declare the guilty party holdless which, during a Pass, was almost tantamount to a death sentence. Instead, having a much wider experience among all the judges, they opted for a magically binding oath from the guilty party never to act in such a manner again along with the requirement to pay reparations to the victim. Even that didn't go over well with the northerners until they saw that it actually worked!

Now they were arguing over the term limits of those who served on the legislative body and the length of office. He had finally gotten them to agree to a uniform set of laws for everyone when a recent trade agreement had almost blown up over a misunderstanding in the wording of the agreement.

Everyone was now familiar with having three members of each species, elected by their own species to be representatives for their own species. They had almost agreed to new elections to be held every 6 years. What he was having the most trouble with was the requirement for any incumbent to have a 75% majority to get re-elected.

Political lobbying was unknown on Pern, so his requirement about lobbying was almost overlooked. It was only to be allowed if it was publicly and openly performed so that all species are aware of the implications. Anyone caught on either side breaking that section of the law was not going to be very happy.

The Legislative group would propose laws but then new laws had to be ratified by a 75% positive vote of the entire intelligent population that would have to live under them. All laws were applied to everyone equally, including all branches of "government".

Harry was glad he had learned how to keep a small portion of his intellect focused on the discussion while the greater part worked on other problems. If he had not been able to perfect that long ago, he would have found himself falling asleep to all the repetitive arguments.

Spath's Weyr, Harry's Quarters, June 18, 2018...
Harry, Hermione, May, and all three dragons had just arrived home from Earth where they had enjoyed some family together time with Mary. They had visited with Daniel for a short time as well, but the last two days had been specifically for them to celebrate Mary's birthday. They had done something similar for Daniel on his birthday, just like they tried their best to do every year.

So far, they had been able to meet their self-imposed obligations and everyone really loved it, even if it meant, for the children, that they would have to make up any lost school work. Mary had learned early and talked her teachers into letting her do most of her work ahead of time. Daniel was finally starting to understand that that was the best way for him to go as well.

Spath's Weyr, The Weyrleaders inner Office, July 10, 2018...
Harry was beyond livid. Some of the magical riders near him were starting to feel queasy with the amount of magic that was roiling around him.

"How did this happen, Lobsang," asked Harry quietly as he tried to rein in his fury.

"I have no idea," replied the terrified young Weyrleader. He had never seen Harry this angry before. While he knew it wasn't aimed at him, he still felt the queasiness of his powerful magical field and knew what that implied. "A hired courier simply gave me this note this morning and left."

Harry glanced once more at the note in his hand. He didn't have to read it again, its contents were etched into his brain by now.

Weyrleader,
The Pern Legislature has determined that it is in our best interests to ban all Dragonriders from ever entering or coming near Red Butte Hold.

As our first official act, this has been passed as Pern's first official law.

Signed by an overwhelming vote,
The Pern Legislature.

"I have a feeling someone is trying to pull a fast one on us and is trying to consolidate their defenses before we can think of what to do," said Harry. "It isn't going to work. Here's what we are going to do ..."

Spath's Weyr, Conference Room, July 11, 2018...
The Conference Room was crowded for once. Not only were all the current Legislators present, crammed up to the front, but all those who had originally ratified them as well as every Weyrleader and Weyrwoman on the entire planet. This was especially troubling to the Dragonriders as Thread was due to fall today and they were going to have to leave its control to their subordinates.

Harry's riders had spread out and brought everyone here on such short notice, explaining it only as 'at the request of The Weyrleader due to a development that portends extreme danger to the entire planet'. Most were very confused but came anyway. They had come to trust this young man who acted far older than his apparent age.

"I'm sorry to call you all here on such short notice," began Harry, "but I was shown a note yesterday that is trying to set some very dangerous precedents."

With that, Harry waved to Lee who displayed the note on the video monitors for all to see. At the same time, Harry had the microphones of all the Legislators muted and erected the wards around their seats so they would be unable to leave. It was evident to everyone else what had happened when they could see the angry faces of some of the Legislators and their inability to leave the area of their seats.

