A/N: I'm trying out a more snappy format for this chapter, it's not going to become the norm a don't think. It feels like i'm skipping too many little transitions.
Chapter 12: Into the Woods.
"'Harry Potter Saves Head Auror's life'" Tonks reads the headline incredulously. "That's where you went last night?" The first day of term – Already the talk of the school again.
"I lead an interesting life." I shrug.
"That's it?" She laughs. "No 'They're exaggerating'?"
"Nope." I grin. "Note of this 'Boy-Who-Lived' crap. Just plain old me." I'm actually incredibly pleased with myself. "Once Dawlish got to St. Mungos, it only took 10 minutes to get Scrimgeour stable. Tough old boy, that's for sure. A week of potions and he'll be as good as new apparently. Pissed as hell, I reckon, but alive.
"I got you something." Tonks grins mischievously as I look up from my food. She hands me a magazine. 'Witches Weekly'. The cover is a large photo of me smiling uncertainly into the cameras. They'd shown up soon after I'd finished.
'Boy-Who-Lived: Defender of Aurors!'
My forehead finds is customary place on the table. Tonks laughs victoriously. "'What's in the cup? Page 16 to see out speculations.' Brilliant!"
"Bloody hell." I groan. "It's was Scrimgeour's coffee. I was drinking it to be funny!"
"'Perhaps his own blend of Hero-Serum. Said to have been a favourite of Albus Dumbledore.'." Tonks barely manages to get through the whole thing between bouts of laughter, I can't help but smile along with the madness.
"My own Hero-Serum?" I shake my head. "That doesn't even mean anything!"
"Oh, I'm sure lots of the readers want a splash of your 'Hero-Serum'." She grins lecherously. I drop my head into my hands and look at Hedwig.
"The world's gone mad, Hedwig." She hoots in agreement as we watch Tonks dissolve into a fit of laughter.
"Hermione." I say calmly as we sit atop the fence outside of Hagrid's hut. "I wouldn't consider myself a snitch, but could you please tell me why I shouldn't just tell Albus that Hagrid has a dragon egg ready to hatch? He has official paths to safely transport the egg to a reserve and you know Albus wouldn't let anything happen to Hagrid." She had been as frantic as Hagrid when we'd met up for tea in day in late April. Hagrid is a good friend, having endless tales of James' escapades and being an all around good person, but he is a bit daft when it comes to extremely dangerous animals.
"What if Professor Dumbledore took an oath saying he had to always uphold the law?" She pleads, her hands tightly gripping her knees. "Hagrid would go to Azkaban!"
"He'd probably fashion some leashes for the Dementors within a week." I laugh at the mental image of Hagrid strolling around with 50 Dementors pulling on their leashes. Hermione smacks my arm.
"This is serious!" She huffs angrily.
"Ok ok!" I hold my hands up. "So what? We cage it up after it hatches, then what? I'm not actually a superhero y'know, despite what the Prophet says." Hermione deflates.
"I don't know." She pouts. I wrap one arm around her, she leans her head against my shoulder.
"I'll tell you what. I'll talk to my people, see if I can't figure something out. Sound good?"
"Harry." She sighs. "You don't actually have people, do you?"
"Ask no questions and receive no lies." I smile as she groans.
"So, Albus." I say slowly as I sit in telescope's chair. "Let's say, hypothetically of course, that I knew somebody that had, oh … I don't know, a hatching dragon egg … Would there be a way to safely get the thing to a reserve without anyone being thrown in a hypothetical, Dementor guarded prison?" I ask as casually as possible.
He just begins to laugh from his desk. I turn around to see that he's lain his quill down and removed his glasses to laugh more. He sits there for a while before he can recompose himself. He peers over his shoulder at me, smiling away.
"You have an odd way of making paperwork more entertaining." He turns away again. "You say the strangest things.
"I like to keep an old man on his toes." I grin.
"Does this hypothetical somebody have a dragon breeding license?" He asks, picking up his quill again. Albus had once told me that I was always welcome in his office. A moment later, Lucius Malfoy had come through the floo. I shook his hand, told him that Draco had told me much about him and left the room. Once I returned, Albus had amended his statement to 'You are almost always welcome in my office'. This lead to days like this, where I laze about – rifling through his stuff and chatting.
