"Potter! Where have you been?" demanded the prefect as Harry walked in through the main doors of Hogwarts late in the evening of Sunday the 18th of December 1994, broom in hand.

Harry tried to look innocent and puzzled. He held up his broom. "Went for a fly".

"Don't give me that, everyone has been looking for you all weekend. Come with me."

After a couple of staircases and corridors he knew where they were going. The prefect rapped twice on Professor McGonnagall's door and at the call to "Enter", opened it, and ushered Harry inside.

Anger and relief warred on her face as she dismissed and thanked the prefect. She turned to Harry. "Well?"

There was no sense in denying it, he already knew that his absence had been noticed for almost as long as he'd been away, so Harry told the truth.

During the first task he had understood words in the angry bellows of the Hungarian Horntail, and the morning after the task, when he'd seen the dragon handlers preparing their charges for transport he had approached, and offered his apologies for the appalling way that wizards had treated them for mere sport. He kept his chin up and looked her square in the eye. She glared at him, examining him for what felt like hours, before a rumble of laughter shook the ground. "I like you, little wizard, you have honour. What is your name?"

"Harry"

"A very small name for a very small being. I am SSEERLTTTHHHHSSSSSOOOUUUUUAAAASSSSSSAAAAAGGGGHHHHHRRRRRRAAAASSSTTTHHHHGGGAAAAOOOOOUUUUUUURRRRRRR. You seem far more interesting than the servants the wizards send to me, they can not even speak", and she indicated Charlie Weasley and the other handlers with a wave of her tail. "Come and visit me one day".

"I will" Harry had promised. "Soon."

Before leaving he had spoken to Charlie and got him to draw a sketch map of the area around the reserve so he could find it. "And if you come during term time make sure you tell the staff" Charlie had told him. Harry had nodded, thanked him, asked for a sappy message of brotherly love to pass on in public and embarrass the twins, then headed back to the castle.

Three weeks later, Harry explained, the stress of trying to decipher the clue for the next task, and not yet finding a date, and he just needed to get away from the castle for a while. He got some supplies from the kitchen elves, and had flown from his dorm window as soon as the sun set on Friday.

McGonagall was speechless.

It had only taken minutes to reach Inverness, where he had used some muggle money in a service station to buy a map of Europe, and he had then just followed the roads, using his cloak to not be seen ("Thank Merlin for small mercies" McGonagall managed to get out) and a bluebell flame in a jar for warmth.

"Yeah, I was pretty knackered when I got there the next afternoon and slept for ages, and in the end only had only a few hours to talk to her before we had to return" he finished.

"In all my years as a professor, Mr Potter, and that includes teaching your father and his friends … wait, did you say 'we'?" McGonagall began.

Harry grinned. McGonagall buried her face in her hands.

There was a tap at the window and McGonagall turned round, expecting to let in an owl. There was just a huge swirling golden eye. She yelped and stumbled back.

Harry rounded the desk and helped her to her chair before opening the window. "Professor, I'd like you to meet my date for the Yule ball, Sherlyth The Steel-Scaled, Mother Of Hundreds, The Destroyer, Fire-Bringer, Scourge Of The Heavens". There was a sound of rocks crashing together and a faint whiff of sulphur as Sherlyth cleared her throat outside.

"Oh yeah, and don't call her Shirley."