There was an angry murmur from every Dragonrider present.

"I have enacted some security wards around our Legislators until such a time as we can determine what has happened," stated Harry. "I feel I already know but must prove it beyond any doubt or all that we have accomplished here will be for nothing. If those currently silenced would please resume their seats, you will be able to hear everything that goes on but will not be able to be heard unless I allow it. For now, I. Do. Not. Allow. It.

"As you have all recently learned, some of us newcomers are capable of performing magic. As with all humans, there are good among us as well as bad. It is my contention that this note was the work of one of our wizards who may not necessarily be a bad person but who is driven to acquire power and doesn't care how he does it.

"The first thing I'm going to do is probably going to shock almost everyone here. If you think about it, it will eventually make sense. We have a way to make laws and a way to judge whether or not a law has been broken, but we have yet to set into place a way to enforce any law. I am going to do that now.

"From here on, any Dragonrider or dragon, whether bonded or unbonded, will be bound by their bond, be it to their rider alone or to me as The Weyrleader, to enforce any laws we see fit to pass and the Judges inform us we are to follow. There may be some here, particularly non-riders, who will disagree with this but dragons cannot lie and have an inherent sense of fairness and honesty that puts the rest of us to shame. We already have incorruptible Judges. I thought we had incorruptible Legislators. It appears that we may have allowed one or more to slip in who have less than honorable intentions.

"I have not stated my intention that dragons and riders be the executors of the law as a request rather than as a demand. I will ask now, is there anyone here who disagrees with my statement? If so, please raise your hand for all to see."

Harry watched as a small group of Legislators raised their hands. Most of them hesitantly but a couple decisively. He nodded knowingly to himself.

"There by their own actions, are the guilty identified," said Harry, ignoring the angry looks they sent his way. "Now we will find out if all of those are guilty equally, or only one or perhaps two are guilty of controlling the others. We have spells that are so intrusive that they have been declared illegal to use on our world on any intelligent life form. Using one such spell I could force an innocent child to become a cold-blooded murderer and no one, not even the child, would understand why they were acting as they were. This spell takes the form of a compulsion that is sometimes mild but more often so powerful there is never even a thought of denying it.

"I will now ask all dragons present to concentrate on our Legislators here in front of us and tell your riders if any of those present have a feeling of wrongness about them. It will seem like they are almost trying to do two different things at the same time. Let your rider know of all such you sense so they can write on the pad next to you the seat numbers of those individuals."

Harry waited while this went on and then asked Hagrid to go down the central aisle and collect them all. Cheki had already told him which ones they were. He was definitely going to have to ask Ronan to come up with some way of creating an automatic vote tally device.

When Hagrid delivered the notes to him, he started reading out the first one. As he read a seat number, a red light appeared over that seat. When he finished the first note, he quickly read out each of the others in order. No new lights went on.

"Amazing, isn't it," said Harry. "That all the Dragons present found the exact same individuals mentally odd. Now to find out if what I think is true, I will release the bind on these Legislators one at a time and require them to walk up here to me. When they do I will perform a spell that will tell me if they have been bespelled and were being controlled by someone else."

The first human whom Harry called forward was a native Pernese. He looked frightened and confused. Harry performed a dispel spell on him and suddenly he calmed down, though still looked confused.

"What am I doing here?" asked Legislator Vengyn.

"You have had a cruel trick played on you, Sir," replied Harry. "If you would please have a seat over on that side of the room, all will be explained soon."

As the Legislator moved over to the side, Harry continued through the other ten people, invariably human but in one case a goblin and a mixture of magical and non-magical people. Finally, Harry had finished with the eleven marked seats. He looked up at those still sitting in the blocked seats.

"Now to determine who was behind this," said Harry quietly. " First, I would again call upon all dragons to verify that those I called up are no longer mentally confused."