"No license, No." I say. "Hypothetically of course." He laughs.
"There is a loophole that would allow the legal relocation if the Dragon had yet to hatch."
"So a live dragon would be much more trouble than this hypothetical egg?"
"Precisely."
"Pleasant weather we are having." I remark casually.
"Quite." He agrees.
"Could you do me a completely unrelated favour and tell me who is in charge of magical creature regulation these days? Or something to that effect?"
"Amos Diggory." Albus says with a slight chuckle. "I believe you know Cedric?" Cedric Diggory. Third year Hufflepuff. A distant friend of Tonks'. Nice enough.
"Amos Diggory." I nod. "Thanks, Albus." I sweep my bag off his desk.
"Goodbye, Harry." He replies in a slightly exasperated tone.
"Sorry it had to be goodbye like this, Hagrid." I pat the blubbering man's arm as Amos Diggory's team puts the egg into, what I've been told is, a stasis chest.
"Nope." He sniffles. "This'll be be'er for 'im!" He blows his nose loudly.
"Maybe you can visit him in the reserve when he hatches?" Hermione suggests from beside me.
"I'm sure he'll remember you, Hagrid." I look up at him. "You did all the work getting him this far. He'll have imprinted on you." I say reassuringly, not completely sure if a dragon can imprint … or anything else for that matter.
"Ya reckon?" Hagrid asks hopefully.
"Definitely." I nod.
"Yer a true friend, Harry." He blubbers, patting me on the shoulder, almost knocking me to my knees.
"No problem." I smile up at him. "I'm sure you would have done something just as strange if I found myself with a dragon egg." He laughs wetly before walking over to Amos. I stuff my hands in my pockets. Best way to go about it? Probably not. Best result? Maybe. Hermione moves a step closer, I free one arm to accept her signature hug.
"Thank you."
Worth it? Absolutely.
"How'd I do?" I ask Albus a few days later. I've climbed the bookshelf and sat beside the Sorting Hat, repeatedly solving a Rubik's cube whilst Albus answers his fanmail. 'It's not fanmail.' He'd said.
"I believe Hagrid was most pleased with the arrangement in the end." He glances up at me. Atop a bookshelf, kicking my legs merrily as I mess up the Rubik's cube once more. The challenge kind of wanes when I know every step taken to messing it ip. "I had a passing conversation with Amos Diggory as I was coming back from the Ministry this morning."
"Oh?"
"He was very impressed by your quick thinking on the matter." Albus smiles. "'A sharp and well mannered young man.' He had said."
"Manners maketh man." I mutter, muddling the cube up again. "Any more thoughts on my living arrangements for this upcoming summer?" He sights and lays down the phoenix feather quill.
"I had hoped you would return to your Aunt and Uncle's home." He says slowly. "But that was before we had really spoken. Is there no way I can persuade you?"
"Have you ever been whipped? Or hit by a belt?" I stare into the cube.
"My Father preferred a good stinging hex to the buttock." He admits.
"A belt buckle. A good firm swing at one's back. The first time would hurt, right?" He nods. "The second time is just as bad, but what if you could felt the first hit too? And on the third hit, the other two. The fourth – The previous three, and so on. Each strike forever embedded onto the belt forever; A reminded of all the others."
"You don't mean..."
"Vernon owns one belt." I say, tossing him the cube and jumping down to the floor. "You know that I know all the stuff that happens in here, I keep your secrets. I'm going to ask you to keep on of mine." I say tonelessly as I un-tuck my shirt, turning my back to him and lifting my shirt. "Pretty nasty, right?" I readjust my uniform once more. "I don't blame you, of course. That which has been forged in fire only strengthens when tempered, or some such nonsense." I laugh. "I won't be going back to them. I just want some advice. Good spots or something." I turn back around. He pulls me into a hug. He is crying.
"Forgive an old man's mistakes." I hug him back.
"Probably the wrong time to ask, but you couldn't waive my detention tonight, could you?" He steps back from me, dabbing his eyes with his beard.
"You have detention? What ever for?"
"Some choice comments with Draco about Professor Quirrell's turban, sir." I smile a little.