When he got verification, he continued, "Now I would appreciate all dragons to again concentrate on our remaining Legislators, and find one or more who are feeling guilty or afraid. This time, I will ask your rider to call out any such seat numbers out loud when I indicate them."

Harry knew there was only one such individual now and was relieved that it wasn't more widespread. After every rider had identified the same seat, Harry turned to its occupant, a minor wizard named Nolan Lynch. With that, he released the wards holding the other Legislators bound to their seats and freed their microphones.

"I would ask you, gentle-beings, to please refrain from making any comment until I have finished my presentation," requested Harry. "I am now acting as an Officer of the Court, presenting evidence in a manner that will allow our Judges to determine the guilt or innocence, of this individual before us now. Anything said extraneous to this may prejudice the case. Everything that has happened has been recorded for future review.

"Hagrid, would you please apprehend our suspect and bring him up here?" asked Harry. "Be as gentle as he allows you to be."

When Hagrid was in position, Harry released the runic binds on Nolan's chair. Immediately, he tried to cast an Avada Kedavra on Hagrid. Being a half-giant, it just bounced off him, but it allowed him to thump Nolan smartly on the head, which had the effect of knocking him unconscious.

"As you are all witnesses, there is little doubt that he is guilty of something, not the least of which is casting a killing curse," said Harry. "That it had no effect on its intended target is not the target's fault."

As Hagrid deposited the unconscious Nolan at his feet, Harry cast a strong binding spell on him after relieving him of any possible tool of offense he might have.

"May, would you please administer the Veritaserum now?" asked Harry.

As Nolan started to regain consciousness, Harry stunned him. He then requested several of the Riders present to go get any Judges who were present in the Weyr. Shortly later, they all returned with a double handful of Judges of all species, including all three human judges. After the Judges were comfortably seated, Harry had the recording of the proceedings replayed for them. Those Judges who were magical recognized what was happening as soon as Harry started speaking in the recording. When it was finished, they muted any sound coming from the area they were seated in so they could discuss the case amongst themselves. The magical Judges explained the problem to the non-magical Judges. They even had the tightly bound, Veritaserum dosed prisoner brought over to them for questioning.

A short time later, the silencing wards were dropped and the Senior Judge present stood up to pass sentence.

"While these are highly irregular circumstances, we agree unanimously with the end product and feel that true justice has been served," said Senior Judge Klass Kost. "A guilty party has been apprehended and a legal precedent has been set. We hereby adjudge that, as The Weyrleader states, the only true Executive branch of our Government must include dragons. To that, I, as a member of the magical community, would like to add that I think we need to have, in addition to dragons, a multi-species Auror force to assist. The Weyrleader knows of what I speak and we leave it in his capable hands to ensure it is formed.

"As to our prisoner, we saw him attempt to cast a killing curse. That by itself is grounds for capital punishment in our old world. While we do not yet have such a law on the books here, we have been motivated to use common sense in all our cases. So shall we in this, our first case of an attempted hostile takeover of our new Government and the attempted murder of a duly authorized Officer of the Court, Hagrid. We find the defendant Guilty of all charges and hereby call for his immediate execution by whatever humane means we have at our disposal. So say the requisite three human Judges as well as more than 50% of the rest of the species present.

"Weyrleader, if you would take over, we will stay and bear witness to today's actions."

Harry looked sorrowfully at Nolan. Even though he knew it would come to this, he still didn't enjoy it. He walked over to Chekiath and mounted right there in the Conference Room.

"Cheki, please take the prisoner, and jump Between, returning immediately to this same location, without the prisoner."

Cheki, looking slightly ill at ease due to the very deliberateness of the entire process, looked back at his rider, then picked up Nolan Lynch, jumped up slightly, and disappeared. He reappeared almost immediately with only his rider.

Harry dismounted and turned to the Judges, saying, "Your sentence has been carried out."

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