"'Ello 'Arry!" Hagrid waves as Filch delivers us for the detention. I gaze into the forest as Draco makes his displeasure known and Filch … well he's weird. "Come on then! 'Aven't got all night." Hagrid hefts his crossbow and Draco feebly holds up the lamp.
"Not scared, are you?" I smile at Draco, clearly petrified. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit unsettled, but that's part of the fun, right?
"N-no." He stutters. I start to whistle a jaunty tune. "Stop it!" He hisses. "You'll draw something to us!"
"Have to find what's killing the unicorn, don't we?" I grin, twirling my wand playfully.
"At least light up the area a bit."
"That would draw something worse than what we're after, I assure you."
"Damn Quirrell and his stupid turban." Draco mutters.
"Enough of that." I say. "We got into this mess because of it." I look around at the magical trees. Everything is quite well lit for me. A very magical forest. I spot something in the distance, a dark red that isn't a tree. "What do you suppose that is?" I turn to Draco … or where he had been. Looking over my shoulder I see him running away in the distance. "Just you and me, creepy cloaked figure." I mutter. "And now I'm talking to myself."
The dark figure continues it's assault on the downed unicorn. I grit my teeth, firing a stunning hex at the figure. It screeches as the hex slides off of it's back, I easily dodge the sickly yellow curse that sails towards me. Witch or wizard. Always helps to know things. I return my own barrage of hexes whilst dodging between the trees, attempting to get closer. I hurl myself to the floor to dodge a deep purple arc that tears through the trees, felling them easily. I crawl forward, trying to stay out of view. Suddenly the Wraith jumps behind me, looking very menacing. I flick my wand and fire the strongest Flipendo I can muster. The effect knocks me off my feet and throws the figure a good thirty metres away. It scampers off into the distance.
"Periculum!" I fire the red sparks into the air and wait beside the unicorn. It suddenly kicks it's legs. Still alive. I really don't have the training for this sort of thing. Why couldn't it have been a simple detention? Writing some lines, not being attacked by some crazed maniac and forced to try and stop a unicorn bleeding out. "Episkey." I aim my wand at the large cut, praying that unicorns can be fixed the same way. The effect seems to be slow; I have to push the spell hard to get the skin to tighten and move back together. I can't do much about the muscle, but not bleeding to death should be a good compromise, right? I sit back against a fallen tree and pat the unicorn's neck. "You just uh … Lay there." I laugh. "I'll rest my eyes against this here stump." I return my wand to it's holster and lean my head back.
I crack my eyes open. Hospital wing. Safe. "I see you've rejoined us." Albus' voice comes from beside me.
"Seems so." I agree. "Spell fire. Very dark. Did the unicorn make it?"
"Their blood possesses incredibly potent restorative powers. Young Draco tells me that you sealed the wound shut after your duel."
"Duel?" I snort. "Could've been dead. How's Draco?"
"Shaken." I open my eyes again. "He is on the next bed." The curtains are drawn, giving us privacy. "Is there anything you wish to tell me before we 'draw back the veil'?"
"Nah, didn't really touch anything." I push my legs off the edge of the bed. "Exhausting work this healing stuff." I say as Madam Pomfrey appears.
"Episkey is not usually a spell performed on unicorns." She says, glaring at me as she uses various spells to ensure I'm in one piece. "Honestly, Albus. First years using those kinds of spells."
"Just a little tired." I say, standing up properly and step out from behind the curtains. "Ah, Lord Malfoy." I hold my hand out to Draco's father. "Always a pleasure."
"Likewise." He drawls, shaking my hand. I turn my eyes to Draco, he's got a few cuts, but nothing serious. Most likely inflicted by running through the forest without the lantern.
"If you'll excuse me." I say. "I think I've got a meeting with the Headmaster. Perhaps a flat in Diagon Alley?" I muse aloud with a smile. All in all – a quite productive evening.
A/N: As much as i tried not to make it seem so, i can't help but feel this one seems a little rushed? Just my proofreading of it perhaps.
I'm taking into account both sides of the Metamorph debate. On the one half i think he's got a lot on his plate already, but also he could always have more.
This one got a bit dark when Harry was talking with Dumbledore, but there will always be the darker side of Harry's power.
Let me know what you think. Not 100% sure about this chapter, and i was nervous about how the last one would be received too. Maybe Harry is becoming detatched. Enjoy!